Cal Griffith thought that Mickey Mantle was not as good as Jim Busby.
This Day in Baseball History: April 8, 1954, Calvin Griffith Misses on His Evaluation of Mickey Mantle
On April 8, 1954, Calvin Griffith, the Vice-President of the Washington Senators was quoted as saying he felt that their club had a batter center fielder in Jim Busby than the New York Yankees had in Mickey Mantle. The opinion came to light in Associated Press story that appeared in several newspapers across the country. Here’s how it appeared in the April 8, 1954 edition of the Daily Journal Gazette in Mattoon, Illinois:
_______________________________
(Calvin Griffith) Says Mantle Doesn’t Compare to Busby
Jim Busby
WASHINGTON (AP) – “Mickey Mantle is probably the most over-rated player in baseball,” Calvin Griffith said today.
Griffith is executive vice president of the Washington Senators, who ow a bit of baseball property named Jim Busby.
“Sure, Mantle’s a good outfielder,” Griffith said in an interview, “but he isn’t as good as Busby.”
Griffith said that if Mantle were playing for anybody but the New York Yankees, “you’d hardly ever hear of him.” His idea was that the Yankee publicists and New York sports writers have built Mantle up into something he is not.
Mantle, the Yankees’ successor to Joe DiMaggio, has been built in many parts as one of the hottest prospects to hit the major leagues in some time. Griffith regards Busby, at 27 nearly five years older than Mantle, (as) one of the most under-rated players in the league.
Mantle, considered an expert in grabbing flies, “can’t compare with Busby as (a) fielder,” Griffith said.
Last year Mantle batted .292. Busby’s average was .312.
Mantle batted in 92 runs and, Busby 82.
The Yankees centerfielder hit for 220 total bases last season. Busby’s total: 243.
Mantle stole 8 bases, Busby 13.
“That enough?” Griffith asked.
~ Daily Journal Gazette, Mattoon, Illinois, April 8, 1954, Page 6.
______________________________
Cal Griffith
“Enough?” you ask, Mr. Griffith?
Hardly. Let’s skim over the bottom lines of what happened with Jim Busby and Mickey Mantle over the total scan of time that covered both their playing careers.
A Brief Statistical Comparison: Jim Busby vs. Mickey Mantle:
In 13 seasons (1950-62), outfielder Jim Busby had a career string that included a .262 BA/a .314 OBP /and a .350 SLG%. Mickey Mantle achieved a career .298 BA/a .421 OBP/and a .557 SLG% over the same ground during his 18-season (1951-68) HOF big league career.
Busby had a career total of 165 2BH/35 3BH/48 HR/ and 97 SB, while Mantle had a run of 344 2BH/72 3BH/536 HR/and 153 SB over the same ground.
Do we really need to entertain further questions, Mr. Calvin Griffith?
How about one more question about your own judgment of other matters, Mr. Griffith?
With the death of Clark Griffith in 1955, Cal Griffith ascended to the office of Washington club president and new principal owner of the club. In 1961, Griffith moved the Senators to Minneapolis-St.Paul and changed their name to the Minnesota Twins. In 1978, while speaking to a Lions Club meeting in Waseca, Minnesota, Griffith was quoted as saying:
“I’ll tell you why we came to Minnesota. It was when we found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don’t go to ballgames, but they’ll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it’ll scare you to death. We came here because you’ve got good, hardworking white people here.“[1]
Griffith sold the Twins to Minnesotan Carl Pohlad in 1984. It could not have happened soon enough.
[1] Coleman, Nick (October 1, 1978). “Griffith spares few targets in Waseca remarks”. Star Tribune. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
April 8, 2014 at 4:03 pm |
Apparently Cal “Deliverance” Griffith wasn’t too astute about anything. Setting aside the deplorable racism of his comment, he must have forgotten all about the Negro Leagues and the fact that the Homestead Grays leased Griffith Stadium for their “home away from home” games between 1940 and 1950 (though I’m sure attendance was down considerably from 1947 onward). If Griffith couldn’t get any blacks to attend Senators games, two good reasons probably account for that: 1) He clearly didn’t want them there, and 2) the Senators played inferior baseball compared to the good Grays teams.
April 9, 2014 at 1:27 pm |
Bill, A most interesting article! In fact, I was impressed enough with it that I shared it with the “Washington, DC Baseball History” group on Facebook. I’d never heard this (Pal Cal’s assessment of Mantle & Busby) before and I suspect a good many of others hadn’t either. It’s been some time since we’ve communicated, I trust that you are well.
April 9, 2014 at 1:41 pm |
Good to hear from you, Art. I’m fine. Hope you are too.
We’ve been busy in Houston. Several of us from our local SABR chapter have spent most of the past three years (2011-14) researching and writing the lengthy pre-major league history of baseball in Houston. This 368-page, hard cover work is now less than a month from public release. It’s called “Houston Baseball: The Early Years, 1861-1961.” Please see our website for further information:
http://www.houstonbaseball.org/
Regards, Bill
April 10, 2014 at 2:10 am |
We don’t need to look at the entirety of their careers. If you just look at what they’d done through 1953, you see Mantle was far superior to Busby (although Busby had a slightly better 1953) and was five years younger. Any rational person would rather have gone into 1954 with Mantle as their center fielder. Heck, Mantle scored 105 runs in 127 games in 1953 while Busby scored 68 in 150 games.