The Pecan Park Eagle

The Alleged 100 Worst Players of All Time

September 20, 2015

“Am I really the worst player of all time?”
~ Mario Mendoza

Darrell Pittman sent me a link this evening to the DeadSpin.Com’s list of the 100 worst players of all time in MLB history.

http://deadspin.com/5820716/the-100-worst-baseball-players-of-all-time-a-celebration-part-1

Not surprisingly, Mario Mendoza, icon of the infamous “Mendoza Line” for low batting average was named as the worst, followed by another easy punch, the selection of funny man Bob Uecker as the second pick.

The first Astro to show up on the list is Curt Blefary at the #15 spot. Blefary was the wonderful bargain that Spec Richardson grabbed for Houston from the Baltimore Orioles ages ago. What a deal! It only cost the Astros a future multiple-year 20-game winner in lefty Mike Cuellar, plus however many fan strokes and heart attacks that resulted as residual citizen casualties.

Eddie Gaedel, all 3’7″ of him, who took ne walk for the old St. Louis Browns and then retired with a career OBP of 1.000 was ranked a peg ahead of Blefary at #14. And that says a lot. For one thing, it says that the vertically challenged Gaedel, who never had played baseball prior to his major league debut, was regarded by the folks at DeadSpin.Com as superior to the 13 men who have preceded him in the poll, if there even was one. The whole thing could be the creative genius of some lone baseball wizened one.

Other Astros on the list include #18 J.R. Phillips, #22 Brian L. Hunter, #31 Jose Lima, #61 Mark Lemongello, #67 Casey Candaele, #73 Enos Cabell, #86 Tuffy Rhodes, and #92 Anthony Young.

Even if every guy here pegged as an Astro also played for other MLB teams, there are a total of 9 chosen for this infamous list as having played some big league time for Houston. In only 53 years of existence, far less half the time that professional has existed, could the Astros possibly contributed 9 names to any list of the 100 worst players of all time – regardless of how sordid, murky, or flippant the original standards were.

Have a nice Sunday – and please remember – I will not be sending these notices much longer. So, please, either stay with us on your own by checking the site at https://bill37mccurdy.com/ or else, contact WordPress about a subscription through them that will automatically notify you of new columns. The WordPress link is https://wordpress.com/

Regards, Bill McCurdy, Publisher/Editor, The Pecan Park Eagle

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Tags: 100 worst baseball players of all time
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Milo Gave Back to Houston Big Time

September 18, 2015

Milo Hamilton
1927 ~ 2015

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During the four years I served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame (TBHOF), no one was more helpful to the effort in Houston than Milo Hamilton, the radio Voice of the Houston Astros from 1987 through 2012. Appropriately, Milo was honored as the 1992 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award winner for baseball broadcasters, a rare and coveted recognition that only goes out to the best of the best at what they do.

Milo Hamilton also was a force of energy in this community as a volunteer participant in more charitable causes that we could possibly hope to list over the course of short time and column space this morning. All I know from the personal experience we had with Milo as the only Master of Ceremonies we knew during the TBHOF’s brief time in Houston was that nobody could have done it better. He brought positive energy and an upbeat sense of humor about all things to his role as time-management director of the annual banquet program. And he had the greatest projected voice of clear speech I’ve ever heard from a program MC. Every guest in attendance easily could hear every word that Milo said – and, just as importantly, feel all of the genuine enthusiasm he transmitted through his manner of expression.

Milo could have brought enthusiasm to a most tasty three-minute egg boiling contest. He also brought that same kind of broadcasting energy to quite a few Astros baseball seasons that otherwise were about as interesting as a boiling egg.

Milo Hamilton’s death on Thursday, September 17, 2015, at age 88, is our profound loss. We already miss him.

Holy Toledo, Milo! Your departure means that Houston baseball just lost one of its biggest friends!

Rest in Peace, Milo Hamilton. Our love and affection goes with you.

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ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: Since 2009, The Pecan Park Eagle has used Gmail to send “new column” notices to hundreds of readers without a problem – until this week. Three days ago, however, for some unclear reason, Gmail has mistakenly identified my Gmail address as a probable spam base and made it impossible for us to send our usual daily notices.

It would seem to be an easily resolvable problem if it were possible to speak with a human being at Gmail, bu that is not an option. Gmail, like all Google programs, apparently expects users to find their answers for help from the robots, and, after three days of trying, I give up.

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Thanks!

Bill McCurdy, Publisher, The Pecan Park Eagle

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Tags: RIP Milo Hamilton
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All Time Astros Hitting Stats

September 15, 2015

Darrell Pittman
Our Pecan Park Eagle Baseball Researcher
“Nobody Does it Better or with More Passion for Accuracy!”

He’s done it again. Big time, this time.

The indefatigable baseball researcher we all know as Darrell Pittman has come up with just about all the nuts and bolts that have gone into Houston MLB batting history against right and left handed pitchers, separately and collectively, since the franchise began in 1962, and running through the completion of last season’s 2014 data.

If you bear in mind that “RH” signifies right-handed batter, “RP” symbolizes right-handed pitcher, and that “LH/LP” bear the same values for players performing on the southpaw side, the following table will read easily on just a few of the data items that Darrell has captured.

There is much more to the data base. I simply could not come up with a readable format for displaying it here on short notice, forcing me to fall back on my personal rule about data charts and tables: “If you can’t make it neat – relax and delete.”

If anything, the data stands as confirmation that opposite hand hitter-pitcher match-ups do result in an overall advantage to the batter.

Through 2014, the Houston MLB team batting average was .254. For me, that information simply confirmed why I still harbor affection for .300 as the “Mantle Crying Line” for greatness with the stick. Mantle forever lamented that his performance fell hard off the hitting cliff after 1964 and carried him through his final four seasons to a .298 finish in 1968, his last call, for hitting, at least.

When he has time, I will ask Darrell for his sources on the compilation of this data – and the much more me he sent me that is not shown here. When that narrative is available, we will add it to this column as an addendum to this post.

Meanwhile, enjoy what you may derive from this limited display and please do not be shy about posting your comments and questions below.

H v P	AB	H	HR	BA	SA	OBP

RH v RP	118159	29474	2852	.249	.378	.311
LH v RP	86703	22543	1764	.260	.385	.334
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RH v LP	66449	17222	1469	.259	.386	.328
LH v LP	15603	3665	221	.235	.330	.300
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All v RP	204862	52017	4616	.254	.381	.321
All v LP	82052	20887	1690	.255	.375	.322
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All v All	286914	72904	6306	.254	.379	.321

Thanks, The Pecan Park Eagle.

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Addendum source Information from Darrell Pittman, 9/15/15 (same date as column):

The data source is Retrosheet. More specifically, the season batting splits pages that start at:

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/WHOU01962.htm

and go up through:

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2014/WHOU02014.htm

I used the first section of each page, labeled “Batting Splits”. (The lower section, labeled “Pitching Splits” appears to be opponents’ batting against our pitchers.) The software just downloaded and added up the “Batting Splits” figures from the season pages.

~ Darrell Pittman

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Tags: 1962-2014, All Time Astros Club Batting
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Astros Miracle Overcomes Angels in Outfield

September 14, 2015

Alden Gonzalez and Brian McTaggert of MLB.COM covered the miraculous recovery by the Astros after two were out in the 9th at Anaheim yesterday about as well as anyone could describe it.

http://m.angels.mlb.com/news/article/149191320/mike-trout-homers-on-first-pitch-vs-astros

That Astros rally for 5 runs a crucial win against the worst odds in baseball ranks right up there with this ancient fan as one of the most exciting things we’ve ever seen an Astros club do, well, you tell me, can you imagine any better time for it to happen. Just as it appears we are going be swept by the Angels and down to 1-5 on the west coast part of this killer road trip, a miracle arrival of good luck and magical bats (the same ones that have been sorely missing) arrives together to paint a rainbow on the horizon before the team’s flight east to Arlington and the 4-game showdown with the Texas Rangers.

Twice those Angels in the outfield on Sunday afternoon came within inches of capturing George Springer’s triple to right center and within a glove scrape miss of Jed Lowrie’s 3-run homer down the right field line. And, in between those two breaks, a ball traveling at bullet-train speed off the bat of rookie sensation Carlos Correa got stuck in the glove of an Angels infielder for a trapped ball infield single that could not be removed to make a throw to first for the final out. Even earlier than Lowrie’s Angels-killer blow off Huston Street, one of the toughest closers in the game, Preston Tucker had started things off with 2 outs by blasting a Street pitch deep into the right field stands to reduce the Angels lead to 3-1. Then Jose Altuve singled in Springer from third to pull the Astros even closer at a 3-2 deficit. Altuve then advanced to 2nd base on Correa’s infield smash that got stuck in the glove of Angels infielder Taylor Featherston.

Lowrie finished the job as a left-handed pinch hitter for slugger Evan Gattis, even drawing his margin of error down to two strikes from Street before he delivered the 3-run high floating homer down the line that apparently even made a scraping sound off the glove of Angels right fielder Kole Calhoun as it eluded his catch before falling safely over the wall. Calhoun said in another interview that he either felt or heard or thought the ball skimmed off his glove before it left the yard. Whether it did or not for sure, we may never know, but Calhoun was the only one close enough on the field to have sensed anything at that moment in time.

The Jed Lowrie 3-run homer made the score now 5-3, Houston, a margin that would survive the carnival of joy that was then the state of the Houston Astros dugout on its way to remaining as the final score.

The whole thing played out like a surreal reminder of the wonderful 1951 original version of the baseball movie, “Angels in the Outfield,” only this time, the spiritual angels weren’t there to save the pennant hopes of the Pittsburgh Pirates movie good guys – and they sure as heck were not there in Anaheim yesterday to save the 2015 Angels.

The incredible win by Astros kept the Houston Astros 1.5 games up on the Texas Rangers as the start a 4-game series in Arlington today against their too-close-for-comfort tracker foe – and it dropped the Los Angeles Angels back to a 4.5 game deficit in the AL West.

Keep it up, Astros, but please spare us our hearts by not waiting until there are two outs in the 9th to start getting the job done on an everyday basis.

Thank you very much, Astros – even if Sunday was the result of some kind of deal that Manager A.J. Hinch worked out with the real life spiritual angels in the outfield and infield at Anaheim!

Tags: Astros Have Miracle WIn Over LA Angels
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Help Solve This Baseball Photo’s Mysteries

September 13, 2015

A St. Louis Browns Home Game Sportman's Park, St. Louis Sometime during WWII ~ But what are the other details?

A St. Louis Browns Home Game
Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis
Sometime during WWII
~ But what are the other details?

We found this World War II photo of the St. Browns performing a rundown play on an unidentified player from an unknown American League opponent tonight. It was among a group of pictures in one of those column stories sponsored most likely by one those Advertising-Trackier-Trojan-Horse-Loader sites. This history tempter site was called something like “rare photos from WWII”. The photo above was the only one about baseball, but it just happened be my old MLB favorites, the St. Louis Browns – and I never had seen it before.

I’m only guessing it was the 1944 Browns’ AL championship year, but the only things we known for sure are: (1) It is the St. Louis Browns in the field; and (2) The venue is unmistakably old Sportsman’s Park. That field scoreboard, even without the name “St. Louis” being clearly present, is also a no doubter.

If it’s 1944, the catcher is either Frank Mancuso or Red Hayworth. The cut-of man behind the retreating runner probably is the 3rd baseman, either Mark Christman or Ellis Clary. The shortstop probably came over to cover 3rd base. If he did, it may be Vern Stephens, but it’s impossible to tell. The unidentified umpire has him covered pretty well in the picture.

No ideas come to me about the name or team of the runner. He may be wearing the number 2, but that could be the second of a two-digit number cannot see.

Hey, Bill Hickman! You are our SABR guy on ancient baseball photos. Do you happen to have some or all of the answers we seek? – And that call also goes out to our fellow members in both the St. Louis Browns Historical Society and the Eddie Gaedel Society! _ Do any of you visually knowledgeable people know the answers we seek here?

Have a cup of coffee and think about it. If we really need to solve any mysteries on a pleasant Sunday morning, let it be one of these – the baseball fun kind.

ADDENDUM 1, 9/13/15, 12:00 PM, CDT: Mike Vance e-mailed me an important set of facts that I could not see with own eyes: “The scoreboard says they are playing New York. Snuffy Stirnweiss wore number 2 for them in 1944.” Mike also notes that New York closed their 1944 season with the Browns in St. Louis. -Thanks, Mike.

ADDENDUM 2, 9/13/15, 3:05 PM, CDT: Keith Olbermann e-mailed the following link to what appears to be the game. Check out the Yankees time at bat in the top of the 3rd with Stirnweiss, who wore number 2.):

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1944/B10010SLA1944.htm

Olbermann added his own fitting comment: “The term “mystery” is overused.”

Thanks, Keith.

ADDENDUM 3, 9/13/15, 3:30 PM, Bill Hickman posted this confirmation of Olbermann’s information with these remarks in the comment section which follows this article:

“Think I may have it this time. Stanfromtacoma’s hint about large crowd size got me to thinking about the pennant race. On Sunday, October 1, 1944, the Yankees played the Browns at Sportsmen’s Park in front of 35, 518 cash customers (37,815 total) in a day game. The Yankee’s Stuffy Stirnweiss (#2) was out at home (third to catcher third to catcher) on a fielder’s choice in the top of the third inning. With the scoreboard clock showing about 2:25, that would probably be about the right timing. The game started at 2 pm, midwest time. The whole game only lasted 1 hour and 38 minutes.

“The third baseman for the Browns that day was Paul Christman and the catcher was Ray Hayworth. The third base umpire was Jim Boyer.

“Bill, if you have a larger version of this mystery photo, you might want to compare the shot of the umpire with the photo of Jimmy Boyer found on the following webpage to see if it matches: http://tinyurl.com/3seax65 “

Thanks, Bill, for that diligent second breath pursuit of the truth.

And thanks to all of you who care enough about baseball history to feast upon this kind of dedication to the discovery of the arcane.

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Tags: a baseball mystery photo
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

The DiMaggio Diagnosis That Cracked Up Joe

September 12, 2015

Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio

Joe DiMaggio was a complex personality, to put it mildly. Aided by his dark and handsome Italian good looks, his model-like Adonis physique, his quiet and reserved demeanor, his flair for really fashionable conservative taste in the best of men’s clothing, and his radiant energy appearance as a sophisticated, well-educated man of the world, Joe DiMaggio owned the key to the City of New York.

Fellow teammates, the media, New York socialites, theater and movie celebrities, and even some world-shakers all tended to deferentially give Joe D. wide berth as the royal American guest to the best that the Big Apple had to offer. Famous club host Toots Shor fawned all over the needs of Joe DiMaggio at his famous Manhattan club. – You get the picture.

Underneath all of this external view, I’ve formed the reasonably stable impression that Joe DiMaggio was many things as the real person behind that “yield to my needs” power he obviously possessed over so many who gave him his start on his finally insisted upon reputation by introduction at all baseball events as “the world’s greatest living ballplayer.”

Inside, Joe was still a poorly educated son of a San Francisco area immigrant fisherman, but very intelligent to the effect of the image he projected to others. He knew he wasn’t the suave, wise, and educated man of the world that everyone thought he was. In the company of the literati, he was often exposed in small group table talk to words he did not understand. All the more reason he remained quiet, probably in the hope too that no one would ask him for his thoughts on the subject.

DiMaggio’s classic shyness, I think, was not the easy self-esteem problem that many of our pot-boiling social media shrinks today might think it was. Joe D. had many reasons to feel good about himself. He knew he was great ballplayer, he knew he was a winner, that young women were attracted to him, he even stood up for more baseball salary money in a 1938 holdout from the Yankees that cost him the affection of some Yankee fans and New York media types,

When Joe demanded $40,000 for 1938 over the club offer of $25,000, Yankee GM Ed Barrow pointed out to DiMaggio that he was asking for more money than the great Lou Gehrig was paid, the Yankee Clipper replied: “Then Mr. Gehrig is a badly underpaid player.”

Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert held his ground and Joe finally came around to something less than the original club offer, but he never forgot those who sided against him in the struggle, nor did he ever abandon the idea that, no matter how much money he had, he always felt he deserved more. If that’s anyone’s argument for DiMaggio’s damaged self esteem, I would not waste time in fractious argument, but I would ask: How many of us human beings have ever not wanted more of something from some source outside ourselves. On this level of understanding, Joe DiMaggio is only different from so many of us because he’s Joe “Freakin'” DiMaggio.

What really signatured Joe was the fact that he both wanted more of what he knew he had – and all of whatever everyone else thought he had, thought he was, and he thought he deserved that perceptual credit and royal treatment – beyond simply being a great ballplayer. So, in a way, Joe had to keep his mouth shut from being discovered a fraud on many levels. He was never the educated, sophisticated man of the world, and savvy dude that so many thought he was. He was just a savvy dude and one helluva baseball player.

People bowed and scraped in the presence of Joe DiMaggio until they day he died.

The wonderful late baseball writer, David Halberstam, tells this great story of how one of the few people who was allowed to be honest with Joe DiMaggio was Yankee clubhouse guy, Pete Sheehy.

“Once, when DiMaggio had been examining a red mark on his butt, he yelled over to Sheehy, ‘Hey, Pete, take a look at this. Is there a bruise there?’ ‘Sure there is, Joe, its from all those people kissing your ass,’ Sheehy answered.” *

“Summer of ’49”, David Halberstam, William Morrow & Co., 1989, p 50.

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Tags: Joe DiMaggip's Clubhuse Diagnosis
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Eagle Eye Sketch of Ruth and Company

September 11, 2015

This Pecan Park Eagle Quick Data Power Study of the ten greatest career home run hitters to date is based upon the following tables from Baseball Almanac. The simple weighted point assignment value methodology is explained below.

1. Top 10 Home Runs, All Time

Name	Home Runs	Rank
Barry Bonds	762	1
Hank Aaron	755	2
Babe Ruth	714	3
Alex Rodriguez	684	4
Willie Mays	660	5
Ken Griffey, Jr.	630	6
Jim Thome	612	7
Sammy Sosa	609	8
Frank Robinson	586	9
Mark McGwire	583	10

2. Top 10 Slugging Average, All Time

Name	Slugging Average	Rank
BABE RUTH	.690 (.68972)	1
Ted Williams	.634 (.63379)	2
Lou Gehrig	.632 (.63242)	3
Jimmie Foxx	.609 (.60929)	4
BARRY BONDS	.607 (.60689)	5
Hank Greenberg	.605 (.60505)	6
MARK McGWIRE	.588 (.58817)	7
Manny Ramirez	.585 (.58540)	8
Albert Pujols	.582 (.58202)	9
Joe DiMaggio	.579 (.57880)	10

3. Top 10 Batting Average, All Time
Name	Batting Average	Rank
Ty Cobb	.366 (.36636)	1
Rogers Hornsby	.358 (.35850)	2
Joe Jackson	.356 (.35575)	3
Ed Delahanty	.346 (.34590)	4
Tris Speaker	.345 (.34468)	5
Ted Williams	.344 (.34441)	6
Billy Hamilton	.344 (.34429)	7
BABE RUTH	.342 (.34206)	8
Harry Heilmann	.342 (.34159)	9
Pete Browning	.341 (.34149)	10

4. TOP 10 Runs Scored, All Time

Name	Runs	Rank
Rickey Henderson	2,295	1
Ty Cobb	2,246	2
BARRY BONDS	2,227	3
HANK AARON	2,174	4
BABE RUTH	2,174
Pete Rose	2,165	6
WILLIE MAYS	2,062	7
ALEX RODRIGUEZ	1,994	8
Stan Musial	1,949	9
Derek Jeter	1,923	10

5. Top 10 Runs Batted In, All Time

Name	RBI	Rank
HANK AARON	2,297	1
BABE RUTH	2,213	2
ALEX RODRIGUEZ	2,047	3
BARRY BONDS	1,996	4
Lou Gehrig	1,995	5
Stan Musial	1,951	6
Ty Cobb	1,937	7
Jimmie Foxx	1,922	8
Eddie Murray	1,917	9
WILLIE MAYS	1,903	10

6. Top 10 On Base %, All Time

Ted Williams	.482 (.4817)	1
BABE RUTH	.474 (.4739)	2
John McGraw	.465 (.4655)	3
Billy Hamilton	.455 (.4552)	4
Lou Gehrig	.447 (.4474)	5
BARRY BONDS	.444 (.4443)	6
Rogers Hornsby	.434 (.4337)	7
Ty Cobb	.433 (.4330)	8
Jimmie Foxx	.428 (.4283)	9
Tris Speaker	.428 (.4279)	10

7. Top 10 Total Bases, All Time

Name	Total Bases	Rank
HANK AARON	6,856	1
Stan Musial	6,134	2
WILLIE MAYS	6,066	3
BARRY BONDS	5,976	4
Ty Cobb	5,854	5
BABE RUTH	5,793	6
Pete Rose	5,752	7
ALEX RODRIGUEZ	5,707	8
Carl Yastrzemski	5,539	9
Eddie Murray	5,397	10

8. Top 10 Walks, All Time

Name	Base on Balls	Rank
BARRY BONDS	2,558	1
Rickey Henderson	2,190	2
BABE RUTH	2,062	3
Ted Williams	2,021	4
Joe Morgan	1,865	5
Carl Yastrzemski	1,845	6
JIM THOME	1,747	7
Mickey Mantle	1,733	8
Mel Ott	1,708	9
Frank Thomas	1,667	10

FINAL POWER RATINGS For BASEBALL”S CURRENT TOP 10 CAREER HR LEADERS

Based upon the 8 career offensive categories used as simply a power sketch on each of the current top 10 career home run list, we used our little “developed tonight” plan to see how these ten great sluggers compared to each other in seven other prime offensives categories. The total eight categories were listed above with the “Top 10 HR Guys” that also showed up in these seven other categories.

We made no attempt to study any players other than those listed in Table 1.

When players from the Table 1 list appear in any of the other seven tabular lists, we show them in all caps and bold type for easier focus on who shows up in other relevant offensive categories beyond HR hitting.

In the case of all eight categories, 10 power points were awarded to each player who finished 1st, down to 1 point for any player that finished 10th. Players who didn’t finish in a particular category, of course, received no points.

As you will see in the point tabulation chart that concludes our brief glimpse, Babe Ruth was the only player to appear somewhere in each of all the 8 categories. Barry Bonds missed only once; and Hank Aaron missed only twice. Not surprisingly, Ruth, Bonds, and Aaron finished 1,2,3 in these roughly estimated power rankings for the current Top 10 HR Hitters in baseball.

To those who argue that other offensive categories could have been added to this quick study, I shall humbly fall upon my own petard and concede the point that you may be correct, Just try to bear in mind that this material was not something I was preparing for a either a doctoral dissertation or a major research grant proposal.

Two hours ago, this idea didn’t even exist within me, although it may have been done by others in the past, many times over. With no apologies for curiosity, I just latched onto this sudden attraction to the idea of using all that wonderful data at Baseball Almanac for a column on a subject that has held me in awe since I was a kid. That is, the powerful force that was, and still is, Babe Ruth.

At any rate, here’s how the Top 10 HR Club finished in relation to each other using the Pecan Park Eagle Statistical Sketch Method:

PLAYER	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TTL PTS.	RANK
Babe Ruth	8	10	3	6	9	9	5	8	58	1
Barry Bonds	10	6		8	7	5	7	10	53	2
Hank Aaron	9			7	10		10		36	3
Alex Rodriguez	7				8		3		18	4
Willie Mays	6				1		8		15	5
Jim Thome	4							4	8	6
Ken Griffey, Jr.	5								5	7 tie
Mark McGwire	1	4							5	7 tie
Sammy Sosa	3								3	9
Frank Robinson	2								2	10

Have a great Friday and a nice weekend of Astros-chances and finger-nail biting fun, everybody!

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Tags: A Top 10 Career HR Leaders Comparison Quick Study.
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

The Baseball Rules: Should Any Be Changed?

September 10, 2015

The NFL and NBA seem to change their basic governing rules in football and basketball on a fairly regular basis. Should we see more openness to rules change in baseball?

Do you have some favorite thoughts on rules changes that could either help or seriously harm baseball? If so, what are they? What are the rules in baseball that have evolved into the pillars of the game? Would changing any single one of them alter the ebb and flow of the game into something that hurt our love of baseball?

Once you dig through 4 balls and three strikes per batter, 3 outs per each team time at bat, 9 innings per game, 3 bases and home plate in a diamond-shaped configuration at 90 feet long right angles and a pitching rubber that is 60 feet 6 inches from home plate, and all the other rules prescriptions for how a batter either negotiates his way around the bases or, otherwise, is declared out before scoring, or even reaching first, can you think of any fundamental rule that now exist that would, if it were changed, either stand as a big improvement or a major disaster to the game we now know and love as baseball?

If you are the type who enjoys the more detailed approach to this same subject, here is a link to the official rules book for Major League Baseball play in 2015.

Click to access official_baseball_rules.pdf

Perhaps some of you will find something in there that you strongly support or oppose. Even if you are not so detail-minded, it is still OK to respond to the question intuitively, based upon your personal experience as either a player or devoted spectator. And don’t take the easy way out and simply keep your thoughts to yourself. Please post a long or brief statement of your thoughts in the comment section that follows this column in The Pecan Park Eagle.

And, if that works for you, how do you Astros fans feel about the “DH” rule, now that Houston has had some short-time full season experience as an American League club?

Have fun!

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Tags: Should any of the rules in baseball be changed?
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

A Houston Babies Flashback Fashion Note

September 9, 2015

The 2011 Houston Babies at George Ranch in a team photo which featured their number fan, Mr. Jimmy Wynn, and some interloper in a “Mudville” jersey and cap.

What do the Houston Babies in the above featured 2011 team photo of our treasured vintage base ball club have in common with our 1909-11 Houston Buffs that actually played professional baseball as members of the Texas League a century ago? Check out the uniforms of the following two right-handed pitchers from those ancient Buffs and allow your eyes make that not-so-heavy decision for you:

Alex Malloy
Right Handed Pitcher
Houston Buffs
1909-1911

Alex Malloy, RHP, 1909-11 Houston Buffs

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=malloy001arc

Hunter Hill
Right Handed Pitcher
Houston Buffs
1909-1911

Hunter Hill, RHP, 1909-11 Houston Buffs

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=hill–001hun

That’s right. – Except for the slightly larger lettering and dark collars on the original vintage base ball Houston Babies uniforms, the jerseys follow the same script style and letter blocking style preferred by the 1909-11 Houston Buffs.

Thank you, Houston Babies Manager Bob Dorrill, for your expert attention to such detail in the outfitting of our historic warriors of vintage ball. The new white uniforms with the dark blue Old English “H” on the heart-side of the jersey even improve on our club’s battle gear wardrobe as we move this fall into our eighth season of vintage ball play since 2008 and our first league play schedule among four local clubs, starting October 24th.

We hope that all of you who have never witnessed a vintage base ball game previously will pay close attention to further information from Manager Bob Dorrill, and from the Pecan Park Eagle. Vintage base ball is a wonderful activity for both players and fans, but, like everything else, it requires the passion, energy, and commitment of people to succeed over time.

Thank you and stay tuned. We need more players. We would like to have more teams by next spring, And we welcome all the fan support and sponsorship help that is offered.

For further information on how you may get involved at the level that interests you, please e-mail Bob Dorrill for details on how to get started. We will help you find your way.

bdorrill@aol.com

Thanks again. And thanks also to Darrell Pittman for supplying the card information that inspired this column!

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Bill Gilbert: Starters and Altuve Shine in August

September 8, 2015

Starters and Altuve Shine in August

By Bill Gilbert

Some of you may be wondering why you didn’t receive my monthly report on the Astros for August. Nobody did. On Saturday, August 29, I suffered a fall at home that resulted in a fracture in one of the bones that is part of the hip bone structure. I was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery on Monday August 31 in what was essentially a hip replacement.

I have since been moved to a rehab facility where I will remain until I have regained enough strength to get around on my own. With reduced access to the Internet and other means of communication, I cannot follow the team as closely as usual, but I do know that the Astros were 15-13 in the month finished in first place in the AL West in August for the 5th straight month, The sixth month will be the hardest since each AL West team plays a home-and-home series against the others.

Starting pitching carried the Astros in August. Scott Feldman (1-0, 1.33 ERA), Collin McHugh (2-2, 1.89), Dallas Keuchel (4-1, 1.94) and Mike Fiers (2-0, 2.25) were all outstanding. Keuchel won his third AL Pitcher of the Month award this season and Fiers pitched a no-hitter against the Dodgers in the first Astro game I attended this year.

The offense struggled in August. Jose Altuve was back on track batting .375 for the month but no others were over .300. However, the Astros maintained their Major League lead in home runs.

Hopefully, I will be back to help celebrate some good news in another month.

Bill Gilbert

Sept. 7, 2015

billcgilbert@sbcglobal.net

____________________

Bill, We are sorry to learn of the damage you suffered from your recent fall, but we are happy to hear that you are now on the mend. It certainly didn’t effect your ability to find and recognize the team stars of August. Other than the magnificent Jose Altuve, they all resided in the starting rotation. One of them (Dallas Keuchel) seems hell bent for leather on his way to the Cy Young – and another (Mike Fiers) used an August game against the Dodgers to write his name into the annals of no-hitter history. – Now get well, Bill! We old birds have to hang tough when we shoot right past the September of our lives in the blinking of an eye. – Bill McCurdy, Publisher and Editor, The Pecan Park Eagle.

____________________

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