Baseball Notes

I was doing a bit of reading and research on Homerun Translations for something I want to write in the near future, and I came across something talking about Lou Gehrig’s 1927 monster season where he won the unofficial MVP award and finished with a .373 average, 47 HR, 175 RBI, 52 doubles, 18 triples, a 1.239 OPS, and 447 total bases (the third highest TB total of all-time).

Still, despite how incredible that season was, and how much he was recognized for it then and now, he still was not believed to have had the best season on his own team. Babe Ruth was basically deified for his 1927 season where he batted .356, had 60 HR, and 164 RBI. If you read Leigh Montville’s book, The Big Bam, you will understand the story about how 60 became the one number people all over baseball cared about. The whole nation followed Ruth’s chase to break his own 59-homer record. And all the while, Ruth overshadowed his first base teammate who actually had the better season.

So as Maris reached 61, McGwire reached 70, and Bonds reached 73, 1927 was the year everyone turned to for relflection. But it never was for Gehrig’s accomplishments, but rather for Ruth’s 60 bombs.

And while Gehrig’s 1927 season received and still does receive plenty of acknowledgment, I thought it would be fun to take the overshadowed or forgotten idea a but further and find ten of the most forgotten or overlooked offensive seasons in baseball history.

I tried to set a few criteria along the way. First, I tried to eliminate anyone who won an MVP award for the season of note. Anyone can go back and look at a list of MVPs and find a player’s name. I am more concerned with those who are lost in the record books or who might be the more obscure names. Second, you have to compare the numbers to their context or their place in history. A player who hits 52 homeruns in 1922 would get extra consideration over someone who hit 52 in 2002.

Here are ten I feel are severely overlooked, ranked from the earliest to the most recent:

Chuck Klein, 1930 Philadelphia Phillies

Klein’s numbers from the ‘30 season look like this: .386 AVG, 40 HR, 170 RBI, 250 hits, 59 doubles, 158 runs scored, a .436 OBP, and .687 SLG. The 1930 season was the odd year where the NL and AL did away with their “best player” award given out by the sportswriters; it wasn’t until 1931 that the MVP as we know it was instituted. Because there was no such award, Klein’s numbers that year remain in relative obscurity.

His 445 total bases are fourth all-time for a single season. His 170 RBI are tied for eighth best all-time, but they are overlooked because he tallied them in the same season that Hack Wilson had 191 RBI and Lou Gehrig had 175.

Hal Trosky, 1936 Cleveland Indians

Playing for an Indians team that only finished 5th in the American League, first baseman Trosky was struggling for popularity in a league with the likes of Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Greenberg. His final line for the year was: .343 AVG, 42 HR, 162 RBI, 45 doubles, 405 total bases, .382 OBP, and .644 SLG.

Normally, you would think of a season like that as worthy of an MVP, it certainly would be close in 2007. But in 1936, Trosky finished 10th in the voting whereas perhaps two of the top nine (Gehrig and Luke Appling) deserved to actually beat him in the AL vote.

Ralph Kiner, 1949 Pittsburgh Pirates

Kiner played for a ‘49 Pirates team that finished 26 games behind first place Brooklyn that year - a year where Brooklyn and St. Louis battled neck and neck for the pennant, and was eventually won by Brooklyn by one game. Kiner was the only player in the top six of MVP voting for 1949 that was not a Brooklyn or St. Louis player. But his numbers speak for themselves: .310 AVG, 54 HR, 127 RBI, a .432 OBP, and a .658 SLG.

Kiner had a legitimate case for the MVP award that year, at least by the numbers. He finished the season first in HR, RBI, OPS, SLG, and BB; and was second in total bases. His 54 homeruns came in a year where no one else in the NL was within 18 homeruns of catching him, and the leader in the AL, Ted Williams, was 11 away.

Duke Snider, 1954 Brooklyn Dodgers

In Snider’s best year as a pro, he received only his third highest MVP voting finish of his career - fourth. He finished third in 1953 and second in 1955, but neither of those seasons looked like 1954 when Snider had totals of .341 AVG, 40 HR, 130 RBI, 39 doubles, 10 triples, 199 hits, .423 OBP, and .647 SLG.

Snider finished the year as the league-leader in total bases with 378, runs scored with 120, extra base hits with 89, and Runs Created with 160. Finishing ahead of the Dodgers outfielder were Willie Mays, Ted Kluszewski (another candidate for this list), and pitcher Johnny Antonelli. The similarities between Mays’ and Snider’s offensive numbers in ‘54 are downright eerie, but Mays, the more popular player on the much better team, won the award.

Norm Cash, 1961 Detroit Tigers

We all know what was going on in 1961, with Maris and Mantle battling all year to see if either would pass Ruth’s 60 homeruns. Maris would eventually hit number 61 on the last day of the season, and all of the press had their eyes focused on New York. Meanwhile, in Detroit, first baseman Norm Cash was putting up this line: .361 AVG, 41 HR, 132 RBI, 193 hits, 124 walks, .487 OBP, and .662 SLG. All of this only put Cash fourth in the MVP voting, behind Maris, Mantle and Diamond Jim Gentile.

Despite all of the fanfare for the two Yankees outfielders, Cash actually led the AL in AVG, OBP, OPS, hits, and Runs Created. Cash would never again have more than 39 HR or 93 RBI, but it all came together for him that summer in ‘61 - interesting to note, though, that 1962 was only his second full season in the majors.

Rod Carew, 1974 Minnesota Twins

Many people remember well Carew’s MVP year of 1977 when he hit .388 with 14 HR and his only 100-RBI season. But his next best season, 1974, was almost equally as impressive. Still, with numbers such as a .364 AVG, 218 hits, 38 SB, .433 OBP, .446 SLG, and 30 doubles, he was only able to muster a seventh place finish in MVP voting.

In a relatively down year for MVP candidates (Jeff Burroughs, Joe Rudi, and Sal Bando finished in the top three), it was hard to see how Carew did not finish higher than seventh. Power was down across the board that year - only four players in MLB hit more than 29 homeruns. So, voters were forced to look at other stats, but Carew was still overlooked. It is difficult to see why: besides power numbers, Burroughs statistics don’t even come close to comparing to Carew’s - but Carew didn’t even get one first place vote for MVP in ‘74. Minnesota was a middle of the pack team, overshadowed by powerhouses Baltimore, New York, Boston, and Oakland, and Carew would be forced to wait three more years for his MVP award.

Don Mattingly, 1986 New York Yankees

The 1985 MVP winner seemed unstoppable throughout the 1986 season as well. In fact, in every aspect of his game except RBI, his numbers were better across the board in 1986 than in his award-winning ‘85 season. Here is a comparison of the two:

So what happened? He didn’t repeat - why? Well, it took a skinny 23-year-old kid pitcher from Boston with a 24-4 record, a 2.48 ERA, and 238 strikeouts to beat out the phenomenal year from Donnie Baseball. That’s right, if not for Roger Clemens, Mattingly would have back-to-back MVPs. But we forget about Mattingly’s year because of the emergence of The Rocket. We forget that he was in the top three in all of these categories in ‘86: AVG, SLG, OPS, runs, hits, total bases, doubles, RBI, extra base hits, and Runs Created.

1996 Colorado Rockies (Galarraga, Castilla, Bichette, and Burks)

Why not throw a whole group of players from one team on the list? It’s my list, I can do that.

How can a team that scored 961 runs in a season finish just above .500 and eight games out of the playoffs? Well they would have to give up 964 runs to start. And there you have the 1996 Colorado Rockies - all bats and no pitching. The team ERA for the season was 5.60. The starter with the lowest ERA was Jamey Wright at 4.93. Their closer, Bruce Ruffin, had an ERA of 4.00! But we are celebrating forgotten offense here, so let’s take a look at the seasons produced by their four sluggers. Remember, this is all on one team in the same season:

If you remember, Ken Caminiti won the MVP in 1996, the year the Padres won over 90 games. Looking at this list, the shocking thing about this Rockies team is, not only did they mash, but they ran, too! Not on this this list is Eric Young with 53 SB and Larry Walker with 18. The team as a whole had 201 SB, first in the NL. A Colorado player led the NL in each of these categories in 1996: SLG, runs, total bases, homeruns, RBI, SB, Runs Created, and extra base hits.

Craig Biggio, 1997-1998 Houston Astros

The ‘97-’98 seasons for Biggio were some of the predominant reasons why, in his 2003 Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James named Biggio the 35th best player of all-time (p. 361). His line for 1997 includes: .309 AVG, .415 OBP, .501 SLG, 146 runs, 191 hits, 37 doubles, 22 HR, 81 RBI, 47 SB, and 310 total bases. To follow THAT up, all he did in 1998 was: .325 AVG, .403 OBP, .503 SLG, 123 runs, 210 hits, 51 doubles, 20 HR, 88 RBI, 50 SB, and 325 total bases. In 1997, he finished fourth in MVP voting (Larry Walker won), and in 1998 he finished fifth (Sammy Sosa won of course).

Despite his outstanding, consistent, Hall of Fame career, ‘97 and ‘98 were the only times in his career Biggio reached the following marks: 190 hits, 80 RBI, 40 SB, .500 SLG, and 300 total bases. He was overshadowed by the McGwire/Sosa theater of 1998 and the epic season Walker put together in 1997 - so guys with only 20 HR didn’t get much pub. Well, he’ll get it here.

Luis Gonzalez, 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks

Can anybody else think of something that might have happened in 2001 to make people forget Gonzalez’s season that year? Oh yeah, Barry Lamar and 73 dingers. Regardless, in a championship year, Gonzalez put together one of the greatest offensive seasons of this decade. It looked like this: .325 AVG, .429 OBP, .688 SLG, 128 runs, 198 hits, 57 HR, 142 RBI, 100 BB and 419 total bases. Wow.

No one was beating Bonds for the MVP that year, and Gonzo also finished behind Sosa and his 64 HR. My feeling is that Gonzalez’s season would have won him the MVP in any other year of this decade - he just happened to have it in the wrong year. But he got a World Series-winning walk-off hit against the Yankees, so I doubt he is complaining too much.

So there you go, my list of ten. Are there any that you like better, or some that I have forgotten? Let me know in the comments.