Jaybird's Jottings

Lon Simmons Honored

When I was eight or nine years old we didn’t have a radio so I used to go around and find a house where they were listening to the game and then I’d stand out there and lift up their mail slot in the door and listen. I’d stand out there for a couple of hours and they’d wonder who the weird kid is that’s got his ear to the mailbox.

- Lon Simmons, as told to Mike Mandel, SF Giants, An Oral History.

Mel Allen. Ernie Harwell. Lindsey Nelson. Russ Hodges. Al Michaels.

All these great voices have broadcast Giants baseball and all have been honored in Cooperstown. Their ranks increased by one today with the selection of Lon Simmons as this year’s recipient of the Ford C. Frick award.

Congrats Lon. Your booming voice is a significant part of Giants history and this honor is well-deserved.

The Baseball Encyclopedia

Attention all Planets of the Sabermetric Federation! Attention all Planets of the Sabermetric Federation!
Palmer’s and Gillette’s new Baseball Encyclopedia has arrived! (Barry’s on the cover).

And maybe it will be 2112 before we reach objective reality when it comes to player and pitcher evaluation. For now, we have the hard work of folks like Tom Ruane that helped produce the just released The Baseball Encyclopedia. It’s been three years since Total Baseball VII and stats-hungry fans like myself have been champing at the bit for something updated.

I slowly unpeeled the plastic covering and fingered my way (yes, there’s almost something sexual about that) to Barry Bonds’s page. Black (leaders in bold) is beautiful baby, especially when it’s those stats that count (not counting stats, ha, ha). I sat in the chair here and just soaked up his numbers, especially the last four years. Really amazing stuff. He’s now led the league in TPR (they’re calling it Batting-Fielding Wins) nine times. In the last four years alone it’s 39.5.

In Lifetime Batter-Fielder Wins, Bonds is now in the top spot with 112.6, .6 ahead of Ruth, who of course, is still the greatest all-time when you add on his pitching wins. Calling it Overall Player Wins (nee Total Baseball Ranking), Ruth is still the king with 129. Bonds is second.

This book is chock full of goodies. Serious seamheads might have "nothing really new" complaints but the average stat fan will enjoy it.

I’ll let others explain the nuts and bolts and the new fielding measures. Me, I’m a happy camper. There's 1697 pages of baseball stuff including a timeline of major league franchises. Yep, the Orioles-Browns franchise originated with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Note:

There’s an associated website for this book at 247baseball.com

Japanese Baseball

Hoping to some day take a trip to Japan to go see the Yomiuri Giants (named after our big fellows by the way), I subscribe to a newsletter put out by Bob Bavasi. Bavasi heads up a guided baseball tour of Japan and from what I've seen, it looks like a fabulous trip.

In his latest newsletter, Bavasi reveals that Robert Whiting is coming out with a book next month, entitled The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave from Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime.

Looks like this is another must read from Whiting, the author of the classic You Gotta Have Wa.

Candlestick Mystique

Juan Marichal’s Home Record Versus the Dodgers

On June 27th, 1968, in a game that required two extra innings to decide, Juan Marichal lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 6-5 win was quite remarkable for the Giants long time rivals, for it marked the first time in 18 tries that they had put an L beside Marichal's name in a contest at Candlestick Park.

The Dominican Dandy would face the Dodgers a dozen more times at The Stick, for a total of 32 meetings. On a periodic basis, I will publish a brief summary of one of those contests, in chronological sequence.

I thank Dave Smith of retrosheet for providing the dates. Dave, by the way, is an ardent Dodger fan and attended the final such match up between these two.

Friday, May 19, 1961
LA, 8, SF 7
Marichal 7.3 7 4 4 2 12 No Decision

Skipper Alvin Dark gave sophomore Marichal (6 and 2 in 1960) the starting assignment in the fifth game of the season, coming in behind Sam Jones, Billy Loes, Jack Sanford and Mike McCormick. The highly touted righty was just 22 years old when he faced the Dodgers at Candlestick for the first time.

A Friday night crowd of 31,125 watched a match up between Marichal and Don Drysdale. Through seven innings, Marichal struck out 12 and held a 6-3 lead. In the top of the eighth, he gave up a lead off single to Tommy Davis. Stu Miller, the Giants' star reliever, came in and gave up a walk to Wally Moon, a single to Ron Fairly and a home run to John Roseboro.

Harvey Kuenn, who knocked in three with a double in the seventh, socked a solo homer in the ninth but the Dodgers had scored an insurance run in the top of the frame.

Ron Perranoski picked up the win, while Billy O’Dell was the loser. The loss snapped a five game winning streak for San Francisco. At 30 and 20, they held a two game lead over Los Angeles and Cincinnati.

Sources:
New York Times via Pro Quest’s Historical Newspapers (Free for SABR members)
The Sporting News via paperofrecord (25% off for SABR members)
Retrosheet.org
Baseball-reference.com

Giants On The Cover Of The Sporting News

In May 1965, The Sporting News, breaking from their long-standing tradition of publishing text-based, multiple story covers, began to print one subject cover stories with a full length photo shot.

This is the third in a continuing series of reviews of those issues with a Giant on the cover.

June 18, 1966
Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax
Cost: 35 Cents

Picture: Close up of both. Question in the middle, Who Is No 1?

On top of page three, two mid-size shots. Koufax is in his classic delivery form. Marichal sports his famous high kick stance.

The article on Marichal, written by Harry Jupiter of the San Francisco Chronicle, was entitled 86 Victories By Marichal In Four Seasons.

He notes these two were the premier pitchers in the majors. Marichal, Jupiter argued, with minor league experience and magazine cover appearances such as TIME, might be the best.

Each pitcher had a 10-1 record through June 4. Koufax’s ERA was 1.44, Marichal’s 1.29. (Final league ERA was 3.61) On the 18th, the Giants were 40 and 24, two and a half ahead of the Pirates and three of the Dodgers.

Marichal appeared on the cover of TIME magazine, June 10. The cover said The Best Right Arm in Baseball.

Bob Hunter, of the Los Angeles Examiner, wrote the article on Koufax. Makes a strong case for Koufax being the best with all the records he held. In the end Hunter says, “Koufax, it just so happens, is the greatest!”

No cover jinx for either. Marichal went on to finish 25 and 6 with a 2.23 ERA. Koufax, in his final season, went 27 and 9 with a league leading 1.73 ERA.

Marichal versus Koufax

According to research by Dave Smith of retrosheet.org, Marichal and Koufax squared off four times in their careers, all before this cover story. If these four games were a script, no one would have believed it.

6-03-1961 in LA
LA 4, SF 3

A crowd of 66,059 watched this match up. Trailing 3-2, Giants scored a run in top of ninth off Koufax. Daryl Spencer, a Giant from ‘52-‘59, then cracked a game winning solo shot of Marichal for the 4-3 win.

Marichal was in his sophomore season. Koufax was in his seventh season.

5-11-1963 in LA (Koufax's 2nd no-hitter)
LA 8, SF 0

In front of 55,530, the largest crowd of the season, Koufax retired the first 22 batters and no-hit the Giants.

5-24-1963 in SF

SF 7, LA 1

13 days after their embarrassing defeat, the Giants and Marichal got their revenge at Candlestick with a 7-1 win. If you arrived late, you missed a rare treat. San Francisco sent Koufax to a first inning shower after he gave up five runs and retired just one batter. Marichal got the complete game win.

8-22-1965 in SF (the Marichal-Roseboro fight)
SF 4, LA 3

Koufax entered this game 21-4. Marichal was 19-9. The Giants trailed the Dodgers by just one and a half game (Milwaukee was in second place).

A crowd of 42,807, the largest of the season at The Stick, watched Marichal come to bat in the third inning with the Giants trailing 2-0. After fumbling a Koufax pitch, Roseboro threw the ball back to the mound. Marichal thought it nicked his ear. Heated words were exchanged and then Marichal hit Roseboro over the head with his bat (I’m sure that’s not an exact description. It’s been disputed whether or not Roseboro did nick Marichal’s ear).

When the game resumed, Bob Schroder (what a great trivia question!!) batted for the ejected Marichal. Koufax struck him out but then walked Davenport and McCovey. Mays then connected for his 38th homer of the season to give the Giants a 4-2 lead. Los Angeles made it 4-3 in the top of the ninth but reliever Masanori Murakami ended the threat.

Sources

New York Times via Pro Quest’s Historical Newspapers (Free for SABR members)
The Sporting News via paperofrecord (25% off for SABR members)
Retrosheet.org
Baseball-reference.com

Random Recap, May 1, 1938

This is a continuing series of “Random Recaps” I started in January. The basic format is a brief summary of the game; the lineup with a note on what regulars, if any, that did not start; odds and ends from articles from The NY Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times; The Sporting News coverage, and a brief note on how the season ended for the Giants.

To determine the random game I use Research Randomizer.

Random Recap, May 1, 1938
Game 12 of 155
Giants 7, Dodgers 6
At The Polo Grounds

This was a wild one between the two archrivals, with the Giants picking up their 10th straight win and 11 of 12 to start the season.

After falling behind 5-0 in the second, the Dodgers rallied off Giants starter Harry Gumpert. Brooklyn scored three in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the eighth for a 6 all tie. A large crowd of 40,248 at the Polo Grounds then watched the Giants retake the lead in the bottom of the eighth. Dick Bartell, nicknamed Rowdy Richard, doubled and score the game winner off a single by Jimmy Ripple.

Brooklyn skipper Burleigh Grimes, who like Bartell, brandished a fiery personality on the field, was tossed out in the sixth inning for arguing with the home plate umpire over a disallowed third strike to Mel Ott. “A shower of various utensils’ came flying out of the Dodger dugout.

Giants Lineup Position OPS + ERA+

Jo-Jo Moore LF 110
Dick Bartell SS 98
Jimmy Ripple RF 94
Mel Ott 3B 178
Hank Lieber CF 109
Johnny McCarthy 1B 91
Lou Chiozza 2B 71
Harry Danning C 113
Harry Gumbert SP 93
Bill Lohrman MR 113
Dick Coffman CL 108

Regulars Who Did Not Play In This Game

None

Odds and Ends

John Debringer (member of the Writers Wing of the Hall of Fame), the Giants beat reporter, wrote the NY Times article.

From The Sporting News:

The Sporting News listed the boxscores but no game summaries as they would do in future years (they did for the minor leagues). Following the boxscores is a series of small paragraphs commenting on various news items from the games.

Two examples:

The Cardinals adopted a security system similar to the Cubs. The ushers formed a ring around the infield after the game to prevent spectators from walking on it.

Cracking down on free admissions, the Dodgers, who had determined that in the previous season 70,000 fans got in to Ebbets Field without paying, established a system to prevent abuse of free passes. (Insert joke about how many free passes Brooklyn pitchers gave out…)

On June 18, the second night game in the big leagues was played in Brooklyn. Johnny Vander Meer no-hit the Dodgers, his second no-hitter in as many games.

On July 12, Robert Joyce, a 33 year-old Dodger fan, shot and killed William Diamond, a bartender at Pat Diamond’s Bar and Grill. Joyce also shot Frank Krug of Albany, a patron at the bar. (Full details in Andrew Goldblatt’s book).

Despite playing out of position (113G 3B, 37G OF), Mel Ott had his finest offensive season. He lead the league in OPS+ (178), Home Runs (36), On Base Percentage (442) and Runs (116).

How did the season end for the Giants?

The Terrymen, as they were known in the press, stormed out of the gate, winning 25 of 34 for a first place position ahead of the Cubs. Included in the great start was a pair of one-hitters by Carl Hubbell and Hal Schumacher.

The defending champs had a very good offensive attack (106 OPS+) and decent pitching (100 ERA+). But their veteran ace, 35 year-old Carl Hubbell, underwent arm surgery in mid-August and was out for the rest of the season. Another key blow was the loss of Burgess Whitehead, the team’s slick fielding second baseman who missed the entire season due to health problems. His replacement, Alex Kampouris, batted poorly with an 81 OPS+.

New York retained their first place lead into mid-July but faded down the stretch. They finished in third place, five games behind Chicago and three behind Pittsburgh.

Sources:

NY Times via ProQuest
The Sporting News via paperofrecord.com
The Giants and Dodgers, Four Cities, Two Teams, One Rivalry, Andrew Goldblatt
Total Baseball VII, John Thorn
Baseball-reference.com
Retrosheet.org

Giants' Fans Memories

This is a continuing series of Giants' Fans Memories. For details and the rest of Tom's stories, please see my website (History Section).

Thomas Gorman, 22, is a senior at Columbia University in New York City. He writes about the Giants at Fog Ball.

How did you become a baseball fan?

I'm not sure I really remember becoming a baseball fan. Both my
parents were pretty uninterested in sports. But I grew up in San
Francisco, and I must have picked it up from friends. My father passed
away when I was 17, and I just recently talked to a cousin of his, who
surprised me by telling me that when my father was a young boy he used
to love baseball (and also boxing). He used to listen to games on the
radio, and would

Stirring Up The Pot

Lee Allen, the famed baseball historian, wrote a book about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry in 1964. He concluded The Giants and The Dodgers by saying,

“And what is left for them in the years immediately ahead? Well, there will be something going on, for the Dodgers know that things will be stirring up in San Francisco, where there are Giants on the earth.”

In the long history of this rivalry, there’s always been something stirring up between these two, even if it was just envy. But since Tommy Lasorda hung up his skipper’s cap in 1996, the Giants have had the upper hand on their arch rival. True, the boys in blue ruined our park opener in 2000 and eliminated Barry and Co. on the final Friday in 2001, but they haven’t finished ahead of us since The Lasagna Lover’s final season.

Well, don’t look now, but it looks like the Dodgers are probably going to get better in the coming years. Peter Gammons is reporting that

Oakland assistant general manager Paul DePodesta is expected to be named the new GM of the Dodgers this weekend, ESPN's Peter Gammons reports.

DePodesta has been a top assistant to GM Billy Beane since joining the A's in November 1998, and this would be his sixth season with the club. He earned an economics degree from Harvard.

The 31-year-old DePodesta reportedly met late last week in Los Angeles with new Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to discuss replacing Dan Evans, who is in the final year of a three-year contract as the Dodgers' GM.

Reaction in the Giants camp has been what you would expect. Aadik at Baseball Primer put it this way,

All us Giants fans surely would prefer a return for Dan- hell, I'll contribute to his salary if it will keep him in the job.

There’s good reason for Dodger haters to fear the hiring of DePodesta. He’s one of a handful of new breed thinkers in baseball who challenge conventional wisdom and base their thinking on sabermetrics, the objective analysis of baseball. Of course, there's no guarantee that the smart approach will produce a winner, but Moneyball wasn't a best seller for nothing.

My reaction to the possibility of Depodesta becoming the Dodgers new GM is like many who pull against blue. Great. That’s all we need.

And as a fan of sabermetrics, I wish some American League team I root for would get “The Professor,” and I worry that Giants GM Brian Sabean loathes the sabermetric approach.

Lee Allen, if he were alive to day, probably would enjoy having a beer more with Sabean than Depodesta. Allen might not care about linear weights and zone ratings but one thing is for sure. He would enjoy seeing a new twist to the Giants-Dodger rivalry.

If the Dodgers do hire Depodesta, things will be stirring up again in San Francisco.

Giants On The Cover Of The Sporting News

In May 1965, The Sporting News, breaking from their long-standing tradition of publishing text-based, multiple story covers, began to print one subject cover stories with a full length photo shot.

This is the second in a continuing series of reviews of those issues with a Giant on the cover. The first review can be found on February 8.

May 21, 1966
Willie Mays
Cost: 35 Cents

The caption says, Willie Mays, A Champion Is Born.

The picture is a shot of Mays stepping out of the dugout and tipping his cap to the standing Candlestick crowd. It was the night of May 4th, and Mays had just hit his 512st homer, passing Mel Ott for most NL home runs.

Bob Steven’s article is entitled, Now Willie’s Real GIANT in N.L. HRs

The solo shot came off Claude Osteen’s first pitch, a change up. There were two out in the fifth inning and the home run made the score 5-0. The Giants won 6-1. Joe Gibbon, the Giants part time starter making his first start, tossed a four-hitter and picked up the win.

Osteen was very stingy with homers that year, giving up just 6 in 240 innings. He struck out Mays the previous two at bats.

In his autobiography with Lou Sahadi, Mays said, “I could see what he was trying to do – move the ball around on me, inside-outside. He threw me a high outside change-up…It was one of my great moments.”

Stevens called it the longest ovation in the history of San Francisco baseball. Lasted more than five minutes.

Attendance. 28, 220. Home average 21,445.

Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

17 year old Henry Garron Jr, from Oakland, caught the ball behind the right field fence. Mays autographed it for him and said he could keep it. The Giants offered $100 for the ball, but someone told Garron it was worth closer to $1000.

The bat was given to Cooperstown.

Mays hit number 511 on April 24 in Houston. The Giants came home for a 10 game homestand. Mays was homerless in the first eight, going 3 for 23. His batting average dropped from 348 to 284.

On June 27, Mays hit 522 to pass Ted Williams and get to third behind Ruth and Foxx. On August 17, he hit 535 to pass Foxx.

Sources

TSN via paperofrecord.com
Giants Diary by Nick Peters and Fred Stein
Baseballreference.com
NY Times via Proquest (SABR.org)
Retrosheet.org
The Giants and the Dodgers by Andrew Goldblatt
Baseballreference.com
Total Baseball, Seventh Edition

Up next:

June 18, 1966

Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax

OBM Rocks!

John Perricone’s blog, Only Baseball Matters, has a great new look. Love the colors and format.

John’s blog, by the way, was one of the first Giants web logs I frequented. Thought the guest map was really cool.

As a side note, John and I send our hard earned money to the same address in the Bay Area. Ben and Mena Trott, the founders of Six Apart in San Mateo, created Movable Type and TypePad, the tool I use. I went to Mena's website and discovered she is a Giants fan. They have some great photos of a game they went to last July.