Jaybird's Jottings

Murderer’s Row

Murderer’s Row is a term often traced back to the ’27 Yankees. Although Rob Neyer and Eddie Epstein would disagree (Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time), many have tabbed them as the greatest team in the history of the game.

(Note: Fact-Index.com states “Murderer's row was the nickname given to the New York Yankees baseball team of the late 1920s, in particular their 1926, 1927 and 1928 line-ups.” I did a search of The New York Times and found a reference as far back as Jul 8, 1919).

This year, the memories have been rekindled by the slugging squad from St Louis. Although batter for batter, the Phillies might have been more scary, it was the big bats of Albert Pujols 657 (2nd), Jim Edmonds 643 (3rd), Scott Rolen 598 (6th), Larry Walker 560 (in 44 games) and Reggie Sanders 482 who made the opposition squirm.

Curiousity got the best of me and I got to wondering about what Giants teams had a Murderer’s Row. That’s a loose definition so I decided to look at the Top Ten in slugging each year.

At first, I couldn’t find a source that gave the Top Ten. Most just have the Top Five. Major kudos again to Sean Forman, whose expanded leaderboards delivered the goods!

Here are the Giants teams with four players in the top ten in slugging percentage, followed by those with three.

1890 Players League

Connor 548 (1), Ewing 545 (2), O’Rourke 515 (6) and Gore 499 (7)

1947

Mize 614 (2), Cooper 586 (3), Marshall 528 (5) and Thomson 508 (7)

1963

Mays 582 (2), McCovey 566 (3), Cepeda 563 (4) and F Alou 474 (10)

1885

Connor 495 (2), Ewing 471 (3) and O’Rourke 442 (9)

1888

Connor 480 (3), Ewing 465 (6) and Tiernan 427 (9)

1889

Connor 528 (1), Tiernan 497 (4) and Ewing 477 (8)

1890 NL

Tiernan 495 (1), Burkett 461 (5) and Glasscock 439 (8)

1912

Meyers 477 (4), Doyle 471 (5) and Merkle 449 (9)

1919

Doyle 433 (2), Kauff 422 (7) and Youngs 415 (8)

1927

Hornsby 586 (2), Terry 529 (5) and Harper 495 (9)

1942

Mize 521 (1), Ott 497 (2) and Young 460 (9)

1962

Mays 615 (3), Cepeda 518 (7) and F Alou 513 (8)

1964

Mays 607 (1), Cepeda 539 (6) and Hart 498 (9)

1984

Davis 507 (4), Leonard 484 (7) and Brenly 464 (10)

Concluding Thoughts

Nice to see Merkle get in there. He’s remembered almost entirely for what happened on September 23, 1908, but he played on five pennant winners and had a career OPS + of 109.

Must have been fun to watch the ’47 team. The pitching was pretty bad but the 221 team homers was 65 more than the second place Pirates. Mize led the league with 51, Marshall third with 36, Cooper fourth with 35 and Thomson fifth with 29.

Top Ten Would Have Been with McCovey.

1959 McCovey 656 (192AB) Mays 583, Cepeda 522
1962 McCovey 590 (229AB)

Baseball-Reference.com

If I've used his site once, I've used it a thousand times.

And now there's more reasons to visit Sean Forman's Baseball-Reference. He's added the 2004 season stats.

BR has a neat Frivolities finder that I just checked out. I put in my birthday. Was disappointed to see nothing but lesser knowns and cup of coffee guys. Then at the bottom of the list Buck Ewing!

Thanks Sean. Keep up the great work!

2005 Schedule

The Giants have now released their full (tentative) schedule. Here are some random observations.

Opening Day. Dodgers at home. ‘Nuff said.

If the franchise shift goes through, the Giants will host the new Washington team the first weekend in May.

A’s in mid May. I think this is the first time the Giants have played any IL games before June.

Homestand with the Heartlanders, July 4-10, Reds and Cards.

Tough road trip in August - Atlanta, Miami, Cincy, St Louis.

September 20-22 at D.C. The Giants first visit to the nation’s capital since the 1933 World Series. Not the greatest news for the team, in terms of travel and such. But this gives Washingtonians a chance to see Barry park one at RFK.

Final set. We’re at home against the DBacks.

The Long Season Is Over

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.

- Lee Allen’s closing line to The Giants and the Dodgers.

Baseball has the longest season. The taste of victory at season's end is the sweetest and the weight of losing is the heaviest. I’m very disappointed with what happened this past weekend but at least the Giants were in it.

This 2004 season will be remembered for a lot of things, including another awesome performance by Barry Bonds. And for the seventh time in eight years, our Giants won at least 89 games and played "meaningful" games in the final week.

It was also remarkable for the continuing rise of blogs. Blogging is still not quite mainstream but good progress was made this year. I’m still amazed when people I think should know about blogging say, “What’s that?” But hey, blogging made Jeopardy just the other week.

I enjoyed reading all the Giants’ sites this year. Everybody made great contributions in one way or another. My favorite is Across the Seams. Marty did a wonderful job and gets my vote for MVB!!

Thank you Giants and thank you bloggers. As the leaves and temps begin to fall, I’m left thinking that somewhere in a lofty press box, Allen is nodding his head. And like all of us, he’s looking at the first series on the 2005 schedule.

How many days?

Louis

Louis is an Asst Manager at the Safeway store we frequent in Old Town Alexandria. I’ve spoken with him about twice a week for the last couple of years. Mostly about baseball.

Louis’s favorite team is the Dodgers. He’s a pretty humble guy and didn’t brag this year. But I could see the gleam in his eyes. His team has not done much latetly so he was excited they were finally good.

Louis, I thought about you yesterday. I’m hurting real bad but I’m happy for you buddy.

See you this week.

This Week In Baseball

This Week In Baseball is airing its 700th episode today.

When I was growing up, 21 in the show’s first year (1977), This Week in Baseball was a staple of information and highlights that supplemented the daily newspaper columns, The Sporting News and local TV sports segments. I remember playing our sandlot games on Saturday mornings and then returning home to watch the 30 minute show.

I’ll never forget this one lead-in from Mel Allen (he announced games for the Giants in 1939). “Downtown in Motown,” came the call from his Southern-accented voice.

Happy 700th TWIB and thanks for all those shows.

Note: TWIB can be seen on ESPN Classic.