Imagine baseball’s greatest sluggers all in their prime at the same time.
Then, put them all on the same field and have them do what they do best.
Hit home runs.
Eight of baseball’s greatest sluggers will make up the Home Run Derby Dream Team. However, this list is not based just on number of home runs in a season or career. Past derbies will also be a factor in the creation of the Dream Team.
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Kincaid’s is supposed to have one of the best hamburgers in America.
Each morning they grind a fresh batch of prime beef, g rilled to perfection, served on a bulky roll, and garnished with your choice of any or all kinds cheese, crisp lettuce, sliced tomatoes, grilled onions, and jalapenos. Yummy.
There’s nothing like a big old grease bomb washed down with some cold barley soup to make a man feel good about life. The place started as a grocery store in West Fort Worth and annually got on several of the best in the U.S. lists. A few years ago they decided to expand a bit.
This is why I can munch them here, at LaGrave Field, watching the minor league Fort Worth Cats. It’s the same fresh beef and same tasty burgers. Burp. They makes those Shake Shack things they serve up in the Big Apple look like Monica Lewinsky compared to Marilyn Monroe, or Dominos compared to Ray’s pizza. A pale imitation of the real deal.
Now, it has been a good baseball here in the Metroplex. The Rangers are bankrupt, have a candy snortin’ manager, a recovered addict outfielder, and are playing their tails off in first place. TCU is in the College World Series and just won again.
But watching the Cats in LeGrave can be kind of special.
The first LeGrave existed from 1926 to 1967 when it was torn down. Thirty five years later, the only thing left was an empty field. In 2002, it was decided to build another ballpark where the old one had stood, excavation began, and the old dugouts were found.
So now the park is the only one in America with four dugouts. The old ones are rented out for group events.
The Fort Worth Cats, an Independent Association team, play here. They’re the lowest rung of the baseball hierarchy. At best a player or two each year goes on to “the show”.
As such, the Cats exhibit the quirkiness that baseball in the lower rungs displays with such aplomb. Guy hits a homer and people pass the hat for him. The same thing happens for a pitcher who strikes out the side. These kids are making less than two grand a month after all.
Regular fans know the players by first name and vice versa. Kate Hudson has been conspicuously absent from the proceedings.
Cornball promotions…we got em.
There are fireworks at nights, Thirsty Thursdays with cheap beers, salsa nights, and other hi-jinks. The Girl’s Scout and Boy’s Scout sleep over and kids get to run the base paths at the endy of every game. Sometimes, grown ups do it as well.
The national anthem is sung by a local, often off key, and parking is two bucks. It’s pure baseball and there is not a bad seat in the house.
And of course, there’s first base coach Wayne Terwilliger.
Twig, as he is know, has been in baseball a long time. His professional baseball career began, after all, in 1948. He managed the Cats for three years and in 2005 became only the second 80 year old to manage a professional baseball team. The first was Connie Mack.
Older than dirt and wiser than a shaman, he’s on a first name basis with noted baseball gnome, Dom Zimmer, amongst others.
Which leads me to why LaGrave is hallowed ground and of particular interest to fans from the New York area. From 1926 to 1965, LaGrave, in its first incarnation, was the home to the Fort Worth Panthers and then Cats minor league ball teams. And from post World War II through 1960, the Cats served as the Texas League franchise for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
This means greats such as Duke Snyder, Don Drydale and Maury Wills called it home. It hosted luminaries such as Hank Aaron, Yogi Berra, Willie Mays and Brooks Robinson. Lou Gehrig played here early in his career, as did Babe Ruth. In all, 47 Hall of Famers played at LaGrave, taking their first steps to baseball immortality.
So if you squint just right, as the June Bugs swirl around the lights in the warm Texas sky and the Fort Worth skyline rises over the right field bleacher seats, you might be able to see a young Joe DiMaggio striding toward a fly ball, or a green Bob Lemon working on a change up to add to his heater.
And who knows, maybe the kid currently playing shortstop and turning that double play will be getting his own Topps card in the near future.
Ah, baseball. It’s America’s game.
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The term underrated is thrown around quite frequently. It can be used to describe pretty much any situation, but is most often used for sports figures and their on-field exploits.
Yesterday, June 21st, was the 71st anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s retirement. While Gehrig removed himself from the Yankee lineup prior to the game on May 2, 1939, he remained with the team as captain for another six weeks.
Gehrig was one of the greatest all-around baseball players of all time, but much of his greatness was often overshadowed by the great Yankee teams and players. He was part of the first Yankee dynasty’s back in the mid-to-late 1920’s through the mid-1930’s.
He is widely considered the greatest first baseman of all time.
His records are numerous. He has the most grand slams with 23, has the most seasons with 400+ total bases with five (only four other players have two or more—Rogers Hornsby, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx all had two, Philadelphia Phillies slugger Chuck Klein has three), and Gehrig AVERAGED 147 RBI per season.
Since Gehrig retired in 1939, only 16 times has 147 RBI in a single season even been eclipsed! It has only happened 52 total times, with Gehrig attaining this level seven times himself.
He hit 493 career home runs, accumulated a staggering 1,995 RBI, scored 1,888 runs, and had a career batting average of .340. At the time of his retirement, Gehrig was second all time in home runs, third in RBI, and third in runs scored.
But how can the greatest first baseman of all time, and the best run producer baseball has ever had, be underrated?
Easy. The biggest reason was the player he is most associated with, Babe Ruth.
Gehrig was overshadowed his entire career by the hitters who hit in front of him.
Gehrig wore uniform No. 4 because he hit fourth (cleanup) in the Yankee lineup. The player before him, Babe Ruth, wore uniform No. 3 because Ruth hit third, just in front of Gehrig.
Gehrig put up all those great production seasons even hitting immediately behind the other big run producer of that era. In 1927 when Ruth hit 60 HR’s and drove in 164 runs, Gehrig came to the plate at least 60 times with the bases empty.
But Gehrig made the most of his men on base opportunities, driving in an amazing 175 runs that 1927 season hitting behind Ruth. On a continuous basis, Gehrig was denied many opportunities to increase his statistics, and yet, still was the eras top RBI producer.
And it was not only Ruth, because two seasons after Ruth left the Yankees, they acquired Joe DiMaggio from the Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals. The young Yankee Clipper phenom hit third in front of Gehrig for the remainder of Lou’s career.
Play on the field was not the only way both Ruth and DiMaggio overshadowed Gehrig.
Both Ruth and DiMaggio were huge personalities; Ruth very gregarious while Joe D. was a more quiet celebrity who was a private person, but certainly relished the New York nightlife.
Gehrig was more reserved, a quiet family man. He did not fraternize with others during the train rides or when they were on the 1934 Tour of Japan. He had Jan Brady syndrome, the middle child between big brother Babe and the young, talented brother DiMaggio.
While Gehrig was renowned as a slugger, his fielding and speed on the bases were vastly underrated.
Gehrig was swift around the first base bag, with quick feet and an innate ability to position himself correctly. His good footwork could have been a product of his time as a fullback for the Columbia University football team.
Gehrig had a career .990 fielding percentage at first base. Two of the best recent defensive first baseman in New York were Don Mattingly (.992) and Keith Hernandez (.994).
With terrible field conditions compared to the modern era and comparably deficient equipment, Gehrig still held his own percentage-wise compared to the first basemen of today.
Still, for a big guy, Gehrig had great speed. He did not steal bases, but in reading reports of that time showed Gehrig was one of the most fearless baserunners.
He scored from first base most of the time on doubles, accumulated 163 career triples, and hit six inside the park home runs. In 1926, he led the league with 20 three-baggers.
He also stole home an amazing 15 times in his career. Lou Brock never stole home.
Yet, even though Gehrig was an all-around ballplayer, not just a slugger, he is often overlooked when “the best players in history are discussed.”
Lou Gehrig played in seven World Series with the Yankees, with his team winning six titles. Gehrig dominated these contests, hitting .361 BA/.477 OBP/.731 SLG/1.208 OPS with 10 home runs and 35 RBI. All numbers which are considerable better than his career stats of .340/3447/.632/1.075 OPS.
His only “bad” series could be 1938, with the ALS disease already ravaging his body, when he only hit .286 with no extra base hits. Gehrig scored eight game winning runs in World Series competition. Yet it is Ruth’s gigantic 1928 Series against the Cardinals, and Ruth’s 1932 Game Three “Called Shot” which always got the headlines.
With his unknown deadly disease crippling him, Gehrig continued to play. His consecutive game streak is now toppled, but the stories are still there. Future X-rays of his hands revealed many broken bones which he played through, and he came back from a beaning in 1933, staying in that game.
It has been documented that once a person is diagnosed with ALS, the disease which now carries Gehrig’s name, the person usually lives about five years.
Gehrig lived only two years after diagnosis, indicating he played major league baseball at a high level with the disease for three seasons.
Yet he only thought about others. When he went to manager Joe McCarthy before taking himself out of the lineup, Lou said, “I’m benching myself for the good of the team.”
The consummate team player.
He was a great slugger, but also a great runner, fielder and person. Overshadowed throughout his career by Ruth and DiMaggio, many people only remember “The Iron Horse” from his consecutive game streak and the disease which took his life.
On June 3, 1932, Gehrig was the first 20th Century player to hit four home runs in one game, and would have had five if Philadelphia A’s center fielder Al Simmons did not rob Gehrig of another with a great over the shoulder catch.
With Shibe Park’s 470 foot distance to that area of the field, it probably would have been an inside the park homer.
After that game, McCarthy said to Lou, “Well, Lou, nobody can take today away from you.” On the same day, however, cross-town manager John McGraw announced his retirement after thirty years of managing the New York Giants.
McGraw, and not Gehrig, got the main headlines in the sports sections the next day.
A typical occurrence for one of the most underrated players in baseball history.
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I think we all know that Babe Ruth was probably the greatest offensive player in the history of baseball. Ted Williams was probably second, and Ty Cobb, Barry Bonds, and Lou Gehrig round out my own personal top five. The numbers these guys put up during their careers were astounding, but are sometimes difficult to fully appreciate out of context.
What’s not difficult to appreciate is a truly great season. Last year, Albert Pujols led baseball with 47 homers. Joe Mauer led baseball with a .365 average, and Ryan Howard led baseball with 145 RBI. What if I told you a player had hit over .380, with 40 homers, and 170 RBI, and still missed this list? It happened. That was Chuck Klein in 1930. Of course, that was the year of the hitter. The league average BA was over .300, and he didn’t lead the league in any of the three categories. Someone else was better (and that someone made the list). But even so, Klein hit .386, with 40 and 170, and didn’t make this list. These seasons are really, really good.
The home run is one of the most exciting plays in sports. Fans and players feel a rush of excitement when a ball goes over the wall.
There are some big flies more exciting than others. Here are the 10 most memorable home runs in Major League Baseball history.
The Yankees have had some of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history. This list ranks the top 10 of those legends who wore the pinstripes very proudly during their stay in the Bronx.
To rank the players I used their individual stats while with the Yankees and their success in the postseason. I also took into consideration military service and career-threatening injuries.