Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings January 25, 2018
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Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings January 25, 2018 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1909-The Reds trade Al Bridwell to Boston for Jim Delahanty. Delahanty will stay for the Reds for one season, producing a .280 batting average in 115 games, with 21 doubles and 45 walks MLB.COM Rolen falls short on first Hall of Fame ballot Third baseman receives 10.2 percent of the vote By Mark Sheldon MLB.com @m_sheldon Jan. 24th, 2018 CINCINNATI -- Former Reds third baseman Scott Rolen is statistically considered one of the top 10 players to ever play at the position but was widely viewed as a borderline Hall of Famer. For Rolen to become an actual member of the Hall of Fame, he will need a lot more votes. Results of balloting from the Baseball Writers' Association of America were released on Wednesday. In his first year on the ballot, Rolen received 10.2 percent of the vote. Eligible candidates need to receive at least 75 percent of the vote for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The BBWAA did elect four more players in Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman. Fortunately for Rolen, he got 43 votes of the 422 ballots cast and finished with enough room above the minimum 5 percent required to return to the ballot in 2019. He will have nine more chances for election following this year. Rolen played 17 seasons from 1996-2012 with the Phillies, Cardinals, Blue Jays and Reds, and is viewed as the best defensive third baseman of his era. He finished his career in Cincinnati from 2009-12. The 1997 National League Rookie of the Year, a seven-time All-Star and eight-time NL Gold Glove Award winner, Rolen batted .281/.364/.490 with 2,077 hits, 316 home runs and 1,287 RBIs in his career. He was a member of the 2006 World Series championship team with St. Louis. Rolen, now 42, has a lifetime WAR of 70.0, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Of the 13 third basemen currently in the Hall of Fame, the average WAR is 67.5, meaning Rolen will continue to deserve a closer look on future ballots. But as the results for this year are revealed, it is looking like he will need a lot more momentum going forward to be enshrined among the immortals in Cooperstown. CINCINNATI ENQUIRER How did Scott Rolen do in his first year of Hall of Fame voting? Zach Buchanan, [email protected] Published 6:52 p.m. ET Jan. 24, 2018 | Updated 6:59 p.m. ET Jan. 24, 2018 A whopping four players were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday, with Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman earning enshrinement in Cooperstown. In his first year on the ballot, former Cincinnati Reds third baseman Scott Rolen was not expected to get in. But he'll get another crack at it. Rolen earned votes on 10.2 percent of the 422 ballots cast, with 75 percent needed for induction. But he also avoided falling off the ballot entirely by passing the five-percent threshold needed to remain eligible. Voting is conducted by active members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. As the four-man class of inductees suggest, Rolen arguably was harmed by a crowded ballot. Sixteen players garnered more votes than Rolen this year, and even with four earning induction it could be an uphill battle again in 2019, when Mariano Rivera will be eligible for the first time. Rolen has a lot of ground to make up, and not much precedent for doing so. The last player to garner 10.2 percent of the vote or less and eventually make the Hall of Fame was Bob Lemon, who was inducted in 1976 on his 12th ballot. Notably, players now remain on the ballot for only 10 years. According to the Baseball-Reference version of the stat, Rolen was worth 70 Wins Above Replacement over his 17-year career with the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays and Reds. That's tied for 98th-most all-time, just a hair behind Barry Larkin. His WAR total is the 10th-best among all third basemen. Rolen was a career .281/.364/.490 hitter and hit 316 home runs, and was also considered one of the best defenders at third base in the history of the game. Since 2002, when FanGraphs began keeping the defensive metric, Rolen has the second-highest Ultimate Zone Rating of anyone at the position. WCPO From The Vault: Reds basketball team ended with serious injury Greg Noble 4:30 AM, Jan 25, 2018 CINCINNATI – For baseball players, Pete Rose and Johnny Bench were pretty good at basketball, too, in their day. Thousands of Tri-State fans crowded into gyms to watch them dribble, shoot and rebound in person. For two offseasons, that is, until a serious injury put a stop to all the fun. If center fielder Bobby Tolan hadn’t ruptured his Achilles tendon in a game in Frankfort, Kentucky, in January, 1971, you might be able to watch Joey Votto and Billy Hamilton run the court today. Following the 1969 baseball season, Rose got the idea to put together a Reds basketball team to play charity games during the winter. He recruited Bench, Tolan, Lee May, Jim Maloney, Jimmy Stewart and others. They drove or bussed to high school and college gyms as far as 100 miles away to play teams of former high school and college players, local celebrities, even teachers, and to raise money for good causes. The Reds played 51 games over two winters and won 47 – with the help of a few ringers. “We’re 47-4 for two years and that ain’t bad,” Rose told WCPO after losing to the University of Cincinnati’s NCAA champions from 1961 and 1962 on Jan. 23, 1971 at UC’s Armory Fieldhouse. It seems absurd today. What major leaguer would even consider giving up his free time – not to mention risking injury – to do that? But it wasn’t uncommon in those days. The Bengals had a basketball team, and so did many other MLB and NFL franchises. For one thing, many players barely scraped by on their sports salaries. To give you an idea, Bench made $23,500 in 1969. Davey Concepcion made $12,000 in 1970. The entire Reds roster didn’t crack $1 million until 1971. Rose ($107,500) was the only player over $100K. In those days, many players worked offseason jobs in the cities where they played. Because most teams didn’t have workout facilities, playing basketball was a way to work up a sweat and keep their competitive juices flowing. And, unlike today, there was nothing in a baseball player’s contract to stop them. The standard contract only prohibited players from skiing. That clause was added in 1968 after Red Sox ace Jim Lonborg hit the slopes and tore knee ligaments just weeks after winning two World Series games against the Cardinals and the Cy Young Award in 1967. After Tolan went down, three months after the Reds lost the 1970 World Series to the Orioles, General Manager Bob Howsam asked Rose to break up the team. Rose said at first he thought he was being treated as a scapegoat. “I’ve been playing basketball during the off-season for eight years and Tolan was the first guy I ever saw seriously injured,” Rose told The Enquirer. “I can’t keep in shape over the winter unless I have competition and there are a lot of guys who feel the same way.” Rose and the other Reds agreed, though, as long as they could play two more games that had already sold a lot of tickets. The last game, against UC’s national champs, drew more than 4,000 and turned out to be a Saturday afternoon to remember. It was a triumphant homecoming for coach Ed Jucker and some of UC’s biggest basketball heroes from the glory days, including Tom Thacker, Ron Bonham, Paul Hogue and Tony Yates. Both teams brought in a couple of ringers – UC added two of its older alums, Connie Dierking, who had a 12-year career in the NBA, and Bob Wiesenhahn. Rose came up with Dick Vories, a two-time Little All-American from Georgetown College. Tolan was there and signed autographs at halftime, but his injury would keep him out of a baseball lineup for all of 1971. The game was close at halftime, with UC ahead 57-50, but no contest after that. Vories scored 47, Bench 18 and Rose 16, but the Reds were no match for UC. Jucker’s team had seven players in double figures – led by Dierking (23) and Wiesenhahn (22) - and the Bearcats won 128-97. Jucker was impressed by Bench's basketball skills. Looking like he was playing catcher, Bench wound up and threw several passes the length of the court to complete fast breaks. “Hey, that Bench is something,” the retired UC coach said. “He could play any sport with the best.” In the locker room afterward, Rose said he was sad it was over. “Mr. Howsam wants us to stop playing basketball and he is the boss ...” Rose said. “It’s been great public relations for the ball club and the players who stayed here. It’s a shame we can’t continue because we played to close to 90,000 people in two years.” Proceeds from the game went to the Jim Schroer Scholarship Fund at UC.