THE ase e're trying something different this year. Many ofour stories The Twentieth Annual are pegged to news events-the Pete Rose controversy, the Historical and Statistical Review W Hall ofFame elections, Rickey Henderson's record, the new of the Society for American Baseball Research Comiskey Park. At least one ofthem is a news story-Richard Kitchin's Do the Umps Give a Level Field? startling and disturbing new data on umpires and how they can affect Richard Kitchin 2 the course ofpennant races and, perhaps, attract gamblers. Rose Out, McGraw In-Why? Eliot Cohen 6 Another article could explode into a news story at any moment. That Rose: An Ordinary Player for an Extraordinary Time Pete Palmer 8 is the piece by former pitcher Sam McDowell about baseball suicides Carew Makes a Run at .400 George R. Rekela 10 and potential suicides, alcoholism, and depression. Sam's keynote Ferguson Jenkins, CM, Comes to Cooperstown William Humber 12 speech to the 1990 SABR convention was so provocative we have Bring Back the Spitter? Yes! John McCormack 14 adapted it for the thousands ofmembers who couldn't hear it in person. Bring Back the Spitter? No! Dan Gutman 15 We are applying SABR's traditional, unique research and writing Did Charlie Hughes Really Manage the Browns? Bill Borst 17 skills to baseball problems as up.. to.. date as today's newspaper-or Tony Lazzeri: Baseball's First 60~Homer Man Dick Beverage 18 tomorrow's. "Unser Choe" Hauser: Double 60 Stew Thomley 20 But we don't want to serve up the same thing you can read in your Four Homers in a Game Bob McConnell 23 newspaper, or in any other sports paper or magazine. We pride ourselves 1991 Marks Chet Hoffs 100th Birthday on being ahead ofthe curve, ofgiving you new slants that the journal.. James A. Riley and Renwick W. Speer 26 ists and columnists miss, that only a SABR sleuth can uncover. Golden Gloves or Brass? TnmJennings 28 ofF~mc, When Tony Lazzeri was elected to the Hl111 you may have Sliding Billy Hailliiton: Prince of Thieves Da.vid Pietrusza 30 read about his epilepsy, his 12 RBIs in one gamc, or his World Series Flying Feet ti'0111 Fujiyalna Furnihiru Fujisawa 33 duel with Pete Alexander. So, instead of those, Richard Beverage fo .. The Runner Wore Skirts Debbi Dagavarian~Bonar 35 cuses on Tony's record..setting 60 home runs as a minor leaguer-the Cool Papa Gives a Helping Hand Bob Broeg 38 professional mark that Babe Ruth later tied. Cobb on a Rampage Larry Amman 39 When Pete Rose ran into trouble, we decided to focus on a new Irresistible Braggo Roth 43 angle. Eliot Cohen looks at other Hall ofFamers with his new stat, "the A.D. Suehsdorf Sindex," and concludes that Pete would not be the biggest sinner in The Short, Happy Life ofthe Newark Peppers Irwin Chusid 44 Cooperstown. Almost Perfect Games William Ruiz 46 1/, Then Pete Palmer asked his rrvtV\...... ',.t-a¥. Silver King Loses a No..hitter Stephen D. Boren 51 The reply may surprise you-it may amaze you-or it may you. Will Baseball Be ·Ready When Future Billy Martins Call for Help? Rickey Henderson is baseball's most famous base stealer. But was he Sam McDowell 54 as fast as Hogriever, Hamilton, Kurys, Fukumoto, or Bell? Never heard Wade Boggs' Hidden .400 Season Chaz Scoggins 57 of them? Their stories are all inside. The Game That Wouldn't End Scott Pitoniak 58 We haven't neglected the traditional backbone oftheJoumal.You'll C()misk~y The New Park Philip Bess "'.' ... '.... ..11111 i , ••60 stories on great minor leaguers, nineteenth century baseball, elc. The Sad Tale of Dale Alexander We'll also entertain yOll with Eddie Gold's recollection ofthe Cubs' Lou Michael Santa Maria and James Costello 61 Novikoff in the inimitable Goldian style. When "The Big Train" Met "The Red Ant" Frank Keetz 63 As a special treat, we present the merry memories of Roy Hughes. Cicotte the Ruth..Slayer Lowell L. Blaisdell 66 Many have heard him spin his tales at SABR national and regional Woody English Insists-The Babe Didn't Point! Norman Macht 67 meetings. For those who haven't heard any ofhis great stories, you can "The Road May Come to a Dead End Here" Lou Gehrig 69 now enjoy them here. No Cheap Homers for Ott Fred Stein 70 To our authors go thanks for meeting short deadlines and holding No Freebie for Klein Ed "Dutch" Doyle 73 their words down. That means more authors than ever-and snappier, more readable pieces. Has Japanese Baseball Come Up to Major League Level? All ofus who worked on this issue care about what we have written. Kazuo Sayama 74 We hope you will care as much as we do. Agree \vith us or disagree. But Love Story in Milwaukee Bob Buege ,"," 77 don't ignore us. You've heard our opinions. Now give us yours. The Tragedy of Ed Delahanty Lewis Scheid 80 -John B. Holway, editor What Were They Really Worth? Lee Lowenfish 81 Shutout Sluggers: The Pitch and Punch Club L. Robert Davids 83 The Baseball Research Journal (ISSN 0734~6891, ISBN 0~910137~45~5). Pub~ The Roy Hughes Story Bag Roy Hughes 86 lished by the Society for American Baseball Research, Inc., P.O. Box 93183, The Cleveland,OH 44101. Postage paid at Birmingham,Ab;Gopyright ® ·1991 The Society for American Baseball Rcscarch, Inc. All rights reserved. ReproJucLiull in Peter Bjarkman 93 whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Typography by Atlan~ Chicago's Mad Russian Rides Again Eddie Gold 95 tic Typesetting, batham, NY. Printed by EBSGO Media, Birmingham, Ab. Cover art by Bob Carroll 1 Do the Umps Give a Level Field? RICHARD KITCHIN A disturbing report on a hush.. hush subject. This study shows that there definitely are such things as pitchers' and batters' umps. PORTSCASTERS SOMETIME sayan ump has "a large Cooney, which made up 14 percent ofthe crews, called 26 percent . .strike zone." If all umpires called the same strike zone, over a ofthe balks. Slarge number ofplate appearances, one would expect that the And the home team does much better with some umpires than number of strikeouts and walks would be similar and the batters others. The host club won only 42 percent of the time with John should hit at or close to the league average,.regardless of which Kibler (now retired) behind the plate but 66 percent of the time umpire is calling the balls and strikes. when Larry McCoy ofthe American League was calling the pitches. In 1985 I began to track the batting averages, strikeouts, and When I released n1.Y early findings in Sports Illustrated and Sport walks by each National League home plate umpire. Beginning in magazines, umpires condemned them as having no meaning. They 1986 statistics were kept for both leagues. My conclusion: said the umpires' rotation closely followed the pitchingrotation and There are substantial differences among the strike zones ofma.. therefore skewed the nurp.bers. They said one crew may umpire jor league umpires After seven years and hundreds ofthousands of more games ofthe "hot" teams during a seaso~, etc. batters, the results show: The statistics cover six National League and five American • Batting averages show a 20..point range from the lowest to the League seasons, an average of 13,000 at bats per umpire. highest (.242-.260 in the NL, .250-.271in the AL). That's a When I showed my first results to Ed Vargo, N.L. supervisor of cnnvt~r~r.ly, ~f' ......,ITJ• .-.....•.••,·...-, In elll n .,00 118 II (10WI 1 I() To Tnt', it's hogwa"h. • Strikeouts per game range from 10 to 12, a 20 percent differ.. But the nation's gamblers don't consider it hogwash. Gerlach ential-enough to raise Nolan Ryan's lifetime whiffs by about cites the 1991 edition ofUmpire Fact Sheet, which is published in Las 1,000, or cut them by 1,000. Vegas. It charts my average strikeouts and walks and adds a new • Rrlses on hrllls rrlnee from () per erlme to illmost R-il 10 per.. stilt: 8ver8ge runs scored when each umpire is behind the plate, The cent difference. three highest ilnd threp lowest in e8chleague for 1990 were: • The National League's John McSherry is the hitters' favorite ump. He ranks last in the league in strikeouts, first in bases on AL G RIG NL G RIG balls, and provides the third highest batting average. Meriwether 20 10.4 Hallion 36 9.4 • The Number One pitchers' ump is Greg Kosc ofthe American Cooney 36 9.9 Quick 35 9.3 League-tops in strikeouts and one ofthe lowest in walks and Shulock 36 9.6 McSherry 35 9.3 batting average. McKean 34 7.8 Winters 34 7.3 • Balks range from one every 90 innings (Brocklander, Roe, and McCoy 36 7.7 Pulli 36 7.2 Barnett) to one every 13 innings (Davidson), about a 700 per.. Tschida 28 7.1 Montague 34 7.1 cent difference. A balk call often involves other members ofthe crew. However, assigning balks to crews still leads to wide variations. In 1990 two NL crews (Ripley.. Froemming.. Pulli.. Darling and Montague..Williams.. UMPIRE BATTING AVERAGES Davidson.. McSherry), representing one.. third of the crews, called over halfthe balks~ In theALrhe crew ofBrinkman... Reed...Cousins ... 1986-1990 1985-1990 1 Phillips 11,464 .271 Brocklander 12,572 .260 Copyright © 1991 Richard Kitchin o THE BASEBALL RESEARCH JOURNAL 2 Shulock 11,508 .269 Rippley 12,328 .260 Morrison 7.4 Hallion 7.0 3 Roe 12,187 .268 Tata 13,653 .257 Cousins 7.8 McSherry 7.0 4 Reed 11,794 .267 McSherry 13,653 .257 Denkinger 7.2 *Froemming 7.0 5 McKean 11,233 .266 Crawford 13,664 .256 6 Ford 11,882 .266 Runge 13,080 .255 * Chosen NL's best ball/strike umpire in Sporting News 1991 7 Kaiser 10,116 .265 Williams, C.