Starting IX Newsletter: The best baseball Canadians, the best MLB jerseys, and a player stats quiz
For those unfamiliar with the set-up — welcome! Here’s the scoop. Otherwise, let’s dive right in.
“Starting IX” Excerpt:
For this week’s “Starting IX” excerpt, we’ll give a couple nods to our neighbors to the north in a write-up of giddy Hall of Famer Larry Walker. A friendly reminder to anyone new: Starting IX when used in the context of the book being excerpted here simply means top nine list. When related specifically to baseball, the players are put at their respective position, but when it’s non-baseball related it’s just a Top Nine list with SP = number one ranking, C = number two ranking, etc. around the diamond.
RF Larry Walker (1995–2004)
The pride of British Columbia, Walker is arguably Canada’s most famous baseball player. Here’s your next Starting IX list, Canada’s Starting IX:
C) Russell Martin
1B) Joey Votto
2B) Pop Smith
SS) Arthur Irwin
3B) Corey Koskie
LF) Jason Bay
CF) Tip O’Neill — Slightly out of position, but his speed would have given him good range in center
RF) Larry Walker
DH) Justin Morneau
Utility) Matt Stairs — One of this author’s favorite players and favorite YouTube clips
SP) Fergie Jenkins
RP) John Hiller
Not nearly as stout as the family Starting IX from earlier in the book, but a lot of countries could do a lot worse... Because they don’t have Matt Stairs.
[And since Canada is going to be the butt of numerous jokes throughout this book, here’s a bone for all you Canadians, because I actually do secretly love our neighbors to the north. Here’s a Starting IX list of just straight-up Canadians:
SP) Ryan Gosling
C) Wayne Gretzky
1B) Celine Dion
2B) Will Arnett
3B) Matt Stairs
SS) Jim Carrey
LF) Carrie-Anne Moss
CF) Seth Rogen
RF) Feist
**Gretzky replaced Justin Trudeau who ranked second in the book version, but just hasn’t aged all that well, and how could I have left The Great One off originally?!]
Back to Walker: He was a solid player before and after his time in Colorado, but he timed his prime perfectly for the Rockies. In his decade with the team, he had five particularly strong seasons, the strongest being his 1997 campaign in which he totaled 409 total bases (tied for 18th all-time) and deservedly won the league MVP. He totaled 9.6 WAR, and had quite an impressive 143 runs, 49 home runs, and 130 RBI with .366/.452/.720 slashes (one more time, BA/OBP/SLG) to boot. He also won a Gold Glove based on his reputation as having a great arm in addition to solid range in right field. From 1997–1999, he became the first player to hit .363 in three straight seasons since Al Simmons did so from 1929–1931. Walker definitely had some Colorado boosts to his numbers, but the monotonous nature of that qualifier seems a bit much at this point.
Walker was also responsible for one of the most memorable All-Star Game moments in league history. Unlike Ted Williams’ or Stan Musial’s walk-offs, however, this wasn’t the most flattering display of hitting ability from Walker. Instead it came as the result of another player’s dominance, one Randy Johnson. In 1997, Randy Johnson’s pitching intimidation level was equivalent to coming back from a date with your first girlfriend and seeing her dad sitting on the front porch cleaning his shotgun. Walker was no slouch himself, coming into the All-Star Game hitting .398, but after the left-handed Johnson let the first pitch fly over similarly left-handed Walker’s head, Walker flipped around his batting helmet and jaunted over to the right side of the plate — he was not a switch-hitter. The moment (pictured above) perfectly summed up Johnson’s dominance in baseball at the time, and was an amusing reminder that the All-Star Game is meant to be fun.
Walker was also a Class-A locker room prankster throughout his career, and further proof that Canada is actually pretty awesome. Check out this excerpt from Jonah Keri’s Up, Up & Away and try not to name Walker as one of your favorite players of all time afterwards:
“Walker was also one of the most fun-loving Expos of all time. The man they called “Booger” never took baseball — or himself — too seriously. He used a wide array of jokester gear: red clown shoes in his locker, plus diapers and a ballerina outfit that he’d make teammates wear (even when it wasn’t officially hazing time).”
Or this story from teammate Darrin Fletcher from the same book:
“‘There used to be a hot tub in the visitor’s locker room. Larry would get in after the game and coax a few players into a bet: how long could he hold his breath under water. Younger players would say 45 seconds, tops. The veterans, we knew, so we’d put money on it. It’d be three, four minutes every time. Larry would duck his head under the water, then put his mouth on one of the jets that had an air pump, and breathe the air. Thinking of all the players who’d been in that hot tub after games, and I’m guessing how rarely they cleaned it… there’s no way I would try it, let’s put it that way. Didn’t bother him one bit.’”
Considering that’s a trick that my friends and I used to use to freak our parents out as ten-year-olds, I respect the hell out of Walker doing the same. As a grown-ass man.
OOTP Year-by-Year Re-Simulation: 1904
We continue our trek through re-simulating each season in baseball history using Out of the Park Baseball 21, the most realistic baseball simulation game on the market.
MVP: Honus Wagner and Nap Lajoie
Cy Young: Red Ames and Frank E. Smith
Talk about a pair of mega-stars as your MVPs in Wagner and Lajoie. Both are such massive names, that they are covered extensively in Starting IX. So instead, let’s play a fun little game, and try to find a real-life season with as strong a combination of MVP winners as this simulated 1904 season (note: the MVP has been in its current, one-winner-from-each-league format since 1931, so we’ll use that season as our starting point). Wagner and Lajoie combined for 238.1 rWAR in their real-life careers, a wildly impressive figure. Here are some other seasonal candidates, with the combined career rWAR totals in parentheses:
1946: Stan Musial and Ted Williams (250.2)
1949: Ted Williams and Jackie Robinson (183.6)
1954: Yogi Berra and Willie Mays (215.7)
1957: Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle (253.3)
1966: Frank Robinson and Roberto Clemente (202.0)
1973: Reggie Jackson and Pete Rose (153.7)
1980: Mike Schmidt and George Brett (195.5)
1986: Roger Clemens and Mike Schmidt (246.1)
1990: Barry Bonds and Rickey Henderson (274.0)
2003: Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez (280.3)
2014: Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw (144.4)
I definitely find it endlessly funny that the highest combination is Bonds and A-Rod, a fact that is guaranteed to enrage 80 percent of people reading this article. Personally, I’d find it tough to beat the two Ted Williams combinations listed (Stan the Man and Jackie), but Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson for pure star quality is tough to beat. It’ll be fun to see where that Kershaw/Trout combo ends up by the end of their respective playing days.
One thing is for sure, that 1904 simulated duo definitely held up both by star power and career WAR.
The names aren’t quite as flashy on the Cy Young side of things, but Ames and Smith were both respectable players in their own right. The two combined for over 300 career victories in their real-life careers, with Ames sticking around longer (17 total seasons), while Smith burned brighter at his best (a 7.1 rWAR season in 1909 for the White Sox).
Crazy Stats:
* Otto Hess: 379.0 innings, 14.7 rWAR
* Rube Waddell: 1.42 FIP, 345 K, 13.7 fWAR
* Honus Wagner: .348/.416/.555 slash line, 107 runs, 106 RBI, 11.6 WAR
* Bill Dahlen and Bobby Wallace: 12.3 WAR
Nothing mind-blowing here. In all honesty, I might just put this category on pause until we get out of the Dead-ball Era. Sure, the pitcher FIPs and ERAs are cool, but they don’t really jut out past their peers, and let’s be honest: Readers dig the long ball.
On to the team wrap-up.
American League pennant winners: Chicago White Sox
National League pennant winners: New York Giants
World Series: Giants 4, White Sox 1
The Senior Circuit grabbed their first title in our re-sim, but sadly for Pirate fans who saw their team lose the last three re-sim World Series, it was the New York Giants who finally captured the crown for the National League.
Once again, we had a series that didn’t extend quite as long as die hards would’ve hoped for, but the games themselves were quite entertaining. NL Cy Young winner, Red Ames won Game One behind a 130-pitch complete game, serving as a nice reminder that we are no longer in 2020 in this simulated world.
Christy Mathewson, who sports a real-life 0.97 ERA in 101.2 World Series innings, matched Ames with a complete game win of his own in Game 2, to give the Giants a 2–0 series lead. However, the White Sox held serve in Game 3, winning the first game to take place at South Side Park, behind your uncle’s favorite turn of the century pitcher/radio station: Nick Altrock (why yes, that is an Alternative Rock joke).
The pivot point came in Game 4 when the road team finally won, and it was once again Ames as the star, this time tossing a 113-pitch no-hitter (!), something that has obviously only happened once in real life. On the cusp of their first title in (simulated) franchise history, the Giants turned to “Big Six”, Christy Mathewson, who — of course — delivered, getting the first 32 outs of their extra-inning victory. Naturally, it was lightly-regarded (but brilliantly named) Moose McCormick who got the game-winning hit in the 11th inning to secure the Giants their 1904 World Series victory, joining the likes of David Freese, Brett Phillips, Johnny Podres, and Donn Clendenon as unlikely World Series heroes.
“One Final Imagination of the Baseball Hall of Fame” Pre-excerpts: The best of the best baseball jerseys
If there’s one thing I love doing in my books, it’s cramming in lists to every possible nook and cranny of my writing. Here are a couple more, and I know you’re going to have thoughts, so fire away in the comments below.
Willie McGee: An endearingly goofy-looking speedster, McGee took over the baseball world in 1985. He led the league with 216 hits, 18 triples, and 8.2 WAR. He (deservedly) won the MVP, and he helped lead his team to an NL pennant. Most importantly, he did all of that sporting one of the prettiest jerseys of all time:
That powder blue backdrop for the stark red gorgeous bird logo, and the bat crossing the chest and dipping just under the capital “C” is just jersey perfection. Easily one of the best MLB jerseys, all-time. Here are the rest (only MLB with a brief shout-out to the best non-MLB jerseys at the end):
I mean, find me a better trio of jerseys than that home, road, and alternate.
This is one that sparks lots of debates, but I am fully on Team Mustard.
The sharp orange, the dope old school logo, and the Maryland patch on the side combine for a fire alternate jersey.
The Houston Astros were only called the Colt 45s for three seasons, but these jerseys made a lasting impact.
Yes, finding so much joy in fauxbacks makes me a bit of a Basic B; no, I do not care.
Yeah…. this list is basically all throwback looks, what can I say? Stay true to yourself, folks.
Honorable mention: Montreal Expos powder blues (McGee’s Cardinals won the powder blue off), Arizona Diamondback’s funky teal southwest look, 1990s Seattle Mariners (Griffey alone made this cool), and I hate to say it, but nothing say baseball history like just the classic Yankee pinstripes.
And finally, briefly, the best Negro Leagues, Nippon League, KBO, NBA, NHL, and NFL jerseys.
Who Is This Player?
Answer at the end of the newsletter (I’m debating formats here, so feedback on how easy/difficult this section is would be appreciated)
Weekly Best Reads
It was a sad day on Friday when the best active baseball writer (in my esteem), Sam Miller, announced that he had lost his job as part of the ESPN cuts. The baseball writing industry (and really sports, writ large) has been teetering on the edge for a while now, and Friday just kind of felt like the death knell. If a talent like Sam Miller can’t comfortably keep a job at ESPN, none of us have a chance… sorry for the downer. This week, just go and scroll through Sam’s archives, as each and every one of his is an absolute gem. Here’s his goodbye, and if you open the thread it links to lots of Sam’s own favorite articles.
Pop Culture Recommendation of the Week
It’s a little slow on the TV and movie front right now (although the news that Warner Bros. will be releasing all their major movies for 2021 on HBO Max is definitely something), so let’s turn to the written word. As has been my tendency is this spot, it’s not going to necessarily be the recent release, but (sadly), Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is as urgent in 2020 as it was when it was released in 1952. It’s not a light read, but it’s a necessary one, balancing both the long lens and minute detail of Black life in the first half of the 20th century.
Grab a copy at any of these book shops, or support your local library if they are open with restrictions and you can safely go.
Keep You On Your Toes
As the winter months encroach and the weather outside gets colder and colder, the dire situation in which many unhomed find themselves becomes only more intensified. There are many good ways to step up and help battle this epidemic, but I’ll link directly to the Ali Forney Center, as their goals and mission align strongly with my own.
Quiz Answer
The answer to this week’s trivia question: Adam Eaton. Seems random, right? Well, today is Eaton’s birthday! Happy bday, Adam!
Remember to follow along here on Medium for the first few months before I move to the actual email newsletter format.
Feel free to reach out to Jim.Turvey21@gmail.com for any feedback or inquiries.
