The fans speak out

Baseball Digest, March-April, 2005 by Eric Husby-Gerry, Patrick Kielty, Sam Aviles, Keith Castelluccio, Al Valentine, Tom Putnam, David Lynch, John Rowehl, Stephen Tarbell, Shawn Casey, Norman L. Macht, Jim Schier, Drew Masterman, Bill Frangis, John Hogan, Steve Luftig, Lewis J. Snyder, Bob Reigh, Fred Jimenez, Robert Bouret, Donald S. Buss, Robert A. Wolfe, Bob Diehl, Jerry Sills, Michael P. Pippin, Eric Sever

In studying the list of players elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, I noticed Warren Spahn was elected in 1973. My source has his final year as 1965 with the San Francisco Giants. It has always been my understanding that a player becomes eligible five years after his retirement.

So, what am I missing here? Was Spahn left off the 1970, 1971 and 1972 ballots due to some technicality?

Eric Husby-Gerry

Albany, Calif.

Spahn was not left off the 1970, 1971, 1972 Hall of Fame ballots due to a technicality, but simply because he was not yet eligible.

He did not appear on the ballot until 1973 because he pitched three games for the Mexico City Tigers of the Mexican League in 1966 and three games for Tulsa in the Pacific Coast League in 1967. Thus, when his name appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 1973, he had been retired as an active player for five years.

My Brooklyn cousins would have agreed with the letter writer in the November issue that Billy Cox was the greatest defensive third baseman of modern times. But that was before they saw Clete Boyer.

Boyer was unparalleled. He had a rocket for an arm, often throwing out runners from his knees after diving stops of hard hit ground balls. And, he had a shortstop's range, having begun his career at short and filling in there when needed during his stint with the Yankees.

His overall fielding average (coincidentally the same as Cox's at .965) may not have been as high as Brooks Robinson's .971, but his greater range meant he had more difficult chances. However, don't take just anyone's word for it. Robinson himself, when asked who was the best third baseman he had ever seen, said it was Clete Boyer.

Total Baseball publishes a statistic called "Fielding Runs" which, in brief, computes a fielder's complete fielding value by calculating the number of runs a fielder has saved, his position taken into account, "beyond what a league-average player at that position might have saved." All fielders in the league are then rated together. Boyer led the American League in this category in 1961, 1962 and 1965 while finishing second in 1960 and 1963, and third in 1964 and 1966.

Robinson did not finish in the top five during any of those years. In fact, if I haven't overlooked any years, Robinson finished first in that category only once (1967) while placing third in 1974 and fifth in 1968.

No one in his right mind can question Robinson's greatness. But he, Billy Cox and all the other superb third sackers will have to take a bow to the greatest defensive third baseman ever, Clete Boyer.

Patrick Kielty

Beaugency, France

In 2004, Ben Sheets of the Milwaukee Brewers struck out 8.25 batters for every walk he allowed. He struck out 264 batters and walked only 32 and it went virtually unnoticed. Can you put a list together of the best single-season strikeout-to-walk ratio and best career SO/BB ratio? I'm interested in seeing who the real control pitchers are.

Sam Aviles

Midland Park, N.J.

The best control pitchers are not always determined by which hurler has the best strikeout-to-walk ratio, because some of the best control pitchers did not strike out a lot of batters. For example, in 1962, Bill Fischer of the Kansas City A's set a major league record by completing 84.1 consecutive innings without allowing a base on balls. For the season, Fischer totaled 127.2 innings, 38 strikeouts and only eight walks giving him a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4. 75. In 1920, Babe Adams of the Pirates worked 263 innings with 84 strikeouts while allowing only 18 walks giving him a SO/BB ratio of 4.67.

In the accompanying charts, we have ranked starting pitchers with a minimum of 200 innings pitched with the best strikeout-to-walk ratio for a season since 1900 and the best for a career among pitchers with 2,000 or more strikeouts.

I have been reading The Spirit of St. Louis by Peter Golenbock. In it, he quotes Danny Litwhiler talking about a game in Cincinnati in 1943 or 1944 when the Cardinals hit three home runs in a row off Clyde Shoun. Litwhiler said the homers were hit by Walker Cooper, Whitey Kurowski and himself.

I saw that game! For 60 years I have been saying the homers were hit by Ray Sanders, Kurowski and Litwhiler.

Can you tell me if my memory is wrong or if Litwhiler was mistaken?

Keith Castelluccio

Indianapolis, Ind.

Litwhiler's is correct. In the second game of a doubleheader on June 11, 1944, Walker Cooper, Whitey Kurowski and Danny Litwhiler hit consecutive home runs off Reds pitcher Clyde Shoun in the top of the eighth inning at Crosley Field. The game was tied, 1-1, before the three successive home runs lifted the Cardinals to a 4-1 victory over the Reds.

St. Louis also won the first game, 3-1, and their batting lineup for both games that day featured Pepper Martin (rf), Ray Sanders (1b), Start Musial (cf/rf), Walker Cooper (c), Whitey Kurowski (3b), Danny Litwhiler (lf), Marry Marion (ss) and Emil Verban (2b). Johnny Hopp entered both games for defensive purposes in center field and Musial moved to right replacing Martin.