The Squibber

THE DAVIDS CHAPTER E-NEWSLETTER

Fall 2006

This newsletter is produced by the Bob Davids Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), which serves SABR members in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Visit the chapter’s official website at www.sabrdc.org. For a current description of the chapter’s program of activities and volunteer needs, go to http://members.bellatlantic.net/~mccrayl/Projects.htm

This quarterly newsletter is distributed electronically to members. It is posted, along with a wide range of cumulative material on baseball and baseball research in our geographical area, on The Squibber’s website at http://members.bellatlantic.net/~mccrayl/NewNL.htm The deadline for material for the next newsletter is November 1. Submissions can be sent to Squibber editor Walt Cherniak at wcherniakjr@aol.com. Keep sending us those squibs, and those ideas for squibs!

CONTENTS – Fall 2006

1. Home-Field Advantage: How Important is it? by Walt Cherniak

1. Recalling the ‘Walking Man’: Eddie Yost’s Remarkable Career, by Jeff Stuart

1. Central Pennsylvania Report: York Looks Forward to 2007, by Barry Sparks

1. Report From Bethesda: Big Train Base Ball and Auction Planned, by Bill Hickman

1. From the BioProject: A Total of 443 Biographies Completed

1. Book Discussion Scheduled: Wendel To Discuss Two Books

1. HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE: How Important Is It? – by Walt Cherniak

Looking to stimulate interest in the All-Star game, Major League Baseball decided that, beginning in 2003, the winning league would earn home-field advantage in that fall’s World Series.

For a moment, let’s leave aside the question of why the Kansas City Royals All-Star representative would give an extra effort to gain an extra home game for a big-market team like the Yankees.

Instead, let’s address a more basic question: How important is it to have home-field advantage in the World Series?

The short answer is, “not nearly as important as you might think, but, in the last quarter-century, extremely important.”

Baseball fans long have believed that having home-field advantage is less important in their sport than in football, basketball or hockey. A well-pitched game is a great equalizer that can supersede any advantage gained from batting last, sleeping in your own bed, or drawing energy from your adoring fans.

But in the last 25 years, there have been eight World Series that have gone the full seven games, meaning that one team played an extra game at home. All eight have been won by the team with home-field advantage.

More surprising, seven of those eight Series winners also won Game 6 at home. The only outliers were the 1997 Florida Marlins, who lost Game 6 at home before taking Game 7 on Edgar Renteria’s 11^th-inning single.

No team has benefited more than the Minnesota Twins, who won Game 7 at home in both 1987 and 1991. In those two series, the Twins went 8-0 at the Metrodome and 0-6 on the road.

I can almost hear fellow SABR members screaming, “Small sample size!” So let’s look at two related questions to help use determine if there’s really anything but coincidence to this home-field advantage stuff. First, has this pattern held up throughout baseball history? And second, what about the American League and National League championship series?

There have been 35 World Series that have gone the full seven-game distance. (Historians will recall that baseball has had four best-of-nine series, but none of them went the full nine games.) In those 35 series, the team with home-field advantage won Game 7 a total of 18 times, the road team 17 times.

So we’re in the midst of a trend that runs contrary to baseball history. The last road team to win Game 7 was the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, who finished off the Orioles at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium to complete a comeback from a 3-1 Series deficit. The Pirates pulled exactly the same trick, on the same team, and in the same park, in 1971. In fact, there were five seven-game Series in the 1970s, and the road team won four of them.

Beginning with the Yankees’ 1952 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers, the road team won 11 of the next 13 seven-game World Series. Only the Bill Mazeroski Pirates of 1960 and the Bob Gibson Cardinals of 1964 ran contrary to this trend.

There were some interesting anomalies along the way. The Yankees and Dodgers met in back-to-back seven-game World Series in 1955 and 1956. Brooklyn took the first one, winning Game 7 in Yankee Stadium. New York returned the favor a year later, winning the clincher at Ebbets Field.

The next two World Series, in 1957 and 1958, were seven-game affairs featuring the Yankees and the Milwaukee Braves. The Braves won Game 7 of the 1957 Series at Yankee Stadium; New York took Game 7 of the 1958 Series in Milwaukee.

St. Louis won Game 7 of the 1967 World Series on the road, and lost Game 7 of the 1968 Series at home. There seems to be little pattern that survives the full history of the World Series.

But what about other seven-game series?

For the sake of this argument, let’s eliminate best-of-five series. The American League and National League championship series were best-of-five affairs from 1969 through 1984, and since 1995, we’ve had a third tier of playoffs, the best-of-five division series.

The first thing we notice is that they’re pretty rare. Since the seven-game format was adopted, only four American League Championship Series have gone the full seven games. In fact, only five of the 16 best-of-five series went the distance.

Home teams are 2-2 in those seventh games, and the key word in all four cases was “comeback.” In 1985, the Kansas City Royals overcame a 3-1 deficit to win Game 7 in Toronto behind Charlie Leibrandt.

One year later, the Boston Red Sox also climbed out of a 3-1 hole, but in more dramatic fashion. Facing elimination in Anaheim, the Red Sox overcame a three-run deficit in the ninth inning (this will forever be known in Boston as The Dave Henderson Game), before winning in extra innings. They took the final two ALCS games at Fenway.

In 2003 and 2004, the Red Sox and Yankees engaged in memorable seven-game series that both concluded in Yankee Stadium. In 2003, Aaron Boone’s 11^th-inning home run in Game 7 completed a Yankees’ comeback (they trailed by three runs in the seventh inning). Of course, one year later, the Red Sox pulled off the greatest comeback in baseball history, roaring back from a 3-0 deficit and thrashing the Yankees in Game 7 en route to their first World Series victory in 86 years.

In the National League, there have been eight championship series that went seven games. The home team has taken Game 7 five times.

The most memorable of those was probably in 1992, when Francisco Cabrera’s ninth-inning single plated Sid Bream to give the Braves a dramatic victory over the Pirates in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium. A year earlier, the Braves also beat Pittsburgh in seven games, taking the clincher in Three Rivers Stadium.

More people remember Game 6, but the 2003 Chicago Cubs, of Steve Bartman fame, also lost Game 7 of the league championship series at home, falling to the Florida Marlins.

The 1996 Atlanta Braves, en route to their only World Series crown, overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cardinals in the NLCS, pounding St. Louis 15-0 in Game 7.

And, of course, last month the St. Louis Cardinals took Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS from the Mets at Shea Stadium on their way to a World Series title.

Add it all up, and we’ve had 47 seven-game post-season series in baseball history. Home teams are 25-22 in the clinching game. Sounds like the All-Star teams are playing for a pretty small historical advantage.

2. RECALLING THE WALKING MAN: Eddie Yost’s Remarkable Career, by Jeff Stuart

“Walking man, walking man walks

Well, any other man stops and talks

But the walking man walks”

James Taylor

On my 10th birthday in the summer of 1955, my Dad took me to Griffith Stadium in Washington to watch the Senators play a Sunday double header against the Baltimore Orioles. It was my first trip to a big league baseball game, but I had followed the Senators on radio and TV and in the newspapers.

My Dad brought upper deck tickets along the third base line. We walked along the rickety ramp to the upper grandstand. It was my first view of a grand old ballpark. Bob Costas and many others have mentioned the magic of that first moment and the greenness of the grass. I noticed all that. I noticed the smell of baking bread. But mostly I remember looking down and seeing Eddie Yost, in home whites, taking grounders at third base. He was already my favorite player. My Dad knew that. But from that moment I bonded with him like a baby chick does with its mother.

Yost was a 10-year veteran by then. He made his major league debut on Aug. 16, 1944, a year before I was born. The Boston Red Sox invited Yost to work out with the team in Boston in 1943. They liked what they saw, but when the Sox sent a scout to his Brooklyn home to sign him, they learned from his mother that Eddie was in St. Louis with the Washington club. Yost signed with Washington before the 1944 season.

“Any right-handed hitter who would sign with Washington when he had a chance to shoot for our left field fence deserves no sympathy.” Boston Manager and former Nats shortstop Joe Cronin told Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich at the time. But in 1943, the Nats had finished second, while Boston finished seventh.

Anyway, the Nats got Yost dirt cheap. The bonus from famous scout Joe Cambria was only $500. Yost was only 17 then, and was fresh from New York University and the Bushwick semi-pro team of Brooklyn. He never played a day in the minors, but he might have. Yost went 1 for 3 in his major league debut at Griffith Stadium, getting a solid single to left his second time up. He handled three chances in the field flawlessly as the Nats lost to the White Sox, 7-2

However, in 14 at bats for Washington in 1944, he batted just .143 and walked only once. He clearly needed seasoning, but a war intervened. Yost spent two years in the Coast Guard. He was discharged in 1946 and asked Griffith to send him to the minors. He even pleaded his own case with Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler. But under the GI Bill of Rights, all those who had fought for their country couldn’t be demoted or fired from their jobs for at least a year. Yost had joined the Coast Guard as a major leaguer, so he remained with the Nats.

When Yost opened the season at third base against New York, the Yankees tested him immediately by bunting repeatedly. Yost threw them out. They stopped bunting. With veteran Cecil Travis slumping and hurt, Yost got more time at third. Placed in the leadoff spot, he hit .277 for the first two months of the season. And he was already drawing walks, walking 45 times. His defense impressed Manager Ossie Bluege, an old third baseman himself.

“Yost hasn't done anything wrong yet,” Bluege said, “except lay back too far on one bunt by Hal Peck of the Indians, and that was as much my fault as his. I should have moved him in, but he'll learn those things for himself, I'm sure. He does everything else well, and I haven't seen him flinch yet on the hardest kind of a ground ball. I'd say he's in the big leagues to stay a long time."

Yost had better-than-average speed. “Yost would be a good base runner if he knew how to cheat,” said owner Clark Griffith. “He doesn’t know how to steal a lead on a pitcher.” Yost would go on to steal 72 career bases.

Yost was born Oct. 13, 1926 in Brooklyn, NY. While not a Hall of Fame candidate, he was nonetheless a very productive player. At 5-10 and 170 pounds, he became the Senators' regular third baseman and leadoff hitter. A constant presence in the Nats lineup for a decade, Yost was Washington’s ironman, their Cal Ripken, playing in 838 consecutive games from 1949 to 1955. It was the eighth longest streak in major league history. Yost wore uniform No. 1 from 1951 on with the Nats, appropriate for a leadoff hitter. He also wore Nos., 6 in 1944, 28 in 1946-47, 7 in 1948-49, and 45 in 1950.

Impressive Stats

Yost was aptly nicknamed "the Walking Man." He drew 1,614 bases on balls during his 18 years as a major league player, leading the American League six times. In 1956, Yost had 151 walks and only 119 hits, becoming one of only seven major leaguers to record more walks than hits in a season.

Only nine players in baseball history had walked more times through 2005. Every year from 1946 through 1960, the A.L. leader in walks was Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle or Eddie Yost.

Yost’s lifetime batting average was only .254 over 2,109 big league games, but his .395 on-base-percentage ranks with baseball's finest hitters. Nine times Yost had an on-base-percentage over .400, topping out at .440 in 1950. He hit 139 home runs. In 1959, Yost hit six leadoff homers, and he ranks fourth in history in leadoff home runs with 28. He also hit 337 doubles, 56 triples, and scored 1,215 runs.

Regarded as one of the best-fielding third basemen of his time, Yost led all major league third baseman in putouts a record eight times, and his carrier total ranks third all-time.

When he retired in 1962, he had played a major-league-record 2,008 games at third base, and held A.L. records for putouts, assists, and total chances at third.

Yost on Walks

Why did Yost draw so many walks? Perhaps he explained it best in a 1953 interview with Shirley Povich.

“Sure. I've been reading that the fans are squawking that I'm base-on-balls crazy,” Yost said. “They say I'd hit more if I didn't wait so much. I don't care if I hit .133; I am not going to swing at bad pitches. Those pitchers are not walking me because they feel friendly toward me. The opposite is truer. They're careful not to lay one up there for me. They pitch to me like a .400 hitter. They may be flattering me, but the fact remains they show me a lot of respect. I admit it may be too much. I am not out for those bases on balls. I'd rather be in there getting those hits. That's what counts most when you start talking contract. But I'll take the walk if I can get it when it looks as if it will do the club some good, especially if I'm leading off an inning, or if it helps move a runner up.

“If I do say so myself, I can look 'em over pretty good. I might have hit more if I didn't go for some of those walks. There were pitches that were good enough to hit, perhaps, but there were times, too, when a walk was as good as a hit and I couldn't go for the blows. I took some pretty good strikes, waiting 'em out some times. If I had been base-hit crazy, I'd have finished with a better average, perhaps, but I wouldn't have been playing the percentages for the good of the team.”

Former White Sox Manager Paul Richards didn’t want his pitchers to show Yost that much respect. In 1952, he fined White Sox pitchers $25 for walking Eddie, but it didn’t help much. Sox pitchers paid $575 for the season after issuing 23 walks.

A Frequent HBP Target

In the Yankees’ 1952 home opener, Yost hit Allie Reynolds’ first pitch on a line to center for a hit. The Nats won, 3-1, behind Connie Marrero, disappointing an Opening Day crowd of more than 46,000.

In the decisive fourth inning, Reynolds nearly escaped a bases-loaded, no-out situation, but Reynolds hit Yost with a pitch to force in a run to make it 2-0. “The Chief” felt Yost made no effort to get out of the way, and angrily confronted him. “The next time I hit you with a pitch, it won’t be a slow curve in the back; it will be a fast ball between the eyes,” Reynolds said. Rattled, Reynolds walked the next batter to force in another run.

Yost was hit by a pitch 99 times in his career. That’s 57th on the all time list. Twice he was hit twice in a game.

Streak Ends at 838

On May 12, 1955, Mickey McDermott outdueled Herb Score, shutting out the Cleveland Indians at Griffith Stadium as the Senators won, 3-0. But for the first time in six years, Yost, sidelined by tonsillitis, was not at third base for Washington. It ended the longest active consecutive-game streak in baseball at the time at 838 games. Tony Roig took over for Yost, going 1 for 4 with an RBI and an error.

Povich Was an Admirer

Legendary sportswriter Shirley Povich was a big fan and friend of Eddie Yost which may have influenced my affection for Eddie as I read Shirley’s “This Morning” column regularly. Povich interjected himself, unabashedly, into a salary dispute before the 1953 season. On Feb. 24, 1953, he wrote:

“Ordinarily, it is none of my business, but when the parties concerned make news of their bickering they move smack into our domain, so what had been the private salary squabble of Eddie Yost and the Washington Senators is today's topic...

“Who scored the most runs for the Washington team? Yost. Who got on base the most times? Yost. Who led the league in walks? Yost. Who batted in 49 runs, only 15 fewer than the club's cleanup hitter? Yost. Who gave the Nats the best third base job in the league? The same guy. And so Yost wants more of the club's money. Not so much more, now, as originally. They are only $1,000 apart today... Griffith says he won't budge and Yost says he won't budge wither... Somebody will budge, however, and Yost will play third base for the Nats again.”

Dressen Not a Believer

In 1955, Manager Charlie Dressen, making a break with former Manager Bucky Harris’ use of Yost as a leadoff hitter, wanted him to swing more. “I’m going to drop Yost down,” said Dressen. “He’ll be a better hitter if he’s not trying to get that walk, and my schooling in this game has been that you can drive in more runs with base hits than with walks.”

“Nobody complained in 1951 when I hit .283,” said Yost, “or in 1950 when I finished up with .295. I was drawing just as many walks those years and they didn't say I was walk crazy. Anyway, Bucky Harris never complained when I drew those walks. I'll still get my share of walks, but I'll be swinging too. The hits I want are through the middle. Shortstops and left fielders will discover they can't crowd me. I am going to make them play me honest, and if they do then I'll like my batting average.” Yost missed 32 games in 1955, but still had 95 walks and an on base percentage of .407.

Walking to Detroit

On Dec. 6, 1958, Yost, shortstop Rocky Bridges, and outfielder Niel Chrisley were traded to the Detroit Tigers for Reno Bertoia, Ron Samford, and Jim Delsing.

Povich wrote:

“There will be a new tenant at third base in Griffith Stadium next season with Eddie Yost's 12-year lease having run out.

“If Yost wasn't the finest third baseman in the American League for most of 10 years, he was close to it...For those Washington fans who for most of a decade admired the big leaguish performance of Yost, he later provided heartbreak. Unaccountably, he began slowing up a couple of years ago at the age of mere 30. The plays he didn't make, the hits he didn't beat out, were agonizing to those who had thrilled to what used to be his perfection. There are explanations for that, too. He had simply given too much to the club in that ridiculous Iron Man effort that kept him in the lineup for more than 800 consecutive games, many of which were on legs that were bruised, blackened and taped, on days when he should have been on the bench.

“On many a ragtag, bobtail Washington team, Yost was a stand-out big leaguer, the perfect model of major league player from the tilt of his cap to the subtle swagger as he flicked off his glove after making a play that ended the inning.”

Finished as a Player, Returning to D.C.

After 14 seasons with the Senators, Yost played two seasons (1959-60) with the Detroit Tigers and two more (1961-62) with the Los Angeles Angels. After a brief stint as a playing coach with the '62 Angels, Yost returned to Washington as the third-base coach of the second Senators franchise, under his old teammate and good friend, Mickey Vernon.

When Vernon was replaced by Gil Hodges, Yost briefly served as interim manager, losing his only game as manager on May 22, 1963, and then continued on Hodges' Washington staff through 1967.

Ironman Record Falls

On April 21, 1966, as the Braves tripped the Phils, 5–4, Eddie Mathews set a major-league record by playing his 2,009th game at third base, topping Eddie Yost's mark. Brooks Robinson would later eclipse Mathews’ record.

Leaving Again

When Hodges returned to New York as manager of the New York Mets in 1968, he took Yost with him. Eddie served nine seasons (1968-76) as the Mets' third-base coach, and was part of the "Amazin' Mets” World Series win in 1969 and the N.L. championship season in 1973.

Mets fans of that period remember Eddie coaching at third, clapping his hands while Yogi Berra coached at first. Both were very popular with Mets fans. They would mimic Yost’s gestures waving runner around third. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of all the outfielders in the National League. Rarely was a Met runner thrown out at the plate.

Yost continued his career as a third base coach with the Boston Red Sox for another eight seasons (1977-84). As a third base coach, Yost also was popular in Boston also. In September 2004, presidential candidate John Kerry was asked who his favorite Red Sox of all time was. He replied, "Eddie Yost."

Yost, of course, never played for the Boston Red Sox. But he was their third base coach and was there with Manger Don Zimmer when Bucky Dent hit that historic home run in the 1978 playoff game.

And anyway, for a Washington fan, it was nice to see the Walking Man mentioned during a presidential race!

Yost’s major league career spanned 41 years as a player and coach. He wrote me recently from his home in Wellesley, Mass. “I feel very fortunate having been part of baseball for those many years. It was something I dreamt of as a child,” he said.

It is fitting that I end this piece with a Phil Wood salute – Phil’s signature radio sign off, “E E E ddie Yost.”

3. CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA REPORT: York Looks Forward to 2007, by Barry Sparks

The York Revolution is expected to begin play in the Atlantic League in 2007. The first home game is optimistically scheduled for mid-May. A mild winter will be required for construction of the stadium to be complete by that time. Sovereign Bank paid $2.7 million for the stadium’s naming rights over the next 10 years.

Sovereign Bank Stadium will feature its own version of Fenway Park’s Green Monster. The left field fence will be 37 feet and 8 inches high, 6 inches higher than Boston’s Green Monster.

The wall was not originally designed to be this tall. York’s Green Monster is needed because the distance from home plate to left field will be about 300 feet, which is considerably shorter than the recommended distance of 325 feet. Center field will be 405 feet, while right field will be 326 feet.

The team announced that all 20 of its skyboxes have been sold for the next 10 years at a cost of $25,000 per skybox per year. The list of companies signing up for skyboxes includes some of the most influential businesses in York.

WSBA Radio announced it will broadcast all York Revolution games. The AM radio station (910 on the dial) will no longer broadcast Baltimore Orioles games. WSBA has broadcast Orioles games since 1988.

Matt O’Brien has been named the team’s general manager. He was named the 2005 Carolina League Executive of the Year with the Class A Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

A Title for Lancaster

The Lancaster Barnstormers, in only their second year in the Atlantic League, captured the league championship by sweeping Bridgeport in three games. It marked the first professional baseball championship for Lancaster in 51 years.

General Manager Joe Pinto was named GM of the Year by the Atlantic League. Lancaster drew more than 370,000 fans for the second consecutive year.

Harrisburg Seeks a Buyer

Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed wants to sell the city’s minor league team to help offset a projected $11-$14 million deficit for the Pennsylvania capital. The city purchased the Class AA Senators of the Eastern League in 1987 for $6.7 million to keep them from moving to Springfield, Mass. The team was originally affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Reed said any sale would require the team to remain in Harrisburg unless a Triple A team was available to replace it.

The Senators, affiliated with the Washington Nationals, have generated an average yearly profit of about $250,000.

4. REPORT FROM BETHESDA: Big Train Base Ball and Auction Planned, by Bill Hickman

The annual Big Train Base Ball and Auction will be held at the Pooks Hill Marriott Hotel in Bethesda on Sunday, Nov. 19. The silent auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. The dinner will begin at 7 p.m., and will be accompanied by a program with special baseball guests and a live auction. The hotel is located at 5151 Pooks Hill Road, just south of the Wisconsin Avenue exit off the Beltway.

This casual event is a great opportunity to have some fun discussing collegiate level baseball and to pick up some fine baseball memorabilia at quite reasonable prices. Those who attend are also participating in baseball-oriented charity work, as the proceeds from the event will be dedicated to fixing up youth ballfields in Montgomery County and the District of Columbia. If you would like to attend, please visit the Big Train website at http://www.bigtrain.org/ and click on the link below the announcement about the Base Ball and Auction.

Lots of excitement was in the air among the Big Train rooters during the recent National League Championship Series, as former Big Train hurler John Maine performed superbly for the Mets in Game 6. With the Mets facing elimination, Maine outdueled Cris Carpenter and kept his team in the Series for one final game. The TV broadcasters named John the Player of the Game.

5. FROM THE BIOPROJECT: A Total of 443 Biographies Completed

As of Oct. 24, we have 443 completed biographies: Hall of Famers like Willie Mays, Jimmie Foxx, and Roberto Clemente; solid everyday players in the Wally Westlake-Howie Pollett mold; even people you perhaps haven't heard of, the likes of William Gray, Bill Weir, and John Cardin.

Ralph Berger, Warren Corbett, Josh Davlin, Campbell Gibson, Bill Hickman, Chuck Hilty, Don Jensen, James Keenan, Mark Pattison, Marty Payne, Lyle Spatz, David Vincent, Cort Vitty, and many others have contributed to the BioProject as writers and editors.

In the past few months, Peter Morris, author of Baseball Fever and A Game of Inches (2 vols.), has been submitting fascinating work on figures about whom very little is known. He's a masterful researcher and first-rate writer whose work is always a pleasure to read.

Come visit our Web site (www.bioproj.sabr.org). You'll run into some old favorites and meet some new ones.

6. BOOK DISCUSSION SCHEDULED: Wendel To Discuss Two Books

Award-winning author Tim Wendel will discuss and sign copies of two books: "The New Face of Baseball: The 100-Year Rise and Triumph of Latinos in America's Favorite Sport" and his new novel "Castro's Cuba," sponsored by the Latin American Baseball Museum.

The discussion will be held Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Reserve Officers Association, 808 17th St, NW (Glover Building), Suite 300, 703-217-3090.