Yaz and Ted

One of my favorite Carl Yastrzemski / Ted Williams stories from the great Stan Grossfeld: 

"'I remember Ted [Williams] asked me to go fishing with him once at Winter Haven," he says. ''It was one of those ponds that are stocked with fish. He told me not to bring any live bait. I got there and he was already waiting for me. He said, 'What's in the cooler?' and I said, 'I brought a couple of beers.' He said, 'No beer on this boat,' and I said, 'No fishing for me on this boat. See ya.' "

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Just as a reminder 15-years ago CNN's Eason Jordan made allegations that the military under George W. Bush was targeting journalists in war zones. Targeting as in trying to kill. Neither CNN nor Eason Jordan were ever held accountable for their wild accusations. Sure Eason had to resign from CNN but he still makes a pretty penny from leftist organizations and NGO's... Half a century ago the Red Sox signed their young superstar to an extension making him the highest paid player in baseball... I wonder who started the rumor that Mike Bloomberg was considering Hillary Clinton as a running mate? Was it someone from Hillary Clinton's camp? Or maybe somebody from Donald Trump's camp?... Today the owner of the Red Sox says trading away his great young superstar had nothing to do with money. Basically pissing down Boston fans' backs while telling us its raining... Illegal Catfish Noodlers would be a good name for a band... John Henry Williams basically had his dad decapitated then froze his head and yet today Ted Williams' son would probably be the second most detested John Henry in Boston sports history...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- I'm an awful person for laughing at this.

- Cool - Dragonfly the nuclear powered drone NASA is sending to Titan (one of the moons of Saturn)

- Speaking of cool stuff.

- Nice appreciation of the recently passed Ric Ocasek

- What a great Fenway moment

- Annotations in copy of Shakespeare's First Folio may have been written by John Milton

- Another cool baseball moment. (Thanks Ted)

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Why socialism sucks in one graph... A reminder of the wisdom of the masses - a 1967 Gallup poll found twice as many Americans supported nuking North Vietnam as opposed to withdrawing... Heh heh... If an apple was magnified to the size of the Earth - then the atoms of the apple would equal the original size of the apple... Speaking of 1967 - yesterday was Carl Yastrzemski's 79th birthday. Here's a great Yaz story. My how times have changed...  Quotes that make you think: "You are 99 years old, you are on your deathbed, and you have a chance to come back to right now: what do you do?" Christopher Carmichael... This makes me pretty excited for the Deadwood movie...

Just Saying

The New York Mets have been a Major League Baseball team since 1962 but their all-time leader in HR, Darryl Strawberry, has just 252 HR. That would only be good for 7th on the Red Sox all-time list (nudging out Mo Vaughn).

And before you claim "Well the Red Sox have been around much longer" - 4 of the top 6 Boston HR sluggers started their careers after 1962. And it would have been 5 out of 6 but Carl Yastrzemski started his career in 1961! You could double Strawberry's 252 HR and he'd still fall short of Ted Williams' 521 (and Williams took multiple seasons off to fight for his country).

The Mets are just lousy at producing power hitters.

And no - I'm not still bitter about 1986 (well maybe a little).

Player Comparison - Yaz vs Ortiz

Some attention whores in Boston like to declare that David Ortiz was a more impactful or better hitter than Ted Williams but until someone says about Ortiz, "there goes the best hitter that ever lived" I'm not playing that game. However, I was curious about how Ortiz compares to Captain Carl - Carl Yastrzemski.

Player A - 2291 G/ 1360 R/ 513 HR/ 1674 RBI/ .285 BA/ .928 OPS/ 140 OPS+
Player B - 3308 G/ 1816 R/ 452 HR/ 1844 RBI/ .285 BA/ .841 OPS/ 130 OPS+

Ortiz is Player A and Yaz is Player B. Very close - very close indeed. The numbers get even more interesting if you just drop the last 3-years of Yaz's career.  That would give each player 20-years of MLB service. Yaz would then have a better BA and be 8 RBI ahead of Ortiz (for now). It is true that Yaz did win an MVP but surprisingly Ortiz had more Top 5 MVP finishes (5 to 2 for Yaz). Ortiz would appear to be the better slugger but surprisingly Ortiz never led the league in slugging (something Yaz did 3-times).

Yaz should get the nod as the better all-around player with 7 Gold Gloves as an outfielder and 164 stolen bases to Ortiz's 16. However, are those factors outweighed or at least equaled by Ortiz's postseason heroics? But even there surprisingly Yaz had a better postseason OPS (1.047 to Ortiz's .964) but in just 17 games versus 82 for Ortiz.

Very close - very close indeed!

David Ortiz

Today is David Ortiz's 40th birthday - Happy Birthday Big Papi! Ortiz is also in the news because he's rumored to be retiring after this season. 2016 will mark Ortiz's 20th year in MLB and over that career he will have made over $160 million on the field. I'd say that's a nice career.

I'd even say that's a Hall of Fame career. Ortiz is just one of four players all-time to have over 500 HR and 3 World Series rings - the others are Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson. That's some pretty good company right there. Ortiz also just needs 16 more doubles this season to become just the third player in MLB history to have over 500 HR and 600 plus doubles - the other two are Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds. Again that's some pretty good company.

If for whatever reason you're on the fence about Ortiz being a Hall of Fame player consider that most in Boston - the people who have seen him play the most - would generally consider Ortiz the greatest living Red Sox player. Sure some might prefer Carl Yastrzemski or Pedro Martinez and I understand those arguments but once again - look at the company Ortiz is keeping in this argument. And nobody I think would even argue that Jim Rice was greater and Rice is also in the Hall of Fame.

In making Ortiz's Hall of Fame argument I haven't even brought up his otherworldly heroics in helping Boston win 3 World Series. Or how much he meant to the City after the Boston Marathon bombings.

So happy birthday Big Papi and I hope you enjoy your final season as much as we've enjoyed watching you. And six years from now we will see you in Cooperstown where you belong.

Yankees Shortstop BJ (Before Jeter)

With the news of Derek Jeter announcing 2014 will be his last year - I thought it would be good to remember just how unstable a position shortstop was for the Yankees before Jeter was brought up to the major leagues. Here's the cast of characters who preceded him at short in the Bronx.

- 1995 Tony Fernandez
- 1994 Mike Gallego
- 1993 Spike Owen
- 1992 Andy Stankiewicz
- 1991-1989 Alvaro Espinoza

Jeter is a classy guy and even as a Red Sox fan I root for him. I am of mixed emotions though about the potential of Jeter with 3316 hits needing just 103 to tie Carl Yastrzemski for 8th place on the all-time hits list.

Top 5 Living Red Sox Players

Here's who I consider the Top 5 living Red Sox players.

1. Carl Yastrzemski

2. Pedro Martinez

3. Jim Rice

4. David Ortiz

5. Tie: Dustin Pedroia, Dwight Evans, and Freddy Lynn

Missing the list - Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs. Clemens misses the list because of steroids and playing for the Yankees. Boggs misses the list because he's a douche (why do you think you never see him around Fenway Park - the team doesn't want him around).

Top 5 - Red Sox All-Time HR Leaders

David Ortiz hit his 400th HR today and his 342nd as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Ortiz is in 5th place on the Red Sox all-time HR list. If he stays one more season - then both Dewey and Rice could be in his sights. That's pretty incredible when you stop to think about it.

1. Ted Williams - 521
2. Carl Yastrzemski - 452
3. Jim Rice - 382
4. Dwight Evans - 379
5. David Ortiz - 342

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Interesting short video about cholesterol and fats. I'm convinced about trans fats and would have been much more convinced about cholesterol if it wasn't for the cat at the end

- Chart of the Week: Federal Spending on Defense vs. Entitlements

- Taylor Wilson built a nuclear reactor at 14. Now he's 17.

- Happy Birthday to Carl Yastrzemski. Take a look at his Baseball-reference.com page to remember how historically great he really was.

Red Sox Magic Number - 67

With the Yankees losing 3-2 to the Rays last night the magic number has been reduced to 67. When you say 67 to any Red Sox fan thoughts immediately turn to the Impossible Dream team of 1967. I wasn't around for that season but even guys like me think of 67.

That year was also the season that Carl Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown by hitting .326 with 44 HR and 121 RBI. It wasn't until this year that I learned that Yaz actually tied for the HR lead with Harmon Killebrew of the Twins. That doesn't diminish Yaz's accomplishment in my eyes though especially when you consider that in 1967 Yaz also led the league in runs, hits, OBP, SLG, OPS and total bases.

Yaz is one of those players that gets overlooked these days (even in Boston). Keep in mind that this is a guy who was an 18-time All-Star, had 7 Gold Gloves, is in 8th place all-time in both hits and total bases, 13th place in RBI, 16th place in runs and 33rd in HR.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Today the Red Sox released 2006 1st round pick Kris Johnson who was taken with the 40th pick. The Yankees took Joba Chamberlain with the 41st pick immediately after the Red Sox took Johnson. I always wondered how Joba would have done with the Sox. Would he be in the Danial Bard role (who was also taken in the 1st round in that 2006 draft)? Would Joba and Kevin Youkilis be friends?... The things you learn via the Internet (via Mental Floss): The 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris featured a live pigeon-shooting event. It never appeared in the Games again... Did not know this: Carl Yastrzemski won Triple Crown in 1967 but he and Harmon Killebrew actually were tied for the league lead in HR that season with 44... Just for the record - I DID NOT SLEEP WITH @paugasol woman!!! either!!!... The guy in that Stamps.com commercial who says "There's nothing worse than waiting in line at the Post Office" should be made to eat a dead rat. Or maybe visit the Holocaust museum. There's millions of things worse than waiting in line for a few minutes... You have to think that the Yankees handling of Jorge Posada has to kill any chance of Andy Pettitte returning to the team. Enjoy your retirement Andy.

Carl Yastrzemski

Carl Yastrzemski turned 71 today. Happy birthday Captain Carl. His birthday made me take a another look at his Baseball-Reference.com page.

In Boston Yaz still has to live in the shadow of Ted Williams. He played the same position as Teddy Ballgame and while Yaz was a great hitter - he wasn't the greatest hitter who ever lived. Having said that - how easily do we forget how good Yaz was with his glove? I had forgotten that Yaz had 7 Gold Gloves. Honestly Williams was a hack in the field. Not Yaz. And durable? Yaz is second in games played all-time. In 16 of his 23 seasons he played at least 148 games.

Yaz' name is mentioned every once in a while when a player has a chance to win the Triple Crown (Yaz was the last player to win the Triple Crown when he hit .326 with 44 HR and 121 RBI in 1967) but with his contributions to the game his name isn't mentioned enough.

As an aside - I was amused that Old Number 8 is 8th all-time in hits, total bases and doubles.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I've long held that George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps is perhaps the greatest of the Beatles songs. When I listed the greatest Beatles covers I should have included this version - perhaps even at the top of the list (Prince's guitar solo is killer)... Just saying - Derek Jeter may now be the Yankees all-time hits leader but he's still 697 hits behind Carl Yastrzemski who is the Red Sox all-time hits leader.... Happy 42nd birthday to one of the funniest guys in the world - Louis CK... Today in college football I like Boston College (-21) over Kent State. The Eagles beat Kent State 21-0 last season on the road and held their main weapon 5-foot-5 senior running back Eugene Jarvis to just 51 yards. Today the turf at home in Chestnut Hill should be slick (because of the rain) making hit hard for Jarvis to cut on a dime plus BC is still trying to decide between two QB's meaning that each will be trying to put points on the board without letting up... On this day 50 years ago - Bonanza - the first regularly scheduled TV program in color premiered. Many people can recognize the music of the theme song but did you know the song also had lyrics?... I really wish I could be at this - the First Beer & Bacon Festival (on Talk Like a Pirate Day no less!)... Johnny Cash died six years ago to the day. The passing of an American icon still "hurts"...

Jacoby Ellsbury

Many have noted that Jacoby Ellsbury is poised to break the Red Sox single season record for stolen bases with his next (which will be his 54th on the season). My question was to wonder where Jacoby stands on the Red Sox all-time stole base list?

It turn out that even though he's just in his 3rd season (2nd full season) with the Red Sox - Ellsbury is already 7th all-time in stolen bases for Boston. His 112 stolen bases place him just behind Freddy Parent who played with Boston when they were known as the Americans, Pilgrims and in his last year in Boston as the Red Sox. Freddy and his 129 stolen bases could be passed this year. Next season, if Ellsbury remains healthy, he should catch Larry Gardner and his 134 SB and Heinie Wagner and his 141 SB. Parent, Gardner and Wagner all played 100 years ago!

I was surprised to learn that Carl Yastrzemski is 3rd on the list with 168 SB. I only knew Captain Carl from late in his career and never would have pegged him as a base stealer. Yaz could be caught next season but I'm guessing it would take some time for Ellsbury to catch Tris Speaker (267) and Harry Hooper (300).

As impressive as Ellsbury's base stealing has been - his rapid ascent on the Red Sox all-time list really just goes to show how little Boston has valued the stolen base over the decades.