Home Run Derby Part II

We continue with our look at the single-season home run record holders for every team in baseball:

Milwaukee Brewers, 45, Richie Sexson (2001 and 2003), Gorman Thomas (1979)

From 1978-1980, Gorman Thomas played 455 games (he played all 162 in 1980) – all of them in centerfield. I’m trying to think if there has ever been a slower man to play 455 games in centerfield. I doubt it. From what I can gather from memory and talking to scouts plus old Brewers fans, Thomas was actually pretty decent out there – he didn’t make errors, and he seemed to get to the ball well enough. But man, he was Gorman Thomas, he was huge, and he was slow, and it’s just hard to think of him in centerfield.

This actually touches on a point about today's Kansas City Royals. The Royals have David DeJesus in center, and he’s a very good centerfielder. One of the better defensive centerfielders in the American League, I would say. He gets excellent jumps on the ball. But DeJesus is genuinely slow – people don’t want to believe that. They want to believe his stolen base numbers (19 steals, 19 caught) are an anomaly. No. He's OK, once he gets going, but it takes him a long time to get going. In the words of one scout: “He can’t run at all. I saw him lay down a perfect bunt, absolutely perfect, and he got out of the box, and he ran hard, and he wasn’t even in the television picture when the ball was caught by the first baseman.”

DeJesus makes up for his lead feet with his jumps in the outfield and with his instincts on the bases (he was ranked fifth last year in baserunning by the Bill James Handbook). But the Royals – like all baseball organizations – value speed in center field. So last year they got Joey Gathright who is MUCH faster than DeJesus, and they put him in center. Trouble was, Gathright is not nearly as good a centerfielder as DeJesus. This spring, the Royals tried the superior athlete Mark Teahen in center. Well, DeJesus is a lot better in center than Teahen is too. Like I say, DeJesus really is a good centerfielder. But he’s slow, so you can bet the Royals will keep looking.

Minnesota Twins, 49, Harmon Killebrew (1964 and 1969).

Killer actually has nine of the Top 11 spots – Roy Sievers is the only other player to break through. ... Until last year, the Twins had a very similar home run streak to the Royal – they did not have anyone hit THIRTY home runs from 1988-2005. Then Morneau hit 34 homers last year, and everyone got so excited they named him MVP.

Washington Nationals, 46, Alfonso Soriano (2006)

You might not remember this – it has been a whole year now – but there were a lot of people (a LOT of people) who thought Washington trading Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge to Texas for Alfonso Soriano constituted one of the worst trades in baseball history. Brad Wilkerson! I guess there are a lot of people who do not like Soriano. I’ve always liked the guy. I agree with Unnamed Scout – to me, you live with his quirks, his defensive liabilities, his swings and misses, and you walk away with 40 homers, 40 steals, 100 RBIs, 100 runs.

New York Mets: 41, Todd Hundley (1996)

OK, I was trying to think: How many Major League fathers are better than their Major League sons, and vice versa? Let's take a look at a few:

Father/Son Comparison

Alomar: Sons. Roberto and Sandy Jr. are both better.
Alou: Son. Moises I think barely beats Felipe.
Armas: Father. Tony Sr. led league in homers twice.
Barfield: TBD. But father Jesse was an outstanding player.
Bell: Father. Buddy was one heck of a player.
Bonds: Son. Bobby was good, but nobody (not even the government) beats Barry.
Boone: Son. It's close, but Bret was probably the best.
Burroughs: Father. Jeff won an MVP award.
Cruz: Father. Jose Sr. was a vastly underrated player.
Fielder: TBD. But Cecil will be tough to beat.
Griffey: Son. Junior's better, but Senior's underrated.
Hundley: Son. Another close one. Todd did hit 41 homers one year.
Kendall: Son. Jason is better, but Fred is funnier.
LaRoche: Son. Adam hits homers, but Dave threw the LaBob.
Matthews: Father. Both All-Stars but Sarge could really hit.
Oliver: Father. Darren’s had a nice career, but Bob hit 27 homers for Royals in ‘70.
Perez: Father. Doggie wins by a landslide.
Spezio: Tie. They're almost the same player.
Swisher: Son. Nick wins big.
Wright: Father. Jaret has better stuff, but Clyde won 22 one year.

I realize this isn’t a complete list, but it’s complete enough. I’ve got nine for the sons, eight for the Dads and three that are ties or to be determined.

New York Yankees: 61, Roger Maris (1961)

I despise the Yankees, of course. That’s my birthright as a Clevelander who loves Kansas City. But I cannot begrudge their history. We’ve gone through this goofy home run surge the last 15 years or so, and yet there are no Todd Hundleys, Richie Sexsons or Brady Andersons in the Yankees Top 10. Nope. It still goes Maris, Ruth, Ruth, Ruth, Mantle, Ruth, Mantle, Ruth, Gehrig, Gehrig. Even A-Rod hasn’t broken into that Top 10. Bob Shepherd should be proud – God, America and the New York Yankees.

Oakland A’s: 58, Jimmie Foxx, (1932)

Can a record still count when the team has moved TWICE since you set it? I say no. I say Foxx has the Philadelphia Athletics record, Bob Cerv has the Kansas City Athletics record (38 homers in 1958), and Mark McGwire has the Oakland A’s record with 52 homers in 1996.

Here’s something about McGwire: He hit one triple in his last 5,330 at-bats. Never been a streak quite like it. Mac hit it off Trevor Hoffman in 1999 – a long fly ball to right field. I can only imagine where the right fielder was playing. McGwire hit six triples in his career – which is still the lowest total for anyone with more than 5,000 at-bats.

Philadelphia Phillies: 58, Ryan Howard (2006)

Did I tell you the story about Buck O’Neil and Ryan Howard? Oh, I did. You know you can still buy the book here. Just in time for Opening Day. Hey, this is supposed to be a promotional blog, you know.

How many home runs do we think Mike Schmidt would hit in this little bandbox of a ballpark they call Citizens Bank Park? I don’t know, but I was surprised to see that Veteran’s Stadium was, for most of Schmidt’s career, a good hitter’s park. By the way, Schmidt is pretty talkative these days, isn’t he? Now, the guy's a book critic -- I just got an advance copy of Frank Deford's new baseball novel "The Entitled" (excellent so far, 100 pages in) and there on the front, you see: “The Entitled is a baseball masterpiece.” – Mike Schmidt.

Odds on who from the 70s and 80s becomes the cranky veteran:

Joe Morgan: EVEN
Mike Schmidt: 3-1
Dale Murphy: 5-1
Tom Seaver: 10-1
Steve Carlton: 50-1

Pittsburgh Pirates: 54, Ralph Kiner, 1949.

Anytime you put a Ralph Kiner into the Hall of Fame, you pretty much open the door for about 500 arguments. You look at the 10 Kiner comparables on the Baseball Reference page, and one is in the Hall of Fame (Larry Doby – in the Hall for both his playing and his social contribution) and the other nine probably won’t get anywhere close – Darry Strawberry is his No. 1 comp. Rocky Colavito, Kiner's No. 6 comp, got two Hall of Fame votes in 1974.

Of course, you could argue that Kiner was unique. He had a very short career, but he led the National League in home runs seven straight years. He walked a whole bunch, so he had a .398 on-base percentage. He hit 40-plus homers, drove in 100-plus runs and scored 100-plus runs five straight years.

Still, you put a guy with 1451 hits, 369 homers and a .279 lifetime batting average in the Hall – and every player lobbying group from Albert Belle to Don Mattingly to Jay Buhner will show you 100 reasons why their man was better than Kiner. Oh well.

San Diego Padres, 50, Greg Vaughn, 1998

Wow. Greg Vaughn. It’s easy to forget that in the late 1990s, he was actually an offensive threat. The Padres have an odd homer list – Vaughn is No. 1, so that’s odd enough. Then you have Phil Nevin with his flukey 41 homer season in 2001. Then comes Ken Caminiti’s steroid-enhanced 1996, when he hit 40.

So, for me, the Padres record should belong to the tragically underappreciated Nate Colbert, who twice (1970 and 1972) hit 38 home runs for terrible Padres teams in a horrendous hitting ballpark. Both years, he 22 of those homers on the road; he also hit about 50 points higher on the road too. Back problems, sadly, ended his career at 30.

San Francisco Giants: 73, Barry Bonds, 2001.

The New York Giants record belongs to Willie Mays and Johnny Mize, who each hit 51. … I don’t really have anything to add to the Barry Bonds story, but there is something worth thinking about. If indeed this steroid thing does hang Bonds and keep him from going into the Hall of Fame, then the Baseball Hall of Fame might be without:

No. 1 guy in hits (Rose).
No. 1 guy in games played (Rose).
No. 1 guy in times on base (Rose)
No. 1 guy in home runs (Bonds, probably).
No. 7 guy in home runs (Mark McGwire)
No. 1 guy in walks (Bonds)
No. 3 guy in batting average (Joe Jackson)
No. 4 guy in batting average (Lefty O’Doul)
No. 3 guys in ERA+: (Joe Wood and Dan Quisenberry)
No. 5 guy in strikeouts (Bert Blyleven)

We're almost at the point where we could put together a better team of NON Hall of Famers than people in the Hall. And Buck O'Neil could manage it.

Seattle Mariners: 56, Ken Griffey Jr. (1997 and 1998)

I think, most people during the 1990s would have said that Junior was the best player in Baseball. The "Best Player in Baseball" is sort of an honorific title – it’s not exactly something you can quantify. It seems to be made up of some mixture of batting average, home runs, speed, defense and charisma. Junior never was much of a stolen base threat, but he actually hit more homers in the 1990s than Bonds, and he was regarded as a superior center fielder (there seems to be a feeling now that he was never as good in centerfield as his reputation – I think that is in large part because of the way he has broken down over the last few years. I remember him being pretty darned good out there).

Here, is a guess at the players who would have received that “best in baseball” tag for the last few decades.

2000-06: Albert Pujols
1990-99: Ken Griffey.
1980-89: Mike Schmidt
1970-79: Joe Morgan
1960-69: Hank Aaron
1950-59: Willie Mays
1940-49: Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial
1930-39: Lou Gehrig
1920-29: Babe Ruth
1910-19: Ty Cobb
1900-09: Honus Wagner
1890-99: Ed Delahanty
1880-89: Dan Brouthers
1870-79: Cap Anson

St. Louis Cardinals: 70, Mark McGwire (1998)

I like to kid Cardinals fans about that whole “Best fans in baseball” tag. Some take it well. Some don’t. Hey, when you’re the Kansas City columnist, it’s your civic duty to try and stir up something with St. Louis.

But there is a point here to be made: What constitutes a great baseball fan? To me, a great baseball fan is the one who has suffered through awful season after awful season but keeps coming to the ballpark. Maybe that's what comes from growing up in Cleveland.

This is not something St. Louis fans have had to deal with. Over the last 50 or so years, the Cardinals have almost never been bad. They were Gibson great in the 1960s. They were good in the early 1970s. They were pretty bad from 1976-80 – they had a losing record three of those years. But they weren’t death-defying, 100-loss, oh-my-God-the-world-is-ending bad.

They went to the World Series three times in the 1980s, and then they were bad in 1990 – that was the year Todd Zeile led the team with 15 home runs. They immediately perked up in 1991 under Joe Torre, and they were mostly good for the rest of the 1990s. Of course they’ve made the playoffs every year but one this decade.

This is not to downplay the passion Cardinals fans feel for their team – I think that’s obvious and has been, you know, fairly well documented. I’m just saying that the BEST fans in baseball might be the ones you saw at the ballpark in Kansas City in August last year, in the midst of a fourth 100-loss season in five years. They might be those people in Tampa who sit in that depressing Tropicana Nightmare to watch horrific baseball in a division where they have 0.00 percent chance of making the playoffs. They might be those Brewers fans who have now gone 14 seasons without an above .500 record.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays: 34, Jose Canseco (1999)

How, in the end, are we supposed to judge Jose Canseco’s career? He hit 462 home runs – 30th overall right now and eight of those players are active. He hit 30 homers for four different teams. He’s the first guy to have a 40-homer, 40-steal season. He actually scored above 100 on Bill James HOF Monitor, which is supposed to estimate how likely it is that a player will make it into the Hall (Bill apparently did not have a “Was this guy a complete goofball?” qualifier). He blew the doors off of steroids in baseball, he had a ball bonk off his head for a home run, he walked seven straight appearances, he once rescued a lost owl and he may or may not have dated Madonna. He is also Tampa Bay’s home run record holder – somehow that seems right.

Texas Rangers: 57, Alex Rodriguez (2002)

I was asking a friend of mine – an Australian sportswriter named Robert Lusetich – if Alex Rodriguez would be recognized in Australia. This came up because we were eating in a South Beach restaurant and A-Rod walked in, and it was quite the scene.

Robert told a great story about how he was once at a sports luncheon in America, it was quite a few years ago, and the master of ceremonies, apropos of nothing, said: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to introduce a great sportsman of the past, Mr. Garfield Sobers.” Well, this older guy stands up, and everybody applauds, and of course nobody in the room has any idea who this guy is – except Robert. Because (as you probably know) Garfield Sobers might be the greatest Cricketer (Cricketeer? Cricket player?) of all time.

Well, Robert was so excited to walk over and talk to him, and they talked for quite a long time, and nobody else cared.

“Of course, it’s different in Australia,” he said. “They’re aware of baseball. But not too aware.”

Finally Robert determined that people in Australia would definitely recognize Barry Bonds, they might recognize Derek Jeter, and they most definitely would not know A-Rod.

Toronto Blue Jays: 47, George Bell (1987)

Jose Canseco is second with 46 … When you look at the last 40 or so MVP awards, you could argue that the two worst choices were both in 1987, when George Bell was selected over Alan Trammell and Andre Dawson was selected over, well, about 10 people.

The Dawson choice is utterly inexplicable. Yes, a whole bunch of guys were better than him, but that’s not why it’s inexplicable, that happens all the time. Dawson hit 49 homers and drove in 137 – both league leading totals – and MVP voters are always seduced by those power numbers. No, what’s inexplicable is that the Cubs were awful, and voters always put a lot of emphasis on how team does. That’s just a weird one.

Bell over Trammell is more easily explained – Bell hit 47 homers and led the league with 134 RBIs and his Blue Jays were good. Trouble is, his Blue Jays were not as good as Trammell’s Tigers. And when you compare the seasons, you can see pretty clearly that Trammell was better.

Offensively, I think Trammell was better. Trammell hit .343 to Bell’s .308. His on-base percentage was 50 points higher -- tough to overcome that big an advantage. Yes, Bell hit more homers (47-28), drove in more runs (134-104) and scored more runs (111-109). But Trammell stole more bases (21-2) and played in a tougher hitter’s ballpark.

That’s just offense. Defensively, Trammell was a shortstop and a very good one. Bell was an outfielder and a lousy one (here’s an interesting thing … it says here Bell actually played a game at second base in ’87 – how did that happen?). There is absolutely no way that George Bell was more valuable in 1987 than Alan Trammell, and the sad part is that the effects are still being felt. Trammell seems to be getting no traction at all as a Hall of Fame candidate. But if Alan Trammell won the MVP award he deserved in 1987, people would see there really isn’t much to separate him and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg.