More baseball license plates
Posted by Andy on May 13, 2011
Here are some other baseball license plates I've seen recently.
First up: 683 HR6
That's gotta be about Pedro Guerrero, who hit 6 homers in June of 1983.
Next: 597 ER9
That's about these 3 guys, who each gave up 9 earned runs in a game in May of 1997:
| Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | App,Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | Pit | Str | GSc | IR | IS | BF | AB | 2B | 3B | IBB | HBP | SH | SF | GDP | SB | CS | PO | BK | WP | WPA | RE24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaime Navarro | 1997-05-26 | CHW | CLE | L 4-10 | GS-7 ,L | 11 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 117 | 63 | 18 | 34 | 28 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11.57 | -0.523 | -5.273 | .615 | |||
| Jason Schmidt | 1997-05-12 | PIT | ATL | L 2-10 | GS-5 ,L | 4.2 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 109 | 62 | 9 | 27 | 23 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17.36 | -0.350 | -6.689 | .572 | ||
| Jamey Wright | 1997-05-08 | COL | PIT | L 8-10 | GS-4 ,L | 3.2 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 84 | 47 | 8 | 23 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 22.09 | -0.395 | -4.350 | 1.182 |
Lastly: 218 CEY
Clearly it's about Ron Cey, but I can't figure out the 218. He was born on February 15th, which could be 215, but not 218.
Just to explain this post, these are real license plate tags that I've spotted. They are clearly not vanity plates, just randomly-generated ones.
May 13th, 2011 at 7:14 am
Maybe the plate was made when Cey was 218th alltime in total bases.
May 13th, 2011 at 7:16 am
That plate *could* be about
Clarence Everett Yaryan (but we still have to figure out the 218)
May 13th, 2011 at 8:15 am
This girl I worked with had a Massachusetts plate:
714 MLB
She told me that it was not a vanity plate... I was so jealous!!!
May 13th, 2011 at 8:39 am
To me, 714 remains the most magical baseball number (it's also the badge number of Sergeant Friday on the Dragnet TV series.)
May 13th, 2011 at 10:39 am
I love this theme, so I went sleuthing for a possible explanation of "218 CEY." I didn't really find one, but here's some random stuff I found:
-- Cey hit his 218th career HR on 1982-7-30, in the second game of a doubleheader, off Atlanta's Joe Cowley in the 4th inning. It opened the scoring in an eventual 8-2 win. Cey had also homered in the first game, off Rick Mahler, starting LA's comeback from an 8-3 deficit en route to a 10-9 win.
--> The HR in the first game scored Pedro Guerrero, the subject of Andy's opening line.
--> The HR in the 2nd game scored Dusty Baker, providing this delicious line in the play-by-play account: "Home Run; Baker scores."
--> Cey was at that time #4 on the all-time Dodgers HR list, and #1 for the L.A. edition. Cey is currently #5 on the franchise list, trailing Snider, Hodges, Karros and Campanella.
-- Cey wore numbers 10 and 11 in his career.
-- He has no transactions listed for February 18.
May 13th, 2011 at 10:42 am
I like the idea of Jason Schmidt strutting into the DMV and telling the clerk he wants that license plate number to commemorate what was probably the second-worst game he ever pitched in the majors.
"I'm sorry, sir, but Jamey Wright already has that plate number..."
May 13th, 2011 at 10:51 am
"To me, 714 remains the most magical baseball number (it's also the badge number of Sergeant Friday on the Dragnet TV series.)"
Why is it more magical than 755?
May 13th, 2011 at 11:03 am
or 762?
May 13th, 2011 at 11:12 am
I have the only plate in New jersey that reads: BRVSWIN- 14 division titles in a row- NEVER WILL BE DONE AGAIN!
May 13th, 2011 at 11:24 am
Cey hit 21 or more doubles in 8 different seasons - 218. I know it's lame, but it's all I could find.
May 13th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Maybe it really doen't have anything to do with Ron Cey. It seems like a stretch
May 13th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
@11
Why does it seem like Willie McCovey?
May 13th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
"Why is [714] more magical than 755?"
Various reasons:
-- Ruth's record stood longer than Aaron's (39 years to 33 years). Plus, Ruth was the MLB career leader (with a different HR total) beginning in 1921, giving him a 53-year reign.
-- Taking nothing whatsoever away from Hank Aaron, who was a super-great-pantheon giant of the game, many people still regard Ruth as the best all-around player in baseball history. Few would say that of Aaron.
-- Purely as a number, 714 is more interesting than 755 or 762; it contains a recognizable sequence: 7, 14, ...
May 13th, 2011 at 1:27 pm
(more on #13)
From what I've read, before Ruth started bashing HRs, the MLB career HR record got very little attention. According to Bill James, very few people were aware that Roger Connor, a great hitter whose career ended in 1897, was the all-time HR leader. Before Ruth, no one had hit HRs in great enough numbers to really draw major attention as a counting stat.
My point is that Ruth was the first career HR leader that the general public was really aware of. And a "first" record, if not dwarfed by a later number, tends to retain its resonance.
I doubt that anyone will ever win more games than Cy Young, but if it does happen, I think people will still remember "511" more than the new record.
May 13th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
I saw this license plate: TMTOMH
Too much... time on my hands
May 13th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
The 597 ER9 could refer to a player with a season average of 5.97 ER/9 IP, of which there have been 23, the most recent being Shane Youman (You da man, Shane!) in 2007.
On the EloRatings, Cey ranks at 183 as I type, and 218 is Cecil Cooper.
Cey never played in northern Minnesota, home of area code 218.
During the 2004 series, there was a car parked near my apartment with 82GN07. Game Number 7 in '82 was of course won by the Cardinals, but there was no WS G7 for the Cards in '04.
When Aaron hit 715, it was noted that 714 factors to 2*3*7*17 while 715 factors to 5*11*13, thus becoming the products of the first seven prime numbers. Sgt (later Capt., and then Sgt again) Friday was badge 714 in tribute to Ruth.
May 13th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
How about a few more real baseball theme plates. A friend of mine saw DN3WON8 referring to the Red Sox being down 3 games to NY in 2004 and then winning the next 8 in a row over NY and STL. Personally, as a huge Ted Williams fan, my plate reads FOROSIX.
As for 714 v 755, it's very hard for me to take any record set prior to integration seriously. No way Babe Ruth puts up the numbers he did in a fully integrated Major League.
May 13th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Why is it more magical than 755?
Because when I was a kid, Babe Ruth was the HR King, not those upstarts named Aaron and Bonds. It's all about the bubblegum memories.
May 13th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
"No way Babe Ruth puts up the numbers he did in a fully integrated Major League."
Agreed. But does that mean you completely write off everything before the mid-'50s? Or do you make some kind of rough adjustment?
Do you think that, in an integrated MLB, Ruth doesn't become the all-time HR king and set a new standard for offensive excellence, albeit at a somewhat lower level?
May 13th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
@17
Today's integrated league also has NBA and whatever portion of NFL players removed from the MLB pool.
May 13th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
@17 "As for 714 v 755, it's very hard for me to take any record set prior to integration seriously."
With the moving in of fences, old-timers might say that it's very hard for them to take any HR record set AFTER (the late 80s or whenver after) seriously.
May 13th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
@19
The adjustment is to not compare one for one. Ruth's 714 in no way compare to Aaron's 755.
There are so many black players from Ruth's era completely lost to history. I can't say that Ruth still stands alone if the league were integrated. There is no doubt he would be one of the greats of that time.
@20
Even with that consideration, there would still be a vastly different landscape than the watered-down level of competition he faced.
@21
With Aaron retiring in '76, that doesn't apply to what I'm saying. Numbers from the late '80's on present their own special problems. Agreed.
May 13th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
218 CEY may not be a vanity plate at all. If it is a California plate, it was issued in 1970 or 1971.
May 13th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
@23
1971, his rookie year? Hmm. His weight maybe?
May 13th, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Whoa, hang on guys, I think Gary W is on to something.
May 13th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
I thought about the number of his baseball card. I checked the Topps card sets issued during his career. No dice...
The number 218 only appears as his Isolated Power in 1979.
I even checked Ron Cey's split stats. Ugh...
May 13th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Quoting JMR@6:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I like the idea of Jason Schmidt strutting into the DMV and telling the clerk he wants that license plate number to commemorate what was probably the second-worst game he ever pitched in the majors.
"I'm sorry, sir, but Jamey Wright already has that plate number..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And if I were the clerk at the DMV I would complete the sentence thusly:
"I'm sorry, sir, but Jamey Wright already has that plate number, and his career has been one solid wall of suckiness, whereas you had some good seasons. So the license plate suits Jamey Wright better, and we're not taking it back."
May 14th, 2011 at 2:47 am
@17
"Personally, as a huge Ted Williams fan, my plate reads FOROSIX.
As for 714 v 755, it's very hard for me to take any record set prior to integration seriously."
I've got some terrible news for you...
May 14th, 2011 at 6:46 am
I love how Bonds ripped Ruth, years ago, because he did not play, during integrated baseball, slandered, slammed him, saying, essentially, that everything that he did, was meaningless(and I'm paraphrasing his words, VERY kindly, this was 8-9 years ago.....does anyone else remember this??) and should be, essentially, ignored.
I wonder if Bonds was going through some sort of 'roid rage, that day, that he made this statement, to the media.
Also, I wonder, if Ruth, that same day, wherever he is, with his now greater view of events, made a counter statement to the IP (Immortal Press), to the effect of, "That juicer can't be slamming ME, right?!?!?!?!"
For the record, I think that Willie Mays was a better player than Ruth, but Ruth also was a money pitcher!!!!!!!!!!
May 14th, 2011 at 7:51 am
@29 "I love how Bonds ripped Ruth, years ago, because he did not play, during integrated baseball, slandered, slammed him, saying, essentially, that everything that he did, was meaningless(and I'm paraphrasing his words, VERY kindly, this was 8-9 years ago.....does anyone else remember this??)"
I doubt it because I don't think it happpened that way, but that's what you decided to remember.
May 14th, 2011 at 11:07 pm
@29, Nash Bruce -- I never heard that particular Bonds rant about Ruth, but I found this quote online:
"... the only number I care about is Babe Ruth's. Because as a left-handed hitter, I wiped him out. That's it. And in the baseball world, Babe Ruth's everything, right? I got his slugging percentage and I'll take his home runs and that's it. Don't talk about him no more. It makes me sick!" -- Barry Bonds -- quoted by ESPN
Not sure what that last sentence meant....
May 15th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Clem,
Certainly the apparent irony (hypocrisy?) is not lost on me. I don't dismiss how special Ruth's 714 homers are. In the same way, I recognize how rare it was for anyone to bat .400, and even though Williams did that in '41, it's still very historically significant. I would never compare his feat with, say Carew's .388 in '77. The latter of the two is certainly the greater achievement. Does that help?
May 15th, 2011 at 5:45 pm
@32, I didn't think the irony was lost on you... The combination of those statements just really tickled me at the time. (I would assume that anyone who posts regularly on B-R would have known that The Splendid Splinter hit .406 six years before Jackie Robinson made his debut sometime before
May 15th, 2011 at 5:46 pm
completing kindergarten.