9 Responses to “13+ Games On Base 3+ Times Within 1st 50 Career Games”

1. nightfly Says:
   August 31st, 2011 at 11:20 am

   Suggestion for the play index: there should be an option to give either the stats from the matching games, OR the stats from the entire time frame in question. The first is usually more useful, especially for career or many-year searches in which we're just looking at certain games. But for a small span of time - such as a player's first 50 games - it would be nice to see something like the above list include all 50 of those games, for more of a context.

   It's good to see that, in 13 games of 3+ TOB, Zeke Bonura hit ten homers; or that Joe DiMaggio only walked five times in his 17 such games (while hitting 19 doubles, ye cats). It'd also be good to see how they did in the other games too, and stack them up overall against the other names on this list.

   (Incidentally, Zeke Bonura was a solid ballplayer in the 30's... I found this wonderful story on him by a fellow named Otto Bruno.)

2. Lawrence Azrin Says:
   August 31st, 2011 at 11:42 am

   Steve, is there a particular reason you created this list, such as a rookie this year just accomplishing this? I do recognize most of the names on your list, but (despite 6 HOFers) this doesn't seem to be a very strong predictor of future greatness...

3. Charles Says:
   August 31st, 2011 at 11:44 am

   Was surprised that Maurice Archdeacon did not make the list, but he "only" had 12 after 50 games with one being as a sub. He got number 13 in his 52nd game (43rd start). His 13th as a starter came in game 54 (45 starts). He was 35 for 49 in those 12 games 0.714 BA.

4. Larry R. Says:
   August 31st, 2011 at 1:48 pm

   Who the hell is Larry Rosenthal?

5. Tmckelv Says:
   August 31st, 2011 at 4:11 pm

   Nice for Jackie Robinson to get off to a good start. For him and for baseball in general.

6. Gary W Says:
   August 31st, 2011 at 11:04 pm

   Interesting to see both Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey on this list. Cepeda accomplished this in 1958, then McCovey came up the following year and moved Cepeda to the outfield. Both batted over .600 in those very early games.

7. thom-13 Says:
   August 31st, 2011 at 11:07 pm

   @4 I thought the same thing. He has another curious anomaly. He played 65 games for the White Sox and the Indians in 1941, then spent 1942 and 1943 as a AA player. When I first saw him disappear in 1942-1943, I thought military service but noticed he played in 1944-1945 which would have been unusual for veterans. Although, he left MLB after 1945 and played three more seasons in the minors.

8. Doug Says:
   September 2nd, 2011 at 12:13 am

   @2, Why this list?

   Just a guess, but a question came up in a post a few days ago about quick career starts. The poster acknowledged the fast starts of some of the all-time greats (e.g. DiMaggio), but wondered about the similar starts by players who never amounted to much.

   I proposed a couple of names in response to the question posed. And, in what is a bit eerie, I used exactly the same query as Steve (number of games with 3+ TOB), but over fewer games (just 30) to find many of the same guys as above, but also some others who disappeared forever almost immediately after their hot starts.

9. Lawrence Azrin Says:
   September 2nd, 2011 at 10:08 am

   #8/ Doug -
   OK, that's kind of what I figured, but I was wondering if the particular parameters chosen (1st 50 G, 13 times 3+ OB) had any significance.