Letting the Kids Play
Posted by Raphy on November 15, 2009
On September 27, 1963, in what has to have been one of the worst match-ups ever, the 64-95 the Houston Colt 45s hosted the 50-109 NY Mets. The season was just about over and the Colt 45s were looking to boost attendance and so they tried a gimmick, starting an all-rookie line-up and using a total of 15 rookies in the game. 46 years later that team is still only team since 1954 to have ever fielded a starting lineup featuring 9 players younger than the age of 22. The results were not pretty as the Mets walked away with an easy 10-3 victory. You can read more about the game on the Astrodaily website. Here is the Colt .45's starting lineup for that day:
| Rk | Player | Age | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | SB | CS | BOP ▴ | Pos. Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sonny Jackson | 19.080 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | SS |
| 2 | Joe Morgan | 20.008 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2B |
| 3 | Jimmy Wynn | 21.199 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | CF |
| 4 | Rusty Staub | 19.179 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1B |
| 5 | Aaron Pointer | 21.161 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | RF |
| 6 | Brock Davis | 19.343 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | LF |
| 7 | Glenn Vaughan | 19.223 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | SS 3B |
| 8 | Jerry Grote | 20.356 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | C |
| 9 | Jay Dahl | 17.295 | 1963-09-27 | HOU | NYM | L 3-10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | P |
As you would expect from a group of prospects, the ensuing careers would turn out to be a mixed bag. For 17 year old starting pitcher Jay Dahl, the game was tragically his only game in the bigs. For Joe Morgan, it was only the 6th game in what would become a Hall-of Famer career. Here's a look at what became of the rookie 9. The player names link to their BR-bullpen pages, the source for much of the included information.
| Rk | Player | Career Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sonny Jackson | Jackson made his major league debut in this game, but wouldn't be rookie until 1966. In '66 he hit .292 with 49 stolen bases and finished second in the ROY voting. However, he was never much of a hitter after that. He finished his career with a 73 OPS+ in 3390 career PA. |
| 2 | Joe Morgan | The Hall-of-Fame second baseman and controversial announcer. Morgan was a 2 time MVP and 10 time all star. This game was the 6th of his career, but it wasn't until 1965 that he had his official rookie season. |
| 3 | Jimmy Wynn | Winn was a three time All-start who had a career OPS+ of 128 in 8010 career PA |
| 4 | Rusty Staub | Staub was a 6 time All-star who had 2716 hits and 1466 career RBI. |
| 5 | Aaron Pointer | Only played in 40 big league games. Pointer later became an NFL referee and is known for some other interesting bits of trivia which can be found on his Wikipedia page. |
| 7 | Brock Davis | Played in parts of 6 different seasons, producing an OPS+ of 80 in 611 career PA |
| 8 | Glenn Vaughan | Never played in the majors beyond 1963. Vaughan died in 2004 at the age of 60. |
| 9 | Jerry Grote | A catching defensive whiz and a 2 time all star, Grote played 1421 career games. However, Grote is most famous for being a member of the '69 Mets. |
| 10 | Jay Dahl | The last 17 year old player to appear in the big leagues. Dahl never pitched again in the majors primarily because he was killed in an auto accident less than 2 years later. |
November 15th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Wow. The 1963 Colts have second place on the list, too. Two days later with 7. That second game wasn't just a subset of the first game, either. Vaughan, Morgan, Wynn, Staub from the previous game, Ivan Murrell in CF, Chris Zachary on the mound and in RF one of the most famous September call-ups of all time... John Paciorek.
November 15th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
What a tragic story about Jay Dahl. Is he the only major leaguer to die before he reached 20?
November 15th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
According to a book by Rob Trucks (a relative of long-time major leaguer Virgil Trucks) that contains interviews with pitchers who appeared in fewer than 50 big league innings, one of the interviewees, Larry Yellen, was supposed to be the starter in this game, not Dahl. However, Yellen is Jewish, the game was on Yom Kippur (Jewish holidays start at sundown, and the following day was actually Yom Kippur), and his mother didn't want him to play that night. So he didn't.
I've wondered a few times over the years if Jay Dahl was the youngest guy with a major league appearance to die. Perhaps pre-1900 or even in the early part of the 1900s, someone may have died of some disease (such as pneumonia) that is curable today but was practically a death sentence then. Or maybe in an industrial accident as a result of having to work in the off-season.
Sonny Jackson is a favorite of mine because he's one of what seems like a very small number of players to have come out of populous Montgomery County, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC. He was actually born in DC, but he graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring with no "s" at the end, MD. True, it's a cold climate place, but so is Montgomery County, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, which has similar population and demographics, which has produced a lot of major leaguers, including at least one Hall of Fame player (Reggie Jackson) and at least one Hall of Fame manager (Tom Lasorda). Perhaps Montgomery County, PA, has sent more guys to the majors because Philadelphia has more of a baseball town over the years. In Montgomery County, MD, all of the public high schools are part of the same school district, and maybe baseball has not been as competitive there over the years. In Montgomery County, PA, virtually every public high school is in a different school district (the one exception coming to mind right now being Lower Merion and Harriton), and maybe there's more of a rivalry with schools outside the district.
But maybe things will change with the arrival of the Nationals. Prospect Justin Maxwell's birthplace is listed as Olney, MD, probably in Montgomery General Hospital. His hometown was listed in a Nationals' scorecard I saw somewhere as Bethesda, MD, also in Montgomery County. While this could be his home while playing for the Nationals, he was currently in the minors at the time. Another thing pointing to his coming from suburban Maryland is that he played for the University of Maryland. His baseball-reference.com entry does not show a high school yet. Jim Riggleman, who finished this past season as the team's manager, also comes from Montgomery County, MD.
November 15th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Nice article, thank you.
Jim Wynn is the textbook example of why we shouldn't give credence to generalized PF's. Wynn's career OPS at the Astrodome was .840, compared to only .781 at other parks. (Of the 59 point difference, 33 was SA and 26 was OBA, so he both slugged and reached base considerably better in the Astrodome). In his best season, 1969, his OPS was *189* points better at home, and the following season, his OPS was 102 points better at home, despite "home's" PF of 94. And, he continued to hit well at the Astrodome even after leaving the Astros, posting OPS's over 1.000 there in both 1974 and 1975, So, while the numbers suggest that the 'Dome was a pitchers park on average, it looks like Jimmy never got the memo.
November 15th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
jksesq1, this has been explained to you so many times. You are arguing against something that nobody believes.
It doesn't matter if a player hits a HR in a particular park and always strikes out everywhere else. What matters is how many runs it takes to win a game there. Runs in pitchers parks have more value because they add more wins.
But if you want to keep beating up your strawman, go right ahead.
November 16th, 2009 at 1:12 am
FWIW, Wikipedia says "At the age of 19, Dahl is the youngest at death of any player in major league history."
November 16th, 2009 at 5:01 am
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November 16th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Is Adenhart the second youngest at 22?
November 16th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Rico, I can't give you a definitive answer where Adenhart ranks, but there are some guys on this list that were younger than him.
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/y2YMY
November 17th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Seeing both a 1918 and a 1942 death on Raphy's list, the first thought that came to mind were WWI and WWII. I was close with the one in 1918 - according to the Wikipedia-like Bullpen part of this site, Newt Halliday died of pneumonia while serving stateside in the Navy. However, Al Montgomery, the one who died in 1942, was killed in a car accident while heading north from spring training.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
I used the Lahman database (which includes birth and death years) to attempt to answer my earlier question.
The result:
Jay Dahl was 19 years, 6 months, 14 days.
Will Smalley was 20 years, 3 months, 14 days.
Gus Williams could have been younger than Dahl. He was born in 1870, date unknown, and died April 18, 1890.
Of course, there are many others for whom no birth or death date is known.