Most Games Played as an Indian
Posted by Chris J. on October 23, 2007
Any guesses on who has played the most games for the franchise. Believe me, you're not going to get the correct answer. For a team that's been around for 107 years, it's incredible that no one has ever played 1700 games for them. Hell, it's been over a half-century since anyone lasted 1500 games.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:43 am
Well, I'd never guess it. Turner got to play with Joe Jackson, Addie Joss, and Nap Lajoie, but he played on a pennant winner. Wikipedia has a decent article about Turner with some good trivia bits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Turner .
The active list looks like:
Kenny Lofton, 1276 (good for 14th all-time)
Casey Blake, 716 (54th all-time)
Travis Hafner, 649 (68th)
Victor Martinez, 649 (68th)
Jhonny Peralta, 527 (95th)
Grady Sizemore!!, 525 (96th)
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:38 am
The first player that popped into my head was Mel Harder who played for the Indians for 20 years (1928-47). After realizing it was games played & not years played, the players that popped into my head were Bourdreau, Lajoie, Hegan & Lofton. I am familiar with Turner because I remember reading that he popularized head-first slides, but never would have thought of him.
Jack
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:47 pm
First name that popped into my head was Brook Jacoby, but I knew that wasn't right.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
That's amazing. For those curious, to get an idea of how odd that is, here are the career leaders for the Yankees:
Cnt Player G From To
+----+-----------------+----+----+----+
1 Mickey Mantle 2401 1951 1968
2 Lou Gehrig 2164 1923 1939
3 Yogi Berra 2116 1946 1963
4 Babe Ruth 2084 1920 1934
5 Bernie Williams 2076 1991 2006
Big difference.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:07 pm
The Athletics are only slightly better in this regard than the Indians. Their top 4 for games played are Campaneris (1795), R Henderson (1704), Dykes (1702) and Bando (1468). None of those are names lost to history (yet) like Terry Turner's name. Jimmy Foxx, Mark McGwire, Reggie Jackson and Al Simmons didn't even play 1350 games with the Athletics, and aren't even in the team's top ten!
If we use Terry Turner's 1619 games as a benchmark, it is amazing to see how the expansion teams compare:
The Royals have five players with more than 1619 games. The Astros have three players with more than 1619 games. Anaheim has three. The Brewers have three. The Mets have one. The Padres have one. The Mariners have one. The Nationals have one. The Rockies have one player who should pass the 1619 threshold next season..
To give you the fun of guessing who these players are, I'll place the names in the next post.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:11 pm
The following players have played 1619 games or more with one expansion franchise:
The Royals: Brett, White, Otis, McRae, Wilson
The Astros: Biggio, Bagwell, Cruz
Anaheim: Anderson, Salmon, Downing
The Brewers: Yount, Molitor, Gantner
The Mets: Ed Kranepool
The Padres: Tony Gwynn
The Mariners: Edgar Martinez
The Nationals: Tim Wallach
The Rockies: (some time next year) Todd Helton
October 24th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Those were a lot easier to guess.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
My guess was Lou Boudreau, with Nap Lajoie if I got a mulligan. Boudreau only makes it if being a player-manager counts twice, though.