For those celebrating a holiday today…
Posted by Andy on March 23, 2008
...I give you Luke Easter.
He's one of 11 players in the 1950s to have a season with 100+ RBI but fewer than 500 AB.
Cnt Player Year RBI AB Age Tm Lg G PA R H 2B 3B HR BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+----+---+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Rocky Colavito 1958 113 489 24 CLE AL 143 578 80 148 26 3 41 84 6 89 2 0 3 16 0 2 .303 .405 .620 1.025 *93/17 2 Del Ennis 1957 105 490 32 STL NL 136 537 61 140 24 3 24 37 3 50 1 1 8 22 1 3 .286 .332 .494 .826 *79 3 Vic Wertz 1956 106 481 31 CLE AL 136 568 65 127 22 0 32 75 10 87 5 0 7 8 0 0 .264 .364 .509 .873 *3 4 Joe Adcock 1956 103 454 28 MLN NL 137 500 76 132 23 1 38 32 6 86 1 11 2 11 1 0 .291 .337 .597 .934 *3 5 Eddie Mathews 1955 101 499 23 MLN NL 141 616 108 144 23 5 41 109 20 98 1 1 6 5 3 4 .289 .413 .601 1.014 *5 6 Roy Campanella 1955 107 446 33 BRO NL 123 522 81 142 20 1 32 56 9 41 6 5 9 14 2 3 .318 .395 .583 .978 *2 7 Al Rosen 1954 102 466 30 CLE AL 137 566 76 140 20 2 24 85 0 43 3 1 11 14 6 2 .300 .404 .506 .910 *53/64 8 Eddie Mathews 1954 103 476 22 MLN NL 138 601 96 138 21 4 40 113 0 61 2 3 7 9 10 3 .290 .423 .603 1.026 *57 9 Frank Thomas 1953 102 455 24 PIT NL 128 510 68 116 22 1 30 50 0 93 2 3 0 12 1 2 .255 .331 .505 .836 *89/7 10 Ray Boone 1953 114 497 29 TOT AL 135 582 94 147 17 8 26 72 0 68 5 8 0 9 3 3 .296 .390 .519 .909 6 11 Luke Easter 1951 103 486 35 CLE AL 128 532 65 131 12 5 27 37 0 71 9 0 0 14 0 1 .270 .333 .481 .814 *3 12 Sid Gordon 1950 103 481 32 BSN NL 134 562 78 146 33 4 27 78 0 31 2 1 0 14 2 0 .304 .403 .557 .960 *75
That's quite good company he's in.
Also, Easter cracks the top 20 in OPS+ for players whose careers were less than 500 games, minimum 500 career PAs (active players excluded, or else Ryan Howard is #2 and a bunch of others make the list.)
In other words, for a guy with a short career, he had one of the best, at least by the OPS+ metric.
So when you hear "Happy Easter", be sure to think of the late Luke Easter.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Let's not forget Rabbit Maranville, Ed "Eggie" Lennox, Bunny Hearn and Jim Baskette
March 24th, 2008 at 7:52 am
A literally fabulous character. In 1963, at age 47-48, he played in 77 Triple-A games, batting .271. Take that, Julio Franco.
4.5 of the 12 players listed above were Cleveland Indians. (Another 4 are Braves.) Maybe the Indians' one pennant in the 1950's is due in part to bad luck or poor judgment in being unable to get more benefit from these abbreviated good seasons.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Anybody know what happened to Luke Easter and why his career was so short?
March 24th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
He started late because he he was black and baseball owners were still very prejudiced. He was murdered in a robbery in (I think) the '70s.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Neat, Jimmy--where did you get that info?
March 25th, 2008 at 9:36 am
I remember reading about him some time ago, but I don't remember in what book. Here's a site that briefly details his career and death:
http://www.nlbpa.com/easter__luke.html