Martin Luther King
Posted by Andy on January 17, 2011
In honor of one of the greatest Americans, I give you the only major-league player with the initials MLK:
Happy MLK day to everyone and thank you Dr. King for making our world a better place.
Posted by Andy on January 17, 2011
In honor of one of the greatest Americans, I give you the only major-league player with the initials MLK:
Happy MLK day to everyone and thank you Dr. King for making our world a better place.
January 17th, 2011 at 10:32 am
On this day particularly, we need to remember some of the accomplishments made thanks to men like Dr. King. We need to meditate on the trials of Jackie Robinson, the old Negro Leagues, Hank Aaron "daring" to challenge the home run record {and all of the racial slurs he drew in 1973-1974}, and the special place that these events had in the American Civil Rights movement.
I am no author, but I sincerely wish that someone with more talent than I would produce a work rocusing on the effects of sports -- particularly baseball -- on the Civil Rights Movement.
January 17th, 2011 at 10:51 am
Martin:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martipe02.shtml
Luther:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/thompsa01.shtml
King:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/griffke02.shtml
Not surprisingly, "the Jr." takes you to the same page as "the King."
M:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jeterde01.shtml
L:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bondsba01.shtml
K:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/griffke02.shtml
January 17th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Wow, was his 1982 season the worst ever by a pitcher? 209 innings with a 68 ERA+ with a -2.5 WAR? He combined for -4.2 WAR in 82 and 83 combined.
January 17th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
According to the hardballtimes, yes, that was the worst ERA qualifying season ever. So he's got that going for him. I'd assume so old-timey pitchers accumulated enough innings to do worse by WAR, but it might just be the worst modern day pitching season.
January 17th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Martin Luther King Jr. would have been happy with one of the recent Dodger teams, IIRC. I thought they had starting pitchers from at least four different countries.
January 17th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
[...] the article here: Martin Luther King » Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive Posted in General Tags: databank, happy, king, king-posted, martin, martin-luther, sabr, [...]
January 17th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Matt Keough was in that group of Billy Martin A's pitchers of 1980-81. There have been several threads on this site wondering about the effects Martin had on those guys.
People will bring up the fact that Keough did not have much success after 1981, but if you notice, matt was 2-17 in 1979, so maybe Billiy actually helped Keough to over-perform those 2 decent seasons.
January 17th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
A few notes looking through Keough's record:
He gave up exactly one hit for each of his 1190 IP. I wondered if he was the pitcher with the most IP to give up exactly one hit for each IP, but Ed Whitson pitched 2240 IP and gave up 2240 hits, while Bob Shirley had 1432 IP and 1432 hits allowed.
He was an All-Star in 1978, although for the season he was 8-15 with a 3.24 ERA (112 ERA+), a 1.333 WHIP, and a 1.27 K/BB ratio. Granted, he was 6-4 with a 2.16 ERA, 1.173 WHIP, and 1.45 K/BB ratio in the first half, but still ... that's half as many All-Star games as Blyleven.
Looking through his minor league stats it looks like he was a converted infielder. His 1975 season (he was 19) in Class A looks fairly good for a SS - 13 HR, 81 RBI, .303/.370/.476, although his 1974 and 1976 seasons are not very good ~.200/.270/.300 and he made a lot of errors at SS and 3B. But anyone know why they moved a 20 year old who had a good season as a 19 year old to the mound?
January 17th, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Best team of Martins, Luthers and Kings
RHP: "King" Felix Hernandez
LHP: "King" Carl Hubbell
Russell Martin C
Dave Kingman 1B
Jeff King 2B (only 121 games)
Marty Marion SS
Pepper Martin 3B
King Kelly OF
Martin Dihigo OF
Charlie "King Kong" Keller OF
MGR Billy Martin
Really nothing from Luther
January 17th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Keough is also in the news a fair bit because his wife (a former playmate) is an original cast member of "The Real Housewives of Orange County". So despite the relative lack of MLB success, he's done well enough to have his family featured on a show like that.
Matt is the son of Marty Keough (R.M.K.), a journeyman 4th outfielder in the 50s/60s for the Red Sox, Reds and a few other teams. Matt's son was drafted by the A's in the 36th round a few years ago, but has struggled in the low minors and looks unlikely to make the show.
January 18th, 2011 at 11:30 am
Despite Keough's 2-17 record in 1979, his WAR for that season was a positive 1.0. You couldn't say he pitched well that year, but he was more sinned against than sinning. No pitcher could have avoided an ugly W-L record with the support Keough had. The '79 A's were absolutely awful, with a record of 54-108 (Pythag. record 52-110). Their offense was last in the major leagues at 3.54 R/G. Even Houston, playing in the Astrodome (one-year park factor of 89) and with no DH, scored more than Oakland.
The A's averaged 2.92 R/G for Keough. They scored 2 runs or less in 16 of his 30 starts, including TEN games with exactly one run.
January 18th, 2011 at 11:45 am
@9, Topper009: "Really nothing from Luther"
Luther (Dummy) Taylor, deaf-mute pitcher for the NYG from 1900-08, 116-106 record, 106 ERA+ in over 1900 IP, won 21 games for 1904 pennant winners, member of the 1905 World Champions. Dummy Taylor was the reason that all the Giants players and coaches learned sign language, which the team also used to give signals during games, e.g., spelling out the word "S-T-E-A-L." The total integration of Taylor into the fabric of the team seems a shining example of Dr. King's principles.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/taylodu01.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_Taylor
P.S. One of the photos that comes up during a Play Index search is of Dummy Taylor -- a face-on portrait, hair parted neatly in the middle, "NEW YORK" in plain lettering on his jersey front.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
A few of the notable players born on January 15:
Armando Galarraga -- I think Dr. King would have admired the manner in which Galarraga handled his disappointment over the blown call that cost him a perfect game.
Ray King -- Aptly named.
Matt Holliday -- Ditto.
Bobby Grich -- Sabreists are still fighting for just recognition of Grich's value as a player. For players born on January 15, Grich is the career leader in Games, AB, R, H, HR, RBI and BB.
Ray Chapman -- One of the most beloved men in the game and in the city of Cleveland; died too young.
Mike Marshall -- Placed in the top 4 in Cy Young voting 3 years in a row, winning in 1974.
P.S. No MLB players were born on Dr. King's exact birth date, January 15, 1929.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Andy -- My deep thanks for doing a post in honor of Dr. King.
January 23rd, 2011 at 2:22 pm
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