Top 10 Negro League Nicknames

I was thinking awhile back, where has all the great nicknames in baseball have gone? Of course, we do have "El Oso Blanco" (Evan Gattis), but most are just shortened versions of their full names like MadBum, ARod, and Miggy.  Rather boring.
In the past, we had the Iron Horse, Dizzy, Fordham Flash, Splendid Splinter and Oil Can.  The Negro Leagues had the best nicknames though.  I will give you my top 10 from the old Negro Leagues.

10)  Norman "Turkey" Stearnes.  Much like former Dodger Ron Cey (Penguin) or the Cardinals' Joe "Ducky" Medwick, Stearnes got his nickname because he moved around like the bird.

1952 Topps

9) Sam "The Jet' Jethroe.  He got his moniker because of his speed. He led the Negro Leagues in stolen bases three times and the National League twice.

8)Herbert "Rap" Dixon  Even though you might think he got the nickname from his hitting prowess, he actually acquired it because Dixon is from the area near Rappahannock River in Virginia.  Still cool enough to my make my list

7) "Bullet" Joe Rogan  His blazing fastball and solid bat helped him become a great pitcher and outfielder and later a Hall of Famer.

6) James "Cool Papa" Bell.  The Hall of Fame outfielder started out as a pitcher where he struck out the great Oscar Charleston as a 19 year old under pressure.

1960 Leaf

5)Bob "Rope" Boyd.  He played only a few years in the Negro Leagues before a decade long career in the bigs. Boyd acquired his moniker because of the line drive hitting

4) John "Mule" Miles  His manager said he hit like a mule kicks

3) Dick "Cannonball" Redding.  One of the top pitchers in the 1910s much to thanks from his great fastball

2) Jud Wilson.  Got the nickname "Boojum" from his teammates after the sound of the ball when it hit the outfield walls.

2001 Fleer Tradition Stitches In Time

1) Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe  . Got the nickname because he would pitch one end of the double header and catch the other.

5 Negro League Greats You Should Know But Don't

February is Black History Month and to coincide with it, I am going to write a few Negro League based editions.
Every baseball fan knows of the old negro leagues and some of its' great players.  We all know who Satchel Paige, James "Cool Papa" Bell, Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard are.  Many know of Ray Dandridge, Oscar Charleston and Rube Foster.  But there is several players who were great that many baseball fans have never heard of. 
I will tell you briefly about five of these players.

1) Willie Wells (1924-48).  Wells is considered to be the top shortstop in the negro leagues in the 1930s and early 40s.  Known for his good range, sure hands and accurate arm.  He was a solid hitter also, hitting over .300 consistently.  As many Negro League stars did, he played during the winter months in Latin America.  In Cuba he won multiple MVPs and league titles and later in Mexico he won another pennant and became known as "El Diablo" or "The Devil". 
Here in the USA, he played primarily with St. Louis Stars and Newark Eagles.  With the Eagles, he was the part of the Million Dollar Infield.  Wells played in eight Negro League All Star games.  Near the end of his career, he taught a young Jackie Robinson how to turn the double play.  Wells was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.

2001 Topps Chrome What Could Have Been

2)George "Mule" Suttles"  (1918-44).  Despite using a 50 ounce bat, Suttles was known for his prodigious home runs and all the while maintaining a high batting average.  Suttles was also a member of the Million Dollar Infield and played in five all star games where he hit .412 for his career.  For exhibition games against white ball clubs, Suttles hit .374 and hit five career home runs.  His teammates would yell "Kick Mule" while he was the plate in hoping for a big hit.  Suttles was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006

3)Raleigh "Biz" Mackey (1920-47) Widely considered the greatest defensive catcher in Negro League history.  He studied the hitters' tendencies, worked well with the pitchers and was able to frame pitches in order to get calls in his favor.  Mackey had the ability to throw a strike to gun out would be base stealers at second base from the crouch just as well as many standing up. 
At the plate, he was able to hit for power and average from both sides of the plate.  Mackey was selected to play in four all star games and was even picked to start over a young slugging Josh Gibson.  Mackey later taught the finer points of catching to Roy Campanella.  He was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2006.

4)Norman "Turkey" Stearnes (1920-40) The outfielder played mostly for the Detroit Stars,  Stearnes had both great power and speed.   Stearnes is considered one of the greatest home run hitters in the negro leagues.  He also led the league in triples and stolen bases each at one point in his career.  Stearnes was also a very good fielder.  He was the top vote getter in the inaugural Negro League East-West All Star game and later played in three other games.  He is credited with a career. 351 average against white ball clubs in exhibition play.  He was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2000.

1994 Ted Willams Co.

5) Willard Brown (1935-50). A could do it all outfielder that was best known for his power and ability to step up his play in big games.  While playing winter ball in Puerto Rico, he won three batting and home run titles and garnered the nickname "Esse Hombre".
In the USA, Brown played on the great Kansas City Monarch teams that five pennants in a six year span.  "Home Run" Brown played on several all star games before called to duty for World War II.  After his return, he helped lead the Monarchs to another pennant.  Months after Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby broke the color barriers in 1947, Brown and Hank Thompson was signed to play for the lowly St. Louis Browns of the American League.  Without any minor league adjustment, both Brown and Thompson struggled in the major leagues.  Brown returned to the Monarchs soon after, but managed to hit the first ever home run in AL history by a black player.  Brown was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2006.

Hall of Fame Centerfield Re-evaluation Needed

On Wednesday Ken Griffey Jr. was inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Can you guess who was the last full time centerfielder to be selected for the Hall by the baseball writers(BBWAA)prior to Griffey?  Kirby Puckett way back in 2001 and before Puckett it was Duke Snider in 1980 and Willie Mays in 1979.
Just two centerfielders enshrined in the last 35 years.  Why is that? Not enough worthy candidates?  Are the modern day centerfielders compared to the great centerfielders of the past (Mays, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio) and who just happen to be among the greatest players of all time?  or is the centerfield position being lumped into one outfield position and is evaluated as such?

Let's first look at some recent centerfielders and the Hall of Fame vote:

1997 Topps

Jim Edmonds (.284 Avg 393 HR 1199 RBI, 4x All Star, 8x Gold Glove and World Series Champion) 2.5 % of votes in 2016 and now is off the ballot for good (must have at least 5% to stay on)

Kenny Lofton (.299 Avg 2,428 hits, 622 stolen bases, 6x All Star, 4x Gold  Glove) . 3.2% of votes in his one year on ballot in 2013

Bernie Williams (.297 avg, 287 HR 1257 RBI, 5x All Star, 4x Gold Glove, 4x World Series champion, batting title and an ALCS MVP) was on the ballot for two years peaking at 9.6% of the votes.

1991 Stadium Club

Devon White (3x All Star, 7x Gold Glove and 3x World Series champion). He did not receive one vote in 2007.  Not one.  Meanwhile Dante Bichette, Jay Buhner, Bobby Bonilla and Ken Caminiti all did in the same year. 

If all the outfielders are getting evaluated as one, I believe that the writers need to reconsider how they do things.  Think about it.  How are the great teams constructed?  With great defense up the middle -catcher, shortstop,second base and centerfield.  Meanwhile the corner positions in the infield and outfield provide the run production.  So shouldn't the centerfielder be compared to the shortstops instead of his outfield teammates?

1992 Bowman

Kenny Lofton, for example, had Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez to his right and left during the great Indian teams of the 90s.  Belle and Ramirez provided much of the offense and very little defense.  Lofton was the table setter on offense and covered a great amount of the outfield because of other two's deficiencies.   Shouldn't Lofton be evaluated for playing a defense first position like a shortstop and catcher rather than the corner outfielders?

Look at the WAR stat. Lofton career WAR is 68.2, while Belle is 39.9 and Ramirez 69.2.  So you can see Lofton is considered far superior to Belle and comparable to Ramirez, who put up Hall of Fame statistics.  The other centerfielders mentioned here has Edmonds with 60.2 WAR, Williams 49.4 and White of 47.0.   And if you are curious about the recent outfield Hall of Fame inductees. Tony Gwynn (68.8), Dave Winfield (63.8) Jim Rice (47.4), Kirby Puckett (50.9) and Andre Dawson (64.5).

As you can see, several of these centerfielders deserves more merit for the Hall of Fame than initially thought.  It is time to think of the centerfield position as its own and not as part of the whole outfield.  I believe the new wave sabermetric statistics such as WAR and the Statcast technology will help in this cause.  Another way to force the voters and fans to look at center field as it's own position is to list them individually for the All Star game ballot.  Centerfielders should compete against other centerfielders. leftfielders with leftfielders and rightfielders with their counterparts.  The Gold Glove award is already doing this. 
The BBWAA should also be a part of this process.  Let's hope they do by the time Andruw Jones is eligible in 2018 and Torii Hunter in 2021.

My 2016 Hall of Fame Vote

The 2016 Hall of Fame class will be announced on Wednesday.  So, I will give you all my ballot (if I was an actual voter) and who I think will be enshrined in Cooperstown in late July.
This year's first timers on the ballot include Ken Griffey Jr., Trevor Hoffman and Jim Edmonds.  Griffey, of course, is a no brainer. He should be a threat to be the first ever unanimous inductee.  Hoffman will get plenty of votes and Edmonds may or may not have enough to stay on the ballot.

1989 Fleer

A voter can vote for as many as ten players each year and the player must have 5% of total votes to stay on the ballot for the following year.  Here are the players I voted for:
Ken Griffey Jr.
Alan Trammell (his last year on the ballot)
Tim Raines
Mike Piazza
Curt Schilling
Mike Mussina
Jeff Bagwell
Fred McGriff

I did not vote for any player who is linked to performance enhancing drugs. Sorry, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Gary Sheffield.
I also did not vote for any closer (Trevor Hoffman and Lee Smith most notably). It is hard for me to think of these pitchers as among the best of all time pitchers in the game.  In my eyes, the save statistic is very flawed and bogus stat.
I am on the fence with Jeff Kent.  He is best hitting second baseman of all time in terms of  home runs and has a MVP under his belt.  But, he was a very mediocre fielder and hit his homers during the steroid era.  I am leaning "no" right now on Kent, but could be persuaded otherwise in the future.

Who I think will get in?
Ken Griffey Jr is a sure thing.  Piazza is highest vote getter among returnees (69.9 of the 75% vote needed).  I think he will sneak in, but with some controversy and debate.  Although Piazza has never been linked to PEDs, people have doubts about his innocence. 
Raines is getting more love each year, but I think he will fall just short.  Jeff Bagwell also.

Commissioner Rob Manfred Got It right with Pete Rose Decision

On Monday MLB commissioner Rob Manfred upheld the banishment of Pete Rose.  I believe this is the right decision.  This result also keeps Pete Rose out of the Baseball Hall of Fame as it states in their rules that "any player on Baseball's ineligible list shall not be an eligible candidate".

1987 Donruss

I have heard many arguments from baseball fans for letting Pete Rose back in baseball and subsequently the Hall of Fame.  One must understand that a person must keep his/her own fandom out of the equation and think what is the greater good for the game.  I will give you some of the more popular arguments for the inclusion of Pete Rose and then why they are not valid.

1.   The Hall of Fame should only consider what the player has done on the field not off the field.  This one I hear the most and becomes even more invalid with the most recent news that Rose not only bet as a manager but as a player.  He strongly denied that he gambled for many years on baseball, but came clean saying in his 2004 book that he did bet while as a manager in 1987.  But documents surfaced earlier in 2015 that he also gambled in 1986 as a player/manager. 
Yes, Rose compiled a Hall of Fame resume before any known betting on baseball happened, but a person is guilty of a crime no matter when it happened in his career.  One can not separate manager Pete Rose from player Pete Rose or young from the old.  It is the same person.

2.  There are players with worse character issues such as murderers, rapists, drug users and wife/child beaters already in or would be allowed than a gambler.   In the normal world these character issues and crimes are terrible and are seen worse than a person who gambles on occasion and rightfully so.  But we are not talking about the real world, we are discussing the world of sports.  In this world, there is not a worse thing a person can do than gamble in the same game he or she participates in.  
When a person commits a crime against society he/she is only hurting him or herself(and the victims too). The crime does not affect the game whatsoever other than a temporary black eye.  But when a person gambles in the game he/she participates in, the game loses integrity.  Once the integrity of the game is questioned, the fans will stop coming and soon there will be no game.  There is a reason why precedence was made when commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all eight players for life after the 1919 World Series.  There must be zero tolerance of gambling by the participants in sports.

3.  Steroid and other Performance enhancing drug (PEDs) users are allowed in the game and that is cheating too.    This here, we are comparing apples to oranges.  Yes, PED users did cheat in accumulating their career stats and had an unfair playing advantage during the games, but what separates the two is the PED users still competed fully at all times.   A person who has a stake on the game, one might make decisions that would hinder the outcome of the game in some way and they don't always show up in the box score or stats.  As a player, did he hang on the ball too long before throwing causing a safe baserunner? did not take the extra base as he should? did he miss the cut off man on purpose?   As a manager, was a pitcher left in the game too long or pulled too quickly? was a substitiution made that hurt the team? as examples
A PED user should be punished and the drugs should not be allowed in the game, but the fan also knew he competed fully whether for team or personal reasons.  For a gambler, it might not always be the case.   I might also add that no known or alleged PED user has come close to Hall of Fame induction even they are on the ballot each year.

After saying all of this, the Baseball Hall of Fame can change their rules and allow any player including Rose eligible for induction.   But as I see it now, Rose still would not have any chance for induction. Why?  Just as any criminal or addict,  Rose must prove he is a changed person.  In his meeting with Manfred, Rose admitted he still gambles on occasion and even on baseball.  Obviously, Rose doesn't feel totally guilty of his gambling or understands the consequences of his prior actions.   Rose should travel the country and preach the evils of gambling.  He also has shown no effort in helping the youth in teaching the game here or abroad.  Rose has shown no proof in helping the sport in baseball in a positive manner or is done with his gambling habits.  Until Pete Rose has done this, he should not be considered for the Hall of Fame if he ever becomes eligible. 

Baseball and Disabilities

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.  This year is also the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.   This law prohibits discrimination in the workplace for people who have disabilities.   Baseball is no different from any other work place and has had it's share of players with disabilities.

Topps trading card company has included a "Pride and Perseverance" insert set in the 2015 Topps Update baseball card set.  Here are the players in the set and his disability:

#1 Buddy Carlyle  - diabetes
#2 Curtis Pride   -born deaf
#3 George Springer - stuttering
#4 Jake Peavy - legally blind without his corrective lenses
#5 Jason Johnson - diabetes
#6 Jim Abbott - born without a right hand
#7 Jim Eisenreich - Tourette's Syndrome
#8 Jon Lester - cancer survivor
#9 Pete Gray - lost arm in childhood accident
#10 Sam Fuld - diabetes
#11 William Hoy - deaf
#12 Anthony Rizzo - cancer survivor

A few notes on the above players. 
-Jason Johnson was the first player to play with an insulin pump on the field.
-Jim Abbott pitched a no hitter in the major leagues
-Jim Eisenreich won a National League pennant with the Phillies and a World Series title with the Marlins. He also was the first ever winner of the Tony Conigliaro Award
-William "Dummy" Hoy was the first prominent player in baseball that was deaf. Some believe he was the reason why the umpires have hand signals for calls.  Others disprove this notion.

The above players are not the only ones with a disability.  Former all stars John Kruk, Eric Davis, Brett Butler and Mike Lowell are all cancer survivors.  Current Tiger pitcher Daniel Norris just recently announced he has thyroid cancer.
Former pitcher Bill Gullickson is also diabetic.  Gullickson pitched for a couple years in Japan and was admired for overcoming type 1 diabetes.  In 1998, an award was established in his name for a patient who is deemed to have a superior influence on society. 

Two (Possibly Three) Things I Would Change About the MLB

Another regular season of the major league baseball season is now done.  I believe MLB does a great job running the league, but nothing is perfect.  I propose two rule changes and a possible third item that can be done in order to improve the national pastime.

One is the expanded September rosters.  The current rule is that each team must have 25 players on the active roster from opening day thru August 31.  Once September 1st arrives, any team can expand their roster up to 40.   They don't have to add any if they don't want to or use the roster space to the maximum.  This leads to unfair playing field in the time of year where every game matters more.  This especially true now more than ever because amount of parity in the league.
I am all for expanding rosters on September 1st.  Injured players come back without a need of removing a player who has been playing well in his absence.  It also rewards minor leagues who deserve a chance at the big league club and give them a chance to showcase their skills.  I propose expanded the rosters to 30.  The five extra roster spots allows the manager to have more players to use yet keeps the integrity of the pennant race.

The second rule change deals with all the days off in the playoffs.  With all the extra wild card spots and traveling. there seems to be a lot more days between games.  I know television rules here, but some of the off days needs to be eliminated .  Baseball players are in a routine of playing almost every day and down time can and have hurt the level of play.  As fans, we want to the best players playing at their best when it means the most.
This rule change gives the best team a better chance of winning it all also.  After 162 games, it becomes evident which teams are the best ones.  These teams should not be at a disadvantage because it allows others with less than stellar full rosters ride a star pitcher (see Madison Bumgarner-2014) for entire playoffs.  

For the third issue, I don't know if it is really fixable.  It is how late in the calendar year the World Series champion is crowned.  Baseball players compete in usually warm conditions for six months of the year and  when the championship is being played for, the weather is much colder.  This is not right, but what is the solution?
We could A) move the season up.  Its cold in April, so this won't work.  B) We can shorten the season.  Teams and MLB would lose revenue from less games and baseball being full of stats and records. The shorten season will have an affect here also.  C) The elimination of days off in post season will help some, but not enough.
The only solution I can think of is the return of doubleheaders.  The older generation of baseball fans remember the days of Sunday doubleheaders.  The traditional doubleheaders would get denied by the owners because they would be losing gate and concession revenue here. So I propose day/night doubleheaders. It gives the owners a full home schedule to make money from.   There are 26 Sundays during a MLB season. If you schedule double headers for 10-13 of these Sundays, it would eliminate about two weeks of the calendar year and give us a better chance of seeing warm weather games.
The problem here is that the players union will likely not go for it.  The long season is already taxing on a player especially the pitchers. If you cram the games in a shorter time period, it could cause more injuries. You also have to give an account for the unscheduled double headers -the games that are postponed due to weather and must be played later.   I am not sure there is a solution to the viable argument.
Then again I am not sure if MLB wants to shorten the season.  The expanded playoffs allows more time for jersey and memorabilia sales.  More television time and revenue from the advertisment.  And more time for having baseball in the news.
We all know we can't fix anything that doesn't want to be fixed, so I will only propose my first two rule changes in order to improve MLB.