Legend of Baseball : Pie Traynor

Harold Joseph "Pie" Traynor (November 11, 1898 - March 16, 1972) was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire Major League Baseball career as a third baseman with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1920–37). He batted and threw right-handed.Following the Second World War, Traynor was often cited as the greatest third baseman in major league baseball history. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948


Traynor was born in Framingham, Massachusetts to parents who had emigrated from Canada. He received his nickname as a child in Somerville, Massachusetts because he frequented a grocery store and often asked for pie. The store owner called him "Pie Face", which was later shortened to Pie by his friends. Traynor began his playing career in 1920 as a shortstop for the Portsmouth Truckers of the Virginia League. He was asked by a Boston Braves scout to work out with the team at Braves Field but, the scout forgot to tell the Braves manager George Stallings.Stallings proceeded to run Traynor off the field, telling him not to return.Traynor made his major league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the age of 21 on September 15, 1920, appearing in 17 games that season. He appeared in 10 games for the Pirates in 1921, but spent the majority of the season playing for the Birmingham Barons. He posted a .336 batting average in 131 games for the Barons, but his defense was still a problem as he committed 64 errors as a shortstop.

Traynor became the Pirates regular third baseman in 1922, hitting for a .282 batting average with 81 runs batted in.[1] Following the advice of Rogers Hornsby, he began using a heavier bat and blossomed into one of the National League's best hitters in 1923 when, he hit above .300 for the first time with a .338 batting average along with 12 home runs and 101 runs batted in.With tutoring provided by team-mate Rabbit Maranville, his defense also began to improve, leading National League third basemen in putouts and assists. In 1925, Traynor posted a .320 average with six home runs, 106 runs batted in and led the league in fielding percentage as the Pirates won the National League pennant by eight and a half games over the New York Giants.In the 1925 World Series, he hit .347 including a home run off future Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson as the Pirates defeated the Washington Senators in a seven-game series. Traynor ended the season eighth in Most Valuable Player Award balloting. His 41 double plays in 1925, set a National League record for third basemen that stood for 25 years.

The Pirates won the pennant again in 1927 with Traynor hitting .342 with five home runs and 106 runs batted in, but they would lose to the New York Yankees in the 1927 World Series. In November of that year, members of the Baseball Writers Association of America selected him as the third baseman for the 1927 all-star major league team. Traynor hit .337 and produced a career-high 124 runs batted in during the 1928 season despite hitting only 3 home runs and, finished in sixth place in the National League Most Valuable Player Award balloting. He continued to be a cornerstone for the Pirates, posting a .356 batting average in 1929, followed by a career-high .366 average in 1930. In 1933 Major League Baseball held its inaugural All-Star Game and, Traynor was selected as a reserve player for the National League team.Traynor's last full season was in 1934 when he hit over .300 for the ninth time in ten seasons, and was named as the starting third baseman for the National League in the 1934 All-Star Game. During the 1934 season, his throwing arm was injured in a play at home plate and his defense began to suffer as a result. Traynor played his final game on August 14, 1937

In a 17 year major league career, Traynor played in 1941 games, accumulating 2,416 hits in 7,559 at bats for a .320 career batting average along with 58 home runs, 1,273 runs batted in and an on base percentage of .362. He retired with a .946 fielding percentage. Traynor was not a home run hitter - he reached a high of 12 in 1923 - but had high numbers of doubles and triples, hitting 371 doubles and 164 triples lifetime and leading the league in triples in 1923, with 19. He hit over .300 ten times and, had over 100 runs batted in (RBI) in a season seven times. Among major league third basemen, his seven seasons with more than 100 runs batted in is second only to the nine seasons by Mike Schmidt.Chipper Jones is the only other third baseman in history to match Traynor's five consecutive seasons with more than 100 runs batted in.[6] He had 208 hits in 1923, and was the last Pirate infielder with 200 or more hits until shortstop Jack Wilson, who had 201 hits in 2004. He struck out only 278 times in his career.

Traynor was considered the best fielding third baseman of his era, leading the National League in fielding percentage once, assists and double plays three times and putouts seven times. His 2,289 putouts ranks him fifth all-time among third basemen. His 1,863 games played at third base was a major league record that would stand until 1960 when it was surpassed by Eddie Yost. Traynor is also the only Major League Baseball player ever to steal home plate in an All-Star Game. Traynor finished in the top ten in voting for the National League's Most Valuable Player Award six times during his career.

Legend of Baseball : Jimmie Foxx

James Emory "Jimmie" Foxx (October 22, 1907 – July 21, 1967), nicknamed "Double X" and "The Beast", was a right-handed American Major League Baseball first baseman and noted power hitter.
Foxx was the second major league player to hit 500 career home runs, after Babe Ruth. Attaining that plateau at age 32 years 336 days, he held the record for youngest to reach 500 for sixty-eight years, until superseded by Alex Rodriguez in 2007. His three career Most Valuable Player awards are tied for second all-time.

Born in Sudlersville, Maryland, Foxx played baseball in high school and dropped out to join a minor league team managed by former Philadelphia Athletics great Frank "Home Run" Baker. Foxx had hoped to pitch or play third base, but since the team was short on catchers, Foxx moved behind the plate.
He immediately drew interest from the Athletics and New York Yankees. Foxx signed with the A's and made his major league debut in 1925 at age 17.

The A's catching duties were already filled by future Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane, so by 1927, Foxx was splitting time between catching, first base, and the outfield. In 1929, installed as the A's regular first baseman, Foxx had a breakthrough year, batting .354 and hitting 33 home runs.
In 1932, Foxx hit .364, with 58 home runs with 169 RBIs, missing the Triple Crown by just three points in batting average. Boston Red Sox first baseman Dale Alexander hit .367, but in just 454 plate appearances; he would not have won the batting title under current rules, which are based upon 3.1 plate appearances per team games played. Foxx did win the Triple Crown the following season, with a batting average of .356, 163 RBIs, and 48 home runs. He won back-to-back MVP honors in 1932 and 1933.
Seven of the American League's 1937 All-Star players, from left to right Lou Gehrig, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx, and Hank Greenberg. All seven would eventually be elected to the Hall of Fame.Foxx was one of the three or four most feared sluggers of his era. The great Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez once said of him, "He has muscles in his hair."

In 1937, Foxx hit a ball into the third deck of the left-field stands at Yankee Stadium in New York, a very rare feat because of the distance and the angle of the stands. Gomez was the pitcher who gave it up, and when asked how far it went, he said, "I don't know, but I do know it took somebody 45 minutes to go up there and get it back."

When the Great Depression fully hit in the early 1930s, A's owner Connie Mack was unable to pay the salaries of his highly paid stars, and was obliged to sell off a number of them. In 1936, Mack sold Foxx's contract to the Boston Red Sox for $150,000, following a contract dispute.
Boston Red SoxFoxx played six years for Boston, including a spectacular 1938 season in which he hit 50 home runs, drove in 175 runs, batted .349, won his third MVP award, and again narrowly missed winning the Triple Crown. Foxx is one of nine players to have won three MVPs; only Barry Bonds (7) has more.
On June 16, 1938, he set an American League record when he walked six times in a game. In 1939 he hit .360, his second-best all-time season batting average. His 50 home runs would remain the single-season record for the Red Sox until David Ortiz hit 54 in 2006.

Legend of Baseball : Cy Young

Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. During his 22-year baseball career, he pitched from 1890-1911 for five different teams. Young was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. One year after Young's death, the Cy Young Award was created to honor the previous season's best pitcher.

Young established numerous pitching records, some of which have stood for a century. Young compiled 511 wins, 94 ahead of Walter Johnson, who is second on the list of most wins in Major League history.

In addition to wins, Young still holds the Major League records for most career innings pitched (7,355), most career games started (815), and most complete games (749). He also retired with 316 losses, the most in MLB history. Young's 76 career shutouts are fourth all-time. He also won at least 30 games in a season five times, with ten other seasons of 20 or more wins. In addition, Young pitched three no-hitters, including the third perfect game in baseball history, first in baseball's "modern era". In 1999, 88 years after his final Major League appearance and 44 years after his death, editors at The Sporting News ranked Cy Young 14th on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". That same year, baseball fans named him to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Young's career started in 1890 with the Cleveland Spiders. After eight years with the Spiders, Young was moved to St. Louis in 1899. After two years there, Young jumped to the newly-created American League, joining the Boston franchise. He was traded back to Cleveland in 1909, before spending the final two months of his career with the Boston Rustlers. After his retirement, Young went back to his farm in Ohio, where he stayed until his death at age 88 in 1955.

Young retired with 511 career wins. His win total set the record for most career wins by a pitcher. At the time, Pud Galvin had the second most career wins with 364. Walter Johnson, then in his fourth season, finished his career with 417 wins and, as of 2011, is second on the list. In 1921, Johnson broke Young's career record for strikeouts.

Cy Young's career is seen as a bridge from baseball's earliest days to its modern era; he pitched against stars such as Cap Anson, already an established player when the National League was first formed in 1876, as well as against Eddie Collins, who played until 1930. When Young's career began, pitchers delivered the baseball underhand and fouls were not counted as strikes. The pitcher's mound was not moved back to its present position of 60 feet 6 inches (18.44 m) until Young's fourth season; he did not wear a glove until his sixth season.

A photo of Young taken in 1908 was the source for a painting that was displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame.Young led his league in wins five times (1892, 1895, and 1901–1903), finishing second twice. His career high was 36 in 1892. He had fifteen seasons with twenty or more wins, two more than the runners-up, Christy Mathewson and Warren Spahn. Young won two ERA titles during his career, in 1892 (1.93) and in 1901 (1.62), and was three times the runner-up. Young's earned run average was below 2.00 six times, but this was not uncommon during the dead-ball era. Although Young threw over 400 innings in each of his first four full seasons, he did not lead his league until 1902. He had 40 or more complete games nine times. Young also led his league in strikeouts twice (with 140 in 1896, and 158 in 1901), and in shutouts seven times.Young led his league in fewest walks per nine innings thirteen times and finished second one season. Only twice in his 22-year career did Young finish lower than 5th in the category. Although the WHIP ratio was not calculated until well after Young's death, Young was the retroactive league leader in this category seven times and was second or third another seven times. Cy Young is tied with Roger Clemens for the most career wins by a Boston Red Sox pitcher. They each won 192 games while with the franchise.

Particularly after his fastball slowed, Young relied upon his control. Young was once quoted as saying, "Some may have thought it was essential to know how to curve a ball before anything else. Experience, to my mind, teaches to the contrary. Any young player who has good control will become a successful curve pitcher long before the pitcher who is endeavoring to master both curves and control at the same time. The curve is merely an accessory to control." In addition to his exceptional control, Young was also a workhorse who avoided injury. For nineteen consecutive years, from 1891 through 1909, Cy Young was in his leagues' top ten for innings pitched; in fourteen of the seasons, he was in the top five. Not until 1900, a decade into his career, did Young pitch two consecutive incomplete games. By habit, Young restricted his practice throws in spring training. "I figured the old arm had just so many throws in it," said Young, "and there wasn't any use wasting them." Young once described his approach before a game:

"I never warmed up ten, fifteen minutes before a game like most pitchers do. I'd loosen up, three, four minutes. Five at the outside. And I never went to the bullpen. Oh, I'd relieve all right, plenty of times, but I went right from the bench to the box, and I'd take a few warm-up pitches and be ready. Then I had good control. I aimed to make the batter hit the ball, and I threw as few pitches as possible. That's why I was able to work every other day."

Line-Up for Yesterday
Y is for Young
The magnificent Cy;
People batted against him,
But I never knew why.

— Ogden Nash, Sport magazine (January 1949)By the time of his retirement, Young's control had faltered. Young had also gained weight. In three of his last four years, he was the oldest player in the league.

In 1956, about one year after Young's death, the Cy Young Award was created. The first award was given to Brooklyn's Don Newcombe. Originally, it was a single award covering the whole of baseball. The honor was divided into two Cy Young Awards in 1967, one for each league.

On September 23, 1993, a statue dedicated to him was unveiled by Northeastern University on the site of the Red Sox's original stadium, the Huntington Avenue Grounds. It was there that Young had pitched the first game of the 1903 World Series, as well as the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball. A home plate-shaped plaque next to the statue reads:

"On October 1, 1903 the first modern World Series between the American League champion Boston Pilgrims (later known as the Red Sox) and the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirates was played on this site. General admission tickets were fifty cents. The Pilgrims, led by twenty-eight game winner Cy Young, trailed the series three games to one but then swept four consecutive victories to win the championship five games to three .

Legend of Baseball : Tris Speaker

Tristram E. Speaker (April 4, 1888 - December 8, 1958), nicknamed "Spoke" and "The Grey Eagle", was an American baseball player. Considered one of the best offensive and defensive center fielders in the history of Major League Baseball, he compiled a career batting average of .345 (fourth all-time), and still holds the record of 792 career doubles. Defensively, his career records for assists, double plays, and unassisted double plays by an outfielder still stand as well. His fielding glove was known as the place "where triples go to die."
Speaker led the Boston Red Sox to two World Series championships, and then carried the Cleveland Indians, as player-manager, to that team's first-ever World Series title. His innovations, most notably the platoon system and the infield rotation play, revolutionized the game. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in its second year of voting, 1937.

Tris Speaker was born on April 4, 1888 in Hubbard, Texas, to Archie and Nancy Poer Speaker. As a youth, he suffered a fractured right arm in a fall from a horse, forcing him to throw left-handed, which he continued to do throughout his baseball career. In 1905, Speaker played his only year of college baseball, for Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute. His left arm was severely injured in a football accident, to the extent that surgeons advised amputation. Tris refused, and fully recovered.

Speaker finally won the regular starting center fielder's job in 1909 from the light-hitting Denny Sullivan, who was then sold to the Cleveland Naps. Speaker hit .309 in 143 games as the team finished third in the pennant race.

In 1910 the Red Sox signed Duffy Lewis, who became the left fielder, and, with Speaker and Harry Hooper would form Boston’s “Million-Dollar Outfield”, one of the finest outfield trios in baseball history, playing together until Speaker was traded to the Cleveland Indians in 1916.

The Boston Red Sox finished second to Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s, who were led by their formidable pitching trio of Jack Coombs, Chief Bender and Eddie Plank, the following two years.

Speaker’s best season came in 1912, as he played every game, leading the American League in doubles with 53, and home runs with ten. He set career highs with 222 hits, 136 runs, 580 at-bats, and 52 steals, the latter a team record which would stand until Tommy Harper stole 54 bases in 1973. He batted .383, a mark he would surpass three times in his career, but his .567 slugging percentage was the highest of his dead-ball days. Speaker set a major league record when he had three batting streaks of twenty or more games (30, 23, and 22) during the season. The Red Sox won the pennant by finishing 14 games ahead of the Washington Senators and 15 games ahead of the Philadelphia A’s. In the 1912 World Series, Speaker led the Red Sox to their second World Series title over John McGraw's New York Giants, with the Red Sox winning the eighth and final game (game two was called on account of darkness and ended in a tie) after Fred Snodgrass's error—dropping an easy fly ball that would have been the first out—and Fred Merkle's blunder—failing to go after a Speaker pop foul that would have been the second out, after which Speaker promptly singled home the tying run—allowed the Red Sox to tie and win the game in the bottom of the tenth inning. Speaker hit .300 in the Series, with nine hits and four runs scored.

Records and achievementsMost
career doubles (792)
Most career outfield assists (449)
Fifth highest lifetime major-league batting average (.345)
Fifth in career hits
Sixth in career triples
Eighth in career runs
Led American League in batting 1 time
Led American League in slugging percentage 1 time
Led American League in on base percentage 4 times
Led American League in hits 1 time
Led American League in total bases 1 time
Led American League in doubles 8 times
Led American League in home runs 1 time
Led American League outfielders in putouts 7 times
Led American League outfielders in double plays 6 times
Led American League outfielders in assists 3 times
Led American League outfielders in fielding average 2 times
Batted over .380 five times
Struck out only 220 times in 10,195 at-bats (although his page at Tris Speaker statistics shows that records of strikeouts were not kept for the first six years of his career. Still, in the seasons in which records were kept, he never struck out more than 25 times).
In 1999, he ranked Number 27 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
All-time leader in HBWRL rings, with 10
First player of only two players ever (Craig Biggio in 1998) to reach 50 stolen bases and 50 doubles in a season in 1912.

Legend of Baseball : Lefty Grove

Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove (March 6, 1900 – May 22, 1975) was a professional baseball pitcher. After having success in the minor leagues during the early 1920s, Grove became a star in Major League Baseball with the American League's Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox, winning 300 games in his 17-year MLB career. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947.
One of the greatest left-handed pitchers in major league history, Grove led the American League in wins in four separate seasons, in strikeouts seven years in a row, and had the league's lowest earned run average a record nine times. Over the course of the three years from 1929 to 1931 he twice won the pitcher's Triple Crown, leading the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA, while amassing a 79-15 record as the ace for the Athletics' dynasty teams.
Born in Lonaconing, Maryland, Grove was a sandlot star in the Baltimore area during the 1910s. In 1920, he made his professional debut with the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the class-D Blue Ridge League, where he appeared in six games. In 59 innings pitched, Grove gave up just 30 hits, and he had an earned run average (ERA) of 1.68. His performance attracted the attention of Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles, who also discovered Babe Ruth.

Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Player. Played 17 seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox. One of the premier Left Handed Pitchers of the 20th Century, and the dominant pitcher of the late 20s and early 30s. Came to the Majors in 1925 with the A's, posting a 10 and 12 record and leading the American League in strikeouts (116). Went on to lead the League in strikeouts for his first seven seasons. Starred with the A's from 1925 to 1933, winning 20 or more games seven years in a row. Led the American League in wins in 1928 (24), 1930 (28), 1931 (31) and 1933 (24). Led the AL in ERA 5 times in his first 8 seasons, and accomplished Pitching's Triples Crown (Most Wins, Most Strikeouts and Lowest ERA) two years in a row (1930, 1931). Led the A's to 3 successive World Series (1929, 1930 and 1931). In 1929 his A's beat the Cubs 4 games to 1. In 1930 he won two games (and lost one) as the A's beat the Cardinals 4 games to 2. In 1931 he again won two games and lost one, but the Gas House Gang Cardinals beat his A's 4 games to 3. His Regular Season record during those three years was a staggering 79 wins and 15 losses. In 1931 he won 16 games in a row, and just missed wining his 17th when the A's lost 1-0. In 1934 he was sold to the Boston Red Sox, with whom he had one 20 win season and lead the AL in ERA 4 times. His career total came to 300 wins, 141 losses. He appeared in 6 All-Star teams (1 with the A's, 5 with the Red Sox), pitching in the very first Game in 1933, and was the losing pitcher for the AL in the 1936 game. Led the AL in ERA for 9 of his 17 seasons. He was an intense competitor, and was known for vicious tirades and attacks against teammates who he thought were not playing hard enough. Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947

Grove retired in 1941 with a career record of 300-141. His .680 lifetime winning percentage is eighth all-time;however, none of the seven men ahead of him won more than 236 games. His lifetime ERA of 3.06, when normalized to overall league ERA and adjusted for the parks in which Grove played during his career, is fourth all-time among pitchers with at least 1,000 innings pitched (behind Mariano Rivera, Jim Devlin, and Pedro Martínez) at 48 percent better than average.

Grove was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947. He died in Norwalk, Ohio and was interred in the Frostburg Memorial Cemetery in Frostburg, Maryland.

In 1998, Grove was ranked number 23 on The Sporting News list of Baseball's Greatest Players.He ranked second, behind only Warren Spahn, among left-handed pitchers (third when Babe Ruth is counted as a pitcher as well as an outfielder). That same year, Grove was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.