Good/great forgotten players of yesteryear

Voltaire26 said:

Checkout Mickey Lolich ... 1971 pitched 376 innings, 45 starts and had 29 complete games ... what a workhorse

Like Kaat an almost Hall of Famer

Mickey Lolich Stats | Baseball-Reference.com

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I watched Lolich a lot when I was a kid. He's a good example for sure

Voltaire26 said:

Checkout Mickey Lolich ... 1971 pitched 376 innings, 45 starts and had 29 complete games ... what a workhorse

Like Kaat an almost Hall of Famer

Mickey Lolich Stats | Baseball-Reference.com

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speaking of almost HoF'er. If Kaat and Lolich were pitching today they would be considered 1st ballot locks. The standards are so low today people wet their pants when a guy wins 12 games and pitches into the 6th a couple times. It's a joke

Loneranger said:

speaking of almost HoF'er. If Kaat and Lolich were pitching today they would be considered 1st ballot locks. The standards are so low today people wet their pants when a guy wins 12 games and pitches into the 6th a couple times. It's a joke

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That's all this saber-metrics type stuff ... much like a financial advisor, it deals with probably ... no one (or team) is going to complete 29 games.

Tim Keefe? You never hear him brought up yet he's too 25 or 30 in WAR all time . In guessing even most baseball fans have no clue who he is because he played so long ago

Loneranger said:

I watched Lolich a lot when I was a kid. He's a good example for sure

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I'm pretty sure Lolich opened a sandwich shop after his playing days...god, he was already fat as a professional athlete, can you imagine what he looked like when he was around food all day?

Loneranger said:

speaking of almost HoF'er. If Kaat and Lolich were pitching today they would be considered 1st ballot locks. The standards are so low today people wet their pants when a guy wins 12 games and pitches into the 6th a couple times. It's a joke

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If Kaat were pitching today he wouldn't be throwing 250+ innings per year (and would likely have less decisions), so the point's moot.

StanMarsh51 said:

If Kaat were pitching today he wouldn't be throwing 250+ innings per year (and would likely have less decisions), so the point's moot.

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get off his lawn

Loneranger said:

I watched Lolich a lot when I was a kid. He's a good example for sure

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Another guy from roughly that timeframe who was sort of forgotten for his quality as a pitcher was Jim Bunning, who was actually second in career strikeouts to Walter Johnson when he retired (before Carlton, Ryan, Unit, Clemens, etc blew that out of the water). He didn't end up with an incredible wins total and didn't lead the league in much, but plenty of good batters who faced him would look back and say he was one of the toughest pitchers for him. Bunning was celebrated for pitching a perfect game (the last one in the NL at the time came 84 years before) and was well known later for being a very conservative Senator from Kentucky.

Since somebody mentioned Tim Keefe, I will bring up his one time battery mate Buck Ewing. You look at Buck's numbers now and they look good, but not incredible for his era...but, for a few decades after he retired he was often mentioned as a candidate for the title of greatest position player in the (then brief) history of the game. There was a lot of confusion about the voting for 19th century players when the HOF was first established, but Ewing ended up tied with Cap Anson for the highest vote total in that group (with 39.5, somehow). Buck was mostly a catcher and missed a lot of games because they really took a beating back then...I don't think he even used a glove (much less a catcher's mitt) for the first part of his career.

Cedrique said:

I forgot to mention, do you realize that Lou Gehrig actually died of Lou Gehrig's disease? How crazy is that?

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You'd think he would have seen that coming?

Rex Racer said:

You'd think he would have seen that coming?

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His parents should have been chastised for naming him after that terrible disease.

Amos Otis.

If y'all are mentioning Keefe and Ewing. What about the Delahanty brothers, Silver King, Hugh Duffy, Candy Cummings, Jake Beckley, and Jack Glasscock. All great players that played at 1900 or before.

StanMarsh51 said:

If Kaat were pitching today he wouldn't be throwing 250+ innings per year (and would likely have less decisions), so the point's moot.

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the point is there isn't a SINGLE pitcher in MLB who COULD do what he did. Not one

Indrid Cold said:

I'm pretty sure Lolich opened a sandwich shop after his playing days...god, he was already fat as a professional athlete, can you imagine what he looked like when he was around food all day?

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LOL I think I remember something like that. He was a big SOB for sure. Today all these weight lifters and workout freaks can't pitch 150 inn. A fat fuck like Lolich and a lot of others could throw all day long

Loneranger said:

the point is there isn't a SINGLE pitcher in MLB who COULD do what he did. Not one

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It's a useless point because had he been born 25 years ago, he would've come up differently and trained differently, hence he may not have been conditioned to throw 250+ innings annually.

Kevin12773 said:

Didn't read all the posts but as a Cubs fan Mark Grace was a hellava player. I think he had the most hits in the 90's in MLB.

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Admitted chubby chaser though.

Indrid Cold said:

I'm pretty sure Lolich opened a sandwich shop after his playing days...god, he was already fat as a professional athlete, can you imagine what he looked like when he was around food all day?

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He's a rather thick old man now.


But prolly still around his playing weight. Now Denny McLain, that dudes huge.

broncosmitty said:

He's a rather thick old man now.


But prolly still around his playing weight. Now Denny McLain, that dudes huge.

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Besides being a big fat slob, McLain has the proud distinction of being jailed in three different decades.....Pretty impressive....

Indrid Cold said:

I'm pretty sure Lolich opened a sandwich shop after his playing days...god, he was already fat as a professional athlete, can you imagine what he looked like when he was around food all day?

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Worse than that ... A Doughnut Shop

broncosmitty said:

Admitted chubby chaser though.

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Original Slump Buster