Good/great forgotten players of yesteryear

[obxyankeefan]

Anthony Perkins who plays Jimmy Piersall in Fear Strikes Out, might be the biggest spaz ever to play an athletic role in a movie......The throwing scenes were very painful to watch......Like the movie though.....

I have never seen that movie. i will have to look it up.

 

[obxyankeefan]

Tommy Bond
Charlie Radbourn
Billy Hamilton
Jake Beckley
Ed Delahanty (always one of my favorites)

We could go on with people that played over 100 years ago and are in the Hof or deserving of the Hall of Very Good. Nobody really pays them much mind anymore.

 

[Pure Steel]

I have never seen that movie. i will have to look it up.

Worth a look, Karl Malden plays his dad.....Great flick for someone that has kids that play sports.....

 

[DragonfromTO]

Worth a look, Karl Malden plays his dad.....Great flick for someone that has kids that play sports.....

If you look at it fresh though it's a weird watch. I mean when you think about it it essentially comes across as kind of blaming a father for his son's mental illness. I'm sure that his father had his flaws but he's not the reason that Jimmy was bipolar.

 

[DragonfromTO]

I'd give Wally Schang the Hall of Fame plaque that Ray Schalk got basically for being honest on the Black Sox. Schang was a fine catcher for a number of years.

 

[Pure Steel]

If you look at it fresh though it's a weird watch. I mean when you think about it it essentially comes across as kind of blaming a father for his son's mental illness. I'm sure that his father had his flaws but he's not the reason that Jimmy was bipolar.

Agree, but it's an example of how hard parents push their kids in sports.....I see it all the time, I'm content letting my son have fun and we'll see how he does as he gets older.....

 

[DragonfromTO]

Agree, but it's an example of how hard parents push their kids in sports.....I see it all the time, I'm content letting my son have fun and we'll see how he does as he gets older.....

I played against Brad Park a few times in Bruins charity games and since we were from the same hometown we alway talked afterwards and he always told me about the parents that asked him for advice. He would always tell me their sons wanted to play hockey year round so they let them because they loved it, and Brad would ask if they wanted to let them stay up until 3 am. They'd say "Of course not", and Brad would ask them why they let them call the shots and play hockey year round.

 

[Indrid Cold]

Sam Rice
Has a negative Dwar but Walter Johnson once said that he would not be the pitcher he was without Sam Rice's defense.

It's hard for me to get too excited about a dWAR rating for a guy who played that long ago.
It's worth taking into account, but I think if a guy had a sterling defensive reputation amongst his contemporaries that also needs to be taken into account (although it could also be BS!).

 

[Indrid Cold]

Agree, but it's an example of how hard parents push their kids in sports.....I see it all the time, I'm content letting my son have fun and we'll see how he does as he gets older.....

We stayed away from the cross-continent tournament and play with a team based two states away stuff with our daughter and she still ended up playing in college. She didn't really want to do it and we really didn't want to do it! Some kids spend so much time on their sports that they don't have time to study...IDK, I got an academic free ride for tuition and all I had to do to keep it was keep getting good grades!

 

[megalodon30]

Mark Grudzielanek.

 

[msgkings322]

Claudell Washington

 

[navamind]

Carlos Zambrano

Career 3.66 ERA (120 ERA+) over 12 seasons. Had a nice run from 2003-06 where he had a 142 ERA+ and finished in the top 10 in WAR four years in a row, also threw 200+ innings from 2003-07. Also threw a no-hitter in 2008 against the Astros. 38.4 WAR as a pitcher, but he also accrued 5.6 wins as a hitter (career .238/.248/.388, 24 home runs, 62 OPS+ in 744 PA). Big Z had 30 plate appearances as a pinch hitter.




He recently came out of retirement to pitch in Venezuela though the results haven't been pretty (6.00 ERA, 38 hits, 13 walks, 8 K's in 27 innings).

 

[navamind]

Mark Bellhorn had a long albeit pedestrian career, but he had two pretty good years. Batted .258/.374/.512 with 27 home runs and a 133 OPS+ in 2002 with the Cubs. Also batted .264/.373/.444 in 2004 with the Red Sox and hit a few big hits in the ALCS and World Series.

 

[Indrid Cold]

Mark Bellhorn had a long albeit pedestrian career, but he had two pretty good years. Batted .258/.374/.512 with 27 home runs and a 133 OPS+ in 2002 with the Cubs. Also batted .264/.373/.444 in 2004 with the Red Sox and hit a few big hits in the ALCS and World Series.

I still wear my Bellhorn Bosox tshirts!
Bought them at Modell's for $5 each after he went to the Yanks...

Bosox were looking to have not much at 2B going into the 2004 season and Bellhorn ended up doing a very nice job for them.
He really went from zero to hero in that postseason, from a horrible slump to a slew of key extra base hits. Mark also had a two run double in Game 2 of that WS before cooling off somewhat...I think he would have been a better choice for WS MVP than Manny as Ramirez tried his damnedest to give away Game 1 with his atrocious fielding, but nobody asked me.

I have an autographed issue of SI with Bellhorn on the cover that I paid way too much for at a charity auction after the WS win as well as a ball that is supposedly autographed by him but has no COA ($10, a plain ball costs almost that much). I would like to pick up one of his bats, but they are not very common.
He is also the reason I picked the moniker Hellborn when I first joined FN! I liked the irony because he was such a mild mannered guy.

 

[msgkings322]

Carlos Zambrano

Career 3.66 ERA (120 ERA+) over 12 seasons. Had a nice run from 2003-06 where he had a 142 ERA+ and finished in the top 10 in WAR four years in a row, also threw 200+ innings from 2003-07. Also threw a no-hitter in 2008 against the Astros. 38.4 WAR as a pitcher, but he also accrued 5.6 wins as a hitter (career .238/.248/.388, 24 home runs, 62 OPS+ in 744 PA). Big Z had 30 plate appearances as a pinch hitter.




He recently came out of retirement to pitch in Venezuela though the results haven't been pretty (6.00 ERA, 38 hits, 13 walks, 8 K's in 27 innings).

He once faced Barry Zito in a game, only time 2 pitchers with names starting with Z faced each other .

 

[1phlapdown]

John Kruk was a damn good hitter.

.300/.397/.446, 134 OPS+, finished 2nd in the NL in OBP twice and top 10 in OPS+ four times.

also hard to believe he looked like this:

How can you mention him w/o posting this gif of him vs RJ?

 

[Indrid Cold]

How can you mention him w/o posting this gif of him vs RJ?

Even better was the swing he took with his front foot halfway to the dugout after the brushback.

 

[Indrid Cold]

Bake McBride was a decent player who played for 10 years, consistently hit .300 in his early years with the Cards and was also a good CFer who could steal a base.
He was my favorite player for a while when I was a kid because his name was "Bake".

 

[obxyankeefan]

Bake McBride was a decent player who played for 10 years, consistently hit .300 in his early years with the Cards and was also a good CFer who could steal a base.
He was my favorite player for a while when I was a kid because his name was "Bake".

Wasn't McBride in right on those Phillies teams with Matthews in center?

 

[Pure Steel]

Buddy Biancalana......