WHY I THINK BOBBY THOMSON SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN
By- Damien
It was October 3, 1951. The crowd at the Polo Grounds was very anxious. They knew that the Giants were staging a gigantic comeback in the National League pennant race but they didn’t know how it was going to end. Stepping into the batters’ box was Bobby Thomson with 31 home runs on the year. He was facing a feared pitcher in Ralph Branca with two men on base when he sent an 0-1 inside fastball into the leftfield seats for a 5-4 walk-off win and the pennant. The fans forgot all anxiety and went crazy. Branca was beyond upset. For that, the most famous hit in baseball history, Bobby Thomson was a baseball immortal. Without his long and prosperous career, however, many fans wouldn’t even know the name of the man who had launched that historic home run. Thomson, an outfielder and third baseman, was a great ballplayer who was underrated in the times of the second Yankee dynasty and the Dodger Boys of Summer. He led the Major Leagues in triples in 1952 and batted .270 for his career. Thomson belted at least 20 home runs in a season eight times and collected over 260 of them before his career was through. Bobby Thomson started his career in 1946 with the Giants for 16 games. He batted .283 with 29 home runs as a rookie in 1947 and hit .309 in 1949. After a .252 season Thomson had his best season in 1951, starting a streak of three straight 100-RBI seasons (out of four total) and batting .293, including his pennant winning home run. He batted .270 and .288 in his next two seasons but wasn’t good enough to be a regular on your fantasy baseball team until 1958, when he batted .283 with the Cubs. That was Thomson’s last 20-homer season, and he slipped out of superiority after that season. He played one more quality season and part of another before retiring. Bobby Thomson was a great baseball player and an eternal Giants hero. His play, with or without that mighty pennant-winning swing, was deserving of the Hall of Fame.
LIFETIME STATISTICS
Games career: 1,779 season high: 156 in 1949
At Bats career: 6,305 season high: 641 in 1949
Hits career: 1,705 season high: 198 in 1949
Doubles career: 267 season high: 35 in 1949
Triples career: 74 season high: 14 in 1952 led NL: 14 in 1952
Home Runs career: 264 season high: 32 in 1951
Runs career: 903 season high: 105 in 1947
Runs Batted In career: 1,026 season high: 109 in 1949
Stolen Bases career: 38 season high: 10 in 1949
Walks career: 559 season high: 73 in 1951
Strikeouts career: 804 season high: 78 in 1947
Batting Average career: .270 season high: .309 in 1949
On Base Percentage career: .332 season high: .355 in 1949
Slugging Percentage career: .462 season high: .562 in 1951
Total Bases career: 2,912 season high: 332 in 1949
Sacrifice Hits career: 36 season high: 7 in 1951
Fielding Percentage career: .973 season high: .990 in 1957
Double Plays career: 57 season high: 15 in 1951 led NL CF: 4 in 1949, 7 in 1950, 3 in 1958 led NL LF: 2 in 1954
Putouts career: 3,800 season high: 488 in 1949
Assists career: 492 season high: 187 in 1952
DID YOU KNOW?
-nicknamed “The Flying Scot” and “The Staten Island Scot”
-went 2-for-4 with two RBI’s in his MLB debut
-was a three time all-star (in 1948, 1949, and 1952)
-was the first European born MLB player to hit his 100th home run (active Didi Gregorius was the second)
-finished eighth in the NL MVP Award voting in 1951, 14th in 1949 and 16th in 1952
-doubled and drew five walks in the 1951 World Series against the Yankees
-led NL centerfielders in games in 1949 (156)
-hit nine career home runs off of Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, three off of Robin Roberts, and one off of Sandy Koufax, plus two off of Hall of Fame snub Harry Brecheen
-also played nine games at second base, one at first base, 101 as a pinch hitter, and 12 as a pinch runner
Nah. He was a good player, but there are just too many players like him. One quick way of seeing if a player might deserve HOF consideration is looking at the top-10 most similar players on BR.For Thomson, exactly 0 are in the hall, and none of them have many advocates either. Thomson highest voting percentages on the ballot was just 4.6%, so I don't really think he's a hall of famer.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of things that are interesting about the Thomson-Branca dinger. Bill James has a short article in the Historical Baseball Abstract about it called "Where is Earl Weaver when you need him?" He points out that the homer was actually Thomson's 3rd of the season off Branca, teammate Monte Irvin had hit 5 off Branca, and altogether the Giants had hit 11 homers off him and beaten him 6 times. Earl Weaver, as you might know, would keep index cards keeping track of what players would do against specific pitchers.
Also, the ball was never found. I read a book about it awhile back, and the author thought that some nun who was attending the game got it. Unfortunately, the nun's possessions were thrown out at her death, so he concluded the ball was somewhere in a land fill. Oy vey.
By the way, that's a great picture of Thomson. I love the manic smile wreathing his features, and I'm very surprised I've never seen it before.
Well, I usually take a glance at the top ten, but I don't know how they calculate it so I haven't really cared too much. Also, the picture is probably my favorite of the whole blog. When I published this last night, my brother saw it and had the same feelings. Maybe he is clutching the bat that won the pennant in 1951.
DeleteSimilarity scores were invented (of course) by Bill James. The process is pretty simple. To compare 2 players, you start out with 1000 points, and subtract 1 point for each difference of 20 games, 75 at bats, 10 runs scored, 15 hits, 5 doubles, 4 triples, 2 homers, 10 RBI, 25 walks, 150 strikeouts, 20 stolen bases, .001 difference in batting average, and -2 points for every .002 difference in SLG. There is also a positional factor.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a very useful stat.