Jimmie Reese

Jimmie Reese is one of the most interesting baseball men in the game’s long and rich history. Known primarily as the Angels’ fungo ball hitter, Reese’s story goes way further back, with much more excitement and great stories. 

James Herman (Hymie) Soloman was born on October 1, 1901, in New York City. Soloman grew up in the Los Angeles area of California. A Jew, he played under the American name Jimmie Reese throughout his illustrious career. That illustrious career really got started in 1919, when he got a job as a batboy in the Pacific Coast League. He held the job until 1923, when he was ready to start playing. A second baseman, Reese had a long and successful career in the Pacific Coast League, leading the Oakland Oaks to the PCL pennant in 1927 with a .295 average and league best .984 F% in 191 games. He was a skinny guy, standing six feet tall but only 165 pounds, and relied on uncanny bat control instead of power to generate his hits. Reese batted .337 in 190 games in 1929 and was acquired by the Yankees in 1930. Reese was an instant favorite on the club, hitting .346 in a reserve role and earning his reputation as “the nicest man in baseball.” However, he was more famous for rooming with Babe Ruth (or, as he put it, “I roomed with Babe’s suitcase”). Some say that he was chosen to room with Ruth so he could keep an eye on him, as Ruth was a notorious party animal, while Reese was a calm, controlled gentleman. Everyone always wanted to hear about his days with Ruth, and Reese always had a good Babe Ruth story for any audience. He liked to tell the story about when he was playing pool at Ruth’s house. Reese was beating Ruth at pool when Mrs. Ruth called the two to dinner. As Reese was making his way to the table, Ruth stopped him right where he was. As long as Ruth wasn’t winning, Reese wasn’t going to eat. So they kept playing until Ruth had the upper hand, and only then did they eat dinner. 

Reese played one more season with the Yankees and one more with the Cardinals, and then was dealt to the Los Angeles Angels in the PCL. Reese picked up right where he left off, producing five more outstanding seasons in the quasi-Major League. A longtime coach, he played two games with the Angels in 1940 in addition to his coaching responsibilities. When World War II broke out, Reese served for two years with America’s 12th Armored Division. Stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, he also managed the baseball team (of course). 

 In the years after the war, Reese went through many coaching and scouting jobs, but never found real stability with any organization. He was out of baseball by 1970. In 1972, Reese asked the California Angels for a coaching job, and they agreed to make him the conditioning coach, a job that he would hold until his death in 1994. While his job was to keep his players in shape, he was well known as a great fungo hitter. Reese used his old bat control to hit difficult ground balls, stretching the players to their limits. He also had a bit of fun with his handmade fungo, using it to “pitch” batting practice, putt golf, and hit flagpoles on the first try. 

Reese was the most beloved Angel during his time with the club. Everybody loved Jimmie Reese, and Jimmie Reese seemed to love everybody. Reese developed a very close friendship with Nolan Ryan, who also came over to the club in 1972, and Ryan ended up naming one of his sons Reese in his honor. He also formed a tight relationship with Jim Abbott. “Jimmie Reese was the kindest man I ever met,” said Abbott. “He just lit up whatever room, or dugout, or outfield he was in.” 

Reese continued to hit fungo until 1994, when he came down with pneumonia. He died of respiratory failure on July 13, 1994, at the age of 92. The Angels and all of baseball lost a treasure that day, and the Angels honored him by retiring his uniform number 50.

Jeff Burroughs

Almost nobody has ever heard of Jeff Burroughs, probably the most obscure MVP of all time. Burroughs was an outfielder with a pretty nice career and a few monster seasons for the Rangers and Braves in the 1970’s. As a fan of both teams, I feel obligated to at least spread the word about this little known star. 

Jeffrey Alan Burroughs was born in Long Beach, California, on March 7, 1951. He was a fairly normal child, a lover of pranks, and once glued geese to his neighbor's mailbox. He played both football and baseball at Woodrow Wilson High School, and was drafted by the Washington Senators in the 1969 amateur draft. 

A phenom in the minor leagues, Burroughs earned his first Big League call up in 1970, making his MLB debut at the age of 19. It took some time for his power to flourish, however, but after hitting 24 homers in 84 games for Denver in 1972, he was called back to the big club, which was playing its first season in Texas as the Rangers. Burroughs responded by hitting the first grand slam in Texas Rangers history, and blasted 30 homers as a regular in 1973. A first baseman in the minor leagues, Burroughs only played six games at first in the Big Leagues, instead patrolling left and rightfield. In 1974, Burroughs was the AL MVP, slashing .301/.397/.504 with 25 homers and a league high 118 RBI’s. His high water mark for homers was 41 in 1977, and his best overall season was probably 1978, when he hit 23 homers and led the Majors with 117 walks and a .432 OBP. 

Burroughs’s 1978 season was his last big season as a regular, but he was by no means ineffective in reserve roles. Three AL teams sought his powerful bat, using him as a DH, backup outfielder, and a pinch hitter. From 1979 through 1983, Burroughs reached double digit home run totals each season, extending his streak to eleven. He retired after a productive 1985 season (114 OPS+ in 86 games for Toronto) and reached the only postseason of his career. Although Burrough’s Blue Jays put up a valiant effort, they fell to the Royals in a seven game ALCS. 

For his career, Burroughs batted .261/.355/.439 with 240 home runs and 882 RBI’s. He had 1,443 base hits and 831 walks. These are impressive enough totals to be remembered, in my opinion. Burroughs was a very good player with imposing power and the first MVP in Rangers history. While he was certainly not a Hall of Famer, more people should know who he was and what he accomplished.

NOTICE XIV

    If you have been following this blog's Hall of Fame ballot reports, then you probably know how I feel about Curt Schilling. Therefore, I will not write an individual post about his candidacy for the blog, although I plan to put it in the book. As far as I can remember, this means that I do not have any individual candidates left for the blog, but I will continue the other mini-series that I've been doing. 

He's Complaining AGAIN??

    Well, in case anyone ever had a doubt, I am. By now I'm sure that most of you know something about MLB's rule changes for 2023, and if you're anything like me, you do not like them. (In case you haven't heard about them, they are recounted below: 

-Expanding the bases from 15x15 inches to 18x18 inches 

-Allowance of two infielders on each side of the field 

-A stinking pitch clock, which allows for 15 seconds between pitches with no runners on base and 20 seconds with baserunners, and limits against how often a pitcher may step off the rubber. A ball will be called against a pitcher who takes longer than the allowed time, and a strike against any "offending" batter who takes "too long" to get himself ready.) 

Let's go through each of the rules and see why each is a bad idea. 

Expanding the bases, supposedly to prevent injury, isn't that big a deal. I don't know if it will prevent injuries (or cause more of them), but the move necessarily requires the bases to be pushed back three inches from home plate and each other. This sounds like a pain for groundskeepers, but doesn't really affect anyone else. 

Allowing two infielders on each side doesn't exactly destroy the shift, but it does weaken it. By standards based on both strategy and plain baseball aesthetics, I really hate the shift, but sometimes it can help. In all honesty I would have preferred to see players and managers abandon the shift on their own, especially since the commissioner should have no power over such things as defensive positioning. 

The worst of the three rules is the pitch clock. The means and the end of this rule change are both simply awful. The purpose of this rule change is to speed up the game. To this, I say BAH HUMBUG! If you don't have the attention span to watch a three hour game, then you can't be a real baseball fan. Besides, what's this pitch clock really going to accomplish? Shave, maybe, five minutes off each game? I can't understand this at all. This new rule also forces slow working pitchers (like old timer Rich Hill;) out of their routine and, eventually, into extinction. The Major Leagues will not be simply looking for the best pitchers, like it ought to; rather, it will look for the best fast working pitchers. I believe that sifting the talent pool like that will water down the quality of MLB play. I really do. 

They also limited the amount of pickoff throws to two per batter (or three if they succeed the third time), with any violations counted as a balk. This rule alone will ruin baseball. After two pickoff throws, runners can take as big a lead as they want, knowing that they have no risk of being thrown out. A runner can steal (really walk to the next base) whenever this happens, which is the same as a balk. 

Not surprisingly, the Major League Baseball Players Association expressed its dislike for the second and third rules. They're the ones who have to deal with it, and they're the ones who didn't get their fair say. Do I smell a hint of tyranny? 

These rules, combined with other egregious rules enacted in recent years (such as the softball runner in extra innings, seven inning doubleheaders, automatic intentional walks, a three batter limit which forces managers against their will to keep struggling pitchers in longer, limits on mound visits, etc., etc.), make today's baseball a vastly different game than it was 20 years ago. Where's the sense in all this? Where's baseball? 

Groat to Maz to Stuart

In the January 1987 issue of Baseball Digest, Richard Blue of Hollywood, California, wrote:

    “I would like to champion the cause of a player who heretofore has received very little support [for the Hall of Fame]: second baseman Bill Mazeroski. He has better hitting and fielding statistics than another Hall of Fame second baseman, Johnny Evers of the old Chicago Cubs (and later miracle Boston Braves). Is Mazeroski to be denied because no one wrote a poem called Groat-to-Mazeroski-to-Stuart?”

This essay will give my personal opinions of his contention and the six players’ Hall of Fame cases, but first I need to give some background information. 

From 1902 through 1912, the Chicago Cubs’ double play combination featured shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance. They were all fine fielders and all around good players, and their Cubs won the World Series in 1907 and 1908. However, the trio became famous with the 1910 publication of “Tinker to Evers to Chance”, a poem written by Franklin Pierce Adams and published in the New York Evening Mail. The poem went something like this: 

These are the saddest of possible words: 

“Tinker to Evers to Chance.” 

Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, 

Tinker and Evers and Chance. 

Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, 

Making a Giant hit into a double, 

Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: 

“Tinker to Evers to Chance.” 

This poem, published in the prime of their careers, brought them much glory and public recognition. As a result, the three were inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame at Cooperstown in 1946. To this day many people question the merit of their selections. 

From 1958 through 1962, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ double play combination featured shortstop Dick Groat, second baseman Bill Mazeroski, and first baseman Dick Stuart. All three were good players, and helped the Pirates to the World Championship in 1960. However, all three of them more or less avoided the limelight during their careers, and were forgotten by the Hall of Fame for some time. Finally, in 2001, the Veterans’ Committee elected Mazeroski, but Groat, a legitimate candidate, remains on the outside looking in. 

First of all, Richard Blue’s piece is a little mixed up. While his main point (that Mazeroski should be inducted) is true, his argument is all out of whack. His first mistake is comparing Mazeroski’s statistics with those of Johnny Evers. In terms of hitting, Evers played in the dead ball era. From about 1900 to 1920, MLB played with a pretty “dead” baseball that wouldn’t travel very far unless you straight cow-tailed it. Sometimes entire teams would hit less than 10 home runs in a full season, and league leaders rarely topped 15. Comparing Maz’s hitting stats with Evers’ is a little unfair (although Mazeroski played during what many people call the “second dead ball era”). If you want to compare their defense, you must consider that Evers played before the invention of the Bill Doak baseball glove, which helped fielders handle the ball instead of just protecting their hands. Mazeroski played with the better glove for his whole career. That said, I tend to look for league leaders to reveal the best players of each era. Neither Evers or Mazeroski led the league in any major offensive category (Maz led twice in games and once in intentional walks), and neither was really considered a big time hitter. However, they both had their moments in the World Series, as Evers batted .316 in four Series while Mazeroski walked off the 1960 Series with one of the most famous home runs in history. On the other hand, Blue was right that Mazeroski was a better fielder. He simply demolishes Evers on defense. Maz led NL second baseman in games six times, fielding three times, double plays eight times, putouts five times, assists nine times, and range factor nine times. This is, quite simply, an insane record! It is not a surprise that Mazeroski is widely considered the best defensive second baseman of all time. On the other hand, Evers led in games and fielding each once, and twice each in putouts, assists, and range factor (and errors). This is a very good record, but it pales in comparison with Mazeroski’s accomplishments. 

The other problem with Blue’s argument is quite simple: just because Evers is enshrined doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone better than him should be inducted. Does anybody remember Tom Herr? Ozzie Smith’s double play partner with the Cardinals in the 1980’s? Well, his record is extremely similar to Evers’s, but he isn’t a Hall of Famer. The Hall of Fame has always been imperfect, and we don’t need to make it worse by inducting every Tom Herr and Bobby Richardson, good players, perhaps better than some in the Hall, but not those who define the Hall of Fame. 

My opinion: Of the six players in question, I believe that Chance, Mazeroski, and Groat should be in the Hall of Fame, while Tinker, Evers, and Stuart should not. We’ve already gone over Evers (https://thecooperstownadvocate.blogspot.com/2021/07/lucky-hall-of-famer-number-7-johnny.html) and Mazeroski, and we don’t need to go over Stuart, who has 1,055 hits and was finished at 33. 

Frank Chance was one of the top first basemen of the dead ball era, but I think his career was too short to merit induction as a player. I can live with his selection if you consider his accomplishments both as a player and a manager. However, he was a very good player and definitely the best of the three famous Cub infielders. He was a career .296 hitter with a .394 OBP and still holds the single season record for stolen bases by a first baseman (67 in 1903). Originally a catcher, Chance moved over to first after suffering many broken fingers and, as some sources suggest, at least one concussion. 

Dick Groat was a shortstop from 1952 through 1967, excepting two seasons lost to military service. He was a very good fielder, leading NL shortstops in double plays a record five times among other accomplishments. He had 2,138 hits, and could have had a shot at 2,500 without missing those two seasons. Groat was the NL MVP in 1960, when he won the Batting Title with .325, and finished second in 1963. He won the World Series with two different teams, the Pirates in 1960 and the Cardinals in 1964. Read more at https://thecooperstownadvocate.blogspot.com/2021/02/why-i-think-dick-groat-should-be-in.html. 

Joe Tinker was a strong defensive shortstop and a decent hitter. He was a very good player, but not a great player. The Hall of Fame is supposed to honor the greats. I just think that a .262 hitting shortstop, even in the dead ball era, should play more than 13 seasons as a regular to be seriously considered, unless he is one of the greats in something else. Tinker just doesn’t pass the test. Read more at https://thecooperstownadvocate.blogspot.com/2021/07/lucky-hall-of-famer-number-5-joe-tinker.html 

All things considered, Richard Blue’s article was successful: articles like his are what eventually prompted Mazeroski’s induction. However, Tinker and Evers, two of the Hall’s worst selections, are enshrined forever, and it looks like Groat may never be selected.

Joe Nuxhall

Joe Nuxhall is best remembered as the youngest player in MLB history. In 1944, during the second World War, the Cincinnati Reds brought up 15-year old Nuxhall and let him pitch ⅔ of an inning against the Cardinals. While this may be his most notable accomplishment, his whole career was very good and deserves to be remembered. 

Joseph Henry Nuxhall was born on July 30, 1928, in Hamilton, Ohio. He played semipro ball with his father Orville for a few years, and the scouts who found him were originally scouting his old man. When Orville declined to sign, they turned their attention to young Joe, who was a freshman in high school at the time. Nuxhall must have been embarrassed when the Reds had to ask his principal to add him to the Big League team, but overjoyed when he gave his consent. He made his MLB debut on June 10, 1944, at the age of 15 years, 10 months, and 11 days. Nuxhall, used to pitching against young teenagers, suddenly stared down Stan Musial and his World Champion Cardinals. He was charged with five runs in ⅔ of an inning, but the only thing people remember is the fact that he recorded two outs in the Major Leagues. The runs didn’t really matter, anyway - the Reds were trailing 13-0 when they called upon Nuxhall. 

You know, when you think about it, Nuxhall’s early debut is actually quite legendary. Even though Major League Baseball was depleted of many of its players on account of the war, Nuxhall’s performance usually only exists in movies (most notably Rookie of the Year). All the 15-year old players I know dream about someday making the Major Leagues, not preparing to play for their hometown team right away. All the acclaim given to his debut is 100% legitimate. 

Nuxhall pitched only that one game in 1944, but the Reds must have seen a prospect in Nuxhall as they optioned him to the minors, and he pitched 16 games for Lima in 1945, going 10-5 with a 2.57 ERA in 126 innings. Nuxhall regained his amateur status and played three sports in 1946 as a high school senior, but made it back to the minors in 1947 and made the Reds again in 1952. His breakout season was 1954, when he had a 12-5 record and a 3.89 ERA. He followed up in 1955 with 17 wins and a league high five shutouts. Nuxhall’s best season was 1963, when he had 15 wins and a 2.61 ERA. He made the NL all-star team in 1955 and 1956. 

Nuxhall was a very good pitcher, but people might not recall that he was also a great hitter. He stroked 15 career home runs, including one off of Cy Young Award winner Whitey Ford in 1961, and batted as high as .327 in 1953. 

Nuxhall ended his career in 1966 with a 6-8 mark in 130 innings. Almost as soon as he quit pitching, Nuxhall was in the broadcasters’ booth calling Reds games, a post he would hold until his death in 2007. Nicknamed “the Ol’ Lefthander” during his career, Nuxhall often signed off the air saying, “this is the old left-hander, rounding third and heading for home.” He was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1968.