Monday, May 3, 2010

Poll stuff: Pitchers and catchers


Before I record the results of last week's poll, a few words about the new one:

It follows a tangent from the Monday print column, in which I suggest that Jamie Moyer's career is as worthy of Hall of Fame induction as that of some guys who are in the Hall.

So there are six names up there, four of them in and two out. I could easily have expanded this list in either direction — Billy Pierce, Bucky Walters, Lon Warneke among those left out, Burleigh Grimes, Vic Willis, Jack Chesbro and Catfish Hunter among those in. Among others.

In case you want to take this question seriously enough to look at the records of the six I selected, here they are:

Jim Bunning, 224-184, 3.27. Pitched 1955-71, mostly for Detroit and Philadelphia (NL). Now U.S. senator from Kentucky.

Jesse Haines, 210-158, 3.64. Pitched 1920-37 for St. Louis (NL). Threw a "knuckleball" that was probably more the knuckle curve of today.

Ted Lyons, 260-230, 3.67. Pitched 1923-42, 46 for Chicago (AL), the late interruption being for World War II. Famous "Sunday pitcher" the last six years or so of his career, starting once a week in the Sunday doubleheader.

Rube Marquard, 201-177, 3.08. Pitched 1908-25, mostly for New York (NL), Brooklyn and Boston (NL). Almost everything he told Lawrence Ritter for the book "Glory of Their Times" proved to be a lie.

Jack Morris, 254-186, 3.90. Pitched 1977-94, mostly for Detroit but with one memorable season with the Twins. Game Seven of 1991, baby.

Jamie Moyer, 261-197, 4.22 . Pitched 1986-present. Moved ahead of Lyons on the all-time wins list Sunday.

How old is Jamie Moyer? When he broke in with the Cubs, he was a teammate of Gary Matthews. Last night, he pitched against Gary Matthews Jr.— and Junior is 35 himself.

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OK, back to the past. The question was who is the second-best catcher in Twins history. Earl Battey won a solid majority of the 41 votes (23, or 56 percent), as he should have.

Brian Harper had eight votes (19 percent), A.J. Pierzynski six (14 percent), Butch Wynegar two (4 percent) and None of the Above also had two votes.

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