Hey Gang,

For those of you following the Sports in Perspective blog, I’m moving to the EricksonTribune.com. You can get directly to my blog site by going here. All of our eChronicles blogs are moving under the Tribune.com umbrella, so stop by and see us all!

Talk to you soon!

Gerry Fey

Have you ever heard of Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn? Neither had I until driving to the airport last Saturday. While in the car, we were listing to an NPR reporter talking to author Edward Achorn about his new book Fifty-nine in ‘84, the story of a tough, moody, driven pitcher in the dawning age of baseball in 1884. He played for the Providence Grays, and the more Achorn talked about this guy, the more intrigued I became. Here’s a discription of Radbourn and the book:

In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine games-more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball’s first World Series.

Fifty-nine in ‘84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War-a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.

It is the tale, too, of the woman Radbourn loved, Carrie Stanhope, the alluring proprietress of a boarding-house with shady overtones, a married lady who was said to have personally known every man in the National League.

Now, I consider myself a student of baseball, but this guy Radbourn I’d never heard of before. So I started doing some digging. In 1884, Radbourn pitched 678 2/3 innings, started 73 games and won 59 of them. As Achorn explained on NPR, 678 innings is more than three times as many innings pitched as even the toughest pitchers in today’s game.

Obviously, baseball was a different game back then. In fact, they didn’t even use gloves. Even the catcher only wore something to protect his palms, leaving his fingers exposed, if you can believe that.

Though baseball in 1884 was totally different than it is today, I thought it would be fun to compare some numbers to see just how different it was. Many consider 1968 to be one of the best years for pitching in the history of baseball. Seven pitchers had ERAs below 2.00, including Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA. So how does 1968 compare to 1884?

At first glance, you look at those numbers and think, “Wow! Those boys could pitch in 1884.” Well, not so fast my friend. Those raw numbers are inflated because 1884 pitchers started about twice as many games as pitchers in 1968. When you look at win-loss % and strikeouts per 9 innings pitched, things start to even out a lot more.

What’s the takeaway from all this? Well:

1. While the game has changed dramatically, pitchers in 1884 had to be pretty darn tough to start that many games in a season.
2. Strikeouts are a bigger part of the game today than they were in 1884.
3. Pitchers like the ones back in 1884 could probably have adapted pretty well to present-day baseball.

I’m definitely going to read Fifty-nine in ‘84 by Edward Achorn and come back with a review down the road.

If you want to find out more about the book, check out this video and this website.

By the way, in 1884, Radbourn started 73 games and finished every single one. In comparison, last year, American League Cy Young award winner Zack Greinke started 33 games and finished 6.

I just got back from my fantasy baseball draft, and that always starts to get my juices flowing for the coming season.

The first (and best) fantasy baseball book I ever purchased. Written by the inventors of the game.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with fantasy baseball, it is a game where you act as a virtual owner of your own baseball team. You compile a team made up of actual major league players in a draft.

Then, when the season starts, you take the real-life statistics from the players you picked for your team and compare them to the other “owners” in your league. At the end of the season, the team with the best cumulative stats wins your fantasy league.

Well, this year marks the 30^th anniversary of when fantasy baseball really first began. It’s hard to believe it’s been around as long as it has. It’s grown into a game that 30 million people play across the country. I’ve been in my league since 1997, and it’s always a great time to get back together with friends for the draft every year.

Our league started while I was working in Fort Lauderdale, so every year I fly down for our draft. Yes, it’s nerdy and lame, but hey, I’ve accepted that fact, and I’m fine with it. More than anything, it’s a chance to gather with other lovers of baseball and stats to just talk about the game and have a good time. Other owners said my team is the favorite to win this year-the kiss of death, which clearly means my partner and I will finish at the bottom of the standings.

If you want to read about the beginnings of fantasy baseball, check out this article and this one.

And if you’ve ever wondered if the 2009 Yankees could have beaten the 1927 Yankees, you can go to whatifsports.com and find out. This baseball simulator will run the matchup through its simulation program to determine who would win the game. Then it provides a box score and play-by-play for the game. It’s pretty cool stuff with a lot of detail. And in case you were wondering, the 1927 Yankees swept the 2009 version 4-0 in a seven-game series.

The other thing you can try on this site is called SimLeague Baseball. What this involves is being the ultimate owner, where you can draft any player from 1885 to now, from any season. So, let’s say you wanted Babe Ruth’s 1927 season. That would cost you a certain amount of money against your fantasy salary cap, and you would build your team from there.

After drafting your team, you can start a season and play against other pretend owners with their ultimate fantasy teams. The downside on this website is you need to become a member. So go here, click on Free Trial on the right side, and then sign up. You can try this free for ten games of simulation, meaning you can draft your team and see how they do in ten games. Each game comes with its own box score and play-by-play. If you like it enough to play more, you can pay $12.95 for 50+ days of playing.

So have some fun picking the ultimate baseball team, and let me know the players you drafted and your ten-game results! Did you take Bob Gibson’s 1968 season when he had 22 wins and a miniscule 1.12 ERA, or did you grab Roger Clemens’ 1997 season when he led the league in wins, ERA, complete games and shutouts?

A tough call, but I’ve got to go with Gibson. Let the arguments begin!

Spring Training is in full swing, thank goodness, and baseball’s regular season is just around the corner. No offense to you big NFL fans out there, but this is truly the best time of year.

Could this be the matchup in this year's Fall Classic? Nah!

We’ve come out of the cold, and the green grass and warm air is beckoning us to the ballpark. And the best part about Spring Training is that fans of every team (well almost every team) can think that this is the year they can win the World Series.

Looking at the latest Spring Training standings, the Giants and Indians have the best records in the National and American leagues respectively. But what exactly does it mean to finish the spring with the best record? Everyone knows that these records don’t count, and most teams are concentrating more on practicing and evaluating younger players than they are winning. You also have pitchers trying out a new pitch and hitters experimenting with their swings.

So Spring Training records are pretty meaningless, right? Maybe not. Here is a chart looking at spring records for World Series teams, as well as the worst regular season teams every year going back to 2004:

*Angels tied with Giants

What do we find? Well, the Giants and Indians are not destined to face each other in the World Series, which everyone pretty much knows.

The more interesting thing, though, is not the World Series participants every year. When you look at the teams who finished the regular season as the worst team in the league, none of them finished with a record above .500 during the previous spring. The other interesting thing is when you look at the teams that finished with the best spring records. Out of those six teams, four won their divisions that year and the lowest finish was third place.

So what does this mean? Well, if you’re a fan of the Nationals (5-14-0), you better hope they go on a tear the rest of the spring or it could be another long season. On the other hand, Giants fans should feel good that they can battle for the NL West title. And Indians fans, this could be hope that the season may not be as bad as some experts predict.

Good luck to everyone who believes that this could be the year for their team!

My dad, who reads my blog because he has to, gave me a suggestion on what to write about next. “How about the Minnesota Twins, who are moving into a new outdoor stadium for the first time since 1982. Nothing would please Twins fans like hosting the World Series in the first year of playing at Target Field!”

(Keith Allison on Flickr)

His effort to be “just another commentor” and not my dad was poor at best, especially since he used his real last name. Way to go Dad. And yes, you guessed it, he and I share a love for the Minnesota Twins. So rather than bore anyone with a 2010 season preview of the Twins and their chances to make it to the World Series (which I think are pretty good, by the way), I’m going to take a different approach. Let’s talk about Joe Mauer.

The Twins all-star, all-world catcher already has won three batting titles and was named 2009 AL MVP. He has won as many batting titles by the age of 26 as all other catchers combined in the history of baseball. Ernie Lombardi won two titles in 1938 and 1942, and Bubbles Hargrave won in 1926.

Mauer’s contract was in its final year heading into Spring Training, until the Twins signed him recently to an eight-year, $184 million deal. That’s great news for Twins fans and every other fan of teams not named the Yankees or Red Sox.

It got me thinking about baseball contracts in general and what the salaries of yesterday’s stars would be in today’s dollars. Now, I love numbers, but this comparison is a little out of my league. Thankfully, there’s a website that does the work for you.

Measuring Worth web site

It breaks down money comparisons in many different ways, but the one I thought was most appropriate was the Share of Gross Domestic Product. This can help determine how economically powerful rich people are. It’s a measurement of how big their wealth is compared to the economy they live in.

So, let’s take a look, shall we?

Babe Ruth

In 1927 for the Yankees, Ruth put together one of the best hitting seasons in baseball history. Three years later, reporters asked Ruth why his salary ($80,000 at the time) was more than President Hoover’s $75,000. Ruth said “What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Besides, I had a better year than he did.”

1927 salary: $70,000.
His stats: 158 runs scored, 60 home runs, 164 RBI and a .356 batting avg.
Share of GDP salary today: $10,446,215

2009 Yankees player with similar salary: Outfielder Hideki Matsui
2009 salary: $13,000,000
Stats: 62 runs scored, 28 home runs, 90 RBI and a .274 batting avg.

Ty Cobb signs a contract in 1908.

Ty Cobb

Though widely regarded as one of the biggest jerks ever to play major league baseball, Cobb is still regarded as one of the best hitters for average ever. He won an unmatched 11 batting titles while with the Detroit Tigers. “The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that’s it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it,” —Ty Cobb. I wonder what he would say now?

1911 salary: $9,000
Stats: 147 runs, 8 HR, 127 RBI, 83 SB, .420 avg.
Share of GDP salary today: $3,736,510

2009 Tigers player with similar salary: Outfielder Curtis Granderson
2009 salary: $3,500,000
Stats: 91 runs, 30 HR, 71 RBI, 20 SB, .249 avg.

Hank Aaron

Until the Stupidity, er Steroid, era, Hammerin’ Hank held the all-time record for home runs in a career. Then Barry Bonds and his ridiculously large noggin came around and passed him. In 1957 with Milwaukee, Aaron won the league MVP award, leading the league in runs, homers, and RBI.

1957 salary: $22,500
Stats: 118 runs, 44 HR, 132 RBI, .322 avg.
Share of GDP salary today: $695,748

2009 Brewers player with similar salary: Craig Counsell
2009 salary: $1,000,000
Stats: 61 runs, 4 HR, 39 RBI, .285 avg.

To say the great players of the past were underpaid is like saying Pluto is kinda far from Earth. I wonder if former players are bitter that today’s mediocre players receive so much compensation. I would be.

By the way, back to Mauer’s contract, here’s how his $20 million a year would compare to the best catchers ever.

Johnny Bench: 1977 salary $220,000 = $1,545,148 in 2009
Yogi Berra: 1961 salary $65,000 = $1,701,144 in 2009
Mickey Cochrane: 1934 salary $40,000 = $8,641,333 in 2009

I still think Mauer’s worth it!

Sources: Baseball Almanac for Hall of Famer salaries

USA Today for current player salaries

By the way, this commercial is exactly what it’s like for Twins fans.