The Boys of October, By Doug Hornig

As you can guess from the cover, this book is about the classic 1975 World Series match-up between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. I’m sure most of us thought they’ve read all they could on the subject. Which makes the slightly different angles in this book all the more welcomed. There is certainly plenty to talk about when it comes to this series full of characters and Hall-of-Famers. Memorable moments and moments you’d like to forget.

This book follows a relatively standard format when it comes to books about single games, or series. It follows the series play by play, while adding anecdotes about the specific participants as they come up. This one has the slight twist that it almost reads like a biography of the author as well. It talks about what he was thinking or doing during the games. It discusses the interviews he performed with the participants while researching the book, what came of them, how they were arranged, and what went on during the interviews. It made it feel more like the story of writing a book about the World Series as much as simply a book about the World Series. As you went along, you not only got wrapped up into the story of the series, but the story of the author as well. It made the narrative much deeper than it would have been otherwise. This book definitely grew on me as I read it. Things, like the personal stories from the author, that caught me off guard at the beginning ended up being enjoyable. Makes me wonder what the rating would be if the 1975 Series was a best of nine. 

One of my favorite parts is that this book was published in 2003. Obviously, that was right before the Sox won the World Series. Every time I read a reference to the doom and gloom of waiting for tht elusive championship, it made me smile a little bit. My, how far we've come!

Rating: 3 bases

Derek Jeter Live

Back when I was buying my scorecards instead of using my own, they often came with places in the back to compile season stats. So, of course, I kept track of the Red Sox players back there. Or, at least the regulars…depending on the space provided. I didn’t do it for the visitors, since I didn’t usually see any particular player more than once or twice a season. I did actually think at one point that it might be fun to keep career stats for the visitors. Compile a list of every player I’ve ever seen, and how they did in games when I was there. Obviously, that’s a big undertaking, but it could at least be started. Frankly the biggest thing stopping me was keeping track of players as they switched teams. Sure, I knew that the “Ortiz” in Minnesota became the “Ortiz” in Boston. Or, that the “Ramirez” in Cleveland was the same “Ramirez” that showed up years later in Chicago. But, everyone else? Which Martinez was witch? Is this a different Johnson, or the same one on another team? It would be a nightmare.

But, with all the hubbub over Derek Jeter this week, I thought it might be fun to do the career stats for Jeter in games I’ve been to. Especially since I’ve probably seen him play enough to make an interesting sample size.

As it turns out, I found scorecards for 24 games I was at from 1999 to 2012 where Derek Jeter played. I know this isn’t every game I’ve seen him, just the ones I kept score at. I can think of a couple others I didn’t keep score at for one reason or another.

How did Jeter do in those games? Glad you asked.

Those 24 games work out to 97 at-bats. About 15% of a season for Jeter. His stats? Lets’s start with the percentages.

AVG .247

OBP .311

SLG .351

OPS.662

Yuck. Not exactly superstardom there. In fact, if you pro-rate his numbers over a full season, he ends up with a .247/14/68 slash.

Does that mean anything? Probably not. It’s not a big sample size, after all. But, it includes games from every part of the season. It has night games and day games. So, it’s at least a good cross section of his career. It certainly argues against the common belief that Red Sox fans hate Jeter because he always killed us. A .662 OPS isn’t anything to shudder at. It’s lower than David Ross and Will Middlebrokks had last season.

So much for the fear.

To be fair, I didn’t check to see how many of these games were facing Pedro Martinez. I probably should. That could skew things a little bit. It’s possible that he since didn’t hit well at Fenway (which, he didnn’t) the numbers are low. Or, I kept catching him on bad days. For whatever reason, he wasn’t great when I saw him.

This makes me want to try this exercise with other people I’ve seen. Maybe if I start with the stars that I can follow from team to team, I can get a good list going. Maybe see how that Rodriguez guy did while I was in the park as he moved from Seattle to Texas to New York.

That might be fun.

Collecting the Sox: Jeter Infestation

As people have been yammering on about Derek Jeter this week, a question came to my mind.

Do I have anything Jeter in my collection?

Obviously, I wouldn’t seek out anything Jeter to add. But, by accident? Maybe he shows up somewhere with a Red Sox player, forcing me to add him?

As it turns out, it has happened three times.

This 1999 Topps card is the first. I was annoyed at the time that I needed to include Jeter in my Nomar binder. I’m annoyed now that I had to add ARod and Jeter. My how times have changed. I’m actually surprised that I don’t have more cards of the “shortstops” which contain Jeter. This is the only one of the trio. With all that star power, I’m amazed companies weren’t popping out cards like this in every set. Which, I suppose, they might have. They’ve just managed to escape my grasp.

The second one is this 2004 Topps AL Batting Leaders card. Jeter just snuck onto the corner of the card. I guess if I’m forced to have him on a card, it’s nice to have him so completely overshadowed by two Red Sox players. I was initially surprised that I didn’t have more of Jeter on similar league leaders cards, where he was stuck on cards with Red Sox players. Then I remembered that Jeter didn’t usually lead the league in anything important, so it probably shouldn’t have been surprising at all.

Finally we have this 2009 WBC walk-off card. As I’m looking at it, I notice two things. First, now that Victorino is on the Sox, this card has two Red Sox players on it. Second, I’m not sure this card belongs in my Red Sox binder. Wouldn’t this be similar to the College Cards post from a little bit ago? Nobody on the card is listed as a member of the Red Sox. The Card is clearly a “Team USA” card. The only thing it has going for it that the 1992 Topps Traded Nomar doesn’t is that Youkilis was actually a member of the Red Sox the year this card came out. I wonder if that’s enough? Especially now that he’s moved on to two other teams since his time in Boston. Maybe I should rid myself of this Jeter card on principle.

That’s it. I was pleasantly surprised when that’s all that came from the binders. Three cards are easy to pass by when needed.

Phew.

How often has Derek Jeter infested your Red Sox collection?

I Scored!

August 1, 1999

Naturally I usually show the Red Sox portion of the scorecard when I do this. As you may notice almost immediately, I didn’t do that this time. I figured with everyone celebrating Derek Jeter finally retiring, I’d show his side of the card. How did he do in this game? See for yourself.

But first, the rest of the team. Whenever I do a scorecard from 1999 I am amazed at the line-up the Red Sox threw out there. Especially since that team made it to the ALCS. Well, the Yankees in 1999 won their second of three consecutive World Series. How do they look?

Meh.

Maybe the Red Sox side has some merit after all. That bottom of the order looks inept to me. It certainly looked it on this day. The rest of them are probably only household names because they played for the Yankees.

How about the player of the game? In a losing effort. I think it’s pretty clearly Bernie Williams. He went two for three on the day, driving in three of the four Yankees runs. Isn’t that exactly what you’re looking for out of your clean-up hitter? Get people on in front of him, and he’ll drive them home.

The goat? Well, there are a few choices, I suppose. Four players went hitless on the day. Tino Martinez, Jorge Posada, and Shane Spencer all went 0-4. Which makes Williams’s performance even more impressive since he had Tino popping out after him all day long. But, really, you expect o-fers from the bottom of your line-up. You shouldn’t be getting them from the top of your line-up. That’s exactly where Derek Jeter was batting when he went 0-5. Yup, five times to the plate from your number 2 hitter, and five times outs were made. Struck out twice, and didn’t even advance a runner. You need more than that!

And, that might have been the Yankees downfall that day. With Bernie hitting the lights out, an extra base runner, or an extra runner in scoring position, might have made all the difference in a one-run game. Knoblauch had two hits leading off, and O’Neill had three hits in the three-spot. The lack of production in the two-hole could have led directly to a Red Sox win.

And the scorecard shows how it happened.

From the Pedro Binder

2004 Topps Own the Game

Wowsers! If style is not a substitute for substance, nobody told Topps when they were designing this card. It’s been a while since I’ve seen as much flair for the sake of having flair as this card presents.

First, the whole name is weird. Own the Game. Who are they talking to? Do I get to own the Game? Does Pedro Own the Game? I suppose he owns every game he pitches. Is that what they meant?

OK. The elephant in the room. What is with the graphics? Are they trying to go retro? The big star/baseball graphic? I’d say it was too ostentatious, but that would be ignoring the rest of the card’s lack of subtlety. What’s with the shiny swirly behind Pedro? Or the swirly stars? Or the checkerboard? Then the really strange part. Those graphics don’t take up the whole card. The top is left clean for the Topps and Red Sox logos. On a big thick blank stripe. Huh? If you’re going to give me a visual headache, might as well go the whole way, right? Maybe they did it so that I could pick out Pedro. Since his head sticks out into the border, I can actually find him.

I get it. It’s an insert card. They’re trying something new. They want to make the insert stand out in the pack. I certainly knew I got this card when I pulled it.  I’m just not sure that should be their only goal when designing the card.

And to think, this was before the Topps monopoly.