SIDEWAYS GLANCE DO THE RIGHT THING: GO WITH THE ARGUMENT FOR LEFTY.Byline: - Tom Hoffarth --The question: Who was the greatest pitcher in baseball history? --One answer: Cy Young. They named the best-pitcher award after him and he has the all-time record of 511 wins. --Another answer: In a 1997 poll of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Walter Johnson This article is about the American baseball player. For the American tennis coach, see Robert Walter Johnson. Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 – December 10, 1946), nicknamed "The Big Train" was named the game's outstanding right-hander and Sandy Koufax --One more try: In the fans' vote for the All-Century team in 1999, Nolan Ryan
--An argument for Lefty Grove: You mean Lefty Gomez? Nope. In his book ``Lefty Grove: American Original'' (Society for American Baseball Research For other uses, see SABR (disambiguation). The Society for American Baseball Research was established in Cooperstown, New York, in August of 1971. The Society's mission is to foster the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball, while generating interest , 314 pages, $12.95), author Jim Kaplan makes a compelling argument that the Hall of Famer Robert Moses Grove, often confused in baseball fans' mind with the Yankees' colorful pitcher Gomez, could be the pitcher by which everyone else is measured. In brief, Grove pitched 17 seasons and won exactly 300 games from 1925-41 for the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Red Sox are a member and currently champions of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball’s American League. From to the present, the Red Sox have played in Fenway Park. , as a starter and reliever, during baseball's greatest era of hitters. He won the strikeout title seven times, won 20 or more games seven consecutive years, the ERA title nine times and had the top winning percentage five times. The majority of Kaplan's book recounts the career of the son of a coal miner who started as a strictly fastball thrower who won 108 games for the Baltimore Orioles' minor-league team before joining the majors at age 25, hurt his arm at midcareer and became a control pitcher. The last chapter is saved to consider whether Grove is actually baseball's greatest pitcher. Judging them all not so much on their pure stats but on how they compare with contemporaries, Grove's career as a reliever is almost more astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. than as a starter. It's Kaplan's comparisons of peak performances that seems to convince him. ``To me, Grove's domination of ERA, winning percentage and relief pitching in a starter's era trumps Johnson's longevity and last hurrah,'' he writes. Convinced yet? Stat freak Bill James is. Of course, it's debatable. That's what makes it pure fun. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: no caption (book: Lefty Grove: American Original) |
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