Tom Brennan: Pitcher/Hitters (Rocky, Olerud) + Thoughts on Other Fine Past Players

  

First, yesterday’s bad news and good news in Metsville.

The Bad News?

If Charlie Morton was 50 years old, he’d still mystify the Mets, and the Mets would roll over and play dead against the Braves, no matter what, as they did yesterday in their 4-2 loss. 

The Braves’ Acuna and Olsen are scuffling, but naturally, it’s the Mets, so they both homered. The two now still have just 3 and 4 HRs, respectively,

Quintana? A bizarre total of wins after 2019? 12 runs and 16 hits allowed over 7.2 innings in his last 2 horror show starts? I’ve seen enough of him and the other loser, Adrian Houser. Shake it up, David. Tylor Megill doesn’t need that last minors rehab start.

Of course, Citi Field as usual is an unindicted co-conspirator. How so? The disparity between road and home field scoring. The Mets are 8th is scoring on the road, but 20th in scoring at home. No one but me complains out loud about that.

The Good News? 

The Mets minors teams continue to rock. Last night, 4 wins and a one run loss. 38 runs on 38 walks and 48 hits. Dang. Only bad news amidst the good news is AA ace Blade Tidwell got annihilated in a short outing. 2 IP, TEN HITS, 5 runs.

That’s my mini-recap for now.

YO, ROCKY!

Every pitcher these days would love to be a two-way player, both pitcher AND hitter, like the Mets’ Nolan McLean, drafted in the 3rd round in 2023.  Or like Way, Way More Than OK Shohei.

One fine hitter who I watched as a young Mets baseball fan whose father was a Yankees fan? 

NYC native Rocky (Rocco Domenic) Colavito, pictured above, who played in the big leagues (mostly in the AL) from 1955 through 1968.

After some very fine power-hitting minor league seasons in 1951-55, from age 17 through 21, in which he blasted 138 HRs and knocked in 507 runs, Wikipedia noted the following:

Rocky “played as an outfielder from 1955 to 1968, most prominently as a member of the Cleveland Indians, where he established himself as a fan favorite for his powerful hitting and his strong throwing arm.  

A nine-time All-Star, Colavito averaged 33 home runs per year for his first 11 seasons, exceeding 40 home runs three times and 100 runs batted in six times.^[2] He had eleven consecutive 20 home run seasons (1956–1966). 

In 1959, he hit four consecutive home runs in one game and, was the AL home run champion. He was also the first outfielder in AL history to complete a season without making an error.”

His arm was a RIFLE. It was also noted in Wikipedia that “in 1956, he started the season playing in the Pacific Coast League, once showing off his throwing arm by hurling a ball over the center-field wall, 436 feet from home plate.”  One would think that feat spells “power pitcher.”

He pitched just once for, Cleveland, though, throwing 3 scoreless, hitless innings as a 24 year old in 1958. 

10 years later, as his career (prematurely?) was winding down, he threw 2.2 scoreless, 1 hit innings, fanning two for the Yankees in a planned outing. 

He clearly was virtually unhittable! 

17 career outs recorded, just 1 hit allowed.

As a hitter, he had 45 HRs and 140 RBIs in one season. Alonso numbers.

He was excellent with the stick through age 31, when he hit .287 with 26 HRs, 108 RBIs, and a league-leading 93 walks.  But decline was beckoning.

At age 32 in 1966, he smacked 30 round trippers, but his average dropped 50 points and his RBIs dipped by 36.

At age 33, he hit just 8 HRs in over 400 at bats, and at age 34, he hit slightly over .200 in around 200 PAs with 8 HRs and 24 RBIs, and was finished. 

That rapid career fade out in his relatively early 30s likely kept the 9 time All Star out of the Hall of Fame; he finished up with 374 HRs and 1,159 RBIs.

I imagine today, if he was turning free agent after his age 31 season, he would have gotten huge bucks and turned out to be very overpaid, given hs fade. I don’t believe, though, from reading the Wikipedia write up that he actually made $ 1 million in his entire career.  Maybe he got there, maybe not.

All that being said, it would have been something to see Rocco as a 2 way, hitter/pitcher player. I’ll bet he would have pitched "Ohtani" well.

P.S. WHERE IS THE METS TIE-IN? THIS IS A METS SITE, RIGHT?

Well, Rocky started out the 1968 season with the NL Dodgers, so he finally got to face Mets pitching, in the Year of the Pitcher, no less.

Rocky was 3 for 13 with 2 RBIs at Shea against the Mets, including 2 for 4 against Tom Seaver, 0 for 4 vs. Jerry Koosman, and 0 for 2 vs. Nolan Ryan.  

He also would have loved playing in Washington, where he slashed at a ferocious .337/.419/.749 in 242 at bats.

In August of this year, he will turn 91.  I didn’t see mostly-AL-based Rocky play that much, as a Mets fan, since there was no interleague play, but I enjoyed him and respected his game. And I did see him impressively pitch for the Yankees on TV that day in 1968.   

I was a Rocky fan, which no doubt made Adrienne very happy.

All the best, Rock.

OLERUD COULD HAVE PITCHED, TOO

From his college website:

John Olerud had one of the finest careers of any Cougar athlete, in any sport, in Washington State history. During his three seasons (1987-89) in a baseball uniform, Olerud rewrote the WSU record books and became the only Cougar baseball athlete ever to be named College Athlete of the Year. 

Olerud was the only pitcher in NCAA history to win 15 games and hit 20 home runs as he was 15-0 in 1988 and hit 23 that year. He still holds numerous WSU records, including career batting average at .434 and single season batting average at .464. On the mound Olerud was 26-4 and posted a 3.17 ERA while throwing 241.1 innings over his three seasons. During his career he set two Pac-10 records and 10 Pac-10 North marks.

GROAT GREATNESS

The Mets had a Grote, while the Bucs had a Groat. 

Neither to my knowledge had a goatee.

Jerry Grote very recently passed away. Dick Groat died last year at age 93. He was a very fine hitting, solid fielding shortstop. 

While playing, his teams won 2 World Series. 

The eight-time All Star won the 1960 batting title at .325 and was the NL MVP. He only hit 39 career HRs, but in 14 years mostly at shortstop he had career .286 batting average, when shortstops were not known for hitting. 

In 1963 he hit .319 and finished 2nd to Mr. Sandy Koufax for MVP. 

Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh said "defensively Dick made everything look so easy". Groat, though, said "basketball was easy, while baseball was like work".  

You see, he also was drafted and played 26 games for the NBA Fort Wayne Pistons before he enlisted in the service, averaging a solid 12 points per game in the 1952 season.

Groat was an All-America hoops player at Duke, too, averaging 23 PPG. And a very fine baseball player there, to boot. He was the Conference’s baseball player of the year, in fact.

In his rookie MLB season in 1952, after NO minor league games, he shared the field many times that season with our very own Ralph Kiner. He led the Pirates with a .284 average! His first MLB game came the day after he signed his pro contract. Talk about instant fan gratification.

He missed 2 full baseball seasons (1953-54) serving in the Korean War, which may have cost him a shot at the Hall of Fame.  1,200 more prime year plate appearances in those two missed seasons may have boosted his career stats enough do the trick.

Yet another scary age reminder, in this day of ultra-long term contracts…he hit just .156 at age 36 in 1967, and retired. 

He hit twice as high (.319) at age 32, showing what a difference 4 years can make. That relatively early career wrap up also helped to squelch his HOF chances.

Lastly, Groat had the Mets’ goat. You see, he hit .312 over several seasons against the Mets, and for that reason, I didn’t like him…he was my nemesis as a kid, because he was helping to make my always-struggling Mets lose.

HANK GREENBERG GREATNESS, AND WORLD WAR II

Some things are bigger than baseball. 

Big Hank Greenberg knocked in 150 runs in 1940, after he knocked in 184 runs in 1937 and hit 58 homers in 1938. He was a baseball beast of his time.

He played in April 1941, and 6 games in May. His next game (due to WW II) was July 1, 1945, 4 years and 2 months after his prior game. He of course homered.  

He probably lost 170 HRs and 550 RBIs during the war period.

Wikipedia notes that “Greenberg was the first major leaguer to join the armed forces; he spent 47 months in military service, more than any other major league player, all of which took place during what would have been prime years in his major league career. In 1947, Greenberg signed a contract for a record $85,000 salary before being sold to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he played his final MLB season that year.”

Despite all that time in military service in World War II, he hit 331 HRs and drove in 1,274 runs, and batted .313, with a .412 OBP. A great ball player, an exemplary and heroic Jewish American, and a Hall of Famer.

Baseball has some history.  And it is making more of it every day.

LET’S NOT FORGET GOING OLD HOSS RADBOURN

I tripped across this unknown name to me, but OLD HOSS RADBOURN, who died young at age 42 in 1897, got a lifetime’s worth of pitching and winning in over 2 incredible seasons in his 315 win career.

In 1883, he started 68 games and relieved in 8 others, throwing 632 innings. He fanned 315, allowed 563 hits, had a 2.05 ERA, & was 48-25.

In 1884, he started 73 games and relieved in 2 others, throwing 679 innings. He fanned 441, allowed 528 hits, had a 1.38 ERA, & was 60-12.

He, for the record, didn’t have an innings limit.

DICK RADATZ 

The huge Radatz, 6’6” 230, a college hoops star, re-defined the reliever role with the Red Sox. Likely due to his hoops career and staying in school, he debuted just after he turned 25.

His first 3 seasons? Geesh, they were a career,

40 wins, 21 losses, 76 saves in 217 outings, all in relief. A 2.15 ERA, 414 relief innings in those 3 years, 292 hits allowed, 487 Ks.

Most starters these days are hard pressed to win 40, fan 487, and throw an average of 138 innings per season. Not to mention the76 saves.

His 4th year, in 1965, he slipped to a 3.91 ERA with 121 Ks in 124 innings, going 9-11 with 24 saves. Still pretty amazing but the signs were there. 

His 1966 and 1967 seasons, ERA around 5.00, he was 1-5. His 1967 season ended in July.

He next returned in 1969. 2-6, 4.89, 50 innings, 3 saves. Done at 32.

Yankee Skipper Ralph Houck, talking about Radatz in his first 2 seasons of 1962 and 1963, said, "For two seasons, I've never seen a better pitcher.” 

Consider that, remembering what Koufax did in 1962 and 1963.

He died early. In 2005, he fell down a flight of stairs. That was the cause.

FCL STARTS WELL AT THE PLATE FOR THE FCL METS

The league as a whole is averaging 10.4 Ks per 9 innings, so it is not easy in the FCL for hitters. 

But the FCL Mets? In 5 games:

7 runs scored per game, and .282/.385/.460. Nice.