Astros Retired Numbers: Jim Umbricht

The Houston Astros have retired a lot of jersey numbers, for a team that has only been in existence since 1962. Regard: Number of retired numbers, by team, with year they were established in parentheses (not counting Jackie Robinson, whose number was retired across MLB. Now do the same for Roberto Clemente, Manfred you sack of crap).

New York Yankees: 21 (1903)

St. Louis Cardinals: 14 (1882)*

San Francisco Giants: 14 (1883)*

Cincinnati Reds: 13 (1882)

Chicago White Sox: 11 (1901)

Los Angeles Dodgers: 10 (1884)

Boston Red Sox: 10 (1901)

Atlanta Braves: 10 (1966)*

Detroit Tigers: 10 (1901)*

Pittsburgh Pirates: 9 (1882)

Cleveland Indians: 9 (1901)*

Houston Astros: 9 (1962)

Minnesota Twins: 8 (1961)

Philadelphia Phillies: 7 (1883)

San Diego Padres: 7 (1969)*

Baltimore Orioles: 6 (1901)

Oakland Athletics: 6 (1901)*

Chicago Cubs: 6 (1903)

New York Mets: 6 (1962)*

Milwaukee Brewers: 6 (1969)*

Los Angeles Angels: 5 (1961)

Washington Nationals: 5 (1969)*

Texas Rangers: 5 (1972)

Kansas City Royals: 3 (1969)

Toronto Blue Jays: 2 (1977)

Seattle Mariners: 2 (1977)

Tampa Bay Rays: 2 (1998)

Arizona Diamondbacks: 2 (1998)

Colorado Rockies: 1 (1993)

Miami Marlins: 0 (1993)

*St. Louis retired the "numbers" of Jack Buck and former owner August Busch.

*The Giants have four "numbers" retired of people who didn't have a number: Christy Mathewson and manager John McGraw, and two broadcasters: Lon Simmons and Russ Hodges.

*The only number retired by Atlanta for a player who never played in Atlanta was Warren Spahn's 21, who pitched 12 seasons for the Milwaukee Braves. Milwaukee was the Braves' home from 1953-1965. They moved to Atlanta prior to the 1966 season.

*Detroit retired longtime broadcaster Ernie Harwell's "EH."

*Cleveland enjoyed 455 straight sell-outs and officially retired the number 455 in honor of the fans. So no MLBer will ever wear 455 for Cleveland. A shame.

*San Diego retired owner Ray Kroc and broadcaster's Jerry Coleman's "numbers."

*Oakland retired "WH" for former owner Walter Haas.

*The Mets have retired Ralph Kiner's "number" as an announcer, as well as former owner William Shea's "number."

*Milwaukee retired Bob Uecker and Bud Selig's "numbers."

*Of course the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals in 2005. No National has had their number retired by the organization.

So how is it that the Astros have retired more numbers than the Phillies, who have been around for 79 more seasons, or the same number as the Pirates, who have been around since 1882? Well, everything new doesn't want to seem new. You want a history, even if you don't have one. See: George Washington and the cherry tree. This series is to understand why each of these nine Astros had their jersey numbers retired. First up: Jim Umbricht.

I don't have a firm grasp on this, but I'm guessing Jim Umbricht played in the fewest major league games (88) before getting his number retired. It's a pretty tragic story. 

Umbricht was born on September 17, 1930 in Chicago and went on to the University of Georgia. In parts of five seasons from 1959-1963 (the last two of which, with the Astros, were full seasons) Umbricht went 9-5 with a 3.06 ERA / 1.17 WHIP (116 ERA+). 

Umbricht's family moved to Decatur, Georgia for his father's work and was All-State in basketball and baseball in 1948, his senior year. He lettered in both sports at the University of Georgia three times each. Umbricht paid his way to a tryout in 1953 for Class D Waycross of the Georgia-Florida League and played shortstop, but couldn't hit. Luckily for him, at 6'4" 215lbs, he took the mound at posted a team 2nd-lowest 2.87 ERA. That's where he would stay, at least when he got back from military service, missing the 1954 and 1955 seasons. After the 1956 season with the Baton Rouge Rebels of the unaffiliated Class C Evangeline League, Umbricht - with another successful season on the mound, including a team-high 235IP - he was sold to the Milwaukee Braves.

He was a workhorse for the Topeka Hawks (1957) and transitioned to relief for the Atlanta Crackers in 1958. Umbricht was traded to Pittsburgh for Emil Panko. Umbricht spent 1959 with Triple-A Salt Lake City where, at 2.78, he posted the 7th-lowest ERA in the PCL, and only walked 43 batters. Pittsburgh rewarded him with a call-up. Nine days after his 29th birthday, Umbricht made his MLB debut against Cincinnati on September 26, 1959. The Reds came out swinging: leadoff hitter Johnny Temple took Umbricht deep. With two outs, Frank Thomas and Buddy Gilpert hit back-to-back jacks off Umbricht. After another walk, Umbricht finally got out of the inning, having allowed three home runs to his first five career MLB batters.

In his Age 29 & Age 30 seasons, Umbricht threw 44IP for Pittsburgh with a 4.91 ERA / 1.68 WHIP, a number marred again by Cincinnati when he allowed 8H/6ER, 1K:4BB in his 1960 season debut. After two rough starts in 1960 Umbricht pitched in 15 games for the Pirates, throwing 33IP, 29H/14ER, 23K:18BB (3.82 ERA / 1.42 WHIP). The 1960 Pirates won the World Series over the New York Yankees. Umbricht did not pitch. 

Umbricht made one appearance for the 1961 Pirates, spending most of the season in Triple-A Columbus. One-time Baltimore GM Paul Richards, who grew up in Waxahachie (and was known as "The Wizard of Waxahachie") left the Orioles to become the first general manager for Houston, known for developing young talent. SIDE NOTE: Richards, a baseball lifer, was maybe the first manager to swap a reliever for an outfielder for another reliever, coined as "The Waxahachie Swap"

With an expansion draft coming for the up-and-coming Houston Colt .45s and New York Mets, Pittsburgh chose not to protect him, and the Colt .45s purchased Umbricht for $50,000. It worked out nicely for Umbricht, as he and his parents already lived in Houston. 

His first six appearances with Houston (April 14-May 7)? 6.1IP, 4H/1R (0ER), 3K:3BB. He got sent down and brought back up on a regular basis, and the Colt .45s were 8-24 in the 32 games in which Umbricht pitched, but he ended the year with a 2.01 ERA / 1.01 WHIP in Houston.

During Spring Training in 1963 Umbricht was golfing with Colt .45s GM Paul Richards aka "The Wizard of Waxahachie" when he happened, in passing, to mention a mole growing on his right leg. Richards referred Umbricht to the team physician Jim Ewell, who referred him to M.D. Anderson, where it was discovered that the cancer was malignant and had already spread. 

A six-hour operation on March 7 removed cancerous cells from his leg, groin, and thigh. While in the hospital, Umbricht visited other patients. Ewell:

Only a man with a stout heart could go through what Umbricht did and come out all right. During his convalescence, Jim walked all around the hospital, visited other patients and spread good cheer. He served as an inspiration to others in the hospital and believe me, he cheered up many of the patients. Umbricht is a walking testimonial that cancer can be cured if it is caught in time.

Umbricht was in uniform on April 9, 1963 - Opening Day. Umbricht threw BP on April 22 and appeared in relief on May 9 (where he got lit up by the Reds, again). 

Umbricht:

No one has to feel sorry for me...It's all a little embarrassing. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, though. I'm glad people are so interested in one respect, because it helps publicize cancer. Early detection of cancer is a big thing, and maybe if people read about how I was cured it might help them.

On July 7, 1963 Umbricht matched Milwaukee's Warren Spahn almost inning-for-inning. Spahn threw a CGSHO but Umbricht threw 7IP, 4H/1ER, 8K:1BB before Turk Farrell blew the game in the 8th. It was the best MLB start of Umbricht's career. From that start to the end of the 1963 season Umbricht threw 44IP, 31H/8ER, 28K:13BB, a 1.64 ERA / 1.00 WHIP. 

In November 1963 Umbricht was apparently told that the cancer was incurable. He was the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association's "Most Courageous Athlete" of 1963. On April 8, 1964 - just over a year from complaining about a mole while playing golf - Jim Umbricht passed away of melanoma. Jim's brother, Ed, flew a plane over the construction site of The Astrodome and scattered his ashes. 

Five days later, Umbricht's roommate Ken Johnson threw 8.2IP, 5H/3ER, 3K:1BB at Cincinnati in a 6-3 Colt .45s victory. Johnson:

I had an extra special reason for wanting to win this one. My ex-roommate.

The Colt .45s wore black armbands for the 1964 season in Umbricht's honor.

On April 12, 1965 - Opening Day at The Astrodome - the newly-named Astros retired Umbricht's number 32, the first retired number in franchise history. 

Saturday Morning Hot Links: The New Baseball Gilded Age

The external glitter of wealth conceals a corrupt political core that reflects the growing gap between the very few rich and the very many poor.
-Mark Twain

I've been thinking about the Reserve Clause lately. For background, the Reserve Clause (sometimes the C is not capitalized, but I like capitalizing random words...for Effect) was a thing for close to 100 years of professional baseball history. It essentially was a baseball rule that bound a player to one specific team basically for the duration of his career. A player could not change teams unless he was unconditionally released, which doesn't exactly send a strong message to other teams.

The National League (est. 1876) had a secret reserve list circulating among owners as early as 1879 which included five players that other owners were not allowed to sign - those five players were reserved by the teams. The list was leaked and, rather than confront the collusion this indicated, they simply wrote the reserve list into the National League's rules.

This was the height of the Gilded Age, in which guys like Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie essentially ran the economy. There's a reason that I can barely remember who was president in the 1880s and 1890s (Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland again) - they weren't really in charge. Laissez-Faire economics made it so the government took a backseat to the explosion of the post-Civil War economy. Cleveland needed - and obtained - a $65m loan from J.P. Morgan to keep the government afloat in the 1890s (and in 2008 the government returned the favor to JPMorgan Chase). This "Gilded Age" of American history - between the Civil War and, say, the passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act - was coined by Mark Twain. Corruption and rot laid underneath the shiny, gold-plated post-Civil War economy.

Over the course of the 1880s the reserve list was expanded to include basically a team's entire roster, so that the team had control of every player on their roster until they no longer wanted their services. When that number of players was no longer sufficient, here comes Branch Rickey and his "farm system" innovation. Rules were implemented for the length of minor-league contracts - it was a way to control the careers of more players.

Today, a given baseball team holds the rights of a player for up to twelve years - six in the minors, then six in the majors before they are eligible for free agency. Free Agency is the driving force of modern baseball economics. Outside of being one of the first few picks under the current system of the MLB Rule IV Draft, free agency is the one chance at a Big Payday a player has. Rarely does a player get two major shots at free agency.

In 2011, the Pirates gave outfielder Josh Bell a $5m signing bonus. He was the 61st Pick of the draft. In 2018 the 61st overall pick had the slot value of $1,086,900. Under the soon-to-expire CBA - to which the MLBPA agreed - owners have to pay a tax if they go over their slot value for the draft. The premise of this is so that bad teams have more access to better amateur players. On the surface it makes sense, and it even makes you root for math and DEEEEELZ. How much of our idolization of this front office began with them being able to leverage Carlos Correa enough to also get Lance McCullers? But we need to realize that the entire draft system (as well as the July 2 international signing period, and the posting system for Japanese players, and...) is designed to suppress player salaries.

Back to the Reserve Clause in light of this off-season: Free Agency, obviously, has ground to a halt. The Astros play their first Spring Training game of 2019 one week from today, and Dallas Keuchel, Marwin Gonzalez, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, etc do not know if they'll report to Florida or Arizona. The "smart" teams (like the Astros) have placed a value on every player in baseball and will not exceed the value they place on them. Player A wants a ten-year contract. It doesn't matter if the player will help them win for the next seven years, they simply aren't going to guarantee money for Years 8-10. (That the Nationals offered Harper 10yrs/$300m is still just a report, and who knows who planted it?) The MLBPA, which seems remarkably Bad at this, has long held the strategy of the best players signing the biggest contracts, as it sets the market for the next tier of player. It makes sense, but the MLBPA hasn't kept up with the shifting goal lines of MLB ownership. Ownership, to me, seems to be dipping back into the Gilded Age well of player control.

In the past few weeks we've seen Whit Merrifield, Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler, Aaron Nola and - today - Luis Severino trade in, or at least delay, some years of free agency in return for guaranteed money in the form of an extension. Uncertainty over free agency is making it so that players are more willing to not even mess with it, and extend with the team that holds their rights for a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but less than what they envisioned.

It's an insane amount of money for a regular person. Normal Folk (like me) can't fathom the amount of money you can make by being good at baseball. In a depressing exercise I completed this morning, I would have to work from now until May 2096 to make what Lance McCullers will make this year, and he will rehab his elbow all year and not pitch a single inning for the Astros. But the amount of money you can make by owning a baseball team is exponentially more unfathomable. How the owners have managed to make the players seem like the bad guys in this is impressive. Player salaries can be found within seconds. But try to find out how much money a team made in a given season requires Congressional-levels of paperwork and security clearances.

Raking Harper over the coals for reportedly turning down $30m/year after Altuve signed an extension with an AAV of $31m/year seems somewhat short-sighted. After all, these benchmark financial details have been a part of baseball free agency since it truly began [squints] 44 years ago. The National League has been around for 143 years. Management has been playing this game far longer than Labor.

Behold the New Reserve Clause.

*Position players reporting to camp yesterday: George Springer, Aledmys Diaz, Derek Fisher

*A.J. Hinch got on Robinson Chirinos' level.

*Unsurprisingly, Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander aren't fans of someone coming in and pitching the 1st inning, and then letting them take over from there.

*What Collin McHugh learned from the bullpen in 2018.

*Jake Kaplan writes that the rising action on Chris Devenki's fastball was flat last year and, if he can rediscover some life on it, he could return to dominance.

*Captain Obvious Richard Justice says the Astros would be a lot better off if they just signed Keuchel and Bryce Harper.

*Roberto Osuna is working on a sinker he learned from Marcus Stroman.

*Jose Altuve ranked 6th on the MLB Top 100 Right Now. (Bregman was 7th, Verlander 20th, Correa 31st, Springer 37th, Cole 42nd, Brantley 75th,

.@ForrestWhitley first time on the mound this spring training. #Astros pic.twitter.com/jf2WVp5NNP

— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) February 15, 2019

Buffalo Stadium, Houston, TX, ca 1955 - Built in 1928 it was home to Houston Buffaloes (farm team of St Louis Cardinals) until 1962. Also went by Buff Stadium and Busch Stadium. Hosted 1st night game between two MLB teams (White Sox & Giants) on Feb 21, 1931. Capacity - 14,000 pic.twitter.com/faLhFMrSvF

— Old-Time Baseball Photos (@OTBaseballPhoto) February 15, 2019

*El Chapo is probably going ADX in Colorado, a prison "not designed for humanity."

*A catfishing might have just changed college recruit rankings forever.

*While it's looking increasingly like my brief appearances in The Athletic are over, this feels relevant: The psychological trap of freelancing. (Anyone want me to write stuff for them for money?0

*A Musical Selection from (NAME DROP ALERT) a sort-of-buddy of mine:

What to do when your favorite teams are too much alike

I like Leeds United. Many of you are soccer fans, and this will elicit one of two responses:

1) "Who?" and

2) "God, I'm sorry."

Both responses are equally understandable. More on that in a minute.

Many of you are passionately not soccer fans. You prefer Concussionball. You don't understand why if a ball is bouncing along the ground, the players don't just fall on it. You hate the game most of the rest of the world plays as fervently as you hate ice dancing, or the way you hate the way your urine smells after you've eaten asparagus. I don't really understand that stance, but I can at least agree that you are certainly entitled to said opinion and we can still be friends. I will point out that watching European soccer passes the time from the end of the World Series to Spring Training, and games for the most part are on Saturday and Sunday mornings. You don't have to wait until 7:10pm for sporting drama.

But let me try to explain how painful it is when the two teams you love (in my case, the Astros and Leeds United) are very similar, and allow me to just sort of process what has happened to the latter over the past six weeks. Because if you love the Astros and hate soccer but love drama and the tragic combination of ambition and failure, I may have just the team for you. Just let this be a counseling session. Or you can head over to FanGraphs and look at the Playoff Odds and let me do my thing. Hot Links will post in the morning. 

Leeds United have been around since 1919. Their glory years really lay in the 1960s and early 1970s under the leadership of legendary manager Don Revie (foil of the great movie The Damned United, a movie that I have tried to watch with my wife so many times she actively hates it. It's a great movie.) and captain Billy Bremner. Bremner and another England great, Kevin Keegan, were kicked out of a charity match for fighting. The story of Revie's replacement, Brian Clough, is told in the movie, and I don't want to spoil it for you. Under Revie, however, Leeds United won two championships, two cup titles, and a European Cup Winners' Cup runner-up. 

Following soccer means you know about promotion and relegation. If you finish in the bottom three of, say, the Premier League, you are relegated to the next level down, the Championship. The top two teams from the Championship get automatic promotion and then 3rd-6th places fight it out over a two-leg playoff for the 3rd promotion spot. The same is also true of the bottom three in the Championship and the top three of League One, and so on with League Two. There are Non-League teams that are fighting to get into League Two. There is such a team in the town where I was born that is a Non-League team and I have a soft spot for them, but they haven't given and taken away from me as much as Leeds United. 

I inherited Leeds United. My dad went to school in England and was a student-missionary, this was just after Revie left Leeds, so they were still good, an exciting-ish team to watch. So as I grew up and, being born in England, liking soccer was something that connected me to my American dad, British mom, and overly-British grandparents. 

1997 was a big year for me. I was 17 in the spring, going into my senior year of high school in the fall (Sam Rayburn where you at!). I hid my social semi-awkwardness by embracing England and BritPop (something I still do. The Wife and I celebrate Dependence Day on July 3, in which we honor the last day of the Colonies' dependence on England. I was also an American History major, and I currently teach AP US History, so I'm just a ball of contradictions). I wore soccer jerseys to school. 

In Spring 1997 I got to go to England - by myself! - and visit my aunt/uncle/cousin and grandparents. It was amazing. My aunt sent me cds on a regular basis. U2 was my favorite band (they still are, but more as a monarchy role - a figure-head position, as there are other bands I listen to with much more fandom nowadays) - and in March, U2 released Pop (maybe my favorite U2 album). 94.5 The Buzz (I think it was The Buzz) played Pop in its entirety the night before its release. I recorded it on a boombox. A couple of months later Radiohead released OK Computer, an album still in my Top 5 of all-time. In August Oasis released Be Here Now, an album so ridiculously bombastic that it's impossible not to love, unless you don't like Oasis, in which case it's one of the worst things you've ever heard. The Verve released Urban Hymns in September. In November I attended my first concert - U2 at The Astrodome. Smashmouth opened, which sucked, especially because the previous show in San Antonio was opened by Rage Against The Machine. 

1997 was also a big year for Leeds United. That was the season they qualified for the UEFA Cup - the forerunner of the Champions League. Manager George Graham jumped to Tottenham, and Leeds promoted assistant manager David O'Leary to the head spot. Under O'Leary, Leeds never finished outside the top five in the Premier League. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, however. Lee Bowyer ("He's here! He's there! He wears no underwear, he's Lee Bowyer!" went a chant I once sang at the top of my lungs) and Jonathan Woodgate were charged with assaulting and severely injuring a college student. In the UEFA Cup semi-final in Istanbul, two Leeds fans were stabbed to death. 

I went to college, Leeds were good. Real good. If you've ever played Football Manager, or Football Chairman on iPhone, making it to the Champions League is a lucrative event. You make a lot, *a lot* of money from TV distribution, ticket sales, sponsorship, merchandise, etc. So once Leeds tasted that glory in 1998, they were desperate to retain it. Chairman Peter Ridsdale borrowed £60 million against future income to allow O'Leary to buy the players necessary to make it back to the UEFA Cup/Champions League year after year. They didn't. Mortgaging the future to buy the present...ring any bells? (*Cough* DRAYTON *Cough*). Debts mounted.

But they still kept winning. Though they missed the Champions League in 1999 and 2000, they made it back in the 2000/2001 season. That was my junior year of college. I had been betting on college basketball and doing really well, so my dad and I went to England for Spring Break 2001 to see how many soccer games we could attend in ten days. We saw the Non-League team in the town where I was born. We saw an FA Cup game (Blackburn Rovers v. Bolton Wanderers). We saw Leeds take on Lazio in the Champions League at Elland Road after eating fish & chips at the base of the statue of Billy Bremner. I sang "Ravanelli is a wanker" to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus. It was great. 

In the 2001/2002 season - my senior year of college, when "showing soccer games on TV" was sort of a thing - Leeds made the UEFA Cup semi-finals. Leeds drew 0-0 in the first leg against the Dutch team PSV Eindhoven on the road. And for the last time the core of Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Lee Bowyer, Ian Harte, and Rio Ferdinand took the field in a European competition. I skipped class to watch the 2nd leg. With 51 seconds left at Elland Road the improbably-and-medievally-named Vennegoor of Hesselink headed a cross over the line. That was it. 

Rio Ferdinand was sold to Manchester United that summer for the equivalent of $30m. That was the beginning of the end. David O'Leary and Peter Ridsdale fell out over his sale (think Gerry Hunsicker's resignation), and O'Leary was fired. That was Pt2 of the end. Leeds were relegated at the end of the 2003-2004 season. In 2007, unable to pay their debts, Leeds was forced into administration and put in the third tier of professional football. Five years had passed since their UEFA Cup loss to PSV. In 2011 the owner - Ken Bates [spits on ground] called the fans "morons."

In 2014 Massimo Cellino, who was president of Italian Serie A club Cagliari Calcio, launched a successful takeover bid. He was problematic. In an interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post's Phil Hay (a hero), he said that Leeds fans were:

...tired of eating shit and shutting their mouths. They accept me with enthusiasm and that gives me a lot of responsibility. I'm the richest man in the world with these fans and I can challenge anyone, everyone.

Seven months after being approved as owner, Cellino was found guilty of tax evasion. Under his reign here is the duration of the following managers:

Brian McDermott: 52 days

Dave Hockaday: 70 days

Darko Milanic: 32 days

Neil Redfearn: 200 days

Uwe Rosler: 152 days

Steve Evans: 226 days

That's six managers in 728 days, less than two years. Garry Monk was appointed manager on June 2, 2016. Ho-hum, right? After 15 years of relegation and ownership changes and managerial chaos, what could you possibly expect? But Leeds came out hot. 

Leeds United started the 2016-2017 season with one win, four losses, and a tie. Same old same old. Marching On Together, All Leeds Aren't We and whatnot. Then three straight wins. Then some mixed results. Then in December marked the beginning of a run in which Leeds won six games, drew one. January marks the transfer window, in which you can buy and sell players - think of it like the trade deadline but without swapping players, just buying and selling players like meat. Cellino did nothing, and at first glance it was excusable - why mess with something that was clearly working? Think, Trade Deadline 2016.

Brighton & Hove Albion and newly-relegated Newcastle (managed by Rafa Benitez) were almost locks for automatic promotion, but Leeds were firmly entrenched in the playoff spots. On Saturday, 18 March Leeds beat Championship leaders Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0. Convincing. Destined for at least the playoff if not automatic promotion with a break here and there. Then the international break - when national teams play World Cup Qualifiers and friendly matches - happened, and Leeds didn't play another league game for two weeks. Players in the Championship rarely get called up to international squads, but defensive leader Pontus Jansson got called up to Sweden's national team. 

Think of this two-week break like it's Leeds' very own Hurricane Ike, without the natural disaster, devastation, and general awfulness so awful that it's wrong to make the comparison. Still, Leeds lost their first two games after the international break, won one, then tied 2nd-place Newcastle. Not bad, yeah? A handful of games to go, and Leeds are sitting firmly entrenched in the playoff to return to the top flight. Nope. Leeds lost to now-15th place Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 at home to slip out of the playoff spots. Three games left and they need at least six, probably seven, ideally nine points out of those games. 

Today comes. A road game against Burton Albion, a team that will be lucky to stay in the Championship. No problem for a team looking to return to the Premier League, right? Nope. 2-1 loss in a must-win game.

This is 2003-era Astros right here. Remember that year? The Astros needed to take, ideally, three out of four against the last-place Brewers to make the playoffs? The Astros won the first game of the series, 6-1, thanks to Tim Redding, to tie the division up with the Cubs. In the 2nd game - Friday - Jeriome Robertson laid an egg and the Astros lost 12-5 to fall a half-game behind the Cubs. In the 3rd game, Saturday, a game I attended with my wife of two months, Ron Villone somehow started and gave up 5ER in a 5-2 loss. Milwaukee's Wes Obermueller threw 8IP, 10H/2ER, 2K:0BB to lower his season ERA to 5.07. Obermueller, with a career -0.9 bWAR, only threw one game in his career better than that one: On September 25, 2004 he threw a complete game shutout...against the Astros. The 2003 Astros missed the playoffs.

Is that the same as a 15-year long journey back to respectability? Hell and no it's not. The 2003 Astros enjoyed greater heights the following year, and even greater heights the year after that. But, like Leeds United, the high-water mark was the beginning of a very long struggle. Ownership changes, management changes, years of struggle (thank God there's no relegation in baseball), trying to delude yourself into being a contender, then struggling to contend. I do not believe that the 2017 Astros will follow the path of 2016-2017 Leeds United. But the two teams are linked in my mind.

I teach history, and what lessons do I have to learn next? 

If you're unaffiliated with an English soccer team, join me as we March On Together. All Leeds (Astros) Aren't We? 

The Worst Seasons in Astros History

INTRO PARAGRAPH. SOMETHING ABOUT IT BEING FUN TO CELEBRATE AWFULNESS, LIKE 2010-2013.

First, some disclaimers:
1) I know some of the names of which you are thinking. But those guys probably didn't get enough ABs to qualify for the batting title, or innings pitched to qualify as a pitcher. I'm looking for worst start-to-finish, honest-to-God everyday player in Astros history. So you're not going to see Carlos Gomez, Jon Singleton, Brett Wallace, Jordan Schafer, etc. They didn't play enough in a given season to qualify.
2) I'm using FanGraphs' version of WAR because it's easier to sort. I like easy.

So let's take this in order from (tied for) 5th-worst, to the worst overall season in Astros history.

Three-way tie for 5th-worst:

Ryan Bowen, 1992: -1.2 fWAR

Ryan Bowen was the Astros 1st pick of the 1986 draft (#13 overall), after players like Gary Sheffield, Kevin Brown, Matt Williams, and Greg Swindell had been selected. After the 6th pick of the 1st Round of the 1986 draft, only two players enjoyed a career fWAR over 9.0 (Roberto Hernandez and Luis Alicea). He made his professional debut at Age 19 in Single-A Asheville, going 12-5 with 126 strikeouts in 160.1IP, a 4.04 ERA/1.38 WHIP. He walked 78 batters in foreshadowing of what would be an ongoing issue - Bowen walked 116 batters (but struck out 136) in 139.2IP for Double-A Columbus in 1989.

He made his Houston debut in 1991, allowing 73H/41ER, 49K:36BB in 71.2IP for the Astros. Bowen had a no-hitter going through the 5th of his first Major-League start against St. Louis on July 22...and then allowed four runs in the 6th inning. Bowen did mix in four Quality Starts for the 1991 Astros, and four disaster starts, the low point being a 1.2IP, 8H/8ER, 2K:1BB, 1HBP. But his last three starts saw him throw 18IP, 10H/5ER, 14K:10BB, holding opponents to a .159/.270/.175 slash line.

1992 opened with Bowen starting G4 of the season. The 1992 Astros finished 81-81 but the pitcher with the most wins was closer Doug Jones, with 11. One other pitcher - Jimmy Jones - had double-digit wins. Bowen's season debut didn't exactly pick up where he left off in 1991: 5IP, 8H/8ER, 2K:4BB, 3HR against Cincinnati on April 10. A scoreless inning of relief on April 14 was followed by another start on April 21 against the Giants: 4IP, 6H/6ER, 1K:3BB, 1HR. It didn't really get better. Bowen pitched into the 6th inning once in his nine starts. He didn't make it out of the 2nd inning in three of them. After the season the Astros left him unprotected in the expansion draft, and he was selected by the Florida Marlins.

1992 season line: 33.2IP, 48H/41ER, 22K:30BB, 8HR, 2HBP. 10.96 ERA/2.32 WHIP.

Travis Blackley, 2013: -1.2 fWAR

Blackley was the other Australian pitcher not named Ryan Rowland-Smith, an interesting case in that he was drafted in 2000, made his MLB debut (10.04 ERA/2.19 WHIP) 26IP for Seattle in 2004, didn't pitch in the Majors again until 2007 (7.27 ERA/1.73 WHIP) in 8.2IP for San Francisco. Didn't pitch again in the Majors until 2012, when the A's plucked him off waivers from San Francisco after he allowed 7H/5ER in 5IP for the Giants. With the A's, though, he threw 102.2IP, 91H/44ER, 69(nice)K:30BB. So this led to a trade to the Astros, who were Very Bad in 2013, for Jake Goebbert (whom I really liked).

An underrated part of the 2010-2013 Astros were that they were basically a non-profit organization - helping the poor, the needy, the under-privileged. Did you know that if you appear in one Major-League Baseball game, your health insurance is covered for the rest of your life? So the Astros played a whole bunch of dudes who had no business being on a Major-League roster with the explicit intent of letting them get free health insurance (this is how I'm partially justifying the hell of 2010-2013).

ANYWAY. The 2013 were bad enough to trade a young player for a 30-year old reliever with a career 5.37 ERA and a 5.8 K/9. The Astros ran Blackley out for 42 appearances in that 111-loss campaign. In his Astros debut he allowed 3H/3ER, 0K:2BB, 1HR against Cleveland in a 19-6 loss. Foreshadowing. Three days later he allowed a homer in 2IP against Seattle (though was credit with a hold. He had periods of showing that he could get hitters out followed by a complete inability to miss a bat. He faced 152 batters as an Astro, 47 of them breached base.

After he allowed a hit and a walk against Boston on August 7, Blackley was traded to the Ramgers for a PTBNL and cash, though I have no idea which player was actually named later. Maybe the PTBNL was a Ramgers fan jumping ship to Houston, and the Astros just took the fan and the $30 he spent at Lids buying a new hat as the cash and the PTBNL. He did not have nice things to say about his time with the Astros. I wrecked him.

2013 season line: 35IP, 30H/19ER, 29K:20BB, 10HR, 4WP. 4.89 ERA/1.43 WHIP, 6.91 FIP. You know how hard it is to post a -1.2 fWAR in 35IP?

John Hudek, 1997: -1.2 fWAR

John Hudek was drafted by the White Sox in the 10th Round of the 1988 draft, taken by the Tigers in the 1992 Rule 5 draft, and selected off waivers eight months later by the Astros. He threw 39.1IP for the 1994 Astros, earning an All-Star nod by allowing 24H/13ER, 39K:18BB, a 2.97 ERA/1.07 WHIP belied by a 4.25 FIP (but nobody knew anything about FIP in 1994, just amphetamines). 1995 went worse. In just 20IP, he allowed 12ER for a 5.40 ERA/1.20 WHIP...but with a 2.90 FIP. So his first two years cancelled each other out. 1996 was a return to his Even Year Form, even with a small sample size: 16IP, 12H/5ER, 14K:5BB - a 2.81 ERA/1.06 WHIP.

Then 1997 happened. He threw 40.2IP for the Astros and while there wasn't ever any game where you'd look and think "Holy crap that guy gotta go," there were prolonged periods of inactivity for a team that won the division yet under-performed their Pythagorean Wins by nine games. After the season the Astros traded Hudek to the Mets for (somehow) Carl Everett.

Perhaps you've seen that John Hudek's daughter, Sarah, was perhaps the first female to get a college scholarship to play baseball. He runs the John Hudek All-Star Baseball Academy in Sugar Land.

1997 Final Line: 40.2IP, 38H/27ER, 36K:3BB, 8HR, 3HBP, 4WP. 5.98 ERA/1.75 WHIP, 6.55 FIP.

Let's call it 3rd-worst:

Al Osuna, 1992: -1.4 fWAR

This cat is weird. Selected in the 5th Round of the 1985 draft by Baltimore AND by the Padres in the 2nd Round of the Secondary Phase (where you could stock your farm systems. It's strange, maybe I don't get it. Read about it here.), Osuna apparently didn't sign with either team, and was selected by the Astros in the 16th Round of the 1987 draft out of Stanford.

Osuna made his major-league debut on September 2, 1990 against Pittsburgh, striking out two but allowing 2H/2ER in the 7th inning. Two days later he started a four-game run where he threw 6IP, 1H/0ER, 3K:2BB including his first ML win. He would give up one run in four of his last seven games of the season. Whatever. He threw 81.2IP for Houston in 1991, allowing a respectable 3.42 ERA/1.29 WHIP, but with 68K:46BB. For what would be his Age-26 Season in 1992, it was a decent jump.

Yeah no. But it was fun at first! In his first 11 games (11IP) Osuna allowed 6H/0ER...but with 7K:9BB. He allowed four earned runs at Pittsburgh, blowing his first save of the season. Two weeks later he got his second loss at St. Louis. He had a pattern, a few outings of decent relief followed by a couple of runs. His nadir came on September 20 at Atlanta when he allowed 5H/6ER, 0K:2BB, 3HR in a 16-1 loss. Before the 1994 season Osuna was traded to the Dodgers for pitcher Jimmy Daspit, who never played in Houston.

1992 Final Line: 61.2IP, 52H/29ER, 37K:38BB, 8HR, 4.23 ERA/1.46 WHIP. 270 batters faced, 85 reached base.

2nd-Worst:

Carlos Lee, 2010: -1.7 fWAR

I think we all knew how this was gonna go when the 6yr/$100m contract was signed. The first few years were gonna be pretty fine, but the back end was gonna be awful. The Astros were counting on that, with Uncle Drayton hoping the Astros could make another Series run before the contract became an albatross, which it did. Over the first three seasons (2007-2009) Lee hit .305/.354/.524 with 86 homers and 321 RBI (and 105 doubles) for a 128 OPS+. I mean, yeah, he hit into 56 GIDPs, which is a lot, but 86 homerz!

2010 was the worst year of his career - a 123-point OPS drop. After eight seasons of an OPS over .800, Lee cratered. He hit .238/.281/.409 against right-handed pitchers a year after hitting .293/.332/.482 against the same pitchers who happened to throw with their right hand. And in 2009 he had a .915 OPS but somehow that turned into a .766 OPS at Minute Maid. I would rather have given him $80m for 3yrs than $100m/6yrs but that's hindsight.

But Purpura and Drayton gonna Purpura and Drayton and the Astros still owed Carlos Lee $55m to post a combined 1.8 fWAR over the last three years of his deal, which included a trade to the Yankees no wait Marlins.

Lee rebounded slightly from 2010 to 2011, a season in which he posted a .275/.342/.446 line for a 2.9 fWAR. But it didn't eliminate 2010, or the Astros unwillingness as a franchise to see that major changes needed to be made - and not in the form of Carlos Lee or Woody Williams - to save the team as a whole.

2010 Final Line: .246/.291/.417, 24 HR, 89 RBI, 59K:37BB in 649 PAs. He made contact, none of it well.

The Worst Season in Astros History:

In 2017 Matt Dominguez will be in his Age 28 season, the point at which (reasonably speaking) a Major-League player should be peaking. But we knew what we were getting with Matt Dominguez: good-glove, no-hit 3B. He's as if Henry Skrimshander got moved to third to make way for Carlos Correa, but only to see if he could hang on to his job. If the Astros could make his bat work, it would be a steal.

The Marlins' 1st Round pick (12th overall) in the 2007 draft (the same round in which the Astros basically sunk the future to sign Lee and Woody Williams, didn't draft until the 3rd Round and didn't sign Derek Dietrich and Brett Eibner, making their first signed pick the 171st overall pick Collin DeLome), Dominguez was traded - in a really sweet piece of symmetry - to the Astros on July 4, 2012...for Carlos Lee.

In 31 games for the Astros in 2012 Dominguez fared well, hitting .284/.310/.477 with nine extra-base hits in 113 PAs. He got his first real shot for the 2013 Astros after the departure of Chris Johnson the season prior. In 152 games, Johnson hit .241/.286/.403 with 25 doubles, 21 homers, 96K:30BB. It was as good as it would get for Full-Time Matt Dominguez...

...because in 2014 Dominguez posted the worst season in Astros history.Because there basically wasn't anyone else who could play 3B at a "major-league level;" meaning the Astros couldn't find someone to not post the worst season ever in franchise history to play third base. Dominguez hit .215/.256/.330 with 125K:29BB. A 65 OPS+. He somehow hit 16 homers, though, with 23 GIDPs. Out of 7,364 Major-League players who had enough PAs, Dominguez's 2014 ranked tied for 7,348th.

2014 Final Line: 607 PAs, .215/.256/.330, 125K:29BB

Have a drink.

1981 Astros Future Stars

And if you'll walk this way you will see a real treasure. A gorgeous piece of American Folk Art. Indulge me for a second...

Danny Heep was the Astros' 2nd Round draft pick (#37 overall) out of St. Mary's University in San Antonio in the 1978 draft. He was an All-American pitcher in 1976 and 1978. His professional debut came at Single-A Daytona Beach where, in 66 games (265 PAs), Heep hit .340/.462/.472. Twenty-two of his 72 hits were for extra bases, but even more impressive were his 50 walks to 25 strikeouts, at a year and a half younger than his average competition.

He opened 1979 at Double-A Columbus. In 138 games (581 PAs), Heep hit .327/.385/.524. He jumped from two homers in 1978 to 21 in 1979 to go along with 30 doubles. He posted another impressive K:BB ratio with 32 strikeouts and 49 walks. That Columbus team went 84-59, best in the Southern League, with some familiar names attached to it. Heep's neighbor to the right on the above card was on it. So was future Tri-City ValleyCats manager Jim Pankovits. Current Astros pitching coach Brent Strom went 3-3 with a 3.64 ERA in 47IP as the 30-year old tried to work his way back to the Majors after allowing 23H/23ER, 8K:12BB in an eight-game stint with the 1977 Padres.

Heep's performance to that point earned him a call-up to the Astros in September 1979. In 14 games (17 PAs) he went 2x14 with 2RBI, 4K:1BB - a .143/.176/.143 line. His first hit came in his 4th PA, a 2-1 loss to the Giants on September 8. His next hit came on the final day of the season - with the division just out of reach - off of Rick Sutcliffe. Thirteen of his 14 appearances for the 1979 Astros were as a pinch-hitter, but in G162 Heep started and batted cleanup. Later in that game Heep hit a sac fly off Sutcliffe to score the game-winning run.

As an aside, Heep's lone walk for the '79 Astros came in a crucial series against the Reds, with whom the Astros were locked in a tight division race. Tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 13th, with runners on 1st and 2nd, Heep pinch-hit for closer Joe Sambito. Reds pitcher Tom Hume intentionally walked Heep to face catcher Bruce Bochy. Bochy hit a one-out single to left to score Craig Reynolds and win the game, cutting the Reds' NL West lead to 1.5 games. Houston would go 4-5 down the stretch, the Reds went 3-4, but the Astros couldn't catch Cincinnati.

1980 saw Heep at Triple-A Tucson. In 96 games he hit .343/.398/.570 with 36K:36BB. When Art Howe got hit in the face with a pitch at Montreal, Heep was called up to play a sporadic first base. Over 33 games (97 PAs) Heep hit .276/.340/.368 with 9K:8BB to go with eight doubles and 6RBI. Heep went 3x3 with a walk and an RBI in the front-end of a double header against Montreal on July 19 and added three more hits at Montreal on July 25 and 26. Heep had another great day on August 17 at San Diego, going 3x5 with two doubles and an RBI and starting a season-high five-game hit streak. The 1980 Astros went 93-70, winning the NL West and of course losing a heart-breaking NLCS to the Phillies. Heep's lone NLCS action game in the bottom of the 10th in the deciding Game 5, pinch-hitting for RF Gary Woods. He popped out to short to lead off the inning.

Heep's minor-league numbers got him included on the above baseball card.

Heep established that he didn't need to see any more time in the minors with his 1981 season. Back at Tucson for 78 games, Heep hit .337/.433/.568, hitting 23 doubles, five triples, and 11 homers to go with 19K:47BB. He again got called up for another 33 games, playing 1B (spelling Cesar Cedeno) and RF (spelling Terry Puhl), Heep hit .250/.321/.281. He wasn't exactly taking advantage of his opportunity(ies).

Heep's final shot with the Astros came in 1982 when he played in 85 games (222 PAs), primarily back at RF/1B with a little bit of time in LF. In those 85 games he hit .237/.311/.379. Heep hit his first career MLB homer on May 14 against the Cubs in a 6-3 loss. And so, in December 1982, the Astros traded Heep to the Mets for pitcher Mike Scott.

In four seasons with the Mets, Scott was 14-27 with a 4.64 ERA/1.47 WHIP. In 364.2IP he had struck out 151 batters, but walked 122. He would enter his Age 28 season in 1983. Heep would be entering his Age-25 season. It worked out for the Astros, but both would hit their strike in 1986 (Heep was Nolan Ryan's 4000th career strikeout on July 11, 1985).

1986 Danny Heep hit .282/.379/.421 for a career-high .799 OPS. After learning a split-finger fastball from pitching coach Roger Craig in 1985 - a season in which he won 18 games, Scott broke out in 1986. He had a league-leading 2.22 ERA with a league-leading 0.92 WHIP, going 18-10 with a league-leading 306 strikeouts in a league-leading 275.1IP with a league-leading 4.25 K:BB ratio, locking up the Cy Young Award after throwing a no-hitter against the Dodgers to clinch the NL West.

We all know how the 1986 NLCS went, but Heep went 1x4 with a sac fly and an RBI in a pinch-hitting role.

Heep would go on to play 883 games in the Majors with a .257/.330/.357 line for the Astros, Mets, Dodgers, and Braves. Heep has been the head coach of Incarnate Word in San Antonio since 1998, making the NCAA regionals four times. Incarnate Word made the jump to D1 in 2014, and Heep has gone 25-56 in those three seasons.
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Alan Knicely was drafted as a pitcher in the 3rd Round of the 1974 draft out of Ashby HS in Bridgewater, Virginia. It went alright. Not great. For Rookie-League Covington in 1974 he allowed 78H/31ER, 53K:42BB - a 3.44 ERA/1.48 WHIP. In 1975 for Single-A Dubuque he went 4-10 with a 3.61 ERA/1.43 WHIP, the walks getting him again with 87K:62BB in 122IP. Back at Dubuque for the 1976 season, he went 7-3 with a 3.95 ERA but - improbably - again with the 87K:62BB in 15 fewer innings. He made 14 starts for Double-A Columbus in 1977, throwing 42IP, 40H/24ER, 25K:25BB - a 5.14 ERA/1.55 WHIP. His ERA and WHIP grew every year.

So the Astros turned him into a position player. Starting in 1978 the Astros had Knicely at catcher and shortstop. In 1978 he played in 140 games for Double-A Columbus, hitting .227/.311/.372 with 15 homers. The following season he broke out. In 120 games, again for Columbus, Knicely hit .289/.383/.566 with 12 doubles, three triples, and 33 home runs (beating Danny Heep by 12 HR) to go with 77K:61BB. It got him seven games in Houston where he went 0x6 with 3K:2BB.

In 1980 Knicely spent the season at Triple-A Tucson where he hit .318/.396/.515 - 18 doubles and 22 homers with 76K:61BB. He spent 124 games behind the plate where he committed 23 errors and allowed 16 passed balls. With catchers Alan Ashby and Luis Pujols faring better defensively at catcher, Knicely needed to find another position. He was 0x1 with a strikeout for Houston in 1980.

Still, the 55 homers in two seasons got him a spot on a baseball card.

Again Knicely spent 1981 in Tucson, hitting .306/.393/.502 with 73K:73BB and 32 doubles to go with 18 homers. He spent three games in Houston in 1981, getting a memorable seven plate appearances. Nicely got a single in his ML debut, pinch-hitting for Terry Puhl in the 9th inning of an eventual 9-0 Houston win on September 17. On October 3 at Chavez Ravine, Knicely hit a homer off Bob Welch in his 2nd career ML plate appearance, getting the Astros on the board in what would be a 7-2 Astros loss. The next day Knicely got his first ML start, hitting 5th and playing catcher. He went 2x4 with an 8th inning homer off Dave Goltz in the 8th to tie the game in an eventual 5-3 Astros win.

Knicely spent 59 games with the 1982 Astros as a utility man. In those 149 PAs he hit .188/.270/.248 - matching the total homers (2) as he had in seven plate appearances in 1981. He was traded to Cincinnati prior to the 1983 season for Bill Dawley and Tony Walker. Dawley went 11-4 as a reliever for the 1984 Astros with a 1.93 ERA/1.19 WHIP. Tony Walker hit .222/.307/.367 in 84 games as a PH/CF for the 1986 Astros.
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Bobby Sprowl, a left-handed pitcher out of the University of Alabama, was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 2nd Round of the 1977 draft - after Kevin Bass (Brewers) but before Mookie Wilson (Mets) in the round. In his senior season at Alabama Sprowl led the nation in K/9 with 115 strikeouts in 92 innings.

Sprowl soured Red Sox fans with his start on September 10, 1978, the second game after manager Don Zimmer called him up from Triple-A Pawtucket. Remember that the Yankees were 14.5 GB of Boston in July 1978. In the 4th game of a September series against the Yankees, Zimmer tabbed Sprowl for the start over Bill "Spaceman" Lee (who was 10-10 with a 3.50 ERA, though 44K:57BB to that point in the season) . It was Sprowl's - who was drafted 15 months earlier - second career Major-League start. Sprowl didn't get three outs. He threw 0.2IP, 1H/3ER, 0K:4BB in a game that allowed the Yankees to tie the Red Sox for the AL East lead. The Yankees would win the division on Bucky Dent's 7th-inning, 3-run go-ahead homer in G163. Sprowl - according to the aforementioned-link - would take on Bill Buckner-level scapegoating for that start.

In June 1979 the Red Sox sent Sprowl to Houston as the PTBNL in a deal that sent Pete Ladd to Houston and future Astros and Yankees GM Bob Watson to Boston. Ladd never pitched for Boston, but would throw 4IP for Milwaukee in the 1982 postseason, allowing 1H/0ER, 5K:2BB. The 23-year old Sprowl threw 112IP for Triple-A Charleston with a 3.86 ERA/1.19 WHIP. In 4IP for the 1979 Astros, he allowed 1H/0ER, 3K:2BB.

In Triple-A Tucson for the 1980 season, Sprowl posted a 4.35 ERA/1.61 WHIP, striking out 89 in 170 IP and walking 79 batters. Sprowl made one appearance for the 1980 Astros, in the 7th inning of a September 23 9-4 loss at San Diego. He struck out the side around a hit and a walk in a scoreless outing. And he's on this baseball card.

Sprowl spent his entire 1981 season in Houston - 28.2IP. He was 0-1 with a 5.97 ERA and 1.88 WHIP. His first three appearances of 1981 went okay: 3IP, 3H/0ER, 5K:1BB. He allowed 3ER in consecutive road appearances at Chicago and Cincinnati. Sprowl got his first Astros start against St. Louis on May 14, when he allowed 4H/1R (0ER), 3K:2BB in a game the Astros would somehow lose 7-6. Five days later he'd allow 4H/3ER in 2IP against the same Cardinals. He would five up at least one earned run in six of his next eight Astros appearances, bouncing between Tucson and Houston.

Following the 1983 season the Astros traded Sprowl to Baltimore for Craig Minetto, who never pitched for the Astros. Sprowl is currently the head coach of the Shelton State Community College baseball team in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Ghosts of Cesar Cedeno

Over here there's about 3000 words about the absolutely insane career and life about Cesar Cedeno. It's, uh, it's something else.

The Best 2B Seasons in Baseball History

I'm just going to leave this as a placeholder for a post I feel like we'll be writing here in about 7 1/2 weeks. It's worth having some context for what we're watching with Jose Altuve right now.

Let's take a look at the ten best seasons by a second baseman in baseball history, and let's keep it from 1962 on so as to avoid talking about Rogers Hornsby. For this exercise, we're going to go by FanGraphs' WAR (fWAR). We're also going to isolate each player's first 114 games - that number being the number of games Altuve has played thus far this season. This runs through yesterday's double-header in which Altuve exploded for five hits (that's 994 for his career, by the by). 

So, first things first: 2016 Altuve is hitting .365/.431/.572. He has 30 doubles, three triples, 19 home runs, 50K:49BB, 26 stolen bases in 31 attempts. In 114 games (514 plate appearances) he has a 169 wRC+ and 6.2 fWAR. The thing about Altuve's fWAR is they severely depreciate his defensive value (shifting bias? I've been trying to figure this out for a couple of years) and his Baserunning value (-0.4) is undercut by his baserunning errors. That said, his 2016 season is already 3rd in franchise history by an Astros 2B, and Biggio's 1998 season posted a 6.5 fWAR. At his current pace, Altuve should hit that by Monday.

Altuve has 164 hits in 514 PAs. 52 of his hits have gone for extra-bases (31.7%) and he has a 174 OPS+. 

Here are the top ten seasons by a 2B since 1962:

1. Joe Morgan, Cincinnati: 1975. .327/.466/.508 in 146 games (639 plate appearances). 67 stolen bases, 107 runs scored, 94 RBI. 176 wRC+, 11.0 fWAR. 

In 1975 Joe Morgan had the single greatest season by a 2B since 1962. Through 114 games (111 starts), Morgan was hitting .322/.458/.504. He had 128 hits in 507 PAs with 43K:101BB, 49 stolen bases, 21 doubles, three triples, and 15 home runs. He would end the season with 17 home runs, 52K:132BB. 44 of his 163 hits were for extra-bases (27.0%). His .466 OBP led the league, as did his .974 OPS. He got a 65.6 Offensive rating, with a 17.3 Defensive rating, and a 9.7 Baserunning rating. It resulted in Morgan's first MVP award, which he would also win the following year....

2. Joe Morgan, Cincinnati: 1976: .320/.444/.576 in 141 games (599 plate appearances). 60 stolen bases, 113 runs scored, 111 RBI. 184 wRC+, 9.5 fWAR.

...and which ranks 2nd on the list. Through 114 games (108 starts), Morgan had managed to improve on his ridiculous 1975 season. He was hitting .335/.460/.637. He had 130 hits in 496 PAs with 32K:97BB, 49 stolen bases (in 55 attempts), 29 doubles, five triples, 26 home runs. He would end the season with 27 home runs, 41K:114BB. 62 of his 151 hits were for extra-bases (41.1%). His .444 OBP, .576 SLG, and 1.020 OPS all lead the league. Morgan's .256 ISO in ridiculous. The only reason his fWAR wasn't higher than 1975 has something to do with his Defensive rating, which plummeted to 2.1. But still, that 184 wRC+ is the highest for a 2B since 1962.

3. Joe Morgan, Cincinnati: 1973. .290/.406/.493 in 157 games (698 plate appearances). 67 stolen bases, 116 runs scored, 82 RBI. 156 wRC+, 9.5 fWAR.

Nice trade, Spec Richardson. The three greatest seasons by a 2B in the last 54 years came from a guy the Astros traded (with four players) for Tommy Helms, Lee May, and Jimmy Stewart. Not that Jimmy Stewart. Well, I don't think it's the same one. Anyway, through 114 games (108 starts), Morgan was hitting .295/.413/.499. He had 119 hits in 493 PAs with 38K:82BB, 43 stolen bases (in 54 attempts), 27 doubles, two triples, and 17 home runs. He would end the season with 26 home runs, 61K:111BB. 56 of his 150 hits went for extra-bases (37.3%). Morgan didn't lead the league in any offensive category, but he was solid across the board and earned the first of his Top 5 MVP finishes. 

4. Craig Biggio, Houston: 1997. .309/.415/.501 in 162 games (744 plate appearances). 47 stolen bases, 146 runs scored, 81 RBI. 148 wRC+, 9.3 fWAR. 

Now we're talking. Through 114 games (110 starts), Biggio was hitting .315/.404/.509. At the Astrodome. He had 141 hits in 527 PAs with 75K:57BB, 22 stolen bases (in 28 attempts), 29 doubles, five triples, 16 home runs. Biggio would end the season with 22 home runs, 107K:84BB. 67 of his 191 hits were for extra-bases (35.1%). AT THE ASTRODOME. Biggio led the league with 146 runs scored and 34 HBPs, which helped his OBP climb. Biggio's Offensive rating was 50.3 while his Defensive rating clocked in at 20.8 (which ranks 24th among 2Bs since 1962). And Biggio did not ground into a double play for the entire year - in 78 possible plate appearances in which he could have GIDPd. He only finished 4th in the MVP voting behind Larry Walker (1.172 OPS), Mike Piazza (1.070 OPS), and Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell (1.017 OPS). 

5. Joe Morgan, Cincinnati: 1972. .292/.417/.435 in 149 games (680 plate appearances). 58 stolen bases, 122 runs scored, 73 RBI. 150 wRC+, 8.7 fWAR.

The first season after the trade from Houston, Morgan broke out. Typical Astors. Through 114 games (114 starts), Morgan was hitting .284/.415/.437. He had 120 hits in 525 PAs, with 26K:91BB, 41 stolen bases (in 55 attempts), 16 doubles, two triples, and 15 home runs. He would end the season with 16 home runs, 44 strikeouts and a league-leading 115 walks. 43 of his 161 hits were for extra-base hits (26.7%). His 122 runs, 115 walks, and .417 OBP led the league. 

6. Ben Zobrist, Tampa Bay: 2009. .297/.405/.543 in 152 games (641 plate appearances). 17 stolen bases, 91 runs scored, 91 RBI. 152 wRC+, 8.6 fWAR.

The first season in which Zobrist played in more than 62 games. Through 114 games (97 starts), Zobrist was hitting .291/.405/.552. He had 106 hits in 440 PAs, with 79K:70BB, 15 stolen bases (in 18 attempts), 17 doubles, six triples, 22 home runs. Zobrist would end the season with 27 home runs, 107K:92BB. 62 of his 149 hits were for extra bases (41.6%). Zobrist Offensive rating is slightly higher than Joe Morgan's 1972 season, but his defense (22.3 Def rating) was what pushed him over the top to an 8.6 fWAR.

7. Joe Morgan, Cincinnati: 1974. .293/.427/.494 in 149 games (641 plate appearances). 58 stolen bases, 107 runs scored, 67 RBI. 162 wRC+, 8.6 fWAR.

Two things: (1) Try not to think about how the seven greatest seasons by a second baseman since 1962 have come from an Astro, and from two guys the Astros traded away. (2) Joe Morgan's 1972-1976 rank in five of the top seven seasons by a 2B since 1962. I wish Joe Morgan hadn't been a terrible broadcaster. Through 114 games (112 starts), Morgan was hitting .298/.425/.487. He had 123 hits in 512 PAs, with 52K:92BB, 47 stolen bases (in 57 attempts), 27 doubles, three triples, and 15 home runs. He would end the season with 22 home runs, 69K:120BB. 54 of his 150 hits (36.0%) went for extra-bases. His .427 OBP led the league. So just to recap Morgan's five seasons from 1972-1976: .303/.431/.499, 267K:592BB, 146 doubles and 108 home runs. That's a 163 OPS+. 

8. Chase Utley, Philadelphia: 2009. .282/.397/.508 in 156 games (687 plate appearances). 23 stolen bases, 112 runs scored, 93 RBI. 141 wRC+, 8.2 fWAR. 

Through 114 games (112 starts), Utley was hitting .295/.418/.527. He had 122 hits in 507 PAs, with 83K:72BB, 13 stolen bases (in 13 attempts), 22 doubles, a triple, and 24 home runs. He would end the season with 31 home runs, 110K:88BB. His 24 HBPs led the league. Utley's value came in his offense, obviously, but he was a well-above-average baserunner and solid defensively. 

9. Chase Utley, Philadelphia: 2008. .292/.380/.535 in 159 games (707 plate appearances). 14 stolen bases, 113 runs scored, 104 RBI. 134 wRC+, 8.2 WAR.

Through 114 games, Utley was hitting .286/.369/.559. He had 126 hits in 507 PAs, with 73K:45BB, 10 stolen bases (in 11 attempts), 30 doubles, three triples, and 28 home runs. Utley's 2008 season would end with 33 home runs, 104K:64BB, and again led the league with 27 home runs. 

10. Chuck Knoblauch, Minnesota: 1996. .341/.448/.517 in 153 games (701 plate appearances). 45 stolen bases, 140 runs scored, 72 RBI. 145 wRC+, 8.1 fWAR. 

I know, right? But it's easy to overlook how good Knoblauch was for three years in the mid-1990s, as well as being the 1991 AL Rookie of the Year. Through 114 games Knoblauch was hitting .354/.448/.540. He had 158 hits in 531 PAs, with 54K:67BB, 32 stolen bases (in 41 attempts), 31 doubles, eleven triples, and ten home runs. He would end the season with 13 home runs, a league-leading 14 triples, 74K:98BB and 197 hits.

Takeaway:

Offensively, Altuve tops all of these, by just about every metric. He doesn't have Morgan's stolen base total or Utley's home runs, Biggio's or Zobrist's defensive ratings. There are 47 games remaining in the season, which is a little under a third of the season. But through 114 games, Altuve has more hits than any other 2B on this list since 1962, and it's looking like the only thing that might prevent Altuve from getting on this list is how FanGraphs values his defense and his baserunning. Don't worry, we'll have another post when Altuve gets his 1000th hit (likely this weekend). I don't know that anyone is doing this, but please don't overlook how unreal Altuve's 2016 has been.

The Life and Times of Former SP2 Lucas Harrell

Ahhh Lucas Harrell. One of those "chicken s**t into Egyptian cotton" waiver claims by Easy Eddie Wade, on to whom he held too long. Let's go back and reminisce.

The Astros claimed Harrell off of waivers on July 8, 2011 from the White Sox, with whom he had been a 2004 4th Round draft pick. Why? Well, the White Sox weren't 100% sure what to do with him. In 2010 Harrell made his major-league debut and pitched in eight games for Chicago. He started three games, he finished three games, and appeared in relief in the other two without finishing the games, even though every single appearance to that point in his career in the minors had been as a starter. In 2009 he posted a 12-4 record between Double-A and Triple-A with a 3.27 ERA/1.40 WHIP.

Harrell made a spot start for Chicago on July 30, 2010 for his major-league debut. In 6IP, he allowed 4H/1ER, 1K:5BB, throwing 50 of his 98 pitches for strikes in a 6-1 win over Oakland. Sent back down following the game, he came back up on August 28 and got both batters he faced in a 12-9 loss to the Yankees.

He allowed four unearned runs in relief at Detroit on September 7, sporting a healthy 0.84 ERA after 10.2IP career MLB innings. He started the next two games and in 8.1IP allowed 17H/9ER, 6K:5BB.

He allowed one earned run in the remaining three relief appearances in 2010 as the White Sox finished 88-74, six games behind the Twins for 2nd in the AL Central, and seven behind the Yankees for the Wild Card.

In three relief appearances for the White Sox in 2011 (5IP), he allowed 11H/4ER, 5K:1BB, and the White Sox placed him on waivers. Enter the Houston Astros, who claimed him on July 8, 2011. That night the Astros lost 6-3 at Florida (now Miami) to fall to 30-60, 18 games back, with a lineup of Bourn, Angel Sanchez, Hunter Pence, Carlos Lee, Jeff Keppinger, Brett Wallace, Clint Barmes, Carlos Corporan, and Jordan Lyles.

The Lucas Harrell era had begun and things, fam, were truly lit. We wondered which OKC starter's job Harrell was going to take.

Harrell made his Astros debut as a September call-up on September 2. In 5.1IP, he allowed 3H/0ER, 4K:2BB against the Brewers, a game that Milwaukee would of course win 8-2 because Goatpen. He appeared in relief for the next three appearances, allowing 2H/2ER, 3K:4BB in 3.2IP. Whatever, they were about to lose 106 games, so who cared? On September 25, Harrell allowed 7H/5R (3ER), 1K:1BB in what would be a 19-3 Colorado win in which Harrell was yanked after 3+IP. In nine major league appearances between Chicago and Houston in 2011, his teams went 0-9 when he pitched.

Harrell impressed the club in Spring Training 2012 and beat out Jordan Lyles for a spot in the rotation. He was SP2 when the 2012 season opened, and he actually pitched pretty well. The high-water mark of his season was that opening start when he allowed 3H/0ER, 4K:0BB in 7IP in a 7-3 Astros win. But he still had 14 quality starts, and the Astros went 14-18 in games he started, and considering the Astros only won 55 games in 2012, that was pretty impressive.

But there were some makeup questions emerging. Harrell struggled in September 2012, and blamed the fact that the Astros were going with a 6-Man Rotation, saying, "It's a little too much time. I'm a touch and feel guy. I need to be out there a lot more."

In 2013 Harrell completely backtracked. After a 6-2 loss to the Tigers on May 14 in which he allowed 7H/5ER, 1K:3BB, Harrell complained about the use of defensive shifts:
We're trying some new things with our defense, and I thought they worked against me tonight. The ball that Dirks hit was up there forever, and I thought someone might have caught that one. He hit it hard, and that's my fault, but I was hoping someone would get there.

Worse, Bo Porter didn't find out about the complaining until the next day. He told Harrell before the game the next day:
Listen, if you have something to say, and you want to voice your opinion, I have a complete open-door policy.

He won six games and lost a league-leading 17 games for the 111-loss Astros and that includes the time he got bumped out of the rotation in July. The Astros looked into trading him prior to the deadline. At the end of the season he had an 89K:88BB line in 153.2IP. His WHIP increased from 1.36 to 1.71. His HR/9 doubled. Walks were up, strikeouts were down. We compared Harrell's 2013 season to Brandon Backe's 2008 season.

When he got bumped from the rotation, he was pissed and told Brian T. Smith that he "didn't want to talk about it." And then he did want to talk about it about getting bumped from the rotation:
I'm tied with Felix Hernandez for 10 starts with one run or less in all of baseball. I think that's kind of touch to move a guy like that down to the bullpen. But they make the decision so it's their call...I feel like I've been pretty durable and I've given a lot. 

Four days after his bullpen shift, Harrell allowed 4H/2ER, 0K:2BB in 3IP in relief of Bud Norris at St. Louis. Harrell and Jordan Lyles got into a "heated clubhouse confrontation." All parties said the right things after the fact - the Chronicle didn't report on it for five days - about moving on and teammates being teammates and whatnot. But still Harrell stayed on the team. He would only start three more games, throwing 10.2IP, 16H/18ER, 7K:10BB.

He was bad in 2013. Real bad. Many players privately noted* that Harrell was their favorite teammate that season because he was the worst player on the team, and took some of the spotlight off of them.

*No link here because it's from a reliable SOURCE

There was the time he asked a media outlet not to use a picture of him because he had a hickey on his neck. That's not so much a black eye as it is an eye roll.

He was designated for assignment after his April 15, 2014 start in which he allowed 5H/4ER, 4K:3BB to the Royals (Robbie Grossman was optioned to OKC the same night) to make room for George Springer. Harrell finished his season with a 9.49 ERA/2.27 WHIP. Two weeks later he was traded for cash considerations to Arizona. He didn't appear for the major-league club and signed with a Korean team for the 2015 season.

Harrell signed with the Tigers as a free agent in March 2016, was released on May 16, and signed with the rebuilding Braves four days later. In five starts with the Braves recaptured some of his devil magic. On July 2 he threw 6IP, 3H/1ER, 5K:1BB. On July 7 he held the Cubs to 4H/1ER, 5K:2BB in 7.2IP. His next two starts were a little rockier as he allowed 7H/7R (5ER), 4K:3BB to Colorado (get it?) and 7H/4ER, 3K:3BB at Cincinnati. However, last night (July 26) he started at Minnesota and allowed 4H/0ER, 4K:3BB.

Naturally today the Rangers traded their 20th-best prospect, Travis Demeritte, to Atlanta for Harrell and reliever Dario Alvarez. Harrell would be scheduled to pitch on Sunday. If that schedule holds, Harrell would be in line to make a start at Houston in the August 5-7 series. Hoo boy.

Cups of Coffee: Rafael Montalvo

This is the fifth in a series of posts about Astros players in franchise history who played in one career Major League game. The first post was the sad tale of Jay Dahl, then the sort-of-awesome tale of John Paciorek, then the wholly unique tale of Larry Yount. Today we take a look at pitcher Rafael Montalvo.

Rafael Edgardo Montalvo was born on March 31, 1964 in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. He left the 10th grade to sign a minor-league contract with the Dodgers as a 16-year old (leaving high school was a decision he would later regret), Montalvo found himself in the Dodgers' organization playing in Rookie ball against opponents who were, on average, four years older than he. In 31IP for the Pioneer League's Lethbridge Dodgers in Lethbridge, Alberta, he would go 4-2, allowing 37H/17ER, with 18K:16BB. Incidentally, the 1980 Lethbridge Dodgers would go 52-18.

Given his youth and middling success, Montalvo spent the 1981 season repeating in Lethbridge, and struggled even more. He threw only 20IP, posting a 5.40 ERA/2.05 WHIP, with 11K:13BB as a 17-year old. The Dodgers promoted him to the A-ball Lodi of the California League, anyway, and he rewarded them in 1982 with a 3.44 ERA/1.43 WHIP. The walks were a concern (38K:33BB in 70.2IP), but he was able to pitch out of jams. 

He spent 1983 in the Florida League's Vero Beach, where he had the best season of his career: 75.1IP, 61H/13ER, 55K:31BB - a 1.55 ERA/1.22 WHIP. This got him a promotion - at 20 - to Double-A San Antonio, and when he put up a 1.99 ERA/1.28 WHIP in 20 games, he was promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque. In 63.1IP he put up a 4.41 ERA/1.78 WHIP. Still, he was in his Age 20 season.

1985 saw Montalvo back in Albuquerque, where he went 2-7 with 13 saves and a 4.20 ERA. But the Astros thought enough of him that, on July 10, the Dodgers traded him and minor-leaguer German Rivera to the Astros for Enos Cabell, a south Los Angeles native. When he got traded to the Astros, Albuquerque was playing Tucson at home, so Montalvo just moved his gear from the home clubhouse to the visitors clubhouse. Montalvo spent the rest of the 1985 season in Triple-A Tucson, going 1-2 with four saves and a 5.35 ERA in 22 appearances. 

1985 was Enos Cabell's 14th year in the majors, and he would retire from baseball the following year. At the time he was traded, Cabell - a lifetime .277/.308/.370 hitter - was hitting .245/.321/.357 in 60 games at 1B. Having spent a lot of his career at Third Base, however, made him attractive to the Dodgers, who needed help. The Dodgers optioned 1B Sid Bream to Triple-A to make room for Cabell.

While Enos Cabell would hit .292/.340/.349 for the Dodgers over the rest of 1985, but Cabell's real headline of that 1985 summer was that he was one of 22 players involved in the Pittsburgh Drug Trials. Cabell testified that he had used cocaine "off and on" from 1978 to 1984, (he played with the Astros from 1975-1980, and 1984) along with many of his Astros and Giants teammates (including J.R. Richard) and that, while on cocaine, "I usually got two or three hits...I always peformed well." One Dodgers player said that he had bought cocaine from Cabell

Cabell was among the players who received the harshest penalty for - as commissioner Peter Ueberroth said, was "a prolonged pattern of drug use...and in some fashion facilitated the distribution of drugs in baseball." Cabell was then subjected to random drug testing and could choose to either be suspended for the 1986 season, or lose 10% of his 1986 salary ($45,000) and perform 100 hours of community service to a drug-related program. Cabell hit .256/.294/.318 in 107 games for LA in 1986, the final year of his 15-year career.

Despite Montalvo's minor-league numbers, the Astros saw the movement on Montalvo's sinkers and sliders and projected him for a middle relief role on the 1986 team. In Spring Training 1986, Houston manager Hal Lanier noted that Montalvo's pitches "have a lot of movement."

The 1986 Astros opened the season with six games in the Astrodome, after dropping the first two games of the season to the Giants, the Astros rattled off three straight and were facing the Braves to try to complete the sweep on Sunday, April 13.

Mike Scott was making his 2nd start of the season. In G2 of the 1986 season, Scott gave up 8H/3ER, 4K:1BB in 5IP to the Giants, a game in which the Astros lost 4-1. Scott was facing the Braves' Joe Johnson, who would record 13 of his 20 career wins in 1986.

The two pitchers traded perfect half-innings in the 1st but Scott faltered in the 2nd, allowing a single, steal, and a walk before an Ken Oberkfell single plated the first Braves' run. Johnson mowed down the Astros with three groundouts in the bottom of the 2nd. Scott responded with a flyball, strikeout, groundout in the top of the 3rd. Johnson got Bailey, Hatcher, and Scott to remain perfect through three innings. Again Scott stumbled in the top of the 4th: two singles to open the inning were followed by a Billy Sample home run. Two errors resulted in another Braves run before catcher Mark Bailey threw out leadoff hitter Omar Moreno to end the inning. The Braves were up 5-0 in the middle of the 4th.

The Astros got one back when a passed ball scored Bill Doran, who had singled to open the bottom of the 4th inning to make it 5-1. In the top of the 6th, Chris Chambliss and Billy Sample singled to open the inning, chasing Scott from the game in favor of reliever Mike Madden. A sac fly from Oberkfell made it 6-1 and Madden pitched around a single and a walk to at least limit the damage. The Astros got two runs back in the bottom of the 6th to make it 6-3 Braves.

Madden ran back out for the 7th and got two quick outs before three straight singles scored another Braves run, the inning only ending because Billy Sample was thrown out at home on a relay from Kevin Bass to Mike Madden to Mark Bailey. Alan Ashby pinch-hit for Madden and flew out to left, but a Phil Garner triple brought in two runs to make it 7-5 Braves.

Coming out of the bullpen for the 7th inning, in his first major league appearance was reliever Rafael Montalvo. He got Glenn Hubbard to pop up, got Ozzie Virgil to fly out to left. Omar Moreno hit a two-out triple, but Rafael Ramirez grounded out to Montalvo to end the inning, stranding Moreno on 3rd.

Kevin Bass, Dickie Thon, and Mark Bailey were all retired in order, and Montalvo went back to work for the top of the 9th, trying to hold the Braves' lead at 7-5. He walked Dale Murphy to lead off the inning, and then walked pinch-hitter Bob Horner. That was all Hal Lanier needed to see, and Frank DiPino was called in to replace Montalvo. Murphy later scored on a Ken Oberkfell single, which was charged to Montalvo, and Bob Horner was thrown out at home on a rope from left fielder Eric Bullock. It was 8-5 Braves.

A Phil Garner single off future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter plated Craig Reynolds and Bill Doran to make it 8-7 Braves, but Glenn Davis grounded into a double play to end the game and sealing the Atlanta win.

Montalvo never appeared in a Major-League game again. Following that one appearance (1IP, 1H/1ER, 0K:2BB) Montalvo was sent back to Tucson, where he posted a 3.86 ERA in 77IP. He would pitch in Tucson through the 1988 season. He missed 1989, but put up a 2.74 ERA for the California Angels' Triple-A team in Edmonton in 1990. Montalvo bounced between Double-A and Triple-A in 1991, with a disappointing 6.00 ERA/1.85 WHIP.

The Astros, though starting 3-3, would win 11 of their next 14 games, ending April with a 14-6 record and setting the tone for the team that would eventually lose to the 1986 Mets in one of the most classic playoff series in franchise history.

After a 3-year hiatus from baseball, Montalvo made his way back to the Dodgers for 1995 Spring training, 15 years after making his professional debut. The reason? The 1994 Players' Strike had extended into 1995, and baseball teams were using replacement players to fill out their Spring Training rosters. Montalvo was one of 40 players who volunteered to cross the picket line and play. Montalvo pitched the Dodgers' Grapefruit League opener against the Yankees' Frank Eufemia, who had only ever played for the 1985 Twins.

Even though that Grapefruit League opener had a police escort to protect the players against possible violence from irate fans, Montalvo wasn't worried:

I've been through some scary situations in Mexico, but I don't think the people in this country will throw rocks or bottles. Police will be there to protect us, anyway.

Montalvo made a guaranteed $7,000 per month plus a $5,000 signing bonus and $3,000 in meal money, the standard Dodgers guarantee for Triple-A players. And that's where Montalvo spent his 1995 season: Albuquerque. He put up a career-best 2.65 ERA in 98.1IP.

And that was it for Rafael Montalvo until 1999, when at Age 35 he pitched for the Independent League Atlantic City Surf, which also included Ruben Sierra and Rey Quinones.

After that 1999 season, Montalvo joined the Rays organization as a minor-league coach. From 2002-2004, Montalvo was the pitching coach for the Hudson Valley Renegades of the New York-Penn League, and he rejoined the team from 2007-09. The 2004 Renegades pitching staff - under Montalvo - had the second-lowest team ERA in all of minor-league baseball.

Montalvo now lives in Qatar with his wife.

History Lesson: The Astros, Phil Nevin, and the 1992 Draft

Today we get to unveil the latest in our History Lesson series, an effort in which we try to write too many words about every interesting episode in Astros history. Do to the length of the piece we have put it on a separate page. So here is the link to 2800 words about the Astros, Phil Nevin, Derek Jeter, and the 1992 draft.

History Lesson: Bob Watson and the One Millionth Run

It is not rare to see a player sprint from second base to score a run. It is fairly rare to see a player sprint from second base to cross the plate after a teammate hits a home run. Yet that's precisely what Astros outfielder Bob Watson did on May 4, 1975 against the Giants. Why? $10,000, a $1,000 Seiko watch, and one million Tootsie Rolls were at stake.

The 1975 Astros were coming off three straight seasons in which they finished .500 or better for the first time in their young history. But 1975 wasn't going so well. At the end of April they were 8-16 in the middle of a 16-game road trip that would encompass both coasts, ten games out west, then three in Montreal, and three in Chicago. They had taken three of four from the Padres to open the homestand and headed to Candlestick Park for three weekend games. Houston lost the series opener on a walkoff, then the Saturday game was postponed by rain, making Sunday a double-header against the Giants.

Ninety-nine years after the foundation of the National League - and the first run scored by  the Philadelphia Athletics' Wes Fisler - a radio newscaster named Mark Sackler had used the Baseball Encyclopedia to count up how many runs had been scored in Major-League history. He figured that in 1974 MLB had to be close to a million runs. Sackler predicted May 4, 1975 as the day that the one millionth run would be scored.

The promotion picked up steam. Stan Musial got in on it: "I think it's a great promotion for baseball. Baseball is a great game for statistics."

There was some controversy over the whole to-do: why was Major League Baseball selling out for Tootsie Rolls, a "small-time candy company?" It wasn't until Joe DiMaggio explained that it was fun and that he had eaten Tootsie Rolls as early as six years old that the promotion started to pick up steam. And when Ernie Banks promoted it, then it became okay. Fans were allowed to pick the who and when would score the one millionth run, and there was a countdown in every single ballpark. Rockefeller Center served as a command center for spotters at every game, phoning in each run that was scored. There was a contest for fans to predict who would score and win, and the winner would get a million Tootsie Rolls and a million pennies, as well.

Teams bought into it, as well. Marty Appel, the Yankees' media relations director at the time, said, "We were hoping it was us. We weren't winning pennants then and it would've been a nice moment."

Watson told Brian McTaggart that the Astros knew what was happening, too. "We knew there was going to have to be 10 runs scored or something."

Dave Roberts took the mound for the Astros facing the Giants' John Montefusco. It was 0-0 when cleanup hitter Bob Watson led off the top of the 2nd. He worked the count full, then drew the walk, and then stole second base. Jose Cruz drew another walk to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out for catcher Milt May's plate appearance.

Five minutes earlier Oakland's Phil Garner hit a double that scored Claudell Washington at Comiskey Park. The One Millionth Run countdown was stuck on 1.

During the second inning of the Astros/Giants game, the Yankees' Chris Chambliss was thrown out at home by Brewers' first baseman George Scott. "I would have made a little part of history," Chambliss said after the game, "I guess that's the only way I'll make history."

Meanwhile the Twins' Rod Carew was trying to score from third on a flyball to right when Al Cowens' perfect throw nailed Carew at the plate, who also injured himself on the slide. Interestingly enough, Cowens' official pick for the player to score the one millionth run? Rod Carew.

Milt May had been acquired following the 1973 season from the Pirates in exchange for Jerry Reuss, and hit a then-career high .281 for the 1974 Astros. But he wasn't a power-hitter. Until that May 4 double-header, May had hit 21 home runs in 1153 career plate appearances.

Cleveland was down 7-0 in the bottom of the 6th against Baltimore with one out when left fielder John Lowenstein hit a double to left. Mike Torrez had him picked him off but threw the ball away, allowing Lowenstein to advance to third base. "I thought about trying to steal home," he said, "but we were behind by so much that if I didn't make it I might as well just keep on running, so I didn't even try to get in."

But the counter was stuck at 1, so May decided he was swinging. "I was not a power hitter," said May, "Maybe I should've had that approach more often." May launched the ball towards the fence in right field.

Watson wasn't sure if the ball had enough to get out, "When the ball was hit," Watson said, "I had to hold up because it looked like Bobby Murcer had a play on it. I went back to second to tag, then I ran hard when I saw it was over." It was the 22nd home run of May's career.

The Reds were playing the Braves at Riverfront Stadium in front of 51,000 Cincinnati fans. A big part of the reason the countdown was at One that Sunday afternoon was because of the Braves and Reds. Dave Concepcion scored on a Johnny Bench single in the first inning. The Braves answered with two runs in the 4th. At the time Milt May was batting in San Francisco, Concepcion was in the process of hitting a solo home run off of Phil Niekro. "I was flying around the bases," Concepcion remembered. "I never in my life ran faster. I saw everybody jumping and cheering and thought, 'I got it! I got it!'" The Reds celebrated at the plate, thinking Concepcion had scored the one millionth run in baseball history.

At Candlestick Park, the bullpen was behind third base. Watson said, "I got to third and the guys were saying, 'Run, run, run!'"

"Then somebody said I came up short," Concepcion said. "I think I missed by eight yards."

Thirty seconds past 12:32 Pacific Time, Watson crossed the plate as Concepcion was rounding third base. "If I hadn't have run and didn't listen to the guys in the bullpen, he would have scored the 1,000,000th run...I think I beat Concepcion by like a second and a half," said Watson. It took six minutes to get from 999,999 to 1,000,000 runs, and then five runs were scored within 26 seconds of Watson's.

"I was so happy when I got into the dugout," Concepcion said, "it really broke my heart when I saw on the scoreboard that Watson won." For his effort, though, promoter Ted Worner gave Concepcion a lifetime supply of Tootsie Rolls and a watch.

Watson gave the one million Tootsie Rolls to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts - his kids were allergic to chocolate - and donated the one million pennies ($10,000) to charity. But the $1,000 platinum Seiko watch, which he has never worn, is still in his safety deposit box. "I would never sell it - it's one of a kind," said Watson. The game was stopped and Milt May's bat, home plate at Candlestick, and the spikes Watson was wearing when he crossed home plate were then given to the Hall of Fame.

"I was upset," Watson said. "I wasn't going to let them take my shoes because in those days it took you a long time to break your shoes in. This was May 4, I had just gotten my shoes broken in, and then they took them."

Years later, it was determined that Watson had not actually scored the millionth run, but he was allowed to keep the watch.

"It got me on the map a little bit," said Watson, "and I ended up being the answer to a trivia question."

Sources:
Associated Press: May 5, 1975 (also this edition)
Milwaukee Journal: May 5, 1975
The Day: May 5, 1975
Gadsden Times: May 26, 1975
New York Daily News

MLB.com

Baseball Minutia
Baseball Hall of Fame's Card Corner
Millenium Conjectures
Fueled by Sports
Big Hair and Plastic Grass by Dan Epstein
Baseball-Reference