If you could go back in time to watch a player/players, who would you watch?

[TooLiveBrew]

This is a question I've pondered many times... and yes, I realize this topic might 'date' some posters, but if nothing else perhaps some of the younger crowd could get feedback from people who have seen certain ballplayers in their playing days.

 

I love pouring over the baseball-reference player pages of players I never had the chance to watch play. I'll admit it -- the Mick's page was what finally pushed me over the edge to start this thread. Mantle's performance was simply astonishing, and he'd be on my short list. I guess instead of listing off a huge list of guys, I'll just leave it at Mantle for now. However, I will say that I'd like to 'go back' to see a lot of Negro Leagues action, since many legendary players never saw MLB, or saw it past their primes.

 

Anyway, if anyone else out there is interested in this topic, please go ahead http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

 

(And yes, this post is probably an indicator of how bored I am at this point with the Brewers' season http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/indifferent.gif)

[JimH5]

This is a great thread.

 

I would have liked to see the rage that Ty Cobb played with. I would like to see the action from one of the great spitballers (Burleigh Grimes, Big Ed Walsh, etc.). Of course, Ruth. . .but I'd be more interested in seeing how he fielded his position, or ran the bases. . .there's plenty of footage of him at the plate. . .It would be great to see Koufax and Drysdale pitch a doubleheader in Dodger Stadium.

 

Warren Spahn. . .Clemente. . .Jackie Robinson. . .Satchell Paige. . .Cool Papa Bell. . .there's tons of guys. . .

[MNBrew]

Cy Young. Ty Cobb. Walter Johnson. Babe Ruth. Jackie Robinson. Satchell Paige (great thought, H5). Willie Mays. Mickey Mantle. Stan Musial. Hank Aaron (and not just at the plate). Koufax & Drysdale. Ozzie Smith, esp. his Padres years (I remember well his Cardinals days). Roberto Clemente. The Seattle Pilots (yes, seriously). Andre Dawson as an Expo (esp. alongside Tim Raines). Nolan Ryan & Steve Carlton & Tom Seaver.

 

Awesome question.

[dragoon84]

I would go back to 1922 and watch Rogers Hornsby put up his gaudy, ridiculous season.

 

Stat line: 250 hits, 141 runs, 46 doubles, 14 triples, 42 hrs, 152 rbis, 1.181 OPS, .401 average

 

One of the greatest individual seasons in MLB history, especially because he played 2b.

[RoseBowlMtg]

I would love to see the year that would never be matched. 73 CS 73 CG's, 59-12 1.38 era 448 K's 98 BB's 678.2 IP's Old Hoss Radbourne!

 

 

1884 29 PRO NL 59 12 .831 1.38 75 73 2 73 11 1 678.2 528 216 104 18 98 441 0 0 34 2672 205 0.922 7.0 0.2 1.3 5.8 4.50

 

 

The 1919 World Series to see how Shoeless Joe Jackson played: He hit .375 and got thrown out of baseball.

[Brily0204]

Bill Mazeroski. The guy had a career OPS+ of 84. His career OBP is .299. He got thrown out on 46% of his steal attempts. He's in the HOF largely because of how he could turn the DP, and how I would love to see him do that for a season or two. I can only guess that it must have been analogous to seeing Ozzie Smith in his prime.

[hawing]

The books I've read about Roberto Clemente make me regret not having been old enough to have an interest in baseball when he played. (Not that I would have got a lot out of it at age 6 or under, anyway)

 

My knee-jerk short list would thus be Clemente and Spahn. And the 1957 Braves' pennant clincher and World Series.

[Baldkin]

I would've loved to see Babe Ruth pitch a game -- he was almost as great a pitcher as he was a hitter.

See Tris Speaker patrolling centerfield.

See Josh Gibson call a game and hit a mammoth shot.

[JimH5]

A couple other guys, just for the curiosity of seeing them play with their odd body-types. . .

 

Hack Wilson

Mordecai Three Finger Brown

Pete Gray

Ernie Lombardi

 

I would also like to see Marichal's leg kick in person. . .

[Fatter than Joey]

I would go back to 1922 and watch Rogers Hornsby put up his gaudy, ridiculous season.

 

Did you know that Hornsby led the league in BA, OBP, SLG and OPS for 6 seasons in a row?

 

The 1919 World Series to see how Shoeless Joe Jackson played: He hit .375 and got thrown out of baseball.

 

Right -- and then you could see him play poorly in the games that the Sox tanked.

 

I am pretty sure I would take Russell Branyan back in time with me to meet Ted Kluszewski, and watch them hit bombs, in between battling communism and helping NASA launch satellites.

[sgtcluels]

Wow FTJ, you just made me look the fool by laughing out loud.

[topper09er]

See Ted Williams on the last day of the season in 1941 when he entered the day at exactly .400 and went 6-8.

 

See Ty Cobb get ejected from a game.

 

See the dead ball pitchers in person and judge whether guys like Johnson, Mathewson or Young were good enough to get Albert Pujols out.

 

See all of the WW2 players get those years back and then look at the stats. Ted Williams missed 5 years in his prime, he could have finished .350/.490/.650 3500H, 700HR, 2500RBI. Also Warren Spahn missed 3 years and still finished with 361 wins. Dimaggio missed 3 years (ages 28-31), and in my opinion one of the most underrated players of all time, Hank Greenberg, also missed 5 years and led the league in HRs the years before and after the war.

[DougJones43]

Ty Cobb

Babe Ruth

Jimmie Foxx

[Fatter than Joey]

Wow FTJ, you just made me look the fool by laughing out loud.

 

When you gots to gets your uni adjusted because your pipes are too large -- you should be visited by time travelers.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_W_dkegpBsgE/SlU_a2AWSxI/AAAAAAAAAOA/8MGnTZnu80M/s320/ted.jpg

[RoseBowlMtg]

The 1919 World Series to see how Shoeless Joe Jackson played: He hit .375 and got thrown out of baseball.

 

Right -- and then you could see him play poorly in the games that the Sox tanked.

I didn't know it was best out of nine then.

 

Shoeless was 0-4 in game 1 when they lost 9-1. Hmmm ?

 

Game 2 Black Sox lost 4-2 and Shoeless was 3-4. Did he not get the memo?

 

Game 4 loss 2-0 and Shoeless was 1-4 double and 3 PO's

 

Game 5 loss 5-0 Shoeless 0-4

 

Game 8 loss 10-5 Shoeless was 2-5 3 RBI's HR and 2B

 

So in the 5 losses Shoeless was 6-21 .286 12 TB No errors

 

Series totals: .375/.294/..563/ .956 no errors which was better than his total for the season: .351/.422/.506/.928

 

That would have been great seeing Eddie Cicotte have two errors in one game and Schalk yell at the players throwing it.

[topper09er]

All they had to do was lose the series, so if his AB didnt matter then he could try to get a hit. Im sure they realized that everyone on the team cant just strike out and drop every ball hit to them or it would have been too obvious. Maybe they told him to try the whole series unless he was up with the winning run on 3rd or something. That way even to this day people can make a case that it wasnt fixed.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I'm with hawing...1957 pennant clincher hands down. I'd love to see those old Braves, especially a skinny Hank Aaron. I love Hammerin' Hank.

 

Either that or a Negro League game with the Homestead Grays and the Kansas City Monarchs would be really cool...or the '27 Yankees.

[diener34]

I don't think you could go wrong...but how cool would it be to go through every ten years and watch a game. Like 1909, 1919,1929...etc all the way to 2009.

[TheCrew07]

Excellent topic TLB.

 

I would like to see the Black Sox, the 27 Yankees, Ruth, Gibson, Drysdale, Mayes, Clemente, Kofax, Cy Young, and Ted Williams play in person.

[Buckylovesbeer]

My vote would be for Lou Gehrig. Great Topic TLB. Great Discussions so far!

[DocLuna7]

Bob Gibson facing Joe DiMaggio with the WS on the line.

[RobertR]

The 1919 World Series to see how Shoeless Joe Jackson played: He hit .375 and got thrown out of baseball.

 

Right -- and then you could see him play poorly in the games that the Sox tanked.

I didn't know it was best out of nine then.

 

Shoeless was 0-4 in game 1 when they lost 9-1. Hmmm ?

 

Game 2 Black Sox lost 4-2 and Shoeless was 3-4. Did he not get the memo?

 

Game 4 loss 2-0 and Shoeless was 1-4 double and 3 PO's

 

Game 5 loss 5-0 Shoeless 0-4

 

Game 8 loss 10-5 Shoeless was 2-5 3 RBI's HR and 2B

 

So in the 5 losses Shoeless was 6-21 .286 12 TB No errors

 

Series totals: .375/.294/..563/ .956 no errors which was better than his total for the season: .351/.422/.506/.928

 

That would have been great seeing Eddie Cicotte have two errors in one game and Schalk yell at the players throwing it.

 

FYI, the White Sox were trying to win Game 8 after getting stiffed by the gamblers. They just happened to lose. Just for context.

 

Game 1

First AB, Top of Second, Score 1 - 0 Reds, Shoeless Joe reaches on SS error to lead off inning. Eventually scores.

Second AB, Top of 4th, Score 1 - 1, Shoeless Joe grounds out to SS with 1 out, no one on.

Third AB, Top of 6th, Score 6 - 1 Reds, Shoeless Joe grounds out to 1B with runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out. (Now 0 for 1 with RISP in thrown games.)

Fourth AB, Top of 9th, Score 9 - 1 Reds, Shoeless Joe flies out to deep right.

 

Game 2

First AB, Top of 2nd, Score 0 - 0, Shoeless Joe doubled to lead off and was left stranded out there, by his teammates who were in on the fix.

Second AB, Top of 4th, Score 0 - 0, Shoeless Joe singled to left with Buck Weaver on first. His teammates left both of them stranded.

Third AB, Top of 6th, Score 3 - 0 Reds, Shoeless Joe struck out looking with Buck Weaver on 2nd with one out. (Now 0 for 2 with RISP in thrown games.)

Fourth AB, Top of 8th, Score 3 - 0 Reds, Shoeless Joe reached on infield single to 1B with 2 out, no one on.

 

Game 4

First AB, Bottom of 2nd, Score 0 - 0, Shoeless Joe doubled to lead off and was left stranded out there, by his teammates who were in on the fix.

Second AB, Bottom of 3rd, Score 0 - 0, Shoeless Joe reached on an error by the second baseman with a runner on 2nd and 2 outs. (Now 0 for 3 with RISP in thrown games.)

Third AB, Bottom of 6th, Score 2 - 0 Reds, Shoeless Joe grounds out to SS to leadoff inning.

Fourth AB, Bottom of 8th, Score 2 - 0 Reds, Shoeless Joe strikes out with 1 out, noone on.

 

Game 5

First AB, Bottom of 1st, Score 0 - 0, Shoeless Joe pops out to 3B, with runner on 3B and 1 out. (Now 0 for 4 with RISP in thrown games.)

Second AB, Bottom of 4th, Score 0 - 0, Shoeless Joe grounds out to Pitcher with 1 out, noone on.

Third AB, Bottom of 7th, Score 4 - 0 Reds, Shoeless Joe grounds out to 2B to leadoff inning.

Fourth AB, Bottom of 9th, Score 5 - 0 Reds, Shoeless Joe grounds out to 2B to end game with runner on 3B. (Finishes 0 for 5 with RISP in thrown games.)

 

Obviously, we'll never know what was in Shoeless Joe's head, but in context there's nothing in the thrown games that suggests that he wasn't in on the fix. A couple of hits to keep it looking non-obvious and a lot of groundouts, isn't a particularly impressive showing. He didn't even hit the ball out of the infield with RISP in fixed games.

 

Robert

[TooLiveBrew]

I'm glad people are enjoying this topic http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif I'll try to get a better list for myself up later today, but basically all of the posts so far have been great.

[pitchleague]

I'd enjoy seeing older ballplayers, sure. But I'd REALLY like to see what some of those old ballparks really looked like. In person. In COLOR.

 

I can only imagine County Stadium from the 80s 'til death. Wonder what it really looked like brand new.

 

I agree, though, this is an excellent topic. Very difficult to nail down just a handful of players.

 

I think if I had a time machine, I'd go back to 1909 and buy lots and lots of cigarettes from the the American Tobacco Company and stockpile T206 Honus Wagner cards. Heck, I'd only need 10 or so and I could retire. Of course, tons of the other cards in the "set" would set my family up for several generations. And, wow, I'd be the most popular guy in town--I'd give the cigarettes (ICK!) away to anybody that would want them if I could just have the cards.

[sauveb]

I'd love to go back and watch a Dodgers/Cardinals game with Koufax going against Gibson. It would only take about 90 minutes.