12. They Played the Game (1)

Babe Adams
(1906-26)
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Except for a single game he lost for St. Louis in 1906, Adams pitched his entire major league career with Pittsburgh. After a brief stay with the Pirates in 1907, the quiet Hoosier rejoined the team as a 27-year-old rookie in 1909 and helped them win the pennant with a 12-3 mark. The Pirates went into the World Series against Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers with staff ace Howie Camnitz laid up with tonsilitis. Even though Adams ranked fifth on the club in wins, manager Fred Clarke chose him as the opening game pitcher....Adams won Game One 4-1, Game 5 8-4, and, on two day's rest, clinched the series 8-0 to become the first pitcher to win three games in a seven-game series.
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Over the next half-dozen years, Adams was the Pirates' ace, winning 22 games in 1911 and 21 in 1913. A sore arm threatened his career in 1916, and he returned to the minors. He was 34-16 in less than two minor league seasons before the Pirates brought him back. In both 1919 and 1920 he posted 17-win totals. He led the NL with eight shutouts in 1920. In 1925, when he was a 43-year-old reliever, he made another World Series appearance, pitching one scoreless inning against the Senators.
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Adams was never a hard thrower and his sore arm cost him what speed he had, but he could put the ball exactly where he wanted to. In 1920, he walked only 18 men in 263 innings. He allowed a mere 430 bases on balls for his career.

BORN 5.18.1882, Tipton, IN.     194-140, .276

Fred Dunlap

(1880-1890)
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In ten NL seasons, the slick-fielding Dunlap at various times led NL second basemen in all fielding categories and twice batted over .300. But his greatest year was 1884 when, playing for powerhouse St. Louis [Maroons] in the short-lived Union Association, he led UA second basemen in all five fielding categories while leading the league in BA (his .412 was 52 points above that of the next-best hitter), slugging (.621), runs (160), and HR (13). His 160 runs scored set a new ML record, and still rank fourteenth-best of all time. [Nicknamed "Sure Shot"]
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BORN 5.21.1859, Philadelphia, PA     .292, 41, 366

Frank Selee

(1890-1905)
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A balding little man with a modest demeanor and a formidable mustache that gave his face a melancholy cast, Frank Selee compiled the fourth-best managerial percentage, .598, in baseball history. His Boston teams won five pennants. In a sixteen-year career he never finished lower than fifth. Twelve of his players are in the Hall of Fame. A good case can be made for five or six others....
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His teams were expert at such maneuvers as the hit-and-run, the 3-6-3 double play, and defensive shifts and signals. Yet his most remarkable talent was recognizing not only a player's potential, but the proper position for him to play. He converted, among others, catcher Frank Chance to first base, shortstop Johnny Evers to second base, and third baseman Joe Tinker to shortstop.
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In 1905, desperately ill with tuberculosis, he surrendered the team to Chance. Chicago won pennants of the four next five years. Of thirteen key players on Selee's squad Chance inherited, eight still were regulars in 1910. [Selee was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.]

BORN 10.26.1859, Denver, CO     Managerial record: 1284-862

George Foster

(1969-86)
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Foster excelled in track, football, and baseball at El Camino College in California, drawing the attention of the Giants, who made him their third pick in the January 1968 draft. It took seven seasons in the majors and minors, with two organizations, before Foster arrived in Cincinnati. The 6'1" 180-lb outfielder soon became an important cog in the Big Red Machine of the 1970s.
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Foster became a regular in 1975. A mediocre fielder at best, Foster had a strong but inaccurate arm. He was a better than average baserunner. But he made a name for himself as a powerful, productive hitter who had five of the best seasons of any player of his time. Foster's three consecutive RBI championships (1976-78) tied a ML record. In 1977, his MVP year, he hit .320 with 149 RBI and 124 runs and blasted 52 HR to become only the seventh NL player to hit 50 or more in a season. He hit three straight homers in a July 14 game that season, and his 31 road homers set the ML record for righthanded batters. In 1978 Foster again led the NL with 40 HR.
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After eleven seasons and three World Series with Cincinnati, Foster was traded to the Mets in 1982....He hit just 13 HR that year, 28 the next, and was considered a disappointment. Word got around among NL pitchers that he wouldn't lay off low curveballs, and he regularly struck out on curves in the dirt. Foster was released by the Mets in August of their World Championship 1986 season. The struggling veteran, hitting .227 at the time, claimed he was the victim of racism, but he failed to regain his stroke after the White Sox picked him up. He retired tied for tenth in career grand slams with 13.

BORN 12.1.48, Tuscaloosa, AL     .274, 348, 1239     All-Star 1976-79, 1981
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Owen Friend

(1949-50, 53, 55-56)
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Friend was a utility man whose early ability prompted comparison to Rogers Hornsby at the plate and Eddie Stanky in the field. He modeled himself after Joe Gordon. The result was still Owen Friend, and that was less than major league caliber.
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BORN 3.21.27, Granite City, IL     .227, 13, 73


The Ballplayers, Mike Shatzkin (ed)

Copyright 1990, Mike Shatzkin & Jim Charlton

Arbor House/William Morrow, New York