Tracers

Bill James concept--I thought there might be a thread already, but no (or at least not under the title). Basically, it's fact-checking something someone says in an interview or writes in a book. A few decades ago, not always easy; nowadays, if you're reading a baseball book and somebody writes "Nobody could get me out that spring," it's easy to check that--hey guy, you hit .143 in April and May of that year.

Just finished Ron Blomberg and Dan Epstein's The Captain & Me, about Blomberg's years with the Yankees and his friendship with Thurman Munson. Blomberg was the first guy ever to take a regular-season AB as a DH; excellent hitter (career OPS+ of 140) whose career was derailed in his late 20s by injuries.

At one point, Blomberg is talking to Alex Johnson ('AJ'), who the Yankees has just brought over from Texas for the '74 season. Johnson's AL batting title in 1970, when he was with the Angels, is still the closest race ever, I think:

Johnson - .32899
Yaz - .32862

I asked him once, "AJ, what’s your philosophy of hitting?" He told me, "I hit when I want to. You hit when you can."

That looked very familiar--I immediately recognized the quote from the 1970 Zander Hollander Guide, which I've mentioned on here often (one of my very first baseball books, and solely responsible for 83% of my best Immaculate Grid answers). From Alex Johnson's entry:

"Told Jim Fregosi last spring training, ‘You hit when you can and I hit when I want to."

Same quote (inverted), four years apart--Blomberg had been playing for Syracuse in the International League in 1970.

I figure one of two things is true: either Blomberg heard or read the quote somewhere and, over the years, internalized it and put himself into the story at the other end of the conversation; or Alex Johnson said variations on the same quote to many different people.

My ears are burning

This will be a useful thread for checking ex-players-turned-broadcasters. Ron Darling just said that Gwynn hit almost .500 against him ("I held him under .500"). I guess that's something you don't forget:

59 AB, 5 doubles, 2 triples, .441/.452/.593.