The Winner of the 2013 World Series Will Be....... 9/29/13

Hey baseball fans!

As you all know, I normally blog about baseball history, but back on September 9th, after getting a lot of questions from readers, I decided to put up a vlog post on who I thought would make the playoffs.  Well, since the playoff picture is now pretty much set, I have to make my predictions on who will win in the playoffs, including the World Series.  So, without further ado, please click here for a link to my latest vlog post where I discuss who I think will be victorious in the 2013 MLB post-season. If you don't agree with my picks, please leave me a comment.

And check back again real soon for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."

The Little Steam Engine with a Huge Legacy 9/26/13

Hey baseball fans!

I'm sure you all know about who Cy Young is, the winningest pitcher in baseball history in a time when Major League Baseball was in its infancy. But there was a pitcher who might have been just as good and pitched even earlier than Cy did. He is in the Hall of Fame with the fifth most wins of all time: James Francis "Pud" Galvin!

Galvin played from 1875-1892 with the St. Louis Brown Stockings, Buffalo Bisons, Pittsburgh Alleghenys, Pittsburgh Burghers, Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Browns. Because he played in such an early era, James became baseball's first ever 300-game winner, winning 365 games and losing 310. He also had a very good career ERA at 2.85, 121st of all time (I didn't realize that there are so many pitchers with really good career ERAs below 2.85).

Galvin got his nickname, Pud, because his pitching windup apparently transformed batters into pudding. That's pretty cool! His other nickname, The Little Steam Engine, was given to him because he was a tireless worker with an excellent pickoff move. He also was only 5' 8" tall, but was a solid 190 pounds. The man with many nicknames won 20 or more games in ten seasons and won 40 or more games twice! When he finally called it quits, he led all pitchers in wins, innings pitched, games started, games completed and shutouts.

Pud is definitely a man of firsts, as he was also the first pitcher ever to pitch a no-hitter on the road (he achieved this feat on August 20, 1880). In reality, he was the first great pitcher in baseball history, even before Cy Young! Anyway, thanks for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it and check back again soon for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."

My Top Five Most Notorious Records in Baseball History 9/24/13

Hey baseball fans!

There are some records in baseball history that everyone strives to break: Rickey Henderson's stolen bases and runs scored records, Nolan Ryan's strikeout record, or Cy Young's wins record. However, there are some records that no one would ever want to break. With that, I give you my top five most notorious records in baseball history.

Number Five: Most Career Errors-Herman Long
Why? Long played in the late 1800s, a time when position players were pretty good at fielding. Long might have been the worst, however, having committed 1,096 errors at shortstop during his 17-year career. He even has more career errors than career RBIs (1,055)! However, why is he just at number five? Let's just say that the players more towards number one are more "famed"than Mr. Long is over here.

Number Four: Outs Made-Pete Rose
Why? Charlie Hustle owns many records, the most prominent being that he has the most hits of all time. In 24 years of play, you are likely to get a lot of base hits, but you are also likely to get out a lot. Rose, during his career with the Reds, Phillies, and Expos, got out a record 10,328 times. That would explain why his career batting average is a "pedestrian" .303. You would expect someone with the most hits of all time with a high batting average, but Rose also owns the record for most at-bats. Anyway, Charlie isn't number one because he does own that record for most at-bats, which already tells you that he made a lot of outs for his team, so it's unfair to give him the number one spot, a spot no one would want in this countdown.

Number Three: Most Career Losses-Cy Young
Why? This is what you are all thinking: "Wait: the pitcher with the most wins in history has the most losses in history, too?! That's crazy!" It might sound crazy, but it is true; Denton True Young has the most losses in baseball history with 316. It's pretty funny how the record for most wins and most losses are held by the same person, but you have to remember: Cy also holds the record for the most started games and the most games completed, so you have to cut Cyclone some slack, just like I did to Pete. Although this record is notorious, it's not bad enough for numero uno.

Number Two: Most Times Caught Stealing-Rickey Henderson
Why? Rickey has the most stolen bases of all time, but he also has been caught stealing the most times as well with 335. Now, I'm going to have to cut the Man of Steal some slack, considering he also has the most steal attempts of all time. However, if your nickname is the Man of Steal, you shouldn't also be known as the Man of Caught Stealing. It shouldn't go together, and yet it has to because Rickey tried to steal so many times. Sometimes he got out, which created a pretty bad record for him.

Number One: Most Career Strikeouts as a Hitter-Reggie Jackson
Why? Mr. October has no excuse. He just struck out a lot. Now, I'm not saying that Reginald Martinez Jackson isn't awesome. I'm saying that he should have been more patient with his swings. You would expect a guy who played 25 years in the league and played every day to own this record, but you would be wrong. Jackson played 21 years and never played a full 162 games in a season. He also didn't have as many at-bats as other guys with longer careers, which would explain his low career batting average of .262. The bottom line is that Jackson is at number one because he has no excuses for holding this record.

Well, that's my list. If you don't agree with it, post your list in the comments section. Also, thanks for reading this post, hope you enjoyed it, and check back in a few days for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."

Motor City Mickey 9/21/13

Hey baseball fans!

A little over a week ago, someone who is very important to baseball history celebrated his 73rd birthday. He is not in the Hall of Fame currently, but was a key contributor to his teams. If you didn't guess who I'm talking about, let me just tell you: Mickey Lolich!

Lolich pitched for the Tigers, Mets, and Padres from 1963-1979. He was a very good pitcher back in the day, which would make sense because he won 217 games during his career and had an ERA of 3.44. That career ERA was better than Dennis Eckersley's! The three-time All Star won a career high 25 games in 1971, but came in second for the AL Cy Young Award because of Vida Blue. Nonetheless, he had a great season. Lolich's most impressive stretch of starts though came during the 1968 World Series. In that Fall Classic against the defending champion Cardinals, Mickey pitched three complete games and only gave up five earned runs! This amazing performance earned him the World Series MVP Award, the first ever Tiger to win the award. That regular season, Lolich had a pretty good year, 17-9 with an ERA of 3.14, but was overshadowed by 31-game winner, Cy Young winner, and teammate, Denny McLain. That's why Mickey's World Series performance was so not expected of him and yet he did not disappoint.

Although it doesn't seem that Lolich will get into the Hall of Fame, Tigers fans will remember his 1968 WS performance forever. Anyway, thanks for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it and check back in a few days for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."

The King of Baseball 9/17/13

Hey baseball fans!

As some of you know, Masahiro Tanaka won his 25th consecutive game pitched a couple days ago for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese professional baseball league, breaking the 75-year-old record that was held by Carl Hubbell, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Giants. Some of you might be asking yourselves, "Why is this record so important?" Simple, Carl Hubbell is one of the greatest pitchers of all time and a pitcher would have to have as great an arm as Hubbell to break his record, something that is very hard to come by.

Carl "The Meal Ticket" Hubbell played for the Giants from 1928-1943. During his career, King Carl won 253 games and lost just 154 with a career ERA of 2.98. From 1933-1937, the nine-time All Star averaged 23 wins a year and won the MVP Award twice (1933 &1936), while leading his team to three pennants and a title in '33. Hubbell was able to throw the screwball beautifully, which helped him compile a streak of 46 1/3 scoreless innings in his first MVP winning season and won 16 consecutive decisions in 1936 (and a record 24 over two seasons, which I mentioned before). One of the King's greatest achievements was in the 1934 All-Star Game, in which he struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in successive at-bats during the first two innings. The great pitcher became a Hall of Famer in 1947.

In short, the Meal Ticket was one of the greatest pitchers of all time and even though someone just broke his record for the most wins in succession, we will always remember Carl as the man to set the record first. Anyway, thanks for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it and check back in a couple of days for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."

Feliz Cumpleaños a Gaylord Perry 9/14/13

Hey baseball fans!

As some of you know, I share a birthday with no Hall of Famers. The only person who is close to becoming one is Alan Trammell. However, the people celebrating a birthday tomorrow do have a Hall of Fame birthday buddy: Gaylord Perry!

Perry played with the Giants, Indians, Rangers, Padres, Yankees, Braves, Mariners, and Royals from 1962-1983. During his career, he became a member of both the 300 wins club (314) and the 3,000 strikeouts club (3,534). The five-time 20-game winner went on to pitch in five All Star Games and posted a lifetime ERA of 3.10. On September 17, 1968, Perry no-hit the Cardinals and starter Bob Gibson, one of the five 1-0 games that Hoot lost during his career. Gaylord was also a two-time Cy Young Award winner, winning it in 1972 with Cleveland and with San Diego in '78. He became the first pitcher to win the award in both Leagues. Sadly, despite all this greatness, he never won a World Series, but was inducted into the Hall in 1991.

Like I said before, tomorrow is Perry's birthday. So in case you're reading this Gaylord, happy early birthday.

Anyway, thanks for reading this post. I hoped you enjoyed it and check back in a few days for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."

My Top Five Most Underrated Hall of Famers in Baseball History 9/11/13

Hey baseball fans!

With 205 baseball players in the Hall of Fame, not all of them are recognizable to baseball fans. Whether it’s because of the team they played for, the era in which they competed or another reason, some of the best baseball players of all time are not very prominent. With that being said, here are who I think are the top five most underrated baseball players in the Hall of Fame today.

Number Five: Sam Crawford
A teammate of Ty Cobb on the Detroit Tigers in the young American League, Wahoo Sam hit the most triples in baseball history with 309 and was 39 hits short of the 3,000 hits club when he retired. The 1957 Hall of Fame inductee batted .309 during his 19 years in the Dead Ball Era, which was overshadowed by the accomplishments of his teammate, Cobb, who hit .367 lifetime.

Number Four: Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown
Despite having only three fingers on his pitching hand, because of a terrible farming accident, Brown was a fantastic pitcher who used his handicap to put tremendous spin on the ball. He won 239 games in his 13 years in the bigs during the Dead Ball Era, mainly with the Cubs, and had an ERA of only 2.06 (the best ever among pitchers with over 200 wins). He also had a WHIP of 1.06! And if that wasn’t enough, Brown even had a winning 13-11 record in pithing duels against the great Christy Mathewson (who, by the way, won 373 games in his career).

Number Three: Ernie Banks
Banks is a member of the 500 home run club, having hit 512 dingers, and he drove in 1,636 runs during his 19 years with the Cubs from 1953-1971. The two-time NL MVP played shortstop for many years, which is amazing because shortstops are not known for their power. However, because he played during the time of Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, and his team didn’t too very well, his name is hardly mentioned outside of Chicago.

Number Two: Ed Walsh
Big Ed leads all pitchers to ever play the game with a 1.82 career ERA. The 40-game winner in 1908 was a workhorse who had the most innings pitched four times and averaged over 360 innings from 1906-1912. Is it any wonder that his arm was basically shot after that? He played with the White Sox for 13 of his 14 big league seasons and won 195 games, 168 of them coming between 1906-1912. He may not sound underrated, but most baseball fans have never heard of him, not even White Sox fans.

Number One: Eddie Murray
Steady Eddie is the only Hall of Famer without the last name of Mays or Aaron to have over 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. In a career mainly with the Orioles from 1977-1997, the eight-time All Star also drove in 1,917 RBIs and batted .287 lifetime. In addition, Murray was a switch hitter!! Yet few people talk about Murray as one of the all time greats. Would you believe that Murray is in the top 25 in career home runs, RBIs and hits? The answer is probably no. That's why he's underrated.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post. If you didn't like the post because of my choices for the top five most underrated Hall of Famers in baseball history, leave a comment saying your top five. Also, thanks for reading this post and check back in a couple of days for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."

2013 MLB Playoff Predictions 9/9/13

Hey baseball fans!

While I normally blog about baseball history, since I've been getting a lot of questions lately asking me which teams do I think will make the playoffs this year, I decided to do a vlog post of my 2013 MLB playoff predictions. If you'd like to watch it, just click here. If you don't agree, please leave me a comment.

And check back again real soon for "all the buzz on what wuzz."

NJBM Kids' Hot Korner: Effa Manley 9/6/13

Hey baseball fans!

I just put up my latest post in the Kids' Hot Korner section of New Jersey Baseball Magazine. This one is about Effa Manley, the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. If you want to read more about Effa, just click here.

Thanks for reading the article. I hope you enjoyed it. Check back in a few days for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."