Harry Ruby: Screenwriter, composer, and baseball player

 I was surfing Baseball Reference when I stumbled upon an odd player. One Harry Ruby had played one game for the Hollywood Stars in 1932, one for Hollywood in 1935, and one for the Los Angeles Angels in 1940. He was 37 in 1932, and 45 by the end of his career. This called for an explanation, so I googled him. He turned out to be a Hollywood composer and screenwriter who had dreamed of being a pro ball player, but when his dreams failed him went to Hollywood. This worked out pretty well for him, but he still felt the lure of the diamond. He wasn't much of a player, but his passion was to work out with big league teams. He would travel all over the U.S working out with teams, and for years he would join the Pirates in their spring training camp in San Bernardino. 

Ruby in 1945

In 1941 he pinch ran in an exhibition game between the Coast League All-Stars and the Major League All-Stars, which was won by the Coast Leaguers 6-4. In 1947 he was also practicing with Pacific Coast League teams every Sunday. He appeared in the annual game between the Comedians and Leading Men for the benefit of the Mount Sinai Hospital from at least 1935 to 1938. In 1947 he was practicing with Pacific Coast League teams every Sunday, but he retired after that season. He was 52.

In 1950 a movie was made, "Three Little Words", about him and his song-writing partner Bert Kalmar. Though he didn't play himself, he appeared in a couple of baseball scenes, and was, in the words of the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, "probably the only man who has ever played somebody else in his own film biography."

So that's the story of Harry Ruby, screenwriter and baseball fanatic. There's probably more I could find, but I've spent enough time researching a screenwriter. 

Here's a funny story involving Ruby: In the days when future Angels' batting coach Jimmie Reese was playing in the Pacific Coast League, he participated in a celebrity game. Harry (Rubenstein) Ruby was the opposing pitcher. Ike Danning, major league catcher and brother of Harry Danning of the New York Giants, was catching and instead of bothering with signals he called out the pitches in Yiddish, figuring no one would understand. Reese went four-for-four that day, and after the game Ruby told Reese that he didn't know he was such a good hitter. "You also didn't know," Reese replied, "that my name was Hymie Soloman."

One-armed semi-pro player

 George Ely was a star California semi-pro second baseman and pitcher from about 1907 to 1912. He lost his right arm when he fell between the wheels of a dray (a cart) when he was either three or ten years old. Newspaper articles differ on both his age at the time of the accident and which arm he lost. Pictures make it clear that he lost his right arm.

It seems that he was a very good player. In 1907 Judge McCredie, manager of Portland in the Pacific Coast League, took the day off for a scouting trip. He watched a game between Santa Ana and Santa Monica. Ely attracted McCredie's attention, but his handicap kept McCredie from giving a definite offer. Ely was 18 then. He hit .321 for Maier in the California Winter League in the winter of 1908-09, and was thought highly of by Coast League players and officials, but again it seems that his lack of a right arm kept from a professional contract. 

He was known for his great fielding and heavy hitting, and I think it's clear that he was a very good player. California had a very good semi-pro scene then. 

He worked in a telegraph office at a Salt Lake Railroad depot during his career, and was still there in 1918, the last mention I've seen of him.

Career:

Year        Team            League                             Notes

1905       Los Angeles High School

1908       Salt Lake      Pacific League

1908-09 Maier            California Winter League  Hit .321

1908-09 Edisons         California Winter League

1909      Caldwell        Idaho State League

1909      Gardena         Southern State League

1910      Dyas-Cline

1911      Hoegees

1912      Venice

Sources:

1907 McCredie impressed

1908 Maier vs. Azusa

1908 picture

1908 good article

1908-09 Edisons

1910 picture

1912

1918

1949 "Last I heard of him"

Mexican League a haven for former greats

 The Mexican League seems to have become the last resort for old players hoping to return to the majors. The Mexican League used to be a mostly independent league, like the Japanese league now, but now it has a lot of former major leaguers now.

I find it very interesting to see how many past stars are now in the Mexican League, hoping to catch the eye of a major league team. Here's a sampling:

Bartolo Colon, at 48, is still going strong for the Aceros de Monclova, with a 6-1 record and a 3.55 ERA. He even threw a complete game a month ago.

Oliver Perez, who was a hotshot young pitcher for the Pirates before I was born, had been pitching for the Indians since 2018. He had a 2.57 ERA overall, but 39 year-old relievers are not in high demand and he was released after 5 appearances this season. Since then he has been pitching for the Toros de Tijuana, and he currently has a 2.63 ERA with 35 strikeouts over 24 innings.

Adrian Gonzalez was a name I was surprised to see. Adrian, of course, was a big star 10 years ago, but he completely collapsed after his 2016 season, hitting .240 without power over the next two seasons. Adrian sat out 2019 and 2020, but is hitting a robust .349 for Guadalajara, with 41 RBIs in 40 games.

A name you probably don't know is Henry Urrutia, who played 34 games in 2013 and 2015 for the Orioles. But right now he's dominating for the Saraperos de Saltillo, hitting .410 with 11 homers and 47 RBIs in 47 games.

Chris Roberson has been in pro ball since 2001, and last appeared in the majors in 2007, but he's still going strong, hitting .299 with 11 homers and a .529 slugging percentage this year for the Bravos de Leon. 

How the mighty have fallen. In 2016, Addison Russell was the 22 year-old shortstop for the World Champion Chicago Cubs. His batting average was just .238, but he hit 21 homers and had 95 RBIs, and he was just 22. Except that over the next three years, his average stayed the same, and his power went backwards. In 2020 he was playing in Korea, and hit just .254 with 2 homers in 65 games. He's been doing a bit better for Monclova this year, though, with a .306 batting average and 6 homers.

In 2016, Chris Carter hit 41 home runs. But 2017 would be his last year in the majors. You can stay in the majors even if you strikeout 200 times, but not if you also have an iron glove. After hitting .224 in the minor leagues in 2018, he found better success for Monclova in the Mexican League in 2019, posting a stellar .293/.449/.709 slash line in 2019. The 2020 Mexican League was canceled due to COVID-19, but Carter has been doing well this season, hitting .286 with 4 homers in 10 games. He was placed on the reserve list June 1st, but was activated on Monday. 

Jumbo Diaz, everybody's favorite 315-pound reliever, has been pitching for Mexico City this year, with a 1.89 ERA in 21 games.

Alex Liddi, who played parts of three seasons with the Mariners, is one of seven Italian-born major league players in history. So far this season he is hitting .341 with 12 homers in 45 games.

Like Addison Russell, playing in the Mexican League is a bit of a come-down for Yasiel Puig. He's been doing fine, with a .293 average with 10 homers, but not much more than average. He's not going to get back to the majors like that.

Fernando Rodney doesn't seem to want to stop playing. He's been pitching since 1999, and right now he's in the bullpen for the Toros de Tijuana. In 22 games, he has an 0.78 ERA and 14 saves. In his pro career he's appeared in 1175 games.

Jair Jurrjens had some very good seasons for the Braves way back when, and had a 53-38 record in his MLB career. Right now he's pitching for Oaxaca, and has a 2-1 record with a 3.55 ERA in 6 games.

Fernando Salas, one-time closer for the Cardinals, has been dominant so far this season for Tabasco, with 0 runs allowed over 19.1 innings, and 10 saves. 

Felix Pie was once a top prospect for the Cubs, but now he's 36, and playing for the Piratas de Campeche. He's doing very well, though, hitting .351 with 4 homers in 28 games. In 2019 he hit .381 with 22 home runs in 93 games.

And there are plenty other former major leaguers in Mexico, those were just the ones I thought were most interesting.

I feel like you could write a book about this.

Thanks for reading!

Book review: The Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues: Historians Reappraise Black Baseball

 One time, I was very excited to see a book on my library's shelves which was attempting to prove that the Negro Leagues were the equal of the "major leagues." I've always been very interested in determining the quality of the Negro Leagues. Considering how many all-time greats spent most or all of their career in the Negro Leagues, it is important to know the exact quality of the Negro Leagues, so you can properly rate them. Of course, that is not an easy thing to do. If you just compare the players who played in both the Negro League and the Major Leagues, that study would be subject to biases because of a small sample size, and also because the players would have been at different stages of their career. 

In the introduction to the volume, it states "It should be added, however, that the contributors do not therefore see their subject [of whether the Negro Leagues were equal to the major leagues] through rose-tinted glasses. A frank discussion of the anomalies that haunt Negro Leagues box scores leads off the proceedings." The problem with the book, in my opinion, is that the contributors are looking at the issue through rose-tinted glasses. Whenever a statistic favors MLB, they explain it away, but whenever something favors the Negro Leagues, they present it like there are no biases.

I'll present some examples of that: 

Most of the comparisons appear in "The Case for the Negro Leagues" by Todd Peterson, who edited the book. 

In one part, Peterson compares the batting levels of the two leagues, as better leagues generally have lower offensive levels. There is a table comparing the batting averages, slugging percentages, and OPS of both leagues for each year from 1906-48. For almost all the years, MLB had higher levels of offense. That means the Negro Leagues were better, right? But something happens as you look closer. The NLB from 1906-1919 had higher averages in 10 of the years, higher OBPs in 7 of the years, and higher OPSs in 8 of the years. The Negro Leagues for the most part had higher offense. But from 1920 to 1942, MLB had higher levels in every year except for two. 

So what happened? As everyone knows, MLB banned the spitball in 1920. But what you might not know is that NLB did not. NLB pitchers did what MLB pitchers did in the 1910s: They defaced the ball in every way they could. Combining that with the fact that NLB also embraced night ball, the hitters did not have an easy time. In 1930, there was a night game between Smokey Joe Williams and Chet Brewer, in which Williams struck out 27 over 12 innings to win 1-0, as Brewer struck out 19 in a losing effort. It is known as "The Battle of the Butchered Balls". 

It is clear that the Negro Leagues only had lower offensive levels because of the spitball, but Peterson makes no note of this. I will repeat, Peterson completely ignores that, totally misleading the reader. 

When he is not misleading the reader, Peterson also makes some questionable evaluations of the data. Comparing the pitching statistics, he points out that the Negro Leagues had way higher strikeout levels. In fact, from every year from 1909 to 1948, the Negro Leagues had a higher strikeout rate. In my opinion, the lower the league is, the more strikeouts there are. If you look at the backs of baseball cards, you will notice that in the low minor leagues, pitchers strike out a ton of players . And as the pitcher progresses through the system, even if they don't get more effective they'll strike out less batters. In Little League, there are tons of strikeouts. It seems obvious that the number of strikeouts in a league is inversely related to the quality of play. But Peterson makes the opposite conclusion. "The black hurlers annually allowed far fewer walks and hits than the big leaguers, and struck out many more batters." he writes, implying clearly that that is yet another pillar in his argument. 

He also compares the Run, Stolen Base, and Error levels of the leagues. In every season from 1906 to 1948, NLB had a higher error rate, in 33 of the years they have a higher stolen base rate, and in every season there were more runs scored. That seems to make it clear that the Negro Leagues were worse. But Peterson dutifully writes "The disparity in errors can be attributed mostly to poorer playing conditions. There were few, if any, ground crews in the Negro Leagues, and baseballs and gloves were used until they fell apart. "That is certainly true to at least some degree, but the thing is, what he's saying kinda contradicts what he wrote earlier in the book: " Let's note that Negro League teams during this period played under the same ground rules as big leaguers, often in major league facilities... , and not corn fields as some dreamers have reported." 

I enjoyed much of the book. When Peterson was not twisting the statistics to his own use, there were many enjoyable articles, such as  articles on Rube Foster and John Donaldson. Actually, I really liked the one on Rube Foster. But the book lost a lot of credibility to me because it was biased. Ultimately, it made me less certain that the Negro Leagues were the equal of the majors ; or why else would he have to resort to questionable tactics to prove his case? I still think it is very possible the Negro Leagues were as good as the major leagues, but it is despite this book, not because of it. 

My ratings for it:

Subject: ☆☆☆☆☆

Statistical analysis: ☆☆

Writing: ☆☆☆☆

Overall: ☆☆☆

I hope you enjoyed this book review, and found it helpful. I always love criticizing things. :)

The Oldest Rookie

 The oldest MLB rookie was Satchel Paige, who at 42 posted a 6-1 record, with a 2.48 ERA in his rookie season. Other late entries are Diomedes Olivo (41), Alex McColl (39), Connie Marrero (39), and Chuck Hostetler (40). But the oldest to make his professional debut that I've found is Yoshio Yuasa.

Yoshio Yuasa was the manager of the Mainichi Orions in the Japan Pacific League in 1950, piloting them to a pennant with a 81-34 record. On November 5, 1950, at the tender age of 48, he started the game against fellow 48-year-old pitcher Shinji Hamasaki. Yuasa had been a good amateur pitcher in his time, throwing two no-hitters in 1925 as a college pitcher, but obviously those days were long gone. He did okay, though, allowing 2 runs in 4 innings. 

The other pitcher in that game, Shinji Hamasaki, who was 5'1'', 110 pounds, ended up in the Japanese Hall of Fame, and was the oldest Japanese pitcher to win a pro game until 2014. His first pro season was at 45,  and he posted a 5-5 record in the Japanese pro leagues.

Note: I got much of this information from a Japanese site, translated, and some of the translations for the statistical categories are hilarious. Some of the best (with some tentative translations of translations): Shunned (hit by pitch?) Death ball (what?) Co-killing (grounded into double play). A violent pitch (wild pitch). Runs of remorse (earned runs?)

DeGrom vs. Nationals

 So, I'm watching the MLB.com free game of the day with DeGrom pitching, and I thought I'd set down some thoughts.

Designated hitter or not?

DeGrom is batting 8th in this game, ahead of catcher Tomas Nido. It's tempting to dismiss that as a stunt, except that DeGrom hit a RBI double in the 5th. I was interested to see whether that was an isolated incident, so I checked Retrosheet to see what I could find. DeGrom just hit 9th in 2019, but he hit 8th in 11 games in 2018. Here's the breakdown for that year: 

Bat Order   G  AB   R   H  2B  3B  HR RBI  BB  SO    AVG   OBP   SLG
8th        11  25   0   2   0   0   0   1   1  10    .080  .115  .080
9th        19  42   1   9   1   0   0   4   3  15    .214  .267  .238

 So .080 in the 8th spot isn't that great, but still.  He was 4 for 7 before this game, he has a .196 career batting average with 3 home runs, he's a legitimate hitter.

It's extremely dull to see .100 hitters having to go through the motions, waving the bat idly before trotting resignedly to the dugout. But pitchers who actually care, who can hit some, are really fun. And then there are guys like Shohei Ohtani. I just wish there was a way to reconcile the issue.

Mastery

I was excited to see DeGrom pitch, because I don't have a MLB.tv subscription, so seeing great pitchers is a real treat. Last year, or maybe 2019, I was really excited to watch a DeGrom vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu free game of the day. They pitched great, but they both left after the 6th inning, and after that I didn't really care. The outcome of the game didn't matter to me because I'm not a fan of either team. I just wanted to watch two great pitchers.

This game hasn't disappointed. DeGrom has struck out 15 after 8 shutout innings, allowing just 2 hits. And I've marveled at his pitching. He throws 100 pitch after pitch, but the way he throws gives you hope that you could be DeGrom. He just throws nice and easy, no undue exertion, like it's nothing.

(Disdaining a pinch hitter, DeGrom was left in to hit. He promptly singled, bringing his average for the season to .600. So maybe pitchers hitting should stay. The "real" hitter after him flies out. Then Nimmo hits a homer, and DeGrom scores his second run of the night.)

Bullpens are dull when they are a routine. When you have an elite closer, like Mariano Rivera or Dan Quisenberry or someone like that, he's brought in because you want him on the mound, because he's going to dominate. But when a reliever is brought in just because the starter is done, it feels like a break in continuity. Especially if the pitcher is pitching great. I feel like managers are often over-cautious with pitchers. Obviously you don't want pitchers being left in to die (figuratively), after their pitch count has gone above 110. A couple weeks ago, I remember seeing a pitcher who got taken out after just 6 innings even though I think he had a no-hitter. Anyone, he was pitching awesome, and his pitch count couldn't have been too high after 6. That kind of thing is just infuriating. So please, managers, please, please, please, don't take your ace out after 6 innings, 

(And it's over. DeGrom struck out 15 for a 2-hit shutout, so wow. I wish I was at Citi Field right now. Everyone just seems to so happy and excited to be there, like they should be. Too often when you see a game on TV the crowd is sedate, even on their phones, of all the blasphemous things possible, but for this game everyone's standing up and smiling, and kids are jumping up and down. The Mets won 6-0, with DeGrom logging his second shutout.)

DeGrom has struck out 50 batters over his first 4 starts, which is apparently a record. Given that he struck out 104 batters in 68 innings last year, he has a real chance to reach the 300 mark this year.

I'd love to write about DeGrom's Hall of Fame chances, and how bad the Yankees announcers are, but it's 8:50, so I'll have to leave it for another day. 

Lightning is repeatedly flashing in the distance, like it's trying to tell me to stop in morse code. So I guess that's it for tonight. Goodnight, and I hope you enjoyed this post.

Two-way player #1: Al Hollingsworth

 I've always had a fascination with players who were both pitchers and position players in the course of their professional career, so I'm planning on doing a series on them. I have a list of almost 50 of them, which I update regularly, so this series should last a while. 

So, anyway, Al Hollingsworth had an 11-year career as a pitcher, going 70-104, but with bad teams, from 1935 to 1946. But he actually started out in baseball as a first baseman. He did okay, posting averages of .300 and .306 in D ball, but he had no power, so he switched to the mound in 1933, at 25. That year he had a 15-8 record with an ERA of 3.12 for Rock Island in the Mississippi Valley League, and never looked back. His best year in pro ball was probably 1941, in which he won 21 games for Sacramento in the PCL. Though he also pitched well in 1942, as he went 10-6 with a 2.96 ERA for the Browns.