What About Al Oliver?

 

When I made THIS POST last week commenting on the newest members of Baseball's Hall of Fame,  Carlos Beltran, Andrew Jones, and Jeff Kent, it prompted a response from Big Brother Bill Sproule similar to the question posed in the headline above.

Ask and you shall receive.....

	Carlos Beltran	Andruw Jones	Jeff                Kent	Al                     Oliver	Dave    Parker
Seasons	20	17	17	18	19
Games	2,586	2,192	2,298	2,368	2,466
Hits	2,725	1,933	2,461	2,743	2,712
Runs	1,582	1,204	1,320	1,189	1,272
HR	435	434	377	219	339
RBI	1,587	1,289	1,518	1,326	1,493
BA	0.279	0.254	0.290	0.303	0.290
OPS	0.837	0.823	0.855	0.795	0.810
per 162 games
Hits	171	143	173	188	178
Runs	99	95	93	81	84
HR	27	32	27	15	22
RBI	99	95	107	91	98
“Similarity Scores”	7 of 10 Hall of Famers	2 of 10 Hall of Famers	4 of 10 Hall of Famers	5 of 10 Hall of Famers	4 of 10 Hall of Famers

I also threw in the numbers for Pirates HOF'er and Al Oliver Bucco contemporary Dave Parker.  While Scoops had more hits and a better average than these four, he lags behind all of them in terms of home run power and OPS.  A case can certainly be made for putting Al in the Hall of Very, Very Good, and that seems to be what it takes to get into Cooperstown these days.

Interestingly enough, one of the five Hall of Famers that baseball-reference rates as "similar to" Al Oliver is Roberto Clemente.

The Championship Games

 

One of my favorite sports days of the year did not let me down as the AFC and NFC Championship Games produced a lot of drama in determining the upcoming Super Bowl matchup indicated in the photo above.

New England 10 - Denver 7

This one started out to be a very MEH kind of a game.  Denver, playing with a backup QB Jared Stidham, scored early and took a 7-0 lead.  New England's QB Drake Maye played not so well, but The Patriots recovered a fumble inside the Broncos 15 yard line and were able to tie the game 7-7 at the half.  Oh, and each team suffered failed field goal attempts during the first half.

The Pats took the opening second half kick-off and drove over 80 yards and consumed close to eight minutes of game time that led to a field goal and a 10-7 lead.  As that drive was unfolding, though, a curious thing happened. A day that started sunny and clear turned into a blizzard-y snow game.

My friend Vic says that the snow ruined what should have been a good game.  I say that the snow turned what had been a plodding affair into a fascinating game both visually and strategically.  I especially enjoyed hearing Tony Romo on the telecast stressing how the conditions were so varied depending on which direction of the field you were going.  After New England was able to kick a FG at the end of that opening second half drive to take a 10-7 lead, Romo  made a point of mentioning that conditions were such that he didn't think that either team would be able to score for the rest of the game, and he turned out to be correct.

Seattle 31 - LA Rams 27

Whatever the Pats-Broncos game lacked in excitement, this one more than made up for it.  Lots of scoring, spectacular scoring plays, great quarterback play from Sam Arnold and Matthew Stafford, and gift touchdowns for each team (a muffed punt by LA that resulted in a Seahawks TD; an unsportsmanlike conduct on a knucklehead Seattle DB on a fourth down play that gave the Rams a first down, which Stafford immediately converted into a long TD pass against the same knucklehead DB).  It also featured plays by WR's Puka Nacua, Cooper Kupp, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba that were utterly amazing to watch.

Just one terrific football game, to go along with two other terrific games between these two teams during the regular season.  If the NFL doesn't match these two against each other for the Thursday Night opening game next year, they're crazy.

Oh, and speaking of drama, I mentioned in my post yesterday that back on December 8, I made a $2.50 sucker bet parlay bet that both New England and Seattle would win their respective Conference Championships.  As neither game was in the bag until the final gun sounded, that wager certainly added a bit of spice for me as the games unfolded.  It turned out to be well worth it:

Shortly after the NFC game ended last night, FanDuel posted a line of Seattle -4.5 points with an O/U of 46.5 points for the Super Bowl.  Lots of time to reflect and slice and dice all aspects of the coming game, but based on what I saw yesterday, Seattle certainly deserves the role of favorite in this one.

Steelers New Coach and Other Football Stuff

Today is perhaps my favorite day on the Sports Year Calendar - Championship Sunday, the two penultimate games of the NFL season that will determine who will meet in the Super Bowl. (Question:  Can two separate items, football games in this case, be considered "penultimate"? I will leave that for the grammarians among you.) However, consideration of those games has been moved to the back burner because of the news from Steelers headquarters that came down yesterday afternoon.

Yes, the Steelers have named the successor for for Mike Tomlin, and he is former Packers (Steelers fans will painfully recall that he won a Super Bowl in Green Bay) and Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy.  Is McCarthy a good football coach?  His record and his history prove that he absolutely is, but is he the right choice for the Steelers in 2026?  That is a much more difficult question to answer.  

For whatever my opinion is worth, which isn't much, I admit, the move does not excite me.  I was hoping that the team would do what they did the last three times that they hired a coach (Noll, Cowher, and Tomlin) and that is hire a young up and coming guy who would grow into the job and eventually achieve long term success with the team. The two names that intrigued me were Rams assistants Chris Shula and Nate Scheelhaas.  McCarthy is 62 years old and has been around the block many times.   This does not figure to be a long term position for him.  When Dan Rooney took over the running of the team from his father and hired Noll, it signified a change in the way the Steelers did business and it changed the fortunes of the franchise forever.  The McCarthy hire is the first one by Dan's son, Art Rooney II, and it smacks of the way Art Sr. did business:  hire a local pal, some guy off of the "Old Boys' Network" and hope it works out.  Rinse, lather, and repeat three years later.

Oh, I mentioned a "local guy".  Yep, Mike McCarthy is a local guy from the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Greenfield, right next the Squirrel Hill neighborhood where I grew up. This was the first thing mentioned when the news of the hiring was made, and, in fact, this was the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports section today:

I can only hope that THIS was not Rooney's and GM Omar Kahn's main consideration in hiring McCarthy for the job.   Where the guy is from and where he grew up should be just about the last consideration for such a job.

Final thought for today on this topic.  McCarthy is an offensively oriented coach.  I hope that this means that he will invest time and energies into developing a quarterback, hopefully for the long term, and I hope that such energies are invested in Will Howard as the team moves into 2026.  From what you hear and read, the team will not be in a position to draft a franchise QB this year, so why not go with Howard and see where it leads you?  The other option is another six month will-he-or-won't-he dance with now 42 year old Aaron Rodgers.  I am on record for loving seeing Rodgers here this past season, but the team needs to move on.

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Before moving on to the NFL games today, I can't go on without saluting what the University of Indiana did this past college football season and, more recently, winning the CFP Championship game this past Monday night.  The Hoosiers, you may have heard, have lost more games than any other college team in history, but this year that went 16-0 and won the National Championship.  It was a remarkable season and accomplishment and perhaps the best sports story of the year in America.

Fernando Mendoza score the game winner 

Indiana 27 - Miami 24

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That brings us to New England vs Denver in the AFC and Los Angeles Rams vs. Seattle in the NFC.   I admit to having strong rooting interests in both of these games due to two small parlay wagers that I made back on December 8:

		BET	PAYOUT
12/8	Parlay:Broncos/Rams Conf Champs	2.50	38.59
	Parlay: Patriots/Seahawks Conf Champs	2.50	54.83

I like my chances for a nice payout today, one way or another, but especially on the Pats/Seahawks combo.

Enjoy the games.

To Absent Friends - Wilbur Wood

 

Wilbur Wood

1941-2026

Former major league pitcher Wilbur Wood passed away earleir this month at the age of 84.  At first, I wasn't going to note his passing here, but have since had second thoughts because Wood was something that we may never see again in baseball: a true work-horse of a pitcher.

His career spanned 17 seasons, primarily with the White Sox (12 seasons), and he did pitch in 37 games for the Pirates in 1964-65 before being traded to the White Sox for pitcher Juan Pizarro in 1966.  In retrospect, perhaps not one of Joe L. Brown's most astute deals.  

Wood was a knuckleball specialist, which enabled him to avoid the usual stresses and strains suffered by baseball pitchers.  He appeared in 651 games over the course of his career, 297 starts, 198 complete games, and 354 relief appearances. HIs career record was 164-156 with a 3.24 ERA.  All of this leads me to highlight some extraordinary statistics from a five year stretch of Wood's career.

	Starts	Innings Pitched	W-L
1971	42	334.0	22-13
1972	49*	376.2*	24*-17	3rd in Cy Young vote
1973	48*	359.1*	24*-20	2nd in Cy Young vote
1974	42*	320.1	20-19	5th in Cy Young vote
1975	43*	290.1	16-20*
* Led MLB in category

Just focus on those Innings Pitched totals.  To put it into some sort of perspective, compare them to....

• Most IP 2025 - Garrett Crochet, Boston 205.1
• Most IP last ten seasons (2016-25) - David Price, Boston 230.0
• Most IP, 21st century (2001-25) - Roy Halladay, Toronto 266.0

To be sure, Wilbur Wood was no Hall of Famer, but he was an incredibly solid major league pitcher, and we will probably never see an innings eating pitcher like him ever again.

RIP Wilbur Wood.

The New Hall of Famers

It was announced earlier in the week that the Baseball Writers of America (BBWA) has elected Carlos Beltran and Andrew Jones into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  They will be joined by Jeff Kent, who was named to the Hall by Whatever They Are Calling The Veterans Committee These Days.

The question arose, as it always does when news like this arrives, do these guys really belong in the Hall of Fame, or should that just be in the Hall of Very Good?  Are they really baseball immortals?  This prompted the creation of a Grandstander Spreadsheet.

	Carlos Beltran	Andruw Jones	Jeff                Kent
Seasons	20	17	17
Games	2,586	2,192	2,298
Hits	2,725	1,933	2,461
Runs	1,582	1,204	1,320
HR	435	434	377
RBI	1,587	1,289	1,518
BA	0.279	0.254	0.290
OPS	0.837	0.823	0.855
per 162 games
Hits	171	143	173
Runs	99	95	93
HR	27	32	27
RBI	99	95	107
“Similarity Scores”	7 of 10 Hall of Famers	2 of 10 Hall of Famers	4 of 10 Hall of Famers

NOTE:  baseball-reference.com provides "similarity scores" that compare any player with every other player who has ever played.  I am only comparing the Top Ten of such players for Beltran, Jones, and Kent.

So what does all this tell you?  To be honest, I really don't know.  Would you like to have each off these guys playing on your team? Absolutely.  Are any of them Babe Ruth, Ted Willams, Mickey Mantle, or Willie Mays.  Not by a long shot, but I suppose that The Hall of Fame became the Hall of Very Good a long time ago.  Otherwise, they'd never elect anyone new and the place would cease to exist.  Not a  good business model for the institution, to be sure.

A couple of impressions from Yours Truly:

• Jones was considered one of the pre-eminent defensive outfielders of his era, which weighed heavily on his being elected.  I have neither the inclination nor the ability to evaluate defensive metrics.  I will only say that I know a great defensive player (Clemente, Mazeroski, e.g.) when I see one.  Also, Jones did win 10 Gold Gloves over the course of his career.
• Beltran was a key figure in the Astros sign stealing cheating scandal of a few years back.  I guess that unlike PED use, that carried no weight with the electorate.
• It surprised me to see just how many home runs Andrew Jones hit over the course of his career.
• Jeff Kent's 377 home runs are more that any other second baseman in history.  That really has to count for something.
• One of the two Hall of Famers to whom Jones is comparable is Gil Hodges.

Welcome to Cooperstown, Carlos, Andrew, and Jeff!

One more thing.  At the Induction Ceremony in July, Cleveland sportswriter Paul Hoynes will be given the Hall's J.G. Taylor Spink Award, and broadcaster Joe Buck will be given the Hall's Ford Frick Award.  Note that Hoynes and Buck are being HONORED BY THE HALL OF FAME, they are NOT being INDUCTED INTO THE HALL OF FAME.  That will not stop either of them by attaching "HOF 26" to their names whenever they give an autograph, however.

That Was The Weekend That Was

(Just how many of you will "get" the small pop cultural 1960's reference contained in the title of this post?)

This past weekend was primarily a sports weekend what with the NFL Divisional Round Playoffs being contested, but before that, I must write of what we did on Saturday afternoon at the Benedum Center in dahntahn Pittsburgh.

Yep, Linda and I, along with Sarah and Nick, took in the touring production of "Wicked".   It was the first time for Nick, the third time for Linda and Sarah, and the second time that I have seen this absolutely terrific stage musical.  Of course, while "Wicked" still rolls merrily along on Broadway in New York, millions of folks have been exposed to the show over the last two years by the movie version, a movie which, while quite entertaining, turned into a five hour, two part (released over two years), vanity project for director John M.Chu.  Yep, a play that lasts two hours and forty minutes, was made into a five hour movie that you had to wait two years to see in its entirety, but I digress.  Stage productions and theatrical movies are two different art forms and should be judged separately and on their own merits, but I will tell you that in this case, the stage production of "Wicked" is definitely better than the movie.

The current production, which runs through February 15 here in Pittsburgh, was simply spectacular.   Staging, costumes, the music, and the performances by the lead actors playing Elphaba and Glinda, Jesse Davidson and Zoe Jensen, were show stopping.  If you love musical theater and have the opportunity, please see this.

If you are interested, here is the FOUR STAR GRANDSTANDER WRITE-UP that I published back in January 2018, almost eight years to the day of seeing it this time.  You will see that I ended it by saying "Can't wait to see it again."  I'm so glad that the opportunity arose all these years later.

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Now for the football.

• Broncos 33 - Bills 30 in overtime.   The fact that this went into OT tells you what a close and terrific game it was, with multiple lead changes in the fourth quarter. Josh Allen did all that he could do in his Superman cape, but he also turned the ball over four times, including an interception in overtime.  Denver, no doubt, is a good and solid team, and there was a reason that they were the number one seed in the AFC.  While I am not a fan, especially of their bounty-hunting head coach, I feel badly for them that QB Bo Nix got injured on the next to last play of the game and will now miss the remainder of the playoffs.  For a team, any team, to come that far and get so close to winning it all only to have that happen is a damned shame.  And the Bills top it all off by firing their HC, Sean McDermott.  Considering that he got his team, which consisted of Josh Allen and a bunch of other guys, this far, that seems pretty severe to me.
• Seahawks 41 - 49'ers 6.  Okay, not all the games were good, and this one was a "Bob gets to bed early" game.  The Seahawks look very, very good.  I make them my pick to win the Super Bowl in three weeks.
• Patriots 28 - Texans 16.  When I watched the games last weekend, I said to Linda, the Pats looked like a Super Bowl team to me.  Their strong defense thoroughly throttled the CJ Stroud and the Texans.  This sets up an AFC title game in Denver between the Patriots and the Broncos, who, as noted, will be without their starting quarterback.  
• Rams 20 - Bears 17 in overtime. Another terrific game that featured an absolutely jaw dropping TD pass from Caleb Williams with time running out while he was being chased by about a million Rams defenders that tied the game and sent into OT.  Williams is terrific, but, like Allen the day before, he threw an interception in OT that led to the Rams win.

So, back on December, following an amazing Thursday night game that saw Seattle beat the Rams 38-37 on overtime, I made this post on Facebook:

How about that, sports fans?

One of my favorite sports days of the year is the Sunday of the AFC and NFC Championship games, and this year promises to be yet another great afternoon of viewing.  I reserve the right to change my mind as Sunday approaches, but right now, I think that Seattle and New England will win and set up a rematch of the Super Bowl of a few years back.  The one where New England won because Seattle chose NOT to give the ball to Marshawn Lynch on the one yard line to secure the win.

Oh, and we are back to seeing shots of Bob Kraft in the owner's box again.  At least he's abandoned those blue dress shirts with the white collars for a pretty cool jacket.

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And the Football Weekend isn't over yet, either.  Tonight Indiana goes for an improbable undefeated season and the College Football Playoff Championship when they face Miami.

We all know the story of Indiana's incredible season, and I can't imagine anyone who is not a Miami alumnus or a resident of south Florida not rooting for the Hoosiers tonight.  I know that both my wallet and I will be decked out in red cheering IU tonight, in spite of the dourness of HC Curt Cignetti.

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Finally, a bit of football nostalgia for all of us Steelers fans.  Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of this play:

It may well be one of Ben Roethlisberger's greatest plays ever, certainly among the Top Five or Ten of Big Ben's Greatest Hits, and it didn't involve him throwing a pass.

If you know, you know.