The Greatest Unknown Home Run Hitters
Scott McClain ? Steve Bilko? Nah- these two are Ruth and Aaron in name recognition compared to the few members of the “400 Club”- minor league sluggers who hit 400 or more home runs.
The all-time leader is Hector Espino, who hit 484 home runs in the Mexican League from 1960 until 1984. He’s considered the greatest player in Mexican League history.He was offered MLB contracts by the St. Louis Cardinals, Mets, and Padres- rejecting all. One rumor was that he wanted a piece of the franchise in St. Louis.He did play briefly for their AAA club and was invited to spring training. He never showed.
In 1988 he was inducted into the Mexican League HOF. He died in 1997 at the age of 58 of a heart attack.
Buzz Arlett is the all-time minor league home run king in the United States, with 432. Buzz played one season in the bigs with Philadelphia in 1931 and hit very well- .313 BA and 18 HRs, 4th in the NL. But he was overweight and supposedly a very poor fielder- it would be his only MLB season.Buzz was inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame in 1945 . He died of a heart attack in Minneapolis in 1964.
Andres Mora (444), Nick Cullop (420) and Merv Connors (400) are the other members of the 400-homer club.
But maybe the man who personifies the great minor league sluggers and baseball as it was in much of the country “back in the day” was Mighty Joe Bauman ( “Mighty” is my designation). Joe set the single season professional home run record with 72 for Roswell in the Class C Longhorn League in 1954. He held that record until Bonds broke it- Joe hit 337 minor league home runs- many of them while suiting up in a different uniform for his “real Job” – running his gas station…
The Joe Bauman Home Run Award is given to the minor leaguer who who hit the most regular season home runs that year. It was begun in 2002, winners have included Ryan Howard, Brandon Wood, Dallas McPherson, and Bryan LaHair…
Joe continued running his gas station after he retired. Joe passed away in 2005 at the age of 83. Some say the aliens who had landed in Roswell and infiltrated the townsfolk had taken a liking to Mighty Joe and returned to bring him home to New Andromeda..where the children delight in the tales of his legendary blasts..
( Joe at 80 looked like he could still clear a fence or two)
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Another of the 400 Club members was Merv Connors, with exactly 400. Below is a link to the Baseball Reference piece on him- he was also a decorated WWII veteran and a Berkeley High graduate. He died just before his 92nd birthday in 2006 in Berkeley, Ca.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Merv_Connors
born in Berkeley, died in Berkeley. Not bad. I wonder what he did for all those years he didn’t play ball, that’s a tough city to live in if you don’t have a j-0-b
The BR piece says he was a Teamster and retired from a trucking company . He probably had a home free and clear, so he was probably OK.
and could have probably told someone to take me out with a look, too. 🙂
Ugh. As is ugggggggghhhhhhhhhhly loss. But a pretty good weekend over all. Off to Atlanta on Monday or Tuesday. I am hoping to meet a few folks featured in the book; ALSO, I sent handwritten notes to all the Atlanta broadcasters [even the Latino ones] trying to set up a handshake at the least, with the further hope of getting an on-air plug for the book.Ddid I say it sure seems like it was an ugly loss?
Can I tell you how much I enjoyed reading your blog post today? I read it twice.
http://thelaughorist.blogspot.com/
Yes, you can tell me.
Gio called me with an update. Did you all hear about Papelbon writing a check for 5 grand to Thome for his walkoff?
yes, saw it. Awesome. Is that like a reverse-bounty?
I really dislike stories like that about pro athletes throwing large sums around among themselves like a pack of Lifesavers. For a season’s worth of good work, OK. For one HR? I think word of it just mocks the fans to whom such sums represent a lot of effort. Maybe it’s just me…
Agree snarkk . . . The most egregious are basketball players, then football players. I was delighted that Curt Schilling, Nazi in Republican sheep clothing, lost his entire $50 million wad made from playing baseball. That guy is insufferable. and I hope I never hear from him again.
I discriminate depending on the story. That one seemed to have legs regardless of the dough. But maybe that’s just me.
I’m going to post on the 28th about Wednesday’s game, so…..I’m going to give my review of the DiMaggio book now.
The book is “Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life”- by Richard Ben Cramer. It’s an excellent book about an obviously great baseball player, but a guy that was often not pleasant to be around. One of the good things about DiMaggio is that he is one of ‘our guys.’ Growing up in a house on Taylor St, hanging out on Columbus St., and playing ball at a vacant lot. A gloomy kid who saw a future ahead of him of the hard drudge of a fisherman. And then he learns that a person can make MONEY playing baseball. A huge revelation to him. He tries out for a local semi-pro team and does great; then the AAA SF Seals catch wind of him, and sign him up. It almost all fell apart one night when he was 19, and fell getting out of a car at 4th and Market, and smashed his knee. The author notes that knee surgery in those days was science fiction, and the knee would either get better or not, on its own.
The knee got better eventually, and the Yankees, the one MLB team that did not lose interest in him after the knee injury, had found their replacement for a declining Babe Ruth.
He was a Yankee star in the big leagues, but I think a case could still be made that there should be a statue of Joe, in his Seals uniform, next to the statue of the Seal in the plaza behind AT&T Park. It’s not like the team is in any hurry to put up a statue of Barry Bonds. That may never happen, given the circumstances. Will Clark might get one someday, maybe.
I say put a statue of Joe DiMaggio there, the greatest baseball player that ever came from San Francisco.
Hey, that’s a terrific review. Concise and smart and entertaining. Thanks.
Willie Mays never made any secret of the fact that Joe DiMaggio was his idol as a player. (But is it not true that he was morose and surly? And did he not require that he be introduced by announcers or hosts as the “greatest living baseball player”?)
I just went to blogger.com to read some of the old blog but I guess I deleted it some time ago, it’s not there–Just some of the blogs I started for Katie. That’s too bad, there was some good stuff written by you guys on that blog.
That was a bummer. I recently tried to look for the Octoer 13, 2009 posts and saw that the blog was gone. Wished I’d saved when I could have.
Another minor league HR that sticks out to me is a mammoth HR that John Mayberry, Jr. hit a few years ago against the Stockton Ports. And I still can’t believe the Phils were able to get Pence from the Astros without having to give up Mayberry. A ridiculous giveaway from the Astros. The Astros deserve to suck.
I always enjoy your book reviews and reading lists, Z. Joltin’ Joe’s popularity here was said to be one of the reasons the fans didn’t warm to Mays initially.
Yeah, I didn’t really understand that until I read the DiMaggio book. And it connects well with what you were saying today, about the importance of the minor leagues in past eras. The Seals WERE the bigs to the people of San Francisco, and the fact that Joe was a local kid, with such terrific talent, and a backstory of being the son of immigrants, his father an illiterate fisherman, who had to learn how to find Joe’s results in the boxscore without being able to read, captured the city’s heart.
Shoot. I hope I saved some of my World Series posts. I think I did, somewhere somehow. I better have. (Puhleeeeez.) I want to use them in my next book, on my life as a Giants fan.
the WS posts are here, my man. I ended the blogspot.com thing on June 1st of 2010. I think I started it exactly a year (or two) before.
whew
How did Cano just miss that ball hit by Yungo?
Romo closing is not a good idea . . . ever. Sure, the occasional save is fine. Only 29% of relief pitchers in history have been lefties and 71% have been righties. There are only five relief pitchers in the history of MLB that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame; and they are all righties. Bruce knows what he is doing.
well, Romo is a righty so I’m not sure what your point is……
Romo is a RHer, Steve. Am I missing something?
I’m a step behind. Didn’t mean to pile on.
WTF? Damn, for whatever reason I transposed Lopez in my head and put Romo down. My bad . . .
Anywho, the stats are correct. 🙂
RH hitters eyes light up for Javier, you’re right that he’s not closer material
Yeah, Pawlie, DiMaggio was surly and and a brutally cheap penny-pincher and moocher throughout his life. A lot of people who grew up during the Depression were tight with their money throughout their lives, but Joe took it to brutal levels at times. As a teenager, he once didn’t speak to his best friend for a year, because the guy owed Joe five cents. The guy was eventually best friends again. That’s the way it was with Joe. His talent was so awesome, people wanted to be around him. But Joe….liked to be alone. But you can’t be alone, and play baseball. Baseball doesn’t work that way. Basketball, yes. Baseball, no.
As for wanting to be called the Greatest Living Player for the rest of his life….that’s true. But to be fair, MLB had done a poll in 1969 to name the Greatest Living Player, and Joe won the poll. So, Joe was able to use that as his justification for the title.
Thanks, TF, Pawlie, and others for the positive kudos about my little reviews. I feel privileged to be a part of this blog. The Giants had a tough loss today, but I already feel over it, and ready for the next game. You all are great for putting things in perspective.
Thing is, and it’s been true since 2009, the team gets over these tough losses better than we do.
Pawlie, your blog post about driving around the South is very poignant and interesting. I’ve only been in the South once in my life, back in 1981. It was an interesting experience, and I had mixed feelings about the South. Since the South has become a block of “red states” in the last couple of decades, I’m not sure how I’d feel going there.
Great post Twin. Also very strong posts from dirt and snarrk. I haven’t been keeping up with the Giants for the last few days and didn’t get around to reading the comments under Snarkk’s and Dirt’s posts. I did read through today’s post. Giants lost, that sucks (for all). The gas in the OBX was 3.39 when I left and that same price here in Ohio (for Pawlie). When I was a child I had to suck the teet of a goat, so sorry, but it was a very happy childhood (for Loo). I didn’t read this today but it must be said, fuck you, Bozo (for Dennis and I imagine, all).
After tearing a hole in the canvas of the big top, the clown tried to run AWAY from the circus. But, he’s shuffled his size 18 floppy shoes back to try and repair the fabric that he so carelessly ripped.
Sorry twin, I owe you an Email and when I get back to a more secure connection I will do that (right now I’m not signing on to Email). Hey, if I get hacked signing on here, who’s going to notice?
Apologies to the rest of you lugs as well. the last thing I want is to cause rain to fall on the Flap parade.
You don’t owe me anything, Bozo. I’m just glad you’re back.
Thanks for the comments, all. I was worried about my choice, started to have thoughts of a 5 post day around about 8:00 A.M…Night all.
My friend Bea brought a grocery rotisserie chicken- the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten. They must have started cooking it on Wednesday..
Mike, I made Chocolate banana almond ice cream with my Blendtec emulsifier (which you are probably familiar with from your restaurant days) . . . Easy to do and very healthy – 1/2 cup of almond milk, tablespoon of cocoa, tablespoon of agave, teaspoon of vanilla extract, two frozen bananas, and 1/3 cup of almonds. Treating myself since I have had a cold since returned from Las Vegas Thursday (I think someone breathed on me while I was flying. Ha.).
A couple of more days and that would have been a fine chicken jerky.
I really don’t know how it stayed intact. First clue something was very very wrong-I grabbed the end of the drumstick and *everything* fell off the bones- sounds like Chuck would know what I’m talking about-from the way he’s described his Mom’s cooking. Who knew it was HIS MOM the old chestnut referred to?
Gary Brown maybe ready to pick it up .354/391/871 his last 10 games.
Well Bozo, you should keep staying away from your Flap League team . . . You tattooed everyone for 4 points today. 🙂
I know blade, my guys bumped up my average and lowered my ERA and WHIP. That my friend, won’t last for long. Fucking clowns.
Nah, your doing just fine. The Pussies don’t realize it yet, but a couple of new sheriffs are coming to town.
Nice to see you. Bridge un-burnt. 🙂
“You don’t owe me anything, Bozo. I’m just glad you’re back.”
—
Now that is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in print.
Can you explain that to me, Loo? Don’t misunderstand, I’m glad it amused you. I really don’t know what you’re referring to, though. No, it didn’t wake me, I think my couple bites of chicken are not liking me.
Nothing to do with what it meant, Twin. In a vacuum, it just looks and reads funny to me. The fact that someone is expressing all this sincere emotion to someone named Bozo – or perhaps the real Bozo which is how I picture it.
I’m sure you know you’re hard to get a read on sometimes. At least for me. Anyway, thanks for the explanation.I should have used his real name, my happiness that he was back got the better of me, I guess.
No one baffles me more than me.
Did you save your 612 POTDs? You could make some real money.
Hey all,
Great posts today. Re food for thought…Wasn’t suggesting Romo “be the closer”. Just today.
Zito wins. He has saved our season in a way. Without his good start to balance Timmy’s where would we be? He will start ( or finish ) to go south just as Lincecum turns it around…
And I wasn’t disagreeing with Flavor on what Romo had said about his make-up for the job, I just wasn’t sure it was he who said it. I think Casilla should have gone out there today and that he should still be the closer- especially since- don’t look now- but Hensley could be next..
And why does this person think it could be Hensley- because it’s not going to be Kontos, Loux, or Lopez. And Romo is just as valuable as the set up as he would be as the closer- plus we have what Craig said. Hembree doesn’t look ready. So next up would be Affeldt or Hensley- and I think Bochy would go with the RHer, plus Bochy likes Hensley. So I’m root root rooting for Santiago.