Excellent, excellent ballplayer. NL rookie of the year in 1954. Won over Banks & Aaron. Hit over .295 in 7 of 12 big league years. On 3 Series championship teams with the LA Dodgers. Played all outfield positions & first. Could hit, run, field & throw. Really a legitimate big leaguer in every sense.
OT: Wally Moon passed away
- Thread starter rudad02
- Start date
My first baseball card pack had Moon Pumpsie Green Earl Torgerson Luis Aparicio and one I don't remember dammit.
Get outa here. Earl Torgerson. Nobody knows about Earl. Good Ist baseman with the Boston Braves, Phillies & maybe other clubs.
I forgot to post this over the weekend.
He developed an inside out swing to take advantage of the LA Coliseum's short left field fence.During a hot streak,Vince Scully announced:"It's another moonshot",referring to the blast and to the Soviet Union's recent rocket landing.
He developed an inside out swing to take advantage of the LA Coliseum's short left field fence.During a hot streak,Vince Scully announced:"It's another moonshot",referring to the blast and to the Soviet Union's recent rocket landing.
Rudad Earl looked more like an accountant than a ballplayer.
Thick old school glasses. Good pinch hitter and utility guy.
Thick old school glasses. Good pinch hitter and utility guy.
Right FELONI., the thick glasses now that you mention them. Good recall. Was a starter for a long time early in career, especially with Boston. Could run too.
Damm forgot about Earl , but now remember he was the starter at 1st with the 59 Go Go Sox and Ted Kluszewski ( nearing the end of his career) was his back-up
Madhat1, thought it was the other way around & Klu was the starter. However you may be right. Seem to recall that Klu had a good year. Now there was a ballplayer. Hall of Famer if not for injury that shortened his career.
Followed Ted a bit as a kid, wasn't a Red fan but his sleeveless shirt uniform got my attention and his being a slugger kept my interest.
If you have a minute check out his record-stats,etc & info in wikepidia. Stretch in the 50's was pretty terrific. Also a great fielder.
One last item about Wally Moon:He was once suspended for disputing/bumping an umpire's call at second base on an sacrifice bunt.The irony was that the home plate umpire had called the bunt foul.
The play happened in the bottom half of the 9th in a tie game at the LA Coliseum on June 2,1961,an inning unlike no other in the game's history for wackiness.
The play happened in the bottom half of the 9th in a tie game at the LA Coliseum on June 2,1961,an inning unlike no other in the game's history for wackiness.
Last edited:
Got my first souvenir on a foul ball hit by Ted at the Polo Grounds in the mid 50' s. Cincy had some power guys in their lineup in those days.
did so and found (baseball reference.com statistics ) :
in a 4 year span 53-56 Klu had 171 of the 279 Hrs he belted in his 15 year MLB career (11 as a Red)
never thought of him as a good fielder, but never checked fielding statistics back then .
But Vic Power was a 1st baseman ( around the time Ted played) I heard was a slick fielder and considered a good one at that position.
Power was flashy but very good. Klu hit over .300 in those years & drove in over 100 runs in each. He was a .298 lifetime hitter. The year he hit 49 homers he struck out 40 times if I remember correctly, the most he ever struck out in any year. Those guys were hitters not swingers like we have today. For example, I don't think that Yogi ever struck out 40 times in a year. The most Stan Musial ever struck out over 20+years was 40 times in one year. Used to see Klu & Musial come into Ebbets & watch them on TV when the Dodgers were in Cincy or St Louis. With only 8 teams in the league got to see them a lot over the years. Musial is the best hitter I ever saw.
Last edited:
They did. Gus Bell & Wally Post come to mind. And of course Klu. Gus Bell was the best of the Bells IMO, as was patriarch Ray Boone of the Boones.
At Crosley Field one day a woman walked up to a ticket booth and asked the seller for a good seat.The teller said:"Where do you want it on the first or the third base side?"
The woman told him:"Neither,on the center field side.I've heard how wonderful Gus Bell,so I want to see him close up."
The woman told him:"Neither,on the center field side.I've heard how wonderful Gus Bell,so I want to see him close up."
did a quick check of the strikeouts and found this :
Stan Musial's single-season high was 46 strikeouts. Joe DiMaggio topped out at 39 whiffs, and Yogi Berra peaked at 38.
also found this :
Home runs vs. strikeouts | Society for American Baseball Research
https://sabr.org/research/home-runs-vs-strikeouts
Says a lot doesn't it? Went back & checked & actually Klu was a .298 lifetime hitter.
Probably in general because most of the stadiums weren't asymmetrical in shape. Yankee Stadium and Polo Grounds especially. Many of the old ones didn't have outfield seating all the way around.
Crowley field was only 387' to CF, 366' RF and had a terrace in left Philly had no seats in right, just a high wall. KC had no OF seating. I think Cleveland's old Municipal Stadium had equal distances down the lines and space everywhere else. It was basically a football field.
Yes fences were generally much further back. Forbes field in Pittsburgh, Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, Washington's, Yankee Stadium, Polo Ground's[gaps & you couldn't see center without binoculars],except for the Chinese homer down the right field line that allowed Dusty Rhodes to make a living. These parks come to mind. They moved the fences in & stopped calling the letter high fastball a strike when the changed the game to home run derby. Couldn't let that chest high pitch be a strike with all of these guys upercuting. They'd never hit it.
I think dead center at the PG to the base of the clubhouse was 475'.. Seats to the right and left of that had to be 425'. Something like only 8 players hit balls there and I believe one was Lou Brock. I saw Jim Hearn (Giants pitcher) hit a ball that rolled to the clubhouse for an inside the park homer.
Right field very short down the lines. Left had a high wall. Power alley's were deep & center was the grand canyon. Ashburn was a .300 hitter his whole career.
Believe center was even deeper. Also believe Joe Adcock & Brock the only players to hit one out there.
I watched a lot of games from PG on tv and hardly ever remember seeing very many balls hit to deep left or right center where the walls were still high. The bullpens were both in play too.
If you mean hit out, not surprised. Yes that was a HUGE DEEP Ballpark in the alleys & center. Watched on TV when Brooklyn played there.
I believe that the left field screen in the L.A. Coliseum (where the Dodgers played before Chavez Ravine was built, e.g. in 1959)) was something like 191 feet from home plate. The trick was to hit the ball high enough that it would get over the screen (I can't remember its size, but it was tall). Wally Moon, though a left-handed hitter, mastered the art of hitting flyballs over the screen.
Comiskey Park, where the White Sox played in 1959 had a very deep left field and center field. On a ball hit to the center field wall, a runner at second had a reasonable chance to score on a sacrifice fly.
Comiskey Park, where the White Sox played in 1959 had a very deep left field and center field. On a ball hit to the center field wall, a runner at second had a reasonable chance to score on a sacrifice fly.
That sounds right for the Polo Grounds. Bobby Thomson's home run might not have been a homer in any other park.
That's probably down the line. Wall, and it was high, moved out as it got to straight away left. Don't believe Thompson's homer was down the line. Shot broke my heart. Sat on the stoop of my apartment building dumbfounded.
Latest posts
-
-
-
With the portal now open, does Gavin Wimsatt enter after the spring game?
- Latest: Nycrusupporter
