Legends of Baseball: Second Basemen (Part Two)
The middle of the 20th century featured second basemen who were no strangers to baseball's All-Star Game
1930s
Charlie Gehringer
A humble superstar who quietly excelled in every aspect of the game, Gehringer was nicknamed “the Mechanical Man” because “all you do is wind him up on Opening Day and he runs on and on all season.” In the years from 1928 to 1940, Gehringer was so robotically consistent that he received MVP consideration every single year (and won the award in 1937 after hitting .371). In his age 30 season, MLB began its annual All-Star Game; Gehringer represented the American League in the Midsummer Classic the first six times it was held.
Billy Herman
Billy Herman’s first at-bat in the big leagues couldn’t have gone any worse: he fouled a ball off the plate and it smacked him in the head. The ball knocked him out cold, and Herman had to be carried off the field in a stretcher. He recovered quite nicely, spending a total of fifteen years in the majors (would have been seventeen had he not lost two years to the war). A ten-time All-Star who was part of the National League’s squad in the first eight contests, Herman has been called “one of the most intelligent infielders” in terms of defensive positioning, and, according to Bill James, was “widely known as the best hit-and-run man on his time - the best, perhaps, in baseball history.”
1940s
Bobby Doerr
I collect baseball cards. I will probably write about that a ton as the days go by. Most of my cards (99.9 percent) are Topps. The most famous Topps year is 1952 (thanks, Mickey Mantle), and these cards really set the standard for modern sports card design. What people don’t know is that the first Topps year was 1951, and the cards were used more as a deck of playing cards (indeed, there were two decks of 52 cards each). I say this because the oldest card in my collection is a 1951 Topps Bobby Doerr. Funny to think of all the times that card changed hands through the years before winding up in my album. In any event, Bobby Doerr spent the entirety of his career with the Boston Red Sox, even serving as sort of an “informal captain” of the squad, and was named to nine All-Star teams during his career.
Joe Gordon
An All-Star whose nine appearances in the context bookended two seasons lost to military service, Joe Gordon was an MVP with the New York Yankees and won four World Series rings while in pinstripes.1 He won another in 1948 with the Cleveland Indians2 as part of baseball’s best double play combo (playing alongside shortstop Lou Boudreau). His best work with the Tribe, though, may have been the welcome he extended to Larry Doby, the first Black man to play in the American League. Writes Joseph Wancho of the Society for American Baseball Research:
While most players were cordial, a few refused to acknowledge Doby or even shake his hand. Doby’s feeling of isolation continued after the team moved to the diamond to warm up before the start of the game. “I felt all alone. When we went out on the field to warm up, to play catch, you know the way we always did, no one asked me to play. I just stood there for minutes. It seemed like a long time,” recalled Doby. “Then Joe Gordon yelled, ‘Hey kid, come on. Throw with me.’ That was it. Joe Gordon was a class guy. He’d been a Yankee and the others looked up to him. So when he reached out to me, it really helped.”3
1950s
Nellie Fox
In 2024, Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly de la Cruz struck out 218 times. Nellie Fox struck out 216 times. For his entire career. Which lasted nineteen seasons. In over 10,000 plate appearances… Nellie Fox was just 5’9” and weighed just 160 pounds, but… well, here’s what Casey Stengel had to say about him: “That little feller, he ain't so big, but he's all fire. He's caused me more grief than any other player on the White Sox.” In fairness, Fox was an MVP, a three-time Gold Glove winner, and a 15-time (!!) All-Star4, who rarely struck out. He tormented far more people than Casey Stengel.
Jackie Robinson
Writers, far more talented than I am, have done a far better job celebrating Jackie Robinson than I ever could. Read them to understand his true impact.5 I will stick to on-field performance only in this write up and say only this: there had been an attempt in the early 2000s to say that Robinson’s style of play (reckless, take-no-chances) would be unwelcome in the modern game in the same way he was unwelcome in the days of segregation.
This take, dear reader, is idiotic.
When asked if he’d take Jackie Robinson, former Moneyball acolyte J.P. Ricciardi said:
“Absolutely. He hit immediately starting in his rookie year. He got on base (.400+ OBP for six straight years), rarely struck out, had good power for a middle infielder (averaged 14 homers a year), and played good defense at a critical position. And obviously his intensity and effort were off the charts. He's everything we want in a baseball player. What's not to like?”
Red Schoendienst
The consummate Cardinal, Red Schoendienst played for two World Series championships for St. Louis and was part of the coaching staff for three more. He became a switch-hitter after an eye injury, and “it was said of him that you could take a picture of him batting right-handed, reverse the negative, and he looked exactly the same as he did batting left.” He was pretty great with the glove as well, and led the National League in fielding percentage six times. A ten-time All-Star, Schoendienst was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.
1960s
Bill Mazeroski
“Here’s a swing and a high fly ball going deep left, this may do it, back to the wall goes Berra, it is over the fence, home run, the Pirates do it! … Ladies and gentlemen, Mazeroski has hit a one - nothing pitch over the left field fence at Forbes Field to win the 1960 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates, by a score of ten to nothing. [Quickly realizes error] Once again that final score, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1960 World Champions, have beat the New York Yankees, the Pirates ten, and the Yankees nine.”
Bill Mazeroski hit “The Greatest Homerun Ever”: a walk-off homerun to win the 1960 World Series. It’s number eight on Joe Posnanski’s list of the greatest moments in baseball history, and number two on The Sporting News’. Now, some historians and statisticians have since said that Maz’s homer wasn’t even the most important of Game 7.6 So if we take that blast out of the equation, who was Bill Mazeroski? A ten-time All-Star (in seven seasons), an eight-time Gold Glove winner, a two-time World Series champion, a lifelong Pittsburgh Pirate, and quite possibly the best defensive second baseman of all-time.
1970s
Rod Carew
An all-star for every year of his 19-year Major League career except his final one, Rod Carew was a hitting genius. A seven-time batting champion, he routinely flirted with hitting .400, and came came closest in his 1977 MVP season. Ultimately, he fell just eight hits short (and ended the season with a .388 batting average). Carew wrapped up his playing career with 3,053 hits and an 81.2 WAR, good enough for sixth among second basemen all-time. And while he raised his daughters in the faith, Carew, contrary to what Adam Sandler says, did not ever convert to Judaism.
Bobby Grich
The numbers on the back of his baseball card don’t exactly pop out: .266 batting average, fewer than 2,000 hits and barely 100 stolen bases. It’s no surprise that Grich’s Hall of Fame candidacy flamed out after one ballot. History has been kind to him, however. Grich, a six-time All-Star, had a knack for getting on base. His OBP of .371 is better than Frankie Frisch’s .369, even though Frisch’s batting average was fifty points higher. He was also an excellent defender (as evidenced by four Gold Gloves), and had a surprising amount of power for a second baseman (as evidenced by him leading the league in home runs and slugging percentage during the strike-shortened 1981 season). His 71.1 career WAR is eighth-best among second sackers; in 2019, Bill James listed him as the fifth best position player missing from the Hall of Fame.7
Joe Morgan
A cog in the “Big Red Machine,” Morgan was the National League MVP leading Cincinnati’s charge in 1975 and 176. Considered by some to be the best second basemen of all-time, Morgan was a ten-time All-Star and a five-time Gold Glove winner who led the National League in offensive WAR for six straight seasons. Despite the accolades, it’s possible that he’s underrated. He’s been called one of the “smartest baseball players” in history, and his prowess in the many “percentage stats” (including fielding percentage, stolen base percentage, strikeout-to-walk ratio, and walk frequency) have made him a darling of the advanced stats crowd (even though Joe Morgan, famously, did not return the love).
Gordon played exactly 1,000 games for the Yankees and racked up exactly 1,000 hits.
An excellent read about the 1940s Cleveland Indians is Our Team by Luke Epplin.
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/joe-gordon/
A few of those seasons he made the All-Star team twice. He was an All-Star in twelve different seasons, though.
Read Opening Day by Jonathan Eig.
That honor goes to Hal Smith, whose three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth put Pittsburgh back on top, 9-7. According to Baseball-Reference, this home run raised Pittsburgh’s chances of winning the World Series by 63.62 percent. Mazeroski’s blast - the one that won the World Series - only moved the needle 36.74 percent.
The other four are Dwight Evans, Lou Whitaker, Bill Dahlen, and Ted Simmons. Simmons, of course, has since been inducted, so you can accurately say that Grich is now the fourth best position player not in the Hall.