The Better Than You Remember Thread

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, Redskins Rick said:

Bonilla was a cancer, which is why he played for 7 or 8 teams in his career.

5 of which went to the playoffs, in 6 different seasons.   

[SteveA]

Not that he wasn't appreciated, but in Ken Singleton's first 6 years as an Oriole  he put up 26.2 WAR despite being a poor defender.   In 10 years as an Oriole, he OPSed .824.   He received MVP votes in 6 of his first 7 years as an Oriole.   In his first 7 years as an Oriole he never had an onbase % of less than .366.

[Dr. Unk]

I wasn't very enamored with Reggie Jackson when he was here, but when I looked up his stats, they weren't what I remembered.

[Redskins Rick]

14 hours ago, Frobby said:

5 of which went to the playoffs, in 6 different seasons.   

True, he did perform on the field, but apparently, wasn't enough to keep him around.

[Redskins Rick]

13 hours ago, Dr. Unk said:

I wasn't very enamored with Reggie Jackson when he was here, but when I looked up his stats, they weren't what I remembered.

You were probably like me, and not a Reggie fan before he came here. I never cared for his attitude and appealed to coast through games, until he turned on Mr. October.

[Redskins Rick]

16 hours ago, Ohfan67 said:

Ugh. He had one excellent year and one slightly above average year for the O's. I hated, HATED that the Orioles signed him. The day his signing was announced was one of the lowest days of my Orioles fandom. It was a deal with the devil from my perspective. There's some things you don't do to win IMO and signing Albert Belle was one of them for me. Yuck, yuck, yuck. 

Belle was the poster child while here, he got along with his teammates in the clubhouse, or so they say.

[DrungoHazewood]

17 hours ago, SteveA said:

Not that he wasn't appreciated, but in Ken Singleton's first 6 years as an Oriole  he put up 26.2 WAR despite being a poor defender.   In 10 years as an Oriole, he OPSed .824.   He received MVP votes in 6 of his first 7 years as an Oriole.   In his first 7 years as an Oriole he never had an onbase % of less than .366.

I think of Singleton as being out of the same mold as Bobby Abreu:  Plus power, but not plus-plus, good averages, RF/DH, walked a ton and had great OBPs.

But then I forget that Abreu would steal as many bases in a season as Singleton did in his career.

[Frobby]

3 hours ago, Redskins Rick said:

You were probably like me, and not a Reggie fan before he came here. I never cared for his attitude and appealed to coast through games, until he turned on Mr. October.

I never had a problem with Reggie, and if I recall, Earl Weaver spoke highly of him.  (It’s certainly true that Jackson spoke highly of Weaver.)

[Ohfan67]

3 hours ago, Redskins Rick said:

Belle was the poster child while here, he got along with his teammates in the clubhouse, or so they say.

That means zero to me. 

[Dr. Unk]

4 hours ago, Redskins Rick said:

You were probably like me, and not a Reggie fan before he came here. I never cared for his attitude and appealed to coast through games, until he turned on Mr. October.

Yes, that pretty much nailed it on the head.

[Ruzious]

I'm going back aways to almost the Blefary era - Merv Rettenmund.  I remember him as a good platoon hitter, but checked, and he had a lifetime 123 OPS+ with a .380 OBP (wow!).  19th in MVP voting in 1971!  I do recall he had a noodle for an arm in LF, but still... dude could hit.      

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Ruzious said:

I'm going back aways to almost the Blefary era - Merv Rettenmund.  I remember him as a good platoon hitter, but checked, and he had a lifetime 123 OPS+ with a .380 OBP (wow!).  19th in MVP voting in 1971!  I do recall he had a noodle for an arm in LF, but still... dude could hit.      

Rettenmund's last year with the O's was when I was two, so I have no mental picture of him at all.  Who was he like?  Any idea why he had two years where he hit .320, and the rest of his career he hit about .250?

[OFFNY]

7 hours ago, Redskins Rick said:

 

You were probably like me, and not a Reggie fan before he came here. I never cared for his attitude, and he appeared to coast through games until he turned on "Mr. October."

 

o

 

The complete opposite is true, particularly of Jackson's 1976 season with the Orioles.

Reggie Jackson may have been a pain-in-the-ass, but he was far from lazy and/or aloof from caring in the regular season.

Jackson posted a career-high for stolen bases in a season (28) in his lone season playing for the Orioles ........ in spite of missing the first month of the season when he held out. 

 

When one of the all-time great power hitters steals more bases in one season than he ever has before or after, in spite of missing one month of the season ........ playing for a manager that was not particularly known as making stolen bases a high priority ........ there is no possible way that his effort(s) can be construed as uncaring/indifferent.

 

o

[OFFNY]

8 hours ago, Redskins Rick said:

 

You were probably like me, and not a Reggie fan before he came here. I never cared for his attitude, and he appeared to coast through games until he turned on "Mr. October."

 

 

 

17 minutes ago, OFFNY said:

o

 

The complete opposite is true, particularly of Jackson's 1976 season with the Orioles.

Reggie Jackson may have been a pain-in-the-ass, but he was far from lazy and/or aloof from caring in the regular season.

Jackson posted a career-high for stolen bases in a season (28) in his lone season playing for the Orioles ........ in spite of missing the first month of the season when he held out. 

 

When one of the all-time great power hitters steals more bases in one season than he ever has before or after, in spite of missing one month of the season ........ playing for a manager that was not particularly known as making stolen bases a high priority ........ there is no possible way that his effort(s) can be construed as uncaring/indifferent.

 

o

o

 

 

o

[Ruzious]

3 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Rettenmund's last year with the O's was when I was two, so I have no mental picture of him at all.  Who was he like?  Any idea why he had two years where he hit .320, and the rest of his career he hit about .250?

I was 10 when he had the big year in 1971, and I do remember him from the fond eyes of a... 10 year old.  I recall the comment in the WS one of those years that any ball hit to the OF not towards Paul Blair, the batter should try for an extra base.  It was probably when Frank wasn't at 100%.  It seemed like the O's had a few good hitting/poor fielding LFers back then - Don Buford, Merv, and The Crow?  My guess is that Merv would have benefited from the DH rule if they had it back then.