Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

[url]http://www.19cbaseball.com/players-paul-hines.html[/url]

[url]http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hinespa01.shtml[/url]

[url]http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/GkgbQ[/url]

Thought it might be nice to draw some attention to the greats from the earliest days of organized professional baseball. Hines overall numbers might not look impressive but you have to consider that they weren't playing 162 games and the game back then was probably a tad different than modern ball. Hines was 9th overall in OPS for all players with 5000 or more PA's during the span of his career (1872-1891)

He is noted for the number of "firsts" he can claim in baseball including being the first triple crown winner in 1878.

I think SOM draws the line on players from the 1870s and 1880s - at only those who are in the Hall of Fame, and nobody else.

I'm not petitioning for Hines to be added to the ATG set, just noting someone who had a distinguished career back in ye olde days of baseball. I thought it was interesting how Hines stacks up in the context of his era. There are others who i might share about here in future posts.

I might like to see an 1874 or 1875 AG Spalding card ( i think 1876 is earliest season available for SOM). :D only 37 walks combined in the 2 seasons where he pitched a total of 1187 innings :shock:

I'd love to see an 1874 card - his ERA under 2 yet he gave up 755 hits in 617 innings and was 52-16.

Hines is a member of Baseball Think Factory's Hall of Merit, which I consider to be an honor worthy of more respect than the Hall of Fame, although obviously not one that will make you as famous ;) The Hall of Merit was a committee of around 50 baseball historians, whose voting system was far more transparent and logical than the Hall of Fame's.

Hines actually is a charter member of the Hall of Merit, although that doesn't mean quite the same thing as it did in the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Merit began voting in "year" 1898, with a ballot including anyone who retired before 1893. Hines, Deacon White, George Gore and Ross Barnes were the players elected from that ballot.

His [url=http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/hall_of_merit/discussion/the_hall_of_merit_plaque_room1/]"plaque"[/url] reads:[quote:836e7cbf5c]The first man to win the triple crown, Hines played exceptionally well offensively and defensively for a very long time. The first National Leaguer to win back-to-back batting titles (1878-79), the right-handed slugger hit .302 (11 seasons over .300) with an OPS+ of 131. Hines also earned 419 WS in 14.7 non-NA seasons, including 181 from 1878-82. An outstanding defensive player noted for his range and spectacular running catches (he led his leagues once in double plays and fielding percentage twice), he’s credited with the first unassisted triple play in a game in 1878. Retired with the ML career records for OF games (1,376), CF games (1,303), and double plays (56). Key member of three pennant winners (1876, 79 and the World Champions of 1884); also with the Providence teams that were runner-ups to the great Chicago squad (1880-82). NL Triple Crown (1878). STATS, Inc. NL MVP (1878). Five-time STATS, Inc. NL Outfielder (1876, 1878-79, 1882, 1884). Three-time Win Shares NL Silver Slugger Award (1878-79, 1884). Seven-time Win Shares NL Gold Glove Award winner (1876, 1879-84). Career OWP (.663). NL leader in SLG (1878), 2B (1876, 1881, 1884), OPS (1878), Games (1879), AB (1879), Hits (1879), TB (1878-79), HR (1878), RBI (1878), Singles (1879), AB/HR (1878), and Times on Base (1879).[/quote:836e7cbf5c]

Dean, that's great, thanks for sharing that. :-)

Maybe Hines can be included with our ATG at some point (one of his notable seasons please,1878 or 1879 which Strato does have seasons for). SOM even notes Hines triple crown achievement with its season description for 1878. I see on my list of 22 that we are using 5 or 6 of the players on that list so it wouldn't be out of place to include Hines.