Sam Thompson

[rburgh]

The top 25 RBI/G played (games played by the player), minimum 81 games.

Sam Thompson 1894 1.42
Sam Thompson 1895 1.39
Sam Thompson 1897 1.31
Hack Wilson 1930 1.23
Al Simmons 1930 1.20
Cap Anson 1894 1.19 (Cap was 42!)
Hank Greenberg 1937 1.19
Lou Gehrig 1931 1.19
Cap Anson 1886 1.18
Jimmy Foxx 1938 1.17
Hugh Duffy 1894 1.16
Dave Orr 1890 1.16 (Dave is listed as 5'-11", 250 on bbref)
Ed Delahanty 1894 1.15
Babe Ruth 1929 1.14
Lou Gehrig 1930 1.13
Lou Gehrig 1927 1.13
Babe Ruth 1921 1.13
Babe Ruth 1931 1.12
Hardy Richardson 1890 1.12 (he and Orr were in the Players' League)
Manny Ramirez 1999 1.12
Hank Greenberg 1935 1.12
Ed Delahanty 1893 1.11
Joe DiMaggio 1937 1.11
Al Simmons 1929 1.10
Jimmy Foxx 1932 1.10

Note how many of these seasons were from the hitters' eras of the 1890's and 1930's. Even 1999 was a peak year for roidball.

[doug_tucker10]

"Dave Orr 1890 1.16 (Dave is listed as 5'-11", 250 on bbref)"

Sadly i think it was because of his size that his career ended from a stroke at such a young age :( (age 30 i believe) ..he may have had a HOF career if he had kept his good health..lifetime BA .342/ OPS. 867

[Muadib1950]

[quote:8888d4441e="gkhd11a"]How does a "W" hitter with BP homeruns work? I thought a "W" hitter would have BP homeruns turned into flyouts[/quote:8888d4441e]

Uhh ... I think it's a misprint! I have never seen a W weak HR hitter also have BP HRs on that same side of his card. Are there others like this? There are a few guys rated N that also have no BP HRs on that same side of the card ... but I've never seen this before ... or noticed it ... :roll:

[b:8888d4441e]I've sent Sir Bernard a message thru the CONTACT US menu about these issues this morning, so perhaps he'll post some answers today or some such to our questions on how this works. [/b:8888d4441e] His card makes him a 'slow' Ty Cobb ... with a bit of a rag arm in RF to boot ... hmmm ... maybe I'll DH him ... if I can ever get him ... :wink:

[macnole]

Nev...if he does recover, will it be due to normalization? If he doesnt recover, then what about normalization?

Just say it. I'm a jerk

[sdajr76]

how's sammy doing now? thinking about using him.

-steven

[mykeedee]

[quote:7c108bf1f5="rburgh"]That is not unheard of for deadball era guys. Others like that include Jesse Burkett and Joe Kelley.[/quote:7c108bf1f5]

...and Dan Brouthers.

[AeroDave10]

[quote:2892f8f7d8="gkhd11a"]How does a "W" hitter with BP homeruns work? I thought a "W" hitter would have BP homeruns turned into flyouts[/quote:2892f8f7d8]

We may need some clarification, but this may be a typo on the card.

[drfreeze49]

[quote:8e34273f45="gkhd11a"]How does a "W" hitter with BP homeruns work? I thought a "W" hitter would have BP homeruns turned into flyouts[/quote:8e34273f45]

In the cd-rom game they are turned into singles

[drfreeze49]

also this might explain [b:462a8276a9]Sams weakness vs lefties for power[/b:462a8276a9]...

In [b:462a8276a9]1894, Thompson[/b:462a8276a9] was part of the only all-.400-hitting outfield of all-time. All four Philadelphia outfielders ended the season with a batting average better than .400 (Tuck Turner at .416, [b:462a8276a9]Thompson[/b:462a8276a9] and [b:462a8276a9]Ed Delahanty [/b:462a8276a9]at .407, and [b:462a8276a9]Billy Hamilton[/b:462a8276a9] at .404). Thompson [b:462a8276a9]hit .407 despite missing a month with a finger injury which necessitated the amputation of a fingertip.[/b:462a8276a9]

[rburgh]

There are enough of these that it is probably intentional. Brouthers, Thompson, Joe Kelley, Burkett, and there are a couple more if I'm not mistaken. My guess is that it was an attempt to account for the insane ballparks used in that era, where some had little-league type dimensions down one foul line.

Making a card like that for a guy in a really weird park would essentially prevent him from hitting home runs on the road except in similarly weird parks. There are plenty of guys from this time frame who rarely hit home runs except in the "friendly confines." Remember that Bobby Lowe, all of 5'-10" and 150 lbs., hit 71 home runs in an 1821 game career, and four of them were in his home ballpark in one game. (1894, of course)

In fact, in 1894, Sam hit NO HR against LHP, so he should simply have been "W". The total number of innings pitched by LHP in the 1894 NL is surely under 20%, so his power there is likely a tribute to his performance in other seasons, given the sample size.