A Great Baseball Trivia Question.Test Your knowledge

Yeah, Jimmy started his major league career in 1885, when his age was -15.

I would guess that it's Chuck Klein, who had 20% more OFA's than Barfield in only about 15% more games, but we don't know what his innings total was.

Klein 1600 G, 194 A
Barfield 1387 G, 162 A

It's defintely not Roberto, he played nearly twice as many innings in the field as Jesse and only beat him 266-162 in assists.

I meant his little-known son, Jimmy Ryan Jr. He was a disaster at the plate, but had a hell of an arm...

If it's not Jimmy Jr., it has to be Roberto Clemente.

As an aside, you may want to consider the problem of which two outfielders had seasons of 150+ games in the OF with one single solitary OFA.

As an aside, you may want to consider the problem of which two outfielders had seasons of 150+ games in the OF with one single solitary OFA.

You responded to my Clemente answer by editing your previous post? Interesting.

I'm not particularly interested in unknown teams' problems. As to answering that question, it is far too esoteric for me. I'll let those with greater esoteric baseball knowledge do so.

Re Johnny Bassler:

One wonders what got him sent back to the minors? Could it be the fascination with the long ball and low importance placed on OBP in that era caused a player who should have had a long career to be unappreciated?

The story on Bassler is that he lived in Hollywood before becoming a baseball player, and loved California. He was very frugal and made a pretty good living with the Tigers, and decided he wanted to return to California and buy land. He was a practicing Mennonite who grew up on a farm, and he bought land in Malibu. He decided to leave the major leagues and play in Hollywood for the PCL, and the TIgers obliged him and sold his contract.

Kind of unfair to the other guys in the PCL -- it was double-A! ... and Bassler was one of the best catchers in the majors. He ended up batting .336 or better in 5 of his 7 seasons for Hollywood.

edit: I just looked up the Hollywood Stars. Bassler's teammates in his last years included 20-year-old Vince DiMaggio and 17-year-old Bobby Doerr.

Great research Clowntime. That was very interesting. I imagine that is another one that will never get repeated.

I would guess that it's Chuck Klein, who had 20% more OFA's than Barfield in only about 15% more games, but we don't know what his innings total was.

If we just go with games per assist.....
Klein 1600/194=8.24 games per assist
Barfield 1387/162=8.56 games per assist

So I think you hit the jackpot with Klein. Klein had 44 assists in 1930 and it got him a -3 arm.

As an aside, you may want to consider the problem of which two outfielders had seasons of 150+ games in the OF with one single solitary OFA.

This one should be an interesting challenge.

As a hint, both guys are regularly (but not universally) used in live draft leagues.

Ben Revere had two assists in Center field for the Phillies this year. Considering the number of catchers who went from from first to third on singles to center, the low number of assists wasn't because third base coaches were afraid to run on him.

Ben is routinely a +3 arm in CF.