My Homework Assignment from John, Part 2

I tackled my favorite players from before World War II in Part 1.  Now we're on to the Cold War.  And that brings up an interesting historical question:  When did the Cold War end?  This actually affects one of my players for this part and the next part.  Most historians would say 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the satellite nations breaking away from the Evil Empire.  Some might say 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union.  I was a history major in college and studied this period of history extensively, and I have a different answer:  May 1988. On May 31, 1988, Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at Moscow State University about the greatness of the American system.  This is one of my favorite quotes:  "Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put on this world has been put there for a reason and has something to offer."  I once wrote a paper in college where I called this the Cold War Victory Speech.  When the President of the United States could say something like this at Moscow State University, the Cold War was over.  We won.

I know a lot more about the players from the Cold War than I do about the players who played before World War II.  I'm going with nine players for nine innings.  So here are my favorite players from 1945-1987:

9.  Stan Musial (1941-1944, 1946-1963).  He missed a year for the war.  I think he's a very underrated player.  When he retired, his 475 home runs was sixth all time.  His career batting average was .331 and he's fourth all time in hits with 3630.  Great, simple nickname:  Stan the Man.

8.  Gil Hodges (1943, 1947-1963).  He played in one game in 1943 and missed the next three years to serve in the military.  Gil Hodges was second in the Majors in the 1950s with 310 home runs.  He belongs in the Hall of Fame.

7.  Johnny Podres (1953-1967, 1969).  4-1, 2.11 ERA in the World Series.  He pitched a complete game shutout at Yankee Stadium in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series.

6.  Pete Rose.  Just kidding.  I loathe Pete Rose.  He bet on baseball and lied about it.  He doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame.

6.  Joe Torre (1960-1977).  This is entirely because of his career as a manager.  I loved the guy.  He deserved better than managing a team owned by Frank McCourt in his last season.

5.  Duke Snider (1947-1964).  He hit the most home runs in the 1950s with 326.  He's either the second or third best Dodger of all time.  He's the Dodgers' all time home run leader with 389.  Snider was very good in his six World Series appearances.  In 36 games, he hit 11 home runs and drove in 26 runs.

4.  Hank Aaron (1954-1976).  He's the all time leader in RBIs with 2297 and the legitimate home run king with 755.  There is no greater tragedy in baseball than what Barry Bonds did to forever taint the greatest record in the game.  Can we all agree that Hank Aaron is still the record holder?

3.  Ted Williams (1939-1942, 1946-1960).  I covered Ted Williams in my post about San Diego, so this will be a lot shorter than it could be.  I've heard people say that Ted Williams is the greatest hitter ever.  He wasn't, but he's somewhere from second to fifth.  Let's compare Ruth and Williams.  Williams hit .344, Ruth hit .342.  Ruth hit 714 home runs, Williams hit 521 (but as I explained, if Williams hadn't missed time because of the wars and if he had played at Yankee Stadium, the gap would be a lot narrower).  Williams had an on base percentage of .482, Ruth was .474.  Ruth has a big edge in slugging percentage, .690 to .634 (Williams was second all time, but that's a big gap).  The big difference is the era in which they played.  It's hard to pick the best season for Ted Williams, but you could make a good case for 1941.  Williams led the league with 37 home runs.  The league average for a team was 83.  It was an amazing season, but it wasn't Ruthian.  In 1949 (an MVP year and another contender for Williams's best season), he hit 43 home runs and the league average for a team was 107.  The other contenders for second best hitter of all time are Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, and Ty Cobb.  I'd put Cobb behind the other three because he didn't hit home runs the way they did.

2.  Jackie Robinson (1947-1956).  Jackie Robinson is right there with Duke Snider for second best Dodger of all time.  I like him because he went to UCLA (under the enemy of my enemy is my friend theory).  He played baseball, basketball, and football, and ran track.  Of course, Robinson is most famous for being the most historically significant baseball player of all time.  He broke baseball's color barrier before Harry Truman integrated the military and before Brown v. Board of Education.  I feel like I didn't learn about Jackie Robinson in school and I should have (of course, I knew all about him anyway).  I teach my kids about him.  Another thing that I absolutely love about Jackie Robinson is that he retired when the Dodgers traded him to the Giants.

1.  Sandy Koufax (1955-1966).  He's the greatest Dodger of all time and the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time.  He only played 12 years and wasn't really anything special for the first half of his career (ages 19-24).  Then he went nuts.  In his last six years, he was 129-47 with a 2.19 ERA and 1713 strikeouts.  In his last four years, he was 97-27 with a 1.86 ERA and 1228 strikeouts.  He led the league in ERA in each of his last five years.  He pitched four no hitters, including one perfect game.  And then there's what he did in the World Series.  He edges Mariano Rivera for best postseason pitcher ever.  Koufax was in the World Series four times (he was on the Dodgers in 1955, but didn't pitch in the World Series, it would be five if you count 1955) and pitched in eight games.  Surprisingly, he was only 4-3.  But in 57 innings, he had an ERA of 0.95.  He was the World Series MVP of the 1963 and 1965.  In 1965, Koufax lost Game 2.  Then he pitched a complete game shutout in Game 5 and then again on two days rest in Game 7.  It's a shame arthritis cut his career short.  If not for that, Koufax probably had at least five more years and 100 more wins.

God Bless America!