Thousands of young players have proven themselves before being given consistent playing time? I would love to see this list.Originally Posted by Brutus
Thousands of young players have proven themselves before being given consistent playing time? I would love to see this list.
The game is over a century and a quarter old, do you really need to see a list to know that young players have routinely come up in baseball and earned playing time without playing every game to start?
"No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference." ~Tommy Lasorda
I would really love to see you spend a lot of time finding a list of guys who got less than 50% of the team starts for the first 1.5 years of their careers in the Majors while also spending that time 90% on the MLB roster who began their careers at 24 or younger who did it. Especially since free agency started and teams couldn't just put star caliber 20 year olds on the roster and not play them in the 20's or 30's because they had no worry of losing them to free agency.
It's called proving yourself and earning your position. Sometimes it takes an injury to get that chance. Just ask Wally Pipp.
Sigh.
Wally Pipp lost his job before he went down with an injury. Gehrig played a month straight before Pipp ever went on the DL.
Devin was the 16th best prospect in the game. That's cream of the crop to me. I'm not gonna make those type guys "earn" their spot in the conventional way.
So you are trying to call out Doug? (He said top 15)
I thought that went without saying.So you are trying to call out Doug? (He said top 15)
I never specified which list I was using. So booya!So you are trying to call out Doug? (He said top 15)
Touche
"Sigh......." Yeah, I can do that too. Get over yourself. Regardless, of the version of the story you choose to believe, circumstances surrounding Wally Pipp created an opportunity for young Gehrig. He didn't immediately, "tear it up," but eventually took off. He proved himself when given the opportunity. It wasn't put out there on the silver platter.
jimbo (08-04-2013)
I am just tired of hearing how Gehrig took the job from an injured Wally Pipp. He didn't. That story has been told my entire life and I am sure it was told before I was born too. It didn't happen.
Gehrig, for the record, from the day he took over until the point in which Pipp went onto the DL, hit .321/.394/.574. From the day he took over until the end of the season he hit .303/.374/.547.
He did immediately take off and he was darn good for the rest of his career.
there was no DL back then but the main reason Gehrig got a chance was because the Yankees sucked that year and Ruth was out with a case of the clap (or similar)
Big Klu (08-04-2013)
http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/7ef89b85
Throughout his life and during his baseball career, Pipp suffered recurring headaches, the result, he later explained, of a schoolboy hockey injury that had also left him with reduced vision in his left eye. He was suffering one of those headaches on June 2, 1925, and asked trainer Al "Doc" Woods for a couple of aspirins. Yankee manager Miller Huggins strolled by and suggested Pipp take the day off. "The kid can replace you this afternoon," he said, referring to Lou Gehrig. Heading into that day's game, the Yankees were 15-26, had lost five in a row, and were only a half game from the American League cellar. Pipp had started slowly too, batting just .244 with three home runs and 23 RBI.
When Gehrig got his opportunity to start, he took full advantage of it. And a month later, when Pipp suffered a brain concussion, the changeover was complete. Rookie pitcher Charlie Caldwell, later the head football coach at Princeton, beaned Pipp in batting practice, and Wally spent the next two weeks at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan. When he returned, Gehrig had won the first baseman's job, and Pipp's role for the rest of the season was as a pinch-hitter.
The Yanks tried to trade him to several American League clubs, but couldn't come to terms with any of them. So, after asking and getting waivers on him, they sold Pipp to the National League's Cincinnati Reds. The Reds, still badly in need of a first baseman more than a year after the untimely death of Jake Daubert,, paid what was said to be much more than the $7,500 waiver price. Once again Pipp asked that he be paid part of the purchase price, and once again he was turned down.
You are right. It was a month later in which Pipp was actually injured (fractured skull).
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