Rowland Office Statistics – Baseball-Reference.com
Here’s a game for you… Try to link someone totally of non-HOF quality to a Hall of Famer (preferably a legitimate one, not a Tommy McCarthy) using only the B-R similarities scores — the top ten Similar Batters and the Most Similar By Age. For example, Office at ages 23 and 25 was most similar to Mike Hershberger. Hershberger’s seventh-closest career hitter was Thin Brian Hunter. Hunter, at age 26, was most-similar to Mickey Rivers. From age 30-32, Rivers was most-similar to Willie McGee, who at 29, was most-similar to Zach Wheat, a Hall of Famer who is similar to a whole lot of other Hall of Famers.
I spend a lot of time doing this. Where it gets reeaaallllly hard is when you start with a total nobody scrubeenie who played for like, five minutes. Think Kip Young or somebody. Sometimes you get in an infinite scrub-loop, but occasionally you catch lightning in a bottle and make it from craptastic to Mike Schmidt (albeit in about 57 links).
Example: I just went from Stan Papi to the Hall of Fame (Leo Durocher) in seven steps. If you feel Leo is too borderline, one more link gets you to Ozzie Smith.
Best. Timewaster. Ever.
I sort of had to do this, didn’t I?
Rufino Linares- #2 Sim Score was:
Gene Locklear- Age 27 most similar was:
Bevo LeBourveau- # 10 Sim Score was:
Jeff Stone- Age 25 most similar was:
Ken Griffey- # 7 Sim Score was:
Cesar Cedeno- Age 21 Sim Score was:
Vada Pinson- Age 20 Sim Score was:
Mickey Mantle.
Way more fun than the stupid Kevin Bacon thingy.
You can get from Glenn Hubbard to the Hall in two steps, but it’s cheap: his third-most-similar career hitter is Cass Michaels, whose most-similar hitter at age 19 was Robin Yount.
Hey! I made it with Jerry Willard!
(hmmmmmmmm… that doesn’t sound right :-/)
It took a while, though:
Willard
Jody Davis
Ernie Whitt
Sandy Alomar
Don Slaught
Smokey Burgess
Spud Davis
Ernie Lombardy
I tried the worst player who quickly came to mind – Cristian Guzman, and it only took 2 steps:
Guzman is most similar at age 22 to Tommy Corcoran, who is similar to a whole slew of HOFers.
I’ll try someone else . . .
I also got willard to a founding member of the Replacements in just three steps.
Vance Wilson
Carlos Hernandez
Bob Stinson
OK, so it’s getting late on a Friday afternoon.
Adam Bernero -> John Pacella -> Ray Burris -> Catfish Hunter/Dazzy Vance
Only reason I picked Pacella on Bernero’s list is because I remember his 1981 baseball card saying that he lost his cap after every pitch.
You could call this seven degrees of Rowland Office. It’s funny Mac, but about 30 minutes ago I was going to post ‘what the Hell is Rowland Office doing on the Greatest CF in Brave History debate.’ Here he rears his ugly head again.
Not only did I get there with Terrell Wade, but I found out his first name is Hawatha(?).
Had to go through some familiar Braves to get there…
Casey Fossum
John Thomson
Pete Smith
Mudcat Grant
Claude Osteen
Frank Tanana
Don Sutton
I’m thinking I might have actually been able to do that one fast, but I like that three Braves showed up. I almost got Doyle Alexander in there, but I backtracked and went in another direction.
I was also shocked, shocked I tell you, to see that Wade pitched two major league games for the Devil Rays.
My second try was Ron Gant, and again, 2 steps:
Gant at 28 was similar to Tony Conigliaro, who at 20-21 was most similar to Mickey Mantle (at 22 he dropped down to Frank Robinson.)
I need to try someone harder. But Ron Gant only two steps removed from Mickey Mantle was pretty impressive.
Andres Thomas was surprisingly easy… his age 23 and 24 comp is Jay Bell who went to Craig Biggio at age 28 (and 29). Which is really far enough, but techincally I guess you have to take one of his career comps for now (Morgan, Yount, Gehringer).
I didn’t realize that you could do “most similar by age” (which makes it much easier) but Rafael Belliard is really difficult no matter what criteria you use 🙂
Yeah, that looks like an infinite scrub loop.
Dan Kolb
Joe Boever
Tim Worrell
Ted Abernathy
Steve Bedrosian
Kent Tekulve
Hoyt Wilhelm
All but Worrell and Tekulve played for the Braves
I’m gonna find out how long it takes to get from Chris Reitsma to a real closer 🙂 🙂
Rafael Belliard
Dal Maxvill
Hal Lanier
Nellie Fox
In memory of July 4/5, 1985:
Rick Camp
Gene Garber
Rollie Fingers
seth greisinger
dewon brazelton
dave weathers
jose mesa
gene garber
rollie fingers
I bet you could do this backwards from Rollie Fingers and find a lot of relief pitcher scrubs from only a generation or two back. There are a lot of crappy relievers who put it all together for a short time. That helps them climb up the most-similar ladder.
Fluky players help this game. 🙂
larvell (sugar bear) blanks
bobby sturgeon
roger peckinpaugh
ozzie smith
Brad Komminsk
Kenny Williams
George Foster
Willie Stargell
This is a good demonstration of the “similarity at age effect” Kenny Williams may have resembled George Foster at Age 24, but he may hav been even a worse player than Brad Komminsk, who I’m ready to nominate for the all-time worst Braves team.
Rey Sanchez
to
Walt Weiss
to
Leo Durocher.
My man Albert Hall
to
Johnny Welaj (career most similiar)
to
Alex Diaz (career 8th most silmilar)
to
First overall pick bust Shawn Abner (career 4th most simiilar)
to
Rusty Torres (most similar at Age 25)
to
Kenny Williams (career most similar)
to
George Foster (most similar at Age 24)
to
Willie Stargell (most similar at Ages 29,30,31,32)
Not easy, but I got there. Clearly I could do this all day.
Biff Pocoroba
Bob Boone
Deacon McGuire
Phil Rizzuto
fantastic game!