It’s back to the Heartland and the state of Kansas.
I mentioned in the Iowa post about the Plains producing some of the very best pitchers. Walter Johnson is possibly the best of them all.
He was born 112 years ago this week on a farm outside Humboldt. His family moved to California (another one!) when Walter was 14. Eventually he made his way to Idaho, where he was spotted by a Washington Senators scout.
I hope that scout got a bonus, because Johnson was possibly the greatest pitcher who ever lived. He won 417 games, behind only Cy Young, and far ahead of anyone else. His career ERA was 2.17. He struck out 3,509 batters, a total that held up for more than a half-century as the most in history. He won the pitchers’ triple crown (wins, ERA, strikeouts) three times. Perhaps most impressive of all, he recorded 110 shutouts. Safe to say that one’s going to hold up for a while.
Like with most of his Nats teams, though, the Kansas crew is not really up to the standards of “Barney” – Johnson’s nickname, after auto racer Barney Oldfield. Because Johnson threw very hard, you see, and the sportswriters also called him the Big Train because locomotives were still the thing 100 years ago. Airplanes were just, um, taking off.
The only other Hall of Famer on the squad is Joe Tinker, who is mostly enshrined because he was in a poem. A good shortstop, though. The biggest threats on offense are George Grantham of the 1920s Pirates, Braves 1978 Rookie of the Year Bob Horner and former Phillie catcher Darren “Dutch” Daulton. Johnny Damon is here too. Johnson will have some help from Negro league greats Chet Brewer and Frank Wickware.
As for the manager, I could have gone with Ralph Houk, who won World Series in his first two seasons, a pennant in his third, then managed mostly mediocre teams in New York, Detroit and Boston. But “The Major” is needed as the third-string catcher, so I’m going with the fiery Gene Mauch.
Gene is better known for never reaching the World Series despite coming ridiculously close three times (’64, ’82 and ’86). He managed and won more than anyone else in that category, by far. This seems more like his kind of team, at least in terms of speed and talent. And he does have the Big Train, making this a tough team to beat when “Barney” takes the mound at least.
KANSAS JAYHAWKS
RH Elden Auker
OF Beals Becker
RH Chet Brewer
OF George Brickell
RH Larry Cheney
1B Tony Clark
OF Johnny Damon
CA Darren Daulton
2B Bingo DeMoss
2B George Grantham
RH Claude Hendrix
3B Bob Horner
CA Ralph Houk
RH Walter Johnson
2B Pete Kilduff
LH Paul Lindblad
OF Don Lock
LH Rudy May
CA Ray Mueller
OF Butch Nieman
RH Steve Renko
SS Bill Russell
1B David Segui
LH Ed Siever
RH Luther Taylor
SS Joe Tinker
OF Mitch Webster
RH Frank Wickware
Next: West Virginia.
Base instincts 