Correction; Encyclopedic Knowledge

Lou submitted via Android text message a two photograph correction to the editorial board of Heavy Artillery regarding your humble correspondent's reference to the "...nearly 1,000 page Baseball Encyclopedia..."

In fact, that edition of The Baseball Encyclopedia weighs in at a monstrous 3,026 pages.

Heavy Artillery regrets the error.

*********

Cincinnatus thy name is Nigel.

Roll the credits!

14 Forevermore, Nevermore

On a hot, sunny Sunday afternoon this past weekend the number 14 of Peter Edward Rose was retired to Valhallian perpetuity by the Cincinnati Reds, forever to be officially honored and never again to be worn by another Redleg.  As if.

As one would expect, there was much speechifying:

The Hit King proceeded to give, without prepared remarks, largely the same speech he made 24 hours earlier when inducted into the Reds' team Hall of Fame.  The general consensus is that Pete did well in thanking all those responsible for his latest honors (the Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred, Reds team ownership headed by Robert [he let's me call him "Bob"] Castellini), acknowledging his former teammates both for their role in shaping Pete's own career but also for their own innate greatness, recognizing the players he once managed, and finally paying tribute to the importance of Reds fans in sustaining Pete both on and off the field.

All too soon the ceremony concluded and the mighty Redlegs took the field!

It was good to see former NL MVP Joey Votto wearing his baseball pants - and showing his red stirrups (really just red socks) - in a fashion similar to that of how the Big Red Machine properly wore their uniforms forty years ago.

Most players however, like Jay Bruce for example, did not:

After a few innings hunger drove Lou and I out of the blazing heat and in search of Kahn's Big Red Smokeys.  Smokeys in hand, my quest for tasty ketchup sustenance had me traversing 10 sections along the concourse to find any of that precious red condiment.  Three consecutive days of sell-out crowds rendered the Great American Ball Park a veritable ketchup desert.  Lunch consumed, we paid a visit to the Reds Authentics shop to see what assortment of rare and game-used memorabilia might be for sale.

I spied this Joey Votto game-used jersey sporting a Fort Knox-grade price tag.  A Reds fan standing next to me, himself holding a $300 Tucker Barnhart jersey, asked aloud why the Barnhart jersey was more expensive than the Votto jersey - it was apparent he mistook the price tag for $200.  I directed this fan to look again at the Votto price tag, adding "It has an additional zero."  The fan peered more closely and nearly fainted.  Heat, humidity and highway robbery will do that to those of weak constitution.

Touring the air-conditioned Reds Hall of Fame, further avoiding the near 100-degree Heat Index, Lou and I checked out this year's feature exhibit on bobbleheads:

While a preponderance of the bobbleheads were of Reds players, included in the exhibit were bobbleheads of athletes from other sports, cultural icons, cartoon characters, Hollywood stars, politicians, historical figures, local celebrities and so much more.  One bobblehead in particular caught our attention.  Perhaps I should re-write that previous sentence as One power trio of bobbleheads in particular caught our attention:

Still in the box, too!  Without question a rare collectible bearing a value "beyond price, almost free....."

This was, we think, a significant and appropriate discovery in light of that weekend's celebration of the 1976 BRM considering - too - that 1976 was a pivotal, momentous year in the career of everyone's favorite Canadian rock band!

Up on the third level, Lou and I spied two high-ranking HOF officials boxing up the 1976 World Series trophy and carting it into a storage area (immediately evoking for me the closing scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark) for transport later to the big Pete Rose Hall of Fame gala dinner held downtown at the convention center that evening.  Returning from the Lost Ark warehouse, those same two HOF officials then stopped briefly to discuss where exactly Pete's HOF plaque is to be displayed.  With Lou some distance away reading the Ken Griffey Junior plaque, I was the first non-Reds staffer to learn of this fact!  I summoned Lou and we created our own photographic version using the Pete Rose print handed out to fans in attendance that afternoon:

Sufficiently cooled off, we braved heat stroke and headed back into the ballpark where we encountered this exotic species of Rose fanaticism:

I observed, quietly, to Lou: 

His shirt is his blog.

To which Lou, ever more witty than I, retorted:

It's a "slog."

Reading the shirt was certainly a slog.  See?  Not so witty.  [Insert sad face emoticon here.]

Following the ballgame and a home cooked salmon dinner prepared by Chef Lou that evening, he and I had a few hours-worth of administrative work to conduct which had each of us in one or more vehicles for the better part of three hours.  Naturally our discussion, during the times we shared occupancy in the same automobile, centered around some of the great players in the long and storied history of Cincinnati Reds baseball.  With me at the helm, Lou and his Android burned up the information super highway researching various statistics on players.  It was reminiscent of those halcyon summer Saturdays of late-1970s and early-1980s yesteryear when, after watching This Week In Baseball and during the NBC Game of the Week, we'd bust out the nearly 1,000-page Baseball Encyclopedia and look up the all-time greats.  We'd continually amaze ourselves at all the so-called "black type" (or more accurately "bold type") in the career stats of a Lou Gehrig or Ty Cobb or a Ted Williams.  Looking up all those players and talking about them, sometimes for hours at a time, was a great education in the history of the game.  That was where and how I honed whatever degree of expertise I like to think I possess as it relates to Major League baseball.  At a minimum, that's a root cause for my passionate interest.  

Somewhere along the way, no doubt spurred by the presence of Dave Parker at the ballpark, we got onto the subject of "The Cobra."  Specifically, how awesome a player was the man we call Parkway.  Lou stumbled across this startling Dave Parker fact that would have made less-skilled drivers than me veer off the road and into a tree-lined ditch;  Parker - who made his Major League debut in 1973 with the Pittsburgh Pirates - was drafted in the fourteenth round of the 1970 amateur draft!  

I said the 14th round!!!

Parker was a 7-time All-Star.  He won two batting titles (1977 & 1978).  Was awarded 3 Silver Sluggers and 3 Gold Gloves.  He was the 1978 National League MVP (and four other seasons was Top 5 in MVP voting).  He twice led the NL in slugging.  Twice Parker led the NL in doubles.  Twice the Cobra led the NL in defensive double plays turned by right fielders (he turned nine double plays in 1977!).

And in the 1970 amateur draft the Reds had a dozen opportunities to select Parker, a Cincinnati high school product.

To be fair, in every draft every team can be criticized - with benefit of hindsight - for all the great players they may have missed out on.  In the 2009 amateur draft Mike Trout wasn't selected until the 25th pick (the Reds took Mike "Six Run" Leake that year with the 8th overall pick).   Every team picking before #25 in the '09 draft would like to have a do-over.  

But to think... how much greater would have been the Big Red Machine if they'd have had Dave Parker in the lineup beginning in 1973?  How many more championships might have they won?  It makes for a fun thought experiment.  Which position would Parker play?  Right field is the most logical answer.  But then would have Ken Griffey Senior, right fielder for the BRM, been relegated to the bench?  Or perhaps never have been a Red (with later ramifications regarding Griffey Junior playing for Cincinnati)?  If Parker was assigned to play left field in 1973, that was the position Pete Rose was playing and where the Hit King won the 1973 NL MVP award.  Tony Perez was playing first base by 1973 so Parker wouldn't have played that position.  The ripple effects are endless, but imagine a lineup featuring:

Rose
Morgan
Parker
Bench
Perez
Foster

Mere contemplation of such a construction has my eyes spinning like a dial telephone [credit:  Marty Brennaman.]

In 1970, with Dave Parker still available, the Cincinnati Reds drafted:

#15  Gary Polczynski (SS)
#39  Rex Jackson (P) --- the Yankees took Fred Lynn at #60
#63  Barry Ulsh (P)
#87  Leslie Pinkham (C)
#111 Huey Rice (P)
#159 Richard Kemp (P)
#183 Will McEnaney (P) - the White Sox took Goose Gossage at #198
#207 Greg Sinatro (SS)
#231 Ray Knight (3B)
#255 Ira Damren (1B)
#279 William Smith (C)
#303 Christopher Jones (OF)

And at pick #325 the Pirates selected - nay, stole! - Dave "the Cobra" Parker.

Parker wasn't even the highest-drafted Cincinnati kid.  Some character named William Rothan from Western Hills High School was selected by the California Angels at #298, the Cubbies took a Mike Sylvester out of Moeller with the 283rd overall pick.  Perhaps most stunning of all, Parker wasn't even the first pick selected from his own high school!  With the 26th overall pick, the Indians selected an outfielder named Burnell Flowers, a teammate of Dave Parker.  Ol' Burnell never even had a cup of coffee in the Bigs.  Parker, as you know, was an MVP.

Interestingly for subscribers of HA, the Dodgers selected with the 201st pick a kid by the name of John Snider who hailed from Fairfield-Union High in Lancaster, Ohio - the alma mater of the living legend Mad Mahler.

You can view the entire 1970 amateur draft by clicking here.

And don't get me started on the 1971 draft:

How about this lineup?:

Rose
Morgan
Brett
Bench
Perez
Parker
Foster

Are your eyes spinning like a dial telephone?

Roll the credits!