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| Saturday, March 30 Young stars line up at third base By Chris Kahrl Special to ESPN.com |
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With all due apologies to Tom Brokaw, or more appropriately to people like my grandfather, the fighter ace, one of the things about people is that we like to talk about folks in terms of age groups or generations. We define ourselves and other people by the experiences they shared or might have shared. Gen X, Gen Y, Boomers, Tweeners, Flappers, Depression babies ... they all get nostalgic about the strangest things, and they can all talk to each other about the things they saw or the things they remember as important. The experiences and assumptions shared among members of a generation are like heirlooms, and if they let you in on the secret, they teach us something about themselves.
That works for baseball fans, too, like watching Doris Kearns Goodwin tell us about her dad and the Dodgers, or Bob Costas and Billy Crystal getting nostalgic about the Mick. Ask a Cubs fan between the age of 30 and 40 who the best pinch-hitter he ever saw was, and I'll bet you dollars to donuts he'll tell you Thad Bosley. Why? Because it was sort of true, once. If you talk to a fan over the age of 80, one who spent any time arguing about the greats at third base, whether it was in the bleachers or on the bar stool, keep in mind he probably spent a good chunk of his adult life having a pretty short argument on the subject. Unless he was related to Hank Majeski, the conversation usually tuckered out after you got past the assumption that Home Run Baker had to have been great, and otherwise you've got Pie Traynor, and maybe George Kell. Maybe he'd argue about how Al Rosen had a couple of good years. One leathery old charmer in Wrigley Field insisted, whenever I asked, that the best he ever saw at the hot corner was Woody English, and if you invested the time and if the game was particularly slow that day, he'd take the time to tell you why. But things are different today, and it's spring, and we're all excited about the season to come, and I'm thinking about generations. That's because out on the field, the generation of fans growing up with the game today is going to be treated to -- no, make that spoiled rotten by -- the young third basemen starring in the big leagues today, not to mention the ones just about to enter the game. Let's take a look at the young third basemen in the game today, the guys who settled in as regulars from 1998 on:
1998: Troy Glaus, Angels; Adrian Beltre, Dodgers; Aramis Ramirez, Pirates. OK, so 2000 looks like a lean year, and Albert Pujols is the only guy who stands out in 2001, but look at who's coming up now: 2002: Hank Blalock, Rangers; Sean Burroughs, Padres; Eric Hinske, Blue Jays; Morgan Ensberg, Astros. Nearly half of the starting third basemen in the game will be guys who have come up in the last five years. Beyond that quartet, Joe Crede is close to being ready; baseball fans on Chicago's South Side ought to look forward to the day he's called up. Looking forward, who knows what we can expect from Drew Henson, Mark Teixeira or Dave Kelton? Will Michael Cuddyer get to settle in as a third baseman at some point? How about Wilson Betemit? That is an outstanding collection of talent at a single position, all at the major-league level, all relatively young. Admittedly, some of these guys won't be third basemen for long, or for the bulk of their careers. Albert Pujols might get pushed off of third base by his manager, Tony La Russa. (Similarly, once upon a time, La Russa moved Scott Brosius off of third to accommodate the needs of the moment; fortunately, Brosius caught a break and had a fine career at his best position. Let's hope Pujols gets lucky in the same way.) Russ Branyan might be a regular third baseman someday, but it won't happen right now, and it isn't likely. Chris Truby or Shea Hillenbrand or Mike Lamb might have nice careers, but they're not the people most fans will remember 20 or 30 years from now. No, what's really interesting about this group is the guys at the front of the class: Chavez, Glaus, Beltre, Blalock, Burroughs and Ramirez. If you're the GM or a fan of their particular teams, you should be drooling with anticipation of what these guys can do. Some of them are still years away from that stretch between the ages of 26 and 29 when most players peak, and they're already tremendous players. They can hit and they can pick it. How many of them will hit 300 home runs? How about 400? Which one might win multiple MVP awards? Will any of them have postseason glories afield that recall Brooks Robinson or Graig Nettles? Is this group historically significant? They do have to play the games, so we won't really know for another 20 years or so, but for the sake of comparison, check out the cadre of third basemen who settled into the game as regulars from 1971-1975 (with career totals):
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975 A few words about the group: Both Dan Driessen and Steve Garvey moved to first base very early in their careers. The Dodgers had the advantage of having Ron Cey ready, while the development of Ken Griffey Sr. pushed Pete Rose to third and Driessen to the bench, until Tony Perez left three years later, at which point Driessen wasn't going to be a third baseman anymore. Doug DeCinces is famous for being the man who replaced Brooks Robinson, and doing it well. Toby Harrah broke in as a shortstop (and as a Senator), but played more games at third base than any other position in his career. Eric Soderholm's career was derailed by injuries, and Roy Howell and Ken Reitz were never actually stars. That's easily the best five-year group of arrivals at third base in the history of the game. Even with today's high offensive levels, it's going to be difficult for the 1998-2002 group to top them. That's not to slight today's crowd. Schmidt is the greatest the game has yet seen, and Brett isn't too far behind Schmidt. Darrell Evans was one of the 10 best of all time, and Cey is probably among the top 20. Doug DeCinces and Bill Madlock and Buddy Bell were tremendous players, each in his own way. With help from predecessors like Graig Nettles and Sal Bando and even Bill Melton, this generation of third basemen deserves a lot of the credit for creating the expectations that a third baseman is supposed to be a big-time bopper on the hometown nine. Today's class of third basemen won't redefine the position. They can't, and that's fine, because that's not their responsibility. What is going to happen is that whatever they achieve for the next 10 or 15 or 20 years will create a whole new set of standards and expectations for third basemen, both for people inside the game and for people watching it. It will affect how scouts judge amateur talent, how organizations project their players, how Fred Mertz drafts his fantasy team, and how you and the guy on the next bar stool or in the next bleacher seat will argue over the relative merits of third basemen of every generation, and that's whether you're the same age or he's old enough to be your son or your grandfather. I don't know about you, but keeping that in mind, it looks to me that the next 20 years should be a lot of fun. You can check out more work from the team of writers of the Baseball Prospectus (tm) at their web site at baseballprospectus.com. Chris Kahrl can be reached at ckahrl@baseballprospectus.com. |
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