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Go to post #3 for tons of links to individual players.
This project began when I was trying to determine my own Hall of Fame. There were a lot of 1920's-1930's outfielders in the HOF and I was trying to draw my line for what I thought a 1920's-1930's outfielder should achieve to be in my HOF. I came to a sad conclusion that I didn't have enough information and would have to start digging way deeper. In the end, I decided to take a look at all the starting outfielders from the 1920's and 1930's, all 16 teams for the 20 year span, a total of 960 player seasons.
I've been working on it for at least 8 months. The first step was to collect the names, the second was to analyze data, and the third was to review first hand accounts (books, magazines, newspapers). The third step has been the hardest, as I've spent too much money on old books for a glimmer of some of these guys. To be honest, I'm only done fully with step one and am slowly progressing on steps two and three. However, the names alone present a lot of baseball history and may be of interest to some of you. I have a feeling this will be dragging along for years as I try to sort out the Harry Rice's from the Taylor Douthit's. Perhaps my short term goal will be to finally finish my HOF list if nothing else.
I'll get started by listing the outfielders by their teams by year, then go to the yearly outfield grouping, then sort by years played in the 20 year era, and finish up with some preliminary thoughts and percentages.
General notes:
1) My primary interest is on regular everyday 1920's-1930's outfielders. In my own mind, I set this as 5 years as a regular - any less I think even a short term superstar (Sandy Koufax) wouldn't be able to make the HOF or my HOF. Sandy had 6, but I set it at 5 to be conservative.
2) My nomenclature when you see split names like Lee King (Benny Kauff) is that I'd consider this a split season with King having more ABs but Kauff still having a lot of ABs to almost be considered a half regular. For tallying purposes, I give them each a half season as a regular.
3) When you see a slash (/), that should mean there is a weird positional shift. The most famous is between Bob Muesel and Babe Ruth who shared left and right field duties. They'd get credit for a half season in each, but would add up to a full season for each.
4) For all these lists, I've gone from left to center to right, in case my formatting still stinks. The info is good, presentation might not be.
5) I was most concerned with getting the outfielders with most ABs in this study. I'm showing what I consider as the best representation of a team's outfield. In certain rare cases, there might be a not exact fit where I had to really squeeze someone in. Perhaps two outfielders played 90 games in right each and 15-30 in center. I had to list someone as the center fielder, so one guy was shown.
6) I was pretty generous as what I considered a "regular". I'm sure there are some 350 PA guys listed as regulars when you might not think so. But if there is a team with a 350 PA guy in left, along with another at 150, 100, and 50, well, I'm considering the 350 PA guy the regular. However, if there is a 350 guy and a 250 guy, I tried to count those as partial players.
7) There may have been some randome 225 PA person who should be considered a partial, but in the end the partial players who only had a cup of coffee weren't my primary goal. I'd estimate these lists are 98-99% correct at least for determining who was a regular and at what position.
8) Note that teams that have gone through name changes are called by their most common name to aid me (Brooklyn Robins)
9) I'll be making multiple posts, because I have a hard time myself tracking too long of a post.
When done, I'd love any additional details you can provide on any of these players to be added to this thread. The HOFers are great, but miscellaneous information on Bruce Campbells, Rube Bresslers, and Eddie Browns is just as great.
This project began when I was trying to determine my own Hall of Fame. There were a lot of 1920's-1930's outfielders in the HOF and I was trying to draw my line for what I thought a 1920's-1930's outfielder should achieve to be in my HOF. I came to a sad conclusion that I didn't have enough information and would have to start digging way deeper. In the end, I decided to take a look at all the starting outfielders from the 1920's and 1930's, all 16 teams for the 20 year span, a total of 960 player seasons.
I've been working on it for at least 8 months. The first step was to collect the names, the second was to analyze data, and the third was to review first hand accounts (books, magazines, newspapers). The third step has been the hardest, as I've spent too much money on old books for a glimmer of some of these guys. To be honest, I'm only done fully with step one and am slowly progressing on steps two and three. However, the names alone present a lot of baseball history and may be of interest to some of you. I have a feeling this will be dragging along for years as I try to sort out the Harry Rice's from the Taylor Douthit's. Perhaps my short term goal will be to finally finish my HOF list if nothing else.
I'll get started by listing the outfielders by their teams by year, then go to the yearly outfield grouping, then sort by years played in the 20 year era, and finish up with some preliminary thoughts and percentages.
General notes:
1) My primary interest is on regular everyday 1920's-1930's outfielders. In my own mind, I set this as 5 years as a regular - any less I think even a short term superstar (Sandy Koufax) wouldn't be able to make the HOF or my HOF. Sandy had 6, but I set it at 5 to be conservative.
2) My nomenclature when you see split names like Lee King (Benny Kauff) is that I'd consider this a split season with King having more ABs but Kauff still having a lot of ABs to almost be considered a half regular. For tallying purposes, I give them each a half season as a regular.
3) When you see a slash (/), that should mean there is a weird positional shift. The most famous is between Bob Muesel and Babe Ruth who shared left and right field duties. They'd get credit for a half season in each, but would add up to a full season for each.
4) For all these lists, I've gone from left to center to right, in case my formatting still stinks. The info is good, presentation might not be.
5) I was most concerned with getting the outfielders with most ABs in this study. I'm showing what I consider as the best representation of a team's outfield. In certain rare cases, there might be a not exact fit where I had to really squeeze someone in. Perhaps two outfielders played 90 games in right each and 15-30 in center. I had to list someone as the center fielder, so one guy was shown.
6) I was pretty generous as what I considered a "regular". I'm sure there are some 350 PA guys listed as regulars when you might not think so. But if there is a team with a 350 PA guy in left, along with another at 150, 100, and 50, well, I'm considering the 350 PA guy the regular. However, if there is a 350 guy and a 250 guy, I tried to count those as partial players.
7) There may have been some randome 225 PA person who should be considered a partial, but in the end the partial players who only had a cup of coffee weren't my primary goal. I'd estimate these lists are 98-99% correct at least for determining who was a regular and at what position.
8) Note that teams that have gone through name changes are called by their most common name to aid me (Brooklyn Robins)
9) I'll be making multiple posts, because I have a hard time myself tracking too long of a post.
When done, I'd love any additional details you can provide on any of these players to be added to this thread. The HOFers are great, but miscellaneous information on Bruce Campbells, Rube Bresslers, and Eddie Browns is just as great.
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