How good was Jim Wynn?
PaulMaul
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in Sports Talk
PaulMaul
Posts: 4,875 ✭✭✭✭✭
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I am not one who usually complains about stadiums, but wasn't the Astrodome humongous?
Jim Wynn was a stud. He had a borderline HOF career as it was, but he would have been a slam dunk HOFer if not for several serious injuries. In his first full season, 1965, he had one of the greatest "rookie" seasons ever, although he didn't qualify for ROY. In 1966 he ran into the CF wall and broke several bones. From 1967 to 1971, the 10 best players in the NL were:
McCovey
Aaron
Wynn
Rose
Billy Williams
Perez
Santo
Clemente
Staub
Brock
That was Wynn's peer group, and he was near the top of it. Then, after the 1970 season was over, Wynn's wife stabbed him in the stomach with a kitchen knife (by all accounts, he had it coming). He played in 1971, but he was still recovering and it really showed. Then, from 1972 to 1975, the 10 best players in the NL were:
Morgan
Bench
Rose
Stargell
Cedeno
Evans
Bonds
Simmons
Wynn
Perez
Wynn's peer group is still HOFers and could-be HOFers, although he's dropped to the bottom half of it. But late in 1975 he suffered a serious shoulder injury which ended his ability to play CF and pretty much ended his ability to hit. He limped through two more seasons, but his career effectively ended late in 1975.
Jimmy Wynn was a great player, but injuries kept him from being great for long enough to be remembered as the great player he was.
The "Toy Cannon" had some pop for sure.
Much better than most of the people whose absence from the Hall is lamented here.
Wynn was an excellent player... no dispute there. I am not comfortable ranking players. There are many players that had outstanding careers that are worthy of praise and attention that are not in or never will be in the HOF. Wynn has a prominent spot on that list. It is unfortunate that a measurement of a player's career is whether they make the HOF. That mentality is shortsided. And the larger problem is the some great players have been reduced to a footnote... if they are lucky... instead of the recognition that is truly deserving.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Nicely said!
I don't know how big the Astrodome is but I attended a football game there once. Oilers vs. Steelers. I am a claustrophobic person. That place made me so uncomfortable that I left the game before the first quarter ended. I couldn't take being jammed up against that cinder block wall 4" behind my seat. Also, The Lovely Mrs. Hydrant and I attended a baseball game at the Seattle Kingdome. Pilots vs. Tigers. I only lasted through the top half of the first inning there. I'm actually concerned about the new Sofi Stadium that the Rams will play in. Who the Hell had the brain dead idea to put a roof over a stadium in LOS ANGELES? STUPID!
Who the Hell had the brain dead idea to put a roof over a stadium in LOS ANGELES? STUPID!
>
Airplane noise???
This is only tangentially related to Wynn but:
I looked up Wynn and took note of the numbers he put up during his first full season, though he was way past the qualifications as a rookie (having played 137 games already). And that got me wondering how it compared to Rudy York, another guy who had a rather-famous rookie season. York hit 35 homers in 1934 in just 104 games, a remarkable pace for anyone let alone a rookie.
But that's not what stuck out to me.
York played in 155 games in a season on four occasions. During a 154-game season. Four times!
Carry on
340/375/406/375/340 from LF to RF. So a little large down the lines but not huge either. Yankee Stadium was 318/399/408/385/314 in at least one of its configurations. Tiger Stadium was 340/365/440/370/325 with the 325 actually being a little shorter than that because of the way upper deck hung over the warning track.
The main issue with the Astrodome, as I recall, is that the ball didn't carry.
YES! That's it.
Thank you.
correct. it was air-conditioned. pull out your big stick and hit a golf ball when it's 72 outside, then hit another when it's 85 and tell me if it travels the same distance. plus, no wind to push the baseball in the dome. it was cavernous, but not predominantly because of the dimensions.
this really needs to be taken into account when discussing guys like Wynn and Joe Morgan
i miss the dome
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
Man I'm getting old.
Your picture of the Astrodome reminded me I saw a couple games at the Metrodome
in Minnesota when my brother first moved there. And I forgot to put it down
in the thread about baseball stadiums we've been to.
And I even know how to find out the year it was. It was the same year a bridge collapsed
in the Twin Cities, we rode a trolley car to the stadium and I'm thinking the bridge wasn't
far from the Metrodome.
Now would someone post more pics of Stadiums so I can remember if I've been there or not.
Edited- 2007 was when the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis killing 13 people.
Well now I'm hoping I didn't cause this thread to come to a morbid conclusion.
It kind of got depressing when I showed up.
On Sundays' I am available as entertainment for Children's birthday parties.
I don't like to brag, but I do a pretty fair job of recounting the horrific events of the
1912 sinking of the Titanic and then I can go right into a chilling retelling of the Hindenburg crash.
Fini
Very good point! I never thought of that. But....actually, airplanes are the reason for the roof so I have been told. Not for noise but for advertising. The roof will light up 24/7 with advertising aimed at airline passengers. Hey, the Los Angeles weather is FABULOUS during football season. The Rams can stink but just being in that wonderful air with the San Gabriel Mountains and the L.A. skyline in the background is worth the price of admission. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is the most awesome sports venue in the U.S.A.!
I can't wait to go. I think you will be ok. It's touted as the first indoor-outdoor stadium.
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
That looks like a really nice venue and it doesn't seem as "closed in" as the two I've been in (i.e., Superdome, old Astrodome). I do get what you are saying about indoor stadiums like those two.
Justacommanman, so you can't wait to go to the new stadium? Well, pick a game, any game or games. Let me know. You and your lovely wife will be the honored guests of the Hydrant family. We will have a good time! Guaranteed!!!!
Galaxy27 is going to be so jealous of meeting the infamous Mrs Hydrant
Thanks for the offer! Very kind of you
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
i'm at a loss for words
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet