Fick: Asshole or hero?

Downing was OK. Carew played first base.

The bottom line is that Lynn made a mistake when he left Boston. He would have been much better taking line drives off the monster.

 

Lifetime average: .344.

Last two seasons, around .260 and .316. If he didn't get old, what did he do, stop trying?

 

Well unfortunately I don't know of a site that has player injuries archived from back then, although I am sure there is one.

If nobody else was around for the angels worth a damn, then why wouldn't Lynn play? Oh I am sure it was because he was lazy and the coach decided to go out there with 2 OF's to make it a little more of a challenge.

 

Those last to years he had 272 and 310 AB's respectively. The difference bewteen .344 and .316 with 310 ABs is like 8 hits. I hardly think that would constitute a lack of ability to hit anymore. I am sure that there were at least some occasions where a 25 yo Ted Williams would have beaten the throw to first.

My point in all of this was to show that your criticism of Lynn's bad year was unwarranted - everybody has fluctuations throughout their career.

 

It appear that during his years with the Angels that nobody played as an iron man, very few if any players for them played in 150 games or more.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/

So that may possibly explain the next 4 years.

 

I'm well aware of Costner's quote from "Bull Durham". He also might have had a few "hits" that were actually errors. And the distance of hits between .260 and .344 in 272 at bats?

It's like Bonds in leftfield now. He's not as good as he was, but he's still better than a lot of other clowns. Williams was tailing off for him, yet he was still one of the better hitters in the league.

 

1980 110 games
81 76, 110 games were played during the strike year, correct? that's 111 if a full 162 were played.
82 138 games
83 117
84 142
85 (now with Orioles) 124
86 112
87 111, on a team that started 0-21.

The rest of his career he hung on.

He still bopped 20 homers in a few of those years, could've had 400 if he actually wanted to play.

 

Actually, I really did the math on that - I was suprised that it was 8 - I thought it would be fewer.

Again - my point in all of that was to say that there are fluctuations in every baseball players career. No one has ever hit for exactly the same average every single year. People have bad years - Williams had one in 59, Lynn had one in 77. And the fact that Teddy ballgame came back and hit .316 - which was about the same as he hit at age 31 - shows that he still had it.

 

"Despite ten 20-HR seasons, one batting title, and All-Star appearances in each of his first nine seasons, Fred Lynn always fell short of expectations--betrayed by a fragile body and burdened with one of the finest rookie seasons in ML history.

In 1975, Lynn captivated Boston with his effortless lefthanded swing, ringing line drives, and almost daily sprawling catches in centerfield as he led a young Red Sox club to within one win of the World Championship. On June 18 he bombed the Tigers with 3 HR, 10 RBI, and 16 total bases in one game, and by season's end Lynn had hit .331, led the AL in runs and doubles, and became the only player ever to be named Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. In 1979, he was even better, leading the AL in batting (.333) with 39 HR and 122 RBI. Lynn, however, longed to play in his native California, and the Red Sox obliged by trading him to the Angels in January 1981. Away from Fenway Park, Lynn would never hit .300 again.

He remained one of the AL's better-fielding outfielders when healthy, and had six consecutive 20 HR seasons (1982-88). His grand slam in the 1983 All-Star Game (the only grand slam in All-Star play) was his fourth All-Star Game home run, second only to Stan Musial in ML history. But he was never the Hall of Famer he had appeared destined to be in 1975, and the main culprit was injuries. While some were the result of reckless play (he broke a rib crashing into an outfield fence and twice tore up his knee breaking up double plays), more often it was nagging strains and sprains that kept him off the field. The only year in which he played 150 games was 1978. (SCL) "


Damn, he does start to sound a lot like Dan Morgan, or Morgan like him.

 

amazing there is not one of these threads for a-rod. lets see if mlb fines one of their golden boys 25k. hell, he already didn't get tossed from the game. preferential yankees treatment is a bitch.