Firebones’ All-Time Leet Baseball Hall of Fame

One of the greatest data resources I’ve come across in a long time is Sean Forman’s Baseball-DataBank.org. On his site he makes available a mySQL database dump of comprehensive Major League Baseball statistics from 1871 through the 2007 season. (Another source, perhaps the primary one, is Sean Lahman’s Baseball Archive.)

Playing around with a slightly older version of the database containing data through the 2005 season, I’ve come up with The 2005 Edition of Firebones All-Time Leet Hall of Fame. To qualify, a player must have one major statistical category that meets the definition of leet; namely, a statistical category for which their career total is 1337.

The Starting Lineup

Roberto Kelly (CF) (1337 Games Played)
Ivan DeJesus (SS) (1337 Games in the field)
Dave Magadan (3B) (1337 Games in the field)
Johnny Mize (1B) (1337 RBI)
Ed Coleman (RF) (1337 AB)
Fred Manrique (2B) (1337 AB)
Domingo Cedeno (LF) (1337 PA)
Mario Mendoza (C) (1337 AB)
Bobo Newsom (P) (1337 AB)

Bullpen and the Rest of the Rotation

Hank Gastright (R) (1337 Hits Allowed—in the freakin 19th century!)
Dave Mlicki (R) (1337 Hits Allowed)

Discussion of the Leet Lineup

Okay, I had to fudge a little. Dave Magadan only appears due to a glitch in the fielding data collected over the years from different sources. When this error was reconciled in later releases of the database, Magadan no longer has 1337 fielding games. But I needed a 3B, and the premise is stats through 2005, so cut me some slack.

Most of these guys turn out to be banjo-hitting middle infielders, so I have to take some liberties and press the ever-flexible Mario Mendoza (of Mendoza Line fame) into service as a catcher. No slackers need apply; Mendoza must justify his place in this august group. Mendoza also serves as our closer—he once finished a game in 1977 pitching 2 innings and ending his career with a 13.50 ERA, which is as close to a leet ERA as you can get if you have exactly 2.0 innings pitched. And because we are obligated to do all we can to stem global warming by increasing the ever-dwindling number of Pirates.

Ivan DeJesus wins the SS position because I watched too much WGN on basic cable and Harry Caray made me. If worst comes to worst, we can trade him to the Phillies again for Larry Bowa and Ryne Sandberg.

I moved Domingo Cedeno to LF based on his single game and lone putout in that position in 1994.

Johnny Mize gets first base because, well, he’s Hall of Famer Johny Mize.

For pitching: we have to go with the three-man rotation for now with our ace, Bobo Newsom (most similar player statistically: Charlie Hough) eating innings for us. I mean, the dude played 20 seasons over 24 years, lost 20 games three times, played during WWII AND the Great Depression, won 20 games three times, completed more games (246) than Mendoza’s OBP (.245), was a four-time All Star, and as a pitcher still had one more career RBI than Mario Mendoza.

A couple of active players just missed the cut by unfortunately extending their careers beyond the realm of their leet counterparts. Rondell White had 1337 games batting at the end of 2005; Tom Glavine had walked 1337 batters at the end of 2005. Sadly, by refusing to promptly end their careers with leet membership securely in hand, they forgo membership.

There are no managers meeting leet status; the best we can do is former Yankee skipper Joe McCarthy, whose 1333 losses comes the closest to the magic 1337. (And 7 World Series titles and 9 pennants aren’t too bad either.)