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Post by Allen Wiener on May 6, 2010 18:01:12 GMT -5
This guy was one of the true greats. He excelled with mostly mediocre teams, amazingly winning 20 or more games 6 straight seasons, completing most of his games and just missing the 300-win plateau (as the obit says, if he had played for the Yankees, or any other consistently-winning team, he would have won well over 300 games). www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/sports/baseball/07roberts.html?ref=obituariesAllen P.S. The fact that Whitey Ford was voted into the Hall of Fame and Roberts passed over the same year, is particularly galling. Ford is a self-confessed cheater, even though he had one of the greatest teams in history behind him. I wonder how many games, cheating or honest, he'd have won with the Phillies, and how many Roberts would have with the Yankees, had their positions been reversed. Which one would have been passed over for the HOF then? Would Ford ever even been considered?
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Post by jesswald on May 6, 2010 21:17:28 GMT -5
Talk about pitch count. Roberts pitched over 300 innings each year from 1950 to 1955, generally leading the league in that category. Assuming 39 starts (four-man rotation?), he averaged about eight innings per start during that period. Jesse
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Post by Allen Wiener on May 6, 2010 21:34:38 GMT -5
Reminds me of how complete games were once the rule, not the exception, and bull pens were a near afterthought.
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Post by Hiram on May 7, 2010 7:40:53 GMT -5
I saw Roberts late in his career when most of his pitching skills had diminished, but I had my Who's Who in Baseball magazine handy and certainly could marvel at the numbers he put up for a team that invariably finished in the second division and was considered for decades the worst team in the National League to play f0r. His peers spoke highly of him and the man flat out could win ballgames. Seventeen seasons Roberts had 30 or more starts. I think if he pitches during that time for the Cardinals, Dodgers or Yankees, you could add 50 wins. That would put him 11th on the career list of wins (ahead of another decent Philly pitcher, Steve Carlton.)
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