The Fellas…
Groucho: Say, if you get near a song, play it.
Chico:…I can’t think of the finish.
Groucho: That’s strange and I can’t think of anything else.
Chico: You know what I think, I think I went past it.
Groucho: Well, if you come around again, jump off.
Chico: I once kept this up for three days…
The A-Side (instrumental) of Eddie Kendrick’s classic Keep on Truckin’:
Here is the full-length vocal, just cause:
By Bruce Markusen
This week’s passing of Tommy Henrich brings to mind the understated value of a terrific ballplayer who sacrificed part of his career for a larger cause.
On the surface, Henrich’s Triple Crown numbers don’t sound like that of a Hall of Famer: .282 batting average, 183 home runs, and 795 RBIs. But let’s look at what could have been. Henrich missed three full seasons in the midst of his prime—his age 30, 31, and 32 seasons—while serving in the U.S. military during World War II. If Henrich had been able to play and post even “average” seasons during that span—let’s say 20 home runs and 85 RBIs per season—he would have finished his career with over 240 home runs and over 1,000 RBIs. Those are far more impressive numbers, especially within the context of Henrich’s percentages. For his career, Henrich compiled an on-base percentage of .382 and a slugging percentage of .491, both favorable numbers. On top of that, Henrich was a smart, disciplined hitter who walked nearly twice as often as he struck out. He also played a solid defensive right field, helping to form one of the great outfields in baseball history, teamed with Joe DiMaggio in center and the similarly overlooked King Kong Keller in left. Finally, let’s throw Henrich’s four world championship rings into the argument, and suddenly we have a far more viable candidate for the Hall of Fame.
I’m a firm believer that Hall of Fame candidates who lost playing time during the war deserve some kind of “war credit” for what they might have achieved. After all, these men often had no choice but to enlist in the military; many of them also felt a civic and patriotic duty to do so. Their responsibility and bravery should not be held against them. The crux of the matter is this: exactly how much war credit do we give these players for time lost in service? Each case varies, given the length of military service and the time that it occurred within a player’s career. In the case of Henrich, he enjoyed three of his finest seasons after the war, so it’s reasonable to assume that the three years he lost fell in the midst of what we should rightfully consider his peak or prime. That becomes a huge chunk of war credit, and perhaps it’s enough to put Henrich right on the Cooperstown village limits.
Beyond the Hall of Fame argument, Henrich has drawn plenty of praise for his solid standing as a teammate and his sterling reputation as an excellent player under pressure. He was widely known as “Old Reliable,” but I like his other nickname even more. He was occasionally called “The Clutch.” How cool is that? I can just hear one of today’s broadcasters saying, “The bases are loaded, the game is on the line, and hear comes ‘The Clutch.’ ” Henrich’s ability to produce in important situations has led some in the media to compare him to Derek Jeter, which is a reasonable comparison. I’ll offer another one. Henrich was Paul O’Neill without the footspeed. They both played the same position, both hit left-handed, both hit with similar levels of power. Of course, O’Neill is not a Hall of Famer, but he was an underrated player who was hugely important to the Yankee dynasty from 1996 to 2001. Henrich was a similarly underrated player who spread his contributions throughout the decade of the 1940s. And with that extra war credit, maybe he was a little bit better than O’Neill, maybe good enough to be knocking on the front door of the Hall of Fame…
Here’s Tom Verducci’s Sportsman of the Year profile of Derek Jeter from the latest issue of Sports Illustrated. I like how he ends it: “The great wonder is not that Jeter has won so much but that he has won so well. He is the good son, the good winner.”
Marco Scutaro, an appealing middle infielder who once hit a game-winning home run off Mariano Rivera, has signed a two-year deal to play shortstop for the Boston Red Sox. Scutaro was a featured player in the low-budget but winning 2004 documentary about life in the minor leagues, A Player to Be Named Later.
