Gavvy Cravath - Philadelphia Phillies History
The Baseball Almanac Player of the Day:
Today, I selected Gavvy Cravath as my baseball player of the day on Baseball Almanac. Born on March 23, 1881, this date in baseball history, he led the National League in home runs six times (1913, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1919).
Nicknamed Cactus, the Philadelphia Phillies outfielder also wore both-Sox (Boston & Chicago), was once a Senator, led the senior circuit in RBIs twice, and even tied the Major League record for doubles in a game.
None of those "back of the baseball card" items were the reason why I picked Cravath though, it had to with a historic inning, on June 22, 1912, the first of its kind by a Philly and a hitting feat not matched by any teammate since. [Details are on his online baseball card, please visit.]
Every day, since 1999, Baseball Almanac has been going beyond the stats and attempting to preserve baseball history. I don't care if a player appeared in twenty games, or one-thousand two-hundred twenty games (like Gavvy), their stories are preserved, good and bad, and I hope you'll visit. Unlike ESPN / MLB, I have no staff at all, no employees, no office even, so when I wrote - sixteen years ago - "Where what happened yesterday, is being preserved today" - I meant it, literally. Today, I am 500,000+ pages strong, I update dozens of pages each day (and I am never caught-up), and I look forward to hearing from my LinkedIn connections.
S.
Drop Team Member at Potawatomi Hotel Casino
8 年Yes, the Home Run King prior to the Babe. Back in 1981, Gavvy Cravath was the answer to a baseball announcer's (Kevin Young, I think) trivia question. None of the radio listeners (including me) knew the answer. After the show, I looked it up in a book from Topps baseball cards. The book was about home run hitters in baseball history that the card company had awarded as part of its prize giveaways that year. I've remembered his name ever since I had to look it up in the book.