RIP Nate Colbert

[Jake from State Farm]

It was Doug Rader in Ball Four who told Nate he was “cute like an iguana.”

 

[X-Hack]

Campeneris did playbill nine positions, when the A's were still in Kansas City. 3

yes. But Tovar was who was featured in the book

 

[HanSenSE]

yes. But Tovar was who was featured in the book

Ah OK.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Was coming here to post that I learned about him in Baseball Players Do The Most Amazing Things. Along with Jimmy Piersall. RIP.

That book was in my elementary school library. One of the main things I remember is the cover showed the Reds player (Bernie Carbo) looking sliding into home from the first base side. I thought they had the photo reversed.

 

[X-Hack]

There’s a basketball one as well - I didn’t have it but I saw it at school. I just don’t remember any of the specifics.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

it was Cesar Tovar playing all 9 positions. Also Harvey Haddix getting the L in a 13-inning no-hitter and Ducky Medwick being removed from Game 7 of the 1934 WS for his own safety after a hard slide into the Tigers’ Marvin Owen.

Damn, how'd I misremember that? Thanks for the correction, can't believe I got that wrong.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Those, and the little nuggets on the back of baseball and football cards that included something cool the guy had done. I remember learning about Rennie Stennett's 7-for-7 game from the back of one of his Topps cards.

I learned what a cycle was because Jack Brohamer hit for one and it was mentioned on the back of his 1980 Topps card!

 

[misterbc]

Looking at his career stats I see in 1973 he hit 38 HR with only 86 RBI. If every round tripper was a solo shot that means only 48 RBI on plays other than homers, a low total. In ‘63 Killebrew had similar numbers, 45 and 96 but if remember correctly Bob Allison hit clean up for a time. The Twins had strong lineups back then and maybe it was back luck for the Killer that the bases were empty when he hit his shots but more likely he was batting 5th and Allison and Olivia were ahead of him in the order and they had cleared the bases. Seems that usually when a player hits 40+ he drives in 100+, easily.
Colbert era Padres just didn’t get on base much, likely. I don’t know the record for most homers hit and under 100 RBI but Killebrew in ‘63 must be close.

 

[BTExpress]

Looks like Killebrew is the guy. Two Braves (Aaron, Johnson) did it in the same season.

Johnson with the Brady Anderson-like HR yearly totals: 0, 7, 10, 9, 7, 10, 18, 5, 43, 15, 8, 4, 2, 2.

Harvest Seasons: Most Runs-Batted-In with Fewest Home Runs Since 1920

 

[micropolitan guy]

The 1963 Twins are one of baseball's great outliers. They had four guys who hit 26 or more homers (Earl Battey 26, Jimmy Hall 33, Bob Allison 35, Harmon Killebrew 45) but no one with more than 96 RBIs (Killebrew). They had four other guys with double-digit homers (Versalles, Vic Power, Rich Rollins, Don Mincher), two who hit 9 (Bernie Allen, John Goryl) and hit 225 overall. Quite often there was no one on base when Killebrew came up.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Jimmie Hall was from my dad’s hometown and I got his autograph
63 was his rookie year
He was an All Star the next two seasons
By 1970 he was out of baseball
Still with us at 84

 

[misterbc]

One thing that I failed to mention that might be the cause of the low RBI in 63 is because he was pitched around often, as he was his entire career, and he was coming off big HR years from ‘59-‘62 and many years after. Not a lot of IBB bc he swung at bad pitches sometimes so many pitched him outside and see if he grounded out or HIDP which he did often. Get it over the inside of the plate and he would launch it.
I remember one year Kingman was grilled for low RBI per home run.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Jimmie Hall was from my dad’s hometown and I got his autograph
63 was his rookie year
He was an All Star the next two seasons
By 1970 he was out of baseball
Still with us at 84

IIRC, he got beaned badly and it changed the whole course of his career. Interesting bio on the SABR site.

Jimmie Hall – Society for American Baseball Research