Damon On Pace For Record Season
Posted by Steve Lombardi on June 8, 2008
Johnny Damon is currently batting .326 on the season. When was the last time that a Yankees left fielder played 100+ games and batted .320 or better that season? Check out these stats, via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder:
Cnt Player Year BA G Age Tm +----+-----------------+----+-----+---+---+---+ 1 Dion James 1993 .332 115 30 NYY 2 Bob Meusel 1927 .337 135 30 NYY 3 Babe Ruth 1926 .372 152 31 NYY 4 Bob Meusel 1924 .325 143 27 NYY 5 Babe Ruth 1921 .378 152 26 NYY 6 Birdie Cree 1911 .348 137 28 NYY 7 Kip Selbach 1902 .320 128 30 BLA 8 Mike Donlin 1901 .340 121 23 BLA Seasons/Careers found: 8.
So, you have to go back to 1993 with Dion James. That was a while ago. But, before James, you have to go back to the 1920's to find the last time this happened.
In terms of being a Yankees left fielder, Johnny Damon is on pace to put together a special season - at least in terms of bating average.
June 8th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Prior to Hideki Matsui, the Yankees had a 15-year stretch during which no one opened the season in LF two seasons in a row.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:55 am
On Meusel and Ruth, both of them were near 50-50 splits on LF and RF, and they basically shared the two positions throughout their careers together. It's almost as if manager Miller Huggins did some kind of platoon where the two alternated LF and RF based on who the better fielder was and who was pitching (but who knows really, just a random guess).
If you look at the breakdowns for the number of hitters to do this for the Yankees since 1920 by outfield position, the ranking is: CF (19), RF (14), LF (5). So the talent for the Yanks really have been in CF and RF.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Meusel had the best outfield arm in his day. Generally, the strongest outfield arm goes in right, but Yankee Stadium's cavernous left field required the strongest arm to play there, so Huggins may have alternated them to ensure that Meusel always played where his throwing strength was most needed.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Meusel did have a great arm, but Ruth could throw too, of course. I think they were generally switched around so Ruth could avoid the "sun field," and later in his career as he put on weight, Ruth played the smaller field.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:42 am
I'd read that sun field explanation, too, but it confused me; was the sun field really in left in Yankee Stadium but in right in every other park?