You Are Here > Baseball-Reference.com > Encyclopedia of Players > A Listing > Sparky Adams Statistics and History

Sparky Adams
Earl John Adams
Bats: Right , Throws: Right
Weight: 151 lb.

Born: August 26, 1894 in Zerbe, PA
High School: Tremont (Tremont, PA) (All Transactions)
Debut: September 18, 1922
Final Game: September 30, 1934
Died: February 24, 1989 in Pottsville, PA
    About biographical information

Standard Batting

More Stats

Glossary · Click headers to sort · SHARE  · CSV · PRE · LINK · Click rows to sum (Clear) · Hide Partial Seasons
Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
1922 27 CHC NL 11 49 44 5 11 0 1 0 3 1 2 4 3 .250 .313 .295 .608 56 13 0 1 4
1923 28 CHC NL 95 352 311 40 90 12 0 4 35 20 19 26 10 .289 .346 .367 .713 88 114 1 14 6/O
1924 29 CHC NL 117 473 418 66 117 11 5 1 27 15 17 40 20 .280 .344 .337 .682 82 141 1 14 64
1925 30 CHC NL 149 687 627 95 180 29 8 2 48 26 12 44 15 .287 .341 .368 .709 80 231 7 9 *4/6
1926 31 CHC NL 154 700 624 95 193 35 3 0 39 27 52 27 .309 .367 .375 .742 98 234 5 19 *45/6
1927 32 CHC NL 146 705 647 100 189 17 7 0 49 26 42 26 .292 .335 .340 .675 80 220 0 16 456
1928 33 PIT NL 135 628 539 91 149 14 6 0 38 8 64 18 .276 .357 .325 .682 77 175 4 21 *46/O
1929 34 PIT NL 74 217 196 37 51 8 1 0 11 3 15 5 .260 .316 .311 .627 55 61 1 5 645/O
1930 35 STL NL 137 631 570 98 179 36 9 0 55 7 45 27 .314 .365 .409 .774 85 233 1 15 *54/6
1931 36 STL NL 143 658 608 97 178 46 5 1 40 16 42 24 .293 .340 .390 .730 93 237 2 6 *5/6 MVP-9
1932 37 STL NL 31 142 127 22 35 3 1 0 13 0 14 5 .276 .352 .315 .667 79 40 1 0 5
1933 38 TOT NL 145 631 568 60 146 22 1 1 22 3 45 33 .257 .315 .305 .620 79 173 12 3 15 *56
1933 38 STL NL 8 32 30 1 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 .167 .219 .200 .419 18 6 2 1 0 /65
1933 38 CIN NL 137 599 538 59 141 21 1 1 22 3 44 30 .262 .320 .310 .631 82 167 10 2 15 *5/6
1934 39 CIN NL 87 301 278 38 70 16 1 0 14 2 20 10 .252 .307 .317 .623 69 88 2 2 1 54
13 Seasons 1424 6174 5557 844 1588 249 48 9 394 154 50 453 223 .286 .343 .353 .695 82 1960 14 28 136
162 Game Avg. 162 702 632 96 181 28 5 1 45 18 52 25 .286 .343 .353 .695 82 223 3 15
CHC (6 yrs) 672 2966 2671 401 780 104 24 7 201 115 50 208 101 .292 .346 .357 .703 85 953 14 73
STL (4 yrs) 319 1463 1335 218 397 86 15 1 108 23 102 59 .297 .350 .387 .736 86 516 2 5 21
CIN (2 yrs) 224 900 816 97 211 37 2 1 36 5 64 40 .259 .316 .313 .628 77 255 12 4 16
PIT (2 yrs) 209 845 735 128 200 22 7 0 49 11 79 23 .272 .347 .321 .668 71 236 5 26

Postseason Batting

Glossary · Click headers to sort · SHARE  · CSV · PRE · LINK
Year Age Tm Lg Series Opp Rslt G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
1930 35 STL NL WS PHA L 6 22 21 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 4 .143 .136 .143 .279 3 0 0 0 1 0
1931 36 STL NL WS PHA W 2 4 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .250 .250 .250 .500 1 0 0 0 0 0
2 Seasons (2 Series) 8 26 25 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 .160 .154 .160 .314 4 0 0 0 1 0
2 WS 8 26 25 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 .160 .154 .160 .314 4 0 0 0 1 0

Standard Fielding

More Stats

Glossary · Click headers to sort · SHARE  · CSV · PRE · LINK · Hide Partial Seasons
Year Tm Lg Age Pos G GS Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG LF-CF-RF Awards
1922 CHC NL 27 2B 11 58 18 35 5 5 .914 4.82 .962 5.58
1923 CHC NL 28 SS 79 429 153 248 28 44 .935 5.08 .939 5.45
1923 CHC NL 28 OF 1 4 3 1 0 1 1.000 4.00 .975 2.30 0-0-1
1924 CHC NL 29 SS 88 474 169 277 28 62 .941 5.07 .949 5.44
1924 CHC NL 29 2B 19 124 55 66 3 15 .976 6.37 .960 5.60
1925 CHC NL 30 2B 144 921 354 551 16 90 .983 6.28 .966 5.61
1925 CHC NL 30 SS 5 35 13 22 0 5 1.000 7.00 .937 5.20
1926 CHC NL 31 2B 136 838 324 485 29 93 .965 5.95 .965 5.29
1926 CHC NL 31 3B 19 49 12 35 2 4 .959 2.47 .953 2.81
1926 CHC NL 31 SS 2 5 2 3 0 0 1.000 2.50 .940 5.30
1927 CHC NL 32 2B 60 345 149 194 2 34 .994 5.72 .965 5.63
1927 CHC NL 32 3B 53 158 45 107 6 12 .962 2.87 .944 2.82
1927 CHC NL 32 SS 40 234 82 142 10 23 .957 5.60 .943 5.18
1928 PIT NL 33 2B 107 626 265 343 18 54 .971 5.68 .970 5.71
1928 PIT NL 33 SS 27 150 52 97 1 14 .993 5.52 .948 5.22
1928 PIT NL 33 OF 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 2.30 0-0-1
1929 PIT NL 34 SS 30 101 33 58 10 8 .901 3.03 .952 5.37
1929 PIT NL 34 2B 20 86 33 48 5 5 .942 4.05 .969 5.46
1929 PIT NL 34 3B 15 33 7 24 2 1 .939 2.07 .955 2.79
1929 PIT NL 34 OF 2 2 2 0 0 0 1.000 1.00 .950 2.40 2-0-0
1930 STL NL 35 3B 104 233 66 159 8 18 .966 2.16 .949 2.71
1930 STL NL 35 2B 25 151 62 85 4 25 .974 5.88 .963 5.59
1930 STL NL 35 SS 7 36 12 20 4 3 .889 4.57 .956 5.36
1931 STL NL 36 3B 138 354 118 223 13 29 .963 2.47 .943 2.72 MVP-9
1931 STL NL 36 SS 6 30 9 16 5 1 .833 4.17 .960 5.07 MVP-9
1932 STL NL 37 3B 30 72 25 42 5 11 .931 2.23 .946 2.74
1933 TOT NL 38 3B 135 416 121 278 17 16 .959 2.96 .949 2.89
1933 TOT NL 38 SS 13 45 11 33 1 3 .978 3.38 .949 4.94
1933 STL NL 38 SS 5 22 5 16 1 2 .955 4.20 .950 4.94
1933 STL NL 38 3B 3 8 0 6 2 1 .750 2.00 .962 2.90
1933 CIN NL 38 3B 132 408 121 272 15 15 .963 2.98 .948 2.89
1933 CIN NL 38 SS 8 23 6 17 0 1 1.000 2.88 .948 4.94
1934 CIN NL 39 3B 38 111 31 75 5 10 .955 2.79 .944 2.73
1934 CIN NL 39 2B 29 145 61 81 3 11 .979 4.90 .964 5.45
9 Seasons 2B 551 3294 1321 1888 85 332 .974 5.82 .966 5.54
8 Seasons 3B 532 1426 425 943 58 101 .959 2.57 .947 2.78
10 Seasons SS 297 1539 536 916 87 163 .943 4.89 .946 5.34
3 Seasons OF 4 6 5 1 0 1 1.000 1.50 .967 2.35 2-0-2
13 Seasons TOT 1384 6265 2287 3748 230 597 .963 4.36 .920 4.43 2-0-2
Pos G GS Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG LF-CF-RF Awards

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank, Glossary

MVP (yr-lg-rk-shr)
1931-NL-9-22%
0.22 Career Shares (691st)

Games Played s c a p y
1925 NL--149--9th
1926 NL--154--7th

At Bats s c a p y
1925 NL--627--1st
1926 NL--624--1st
1927 NL--647--1st
1931 NL--608--9th

Plate Appearances s c a p y
1925 NL--687--2nd
1926 NL--700--1st
1927 NL--705--2nd
1931 NL--658--8th

Runs Scored s c a p y
1927 NL--100--9th
1931 NL--97--6th

Hits s c a p y
1926 NL--193--3rd
1927 NL--189--7th

Doubles s c a p y
1926 NL--35--4th
1931 NL--46--1st

Stolen Bases s c a p y
1923 NL--20--8th
1925 NL--26--3rd
1926 NL--27--2nd
1927 NL--26--4th
1931 NL--16--3rd

Singles s c a p y
1925 NL--141--5th
1926 NL--155--2nd
1927 NL--165--3rd
1928 NL--129--10th

Times On Base s c a p y
1926 NL--250--2nd

Hit By Pitch s c a p y
1925 NL--7--5th
1926 NL--5--7th
1928 NL--4--10th

Sacrifice Hits s c a p y
1933 NL--15--10th
Career--136--212th

Caught Stealing s c a p y
1923 NL--19--3rd
1924 NL--17--6th
1925 NL--12--6th

AB per SO s c a p y
1925 NL--41.8--3rd
1928 NL--29.9--10th
1931 NL--25.3--10th
Career--24.9--48th

Outs Made s c a p y
1925 NL--468--1st
1926 NL--450--2nd
1927 NL--474--1st
1931 NL--436--5th
1933 NL--449--9th

Oldest s c a p y
1933 NL--born 1894-08-26--10th
1934 NL--born 1894-08-26--5th

Hall Of Fame Statistics

Player rank in (·)

Black InkBatting - 5 (372), Average HOFer ≈ 27
Gray InkBatting - 32 (735), Average HOFer ≈ 144
Hall of Fame MonitorBatting - 17 (879), Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame StandardsBatting - 19 (697), Average HOFer ≈ 50

Similarity Scores

Explanation of Similarity Scores
Similar Batters 
 View Player Links in Pop-up
 Compare Stats to Similars
  1. Dave Cash (966)
  2. Johnny Temple (946)
  3. Felix Millan (942)
  4. Glenn Beckert (922)
  5. Phil Rizzuto (921) *
  6. Woody English (919)
  7. Ron Hunt (918)
  8. Bucky Harris (914) *
  9. Hughie Critz (912)
  10. Johnny Pesky (909)
* - Signifies Hall of Famer
Most Similar by Ages 
 View Player Links in Pop-up
 Hold mouse over #'s to see names
  1. Stan Rojek (985)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  2. Homer Bush (978)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  3. Aaron Miles (971)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  4. Eddie Moore (951)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  5. Jimmy Brown (960)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  6. Jimmy Brown (951)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  7. Fernando Vina (934)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  8. Johnny Temple (928)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  9. Kid Elberfeld (908)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  10. Phil Rizzuto (906) * 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  11. Phil Rizzuto (921) * 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
* - Signifies Hall of Famer

Transactions

November 28, 1927: Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Pete Scott to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kiki Cuyler.

November, 1929: Purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

May 7, 1933: Traded by the St. Louis Cardinals with Paul Derringer and Allyn Stout to the Cincinnati Reds for Leo Durocher, Dutch Henry and Jack Ogden.

The transaction information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Last transaction is September 30, 2009.

Other Resources & Links

Error?     Compare     Search SABR's Baseball Index     Other Links@google.com     Baseball Library     Baseball-Almanac.com     Retrosheet     The Baseball Cube     The Baseball Page     WhatIfSports: Sparky Adams    

Viewed 26,669 times through November 21, 2009.
Name and misspellings: Earl John Sparky Adams

Player Page Tricks and Tips

Sum any set of rows by clicking anywhere (not red or blue) on the first and last rows of your selection. We will then compute the totals for the player between and including those two seasons.
Default Setting for this feature: Turn On / Turn Off
Summation of season totals only works for the initial case when the table is in year order. On a sorted table the results may get a bit goofy.

HIGHLIGHTING: Adding a range or series of player's career seasons (like '#1972', '#1970-1980-sum', or '#1998,1999,2001,2002,sum') onto the end of a player page url causes the seasons to the highlighted and summed. After changing address bar, reload the page to see highlighting. This will work even in links e-mailed to others. Note that for tables with multiple pages the first table is the default. If you want to create a sum for a table other than the first one, select the rows and after the summation window appears click on "permanent link" link.

The play-by-play information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet.