Since Philadelphia's Chase Utley is in town this weekend, this would be a good time to bring up a discussion about good offensive second baseman. It was recently suggested by ESPN's Joe Morgan, an outstanding all-around second baseman in his own right, that Utley had the chance to be the best offensive second baseman of all time.
There is some merit to that proclamation. Utley has had some incredible stats for any position, not just second baseman, since he came into the league in 2003. Before Friday's game, Utley has 107 career home runs, including 10 already this season, and 429 RBI. Over the last three seasons, Utley has averaged more than 27 home runs and 103 RBI and batted .310 over that time.
If the 29-year-old can keep up this pace then yes, he has a chance to be ONE OF the best offensive second baseman of all time, but it will be very hard to become the best.
That claim still has to go to Rogers Hornsby. Now, very few people alive today ever saw Hornsby play, after all he retired in 1937. But there is little doubt in my mind that Hornsby wasn’t the best offensive second baseman ever.
Hornsby won seven batting championships. He hit 301 home runs during a time when the ballparks were a lot bigger than they are today. He also had 1,584 runs batted in and a .358 career batting average which included four seasons of .400 or better.
Hornsby also had one of the best offensive seasons for any player at any position. In 1922, Hornsby batted .401 with 250 hits. He had 46 doubles, 14 triples, 42 home runs, 152 RBI, 141 runs scored, 17 stolen bases and, for all of you Sabermetric statheads out there, an OPS of 1.188. He did all of that in 154 games.
There can be cases made for a number of other great offensive second basemen as well. Morgan, for example, won two Most Valuable Player awards with the Big Red Machine in the 1970’s and hit 268 home runs.
Nap Lajoie, a contemporary of Hornsby’s, won three batting titles and was the sixth player ever to be elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Some of the players I grew up watching included Ryne Sandberg, who had 282 home runs, including 40 in 1990, and 1,061 RBI. Roberto Alomar was an outstanding offensive second baseman during his career, and current player Jeff Kent has the most home runs ever for a second baseman with 368.
Utley is good, very good actually. But he has a lot more work ahead of him to be the best offensive second baseman ever.
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Hornsby also had a five-year stretch during which his average for the entire five years was above .400.
As you say, very few people are alive who saw Hornsby in action; he is listed as retiring in 1937, but was pretty much done as a full-time player after 1929.
Judging by written accounts, Hornsby had a prickly personality, to say the least. Nevertheless, he held several managerial and coaching jobs. His last was as a coach for Casey Stengel in the New York Mets' legendary inaugural '62 season.
If Joe Morgan is saying someone might end up being the best ever, that's high praise, indeed. Morgan's statistics are impressive, but they don't quite reflect the impact he had on games during his prime with the Big Red Machine.
Even when his skills faded, he was enough of a leader on the field to lead the Astros and Phillies into the postseason in the early '80s.
We'll see how Utley does in the long run. Playing in Baker Bowl II (aka Citizens Bank Park) certainly won't hurt his offensive numbers!
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