MLB Opening Day Countdown: #77
For the first time in the history of this countdown which we started a couple of days ago, there are more than a couple of players in MLB history to wear the number we are focusing on! One is trying to get into the Hall of Fame as we speak, so let’s start there.
When you think of Ivan Rodriguez, the Houston Astros are likely not the first, or even the second MLB team to come to mind, therefore, his donning of the number 77 probably comes as a surprise. Pudge donned the number 7 from his first days with the Texas Rangers in 1991 all the way to 2008 when he was a member of the Detroit Tigers. The reasoning for Rodriguez not continuing with his number seven is pretty simple–the Astros had already retired the number as their lone Hall of Fame representative Craig Biggio had worn the number 7. So yeah, there was no way Pudge was getting that number.
In March of 2009 he signed with the Astros for $1.5M, the lowest total he had made since 1994. A 37-year-old Rodriguez played 93 games with Houston before they traded him to the Rangers in the middle of August.
Quick side note: While the Astros have had a number of Hall of Fame players on their teams in the past (Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Joe Morgan, Don Sutton, and others), Biggio is the only one to wear an Astros cap on his plaque.
Back to the numbers!
While Rodriguez finished with a bWAR of 68.44, the next player behind him on this list of 27 was no slouch either. Joe Medwick (1911-1975) played from 1932 to 1948, primarily as a St. Louis Cardinal. Medwick made it into the Hall of Fame in 1968, right in between when Branch Rickey (’67) and Stan Musial (’69) were inducted.
As for Medwick’s playing career, he finished firmly in the MVP discussion each year from 1935-39, winning the award in ’37 after batting .374 with 31 home runs, 154 RBI and earning the NL Triple Crown. He also slugged a career high .641 with a 1.056 OPS. According to bWAR from that year, he was hands-down the best player in the league, putting up a Troutian 8.5 score. Only Lefty Gomez of the American League finished higher that season. A 22-year old Joe DiMaggio (8.2) and a 34-year-old Lou Gehrig (7.7) put together excellent seasons of their own, but Medwick beat them both out.
Unfortunately for the number 77, all of these accomplishments were made under the number 7 for Medwick, who would later don 77 during parts of the 1940 and 1941 seasons when he was with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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According to Baseball Reference, Medwick is a slightly below average Hall of Fame player, with his JAWS score coming in at 47.6 while the average HOF left fielder is somewhere around 52.7. Medwick was a part of the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals team of 1934, and had their been an MVP of the Series at the time (first one awarded in 1955), it would have been a toss-up between Medwick and Dizzy Dean. Medwick went 11-for-29 (.379) with five RBI while Dean went 2-1 in the series with a 1.79 ERA, including a shutout of the Tigers in Game 7.
Rico Carty donned the number 77 in his first appearance in the big leagues with the Milwaukee Braves back in 1963 and went 0-for-2 with a pair of strikeouts. The following season he wore both 77 and then 43, with 43 being the number he would have on when the Braves moved to Atlanta. Carty finished second in the 1964 Rookie of the Year voting and made appearances on MVP ballots in 1969, 1970 with Atlanta and 1976 with Cleveland. He finished his career with a bWAR of 32.6.
The last player on our list today is Tony Batista, who many will recall because of his batting stance. There was a point in time when he would stand just about as open as a batter could, with both shoulders pointing towards the pitcher. As the pitcher would start his windup, Batista would bring his hands in and hunch over. It is still one of the oddest batting stances I can remember seeing.
Anyway, during the last two years of his career with Minnesota and then Washington, Bautista wore, you guessed it, number 77. He finished with a bWAR of 13.7.
And that brings us one day closer to the start of the regular season!