Catching 1000 Games

In 2010 Jason Kendall became just the 5th catcher to catch 2000 major league games.  Kendall has now caught 2025 games and ranks 5th among the 110 catchers who have caught at least 1000 games.  Kendall was injured for all of 2011 but vows to come back in 2012.  If he does, he may pass Gary Carter, currently in 4th place with 2056 games caught.  Kendall, who is now 37, has no chance to overtake the all-time leader in games caught, Ivan Rodriguez.  Rodriguez has caught 2427 games and may also play in 2012.

The first catcher to reach the 1000-game mark was Jack Clements early in the 1898 season. Clements, incidentally, is the only lefthanded thrower on the list. Two other catchers, Deacon McGuire and Hall of Famer Wilbert Robinson, also caught their 1000th game in 1898. McGuire was the first to reach the 1500 mark, in 1905.

Playing 1000 games at what is arguably baseball’s most arduous and demanding defensive position is a commendable feat, although with 30 major league teams more catchers are getting more opportunities to play than in previous eras. In each season since the 1890s, about half of all major league teams have had a 1000-game catcher on their roster.

THE ALL-TIME LEADER

Rodriguez will be 40 years old on Opening Day 2012.  He owns the all-time records for games started (2346), completed (2081), won (1197), and lost (1140).

Always lauded for his individual talents, Rodriguez silenced criticism that he wasn’t a winner after he left the sad-sack Texas Rangers after 12 seasons to lead two downtrodden teams (Florida and Detroit) to championships in his 30s.

Interviewed in July 2007 after he caught his 2000th game, Rodriguez said, “I work very hard and feel very good physically right now... I've got a lot of baseball left in me, and I've just got to continue to play hard.”

Detroit manager Jim Leyland, a former catcher himself, commented, “You start with genes, then you go to the fact that he takes such good care of himself.  There's not an ounce of fat on him.  He eats right and keeps himself in great shape.  I can understand a shortstop, center fielder -- but a catcher, that's pretty amazing, really.”

Mike Rabelo, Rodriguez’s backup in Detroit, observed, “When the game's over and all the fans are leaving through the concourse, he goes back out and runs.”  (Evidently Rabelo did not run with him.)

Midway through 2009 Rodriguez broke Fisk’s record of 2226 games caught.  Some of us may remember the circumstances under which Fisk set the record.  Previous record holder Bob Boone retired after the 1990 season with 2225 games caught.  Fisk, who is just a month younger than Boone, caught 106 games in 1991 and 54 in 1992, bringing him within 24 games of tying Boone.  The White Sox reluctantly signed Fisk for 1993 although he was 45 years old and no longer an effective offensive or defensive player.  It was conceded by both player and club that Fisk was only on the team to break the games-caught record.  His presence was a distraction that mercifully ended after Fisk squatted behind the plate for the 2226th time on June 22.  After catching a few innings he was replaced by Mike LaValliere, and he was released the next day.

THE EVOLUTION OF CATCHING RECORDS

Leader in games caught, career

WINNING 1000 GAMES

Ivan Rodriguez is now the all-time leader in catching wins with 1197.  Besides Rodriguez, Fisk, Boone, Berra, Bill Dickey, and Gary Carter (the National League leader in games caught) have also won 1000 games.

Lifetime New York Yankee Bill Dickey was the first catcher to win 1000 games, although he had to emerge from a two-year retirement to do it.

Dickey had decided to bow out on top at the age of 36. He caught the Spud Chandler shutout that won the fifth and deciding game of the 1943 World Series, contributing a 2-run homer in the 6th inning off Mort Cooper of the Cardinals that would constitute the game’s only scoring. This was the Yankees’ tenth championship. But there was a war on, and after the Series Dickey joined the Navy. While “The Big Man from Little Rock” served his country in the Pacific, the Bronx Bombers, predictably, foundered in 1944 and 1945 after winning 7 pennants in the last 8 seasons Dickey caught.

Although Dickey may not have been aware of it (the press certainly wasn’t), he had finished the 1943 season with 999 wins, which was at that time the major league record. Although not overeager to play again after the war, he was persuaded to return to the Yankees with the understanding that he would not be asked to catch regularly but would back up journeyman receiver Aaron Robinson until the Yankee catcher of the future, Yogi Berra, was ready for the big leagues.

Dickey got Win Number 1000 in his first try. He was behind the plate in Philadelphia on Opening Day (April 16, 1946), and he picked up right where he left off, catching a Spud Chandler shutout. In his first plate appearance he doubled hard off Russ Christopher and scored the only run Chandler would need as the Yankees beat the Athletics 5-0. Dickey won 22 games in 1946 before taking the managerial reins when Joe McCarthy resigned. His major league record of 1021 wins would stand until Berra, who broke in under Dickey in September 1946, overtook it in 1963, his final year in pinstripes.

THE 1000-GAME HONOR ROLL

Note: My “games caught” totals for some catchers are slightly different from their official totals.

During the recent past, increased scrutiny of baseball records has uncovered many inaccuracies. The most notorious of these were Ty Cobb’s 1910 batting championship, which he was awarded mistakenly after one of his hits was counted twice, and Hack Wilson’s single-season RBI record, which he set in 1930 with 191, not 190 as previously believed. Nevertheless, the panjandrums of baseball have declined to undertake a full-scale recheck and cleanup of the statistical record.

I have found several participation totals for catchers that I believe were miscounted. Here are two examples:

1. On September 20, 1960, with New York fighting for the pennant, 13,129 screaming fans packed Yankee Stadium to watch the Bronx Bombers battle the improving Washington Senators. After 10 innings of play the teams were tied 1-1.

Washington did not score in the top of the 11th. In the bottom of the inning New York’s Bill Skowron led off with a single. Yankees manager Casey Stengel sent in Joe DeMaestri to run for the sore-backed Moose, and Ken Hunt laid down a perfect sacrifice. Next up was Yogi Berra, pinch hitting for catcher Elston Howard. Berra was walked intentionally. Then Gil McDougald walked, loading the bases for Tony Kubek. Kubek grounded to third. Washington third baseman Harmon Killebrew threw home, but when catcher Earl Battey dropped the ball DeMaestri scored the winning run. Once again Stengel had pushed the right buttons.

Although Berra entered the game as a substitute for the Yankee catcher, he had no opportunity to take a defensive position before the game ended. In the official records, however, Berra was mistakenly credited with a game caught.

2. Pittsburgh had already clinched the 1970 East Division title before their September 30 game at St Louis. Manager Danny Murtaugh’s lineup card listed Manny Sanguillen batting third and catching.

Sanguillen batted in the top of the 1st and struck out. But when the Pirates took their defensive positions in the bottom of the inning, Jerry May was the catcher. The Pirates lost 4-3 despite May’s go-ahead single in the 6th.

Sanguillen clearly played in the game, but he did not catch. I have not been able to learn why he did not catch. He might have been ejected by plate umpire Shag Crawford, but he might instead have been removed by Murtaugh for a myriad of reasons. Whatever the explanation, May caught the entire game.

Although Sanguillen was listed in the starting lineup and batted in the game, he did not play defense, and under official major league baseball scoring rule 10.20 his appearance should not have been listed as a “game caught.” However, it was mistakenly counted anyway.

Participation totals, susceptible to human error and never regarded as a top priority, have occasionally been miscounted throughout the history of baseball. Unfortunately, my 1990s correspondence with baseball’s “Keepers of the Flame” convinced me that these learned men are uninterested in recounting and correcting participation records officially.

I believe the career totals I have listed for “games caught” represent the best information available. I have listed career won-lost records if I have completed them.

Note: Games Relieved is the number of games the catcher entered as a substitute. Games Caught = Games Started + Games Relieved.

A tip of the hat to Firdaus Matri.

When in Port of Spain, stay at the Forty Winks Inn.

December 2011