See the two previous posts:
Joe DiMaggio sucked in the World Series
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I thought I'd look at another player who was similar. There is only one, DiMaggio's successor in center field: Mickey Mantle. Those two and teammate Yogi Berra played in the most World Series (WS) and each won the league Most Valuable Players (MVP) award three times. They played in this number of WS:
DiMaggio 10
Mantle 12
Berra 14.
But Yogi had no black ink signifying leading the league in a batting category. Anyway, I decided to just examine Mantle in taking the many small sample sizes that are a four to seven game WS and seeing if there are patterns that have meaning.
Here are the percentage differences between Mantle's On Base plus Slugging (OPS) regular season v. WS: reg-WS/WS. It is for WS in which the player had at least 15 plate appearances (PA). It is followed by the player's rank among his teammates. Mantle had at least 15 PA in only nine of his twelve WS.
1952 13.71% 3 of 8; 2 HR
1953 -14.03% 6 of 8; 2 HR.
1956 -10.55% 5 of 8; 3 HR.
1957 -39.44% 8 of 8 loss
1958 -3.34% 4 of 7; 2 HR.
1960 38.54% 3 of 8 loss; 3 HR.
1962 -69.14% 8 of 8
1963 -54.47% 6 of 6 loss
1964 24.14% 3 of 8 loss; 3 HR, including a walk off.
Like DiMaggio, Mantle is usually in negative territory. He has a positive number in only three of nine WS. DiMaggio was positive in 2 of 10. They both have low ranks among their teammates. DiMaggio's two best: second and third; Mantle's third twice. In Mantle's nine WS the Yankees were 5-4. In the three WS in which Mantle did not have 15 PA: 2-1.
One major difference is the number of WS elimination games that each faced. DiMaggio faced only two. Mantle 14. Click this link to see the details.
From the previous post:
Yanks lost the 1942 WS to St. Louis 4-1. In the final game DiMaggio got his third WS RBI at Yankee Stadium. DiMaggio was 1 for 4. In the fourth DiMaggio singled in a run putting the Yanks ahead 2-1. St. Louis tied in the 6th and scored two in the 9th to win 4-2.
The other was game seven Monday, October 6, 1947 at Yankee Stadium, attendance: 71,548. Yanks beat Brooklyn 5-2. DiMaggio batted cleanup: 0 for 3 plus a walk leading off the fifth with the Yanks up 3-2; he did not score. With the Yanks up 4-2 DiMaggio made the final out in the sixth leaving two runners on base.
Mantle played in 14 of the 16 WS elimination games the Yankees had during his career.
BA HR/AB OBP TB SLG OPS
.308 .096 .450 22 .423 .873
Five homers in 52 AB: first two games and last three. Games 6 & 7 1952, game four 1963, games 6 & 7 1964. That covers 12 years.
Yanks won both games 6 & 7 in Ebbets Field in 1952. Yanks lost game four in 1963; Mantle homered off Sandy Koufax in the seventh to give the Yankees their only tie of the WS; Dodgers won 2-1. In 1964 Roger Maris and Mantle homered back to back in the sixth inning of game 6 to put the Yanks up 3-2; Yanks won 8-3. In game 7 Mantle hit a three run homer off Bob Gibson in the sixth to cut the Cardinals lead in half: 6-3; Cardinals won 7-5.
In game 7 1956, Mantle's triple crown season, Mickey was 1 for 4 with three SO; Yanks won 9-0 so no one noticed. In game 7 1960: 3 for 5; Yanks lost 10-9 to Pittsburgh.
Maybe I'm being too tough on these great players. Maybe it's unreasonable to expect them to keep up their regular season performances against much better pitching. Except, their Yankee predecessor super stars had even higher regular season numbers and excelled in the WS ... yes, in an earlier era, which might have enabled them to dominate more easily.
Babe Ruth:
1921 -38.24% 6 of 8 lost
1922 -67.98% 8 of 8 lost
1923 24.66% 1 of 8 won; 3 HR.
1926 19.54% 1 of 8; 3 HR game 4; 4 HR; CS last out game 7.
1927 -1.37% 2 of 7 sweep
1928 85.01% 2 of 4; 3 HR game 4; sweep.
1932 8.35% 6 of 8; 2 HR; called shot; sweep.
Lou Gehrig:
1926 -7.02% 6 of 8 lost
1927 -8.14% 3 of 7 sweep
1928 131.8% 1 of 4 4 HR; sweep.
1932 64.56% 1 of 8; 3 HR; sweep.
1936 -19.75% 7 of 8; 2 HR; won.
1937 -1.45% 4 of 8 won
1938 -27.17% 6 of 7 sweep
Player OPS OPS+ WS OPS
Ruth 1.195 209 1.211 (includes 12 Red Sox PA)
Gehrig 1.080 179 1.208
DiMaggio .977 155 .760
Mantle .977 172 .908
Doesn't look good for Joe D., especially considering his ZERO WS HR and four RBI at Yankee Stadium.
Both Ruth and Mantle were the SO kings of their eras, leading the league five times each. Ruth finished with 1,330 and Mantle with 1,710 SO. Babe Ruth held the career SO record from 1928 to 1963 when Mantle passed him. Mantle was passed in 1982 by Reggie Jackson who leads with 2,597 through 2012.
DiMaggio had 369 career SO and 361 HR, truly amazing. However, in the WS: 23 SO, 8 HR. And in the WS DiMaggio had a much higher SO rate compared to his regular season v. his teammates. See previous post. Mantle had these relative SO numbers compared to his WS teammates:
Year teammates Mantle
1951 -14.42% 8.50%
1952 -17.34% 46.58%
1953 -40.91% -41.43%
1955 -30.03% -6.19%
1956 -31.37% -10.84%
1957 -9.53% 200.63%
1958 -7.86% 38.73%
1960 1.43% -34.11%
1961 0.05% -34.63%
1962 -7.82% 3.45%
1963 -48.17% -44.19%
1964 -22.04% -34.19%
Year teammates Mantle
Mantle did better than his teammates in 8 of 12 WS; DiMaggio in 3 of 10.
Percent BB/PA regular WS:
Mantle 17.5% 15.8%
DiMaggio 8.6% 10.3%
Mantle's walk rate went down in the WS, DiMaggio's up but Mantle's was still about 50% higher.
Finally, a quick look at a normal player, not a star.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Clutch hitting on planet earth. Oh, and please explain Bobby Richardson.
Bobby Richardson and clutch performance
October 24, 2008
I have long cited Bobby Richardson's World Series performances in 1960 and 1964 as anecdotal evidence that, like all of us, athletes can raise their game and perform well above their normal level in clutch situations such as the World Series...
Bobby was a classic good field, no hit player... Bobby played full time in five consecutive WS from 1960 through 1964. Three of those WS went seven games: 1960, 1962, 1964. In the first and last Bobby had mega WS. He set WS records in both: most RBI (12) in 1960 and most hits (13) in 1964. Bobby also set the record for most RBI in a game: six in game three, 1960.
So, in forty percent of Bobby's WS he had mega performances...
For a player to achieve his regular season numbers in the WS is good since the opposition has better pitching than that faced in the regular season and the pitching is not diluted by the regular season schedule, which in those seasons included many doubleheaders.
If we arbitrarily broke up Bobby's regular season games into seven game chunks starting on opening day, what are the chances that forty percent of them would result in mega performances? And that another twenty percent would be very good? That forty percent would be sub par would not seem unusual.
Was it just chance that Bobby Richardson would perform so far above his norm in such a high percentage of his opportunities? What are the chances? Unless Bobby was clutch.
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Bobby Richardson:
1960 45% 2 of 8; set RBI records.
1961 21.5% 2 of 7
1962 -36.3% 6 of 8 (Mantle 8)
1963 -7.3% 1 of 6 (Mantle 6)
1964 24.7% 2 of 8; set hits record.
Among his Yankee teammates in those five WS Bobby's ranks were 2,2,6,1,2. My common sense tells me that Richardson exceeded his ability in the World Series more than Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle. That's all you can ask of a player.
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