{"id":211,"date":"2023-07-24T03:03:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T03:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/?page_id=211"},"modified":"2023-07-24T03:06:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T03:06:31","slug":"taking-one-for-the-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/?page_id=211","title":{"rendered":"Taking One for the Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taking One for the Team: <\/b>The Curious Turn of Don Baylor<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> If you were a fan of the mid-80s Boston Red Sox, you witnessed the joy of watching Don Baylor turn his immense back toward an inside pitch and take yet another base via hit-by-pitch.\u00a0 This was a Don Baylor specialty during his 19 big league seasons.\u00a0 His 267 HBPs remained the modern record until Craig Biggio tallied 287 plunkings. \u00a0 Even Baylor\u2019s #4 spot on the bean-throne (Hughie Jennings and Tommy Taylor had 287 and 272 HBPs, respectively, in the late-1800s) does not seem to be in danger from any modern players, despite the continued use of football-like body armor allowing fearless plate-crowding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0What must it be like to stand in the box, lean over the plate, and turn your back to a screaming fastball or a slightly-slower slider?\u00a0 What if you take it to the elbow, forearm or hand?\u00a0 Would you consider yourself lucky?\u00a0 Tony Conigliaro took a fastball to the eye and was never the same player.\u00a0 All the body armor and earflaps in the world will not protect you from the super-charged velocity nowadays so, imagine the guts it requires to hang in there and take one on the body.\u00a0 Yet, Don Baylor was a fearless plate-hog who seemed magnetized to attract thrown baseballs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don Baylor\u2019s nominal career statistics will never qualify him for the Hall of Fame: .260 average, 2,135 hits, 1,236 runs, 366 doubles, 338 homeruns, 1,276 RBIs, 285 stolen bases, a career OBP of .342 and an OPS of .777.\u00a0 What may surprise you, if you are only familiar with the latter-day beefcake-version of Baylor, was Don Baylor\u2019s surprising blend of power and speed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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To wit, as of this revision, Baylor ranked 109<\/span>th<\/span> on the career HR list and 182<\/span>nd<\/span> on the all-time SB list.\u00a0 Maybe not impressive taken alone, but a quick cross-reference of both lists reveals that only six of the 171 players with more career stolen bases have more homeruns than Baylor.\u00a0 Impressive speed numbers for a man many consider a career DH.\u00a0 But was he?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Baylor played 148 games at First Base (amassing a fielding percentage of .984) and 822 games in the outfield (with a career .977.)\u00a0 Baylor <\/span>did<\/span><\/i> play over fifty percent of his games as a Designated Hitter, though it wasn\u2019t necessarily due to a stone-handed affliction in the mold of Dave Kingman (.957 FP in the outfield) or Sam Horn (.972 at First.) DHs are known for offensive prowess and Baylor\u2019s five top 10 finishes in HRs, 3 top 10 finishes in RBIs and 2 top 10 finishes in Runs bear that out.\u00a0 But would you have known that he had just as many top 10 seasons in stolen bases as he did in HRs?<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Baylor won the AL MVP award in 1979, when he was with California, and was named to the AL All-Star team (his lone appearance) that same year.\u00a0 Since Baylor played only 98 games in the field that year, it is safe to say he won mostly for what he did as a DH.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What we all seem to know about Baylor is how easily he turned his back into the pitch.\u00a0 That turn frustrated pitchers, opposing players and managers, but became just another skilled aspect of Baylor\u2019s game.\u00a0 What people may not have noticed was another turn Baylor made, sometime during the midway point of his career.\u00a0 This turn looks less significant, but after it, he forever left behind the player he was in his early career and crafted his name as one synonymous with the bean-ball.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> From 1972, when he had 38 HRs and 111 RBIs, to 1979 (36, 139) Baylor totaled 167 HRs and 605 HRs.\u00a0 But he also tallied 24 swipes in 1972 and 22 in 1979, to reach 239 of his career SBs (with a career-high of <\/span>52<\/b> in 1976.)\u00a0 That blend of speed and power, and in such well-balanced proportions as Baylor seemed to possess them, was not unheard of at the time, but it was rather rare.\u00a0 Of the six players ahead of him on both SB and HR career lists, only one of them (Bobby Bonds) preceded Baylor in the bigs.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1980, Baylor broke his wrist and suffered a dislocated toe.\u00a0 These two injuries touched off a spate of other injuries that hampered him for the following two seasons, when he amassed just 193 games, 22 HRs, 117 RBIs and 9 SBs.\u00a0 At age 31, with numbers dipping, and a run of injuries that impeded his usual stats, it should have signaled the end of Baylor\u2019s career.\u00a0 Don Baylor could have chosen to sit down on the end of that long pine, wallow in what could have been, and just retire.\u00a0 Instead the player who became best-known for making the turn of his back, made another <\/span>turn<\/span><\/i> and changed himself as a player, extending his career another seven seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In what might be called the Second Half of Baylor\u2019s career (1981-1988), he stole only 39 more bases, but he stroked 166 HRs and racked up 616 RBIs, meeting or exceeding his \u201cfirst half\u201d power numbers in fewer games and seasons.\u00a0 Playing as a DH did help Baylor extend his career\u2014of that there is no doubt.\u00a0 With his limited mobility, the player who used to combine the speed and power over which teams continue to salivate, now had to sit back in the box and generate power, and OBP from another source. As it turned out, Baylor had what it took to make the turn all along.<\/span><\/p>\n

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From 1972 to 1979, Baylor was hit by 106 pitches and led the league four times.\u00a0 In the second half of his career (\u201981-\u201988) he was struck by an absurd 177 pitches and led the league four more times.\u00a0 In fact, taking one for the team had always been a skill of Baylor\u2019s: in his full seasons he was never out of the top 10 in HBP, and only finished as low as eighth <\/span>once<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Not only did he lead the league eight times, he was 2<\/span>nd<\/span> twice, 3<\/span>rd<\/span> three times and 4<\/span>th<\/span> three more times. Even during the injury-plagued 1980 season Baylor still reached 11 HBPs, only slightly behind league leader Carlton Fisk, who took 13.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Baylor reinvented himself as a feared slugger during his second act.\u00a0 He won Silver Slugger awards in 1983, 1985 and 1986 and was 23<\/span>rd<\/span> in the MVP voting in 1982 and 13<\/span>th<\/span> in 1986, despite subpar numbers in a few offensive categories.\u00a0 In the latter season he hit 31 HRs and drove in 94, batted only .238, but got plunked thirty-five times!\u00a0 Don Baylor developed into a journeyman-slugger-for-hire in the later stages of his career.\u00a0 Then again, his teams seemed to develop a knack for winning along the way: he is the only player to play on three consecutive <\/span>different <\/span><\/i>World Series teams (Red Sox, Twins and A\u2019s, from 1986-1988.)<\/span><\/p>\n

For Don Baylor, turning into the pitch seemed to come just as easily as turning his back on the first half of his baseball career.\u00a0 Then again, these habits started young: Baylor was one of three black students to attend the all-white O. Henry Middle School in 1967, after <\/span>he<\/span><\/i> requested to attend the school in the tense times surrounding early desegregation.\u00a0 Don Baylor had a long history of taking one for the team.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking One for the Team: The Curious Turn of Don Baylor \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you were a fan of the mid-80s Boston Red Sox, you witnessed the joy of watching Don Baylor turn his immense back toward an inside pitch and take yet another base via hit-by-pitch.\u00a0 This was a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":186,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-211","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/211\/revisions\/212"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}