One of the Best. One of the Most Forgotten
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by user Harold Friend
He had a lifetime batting average of .334 and hit 307 home runs. He batted .308 as a rookie and his lowest batting average the next seven years was .341. He batted in over 100 runs in each of his first eleven seasons, with a high of 165 when he hit .381 with 36 home runs.
He has a lifetime batting average of .292 and has hit 567 home runs. He batted .223 as a rookie and his highest single season batting average is .336. He has batted in over 100 runs ten times in his career, with a high of 137 when he hit .328 with 73 home runs.
Most fans know that the latter is Barry Bonds. Fewer know that the former is Al Simmons. Without discussing who was a better player or who had a better career (they are NOT the same thing. Herb Score was a better pitcher than Tommy John, but Tommy John had a better career), Simmons must be considered one of the most underrated great players of all time by modern fans.
Bonds has done what no other player has ever done. He hit 73 home runs in a single season and hit home runs with greater frequency than anyone in the history of the game. He is patient at the plate and takes pitches many batters would try to hit. It is for that reason that Bonds has become one of the best hitters of all time.
But Bonds does not have to contend with strikes above the belt. The modern strike zone is about one-third smaller than it was before 1993 and that has made it easier for disciplined hitters to be more selective. Bonds is as selective as anyone who ever batted, including Ted Williams, and it is that selectivity that has allowed him to be so effective. The fact that he is a left handed hitter only helps, since most left handed batters are low ball hitters and not calling "high" strikes favors batters who prefer low pitches.
Al Simmons had to contend with the rule book strike zone, which meant that pitches above the belt and at the letters or just below the shoulders were strikes. Since he was a right handed hitter, it is possible that the higher strike zone helped him because pitches above the belt were called strikes and Simmons often was forced to offer at them. Many of those pitches, instead of being taken for balls, wound up being hits, but many were outs, and logic dictates that a smaller strike zone helps the batter.
With the passing of the years, fewer and fewer fans know about Al Simmons' achievements and that he was one of the greatest players of all time. The only player in the last forty years to have a higher lifetime batting average than Simmons is Tony Gwynn, who, like Simmons, is tremendously underrated because he was not a home run hitter.
Barry Bonds is a great player but Al Simmons was also a great player. They played in different eras, which creates enough variables to make comparisons fraught with errors. But any player who, in consecutive years, had batting averages of .387, .341, .392, 351, .365, .381, .390, .322, .331 and .344 must be considered one of the best players of all time.
Great players in the last half of the twentieth century include Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Henry Aaron, and Roberto Clemente. Barry Bonds ranks among them. All are Hall of Famers, and Bonds will join them five years after he retires.
Baseball immortals in the first half of the twentieth century include Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, George Sisler, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Bill Terry, and Rogers Hornsby. All are Hall of Famers and contemporaries of Al Simmons, whose achievements do not pale by comparison.
References:
http://www.newswise.com/articles/2001/4/BASEBALL.NEB.html
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/ballplayer.shtml
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=simmoal01
Date
Wed 07/05/06, 9:44 am EST
