Category: Atlanta Braves

David Ortiz has become a qualified person from this National Baseball Hall of Fame vote. The man announced on November 18, 2015, on his 40th birthday that the following 2016 season will be his last year of active duty. And in 2016, he has a batting average of .315, 38 home runs, 127 RBIs, and an OPS of 1.021, which is a wonderful result that I can’t think of as a retired player. It may be difficult, or even impossible, to outperform Ortiz in the active last year. Ortiz looks back on the thoughts he put into his last year and his feelings at that time.

Ortiz recorded 48 doubles, 38 home runs, 127 RBIs and 87 extra-base hits in 2016, which is the highest number of active last-year players in history. Also, OPS 1.021 was the league’s top number of the year. In addition, according to the data site “Baseball Reference”, the offensive WAR (5.1), OPS + (164), and number of baseball hits (333) recorded this year were also the highest ever for a player the year before retirement (legendary name). Batter, Shoeless Joe Jackson, has left a number higher than Ortiz in these three divisions in the active last year, but is excluded because it is a permanent retirement due to the “Black Sox Scandal”).

In a telephone interview on the official Major League Baseball website, Ortiz commented, “I don’t think anyone will retire after making such a record.” But he didn’t hesitate. “It was no good. I ran out of gas,” Ortiz said. It is said that the biggest reason for deciding to retire from active duty only in 2016 was the pain in the Achilles tendon, which had been suffering since July 2012. “To be honest, I was more careful about my physical condition during that season than usual. I still had pain in my Achilles tendon. The other parts were healthy,” he recalled.

He also said that the number of players of his own child-age age began to increase around him, which helped him decide to retire. “I hit a double in Seattle in 2015. The pitchers changed and new pitchers came out, but when I saw the infielders gathering around the pitchers, they were all 21-year-old and 22-year-old players. The situation was similar in Tampa Bay and Houston, so I thought, “Let’s finish next year,” Ortiz said.

“I did my best that year,” said Ortiz, looking back on his last year. Many regret that they have done it yet, but at least Ortiz himself does not seem to regret having retired in 2016 at all.

Baseball is often referred to as a “sport of numbers.” For example, the numbers such as 500 home runs, 3000 hits, 300 wins, and 3000 strikeouts are very easy to understand. More advanced stats are becoming more important in the modern world, but traditional stats have not lost their role. Looking back at the history of Major League Baseball, there are many players who unfortunately missed the milestone. Andrew Simon, a reporter on the official Major League Baseball website, has picked up and introduced 11 of these players.

A representative example of a player who missed the milestone is Lou Gehrig, also known as “Tetsujin”. He suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis while marking 2130 consecutive appearances, which was a major record at the time, and his 2130th consecutive appearance was his last appearance in his career. He has 2721 hits, 493 home runs, 1995 RBIs and 1888 points. He was 35 years old in 1938 with a batting average of .295, 29 home runs, 114 RBIs and OPS.932. Considering that he had achieved such a good result in his poor physical condition, he must have well exceeded 3,000 hits and 500 home runs without illness, and his total RBI record must have been that of Gerigg.

Fred McGriff hit the same 493 home runs as Gaerigu. He won the Blue Jays title in 1989 and the Padres title in 1992, and in 2002 he was 38 years old with a batting average of .273, 30 home runs, 103 RBIs and OPS.858. However, after that, it declined sharply and did not reach the 500 home run base. Magriff was unlucky because he was involved in a long-term strike from 1994 to 1995. He hit 34 home runs in 113 games in 1994 and 27 home runs in 144 games in 1995, so it’s likely he would have reached a milestone without a strike. His Hall of Fame vote had the highest vote rate of 39.8% (2019), but if he had cleared 500 home runs, the result of the Hall of Fame vote would have been different.

In addition to these two, Simon has Al Kaline (399 home runs, 498 doubles), Andres Galarraga (399 home runs), Dale Murphy (398 home runs), Luis Gonzalez (596 doubles), and Ian Kinsler (1999 doubles). ), Tommy John (288 wins), Bert Brieleven (287 wins), Billy Pierce (1999 strikeouts), Johan Santana (1988 strikeouts). By the way, of the 11 people picked up by Simon, only three are inducted into the Hall of Fame: Gerigg, Kaline, and Blyleven.