November 2010

• Buster Posey (SF-NL) was the 7th rookie in postseason history, and the 2nd rookie catcher, to collect 4 hits in a game, which he accomplished in the 2010 National League Championship Series when he went 4-for-5. The other catcher to have done this was Joe Garagiola (STL-NL) in the 1946 World Series who also went 4-for-5.
  
  
• Benjamin "Bengie" Molina, brother of Jose & Yadier Molina, will be the recipient of a 2010 World Series Championship Ring no matter which team (Texas Rangers or San Francisco Giants) would have won the World Series. That's because Bengie played in 61 games for the Giants in 2010 and was subsequently traded to the Rangers on July 1st and played 57 games for them. Under current rules, he is eligible for both teams to receive the award.
  
  
• Buster Posey (SF-NL) is the 5th Rookie (and the 1st Rookie Catcher) to hit a Home Run in the World Series, which he did on October 31, 2010 in the 8th inning in Game 4 at Texas to cap off a Giants win (4-0).
  
  
• Bengie Molina (TEX-AL), newly traded from the San Francisco Giants to the Texas Rangers on July 1, 2010, hit for the cycle (single, double, triple, home run in the same game) on July 16th at Boston. He is the 15th catcher to have done so. As a part of this cycle, he hit a Grand Slam (only the 8th player to have done so in a cycle) and legged-out his sixth career Triple.
  
  
• 2010 marks the first time ever that opposing starting catchers in a World Series, Buster Posey and Bengie Molina, were the Starting catcher and his Backup on the same team during the same (regular) season (San Francisco Giants).
  
  

October 2010

The World Series Most Valuable Player award was created in 1955. Six catchers have won the award: Gene Tenace (A's 1972), Johnny Bench (Reds 1976), Steve Yeager (Dodgers 1981), Darrell Porter (Cardin als 1982), Rick Dempsey (Orioles 1983), and Pat Borders (Blue Jays 1992).

The League Championship MVP honors was first awarded in the N.L. in 1977 and the A.L. in 1980. No catcher has ever won in the A.L. but five catchers have been honored in the N.L.: Darrell Porter (Cardinals 1982 - also the WS MVP), Javier Lopez (Braves 1996), Eddie Perez (Braves 1999), Benito Santiago (Giants 2002), and Ivan Rodriguez (Marlins 2003).

There have been 14 Catchers with two or more home runs in one World Series: Mickey Cochrane (1930), Bill Dickey (1939), Yogi Berra (1952 & 1956), Roy Campanella (1955), Gene Tenace (1972, Carlton Fisk (1975, Johnny Bench (1976), Steve Yeager (1977 & 1981), Ted Simmons (1982), Gary Carter (1986), Sandy Alomar Jr. (1997), and Mike Piazza (2000).

Four catchers have had Two-Homer Games in World Series: Yogi Berra, Yankees 1956-Gm 7; Gene Tenace, A's 1972-Gm 1; Johnny Bench, Reds 1976-Gm 4; and Gary Carter, Mets 1986-Gm 4. No catcher has had two or more home runs in one LCS Game. A.J. Pierzynski, White Sox 2005 is the only catcher to have had a two-homer Division Series Game.

Elston Howard (1955) & Gene Tenace (1972) homered in their First World Series At-Bat. Rick Cerone (1980) homered in his First LCS At-Bat. Benito Santiago (1995) and Brian McCann (2005) homered in their First Division Series At-Bat.

The Highest Catcher Career Post-Season Batting Averages were by: WS Thurman Munson .373 (Minimum 50 AB); LCS Thurman Munson .339 (Minimum 50 AB); and Div A.J. Pierzynski .368 (Minimum 25 AB).

There have been 15 catchers who hit .400 or better in a single World Series (Minimum 10 AB). They are:

Four catchers have Hit A Double, Triple, and a Home Run in One World Series. They are: Hank Gowdy (Boston Braves 1914); Elston Howard (NY Yankees 1960); Tim McCarver (St. Louis Cardinals 1964); and Johnny Bench (Cincinnati Reds 1976).

June 2010

Since 1876 there have been only 9 catchers who have made two Unassisted Double Plays (UDP) in their career. Many catchers have had one career UDP. No catcher has ever had two in the same game. The last catcher to have two career UDP's was Buck Rodgers who collected his with the Los Angeles/California Angels in 1965 and 1969.

Ray Schalk holds the catcher record for the most double plays (226) in a career which he amassed in 1,727 games over an 18 year span (1912-1929). Steve O'Neil is in second place with 193 and Yogi Berra is in third place with 175.

The catcher record for the Most Double Plays in a Season is held by Steve O'Neil who had 36 of them while playing for the Cleveland Indians in 1916.

Unassisted Double Plays that do not involve interference generally fall into three types: Popups, Groundouts and Strikeouts plus caught stealing of home. From 1954-2009 there were 32 catcher UDP's. Eight were of the popup variety, four were groundouts, and twenty were strikeouts plus caught stealing. A fourth variety is the very rare tagging out of two runners. Such notable backstops as Luke Sewell (1933), Darrell Porter (1979), Buck Martinez (1985), Carlton Fisk (1985), Darren Fletcher (1992), and Mike DeFelice (2000) accomplished this feat. Buck Martinez (TOR-A) tagged out Phil Bradley in a home plate collision that broke Martinez' leg. While sitting on the ground in agony, Buck tagged out Gorman Thomas who tried to score on the play.

Gregg Zaun (HOU-N) in 2002 had a strikeout/caught stealing UDP with a twist. After the K, the runner tried to steal second and Zaun ran out to second base and tagged him to finish the UDP.

Sometimes the catcher UDP happens because the batter didn't run. That happened to Jorge Posada in 2000 when Luis Alicea bunted with the bases loaded in front of the plate. Posada picked up the ball and stepped on the plate to force out the runner from third then proceeded to tag Alicea for the UDP.

May 2010

Boomerang players are players that move from one team to another and back again in the same season. There have been about a dozen such catcher trades from 1876 to 2010. The first boomerang catcher was Ossee Schreckengost who in 1899 went from Stl-N to Cle-N and back to Stl-N.

Nig Clarke holds the catcher record for the Quickest Boomerang when, within a matter of 10 days in 1905, he went from Cle-A to Det-A and back to Cle-A.

Single position player for same position player trades are not that common. There have been less than 50 such trades involving just two catchers. The earliest trade of this type occurred on December 7, 1897 when St. Louis traded catcher Morgan Murphy to Pittsburgh for catcher Joe Sugden. [Thanks to David Ball for this bit of info.]

Spud Davis (Stl-N) was traded for catcher Jimmie Wilson (Phi-N) on May 11, 1928 then traded back to Stl-N on November 15, 1933 for Jimmie Wilson, who was then named to manage the Phillies, which he did for 9 years.

The first catcher Free Agent Signing was Buck Ewing in 1883 by the New York Giants. The first catcher to Jump Leagues was Tony Cusick on 8/23/1884 when he left the Wilmington Quicksteps (Union Association) to join the Philadelphia Phillies (National League).

The very first major league trade occurred when the St. Louis Browns traded outfielder Hugh Nicol to Cincinnati for catcher Jack Boyle and 350ドル on November 12, 1886

There have been 47 trades in which teams swapped their catchers and no other players. The last of these kind of trades involved Gary Bennett (PHI-N) and Todd Pratt (NY-N) on 7/23/2001.

The practice of loaning a player for an interim period goes back to the start of baseball. The first recorded instance of a catcher being loaned was in 1902 when Lew Drill (Was-A) was loaned to Baltimore (AL) for four days (7/17 to 7/21).

On November 5, 1978, Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Manny Sanguillen was involved in one of the strangest trades in history. Oakland A's manager Chuck Tanner was still under contract. To obtain the rights to hire Tanner, the Pirates traded Sanguillen and 100,000ドル to Oakland for their Manager Tanner.

Of the 31 players who played in 4 different Major Leagues, four of them were catchers: Jim Brennan (UA, NL, AA, PL), Duke Farrell (NL, PL, AA, AL), Morgan Murphy (PL, AA, NL, AL), and Pop Snyder (NA, NL, AA, PL).

There are 13 players who played for 10 or more Major League Teams and one of them was a catcher, Deacon McGuire who jointly holds the record (with Mike Morgan) who both played with twelve teams in their careers.

April 2010

Numbers are everywhere in baseball from uniforms to positions to stats. The same can be said for key dates for the 1,661 career catchers since 1871. The following are just some of the coincidental dates:

386 catcher's debut month was the same month as was his final game (ie. June 1972 and June 1985).
38 catcher's debut day was the same day as was his final game (ie. April 4 and July 4).
Only 6 of these catchers had the same month and day for their debuts and their final games (of course this excludes the 114 catchers who had just a single game for a career):

• Joe Just 5/13/1944 & 5/13/1945
• Jim McDonnell 9/23/1943 & 9/23/1945
• Johnny Peacock 9/23/1937 & 9/23/1945
• Alex Sabo 8/1/1936 & 8/1/1937
• Carl Sawatski 9/29/1948 & 9/29/1963
• Admiral Schlei 4/24/1904 & 4/24/1911

120 catcher's birth month was the same month as was his month of death (ie. June 1920 and June 1985).
50 catcher's birth day was the same day as was his day of death (ie. April 4 and July 4).
Only 7 of these catchers had the same month and day for their births and their deaths (ie. died on their birthdays):

• Medric Boucher 3/12/1886 & 3/12/1974
• Bill Delancey 11/28/1911 & 11/28/1946
• Gabby Hartnett 12/20/1900 & 12/20 1972
• Chico Hernandez 1/3/1916 & 1/3/1986
• Hickey Hoffman 10/27/1856 & 10/27/1915
• Eddie McGah 9/30/1921 & 9/30/2002
• Abe Wolstenholme 3/4/1861 & 3/4/1916

266 catchers died in the same city as their birth. 3 of these also died on their birthday:

• Chico Hernandez - Havana, Cuba on 1/3/1916 & 1/3/1986
• Eddie McGah - Oakland, CA on 9/30/1921 & 9/30/2002
• Abe Wolstenholme - Philadelphia, PA on 3/4/1861 & 3/4/1916

2 catchers had the thrill of debuting on their birthday:

• Rene Lacheman - born 5/4/1945 & debuted 5/4/1965
• Bruce Benedict - born 8/18/1955 & debuted 8/18/1978

March 2010

The skills of a catcher are developed over time with much practice, game experience, and study. The SKILLS & DRILLS section of this web site contains numerous tips and instructions to help you, the young catcher, develop into a backstop that everyone wants on their team. They have been created by numerous coaches and Major Leaguer catchers, some of whose articles appear on this site.

The following are just a few tidbits that you'll find on this site:

• The Catcher should be the first one on the practice field and the last one to leave it. Good catchers are the leaders on the team and show it by example, both at practice and at games, on and off the field. [Catcher/Manager Rene Lachemann]
  
• The most important aspect of framing is to frame strikes and borderline pitches. Don’t waste your or the umpire's time by trying to frame balls that are not in the zone. Simply catch the ball and return it to the pitcher and get ready for the next pitch. By framing pitches that are not strikes, you make yourself look like a bad catcher, and you may make the umpire look bad. If you make the umpire look bad, he will not be anxious to help you on a borderline pitch. [Coach Dave Weaver]
  
• A catcher must always assume a bad throw to the plate. In his mind he must be ready to move in any direction to catch a thrown ball, or be ready to drop to his knees and block a poorly thrown ball to keep runners from advancing and still giving himself a chance to pick up the ball and tag out the runner. The catcher must keep the ball in front of him at all costs. [Coach Rosciam]
  
• No Blaming. When things go wrong during a game, do not blame anyone. Just remember the wrong so that things can be gone over in practice so that it will not happen again. Remember, that when you point a finger at someone, you are aiming three fingers back at yourself. [Catcher/Manager Mike Scioscia]
  
• Good grip. You want the trajectory of the ball to stay true and straight. The rotation which results from using a four-seam grip will consistently create this path. [Catcher Brent Mayne]
  
• The exchanging of the baseball from the mitt to the throwing hand, and getting your throwing arm and mitt arm into proper throwing position as quickly as possible, is crucial to the success of throwing out base runners. [Catcher/Coach Todd Coburn]
  
• The good catchers keep book on every player in the league. Collecting and filing this information is vitally important. Recalling it is a must. It's the difference between winning and losing. Start by using a small 3"x5" spiral notebook, even one with a little loop to hold a stubby pencil. [Coach Rosciam]
  
• A good battery is not because of luck. If the coach says to be at practice at five, you and your pitcher(s) be there at four. Warm up and then do all of your "bullpen" exercises, over and over. When the two of you (the battery) are in sync, keep at it. Talk about what works and what doesn't work. Become one mind and it pay off in your games. [Catcher Matt Walbeck]
  
• Successful catchers understand (instinctively) what pitch or pitch options they have to throw when getting a batter to a specific count during an at-bat. What you throw to "get ahead," what to throw "when behind," and most importantly, what to throw to "get the out." [Coach Roy Anderson]
  
• Consistently throwing out base stealers involves proper timing, quickness, pinpoint accuracy and velocity... in that order. [Catcher Brent Mayne]
  
• Catchers must take the appropriate angle to back-up first base. He will need to sprint towards the warning track; getting as deep as he can so the ball will not get by him. Run to a spot that the ball will go to if missed by the first baseman. [Catcher Andy Seminick]
  
• Remember, Johnny Bench had to start somewhere when he was young. He practiced and honed his skills to become one of the greatest catchers ever. He never quit practicing. He tried to improve his skills even in the last years of his Major League, Hall-of-Fame career.
  

February 2010

Bill James developed a statistic called Win Shares, which is essentially a method of taking a team's win total, and assigning Shares of the Wins to individual players. Each team has 3.0 Win Shares for each win, a 3-to-1 ratio being the basis of the system. This is the only system which is team-based rather than derived from individual stats. Most systems build from the performance of individuals. The Bill James' system breaks down the performance of the team.

Win Shares system DOES NOT discriminate against players on weak teams. A player who hits .300 with 30 home runs on a bad team rates exactly the same as a player who hits .300 with 30 homers on a good team. Win Share assignments from team to player are divided on the basis of "claim points." Overall 48% of Win Shares are assigned to hitters/baserunners, 35% are assigned to pitchers, and 17% are assigned to fielders.

The following tables show the Catchers with: (1) The Most Career Win Shares; (2) The Most Win Shares in a Season; (3) The Most Win Shares per 100 Games Played and (4) Most Win Shares in 2009. The first group gives advantage to catchers with very long careers and the third group identifies those with consistently good performances.

Most Career Total Win Shares (WS)

Catcher	WS
Yogi Berra (HOF)	375
Carlton Fisk (HOF)	368
Johnny Bench (HOF)	356
Gary Carter (HOF)	337
Ivan Rodriguez (thru 2009)	326
Gabby Hartnett (HOF)	325
Mike Piazza	325
Ted Simmons	315
Joe Torre	315
Bill Dickey (HOF)	314
Mickey Cochrane (HOF)	275
Bill Freehan	267
Lance Parrish	248
Jorge Posada (thru 2009)	245
Wally Schang	245

Best Seasonal Total Win Shares (WS)

Catcher - Year - Team	WS
Mike Piazza 1997 LA-NL	39
Johnny Bench 1972 CIN-NL	37
Bill Freehan 1968 DET-AL	35
Yogi Berra 1954 NY-AL	34
Johnny Bench 1970 CIN-NL	34
Johnny Bench 1974 CIN-NL	34
Carlton Fisk 1972 BOS-AL	33
Bill Dickey 1937 NY-AL	33
Roy Campanella 1951 BRO-NL	33
Roy Campanella 1953 BRO-NL	33
Gary Carter 1985 NY-NL	33
Mike Piazza 1996 LA-NL	33
Yogi Berra 1950 NY-AL	32
Elston Howard 1964 NY-AL	32
Gene Tenace 1975 OAK-AL	32
Joe Mauer 2009 MIN-AL	32

Most Career Win Shares per 100 Games

Catcher	Games	WS	WS/100
Joe Mauer	699	141	20.2
Mickey Cochrane (HOF)	1,482	275	18.6
Buck Ewing (HOF)	1,315	241	18.3
Yogi Berra (HOF)	2,120	375	17.7
Bill Dickey (HOF)	1,789	314	17.6
Roy Campanella (HOF)	1,215	207	17.0
Mike Piazza	1,912	325	17.0
Johnny Bench (HOF)	2,158	356	16.5
Gabby Hartnett (HOF)	1,990	325	16.3
Roger Bresnahan (HOF)	1,446	231	16.0
Jorge Posada	1,594	245	15.4
Bill Freehan	1,774	267	15.1
Johnny Romano	905	136	15.0

Most 2009 Win Shares

Catcher Team Lg G WS WS/100G
JOE MAUER MIN AL 138 32 23.2
BRIAN McCANN ATL NL 138 20 14.5
YADIER MOLINA SLN NL 140 20 14.3
JORGE POSADA NYA AL 111 19 17.1
KURT SUZUKI OAK AL 147 17 11.6
RUSSELL MARTIN LAN NL 143 16 11.2
GERALD LAIRD DET AL 135 14 10.4
VICTOR MARTINEZ CLE AL 99 13 13.1
CARLOS RUIZ PHI NL 107 13 12.1
JOHN BAKER FLO NL 112 13 11.6
MIGUEL MONTERO ARI NL 128 13 10.2
ROD BARAJAS TOR AL 125 12 9.6
BEN MOLINA SFN NL 132 12 9.1
RAMON HERNANDEZ CIN NL 81 11 13.6
NICK HUNDLEY SDN NL 78 10 12.8
CHRIS IANNETTA COL NL 93 10 10.8
MIKE NAPOLI LAA AL 114 10 8.8
A.J. PIERZYNSKI CHA AL 138 10 7.2

January 2010


With several aging backstops on the Free Agent market (ie. Ivan Rodriguez, Brad Ausmus, Gregg Zaun, Jason Varitek among others) just how long can these guys continue to catch?

Gabby Street (technically) holds the record for the Oldest Catcher having squatted at age 48 years, 11 months and 20 days. However, his last year as a catcher (1 game) was as a player-manager for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1931. His true last year catching was in 1912 at the age of 30. Deacon McGuire is the True Oldest Active Catcher having caught his last game (#1781) at age 48 years, 6 months and 0 days. He caught for 26 seasons over 29 years (1884-1912).

Ten Oldest Catchers

Catcher	Born	Last Game	YY-MM-DD
Deacon McGuire Grover Hartley Carlton Fisk Jack Ryan Merv Shea Clyde Sukeforth Rick Dempsey Johnny Riddle Bob Boone Chief Zimmer	11/18/1863 7/2/1888 12/26/1947 11/12/1868 9/5/1900 11/30/1901 9/13/1949 10/3/1905 11/19/1947 11/23/1860	5/18/1912 9/30/1934 6/22/1993 10/4/1913 8/19/1944 6/7/1945 9/27/1992 9/11/1948 9/27/1990 9/27/1903	48-06-00 46-02-28 45-05-26 44-10-22 43-11-14 43-06-07 43-00-14 42-11-08 42-10-08 42-10-04

Catching in the big leagues can be grueling for an old guy. In this era, we see more pitches. More pitching changes. More time taken between pitches. More opposing hitters to study. It's not a get-in, get-out business.

When a team relies on a catcher in his mid- to late-30s to carry the load in a 162-game schedule, along with six weeks of warming up dozens of arms in spring training, and maybe the playoffs, that's some high-level squatting.

Imagine how many times in his big-league career Ivan Rodriguez, who turned 38 in November, has bent down, stuck out his mitt and stopped a pitch from knocking him out. A conservative estimate, including spring training, postseason, pregame and between innings: 45,000 squats a year over 19 years, a total of about 800,000, excluding his stints in winter league.

The following table lists the 20 Oldest Active Catchers and their ages at year's end. These all are well-known catchers beyond their primes, some relegated to backup roles. There's only so much squatting a guy can do and it is doubtful that any on this list will find themselves on the above Ten Oldest Catchers list.

Catcher Born YY-MM-DD

Brad Ausmus 4/14/1969 40-08-17

Gregg Zaun 4/14/1971 38-08-17

Mike Redmond 5/5/1971 38-07-26

Jorge Posada 8/17/1971 38-04-14

Henry Blanco 8/29/1971 38-04-02

Jamie Burke 9/24/1971 38-03-07

Ivan Rodriguez 11/27/1971 38-01-04

Adam Melhuse 3/27/1972 37-09-04

Jason Varitek 4/11/1972 37-08-20

Paul Bako 6/20/1972 37-06-11

Chris Coste 2/4/1973 36-10-27

Jason Larue 3/19/1974 35-09-12

Jason Kendall 6/26/1974 34-06-05

Ben Molina 7/20/1974 35-05-11

Chad Moeller 2/18/1975 34-10-13

Jose Molina 6/3/1975 34-06-28

Rod Barajas 9/5/1975 34-03-26

Javier Valentin 9/19/1975 34-03-12

Ramon Castro 3/1/1976 33-09-30

Matt Treanor 2/3/1976 33-09-28