Back in 1979 on this day (August 19th) The Knack hit number one on the charts with “My Sharonna”.
In 2008, the Chicago Cubs are number one on the charts with a bullet thanks in large part to Ma-ma-ma-Mark DeRosa. This isn’t a tribute to DeRosa because my wife thinks he’s the sexiest thing to wear Cub pinstripes since Mark Grace. It’s a look at DeRosa because he’s an amazingly good ballplayer.
It would be easy to simply classify DeRosa as a useful utility player since he has manned first, second, third, rightfield, leftfield and even shortstop. While that is amazing, it would be a disservice to him. Let’s take a look at his offensive numbers.
But before we do that, let’s look at the key members of the Cubs first post-season appearing team since they were in the World Series – the 1984 Cubs. When you think of the offensive production of the ’84 Cubs you think of Sandberg, Durham, Davis, Moreland, Cey and Matthews (and Bowa WHO WOULD NOT GIVE UP ON TRYING TO SWITCH HIT WITH THAT WEAKASS LEFT-HANDED SLAP THAT WOULDN’T GET PAST THE PITCHING MOUND!!! . . .but I digress). You think of the six pack of offense (and that’s not including Bobby Dernier leading everything off).
So here are there numbers in CFCL terms (Runs, Home Runs, RBI, OBP)
Sandberg - 114 -- 19 -- 84 -- .367
Mathews - 101 -- 14 -- 82 -- .410
Moreland - 59 -- 16 -- 80 -- .326
Durham - 86 -- 23 -- 96 -- .369
Davis - 55 -- 19 -- 94 -- .315
Cey - 71 -- 25 -- 97 -- .324
Certainly it’s a different ballgame as far as offense is concerned nowadays with smaller ballparks, tightly wrapped baseballs (and players for that matter), but in my mind’s eye I always remember the ’84 Cubs as an amazing offensive longball machine. Yet there were only two 20 homerun guys and not one of them knocked in 100 runs.
Here are DeRosa’s numbers (projected out based on his production through mid-August). He would finish the season with these stats.
DeRosa - 99 -- 17 -- 90 -- .374
Look how close his stats match up. He would have been third in runs, fifth in homeruns, fourth in RBIs and second in OBP. Look how he compares to Sandberg. He outperformed Sandberg in two of the categories and Sandberg won the MVP in ’84 (as he should have). But are you voting for DeRosa to win the MVP in ’08? Probably not. With the bigger names of Ramirez, Soriano, Lee and even Fukodome, it’s easy for DeRosa to get overlooked. He’s having a hell of a year.
CFCL Notes: Congrats to Bob for correctly identifying the name of the movie (Gone in 60 Seconds) from last week’s article.
In 2008, the Chicago Cubs are number one on the charts with a bullet thanks in large part to Ma-ma-ma-Mark DeRosa. This isn’t a tribute to DeRosa because my wife thinks he’s the sexiest thing to wear Cub pinstripes since Mark Grace. It’s a look at DeRosa because he’s an amazingly good ballplayer.
It would be easy to simply classify DeRosa as a useful utility player since he has manned first, second, third, rightfield, leftfield and even shortstop. While that is amazing, it would be a disservice to him. Let’s take a look at his offensive numbers.
But before we do that, let’s look at the key members of the Cubs first post-season appearing team since they were in the World Series – the 1984 Cubs. When you think of the offensive production of the ’84 Cubs you think of Sandberg, Durham, Davis, Moreland, Cey and Matthews (and Bowa WHO WOULD NOT GIVE UP ON TRYING TO SWITCH HIT WITH THAT WEAKASS LEFT-HANDED SLAP THAT WOULDN’T GET PAST THE PITCHING MOUND!!! . . .but I digress). You think of the six pack of offense (and that’s not including Bobby Dernier leading everything off).
So here are there numbers in CFCL terms (Runs, Home Runs, RBI, OBP)
Sandberg - 114 -- 19 -- 84 -- .367
Mathews - 101 -- 14 -- 82 -- .410
Moreland - 59 -- 16 -- 80 -- .326
Durham - 86 -- 23 -- 96 -- .369
Davis - 55 -- 19 -- 94 -- .315
Cey - 71 -- 25 -- 97 -- .324
Certainly it’s a different ballgame as far as offense is concerned nowadays with smaller ballparks, tightly wrapped baseballs (and players for that matter), but in my mind’s eye I always remember the ’84 Cubs as an amazing offensive longball machine. Yet there were only two 20 homerun guys and not one of them knocked in 100 runs.
Here are DeRosa’s numbers (projected out based on his production through mid-August). He would finish the season with these stats.
DeRosa - 99 -- 17 -- 90 -- .374
Look how close his stats match up. He would have been third in runs, fifth in homeruns, fourth in RBIs and second in OBP. Look how he compares to Sandberg. He outperformed Sandberg in two of the categories and Sandberg won the MVP in ’84 (as he should have). But are you voting for DeRosa to win the MVP in ’08? Probably not. With the bigger names of Ramirez, Soriano, Lee and even Fukodome, it’s easy for DeRosa to get overlooked. He’s having a hell of a year.
CFCL Notes: Congrats to Bob for correctly identifying the name of the movie (Gone in 60 Seconds) from last week’s article.
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