Baseball Minutiae and Trivia Only

Best Yankee second baseman ever usually comes down to an argument among Joe Gordon, Tony Lazzeri or Willie Randolph. Robby Cano was in that argument too pre-PED. Cano by the way has the highest BA and lowest OBP of those four. Lazzeri, Gordon and Cano have nearly identical OPS+ numbers. Randolph is well behind in that category but is right there with Lazzeri in OBP. Not to mention machine-like consistency with the bat and outstanding defense (where Gordon also rates very high -- almost no write-up about him fails to use the word "acrobatic.")

Gordon held the single-season record for HRs by an American League second baseman with 25 in 1937, a record that stood until Brett Boone hit 36 in 2001. I know Jose Canseco claimed Boone did it with chemical enhancement, but there were a lot of holes in Canseco's account, so I don't know how much credence it deserves.

Gordon was traded to Cleveland for Allie Reynolds before the 1947 season in the proverbial trade that helped both teams -- Gordon was the top position player on the 1948 championship team and was an All Star in three of his four years with the Indians (plus a six-time All Star with the Yanks), while Reynolds was an integral component of the great Yankee squads of the late 40s and early 50s.

Some odd Gordonalia -- he played violin with the Portland Symphony, was an accomplished cowboy and a skilled ventriloquist. Talk about your Renaissance Man!