I’m trying to recall an anecdote Allie Reynolds relayed about Joe DImaggio in Peter Golenbock’s book “Dynasty.” Someone else who has the booik can check if I get any important details wrong, but the essence of the story is accurate, and should convey what Reynolds was trying to say.
In the late Forties, shortly after coming to the Yankees, Reynolds was pitching at Yankee Stadium to one of the A.L.'s top hitters (I want to say it was George Kell, but I’m not sure). Reynolds noticed Dimaggio was playing a VERY shallow center field. Reynolds tried to work the outside corner twice, and fell behind in the count, 2 balls and no strikes. Reynolds figured he now had to come inside with the fastball. So, he did- and Kell belted it a mile. Reynolds figured it was a triple for sure… but looked around and saw that Dimaggio was right under the ball.
After the inning was over, Reynolds approached Dimaggio and asked how he could have made that catch. “Well,” said Dimaggio, “I knew you’d try to work the outside corner on the first two pitches, so I played shallow, to guard against a bloop single. But when you fell behind, I knew Kell would be expecting you to come inside with the fastball, so I played deep.”
You know you look at his basic stats and only his stats and it can leave you wondering why players like Ted Williams and Willie Mays called him the best, but then you hear all the anecdotes and you realize he was so much more than his HR, RBIs and BA.
As I remember, Canseco was at least an adequate outfielder early in his career. Regarding the others, I’ll see all of them and raise you Dave Kingman and Dick Stuart (a.k.a. “Dr. Strangeglove”).
Reimer would have to be pretty spectacularly bad in order to erase from our collective minds the sight of Canseco letting a harmless fly ball bounce off his head and over the fence for a home run. Single most incompetent defensive play I ever saw, much less by a borderline Hall of Famer.
Anyway, the HOF has made it’s choice and, to no one’s surprise, Ripken and Gwynn are in. Gossage led the also-rans and McGwire finished way down in 9th place. Jose Canseco got only six votes and will be dropped from future ballots.