and (attempt to) leverage the popularity of Urban Cowboy to support Earthquake relief in Italy? Could a mediocrity step in for Bo Derek to become the spokesperson for wannabe Jordache rival "10" jeans? Cerone was a little too interesting for sustained mediocrity.
I can’t imagine anyone could be more mediocre. 27 seasons, .483 win percentage,
93 max wins, made playoffs twice, zero playoff series won. His 3 best teams all collapsed: 64 Phillies (epic regular season collapse), 82 Angels (blew 2-0 lead in 5-game series to Brewers), and 86 Angels (Dave Henderson HR off Donnie Moore).
He was the David Ross of his day.
He also played 18 years, racking up a paltry .693 OPS.
5400+ AB
Career .261AVG.316OBP.377 SLG 0.98 OPS+
He was an original Met (played 3 games in 1962), a native New Yorker (from the Bronx!) and never played for another team. It's an amazing accomplishment when you think about it.
CASEY STENGEL: Asked about the prospects for two of his twenty year-old players, Ed Kranepool and Greg Goossen: “In ten years, this guy has a chance to be a star. In ten years the other guy has a chance to be thirty.”
Re Kranepool - even his one all-star appearance is a standard bearer for mediocrity - .253 with 10 HR, I assume as the token selection from the 111-loss Mets.
So far we have the following players: Jorgenson, Quirk, Cerone, Kranepool.
City selected as San Diego.
I nominate Jack Murphy as the mediocre home stadium, since the new one in SD seems too nice.
We also have a nomination for manager that I opened up, for Gene Mauch.
He was on his way to ND as a quarterback (had signed an LOI), very highly recruited, but signed a baseball contract instead.
Anybody that can hang around for 18 seasons with a career WAR of 8.1 is doing just enough.
His 1980 season is slightly problematic with the 4.1 WAR and the top-10 MVP consideration, but that was an extreme outlier and outweighed by the other 17 seasons of sustained mediocrity. Zero black ink. Maybe fewer ABs than ideal but there’s allowance for a catcher. I had no idea he stayed around that long. I would have guessed 7 or 8 seasons.
Welcome Rick Cerone! Well done mediocre and faithful servant.
and shortstops. Our next nominations should be at RF and 1B.