Gamble, Robin and Kent.
Immaculate Grid #316 February 12th, 2024
9/9 105
I thought of Oscar Gamble because…well, how can you not think of that magnificent ‘fro? I think if you’re a baseball fan of a certain age, you’re familiar with this photo:
Look at that thing, it’s amazing. It’s huge! Those old school Indians jerseys are also fantastic.
And then I remembered seeing that afro peeking out from a Yankees hat and wondering how George Steinbrenner felt about it.
But to simply remember Oscar Gamble for his hair is short selling the man. He was a great player, maybe one of the best players to never make an All-Star Team and there were a few seasons where he definitely looked like he could have been a contender. How about his one season for the White Sox where he slashed .297/.386/.588 with 31 homers and 86 RBI? His career OPS was .811 and his OPS+ was 127.
Gamble was scouted by Buck O’Neil when O’Neil was a scout for the Chicago Cubs. Buck had found him playing in the sandlots of his native Alabama and considered him the greatest prospect he’d signed since Ernie Banks.
Robin Ventura is probably also remembered for something else aside from his great career, and if you’re a baseball fan of a certain age you know what that is, too:
And it’s a bit of a shame to be remembered for getting your ass kicked by someone almost twice your age, no matter how much of a legend was the one who was doing the ass-kicking.
I think Ventura is most remembered for being on the White Sox, but I also remembered that he played third base for the Mets because of this SI cover that arrived at my dorm when I was a freshman in college:
From a defensive perspective, maybe. Those were all great fielders, especially the forgotten Rey Ordonez.
But Ventura had a great career, winning six Gold Gloves and making two All-Star Teams, even receiving down-ballot MVP votes a couple times, too. And that year he showed up cheesin’ on a Sports Illustrated cover, he was enjoying his best season ever where he put up a .908 OPS.
There’s a lot of debate on whether or not Jeff Kent deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and I suspect he will be someday. But he never cracked 50% of the vote and he’s fallen off the ballot after ten years of trying to get in.
He had some good years in New York, but his career really took off when he reached San Francisco at age 30. The power skyrocketed, he picked up an MVP award hitting next to Barry Bonds in a year where Todd Helton outpaced both of them in WAR.
Kent’s career WAR is 55.5 which is probably a little low to some voters and that low total is due to the fact that he wasn’t a great defender for most of his career.
But I suspect that if anyone showed up to see Jeff Kent play, or if anyone considered Jeff Kent to be their favorite player, it was because he was a threat with his bat and not brilliant in the field. His defense is being held against him, but he was never advertised as a Gold-Glove level defender.