#123 -- Ed Acosta

Ed Acosta






Here's a guy that I just don't remember at all. When I think of an Acosta, I think of Cy Acosta of the White Sox, but they're no relation. Ed only played in part of 1970 with the Pirates, part of 1971 and then was up the whole year in 1972 with the Padres and that was it.


The shutout mentioned on his cardback was an 8-hitter against the Phillies in his first appearance for the Padres in 1971. Of his 6 starts in 1971, 3 of them were complete game victories, which kind of makes you wonder why they didn't keep him in the rotation. It looks like he was primarily used in a mop-up role in 1972 and then he vanished. Baseball-Reference doesn't record a release, sale to the Rangers or any other kind of banishment. Perhaps he went back home to Panama to open a baseball academy to tutor young men that would turn into closers for the Yankees. Perhaps he went to play in another league in Latin America. I don't know where Ed Acosta went, but he was a big guy and did reasonably well.


1972 Feature
Five doubleheaders dominated the baseball schedule on June 25, 1972. Ed Acosta went out to pitch the 9th of a 3-3 tie with the Giants and allowed 2 runs. Fortunately for him, Garry Jestadt hit a 2-run homer to bail him out and send the game to extra innings, where the Giants won in dramatic fashion. Garry Maddox hit a 1-out double in the 14th. Ed Goodson grounded out to third. According to what I see in the box score, it looks like Maddox was running and kept going. First baseman Nate Colbert was credited with an assist and catcher Pat Corrales an error, so I would suppose that Maddox bowled Corrales over and injured him, as it relates that Fred Kendall replaced Corrales behind the plate. What a gutsy move and it paid off in a 14-inning 6-5 win for the Giants.


Lynn McGlothen made his debut with the Red Sox this date. I remember him as being the "anchor" of the Cardinal staffs once Bob Gibson retired and before Bob Forsch took over. Wow, the Cardinals really did suck in the mid-70's.


Also, happy 37th birthday to Carlos Delgado of the Mets, who was born on June 25, 1972. Anyway, as happy a birthday as you can have on the disabled list watching Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals beat Johann Santana and your team in CitiField (hopefully for me) this afternoon.

#78 -- Steve Arlin

Steve Arlin

We hear a lot now about how expansion has watered down the pitching. I happen to agree with that and think it's one reason (including bat technology, smaller dimensions in the ballparks, stronger ballplayers and wussified training techniques for pitchers) that baseball has more offense now than 40 years ago. That debate was going on in the early 1970's as the mound had just been lowered and there was another round of expansion that increased by 25% the number of teams -- and pitchers -- in the league. We went from 20 teams to 24 teams. I happen to think that's still a perfect number of teams in the league, but I know we won't go back to that.

Steve Arlin might have been the kind of guy to be pointed at as an "expansion" pitcher. I remember him for 2 things: he wasn't very good, he lost a lot of game and he was a dentist. I guess that was 3 things, but I lumped the first 2 together. Check out his stat lines:

IP W-L H BB K ERA
1971 228 9-19 211 103 156 3.48
1972 250 10-21 217 122 159 3.60

Those were his best years. Granted, the ERA and the H/IP numbers aren't bad (ERA was slightly above league average), but the other numbers are bad. They got worse. Arlin was traded to Cleveland in 1974 where he finished off a 3-12 year to complete his career at 34-67 .337. He played on some really bad San Diego teams, but his stats would only neutralize to 33-51 .393. That's bad, too.

He did have 11 career shutouts in his 34 wins. Playing for San Diego, you almost had to toss a shutout to get a win. In 1972 he went at least 9 innings and allowed 1 or 2 hits 5 times. His record: 3-1. That includes a loss and a 10 inning no-decision where he only allowed 1 hit and a 2-hitter where no hits were allowed until 2 outs in the 9th. Three of those low hit games came in a 4 start stretch in June-July.

If you just looked at the numbers, like I did when I was 8, you'd be like me and think Arlin wasn't a very good pitcher. However, looking a little deeper, you'd see why the Padres kept throwing him out there. You just didn't know when he was going to "get it," turn the corner and become a superstar. Unfortunately for Steve, that never happened in the big leagues. He wore out guys like Willie Mays (3-24, 10 Ks), Lou Brock (2-15) and Willie Stargell (5-27, 8 Ks). But he got beat around by guys like Dal Maxvill (8-12), Wayne Garrett (7-19, 3 HRs) and Willie Crawford (7-23, 3 HR, 9 BB).

I joke with my wife when I try a home improvement project like, "You know, if this law thing doesn't work out, I could go into laying ceramic tile." Steve went ahead and studied dentistry for when the baseball thing didn't work out. In fact, he missed his first Padre Spring Training in 1969 because he was in dental school. I have to repeat my sorry comment from a Stats on the Back post, but I think he played a character in some North Pole claymation special on TV where he told Preston Gomez, "I don't want to pitch for the Padres and lose 20 games a year. I want to be a -- a -- a -- dentist!"

#39 & 40 -- Bob Barton & "In Action"

Bob Barton

The only year Bob was a semi-regular player was 1971. His OPS+ was a lofty 94, by far the highest of any season in which he had more than 10 plate appearances. His .250 average for a team that hit .233 was 5th for players that had 300 at bats. It was by far his best year. His competition for the spot came from rookie Fred Kendall (.171) and Chris Cannizzaro (.190). The good times stopped rolling when Bob got off to a bad start in 1972 and the Padres put Fred Kendall in to catch regularly.

I never knew Bob had a place in baseball history, especially with these numbers. However, Bob had a profound place. Marvin Miller was negotiating with the owners over the reserve clause. The owners were arguing that the reserve clause, which kept a player from being a free agent, protected players. Miller responded with “What about Bob Barton?” Miller was wondering how the reserve system protected a player like Bob Barton who’d been a 3rd string catcher with the Giants for 5 years and was getting nowhere. The owners had no response. That helped convince Miller that the reserve clause was worth fighting over. So put Bob Barton up there (but quite a bit lower on the page) with Curt Flood, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally as heroes of free agency.

Topps made 72 “in action” cards for 1972, 12 in each of the 6 series. If I were a Topps card executive as this was being considered, I would look at this as a way to get more cards in of players that baseball fans wanted to see. That’s why we had Carl Yastrzemski and we’ll see Willie Mays, Bobby Murcer and Johnny Bench. You also need to get in someone from every team. However, why in the world were there 5 Padre “in action” cards? This would average 4 cards per team and the Pads weren't exactly the team you'd think to go over the average.

We’ll see Clay Kirby, Clarence Gaston, Nate Colbert and Ollie Brown coming up to go with Bob. I understand Nate Colbert as he was unquestionably the star of the team. Gaston and Brown were solid and Kirby was their top starter. I do not know why they have an “in action” card of Bob Barton. I’ll have the same question when we get to Pat Corrales of the Reds. Johnny Bench’s backups rarely saw any “action.” The “action” on this card is certainly questionable as it looks like he’s just chased a foul ball to the screen and is lingering to look at the attractive young lady or a kid eating ice cream in the third row. The best part of the card is the security guard. How often do you see that guy in the picture? Based on how tough he looks, I don't think they're expecting Colonel Ike Dubaku to be perpetrating any hijinks in the stadium today.

About the only other comment about Bob is that 1/3 of his 9 career homers came off Hall of Famers (Gaylord Perry, Phil Niekro and Ferguson Jenkins).

#7 -- Enzo Hernandez

Enzo Hernandez

I don’t know why Enzo has a bat in this card. It’s not like he ever used it. He was one of the worst hitters in the 70’s. In 1971 he had one of the all-time worst seasons. In 603 plate appearances he had 12 RBI. His teammate, Nate Colbert, had 13 in a doubleheader. About all you can say for Enzo is that he had good speed and walked more than he struck out. If he were in Tony LaRussa’s lineup, the pitcher would definitely hit 8th. He didn't start off as a bad hitter. He went 2-3 with a walk in his major league debut, getting half of the Padre hits that day against some guy named Carlton with the Cardinals.

In fact, the Padre lineup is the only one in 1971 where Enzo did do better in the RBI department than the pitchers….just barely. The Padre pitchers only had 8 RBI, but they only had 346 at bats, so they probably even had a better ratio. For comparison, the Red Sox pitchers had 8 homers and 42 RBI in 406 at bats and the Cub pitchers had 8 homers and 35 RBI in 426 at bats. Mind you, Enzo probably didn’t have a lot of RBI possibilities as he was hitting leadoff most of the year. Let that sink in. Enzo Hernandez was a leadoff hitter. That meant he had the 8th place catcher (Bob Barton or Fred Kendall) and the pitcher hitting in front of him. Any other team still gets at least 20 RBI from its leadoff spot. But not when your leadoff hitter’s name is Enzo.

Enzo picked up the pace in 1972 with 15 RBI and a homer off Jim Willoughby of the Giants in Candlestick on the last day of the year. He went 4-5 in that game to raise his 1972 season average to .195. If George Brett had been playing in 1972 we could have the "Enzo Line" instead of the Mendoza Line.

Enzo had good speed. Bob Skinner is a good baseball man, playing with the Pirates and coaching for many years. As we approach Spring Training, we’ll see interviews where many players will be complimented incredibly. However, Skinner may have an all-timer here: “If he could get on base often enough, I think he could break Maury Wills’ record (for stolen bases).” Yeah, and if he could get enough balls over the wall, he could have broken Babe Ruth’s record while he’s at it. If there were ever a Futility Infielder, Enzo would be it.

I know I've kind of ragged on Enzo. He was a good base stealer and a league average shortstop with good range. He always ranked at the top of the league in sacrifice bunts and he didn't strike out, so Enzo was one of those guys who we don't see anymore. He had the fundamentals down, but didn't swing from the heels. He's also well thought of in his native Venezuela, as one of the stadiums the ballclubs play in down there is Stadio Enzo Hernandez del tigre edo anzoategui (I cut and pasted that from a Caribbean Series website and have no idea what it says. I apologize in advance for offending anyone.)

1972 Feature

Baseball purists come in all types. Some don't like the wild card. Some think the league lost something in the 1961 expansion. Some thought it was wrong to lower the mound and juice up the ball. Some bristle at interleague play. I probably swing more to the old-fashioned purist. Not to say that there should only be 16 teams that wear flannel uniforms and travel on trains. I can handle some expansion, but we're at the absolute limit now. I don't really like the wild card or interleague play, but I can tolerate it because I love baseball.

I like Hal McRae, Tommy Davis, David Ortiz, Edgar Martinez, etc. But I don't like the designated hitter. For me, that leaves 1972 as the last "pure" season because it's the last time we didn't have it. I remember the debate leading up to the DH. Actually, it was widely called the DPH (Designated Pinch Hitter), but that became unwieldy.

I will say that the DH has given some guys more time. Tommy Davis, Orlando Cepeda and Tony Oliva are the best examples of guys the DH gave more time starting in 1973. Tommy Davis was practically out of the league. Cepeda also, getting only 87 at bats in 1972, but getting 550 with the Red Sox as their DH in 1973. Oliva tore his knee up after 28 at bats in 1972, but the DH gave him 3 more years he would have struggled through.

Still, I'd rather see the pitchers bat.