Peter:

Thanks for another entertaining edition of Mudville online. A couple of points/corrections (if you care about that sort of thing):

*Sam Rice made his famous catch in the 1925 World Series vs. Pittsburgh, not in the '24 Series against the Giants.

*Depending on how you define Senator "Hall of Famers," there were more than just four. Heinie Manush played for the Senators, as did Joe Cronin. Admittedly, they didn't play their entire careers there, but Rice and Goslin also spent time with other teams.

*As for the numbers, according to Mark Stang's encyclopedic "Baseball by the Numbers," Sam Rice wore #2 and #22; Bucky Harris wore #35, #30, #28, and #50; and Goose Goslin wore #5 and #20.

*Lastly, are you sure the Millers were "independent" in 1938? I know they were privately owned like many minor league clubs at that time, but I'm pretty sure they were affiliated with the Red Sox, because Williams was Red Sox property at that point. Just curious.

Ordinarily, I don't henpeck on details, but as a D.C. native, you touched a nerve.

Keep up the interesting writing.
Tom Goldstein
publisher, Elysian Fields Quarterly

Ed's Note:

We respond with the following clarification:

Sam Rice made that catch in the ‘25 series against the Pirates. We wrote “Pirates”, but had the date as '24.

The four Hall-of-Famers chosen, by way of example, were those that whose plaques show them in Senators garb (their numbers are the ones listed in the Hall as well).

According to Stew Thornley's book, On To Nicollet, Mike Kelley, owner of the Millers, sold the team to the Giants, ending their independent status. We could be wrong, but most of the teams in that league were independent, judging from Stew's book and Bill Veeck's Veeck as in Wreck, in which he discusses his time as Brewers owner (also of the American Association).

Hey Peter.....

You sent me the address to your site, and with a witty endorsement not from the President, I felt compelled to check it out. Very nice!

Unfortunately you're dead wrong about Sadaharu Oh being in the hall of fame. It's the NATIONAL Baseball Hall of Fame. And while baseball is becoming more and more international, and I enjoy that aspect of it, he didn't do squat over here. Besides that, you think Japan is gonna put Babe Ruth in their's? When Americans start getting enshrined over there I'd be more apt for taking this suggestion up. But they have their own league over there, let them honor their own players. I'm sure most of them don't give a rat's ass if they're in our's or not anyway. Being honored over here where they didn't matter and where they don't care that much about won't mean anything to them.

Thanks....
John Domen

Dear Mudville:

Boy, things are hot right now. For us, its sort of like spring training—you got some of the people saying nothing's going to go right, while in the bullpen (what I call the Oval Office) I'm thinking we got ourselves a pennant winning team! Of course, the Armed Forces against Saddam is a far cry better than the Rangers against the American League, but still, it's fun speculating…

Say Mudville, keep up the good work, but go easy on pushing for an ‘international' Hall. Next thing you know, the Brits are going to try to put their cricketeers in, and then the whole place'll get more boring than a Ballpark doubleheader. (Don't let Tony see that).

Fire when ready Gridley!
George