Great platoons:  1990-2007

Our survey of elite platoonists through the decades has covered 1914-1948, 1950-1965, 1966-1978, and 1979-1989. Now we’ll make our way through the 1990s, and right up to the present day.

As a reminder, here are the criteria for inclusion:

– The platoon must have been entirely or significantly structured upon the left-right-batting basis.

– Both platoon partners must have hit well, not just one.

– We’re concerning ourselves only with offensive production, not defense or baserunning.

Something to remember as we proceed is this: Most pitchers are righthanded, usually by around two-thirds to one-third. So the signature aspect of the most strict left-right platoon partnership is that the lefthanded batter will get around twice as many plate appearances as the righthanded batter, give or take for particular circumstances.

1990 Chicago White Sox: Designated hitter

Through Jeff Torborg’s long managerial career (with, astonishingly, five different franchises), he was, shall we say, not especially noted for cleverness in lineup selection. But here he did make wise use of the journeyman Dan Pasqua and the veteran homeruncentricity hero Ron Kittle in the DH slot.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Dan Pasqua       L   112  325   43   89   27    3   13   58   37   66 .274 .347 .495   136
Ron Kittle       R    83  277   29   68   14    0   16   43   24   77 .245 .311 .469   118
Total                     602   72  157   41    3   29  101   61  143 .261 .332 .483   128

1990 New York Mets: Center field

Darryl Boston and Mark Carreon weren’t precisely similar players; Boston was faster, and better defensively, while Carreon generally swung the better stick. But they were remarkably similar players in their overall value package: talented but flawed, quite capable of making a strong contribution within a bounded role, but not capable of handling full-time play. In other words, they were tailor-made platoon players, and each spent his career largely in that mode. Paired here, they could hardly have complemented one another more perfectly.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Darryl Boston    L   115  366   65  100   21    2   12   45   28   50 .273 .328 .440   110
Mark Carreon     R    82  188   30   47   12    0   10   26   15   29 .250 .312 .473   114
Total                     554   95  147   33    2   22   71   43   79 .265 .323 .451   111

1990 San Francisco Giants: Catcher

Terry Kennedy and Gary Carter, on the other hand, had both been quite capable regulars in their primes (Carter, in fact, was downright great, well deserving his Cooperstown induction.) But at 34 and 36 respectively, they were wisely deployed by Giants manager Roger Craig as a platoon tandem.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Terry Kennedy    L   107  303   25   84   22    0    2   26   31   38 .277 .342 .370   100
Gary Carter      R    92  244   24   62   10    0    9   27   25   31 .254 .324 .406   104
Total                     547   49  146   32    0   11   53   56   69 .267 .334 .386   102

19909192 Pittsburgh Pirates: Catcher

Jim Leyland came up with a solid platoon partnership between singles hitters Spanky Lavalliere and Sluggo Slaught, and let it ride for several years. Lavalliere was pretty good defensively, and Slaught pretty bad, but Slaught raked lefties so well he made up for it.

1990:

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Mike Lavalliere  L    96  279   27   72   15    0    3   31   44   20 .258 .362 .344   100
Don Slaught      R    84  230   27   69   18    3    4   29   27   27 .300 .375 .457   132
Total                     509   54  141   33    3    7   60   71   47 .277 .368 .395   116

1991:

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.
Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Mike Lavalliere  L   108  336   25   97   11    2    3   41   33   27 .289 .351 .360   103
Don Slaught      R    77  220   19   65   17    1    1   29   21   32 .295 .363 .395   116
Total                     556   44  162   28    3    4   70   54   59 .291 .356 .374   109

1992:

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Mike Lavalliere  L    95  293   22   75   13    1    2   29   44   21 .256 .350 .328    95
Don Slaught      R    87  255   26   88   17    3    4   37   17   23 .345 .384 .482   146
Total                     548   48  163   30    4    6   66   61   44 .297 .366 .400   123

1991 Los Angeles Dodgers: Catcher

After San Francisco, Carter’s next stop in the closing phase of his career was Los Angeles, where he did a fine job partnering with the veteran Mike Scioscia.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Mike Scioscia    L   119  345   39   91   16    2    8   40   47   32 .264 .353 .391   112
Gary Carter      R   101  248   22   61   14    0    6   26   22   26 .246 .323 .375    98
Total                     593   61  152   30    2   14   66   69   58 .256 .341 .384   107

1991 Los Angeles Dodgers: Third base

Over his very long tenure managing the Dodgers, Tommy Lasorda hadn’t demonstrated a particular affinity for platooning. But this year he employed it at two positions, to good effect. Neither Lenny Harris nor Mike Sharperson was anything more than utility man material, but here they combined for useful third base production.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Lenny Harris     L   145  429   59  123   16    1    3   38   37   32 .287 .349 .350   100
Mike Sharperson  R   105  216   24   60   11    2    2   20   25   24 .278 .355 .375   108
Total                     645   83  183   27    3    5   58   62   56 .284 .351 .358   103

1992 New York Yankees: Catcher

You won’t find any Gold Gloves adorning the family room mantelpiece of either Matt Nokes or Mike Stanley, but they sure could hit.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Matt Nokes       L   121  384   42   86    9    1   22   59   37   62 .224 .293 .424   100
Mike Stanley     R    68  173   24   43    7    0    8   27   33   45 .249 .372 .428   125
Total                     557   66  129   16    1   30   86   70  107 .232 .323 .425   109

1993 Philadelphia Phillies: Right field

Jim Eisenreich was one of the best stories of his era, battling through the agonies of Tourette syndrome to forge a long career as an outstanding platoon hitter. His approach at the plate made for a distinct contrast with that of this platoon partner: Eisenreich with the short, quick, fundamentally sound line-drive stroke, and the toolsy Wes Chamberlain with the big, loopy, undisciplined hack.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Jim Eisenreich   L   153  362   51  115   17    4    7   54   26   36 .318 .363 .445   117
Wes Chamberlain  R    96  284   34   80   20    2   12   45   17   51 .282 .320 .493   116
Total                     646   85  195   37    6   19   99   43   87 .302 .346 .466   117

1994 Texas Rangers: Right field

Rusty Greer was a rookie in this strike-abbreviated season, being eased into the regular status he would hold for the next several years. For his part, the journeyman Chris James was delivering one of the all-time great platoon splits: in his 83 plate appearances against right-handed pitching, a line of .171/.293/.329, while in his 76 chances against lefties, a blistering .349/.434/.762.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Rusty Greer      L    80  277   36   87   16    1   10   46   46   46 .314 .410 .487   131
Chris James      R    52  133   28   34    8    4    7   19   20   38 .256 .361 .534   128
Total                     410   64  121   24    5   17   65   66   84 .295 .396 .502   130

1995 Toronto Blue Jays: Right field

This was a very similar situation, as the rookie Shawn Green was generally allowed to sit down against southpaws and let the veteran Candy Maldonado, in his final season, handle that chore.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Shawn Green      L   121  379   52  109   31    4   15   54   20   68 .288 .326 .509   114
Candy Maldonado  R    61  160   22   43   13    0    7   25   25   45 .269 .368 .481   120
Total                     539   74  152   44    4   22   79   45  113 .282 .340 .501   116

1995 Cleveland Indians: First base

This was the strike-shortened year in which the Indians went a torrid 100-44, as pretty much everything went right for them (at least until the World Series). Among the pieces that fell nicely into place was the manner in which all-or-nothing slugger Paul Sorrento and line-drive-hitting rookie Herb Perry niftily complemented one another at first base.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Paul Sorrento    L   104  323   50   76   14    0   25   79   51   71 .235 .336 .511   117
Herb Perry       R    52  162   23   51   13    1    3   23   13   28 .315 .376 .463   118
Total                     485   73  127   27    1   28  102   64   99 .262 .350 .495   117

1995 Cincinnati Reds: Third base

Neither Jeff Branson nor Mark Lewis was a serious third baseman; both were decent utility-infielder types who could swing the bat a little. But paired here by manager Davey Johnson—who had an eye for offense as sharp as any manager in history—they were leveraged into a potent package, more than filling a third base hole for the Reds.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Jeff Branson     L   122  331   43   86   18    2   12   45   44   69 .260 .345 .435   106
Mark Lewis       R    81  171   25   58   13    1    3   30   21   33 .339 .407 .480   135
Total                     502   68  144   31    3   15   75   65  102 .287 .368 .450   117

1998 Houston Astros: Third base

Bill Spiers and Sean Berry matched up well: The lefty-hitting Spiers was solid defensively and a very good on-base guy but with limited power, while the right-handed Berry was defensively challenged and rarely drew many walks, but reliably delivered the extra-base hits. They made a first-rate platoon for manager Larry Dierker, especially since Berry punished southpaws this year at a .383/.429/.598 rate.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Bill Spiers      L    89  328   60   95   25    3    4   38   40   47 .290 .373 .421   111
Sean Berry       R    84  279   46   90   17    1   12   49   28   44 .323 .393 .520   140
Total                     607  106  185   42    4   16   87   68   91 .305 .382 .466   126

1999 Chicago Cubs: Left field

There wasn’t anything the least bit subtle about this combination: Henry Rodriguez and Glenallen Hill each delivered lousy defense and ferocious power, in heaping quantities.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Henry Rodriguez  L   130  447   72  136   29    0   26   87   56  113 .304 .381 .544   125
Glenallen Hill   R    33  111   25   42    3    1   10   33   11   26 .378 .427 .694   170
Total                     558   97  178   32    1   36  120   67  139 .319 .391 .573   136

1999 San Francisco Giants: Catcher

Here Giants’ GM Brian Sabean was exhibiting a clever resourcefulness he often displayed in that period, a knack he seems to have utterly lost in recent years. Brent Mayne and Scott Servais were low-profile journeymen signed as bargain-basement free agents who were fit together just right by manager Dusty Baker.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Brent Mayne      L   117  322   39   97   32    0    2   39   43   65 .301 .389 .419   115
Scott Servais    R    69  198   21   54   10    0    5   21   13   31 .273 .327 .399    92
Total                     520   60  151   42    0    7   60   56   96 .290 .369 .412   108

2000 St. Louis Cardinals: Right field

It certainly can be argued that the abundantly-talented J.D. Drew was just way too good a player to be deployed in a platoon role at such a young age (he was 24 here, in his second full big league season). On the other hand, it is the case that Drew was highly injury-prone from the get-go, and so it also could be plausibly argued that the periodic rest a left-handed-hitting platoon player is bound to receive—sitting down once or twice a week—was a good program for him, preventing a serious breakdown.

The latter logic is apparently what drove Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa to deploy Drew as he did, and GM Walt Jocketty to support the strategy by providing LaRussa with a good veteran role player such as Eric Davis to serve as Drew’s partner. There’s no disputing the quality of the results.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
J.D. Drew        L   135  407   73  120   17    2   18   57   67   99 .295 .401 .479   122
Eric Davis       R    92  254   38   77   14    0    6   40   36   60 .303 .389 .429   107
Total                     661  111  197   31    2   24   97  103  159 .298 .397 .460   117

2001 Chicago White Sox: Center field

This was nice work by manager Jerry Manuel to get the best out of his center field situation, breaking in the rookie Aaron Rowand as the platoon partner with Chris Singleton, who was a useful player but not really suitable as a full-timer.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Chris Singleton  L   140  392   57  117   21    5    7   45   20   61 .298 .331 .431    97
Aaron Rowand     R    63  123   21   36    5    0    4   20   15   28 .293 .385 .431   113
Total                     515   78  153   26    5   11   65   35   89 .297 .346 .431   101

2002 Los Angeles Dodgers: Center field

Marquis Grissom had sort of an odd career. As a young player with the Expos, he was quite a talent: blazing speed, tremendous center field defense, and a decent line-drive hitter with moderate power. His only weakness was not-so-great plate discipline, and even that wasn’t too bad.

As he aged, Grissom gradually (and unsurprisingly) lost the great speed. But his power didn’t really develop much to compensate for it, and so in his age 31-to-33 seasons with the Brewers, even though he could still play defense pretty well, Grissom had become an overall below-average center fielder. He certainly didn’t seem to be the type of player a team would trade for, especially since he was carrying a $5 million-a-year contract, but Dodgers GM Kevin Malone nonetheless surrendered Devon White to get Grissom for the 2001 season. To be fair, White was also an over-the-hill center fielder dragging a $5 million contract, but White’s deal had only one more year remaining, and Grissom’s two.

He wouldn’t prove to be a disaster for the Dodgers, exactly; Grissom was more like comedy gold. At the age of 34, he suddenly abandoned even the modest strike zone judgment he’d demonstrated for years, and altogether seemed to be attempting to transform himself into Dave Kingman. As Grissom in 2001 achieved a career-best home run rate of 21 in 448 at-bats, his strikeout rate soared, his batting average sank, and his on-base percentage plunged to a comical .250. All this for five million dollars.

It wasn’t just for this fiasco that Malone soon found himself fired—that’s a long and colorful story in itself—but at any rate Malone was dismissed, and Dan Evans took over as Dodgers GM. Evans showed remarkable wisdom in dealing with the center field mess: He looked beyond what Grissom had done so badly in 2001, and identified what he’d done well, namely, hitting left-handers all right, slugging .500 against them.

So Evans sought a platoon partner for Grissom, and found an interesting candidate at essentially no cost: Dave Roberts, soon to be 30 years old, a career minor leaguer with no power but with exceptional speed, and a left-handed batter who looked like he might be able to get on base against right-handers. Evans acquired Roberts in exchange for a bag of grass-stained balls, and voila! Adroitly deployed by manager Jim Tracy, the unlikely pair of Roberts and Grissom provided splendid center field production for the Dodgers in 2002.

For his part, Grissom seemed especially rejuvenated. His $5 million-per-season contract would expire at the end of 2002, and he would be signed by the Giants at a fraction of that cost. Proving a legion of naysayers wrong, at ages 36 and 37 Grissom would deliver two solid years as a regular center fielder in San Francisco. In this late-career phase, Grissom regained the capacity to hold his own against righthanded pitching, while he just demolished lefties: his combined total against southpaws in 2002-03-04 was 422 at-bats, 24 doubles, 31 home runs, a .325 batting average, and a .623 slugging average.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Dave Roberts     L   127  422   63  117   14    7    3   34   48   51 .277 .353 .365    98
Marquis Grissom  R    58  212   40   60   14    3   13   45   15   38 .283 .326 .561   138
Total                     634  103  177   28   10   16   79   63   89 .279 .345 .431   114

2003 St. Louis Cardinals: Right field

Here we see our fragile friend Mr. Drew again, this time paired with the journeyman Eduardo Perez, whose handsome contribution was a .353/.459/.667 line versus lefthanded pitching.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
J.D. Drew        L   100  287   60   83   13    3   15   42   36   48 .289 .374 .512   133
Eduardo Perez    R   105  253   47   72   16    0   11   41   29   53 .285 .365 .478   122
Total                     540  107  155   29    3   26   83   65  101 .287 .370 .496   128

2003 San Francisco Giants: First base

Their days as full-time players were behind them, but 35-year-old J.T. Snow and 42-year-old Andres Galarraga could still be highly productive in a job-sharing arrangement. These two had accumulated eight Gold Glove awards between them, by the way; I don’t know, but that might well be the record for platoon partners.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
J.T. Snow        L   103  330   48   90   18    3    8   51   55   55 .273 .387 .418   112
Andres Galarraga R   110  272   36   82   15    0   12   42   19   61 .301 .352 .489   118
Total                     602   84  172   33    3   20   93   74  116 .286 .373 .450   115

2004 Los Angeles Dodgers: Second base

I always viewed Jose Hernandez as the Woodie Held of the 1990s/2000s. Both were middle infielders who hit in a decidely non-typical-middle-infielder low-average, good-power, high-strikeout mode, neither was great defensively but both could get the job done, and both were commonly dismissed as mediocrities by writers and broadcasters who refused to look beyond the strikeouts, when in fact both were pretty good ballplayers.

Picking up Hernandez as a low-cost free agent was one of the several smart moves Paul DePodesta made in his brief and ill-fated tenure as Dodgers GM. Hernandez and the good-field, not-much-hit Alex Cora fit together splendidly at second base.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Alex Cora        L   138  405   47  107    9    4   10   47   47   41 .264 .364 .380    98
Jose Hernandez   R    95  211   32   61   12    1   13   29   26   61 .289 .370 .540   137
Total                     616   79  168   21    5   23   76   73  102 .273 .366 .435   114

2005 Philadelphia Phillies: Center field

The nomad Kenny Lofton, with the sixth among the nine teams for which he’s played since becoming a free agent in November of 2001, combined very nicely in Philadelphia with journeyman Jason Michaels.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Kenny Lofton     L   110  367   67  123   15    5    2   36   32   41 .335 .392 .420   107
Jason Michaels   R   105  289   54   88   16    2    4   31   44   45 .304 .399 .415   108
Total                     656  121  211   31    7    6   67   76   86 .322 .395 .418   107

2005 San Diego Padres: Center field

Making the most of his rescue from minor league oblivion, Roberts has put together a solid career as a platoon outfielder. Xavier Nady hasn’t been platooned much, but he probably should be: Over his career, he’s hit .252/.302/.427 against righthanders, and .320/.390/.477 against lefties.

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Dave Roberts     L   115  411   65  113   19   10    8   38   53   59 .275 .356 .428   114
Xavier Nady      R    30  106   20   31    4    1    7   25    7   20 .292 .342 .547   139
Total                     517   85  144   23   11   15   63   60   79 .279 .353 .453   120

200506 Minnesota Twins: Catcher

This has been a good platoon situation for the Twins, but it hasn’t been leveraged as well as it might. Manager Ron Gardenhire hasn’t alternated the lefty-hitting Joe Mauer and his righty-hitting backup Mike Redmond on a very strict left-right basis; in these two seasons Mauer got quite a few starts against southpaws and Redmond took more than a few of his starts against righthanders. This has been the case despite the fact that Mauer obviously hits righties far better than Redmond, and while Mauer hasn’t been terrible against lefties—his career line is .273/.339/.326—the veteran Redmond is licensed to kill: Over his career he’s hit .332 against lefthanders, and in 2005-06 combined Redmond exterminated southpaws at a .398/.423/.484 clip, with, get this, only three strikeouts in 128 at-bats.

In 2007, these two really weren’t in a platoon arrangement, as Mauer missed significant time with injuries, and Redmond thus caught a lot of the games against righthanders. But never fear: in his 88 at-bats against lefties in ’07, Redmond delivered a .330/.410/.443 line, fanning just three times.

2005:

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Joe Mauer        L   110  434   56  129   25    1    9   52   50   57 .297 .369 .422   110
Mike Redmond     R    45  148   17   46    9    0    1   26    6   14 .311 .350 .392    97
Total                     582   73  175   34    1   10   78   56   71 .301 .365 .414   107

2006:

Player           B     G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS+
Joe Mauer        L   120  457   73  152   26    4   12   77   68   51 .333 .415 .486   135
Mike Redmond     R    47  179   20   61   13    0    0   23    4   18 .341 .365 .413   103
Total                     636   93  213   39    4   12  100   72   69 .335 .403 .465   128
Whither platooning?

If you’ve been paying impeccably close attention throughout this five-installment series (and I know you have, of course), perhaps it’s seemed to you as though the occurrence of great platoons has slacked off a bit since the early 1990s. If that’s been your sense, guess what: You’re right.

Here’s the frequency of all of the great platoon situations we’ve presented since the first in 1914, expressed as the percentage of occurrence per major league team:

Platoons4

The regularity of these outcomes has indeed dramatically declined over the past 15-20 years. The rate has leveled off since the late 1990s, but the level it’s found—a great platoon on about 4% of teams per season—is the lowest seen in the major leagues since the 1940s, and distinctly below the rate displayed in platooning’s first great flowering of the early 1920s. In the current era, great platoons are being exhibited at around one-quarter of the rate seen in 1950-1974, and approached again in the early 1980s.

By all means, it’s important to remember that the definition of “great platoon” we’ve been employing here is hardly precise. Certainly, one could reasonably take issue with some of the instances I’ve included, and make a case for some I’ve left out. I suspect if I went back and undertook the exercise again I might come up with a slightly different list.

But with that acknowledged, it’s clear that something significant has changed over the past decade or two. However we choose to define them, we’re seeing far fewer “great” platoons in the current era. And the reason for the reduction is also clear: We’re seeing far fewer platoons, period. It’s abundantly apparent that the practice of regular platooning has been distinctly curtailed since the mid-to-late 1980s.

Why has this happened? That answer, too, seems fairly obvious: Platooning has largely become a casualty of the expanded bullpen that came into vogue in the 1990s. With teams nowdays normally carrying at least 11, generally 12, and sometimes 13 pitchers (as opposed to the previous standard of 10, and not-too-rarely nine), the reduced proportion of position players on the roster renders it practically impossible for managers to engage in the degree of platooning that they once did. There simply aren’t enough bats on hand to support the in-game substitutions platooning demands—those substitutions are now being made on the pitchers’ mound.

Thus, teams have traded off the ability to gain and hold the platoon advantage on offense for the improved capacity to thwart it on defense. Whether this represents a step forward, a step back, or a wash in terms of competitive efficacy is an open question. My own judgment, as presented here in detail, is that taking all the factors into consideration, it’s generally been a poor choice.

Regardless, it’s what the new norm clearly has become. The great platoon isn’t extinct, but it’s a far more rare specimen than was observed in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. May we not take it for granted, and endeavor to appropriately appreciate this exquisite maneuver when we’re given a modern glimpse.


Steve Treder has been a co-author of every Hardball Times Annual publication since its inception in 2004. His work has also been featured in Nine, The National Pastime, and other publications. He has frequently been a presenter at baseball forums such as the SABR National Convention, the Nine Spring Training Conference, and the Cooperstown Symposium. When Steve grows up, he hopes to play center field for the San Francisco Giants.

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