What if Robert Laughlin made his 300/400/500 set today?

Baseball artist and prolific direct-to-collector publisher Robert Laughlin printed a set honoring three of the sport’s “big numbers” (300 wins/.400 average/500 homers) in 1980. If you know Laughlin’s other self-made and Fleer-published sets, its cartoonish take on legendary players fits his style.

The significance of those 300/400/500 achievements also means Laughlin’s set contains just one guy not enshrined in Cooperstown, #13 Joe Jackson, banned from baseball following Chicago’s Black Sox scandal a century ago.

One Yankee legend garnered his “500 homers” card via a statistical side door — a route we’ll take again later.

That photo head and cartoon body design should be familiar to readers of my #5 Type Collection posts about 1938 Goudey Big League Gum. Robert Laughlin no doubt intended this resemblance.

Laughlin self-published this set not long before ’80s-90s power hitting took off. As of today (2019), a tranche of modern 500+ homer guys qualify. Trading friend and many-credentialed writer George Vrechek pointed out during a recent swap session that while no new players batted .400 since 1980, our other groups added 25 or 26 members, depending how you count.

300 victories (via career leaders at B-R)

  • Greg Maddux
  • Roger Clemens
  • Steve Carlton
  • Nolan Ryan
  • Don Sutton
  • Phil Niekro
  • Gaylord Perry
  • Tom Seaver
  • Tom Glavine
  • Randy Johnson

500 home runs (via career leaders at B-R)

  • Barry Bonds
  • Alex Rodriguez
  • Albert Pujols
  • Ken Griffey, Jr.
  • Jim Thome
  • Sammy Sosa
  • Mark McGwire
  • Rafael Palmeiro
  • Reggie Jackson
  • Manny Ramirez
  • Mike Schmidt
  • David Ortiz
  • Frank Thomas
  • Gary Sheffield
  • Eddie Murray
  • Fred McGriff* (493 regular season + 10 postseason, echoing Gehrig)

Our modern lament for these 300/400/500 candidates: steroids. Do we know how many of those 26* hitters and pitchers bulked up (and improved recovery) using things borrowed from the iron-pumping world of Mr. Universe? And who cares more, baseball collectors or baseball historians? (I’m about 80% collector and 20% historian in that regard.)

1970s muscle-builder Brian Downing, shown with his like-minded hero, brought a weight-training mentality to baseball that many others followed, some with chemical help.

Aside on Brian Downing: Back in my mid-80s salad days, I hated Downing’s pounding of Seattle pitching. Over 156 career games versus my Mariners, he hit a blistering .920 OPS. If you count those 156 games as a “season,” just five players registered better one-year numbers in the same era: Eddie Murray three times, Reggie Smith twice, Ken Singleton twice, Tim Raines once, and Howard Johnson once. (I do my best to impress on others how good Downing was to spread that searing, nostalgic pain around.)

But settle down! Let’s not get too serious about performance-enhancers today. Can a wholesome law-enforcement cartoon keep us in the “just enjoy our hobby” mindset?

If we extend Laughlin’s 300/400/500 set into today, I start with this cartoon head on our cartoon body. No reason to waste nicknames like “Crime Dog!”

Who else should we add to an extended checklist? Using just the aforementioned 10 pitchers and 16 sluggers gives me pause, because of our complete zero at .400. Just two modern guys came close, George Brett (.390 in 1980) and Tony Gwynn (.394 in 1994).

Laughlin set a 20th century cutoff for his 1980 set. What if we turn back time and net 19th century stars like Kid Nichols, Wee Willie Keeler, and Hughie Jennings? Given how few power hitters that era produced, I like this option better than going without adding any .400 hitters at all.

Potential old-school .400 members

According to Baseball-Reference.com, 23 batting seasons reached .400+ (and qualified for the batting title) in the pre-World Series era, 1871-1902. Some guys did so multiple times.

  • Billy Hamilton (1894)
  • Cal McVey (1871)
  • Cap Anson (1872)
  • Davy Force (1872)
  • Ed Delahanty (1894, 1895, 1899)
  • Fred Dunlap (1884)
  • Hugh Duffy (1894)
  • Hughie Jennings (1896)
  • Jesse Burkett (1895-96)
  • Levi Meyerle (1871)
  • Nap Lajoie (1901)
  • Pete Browning (1887)
  • Ross Barnes (1871-73, 1876)
  • Sam Thompson (1894)
  • Tip O’Neill (1887)
  • Tuck Turner (1894)
  • Wee Willie Keeler (1897)

Italicized seasons played less than 100 games, so sit below the stature of other 300/400/500 candidates. Let’s strike those.

Furthermore, Laughlin’s 300/400/500 contains Lajoie at #9. We can trim those 17 guys to ten “significant” 19th century 400 hitters not already in the original.

  • Billy Hamilton (1894)
  • Ed Delahanty (1894, 1895, 1899)
  • Fred Dunlap (1884)
  • Hugh Duffy (1894)
  • Hughie Jennings (1896)
  • Jesse Burkett (1895-96)
  • Pete Browning (1887)
  • Sam Thompson (1894)
  • Tip O’Neill (1887)
  • Wee Willie Keeler (1897)

Newspaper and ballcard photos exist for all ten, making it straightforward to create head-on-cartoon versions. While they played in a different era of hitting rules and equipment quality, modern analysis also diminished batting average overall. Fewer 21st century guys hallow it as a statistic that needs rigid defense. Loosening our lasso to pull in 19th century players gives historical depth to a list that already carries PED baggage.

Proposed 300/400/500 Extended checklist

  1. Title card
  2. Greg Maddux (300 game winners)
  3. Roger Clemens
  4. Steve Carlton
  5. Nolan Ryan
  6. Don Sutton
  7. Phil Niekro
  8. Gaylord Perry
  9. Tom Seaver
  10. Tom Glavine
  11. Randy Johnson
  12. Billy Hamilton (.400 hitters)
  13. Ed Delahanty
  14. Fred Dunlap
  15. Hugh Duffy 
  16. Hughie “Eeyah!” Jennings
  17. Jesse Burkett
  18. Pete Browning
  19. Sam Thompson
  20. Tip O’Neill
  21. Willie Keeler
  22. Alex Rodriguez (500 HR sluggers)
  23. Albert Pujols
  24. Ken Griffey, Jr.
  25. Barry Bonds
  26. Jim Thome
  27. Sammy Sosa
  28. Mark McGwire
  29. Rafael Palmeiro
  30. Reggie Jackson
  31. Manny Ramirez
  32. Mike Schmidt
  33. David Ortiz
  34. Frank Thomas
  35. Gary Sheffield
  36. Eddie Murray
  37. Honorary: Fred McGriff

Big thanks to Nick Vossbrink for this sharp and stylish custom Barry Bonds, befitting our modern 300/400/500 motif.

Now there’s just the matter of designing and printing our other 36 cards and engaging a lawyer to deflect “unlicensed photo depiction” civil claims! What do you think, does this checklist meet the bar set by its predecessor?

Fahrenheit .407

Listen: Ichiro is the Guy Montag of George Sisler.

Like many students, I read Ray Bradbury’s dystopian classic, Fahrenheit 451, in middle school. Several of its ideas stuck with me for years afterward and I picked up a personal copy not long ago, to keep them fresh.

Near its climax, protagonist Guy Montag joins a clan of exiles who protect the written word from state-organized destruction. They memorize whole manuscripts as hedge against an American society locked in fiery struggle against its own texts. Guy’s recall of a portion of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes becomes his torch to carry.

Whatever your religious background, many SABR readers also know some Ecclesiastes, thanks to Pete Seeger’s adaptation of its third chapter into the 1960s folk-rock hit “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season),” intersecting with antiwar themes from Bradbury’s 1953 novel.

This cultureball matters to me now because of the link between Ichiro, one of our greatest 21st century players, and George Sisler, his parallel from a century ago.

I used to know just table scraps about the onomatopoeically “hot” Sisler. I remember lots of other stuff, like how Dave Philley spent three years as a Phillie (1958-60) and Johnny Podres finished his career with the Padres (1969). Yet…diddly about “the greatest player in St. Louis Browns history.”

Just a handful of significant facts came to mind when I started this article: he hit over .400 twice, they called him “Gorgeous George” (predating the pro wrestler), and Ichiro broke Sisler’s single-season hits record. Oh, and he appeared in the 1972 Kellogg’s All-Time Greats set.

Sisler retired in 1930, explaining why I find him so unfindable. Despite writing about cards for years at the Number 5 Type Collection, almost all of my card research follows Goudey Gum’s 1933 baseball debut, making earlier players a crapshoot. Even my deep dive into a trivial question, “Who’s E.T. Cox and why’d he appear on a card in 1927?” stands out for what didn’t happen, not what did.

I give Ichiro full marks for breaking an 84-year-old record when he notched 262 hits in 2004. Yet hitting isn’t their sole connection. Let’s catch up with George, circa 1920.

Kids could buy this artful W514, trimmed from a strip of five, out of arcade vending machines during Sisler’s mammoth performance for an otherwise fair-t0-middling 1920 Browns squad.

  • .407 average, 1.082 OPS, 182 OPS+
  • MLB record-setting 257 hits, in 154 game era
  • 49 doubles, 18 triples, 19 homers, 42 SB

Zero other seasons in MLB history include that balance of speed and power. None! Ichiro came close as a base runner, stealing 40+ bases five times, turning ground ball singles into scoring threats. As frosting to his power cake, George Sisler led the AL in steals four times.

Even if you drop stolen bases as criteria, just one other season in history, Lou Gehrig’s 1927, includes at least 49 doubles, 18 triples, and 19 homers. The Iron Horse, of course, enjoyed Murderers’ Row as “protection” for his spot in the lineup. St. Louis, however, depended on George’s stealing prowess just to get more guys in scoring position.

This photo from Sisler’s other 1920 card, part of the scarce Holsum bread issue, hearkens back to his younger days as a southpaw pitcher. (Read George’s SABR bio for those details.)

While pitching had moved to his back burner by 1920, George nonetheless closed out St. Louis’s final game on October 3 from the hill (box score), perhaps to help home fans enjoy one last bit of that remarkable year. Although he notched a .420 average two years later, OPS+ rates 1920 “better,” as Sisler hit fewer homers in 1922 (career stats).

Two of Sisler’s sons, Dick and Dave, went on to their own baseball careers. The former intersected with Ichiro’s future home as 1960 manager of the Pacific Coast League’s Seattle Rainiers.

While we’re visiting the past, let’s pretend we’re 12 years old again and snicker at how Dick Sisler appears on a Skinless Wiener trading card. (Players came one to a package.) Cross your legs and fire up the grill!

When Ichiro’s torrid pace projected to break the hits record in 2004, he also connected with still-living Dave Sisler, who enjoyed renewed interest in George’s past achievements and some of the Sisler family traveled to Seattle to see Ichiro break the record in person. (Topps mentioned that moment on Ichiro’s Season Highlights card.)

As noted in that 2013 New York Times article, Ichiro spent a Cooperstown trip examining Sisler’s bats, comparing their construction and “sound” to his own modern models. Five years later, he brought flowers to George’s St. Louis grave during the All-Star Break.

While I’m not surprised a guy with 3089 hits proved a student of hitting, it stands out that he’s a student of Sisler. Should this whole Internet thing burn to the ground, echoing the fiery urban chaos of Fahrenheit 451, I bet Ichiro can teach us plenty about George’s tools and talent.