Inside The Park Homeruns

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

There are four players with over 40 inside the parkers to their credit. All but one are quite believable. Those are Wagner (41), Crawford (51), Cobb (46). But how does Tommy Leach, a .370 slugger turn up second on this list with 49 inside the park homeruns?

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Posted By: john/z28jd

It was the ballpark,he was a fast guy but not much of a power hitter altho he did lead the league in homers one year,any ball in the gap he could run for days.If you check Pirates stats youll see some big numbers for triples including Owen Wilson's record season in 1912.Some of Leach's triples were actually him getting thrown out at home trying to stretch it,and he 172 career triples.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Forbes Field was an even bigger park when Leach played. 350+ in right and left and 450+ in center. But Leach played alongside Wagner for most of his career and yet hit more HRs inside the park than Honus, while both slugging far less and stealing way less bases.

It just seems to not add up somehow.

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Posted By: ramram

He only had 63 HR's for his 19 year career. Only 14 out of the park? I'd say he was fast!

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Posted By: warshawlaw

So much of tripling or inside the park HRs is outfielder positioning. When I played little league I hit two triples. Both went right over the bag at 1st and down the line. I was a righty hitter and barely got my bat on either ball but there was no one there to field it until it hit the back fence.

If you know a heavy hitter will hit long, hard doubles and triples, you play him back further than a slap hitter and you can cut off more drives before they run to the fence. It may be that many of Leach's insiders got past outfielders who were playing him more shallowly than the others named, who might have had many more insiders had they been played less conservatively. Once the ball gets past the outfielder, forget about it with a jackrabbit on the basepaths.

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Posted By: Judge Dred

That's why I love the game - stats! That's a new stat to me.

Gilbert does that list include Hans Lobert? If so, how many inside the park homers did he have?

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Posted By: john/z28jd

Gilbert the reasoning is pretty simple and i think Adam summed it up nicely.Wagner was known as a hard hitter so they probably played him deeper.Leach was 150 lbs soaking wet,not too intimidating

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Judge: the list which I have is players with 20 or more inside the park HRs. Hans Lobert is not on the list (but Rabbit Maranville is).

Also Keeler hit 30 of his lifetime 33 HRs inside the park. I guess he didn't figure "where they ain't" included the seats.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Part of the reason Keeler never hit many balls "into the seats" is because many, if not most all parks that he played in had no outfield wall. If there was an unusually large crowd, some times a rope barrier was ussually put up in the outfield and fans allowed to mill about in the outfield area.

You can't hit a ball out of the park when there is no end to the outfield.

Jay

Wow upside down is Mom. Mom upside down is what dad wants to see.

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Posted By: dennis

ALL-TIME INSIDE-THE-PARK CAREER HOME RUN LEADERS

Player Years Played IPHR

Sam Crawford 1899-1917 51
Tommy Leach 1899-1914 49
Ty Cobb 1905-1928 46
Honus Wagner 1897-1916 41
Tris Speaker 1909-1928 37
Jake Daubert 1910-1924 33
Chief Wilson 1908-1916 31
Rogers Hornsby 1916-1937 30
Willie Keeler 1893-1909 30
Edd Roush 1914-1931 30

LEADERS SINCE 1940

Player Years Played IPHR

Willie Wilson 1979-1993 13
Roberto Clemente 1956-1972 10
Stan Musial 1941-1963 9
Lou Brock 1962-1979 9

Player Years Played IPHR

Willie Mays 1951-1973 8
Richie Ashburn 1948-1962 8
Hank Bauer 1948-1961 7
George Brett 1974-1993 7
Willie Davis 1960-1979 7
Dick Allen 1964-1977 7
Joe Adcock 1950-1966 7
Charlie Keller 1939-1952 6
Mickey Mantle 1952-1968 6
Billy Williams 1960-1976 6
Amos Otis 1970-1983 6
Robin Yount 1974-1993 6

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Posted By: tbob

What are his stats? I know he was reputed to be better than average defensively? Does he have HOF numbers?

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Posted By: JimB

I don't know his numbers, but judging by his inclusion in several E sets, he must have been a star. Many of the E sets are nearly 50% HOFs, so they clearly chose the stars of the day for inclusion in those sets (unlike T206 of T205 which included almost everybody).
JimB

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Posted By: Max Weder

They are listed at http://baseballreference.com/l/leachto01.shtml on baseballreference.com, one of the great web sites.

Max