Buzz Arlett????

[FrankWakefield]

Arlett played on the west coast, in the sunshine... a regular home and away travel schedule, in front of friends; instead of a more eratic schedule in front of a bunch of yankees. In the majors he wasn't a regular, and played in the cold and crap weather... In the PCL he could get paid for playing about 8 months, only for about 6 in the majors. He may well have made more money in the majors. And we lack the perspective of the times; out west in the 20s they took the PCL about as seriously as the 'major' leagues back east. Today the stratification of the majors and minors is more significant. There are several players in the PCL back then who chose it over the 'majors'.

[nolemmings]

Buzz really hated Yankees and cold, "crap" weather. That's why he continued to play his last six minor league seasons up North, retired in Minnesota, operated a business for thirty years, died and is buried there.

Who's the one who lacks perspective?

[FrankWakefield]

Maybe I lack perspective.

Maybe Arlett loved the north, yankees, and cold weather. Even if he did, there were a bunch of guys in the PCL who didn't, and played there instead of in the majors. I stand by the last 3 sentences. And Minnesota isn't New York or Philadelphia.

[nolemmings]

Rhett already made the point about the PCL being considered essentially as important as the major leagues. Your comments were more of a snide dig at the North, which I chose to disprove by Mr. Arlett's life decisions. And while you claim that you know a bunch of guys preferred not to play with Yankees in crap weather, I would submit that the vast majority of players who decided to stay home in CA chose not to go East rather than North. Put differently, those players were not inclined to play in the land of cotton either.

[steve B]

All good points why someone might only play one year in the majors but be that good in the PCL which was probably close to major league.

Another thing to consider is his personality. An oldtimer spoke to the club I'm in and commented that counting semi pro and industrial leagues that were scouted almost as much as a minor league there were about 175000 people playing organised baseball compared to about 17000 today. He said that guys like Cobb, Ruth, Williams etc could get away with being a bit troublesome. But if a player was merely above average overall - Like a guy who could hit but not field well- And if they had any issues like wanting more money or partying too much or just not getting along with a manager or star, they were gone. Replaced by one of the very many good but not great ball players that wanted the job and were pleasant and hard working.

Not that he had problems, I don't know anything about him. But it's another reason why some guys that look good in the books didn't last.

Steve B


Steve B

[FrankWakefield]

I used a little "y"....

And I reckon he'd have not thought much of the south, either. Nor Jamaica, nor Canada. But the 'majors' weren't in the south, nor Jamaica, nor Canada. They were up north.

It wasn't a dig, sorry if you took it as such. It's just that from what I've read about the PCL, the players made about as much playing the long seasons there as they did as a starting major leaguer back, wait for it.... east. And the weather was less pleasant. One time zone in the PCL, no heat of St. Louis in the summer...

[Exhibitman]

And would he rather be a big fish in a small pond (PCL .342 hitter) or a very average fish in a big pond (MLB)? Sounds like Buzz was made for the DH.

[Leon]

His hitting and fielding sound like a present day (or world series) Vlad..... ouch.