Down Under!

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. Other than Michigan football not showing up, I think I had a pretty good one. And now, it is time to write. 

Sometimes at work, I'll throw on an Australian accent just for fun, modeled after the soft spoken gem of golf announcing, Ian Baker-Finch.

G'day, loves.

It especially throws people off when I take money for parking; they'll drive up with their money in hand and they're greeted by a handsome young blonde man only to find out that he's Australian, too. Essentially the jackpot. I'll get really detailed sometimes, saying that I was born in Perth and a long time Perth Heat fan (even though I can't name a single player for the Heat). I always get a twinge of guilt knowing that I'm conning these fans into paying for parking (just kidding, they're paying either way), but it's a fun way to pass the time and I do think I have a pretty good accent. 

Okay, let me reel it in here and get back to baseball. I've always thought that the Aussie-American connection via baseball is unique considering Australia's dedication to rugby, football, Australian football, and cricket before America's pastime. I love that there is an Australian Baseball League! The Whitecaps manager this past year, Andrew Graham, is an Aussie and did quite a good job leading this young team. I think Graham would have aspirations to manage in the Big Leagues, and after all, managers have to start in the minor leagues just like the players do. This connection caused me to search Aussies on Baseball Reference. I was going to do a piece on the best Australian baseball player but other than Grant Balfour, reliever for the Rays, there really aren't too many to note (only 28 all time). But something caught me eye and reminded me of my work here in Grand Rapids. There has been only one Australian manager ever, and it was before baseball really began in my eyes (I consider the 1903 World Series the beginning of our modern baseball). 

He was a frightened looking bloke by the name of Joe Quinn, who was born in Sydney and made a career mostly as a player but also player/managed for two seasons. 

Quinn managed a half-season for the Browns and a near full season for the Spiders.

Quinn actually had quite a lengthy career as a player from 1884-1901, spanning from a ripe young age of 19 to age 36. He made his living primarily as a second sacker, though he also dabbled in the outfield positions and the hot corner later in his career, which is interesting because as a player ages, you would normally shift him to physically less demanding positions, such as the right side of the infield. That said, baseball was a much different game back then and I don't know much about Quinn's skill set. He was an inconsistent hitter, hitting above .300 in 1888 (.301), 1890 (.301), and 1895 (.314), but then averaging only .241 between 1891 and 1894. Interesting considering he was above .300, below .230 for three seasons, then right back up there. He was a decent base stealer, had a Jeter-esque slugging percentage, and averaged 73 RBIs per 162 games, which is actually quite astonishing considering 2nd basemen typically aren't RBI threats and the ball traveled about 100 feet off the bat at any given time back then. Through 1,769 career games, Quinn tallied exactly 1,800 hits (more than 1 a game!), 893 runs scored, and 796 RBIs. I think that is really impressive given his position, the quality of his teams, and that he was one of the first Aussies ever to play professional baseball in America.

His playing career was exemplary for an international ambassador of the greatest game ever played. His managing career - not so much.

After Quinn established himself as an everyday player on many different rosters (he played for at least 8 different teams, depending on if you count semi-pro leagues), he was called upon to manage twice in his career. Once was in 1895, when he had his offensive banner year, hitting .314 (172-547), but only going 11-28 as a manager in 40 games. 4 years later, Quinn had arguably the worst season a manager has ever had for the Cleveland Spiders, when they suffered a 12-104 record under Quinn's leadership.

The season began poorly for the Spiders, slipping to 8-30 under third basemen Lave Cross's management. Cross was removed from the team both as a player and a manager and Quinn took the reins (I assume begrudgingly given his past managerial record). Quinn led the Spiders in literally every single offensive category that year except for on-base percentage, when he missed that crown by only 3 points to outfielder Dick Harley. After an already dismal 38 games, things went from bad to about-as-bad-as-possible under Quinn, when the team won 10.3% of its games for the remainder of the season. 

Some of the lowlights for Quinn's Spiders of 1899: 

• They finished the season off at a 1-29 clip, including 0-7 in October.
• They allowed twice as many runs as they scored (1,252:529)
• Their longest win streak was 2 games (before Quinn managed them).
• The were swept in the season series against Brooklyn and Cincinnati, going 0-28.
• They were 5-69 in blowout games (run differentials of 5+).
• They finished 84 games back of the first place Superbas (Brooklyn). They finished 35 games back of the next worst team, the Washington Senators.
• 3 of the starting 9 fielders and 3 of the 6 starting pitchers never played a full season again. One of the pitchers to survive was German born Crazy Schmit, who went 2-17 in 1899.

In total, the Spiders went 20-134. Their starters' ERA was 6.57, including a 1-18 record from Frank Bates and 1-11 from Harry Colliflower (I can't even take him seriously). Outfielder Sport McAllister was called on to pitch in 3 games, where he allowed 17 earned runs (22 total) in 16 innings pitched. Shortstop Harry Lochhead also pitched in a game, giving up 2 runs in 3.2 innings (neither were earned). The weird thing is, the Spiders weren't even the worst defensive team in the league; the first place Superbas allowed 658 runs but only 69% of those were earned runs. It was a sad year for Spiders. I think that's what you get when your team name is the Spiders (raving arachnophobe here).

Joe Quinn's career managerial record was 23-132, a .148 winning percentage. When he was just a player, he was fine. When he was a player/manager, he stepped up his game (.300 average, 348 hits, 43 doubles in the two years he managed), but he just wasn't blessed with leadership skills. Let's hope that if Whitecaps skipper Andrew Graham becomes the second Australian-born manager ever, he'll have a little more success than that.

Thanks for reading. Hope Monday doesn't get to you too badly.