Time for another Box Weekend Update -- caution, the substance contained in this edition is highly addictive.
Most denizens of Da Box, ZLC and otherwise, have at least a passing familiarity with the greatness that is BaseballReference.com. The most complete and useful, uh,well, baseball reference tool on the Web, it's constantly experimenting with adding new features -- every player in history sorted by birthday, for instance, and a complete list of every player in history who played just one game. Before you go check -- yes, Moonlight Graham is on the list.
But nothing, and I mean nothing, matches the addictive "frivolity" -- hey, that's their word -- of The Baseball Oracle.
The basic function of The Oracle is to connect any two players ever through a chain of common teammates. Think of it as "Six Degrees of Eddie Bacon." The inspiration for this baseball version undoubtedly springs from the original Hollywood Oracle hosted by the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia.
Here's how it works ...
You think of two players who may or may not seem related in your mind -- starting with an easy and obvious one, say Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken, Jr. How long of a chain of teammates you would expect? How about just three?
Lou Gehrig played with Joe DiMaggio for the 1939 New York Yankees
Joe DiMaggio played with Lew Burdette for the 1950 New York Yankees
Lew Burdette played with Aurelio Rodriguez for the 1967 California Angels
Aurelio Rodriguez played with Cal Ripken Jr. for the 1983 Baltimore Orioles
Aurelio Rodriguez ultimately gets you from the Iron Horse to Iron Cal! How about that?
Here's one for Toronto baseball fans of a certain age -- can we tie together the two men who hit the last two World Series walkoff championship homers? Sure.
Bill Mazeroski played with Al Jackson for the 1959 Pittsburgh Pirates
Al Jackson played with Steve Carlton for the 1966 St. Louis Cardinals
Steve Carlton played with Joe Carter for the 1987 Cleveland Indians
Let's stretch ourselves a little bit and build a chain from 1930's All-Star outfielder Doc Cramer to current All-Star hurler Doc Halladay. It's easier than you'd think.
Doc Cramer played with Early Wynn for the 1941 Washington Senators
Early Wynn played with Tommy John for the 1963 Cleveland Indians
Tommy John played with Tony Phillips for the 1985 Oakland Athletics
Tony Phillips played with Roy Halladay for the 1998 Toronto Blue Jays
By now you're noticing the consistent factor in these chains: guys who played a really long time and tended to play with several teams throughout their careers. Makes sense, right? So you see Early Wynn, Tommy John, Hoyt Wilhelm, Phil Niekro, Jim Kaat, Tony Phillips, Jesse Orosco and Rickey Henderson appearing over and over in these chains.
It only seems like either Orosco or Henderson appear in every single search done involving an active player. Imagine if they had ever been teammates! Incidentally, one of tne of the many players who function as the single link between Rickey and Orosco is none other than Billy Beane.
If you limit yourself to searching for Blue Jays, you're probably going to see the name Alfredo Griffin. For instance, the long-time shortstop gets you from the Jays' first-ever Opening Day first baseman all the way to the current A.L. RBI leader -- all by himself:
Doug Ault played with Alfredo Griffin for the 1980 Toronto Blue Jays
Alfredo Griffin played with Carlos Delgado for the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays
Then there are the aberrations -- what we might term the Nuxhall-Minoso factor. Players who made one random appearance years before (like Joe Nuxhall) or years after (like Minnie Minoso) their legitimately long careers took place really condense a chain.
Minoso's stunt at-bat for the 1980 Chicago White Sox, when he was approximately 900 years old, throws a glitch into many chains, such as one of the most obvious current queries:
Babe Ruth played with Lou Gehrig for the 1923 New York Yankees
Lou Gehrig played with Joe Gordon for the 1938 New York Yankees
Joe Gordon played with Minnie Minoso for the 1949 Cleveland Indians
Minnie Minoso played with Jim Morrison for the 1980 Chicago White Sox
Jim Morrison played with Barry Bonds for the 1986 Pittsburgh Pirates
And Nuxhall's one-game stint in the bigs as a 15-year-old during World War II cuts back significantly on the chain linking baseball's most celebrated villains:
Joe Jackson played with Red Faber for the 1917 Chicago White Sox
Red Faber played with Johnny Riddle for the 1930 Chicago White Sox
Johnny Riddle played with Joe Nuxhall for the 1944 Cincinnati Reds
Joe Nuxhall played with Pete Rose for the 1964 Cincinnati Reds
Regardless of whether or not you believe Rose is guilty (or whether you believe Jim Morrison died in Paris in 1971), these chains seem ... cheapened by the shortcuts. There's no way to do a Google-like "power search" where you input two names and add "don't include Minnie Minoso" (or whoever), but this glitch is a small, small price to pay for the addiction that is The Oracle.
Since we've mentioned Bonds and Ruth, did you know you can get from the home run champ Bonds doesn't care about, Hank Aaron, to 1950's-era pitcher George Zuverink in just one link of the chain? Why should we care? Because thanks to Wilhelm, we can now claim we've read from the very first name in the historical baseball player registry all the way through to the very last name in a time that Cliff of Notes fame can only dream about.
Hank Aaron played with Hoyt Wilhelm for the 1970 Atlanta Braves
Hoyt Wilhelm played with George Zuverink for the 1958 Baltimore Orioles
Now, before we go on, it's time to point out that this idea has been explored, pre-Oracle, by one of the finest sportswriters -- it's a shame, really, that he limits himself to television -- around today. Almost 10 years ago, Keith Olbermann wrote a column for then-fledgling ESPN.com (at the time called "ESPN SportsZone") entitled "The Ninth Man," in which he linked Doc Adams, who more or less invented the position of shortstop in the mid-19th century, to none other than Rickey Henderson with just seven links in between.
Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a copy of this column anywhere on the Web -- it is referenced in a few places -- so you'll have to take my word for this. Olbermann didn't limit himself to teammates; he also included "played against" as a link, and it went like this:
Doc Adams - Dickey Pearce - Jim O'Rourke - Lave Cross - Walter Johnson - Lefty Grove - Ted Williams - Jim Kaat - Rickey Henderson
According to Olbermann, all of baseball history could be covered in the interlinking careers of just nine men. Can the Oracle top that?
Well ... no. Start with the fact that Adams never played "organized" ball and is not in the player database for BaseballReference.com. But if we take Adams as "one" and start with Olbermann's second choice, Pearce, we can match Olbermann's list with the additional parameter of linking only teammates.
Dickey Pearce played with Pud Galvin for the 1875 St. Louis Brown Stockings
Pud Galvin played with Jake Beckley for the 1888 Pittsburgh Alleghenys
Jake Beckley played with Babe Adams for the 1906 St. Louis Cardinals
Babe Adams played with Paul Waner for the 1926 Pittsburgh Pirates
Paul Waner played with Warren Spahn for the 1942 Boston Braves
Warren Spahn played with Phil Niekro for the 1964 Milwaukee Braves
Phil Niekro played with Rickey Henderson for the 1985 New York Yankees
And somewhere out there, right now, a former or current teammate of Rickey Henderson will retire in 2025 as "The Tenth Man." Maybe he'll be a designated hitter by that time; as 10th man, that would be appropriate.
What kinds of links interest you? Want to know how quickly we can get from the last legal spitballer to the author of Me and the Spitter?
Burleigh Grimes played with Billy Herman for the 1933 Chicago Cubs
Billy Herman played with Warren Spahn for the 1946 Boston Braves
Warren Spahn played with Gaylord Perry for the 1965 San Francisco Giants
What about the two greatest starting pitchers in Red Sox history -- one of whom keeps winning awards named for the other?
Cy Young played with Roger Peckinpaugh for the 1910 Cleveland Naps
Roger Peckinpaugh played with Harry Kelley for the 1925 Washington Senators
Harry Kelley played with Mickey Vernon for the 1939 Washington Senators
Mickey Vernon played with Juan Pizarro for the 1959 Milwaukee Braves
Juan Pizarro played with Bruce Kison for the 1974 Pittsburgh Pirates
Bruce Kison played with Roger Clemens for the 1985 Boston Red Sox
Would you believe, thanks to Phil Niekro's brief fling in Toronto, you can get from Young to David Wells more quickly than from Young to Clemens?
Cy Young played with Hank Gowdy for the 1911 Boston Braves
Hank Gowdy played with Johnny Cooney for the 1923 Boston Braves
Johnny Cooney played with Warren Spahn for the 1942 Boston Braves
Warren Spahn played with Phil Niekro for the 1964 Milwaukee Braves
Phil Niekro played with David Wells for the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays
On the whimsical side, good ol' Steve "E-4" Sax holds the distinction of being a single link between the two greatest players ever to don major league baseball uniforms -- uh, make that the two greatest football players.
Deion Sanders played with Steve Sax for the 1989 New York Yankees
Steve Sax played with Bo Jackson for the 1993 Chicago White Sox
Or maybe not.
Jim Thorpe played with Mickey O'Neil for the 1919 Boston Braves
Mickey O'Neil played with Buddy Myer for the 1927 Washington Senators
Buddy Myer played with Early Wynn for the 1939 Washington Senators
Early Wynn played with Tommy John for the 1963 Cleveland Indians
Tommy John played with Deion Sanders for the 1989 New York Yankees
Note: The Thorpe-Jackson chain is one link longer. Hooray for Early Wynn and Tommy John.
Speaking of multi-sport professionals, Toronto's always been more of a basketball town. Time to step back up to the plate, Alfredo.
Danny Ainge played with Alfredo Griffin for the 1981 Toronto Blue Jays
Alfredo Griffin played with Carlos Delgado for the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays
Carlos Delgado played with Mark Hendrickson for the 2002 Toronto Blue Jays
And a former Detroit Piston who predates Ainge in the NBA by more than 15 years takes the same number of chain links to Hendrickson, the current Blue Jay ex-hoopster.
Ron Reed played with Harold Baines for the 1984 Chicago White Sox
Harold Baines played with Scott Eyre for the 1997 Chicago White Sox
Scott Eyre played with Mark Hendrickson for the 2002 Toronto Blue Jays
But it takes one extra step to reach a Hall of Famer.
Dave DeBusschere played with Luis Aparicio for the 1962 Chicago White Sox
Luis Aparicio played with Ben Oglivie for the 1972 Boston Red Sox
Ben Oglivie played with Dan Plesac for the 1986 Milwaukee Brewers
Dan Plesac played with Mark Hendrickson for the 2002 Toronto Blue Jays
Told you this was addictive.
To close out this introduction, let's pay homage to the original Hollywood Oracle and run the Kevin Bacon test on a current, versatile, long-time actress -- sort of the Jesse Orosco of her trade, only much hotter in Young Frankenstein than Jesse has ever been anywhere.
Teri Garr was in Absent-Minded Waiter, The (1977) with Steve Martin
Steve Martin was in Novocaine (2001) with Kevin Bacon
How does that stack up with The Baseball Oracle? Well, baseball has a Garr-to-Bacon chain of its own.
Ralph Garr played with Willie Davis for the 1979 California Angels
Willie Davis played with Duke Snider for the 1961 Los Angeles Dodgers
Duke Snider played with Dixie Walker for the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers
Dixie Walker played with Cy Perkins for the 1931 New York Yankees
Cy Perkins played with Eddie Bacon for the 1917 Philadelphia Athletics
The possibilities are endless. Build a chain of your own.
Most denizens of Da Box, ZLC and otherwise, have at least a passing familiarity with the greatness that is BaseballReference.com. The most complete and useful, uh,well, baseball reference tool on the Web, it's constantly experimenting with adding new features -- every player in history sorted by birthday, for instance, and a complete list of every player in history who played just one game. Before you go check -- yes, Moonlight Graham is on the list.
But nothing, and I mean nothing, matches the addictive "frivolity" -- hey, that's their word -- of The Baseball Oracle.
The basic function of The Oracle is to connect any two players ever through a chain of common teammates. Think of it as "Six Degrees of Eddie Bacon." The inspiration for this baseball version undoubtedly springs from the original Hollywood Oracle hosted by the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia.
Here's how it works ...
You think of two players who may or may not seem related in your mind -- starting with an easy and obvious one, say Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken, Jr. How long of a chain of teammates you would expect? How about just three?
Lou Gehrig played with Joe DiMaggio for the 1939 New York Yankees
Joe DiMaggio played with Lew Burdette for the 1950 New York Yankees
Lew Burdette played with Aurelio Rodriguez for the 1967 California Angels
Aurelio Rodriguez played with Cal Ripken Jr. for the 1983 Baltimore Orioles
Aurelio Rodriguez ultimately gets you from the Iron Horse to Iron Cal! How about that?
Here's one for Toronto baseball fans of a certain age -- can we tie together the two men who hit the last two World Series walkoff championship homers? Sure.
Bill Mazeroski played with Al Jackson for the 1959 Pittsburgh Pirates
Al Jackson played with Steve Carlton for the 1966 St. Louis Cardinals
Steve Carlton played with Joe Carter for the 1987 Cleveland Indians
Let's stretch ourselves a little bit and build a chain from 1930's All-Star outfielder Doc Cramer to current All-Star hurler Doc Halladay. It's easier than you'd think.
Doc Cramer played with Early Wynn for the 1941 Washington Senators
Early Wynn played with Tommy John for the 1963 Cleveland Indians
Tommy John played with Tony Phillips for the 1985 Oakland Athletics
Tony Phillips played with Roy Halladay for the 1998 Toronto Blue Jays
By now you're noticing the consistent factor in these chains: guys who played a really long time and tended to play with several teams throughout their careers. Makes sense, right? So you see Early Wynn, Tommy John, Hoyt Wilhelm, Phil Niekro, Jim Kaat, Tony Phillips, Jesse Orosco and Rickey Henderson appearing over and over in these chains.
It only seems like either Orosco or Henderson appear in every single search done involving an active player. Imagine if they had ever been teammates! Incidentally, one of tne of the many players who function as the single link between Rickey and Orosco is none other than Billy Beane.
If you limit yourself to searching for Blue Jays, you're probably going to see the name Alfredo Griffin. For instance, the long-time shortstop gets you from the Jays' first-ever Opening Day first baseman all the way to the current A.L. RBI leader -- all by himself:
Doug Ault played with Alfredo Griffin for the 1980 Toronto Blue Jays
Alfredo Griffin played with Carlos Delgado for the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays
Then there are the aberrations -- what we might term the Nuxhall-Minoso factor. Players who made one random appearance years before (like Joe Nuxhall) or years after (like Minnie Minoso) their legitimately long careers took place really condense a chain.
Minoso's stunt at-bat for the 1980 Chicago White Sox, when he was approximately 900 years old, throws a glitch into many chains, such as one of the most obvious current queries:
Babe Ruth played with Lou Gehrig for the 1923 New York Yankees
Lou Gehrig played with Joe Gordon for the 1938 New York Yankees
Joe Gordon played with Minnie Minoso for the 1949 Cleveland Indians
Minnie Minoso played with Jim Morrison for the 1980 Chicago White Sox
Jim Morrison played with Barry Bonds for the 1986 Pittsburgh Pirates
And Nuxhall's one-game stint in the bigs as a 15-year-old during World War II cuts back significantly on the chain linking baseball's most celebrated villains:
Joe Jackson played with Red Faber for the 1917 Chicago White Sox
Red Faber played with Johnny Riddle for the 1930 Chicago White Sox
Johnny Riddle played with Joe Nuxhall for the 1944 Cincinnati Reds
Joe Nuxhall played with Pete Rose for the 1964 Cincinnati Reds
Regardless of whether or not you believe Rose is guilty (or whether you believe Jim Morrison died in Paris in 1971), these chains seem ... cheapened by the shortcuts. There's no way to do a Google-like "power search" where you input two names and add "don't include Minnie Minoso" (or whoever), but this glitch is a small, small price to pay for the addiction that is The Oracle.
Since we've mentioned Bonds and Ruth, did you know you can get from the home run champ Bonds doesn't care about, Hank Aaron, to 1950's-era pitcher George Zuverink in just one link of the chain? Why should we care? Because thanks to Wilhelm, we can now claim we've read from the very first name in the historical baseball player registry all the way through to the very last name in a time that Cliff of Notes fame can only dream about.
Hank Aaron played with Hoyt Wilhelm for the 1970 Atlanta Braves
Hoyt Wilhelm played with George Zuverink for the 1958 Baltimore Orioles
Now, before we go on, it's time to point out that this idea has been explored, pre-Oracle, by one of the finest sportswriters -- it's a shame, really, that he limits himself to television -- around today. Almost 10 years ago, Keith Olbermann wrote a column for then-fledgling ESPN.com (at the time called "ESPN SportsZone") entitled "The Ninth Man," in which he linked Doc Adams, who more or less invented the position of shortstop in the mid-19th century, to none other than Rickey Henderson with just seven links in between.
Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a copy of this column anywhere on the Web -- it is referenced in a few places -- so you'll have to take my word for this. Olbermann didn't limit himself to teammates; he also included "played against" as a link, and it went like this:
Doc Adams - Dickey Pearce - Jim O'Rourke - Lave Cross - Walter Johnson - Lefty Grove - Ted Williams - Jim Kaat - Rickey Henderson
According to Olbermann, all of baseball history could be covered in the interlinking careers of just nine men. Can the Oracle top that?
Well ... no. Start with the fact that Adams never played "organized" ball and is not in the player database for BaseballReference.com. But if we take Adams as "one" and start with Olbermann's second choice, Pearce, we can match Olbermann's list with the additional parameter of linking only teammates.
Dickey Pearce played with Pud Galvin for the 1875 St. Louis Brown Stockings
Pud Galvin played with Jake Beckley for the 1888 Pittsburgh Alleghenys
Jake Beckley played with Babe Adams for the 1906 St. Louis Cardinals
Babe Adams played with Paul Waner for the 1926 Pittsburgh Pirates
Paul Waner played with Warren Spahn for the 1942 Boston Braves
Warren Spahn played with Phil Niekro for the 1964 Milwaukee Braves
Phil Niekro played with Rickey Henderson for the 1985 New York Yankees
And somewhere out there, right now, a former or current teammate of Rickey Henderson will retire in 2025 as "The Tenth Man." Maybe he'll be a designated hitter by that time; as 10th man, that would be appropriate.
What kinds of links interest you? Want to know how quickly we can get from the last legal spitballer to the author of Me and the Spitter?
Burleigh Grimes played with Billy Herman for the 1933 Chicago Cubs
Billy Herman played with Warren Spahn for the 1946 Boston Braves
Warren Spahn played with Gaylord Perry for the 1965 San Francisco Giants
What about the two greatest starting pitchers in Red Sox history -- one of whom keeps winning awards named for the other?
Cy Young played with Roger Peckinpaugh for the 1910 Cleveland Naps
Roger Peckinpaugh played with Harry Kelley for the 1925 Washington Senators
Harry Kelley played with Mickey Vernon for the 1939 Washington Senators
Mickey Vernon played with Juan Pizarro for the 1959 Milwaukee Braves
Juan Pizarro played with Bruce Kison for the 1974 Pittsburgh Pirates
Bruce Kison played with Roger Clemens for the 1985 Boston Red Sox
Would you believe, thanks to Phil Niekro's brief fling in Toronto, you can get from Young to David Wells more quickly than from Young to Clemens?
Cy Young played with Hank Gowdy for the 1911 Boston Braves
Hank Gowdy played with Johnny Cooney for the 1923 Boston Braves
Johnny Cooney played with Warren Spahn for the 1942 Boston Braves
Warren Spahn played with Phil Niekro for the 1964 Milwaukee Braves
Phil Niekro played with David Wells for the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays
On the whimsical side, good ol' Steve "E-4" Sax holds the distinction of being a single link between the two greatest players ever to don major league baseball uniforms -- uh, make that the two greatest football players.
Deion Sanders played with Steve Sax for the 1989 New York Yankees
Steve Sax played with Bo Jackson for the 1993 Chicago White Sox
Or maybe not.
Jim Thorpe played with Mickey O'Neil for the 1919 Boston Braves
Mickey O'Neil played with Buddy Myer for the 1927 Washington Senators
Buddy Myer played with Early Wynn for the 1939 Washington Senators
Early Wynn played with Tommy John for the 1963 Cleveland Indians
Tommy John played with Deion Sanders for the 1989 New York Yankees
Note: The Thorpe-Jackson chain is one link longer. Hooray for Early Wynn and Tommy John.
Speaking of multi-sport professionals, Toronto's always been more of a basketball town. Time to step back up to the plate, Alfredo.
Danny Ainge played with Alfredo Griffin for the 1981 Toronto Blue Jays
Alfredo Griffin played with Carlos Delgado for the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays
Carlos Delgado played with Mark Hendrickson for the 2002 Toronto Blue Jays
And a former Detroit Piston who predates Ainge in the NBA by more than 15 years takes the same number of chain links to Hendrickson, the current Blue Jay ex-hoopster.
Ron Reed played with Harold Baines for the 1984 Chicago White Sox
Harold Baines played with Scott Eyre for the 1997 Chicago White Sox
Scott Eyre played with Mark Hendrickson for the 2002 Toronto Blue Jays
But it takes one extra step to reach a Hall of Famer.
Dave DeBusschere played with Luis Aparicio for the 1962 Chicago White Sox
Luis Aparicio played with Ben Oglivie for the 1972 Boston Red Sox
Ben Oglivie played with Dan Plesac for the 1986 Milwaukee Brewers
Dan Plesac played with Mark Hendrickson for the 2002 Toronto Blue Jays
Told you this was addictive.
To close out this introduction, let's pay homage to the original Hollywood Oracle and run the Kevin Bacon test on a current, versatile, long-time actress -- sort of the Jesse Orosco of her trade, only much hotter in Young Frankenstein than Jesse has ever been anywhere.
Teri Garr was in Absent-Minded Waiter, The (1977) with Steve Martin
Steve Martin was in Novocaine (2001) with Kevin Bacon
How does that stack up with The Baseball Oracle? Well, baseball has a Garr-to-Bacon chain of its own.
Ralph Garr played with Willie Davis for the 1979 California Angels
Willie Davis played with Duke Snider for the 1961 Los Angeles Dodgers
Duke Snider played with Dixie Walker for the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers
Dixie Walker played with Cy Perkins for the 1931 New York Yankees
Cy Perkins played with Eddie Bacon for the 1917 Philadelphia Athletics
The possibilities are endless. Build a chain of your own.
