Bill Simmons and Holy Cross

Actually, Holy Cross has produced 77 players who have played major league baseball. There is a difference.

But 71 of those 77 came before WWII. And no Holy Cross alum has made it to MLB since Mike Pazik's last appearance 30 years ago (1977). After WWII, you have:

Mike Hegan (965 career games)
Bill Spanswick (29)
Mike Pazik (13)
Gordon Massa (8.)
Pete Naton (6)
Dick Joyce (5)

Best ballplaying Crusaders are all from the dead-ball era:

3B Jumpin' Joe Dugan
SS Jack Barry
OF Jimmy Ryan
RHP Andy Coakley

 

Surprised it took you that long.

 

Buckweaver - how could you leave Holy Cross's Louis Sockalexis off your list? The Cleveland Spiders were renamed the Indians in his honor.

 

Shame on you, lad.
The first syllable is not "woo"-- except, of course, in the case of the immortal Miss Woo, diner to the elite - but "wuh."
You know that they'd drum you out of Breen's for something like that.
Father Brooks sent HC down its current path long before Title IX would have had any effect at all. At best, maybe, you can argue that the anti-discrimination provisions of Title IX made it impossible to undo Brooks's original decision, which was unquestionably the right one for a school of HC's size.

 

Is it true Wuh-stah has more colleges per capita than any city in the country?

 

I grew up 20 minutes from Holy Cross and I honestly can't believe this has its own thread.

 

A notable omission, for sure. Good catch.


Other Crusaders of interest:

- Jigger Statz (who spent 18 years with the PCL Los Angeles Angels and long held the record for most games played in professional baseball with 3,473 -- since broken by Rose and Aaron.)

- Tim Murnane (an eventual Spink Award winner for the Boston Globe for 30 years until his untimely death in 1917; he played eight seasons in several different major leagues of the 1880s. One of the first all-star games was held at Fenway Park in September 1917, raising $14K for his widow. Cobb, Speaker and Jackson played outfield for the all-stars. Ruth pitched for the Red Sox.)

- Bill Carrigan (Managed the Red Sox to 1915 and '16 WS titles. First major league manager The Babe ever had.)

 

Worcester has 10 colleges.

Fenian - the chronology:

Title IX - 1972
Big East Founded - 1979
Rick Carter commits suicide 1986 (because HC was downgrading football)
Patriot League Founded - 1986 (HC was not an original member)
HC joins Patriot League - 1990-91

I agree that Father Brooks viewed sports as an essential part of college life but he equally viewed big time college sports as more of a risk to the reputation of the college than it was worth. I also agree that his decision not to try to go big-time was the right one. And remains the right decision for Holy Cross.

Bill Simmons obviously disagrees.

(But if Fenian and I agree on anything - that has to give you pause that Simmons completely has his head up his ass on this)

 

Where was Holy Cross before the Patriot? the NAC?

 

Fenian - correct me if I'm wrong - but I think Holy Cross was in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference before the Patriot League.

 

The MAC, IIRC.

EDIT: Forgot an A. Chris_L is correct.

 

And a history lesson: While the Indians nickname does date back to The Chief's rookie year of 1897, they were more commonly known as the Naps in that era, after Napoleon Lajoie.

They went back and forth with those two names until 1915, when Cleveland sports writers (Plain Dealer? who knows!) chose "Indians" as the team's permanent nickname, after Lajoie was sold to the A's that offseason.