Only one player in MLB history has been named Franz, but he went by Otto Knabe. Two players had the first name of Ferdinand, but both went by Ferdie - Schupp and Moore. Thanks to http://www.baseball-reference.com/ for the great stats showing that Ferdie Moore played two games.
It is also the birthday of Chris Speier and Don Baylor. Both went into coaching when done with their playing careers.
I was surprised to see that Baylor stole 285 bases which included a season with 52. You can tell I followed the NL more as a kid. I did know that he was always being hit by pitches. He totaled 267 of those which left him as the modern day record holder until Craig Biggio surpassed him. The all-time record in 287 by Hughie Jennings. Baylor led the league in this category eight times while also finishing in the top four seven other times.
As we saw with the near perfect game this week, umpires don't enforce rules in place to keep players from intentionally being hit by a pitch.
Speier had a longer career than I remembered. He played from 1971 to 1989. He started out fast, making the All-Star team in 1972, 1972 and 1974. He never made another one. He was 0-4 in the first two games and he didn't play in the third one.
Was Baylor the one whose baseball card depicted a cartoon batter standing behind netting above a caption that celebrated his leading the league in getting hit? I loved that one.
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