Tom Seaver vs. Dock Ellis

Dock Ellis

Last week, you may recall, upon the death of Tom Seaver, I posted a summary of the times that Pirates ace pitcher Steve Blass matched up on the mound against Mets ace Seaver. 

 http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2020/09/tom-seaver-vs-steve-blass.html 

You will see that I was surprised that such a matchup took place only six times over the years, and that there was a stretch of two entire seasons where the two didn't face each other at all.  So that got me to wondering: perhaps Seaver matched up more frequently with the Pirates other  ace pitcher of that era, Dock Ellis.  So off I went to www.baseball-almanac.com, run by the esteemed Sean Holtz, and I got my answer:

8/10/70 @ Pgh; Ny 10 - Pgh 2	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	2	5	5	3	3	1	L
Seaver	9	6	2	2	3	3	W
4/16/71 @ NY; NY 1 - Pgh 0	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	7	6	1	1	1	6	L
Seaver	9	3	0	0	0	14	W
4/15/72 @ NY; NY 4 - Pgh 0	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	6	6	4	4	2	2	L
Seaver	6	5	0	0	0	6	W
7/28/72 @Pgh; P 3 - NY 1	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	9	7	1	1	1	7	W
Seaver	7	4	2	2	4	8	L
7/28/74 @ NY; Pgh 8 - NY 3	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	8.1	6	3	3	1	6	W
Seaver	4.1	12	8	7	1	6	L
8/3/75 @ NY; P 5 - NY 4	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Decision
Ellis	6.1	7	4	3	3	4	ND
Seaver	10	9	4	3	4	5	ND
9/1/75 @ NY; Ny 3 - Pgh 0	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
Ellis	1	1	0	0	2	0	ND
Seaver	9	4	0	0	1	10	W

As it turns out, the two aces matched up against each other only six times as starters as well, and Ellis appeared in relief against Seaver once late in 1975, so that hardly counts.   And as it was with Blass, there was one entire season, 1973,  when the two did not face each other at all. 

Ellis did a little better against Seaver than teammate Blass did, posting a 2-3 record with two ND, and a 3.49 ERA.  In three of his starts, Pirates batters managed to get him 2, 0, and 0 runs in the way of support.  In those seven games, which includes the Ellis relief appearance, Seaver pitched four complete games and three shutouts.  His record was 4-2, 1 ND, and a 2.32 ERA.  He struck out 52 Pirates in 54.1 innings pitched.  If you take away the July 28, 1974 game, when Seaver gave up 7 earned runs in 4.1 IP, Seaver's ERA against Ellis and the Pirates was 1.26.

Not sure what this proves, other than that Tom Seaver was a great pitcher, even when facing against the opponents' best pitchers, but then, we already knew that.  

Anecdotally, as I was paging through Ellis-vs-Mets box scores, it seemed like Dock Ellis matched up against Jerry Koosman in EVERY Pirates-Mets series, but I didn't take notes, so that is a project for another day.  Ellis also pitched for a bunch of other teams over the years, including the Mets, but he never went up against Seaver in any of those other stops.

Oh, and I can't do a story about Dock Ellis without posting one of the more famous photos of him.

The Baseball Reliquary

During the past Christmas holiday season, I made the acquaintance of a gent named Nick Frankart, the son and brother of friends of ours from Church. Nick lives in California and was home visiting his family for the holiday season. Nick made me aware of a California based organization to which he belongs called The Baseball Reliquary. I had heard of this organization through SABR, but didn't know much about it, so I looked into it.

According to it's mission statement, "The Baseball Reliquary is a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history and to exploring the national pastime's unparalleled possibilities."

OK, that all sounded pretty good to me. What also interested me was an initiative of the Reliquary called the "Shrine of the Eternals." Again, to quote directly from The Baseball Reliquary....

"The Shrine of the Eternals is similar in concept to the annual elections held at the Baseball Hall of Fame, but differs philosophically in that statistical accomplishment is not a criterion for election. Rather, the Shrine's annual ballot is comprised of individuals - from obscure to the well-known - who altered the baseball world in ways that supersede statistics."

How fun is that? The first class of inductees in 1999 consisted of Bill Veeck, Curt Flood, and Dock Ellis. How can any Pirates fan not love an organization that would honor Dock Ellis? Dock even showed up in person to accept this unique honor. Here is a terrific story from the Reliquary's website about that enshrinement:

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/DockEllisFirstEternal.htm

The ballot for the 2012 Shrine of the Eternals election is out and consists of 50 candidates and includes names such as Eliot Asinof, Steve Blass, Charlie Finley, Fred Merkle, and Don Zimmer.

So, I went in for twenty-five bucks for a year's membership, and I figure to have some fun with it. Further information can be found on its website, www.baseballreliquary.org. If your membership is in and paid up by March 31, you will receive a ballot and be able to vote on the 2012 class of the Shrine of the Eternals.

Check it out, especially all you readers who are baseball fans and SABR members.