Platoons of the ’80s
September 18, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under History, Personalities
How appropriate that so many great baseball platoons were in effect during the decade that brought us the movie Platoon. Steve Treder at Hardball Times (full disclosure: I contribute to THT) has published the latest in his look back at “extraordinarily productive left-right platoon partnerships.”
A couple things stand out to me. First, it’s amazing how much mileage Earl Weaver got out of John Lowenstein and Gary Roenicke in left field. Both were good players with flaws. The genius of Weaver, of course, is that he found a way to maximize their utility while minimizing their flaws. (As an aside, I’m doing some research on the ‘73 draft — Roenicke was the third shortstop taken that year, behind Robin Yount and Johnnie LeMaster.)
Second, I remember as a kid watching Lee Lacy play for the Dodgers. He didn’t get into the game all that often, but when he did, he was pretty effective. As a part-timer, he posted some terrific numbers in 1975 and 1978 before moving on to Pittsburgh.
After several more productive seasons with the Pirates, Lacy got his first shot at a (mostly) everyday gig in 1984, hitting .321/.362/.464 in the process. How many guys do you suppose have (a) qualified for a league batting title for the first time at age 36 and (b) finished second in the league that year?
