Future Hall of Fame 1st Baseman

He was tall, lanky, first baseman that played college ball for legendary collegiate Hall of Fame coach Rod Dedeaux at the University of Southern California. He was drafted by a Bay Area team where he would play for 15 seasons hitting tape measure home runs. He would later be traded to a National League team in the current Central Division . He hit tape measure home runs that drove the home team fans to the ball park just to see the big guy knock'em out of the park. He had a very catchy nickname that endeared himself to the fans. He hit either home runs or struck out while not hitting for a high average. He didn't endear himself to the media either. He played with fellow slugger Jose Canseco and the Oakland Athletics in 1986. The final year of his career he hit 35 home runs, knocked in 94 runs with 126 strike outs.

Do you think you know who this big time home run hitting first baseman is? It might not be as easy as you think; who is this slugging first baseman?

Here are some more hints. He was never accused of doing steroids. He was a favorite of Harry Carey with the Chicago Cubs knocking 4 balls out of the ball park one summer day against the NL west leading Dodgers. He was forced out of baseball by the Oakland A's in 1986 despite putting up productive numbers after sending a female reporter for the Sacramento Bee a live rat during the first inning of a game against the Royals with the tag on the rat saying, "Hi, my name is Susan" the identical name of the reporter. Guess, it is safe to say we are not talking about Mark McGwire.





The paths and numbers of Dave "King Kong" Kingman and Mark "Big Mac" McGwire are almost uncanny. Both played 15 seasons. During their careers Kingman hit 448 home runs to "Big Mac's" 583*. Kong knocked in 1210 runs compared to Big Mac's 1414*. Kong struck out 1816 times while batting .236 while Big Mac bested Kong with a .263* career batting average while whiffing 1596* times. Big Mac holds slight advantages over Kong in most categories including getting together with Jose Canseco in the locker room for private meetings. Kong did hold the edge in the speed categories though with 85 career thefts and 25 triples compared to Big Mac's career 12* stolen bases and 6* triples. The two were almost identical with hits and two baggers as they had 252* and 240 respectively and 1626* to 1575.

It was apparent though that the steroids were wearing down Big Mac towards the end of his career and if not for the rat incident Kong would probably be getting more votes for the Hall of Fame as his numbers were still strong in his final season knocking 35 balls out of the park with 94 runs batted in, 19 doubles while hitting .210 in his final season. The .210 batting average sounds rather paltry except the guy who was supposed to be getting Hall of Fame consideration only hit .187* with 29* home runs and 64* runs batted in and 4* doubles in 97* games. Kong's natural health kept him in 144 games.



It's easy to figure out what Big Mac's numbers might have been if he had not juiced up all you have to do is look at Kong's numbers. What I would love to think about is how great would Kong's numbers have been had he trained with Jose Canseco?

* steroid era