1981 TOPPS FRANK TAVERAS
I could tolerate any, any insurance seminar, for days. I could sit there and listen to them go on and on with a big smile on my face. They’d say, “How can ya stand it?” And I’d say, “‘Cause I’ve been with Del Griffith. I can take anything.”
This is how I feel when people go on and on about how bad it is watching the current Mets. The last five years we’ve been able to watch stars like Beltran, Dickey, Harvey, Reyes, Santana and Wright. Those of us who can remember when Frank Taveras was trotted out as one of the big stars of the team can take anything.
Taveras was sort of like a poor man’s Eric Young Jr. He couldn’t really hit very much, had no power and wouldn’t take a walk. But he was fast. The only other tool he had in his arsenal was that he was an excellent bunter. Taveras’ specialty was a push bunt, where the goal was to bunt the ball hard enough to go past the pitcher and make either the first or second baseman field the ball. When he got the ball past the pitcher, he inevitably beat the pitcher to the bag.
Before the shift-craziness era that we live in today, very few teams would play their second baseman in when Taveras came to the plate. Therefore, his success ratio was very high. According to research done by Baseball Prospectus‘ Dan Fox, Taveras attempted 52 bunts over the 1979-1980 seasons and got a hit 44 times. That works out to a remarkable 85% success rate.
The Fox article, written during the 2007 season, ranked Taveras’ 1980 season, when he was successful on 21 of 24 bunt attempts, as the second-highest percentage season among those with at least 20 attempts. It was always exciting to see Taveras do the push bunt and we always wished he would do it more. Seeing these numbers (and the rest of his offensive profile) he might have been better off doing it each time he came to the plate.
Taveras was a bad player on some truly awful teams. However, at least he brought something to the table, which is more than some of his teammates did. This 1981 card captures Taveras in whatever glory he possessed.
This is so funny….I just finished a draft of a future article which mentioned Taveras at the end of it.
Taveras was the first player I ever saw bunt for a double intentionally. The third baseman charged, and Taveras bunted hard over his head and didn’t stop until the dust settled at second base. This was in 1979, and it turns out that he’s one of only 30-odd players to have ever recorded a bunt double: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/2/17/3998004/history-of-the-bunt-double
Awesome article!