In February of 1975 the Mets purchased Dave Kingman from the Giants for $150,000. Kingman's 1975 Topps card depicted him as the Giants' first baseman. With the Mets he found a home in the outfield. Even before he wore a Cubs uniform he was a favorite in Chicago. Kingman was a local boy made good. His dad was employed by United Airlines in Chicago and Dave graduated from Prospect High in Mount Prospect, IL. While still on the Mets in 1976 he hit what might have been the longest homer out of Wrigley. An estimated 550 feet it landed on the porch of a house 3 doors down from the intersection of Waveland and Kenmore.
I once heard a sports commentator (I don't remember who) say "Without steroids, Mark McGwire is Dave Kingman." I believe this to be a fair assessment. Both played 16 years and put up similar numbers, especially since you have to wonder how many of McGwires homers would have been warning track outs.
Here is a breakdown of their 162 game average over their career.
| AB | 1B | 2B | 3B | HR | BA | SO | |
| Kingman | 557 | 72 | 20 | 2 | 37 | 0.236 | 152 |
| McGwire | 535 | 68 | 22 | 1 | 50 | 0.263 | 138 |
I just have one problem with the McGwire-Kingman assessment: walks. Kingman only managed 608 over his career, while McGwire worked 1,317. The difference between a .302 OBP and a .394 OBP is not marginal by any stretch.
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting point. While McGwire's strike out total was fairly high, so was his walk total. I wonder if he was just looking for that perfect pitch to take deep. I was looking around online for some data on how often he struck out looking versus swinging and how it compared to Kingman but had no such luck.
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