I’m on schedule to start my Terribles vs Monsters series that I started planning oh so long ago. I’ve assembled the nominees. I’ve polled my dear readers for each position for both teams. I hope to start rolling soon.
But first things first. How did the Monsters Outfield poll end up? Admittedly, some of you were understandably miffed that 1941 Ted Williams was not included. More on how I’m going to rectify that tomorrow.
Babe Ruth’s 1921 card (above) was the clear winner for one the spots. Of those who voted, 70% voted for that card, more than twice than the second place candidate. Ty Cobb’s 11-laden 1911 card came in second with 34% of the votes. Right behind him was Al Simmons’ monster card of 1930. Also from 1930, George Puccinelli got a fair amount of votes too with 27%.
The updated starting roster:
| Terribles | Monsters | |
| Catcher | 1967 Johnny Bench | 1931 Josh Gibson |
| Firstbase | 2011 Adam Dunn | 1927 Lou Gehrig |
| Secondbase | 1964 Joe Morgan | 1922 Rogers Hornsby |
| Shortstop | 1978 Mike Fischlin | 1982 Robin Yount |
| Thirdbase | 1905 Offa Neal | 1980 George Brett |
| Outfield | 1930 Chick Fullis | 1921 Babe Ruth |
| Outfield | 1934 Jerry McQuaig | 1911 Ty Cobb |
| Outfield | 1966 Johnny Herrnstein 1967 Reggie Jackson (tie) |
1930 Al Simmons |
I also took a little time to assemble a pitching staff for my Terribles team (you can see their Monster counterparts here). These are not APBA cards that made my Terrible Card Tuesday column (there’s only so much you can write about a card with D grade).
I did put some thought into this (with some help from Scott Fennessy, Tom Zuppa, Mel M and others) but this is certainly not meant to be a definitive list of worst seasons by pitcher. I did find some stinkers though.
| Pitcher | Grade | “Highlights” |
| 1934 Silas Johnson | D | 7-22, 5.22 ERA |
| 1985 Matt Young | DY | 12-19, 4.91 ERA |
| 1998 Darryl Kile | DW | 13-17, 5.20 ERA |
| 1962 Bob Miller | DY | 1-12, 4.89 ERA |
| 1965 Jack Fisher | CZ | 8-24, 3.94 ERA |
| 1973 Steve Blass | DW | 3-9, 9.85 ERA, 84 BB in 88 IP |
| 2007 Dontrelle Willis | D | 10-15, 5.17 ERA in 205 IP |
| 1963 Jim Duckworth | DW | 4-12, 6.04 ERA |
| 1982 Matt Keough | D | 11-18, 5.72 ERA |
Chronologically, Duckworth was my first choice suggested a long time ago by Scott Veatch. He says:
The Jim Duckworth card- From the 1963 Washington Senators. My cousin and I played the 1963 and 1964 season cards for hundreds (thousands?) of hours during the years when we were 11 and 12 years old and we both agreed that Jim Duckworth, 1963 Senators was the worst possible APBA baseball card. We referred to pitchers who never got a hit as “7-8-9 guys” and Duckworth was one of those. PLUS, he was a D (1) (W) pitcher, the worst possible rating. We used to joke that if we were on the Senators as 12 year-olds we couldn’t do any worse than Jim Duckworth.
After that story, I knew Duckworth had to be on the Terribles.
Of the nine pitchers, five (Johnson, Young, Kile, Fisher and Keough) led their league in losses. I thought I found a great one in Fisher who had an 8-24 record. Turns he had a 3.94 ERA and was given a CZ grade. I guess he’ll be our ringer.
Blass is a pretty sad real life story, actually. This is a good SI article about his abrupt drop-off if you have never heard about it. In fact, most of these pitchers were good at one point in their career and either tailed off or just had a bad season.
Strangely, some of our pitchers will be able to help their team off the mound. Some can hit like Blass 25-7 and Willis (1-2-0-0-7). Keough and Willis are rated as Fast base runners in case I need a pinch runner.
All I left to do is finalize the full roster for both teams. Special thanks to Scott Fennessy for his help in this project!
Hiya Tom!
It’ll be a happening if the Monsters lose a game!
Good luck with the project!
wow, that rotation is really terrible, 1980 Brian Kingman didn’t make the rotation. His 8-20 record wasn’t terrible enough. Seriously, he had a 3.83 and over 200 IP. Looking at the terribles roster, Kingman could be the ace :-)