Posts Tagged ‘Chicago Cubs’

Leon Durham

Monday, February 22nd, 2010 by Nerdicus Finch

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From Wikipedia: “Durham appears briefly in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He is the first baseman in the sequence where Braves outfielder Claudell Washington hits a foul ball caught by the titular character.”

Also, Durham was pretty good at baseball. In over 1000 career games, he posted a .277/.356./.475 line (125 OPS+). In 1982, he put up a .312/.388/.521 (151 OPS+) line with 22 home runs. He was a first round draft pick in 1976.

1933 Goudey: Eddie “Doc” Farrell

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 by Nerdicus Finch

eddie-farrell

From the back of the card: “Eddie is a registered dentist, besides being a high grade major league baseball player.”

I’ll give Goudey a pass on the “high grade” player thing because it is pretty impressive that Doc Farrell was a dentist. One of the fascinating things about reading about old-timey players is how many of them had professions other than baseball. I’ve read about two that were lawyers (including Moe Berg, who was a lawyer and spy for the U.S. during World War II).

Farrell probably should have stuck with dentistry, though. Over nine seasons in the major leagues, he got into just under 600 games and posted a career OPS+ of 66 as an infielder for the New York Giants, Boston Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox. In 1927, he placed 18th in the MVP voting by hitting .316 and driving in 92 runs, though he only slugged .389 that season.

Following the 1934 season, Farrell was traded by the Yankees, along with 4 other players, to San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League for Joe DiMaggio and players to be named later. Farrell refused to report to his new team and was eventually traded back to the Yankees as one of the players to be named later.