Great Seasons of the 1950s - Third Basemen

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Written on - Not yet published to a wikizine

From: blog.fbhof.com

As the FBHOF dissects each decade from a fantasy angle, we post the individual great seasons of the 10-year period in a manner that they can be stacked up against the greats that came afterwards. In some ways, we’re breaking new ground (I think) since every baseball history I’ve ever read starts at the beginning. Here, we start at the end of history and work our way backwards, offering up perspective we might not otherwise have. Baseball, which mirrors our own lives in this respect, is a what have you done for me lately endeavor.

We’ve looked back upon the 1970s and 1960s, and today enter the realm of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Robin Roberts – the stars of the 1950s.

The 1950s Version of the Top-25 Third Base Seasons of All Time

Here’s an itemization of the number of Top-25 seasons by decade:

1970s – 8
1980s – 5
1960s – 4
1950s – 3
2000s – 3
1990s – 2

Headlined by Mike Schmidt and Alex Rodriguez, the Top 7 greatest third basemen seasons remain intact, Rodriguez being the only player with multiple entries. After completing the scoring for the 1950s, Al Rosen and Eddie Matthews add three seasons to the overall Top-25 all time list at the hot corner.

Rosen was at his best in ’53, recording 15.6 FBHOF points, second only to Duke Snider among batters during the year. It was an all time great season with power (43 HR), high batting average (.336), and the fan favorite, extreme RBI totals (145). A year earlier Rosen was also very effective - .302 with 101 R, 28 HR, 105 RBI, and 8 SB.

A lifelong Cleveland Indian, Rosen played full time in the majors for just seven seasons, averaging 27 HR, 85 R, and 101 RBI. With his 1952 and 1953 seasons Rosen now owns the 8th and 23rd best seasons of all time.

At his peak, Eddie Mathews wasn’t as good of a fantasy player as Rosen, but had the better career and is honored here for having a FBHOF Caliber career. He’s a Cooperstown Hall of Famer too of course. His two best seasons were very similar averaging 113 R, 43 HR, 119 RBI, 5 SB, and a .292 batting average in 1959 and 1960.

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