Friday Funday deviated a bit last week with some combination of an extended Wizengamot or Thorns piece. Today, we are going back to the joyful roots, for sure. Which, for us, means we’re hitting the baseball diamond, because it’s our first true sports love, even if the modern-day game has lost its ethical and moral soul. So, let’s look at the career of a player who always put a smile on our face: Frank “Home Run” Baker.

He is in the Hall of Fame, and we named him the 1913 World Series MVP. He earned his nickname by hitting 42 home runs from 1911-1914 while leading the American League each of those four seasons. Baker helped the Philadelphia Athletics become the first team to win three World Series, too (1910–1911, 1913). All of this happened in the Dead Ball Era, of course, before George Herman Ruth came on the scene to change it all.

His 1912 season was somewhat historic with a 9.3 WAR mark. He posted career highs in both oWAR (8.3) and dWAR (1.5) that year. With 71 extra-base hits, Baker also delivered a career best OPS (.935) while stealing 40 bases. The only real downside was his 26 caught-stealing mistakes. The primary thing that kept Baker from winning our AL MVP nod that year was the fact his club had an off season, finishing way out of first place.

With a career .307 batting average, Baker clearly was a great hitter, and he also topped the AL in triples as a rookie in 1909, as well. The career 135 OPS+ says volumes, too, although the interesting thing about him is that he sat out the 1915 season in a contract dispute with A’s Manager/Owner Connie Mack. Baker still came back from 1916-1919 to post 17.0 WAR combined with the New York Yankees, but he wasn’t the same.

By his final two seasons (1921-1922) at age 35/36, he was just about done, posting just 3.5 WAR total. However, his 62.8 WAR as a third baseman still places him 13th overall in MLB history at the position. If he hadn’t missed both the 1915 and 1920 seasons, that WAR mark and career ranking would both be higher, we suspect. Conservatively, we could add 9.0 WAR to his career total for those two seasons, and it makes waves.

With the missed seasons added in (his wife died of scarlet fever in 1920), he would have been a Top 10 all-time third baseman, and we probably would know him for more than just the nickname. Alas, sometimes fate intervenes, although the contract dispute could have been avoided, obviously. Still, Baker had a great career with the individual HR titles and the team MLB championships. Hard to complain, really, overall.

He hit .321 with the A’s and .288 with the Yankees, played in six World Series (losing in 1914, 1921, and 1922), and ended up in Cooperstown, thanks to the Veterans Committee which selected him in 1955. He passed away in 1963, so he got to enjoy that accolade for awhile, unlike some old timers who are posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame. We’d hazard a guess that most modern major leaguers would take this career.

We certainly would; it’s a career to be admired.