I find it amusing that I can rattle off the starting lineups for teams of 50 years ago, but can’t tell you who’s on the current rosters.
I’m in the midst of building a TV-center/bookcase in my office and during the cleanup process I came across this:
If ever there was a head-scratcher about a player who was the subject of a biography, it has to be Zoilo Versalles.
Versalles made his debut as a 19-year-old in 1959 with the Washington Senators, which two years later relocated to Minnesota to become the Twins.
He was a serviceable player, lasting for 13 seasons, mostly with the Twins but winding up his career with Dodgers, Indians, Senators (a new version joined the American League as an expansion team in 1961), and Braves. He was a two-time All Star and won a Gold Glove. But overall, Versalles had a WAR of -1.7. That’s right — negative 1.7. I haven’t done the research but I’m willing to wager that this is the lowest WAR for any player with a book written by or about him.
But in 1965, the year the Twins won the AL pennant before losing in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series — where he went 8-28 with a double, triple, home run, and four RBI — Versalles was voted as the league’s MVP. He led the junior circuit in plate appearances, at-bats, runs scored, doubles, triples, total bases, and, surprisingly, WAR; he also struck out more than anyone else. But the writers nevertheless rewarded him the the MVP, giving him 19 of 20 first-place votes. He finished more than 100 points higher than his teammate, Tony Oliva. Looking at the list of all players receiving votes, it looked like relatively slim pickings. Other notable names who finished in the top ten included Brooks Robinson (the 1964 selection), Rocky Colavito, and Mudcat Grant.
As was the norm for many sports biographies before Ball Four, The Kid from Cuba, written by James Terzian and published in 1967, was devoted to Versalles’ challenging travel to pro baseball.
Terzian, who was born in Turkey in 1915 but moved to the U.S. as a child, wrote a few other sports titles but spent most of his career a journalist.
If you can’t find the book, you can read more about Versalles on the SABR Bio Project site.
What other players have received the “book treatment,” despite their relative mediocrity (said with all dues respect)?
is available on Amazon.com,
