by Richard McGowan, Ph.D.
My wife and I traveled to northern Wisconsin and along the way, we drove through a tiny town, Three Lakes. The town had a historical marker for Cy Williams, a name that jogged my memory as a very good major league ballplayer.
So I went to baseball-reference.com and read his summary stat line:
Career
WAR AB H HR BA R RBI SB OBP SLG OPS OPS+ 36.9 6780 1981 251 .292 1024 1005 115 .365 .470 .835 125
I investigated his career on baseball-reference.com and discovered that he played from 1912 to 1930. Thus, he transitioned from the dead ball era, when home runs were scarce, to the live ball era, which was effectively brought about by Babe Ruth’s hitting, around 1920. The change did not appear to affect him: Cy Williams led the National League in home runs twice in the dead ball era, with 12 and 15 home run seasons, and twice in the live ball era, with 41 and 30 homer seasons.
I wondered why he was not in the Hall of Fame, so googled “four-time or more seasons as league leader in home runs.” AI converted my question into “List of most seasons as league leading home run hitter” and showed players with five or more seasons. I reworded the question to “four or more time single season league leader in home runs.” Ernie Banks was listed, but he only won two home run titles. Cy Williams was not listed at all.
My curiosity led me to ask “three or more time league leader in home runs.” This time AI gave me such players as Nelson Cruz, Dave Kingman and Mel Ott. Nelson Cruz won one home-run title, Kingman won two and Ott won six. However, the six-time home run leader was listed with four-time winners. As expected, four-time home run champ Cy Williams was not listed. I found other positively wrong-headed data, such as under three-time home leaders AI listed Mathews (he had two home run titles), Sosa (two titles), and Jim Thome (one title). Enough.
In short, AI, at least for baseball research, is significantly unreliable. Were I not retired, I would tell my students and anyone who would listen, that AI is like Wikipedia. It is okay to use it to start your research but the information must be checked against better sources. Then, cite those better sources, for instance, baseball-reference.com.
As to Cy Williams: most players who led the league in home runs 4 or more times are enshrined at Cooperstown. Six-time home run leader, Gavy Cravath (1908-1920, 34.6 wins against replacement) and four-time homer run leader, Cy Williams, are not. As well, seven hitters enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame have lower WARs, the single number that is often used to assess a baseball career.
I believe both should be there but because I root for hometown heroes, my concern here is for Fred ‘Cy’ Williams.
Born in Wadena, a small town near Lafayette, Indiana, Williams grew up on a farm, hence the nickname ‘Cy,’ often used for rural youngsters. He attended Notre Dame, where he majored in architecture. He played football at Notre Dame as the second-string left end to Knute Rockne’s second-string right end. Cy was marvelously fast and could have been in the 1912 Olympics as a hurdler and broad jumper. However, he chose baseball and in 1916, Baseball Magazine called him “The Greatest Outfielder in the National League.” In fact, Cy Williams was the NL career home run leader from 1923-1929, breaking Gavy Cravath’s career totals. Hornsby, in turn, took the career crown from Williams.
Though it took too long, Cy Williams was inducted into the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021. For my money, he belongs in the company of other great Indiana baseball players, such as Billy Herman, Gil Hodges, Oscar Charlston, and Mordecai ‘Three Finger’ Brown at Cooperstown, New York. May I live to see the day.
Richard McGowan, Ph.D., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, has taught philosophy and ethics cores for more than 40 years, most recently at Butler University.
Sources
baseball-reference.com
Society for American Baseball Research
