What better way to celebrate baseball and an Irish themed holiday than talking about former big leaguer "Irish" Meusel.
Emil Frederick Meusel was born in 1893 and was given the nickname Irish for his heritage.
Irish played with four teams over his career (Brooklyn Robins, New York Giants, Washington Senators, and Philadelphia Phillies). Of those teams, only one exists in it's original city and team name, the Philadelphia Phillies.
During the 1921 season, Irish was traded from the Phillies to the New York Giants and with his high batting average he helped the Giants overcome a 7.5 game deficit to win the National League Pennant over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Giants would face off against the New York Yankees in the 1921 World Series and the brothers Meusel would battle each other in the series.
The New York Giants and Irish Meusel would go on to win the Championship and defeat Bob Meusel's Yankees.
Irish helped the Giants win 4 more pennants and helped the Giants to another World Series Championship in 1922. He compiled 202 hits and 132 RBI in 1922. The next year he would lead the league in RBI (125). He would play only a few more seasons, getting MVP votes in 1925 for his 21 HR and 111RBI performance while batting .328. His final season was his age 34 season for the Brooklyn Robins.
Irish Meusel had a career batting average of .310 over his 11 year career.
To celebrate the name "Irish" Meusel and recognize his breakout performances 100 years ago with the Philadelphia Phillies as their left fielder, here are my serially numbered 3/10 Phillies cards of their current left fielder. It's only fitting that today is 3/10 as well.
2020 Topps Now Road To Opening Day Red
What are your St. Patrick's Day plans?
Do you have any suggestions for a St. Patrick theme post that I can make over the next week?
Great story, hadn't heard it before. great tie in to the Cutch cards and todays date. Great cards too! For St patty's day, I am going to do the annual buy my Uncle a genuine Kosher corned beef sandwich from the Jewish Temple. It is an annual charity that my Uncle always participates in on St. Patrick's Day. I know it sounds weird, but it is real, lol.
ReplyDeleteUpdate: The Temple has postponed the even this year due to issues getting the meat from NY.
DeleteSt. Patrick's Day lands on a Wednesday this year... which means teaching in the morning, then some professional development, and then I'll wrap things up with a staff meeting. It's gonna be awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat Road to Opening Day card is fantastic. As for the day, drinking Guinness and/or Baileys, eating something baked with Baileys, etc.
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