Dominic Paul DiMaggio "The Little Professor"

[Crash Course]

He played in the major leagues from 1940 to 1953.

[nyy26wc]

No

Just 120 RCAA
Just 2 years with 20+ RCAA, 0 with 22+

[KCBOOMER]

A highly regarded CF of his era who lost 3 years to the War. He had a career OPS+ of 111 which is good enough for NetShrine, but only played 11 years. His WARP3 is only 69. I don't see how we can put him in unless we give him some real credit for the way years.

[Golden Bear]

Why shouldn't he get credit for the war years? And he should also get credit for being a plus-plus-plus defender in CF. (Fenway's CF is very tough, to boot.)

Yes.

[crazydiamond]

why shouldn't Munson get credit for the years after he died?
why shouldn't Pete Gray get credit for his other arm?
why shouldn't starting pitchers get credit for the days they don't start?

[hmrsf]

Why shouldn't he get credit for the war years? And he should also get credit for being a plus-plus-plus defender in CF. (Fenway's CF is very tough, to boot.)

Yes.


:thumb: Could not have said it better. And don't give me war years are same as crediting someone who died early.

[nyy26wc]

:thumb: Could not have said it better. And don't give me war years are same as crediting someone who died early.

Let's not kid ourselves. The object of war is to make others die early. Two (or more) governments have disagreements, so their citizens kill each other.

So, if you're not going to give extra credit for the player being the dead body, then why give credit for making others dead?

[Golden Bear]

Military service, particularly via conscription (i.e., a draft) during a declared war, is generally considered a special case.

If Uncle Sam hadn't called, he'd have presumably added to his career, in Dom D's case during prime seasons (going by age).

If he'd refused the draft, he'd have probably gone to prison, and wouldn't have played anyway.

A little different than Ruth's bellyache, but opinions vary.

And, your wisecrack brings up another case...when a player suffers from a non-baseball related injury, one might sometimes consider that a special circumstance as well.

These are subjective matters, to be sure. But ones that ought to be considered by fair-minded people.

[nyy26wc]

The issue is what are we going to give players credit for?

They are baseball players having their baseball careers being evaluated. Nearly all of the time, what they do on the baseball field is what they are given credit (negative or positive) for.

In 1942, DiMaggio (along with others, such as Joe, Ted Williams, Stan Musial and plenty of others) did not consider the war to be something he was interested in, nor did the federal government see a need for them. So, they played and are rightfully given credit for what they did on the field.

In the other years, they were not producing anything on the field. So, the question is, if we give them credit for anything, since it can't be baseball, then what would it be?

Blaise Pascal asked, "Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?" Normally, no, but giving such a man baseball credit for it would be one of those things.