Slick and The Mechanical Man

There was a time when nicknames were an essential part of baseball coverage, so Detroit Tigers second baseman Charlie Gehringer was called The Mechanical Man, which isn’t as cool as The Sultan of Swat, The Splendid Splinter or The Yankee Clipper.

Or even "Slick" which is what Michael Young’s teammates call him.

He was called The Mechanical Man because an opponent said, "All you do is wind him up on Opening Day and he runs on and on all season," which could describe the Rangers shortstop as well.

Gehringer, who attended Mass every morning with his mother even as a player, ran on and on enough to be voted into the Hall of Fame and be ranked by Bill James as the eighth greatest second baseman in baseball history, roughly equal to Ryne Sandberg and Rod Carew

All of which is relevant because Michael Young now has 200 hits in four straight seasons, which is the most by a middle infielder since Gehringer did it in five straight in 1933-37.

Gehringer was also considered to be an outstanding defensive player, especially on the double play pivot. He also led the league in fielding percentage seven times but he also committed 35 errors in his third full season in the big leagues. Young, at the same point in his career, made just ten errors although no doubt playing on better fields with much better gloves.

But Young was considered near-Gold Glove as a second baseman before switching over shortstop, a position Gehringer never played even for one out in his Major League career.

Gehringer was a second baseman and one of the best ever, the American League’s Most Valuable Player in 1937 when he hit .371 and won his only batting title at the Opening Day age of 33.

Young was 28 last season when he won his first batting title, hitting .331. Gehringer hit higher than .331 four times in his career, playing the bulk of his career in the 1930′s which was considered the greatest offensive era in baseball history, at least until steroids came along.

But Young’s last four years as a hitter would fit nicely into Gehringer’s career without sticking out too badly. Gehringer walked about 20 times more in the first six years of his career but Young seemed to hit for a little more power.

Young, through six full seasons, is hitting .300 with a 162-game average of 101 runs, 36 doubles, seven triples, 17 home runs and 85 RBI. Gehringer batted .318 in his first six seasons, averaging 121 runs scored, 32 doubles, 13 triples, seven home runs and 73 RBI.

Gehringer, who was born on May 11, 1903 and began playing full-time in 1926, got better with age. In the six years from 1932-37 – his seventh through 12th seasons in the Majors – he hit .338. Three times he hit over .350 and in 1936 he hit 60 doubles, which is the sixth highest for one season in Major League history.

Only six players have ever hit 60 or more doubles in a season and they all did it in an 11-year period between 1926 to 1937.

"He’s in a rut," Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Gomez said of Gehringer. "He hits .350 on Opening Day and stays there all season."

What’s funny is Rangers owner Tom Hicks referred to Young as a "quiet" leader and Gehringer was renown for being a quiet man.

He was given a banquet in his honor and when it came time to speak, Gehringer got up and said, "I’m known around baseball as saying very little, and I’m not going to spoil my reputation."

He signed his autograph Chas. Gehringer instead of Charlie and said, "Why use seven letters when four will do," which is pretty witty for a guy who supposedly didn’t say very much.

He also said, "If somebody asked me a question, I would answer them. If they said, ‘Pass the Salt,’ I would pass the salt."

That’s not bad either, or: "Show me a good loser and I’ll show you an idiot."

He wasn’t a loser and played in three World Series for the Tigers in 1934-35 and again in 1940. They won in 1935, beating the Cubs, and he had a .321 career batting average in the World Series. He also played all nine innings at second base in the first six All-Star Games and was 10-for-20 in his career.

Not that this has anything to do with anything but he led off the 1934 All-Star Game with a single off of Carl Hubbell, who then walked Heinie Manush. They were still standing on base when Hubbell struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx, then came back to strike out Al Simmons and Joe Cronin the next inning in a famous moment in baseball history.

But Gehringer missed his Hall of Fame induction in 1949 because he was finally getting married after spending his entire playing career taking care of his diabetic mother. He also had an unsuccessful stint as the Tigers general manager in the 1950′s, a job that was pressed upon him because he couldn’t say no.

This was a guy who batted left-handed but was given a set of right-handed golf clubs as a gift. Rather than returning them, he learned to play golf right-handed.

He is not a bad guy for Michael Young to be compared to at this point in his career.