McCarthy Madness

Many baseball authorities would rank Tommy McCarthy as the worst player in the Hall of Fame. His career totals would be lousy enough for a middle infielder, but for a corner outfielder they're downright atrocious. Not surprisingly, then, McCarthy rode the pine for the first four seasons of my Strat-O-Matic league. He bounced around between a couple of teams, getting in some work here and there as a pinch hitter or late-game defensive replacement. 

Last season, the arrival of our expansion team, the Resolutes, drained the talent pool and turned a lot of benchwarmers into starters. McCarthy found himself the Opening Day third baseman on the Resolutes, but his athleticism and skill as a defensive outfielder did not translate to the hot corner. The Resolutes shipped him out to the Canaries midway through the season as a throw-in to a blockbuster trade headlined by pitcher Rube Waddell and center fielder Pete Hill. 

The upshot was that McCarthy got more playing time on the Canaries, and now, in Season 6, he cracked the lineup as the Birds' everyday right fielder. How's he doing on his new team and in his new role? Well, at about the one-quarter mark of the regular season, he's leading the league in home runs! Of course, it's a statistical fluke -- he had zero home runs coming into this season -- but it's cool to see this bit player get his moment in the sun.