Friday, December 30, 2016

Chris Cannizzaro, R. I. P.

NY Daily News: Chris Cannizzaro, an original 1962 Met, has died, the San Diego Padres announced on Friday. He was 78. Cannizzaro played 59 games for the Amazin’s who lost 120 games that season and stayed with the club through the 1965 season. He hit .236 with zero home runs, 30 RBI over his four seasons spanning the Polo Grounds and Shea Stadium. He led the league in caught stealing percentage in 1962 (56%) and 1965 (53%).  

Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

2 comments:

Don Coffin said...

I re-posted this link at the Bill James On-Line site, and one of the other people there added this comment:

"Here's an interesting one - his two best comps according to Baseball Reference's use of Bill [James's] Similarity Scores are Joe Ginsberg and Hobie Landrith - all three of them were catchers for the Mets in their hapless inaugural year. Two other Mets backstops who were just a few years later are also in his top ten - Duffy Dyer is #3 and Ron Hodges is #7."

The Mets specialized in less-than-stellar catchers in the early/mid 1960s.

Jeff Meyerson said...

And Casey picked a catcher with his first pick too! I believe he called him "Canzoneri."