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June 26, 2007

Is Youkilis beating Stuffy’s 1921 record really fair game?

By Nate Rice, Correspondent

He’s no Bill Buckner.

On Monday, Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis broke the Red Sox record of 119 consecutive games at first base without an error, set in 1921 by Gloucester’s John “Stuffy” McInnis. McInnis had one error that year.

But some locals are wondering if giving the record to Youkilis is fair game.

Melvin George of Rockport, who has campaigned to no avail to get “Stuffy” into the Baseball Hall of Fame, is a self-proclaimed “purist” when it comes to the game of baseball. George says he just goes by the facts.

When “Stuffy” played, he always played nine or more innings to get credit for an errorless game. However, under today’s rules a player can be put in for one inning and that appearance will count as a game played, George said.

In fact, Youkilis went into Sunday’s game against the San Diego Padres late; David Ortiz started and played most of the game at first. But Youkilis’ late appearance counted toward McInnis’ old record.

“It’s a shame that McInnis’ record was broken partially by players being used as late-inning defensive replacements,” George said. “Kevin Youkilis was inserted as a late replacement (Sunday); by baseball’s rules he gets credit, but he only played one inning.”

Although George is a big Youkilis fan, and he gives him a lot of credit for breaking the record, he believes players should have to play more than five innings for it to count as an errorless game.

“There’s much less of a chance that you’re going to make an error if you’re in the game for one inning,” George said. “Baseball doesn’t have standards on this issue. I don’t blame the players, (but) I do blame Major League Baseball for not having standards.”

McInnis played for the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Boston Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Philadelphia Phillies during his 19-season career from 1909 to 1927. He was involved in four World Series championships (1911, 1913, 1918, 1925), smacked an impressive .307 career batting average with 20 home runs and 1,062 RBI in 2,128 games.

Moreover, McInnis, nicknamed “The Gloucester Whaler” by teammates, was a Gold Glove-caliber fielder, posting a .993 career fielding percentage at first base, and a .991 career fielding percentage overall.

Will Anderson, the Maine author who wrote the book, “The Lost New England Nine, The Best of New England’s Forgotten Ballplayers,” is disappointed that Youkilis broke the record.

“I think it’s too bad,” Anderson said. “I like some of these old records that last forever.”

Anderson believes that McInnis “had a place in the Hall of Fame,” although the closest he ever got was when he received 5.2 percent or eight votes by Hall of Fame voters in 1949, according to the Web site, thebaseballpage.com. He also believes that if McInnis had played for teams such as the Yankees, Giants or Cardinals he would have received more recognition for his accomplishments and would have been inducted to the Hall of Fame, Anderson said.

The long-standing record is an amazing baseball accomplishment, especially because of the equipment ballplayers used back then, Anderson said. The era’s baseball gloves were tiny in comparison to today’s.

“It’s something you might make a snowball with, but it’s nothing you use to play first base,” he said. “It was his artistry that made it, not the glove.”

This isn’t the first time that a ballplayer has broken a record set by “Stuffy.” In 1984, Steve Garvey of the San Diego Padres broke the record of most consecutive errorless games in a season with zero errors in 1,319 chances during 159 games.

However, the record that still belongs to “Stuffy” that no ballplayer has broken has to do with the number of chances. From 1921 to 1922, “Stuffy” successfully went 1,700 fielding chances without an error.

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Baseball lingo

Chances: When a fielder has a “chance” to field a ball or catch it, that is a chance. “Stuffy” McInnis holds the all-time Major League Baseball record for any player for most number — 1,700 — of chances without an error.

Error: An “error” is a subjective call made by an official scorer of each game. Bill Buckner’s groundball “chance” that went through his legs in 1986? That’s an error. But if that ball was hit 100 mph and took a bad bounce over Buckner’s head, that most likely would not have been an error.

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