Using similarity scores to determine Sam "Mayday" Malone's most similar pitchers

[Hairps]

This week marked 28 years since Cheers went off the air. We commemorated the occasion with a review of Sam Malone’s career pitching line on (oh God, is he going to plug his podcast within a main board post?) our (no, he wouldn’t dare) podcast (Can you believe this guy? He actually did it!).

Did you know that Sam Malone pitching stats exist? Neither did I! Sports Illustrated ran a fictionalized piece on his career and gave him the following line:

312 and two-third innings over the course of his career with a 16-30 lifetime record over 207 games with 40 strikeouts and 109 walks

Because we have no life, we used Bill James’ similarity scores to ask the question: What actual MLB pitchers were most similar to Sam Malone?

Top 20 results below. I am sorry. I am so very, very sorry.

+++++++++

sim_score	player	year_first	Sox?
981.7005​	Mike Schooler	1988​
979.8335​	Joe Biagini	2016​
974.9134​	Brandon Maurer	2013​
974.8383​	Bruce Cunningham	1929​
974.7429​	Mike Lincoln	1999​
973.7829​	Rick Lysander	1980​
973.4783​	Jesse Winters	1919​
973.3993​	Ernie Camacho	1980​
973.0657​	Vinnie Chulk	2003​
972.0012​	Scott Strickland	1999​
971.9621​	Wally Whitehurst	1989​
971.3623​	Bob Heffner	1963​	BOS
971.2927​	Rich Loiselle	1996​
971.1821​	Eddie Butler	2014​
970.6573​	Julio Santana	1997​
970.4909​	Dave Keefe	1917​
970.254​	Ken Holcombe	1945​	BOS
970.2273​	Bo McLaughlin	1976​
969.906​	Jeremy Accardo	2005​
968.6425​	Billy Taylor	1994​

 

[SoxJox]

Yeah, but was he better than Sidd Finch?

 

[jmcc5400]

Just wish he hadn’t given up that home run to Charlie Spikes.

 

[Hairps]

Ha, least similar player:

367.3776​

Dennis Eckersley

1975​

BOS

 

[The Gray Eagle]

The Sam Malone wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Malone
"
At the time the series debuted in 1982, Sam has been the bartender and owner of Cheers for five years.[e 1][e 2] Chronologically within the series, Sam, who is Irish Catholic,[2] dropped out of high school in his senior year to play professional baseball.[e 3]

Sam began his career in the minor leagues, where he met Coach Ernie Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto). He eventually became a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, wearing number 16. His major league career lasted approximately five years; he specifically mentions having pitched in 1973, and was a member of the 1975 AL champion Red Sox team. As well, Martin Crane saw him pitch at the Kingdome, which opened in 1977 – also the year that he became the owner of Cheers. Although his baseball career is not highly detailed throughout the series, Sam was at times a good-to-very-good pitcher (stories of him retiring star batters occur during the series), and was the team's bullpen ace for a while. Sam's baseball career declined when he became an alcoholic, and there are also numerous stories of him pitching poorly and giving up tape-measure home runs."

So to me, the real pitcher who would most be like Sam Malone would be a guy who pitched in relief with the Red Sox from 1973 through 1975, and who was still in the AL in 1977 and gave up at least one HR in the Kingdome.
Like Sam, he should be a white guy, over 6 feet tall, brown hair, good looking, seems kind of cocky.

This has got to be the guy:

 

[bosockboy]

So Sam was in the Fisk game 6 celebration.

 

[djbayko]

This week marked 28 years since Cheers went off the air. We commemorated the occasion with a review of Sam Malone’s career pitching line on (oh God, is he going to plug his podcast within a main board post?) our (no, he wouldn’t dare) podcast (Can you believe this guy? He actually did it!).

Did you know that Sam Malone pitching stats exist? Neither did I! Sports Illustrated ran a fictionalized piece on his career and gave him the following line:



Because we have no life, we used Bill James’ similarity scores to ask the question: What actual MLB pitchers were most similar to Sam Malone?

Top 20 results below. I am sorry. I am so very, very sorry.

+++++++++

sim_score	player	year_first	Sox?
981.7005​	Mike Schooler	1988​
979.8335​	Joe Biagini	2016​
974.9134​	Brandon Maurer	2013​
974.8383​	Bruce Cunningham	1929​
974.7429​	Mike Lincoln	1999​
973.7829​	Rick Lysander	1980​
973.4783​	Jesse Winters	1919​
973.3993​	Ernie Camacho	1980​
973.0657​	Vinnie Chulk	2003​
972.0012​	Scott Strickland	1999​
971.9621​	Wally Whitehurst	1989​
971.3623​	Bob Heffner	1963​	BOS
971.2927​	Rich Loiselle	1996​
971.1821​	Eddie Butler	2014​
970.6573​	Julio Santana	1997​
970.4909​	Dave Keefe	1917​
970.254​	Ken Holcombe	1945​	BOS
970.2273​	Bo McLaughlin	1976​
969.906​	Jeremy Accardo	2005​
968.6425​	Billy Taylor	1994​

Are those career stats cannon (authorized by creators of Cheers) or just SI fan fiction?

 

[Hairps]

The Sam Malone wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Malone
"
At the time the series debuted in 1982, Sam has been the bartender and owner of Cheers for five years.[e 1][e 2] Chronologically within the series, Sam, who is Irish Catholic,[2] dropped out of high school in his senior year to play professional baseball.[e 3]

Sam began his career in the minor leagues, where he met Coach Ernie Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto). He eventually became a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, wearing number 16. His major league career lasted approximately five years; he specifically mentions having pitched in 1973, and was a member of the 1975 AL champion Red Sox team. As well, Martin Crane saw him pitch at the Kingdome, which opened in 1977 – also the year that he became the owner of Cheers. Although his baseball career is not highly detailed throughout the series, Sam was at times a good-to-very-good pitcher (stories of him retiring star batters occur during the series), and was the team's bullpen ace for a while. Sam's baseball career declined when he became an alcoholic, and there are also numerous stories of him pitching poorly and giving up tape-measure home runs."

So to me, the real pitcher who would most be like Sam Malone would be a guy who pitched in relief with the Red Sox from 1973 through 1975, and who was still in the AL in 1977 and gave up at least one HR in the Kingdome.
Like Sam, he should be a white guy, over 6 feet tall, brown hair, good looking, seems kind of cocky.

This has got to be the guy:

Welp, we're really down the rabbit hole now.

Malone the character was said to be roughly based on Sam McDowell.

In any event...at your service, @The Gray Eagle. Sorted by one-time Sox relievers whose careers began beginning in 1973, running thru 1980 because...I had to cut it off somewhere?

sim_score	player	year_first	year_last	sox?
923.8278​	Craig Skok	1973​	1979​	BOS
906.8593​	Jim Burton	1975​	1977​	BOS
884.3284​	John Henry Johnson	1978​	1987​	BOS
862.9127​	Luis Aponte	1980​	1984​	BOS
853.4673​	Steve Crawford	1980​	1991​	BOS
850.4927​	Jim Wright	1978​	1979​	BOS
839.926​	Win Remmerswaal	1979​	1980​	BOS
837.2927​	Joel Finch	1979​	1979​	BOS
837.066​	Rick Kreuger	1975​	1978​	BOS
836.0593​	Keith MacWhorter	1980​	1980​	BOS
822.0407​	Joe Sambito	1976​	1987​	BOS
813.2727​	Bobby Sprowl	1978​	1981​	BOS
799.4056​	Joe Price	1980​	1990​	BOS
785.3494​	Larry Andersen	1975​	1994​	BOS
762.4207​	Sammy Stewart	1978​	1987​	BOS
752.2292​	Don Aase	1977​	1990​	BOS
747.4473​	Doug Bird	1973​	1983​	BOS
728.3007​	Mark Clear	1979​	1990​	BOS
713.674​	Jeff Reardon	1979​	1994​	BOS
691.1093​	Lee Smith	1980​	1997​	BOS
680.3007​	Bill Campbell	1973​	1987​	BOS
666.2073​	Dennis Lamp	1977​	1992​	BOS
641.4209​	Bob Stanley	1977​	1989​	BOS
367.3776​	Dennis Eckersley	1975​	1998​	BOS

 

[Brohamer of the Gods]

40 Ks over 312 2/3 innings? That is really not good. The aforementioned Dick Pole pitched 310 innings for Boston and got 147 strikeouts. I don't see Sam Malone staying in the league that long if he had a K/9 rate of 1.15

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

40 Ks over 312 2/3 innings? That is really not good. The aforementioned Dick Pole pitched 310 innings for Boston and got 147 strikeouts. I don't see Sam Malone staying in the league that long if he had a K/9 rate of 1.15

and 109 walks. No one has a 5 year MLB career in the 1970s with that kind of ratio

 

[Hoya81]

One of SABR’s writers watched all 270 episodes in an attempt to get insight on Sam’s career:
https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/sam-malone/

 

[ifmanis5]

I think we all know Mayday's true identity tho...

Spoiler: For Cheersheads Only

Lance Mannion

There are some convincing Sam Malone baseball cards out there.

 

[patoaflac]

At Cheers or at Fenway he always served them.

 

[Archer1979]

So Sam was in the Fisk game 6 celebration.

If I recall correctly, SI's narrative on Sam's career was that he injured and was not on the roster for the '75 World Series. They did have a picture with Ted Danson's face superimposed of a Red Sox picture celebrating a win (all while rocking the mid-70's jammie uniforms).

 

[pedro1918]

So Sam was in the Fisk game 6 celebration.

He missed it. He had to go see about a girl.

 

[grimshaw]

I spent $5 FAAB on Rich Loiselle in 1997 and never looked back. Sam Malone probably could have pushed me down to 10th place.

 

[Comfortably Lomb]

Are those career stats cannon (authorized by creators of Cheers) or just SI fan fiction?

SI fan fiction. I thought the idea in the show was Malone was at least a competent reliever but basically drank himself out of baseball.

 

[djbayko]

SI fan fiction. I thought the idea in the show was Malone was at least a competent reliever but basically drank himself out of baseball.

I always had that impression too.