With the selections of Mike Piazza (NL) and Ivan Rodriguez (AL) as the top vote-getters in the 2001 ASG they join Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk as the co-leaders with seven-time parings of catchers. Piazza and Rodriguez have come out on top seven consecutive years (1995-2001). Bench and Fisk captured theirs in a broken string in 1972-1974 & 1976-1978.
Last year (2000) it was the first time that catchers led both leagues in fan polling, when Piazza took top honors in the NL and Rodriguez garnered the most votes in the AL. Pudge’s number one polling in 2000 was the very first American League catcher to have won the most votes, when he outpaced 111 other AL players.
There have been 116 different catchers selected/named to the 72 All-Star squads from 1933-2001. The record for the most times on an AS team belongs to Yogi Berra with 18. The list of 10+ years is:
18 Yogi Berra
14 Johnny Bench
12 Elston Howard
11 Del Crandall
11 Bill Dickey
11 Carlton Fisk
11 Bill Freehan
10 Gary Carter
Ivan Rodriguez was the youngest catcher to start an All-Star Game when he was voted to start in 1993. He was 21 years old at the time. The previous year he had been named as an alternate. Rick Ferrell is the oldest catcher to start when he played in 1945 at age 40. The oldest to play in an ASG was Carlton Fisk whose last appearance was in 1991 at age 44.
Five catchers have been All-Stars in BOTH leagues: John Roseboro, Ted Simmons, Lance Parrish, Bo Diaz and Terry Kennedy. John Roseboro was the first when he appeared for the American League in 1969 after having represented the National League in 1958, 1961 and 1962.
The only player to have hit a home run in his very first major league at-bat and his first All-Star at-bat was catcher Terry Steinbach (MIN-A), who did it on Sep 12, 1986 and Jul 12, 1988. Only two catchers have hit a triple in an All-Star game and they were Gabby Hartnett and Rollie Hemsley. Johnny Bench leads all catchers with 19 total bases, while Gary Carter is in second place with 15. Both Bench and Carter share the home run lead for catchers with 3 each.
Sandy Alomar Jr. holds the catcher record with a .417 Batting Average (ten or more at-bats) and Mike Piazza holds top honors in the Production category (On-Base-Percentage + Slugging Average) with 1.154. The most career ASG Walks issued to a catcher have been to Bill Dickey with 4.
Two players hold the distinction of having been selected to an ASG as a catcher and subsequently selected for another position and they are: Joe Torre and Craig Biggio.
» Chuck Rosciam maintains the Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers at www.baseballcatchers.com.
Also by Chuck Rosciam
» Pitching Catchers: A Complete Battery
» Catching, A Family Affair: A Father's Day Tribute
» Amateur Draft Catchers
» Gold & Silver Catchers
» Catching Three No-Hitters
» More submissions
Posted July 9, 2001.
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