There is absolutely no end to the fun one can have with Retrosheet.
ESPN's running an excerpt from Rob Neyer's new book which traces the actual stories behind various baseball myths and legends. The excerpt focuses on the blood feud between Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk, back when they were the star catchers for Athens and Sparta. The story is that Munson read in the paper one day that Fisk had more assists than he did. So Thurman deliberately dropped "half-a-dozen" third strikes and made the throw to first in order to: a) reclaim the lead, and b) demonstrate how silly that stat happened to be.
Neyer investigated and found, as you might expect, that Munson never had six assists in a game. He did have four assists a couple of times, but they never involved four throws to first after a strikeout. And as he points out, what are the chances that Munson would have seen Catcher Assists in the daily paper? In the 1970s? And the source for the story is Carlton Fisk's memory, about twenty years later, as recounted in Christopher Devine's biography of Munson.
Neyer tracks the story to a tale told by former Yankee PR man Marty Appel. This tale appears in a book (Baseball Anecdotes) by Dan Okrent and Steve Wulf, and again in Appel's own memoir (Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Billy and George.) There are two different versions. First, as retold by Okrent and Wulf:
One day Appel quite innocently listed in his press notes, AL ASSIST LEADERS, CATCHERS: FISK, Boston 27; MUNSON, New York 25. Players rarely read the press notes, but on this day, Munson did.
And the version Appel tells in his own book:
In those days, fielding stats were only published monthly in The Sporting News. I would cull some interesting ones and make a small note of them. So one day I showed "Catcher, Assist Leaders: Fisk 48, Munson 46, Sundberg 40." Not a real big deal. In the clubhouse before the game, Munson was in my face.
The presence of Sundberg in the second version narrows things considerably. Sundberg's rookie year was 1974, but Fisk missed most of 1974 and 1975 with injury and failed to record as many as 30 assists in either season. Similarly in 1979, Munson's final season, Fisk missed almost all of the first two months. (Munson was ahead of Sundberg for most of the first three months, before he started wearing down in June. When he caught his last game on July 27, he had 45 assists, Sundberg had 52.)
Which leaves us with three seasons, 1976, 1977, and 1978 - those are the only years all three were everyday AL catchers.
And we will never find that particular set of numbers.
In 1976, Sundberg led both Fisk and Munson wire-to-wire. When Sundberg had 46 assists (June 30), Fisk had 37 and Munson had 34. When Munson had 46 assists (July 27), Sundberg had 56 and Fisk had 43. And by the time Fisk had 46 assists (August 12), Sundberg had 67 and Munson 54.
In 1977, Sundberg again led wire-to-wire. When he had 46 assists (June 25), Munson had 31 and Fisk had 27. When Munson got to 46 assists (July 24), Fisk had 40, but Sundberg had 63. And by the time Fisk got to 46 (August 15), Munson had 54 and Sundberg had 74.
In 1978, Sundberg got off to a slow start when it came to racking up assists. Munson's three assist game on April 23 put him ahead with 8 -Fisk had 7, Sundberg 6. Munson would hold that lead until May 28, when Fisk had a four assist game that put him in front 27-25 (Sundberg by now had 22). Which tallies exactly with the version of Appel's story as told by Okrent and Wulf. No dropped third strikes in that Fisk game, by the way. Munson would catch up to Fisk with two assists on June 2 (both CS in a Guidry start), and actually goes ahead the next day.
That has to be the moment. Anyway, Fisk catches up and overtakes Munson within the next week. By June 9, Fisk has 35, Munson 34, and Sundberg 28. And over three weeks following, Sundberg would go berserk and record 18 assists. By the end of June he's on top with 46; Fisk has 42 and Munson 38. And on July 9 1978, we seem to come the closest to the three numbers cited in Appel's memoir, except that it's Sundberg on top with 48, Fisk who's second with 46, and Munson with 44. Munson would miss the next two weeks, and drops out of the race for 1978.
Ah, retrosheet! Is there anything it can't solve?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20080519201155177