First & Last PAs, Illustrated by Craig Robinson

The well-seasoned NotGraphs aesthete is no doubt aware of Craig Robinson’s site flipflopflyball.com. Mr. Robinson is known (and should be even more well-known) for his insightful and beautiful infographics about our beloved game, amongst other things.

Some time ago, I was looking at the “First and Last” section of the site, which visually represents several players’ initial and final plate appearance in the Major Leagues; I was taken with how perfectly some of them seemed to encapsulate the careers of the players involved. Below are a few of my favorites, with brief commentary:

Darryl was great player, when he played. But this is just too telling of his troubled career and life.

Clemente. Man.

Arrived modestly; left respected.

Rickey gained a different kind of “respect” over his long career.

What’s missing is the plate appearance exactly in the middle, which probably is a homerun, knowing Ted. (I actually just checked: the PA just before the PA exactly in the middle of all of Williams’s PAs was a HR. The one exactly in the middle was a strikeout. Baseball-Reference is amazing.)

Derp, derp, derp.

Lenny had some things in common with Billy after all.