"Sparky" Lake seems to have been a pretty decent middle infielder for the Red Sox and Tigers throughout the 1940s, though it's fair to say he had some holes in his game. First of all, he was caught stealing 46% of the time. Though that sucks quite hard, Lake only attempted 97 steals throughout his career, so the damage isn't crippling. Another limitation of Lake's was that, despite owning a phenomenal eye and great patience at the plate, he managed to find a way NOT to get on base. Case in point, Lake became the only player in history in 1947 to draw 120 or more walks but have an on-base percentage under .350 (.343, to be exact). Wow. Despite hitting 12 home runs in an era where slugging shortstops were rare, Lake was one crappy hitter, batting .211 and, interestingly, having a lower slugging average (.322) than OBP. Like Juan Samuel's '84 season, Lake sure produced a strange mishmash of stats.Record:
120+ walks, .350- on-base percentage
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