Buzz Arlett and the Minor Leagues of Wine

What the greatest minor league ball player has to teach us about wine.

You have probably never heard of Buzz Arlett. For you baseball fans, consider this…Upon retiring from baseball in 1937 after 19 years, Buzz built a career batting average of .341, hit 432 home runs and racked up 1,786 RBIs…all in the minor leagues.

Buzz did make it to the Majors in 1931 when the Philadelphia Phillies bought his contract from the Oakland Oaks, where he had spent the first twelve years of his career. In 94 games for the Phillies, Buzz batted .314, hit 18 home runs, and had 72 RBIs. These are very respectable numbers and his home run total placed him fourth in the National League behind Chuck Klein, Mell Ott, and Wally Berger.

The Phillies didn’t keep Buzz on the team the next year and instead, he played for the Baltimore Orioles of the International League, another minor league setting. While Buzz could hit, his 235-pounds sitting on a frame that used to hold 185 pounds made him a marginal defensive player in both the outfield and at first base. His great hitting couldn’t make up for the liability that he was in the field.

Still, it should be noted that Buzz’s 432 home runs stood as the minor league career record for 78 years before it was broken by Mike Hessman in 2015. Additionally, for a short time, he held the minor league record for RBIs. In 1984, the Society for American Baseball Research voted Arlett the most outstanding player in the history of minor-league baseball. It should also be noted that he earned the nickname of “Babe Buth of the minors” as he, like Babe, started his career as a pitcher, racking up a 108-93 record and an earned run average of 3.42.

What’s it got to do with wine?

Buzz was a big fish in a little pond. There are big ponds and little ponds in the American wine industry. Recently I’ve been investigating wines of the “other states”: Missouri, Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Basically all those states outside the West Coast.

Within these states, there are great wine producers making great wines and making their mark in their smaller ponds. The analogy to Buzz isn’t perfect. These wineries in the “other” states won’t move up to the “big leagues” since our wine culture perceives California, Oregon, and Washington to be the Bigs.

However, many of the wineries in the minor leagues of wine will and are setting themselves apart from their peers through experimentation, a commitment to mastering lesser-known varieties, and by demonstrating that the noble grapes have a home and an appropriate terroir outside the West Coast.

Buzz made his mark playing for the Oakland Oaks in California. But he also plied his trade and set records playing in New York, Maryland, Alabama, and Minnesota…all places where baseball lovers and his competitors were equally serious about the game. And where wine, too, is taken very seriously.