Pop quiz for sports fans:

Q. This Hall of Fame outfielder drove in 100 or more runs and hit above .300 in his first 11 seasons in the major leagues. He hit .334 lifetime, played in four World Series and hit .381 and .390 in back-to-back seasons. He was a participant in baseball’s first three all-star games, yet never won a league Most Valuable Player award — despite finishing six times in the top 10 in voting.

Think before you answer …

Couldn’t be Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig. Neither drove in 100 runs in their first 11 years. It isn’t Jimmie Foxx. The slugger never hit above .360. Joe DiMaggio? Nope. Ted Williams? Nope.

A. Al Simmons.

Who?

“Hardly anything has been written about him, certainly not a book. And everybody has kind of forgotten about him,” says Davis baseball historian and author Clifton Parker, going on to talk about his recent book “Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons.”

Parker, a Pittsburgh native, grew up with his hometown Pirates providing most of his youthful enjoyment.

But there was a family tie to the cross-state Philadelphia A’s, too.

“My dad gave me a ball, signed by Connie Mack. It was in my grandma’s attic,” Parker explains. “My great-grandpa knew Connie Mack … and that and the ball got me interested in the A’s. Maybe the 1927 Yankees have gotten more publicity … but the A’s of the late 1920s and ’30s were arguably as good, or better.”

From 1925 to 1932, the old A’s won two World Series, three pennants and finished second four other times.

Sitting in the middle of that Philadelphia lineup was Aloys Szymanski, better know at Al Simmons.

“Al Simmons had been one of the more overlooked players. There is stuff on those around him — Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove. But not Al,” Parker says.

The great Connie Mack (for 51 years manager of the A’s) had only one photo on his office wall at Shibe Park, Al Simmons.

“Mack really thought Al was a consummate ballplayer,” Parker adds. “But his career took a trajectory that I think made him underrated. He had a great first half of his career. Just incredible first 10 years. Then the Depression began and Mack had to tear down that whole team.”

Simmons was traded away.

Parker, who has written books about Chicago Cub slugger Hack Wilson and Big Poison and Little Poison (the Pirates’ Waner brothers), was enthralled by the story of Simmons.

“It took me nine years to write the Al Simmons book,” Parker said. “Writing on the weekends and evenings … and in between all of life’s obligations.”

Parker, an associate editor at UC Davis Magazine, is a Penn State graduate who moved west after a stint in Florida as a reporter at the Naples (Fla.) Daily News (he also worked for a congressman). He earned a political science degree in Happy Valley and a journalism master’s at the University of Florida.

Parker made the move because “I always wanted to live in California. My mom was here and I had an aunt and uncle in Sacramento.”

As Parker’s life evolved, so did the Simmons book. Parker and his good friend/ex-wife Laura have two daughters — Rhiannon, 9, and Caitlin, 7. Laura, who lives in Woodland and is an estate attorney in Davis, and Parker “co-parent the girls … she’s a great friend, we get along well.”

“The arc of a ball player reflects what we really know in life,” Parker adds, back on the Simmons subject. “You can watch the incredible, raw talent of youth to the decline of the (older) ball player.”

Parker hopes “Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons” is “more than just a baseball book.”

“I hope it offers a look at the country at the time, the game, how it was played and the neighborhood (in which) Philadelphia played.”

Oh, and as most baseball fans might have guessed, because of his unusual batting style — stepping toward the third-base dugout with each pitch — Simmons got his nickname, Ol’ Bucketfoot.

Notes: All three of Parker’s books are available at Amazon.com and can be ordered through local bookstores. The Simmons book is published by McFarlane, the king of baseball-related publications. … Read more about Clifton Parker and Al Simmons in Easy For You to Say, staff writer Bruce Gallaudet’s daily blog. Visit http://www.davisenterprise.com and go to blogs.

— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at [email protected] or (530) 747-8047.

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Local baseball historian and author Clifton Parker talks about his newest book “Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons.” Sue Cockrell/Enterprise photo

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