The Annotated This Day in Baseball History

2006-12-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

December 15th, 2006

The End

This will be the seven hundred and eight entry in this blog since I started it back in January of 2005. At the time, I was living in London, had just two and a half years of college under my belt, and although I had spent periods writing every day, it was usually writing explanations of the Laws of Thermodynamics. I had no idea how long the blog would last--I didn't even tell my parents about it for the first few weeks for fear I would tire of it and give up. To the surprise of no one more than myself, I've stuck with this through a year and a half of college, one summer job, several months of a real job, and moving from London to New York, New York to Washington and Washington back to New York. I'm not so vain as to claim I've produced great work--although there are more than a few entries I will admit being very pleased with--and I've certainly produced a handful of stinkers. Such is life when one writes every day.

So why stop now? Well, practically, I stopped around this time of year last year; I'm wrapping things up a little earlier as I have a friend in town starting tomorrow. More generally however, I'm not pleased with the blog lately. I wouldn't say I'm 'burned out' which is a horribly overused turn of phrase but given that my job doesn't offer (alas) the freedoms of college life, I find posting blogs at ten or eleven at night isn't what I think the people who read them deserve. The blog isn't "The Annotated Yesterday In Baseball History."

But fear not, as I am not hanging up my...well, keyboard for good. Instead I will be moving over to The Hardball Times where I will be writing a (longer) weekly column in the vein of this one. So if you've enjoyed funny names, lists of the best players from countries, continents, states, and story after story about mediocre members of the 1991 Yankees, I encourage you to come over to Hardball Times for more of the same.

Before I shut out the lights here, I'd like to finally say thank you to everyone who came by. From the people who cared enough to write in, to those people who stopped by, baffled why they ended up on my site while searching for pictures of Biff Tannen from Back to the Future--thanks Google!--thank you. As I type this, my counter has topped 26,800 visits to the site. That is a jaw dropping total, more than I ever imagined. And it has helped propel me to The Hardball Times. So once again, thank you. With only a few exceptions, I loved doing this every day, I hope everyone enjoyed reading it.

2006-12-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

December 14th, 1925

Sam Jones Born

Given how many funny names I do, it only seems fitting that as the years winds down I do a name that is, if not quite 'boring' at the very least ordinary. Of course, I could never do bring myself to do a name with nothing fun about it and a name like Sam Jones is just begging for nicknames. But we'll dedicate a little to his career before getting into that.

Jones was a pretty decent pitcher over a twelve year career, he pitched primarily for the Giants before bouncing around at the end of his career. His best year came in 1959 when led the league in both ERA, wins and strikeouts for the Giants. Jones failed to win the Cy Young award that year as it went instead to Early Wynn who won twenty-two games in the American League. (In those days there was just one award for both leagues, a face that Jones must have cursed.) Jones won eighteen games in 1960 but that was end of his effective career; the next four years he would pitch for four different teams and go just twelve and twelve before retiring.

Now for the nicknames. Jones was known through as his career as both "Sad" Sam Jones and "Toothpick" Jones. The latter of the nicknames is perhaps the more obvious, as it was based on a real affectation, through his career Jones really did have a toothpick in his mouth, often even while on the mound. As for the Sad part, well, the truth of the matter was even when he smiled, Sam just didn't look like a very happy guy.

2006-12-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

December 13th, 1996

Roger Clemens Signs with Blue Jays

In honor of the Red Sox at least securing Daisuke Matsuzaka, it only seems fitting to discuss the loss of the another Sox pitcher, one who they will presumably now begin attempting to lure back to Boston. Famously, Sox GM Dan Duquette said that Clemens was in the "twilight" of his career; since then Clemens has won four Cy Young awards and a hundred and fifty seven games. Well-played, Dan.

Of course, Duquette's defenders--and they do exist--claim that Clemens was getting complacent in Boston and point to his 10-13 record in 1996. These people seem to entirely miss the point. Clemens was seventh in ERA that year, fifth in innings, fourth in ERA+. According to BaseballProspectus' VORP statistic, in a neutral context Clemens was worth four and a half wins more than any other Sox pitcher. In fact, VORP lists Clemens' as the team's most valuable player, ahead of Mo Vaughn who actually finished fifth in MVP voting that year.

So the Sox made a drastic miscalculation in letting Clemens go, that was hardly the first time. But give them some credit, the Sox' day wasn't a total lost. They may have let go their most valuable player from the previous season--arguably the greatest pitcher to ever live--but they did hold on to Tim Naehring. I'll forgive you if you don't really remember Naehring. To be fair, he did have a pretty good '95 for the Sox as their third baseman. On the other hand, he took a step back in '96 and was a twenty-nine year old with exactly one season.

The Red Sox were desperate to sign Naehring because he was coveted by the Indians. As it turned out, the Indians had to settle for Matt Williams who hit thirty-two home runs, had the team lead in RBI and led them to the World Series. Meanwhile, Naehring played in just seventy games in 1997 (and zero in 1998) as the Sox finished fourth. I'm sure he enjoyed collecting his two year, five and a half million dollar contract; I'm less sure Dan Duquette enjoyed watching him collect it.

2006-12-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

December 12th, 1912

Red Barkley Born

As some of you might have figured out, Red got himself picked for today's blog because his name is a homophone for the (now deceased) trucker Homer encounters at a steak house. I wish I could say that after nearly two years of doing this my method of finding the day's topic has gotten more refined, but I'm afraid the truth is that things like Red Barkley/Barclay still end up making the choice for me. Such is life.

Barkley was a middle infielder, he saw action in just sixty three games of his career in three years (1937, '39 and '43) for three different teams (the Browns, Boston Braves and Dodgers). For his career he hit just .264 but had almost zero power, he only hit nine extra base hits in his entirely career, all doubles. Isolated power is stat calculated by subtracting batting average from slugging, effectively removing a players singles from his slugging percentage. Barkley's career isolated power was .055; for sake of comparison even Mike Hampton managed a career isolated power of .112.

Barkley is one of only a handful of players to be the grandfather of a Major League player, without also being the father of one. Barkley's grandson Brian Barkley threw eleven innings for the Red Sox in 1998. Evidently, athletic talent skips a generation in the Barkley family; although given the careers of the two Major League Barkley's, perhaps Red's son (and Brian's dad) caught a break.

2006-12-11T21:30:00.000-05:00

December 11th, 1930

Eddie O'Brien Born

"I think coach Eddie O'Brien is going to prove a gold-plated pain in the ass...O'Brien noticed some of the guys were sunflower seeds in the bullpen. 'Hey, none of that,' he said. 'No eating in the bullpen.'
'Not even sunflower seeds, Eddie?'
'Nothing. Not even sunflower seeds.'
Eddie O'Brien will have to be clued in on what happens in the bullpen. Maybe the way to cure him is to make him head of the refreshment committee.

[...]

Today, while we were sitting in the bullpen, Eddie O'Brien, the All-American coach, said just after one of our pitchers walked somebody in the ballgame: 'The secret to pitching, boys, is throwing strikes.'
Gee, Eddie! Thanks.

[...]

Eddie O'Brien has finally been nicknamed. Mr. Small Stuff. It's because of his attention to detail. Says Mr. Small Stuff: 'Put your hat on.' He said that to me today. Also to Mike Hegan. We were both running laps at the time.
Another thing Eddie O'Brien does is stand next to you when you're warming up. I think he does it so he can be near the phone when it runs. He has to answer it. One of these days I'll beat him to it and when [manager Joe] Schultz asks for O'Brien I'll say, 'He ain't here,' and hang up. Add dreams of glory.
Oh yes. As I went to out to pitch he said, 'Throw strikes.'
I don't think Eddie O'Brien understands this game."

~Jim Bouton, Ball Four

2006-12-10T23:00:00.000-05:00

December 10th, 1906

Bots Nekola Born

One point I return to here a lot--probably too much, but that's another issue--is the idea that every player is notable, even if there's nothing about them worth remembering at first glance. Besides the name--his real first name is Francis which might be one of the only names for which 'Bots' represents a legitimate improvement--there is nothing in Nekola's statistics to make him especially notable. He pitched exactly twenty innings in the Major Leagues, almost all for the Yankees in 1929. He never appeared in the post season and his lifetime record is a mighty 0-0, 5.85 ERA.

However, it is Nekola's post playing career that makes him worth remembering. For many years, Nekola was to the Boston Red Sox what Paul Krichell was to the Yankees. Nekola scouted for the BoSox for twenty-seven years and signed or discovered players like Ben Oglivie (1980 AL home run champion), Rico Petrocelli and greatest of all, Carl Yastrzemski. That might not be quite as impressive a list as Krichell's, but of course, the Red Sox were never quite as impressive a franchise as the Yankees.

Like I said, I harp on this point a lot because I think it one worth discussing, but Bots Nekola is yet another example of a player worth more than a brief look.

2006-12-09T18:30:00.000-05:00

December 9th, 2000

Rockies Sign Mike Hampton

Now talk about your bad contracts, this one was just...wow. Now Hampton was coming off a couple of good years. In 1999 he'd won twenty-two games with a 2.90 ERA for the Astros and he'd helped lead the Mets to the World Series with a 3.14 regular season ERA and then was voted MVP of the League Championship Series after winning two games and throwing sixteen shutout innings. Desperate to attract pitching to Coors Field--the Rockies had already shelled out fifty-five million for Denny Neagle-- the Rockies opened their wallets and shelled out a jaw dropping one hundred and twenty-one million for eight years of his services.

The deal was the longest given to a pitcher since 1977 and remains the richest ever given to a pitcher. (It is the sixth highest contract of all-time, behind those given to A-Rod, Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter, Todd Helton and Soriano's new one.) The Rockies realized almost instantly that the deal was a mistake; Hampton pitched just two years for them winning twenty-one games aganist twenty-eight losses with a 5.76 ERA. In the off-season of 2002, the Rockies offloaded Hampton onto the Braves in a complicated three-team trade with the Marlins which bizarrely featured the Marlins agreeing to pay Hampton twenty-three million to pitch for a division rival. All said Colorado paid Hampton forty-nine million for his time with them, coming to $128,384 per inning.

The Rockies must have been thrilled to watch their erstwhile pitcher in Atlanta however, as after paying him almost nothing the first few years, the Braves will pay Hampton thirteen million a year for the 2006-08 seasons. Hampton already missed all of last year having arm surgery and while the Braves are publically optimistic for Hampton's return in '07, it is far from a sure thing. For the moment then, Hampton cost the Rockies $128,384 per inning pitched, the Marlins twenty three and a half million (despite never playing for them) and the Braves $112,355 per inning pitched. That's a lousy contract.

2006-12-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

December 8th, 1894

Bill Wambsganss Born

After much puzzling, false starts and so on, I have concluded that name is pronounced "Wom-gans" with the first syllable rhyming with "rom" as "CD-ROM." Not positive about that though. Wambsganss--that's going to be a pain to type out every time--is remembered for recording an unassisted triple play in the 1920 World Series. Pictured here with his three "victims" Wambsganss remains the only player to record an unassisted triple play in the World Series and one of only twelve to do all-time. (Incidentally, Wambsganss' triple play remains the only triple play in World Series history.)

Wambsganss was actually rather wise insofar as his play was concerned, telling Lawrence "Glory of Their Times" Ritter that "you'd think I was born the day before and died the day after." This is true of a lot of players, of course, including a handful of the perfect game bunch (probably Don Larsen most notably) and the Bucky Dent types. Wambsganss had a decent but truthfully unremarkable thirteen year career, leading the American League in sacrifice hits in 1921 and '22. (With eighty-five combined; the leader the past two years managed just twenty-five.) He also managed to rank among the league leaders in slightly better statistics like doubles (third in 1924) and stolen bases (eighth in 1922). Wambsganss lived to be ninety-one and died in Ohio.

2006-12-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

December 7th, 1936

Bo Belinsky Born

"If you didn't follow baseball you knew about Bo Belinsky. But I bet you didn't know his real name was Robert. Bo spent six years in the minors...toiling anonymously in leaky--roofed bucolic outposts such as Pensacola and Brunswick, Aberdeen and Amarillo, quaint little mid-American hamlets which, while not totally without their charms, I am sure, were nevertheless not exactly tailor made for the kind of varied and far-reaching social activities that Bo liked to engage in. When he got a shot at L.A., baby, he was ready.

[He was] the originator of poolside spring training press conference for nonroster pitchers. He pitched a no-hitter one of his first times out, was rewarded with a new contract by Angels' owner Gene Autry and was even engaged for a short time [actually, a year--RB] to Mamie Van Doren--no small accomplishment in itself.

It took about a year and a half for Bo...to pool hustle, chug-a-lug and peppermint [his] way into semiobsolescence. Bo was still active, in more ways than one, I'm sure, as late as 1969 with Hawaii of the Pacific Coast League. What he could have done in baseball had he been serious about the whole thing is entertaining speculation, but since Bo didn't really seem to have cared, why should we?"

~Brendan C. Boyd and Fred Harris, The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book

2006-12-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

December 6th, 1914

Turkey Tyson Born

Not his real name, of course. I'm sorry to do this twice in three days, but I am still battling my cold so sleep is at a premium at the moment. So in honor of Cecil "Turkey" Tyson, let's look back at Bird Week.

2006-12-05T20:30:00.000-05:00

December 5th, 1972

Cliff Floyd Born

I've always admired Cliff Floyd for a couple of things. For one thing, despite standing 6'4", 230 and being an imposing presence generally, Floyd has one of the dorkiest baseball names of all-time: Cornelius Clifford Floyd. That's not one, not two, but three dorky names. Somehow I imagine he didn't get made fun of a lot, at least not once his growth spurt hit.

The other thing I like about Floyd is--once again--despite standing 6'4", 230 he is endearingly fragile. Floyd has only played in a hundred and thirty games in back-to-seasons once and has never had back-to-back seasons of five hundred and fifty at-bats. All said, that's probably a shame because when he is on the field, Floyd is a really great hitter. His lifetime OPS+ is just 120, but that's brought down by both his early career--Floyd had nearly mediocre seven hundred and fifty times at the plate before he was twenty-four--and by his nagging injuries.

Of course, as it turns out the joke is ultimately on Cliff. If he had played fifty years ago, and we'd looked at his stats, everyone would go "Oh, he should've been a DH." But Floyd lives and plays in the age of the DH, but has managed, partially through fate and partially through choices of his own, has played all but forty-seven games of his career in the National League. Now interleague play has given Floyd a few more chances to experience the joys of a batter-only role, but he's still only done it for just under three percent of his career games.

Floyd is a free agent this off-season, but coming off the worst year of his career the market for him will probably be somewhat soft. (Well, as soft as this crazy market can be for anyone.) But I can only hope for the sake of my favorite dorky named, fragile, 6'4" 230 Major League Baseball player, that he can find a niche somewhere as a DH.

2006-12-04T21:00:00.000-05:00

December 4th, 1957

Lee Smith Born

I'm feeling a cold coming on, so I will heading to bed early tonight, and instead replaying last year's entry from this date, back in the good ol' days when Lee Smith was still the all-time saves leader.

2006-12-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

December 3rd, 1997

Wilson Alvarez Signs

Alvarez' contract was with the Devil Rays, and it was good for five years and thirty-five million. Alvarez was just twenty-eight years old and coming off a good season for the White Sox and Giants--he was traded to San Francisco in a deadline deal--and the deal would seem to give the D-Rays a solid starter to anchor their rotation. Instead, Alvarez existed as yet another data point in the long list of long term contracts for pitchers that end (and sometimes practically begin) badly. In fact, December Third as a whole exists as an example of that, as there were a number of pitcher contracts signed on this day that teams would rather forget.

We begin with Alvarez. For their thirty-five million, the Devil Rays got just over three hundred innings at an ERA just under 4.50 the first two years of the contract. Alvarez then began to suffer arm troubles, and missed all of the 2000 and 2001 seasons. During the 2000 season, Alvarez's nine million dollar salary made him the eighth highest paid player in the American League, even though in this case 'player' was being used in the Carl Pavano sense of the word; Alvarez returned to give the Rays seventy-five poor innings in 2002. In total, the Devil Rays received three hundred seventy-seven and two-thirds innings at a 4.62 ERA for their thirty-five million. That's a grand total of more than ninety-two thousand dollars per inning.

Of course, teams didn't always pay quite that much, but that doesn't mean it isn't money badly spent. On this day in 1992, the Mariners signed Chris Bosio to a four year contract for just over fifteen million. Bosio was at least healthy enough to pitch in each year of the deal, but he never managed more than a hundred and seventy innings in any given season and was as likely to pitch fewer than a hundred and fifty as he was to top it. Overall, the Mariners got five hundred and twenty innings from Bosio at a 4.43 ERA, or just under thirty thousand per inning. But that figure is deceptive as after the contract's first year, Bosio only provided just over thirty hundred and fifty innings at an ERA of 4.88, making the contract's last three years basically a bomb. (In a funny coincidence, Bosio most similar pitcher according to their stats is Cal McLish.)

I could go on-and-on here: Dave LaPoint, three year contract, ERAs of 5.62, 4.11 and 16.20; Tom Candiotti, four year contract, average record of 8-12. This isn't to say that no team should sign free agent pitchers, they do sometimes work out. (Mike Mussina, recently resigned by the Yankees, is an example of that.) But pitchers who succeed on big free agent contracts are the exception rather than the norm, something fans should remember as their teams pursue the likes of Barry Zito and Jason Schmidt this year.

2006-12-02T22:30:00.000-05:00

December 2nd, 1946

Pedro Borbon Born

As you can probably tell by the date of birth, this is Pedro Borbon, Sr. not the Pedro Borbon Jr. who pitched for the Blue Jays and Braves among others and whose career ended a few years back. Pedro Senior and Junior might be the first ever pair of father-and-son middle relievers; between them pair appeared in nearly a thousand games but only made four starts, all by Dad; in fact, no Borbon started a Major League game after 1976.

Today's Borbon birthday boy was a middle reliever from the period when men were men and relievers pitched the kind of inning totals that would give Trevor "Sixty Innings a Season" Hoffman nightmares. With the Reds in the mid-70s Borbon threw more than a hundred innings a year for six straight years, and only missed out of making it a lucky seven years by two-thirds of an inning in 1978. Given those years were centered around the Big Red Machine, it should be no surprise Borbon won double digit games three of those years and pitched decently for the Reds in the playoffs.

For sake of contrast, his son--admittedly never the pitcher his father was--never pitched a hundred innings in a season. In 1976 Borbon pere appeared in sixty-nine games and pitched a hundred and twenty-one innings while facing more than five hundred batters. Borbon fils appeared in seventy games in 1999, pitched fifty and two-third innings and failed to face even half of his father's total. Of course, in the end the joke was on Papa Borbon as the Baby Borbon made more than five million dollars in his career, an amount the elder could never have dreamed of making in the 1970s. The game does change.

2006-12-01T18:00:00.000-05:00

December 1st, 1925

Cal McLish Born

Given my fondness for wacky names, I would be remiss in not including Cal McLish. Now, at first blush, that seems silly. Cal McLish? Nothing special or funny about that. Well, we'll get to the name in a moment, but first let's pay a little respect to the man's career. McLish was a pitcher and had a fifteen year career for (deep breath) the Dodgers, Pirates, Cubs, Indians, Reds, White Sox and Phillies. McLish was something of a round number kind of guy, finishing with an exact .500 winning percentage (92-92) and a 4.00 ERA. His best years came back-to-back in 1958 and '59 for the Indians; he posted a 2.99 ERA in '58 and won nineteen games and went to the All-Star game in '59. Although McLish pitched as a righty, he was ambidextrous and often claimed to have better stuff--but less control--from the left side. He got by most of his career, especially the most successful part, on the strength of an excellent change-up; and is still co-holder (with Greg Maddux among others) for most consecutive road wins with sixteen.

Now for the name. Like the list of McLish's teams, this one requires a deep breath before getting it out. McLish's full give name was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish. No, really, it was. Incredibly, despite having that many names to choose from, McLish also had two nicknames, being known to his teammates as either "Bus" or "Buster." McLish's explanation for his comically ornate name was that he was the only of eight children his father got to name, so his father decided to make up for this perceived slight by going rather crazy with the names on the one child he did get to name.

After his career, McLish coached for his onetime manager and longtime friend Gene Mauch and today he celebrates his eighty-first birthday.

2006-11-30T21:00:00.000-05:00

November 30th, 1942

Slim Love Dies

Sometimes names come about that I can't even try to come up with a joke for. I mean, Slim Love? I suppose he the opposite of a professional wrestler I caught on TV the other day--this guy--who is billed as "The World's Largest Love Machine." (Although a little checking reveals that during my glory days of watching the then-WWF, he was the larger half of a comical rapping tag team.) In his defense, Love really was slim, he's listed at 6'7", 195. Love--and his family, I guess--apparently took their surname from the town where they were from, Love, Mississippi.

Love had a six year career as a pitcher for the Senators, Yankees and Tigers. He was a regular starter for the 1918 Yankees, one of the last Yankee teams before they became the Yankees. Although Love went 13-12, he struggled with his career long foe, the base-on-balls. Love issued a hundred and sixteen free passes that year, most in the American League and an average of a four and a half per nine. That's slightly above his career average of just over four walks per nine, but Love's nearly 1:1 K/BB ratio goes a long way to explaining why he finished his career with an ERA below average. Unfortunately, I can't say what became of Love after his Major League career, but I do know he died in Memphis.

2006-11-29T18:00:00.000-05:00

November 29th, 1981

Guillermo Quiroz Born

Sean Foreman is doing some really incredible things with BaseballReference.com these days, and it seems like every time I go over there, he has added something new. The latest addition is the English-to-Spanish (and Spanish-to-English) baseball dictionary. Although services like AltaVista provide basic translations, this is a remarkable tool, even if I would only use it as a gimmick.

And how better to use that gimmick than on a player who, being born in Venezuela, almost certainly speaks Spanish. Quiroz was signed as an agente libre by the Azulejos in 1998. He worked his way through los menores until he made his big league debut in 2004. Quiroz was at one point a highly touted prospecto but an inability to stay away from the lista de incapacitados hurt his development and chance at being a regular.
Quiroz is a receptor but also saw time as a bateador designado in mostly limited time for the Jays in '04 and '05. During the entrenamientos primaverales of 2006 he was tomado en waivers by Seattle. It turned out to be a bad move for Quiroz as he saw his playing time go from slight to almost none, playing in only one juego for the Marineros last year spending much of the year at pelota Doble A. Appropriately enough, Quiroz's time in Double A was spent in San Antonio, a city where he no doubt had many occasions to practice his Spanish.

2006-11-27T21:30:00.000-05:00

November 27th, 1967

Mets Acquire Gil Hodges

Perhaps unfairly, ever since the Devil Rays traded Randy Winn to the Mariners for the right of having Lou Pinella skipper them to three traditional Devil Ray-like seasons--but at least they were fiery!--trading players for a manager seems like a bad idea. Given how I've marginalized the value of managers here, I would tend to agree with that, but I must admit there is at least some evidence to suggest when a team wants a manager badly enough to give up players for him, they're on to something.

In the past, I've described the Pirates trading Manny Sanguillen for Chuck Tanner, a deal that "worked" when Tanner led the Pirates to the 1979 World Series. Today we have the Mets trading for Gil Hodges. In order to acquire the longtime Dodger (who had played briefly for the Mets in 1962 and '63) the Amazins sent the Washington Senators--where Hodges had been managing since 1963--pitcher Bill Denehy and a hundred thousand dollars. On first blush, making all that effort for Hodges seems silly, as he had only managed a .420 winning percentage in DC and never led the Senators to a higher finish than sixth.

Despite some suspicion that bringing Hodges in was all a publicity stunt for the still-struggling franchise--Mets' attendance had dropped nearly four hundred thousand in the year before Hodges arrived--I will give Mets' management the benefit of the doubt and say they knew Hodges had what it took to lead their young team. And let's just say that when it came to leading them, especially in one magical year, Hodges had what it took.

I still don't know if it wise to exchange someone who can help a team on the field for a man who can only decide who is helping the team on the field, but the '69 Mets and Gil Hodges are another point in favor of the concept.

2006-11-26T22:00:00.000-05:00

November 26th, 1997

Blue Jays Sign Randy Myers

As it turned out, this move was a disaster for the Blue Jays, but one that they remarkably managed--to paraphrase Mr. Burns--to turn a potential Chernobyl into a mere Three Mile Island. Of course, when they signed Myers, a disaster was the last thing the Jays thought they were getting. Having signed Roger Clemens the year before, Myers would take over the closers role for the Jays. To be fair, the role did need filling (as much as it ever does) with six pitchers recording saves for the Jays in '97, but none with more than fourteen. Myers meanwhile had recorded forty-five saves for the Orioles in 1997 with a sparkling 1.51 ERA. So good was Myers that he finished fourth in both the MVP and Cy Young award voting.

With expectations that the one-time Nasty Boy would continue to dominate despite being thirty-five years old, the Jays gave Myers a three year contract for eighteen million. Almost from the start, the contract was a bad decision; on June 1st Myers had an ERA over four and just thirteen saves. It appeared the Blue Jays had bought themselves an anchor, but thanks to a bizarre series of circumstances they would soon be rid of him.

While Myers was stinking up the AL East, the Braves and Padres were battling for both the best record in the NL and with the assumption that they would soon meet in the NLCS for the chance to take on the presumptive AL champions, the buzzsaw '98 Yankees. As the trade deadline approached, the Padres became concerned that the Braves would attempt to acquire Myers either to shore up their left handed relief or perhaps to slot in as closer in place of the seemingly ruined Mark Wholers. When the Blue Jays placed Myers on waivers, the Padres thought it was in anticipation of sending him to the rivals and therefore filed a claim, confident the Jays would be unwilling to lose their new signing for nothing.

As it turned out, they were wrong, and quite dramatically. All too happy to let their anchor weigh down another ship, the Jays let Myers go in exchange for a minor league catcher. San Diego now had both a mediocre left handed reliever for which they had no real need and the privilege of paying him nearly fifteen million dollars over the next two and a half seasons. (The Jays' contract had been heavily backloaded, so nearly seventy-five percent of the contract came in the final two years.) Myers was even worse in San Diego than he had been in Toronto--6.28 in fourteen and a third innings--and then performed equally badly in the playoffs.

Compounding matters, Myers suffered shoulder problems after the '98 season and would never pitch in the Majors again. The Padres spent several years in court with Lloyd's of London arguing over who exactly should have to pay Myers' wages during that period--they reached a settlement in early 2003 for around eight million. In the end the Myers contract was spread around three equally suffering parties--Toronto, San Diego and Lloyd's--but the Blue Jays, the ones most responsible, managed to get away paying the least. That's some damn fine weasling out from under a problem.

2006-11-25T18:30:00.000-05:00

November 25th, 1946

Wenty Ford Born

That's no typo, it's 'Wenty' Ford, no relation to Whitey. I don't have DNA or anything to confirm that, but given that Whitey Ford was born in New York and Wenty was from the Bahamas, I'm thinking that's a safe assumption. If I were feeling snide, I could say that their performance is another indication, since while Whitey managed two hundred and thirty-six wins and a career 2.75 ERA, Wenty had one career victory and a 5.51 in sixteen and a third innings.

But Wenty does have two things going for him worth pointing out. For one, he is even to this day the only pitcher native to the Bahamas to ever pitch in a Major League game. There have been other players from the Bahamas--the best of whom is probably Andre Rodgers--but Ford remains the sole moundsman. The other thing Ford has going for him is name. Not 'Wenty' which is a fairly silly nickname, but rather his full name: Percival Edmund Wentworth Ford. I don't know if he's the only player whose name would seem to indicate he should be the Duke of Sussex, but he must be among only a handful of them at most.

2006-11-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

November 24th, 1955

Rafael Santo Domingo Born

I know I just did a funny name day the other day, but I promise this one isn't just funny names, it's funny names with a theme: people with world capital names. Of course, having the same name as a world captial doesn't necessary mean you are from that world capital. Rafael Santo Domingo, for example, may share his last name with the seat of the goverment of the Dominican Republic but he was nonetheless born in Orcovis, Puerto Rico. Santo Domingo has had more sucess as a capital than Santo Domingo did as a ballplayer; he got only seven plate appearences over the course of his career walking once and hitting a single another time.

As it turns out, with the notable exception of one world capital, they don't generally make great players. Kelly Paris played small parts of five seasons with the Cardinals, Reds, Orioles and White Sox in the '80s, but hit just .217 doing it. There have been six different Sydney's to play in the big leagues, but they are all more-or-less interchangably mediocre. There's Miguel Cairo who has made a respectable eleven--to this point--year career has a utlity infielder and can claim a career .328 average in nineteen post-season games. Jose Lima won twenty-one games one season but also has had six of his thirteen seasons end with an ERA over six.

It should be obvious what world capital is the far-and-away leader in big league players: Washington. All said thirty-four players have been named Washington with eighteen of them being fully named for the same Washington who inspired the city's name. Three Washingtons have been All-Stars, the best is probably Claudell Washington who made the team twice ('75 and '84) and spent seventeen years in the Majors. I suppose this might be a trifle jingoistic, but when it comes to capital players, America really is number one.

2006-11-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

November 23rd, 2006

Thanksgiving

What are you, nuts? It's Thanksgiving! Go, eat turkey, see family, watch (shudder) football. I'll be back tomorrow

2006-11-22T22:00:00.000-05:00

November 22nd, 1950

Greg Luzinski Born

To my infinite regret, I never got to see "The Bull" play--I was six months and twenty-four days old when he retired--but he was my kind of player. Or, more accurately, the kind of player I enjoy on a theoretical level but would hate to have on my team. Luzinski was basically a 1990s kind of a player, a huge--6"1', 225--slugger who basically lacked any defensive skills. Despite this, the Phillies thought it was a good idea to continue to stick their slugger out in left field. We'll get to more on that in a minute.

But first, it is only fair to pay tribute to what Luzinski could do: hit. And boy, could he do that, especially for power. Luzinski finished in the top ten for home runs seven times, doubles four times, slugging percentage four times and OPS+ five times. His home runs were also noted for their distance. Although Luzinski had trouble controlling his weight, he was almost always able to hit, slugging over five hundred as a DH for the White Sox in 1983 at age thirty-three.

But it should come as no surprise that "The Bull" had become a DH by the end of his career, given that he was always basically a DH, he was just one who had the misfortune of playing left field. One fan I know described Luzinski simply as "dreadful" while Bill James notes that he "played with his back turned to center field, sort of officially notifying [Garry] Maddox that he considered anything hit to his left Maddox' s responsibility." James also goes into some detail explaining Luzinski's troubles with the wall, the sun, his throwing arm--it was both non-existent and hugely inaccurate--finally summing it up by explaining that "it was like having Herman Munster playing left field."

These days, Luzinski is the "host" at Bull's BBQ in Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia. For Luzinski, this allows him what must be his ideal: a clear view of an outfield and him not in it.

2006-11-21T22:00:00.000-05:00

November 21st, 1958

Mel Ott Dies

One of the things I'm sorry I haven't done more of here is trivia. I don't mean that in the truly trivia sense--who finished 16th in the AL MVP in 1991?--but in the sense of questions that tell you something about the games great players but also require knowledge of those great players. This entry is good example of the sort I wish I'd done more of over the last couple of years. A goal for the last few weeks of this year, I suppose.

2006-11-20T20:00:00.000-05:00

November 20th, 1919

Rugger Ardizoia Born

Know what I haven't done in a while? A good ol' fashioned funny names day. And what better way to start then with a foreign name, as any of the Blue Collar Comedy guys can tell you, foreign names are always funny! Well, ok, so they aren't, but this one rather is. "Rugger" is a nickname of some sort, Ardizoia's given name was Rinaldo, a name which was probably more common in Oleggio, Italy where he grew up than in New York where he pitched two poor innings for the Yankees in 1947.

Also born today was Felix Mackiewicz, the original "Eyechart," whose name doubtless brought much merriment to people in the 40s as Doug Mientkiewicz brings people today. As an added bonus, his full name was Felix Thaddeus Mackiewicz which is probably one of the five or ten best baseball names of all-time. Today also marks the birthday of John Olgus "Augie" Prudhomme, who shares a name but--luckily for him--not a body type with the noted New Orleans chef. They are, best as I can tell, no relation although both were born in Louisiana. Also born on the bayou was George Mundinger whose last name is so marvelous I need not even comment upon it. Mundinger. That's just fun to say.

Today also marked the first day on earth for Eddie Edmonson, whose real name, believe it or not was Earl Edward Edmonson, which to me suggests parents with rather an off-colour sense of humor. A rough contemporary of Edmonson was "Swat" McCabe and Harry Welchonce. I'm accepting suggestions for how you pronounce the latter's last name.

Finally, today marked the birth of a man who is not only a former ThisDayer but also the owner of far and away the best name ever by a man in a position of power in any sport: Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

2006-11-19T22:00:00.000-05:00

November 19th, 1939

National Professional Indoor Baseball League Begins Play

You read that right, it's the National Professional Indoor Baseball League. In addition to having an absolute mouthful of a name, the NPIBL is another of those wacky ideas that pop up every now and then in baseball history only to vanish almost as quickly as they appeared. Most of them are worthy of having their story told, and the NPIBL is no exception.

For starters, let's get one thing straight. When they say "Indoor Baseball," they don't mean the kind played here but rather the kind played in gymnasiums and the like. Apparently this was quite a popular activity during the winter months in the early part of the twentieth century until basketball began to take over as the primary gym sport. Of course, this wasn't quite moving baseball indoors with no regard for the different environment; the diamond was smaller, the ball more like a softball and pitchers threw underhand. (As you might've guessed, this is generally considered the origin of modern softball.)

During the Depression the game was widely popular with what a contemporary Time article dubbed "the U.S. army of unemployed" under a wide range of names (including my personal favorite: mushball) but generally outside as people now had, not to be glib, a lot more time to stand outside playing games. As the Depression came to a close someone had the inspired idea of taking mushball, moving it back inside and setting up a league.

Teams were placed in every Major League city save Washington and the plan called for a hundred game schedule to be played November through March with a championship series at the end. The Grey Eagle Tris Speaker was recruited to be league president--at a reported salary of seventy-five hundred dollars--while a series of former Major League trivia answers and mediocrities (including Bubbles Hargrave) were recruited to serve as managers.

In a development that frankly should have surprised no one but evidently came as a shock to quite a few people, the American public reacted to the new league with marked indifference. Apparently the thought of seeing a bunch of people they'd never heard of play a scaled-down indoor version of baseball failed to set hearts aflutter, and the league was out of business within a month, thus ending one of the stranger start-up leagues in history.

2006-11-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

November 18th, 1936

Jay Hook Born

"The '62 Mets, it seems, were having a lot of trouble defending the double steal...Stengel called a team meeting to address the problem and asked if anybody had any suggestions. Hook raised his hand and said, 'I've got an idea, Casey. When they try the double steal, why not have our pitcher intercept the throw down to second and then fire it back to the plate?'

As luck would have it, the next time the Mets were faced with a first-and-third situation, Hook was on the mound. The speedy Vada Pinson was on first and the plodding Wally Post on third. Reds' skipper Freddie Hutchinson put on the double steal...[so] Mets catcher Choo Choo Coleman caught the pitch and fired a strike right over the pitcher's mound. Instead of intercepting Coleman's throw, Hook ducked and watched the ball fly toward second base. Mets' second baseman Hot Rod Kanehl took the throw in front of the bag and made a great return throw that was on target to nail the chugging Post--except that Hook, suddenly remembering the new plan, reached up and cut it off!...which allowed Post to score easily"

~Mike Shannon [Quoting Richie Ashburn], Tales from the Dugout

[That's a fairly typical Jay Hook story, Hook was by all accounts a remarkably bright guy; he had a degree in engineering from Northwestern and supposedly had a genius level IQ. Hook, however, suffered from an almost total lack of both common and baseball sense so stories like that abound. As you might've guessed by his being a member of the '62 Mets, he also rather suffered from a lack of baseball talent, finishing his career with a 5.23 ERA.]

2006-11-17T23:30:00.000-05:00

November 17th, 1938

Aubrey Gatewood Born

You have to admire a player whose name sounds like the sort of place one that modern players would live in, as in: "although he plays for the White Sox, Jim Thome actually lives just outside the city in the wealthy suburb of Gatewood." Combined with "Aubrey" being--at least in my mind--a girl's name, and you've got a pretty good package there. (As an aside, Aubrey is apparently considered a unisex name and means "rules the elves;" that's some name.)

As it stands, the name is pretty much the best thing Gatewood had going for him. He pitched fewer than two hundred innings over a four year career. The first three came with the Angels in 1963-65 and he returned several years later with the Braves for two innings in 1970. Some sources list Gatewood as a knuckleballers, but others--notably the Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers--make no mention and they have a fairly comprehensive list of guys who threw it in the big leagues.

Whatever pitches he threw, when Gatewood was healthy enough to throw them he was capable of getting outs. He had an ERA of just 2.04 over the first two years of his career and was still respectable thereafter but arm troubles plagued him, as the four year gap with no appearences in the Major Leagues indicate. I don't know what he's doing these days; perhaps he's mayor of the sort of quiet suburb that would bear his name.

2006-11-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

November 16th, 1886

Joint Rules Committee Meets

The “joint” part of the JRC refers to both the America Association and National League—the primary professional leagues at the time—being members of the committee. It met on this date and set a number of rules, all of which go a long way to illustrating why I don't write much about pre-1900 baseball. Among the gems from the 1886 came the decision that a strikeout would be four strikes, it would take five balls for a walk and that one side of the bat could be flat, so as to aid bunting. As you might have noticed if you happened upon a Major League baseball game any time in, say, the last hundred years, none of these rules really stuck.

To be fair, some of the rules innovations made at the 1886 meeting survive to this day. The 1886 meeting made universal the rule that batters would be awarded first base on a hit-by-pitch and the elimination of the batters' ability to call for a "high" or "low" ball. In 1886 it was decided that the home team would have the choice of first or last ups, which doubtless evolved into the more standard arrangement we know today. And, to be even fairer, the four strike rule was quickly recognized as a bad idea and eliminated by 1887.

1886 also marked the beginning of a pair of rules that have pretty much been ignored ever since. The first was that coaches had to stay in their coaching boxes. In baseball early days, this was especially important as coaches used to do things like run up-and-down the bases lines in an attempt to distract the pitcher. (Although why this didn't do just as much to distract the batter I'll never know.) Modern coaches don't do that, of course, but they also almost never stand in the proper coaches box; they more-or-less stand wherever the hell they feel like standing.

The second rule is one that has launched a million debates, and probably a thousand ejections: the strike zone. The 1886 rules defined it as from the shoulders to the knees. It has gone over a number of revisions both in height and width since then and is defined today with the top being the midpoint between the shoulders and waist (in other words, the letters) and the bottom being the knees, as illustrated here. Of course, as anyone who watched the playoffs this year can tell you, umpires tend to call the strike zone pretty much however they feel like calling it, often varying from pitch-to-pitch for no apparent reason.

The JRC might not have created a set of rules that was carved in stone and honored all the way to the present day, but did lay the groundwork for some of those rules and also helped established that a common set of rules was necessary to the growth of the game; that is likely its most important legacy.

2006-11-15T14:30:00.000-05:00

November 15th, 1880

Hi Jasper Born

Although that might sound like the name out of a bad sequel to Who's On First? ("I'd like you meet our new pitcher, Hi Jasper" "Sure, I'll say hello" "No, Hi Jasper" and so on) 'Hi' was actually a fairly common name in the early days of baseball, with six other players going by the name. It was often short for 'Hiram' but our man today was actually named Henry and the name seems to have sometimes been applied totally at random. 'Hi' as a greeting was first recorded in 1862 (although its origin is thought to be the Middle English 'hy') but it didn't get its nearly ubiquitous status until many years later which is around when 'Hi' as a nickname began to die out.

As for Hi Jasper himself, he had a four year career beginning with the White Sox in 1914 at age thirty-three. He saw limited time for the Sox in '14 and '15 and joined the St. Louis Cardinals where he pitched the most innings of his career (over a hundred for the first and last time) before dropping out of the Majors until 1919 when he saw action in just over eighty innings for Cleveland.

Besides his late age at reaching the Majors, there are two other points about Jasper that drew my attention. (Well, three points when you count his name, but I've already pretty well beaten that into the ground.) The first is a single reference to Jasper having only one eye. I have absolutely no idea if it's true, and if so it might go some ways to explaining his nickname (Hi/Eye sounding somewhat the same). Part of me doubts this is so in no small part because Jasper managed to hit a home run in the course of his career but then it seems like an odd thing to make up.

The other notable element of Jasper's career is that during the 1916 season while toiling for the Cardinals Jasper--and the rest of the team--wore what might have been the dullest uniforms of all time. The Cards (among baseball's sharpest dressers these days) bafflingly adopted the I-can't-be-bothered-with-uniform-design look in 1909 and kept it until 1918 when they finally came to their senses. For Hi Jasper however, 1916 represented the least interesting year in his uniform career.

2006-11-14T21:30:00.000-05:00

November 14th, 1981

Duane Kuiper Traded

Now known best, I assume, as one of the Giants' television and radio annoucers, Duane Kuiper was previously best known for two things: a home run and a pair of triples. This is funny (in the funny-strange-kind-of-way) because over the course of his career, Kuiper was not exactly a threat to triple and definitely not a threat to hit a home run. It is the nature of those hits, however, which makes them so memorable..

First, the triples. On July 27th, 1978 the Yankees took on Kuiper's Indians in a doubleheader. The Yankees battered one-time superprospect David Clyde for six runs in an inning and two-thirds in the first game, winning an 11-0 laugher. In the second however, the Indians did some laughing of their own as they won 17-5. Six of those seventeen runs were driven in by Kuiper, and here is where the triples come into play. In his first at-bat, Kuiper came up with the bases loaded and drove a bases clearing triple. That's not unprecedented, although it is somewhat unusual. In the fifth inning, Kuiper came up again with the bases loaded and again hit a triple. That's also not unprecedented, but it's damn close. Only two players in history had even hit two bases loaded triples, Elmer Valo and Bill Bruton and now Kuiper was the third.

Now, the home run. For his career, Kuiper hit just one, single, solitary home run. On August 29th, 1977 the Indians were playing the White Sox in a nationally televised "Monday Night Baseball" game. Facing future Cy Young winner Steve Stone with the bases empty in the first inning, Kuiper drove a pitch into the right field stands for his first (and only) career home run. Kuiper's version of events is that after that home run, he began to make sure he didn't hit another one, claiming that "one is better than none, but any more than that and people begin expecting them."

But what does any of that have to do with his being traded? Well, it's partially an excuse to tell those two stories, but it is also relevant in story number three. Many people know there is a single seat in Fenway Park painted to indicate the (supposedly) longest home run ever hit there. That was not a title Kuiper was likely to ever take possession of, but upon being traded, the Indians gave their former player the seat from the right field stands where his single home run was said to have landed. I've no idea what Kuiper did with the seat--maybe he sits in it while broadcasting Giants' games--but as going away presents from team-to-player go, that's an unusual one.

2006-11-13T21:30:00.000-05:00

November 13th, 1946

George Theodore Born

If there's something I really like in the names department, it's someone with two first names that are also two last names: George Theodore. That's pretty good. His full name: George Basil Theodore, is even better. That's three first names that can also be last names. Cramming all that in there is no easy feat. (Incidentally, whether first, last or middle, Theodore is the only man with "Basil" in his name to play in the Major Leagues.)

As it turns out, it was a good thing George Theodore had the name going for him, as his career is not the sort that inspires much in the way of commentary. Theodore only had one season in which he played significant time. As it turns out, he had the good fortune for that one season to be 1973 with the "Ya Gotta Believe!" Mets. Theodore appeared in forty-fives as an outfielder/first baseman for the Mets that season, posting an OPS+ of 80. He also saw action in two World Series games, although he received only two at-bats and went hitless.

In 1974 Theodore appeared in fifteen more games but managed forty less at-bats as he was unable to repeat even his modest success at the plate from 1973. Theodore never played in the Majors after that season and today works a youth baseball coach, where perhaps he can help another three first/last named player make it to the big leagues.

2006-11-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

November 12th, 1937

Peek-A-Boo Veach Dies

I've just returned from a highly enjoyable but also hugely exhausting weekend visiting friends in Washington DC. Instead of trotting out my "Nation's Best Ballplayers" column again, however, I will do something new and send you back to June of last year when we first encountered Peek-A-Boo.

2006-11-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

November 11th, 1967

Noe Munoz Born

That's his name. "Noe." Least anyone accuse me of cultural insensitivity I've done some research and determined it is a Spanish name that translates, roughly, to "peace" or "rest." As it turns out, that was quite appropriate for Noe Munoz, whose Major League career was short enough that it could've gone by in the course of a brief rest. He saw time in just two games with the Dodgers in 1995, getting one at-bat and making out.

So why did I pick ol' Noe? The answer actually lies in another player, Jose Munoz. Jose was also born on November 11th, 1967. Jose also played just one year in the big leagues, although he saw a bit more action, hitting .259 in seventeen games as a utility man for the White Sox in 1996.

Seeing the identical days of birth I assume that Noe and Jose Munoz were another one of baseball's twins, and given that had both played just a year in the big leagues, made for a nice little story. As it turns out, Noe and Jose aren't twins, a fact that is easily revealed given that Jose was born in Chicago while Noe was born in Escatepec, Mexico making their being to the same mother a rather unlikely possibility. Unfortunately, that robs me of much of my good story for the day. But at least I can say that when it came to those people named Munoz, being born on November 11th, 1967 was not good for their baseball career.

2006-11-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

November 10th, 1964

Keith Lockhart Born

There is, it must be said, often no justice in this world. The guilty go unpunished, bad things happen to good people and Keith Lockhart--although probably a nice enough guy--has not one, not two, not three, not four, but five trips to the playoffs while infinitely superior players remain locked out.

A look at the list of players denied a chance to show their stuff on baseball's biggest stage is fairly remarkable. It includes eleven Hall of Famers--although one of those Hall of Famers is Miller Huggins, who is in the Hall in no small part thanks to the three World Series and six pennants he won with the Yankees as a skipper, so let's not cry for him. It also includes Ron Santo, who should be in the Hall of Fame and Joe Torre who will be the second inductee to the "Miller Huggins Don't-Cry-for-Me Wing." Past ThisAnnotatedDayers on the list include Elmer Valo and Todd Hundley. In fact, you could assemble a pretty good team out of the guys who never saw the post-season. Al Lopez behind the plate, Ernie Banks at first base, Nap Lajoie at second, George Kell at third and Luke Appling at third. That's a Hall of Fame infield. Harry Heilman could man right field, Ralph Kiner in left and Minnie Minoso in center. That's a helluva squad all around.

I don't know what Keith Lockhart wishes for when he blows out his birthday candles--perhaps that one his many post-season trips would have resulted in a championship instead of this, or this, or this, or...well, I won't go on, that would be cruel. But perhaps he can take solace in knowing there is a small army of Hall of Famers who never even got a taste of that which he experienced on an almost yearly basis.

2006-11-09T21:30:00.000-05:00

November 9th, 1898

Fred Haney Born

About a fortnight ago I did an entry on managers, the gist of which is that a manager's "quality" is largely determined by the "quality" of his players. Fred Haney represents another example of this; he managed the Browns and Pirates to a combined 288-526 record (.353) over the course of five seasons (and a tad of another) then took over the Braves in 1956 and promptly guided them to a World Championship in 1957 and a pennant in 1958.

Something else that tells you a lot about managers and their quality being linked hand-in-hand with their team's quality is the list of all-time victories. The all-time victories list also gives a lot of credence to the notion that when it comes to raking up the wins, the best feature a manager can have is longevity. Someone named Jimmy McAleer, whountil this point I had never heard of, managed for eleven seasons. He has fifty-two more wins than Cito Gasten, although Cito managed his team to back-to-back World Series while McAleer's team had an average finishing position of sixth. Jimy Williams, who has been fired by three teams that would either win or go to the World Series within three years of his departure has nearly a thousand wins; while Bill Rigney who led his teams to one division title in eighteen years of trying actually has one thousand, two hundred and thirty-nine. That's more than Fred Haney and Branch Rickey, combined.

With the longer modern schedules, it only seems a matter of time before much of the top ten is dominated by recent skippers. (It already has three active managers--Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre--while Lou Pinella has an outside shot at reaching in the near future to say nothing of younger managers like Mike Scioscia.) When looking over that list however, it is important to look beyond the mere number of wins and instead try to find a better way to judge a manager.

2006-11-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

November 8th, 1969

Shane Halter Born

A rather basic review of Shane Halter's career numbers does not suggest that he is anything special as a ballplayer. He played eight seasons as a utility man. Played for the Royals, Mets, Tigers and Angels (in that order) and while both the Mets and Angels were playoff teams while he played for them, Halter never saw time in the post-season. He hit .246 for his career and was a regular just once: for the 2002 Tigers at shortstop.

But, as I have long argued, every player has an interesting story when you look into it, and for Halter, one doesn't even have to look very hard. In 2000 on the Fourth of July, Halter took over for Brad Ausmus behind the plate during a Tigers' blow out of the Devil Rays. Halter had never caught before in the Major Leagues but was evidently the emergency catcher and manager Luis Pujols--himself a former catcher--evidently wanted to give his back-up backstop some time. This experience gave Halter the unique claim to be able to say he had played all nine positions in a game at one point or another, having served in the other "odd" role (pitcher) during time with the Royals.

Halter was not content with this however, and had an idea that could be implemented at the end of another awful Tiger season. (As an aside, the Tigers' trip to the World Series this year is even more shocking given that in the previous ten seasons they'd lost ninety or more games eight times and a hundred or more three times.) Halter wanted to play all nine positions in one game, a feat only managed twice previously. On October 1st, Halter did it, as the Tigers' portion of this boxscore reflects. Incredibly, despite playing all nine positions and seemingly being in the game purely for the novelty, Halter actually doubled with none out in the bottom of the ninth and came around to score the winning run on a Hal Morris single.

There you are then, the career of Shane Halter--like so many others--with a story that can't be seen merely by looking at his stats but which is worth hearing.

2006-11-07T21:30:00.000-05:00

November 7th, 1932

Dick Stuart Born

"Stuart's a beauty. I remember a game we played against him in Boston with Earl Wilson (then with the Red Sox) pitching. On the first pitch of the game, somebody hit a foul pop fly between the catcher and first base and Earl ran over to call who was supposed to catch the ball and he made a tragic mistake. He called Stuart. The ball dropped to the ground in front of him with a sickening third.

Earl picked up the ball and stormed back to the mound. The next pitch was another pop fly, this one in foul territory. Earl ran over screaming at the top of his lungs, "I got it! I got it!" He wasn't taking any chances. At the last second guess who ran into him and spiked him. Dick Stuart. The ball went flying and the runner got two bases.

Now Wilson's got a spiked left foot and a man on second and he's steaming mad. The next pitch is a groundball on the first-base line and Earl runs over, picks it up, whirls to throw to first and Stuart isn't on the bag. First and third.

Wilson slammed his glove down and walked toward the dugout like he was quitting right there, but he thought better of it and came back to the game. And Stuart? Stuart was his usual jovial self. He knew he had bad hands and there was nothing he could do about it."

~Jim Bouton, Ball Four

[This is about par for the course as conversation's about Stuart's defense go, he was nicknamed "Dr. Strangeglove" for his defensive struggles. Incidentally, there is no perfect match for the situation Bouton describes in the Retrosheet game logs, but enough incidents that are close enough that I would mark the story as credible.]

2006-11-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

November 6th, 2003

Spider Jorgensen Dies

Under ordinary circumstances, the debut of a twenty-seven year rookie nicknamed "Spider" making his Major League debut would at the least attract some attention. Spider Jorgensen, however, got to make his debut in almost total anonymity on account of another infielder making his debut that day: Jackie Robinson. Despite winning ninety-six games and finishing just two games away from the pennant the Dodgers remade their infield with Robinson (a natural second baseman) taking over at first base and Jorgensen taking over at third.

Of course, Jackie would be remembered (and rightly so) had he never performed on the field. Instead, Robinson performed admirably both as a man and ballplayer, eventually earning his way into the Hall of Fame. Jorgensen's fate was not so grand, as 1947 was his only year as a regular. He'd see limited time for the Dodgers in '48 and '49, and land with the Giants in 1950 and '51 for just over fifty games. He finished his career with a lifetime 95 OPS+, which certainly isn't awful for a third baseman.

Jorgensen played in the minor leagues in California for many years following the end of his Major League career--he was from the area--and lived there the rest of life. Jorgensen also remained involved in baseball for all of the rest of his life; at the time of his death he was a scout for Dusty Baker and the Cubs in Los Angeles/Los Vegas area.

2006-11-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

November 5th, 1940

William Byron Elected

William Byron was a Democratic Maryland politician who served, among other things, as Mayor of a small Maryland town and a State Senator for Maryland. Most prominently he served as a Representative for a little over two years before his death in a plane crash at which point he was replaced via a special election with his wife.

This is appropriate insofar as we're in election season, but what does any of it have to do with baseball? The relevant matter is Byron's opponent in his election for Congress: Walter Johnson. Johnson wasn't a total political neophyte having been elected as county commissioner for the area in which he lived in 1938. When it came to Congress however, the "Big Train" found that his limited experience, gentlemanly bearing and residual game from his baseball career--he had been elected as part of the first Hall of Fame class only four years earlier--was not enough. The election was nonetheless close, as Johnson managed to draw 47% of the vote in defeat.

There are a handful of sports related figures on the ballot this year including Lynn Swann and George Allen, son of the like-named Redskins' coach. I suppose those candidates can only hope voters respond more to them than they did to the Big Train.

2006-11-04T11:30:00.000-05:00

November 4th, 1980

Steve Carlton Wins Cy Young Award

This was Lefty's third Cy Young award, making him at the time only the fourth man--along with Jim Palmer, Sandy Koufax and Tom Seaver--to win the award that many times. (Since joined, of course, by Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson.) Carlton is a no-brainier choice for the Hall of Fame, he has three hundred wins, won twenty or more six times and was a ten time All-Star and was rightly elected in 1994.

I bring up the Hall of Fame element because it raises an interesting point: how many single-season awards does a player have to win before they are worthy of Hall of Fame induction regardless of the rest of their career. As it stands, every player who has three (or more) MVP or Cy Young awards is either in the Hall of Fame or is a sure thing to someday be elected. (I suppose the exception to that is Barry Bonds' and his seven MVPs, but it is worth noting that he had won three by 1993 so he qualifies even leaving out the BALCO portion of his career.)

What I can say for sure is that two awards of that nature are insufficient to ensure Hall of Fame election. In fact, there is a small handful of players with two awards who are clearly not Hall of Famers. Those with two MVP awards who are almost certainly not Hall of Famers include Juan Gonzalez, Dale Murphy, and Roger Maris. Bret Saberhagen and Denny McLain both have two Cy Young awards but McLain dropped off the ballot after three years and Saberhagen will be lucky to last that long. (Incidentally, McLain also won the MVP in 1968, meaning he actually has three awards total, but since two of them were awarded for the same performance set, I don't think it counts in the same way as having three awards of some nature from three different seasons.)

If Denny McLain had managed another Cy Young award or Dale Murphy another MVP would that put them in the Hall of Fame? I would tend to think not, but until an otherwise undeserving player has three awards I guess we'll never know.

2006-11-03T21:30:00.000-05:00

November 3rd, 1953

Bobby Thompson Born

For a sake of contrast with past entries, this isn't the Bobby Thomson of "The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant!" fame, but that is how you spell his name, with the "p." Of course, this Bobby Thompson hasn't had his name misspelled very much, because he wasn't at the Major League level very much. All said, Bobby Thompson played in just sixty-four games for the Rangers in 1978, getting just one hundred and thirty-six plate appearances, and batted just .225/.284/.350.

Never let it be said, however, that he and the other Bobby Thomson had nothing in common. On June 18th, 1978 the Rangers entered the bottom of the ninth tied with the Blue Jays at two. Bobby Bonds doubled with one out and after a pair of intentional walks and a ground-out, Thompson came up with a chance to win the game. And win it he did, lining a single that scored Bonds and gave the Rangers a 3-2 victory.

Of course, giving a team one of its eighty-seven wins with a single in June isn't quite on the same level of drama as giving a team the pennant with a home run in October. But then, Bobby Thompson wasn't the player Bobby Thomson was; perhaps it is only fitting that his walk-off moment isn't the moment Bobby Thomson's was.

2006-11-02T22:00:00.000-05:00

November 2nd, 1971

Orioles at Giants

That's the Baltimore Orioles, but the Yomiuri (Tokyo) Giants. As the MLB All-Star team begins its tour across Japan it only seems fitting to do a story based on past times US players have toured the Land of the Rising Sun and today is an especially good one. (As an aside, did anyone notice that Bruce Bochy, is somewhat comically managing this All-Star team in his first act as Giants' manager?)

A while back I did an entry on a no-hitter by an American born player playing for a Japanese team. Today, however, represents the first no-hitter by an American player, playing for an American team, against a Japanese team. The pitcher in question is Pat Dobson. Oddly, Dobson was perhaps the least heralded of Baltimore's collection of four starters who each won twenty games that year; he was the only man never to win twenty before or after and finished with the fewest wins of the quartet. (The other three were Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Mike Cuellar.)

On this day however, Dobson was the man, pitching the O's to a 2-0 win while not giving up a single hit. It is a fear unlikely to be repeated as these days the All-Star games are truly treated as exhibitions and no pitcher is left in for an entire game, making a no-hitter a rather unlikelihood. It is nice--and in some ways fitting--that Pat Dobson, the least of the Twenty Win Quartet is the man who holds this unique accomplishment.

2006-11-01T22:30:00.000-05:00

November 1st, 1931

Russ Kemmerer Born

That's more than your standard Kemmer, folks, he's Kemmerer. Admittedly he's not Kemmerest, but what are you going to do? While he might have been the Kemmerest of the world, Russ was able to lay claim to three different nicknames: Rusty, Dutch and Kimmersak. The first and third nicknames are obviously based on his given name (although how you get from Kemmerer to Kimmersak is a little hazy to me) while I assume the second is on account of Kemmerer playing in the era when Federal law mandated each team have at least one "Dutch."

Kemmerer actually filled that role for a variety of teams, playing for the Red Sox, Senators, White Sox and Colt .45's during his career. (That last one, in case you didn't know, is the team that became the Astros when they moved into their new domed stadium--it was named the Astrodome for them, not the other way around--and someone finally realized that a baseball team named after a gun was just too tacky for words.) Kemmerer was never an especially great pitcher but he was consistent and able to both relieve and start. According to Kemmerer his best pitch was a hard sinking fastball, although he also threw a breaking ball.

A few years ago, Kemmerer authored a book, Ted Williams: Hey kid, just get it over the plate! I can't speak to the book's quality, but I have to say that I admire Kemmerer for having written it, it's something more players of past eras should do, so that when they are gone the times and context can be remembered.

2006-10-31T22:00:00.000-05:00

October 31st, 2006

Halloween

This being the day typically associated with things that go bump in the night, it only seems fitting to do baseball players whose nicknames correspond to such things. One obvious choice would be Dick "Monster" Radatz, who not only has a nickname more than suitable for Halloween, but who I've also already written about, saving me a bit of effort! And speaking of saving me some effort, Halloween always aims to be creepy, and who knows more about that than Creepy Crespi?

But fear not, I'm not copping out with a couple of mere linkbacks. There's also Jo-Jo Moore, known as The Gause Ghost. The first part of that nickname comes from his hometown, Gause, TX, while second part comes from his supposed frail appearance, although I rather think this photo tells you all you need to know. Moore was a leadoff hitter for the Giants for many years, and an incredibly difficult man to strike zone, never going down without contact more than thirty-seven times in a season.

Sadly, that's all I can find insofar as truly Halloween-related names go, but a trio isn't bad, after all. Happy Halloween, everyone.

2006-10-30T22:00:00.000-05:00

October 30th, 1915

Pinky Woods Born

From the College of the Holy Cross, the people who brought you Jigga Statz (and Bill Simmons) comes Pinky Woods. Sadly, I have no information on how George Rowland Woods became "Pinky," unless it was some sort of bizarre reference to his political sensibilities. Given that's an unlikelihood, however, I think this may be one mystery that endures.

All said, Woods' Major League career lasted just three seasons, all during the Second World War. Even facing weakened wartime competition (although presumably weakened competition himself) Woods only managed a career 3.97 ERA for the Red Sox. His best year was 1944 when Woods appeared in thirty-eight games and posted a 3.27 ERA, second best among Sox starters that year.

Perhaps the most interesting element of Pinky's career--and one that now that I think about it may help explain the nickname--concerns his big toe. Apparently Pinky arrived with the Red Sox as a flamethrower but apparently lost much of the velocity on his fastball after being spiked and losing his big toe. I'm still at something of a loss as to how badly you'd have to be spiked to totally lose a toe--perhaps because I'd really rather not think about it--but I can see how the rather cruel world of baseball nicknames would come up with "Pinky" for someone down to a mere nine toes.

2006-10-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

October 29th, 1959

Jesse Barfield Born

Jesse Barfield ended his career with a series of marginally worsening seasons for a series of marginally improving Yankee teams. That's where I know Jesse from, although I can't claim to remember him that well which is sort of a shame, since Barfield is widely thought to have had the best outfield arm in baseball even up to the end of his career. The numbers bear this out, as Barfield averaged seventeen and a half assists per one hundred and fifty games for his career, an outstanding figure, higher than names like Clemente or Ichiro.

Barfield spent the prime of his career for the Blue Jays in the mid-80s and was often a brilliant all around player. In 1986 he led the league with forty home runs, recorded twenty outfield assists and managed a 147 OPS+, all combining to place him fifth in the MVP vote. Barfield never showed league leading HR power before or after that season but he hit twenty or more six times and also had enough speed to steal twenty-two bases in 1985.

These days Jesse is known for being the father of Padres' second baseman Josh Barfield and for an unfortunate incident when Barfield's younger son Jeremy apparently pushed his father down a flight of stairs, leading to the latter's arrest. Jesse was treated at a local hospital but released the same day apparently indicating that he is fully recovered.

2006-10-28T10:30:00.001-04:00

October 28th, 1935

Bob Veale Born

"[During a rain delay] back in the locker room...the players moved restlessly. Abruptly Veale decided that it was time to make a speech. I noticed that Jimmy Tompkins had draped a towel over his head, under his Blue sox cap, managing to look like a ball player from Oman...the others squirmed on the benches, rained into inactivity.

'You know you maybe think I was a pitcher and that's all I know,' Veale said, beginning so softly he was hard to hear. 'But I could a swing a bat in my day and, besides, I made a study of the game...You were goin' bad in Elmira. I guess you was maybe 0 for 4. But it ain't hard going up to the plate 0 for 4. You already done you worst. You can only get better. Hard is going up to the plate 3 for 4. You got something goin' you want to sustain. You understand? Don't interrupt me, but you can ask me questions later on.

Remember this...you bust your helmet throwing it, it's the only one you got. Next time, you got to hit wearing a busted helmet. You got no protection. Don't look to Doc. He's only got aspirins. They ain't protection.' A few players laughed.

The collected sayings of Chairman Veale, I though. He had his personal syntax and his personal eloquence.

'Remember sayin' "I can't," sayin' "I tried," the two of them ain't worth shit. You got to do it. You got to get it done. There's one thing man don't like that's called fear. You got to make that work for you. God gave every man, big as me [Veale is listed at 6'6"]...the same instinct and we call it fear.

Outsmart 'em...and remind them of their fear. That's all I got to tell you guys in this fucking rain.'"

~Roger Kahn, Good Enough to Dream

2006-10-27T12:00:00.001-04:00

October 27th, 2002

Art Howe Hired

Over the nearly two years I've been at this, I've done a fair amount of writing on managers. And this is also the period of the year when managers are endlessly discussed as to who is going to be fired, who is going to replace those people who were fired and all the rest. For my money, this is all kind of silly because while there are some truly excellent managers, and some truly awful ones, a huge majority--maybe seventy-five percent--is just as good as their team. The problem arises when a team hires a manager without doing anything to noticeably improve the team, and then is surprised when things don't go as planned.

Such is the case of Art Howe and the New York Mets. Howe was coming off seasons of 102 and 103 wins in Oakland, and had increased "his" winning total every year since 1997. He was leaving Oakland with six hundred wins and a .530 (87-75) winning percentage. Of course, Howe had also managed in Houston for five years, never won ninety games and averaged eighty-four losses a season but the Mets were evidently convinced he'd come around.

He hadn't of course, and the Mets were rewarded with two years of 95 and 91 losses, and the team finished a collective fifty-nine and a half games out of first place before Howe was fired with two years and more than four million dollars left on his contracts. Having sat at home and cashed the Mets checks Howe is now back in baseball as the third base coach for the Phillies, meaning he'll get to return to his old Shea stomping grounds several times a season. As he does, and Willie Randolph looks brilliant guiding the talented Mets, remember that the difference between them is probably less about the men themselves and more about the men they command.

2006-10-26T21:30:00.000-04:00

October 26th, 1947

Bill Gogolewski Born

I don't know how I missed this last year, I mean, Bill Gogolewski? That's a great name. Unfortunately, that's about the only thing great about him. Gogolewski was a right-handed starter with the Senators/Rangers franchise (being one of a handful of players who was with the team during its move) and then bounced around to the Indians and White Sox. For his career, Gogolewski won just fifteen games while losing twenty-four.

Like a lot of politicians, Gogolewski's best year was also the last he was in Washington, when he went 6-5 with a 2.75 ERA for the Senators in nearly a hundred and twenty-five innings. Other than that one year, Gogolewski never had a season with an ERA under 4.22. But hey, when you've gone through life with a name like Gogolewski, I suppose a few mediocre years on the mound are something you can live with.

2006-10-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

October 25th, 1923

Bobby Thomson Born

That's Bobby Thomson of "The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant!" fame and that's how his name is spelled, no "p" despite innumerable writers and others sticking one in there over the years. There's little to say about Thomson's moment that hasn't already been said so I won't even try but it did get me thinking about something else entirely.

Of the "great" home runs, those hit and remembered for their individual signifigance rather than the place in the larger scheme of history--in other words, Thomson's pennant winner rather than Maris' sixty-first, it's amazing how many of them were hit by guys who weren't really home run hitters. For example, a few years ago ESPN ranked the top one hundred home runs of all time, a list you can see the top fifteen of here. Leaving out numbers thirteen (Reggie's three homer night in the World Series as that's about the number of homers, rather than any individual one) nine (Bonds' 71st), seven (Maris' 61st), five (McGwire's 62nd) and three (Aaron's 756th) you're left with ten home runs.

The names left on that list don't exactly jump out at you as home run hitters. The leader is Joe Carter. While 1993 home run won the World Series for the Blue Jays, he also hit nearly four hundred the rest of his career and ranked forty-sixth all-time on the home runs hit list. He's the only guy in the top fifty however, the next closest is Carlton Fisk (376 HRs, fifty-ninth all-time).

Those are the only guys on the list who hit any kind of unusual total of home runs. While some other players have respectable totals, they are largely nothing to write home about. Kirk Gibson hit two hundred and fifty-five home runs, a total bested by names like Dean Palmer and Brian Downing. Like Carter, Kirby Puckett hit a memorable Game Six home run, but his two hundred and seven home runs are fewer than Joe Pepitone or Kevin McReynolds. And pleased as I was to see Scott Brosius listed as having one of the top fifteen home runs of all-time, even I would never have described him as a major power threat. All that doesn't even get into guys like Bucky Dent and Dick Sisler, who don't even have a hundred home runs between them.

This is all mostly apropos of nothing, as all of those guys but Dent at least had some power, enough to manage at least one double-digit home run season, sometimes more. But as Yadier Molina proved just a few nights ago, sometimes the guy with the big home run is the guy you expect the least.

2006-10-24T22:00:00.000-04:00

October 24th, 1977

Bobby Cox Hired

This was, of course, Bobby's first go-around with the Braves, although it sure seems like he's been managing them since time eternal, it's really only been since mid-1990. (That's a pretty long time in its own right, the longest by far of any current manager.) For the Atlanta Braves managerial position, Cox is something like Grover Cleveland to the United States' Presidency, having served the role on two, non-consecutive occasions.

That comparison doesn't really work, however, and not just because someone like Billy Martin's third and fourth tries with the Yankees (1983 and 1985) work better but also because Cox was seemingly singularly inept during his first run as manager and nearly always excellent in his second run. His first run Cox went 266-323 (.451) with an average finish of fifth. In his second effort, Cox has won a hundred or more games six times, a World Series, five pennants and most famously fourteen full-season division titles in a row. Grover Cleveland was the same basically mediocre President both times he served; whereas in his first run as manager Cox was basically Warren Harding but somehow transformed himself into FDR before his second "term."

Ok, so that was not much baseball talk covered by a whole lot of American history stuff. But hopefully not so much as to mask my core point about Bobby Cox and the relative merits of his two 'terms' as manager of the Braves.

2006-10-23T21:30:00.000-04:00

October 23rd, 1894

Rube Bressler Born

Ah, for the good ol' days when ball players were, as a matter of routine, nicknamed things like "Rube." That's Raymond Bloom Bressler if we're being formal about it which, insofar as baseball nicknames in the teens were concerned, they obviously were not. Like a handful of other players--Babe Ruth most famously--Bressler began his career as a pitcher but ended it as a full-time offensive player.

The beginning of his career was the source of his nickname, as he earned the sorbiquet from other, more successful southpaws like Rube Marquard and Rube Waddell, the latter of whom really personified the term. In 1914, however, Bressler was a sensation and seemingly well-deserving of the nickname, going 10-4 with a 1.77 ERA for the pennant winning A's. In 1915, however, Connie Mac decimated the team and with names like Kopf and Schang behind him instead of Collins and Baker Bressler's ERA skyrocketed to 5.20. Having thrown more than three hundred innings between ages nineteen and twenty Bressler also began to suffer arm trouble and it appeared his career was over.

As it turned out, Bressler was just getting started. After a couple more unsuccessful years pitching, Bressler--to that point a career .181 hitter began to see time in the outfield. Batting right-handed with a split-hand grip on the bat taken from Ty Cobb Bressler incredibly began to develop into a quality hitter. Despite one last hooray as a pitcher in 1918, Bressler was already becoming a position player. By 1921, just a few years after he first saw time in the outfield, Bressler hit .307. In 1924 he had actually become one of the better offensive players in the league, hitting .347 and sporting a 133 OPS+. Bressler never such regular action again, but he remained a viable bat until as late as 1930.

For his career Bressler ended up with just twenty-six wins (against thirty-two losses) and a 3.40 ERA. However, he lasted nineteen seasons in the big leagues thanks to a lifetime .301 batting average and 110 OPS+. As neither pitcher nor hitter was he Babe Ruth, but Rube Bressler proved you needn't have been the Bambino to make the transition.

2006-10-22T20:00:00.000-04:00

October 22nd, 1936

Fred Olmstead Dies

As some of you might have guessed, I picked this based on the resemblance between the name of this ballplayer and the man who designed (among other things) Central Park. Given the different spellings of the last name, I assume they are no relation, although I can't say that for sure. Either way, Frederick Law Olmsted was far more adept as his chosen profession than Fred Olmstead was at his. Over the course of a four-year (1908-1911), nearly three hundred and sixty inning career, Olmstead managed only a 2.74 ERA--I know, I know, that looks good, but the league average ERA in those days was 2.65--and a 19-20 record.

The highlight of his Major League career came on September 8th, 1910. Pitching for the White Sox against the truly woeful St. Louis Browns (they finished 47-107 that year) Olmstead gave up a lead-off single, on the first pitch according to some accounts, to Frank Truesdale. Olmstead was apparently nonplussed by this set back as he promptly no-hit the rest of the Browns' line-up, throwing a complete game one-hitter. Olmstead may not have had much of a career, but at least he'd always have that one-hitter.

2006-10-21T17:30:00.000-04:00

October 21st, 1976

Reds at Yankees

This game marked, in essence, the last great moment of the Big Red Machine. Scoring four runs in the ninth inning, the Reds increased their lead to 7-2 and put to rest the final notions of a Yankee comeback. This was the Reds' second title in a row and while the '76 version wasn't as dominant as the '75 team they were nonetheless pretty good. They would fail to make the playoffs the next year, however, and the final dynasty of the 1970s, the Yankees, would take over. (The '70s, especially in the middle period, are perhaps the most dynastic period in baseball history as three team won seven of the World Series each winning all their titles in a row.)

This victory was also notable for marking something new. 1976 was the first time a team had gone through the entire playoff system without losing a game. It was not the first time a team had won a title without losing a postseason game, of course; the 1907 Cubs were the first to go undefeated. (Although the Cubs did tie one game in their Series, the first team to win every game was the 1914 Boston Braves.) However, starting in 1969 a team had to play two different series to win a title, and until the '76 Reds, no team had gone undefeated through both series.

In fact, until 1995 when the playoffs were expanded to a third series, no other team went undefeated through the playoffs. And as you probably know, no team has ever gone through the Division, League Championship and World Series without losing a game; although two--the '99 Yankees, and '05 White Sox--have lost just one. The Reds were therefore not only the first team to go undefeated through two rounds of playoffs, but remain the last team to win a World Championship without a losing a game. And given the difficulties of going 11-0 against playoff caliber competition, they figure to remain the last team to do it for a long, long time.

2006-10-20T23:30:00.000-04:00

October 20th, 1897

Jigger Statz Born

I suppose, what with trying to buy the Nets, appearing in TNT's NBA ads and all, Jay-Z is probably more of a basketball guy, but I guess here we have the original Jigga, albeit spelled a bit differently. Actually, it's a shame that Jay-Z is so well associated with the Jigga name, otherwise this would make a dandy stage name if Bill James or Billy Beane ever issued a hip-hop album. He was born Arnold John Statz, I have no real idea about the nickname, although given that he was a slight man, just 5'7", 150, I imagine it comes from a supposed resemblance to the eponymous bartender's tool.

Although Statz had a relatively underwhelming Major League career, hitting .285 in a little under seven hundred games across eight seasons, he remains an all-time great in the Pacific Coast League. In those days, of course, the PCL was its own league, known as a level below the Majors, but significantly more independent than it is today. To this day Statz owns the PCL records for, among other things, games, hits, doubles and runs. Until he was passed by both Hank Aaron and Pete Rose Statz also held the all-time record for professional games played.

Playing exclusively for the Los Angeles Angels once he left the Majors, he hit over .300 nine straight times, and was part of the 1934 Angels team that is regarded by many as the best minor league team of that decade. (The other contender is the 1937 Newark Bears, a Yankee farm club featuring Charlie Keller and Joe Gordon.) In fact, the 1934 Angels (or '37 Bears) are probably the last truly great minor league team, as by after World War Two the Minor Leagues had really begun to be resigned into the feeder system for the Majors we know today.

The obvious question then is that if Statz was tearing up the PCL why some enterprising Major League team didn't try to give him another shot. The answer is that Angels were owned by William Wrigley (also owner of the Cubs, of course) and although Wrigley asked after Statz, the latter made it clear he enjoyed playing on the West Coast with its smaller ballparks and warmer weather. As such, Wrigley allowed Statz to stay in the minor leagues, where he played out his career. After his playing days Statz became a Cubs scout; he died in California in 1988.

2006-10-19T23:50:00.000-04:00

October 19th, 2006

Cardinals at Mets

If you are anything like me, you just got through watching a helluva game as the Cards edged past the Mets in Game Seven to capture the National League Pennant. After a game like that, I can only concede history was made, and make no attempt to overwhelm it. I'll be back tomorrow.

2006-10-18T23:30:00.000-04:00

October 18th, 1972

Reds at A's

As you can probably guess from the timing, this was a World Series game, a Game Three as a of matter fact and like yesterday's NLCS game, it was a rescheduled rainout. The Reds would end up taking the victory 1-0 with the only run scoring on a Cesar Geronimo RBI single, scoring Tony Perez. The victory kept the Reds from going down 3-0 in the series, and although they would manage to push it to Game Seven, the A's won a 3-2 nail biter with Catfish Hunter pitching two and a two-thirds in relief on one day's rest to get the win.

What drew my attention to this game wasn't the end result of the game or the series, but rather a play that occurred in the eighth inning. After Pete Rose lined out, Joe Morgan drew a walk and Bobby Tolan singled, sending Morgan to third and bringing Rollie Fingers into the game. Tolan promptly stole second, putting two runners in scoring position with one out. At this point the game play-by-play records only note that Johnny Bench struck out swinging, Tony Perez was walked intentionally and Denis Menke popped out to end the threat. Those last two entries give you most of the story, but the bit on Bench requires more detail.

Given the situation, it is little surprise that Fingers wanted to work carefully to Bench who had already hit forty home runs in '72 and would soon be named NL MVP. With the count 3-2, the A's apparently decided to cut their losses and walk Bench to load the bases, set-up the double play, and see what Fingers could do with Perez. A's catcher Gene Tenace stood up and Bench, one assumes, began to zone out slightly in anticipation of taking his base. Of course, it didn't quite work out that way as instead of throwing one high-and-outside for ball four, Fingers instead poured one down the middle as Tenace leapt back to catch it. Bench was caught napping as home plate umpire Mel Steiner rang him up.

One final note on this play: it is still tried, every now-and-then, to this day. The most recent example I can remember came against the Yankees, when the Orioles attempted to pull it on Derek Jeter. Of course, one of the many possible flaws of the play was revealed as the O's pitcher was unable to throw a 3-2 strike, meaning Jeter watched go by the rarely seen unintentionally-thrown-intentional-ball-four. As I said, this doesn't happen much, but it's something when it does and another of the many small elements of the game worth watching for.

2006-10-17T20:30:00.000-04:00

October 17th, 1927

Johnny Klippstein Born

Born in Washington DC, Klippstein probably deserved mention in my entry on ballplayers from our Nation's Capital since while he is only the second winningest pitcher born there, he is the winningest to pitch in the second half of last century; indeed, the winningest DC pitcher outside of the deadball era. Klippstein began his career for the Cubs in 1950 as a twenty-two year old, supposedly after being signed at sixteen from a try-out in camp in Wisconsin by the Cards and bouncing around a series of minor-league moves.

Klippstein was sometimes credited with having one of the best fastballs in the league, with a contemporary Baseball Digest article claiming that his figure--he's listed at a rail-like 6"1', 185--"belie[d] the wickedness of his fastball." Wicked fastball or not, he was good enough to win more than a hundred games (albeit just barely) despite struggling with his control. For his career Klippstein walked nearly four and a half per nine innings; in his worse seasons he went well above, approaching six per nine in 1953.

Although he was traded from the Cubs after the 1954 season, Klippstein remained a lifelong Cubs' fan holding season tickets for the team. He died on October Tenth, just shy of both his seventy-sixth birthday and fifty-second wedding anniversary. According to his family, Klippstein died shortly after the Cubs scored the fifth (and winning) run in this playoff game which he was listening to. Given how that series turned out for the Cubbies, maybe it's best Klippstein moved into the next world, one where presumably things as silly as Billy Goat Curses and fans with good intentions but poor results aren't the same source of agony they are in this.

2006-10-16T21:30:00.000-04:00

October 16th, 1941

Tim McCarver Born

Well, for the moment let's leave aside Tim's broadcasting prowess--or lack thereof--and look at him strictly as a player. I had always pictured McCarver as a totally brutal hitter, a Joe Girardi type who stayed in the line-up wholly on account of his glove. As it turns out, I was pretty wrong. McCarver wasn't Mike Piazza or Mickey Cochrane or anything but he could hit. As a twenty-five year old in 1967 McCarver was arguably the second-best hitter on the Cards, albeit miles behind Orlando Cepeda.

In fact, McCarver was a pretty damn good all-around player. He was quick enough to hit as many as thirteen triples in a season, had nearly a hundred home runs in his career and finished with a career 102 OPS+. Of course, my image of McCarver was at least partially true, as he was a fine defensive catcher. McCarver ended his career as Steve Carlton's personal catcher in Philly, prompting jokes that they would someday be buried sixty feet, six inches apart.

McCarver hung on with the Phillies through the 1980 season which leads us to an interesting piece of trivia. McCarver played in four decades, debuting as a rookie for St. Louis in 1959 up through his time in the City of Brotherly Love. That's something of a testament to McCarver's staying power and something of an element of trivia, of course. I imagine that most players who can claim to have seen time in four decades (or more) did so on account of debuting in the final year(s) of one decade and retiring in the first year(s) of another. It's a neat trick nonetheless, and one that merits some notice.

2006-10-15T21:30:00.000-04:00

October 15th, 1951

Mitchell Page Born

Continuing my series of coaches who were employed last season but who, on account of mangerial changes, are likely to be looking for work this off season we come to Mitchell Page. Page served as hitting coach for the Washington Nationals this year, a job he'd previously held for the Cards during the 2002 through 2004 seasons. Although one never knows about this kind of thing, perhaps whichever team signs Alfonso Soriano this off-season should hire Page, given Soriano's excellent season this year with the Nats.

Page had a short career in the Major Leagues, lasting just eight seasons, while seeing action in fewer than sixty games in four of those years. Like a handful of other players, Page's best season was far-and-away his rookie year. He hit .307 with a .926 OPS and forty-two stolen bases. Playing on a fairly awful Oakland A's team apparently doomed Page, as he was robbed of the Rookie of the Year award by Eddie Murray. (Funnily enough, Murray is also a hitting coach these days for the Dodgers, although he presumably has a bit more job security.) In hindsight of course that looks fine since Murray was a better player overall by a comical margin; but in 1977 Mitchell Page was clearly the man. Such, I suppose, are the vagaries of fate.

2006-10-14T20:00:00.000-04:00

October 14th, 1984

Padres at Tigers

With the Tigers--in highly dramatic fashion, no less--once again reaching the World Series today, it seems only appropriate to look back on this game in 1984, when the Tigers clinched their last World Series title. The '84 Tigers are probably one of the more underrated great teams, in part because unlike a lot of other great teams they failed to surround their greatest team with a number of other pretty good ones, making the playoffs only one other time in the 80s. They opened the season 16-1, winning their first nine games, losing the tenth and then winning seven more in a row. By May 24th, at the end of another nine game winning streak, the AL East race was basically over with the Blue Jays nine games back in the loss column. The Tigers would end up winning the division by fifteen games.

The Tigers rolled through the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS, sweeping the series in three games. Kirk Gibson hit .417 with a home run in the series and was voted MVP. Facing the Padres in the World Series the Tigers would split the first two games in San Diego but take over in Detroit, sweeping the remaining games. Gibson put the final nail in the coffin for the Tigers hitting a three-run home run off Goose Gossage in the eighth inning to put the Tigers up by four runs. Guillermo "Willie" Hernandez closed the door in the ninth and the Tigers were champions. We will see next week, of course, if they can repeat this feat, ending a twenty-two year drought.

2006-10-13T21:30:00.000-04:00

October 13th, 1950

Dick Pole Born

You know what? I'm not even saying anything about the name. It's there, that's his name. You read it right. Richard Henry "Dick" Pole. I don't think comment is necessary. Pole was at one point a highly touted prospect, leading the International League (that's Triple-A) in both strikeouts and ERA, and pitching a no-hitter in the minors. Pole was less successful at the Major League level, managing only a career 5.05 ERA in five hundred and thirty-one innings; perhaps his most memorable moment came when he gave up Reggie Jackson's 300th career home run.

In Pole's defense, his career might have turned out different had he not been struck on the face by a Tony Muser line-drive in 1975. The ball was said to have rebounded so far off Pole's face that two runners managed to come around and score on the play; ultimately it cost him ninety-percent of his vision in his right eye. (Raising the interesting question of what Tony Muser damaged more, Dick Pole's vision, or the Kansas City Royals.)

After his playing career ended, Pole went into coaching. He has served as a pitching coach at a variety of places, and is credited by as good a pitcher as Greg Maddux for helping teach him the theories on how to pitch at the Major League level. Most recently, Pole was Dusty Baker's bench coach in Chicago; given that Dusty has been blown out of the Windy City, it would seem that Pole will need to find a new club. Dick is still a relatively young man for coaches--though you'd never know it by looking at him--so it seems likely that he'll be somewhere in a ballpark next year coaching away.

2006-10-12T22:00:00.000-04:00

October 12th, 1915

Lou Novikoff Born

Known as "The Mad Russian," Lou Novikoff had the good fortune to be in the Majors during pretty much the only period of the twentieth century when it was not only acceptable, but even favorable to be associated with the Soviet Union, 1941 through 1946. Ten years later and the Glendale, AZ native would have been answering questions from Joe McCarthy. (That would be this Joe McCarthy of course, not this one.)

Novikoff was an absolutely hellacious minor league, winning batting titles practically everywhere he went, and being voted Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year in 1939. However, Novikoff was perhaps a Quad-A hitter, as although he posted good numbers in 1942, hitting .300 on the nose, he never lasted in the Major Leagues, especially not after the Second World War brought many of the regular players home. This was perhaps because Novikoff had a reputation of being something of a butcher an outfielder, particularly inept when it came to tracking line drives. Novikoff was also said to be afraid of ivy, a problem for anyone hoping to patrol the outfield at Wrigley Field. After 1946, Novikoff spent the rest of his baseball career in the minor leagues.

Once that career ended, Novikoff returned to the sport of softball, and played until he was fifty-three old. He was a good enough softball player to lead his team to three championships and was the first man inducted in the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame. (Worth noting here that Novikoff was playing fast-pitch softball, so not quite the mental image you might have of a Sunday beer league game.)

One final note on "The Mad Russian:" presumably his nickname comes in part from the Russian sound of his last name, but also perhaps on account of his behavior. According to various, potentially apocryphal stories, Novikoff once stole third base, the only problem being that the bases were loaded at the time. Asked for the logic behind such a move, he explained that he'd really gotten a good jump on the pitcher. One of Novikoff's minor league roommates reported that he was prone to coming back to the hotel just when the rest of the team was waking up; indeed Cubs' manager Charlie Grimm is reputed to have turned on his radio before going to one night only to find that player singing live from a bar. Novikoff died of a heart-attack just shy of his fifty-fifth birthday, but I think it is safe to say he managed to fit a lot of life into those fifty-four years.

2006-10-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

October 11th, 1856

Athletics at Atlantics

Without being able to say for sure, I think that's the Philadelphia Athletics while the home team (I know this part) is the Brooklyn Atlantics. The Atlantics are generally considered the first champions in baseball and the game's first dynastic franchise winning the league title every year from '56 all the way to 1861, and held the title several more times in the 1860s although the beginnings of "true" professional baseball put an end to the dynasty.

This game would likely be little noticed save one important factor. It is generally believed to be the first game in which scorecards were printed up and sold at the game. I think we all know that I'm a fan of having a scorebook with me at the game and while I don't know that the scorecards sold in those days allowed one to keep score in the modern matter--in fact, I'm sure they didn't; modern scoring came with Henry Chadwick many years later.

However, before Henry Chadwick could develop his scoring, and way before I could keep my own modest little tally at the ballpark there had to be a scorecard. So I think today is one worth celebrating, the birth of the scorecard.

2006-10-10T23:00:00.000-04:00

October 10th, 1929

Bobby Tiefenauer Born

I have a soft spot in my heart for knuckleball pitchers, in part because of Jim Bouton's Ball Four describing his efforts to succeed as one and in part because although he generally otherwise dominates the Yankees, Tim Wakefield spun the hell out of one and helped Aaron Boone send the Yankees to the 2003 pennant. Besides Wakefield, there just aren't a lot of guys throwing the knuckleball around today--although the White Sox called up Charlie Haeger this season so they aren't an entirely dead breed--so it's important to remember those who threw the knuckler.

Bobby Tiefenauer, as you've probably guessed, was one of those guys. He pitched in the 50s and 60s and like a lot of knuckleball pitchers (basically that means "like all knuckleballers except Phil Niekro) he was all over the map in terms of effectiveness. In 1964 Tiefenauer saved thirteen games, eighth in the league, for the Braves with a 3.21 ERA coming off a season of 1.21 ERA ball in limited time. Of course, the year before that Tiefenauer had a 4.34 ERA and the year after his thirteen saves he had a 4.71 so you see what I mean about all over the map. Perhaps the ultimate in this was the last two years of Tiefenauer's career: in 1967 he had a 0.79 ERA in eleven and a third innings; in 1968 he had a 6.08 in thirteen and a third.

After his playing career ended (at a late age, like a lot of knuckleballers) Tiefenauer went into coaching in the Phillies' system, an occupation he kept up for twenty years as a bullpen coach and minor league instructor. After those two decades he retired to Desloge, Missouri, where he was born and where he lived during the off season through his time in baseball. He died there in 2000.

2006-10-09T22:00:00.000-04:00

October 9th, 1979

Alay Soler Born

To me, Alay Soler is a perfect representation of a player who is on every team every year: the guy who saw a surprising amount of time when you look back on his numbers, but who you don't really remember. "Alay Soler," Mets fans everywhere are saying. "He was on our team this year? Are you sure? Wasn't it 2005?"

Nope, it was 2006, and not only was Soler on the team, he made eight starts for the Mets, the most of any non-regular member of the rotation. This isn't a shot at the Mets of course (it's not really a shot at Soler either, for that matter) just an observation on the nature of fandom. Like everything else, we think of the season in a linear way, so the stuff that came early (like Soler's starts) tends to get mushed in with other nonsense, compared to the stuff that came later. Oliver Perez only made seven starts for the Mets this year, but doubtless more fans remember him because he made his in the final two months of the season.

This is an exercise you can repeat for nearly any team, and as you get into less playing time, it's often amazing who was once on your team. I had literally wholly forgotten until I just looked that Scott Erickson actually pitched eleven and a third innings for the Yankees this year. The only problem is that you can only repeat this exercise for teams with which you are familiar on a day-to-day basis, otherwise the whole point is lost. But with the 2006 statistics up at BaseballReference, head over and wonder at who wore your club's uni this year that you just don't remember at all.

2006-10-08T22:30:00.000-04:00

October 5th-8th, 2006

Playoffs

This is, bar none, the longest formally unannounced I've ever taken a break from daily posting here. The combination of not just Yankee games (blast those Tigers!) but also the whole range of post season baseball. Rather than attempting to post a series of "catch-up" entries all at once, I'll put this up and be back on Monday with original material until my usual Christmas sabbatical.

2006-10-04T23:30:00.000-04:00

October 4th, 2006

BaseballReference Day!

Of all the books, blogs and other websites--and there are a lot--I use to generate these entries every day, none is more crucial than BaseballReference. In addition to providing invaluable basic statistic information, BBRef is the source of my "Born on" and "Died on" lists, and a whole host of interesting features like the Baseball Oracle. Today, Sean Foreman the man behind BBRef has added the 2006 stats. I could spend a week scrolling around, checking out an OPS+ here, the standing on that day there. I goofed around for nearly half an hour seeing new ways Derek Jeter can be connected to Reggie Jackson; in addition to their October heroics, Jeter has now played with Bobby Abreu who played with Mike Lieberthal who played with Dave Leiper who played with Jackson.

All of which is a very long way of saying you should head over to BBRef today and check it all out. Sponsor a page if you can, I'll be doing so myself over the next couple of days when I pick suitably deserving players. It's an absolute gem of a site, and it would be a shame to let the newest stats go unnoticed.

2006-10-03T19:00:00.000-04:00

October 3rd, 1993

Arlington Stadium Dies

With the baseball playoffs beginning, I should warn you that repeats are likely to happen more often than not on days when the Yankees play, as my employment does not (alas) offer me the free time to blog in the day that my previous status as a student did. I hope you enjoy today's repeat, for a short one, I'm rather pleased with it.

2006-10-02T23:00:00.000-04:00

October 2nd, 1938

Mike de la Hoz Born

I like a good four word name, and de la Hoz' is a goldmine, being that he actually has a six word name: Miguel Angel (Piloto) de la Hoz. Count 'em, that's six names. Of course, the problem with having six names is that you're then on the hook to have more than that number of years in the Majors or otherwise open yourself up for a fair bit of ridicule.

Luckily for de la Hoz, he made it with room to spare. All said, he spent part of all of nine seasons in the Major Leagues although he never appeared in more than eighty-one games in any given year. He played all around the infield, totaling nearly identical totals for his time at third base (129 games), second base (119 games) and shortstop (108 games) with a handful at first and in the outfield thrown in for good measure.

That versitility in the field is what kept de la Hoz in the Majors for his nine season, as he was usually mediocre at best with the stick, although he did manage decent back-to-back years in 1963 and '64 (hitting .294 in the latter). So far as I can tell, de la Hoz is still alive, and passing on a legacy of four named baseball players to another generation.

2006-10-01T21:00:00.000-04:00

October 1st, 2006

Last Day of the Regular Season

Just over six months ago, I did my predictions for the 2006 season. Being that the 2006 season has now ended--a fact which always makes me a little wistful, even with the playoffs beginning--it only seems fitting to look back on a bit of my own history, and see how I did at predicting the future.

In the American League, I predicted the four playoff teams would be the Yankees, Indians, A's with the Red Sox taking the Wild Card. As it turned out, I missed hugely on the Indians who finished the year in fourth place six games under .500. Of course, many others missed that bad on Cleveland, so I'm hardly alone. The AL Central as a whole was a nightmare, I failed to get a single team in their correct finishing order aside from the absolutely dire Royals and managed to place the teams that finished first and second--both going to the playoffs--in third and fourth. Nice job. On the other hand, while I missed on the Red Sox, my East and West predictions were pretty spot-on, notably the West where I was exactly correct.

Over in the National League, I did pretty well. Although the Phillies couldn't get enough help this weekend to make me perfect, I was otherwise good predicting playoff trips for the Mets, Cards and Dodgers. I nearly once again got the Western division perfect and also almost managed that feat for the East. I missed somewhat on the Cubs and big-time on the Reds (who led the Wild Card for much of the summer) whom I picked to finish last. On the whole for both leagues, I correctly got five of eight playoff teams and put eighteen of thirty teams in their correct position (that's sixty percent) and twenty-five of thirty (eighty-three percent) within one place of actual finish.

With my first set of playoff predictions now to some degree out the window, I won't humiliate myself by making any more but we'll see how I end up doing on the end year awards. (Hint: Probably not very well.)

2006-09-30T11:30:00.000-04:00

September 30th, 1974

Jeremy Giambi Born

Being the brother of a major league superstar—especially one who has his greatest success with the Oakland A’s apparently—can’t be easy. Living proof of this can be seen in Ozzie Canseco and Jeremy Giambi. Ozzie and Jeremy (which sounds like a 70s cop show, by the way) seemed to handle the burden of being an inferior sibling with a notable lack of grace. Ozzie’s spent a significant amount of time in the minors and also played in Japan but his Major League career was just twenty-four games and while he and I probably don’t have a lot in common, we do have at least one thing: zero career MLB home runs. Following his career, Ozzie and his brother got into a fight outside a Miami Beach nightclub. Two years later, Ozzie violated the terms of his probation from the incident and was sentenced to several weeks in jail.

Jeremy’s Major League career was slightly better than Ozzie’s, as he played in more than five hundred games and hit more than fifty home runs. He is best remembered as a player however, for his failure to slide in Game Three of the 2001 ALDS, a failure that arguably cost the A's a trip to the World Series and inarguably helped the legend of Derek Jeter to grow. Jeremy's antics off the field are also slightly better than Ozzie's, although he managed to cost his brother once again by being cited for marijuana possession at a Las Vegas airport the same day Jason signed his seven year contract with the Yankees. I guess Jeremy was hoping that what happens in Vegas would’ve stayed in Vegas.

2006-09-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

September 29th, 1977

Heath Bell Born

Being that I am, of course, a born-and-bred New Yorker, and therefore an avid taker of our fine Subway system; and being that Heath Bell, although a California boy himself is also an avid taker of the Subway, it only seems fitting to provide a link to this article from the New York Times. A (free) registration is required, but worth it.

2006-09-28T23:00:00.000-04:00

September 28th, 2006

Orioles at Yankees

Usually when I go to a ballgame, I'm too wiped out to do a real entry. Tonight I'm somewhat wiped out, but the game provided such an obvious blog topic, I'd be a fool not to take it. Daniel Cabrera, a much touted but so far unsuccessful (an ERA of nearly five in almost five hundred innings) started against the Yankees. The O's jumped to a five-run lead by the third inning, and Cabrera was pitching well, holding the Yankees hitless.

Being held hitless for a few innings is not an uncommon event, and if those innings are, for example, the third, fourth and fifth, it often goes practically unnoticed. When those innings are the first, second and third, however, a buzz begins to spread. Cabrera held the Yankees hitless and runless through until the seventh. After getting Robinson Cano to line up to third, Bobby Abreu hit a ground ball to second baseman Brian Roberts. Roberts bobbled it and Abreu reached on the error. Jason Giambi struck out, but not before catcher Ramon Hernandez allowed a passed ball, moving Abreu to second. With Gary Sheffield up, Hernandez allowed another passed ball, meaning the Yankees had now sent a runner all the way to third on an error and two passed balls. Sheffield hit a knubber to third base that Melvin Mora was unable to field cleanly as Abreu scored, leading to perhaps the most unearned run in history: E4, PB, PB, E5. Hideki Matsui then grounded out, ending the "rally."

In the bottom of the ninth, Johnny Damon hit a ground ball that defensive replacement Chris Gomez fielded cleanly. That brought Cabrera two outs away, but Cano then lined a no-doubt single to left, ending the no-hitter bid. Seeing one's team nearly no-hit--Abreu quickly grounded into a double play to end the game--is a memorable experience. But the story of tonight for me will always be the Yankees seventh inning no-hit run.

2006-09-27T21:30:00.000-04:00

September 27th, 1965

Tink Riviere Born

That's a nickname, as you might've guessed but I did not. (Well, "Tink" could be a real name; I mean, if you really hated your baby or something.) Anyway, his given name was Arthur Riviere, he was born in 1899 in Liberty, Texas, (known as "Paris, Texas" until 2002--no, not really, I'm kidding) the same place he would pass away in sixty-six years later.

Riviere had a two-year career, appearing in limited action in both 1921 and 1925 for the Cardinals and White Sox respectively as a pitcher. Riviere wasn't especially good during his time in the Majors, finishing with a ghastly 6.28 ERA in forty-three career innings. He nonetheless lived the dream, spending nearly ten years in the minors (beginning in 1920, and going through to 1931) although he lost two of those seasons to a suspension, for what I don't know.

Following his playing career, Riviere served in the Army during the Second World War and spent much of his post-war life as an insurance agent. For the sake of Tink and his family, I can only hope he was a better insurance agent than he was pitcher.

2006-09-26T22:00:00.000-04:00

September 26th, 1908

Cubs at Dodgers (Doubleheader)

With all the recent talk of the Cardinals' possible collapse and the playoff scenarios therein--which include the Cardinals possibly playing back-to-back games after the "end" of the regular season just to earn their way into the playoffs--it made me think that Tony LaRussa probably wishes he had pitchers 'like they used to make.' One of those pitchers was Ed Reullbach. Reullbach went 24-7 with a good, but not great 2.03 ERA for the World Series winning 1908 Cubs. Although he didn't pitch great in the World Series, Reullbach made his mark on this day, while accomplishing a feat still not matched in the Major Leagues.

With his Cubs up just half a game in the standings on the Pirates and Giants (and actually down two games on the loss side to New York) Frank Chance had pitched his ace Three-Finger Brown two days prior and number two starter Orval Overall the previous day. The burden fell to Reullbach then to help the Cubs through the doubleheader. As it turned out, he did far more than help them.

Incredibly, Reullbach threw a shutout in both ends of the doubleheader. The Cubs won the first game by five as Reullbach gave up just five hits and the second by three when Reullbach was--astoundingly--even better giving up just three hits and a walk. As the Cubs ended up winning the pennant by just a game over both the Giants and Bucs, it seems reasonable to give a fair share of the credit to Reullbach for saving them from any chance of the "traditional" double header split. Furthermore, given the way pitchers are used today, it is likely that Reullbach will hold his record for quite a long time.

2006-09-25T22:00:00.000-04:00

September 25th, 1917

Johnny Sain Born

"I asked Mike [Marshall] if he'd ever talked to Johnny Sain about contracts and he said he hadn't. Sain gives you good advice on how to get money out of a ballclub. John's a quiet guy and follows most of the baseball rules about keeping your mouth shut, but he's not afraid to ask for money if he thinks he deserves it. He was with the Boston Braves in 1948 the year they won the pennant. It was Spahn and Sain and then, dear Lord, two days of rain. Warren Spahn and Sain were the staff [That's not really an exaggeration by the way, they started nearly half the team's games and pitched more than forty percent of its innings--RB] and Sain really put it to John Quinn, who was the general manager. Sain had had a big argument in the spring about his contract an signed less than he wanted. Now they were just home from a western trip and fighting for the pennant and Sain went to Quinn and said "I'd like to talk about my contract"

"We'll talk about contract next winter, when it comes up," Quinn said.
"No, I'd like to talk about it now," John said.
"What the hell," Quinn said. "You signed a contract and we're going to stick by it. We can't renegotiate a contract during the season."
"Well, you're going to renegotiate this one," John said.
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Quinn sad.
"I'm suppose to pitch Thursday," Sain said. "But unless you pay me what I wanted in the beginning, I'm not pitching."

That meant it would be Spahn and rain and pray for a hurricane and then maybe a flood. So Quinn tore up his contract and gave him a new one, and John won twenty-four games. [Plus a shutout in the first game of the World Series--RB] He used to say to me, "Now, don't be afraid to climb those golden stairs. Go in there and get what you're worth."

Those golden stairs."

~Jim Bouton, Ball Four

2006-09-24T22:00:00.000-04:00

September 24th, 1979

Nate Cornejo Born

As I'm sure most of you know, the Tigers punched their ticket to the post season today. I think most people are happy for the Tigers and their fans in a vague sort-of way, given the depths to which the franchise fell, their success is nice to see; plus it provides hope to fans of teams like the Royals and Devil Rays that their teams might someday turn it around.

One person who must have mixed feelings about the Tigers success, however, is Nate Cornejo. (The last name is pronounced Cor-NAY-ho, if you're scoring at home.) Cornejo is a righty pitcher who came up for the Tigers as a twenty-one year old in 2001 and pitched for the next four seasons. In the Tigers' awful 2003 season, Cornejo started thirty-two games (second most on the team) and lost seventeen of them. Despite that, he was probably their best regular starter, and the only one with an ERA under five. During his time with the Tigers, Cornejo went a combined 12-29 with a 5.41 ERA. The four Tigers' teams he was on lost nearly four hundred games in four seasons.

In 2004, Cornejo had shoulder surgery that ended his season and ultimately, his career. He retired this year while in the White Sox system, unable to return to the form that brought him to the Majors. As Cornejo watched many of his one-time teammates spray each with champagne, I assume he was happy for those who had "been through the wars" with him, but probably also wistful that he wasn't enjoying one of those champagne showers himself.

2006-09-23T18:30:00.000-04:00

September 23rd, 1952

Phillies at Dodgers

Given the sheer number of teams in the league these days, divisions are something of a necessary evil. It would be impracticable to have all the teams in one gigantic division and just go straight into the playoffs. As this year's NL proves, it wouldn't even necessarily create a great race. It must said though that today's divisional races, as exciting as they might be, can never match the excitement of teams contending for one spot, knowing that one team goes to the World Series and the rest all go home.

Today's game illustrates that point, but in an odd way. With their one-run victory in the first game of a doubleheader, the Dodgers clinched the NL pennant. (They would go on to lose, of course, to the Yankees in the World Series.) This meant that the Dodgers had clinched with five games remaining. This marked the first time in four years that the winner of the National League pennant was not determined on the season's last day. Perhaps not surprisingly given the pressure of having to clinch that late, the National League teams lost those four World Series (the first to the Indians, the other three to the Yankees) by a combined game score of sixteen to four.

As I said, having all of a league's teams in one division won't happen again, and probably shouldn't. But that it is still fun to look back on when every team was gunning for one spot.

2006-09-22T22:00:00.000-04:00

September 22nd, 2006

Nationals at Mets

Having attended today's Nats/Mets game, I'm not quite up for blogging. But of course, I went with my trusty scorebook, and we all know what fun that can be.

2006-09-21T23:30:00.000-04:00

September 21st, 1977

Brian Tallet Born

Brian appeared in yesterday's Yankee game--oh, just like last year, I'm accepting shirts--and being that my family recently entered the twenty-first century and got cable, I got to see Brian Tallet for the first time. Tallet is a tall (6'7") and generally underwhelming left-handed reliever who spent the first three years of his career in Cleveland and this bouncing between Toronto and Triple-A Syracuse. Simply listening to the radio, as I used to, there is nothing to distinguish Tallet from any of the other parade of mediocrities seeking to become the next Mike Myers.

On television however, the true Brian Tallet emerges. I guess the nicest way of putting it is that Tallet has a look going. I don't quite understand what look it's supposed to be, but it's a look either way. In addition to the rather prominent sideburns you can see on Tallet in this photo, he's since added a rather bushy mustache and allowed his rather curly hair to grow out the back of his cap. The overall effect is of a nearly seven-foot Groucho Marx with large sideburns pitching for the Blue Jays. I wish I could explain Brian's decision making in all this, but I'm afraid it's as much of a mystery to me as it to you. We can only stand and admire.

2006-09-20T21:30:00.000-04:00

September 20th, 1954

Mickey Klutts Born

That sounds like a British gangster's to me, a character you might expect to see in a Guy Ritchie movie or the like. As it turns out, Mickey Klutts was no tough-man from Bradford, but rather an infielder from Montebello, California. Klutts didn't really have much in the way of a career, never sticking as a regular on any team, although he played parts of eight seasons.

One thing to say about Klutts, even though he rarely played, he did have a talent for rarely playing on some pretty good teams. He came up for the first time with the 1976 Yankees, the first of three consecutive pennant winning teams. Klutts played a grand total of nine games those seasons, but at least he can say he was around the clubhouse.

He was traded to the A's in the middle of 1978 and although the A's were pretty terribly in 1979, in 1980 Billyball! took over and by 1981 Klutts was back to being a minor figure on a good team as the A's won the first half of the bizarre strike-shortened split-season before losing in the ALCS to the Yankees. The A's reverted to their terrible form in 1982 however, and after one more year with a not-so-good team (the '83 Blue Jays) Klutts was done with the Majors for good.

2006-09-19T21:00:00.000-04:00

September 19th, 1900

St. Louis at Brooklyn

Yesterday I described a representative bit of history from the pre-1900 period and used it as an explanation of why I don't often do events from that time period. That's a loose standard, of course, and today's incident provides a perfect example that using 1900 as the cut off is hardly a perfect tool.

At some point during this game, St. Louis catcher Wilbert Robinson objected to an umpire's ruling that a Brooklyn runner was safe at home. Being that this was the early days of baseball, Robinson's objections consisted of throwing the ball at the umpire and then poking him in the chest. In response, the umpire ejected Robinson, but this being the early days of baseball the ejection consisted of smacking Robinson in the mouth with his mask.

Normally at this point the manager, in this case John McGraw, would put in another catcher but this being the early days of baseball (and John McGraw being John McGraw) it was not that simple. McGraw refused to install another catcher, claiming that he only had two remaining catchers and one was injured and the other suspended. In response, the umpire declared the game a forfeit and awarded it to Brooklyn.

Although Brooklyn fans were probably happy to see their team win, they were unhappy with the stoppage of play before seeing a whole game. Evidently hoping to head off a riot, Brooklyn team President Charles Ebbets (for whom Ebbets Field would be named in 1912) offered all fans who wanted one a full refund. For the fans then it was the best that could be expected, a free (partial) game and a Brooklyn victory. All in another day's work in the early days of baseball.

2006-09-18T19:00:00.000-04:00

September 18th, 1883

Philadelphia at Cincinnati

Or, possibly, September 18th, 1893, Baltimore at Cincinnati. I've mentioned in the past that I don't often do stuff from pre-1900 because (a) I don't know much about it and (b) no one knows that much about it, the whole period is a trifle sketchy. Today is a pretty good example of that. According to the usually reliable Today In Baseball on BaseballLibrary.com, Cincinnati assistant groundskeeper Louis Can married his wife-to-be before the game with the ceremony taking place at home plate. According to BaseballLibrary, Can and his wife netted sixty dollars from the home team and another forty from the visitors (that's about two thousand dollars total in modern money) and the ceremony attracted a crowd of more than twenty-two hundred people. This story checks out somewhat, as the Red Stockings (as they were then known) did play the Athletics on that day in Cincinnati.

Things get a little tricky, however, when we come to this same date in 1893. According to BaseballLibrary, on that day, assistant groundskeeper Louis Can was married in a pre-game ceremony in Cincinnati. In this version however, in addition to being ten years later, the game was against Baltimore and Can and his new wife took off for a honeymoon at the World's Fair in Chicago. This story does check out to some degree as well, as the Reds were hosting the Baltimore Orioles on that day and the World's Fair was going on in Chicago--as anyone who has read the brilliant The Devil in the White City can tell you.

This leaves us with a couple of different possibilities. One is that somewhere along the line BaseballLibrary (or its sources) messed up, and Louis Can was married just once, on September 18th 1883 or 1893 and that was the end of it. The other option is that Louis Can, in an astonishing display of tastelessness, got married at home plate before a game on the same day exactly ten years apart. I really don't know which to believe, as baseball in those days was so bizarre that either is really plausible. No matter what the solution, it's both an entertaining story and a pretty good example of why I don't do many pre-twentieth century stories.

2006-09-17T23:30:00.000-04:00

September 17th, 1993

Frank Tanana Traded

So, who remembers last week's linkback, which I said would be the last because it was my last beach weekend for a while? Well, I lied. But barring a continuation of this Indian Summer in the New York area, this one, really will be the last linkback for a while.

2006-09-16T23:00:00.000-04:00

September 16th, 1928

Vito Valentinetti Born

Well, this ends the discussion. This is absolutely the most Italian name in the history of baseball. I had long thought the title belonged to Archi Cianfrocco but it turns out I was wrong, Vito takes it, hands down. Something else I like about Vito, his listed place of birth is "West New York, NJ." I don't know if that's a typo or what, but it works on a couple of levels since you can definitely see some gangster types being from West New York (this is "Vito, from West New York, we brought him for some protection) but then, we all know there are also gangsters in New Jersey.

His name aside, Vito wasn't much of a player, he pitched just over two hundred and fifty innings for his career and finished with a 13-14 record and a substantially below average 4.73 ERA. Vito seemed to have a special talent for pitching a good half a season with one team, only to be accquired by another and let them down, performing the trick twice in a five a year career, burning the Indians in 1957 and Senators in 1958. After ten terrible innings with the Senators in 1959 Vito was out of baseball for good, and into Italian-named legend.

2006-09-15T19:00:00.000-04:00

September 15th, 2003

Hanshin Tigers Clinch Division

As there is a very good chance tonight will see the New York Mets clinch the NL East--the first team to secure a playoff spot this year--it seemed appropriate to do a clinching themed blog. Should the Mets clinch tonight, it will be their first division title since 1988, a period of eighteen years. Coincidentally enough, the Tigers clinching on this date also represented their first Central League title in eighteen years.

Before we get to that, some background is required. A local tradition for Tigers' fans--who are famed in Japan for their loyalty and fanaticism, closer to European football fans than any Americans--is to jump from the Ebisubashi Bridge into the Dotonbori Canal. When the Tigers won the Japan League title in 1985, fans called out player names and had fans resembling that player jump into the Canal. Failing to find a fan resembling Series MVP (and American) Randy Bass, they instead threw in a nearby statue of Colonel Sanders. The Colonel's physical similarity to Bass seemed to basically be a beard and not being Japanese, but given the circumstances it was the best that could be found. However, the Tigers soon found themselves losing season-after-season, and the Curse of the Colonel was born, claiming the team would never again be victorious until the statue was recovered from the river.

The statue has still not been recovered, but when the Tigers finally won the Central League title in 2003, fans nonetheless resumed the tradition and an estimated fifty three hundred people jumped into the Canal. Sadly, in the bedlam one fan died, and officials in Osaka (where the Canal is located) have since put up a fence to discourage further jumps. However, being that it has been eighteen years since the Mets last had a division triumph, perhaps tonight will we will be treated to masses of people taking the leap into Flushing Bay.

2006-09-14T22:30:00.000-04:00

September 14th, 1912

Icehouse Wilson Born

I always sort-of wonder if people think I make these things up. I mean, "Icehouse" Wilson? Whose real name was George Peacock Wilson? That has to be made up, right? Well, it's not. I wish I could make these things up, but it's all the truth.

I don't know the story behind Wilson's nickname, I assume it's not for the brand of beer popular with college students, the unemployed and anyone else in an economic class where the primary merits of a beer are how many of them can be obtained for under ten dollars. Wilson had one of those Moonlight Graham careers: one game, one at-bat (an out) and nothing else in the Majors for the rest of his life. That probable explains why information on him is so hard to come by, but does leave me rather unsatisfied.

Even with that unsatisfying lack of information, I can promise you one thing: Icehouse Wilson really did exist, he really did go 0-for-1 in his Major League career. Other than that, it's all a mystery to me.

2006-09-13T23:30:00.000-04:00

September 13th, 1996

Charlies O'Brien Debuts New Equipment

I know, I know, I've been bad. But I know you'll forgive me for a repeat since I had a really good reason to not have time today. I'll be back with original material tomorrow.

2006-09-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

September 12th, 1934

Albie Pearson Born

I'd like to say there's a logic behind how I pick my entries, and while occasionally there is, today is far more representative of how these blog topics get selected. I noticed the name Albie Pearson and immediately recognized it only to realize that I couldn't recognize it since Albie's career, even the last few years, predates me by nearly twenty years. Armed with the knowledge that this Albie was clearly not the Albie I was thinking of, I went in search of more information.

As it turns out, the Albie I'm thinking of must've been Albie Lopez, who pitched from 1993 to 2003. But that started a new mystery, why would I remember that Albie? His best year was 2000, when he was eighth in the AL in ERA and won eleven games for Tampa Bay. Not really that memorable. Further investigation revealed, however, that in mid 2001 Albie Lopez had been traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Lopez, it turns out, was the losing pitcher in Game 5 of the 2001 World Series, recording only one out--a Scott Brosius sac bunt--before Alfonso Soriano drove in the winning run for the Yankees. So that's why I remember Albie Lopez.

Of course, none of this (well, almost none) has anything to do with Albie Pearson. And being that Albie Lopez' birthday is recently passed, it only seems fair to give Albie Pearson his due. Pearson wasn't actually a bad ballplayer. A center fielder for most of his career, Pearson won the Rookie of the Year award in 1958 and would make the All-Star team in 1963 when he hit over .300 for the year. That was atypical for his offensive output though; he was close to a .275 kind of a hitter.

So there we are; that's the life-and-times of Albie Pearson in one neat paragraph and the life-and-times of how I pick these topics in two longer ones.

2006-09-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

September 11th, 2001

9-11

2006-09-10T22:30:00.000-04:00

September 10th, 1940

Sam Crane Begins Parole Preceedings

A long weekend for me--probably my last one for a while during which I spent extensive time at the beach--so we'll do just a callback today, and be back with regular work in the coming days.

2006-09-09T18:00:00.000-04:00

September 9th, 1995

Swallows at Giants

As one or two of you might know, that's the Yakult Swallows (now known as the Tokyo Yakult Swallows) and the Yomiuri Giants (more commonly known as the Tokyo Giants). The Giants are commonly, and accurately, known as the Yankees of Japan with more pennants and titles than any other franchise. I don't know an equally good comparison to the Swallows; they're in the same league as the Giants but have had some success of their own (including five titles) so perhaps they're the A's or Tigers of Japan.

Anyway, continuing our theme from the other day of notable no-hitters, we come to this game. On this day the Swallows--on their way to their third league title--got the best of the Giants, no-hitting them. Although I don't have the exact data I assume Japanese leagues have no-hitters at roughly the same rate as leagues based in the United States (or anywhere, for that matter) but today's was nonetheless significant for its pitcher. The pitcher was Terry Bross, he of twelve lifetime innings in the Major Leagues (0-0, 3.00) who was nonetheless lights out in Japan finishing 14-5 and leading the league with a 2.33 ERA.

Bross' no-hitter was notable for being just the second one ever pitched by a foreign born player--and even more so for (like Kevin Brown two years later) missing out on a perfect game only by hitting a batter. Despite a fair bit of effort, I've not been able to turn up who threw the first no-hitter in Japan by a foreign born player, so if anyone can send me that information, I'd be much obliged. For now though, we can marvel at Terry's feat.

2006-09-08T22:00:00.000-04:00

September 8th, 1913

Slick Castleman Born

No, he wasn't one of the minor characters in Saturday Night Fever, "Slick" Castleman (born Clydell Castleman; I'd get a nickname too) was a pitcher in the 1930s for the Giants. Castleman debuted as a twenty year-old in 1934, appearing in seven games--one start--and finishing the year 1-0 albeit with a gruesome 5.40 ERA. The next year, at just age twenty-one, Castleman won fifteen game (good for third on the team) and with just six losses "Slick" was also third in the NL in winning percentage. His best year came in 1937, although Castleman won just eleven games he ranked in the NL top ten in WHIP, BB/9 and strikeout-to-walk ratio.

1937 also represented Castleman's last truly effective year, perhaps his high inning totals, more than four hundred and fifty before age twenty-four, did him in but he was out of baseball by 1940 and threw only one-hundred twenty-four and a third inning in '38 and '39 combined. A native of Tennessee, Castleman died in Nashville in 1998.

Finally, the nickname. As sometimes happens, this is a nickname where one can guess the origin. Castleman was known for being a tidy and clean guy in the clubhouse, and stylish dresser when not in uniform. From his--logically enough--"Slick" was born.

2006-09-07T20:30:00.000-04:00

September 7th, 1946

Joe Rudi Born

The recent (and somewhat mysterious) release of Dimitri Young got me thinking about good players on bad teams. Young, of course, was literally the only player of any talent--at the time anyway--on the 2003 Tigers. Young put a line for the season of .297/.372/.537 which is good under normal circumstances but awe inspiring given that the Tigers' team line for the season was .240/.300/.375.

But what, of course, does any of this have to do with Joe Rudi? Well, not a whole lot. But bear with me. Although I've never done it, one could make a "team" out of every day of the year, and play them aganist each other. I have no idea what day would win --off the top of my head, if Feburary 5th could find a pitcher to go with Hank Aaron, Robby Alomar, Don Hoak and Roger Peckinpaugh they'd be a contender at the least--but I do know that September Seventh would not be much of a team.

Although they have a decent starter in Mark Prior, and closer in Jason Isringhausen, if they could stay healthy, the rest of the team is fairly underwhelming. Few players have a career of any length, and those that do tend towards the Darren Bragg (.255 in nearly 2500 lifetime at-bats) or Sergio Valez (12-20, 5.06 over eight seasons) category.

But what does any of this have to do with Joe Rudi? Well, as you've probably guessed by now, Rudi is the runaway winner of best player ever born on September 7th. Despite the decent pitchers, September 7th has not seen the birth of any really good hitters, let alone great, before or after Rudi's birth in 1946. So let's all wish a Happy Birthday to Joe Rudi, the Dimitri Young of the September 7th team.

2006-09-06T23:00:00.000-04:00

September 6th, 1905

Chicago at Detroit (Second Game)

In honor of Anibal Sanchez and his no-hitter tonight--ending the longest no-hit drought in history--we come to the second game of a double header between the White Sox and Tigers. Although a no-hitter usually reflects some measure of dominance, Sanchez needed to pitch well today as the Marlins could only manage two runs themselves, so the game was at least somewhat in doubt all the way into the ninth inning.

That wasn't the case for Frank Smith in his no-hitter on this date. Like many (most?) pitchers who threw a no-hitter, Smith was not really anything special as a pitcher. He did win as many as twenty-five and twenty-three games in a season, and while the twenty-five win season had a pretty decent ERA, in his twenty-three win season he actually had an ERA below league average. For his career, Smith finished with fewer than a hundred and fifty wins and an ERA just at league average.

On this day, of course, Smith allowed no runs, as one is wont to do when allowing no hits. As it turned out, he could've allowed almost any reasonable number of runs you can think of, as his White Sox scored fifteen runs to give them an easy victory. (For an idea of how many runs fifteen was in 1905, remember that it represented nearly two and a half percent of all the runs the White Sox scored that year.) To this day that remains the largest margin of victory ever in a no-hitter, so Smith was not exactly under a lot of pressure in the later innings.

Anibal Sanchez may have had to bear down and make sure he not only had his no-hitter but also won the game for his team, but for Frank Smith on that day in Detroit more than a hundred years ago it was all smooth sailing.

2006-09-05T22:00:00.000-04:00

September 5th, 1900

Merv Shea Born

I like players born in years like 1900 or 1950; it's always easy to calculate how old they are, which is always nice for someone like me, who is not so good at the ol' math. In the case of Merv Shea, that helped me noticed him, since his 1927 debut (albeit at age twenty-six) is unusually late for someone born in 1900. If those dates had been, say, born in 1911 and debuted in 1937, I might have skipped right over him. I also noticed because Shea's final season came in 1944, also late for someone born in 1900, and even more so for a catcher like Shea.

To be fair, there were probably a couple of other factors at work in Shea's 1944 season. For one, that was one of the war years, when Major League players were hard to come by, but forty-four year olds were not exactly prime draft material. Shea hadn't caught in the Major Leagues since 1939, although whether he was resting his knees at home or bouncing around the minors I don't know. Generally speaking, he had less wear and tear on him at forty-four than say, Carlton Fisk did given he only caught more than a hundred games in a season once, and more than fifty just twice.

Shea made the most of his last go-around, hitting .267/.421/.467 in extremely limited time as the oldest player in the league. Shea would not live much longer, dying in 1953, a sad but fittingly easy way to calculate end to his life.

2006-09-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

September 4th, 1950

Doyle Alexander Born

You all remember Doyle Alexander, he's the guy traded for John Smoltz. That's what's going to end up on his tombstone anyway: Here Lies Doyle Alexander. You know, the guy traded for John Smoltz. Boy, was that ever stupid. And to be fair, with the gift of hindsight, it was stupid. Smoltz is a borderline Hall of Famer, a man with nearly three hundred and fifty combined wins and saves, but the Tigers traded him for a guy who pitched in barely more than seventy-five games and did it with a 4.26 ERA.

I'm not sure if it's possible to justify that trade, and I'm not sure if I want to be the guy attempting to justify it. But I do know two things. For one, if you'd asked any Tigers' fan in 1987 what they thought of the trade, it would've seemed a mad question. The Tigers held off the Blue Jays for the '87 AL East title by just two games. It almost surely would not have happened but for Alexander who was simply masterful down the stretch. He went 9-0 with a sterling 1.53 ERA. He averaged more than eight innings a start and threw three shut outs in eleven starts. The only comparable addition in recent memory for me is Randy Johnson for the '98 Astros. Alexander pitched so well, in fact, that he finished fourth in the AL Cy Young race.

The other thing I know is that it is unfortunate Alexander is remembered for nothing but that deal. He wasn't a truly great pitcher--this isn't like Randy Johnson being remembered for his time with the Astros and nothing else--but he probably deserves better. Alexander finished sixth in Cy Young voting for the Blue Jays in '85, made the All-Star team in '88 and won nearly two hundred games in his career. As it stands, he's been doomed to the Milt Pappas scrap heap of history, but that's how it goes sometimes.

2006-09-03T15:00:00.000-04:00

September 3rd, 1978

Mets at Dodgers

Charlie Hough is probably best known now for two things. The first is his nearly endless career as a knuckleball pitcher--Hough pitched for twenty-five seasons, throwing more than two hundred innings at age forty-five. The other is being the pitcher who gave up Reggie Jackson's third home run in the 1977 World Series. As it turns out, 1977-78 were Hough's years for giving up notable home runs to New York team players.

Batting lead off, and facing lefty Tommy John, switch hitter Lee Mazzilli started the game with a home run from the right-handed side of the plate. The Mets would go on to score six runs in the next inning, giving them a commanding seven run lead. Not surprisingly, John was gone from the game by the seventh inning when Mazzilli came up to the plate for his fourth at-bat of the game. John had been replaced by Charlie Hough so Mazzilli had switched over to the left side of the plate.

To this point in history, no Met had ever homered from both sides of the plate in the same game. But Mazzilli, already three-for-three on the day, was obviously locked in and clobbered a Hough offering for his second home run of the game. Obviously I doubt Mazzilli's second home run made quite the splash that Jackson's third did, but for Hough, it was the continuation of a disturbing trend.