tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-113435572024-03-12T20:01:00.499-04:00The Grand Old GameI talk about all things baseball: the past, present, and future of the game, the players, the fans, front office staff and part-time ushers, hobbyists, beat writers, photographers, broadcasters, etc. I may chat about other sports, as well. Who knows...I might talk about a favorite movie, here and there.
While I'm at it, I also hang out at Whitaker Bank Ball Park, where I'm the photographer for the Lexington Legends, Low-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-58158252717869364332020-12-21T08:00:00.022-05:002020-12-21T08:00:00.517-05:00Monday Morning Mentions: Dec 21st, 2020<p>With all the talk about the latest developments regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, there seems to be more questions than answers in the minds of the general public. </p><p>For myself, I have a fairly extensive range of clinical experience. I've worked in hospitals and clinics (among other places) since I was nineteen, but even I was fixated on one particular point: this vaccine seemed to make it to public use awfully quickly. </p><p>The way I saw it, I felt like the companies involved in its development may have cut some corners in their efforts to get the vaccine out as soon as possible. It never even occurred to me to consider the sort of resources and manpower behind it. It was an "all hands on deck" sort of pursuit, and what it left us with was multiple options for a viable and effective vaccine. </p><p>This edition of Monday Morning Mentions belongs to someone with whom I've spoken at length, in the past, and has recently received the COVID-19 vaccine himself. </p><p>A couple of years ago, I interviewed former Cardinals, Mets, and Braves first baseman-outfielder Mark Hamilton, who was about to complete his medical degree and take the boards. Now he's an internal medicine resident and specialist in interventional radiology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, based in New York. Dr. Hamilton studied neuroscience at Tulane University, in New Orleans, as an undergraduate. </p><p>He was kind enough to once again share a bit of his time and insights, answering a few basic questions about the COVID-19 vaccine. </p><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Clinton Riddle:</b> I was hoping to ask
your thoughts on a few details that have concerned me about these
vaccines. My first
concern is the time it took to get them to
the market. Does it seem to you that maybe these companies might have
cut some corners in order to rush these out to people who badly need
them? </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. Mark Hamilton:</b> No. I do not believe
corners were cut. What we saw was an arms race. Vaccines,
unfortunately, have been an extremely unprofitable endeavor in the
past 30 years. The profitable endeavors have been the next drug for
chronic conditions like hypertension. As such, high powered pharma
companies have simply not prioritized vaccine research. This pandemic
and the public and private money invested into developing a vaccine
has changed that paradigm. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Theses companies dropped everything they
were doing and put all resources into development. It’s simply
amazing what unlimited resources can do. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The vaccine itself is
extremely simple and something people have been wanting to do for
years. The challenge was stabilizing it for delivery. The science is
high-school level. They have since animal tested and human tested. And
FDA Phase 1 and 2 tested. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The only step that was skipped was Phase 3,
which specifically takes time by design. I believe it to be safe,
and its simplicity, to me, makes that even more likely. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The
vaccine itself is just a fat membrane around a completely naturally-occurring product. It causes the body to produce the protein from the
virus that the neutralizing antibodies need to be produced against.
Extremely precise. Guaranteed to give the outcome desired. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Can I say
what the vaccine impacts are ten years down the road? No. But I would
expect much, and I will say that contracting COVID means the same
genetic material from the vaccine enters your body anyway (just with
the rest of the virus and risks that come with infection). </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CR:</b> Interesting. So it stimulates the
production of components of the immune response which will show an
affinity to the proteins in the viral shell of this strain of COVID,
thereby causing those vaccinated to develop antibodies?</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. H:</b> Correct. It delivers the genetic
code for a single protein that is on the virus and make your own
cells make that single protein. Your body recognizes it as
“non-self”, and attacks it.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">That attack stimulates the immune
systems and results in durable antibodies against that specific
protein. So if you come in contact with the virus, your immune cells
already know and have antibodies against the protein on the virus
surface, thus preventing full-blown infection before it begins. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CR:</b> It sounds astoundingly simple.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. H:</b> And they specifically chose the protein
that binds the virus to our cells. So now the virus cannot enter
cells very well. It’s been a pipe dream for decades to do vaccines this
way, but the development would cost billions and the result was
simply not profitable enough to invest in it. Until now.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Incentivize Big Pharma, and they
deliver.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CR:</b> Amazing. Did this require protein
sequencing to be carried out first, or is the surface protein of this
strain of coronavirus similar enough to other forms of the virus?</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. H:</b> Yes. Sequencing first. But that
had been underway since the virus was identified. This surface
protein is unique to COVID (SARS-COV2). But the virus is very similar
to SARS from 2001. </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Reverse sequencing is easy. We’ve had that tech since the 1940-50s. </p><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CR: </b>True but I thought it took a lot longer. I had no idea.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. H:</b> Not really. Sequencing like this is simple. We had the genetics sequences within one week of identifying the virus as novel. </p><p>
</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CR: </b>Wow</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. H:</b> Selecting a target and comparing
it to prior viruses took a bit longer. But not that much time.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">You just had to know what you were
looking for. At first, in China, they had no idea what the hell was
causing the infection. Took longer to identify the virus itself than
sequence it and computer model it’s proteins.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CR:</b> With its similarity to SARS c.
2001, was this an offshoot of that particular strain?</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. H: </b>Hard to say. It’s a
coronavirus. There are thousands of them. Only a few impact humans.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CR:</b> True. Did they develop a vaccine
for SARS? I can’t remember. Seemed like it barely touched us,
comparatively.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. H:</b> No. Tried and failed. But they
only tried conventional methods. Which are harder. More guess work.
The big issue was figuring out mRNA delivery and stabilization. But like I
said, before (COVID-19), it wasn’t profitable to figure that part
out. Vaccines are not money makers. You get one shot, and then you're
done. Hypertension drugs (for example) you take everyday for the rest
of your life</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CR:</b> Makes one wonder how many diseases
we could vaccinate against, if money weren't the primary impetus.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dr. H:</b> I feel this will open many
doors. I hope, at least. But again, they won’t bother if it won’t
make them money...a sad reality.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">These companies can not only say they
are the ones who solved the problem, but a crazy amount of public and
private money was given to them to solve it. (They) demonstrated that
they could do something others couldn’t. </p><br /><p></p><p>(<i>For more information on vaccine development, human immunological response, and other details involved with the research and development of new treatments, a good place to start is <a href="https://www.merckmanuals.com/home" target="_blank">Merck Online</a>, which covers a broad range of medical topics. It's long been a go-to for young doctors and medical students, and most definitely an old favorite of mine. </i></p><p>(<i>Also, fda.gov released a <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/144414/download?fbclid=IwAR08DP-CqeUkNt_xlG97TNAlXTlBL8z4XRql4F2zwRfXY5fyZfXaFszzKL0">fact sheet regarding the COVID-19 vaccine</a>, and what prospective recipients need to know before receiving it.</i> ) </p>Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-78168201825352802342020-11-02T08:00:00.019-05:002020-11-02T08:00:00.178-05:00Monday Morning Mentions-Nov 2nd, 2020<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Too much good stuff, out there. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Between starting a new job and getting used to the new schedule and wanting to accumulate some new posts (whole lot of new, going on), I've been putting this one off for a bit. But I've seen some fantastic photographers, writers, and artists out there, and I'd like to share some of the best with you. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Let's start with RIP Baseball (Twitter link <a href="https://twitter.com/rip_mlb" target="_blank">here</a>), who covers one of my favorite categories of study in baseball: how and when ballplayers died. Sounds weird, on the surface, but there are some outlandish stories out there, especially those involving quite a few of the earliest players. If you've got an interest in baseball necrology, I highly recommend <a href="https://ripbaseball.com/" target="_blank">his website</a>. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Next is photographer Chris Tejeda, known as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fotogenocide_/?hl=en" target="_blank">@fotogenocide_</a> on IG and <a href="https://twitter.com/FotoGenocide_" target="_blank">@Fotogenocide_</a> on Twitter. Tejeda took one of my favorite photos of 2019 (find it <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BvuVHbyABsE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" target="_blank">here</a>) with Tim Anderson in the foreground and the scoreboard behind him at Guaranteed Rate Field, and about a million other outstanding shots as well. He also took a fantastic shot of the iconic Anderson bat flip (bat throw?), a moment which made the rounds about a thousand times back in April of last year. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TOQRGMeSqEk/X5-EZrTWK2I/AAAAAAAAHfo/MERGHO229ZwNi28NboQEC9txanEg_8BIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1500/DwKbXGwU0AA3R5O.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1050" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TOQRGMeSqEk/X5-EZrTWK2I/AAAAAAAAHfo/MERGHO229ZwNi28NboQEC9txanEg_8BIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/DwKbXGwU0AA3R5O.jpg" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times;">One artist whose work has drawn a lot of my <span>interest is <span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; white-space: pre-wrap;">Josée Tellier, based in Montreal (Twitter handle </span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/MissTellier" style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">@MissTellier</a><span style="color: #14171a; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">). Her website, </span><a href="http://www.joseetellier.ca/" style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">found here</a><span style="color: #14171a; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">, first drew my attention with these illustrations of Montreal Expos legends (seriously, </span><a href="http://www.joseetellier.ca/Expos-50e-anniversaire" style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">check these out</a><span style="color: #14171a; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">), but she also has sketch-work and comic-book-style artistry, so she covers a pretty broad range of genres. </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Lou Schiff, Esq., is the owner of #BaseballandtheLaw (<a href="https://twitter.com/baseballandthe2" target="_blank">Twitter link</a>), whose work covers another favorite area of research of mine, that being, well...baseball and the law. He tweets with regularity about such subjects as <a href="https://twitter.com/baseballandthe2/status/1322534096468348930?s=20" target="_blank">drugs in baseball</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/baseballandthe2/status/1322881136960409601?s=20" target="_blank">Sunday baseball</a> (it used to be illegal to play on Sunday, folks), and, of course, legal matters related to baseball in one form or another. <a href="https://twitter.com/baseballandthe2/status/1311264592086040579?s=20" target="_blank">Here's a tweet</a> concerning one sad fan's $10 million lawsuit vs. ESPN and multiple other related parties for making fun of him after he fell asleep during a televised game. His book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Baseball-Law-Materials-Louis-Schiff-ebook/dp/B06XQ5MKMP/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=baseball+and+the+law&qid=1604288585&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Baseball and The Law: Cases and Materials</a></i>, is on Amazon (and my reading list). </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">That's it, for now. Hopefully, I can keep this a regular weekly post, because I've got lots of other folks whose work I'd love to share. </span></p>Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-82541280511953980862020-10-05T07:38:00.000-04:002020-10-05T07:38:56.713-04:00Monday Morning Mentions-Oct. 5th, 2020<p><span style="font-family: georgia;">So
I've done almost no writing, this year. I've barely used my camera.
This has been for me, as it has been for many of you, a tough year.
Daily life disrupted, businesses shut down, many millions around the
world fallen victim to the novel coronavirus (and death totals,
tragically, in the seven figures). Life is very different; that much
is certain.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">However,
some of you have managed to soldier on with your craft, and it hasn't
gone unnoticed. So I thought: if I was going to take such a long
hiatus from the sports-writing world, why not shine a light on those
of you who are still actively providing us with much-needed
diversion?</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">And
there are a lot of you, out there. What I'd like to do is share
several posts from each week, gathered from what I've seen on Twitter
and/or other social media sites. I'll be starting with sports
writing, along with photographers in all genres, because that's what
I see the most in my readings. I'll also share older articles or
photos that I happen upon during my trips down the Google rabbit
hole. For this first edition, some of my shared articles/posts/photos
will go back much farther than this past week.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">These
posts will be shared on Monday of each week, at 8 AM, on my personal
blog site. A humble site, to be sure, but it's the only venue I have
that's suitable, so it'll have to do. Still, maybe some of you
writers and photogs can get a bit more attention from it for your
efforts.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Nick
Diunte (</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://twitter.com/ExamineBaseball"><span>@ExamineBaseball</span></a></u></span></span><span>)</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickdiunte/2020/09/30/how-lauren-taylor-emerged-as-one-of-baseballs-most-coveted-artists-after-surviving-a-traumatic-brain-injury/#5d520d2d3971"><span>How
Lauren Taylor Emerged As One of Baseball's Most Coveted Artists After
Surviving A Traumatic Brain Injury</span></a></u></span></span><span>”,
for </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sportsmoney/"><span>Forbes
SportsMoney</span></a></u></span></span><span>
(</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://twitter.com/ForbesSports"><span>@ForbesSports</span></a></u></span></span><span>)</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I've
been following Diunte for at least a couple of years now, and I've
always appreciated how in-depth his articles are, as well as his
attention to detail and his inclusion of interviews with
long-since-retired MLB players that many fans know little about, if
anything at all.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Lauren
Taylor (</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://twitter.com/ltillustrations"><span>@ltillustrations</span></a></u></span></span><span>),
the subject of Diunte's article for Forbes, is a artist whose work
consists of </span><span style="color: #14171a;"><span>mixed
media on wood, with acrylic paint, digital stencil and ink on birch</span></span><span>.
Her style of “illustration within illustration” is endlessly
fascinating, as this example (of the Mariners' Kyle Lewis) readily shows:</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EjHYrneU8AAGC6Z?format=jpg&name=large" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="626" height="640" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EjHYrneU8AAGC6Z?format=jpg&name=large" width="501" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span><br /></span></p>A
head injury suffered during a softball game four years ago threatened
to stall or, perhaps, derail her burgeoning artistic pursuits, as
Diunte's article mentions. Her struggle to overcome the lingering
effects of the traumatic brain injury (or TBI) she suffered is
detailed in her interview with Diunte. Lauren Taylor's website is
located </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://laurentaylorillustrations.com/">here</a></u></span></span><span>,
and is well worth your time, I promise you.</span></span><p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Timothy
E. Barbano (</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://twitter.com/baseballimages"><span>@baseballimages</span></a></u></span></span><span>)</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Buffalo,
NY</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This
gentleman is someone I only recently started following, but he's been
behind a lens for quite some time (“53 years with my left eye in a
camera,” according to his Twitter profile.) The vast majority of
his posts are of the players who have come through Toronto's Triple-A
franchise, the Buffalo Bisons, but he also has a lot of wildlife photos throughout his Twitter feed. This is one of my favorite photo
tweets, so far:</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EicnN88WkAIhNlz?format=jpg&name=medium" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="800" height="494" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EicnN88WkAIhNlz?format=jpg&name=medium" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This
is another fine shot:</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiZVLYAXcAYdfXH?format=jpg&name=medium" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="625" height="640" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EiZVLYAXcAYdfXH?format=jpg&name=medium" width="500" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I've
not learned a great deal about his body of work just yet, but I'm
sure he's going to show up in another list in the future.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Kevin
Glew (</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://twitter.com/coopincanada"><span>@coopincanada</span></a></u></span></span><span>)</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">London,
Ontario</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://cooperstownersincanada.com/2020/09/11/whatever-happened-to-brian-milner/"><span>Whatever
Happened To?...Brian Milner</span></a></u></span></span><span>”
for </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://cooperstownersincanada.com/"><span>Cooperstowners
In Canada</span></a></u></span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>I've
been following Glew for a few years at least, as I have an abiding
interest in both Canadian ballplayers and the development of baseball
in Canada, in general. Glew's posts are a weekly draw for me,
especially his “</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://cooperstownersincanada.com/category/but-what-do-i-know/"><span>But
What Do I Know</span></a></u></span></span><span>?”
weekly series, which spotlights...you guessed it...Canadian baseball
players, both active and retired (or deceased, as the case may be.)</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://cooperstownersincanada.com/2020/09/11/whatever-happened-to-brian-milner/"><span>This
article</span></a></u></span></span><span>,
from September 11</span><sup><span>th</span></sup><span>,
was a favorite of mine. Glew interviews former Jays prospect Brian
Milner, who had a brief major-league experience with the team, though
it was one that found him making his ML debut at age eighteen,
literally right after the end of his HS career.</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">That's all for this week! There should be a lot more to come, so keep an eye out for the Monday Morning link, next weekend. </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-51749298860232152152020-05-15T21:14:00.003-04:002020-05-15T21:14:49.310-04:00Interview With Former Yankees Pitcher Larry Gowell, Part Two<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
(<i>This is Part Two of my
interview with former New York Yankees pitcher Larry Gowell, who
found a place in the history books as the final AL pitcher to record
a hit in the regular season before the DH rule was instituted in
1973. Larry passed away several days ago at age 72. </i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>This interview originally appeared on SB Nation's Minor League Ball, in October of 2017.</i>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Clinton
Riddle: After two seasons at Oneonta, the Yanks moved you to High-A
Fort Lauderdale. How tough was it adjusting to advanced competition?
You put up fantastic numbers there; did you change your approach to
hitters, add a new pitch, or was there some fundamental change in how
you worked on the mound? Any coaches that were a great help to you,
in particular?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Larry
Gowell: Well, after my first year I did not go to spring training
because I went to school to stay out of the draft. The second year I
did go to spring training, and that is what made the difference. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Our
pitching coach, Cloyd Boyer, brother of Clete, was our pitching
coach. He worked me hard on the changeup. He also said I was
over-throwing and the ball was not moving as much as it could. If I
could keep the ball down and take a little off the fastball, I would
have more life on the fastball and it would sink really hard. So,
right out of the gate I was mowing hitters down left and right. My
control finally came together and my fastball was sinking like a
rock, and I really developed a great slider at this time. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The
Yankees always knew I would do so based on my arm angle. I was
sidearm pitcher and had a lot of flexibility in my arm. I went 8-0 in
my first 8 games. Then came the draft and I was drafted, and I had to
go to Miami for a physical. Well, as luck would had it, I was
flat-footed. Well, the military turned me down because of that, thank
God. They did not know I was a professional ball player, either. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Well,
I went on to win eight more games and strike out 217 hitters in 196
innings with a 1.76 ERA. I then became a top prospect for the
Yankees. There was even some talk they were thinking about bringing
me up at the end of the year. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CR:
Your next season in 1970 with Manchester was a success, as well. What
sort of adjustments did you make when you faced competition in
Double-A? Was there a specific pitch or a tweak to your mechanics?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>LG:
Yeah, going to Double-A, you are seeing much more experienced
players. The big adjustment was getting left-handed hitters out,
because I came from the side. Very tough on right-handers, as most
people understand. So, I had to learn to get my arm out more and
throw a curveball with more down movement, something I could throw
down and in. Then I would throw my hard, sinking fastball away to the
outside of the plate and work in a changeup. So, this is where I
really worked hard at this and had an O.K year. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CR:
In 1971, with Kinston and Manchester both, you put up fantastic
numbers. That continued in West Haven in 1972. Had the Yankees hinted
at a call-up before 1972 rolled around? Were they giving you any
feedback as to how well you were doing?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>LG:
In spring training, I could not get my control going. I was very
wild, and so they had me go to Kinston to start to work it all out.
And I did, with a good solid performance, and then I got the call to
go to Bobby Cox's West Haven Yankees, where they expected me to pitch
in the first place. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>I
did throw some of my best baseball in West Haven with great control
and a lot of ball movement with the fastball, and the slider was
lights-out on the right-handers. I also was keeping my wrist higher
up for my slider to make it go down and in on the left-handers. They
should have brought me up in the middle of the year, but chose to
bring up Ron Klimkoski instead of me. He was experienced in the major
leagues and pitching quite well. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>They
still made a mistake, because I really could have made a mark in the
big leagues with the stuff I had at the time. Yes, I did hear rumors,
pro and con, about bringing me up. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CR:
You made your ML debut on Sept 21<sup>st</sup>, 1972, at Milwaukee.
Mike Kekich was the starter; he took the loss, that day. You pitched
two perfect innings, struck out a batter. Walk us through your first
day with the team, and your first ML appearance. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>LG:
I can remember the phone ringing in the dugout to get me up to warm
up and come into the game after we were falling behind. I remember my
legs were shaking some, and the adrenaline was pumping through my
body like never before. I was always one to get up for the big moment
in whatever I did. I wanted to show the Yankees and the world that
this little high school pitcher from Auburn, Maine belonged in the
big leagues. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>I
had worked my whole life for this moment. It is all a blur after
getting on the mound. I remember Munson catching the warm-up throws
and then coming out to tell me that I belong in the majors. He said
it was just another hitter and that I would be OK. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>I
remember that first pitch, and I think it was a ball. I was
overthrowing somewhat. I took a few deep breaths and settled right
in. “Just another hitter to get out”. “He is no better than
me”, I kept saying. I threw the ball very well with a good sinker
and slider, and had very few problems in those two innings. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>I
have a Yankee fan, who is now my friend, that was in the stands that
day, named Dr. Mark Cannon, and he said I looked great and seemed to
be calm, even though my insides were all over the place. I kept my
cool and am so very proud I had success!</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CR:
You ended up facing the Brewers again, this time at Yankee Stadium.
You got the start, and went five strong innings, giving up only one
run on three hits, striking out six. It was the final game of the
regular season. You also made history, that night. It's bottom of the
third, you're leading off the inning, bases are empty. Can you
describe the at-bat vs. Jim Lonborg? Do you remember what pitch he
threw that you sent into left field?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>LG:
Again, I was always a guy that got pumped up for any big moment in my
life. I remember standing in the batter's box, taking my warm-up
swings, and I said to myself, “This could be my only at bat in the
major leagues. I am not going down without a fight.” </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>I
had a great bat in high school and loved to hit. I had a lot of pride
in my pitching and hitting abilities. So, as I stood at the plate to
face the great Jim Lonborg, who was pitching a great game, I said to
myself, “I will not be called out on strikes. I will go down trying
to hammer the ball.” His first pitch was a strike that I took, then
he threw a few on the plate and I did not swing. I worked the count
to 3-2. At this point I know that fastball is coming because I am a
no-hit pitcher up to bat, and he is not going to walk me from a
curve ball. So, I am looking fastball. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>He
throws me a high fastball at my letters, trying to throw it by me. I
got my bat head out in front of that fastball and hit a bullet down
the line, in Yankee Stadium! The ball went all the way to the wall. I
was standing on second base thinking I was in a dream. I could not
believe I had a double, and I looked up and out came Elston Howard
with my jacket to keep my arm warm. My blood now was really boiling
as at that point I was batting 1.000 in the bigs, with a double, no
less. No cheap hit from Jim. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The
next hitter hit a ball to the shortstop and I shocked him by running
to third, and he did not throw me out. The next hitter made an out,
so they could not score me to tie the game up. If we would have tied
that game, I would have pitched the rest of the game because I was
throwing great that night, as you can see with the 6 K's in 5
innings. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Anyhow,
it was an experience of a lifetime, and then 20 years or so later I
find I out that that the ball is historic. Since that was my first
hit, they stop the game and give me the ball. I decided to let the
Hall Of Fame have it after it having been appraised for</i></span><i>
$6,000</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i> or more, which I
wrote off my taxes. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Today,
the Hall tells me the ball is invaluable for its place in all of
baseball history. I am so honored to be part of baseball history
during my very short cup of coffee in the big leagues.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">CR:
So where did life take you after your time in baseball was over? What
have you been up to, since then?</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>LG:
I decided to go in the life insurance business and worked as a sales
rep soon after retiring from baseball. That career lasted about 25
years or so. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Today,
I am semi-retired over the past nine years. I am now a professional
singer and piano player doing about 140 performances a year, singing
to the senior community all over Maine. I perform the old standards
and a lot of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Broadway music, gospel and
much more. My two biggest moments were singing at the Metropolitan
Club in New York City and singing the National Anthem for the Boston
Red Sox. In my spare time I play a lot of golf, ski, go kayaking, and
I'm generally enjoying my later years in life. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
nature of baseball is such that, even when a player has a small
window in which to make his mark, nearly anything is possible. Larry
Gowell experienced this, first-hand, and left his own mark in the
history of the game. While his time with the Yankees is precious to
him, it was merely prelude to a successful and fulfilling life after
the cheering stopped. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">(<i>Mr.
Gowell has acquainted himself with social media, recently, and has a
Facebook page under his name. He is also using a photo previously
shot by a Topps photographer to make his own baseball card through
the Topps website. Check
out his YouTube videos <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/baseball2840">here</a>.</i>)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-80959833100270118342020-05-13T00:30:00.000-04:002020-05-13T00:30:59.176-04:00Larry Gowell, Last Pitcher To Get a Hit Before DH Rule, Passes Away at 72<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Former New York Yankees pitcher <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=gowell001law" target="_blank">Larry Gowell</a>, the last pitcher to collect a base hit before the installation of the DH rule in 1973, has passed away at age 72.<br />
<br />
A former 4th-round selection by the Yankees in 1967 out of Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine, Gowell made his ML debut on September 21st, 1972, pitching two perfect innings and striking out one batter. Nearly two weeks later <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA197210040.shtml" target="_blank">on October 4th</a>, in the final game of the season, Gowell started against the Milwaukee Brewers, his only ML start and final ML appearance. He went five innings while allowing one run on three hits, walking two and striking out six in the 1-0 loss. He also collected his first and only ML hit, a double, on a 3-2 fastball from Brewers pitcher Jim Lonberg in the bottom of the third inning.<br />
<br />
It would be the final base hit for a pitcher in the American League before the Yankees and Ron Blomberg kicked off the era of the designated hitter in 1973. That ball was sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame, where it remains today.<br />
<br />
Gowell actually became <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Xk761f86M" target="_blank">just as well known for his singing</a>, years after his last professional game. In fact, another dream was realized when he sang the National Anthem at Fenway Park before the Red Sox faced the Orioles on July 6th, 2014, rendering a deeply-emotional performance in front of 35,811 fans. (Gowell appears in the video at the 16:00 mark.) He even maintained a YouTube channel, showcasing his renditions of "You'll Never Walk Alone", "Fascination", and "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", among other selections.<br />
<br />
Gowell was very fond of chatting with fans on Facebook, and would readily share stories about his playing career, as well as his post-baseball pursuits. In my exchanges with him, I recall a man who was very grateful of his role in baseball history, and as someone who pursued his off-field interests with every bit of the fire and determination that he took with him onto the mound.<br />
<br />
Even though we were barely acquaintances on a personal level, I will miss him.<br />
<br />
I had the opportunity to speak with him for an interview in October of 2017, and he shared with me the story of a full, rewarding life. Originally on SB Nation's <i>Minor League Ball</i> (now defunct), here is part one of that interview. I hope you enjoy it, as much as I did when I wrote it.<br />
<br />
--<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When
Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher Archie Bradley became the first
reliever to hit a triple in the postseason, it blew a lot of us out
of our ratty, Cheetos-infested recliners. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Madison
Bumgarner raked, this year. Clayton Kershaw had his moments with the
stick. Luis Perdomo hit four triples and a double (and that's all)
this year, for crying out loud. But they were all NL pitchers; they
were at least used to taking their turn in the batting order. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Before
the advent of inter-league play, the American League enjoyed the
advantage of having a DH in the lineup, every regular-season game of
every year since 1973. Ron Blomberg was the first DH to take a turn
at bat in the regular season when, on April 6<sup>th</sup>, 1973, he
stepped in against the Red Sox starter Luis Tiant. Ironically, the
“designated hitter” walked, though with the bases loaded. The bat
he carried to the plate in that plate appearance is now enshrined in
the Hall Of Fame. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">But
that train of thought eventually led me to this question: who was the
last AL pitcher to record a hit in a regular-season game before the
DH was instituted? </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Some
of you already know the answer to this trivia question: on October
4<sup>th</sup>, 1972, it would be another Yankee who would make his
mark in history when rookie right-hander Larry Gowell, facing
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jim Lonborg, stung a 3-2 fastball down the
left-field line for a double. Interestingly enough, it was both his
first and last ML hit, as well as the final regular-season hit by an
American League pitcher until we were blessed (ahem!) with
interleague play. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">As
it turns out, there's a lot more to his story than just one hit. I
recently had a chance to sit down with Mr. Gowell, who spoke with me
at length about his childhood, his early baseball years, his
experiences in minor-league baseball, and his post-baseball
experiences. (This is Part One of a two-part article.)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Clinton Riddle: So
you were drafted right out of high school, in the 4<sup>th</sup>
round, by the Yankees. Growing up in the Auburn, Maine area, did you
have expectations about what you wanted to do when you grew up? Did
you always want to play baseball, or did you have a different idea as
to what you wanted from life?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Larry Gowell: I
really had no idea what I wanted to do growing up. I had great
passion for sports and music. The sports took over my life at an
early age. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>My
father, Lawrence Gowell Sr. was a big baseball player for his high
school, playing second base and pitching. He was a baseball fanatic
and got both my brother and me into organized ball at age five. From
a very early age, all I wanted to do was play baseball as much as
possible. I remember playing on four teams: the Police Athletic
League, Colt League, Legion Baseball and a softball team to boot. At
about 12 years old I started pitching after showing a great arm from
center field. The coaches could see I had great potential and I had
my chance to pitch a lot in those early years. My brother, Richard
was also a great player, but hurt his arm at 13 throwing too many
curveballs. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Having
a brother to play with and pitch to every other day helped a lot. Set
up a pitcher's mound in the back yard and worked on our curveballs,
changeups and fastballs. So, I really did not have any other
direction in my life. I played no other sports in high school. So,
the bottom line is I did not have any other plans in life or a desire
to go on to college, because I really did not like going to school.
Being signed as a 4th round draft pick, the 61st player in the
nation, was a really big deal coming from our area of the country. It
was a great honor to be picked. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>At
my high school graduation the school gave me a made-up contract sent
from the Yankees to recognize me at the graduation. That meant more
to me than the diploma. So, the Yankees gave me the chance of a
lifetime and without that chance I would have been working next to my
father in the shoe shop.</i></span></div>
<ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">CR: Tell
me a bit about the town in which you grew up. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>LG: The
city of Auburn is about 30,000 people. We call our area L/A area.
That stands for the L/A of the northeast, since Lewiston is across
the river. They have about 25,000 in Lewiston. It was a mill town in
those early years, shoe factories. A lot of blue-collar labor was
needed to keep things going. A very friendly town and people, and
they would really get behind you. Great sports and arts area. A lot
of sports and music. My whole family played music; my brother was a
songwriter, singer and guitar player and I was a trumpet and organ
player and sang in the choir. I've been a professional singer for
more than nine years now. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>I
was going to a Seventh day Adventist private school where I sang in
the choir and played in the band. They had no sports programs of
which to speak. I was told by people that I had to go to public high
school to been seen. So, I switched to Edward Little High School in
Auburn, Maine. It had a very good baseball team and its history was
great. We had the late Artie Belivieu, who was a Bates College
graduate. He was a very good coach that happened to be a huge Yankees
fan. So, in my first year I did not pitch that much as I was a new
young buck on the team. I went 3-0. I was wild that first year. I
threw very hard but walked a few too many. I still won all my games.
After having a great Legion baseball year I was a front-runner,
pitching my team to a 6-0 season, breaking some strikeout records and
pitching some close no-hitters. During the summer of my junior year
was when I made my mark as a major prospect. Our New Auburn Legion
team, under Jim Bouchles, went for the Maine State Championship in
Augusta. Since I did not pitch on Friday night and Saturday, I
started the first game on Friday and pitched a 1 hit shutout. With
one day rest on Saturday, I pitched on Sunday and pitched a
no-hitter. That was 18 innings, with one hit, against the best in
Maine. </i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>We had nine scouts at the game, and on that day I was on the
radar of many teams. So, now comes my senior year with scouts showing
up like Frank Malzone for the Red Sox, the Cubs and Phillies scouts,
and on and on. In my last season I was 7-0 with several one-hitters.
I also was a great hitter in high school and hit .390 or so over my
three years. I had the home run record (14) over three years until
the metal bats came out and they broke it. Now, one of the later
games of the year my coach got the big scouts from the Yankees in to
see me pitch against our rival, Lewiston High. </i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Pat Cogan showed up to
see me pitch for the first time just before the draft. In that game,
I was throwing bullets. I knew he was sitting right behind the cage.
I struck out 19 out of 19 hitters, then several tried to bunt on me
and got some bunts down but we got them out. I ended up with 22
strikeouts, 3 walks and my first no-hitter in high school. It was the
best I had ever thrown and the scout was all smiles, talking with me
and my father. At that point my value went way up. I was not going to
be a fourth round pick before that game. </i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Cubs were the other team
most interested in me, along with many others. Since my coach was a
huge Yankees fan and he got the big scouts to come to what was the
very best game of my life, I ended up picked 61st out of the whole
nation. I was told many years later by some scouts that the 1967
draft was the most talented group of players in the history of
baseball. So, my competition way very high. Yes, I was undefeated and
had the home run record for the school in 1967. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">CR: The
Yankees signed you in '67, and sent you to Oneonta. What was it like
adjusting to your first year in pro ball? Are there any experiences
that stand out from that season?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>LG: My
father was a tough negotiator. We worked the Yankees hard to get a
$20,000 bonus and he got my brother signed with me to watch over me
my first year. My brother's name is Richard. He was on the bench, but
did get up a few times and then they released him. Yeah, we had the
fiery Frank Verdi, a little like Billy Martin. A great guy. I went
3-0 my first year. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>I
was in awe of the players. Many of them from major universities like
Florida State, Arizona Stare, Clemson and so on. You say to yourself,
“I have to be better than these big college players to get
noticed?” It is overwhelming when you talk to a pitcher from
Florida State who went 10 and 2 for Division I! I just came from a
small school in Maine. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Anyhow,
I did have a lot of pride in myself and I was told by Verdi that they
all put their pants on the same way. “You are here because you have
great talent, or we would not have taken you in the 4th round,” he
told me. “We have faith in your abilities, so just go out and do
your best.” Well, I did, with a 3-0 season after coming to the team
in late-middle July because of a late signing. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The
town of Oneonta is a great town, and the people really took you in
like family. The one experience I had was on one night when I was
throwing really hard. My brother was in the dugout looking in, and I
threw a pitch and several people said they never saw it come out of
my hand. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>They
just heard it hit the mitt. </i></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Stay
tuned for Part Two, as Gowell speaks about friends he made as a
minor-league newbie, how control issues led to a change in his
delivery that led to his ML call-up, and his moment in history after
less than two weeks in the bigs.)</i></span></div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-20570161275360957382020-05-03T23:13:00.000-04:002020-05-04T15:14:34.352-04:00On This Day-May 1st, 1920-Oeschger, Cadore Duel in 26-Inning Marathon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Better late than never...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">PLACE: Braves Field; Boston, MA</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">EVENT: Oeschger, Cadore Set Record For Longest Single Game, Most Innings Pitched</span><br />
<br />
The first day of May marked the one-hundred-year anniversary of what was arguably one of the greatest pitching performances of the 20th century. In a game that would stagger the imagination of the average baseball fan, the Brooklyn Robins faced off against the Boston Braves on May 1st, 1920, in a game that...just...kept...on...going.<br />
<br />
Boston RHP Joe Oeschger took the mound against Brooklyn righty Leon Cadore, and each pitcher went the distance in a twenty-six-inning marathon that ended in a 1-1 tie.<br />
<br />
Twenty-six. Think about that. One inning less than three standard complete games. And it lasted three hours and fifty minutes.<br />
<br />
Around 4,000 fans (the <i>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</i> estimated the crowd at 2,500; Baseball-Reference says 4,500) turned out on a cloudy, damp day to see the match-up, and it was posited by Boston Globe sportswriter James O'Leary that “every one of the 4,000 remained to the end. They saw the most wonderful pitching stunt ever performed, and some classy playing in thrilling situations, such as one sees only once in a lifetime.” Here's the rundown:<br />
<br />
-Oeschger allowed only nine hits and four walks, striking out seven, while Cadore gave up fifteen hits and five walks, while striking out seven batters as well.<br />
<br />
-A total of 186 batters came to the plate. Neither pitcher hit a batter or committed a balk, and only one wild pitch was thrown (by Oeschger).<br />
<br />
-Fifteen batters between the two teams made ten or more plate appearances. Braves 2B Charlie Pick went 0-11 (that has to be a record, right?)<br />
<br />
-Oeschger finished the game with nine no-hit innings. So he pitched the equivalent of a standard-length no-hitter at the end of a 26-inning performance.<br />
<br />
-Brooklyn scored their only run in the top of the fifth. Oeschger kept them scoreless for the next 21 innings. Cadore put up 20 goose eggs against Boston.<br />
<br />
While Oeschger said that “I won't say I wasn't a little tired” at the end of the game, Cadore said he felt this game affected him over the remainder of his career.<br />
<br />
With the game closing in on the four-hour mark, as well as lingering cloud cover and fading sunlight, home plate umpire Barry McCormick erred on the side of caution and called an end to this seemingly-endless battle. According to news reports of the time, most of the crowd stayed through the entire game.<br />
<br />
From <i>The Brooklyn Daily Eagle</i>; May 2nd, 1920:<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DbUX2fUYvMI/Xq-LSdI_vZI/AAAAAAAAHSU/Ys0fHFpFfzwHpsHsYww8gn8pGfP9yxq3QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The_Brooklyn_Daily_Eagle_Sun__May_2__1920_Cadore%252C%2BOeschger%2BBattle%2Bto%2B26-Inning%2BTie-ML%2BRecord%2Bpt%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1509" data-original-width="1600" height="301" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DbUX2fUYvMI/Xq-LSdI_vZI/AAAAAAAAHSU/Ys0fHFpFfzwHpsHsYww8gn8pGfP9yxq3QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/The_Brooklyn_Daily_Eagle_Sun__May_2__1920_Cadore%252C%2BOeschger%2BBattle%2Bto%2B26-Inning%2BTie-ML%2BRecord%2Bpt%2B2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
The laws of the time in many cities in the US prohibited baseball on Sunday, as it was the Sabbath (for Christians, anyway), and thus was considered a day of rest. This was one of several activities disallowed on Sunday, and it fell under the “blue law” statutes. As a primer on the subject, and a very good one, <a href="https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/phillies-historian-gives-talk-on-baseball-training-season-years-ago/article_819f20f6-ba22-11e4-bc85-5fa6350b5ef7.html" target="_blank">Bob Warrington wrote a very nice article</a> on the legal battles for and against Sunday baseball in Philadelphia. There would be no continuation of the game the next day, since they played on Saturday. Brooklyn had to hop a train and head straight back home, in any case.<br />
<br />
On top of this Herculean labor, the Robins returned home by train to lose to the Phillies 4-3, in a game that went thirteen innings. Then they had to come back to Boston to play the Braves, once more. On May 3rd, Boston beat the Robins, 2-1, in another marathon game that went nineteen innings.<br />
<br />
Three days. Fifty-eight innings. No wins for Brooklyn. It sounds insane, but once again, both Brooklyn and Boston starters went the distance on May 3rd. LHP Sherry Smith allowed only two runs on thirteen hits in 18 1/3 innings, walking five and striking out three, while RHP Dana Fillingim gave up one run on twelve hits in 19 innings, walking four and striking out four. Of note: Fillingim went 12-21 with a 3.11 ERA in 1920 (ERA+ 97), then 15-10 with a 3.45 ERA in 1921 (ERA+ 105) in one of his best seasons in the majors, but was only 7-18 with a 5.06 ERA over the rest of the short remainder of his ML career.<br />
<br />
Smith put up an 11-9 record in 1920 (33 games, 13 starts, 16 closing appearances) with a sparkling 1.85 ERA (ERA+ 173), and was slightly better than average over the rest of his career (56-67, 3.92 ERA, ERA+ 107).<br />
<br />
Still, neither of these pitchers are names which will come to mind, for most fans of the game's history. But the nature of the game being what it is, anything can happen on the field. Had the Smith-Fillingim game happened earlier or perhaps even later in the year, it may not have been overshadowed by the Oeschger-Cadore history-making performance.<br />
<br />
Lawrence “Scoop” Beal of <i>The Times-Standard</i> interviewed Oeschger on the 50th anniversary of this game in 1970. Oeschger was, at the time, a retired high-school teacher living in Ferndale, California, near Centerville Beach, on a road that bore his name. Indeed, in 1977, Joseph C. Oeschger Field was dedicated in his honor in Ferndale. He would throw out the first pitch of the Giants-Braves game on May 29th; that game went extra innings, with San Francisco pulling out the 3-2 win.<br />
<br />
Many of his five siblings (three brothers, two sisters) lived nearby. At the time of his interview, his mother had only recently celebrated her 100th birthday.<br />
<br />
As he tells it, there were around 2,000 fans at the game initially, then as the game progressed:<br />
<br />
“...<i>the word got around town on what was happening and more fans began showing up. At the end, the ballpark was two-thirds full.</i>”<br />
<br />
From <i>The Times-Standard</i>; May 1st, 1970: <br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UyjLASW3lLQ/Xq-Lct0eA2I/AAAAAAAAHSc/9UijXs8Gc3Q67MbE4tm7hjJjO386XDvLgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The_Times_Standard_Fri__May_1__1970_Joe%2BOeschger%2BRecalls%2B26-Inning%2BGame%252C%2B50%2BYears%2BLater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1054" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UyjLASW3lLQ/Xq-Lct0eA2I/AAAAAAAAHSc/9UijXs8Gc3Q67MbE4tm7hjJjO386XDvLgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/The_Times_Standard_Fri__May_1__1970_Joe%2BOeschger%2BRecalls%2B26-Inning%2BGame%252C%2B50%2BYears%2BLater.jpg" width="420" /></a><br />
<br />
He had a so-so 15-13 record in 1920, with a 3.46 ERA (ERA+ 87) for a Braves team that won only 62 games. He had his only twenty-win season the following year (20-14, 3.52 ERA, ERA+ 103), as Boston finished 79-74, good for fourth place in the NL. He spent the remainder of his career with the Giants, Phillies, and Robins, but faded fast (16-45 in 140 games, 5.14 ERA). All in all, a twelve-year ML career is impressive, in its own right.<br />
<br />
Oeschger was still getting the occasional fan letter because of that game. He often sent back mimeographed copies of the box score, autographed at the bottom. (ed. Note: I have one of my own.) He would pass away on July 28th, 1986, in Rohnert Park, California, after a heart attack. He was 94 years old. <br />
<br />
Cadore became a salesman and went through tremendous ups and downs, after baseball, but was able to regain stability in his personal and professional life by the 1950's. He passed away on March 16th, 1958, in Spokane, Washington, of stomach cancer. In Fred Lieb's obituary for Cadore in <i>The Sporting News</i>, he mentioned an exchange between Cadore and one of the VA nurses during his hospital stay. She reportedly told him that she didn't care much for baseball. He replied, “I don't care much for hospitals, either.” He was 66 years old. <br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-9909559303411893312020-04-26T21:28:00.000-04:002020-04-26T21:28:14.713-04:00On This Day-April 26th, 1912-First Homer Hit Over The Green Monster<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">PLACE: Fenway Park;
Boston, MA</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">EVENT: First Home Run Over
The Green Monster </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Fenway
Park opened in 1912, and the massive rampart in left field probably
seemed insurmountable to most hitters of the time. As it turns out,
it didn't take long for someone to break the mystique of the Green
Monster. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kq6O_kxebrE/XqY0WY5ksqI/AAAAAAAAHRY/ZGhWVoLJFPA5srYMEMcyZWT8WylbX5uZACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The_Boston_Globe_Sat__Apr_27__1912_Hugh%2BBradley%2BIllustration-1st%2Bto%2BHomer%2Bover%2BGreen%2BMonster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kq6O_kxebrE/XqY0WY5ksqI/AAAAAAAAHRY/ZGhWVoLJFPA5srYMEMcyZWT8WylbX5uZACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/The_Boston_Globe_Sat__Apr_27__1912_Hugh%2BBradley%2BIllustration-1st%2Bto%2BHomer%2Bover%2BGreen%2BMonster.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Boston Globe's illustration, accompanying the <br />A's-Red Sox recap. These old illustrations are just the best. </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">With
the Philadelphia Athletics visiting Boston at The Fens on April 26<sup>th</sup>,
bench player Hugh Bradley hit a blast over the wall with two on and
two out in the seventh inning in a 7-6 Red Sox win. Bradley was
getting a rare start that day, taking the place of first baseman Jake
Stahl, who was out of the lineup with an upper respiratory infection.
Bradley would only play 40 games that season. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It was also his only
homer of the year, and one of only two for his career (277 games, 913
AB). </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Bradley
went 2-4 with a double in the first, as well as the aforementioned
homer in the seventh, driving in four runs and scoring two. He also
made a notable play when he sprinted between</span> RHP
Hugh Bedient and 2B Steve Yerkes to snag a pop-up off the bat of A's
LF Amos Strunk in the ninth inning, taking away the last chance for
the A's to put the potential tying run on base. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">From
<i>The Boston Globe</i>; April 27<sup>th</sup>, 1912: </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;">From
<i>The Philadelphia Inquirer</i>; April 27<sup>th</sup>, 1912: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NDpwWWfdrD4/XqY0Jam-lmI/AAAAAAAAHRQ/_PfzrYGPtwMNa1OQB8E0oeetSAFfU002gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The_Philadelphia_Inquirer_Sat__Apr_27__1912_Red%2BSox%2B7%252C%2BA%2527s%2B6-Hugh%2BBradley%2B1st%2Bto%2BHomer%2BOver%2BGreen%2BMonster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="183" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NDpwWWfdrD4/XqY0Jam-lmI/AAAAAAAAHRQ/_PfzrYGPtwMNa1OQB8E0oeetSAFfU002gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The_Philadelphia_Inquirer_Sat__Apr_27__1912_Red%2BSox%2B7%252C%2BA%2527s%2B6-Hugh%2BBradley%2B1st%2Bto%2BHomer%2BOver%2BGreen%2BMonster.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-69816556053338165502020-04-24T14:08:00.000-04:002020-04-24T14:08:18.124-04:00On This Day-April 24th, 1917-First No-Hitter in Yankees' History<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Place: Fenway Park;
Boston, MA</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Event: Mogridge Out-duels
Leonard for First No-Hitter in Yankees' History</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">LHP
<a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mogrige01.shtml" target="_blank">George Mogridge</a> took the mound against fellow lefty Dutch Leonard on
a Tuesday afternoon at Fenway Park and pitched what surely had to be
the game of his life, shutting down the Yankees in a 2-1 no-hitter.
It was the first-ever no-hitter by a Yankees' pitcher, as well as the
first pitched at Fenway. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Mogridge
allowed only four balls to be hit beyond the infield, the only Boston
run coming in the seventh inning on a combination of a walk to Boston
second baseman Jack Barry, a bad throw to SS Roger Peckinpaugh from
2B Fritz Maisel in an effort to start the double play, an intentional
walk to OF Tillie Walker, and finally a sacrifice fly from the bat of
PH Jimmy Walsh. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Indeed,
the Yankees themselves went into the sixth inning with only one hit,
and scored their first run of the day on a two-out double off the bat
of Angel Aragon, who would play only 15 games in 1917. Aragon had two
RBI in 45 AB, that year. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Peckinpaugh
reached on a miscue in the top of the ninth by Boston third baseman
Mike McNally, who entered to play the hot corner after Walsh's
pinch-hit appearance. Boston catcher Hick Cady threw the ball past
shortstop Everett Scott when Peckinpaugh stole second (advancing to
third on the throw), and McNally made a low throw to first off a
grounder from Les Nunamaker that Del Gainer had to dig out of the
dirt, allowing Peckinpaugh to score. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Boston
and New York made seven errors between them, three by the Yankees
(two by Maisel). </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Mogridge
walked three and struck out three in winning his second game of the
year. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">From
<i>The New York Times</i>; April 25<sup>th</sup>, 1917: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NUnS8G9PXDw/XqMqeuI1esI/AAAAAAAAHQ8/wYpJi38TWg0yooSyTimJyrNkTjplnfBuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The_New_York_Times_Wed__Apr_25__1917_Yankees%2BGeorge%2BMogridge%2BHurls%2BNo-Hitter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="296" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NUnS8G9PXDw/XqMqeuI1esI/AAAAAAAAHQ8/wYpJi38TWg0yooSyTimJyrNkTjplnfBuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The_New_York_Times_Wed__Apr_25__1917_Yankees%2BGeorge%2BMogridge%2BHurls%2BNo-Hitter.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-19071311734698563902020-04-22T18:12:00.002-04:002020-04-22T18:14:05.419-04:00On This Day-April 22nd, 1876-First National League Game Played<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Place: Jefferson Street Grounds;
Philadelphia, PA</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Event: First Game in National
League History</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Approximately
3,000 fans show up for what turned out to be the very first National
League game, after the weather led to rain-outs elsewhere. The Boston
Red Stockings (later to become the Atlanta Braves) beat the
Philadelphia Athletic Base Ball Club (the future Philadelphia
Athletics) by a score of 6-5. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Jefferson
Street Grounds had been home to differing versions of ball since
1864, but was only established for use by professional teams in 1871,
when the Philadelphia Athletics of the National Association played
there. The Athletics won the NA pennant that same year, and would
join the newly-formed NL in '76. Poor performance in the inaugural
year, as well as their refusal to make Western road trips (in this
case, “West” meant Louisville, Cincinnati, and St Louis), led to
their expulsion from the NL at the end of their first year. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Former
Cincinnati Red Stockings SS George Wright was the first batter. He
and Boston entrepreneur Henry Ditson formed Wright and Ditson
Sporting Goods in 1871. Interestingly, the first run was scored not
on a hit, but on an errant throw by Philadelphia third baseman Ezra
Sutton, though the two teams combined for twenty-six errors. This
wasn't all that uncommon in the early days of the game, as field
conditions were often less than ideal. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The
winning pitcher, righty Joe Josephs, was playing under an alias that
day; his real name was Joe Borden, and he had tossed a no-hitter in
the National Association for Philadelphia against Chicago on July
28<sup>th</sup>, 1875. “Joe Josephs” was one of several aliases
that Borden was known to use. He was sometimes referred to in
contemporary newspapers as “Josephus the Phenomenal”, though his
career, while solid, would be over soon after. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The
honor of the first hit in NL history went to CF Jim O'Rourke, the
only player on either roster to appear as an active player in the
20<sup>th</sup> century. “Orator Jim”, as he was sometimes
called, was much more than a baseball player. He graduated from Yale
Law School in 1887, and was a practicing lawyer between seasons. At a
time when the average ballplayer was seen as unrefined, ignorant, and
boorish, O'Rourke stood out as articulate and erudite. Though he
certainly didn't need to rely on baseball to earn a living, it seems
he had a hard time removing himself from the game, permanently. Even
after retiring as a major-league player in 1893, he would remain in
the minors for years to come. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">From
<i>The Times</i> (Philadelphia, PA); April 24<sup>th</sup>, 1876: </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-46121963307048913692019-11-08T03:00:00.002-05:002019-11-08T05:13:07.101-05:00Game Recap-Canada vs. Australia; 2019 Premier-12; November 7th, 2019<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dalton
Pompey began the game with a fly-out to deep right-center after an
eight-pitch at-bat vs. Australia starter Tim Atherton. Wes Darvill
popped up to third for the second out. Eric Wood knocked a two-out
single into left field, but Michael Saunders left him stranded,
grounding out to second to end the inning.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Tim
Kennelly crushed a long drive to left just inside the foul line off
of Canada starter Brock Dykxhoorn for a double to start the bottom
half of the first. He then advanced on a ground-out to second by
Andrew Campbell. Rob Glendinning followed with a deep fly to the
warning track in right field, scoring Kennelly on the sacrifice fly.
Logan Wade flied out to center to end the inning, but the Aussies put
a run on the board first.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
the top of the second, Tristan Pompey demolished a 1-0 off-speed
pitch off the wall in right for a lead-off double, missing the homer
by about half a meter. Lennerton followed with a hard-hit grounder to
first off a first-pitch curve that caught the heart of the plate,
moving Pompey to third on the 3-unassisted putout. Leblanc chased a
2-2 fastball after Atherton dropped a big, slow curve on him,
striking out swinging for the second out. Tosoni tied the game on a
blistered liner to right that Kennelly dove to stop, losing the ball
just under his glove but keeping the short bounce in front of him.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Atherton
would give way to LHP Josh Tols after Tosoni's RBI. (<i>Note: A seven-year pro at multiple levels and leagues, Tols made 24 appearances with the Phillies' Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley in 2019</i>). Deglan whiffed on a big,
sweeping 2-2 curve to end the inning.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Aaron
Whitefield led off the bottom half of the inning, popping up to
Leblanc on a 0-1 fastball. Mitchell Nilsson followed with another
infield pop-up, this time to Wood at third. Darryl George hit a 2-2
fastball to shallow left-center, T. Pompey chasing it down for the
third out, ending an exceedingly-quick inning for Dykxhoorn.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
D.
Pompey led off the third, popping up to Glendinning at second on the
first pitch he faced. Darvill went down in the count on back-to-back
fastballs, then had to bail out of the box on a curve that got away
from Tols. After working the count full, he struck out swinging on an
outside fastball that finished just off the outside corner. Wood
worked a fantastic nine-pitch at-bat to draw the walk after being
down 0-2 and fouling off several slow curves. Saunders made it
back-to-back walks, bringing T. Pompey to the plate. Australia
manager David Nilsson made the call to the pen, once more, ending the
day for Tols.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Fellow
lefty Steven Kent entered to face the Canadian left fielder. Kent
dealt Pompey three straight balls, but then spotted a fastball over
the outer third of the plate for the first strike. Pompey flied out
to Whitefield in center on the next pitch to end the threat.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
David
Sutherland stepped in to start the bottom half, striking out swinging
on a fastball high in the zone. Alan De San Miguel, taking over for
Ryan Battaglia, fouled off a 3-2 curve that struck HP umpire NAME in
the right forearm, who had to be checked out by the Team Canada
trainer before the game resumed. On the very next pitch, a fastball
in the dirt got past Deglan on a swinging strike three, De San Miguel
hustling down to first to reach on the play. Kennelly took a 2-2
fastball on the black for the second out. Campbell grounded out to
Leblanc to end the inning.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lennerton
started off the fourth, just topping a sweeping curve to ground out
to first. Leblanc hammered a fastball on the outer third into
right-center for what looked to be a double, but Kennelly got to it
too quickly for Leblanc to advance to second. Tosoni drew a walk to
move Leblanc into scoring position. Deglan couldn't check his swing
on a short 0-2 curve in the dirt and went down on strikes. D. Pompey
grounded out to Kent, who took the ball to first himself to end the
scoring threat.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Glendinning
struck out swinging to start the bottom of the fourth. Wade was able
to reach on an error by Darvill, followed by a swinging strikeout by
Whitefield. Nilsson stranded the runner with a 4-3 ground-out.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
fifth saw Darvill fly out to left on a 1-2 fastball to start things
off, followed by a swinging strikeout for Wood. (<i>Note: Kent is
going to the fastball noticeably more often now, and seems more
confident.</i>) Saunders made it back-to-back K for Kent with a
swing-and-miss on a high 2-2 fastball out of the zone to end the top
half.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
George
flew out to T. Pompey to begin Australia's half of the fifth. A
well-timed dive by Leblanc to his left made it two outs for
Australia. De San Miguel finished off a quiet inning for the Aussies
by striking out on a 1-2 fastball. (<i>Note: Dykxhoorn has also found
his rhythm, at this point. He's in cruise control; De San Miguel is
his 6</i><sup><i>th</i></sup><i> strikeout of the game.</i>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
T.
Pompey struck out on three straight pitches to start the sixth, with
Lennerton following that by striking out looking on a front-door,
late-breaking 1-2 curve, middle-in. Leblanc flied out to right to end
the inning. (<i>Note: Kent, through 3 1/3 innings, now has only one
less strikeout than Dykxhoorn. He's looking awfully dominant.</i>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Kennelly
struck out on a low 3-2 fastball straight down Broadway. Campbell hit
a very hard grounder to Lennerton at first, who tossed to Dykxhoorn
at the bag for the second out. Glendinning swung hard on a hanging
curve and smacked a hard liner between third and short for a two-out
single. Now with the go-ahead run at first base, Dykxhoorn induced an
inning-ending fly-out to center to strand Glendinning.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Tosoni
flied out to center for the first out of the seventh. Dustin Houle,
entering as a pinch-hitter for Deglan, struck out swinging. D. Pompey
just missed an extra-base hit when a 1-2 fly to right fell just
outside the foul line, then struck out swinging to end the inning.
Kent pumped his fist and yelled while walking back to the dugout, the
first overt sign of emotion from the calm lefty.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Taking
over for Dykxhoorn, RHP Brandon Marklund entered for the bottom half
of the inning. He retired Whitefield on a grounder to short to start
the action. Nilsson hit a hard one-hopper off of Marklund's right
thigh, reaching first as the ball caromed away from the pitcher. As
he reached the ball, Marklund hopped once or twice on his left leg,
but appeared to be alright as Whitt came out to check on him. He then
struck out George on three straight sliders, and induced a 4-3
ground-out on the first pitch to Sutherland to strand Nilsson.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
LHP
Jon Kennedy, the fourth pitcher of the game for Australia and the
third-straight lefty, entered the game in relief of Kent in the top
of the eighth. Darvill struck out swinging to start things off. Wood
cracked his bat while flying out to center on a 2-2 fastball down the
heart of the plate. Saunders grounded out to second, making it a
short inning for the new Aussie reliever.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Marklund
returned for the bottom half of the eighth, struggling a bit to
locate his pitches and giving up a walk to Luke Hughes, who was
pinch-hitting for De San Miguel. Kennelly worked the count to 3-1
before grounding into what looked to be a double play, but a low
throw from Leblanc to Lennerton allowed him to reach first. A review
of the play at second, on which Leblanc had to leap just a bit to
reach the high throw from Wood at third, was held up as a force-out
and fielder's choice. Campbell grounded out on a slow, weak
two-hopper to Marklund, who tossed to first for the second out, but
Kennelly advanced into scoring position. Glendinning drew the second
walk of the inning on a 3-1 low-and-away slider in the dirt,
prompting Whitt to make a call to the pen for RHP Scott Mathieson,
who got the save vs. Cuba in Canada's first game of the Opening
Round.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
On
a 1-2 knee-high fastball, Wade crushed a triple into the right-center
gap, scoring Kennelly and Glendinning and giving Australia the 3-1
lead. Whitefield flied out to right to end the inning, but the damage
was done, as Australia entered the ninth inning with a two-run lead
on a night in which neither team had been able to break through,
offensively.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
T.
Pompey worked a tough, eight-pitch at-bat against Kennedy into a
lead-off walk, taking a 3-2 slider that missed the low-and-outside
corner by a very narrow margin. Lennerton grounded into a rare 1-6-3
double play, hanging back on a middle-of-the-zone curve from Kennedy
but making weak contact on the grounder back to the pitcher. Nilsson relieved Kennedy for the final out, bringing in
the RHP and closer Ryan Searle. Lefty pinch-hitter Connor Panas
entered the game for Leblanc, drawing the walk on a very close 3-2
curve just off the outside corner and keeping the game alive for
Canada. Tosoni followed up by flying out to center for the third out, an upset win vs. Canada, and Team Australia's first-ever victory in the WBSC Premier-12 Tournament. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-52323178490254233582019-11-08T02:36:00.000-05:002019-11-08T03:06:38.045-05:00Team Canada Falls to Australia in Premier-12 Action, 3-1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In
opening-round competition of the 2019 Premier 12 Tournament on
Friday (Thursday, 7 PM PST), Team Canada fell to Boral Team Australia, 3-1. Australia's win is their first ever in WBSC Premier-12 competition.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A
two-out, two-run triple off the bat of Australia SS Logan Wade, the
first batter faced by closer Scott Mathieson, scored RF Tim Kennelly
and 2B Robert Glendinning to give the Aussies a two-run lead, and the
eventual win.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
back-and-forth battle between opposing pitchers maintained a 1-1 tie
after Glendinning drove home Kennelly on a sacrifice fly to deep
right in the bottom of the first inning, while Canada DH Rene Tosoni
responding with an RBI double in the top of the second to score LF
Tristan Pompey.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
RHP
Brock Dykxhoorn went six strong innings, allowing one run on only two
hits, walking no batters while striking out seven in getting the
no-decision. RHP Brandon Marklund entered the game in the seventh,
lasting 1 2/3 innings, but apparent issues with command (2 BB, 1 K,
50% strike pct.) saw him give way to closer Mathieson. Marklund
finished with the loss after Mathieson allowed the two inherited
runners to score on the aforementioned triple in the eighth.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Australia
used five different pitchers during the game, with starting righty
Tim Atherton lasting only 1 2/3 innings, giving up one run on three
hits and striking out one, before Manager Dave Nilsson pulled him and
dipped into his bullpen. Interestingly enough, all four Aussie
relievers in the game were lefties.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Josh
Tols posted a scoreless inning, walking two and striking out two (28
pitches, 57% strike pct.). Lefty Steven Kent put on the pitching
performance of the night, going 4 1/3 innings of one-hit ball,
walking one and striking out seven (65% strike pct.). Jon Kennedy,
who was credited with the win, followed with 1 2/3 innings of
scoreless, hit-less relief, with Ryan Searle getting the final out to
end the game and earn the save.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Canada
third baseman Eric Wood finished 1-3 with a walk, while Pompey had a
double, one walk, and a run scored, and 2B Charles Leblanc had a hit
of his own. In a game during which both sides' bats remained
relatively quiet throughout the night, the team's 4-5-6 hitters
(Michael Saunders, Tristan Pompey, Jordan Lennerton) combined to go
1-10 (1 R, 1 2B, 2 BB, 3 K). Canada's batters went down in order in
the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth inning.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Australian
veteran Tim Kennelly had a double and two runs scored on the night,
while DH Mitchell Nilsson added a base knock. Both Team Canada and
Team Australia finished with only four hits, each.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One
interesting and not immediately-explained move by Australia: the team
removed starting catcher Ryan Battaglia for Allan De San Miguel at
the beginning of the top of the third. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
loss drops Team Canada's record to 1-2, eliminating them from
Premier-12 competition. The team is scheduled to depart Seoul and return home on Friday night. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-2631584779488442912019-11-06T04:54:00.000-05:002019-11-06T04:54:38.602-05:00Game Recap-Canada vs. Cuba; 2019 Premier-12; November 5th, 2019<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">RHP Carlos Viera started
on the mound for Cuba. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Dalton Pompey led off the
game with a walk, with Wes Darvill flying out to center for the first
out. Eric Wood drew a full-count walk, but Michael Saunders struck
out swinging to end the inning. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">RHP Phillippe Aumont
started the game for Canada. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The bottom half of the
first was uneventful for Cuba, as Roel Santos grounded out to Aumont,
followed by Erisbel Arruebarruena and Yurisbel Gracial striking out
swinging. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Charles Leblanc led off
the top of the second, attempting to check on a 1-2 curve well off
the plate for a called strike three. Jordan Lennerton followed with a
big swing and miss on a 1-2 change, swinging very early on the pitch.
Tristan Pompey was grazed by a curve to give Canada their first
base-runner of the inning, but was stranded after Tosani grounded to
first base for the third out. Yordanis Samon quite nearly lost the
handle on the grounder, but made it to first just about a step ahead
of Tosani. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">In the bottom half, Aumont
struck out Alfredo Despaigne looking on a 2-2 fastball middle-in to
start it off, with Frederich Cepeda striking out swinging on a
splitter at the knees, and Alexander Ayala grounding out to Leblanc
to end the inning. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Kellin Deglan started off
the third by flying out to Santos in center on the first pitch he
faced. Dalton Pompey was called out on a slow 3-1 grounder, with
Viera beating him to the bag by about a foot and a half. Darvill
struck out to end the Canadian half of the inning. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">In the bottom of the
third, Samon reached base with the first hit of the game for either
side, while Yosvany Alarcon weakly popped up a bunt attempt that
somehow fell between Aumont and Deglan two meters in front of home
plate, but was still successful in moving Samon into scoring
position. Cesar Prieto went down swinging on a low splitter, and
Santos grounded out to Leblanc to leave the runner stranded. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The fourth inning began
with Wood sending a 2-2 outside curve to right field, perhaps a meter
inside the foul line, and legging it out for a lead-off double. This
would be the only extra-base hit for either team. Saunders
immediately brought Wood home with a grounder off the first pitch he
saw from Viera, a fastball, between third and short. Leblanc flew out
to right on a curveball that hung up in the zone. Lennerton hit into
what appeared to be an inning-ending double play, but Samon lost the
low throw from Arruebarruena, allowing the ball to shoot past him.
Lennerton advanced to second on the error. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Viera walked Tristan
Pompey, who was then thrown out at third by Santos when he tried to
advance on the up-the-middle grounder by Tosani, negating the run
scored by Lennerton, who was still at least three meters away from
home when the tag at third was made. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">In the bottom of the
fourth, Arruebarruena was thrown out at first thanks to a friendly
bounce on the throw from Darvill at short. Gracial grounded out to
Leblanc for out number two. Despaigne took two huge hacks on
back-to-back sinking fastballs from Aumont after a first-pitch inside
curve, then grounded out softly to Wood at third. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Deglan went down swinging
on a 1-2 change to lead off the fifth. Dalton Pompey slapped a 1-1
fastball to short for the second out (6-3). Darvill struck out
swinging on a 3-2 inside curve to end the inning. (<i>Note: Viera had
thrown a curve for a called strike with a 3-1 count, then went about
six inches further inside and lower with the next breaking ball. Both
had very tight spin and good 11-5 break.</i>)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Aumont continued to cruise
in the bottom half, having thrown only 41 pitches to this point. He
retired Cepeda on a called 3-2 fastball off the outside corner that
seemed to be well off the edge of the plate. Ayala quickly went down
0-2 in the count, then popped up to Darvill for the second out. Samon
grounded out weakly to Leblanc to end the inning. Aumont had retired
nine in a row, at this point in the game. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The sixth inning started
off with Viera striking out Wood looking on an 0-2 outside curve.
Saunders drew the walk after first attempting to call for time,
though too late for the umpire to grant it. RHP Yariel Rodriguez then
took over for Viera, with Leblanc striking out swinging on a curve in
the dirt and well outside and Lennerton swinging through a fastball
down the heart of the plate for the third out. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Cuba's half of the sixth
began with Alarcon popping up to Leblanc for the first out. Prieto
grounded out to short for out number two. Santos reached base on
error when Darvill threw low to Lennerton (E6), then promptly stole
second despite a very good throw from Deglan. Arruebarruena took a
called first strike, then Deglan came close to gunning down Santos on
the back-pick attempt before Aumont finished off the batter for the
third out. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Tristan Pompey went down
swinging on a low-and-inside curve in the dirt to start the seventh,
though he appeared to have checked his swing. Tosoni worked the count
to 3-1, but struck out swinging on a 3-2 curve down the heart of the
plate. Deglan ripped a curve into right field just out of reach of a
lunging Samon at first to give Canada a two-out base-runner. Dalton
Pompey poked a slow grounder to second but was called out on a very
close play at first while sliding into the bag. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The bottom of the seventh
saw Aumont strike out Graciel on a shin-high fastball to start off
the action. Despaigne grazed a 1-2 pitch that rolled about six feet
up the third-base line, with Deglan throwing him out at first. Cepeda
struck out swinging on a low-and-away 2-2 splitter to end the inning,
as Aumont continued to cruise through the Cuba lineup. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">LHP Livan Moinelo took
over for Rodriguez to start the eighth. Darvill was hit in the upper
right arm and left bicep by a high-and-inside fastball that got away
from Moinelo. Wood beat out a slow grounder to short, though Cuba
challenged the call to no avail. Saunders laid down an excellent bunt
up the third-base line which Ayala had to charge just to get Saunders
at first. Leblanc was immediately intentionally walked to load the
bases. Lennerton flew out to left, but not deeply enough to get a
runner home. Tristan Pompey took a bases-loaded, 3-2 fastball high
and outside the zone to make it a 2-0 Canada lead, and Tosoni took
four straight balls to walk in another run to make it 3-0. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Righty Andy Rodriguez
entered the game with two outs in the top of the eighth in relief.
His warm-up pitches were momentarily paused by the home plate umpire,
who told Rodriguez that he had to remove the gold sticker that was
still on the bill of the cap. Deglan struck out on a 1-2 curve to end
the threat and a long half-inning for Cuba. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Ayala grounded out to
first to start the bottom half. Samon drew the first walk given up by
Aumont, who was approaching the ninety-pitch mark (88 pitches).
Willian Saavedra entered the game to pinch-run for Samon. Alarcon hit
a grounder to short, but a sliding Darvill couldn't keep the hard-hit
ball in the infield and Saavedra advanced to second. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Whitt then paid a quick
visit to Aumont, who was at 90 pitches and had lost a touch of velo
off of his fastball, but he chose to stay with the big righty. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Raul Gonzalez,
pinch-hitting for Prieto, flew out to Dalton Pompey in center (<i>note:
the first out recorded by a Canadian outfielder, tonight</i>), and
ended the inning on a grounder and a strong throw from Darvill. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">D. Pompey hit a sharp
grounder off the glove of the new second baseman Gonzalez to lead off
the top half of the ninth. Darvill worked a walk off of Rodriguez,
the tenth walk given up by Cuban pitchers on the night, leading to
another pitching change for Cuba as righty Vladimir Garcia entered in
relief. Wood greeted him by drawing yet another walk, rather abruptly
ending Garcia's night. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Cuba's sixth pitcher of
the game, the third of the top half of the ninth inning, would be LHP
Yudiel Rodriguez, entering the game with the bases loaded and no
outs. Saunders sent a fly-ball to center, too shallow to score Dalton
Pompey at third, for the first out. Jonathan Malo, pinch-hitting for
Leblanc, followed with a fly-out to center, as well, and Pompey was
easily thrown out at home by Santos to end the inning on the 8-2
double play. (<i>Note: While Santos had to lean back slightly to make
the catch on Malo's fly-out, he made an outstanding throw to home to
cut down the runner.</i><span style="font-style: normal;">)</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">RHP Scott Mathieson took
over in the bottom half to close out the game, striking out
Arruebarruena to start it off. Gracial grounded weakly to Darvill,
whose low throw got away from Lennerton for Darvill's second error of
the night, allowing Gracial to advance to second. Despaigne went down
swinging on a sharp, late-breaking 3-2 slider. Mathieson quickly
worked the count to 0-2 on Cepeda, then put him away on a 12-6 curve
low and inside to secure the upset win for Team Canada. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-41991845314577790872019-11-06T04:51:00.003-05:002019-11-06T05:28:40.996-05:00Team Canada Downs Cuba To Open WBSC Premier-12, 3-0<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Team Canada got underway
in the 2019 Premier-12 Tournament tonight, taking on Team Cuba in
Seoul, South Korea, in what turned out to be a night for pitchers. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The men's national baseball tournament, scheduled
to run until November 17<sup>th</sup>, will award a berth in the 2020
Tokyo Olympics to the team who finishes in first place among those
teams from the Americas, as well as the top team from the
Asia/Oceania region. Canada is one of four teams in Group C, with
Australia, South Korea, and Cuba the other three. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The
Canadian National Team, currently ranked tenth among the world's
national teams in baseball, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFgV5BtrTOw&vl=en">edged
fifth-ranked Cuba 3-0</a>, with Gatineau, QC native Phillippe Aumont
shouldering the lion's share of the the work on the hill for Canada. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">The veteran righty
recorded eight shutout innings, allowing two hits and walking one,
striking out nine. Aldergrove, BC's Scott Mathieson, currently the
closer for Nippon Professional Baseball's Yomiuri Giants, pitched a
scoreless ninth to complete the shutout. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Michael Saunders
(Victoria, BC) drove in what would turn out to be the only run Canada
needed, scoring Eric Wood from second after Wood's lead-off double in
the fourth inning. Tristan Pompey and Rene Tosoni drew back-to-back
bases-loaded walks to add a couple of insurance runs in the seventh
inning. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Cuba's starting righty
Carlos Viera pitched around eight base-runners and mitigated the
damage very well, allowing one run on three hits, walking four and
striking out seven. Viera managed to locate only 57.6% of his 85
pitches for strikes. A total of five relievers would enter the game
after Viera walked Saunders with one out in the sixth inning. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Those five relievers would
combine for five strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on
three hits and five walks. RHP Yariel Rodriguez (1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R,
0 BB, 4 K, 33 pitches, 19 strikes) got the relief corps off to a very
strong start, but lefty Livan Moinelo struggled during his 2/3 IP in
relief (1 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 0 K, 23 pitches, 10 strikes). RHPs Andy
Rodriguez and Vladimir Garcia combined with LHP Yudiel Rodriguez over
the remaining 1 1/3 innings, allowing only one hit and two walks,
striking out one batter on a combined 54.2% strike percentage (24
pitches, 13 strikes). Garcia faced only one hitter, walking him on
five pitches. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Aumont threw 95 pitches in
this start, 70% of them for strikes. Mathieson tossed fifteen of
eighteen pitches for strikes in a three-K ninth. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Wood led the Canada
offense, going 2-3 with two runs scored, one double, and two walks.
Tosoni, Saunders, and Tristan Pompey had one RBI, each. However,
Canadian hitters combined to leave 11 base-runners stranded. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Canada next faces off
against third-ranked South Korea on November 6th at 7 PM
(November 7th at 2 AM, Pacific Time). </span>
</div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-24047023047462773612019-08-26T08:30:00.000-04:002019-08-26T08:30:11.919-04:00Time Flies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="direction: ltr; font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt; unicode-bidi: embed;">The final home series for the Lexington Legends starts today, and I find, from my perspective, that the season seems to end more quickly, as the years pass. It’s a poignant reminder that time is a matter of perception and experience; the longer we live, therefore, the shorter the coming years seem. And yet, in our minds, our earliest memories seem eternal. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">When we’re kids, even a day seems like it will last forever. As teenagers, time seems to move just a bit faster, though often not fast enough to assuage our impatience with it. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">As young adults, life gets a lot busier. Jobs. Kids. Work. Married life, for some of us. And we start to learn that, as it’s beginning to pass at an ever-increasing rate, we don’t have the ability to fit in everything we want to do. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Middle age arrives, and we’re gobsmacked by how time seems to fly, now. From this point, we find ourselves “wondering where all that time went”. As we continue to get older and older, days seems like minutes. Weeks seem like days. And the years are gone, before we know what hit us. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">I say all this because these players are experiencing what may be some of their most memorable moments. They’re in the early days of their professional lives. Some of them are advancing up the chain, some are released after their first year. Still others make it all the way to the majors. They’re all young, inexperienced with life’s ups and downs, comparatively, to most of us. But as they get older, and the time seems to speed by them, they’ll remember these days fondly; even the bad times will seem, somehow, bittersweet. </span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2" style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">And though they’ve learned, as they’ve grown older, how time is ever-fleeting and intangible, in a corner of their minds, those diamonds and pearls will last forever. </span></div>
</div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-30560178074248624032019-05-19T08:00:00.000-04:002019-05-19T08:00:01.988-04:00On This Day: Columbia 15, Wesleyan 2-Gehrig Crushes Record-Setting HR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: medium;">NEW
YORK, MAY 19th-It was 1923, and Columbia was thoroughly enjoying a
season of outstanding mound work and tape-measure homers from a young
<a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gehrilo01.shtml" target="_blank">Lou Gehrig</a>. On this day, Wesleyan was paying a visit to the Lions at
South Field, a game that Columbia would win going away, 15-2. </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Gehrig
had already become a legend at Columbia, blasting homers at distances
previously unseen at the Ivy League school. He would finish the 1923
season having set offensive marks that still rank in the top ten of
Columbia's all-time single-season performances; his .444 batting
average is still fifth, all-time, his .937 slugging percentage is the
top mark in school history, and his seven home runs were the all-time
mark up to that point. As a pitcher, his six wins are still tied for
eighth and only two behind the all-time mark of eight, shared by five
different pitchers. He also struck out 77 batters that year, which is
still sixth all-time. That alone is surprising, considering that
Columbia only played nineteen games, that year. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Gehrig
played ten games at first, another eleven on the mound, and played
both positions in three games. He set a single-game record of 17
strikeouts against Williams College on April 18<sup>th</sup>, a
record which stood for 45 years. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Scouts
were already calling him “the next Babe Ruth”. As a side note,
Gehrig very well could have ended up with the Washington Senators,
had Clark Griffith's scout bothered to show up to see him play. The
Giants also had a shot at Gehrig, but for reasons that escape me
(comments welcome), McGraw refused to even consider giving him a
chance to try out. Funny, how these things work out (see <a href="http://indiepro.com/glenn/tryout-and-fallout-race-jackie-robinson-and-the-red-sox/" target="_blank">Robinson,Jackie; Boston Red Sox</a>). </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Anyway,
Gehrig was working his magic as per usual on this day, going three
shutout innings on the mound while allowing three hits and striking
out five. He also went 2-3 at the plate, with a home run that left
the stadium altogether and struck the School of Journalism building
just outside of the center-field wall. The ball struck the steps of
the building, over 450 feet from home plate and still considered the
longest home run ever hit at South Field. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">By
June, Gehrig was a New York Yankee, and the rest is history. </span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">From the <i>Hartford Courant</i>; May 20th, 1923: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UtVWLnyyDk8/XNT6pN3tSLI/AAAAAAAAG-M/R2E7m9asxI44QyoIYRu-l7eIfJnWa9k_ACLcBGAs/s1600/Hartford_Courant_Sun__May_20__1923_Columbia%2B15%252C%2BWesleyan%2B2-Gehrig%2BHomers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="998" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UtVWLnyyDk8/XNT6pN3tSLI/AAAAAAAAG-M/R2E7m9asxI44QyoIYRu-l7eIfJnWa9k_ACLcBGAs/s640/Hartford_Courant_Sun__May_20__1923_Columbia%2B15%252C%2BWesleyan%2B2-Gehrig%2BHomers.jpg" width="399" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-20066106441394076412019-05-13T05:17:00.000-04:002019-05-13T05:25:28.573-04:00On This Day: Ron Necciai Strikes Out 27 Batters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
BRISTOL,
TN, May 13th—In the Class D Appalachian League on this night in 1952, a 19
year-old righty from Monongahela, Pennsylvania, pitched one of the
most impressive games in the history of professional baseball. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=neccia001ron" target="_blank">Ron Necciai</a>, a Pittsburgh prospect then on option with the Bristol (Va.)
Twins, absolutely dominated the Welch Miners in a game in which he
struck out twenty-seven batters in a nine-inning no-hitter. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Twenty...seven.
Let that sink in. And yet, three years later, Necciai was out of
baseball at age twenty-two.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5e2WZo3bGCQ/XNkyGnIqptI/AAAAAAAAG-c/Pvd1J_sBrbct4yBMp0LksCrdwuK2u2xyACLcBGAs/s1600/The_Cincinnati_Enquirer_Thu__May_15__1952_Ron%2BNecciai%2BPhoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="823" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5e2WZo3bGCQ/XNkyGnIqptI/AAAAAAAAG-c/Pvd1J_sBrbct4yBMp0LksCrdwuK2u2xyACLcBGAs/s320/The_Cincinnati_Enquirer_Thu__May_15__1952_Ron%2BNecciai%2BPhoto.jpg" width="164" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>From The Cincinnati Enquirer; May 15th, 1952</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It
was Shaw Stadium in Bristol, Virginia, that would be the stage for
this fairy-tale performance. Necciai had a special bond with the
manager of the Twins. George Detore was a baseball lifer, and had
been a longtime friend and mentor of Necciai's since the death of
Necciai's father Attilio at age thirty-one. He was a steadying
influence on the teenage fireballer, one that he sorely needed. The
difficulty of adjusting to professional baseball was causing Necciai
a tremendous amount of stress, most of which was being internalized,
and would soon lead to a bleeding ulcer and a visit to a specialist. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Necciai
was tremendously gifted; he had a fantastic arm. The problem was, he
didn't know how to use it. He was all over the place. A Pittsburgh
barber named Tony Rockino discovered Necciai while he was pitching
for Monongahela High in the suburbs, and passed this information on
to the Pirates. The Pirates actually signed him as a first baseman, as Necciai had been moved to the position after breaking two ribs of an opposing batter with a wayward fastball, but after seeing his arm strength on display during practices they
quickly moved him to the mound. It was Detore who broke the news to Necciai. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
After
two frustrating weeks struggling to learn a new position, Necciai
quit the game and returned to Monongahela. He was working in an auto
parts plant when Charlie Muse, the scout who originally signed him,
finally persuaded him to return to baseball. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
After
only the briefest of moments with Salisbury and Shelby, Class D teams
in the North Carolina State League and West Carolina League,
respectively, Necciai returned to Salisbury and the steadying
presence of Detore. Branch Rickey, who watched Necciai throw in
spring training, convinced him to drop down to a sidearm delivery,
and also taught him an overhand curve. Still, consistent control
eluded him. Once again, Necciai was ready to head back to
Pennsylvania and the auto parts plant, but Detore convinced him to
remain.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
stress continued to eat him up, inside. The Pirates saw fit to push
him all the way up to Class-AA (referred to as Class-B, back then)
and the New Orleans Pelicans in the Southern League, an awful long
way from the ranks of the Class-D ball, and the results were fairly
predictable: 1-5 record, 8.45 ERA in 33 innings, but he did strike
out 42, in the process.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Still,
the organization was continually impressed with his potential, and he
received an invitation to Spring Training for 1952. He performed
reasonably well, all things considered, though he was now struggling
with the bleeding ulcers, frayed nerves (chain-smoking in order to
cope), and unpredictable control. He gave up two runs on four hits in
three innings in an appearance vs. the St Louis Browns on March 9<sup>th</sup>.
He picked up a win vs. the San Francisco Seals on March 15<sup>th</sup>,
then struck out two and walked only one in five shutout innings on
March 18<sup>th</sup> against the Giants. In a 4-2 loss to the White
Sox, Necciai gave up a run on two hits in two innings, striking out
one. The Browns touched him up for four runs in the first inning of
his March 26<sup>th</sup> appearance, but he shut them out over the
next four innings in the 4-2 loss. On April 5<sup>th</sup>, the Cubs
touched him up for three singles and a double, while Necciai cut
loose two wild pitches, and allowed four runs in the 7-1 loss.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
His
lost time and continuing struggle with ulcers wore him down all
through spring training (he was down to around 150 pounds, at the
time), and the 6'5” righty pushed through it the best he could. He
asked the organization to return him to Bristol in order to give him
a little more time to get into game shape. On Opening Night in 1952,
Necciai faced the Kingsport Cherokees and sent twenty of them down on
strikes. In his next start, it was nineteen Ks vs. the Pulaski
Phillies.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then
came the masterpiece that was his May 13<sup>th</sup> start.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
His
catcher was an eighteen-year-old named Harry Dunlop (more on Mr.
Dunlop, in a later post), a young man who was unknowingly beginning a
lifetime career in baseball that would begin with 980 games at
various levels in the minors, stints as a minor-league coach and
manager, then 21 seasons as a major-league coach with the Royals,
Cubs, Reds, Padres, and Marlins. Dunlop later recalled that Necciai
threw an unnaturally-light fastball; that it barely felt like it hit
the glove, as compared to other so-called “heavy” fastballs. He
said it had a natural rise to it (perhaps owing to a tremendous spin
rate), and that his curve would drop either to the left or right
depending on subtle changes in fingertip pressure by Necciai.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Necciai
cruised through the first six innings, and all the while the 1,183
fans present were beginning to count the strikeouts, yelling out the
K count as the number became more and more unbelievable. At one point
in the game, Detore had to send a glass of milk and a couple of
stomach pills to the mound, as Necciai's gut was roiling like an
active volcano. Detore said that he remembers Necciai throwing up in
the dugout, at some point in the game.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
the ninth inning, pinch-hitter, Frank Whitehead managed to make just
enough contact to lift a foul pop-up between home and first. First
baseman Phil Filiatrault yelled at Dunlop, who had the ball in his
sights, to drop it. Dunlop, of course, denies dropping the ball
intentionally, instead blaming poor stadium lights. Nevertheless, the
ball fell foul, Dunlop took the big “E” for his trouble, and
Whitehead ended up striking out looking. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Miners
center-fielder Billy Hammond was strikeout #26, breaking the previous
record of 25, set by Hooks Iott in 1941 and at the time the accepted
nine-inning strikeout record. However, Hammond swung and missed at a
curve that hit the plate and skipped past Dunlop, and reached first
before Dunlop could make a play. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Bob
Kendrick, the Miners' cleanup hitter, stepped in representing the
final chance that Welch had to break the mystical hold that Necciai
seemed to hold over them, that night. It wasn't long before he, too,
was out on strikes. That made it twenty-seven. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Since
Dunlop let a third strike get past him in the ninth inning, that
meant the team would end up recording 28 outs that night. Two batters
managed to put the ball in play: the aforementioned error came when
shortstop Don DeVeau couldn't find the handle on a grounder in the
third inning, and the other on a groundout to DeVeau in the second.
Necciai was seemingly unfazed by his monumental performance, although
the true meaning of it didn't set in until statisticians and writers
began checking the record books. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“I
don't know what did it,” Necciai said after the game. “I just did
my best and kept it up all the way.”
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Interestingly,
Necciai told bullpen catcher Don Becker before the game started that
he didn't think he'd be able to go the distance, that night. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
his final start for Bristol, May 21<sup>st</sup>, Necciai was
showered with gifts from fans in appreciation for his record-setting
feat. That game, appropriately, was on “Ron Necciai Night”, an
honor shown to him by the Twins and the Pirates organization. Necciai
actually handed out his own gifts, as well: to Detore, he gave a
watch with the inscription “To the man who made it possible”, and
to every teammate he gave a fountain pen inscribed with the words “We
did it on May 13th”. His mother even made the trip to Bristol,
which Necciai hadn't expected.<br />
<br />
Facing Kingsport that night, he struck out 24 batters and allowed a meager two hits in the shutout. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
At
the end of his final game in Class-D for the 1952 season, Necciai had put up numbers which seem
like typos: 109 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings, 20 walks, two earned
runs on ten hits. His season ERA was 0.42. Nobody could touch him, at
least that year. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even
so, the 27-K game had a legitimate challenger for “most impressive
performance of the season” in the Appalachian League. More
on that, to come. </div>
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-43247850406967493492019-05-09T08:00:00.000-04:002019-05-10T00:16:31.675-04:00On This Day: Detroit, Philadelphia Form Conga Line on Basepaths<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
PHILADELPHIA, MAY 9th-It was on this day in 1916 that the Detroit Tigers took on the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park, in what would become a game for the ages. Some such games are better than others; this one was a farce, with a sequel.<br />
<br />
One could say that neither the Tigers nor A's pitchers had their best stuff, that day, and one would be spot on. The two teams combined to walk a total of <i>thirty batters</i>, an astounding total in any era.<br />
<br />
RHP <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cunnige01.shtml" target="_blank">George Cunningham</a> started for the Tigers, while fellow righty <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/naborja01.shtml" target="_blank">Jack Nabors</a> took the mound for the Athletics, and both put up some ugly numbers. For Nabors, he faced only nine batters, five of whom accounted for three hits and two walks in the second inning. He walked three, allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits, and struck out not a single batter. <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/weaveha01.shtml" target="_blank">Harry Weaver</a> took over to pitch in the second inning, but he wasn't able to stem the onslaught. Weaver gave up four runs on only two hits, managed zero strikeouts and walked three in facing seven batters.<br />
<br />
But it was southpaw <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rayca01.shtml" target="_blank">Carl Ray</a> who would upstage the pitchers of both teams. He took over in the third and promptly gave up a double and two walks but stranded them all. He also put up a scoreless fourth, despite the somewhat-less-than-perfect control. The fifth inning saw him surrender six more runs, but by now it hardly mattered to either side.<br />
<br />
Ray went seven innings in relief, giving up seven runs on six hits (four earned), striking out three and walking an absurd twelve batters.<br />
<br />
Cunningham, however, had an unusual line. He went only 2 1/3 innings, but allowed no hits and gave up only one run while walking six in the process, so he certainly mitigated the damage well enough. RHP <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bolanbe01.shtml" target="_blank">Bernie Boland</a> took over for Cunningham and performed slightly better; he went 6 2/3 to finish out the game, allowing one run on three hits, struck out two, and also walks half a dozen batters.<br />
<br />
The A's further sabotaged themselves by committing five errors, two of which belonged to Nabors, both occurring in the first inning when he threw away a pair of comeback grounders. Philly shortstop <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wittwh01.shtml" target="_blank">Whitey Witt</a> tacked on a pair of miscues, himself, in a season that would see him commit <i>seventy-six more</i>.<br />
<br />
A bit of trivia about Witt: he was the first Yankee to bat in Yankee Stadium, and the first to score on a Babe Ruth homer.<br />
<br />
Among the best performers that day at the plate were <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cobbty01.shtml" target="_blank">Ty Cobb</a> (2-5, 2 R, 2 doubles, 4 RBI), LF <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/heilmha01.shtml" target="_blank">Harry Heilmann</a> (3-5, 2 R, 1 double, 3 RBI), and 1B <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/burnsge02.shtml" target="_blank">George Burns</a> (2-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 Sac Hits). As for the A's, if any of them could have been considered "standout performers" on this particular day, it would have to be LF <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stellbi02.shtml" target="_blank">Bill Stellbauer</a>, who went 2-4 with a double, a triple, and an RBI.<br />
<br />
Often, when a team (or teams, as the case may be) has a poor performance like this, they bounce back in a big way the next day. For both the Tigers and A's, not so. Three pitchers (one Tiger, two Athletics) combined for eighteen walks in a 9-3 Detroit victory. Philadelphia righty <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sheehto02.shtml" target="_blank">Tom Sheehan</a> went seven innings, giving up six runs on six hits (none earned; we'll get to that), walking seven ans striking out one batter. Nabors was at it again when he came in to relieve Sheehan, as he gave up three runs on four hits, struck out one and walked four in two innings. Once more, the A's committed five errors, one by Sheehan and two more by Witt (remember him?), while 3B <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pickch01.shtml" target="_blank">Charlie Pick</a> and C <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schanwa01.shtml" target="_blank">Wally Schang</a> added one, each.<br />
<br />
For the Tigers, <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/boehlge01.shtml" target="_blank">George Boehler</a> went the distance, allowing three runs on five hits, striking out seven but walking seven, as well. Considering the seven walks, five hits, one error by <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bushdo01.shtml" target="_blank">Donie Bush</a> at short, and one hit batsman, the fact that Boehler allowed only three runs from fourteen base-runners that day was fairly impressive.<br />
<br />
From <i>The Philadelphia Inquirer</i>; May 10th, 1916 (written by "Jim Nasium"...heh):<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2iCmv_6-RDU/XNPq_oK8_5I/AAAAAAAAG-A/AZjDhjCtLJADsLTGDG7BC35nQb2Q7unzACLcBGAs/s1600/The_Philadelphia_Inquirer_Wed__May_10__1916_Detroit%2B16%252C%2BPhila%2B2-Teams%2BCombine%2Bfor%2BThirty%2BWalks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="682" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2iCmv_6-RDU/XNPq_oK8_5I/AAAAAAAAG-A/AZjDhjCtLJADsLTGDG7BC35nQb2Q7unzACLcBGAs/s1600/The_Philadelphia_Inquirer_Wed__May_10__1916_Detroit%2B16%252C%2BPhila%2B2-Teams%2BCombine%2Bfor%2BThirty%2BWalks.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-85706593080629027702019-05-09T07:00:00.000-04:002019-05-09T07:00:07.714-04:00Back From The Dead<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
MAY 9th-Here we are in the second week of May, and I find myself missing my old digs.<br />
<br />
Last year, it was SB Nation's Minor League Ball, where I got to work for and with one of my favorite writers from my early days as a fan: Mr John Sickels. Then I joined Baseball Prospectus, which was a real joy for me and a milestone in my relatively-nascent career as a baseball writer. At the end of the year, both sites shut down their minor-league coverage and we all went our separate ways. John ended up at The Athletic, which seems to have become The Home For Wayward Writers; seriously, they're snapping up some big, big names.<br />
<br />
This year, I've been a writer/photographer for a site called Big Blue Banter, which helped me land a season pass to the University of Kentucky's baseball games. I also covered my first college softball game (also at UK), and that was a real blast. Talk about fast action; it's certainly not like covering baseball. It seemed like every single grounder led to a bang-bang play. I'd wanted to cover girls' softball for some time, and now that UK is heading to the SEC Tournament and further postseason play, I'll get to cover a bit more.<br />
<br />
Apart from BBB, I haven't had a regular byline in 2019 apart from my occasional freelancing with The Jessamine Journal in Nicholasville. I started wondering why I didn't just write for myself, for a while, instead of putting in so much work at sites which paid little to nothing. After all, if I'm going to do this anyway, why not write what I want?<br />
<br />
So I decided to dust off this old blog, where my earliest work was posted, and thought I'd take a shot at writing about whatever struck me as interesting. That covers an awful lot of ground. One day, I might write about current minor-league prospects. The next, I may bring up a bit of the history of professional baseball in Australia. It's likely that posts will be somewhat erratic, in the interest of full disclosure; sometimes, the spirit is plenty willing, but the flesh is a weak lump of dog poop.<br />
<br />
Let's see where this road takes us, shall we? Oh, and I'll also take requests, from time to time.<br />
<br />
Welcome to The Grand Old Game. </div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-37264897038751388022015-08-07T13:29:00.000-04:002015-08-08T03:41:43.923-04:00Are You There, God? It's Me...Carlos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PYZ4b8eEJjU/VcRA8UbZnJI/AAAAAAAAEGw/gXymFL5U4y0/s1600/Carlos%2BMesa%252C%2BOF%252C%2BGreenville%2BDrive%252C%2BPrays%2BOn%2BDeck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="344" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PYZ4b8eEJjU/VcRA8UbZnJI/AAAAAAAAEGw/gXymFL5U4y0/s640/Carlos%2BMesa%252C%2BOF%252C%2BGreenville%2BDrive%252C%2BPrays%2BOn%2BDeck.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>AUGUST 6th, 2015</b>-This young man is Carlos Mesa. He plays for The <b>Greenville Drive</b> in the South Atlantic League. He's 27 years old, and yes, that's considered a bit old for Class-A ball. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His numbers don't seem especially noteworthy; at first glance, one wonders what chance he has of advancing up the ladder. He does appear to have a significant amount of power. But numbers have nothing to do with why I'm posting this photo. </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JmBr9o8p4uA/VcTn18p16EI/AAAAAAAAEHM/d4gIVefgsss/s1600/Jordan%2BProcyshen%252C%2BC%252C%2BGreenville%2BDrive%252C%2BSmiles%2BOn%2BDeck2-with%2Bcaption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JmBr9o8p4uA/VcTn18p16EI/AAAAAAAAEHM/d4gIVefgsss/s320/Jordan%2BProcyshen%252C%2BC%252C%2BGreenville%2BDrive%252C%2BSmiles%2BOn%2BDeck2-with%2Bcaption.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Procyshen practices precision in putting the<br />
pellet in play. Yeah, I know; sounds goofy.<br />
But I'm a big fan of alliteration.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On April 21st, the Drive paid us a visit here in Lexington. Being a Red Sox affiliate, I naturally had to be there. Specifically, I was there to see catcher <b>Jordan Procyshen</b>, a recent draftee from Alberta, Canada, and a player at Northern Kentucky University. This being a double-whammy for me (Canadian AND with ties to Kentucky), I made him my first target. But Mesa caught my attention, as well. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every batter has a particular mental and physical approach that they go through before they walk to the batter's box. Mesa intrigued me with his, and I was seated not more than 10 feet from the on-deck circle so I couldn't have missed it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before each at-bat, Mesa would go through the routine of taking some warm-up swings with the bat weight. He'd stretch a bit, watch the pitcher, try to work out his timing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then he would kneel and pray. Each at-bat, no </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">exception. He would just lean on his bat and pray for a moment. And I decided that I liked that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not the most religious guy around. In many cases, I've often felt that 'religion' in and of itself is vastly overrated; that it's more of a show we perform for one another's own edification. God Himself may or may not have a role. But religion is a man-made construct, and has little if anything to do with true faith and belief. For my part, I most definitely believe in God. But that's just how I see it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And because I believe that God knows our hearts, no matter what we do outwardly, I believe that He will reward this young man's faith and perseverance (if he truly does believe; only God can know with certainty). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because I believe that what we say and do is reflective of what we feel in our heart to be right, I believe that this moment captured here in lights and bytes is an illustration of what Mr. Mesa holds dear. Again, only God can know for certain. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the world of professional baseball, his journey may never lead him to the Majors. But in his journey through life, he may be on a comparatively more significant path. His actions, his choices, will ultimately show what kind of man he is, and what he holds most precious in this world. </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ekrMq0qveWo/VcRBBAY4l1I/AAAAAAAAEG4/W57ULOkr7Kk/s1600/Carlos%2BMesa%252C%2BOF%252C%2BGreenville%2BDrive%252C%2BMURDERS%2BA%2BPitch%252C%2BHR%2BOut%2Bof%2BThe%2BPark%2BTo%2BLCF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ekrMq0qveWo/VcRBBAY4l1I/AAAAAAAAEG4/W57ULOkr7Kk/s400/Carlos%2BMesa%252C%2BOF%252C%2BGreenville%2BDrive%252C%2BMURDERS%2BA%2BPitch%252C%2BHR%2BOut%2Bof%2BThe%2BPark%2BTo%2BLCF.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mesa hits one over the moon.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nevertheless, I appreciated the gesture. I took it for what it was worth. And it stuck with me. Maybe it was just the timing of it all for me, but it made an impression; at least, enough of an impression that I made the decision to write here about it now. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each time, Carlos went though his routine: first tending to matters of game-related importance, then to decidedly more significant priorities. It made me smile. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Incidentally, right after this image was shot, Mesa had a shot of his own. It flew out to left-center field and probably clipped a Cessna on its way out. Was it his praying that powered that missile?</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who knows for sure? But it couldn't hurt to try. </span></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-20402043281748036372015-06-18T20:49:00.000-04:002015-06-18T20:49:41.753-04:00Season Update Part 2: Lexington Legends, 6-18-2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until
recently, Lexington’s pitching was a true strength. Thing is, the numbers don’t
always tell the whole story. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While the
team’s pitching overall has recorded a second-to-last 4.11 ERA in the South
Atlantic League, there have been quite a few strong performances from both
starters and relievers. Here’s just a little info on a few of those who have
stood out to me the most:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RHP <b>Evan Beal</b> (2.05 ERA in 26 1/3 IP) has acquitted
himself well after his 21<sup>st</sup> round selection in 2014. Despite obvious
struggles with control (16 BB thus far in 2015), he has also averaged a
strikeout per inning and is mitigating the damage in preventing those
base-runners from crossing the plate. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lefty <b>Matthew Strahm</b> (2.08 ERA in 26 IP, 38
K, 12 BB) earned every bit of his recent promotion to High-A Wilmington. Rangy
and almost whip-like in his delivery, Strahm showed good sink and tail on his
fastball and solid command over his off-speed selections. A 21<sup>st</sup>
round selection in 2012, Strahm is likely to greatly surpass his draft
position. Most impressive, this season: his 3 shutout innings in relief at
Kannapolis on May 27<sup>th</sup> in which he struck out 9 of a possible ten
batters faced. Keep an eye on his progress. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another
youngster on this significantly talented team, <b>Scott Blewett</b> was KC’s 2<sup>nd</sup> round pick last year. He’s
had only 4 starts in pro ball, all this year, but he’s allowed only a total of
4 runs in those starts (17 IP, 4 BB, 20 K). It’s a little early to project what
he’s going to show us this season, but he’s another one to keep an eye on. Guys
like Blewett will keep Lexington in many a game. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LHP <b>Emilio Ogando</b> (2.70 ERA in 46 2/3 IP,
17 BB, 38 K) was a 12<sup>th</sup> rounder in 2014, and has done nothing but
put up strong numbers since he debuted in Rookie-League Idaho Falls last year.
Appearing in 13 games so far in 2015 (3 starts), Ogando has shown an ability to
perform well in both roles. He also has a solid tailing fastball and
consistently keeps the ball low. I would expect his groundout rate to increase
as the season progresses. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RHP <b>Pedro Fernandez</b> (3.25 ERA in 44 1/3 IP,
46 K) has been an important swingman for the Legends in 2015. In 11 games he’s
made 6 starts for the team, recording a fantastic 0.95 WHIP as well as a K/BB
ratio slightly over 3/1. In addition, batters are hitting only .183 against
him. While he’s allowed a meager 2 homers in those 11 games, he’s shown himself
to be a fly-ball pitcher throughout his career. As he climbs the ladder, this
might end up hurting him significantly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2012 sixth
rounder <b>Zach Lovvorn</b> (3.56 ERA in 65
2/3 IP, 11 BB, 47 K) has been a stalwart in the Legends’ rotation. He’s allowed
slightly more than a hit per inning, but has limited the damage by keeping his
walks down and keeping his head with runners on. He’s also 6 innings or more in
5 of his last 10 starts, giving relief to the relief corps. Lovvorn has a bit
of projectability left, and could end up sitting 93-94 on his velocity, and
already shows a solid-plus changeup to go with easy arm action and good
movement on his fastball (seems like a recurring trend with Legends pitchers). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s a
quick view at some of our Legends staff, and there’s more to come soon as the
season moves on. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-78621843140081400272015-06-16T20:38:00.000-04:002015-06-16T20:38:47.440-04:00Season Update: Lexington Legends, 6-16-2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>JUNE 16th, 2015</b>-Here's a quick look at some of our Lexington Legends' hitters in each player's last ten games, something I hope to make a regular update:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Alfredo Escalera </b>is batting a blistering .383 with 9 RBI in his last ten games. Still needs to cut down on the Ks, but that should come with a little time. Escalera is a natural athlete, and should become very close to a 5-tool guy for the Royals as he progresses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Elier Hernández</b>, another athletic outfielder, is batting .289 in his last ten games, on par with his season numbers. He's smacked 16 doubles in 59 games and is slowly showing signs of burgeoning power. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speaking of which, <b>Brandon Downes</b> also has 16 two-baggers, though they are just as much a product of his speed as they are of raw power. His K/BB ratio is awful, but he has barely more than 80 games in the pros so far. Give him time. I definitely like what I see from him; covers plenty of ground in the OF and runs the bases well. He also has a bit of project-ability left, which could sap a tiny bit of speed but definitely add to his pop. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Corey Toups</b> is in a similar mold (13 doubles and 14 SB on the season), but perhaps with more present speed on the bases. He handles himself well at second, with good hands and quick actions without being reckless. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Samir Duenez</b> has been a house on fire, batting .390 in his last ten games and providing versatility by spelling O'Hearn at first base. Duenez may need to work on his conditioning as he gets older, but shows solid footwork around the bag and takes reasonably direct routes to the ball in the OF. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Chase Vallot</b> is an intriguing prospect. Only 18 years old, Vallot has handled his station with little difficulty and is beginning to hit the ball with authority. It's easy to see how he cracked the Royals' Top 30 Prospect list; he's the real deal. Given his age and the time it typically takes pro catchers to advance, he's got all the time in the world to progress. He's not going to need as much as one might think. Another interesting stat: he's scored 22 runs in 30 games, this year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><b>Luis Villegas</b> redux? </span><b>Chad Johnson</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"> batting .405 in 14 games since he returned from the DL. This is not shocking to those who have seen him bat. Johnson has untapped power, calls a solid game and handles pitchers well. He threw out 31% of base-stealers last year, a number well in line with his career results. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Last but not least, </span><b>Ryan O'Hearn</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"> hit his 15th homer and drove in his 35th run in top 1st vs Augusta (tonight's game). Starting to be not-so-shocked by his blatant display of power. Dude crushes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">That's it, for now. Up next, the top-flight pitching staff. </span></span></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-91757490479571733892015-05-16T16:26:00.000-04:002015-05-16T16:26:33.805-04:00Posts From The Past: Zack Greinke Scouting Report, 2006<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Name: Zack Greinke<br />
Ht: 6'2" Wt: 175<br />
Position: SP<br />
Organization: Kansas City (AL)<br />
Bats: R<br />
Throws: R<br />
Drafted: KC's 1st pick, 2002<br />
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Greinke was drafted out of Apopka High in Orlando, Florida, as KC's #1 pick in 2002. Having pitched only limited innings in Rookie and A-ball that year, KC made the unique decision of assigning Greinke to the Puerto Rican League for the winter, the first player coming out of HS ever to appear in the league. Greinke made a strong showing in 25 2/3 innings, posting a 2.45 ERA and more than holding his own against much more seasoned talent.<br />
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Zack made a great impression in Class A Carolina League in 2003, making an 11-1, 1.14 ERA showing in 14 starts before a Double-A promotion in July. Perhaps most notable was his 18 walks in 140 IP, an astounding 1.16 per 9 IP!<br />
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A very good indicator of future success in the Majors, BB/9 IP is something to which I pay quite a biy of attention. Perhaps for this reason, Greinke has drawn the obvious Greg Maddux comparisons from some, and that may not be as far off target as it may sound.<br />
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Greinke has solid command of four pitches, changes speeds very well, is poised well beyond his years, and projects to actually get better than he already is, which will carry him into #1 starter-land in the ML.<br />
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Forget about the 5-17, 5.80 ERA in 2005; the experience he gained will be valuable in his learning process. Greinke throws a mid-90's's four-seamer, altering speeds to disrupt a batter's timing in deference to just blowing it by them. He also throws a late-sinking 2-seamer, a hard and late slider, and a slow curve at around 66 mph that baffled most hitters. What stands out about Greinke's mound presence is that he focuses on changing speeds, grips and arm angles, as opposed to the common tendency of most young pitchers to throw it past you. This, in my opinion, is key to a pitcher's longevity: let the changing of speeds and location work for you.<br />
<br />
Greinke is also very athletic, fielding his position well. In terms of endurance, his body has yet to fully mature physically, and by the time that happens he could easily be a 220 inning guy each year.<br />
All things considered, Zack Greinke is definitely One to Watch.<br />
<br />
2006 Projection: 10-14, 4.50 ERA, 30 starts, 175 IP, 65 BB.<br />
<br />
I don't expect Greinke to do much better than this. After all, he DOES play for KC. If the Royals can manage even a slight improvement in run production, Greinke could make it to 12 wins, but don't hold your breath. Look at the month of April, for example. He lost all 5 of his starts, allowing only 10 ER (3.65 ERA) for the month, but with a handful of runs from KC he could have won 2 of those, at least. His first 2 starts (2 1/3 IP, 6 IP) he allowed exactly 0 runs. OK, so 2 1/3 doesn't really count, but April 2005 could be the story of his young life for a while.<br />
<br />
The important thing to remember is that, barring injury (of course), <i>Zack Greinke will be a ML starter of the highest order within 3 years.</i></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-40644129867790018232015-05-16T04:08:00.000-04:002015-05-16T04:08:35.640-04:00Division Leaders: AL West - May 15th, 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">AL West</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Houston
Astros - 22-13</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Intriguing,
to say the least. This is an Astros team that whipped off a 10-game winning
streak (from April 24th to May 3rd), has spent 30 days in 1st place, and hasn't
lost more than 3 games in a row all year. Their record is somewhat odd: 10-9 at
home, 12-4 on the road. Not the sort of numbers you'd expect to see; it ought
to be the other way around, right? They're also 9-2 in one-run games, which is
notable for obvious reasons: their 'pen holds up under pressure, and they can
handle the tough games. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">One important note: until today, the Astros were the
only team in the AL West with a winning record.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">League Rankings, Batting</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">-1st in HR, 4th in SB, 4th in BB, 7th in runs
scored,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>15th in BA</b></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">There's
actually a lot to like about this Houston team. For starters, they are leading
the league in homers and steals. That's nice, right?</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Well,
here's a problem: they're dead last in batting average and 13th in OBP. That's
definitely not nice. Not exactly hard to see how that's possible when you have
guys like 1B <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cartech02.shtml">Chris Carter</a>
(.150, 5 HR, 12 RBI, 51 SO in 131 PA), 3B <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/valbulu01.shtml">Luis
Valbuena</a> (.202, 8 HR, 14 RBI), LF <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rasmuco01.shtml">Colby Rasmus</a>
(.223, 6 HR, 13 RBI, 44 SO in 113 PA), and C-DH <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gattiev01.shtml">Evan Gattis</a>
(.181, 6 HR, 18 RBI) hacking away with impunity. Of course, 2B <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/altuvjo01.shtml">Jose Altuve</a>
is doing what he does (.333, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 9 doubles, 13 steals), and CF <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/marisja01.shtml">Jake
Marisnick</a> (.288, 3 HR, 13 RBI, 9 steals) is delivering on his promise and
reputation as a highly athletic outfielder and base runner. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">I
would expect C <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/castrja01.shtml">Jason Castro</a>
to pick up the pace soon and bump that .231 BA up a few notches. IF <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/villajo01.shtml">Jonathan
Villar</a> has yet to deliver on his potential, but the tools are definitely
there for him to contribute in both XBH and SB. Give him a little time; with
the Astros' batting order significantly improved (in talent, if not in raw
numbers), Villar may kick things into gear along with the rest of their
batters.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">League Rankings, Pitching</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">-3rd in ERA, 3rd in SV, 5th in Hits Allowed, 1st
in Walks Allowed, 6th in K</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">There
is actually a lot to like, here, and it starts with LHP <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/keuchda01.shtml">Dallas
Keuchel</a> (4-0, 1.39 ERA, 7 GS, 51 2/3 IP, 29 Hits Allowed, 15 BB, 37 K), who
is showing the rest of the league's hitters a great deal of disdain. Oh, he's
also only allowed one homer, so far. He was 12-9 with a 2.93 ERA last year, so
it looks like Keuchel is the real deal. RHP<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><s>Fausto
Carmona</s> <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/carmofa01.shtml">Roberto
Hernandez</a> (1-3, 4.12 ERA, 43 2/3 IP, 12 BB, 20 K) is solid, thus far, but
he's certainly not the ideal pick as a long-term solution in the rotation. He
should bear scrutiny throughout the season. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">RHP
<a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mchugco01.shtml">Collin
McHugh</a>, however, was a significant addition to the starting five, as he
demonstrated with an 11-9, 2.73 ERA showing last year. At 4-1 with an ERA at
3.50, he's on his way to a repeat performance. From 2011-2014, RHP <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/feldmsc01.shtml">Scott
Feldman</a> has delivered a solid, if unspectacular, effort (4.12 ERA, 28-36 in
517 2/3 IP), and he should post numbers similar to those in 2015. That's
acceptable if you have an offense which can score you runs on a consistent
basis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Righty
closer <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gregelu01.shtml">Luke
Gregerson</a> (2.40 ERA, 15 IP, 12 K, 2 BB, 8 SV) is away from the team
attending to a 'personal matter', and the 'pen will definitely feel his
absence. RHP <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/harriwi10.shtml">Will Harris</a>
(who?) has been stellar thus far, posting a 0.53 ERA over 17 IP (13
appearances), with 22 K and a measly 4 walks. Submariner and fellow baseball
card collector <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/neshepa01.shtml">Pat Neshek</a>
has been delivering the goods in his 16 appearances, striking out 14 over 14
1/3 innings without walking a single batter (51 batters faced total). From the
45th round to ML reliever, <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sippto01.shtml">Tony Sipp</a>
(0.63 ERA, 13 appearances, 14 1/3 IP, 12 K, 3 BB) is doing his part to keep the
bases clear. Sipp's numbers over his 7-year ML career have been fairly steady,
more or less (3.62 ERA over 323 IP), and there's no reason that this should
change this year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Finally,
36 year-old righty <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/q/quallch01.shtml">Chad Qualls</a>
(3.38 ERA, 15 appearances, 13 1/3 IP, 17 K, 3 BB) is still humming along at
near-peak efficiency, having returned to his original ML team in 2014 after a
6-year sabbatical/tour of roughly 1/3 of the rest of the Majors. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-14621409952419010972015-05-15T03:22:00.000-04:002015-05-15T03:22:49.318-04:00Division Leaders: AL Central - May 13th, 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN">AL Central<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN">Kansas City Royals</span></b><span lang="EN"> – 21-12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN">League Rankings, Batting</span></i><span lang="EN"> – 3<sup>rd</sup> in runs scored, 1<sup>st</sup> in hits,
2<sup>nd</sup> in doubles, 1<sup>st</sup> in triples, Tied-4<sup>th</sup> in
SB, 1<sup>st</sup> in fewest SO, 1<sup>st</sup> in BA, 1<sup>st</sup> in OBP, 2<sup>nd</sup>
in SLG, 1<sup>st</sup> in OPS…oh, and 1<sup>st</sup> in HBP (shocker). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Well, where does one begin? This is what we’ve come to expect from the
Royals: getting on base, swiping bags, and scoring runs. That’s pretty much as
simple as it gets. Numerous suspensions and poorly-handled and/or misdirected
anger aside, the 2015 model is humming along at a sustainable pace, and
suddenly fans all over the country are taking the Royals seriously as a
legitimate contender and possible heir-apparent to the AL crown, once more.
There are a lot of hitters on this roster who are firing on all cylinders. For
starters, 1B <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hosmeer01.shtml">Eric <span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK
"http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hosmeer01.shtml"</span>Hosmer</a></span></u>
(.326, 21 runs scored, 9 doubles, 6 HR, 27 RBI) is killing it, as evidenced
further by his .967 OPS. There’s a confidence in Hosmer that isn’t exactly new,
but it’s definitely reached a new level. Shortstop <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/escobal02.shtml">Alcides<span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK "http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/escobal02.shtml"</span>
Escobar</a></span></u> (.307, 7 doubles, 11 RBI) is picking up the pace in
recent games, batting .364 over the past 7 days (22 AB), scoring four and
driving in three. Third sacker <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/moustmi01.shtml">Mike <span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK
"http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/moustmi01.shtml"</span>Moustakas</a></span></u>
(.322, 22 runs scored, 6 doubles, 4 HR, 11 RBI) is continuing to fulfill the
promise the Royals saw in him when they made him their 1<sup>st</sup> round
pick in 2007 (finally, right?), and while his numbers in each of the past three
seasons were far from All-Star caliber, he is showing signs that 2015 will be
the year that it all comes together. In left, <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gordoal01.shtml">Alex Gordon</a></span></u>
is, well, Alex Gordon (he is what we thought he was!), batting .295 with nine
doubles, four homers and 17 RBI. His .913 OPS is second only to Hosmer’s .967
for the team lead. Centerfielder <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cainlo01.shtml">Lorenzo Cain</a></span></u>
(.314, 23 runs scored, 7 doubles, 14 RBI, 6 SB) is ripping up turf in the field
and digging trenches on the base-paths. Yeah, that’s what speed do. <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/moralke01.shtml">Kendrys<span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK
"http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/moralke01.shtml"</span>
Morales</a></span></u> (.299, 26 runs scored, 11 doubles, 4 HR, 25 RBI) is
producing runs at a significant pace, which is what was expected of him. Don’t
let the paltry homer total concern you; all that matters, especially on this
team, is scoring runs. Of course, the Royals have proven that they can
manufacture runs the old-fashioned way as well as crush wayward fastballs. And
even though they’re near the bottom in homers, they’re at the top in extra-base
hits and on-base percentage. On that note, enter <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/orlanpa01.shtml">Paulo
Orlando</a></span></u>. The 29 year-old rookie spent a whopping 1,017 games in
the minors before making his debut in right field, this year. Overall, he has
not disappointed. How many players can you name who hit five triples before
they recorded their first double? Strange, right? He’s slowed down a bit,
batting-wise, but even if he is pushing 30 he’s still a rookie. It’s a safe bet
that he’ll be established as a significant part of their offense by year’s end.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN">League Rankings, Pitching</span></i><span lang="EN"> – 2<sup>nd</sup> in ERA, 3<sup>rd</sup> in SV, 3<sup>rd</sup>
in fewest hits allowed, 2<sup>nd</sup> in HR allowed, 1<sup>st</sup> in ER
allowed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">OK, those rankings look pretty good, right? Well, they’re not. What I mean
is that the rotation is, to be polite, struggling (Jeremy Guthrie, Danny Duffy,
Yordano Ventura all have ERAs over 5.00), and while Chris Young has picked up
some of the slack (0.78 ERA, 8 games, 2 starts, 23 IP, 19 K), it’s going to
take a bit more than the brilliance of Wade Davis (15 appearances, 6 hits
allowed, 2 BB, 14 K), Kelvin Hererra (13 appearances, 12 1/3 IP, 14 K) and
Yohan Pino (6 appearances, 14 IP, 13 K) to offset that deficiency. Greg Holland
is, of course, dominating (8 appearances, 9 IP, 6 K, 6 SV), but that rotation
is still a glaring issue. Edinson Volquez is doing his part, to be sure (2-3,
3.19 ERA, 42 1/3 IP, 17 BB, 33 K), but Duffy needs to get it together and
Ventura needs to chill the heck out (sorry; can’t measure anger with a stat) if
this rotation is going to survive, let alone thrive. The offense is doing all
it can do, but the starting pitching makes 1<sup>st</sup> place a precarious
position for the Boys In Blue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11343557.post-78337982324201472672015-05-15T03:17:00.000-04:002015-05-15T03:17:07.384-04:00Division Leaders: AL East - May 13th, 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN">Well, we’re just over a month into the ML season, and as usual there are
condemnations and exhortations aplenty; one team is “bound to win it all!”
while another “needs to be dismantled completely”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">So it is with baseball fans. And perhaps that’s how it should be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">It can test one’s patience. One month does not a season make. Still, one
has to respect the passion. That is, after all, what it means to be a fan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">With that in mind, let’s take a look at who’s <s>on</s> in first, and why:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">AL East<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN">New York Yankees</span></b><span lang="EN"> – 21-13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN">League Rankings, Batting</span></i><span lang="EN"> – 4<sup>th</sup> in runs scored, 5<sup>th</sup> in hits,
3<sup>rd</sup> in doubles, 2<sup>nd</sup> in HR, Tied-4<sup>th</sup> in SB, 2<sup>nd</sup>
in BB<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Honestly, at first glance it’s sort of hard to figure out how the Yankees
have managed to hold the top spot in the East. Then you look at their offensive
rankings, and that sheds a bit of light on the subject. They’ve thus far
managed to play a power-speed game that has translated into 162 runs scored in
34 games (4.77 runs/game), with 1B <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/teixema01.shtml">Mark
Teixeira</a></span></u> (.351 OBP, 11 HR, 27 RBI), LF <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/headlch01.shtml">Brett
Gardner</a></span></u> (24 runs scored, 16 RBI, 10 SB, .318 BA, .397 OBP), CF <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/ellsbja01.shtml">Jacoby <span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK
"http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/ellsbja01.shtml"</span>Ellsbury</a></span></u>
(26 runs scored, 11 SB, .346 BA, .418 OBP) and the seemingly-reborn <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/youngch04.shtml">Chris Young</a></span></u>
(.303 BA, 6 HR, 12 RBI in 76 AB) and, yes, DH <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rodrial01.shtml">Alex
Rodriguez</a></span></u> (.243 BA, .357 OBP, 8 HR, 20 RBI) leading the way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN">League Rankings, Pitching</span></i><span lang="EN"> – 1<sup>st</sup> in ERA, 1<sup>st</sup> in SV, 4<sup>th</sup>
in fewest HR allowed, 1<sup>st</sup> in K, 4<sup>th</sup> in fewest BB allowed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Hello? <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pinedmi01.shtml">Michael
Pineda</a></span></u>? Yeah, he’s good. But he’s not the only one. RHP <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/eovalna01.shtml">Nathan <span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK
"http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/eovalna01.shtml"</span>Eovaldi</a></span></u>
(3-1, 4.14 ERA, 41 1/3 IP, 11 BB, 31 K) is far better, stuff-wise, than his
numbers would suggest. He's bringing high-90's heat and a sweet breaking ball; expect him to be a perennial All-Star-level pitcher, soon. If <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tanakma01.shtml">Masahiro
Tanaka</a></span></u> can ever get healthy again, he can take this staff up a
couple of notches. Then again, that’s a big ‘if’. Perhaps the biggest surprise
concerning LHP <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sabatc.01.shtml">CC <span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK
"http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sabatc.01.shtml"</span>Sabathia</a></span></u>
(1-5, 5.20 ERA, 45 IP, 10 BB, 38 K) is that he’s managed to strike out
thirty-eight batters. That’s a dead arm, right there. We shouldn’t forget that
RHP <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/warread01.shtml">Adam Warren</a></span></u>
(2-1, 4.65 ERA, 31 IP, 16 K) put up some strong numbers in the minors as a
starter, even if he’s been throwing out of the ‘pen since he came to the Majors
in 2012. He was a 4<sup>th</sup> round pick in 2009; that’s important to
remember, as well. Don’t lose faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN">Speaking of the ‘pen, what has gotten into LHP <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/millean01.shtml">Andrew
Miller</a></span></u>? Since 2014, he has struck out 129 batters in 78 innings.
Let that sink in, for a moment. Oh, and he’s allowed only 3 homers in that span
while producing a sparkling 1.62 ERA. Aroldis Who? Oh yeah…righty <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/betande01.shtml">Dellin<span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK
"http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/betande01.shtml"</span> <span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">HYPERLINK
"http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/betande01.shtml"</span>Betances</a></span></u>
has yet to allow an earned run in 2015. That’s 20 innings, 8 hits allowed, and
31 strikeouts. Shouldn’t be too surprising, since he posted a ridiculous 1.40
ERA in 90 innings in 2014 (70 appearances, <b>46 hits allowed</b>). </span></div>
Clinton Riddlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05014753783263725867noreply@blogger.com0