If Your Birthday is June 17th...

...you share it with Matt Barnes. The Danbury, Connecticut native has spent the past five seasons in the Red Sox bullpen (this photo is from his May 8th, 2018 appearance against the Yankees). He's been especially effective since 2016 -- striking out 360 batters in 262 innings. while surrendering less than one home run per nine innings.

June 17th is not a stellar day for talent: no Hall of Fame inductees and only one player with borderline credentials for Cooperstown. That would be Dave Concepcion, the defensive glue of the Reds great 1970s teams. A nine-time all star and five-time Gold Glove winner, he's the kind of player who should get more respect from the Veterans Committee, especially with ex-teammates such as Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez already enshrined. The Venezuelan native had a terrific 10-year peak, batting .282, and averaging 37 extra base hits and 22 stolen bases a season.

A few other names caught our attention, if only briefly:
  • Joe Charboneau was the 1980 American League Rookie of the Year. But injuries derailed his career and he was out of the majors two years later.
  • Shawn Abner has a nice nickname, inspired by the famed comic book character. But he never lived up to the being a 1st round pick of the Mets. Sent to San Diego in the Kevin McReynolds trade, he played parts of six big league seasons, but was never a regular.
  • Victor Mata hit over .300 in 30 games for the 1984 Yankees, but has become a far bigger contributor as a scout, helping discover such Yankees as Robinson Cano, Eduardo Nunez and Francisco Cervelli.
And remembering:
  • Pete Browning, a 19th century star who led his league in batting three times and hit a lifetime .341. And he accomplished that as a deaf player. I knew almost nothing about Browning and his legacy, until I checked out the impressive SABR biography on his life and career.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rare Remnant of a Lost Ballpark

Image
When the subject of baseball in Brooklyn comes up, the discussion centers around Ebbets Field, the Flatbush venue most famously home to The Boys of Summer.  Those legendary 1940s and '50s teams that featured such historic and beloved players as Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges. Ebbets Field hosted its last major league game in 1957 and was torn down during the winter of 1960. But decades earlier, just before World War One, the Dodgers were based in the Park Slope area and played at Washington Park.  Once they moved out, the land was occupied by another stadium, which housed a different franchise.  The upstart Federal League, which played in the 1914 and '15 seasons, had a Brooklyn team called the TipTops.  Owned by a local baking magnate Robert Ward, whose company produced TipTop bread, the club took over the abandoned lot along 3rd Street and built a new brick and steel venue. The only no-hitter in the Federal League's two-year r
Read more

Another Yankee Trade

Image
Yankee fans: here's a last look at shortstop Trey Sweeney .  The 2021 first round draft choice was part of the three player trade with the Dodgers that brings reliever Victor Gonzalez and infield prospect Jorbit Vivas to New York. Now seeking to rebuild their pitching depth after dealing for Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo, the Yanks deemed Sweeney expendable.  While the Louisville native showed promising power in his three seasons with the organization -- he batted only .248 to go with his 36 career homers -- Brian Cashman has committed to Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza as his young middle infielders.  So Sweeney became a trade chip. ( My images of Trey Sweeney are from the Somerset/Binghamton AA games on July 15th and September 19th, 2023. )
Read more

Will He Wear Zero in the Bronx?

Image
The Yankees bolstered their starting rotation with Thursday's signing of Marcus Stroman .  The Long Island native, who spent 2019 and '21 with the Mets before moving onto the Cubs, brings a 77-76 career record to the Bronx, along with a recent loyalty to uniform number (?) zero.  If he requests that, he'd become the third Yank to wear it, following the path of Adam Ottavino and Domingo German.  Of course, neither of their Yankee tenures ended all that well -- Ottavino struggled badly in 2020, before reviving his career with the Red Sox and Mets; German's alcohol and domestic violence issues sabotaged such Yankee highlights as last year's perfect game. Can a number truly be lucky? You can understand kids in little league or high school ball wanting to wear 2 in honor of Derek Jeter or 7 for Mickey Mantle.  But is there an heroic ballplayer associated with 0?  The closest I recall comes from pro football, where the Oakland Raiders Hall of Fame center Jim Otto wore 00
Read more