If Your Birthday is September 23rd...

 .

..you share it with Joba Chamberlain, an instant cult hero and perhaps the most captivating Yankee rookie between Derek Jeter and Gary Sanchez. Nearly unhittable when he first came to the majors during the final two months of the 2007 season -- he posted a microscopic 0.38 ERA in 19 games, while striking out 34 batters in 24 innings as Mariano Rivera's set up man -- he couldn't sustain the success. A bad omen was an ill-fated playoff appearance that October, when swarms of small flying bugs descended on him, shaking his concentration and leading to a Yankee loss. The organization's decision to convert him to a starter led to injuries as a promising career just faded out.

Trevor May, now in his sixth year with the Twins, is again preparing for a playoff run. The onetime top Phillies prospect came to Minnesota along with Vance Worley in December 2012 for Ben Revere. Away from baseball, he's an electronic music expert and a "partnered Twitch Streamer."

Matt Kemp has enjoyed a productive 15-year career, the first 10 seasons as a Dodger. But other than 2011, when he smacked 39 homers, drove in 126 and hit .324, he's never been a top star. 

Pete Harnish was born on Long Island and attended Fordham University, but enjoyed his biggest major league seasons away from New York. He won 16 games for the '93 Astros and '99 Reds; in between, he posted just a 10-21 record with the Mets.

Jim Morrison didn't really "Break on Through" when he first came up with the Phillies and was mostly a utilityman with the Pirates. The closest he came to "Light[ing] My Fire" was 1986, when he hit 23 home runs for Pittsburgh/

Dennis Lamp, who pitched for the Cubs, White Sox, Blue Jays and A's -- and earned his place in history from two milestone moments: he surrended Lou Brock's 3000th career hit and Cal Ripken's first.

Woody Woodward could be a poster child for light-hitting middle infielders. Over nine seasons and 2424 at bats with the Braves and Reds, he hit just one home run. On July 10th, 1970, he connected off Atlanta reliever Ron Reed.

Jim Rooker is best recognized for his eight Pirates seasons, including the 1979 World Champs. He moved into the Pittsburgh broadcast booth after retiring, where his most notable moment came on June 8th, 1989. After the Pirates scored 10 runs in the top of the 1st inning at Philadelphia, he told listeners, "If we don't win this one, I don't think I'd want to be on that plane ride home. Matter of fact, if we don't win, I'll walk back to Pittsburgh." The Phils came back from ten down, and went on to win 15–11. Rooker had to wait until after the season to make good on his "walk home" promise, conducting a 300-mile-plus charity walk from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.


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