If Your Birthday is October 7th...

 

...you share it with Mookie Betts, the best outfielder developed by the Red Sox since Jim Rice, who was deemed too expensive and, after a trade and pricey contract extension, now stars for the Dodgers. After a stellar first season in L.A., he hit .429 in the Wild Card series, and last night, broke up San Diego's no-hitter with a 6th inning double that ignited a game-changing rally.

Bud Daley pitched well for some lousy Kansas City A's teams in the '50s, but battled injuries after being traded to the Yankees. He did have one shining moment -- working the last 6-2/3 innings, earning the win in the fifth and final game of the 1961 World Series.

Jose Cardenal spent 18 years in the majors, most notably for the 1970s Cubs. The Cuban expat (and cousin of A's star Bert Campaneris), also coached for Joe Torre with the Cardinals and Yankees -- where he earned rings as 1st base coach for the 1996, '98 and '99 champs.


Evan Longoria, the Rays' longtime "Face of the Franchise," was cashed in by Tampa Bay for a quartet of prospects (none of whom have panned out) after the 2017 season -- just before his numbers began to slip. San Francisco is still on the hook for his contract through 2022.

And we remember:

Charlie Fox played just three games with the 1942 New York Giants -- going 3-for-7, leaving him a lifetime .429 hitter -- and then spent the next three decades in the organization, highlighted by a five-year stretch as manager. His 1971 Giants -- with future Hall of Famers Mays, McCovey and Marichal -- won the NL West but fell in the NLCS to the eventual champion Pirates.

Chuck Klein, a .320 lifetime hitter who spent most of his career with the Phillies. Playing in an era when uniform numbers didn't have the historic or marketing significance they do now, Klein wore 1, 3, 14, 26 and 29 at Baker Bowl and Shibe Park.

One plaque along the club's Wall of Fame just bears a stylized P in his honor. Another tells his story to fans born decades too early to have seen the Phillie to homer four times in a game, a four-time home run champ, 1932 MVP and 1933 NL batting champ. Cooperstown finally welcomed the Indianapolis native in 1980 -- but he never lived to enjoy the moment.

Chuck's health declined just a few years after his playing days ended. He died young, in 1958 at just 53, so baby boomers and fans whose Phillies experience began at Veterans Stadium never got to meet him or cheer for him.


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