If Your Birthday is March 11th...

...you share it with Jeremy Hefner. The Mets current pitching coach spent parts of the 2012 and '13 seasons working off the Citi Field mound -- until Tommy John surgery halted his career. After retiring, he scouted for the Twins before becoming their assistant pitching coach. He moved back to Queens and his present position in 2020.

Dan Uggla enjoyed seven productive seasons with the Marlins and Braves. The slugging 2nd baseman walked a lot -- even leading the NL in that stat in 2012. But the following season, he hit just .179 and was never again a regular.
Rich Hill fits the definition of the well-traveled lefty... The oldest active pitcher in the majors begins his second tour of duty with the Red Sox this season, after signing a free agent deal just before the lockout. All told, he's appeared for 11 big league clubs.
Bobby Abreu posted impressive numbers during the heart of his career, especially 1998-2005 while starring for the Phillies. But was the sum less than the parts? His defense left something to be desired -- especially how he seemed to shy away from fences. And there was an odd quirk to his career -- teams seemed to get better after he left. The Phils didn't become division winners until he was traded to the Yankees, who didn't make it back to the World Series until he left for the Angels. Some analytics experts believe he's a Hall of Famer; I'd place him squarely in the middle of the Hall of Very Good. 
This is certain, with no Hall of Famers born on March 11th, it's more than fair to say Bobby Abreu is the best player on this birthday list.

Also on our cake and candles list today:
  • Cesar Geronimo, the defensively gifted centerfielder for Cincinnati's Big Red Machine of the 1970s.
And remembering:

  • Dock Ellis, who pitched nine of his 12 seasons with the Pirates, teaming with such legends as Clemente and Stargell on three division winners and the 1971 World Series champs. He's best remembered for his 1970 a no-hitter against the Mets while claiming be high on LSD. After achieving sobriety later in life, he worked as a drug counselor before his death in 2009.
  • Lyman Bostock, a 1940s Negro Leaguer, whose namesake son starred for the Twins and Angels before being murdered during the 1978 season.
 

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