If Your Birthday is May 5th...

...you share it with one of the American League's rising young pitchers, the Mariners righthander Logan Gilbert.  A 13-game winner a year ago as Seattle ended what had been MLB's longest post-season, drought, the Florida native is one of several Stetson Universal products in the majors today -- along with the Rangers' Jacob deGrom and the Red Sox' Corey Kluber. 


Saturday (May 6th)'s birthday star can lay claim to being the Greatest Living Major Leaguer. Beloved by fans in both San Francisco and New York, Willie Mays crushed 660 lifetime home runs, batted a lifetime .302 and earned 12 Gold Gloves.  
Let's not forgot one of the most memorable World Series catches ever, that over-the-shoulder grab of Vic Wertz' soaring fly ball in the deepest reaches of center field at the Polo Grounds in the opening game of the 1954 fall classic. You still marvel at it every time you see the replay.  Or his 50 home run seasons 10 years apart, in 1955 and '65 -- the only player with a pair of such bookends. And of course, he's the first name in the title of the iconic Terry Cashman song "Willie, Mickey and Duke." #24 on his back and a record 24 All Star Games played. Need I say more?
This statue of Willie greets you just outside the main entrance of what's now Oracle Park.

 

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