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The left handed Stobbs came to the Major Leagues for the first time in 1947 and stayed around till 1961. He won over 100 games, but with a losing record. Mostly because he played most of his career with one of the worst teams(The Senators) in the American League. His one claim to fame or infamy, was giving up a 565 homerun to Mickey Mantle. My memories of Stobbs comes from my playing past seasons of Strat-O-Matic baseball. His luck in most of the games I recreated were no better than Stobbs was in real-life. RIP.
SARASOTA — The Washington Senators were just playing out the string and it wasn’t even his turn in the rotation, but left-hander Chuck Stobbs gamely took the ball for the 1957 season finale.
Facing the indignity of suffering his 20th loss of the season, Stobbs battled the visiting Baltimore Orioles for 10 innings before dropping a 7-3 decision at Griffith Park. The fact that he cemented his spot in baseball lore that Sept. 27 day overshadowed Stobbs’ competitive spirit.
That same competitive spirit served the Sarasota resident well the last seven years as he battled cancer. Surrounded by friends and family, the 79-year-old Stobbs succumbed to the disease early Friday morning.
“What I will always remember is that he didn’t complain once during the last seven years,” Stobbs’ son, Charley, said.
Born in Wheeling W.Va., on July 2, 1929, Stobbs attended one year of high school in Vero Beach before his family moved to Norfolk, Va. He starred in football, basketball and baseball at Norfolk’s Granby High School.
He was later recognized by the Granby High School Hall of Fame and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. The Virginian-Pilot newspaper named Stobbs as one of the Tidewater-area’s greatest athletes of the 20th century.
Stobbs received a $50,000 bonus when he signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox organization prior to the start of the 1947 season. He made his major-league debut on Sept. 15 of that year
against the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park.
Stobbs was the youngest player in the majors during the 1947 season and the youngest player in the American League in 1948. The legendary Ted Williams once took the youngster along on a clothing shopping spree in New York City.
After compiling a record of 33-23 in five seasons with the Red Sox, he was dealt to the White Sox on Nov. 13, 1951. Following the 1952 season, the White Sox traded Stobbs to the Washington Senators.
The Senators were perennially one of baseball’s worst teams. Fans joked, “First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.”
In his first season with the club, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Stobbs gave up a “565-foot” home run to Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle. The blast, which was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, was the first of its kind described as a “tape measure shot.”
Stobbs was credited with throwing the longest wild pitch in history during the 1956 season. The pitch reportedly traveled into the 17th row in the grandstand.
Stobbs joined the St. Louis Cardinals after being released in July 1958 by the Senators. The Cardinals released Stobbs in the offseason and he rejoined the Senators, staying with the organization through its first season as the Minnesota Twins in 1961.
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Another day, another MLB manager fired. This time a pink slip was issued north of the border.
PITTSBURGH — John Gibbons was fired Friday by the last-place Toronto Blue Jays and replaced by Cito Gaston, who led the team to World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
The Blue Jays began the day 35-39, having lost five straight and 13 of their last 17 games to fall 10½ games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox in the AL East.
He is the third major league manager to be fired this week, following Willie Randolph of the New York Mets and John McLaren of the Seattle Mariners.
“The team just wasn’t doing what was expected of it, and maybe changes were needed,” Gibbons said in a conference call. “There was a lot expected this year, we came in riding high and speaking high. And that’s not the results we’re getting now.”
Gibbons, who became manager midway through the 2004 season, had a record of 305-305 with the Blue Jays. His best season was in 2006, when the Blue Jays went 87-75 to finish second in the AL East.
But that 2006 season was also when Gibbons challenged Shea Hillenbrand to a fight after the infielder wrote on a clubhouse bulletin board “play for yourselves” and the “ship is sinking,” and a month later had a physical altercation with pitcher Ted Lilly in a dugout tunnel following an argument on the mound.
The Jays, who were in Pittsburgh to open a weekend series against the Pirates, also fired three of Gibbons’ coaches — Marty Pevey, Ernie Whitt and Gary Denbo.
The 64-year-old Gaston becomes the Blue Jays’ first two-time manager. He previously managed the team from 1989 to 1997.
As Soccer Dad reminded me this morning, Gaston was very successful as Blue Jay manager after taking over the team in May 1989. Gaston taking Toronto to 4 division titles and two world series appearances. The Blue Jays were World Champs in both 1992 and 1993.
After 1993, the Blue Jays have been generally mediocre. Cito Gaston worked magic in his first takeover of the Blue Jays, I doubt it will happen this time.
He won 11 of his career 30 wins as a rookie with the 1997 Chicago Cubs. After that arm injuries hampered Gonzalez’ career. RIP.
*****
CARACAS, Venezuela — Former major league pitcher Geremi Gonzalez, who won 11 games for the Chicago Cubs in 1997, was killed by a lightning strike in his native Venezuela on Sunday. He was 33.
Geremi Gonzalez pitched for five major league teams and compiled a 30-35 career record.
Emergency management official Herman Bracho said Monday that Gonzalez was struck by lightning at a beach.
Gonzalez pitched for five major league teams from 1997-2006. The right-hander appeared in 131 games with 83 starts, compiling a 30-35 record.
Gonzalez also played for the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers. He made a combined 24 appearances for the Mets and Brewers in his final major league season in 2006.
The Toronto Blue Jays released him during spring training last year. Gonzalez then moved to Japan and pitched in five games for the Yomiuri Giants.
He died Saturday after a fall down the stairs at his home. John was strictly a bullpen catcher, but he managed to stay employed at the Major league level for 12 years. Afterwards he went into broadcasting. RIP.
PHILADELPHIA - Former major leaguer John Marzano died Saturday after falling down a flight of stairs at his home. He was 45.
The cause of his death was not immediately clear, police said.
Marzano was from Philadelphia and had been working for Major League Baseball’s Web site, where he co-hosted a show on weekday mornings.
“John was a beloved member of our team, a personable, terrific friend to all with whom he worked,” said Bob Bowman, chief executive officer of MLB Advanced Media. “He was an engaging, informed interviewer. His energy, knowledge of the game and comedic touch produced admirable results. We miss him dearly already.”
In a statement announcing his death, MLB said Marzano had fallen. MLB.com will establish an internship program in Marzano’s name, the release said.
Before joining MLB’s Web site, Marzano was a baseball analyst on Comcast SportsNet for the station’s Philadelphia Phillies postgame shows. He had also appeared regularly on WIP-AM.
“John was one of those rare persons who put a smile on your face the moment you saw him. He was joyous and he was proud,” said Comcast’s Michael Barkann, who co-hosted many of the postgame shows with Marzano. “You always knew when John was in the room. You never asked, ‘When’d you get here, Johnny?’ He always made an entrance, and it was big and it was loud and it was full of joy.”
Marzano, known for his South Philly accent, appeared with Barkann on the station’s “Daily News Live” show from the Wachovia Center before the Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Washington Capitals in an NHL playoff game on Thursday. At one point, Marzano stopped in mid-sentence, turned to the crowd and screamed, “Let’s Go Flyers!”
“The place went nuts,” Barkann said. “He did that a few more times during his segment to the same effect each time. That will be my enduring memory of John — smiling, talking sports with a sea of fans behind him. I will miss him every day.”
A graduate of Temple, Marzano earned a spot as a catcher on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team that included future major league stars Mark McGwire, Barry Larkin and Will Clark. He was drafted by the Boston Red Sox with the 14th overall pick in the first round of the 1984 amateur draft.
Marzano played 10 seasons in the big leagues for the Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners before retiring in 1998. He also played in the minors for the Phillies and the Cleveland Indians.
Overall, Marzano batted .241 with 11 homers and 72 RBIs in 794 at-bats in 301 games.
“He was a baseball guy and he loved life,” said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who managed Marzano in Cleveland’s minor-league system in 1993. “He had a personality. He was kind of a pepper-pot player. He was a go-getting kind of guy. That’s what he had to do and it worked for him.”
Marzano was popular in Seattle for his altercation with New York Yankees outfielder Paul O’Neill during a game in 1996. The two traded punches at home plate after O’Neill took exception to a knockdown pitch by Tim Davis.
Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer played three seasons with Marzano in Seattle and remained friends with him.
“He was a lot of fun to be around,” Moyer said after facing the New York Mets on Saturday. “He was the brunt of a lot of jokes, but he could dish it out too. He always used to call everybody, ‘Cuz.’ He’ll be missed.”
The Red Sox planned to honor Marzano with a moment of silence before their game against Texas on Saturday.
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This Holiday season, the Baseball Writers Association of America are proud to present a new film, starring Boston Red Sox righthanded starter, Curt Schilling and the 28 writers who vote yearly for the Cy Young Award. It’s the Schilling Claus! A tale of corruption, averted by pointless bureaucracy. See Curt Schilling negotiate his contract with the Boston Red Sox and add a clause that pays him One Million Dollars for getting a single vote for the Cy Young Award. Watch as the Writers band together to avoid the appearance of impropriety, beginning in 2013, five seasons later. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll wonder why.
Thankfully, there is no Christmas Musical coming to a cineplex near you. But the recent action of the BBWAA “to disqualify from its awards players who would profit from them” prompts me to wonder why.
First, why wait until 2013 to implement the rule, which has become known as the Schilling Clause? By that time, Curt will be up for a Hall of Fame vote (barring another encore for 2009) not for any more Cy Young votes. So why wait. If it is so important, implement it now. Unless, the BBWAA understands that there is a firestorm of corruption that will sweep through its ranks beginning in 2013, and nothing short of this pre-emptive strike against it will stem the tide of darkness which threatens their hallowed association. Perhaps not. More than likely, they are saying that implementing this rule now would bar deserving players from consideration. But frankly, if they want to avoid the perception of corruption, then implement it now. And let the chips fall. If not, they are implying that they swear they will be incorruptible for 2008-2012, but then all bets are off.
Second, why is this rule even necessary? Writers have a responsibility to their stories. Their coverage should be fair, even-handed, accurate and thorough. Journalists are supposed to be above reproach, seared with integrity. If they are incapable of that, then should they really be trusted? The Association is in effect saying that their members are incapable of displaying integrity in the voting process, that without such a rule, they would succumb to the temptation of filthy lucre. A rule like this would not be necessary if their members were above reproach. That such a rule is deemed necessary by their members makes me feel warm and fuzzy about the coverage I read in the paper or on the Internets. After all, they are saying (by a 41-21 vote, I might add) that either individually or corporately that they are corruptible.
Schilling of course reacted on his blog:
Give me a break. Don’t get me wrong, 100k, 500k, 1 million dollars is a huge sum of money. But to think that these guys ever approached this as anything other than them being touted as the ‘experts’ on who wins what is crap. Add to that I seriously doubt anyone ever looked at this from a perception standpoint and thought wow, they are making this guy rich. I would disagree.
The only step that hasn’t happened yet is to stop them from voting on awards altogether. They shouldn’t do it. Anytime someone is allowed to vote on this, on the Hall of Fame ballot, and that person injects personal bias into their vote, they should lose the privilege.
My only quibble is that Curt uses the conventional “Give me a break”, rather than the beloved, “Break me a give.”
But taking Curt’s point a bit further, these writers are in the making these guys rich business. Jackie MacMullan, a wonderful columnist at the Boston Globe, spilled massive amounts of ink supporting Mike Lowell’s desire to get a contract extension from the Red Sox during the season. What purpose did she have in writing these columns? To inform the fans of the Red Sox that Mike just wanted three guaranteed years (which grew to four when he won the World Series MVP)? Of course not. Her writing was to advocate for his worthiness of such a contract extension, which is directly impacting his ability to get rich.
What makes this an even greater farce is the ham handed actions of these ink-stained wretches. The annual votes on the Hall of Fame ballots provide an example of bias, score settling and flat out ignorance about the game of baseball. Rich Lederer at Baseball Analysts has made it his mission to explain why Bert Blyleven deserves inclusion in the Hall of Fame. His quixotic quest has earned him the scorn of many writers who frankly cannot understand why Blyleven deserves inclusion. Often these writers, including the ESPN’s Buster Onley, will denigrate Blyleven without looking at what he did. Their ignorance of the game they cover and about which they are allegedly experts illustrates the absurdity of having these men vote for awards.
If the goal of this silly rule is to eliminate the appearance of impropriety, then there is a simpler and less controversial solution. Open up the process to public scrutiny. The BBWAA should publish the ballots they receive from their members, with a justification of their votes. So last year, when a Hall of Fame voter submitted a blank ballot, an explanation can be offered. By doing this, the biases that were rife in past voting can be weeded out. Sunlight kills corruption. The BBWAA should let the sunshine in. Otherwise it is clear that the writers want to keep their biases in play without suffering the consequences of public condemnation.
If someone would ask who is the most influential general manager in baseball today, many people would answer, Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics. Beane, the one-time prospect, was the first general manager to put the ideas of Bill James to practical use. By using metrics that other organizations ignored, Beane built a team that has been competitive over the past decade despite operating with one of the smallest budgets in the game. Now more teams are using statistical analysis to evaluate their talent, but Beane was the first to do it. (At least this time around. Other teams did it in the past, but there wasn’t a fancy name like Sabermetrics to describe it then.) And Beane had a book written about him. How much more influential can he be?
It’s possible though, that Beane isn’t the answer. In fact an argument could be made that the most influential GM in baseball isn’t even a GM anymore.
John Hart now a special assistant to owner Tom Hicks of the Texas Rangers may have transformed the game even more than Beane has. In fact, it’s the change that Hart introduced that has helped make statistical analysis more accepted throughout the game.
Hart did set an example in the early 90’s as he brought the Cleveland Indians back to respectability and the World Series (twice). He signed his young talent to multi-year contracts before they reached arbitration. He figured that if he locked up players early, he might spend more at the beginning of the deal but spend a lot less than he otherwise would have at the end of the deal.
Back in the day when teams controlled the players (and salaries) Branch Rickey famously said “Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late.”
For baseball, things have changed a lot economically in the past half century. Given the popularity of the sport, the free movement that players have achieved and the resulting rising salaries, identifying, signing, developing and keeping talent is the toughest challenge of every major league team. But what Branch Rickey describes that challenge.
What John Hart did in Cleveland was introduce a way to meet that challenge. But what he did behind the scenes was even more interesting.
At the time of the championship series this year, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN wrote John Hart’s family tree.
Excuse Hart if he feels as if his professional life is flashing before his eyes.
His former right-hand man, Dan O’Dowd, is riding a late-season wave with the resurgent Rockies. But first Colorado must get past the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are run by Josh Byrnes, a former front-office assistant in Cleveland at the height of Hart’s regime.
And the Cleveland Indians, the franchise Hart guided to six postseason berths and two World Series appearances from 1995 through 2001, will try to end 59 years of championship futility against Boston. General manager Mark Shapiro, yet another Hart protégé, is the man in charge in Cleveland.
That means three of the four general managers still playing consider Hart a mentor and lifelong influence. Which makes you wonder: How did he miss Theo Epstein?
How’d he develop all of this front office talent?
The John Hart front-office “tree” encompasses more than the three LCS general managers. Neal Huntington, the new GM in Pittsburgh, spent nine years in Cleveland. Paul DePodesta worked for the Indians before moving on to Oakland, the Dodgers and San Diego. And Chris Antonetti, Shapiro’s top assistant, is widely regarded as a GM-in-waiting.
Shapiro has a history degree from Princeton, Byrnes went to Haverford, Huntington is an Amherst graduate and DePodesta went to Harvard. Those academic pedigrees might seem a little highfalutin for the old guard, but Hart found a way to marry the two approaches in Cleveland. Nothing got done until John Goryl, Tom Giordano and the veteran baseball men had their say.
“This isn’t Sabermetrics,” Hart said. “I wanted our guys to hear what the manager says and how tough it is in that dugout, because I’ve been there. I wanted them to respect the old scout in the blue Plymouth who’s going from one city to the next trying to find the next young superstar out of high school or college. They all got schooled on old baseball.”
Antonetti was widely regarded as a future GM someplace else. His name came up as a possibility in St. Louis but Cleveland offered him a deal to stay in place. but look at the academic backgrounds of the men listed above. It appears that John Hart’s innovation to the front office was to introduce the interdisciplinary approach to running a baseball team.
There are still those who deride the statistical approach to baseball. But what Hart showed was that different approaches could be melded together to run a baseball team successfully.
Rob Neyer, in a similar article, four years ago had Hart describe his philosophy.
“My background was field development,” Hart recalls. “But as I noticed the evolvement of the game, I realized that while there were a lot of strengths I was going to bring, if we wanted to have the best organization, we needed to have people around that offered another skill set. When you’re in that position, you worry. You want to be good. And at some point I said to myself, ‘Here’s where we want to be. And if we want to get here, this is what I need. I can’t do this by myself.’ ”
As the new general manager, one of Hart’s first hires was Shapiro. “I knew that Mark had great leadership skills,” says Hart, “in addition to being a Princeton graduate and very bright. But what I wanted to do with Mark was get him to where he was in a leadership position, to where he could go lead a farm department. And the great thing was to get him around the baseball people, the guys that had made a living in the game for so long, the Johnny Goryls and the other 40-year guys. Mark picked it up. He just got it, and the baseball guys established a great confidence in Mark.”
But Crasnick didn’t give Hart enough credit. Hart’s model may well have been copied by the Boston Red Sox. No Theo Epstein didn’t serve under Hart, but he apparently learned quite well from him.
One majored in history at Wesleyan University. One studied psychology at Harvard. One pursued American studies at Colby College. One elected Russian studies and political science, also at Colby.
One managed two hits off future Anaheim Angel Jarrod Washburn as a sophomore at Wesleyan. One had a .301 career average for the Crimson. One began at Colby as an “OK field, no hit” infielder, took up pitching, and won nine games. One tried out for the varsity at Weymouth South High as a junior and was told “I’d made the team, but that I was never going to play.”
One grew up in Plymouth, N.H., one in Swampscott, one in Walpole, N.H., the other in Weymouth, all fans of the Boston Red Sox.
Today, they constitute much of the organization’s underpinning, literally and figuratively. Literally, they are based underground, below the Fenway Park box office at the corner of Brookline Avenue and Yawkey Way. Figuratively, they get the necessary and complex work — contracts, arbitration casework, player recruitment, advance scouting, and more — done.
But there was another way that John Hart influenced the Red Sox this year. Not in the front office but on the bench.
When he was a younger manager with the Phillies, Francona did little to distinguish himself. In four years on the job, Francona never managed more than 77 wins in a season, and by the end of his tenure he’d lost control of the team. There were also concerns that Francona overused his young pitchers in the service of, well, not much of anything. After the smoke cleared, it appeared that Francona had squandered his opportunity.
However, he then spent time in the Cleveland Indians front office and as the bench coach for the Texas Rangers and Oakland A’s. In those roles, Francona learned new approaches to the game — namely, the value of statistical analysis when it comes to making baseball decisions. Certainly, Francona never abandoned his traditionalist bearing, but his time in progressive organizations like Cleveland and Oakland helped him learn to blend approaches. That rare skill impressed the new regime in Boston when they interviewed Francona for their vacant managerial post.
At the time of his hiring, Francona’s managerial record was pocked with failure, and he was viewed by fans and media as an uninspired choice; you may recall a similar reaction when Torre was named Yankees manager. Of course, Francona promptly proved them all wrong.
Dayn Perry, who wrote the article, also noticed what I did: the similarity of the Francona signing with the Red Sox to the Torre signing by the Yankees. Each came in with a less than impressive managing career, but both emerged as top managers. Francona, was prepared for his new position, in part, by learning the Hart approach to baseball.
Baseball Musings noted something about Francona right after he was hired.
I always thought this was Buck Showalter’s strength with the Yankees, using players in situations in which there was a high probability of them succeeding. If that’s Terry’s philosophy as well, he’ll do well with the Red Sox.
So it can reasonably be argued that John Hart’s influence extended to all four teams to reach the championship series this year. And with another Hart protege now running the show in Pittsburgh the interdisciplinary approach to running a ballclub continues to spread.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
The ALCS will pit the Boston Red Sox against the Cleveland Indians for the honor of facing the National League Champion. Or Manny Ramirez’s current team vs. his first team.
Manny Ramirez, 16 years ago, was quite a sensation at the high school level (he played for George Washington High School in Washington Heights)and the New York Times gave him quite a bit of coverage as he was a highly regarded prospect. I suppose there was some hope he might get drafted by the Yankees and play just a few miles from his home.
Manny Ramirez, who plays center field and third base, batted .633 last season and is rated the best high school player in the city and one of the best in the country (he made USA Today’s top 25), will hit balls out of the park. He hit 16 homers last season.
His teammates say they admire Manny, the son of a cab driver, for not acting cocky. But he would like to be identified in the newspaper as the Hitman. The big-league scouts are following the Hitman; so is Washington Heights. Even the neighborhood’s greatest baseball success story — a Panamanian immigrant named Rod Carew who graduated from Washington in 1964 and was recently elected to the Hall of Fame — says he has heard of Manny Ramirez’s bat.
But the coverage continued even after he was drafted by Cleveland.
In many ways, Ramirez hasn’t left Washington Heights, the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Dominican immigrants where he rose from the Alexis Ferreira Little League to become a local hero as the star third baseman on the George Washington High School team. Last spring, with a .650 average and 14 home runs in 22 games, he was the best high school ballplayer in New York City.
Now, as the No. 1 draft pick of the Cleveland Indians, he has shown similar strengths in the Appalachian League. Batting third in the lineup, he leads the rookie league in home runs, with 14 in 49 games — including two grand slams in one week — and in runs batted in with 52.
But while the center fielder with the quicksilver swing feels at home within the confines of Burlington Athletic Stadium, the shy teen-ager from teeming, close-knit Washington Heights feels marooned here, in small-town America.
(Realizing that Manny was special, the Times followed the George Washington High School baseball team during his senior year as well as his development through the Indians’ organization.)
Manny was one of the centerpieces of a revitalized Cleveland Indians organization that was rebuilt through drafting excellent young players and retaining them. Under John Hart the team developed stars such as Ramirez, Albert Belle, Jim Thome, and Carlos Baerga, reaching the World Series twice (once in 1995 and once in 1997).
In the winter of 2000, Ramirez was lured to the Boston Red Sox as a free agent where he would become their new star. Cleveland was in decline and would start a new rebuilding era under John Hart’s successor, Mark Shapiro, which has now led the Indians back to the postseason.
Ramirez helped the Red Sox win their first World Championship in nearly a century in 2004 and, this year, to their first first place finish in nearly 20 years this year. Ramirez has been regarded as something of a flaky fellow. It was perhaps because of this perception that Boston was prepared to trade him for Alex Rodriguez prior to the 2003 season. (He still had a lot fans among his former teammates.)
By now Manny Ramirez is a great ballplayer and he’s reaching the age where a player’s skills often decline. So how does he retain his skills? Rob Bradford of Boston Herald uncovered some of his preparation in Manny has Plan.
The media, whose job it is to uncover every nook and cranny concerning each player’s makeup, is left living in the world of the fans for whom they write. This is the mystery of Manny, by all accounts one of the smartest, best-prepared hitters in the history of the game.
Few people know about the extra hand-eye coordination exercises Ramirez has added to his routine since the middle of the 2004 season. Strength and conditioning coach Dave Page fires golf ball-like spheres at the slugger’s strike zone, where they are caught by Ramirez’ right hand, acting as a bat.
Later in the workout, which is done 30 minutes before every game, Page throws four rings at Ramirez. Each ring has a different colored ball attached to it, and Page calls out the color of the ball Manny has to grab out of mid-air.
One of the toughest aspects of hitting is deciding what pitch is coming at you in a fraction of a second. So in order to maintain his skill Manny spends extra time honing that decision making. (It reminded me of Obi-Wan training Luke, without the blindfold.) It may very well be that at the end of next year, when his current contract expires, that Manny will once again be highly sought after. If so, it will be a testament, to his dedication to his job.
Friday night, the team that drafted the promising 19 year old will face the team that signed their star away. It will be the battle of Manny’s teams.
Crossposted at Soccer Dad.
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Skip Caray has been broadcasting baseball games for TBS for over thirty years but he didn’t make the cut for their playoff coverage.
TBS named its broadcast lineup for the baseball playoffs this week, and Skip Caray was none too happy about being excluded. “It hurt my feelings, and I’m mad at myself for thinking there was any loyalty left in this business,” Caray, the longtime Atlanta Braves broadcaster, said in an interview Wednesday. “I should have known better. They can do whatever they want to do,” Caray said, “but I’ve done a lot of good work for these people, and it’s hurtful that they apparently don’t think I can do good work anymore.”
Atlanta-based TBS, in its first year of televising postseason baseball games after decades of airing Braves regular-season games, this week named three play-by-play voices to work first-round series: Dick Stockton, a former baseball broadcaster who has worked mostly football and basketball in recent years; Ted Robinson, a former longtime baseball broadcaster who is the voice of NBC’s tennis coverage; and Boston Red Sox broadcaster Don Orsillo. They join Chip Caray, Skip Caray’s son, who was named earlier to call play-by-play on TBS’ No. 1 postseason team.
“I feel like I can do a better job than a tennis announcer or a football-basketball announcer,” Skip Caray said. “I’m not knocking Ted Robinson and Dick Stockton, but point of fact is they don’t do baseball anymore and I’m there every day.”
TBS responded to Caray’s comments with a prepared statement by spokesman Jeff Pomeroy: “TBS has put together four telecast teams that we feel will best serve our national baseball audience. … We appreciate Skip’s abilities as a play-by-play announcer and look forward to his [Braves] calls for us next year on Peachtree TV, but we decided to go in another direction as we look to brand our new MLB-on-TBS playoff package.”
TBS will televise all four division series, plus the National League Championship Series. Game analysts will be Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, former manager Bob Brenly, former Cubs analyst Steve Stone and current Braves analyst Joe Simpson.
Skip Caray said “no one has given me a reason why” he didn’t make the postseason lineup.
A Braves television announcer since 1976, Caray has had his TV role reduced recently. This season he has worked mostly on radio, calling just 10 Braves games on TBS. He will work Sunday’s game on TBS, the network’s last national Braves telecast.
Caray said he’d like to be voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame along with longtime broadcasting partner Pete Van Wieren someday. “But when your employer says you’re not good enough to do the playoffs, I don’t think that helps your chances.”
Indeed.
Caray is a controversial figure, either loved or hated by Braves fans. I’m definitely in the former camp but his opinionated style irritates a lot of folks. That he’s a Braves homer works against him, too, as TBS is looking to brand themselves as a sports network rather than a Braves network. And of course there’s the age issue: If you’re looking to rebrand yourself, you don’t do it with a guy who’s likely to retire soon.
Still, Caray is their best baseball announcer. It’s a shame not to include him.
From Sports Illustrated-
LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — Bill Henry, who pitched in the majors for more than 15 seasons, has died. He was 83.
Henry died Aug. 27 at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, two days after he suffered a heart attack, his stepdaughter Debbie Lee said.
Born William Rodman Henry in Alice, Texas, the left-hander made his major-league debut in 1952 with the Boston Red Sox. Henry later pitched for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants before ending his career in 1969 with the Houston Astros.
Henry had a career record of 46-50 and pitched in two 1961 World Series games with the Reds.
Since I was born in 1961, my memories of Henry come from playing past seasons with the baseball games made by Strat-O-Matic. Bill Henry, a left-handed relief pitcher, wasn’t really one of those one out lefty relief specialists we see today. In Henry’s most productive years, from 59-62 he averaged over an inning per relief appearance. Even two innings per game in 1959. For 1961, he was the Reds number two man coming out of the bullpen when they went to the World Series. Henry and Jim Brosnan saving the same amount of games(16), but with Brosnan having the heavier inning work load of the two.
What did Mark Twain once say, the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. That applies to Bill Henry. From today’s Miami Herald.
They lived 961 miles apart and never met.
One was a retired salesman living in Central Florida. The other, a big-league ballplayer who pitched in the 1961 World Series before settling down outside Houston.
All they shared was a common name, a square jawline and an affection for baseball.
But for 20 years, Bill C. Henry the salesman purported to be Bill R. Henry the baseball player. His wife and friends believed him — they had no reason not to — and the guy he pretended to be was none the wiser.
Until last week, when the 83-year-old former salesman died of a heart attack in Lakeland. Newspapers across the country ran obituaries announcing the death of the left-handed pitcher, recounting highlights of his 16-season career.
But that Bill Henry is still very much alive.
”I’ve been right here this whole time,” Henry, 79, said Thursday night from his home in Deer Park, Texas. “It was kind of a shock to hear people say they thought I was dead.”
A baseball historian read an obituary for the Lakeland man and noticed the birth dates and hometowns listed were different than what was on his Bill Henry memorabilia. The historian called Henry in Texas, who confirmed he was still living.
I’m glad you’re still alive Bill. People impersonating former major league relief pitchers. Welcome to Florida! The rules are certainly different here.
Quite possibly, as the Yanks may look for other options for the fifth starter role after another awful start by Mike Mussina.
In a different time, when the Yankees were touched by magic, even their horror stories had happy endings. David Cone went from pillar to punching bag in 2000, but his season ended with a clutch relief appearance that helped win the World Series.
This tale seems grimmer. Mike Mussina’s rapid decline continued at Comerica Park on Monday in the Yankees’ worst loss of the season, a 16-0 wipeout by the Detroit Tigers. The Yankees staggered home for a series with the Boston Red Sox, a team they trail by eight games in the American League East standings after losing five of seven on the road.
Mussina’s next start is scheduled for Saturday, but there is no guarantee he will make it. He gave up six runs and nine hits in three innings Monday, with no strikeouts and no answers.
“Probably the last nine innings are the worst nine innings that I’ve pitched in my whole career, in a row,” Mussina said. “I don’t even know how to describe it because I’ve never had to deal with it before.”
In his past three starts, Mussina is 0-3 with a 17.69 earned run average, allowing 25 hits and 19 earned runs in nine and two-thirds innings. Opponents are hitting .313 against him this season.
Manager Joe Torre said he would meet Tuesday with Mussina (8-10) and the pitching coach Ron Guidry to discuss what comes next.
Man oh man was that a horrendous showing last night. The (kind of) good news? Seattle also lost (so the Yanks remain two back in the wild card), and Chris Britton was finally called up from Triple-A Scranton to replace the woeful Sean Henn.
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