|
Post by tomservo on Dec 7, 2006 16:04:37 GMT -5
Really enjoy this on BLB so lets start it here. The rules are simple. You must name a baseball player Whose first name starts with the same letter as the previous players last name. For instance....Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson. You are encouraged to post a bio or quick note about the player, but if not that's fine. This is a good way to learn about the game and it's players over the year. I'll start her up. Carl Yastrzemski Played for the redsox 1961-1983. Legendary hall of fame left fielder who played the monster as well as anyone. Member of the 3k hit club and belted 452 homer in his 23 seasons with the Red Sox. Tragically never won his ring.
|
|
|
Post by ikecards on Dec 7, 2006 18:09:06 GMT -5
Yadier Molina. Catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. Youngest of the catching Molina brother's, Yadier is arguably the best defensively. Despite hitting only about .200 during the regular season, Molina was the Cardinals most consistent hitter during the postseason. His home run in Game 7 of the NLCS put the Cardinals into the World Series.
|
|
|
Post by nyjyrk on Dec 7, 2006 18:57:43 GMT -5
Mookie Wilson
Fan favorite with the Mets in the 80's. Excellent defensive CF with great speed and an infectious personality.
|
|
|
Post by elcid on Dec 7, 2006 19:29:04 GMT -5
A teammate of Mookie's in 1986: [glow=red,2,300]Wally Backman[/glow] 1959 -
2B 1980-93 Mets, Twins, Pirates, Mariners
Games 1102 Average .275 Homers 10 RBIs 240 LCS 16 games 0.240 avg. 0HR's 4 RBI's Backman's speed and high on-base percentage made him a valuable number-two hitter. The switch-hitter teamed with leadoff hitter Len Dykstra (both used against righthanders) to become known as the "Partners in Grime" for their hustling, dirty-uniform style of play for the 1986 World Champions. Backman hit .320 that season and led the Mets with five runs in the LCS against the Astros. In Game Three he led off the ninth inning with a bunt single and scored on Dykstra's homer as the Mets won 6-5, and in Game Five he led off the 12th with an infield hit, advanced to second on a wild pickoff throw, and scored the winning run on Gary Carter's single. In the climactic Game Six, his 14th-inning single drove in a go-ahead run in the seesaw finale, and he scored the Mets' third and final run in the game-winning 16th-inning rally.
Backman was the Mets' first-round pick in the June 1977 draft, but although he hit .323, .278, and .272 in his first three trials with the club (1980-82), his mediocre fielding kept him from winning the second-base job. He impressed Tidewater (International League) manager Davey Johnson in 1983, and when Johnson became the Mets' manager in 1984 he brought Backman with him and was rewarded with 68 runs and 32 stolen bases. In 1985, Backman's only year as a regular, he led NL second basemen in fielding.
The Mets traded Backman to Minnesota after Gregg Jefferies hit .321 in the final months of 1988, and the following year he played regularly at second base when not sidelined by a shoulder injury.
In 1990, Backman signed with Pittsburgh, where he was used primarily as a third baseman and helped the Pirates to an NL East title by batting .292 in 104 games. The highlight of his season was a six-hit performance on April 27th. He spent two years in Philadelphia as a utility infielder and pinch-hitter before ending his career with 10 games for Seattle in 1993. (AGL/SH)
|
|
|
Post by tomservo on Dec 7, 2006 19:49:08 GMT -5
Historical note on Mookie. He was the batter during the infamous play during game six of the '86 world series.
|
|
|
Post by tomservo on Dec 7, 2006 19:58:18 GMT -5
Bob Uecker Legendary broadcaster for the Brewers and star of movies such as Major League, people forget he played seven years in the major for the Braves, Cards and Phils....Mostly a backup catcher he never put up stellar numbers. He is though a very celebrated baseball personality who is never afraid to make fun of himself. More great Uecker quotations
|
|
|
Post by nyjyrk on Dec 8, 2006 19:57:58 GMT -5
Uecker is the man!!! Ubaldo Jimenez Pitched in 2 games last year with the Rockies.
|
|
|
Post by ikecards on Dec 9, 2006 11:34:49 GMT -5
Jackie Robinson. I think you all know what he did already.
|
|
|
Post by elcid on Dec 9, 2006 19:05:30 GMT -5
Jackie's teammate on the 1995 Brooklyn Dodgers:
Roy Campanella
Height 5' 8", Weight 200 lb. Debut April 20, 1948 Final Game September 29, 1957 Born November 19, 1921 in Philadelphia, PA Died June 26, 1993 in Woodland Hills, CA Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969. Signed as a Free Agent with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. (All Transactions)
Nicknames: Campy
C Negro Leagues 1937-42, 1944-45 Baltimore Elite Giants
All-Star in 1941, 44-45Dodgers ;1215 g, .276, 242 hr, 856 rbi. Led League in rbi 53 All-Star in 1949-56 Most Valuable Player Award in 1951, 53, 55 Hall Of Fame in 1969 Campanella, one of the five black players signed by Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey before the 1946 season, was the first catcher to break organized baseball's color line. Just 5'9" but solidly built, he had already proven himself as a catcher during nine years in the Negro National League, the winter leagues, and Mexico. In 12 additional seasons, 10 in the majors, he was one of the era's outstanding players, and his leadership and indefatigable enthusiasm made him one of the most popular players in the game. Born in Philadelphia of a black mother and an Italian father, Campanella began his baseball career in 1937 with a hometown semi-pro team, the Bacharach Giants. So impressive was his play that the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro National League offered him a uniform that year, though he was only 15 years old. Still in school, he played only on weekends and caught only to spell veteran Biz Mackey. The next year, however, he left school and joined the team full-time. He won the first-string job in 1939 and led the Giants to playoff triumphs over the Newark Eagles and the Homestead Grays. In four games he collected five hits, including one HR, and drove in seven runs.
Campanella soon challenged the aging Josh Gibson as the dominant Negro League catcher. He was voted the MVP in the 1941 East-West all-star game, but after a dispute with Baltimore owner Tom Wilson, he jumped to the Mexican League for part of 1942 and all of 1943. Rejoining the Giants, he led the league in doubles in 1944 and in RBI in 1945.
In October 1945, Campanella caught for a black all-star team in a five-game exhibition series against a squad of white major leaguers managed by Charlie Dressen. Dressen had orders to arrange an appointment for Campanella with the Brooklyn Dodgers, who later signed the catcher for their Nashua, NH, Class-B farm team (Eastern League), a club run by Buzzie Bavasi and managed by Walter Alston. Campanella, who roomed with pitcher Don Newcombe, hit .290, led the league in putouts, assists, and errors, and won the MVP award. In 1947 he advanced to Montreal, the Dodgers' International League team, and again was named the MVP, despite a season-ending slump that cut his average to .273. Paul Richards, then the Buffalo manager, called him "the best catcher in the business - major or minor leagues."
Campanella made the Dodgers in 1948, but his promotion to Brooklyn was delayed by Rickey's plan to have him integrate the American Association. The owner forced manager Leo Durocher to play the catcher in the outfield, where he was not successful, and then sent him to St. Paul (AA) in May. In 35 games, he had 40 hits (half for extra bases) and 39 RBI and batted .325 before being recalled.
Campanella returned to the Dodgers to stay. For the next nine years, he caught for outstanding Brooklyn teams whose members have been lionized as "The Boys of Summer." They won National League pennants in 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956, narrowly missed two others, and climaxed Brooklyn's baseball history with its only World Series triumph in 1955. Campanella's contributions to the Dodgers were remarkable. He won the MVP award three times in five years. In 1953, his best season, he batted .312, and scored 103 runs. Also, his 142 RBI (which led the league) and 41 HR set ML records for catchers (plus one HR as a pinch-hitter). He fielded with grace that belied his physique and handled with distinction a predominantly white pitching staff.
Like those of many catchers, Campanella's career was punctuated by injuries. In spring training of 1954, he chipped a bone in the heel of his left hand and damaged a nerve. It affected his hitting and limited him to 111 games. Surgery helped in 1955, but the problem returned the next year. Then, in January 1958, Campanella was permanently disabled in an automobile accident. Returning home from his liquor store, which he ran in the off-season, he lost control of his car on an icy street. The car slammed into a telephone pole and flipped over, pinning him behind the steering wheel. The crash fractured his fifth cervical vertebra and damaged his spinal cord. He survived and endured years of therapy, living far beyond the normal span for quadriplegics, but his career was over. He committed himself to decades of work in community relations for the Dodgers. (SG)
|
|
|
Post by tomservo on Dec 9, 2006 21:00:06 GMT -5
Going with the trend of Dodgers from the later 40s nicknamed "The Reading Rifle" and "Skoonj," was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Brooklyn & Los Angeles Dodgers. A member of seven National League champions from 1947 to 1959, he batted over .300 five times, winning the 1953 batting title with a .344 average – then the highest by a right-handed Dodger since 1900. Noted for his strong and accurate throwing arm, he recorded 10 or more assists in nine consecutive seasons, leading the league twice, and retired with the fifth most games in right field (1408) in NL history. Furillo was one of Roger Kahn's famed Boys of Summer. Kahn described him as "The Hard Hat Who Sued Baseball". He sued the Dodgers in 1960 for dropping him while he was hurt. He was awarded $21,000 as a settlement. From then on, Furillo couldn't find a job in baseball. He contended that he had been blackballed. Kahn found him years later, installing Otis elevators at the World Trade Center.
|
|
|
Post by jonorose on Dec 10, 2006 3:25:21 GMT -5
Fernando Valenzuela Valenzuela is referenced many times in the baseball film Bull Durham. He was famous for the way his eyes looked as he was delivering the baseball, a technique main character Annie Savoy refers to as "breathing through your eyelids like the lava lizards of the Galápagos Islands." Annie tries to teach this technique to Nuke Laloosh so that it will improve his pitching. She also says that Valenzuela did this because he was a Mayan Indian. Or an Aztec, she can't remember which (and no one else in the film knows either).
|
|
|
Post by nyjyrk on Dec 10, 2006 20:18:53 GMT -5
Vic Davalillo Saw him pitch (yes pitch) the second game of double header when he was playing with the Dukes after his MLB career. It's one of my early memories of going to games with my dad and brother. They were heckling him for a weak throw from left in the first game. Much to thier suprise, he pitched in the second game. I was pretty young (prolly 7 or 8), but my dad loves to tell that story, wich is most likely the only reason I remember his name.
|
|
|
Post by tomservo on Dec 10, 2006 21:02:27 GMT -5
Great story Jim....Now moving away from the Dodgers Motif. DARRYL KILE A pitcher who last played with the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball's National League. Known for his hard-breaking curveball, Kile was born in Garden Grove, California and died at the age of 33 of coronary disease in the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago Hotel, where he was staying for a weekend series against the rival Chicago Cubs. He was the first active major league player to die during the regular season since the Yankees' Thurman Munson died in an aviation accident in 1979. The cause of death was attributed to a 90% blockage in two coronary arteries. Kile Also played for Houston and Colorado. In his two years at Colorado's Coors Field, Kile learned some hard lessons about friction -- specifically, how thinner air means less friction on a rotating baseball, which in turn translates to curveballs that don't break. And, as Kile discovered, curveballs that don't break often turn into home runs, leading to the worst two seasons of his career from 1998-99. Kile had begun his career with the Houston Astros' organization in 1988 and spent seven years as a frontline pitcher in the relative safety of the Astrodome. His arsenal of sinking fastballs and knee-buckling curveballs helped him win 19 games and an All-Star berth in 1997. But after signing a big-money deal in Colorado, Kile went 21-30 with a mile-high 5.83 ERA over the next two seasons. Traded with long-suffering pitchers Dave Veres and Luther Hackman to the St. Louis Cardinals in November 1999, Kile recaptured some of his former glory. In 2000, he became the Cards' staff ace, going 20-9 with a 3.91 ERA. A quiet leader, Kile's intense preparation before each start set the standard for the rest of the Cardinals' rotation, and his 16 wins in 2001 helped the Cardinals win the NL Wild Card.
|
|
|
Post by ikecards on Dec 14, 2006 15:46:03 GMT -5
Kerry Wood. Like all Cubs pitchers, he can be very good. He just can't stay healthy.
|
|
|
Post by nyjyrk on Dec 14, 2006 18:06:51 GMT -5
Wilbur Wood The antithesis of Kerry. He was a workhorse type of pitcher who relied on his knuckleball for outs. He had 300+ innings for 4 consecutive years after starting as one of the premier relievers in the league. His career ended when his kneecap was shattered by a line drive off of the bat of Ron LeFleur.
|
|