Periodically, I will post new entries about current baseball topics. The posts will typically be a mixture of commentary, history, facts, and stats. Hopefully, they will provoke some of your thoughts or emotions. Clicking on the word "Comments" associated with each post below will open a new dialog box to enter or retrieve any feedback.
By Richard Cuicchi | October 20, 2024 at 11:02 PM EDT | No Comments
During his 23-year major-league career, former Jesuit High School star Rusty Staub played in only one World Series, but he made the most of his appearance in the Fall Classic with the New York Mets in 1973.
Staub was in his 11th major-league season and his second with the Mets in 1973. He had previously played six seasons with the Houston Astros, beginning as a 19-year-old in 1963. He followed that stint with three seasons for the Montreal Expos, where he acquired the French nickname “Le Grand Orange,” as a popular redhead.
Montreal traded the 28-year-old left-handed hitter to the Mets before the 1972 season, in a deal that sent Ken Singleton, Tim Foli, and Mike Jorgensen to the Expos.
The Mets prevailed in one of the tightest races in baseball history, as they captured the East Division title in 1973, winning only 82 games. Only five wins separated them from the fifth-place Chicago Cubs.
Offensively, the Mets were one of the worst teams in the National League. Their team OPS+ was 83, tied for the lowest in the league with the Cubs. Yet Staub turned in a credible season when he slashed .279/.361/.421. He led the team in doubles (36), RBIs (76), total bases (246), and OPS (.361).
On the other hand, the Mets pitching staff was second-best in the NL, trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers in runs allowed per game. Their starting rotation was manned by Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Jon Matlack, while closer Tug McGraw led the bullpen.
The Mets upset the Cincinnati Reds, who were in their heyday as the “Big Red Machine,” in the League Championship Series. Staub contributed the only three home runs by the Mets. He missed the decisive Game Five due to a shoulder contusion he suffered in the previous game, when he ran into the outfield wall making a catch.
The Mets faced another juggernaut in the World Series. The Oakland A’s, led offensively by slugger Reggie Jackson, had captured their second consecutive American League pennant. The A’s featured their own stellar pitching staff, consisting of Ken Holtzman, Vida Blue, and Catfish Hunter, each of whom had won 20 games during the regular season.
Staub had always dreamed of playing in the Fall Classic. He said, “When you’ve been in the bigs for 11 years, you’re always hoping that one day you’ll play in the World Series.”
Staub ended up making the most of his opportunity. Still stinging from the shoulder injury, he missed Game One of the World Series. However, deciding to play in his painful condition, he became the Mets’ hitting star in the rest of the series, recording 11 hits, while batting .423 with a home run and six RBIs.
In Game Four, he went 4-for-4, including the home run, as the Mets evened the series at two games apiece. Staub said after the game, “To have a night like I had is unbelievably satisfying, especially under the circumstances [playing with a sore shoulder].” Even with his condition, A’s manager Dick Williams still feared Staub. He said, “I’m still afraid of him. I know Rusty Staub. He’s a competitor. He doesn’t have to pull the ball to hurt you, he can go to the opposite field.”
The A’s ended up winning the last two games of the seven-game series to claim their second straight World Series. The Mets lost the final game, 5-2, with Staub collecting two of the Mets’ eight hits.
Staub still holds the Mets’ record for most hits in a World Series.
The closest he came to getting another chance to play in the World Series came in his final major-league season in 1985. Then 41-years-old, Staub had returned to the Mets as their primary pinch-hitter, after having played for Texas, Detroit, and Montreal, a second time. The Mets came within a game of overtaking the first-place St. Louis Cardinals in early October, before losing three of their last four games.
By Richard Cuicchi | October 13, 2024 at 09:25 PM EDT | No Comments
Yankees vs. Dodgers. They haven’t played against each other in the World Series since 1981, when the Dodgers won in six games. Fernando Valenzuela became the toast of Tinseltown. That seems like ages ago.
Yankees vs. Mets. It was called the Subway Series in 2000, when the two teams met in the World Series. The Yankees won their third consecutive world championship. Remember the Clemens vs. Piazza incident?
Yeah, I know, it’s premature to call the Yankees the 2024 American League champion, but what if they were to defeat Cleveland in the ALCS to return as a pennant-winner for the first time since 2009? It would end one of their longest droughts without appearing in a World Series. But we’d have a chance to see the revival of an old rivalry.
Let’s take a look at some of the history between these franchises.
The Yankees and Dodgers played against each other in the World Series 11 times, the first dating back to 1941, when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn. In their sixth meeting in 1955, the Dodgers finally overcame the Yankees, behind the pitching of Johnny Podres, Clem Labine and Roger Craig. Sandy Amoros made the legendary catch of Yogi Berra’s hit to left field.
FernandoMania hit the majors in 1981, when rookie Fernando Valenzuela dazzled fans with his unique windup and ended up winning the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award honors in the National League. He won Game 3 of the World Series which spurred the Dodgers’ turnaround defeat of the Yankees in six games.
By Richard Cuicchi | October 06, 2024 at 05:25 PM EDT | No Comments
With Pete Rose's death last week I thought I'd bring back a piece I wrote 11 years ago.
(Originally posted on TheTenthInning.com, July 22, 2013)
August 1st will mark the 35th anniversary of Pete Rose’s attempt to break the National League consecutive-game hitting streak held by Wee Willie Keeler. Keeler’s record was 44 games, set in 1897, which is twelve shy of Joe DiMaggio’s 1941 all-time major-league record of 56.I was fortunate to be able to attend Rose’s game against the Atlanta Braves on August 1, 1978, one in which he had the opportunity to break Keeler’s record.I have had the good fortune to attend about 60 or so major-league games in my lifetime, and this was the most historically significant game I attended.
Of course, I had been tracking Rose’s pursuit of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, which started on June 14.I happened to be attending a training class related to my work in Atlanta the week starting July 31.It was one of those courses that involved 10-hour class days and had a very rigid schedule.However, there was no way I was going to miss this game!
So, when Rose tied Keeler’s record of 44 games on July 31, I informed (note I didn’t say “requested”) my training instructor the next morning I would be leaving class early in order to see the game at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.I was lucky the instructor was also a baseball fan; hence, he was supportive of my quest and actually detailed out the public transportation bus route for me.However, he cautioned me there would only be a few buses that would be returning to downtown Atlanta after the game, and I should be especially mindful of the time so as not to miss them.
I arrived at the ballpark in time to see the last of the batting practice swings by the Cincinnati Reds.Recall that in 1978 some of the remnants of the Big Red Machine teams were still around -- Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Dave Concepcion, George Foster, in addition to Rose.It was quite a thrill to see these guys who were already immortals in my eyes.I saw Rose spend time with a youngster in a wheelchair down on the field before the game, and I remember thinking, “what a great guy Pete must be.”
I was one of 31,159 fans in attendance at the game, a nice crowd on a weekday.There was an air of “something special’s going to happen tonight,” in an anticipation of Rose breaking Keeler’s record.
Rose led off the game with a walk for the Reds against Braves starter Larry McWilliams and scored the first of three runs for the Reds in the first inning.Okay, it wasn’t a hit, but it wasn’t a bad start.
Rose came up again in the top of the second and hit a line drive back through middle, only for McWilliams to snare it just as the ball appeared to have already passed him.A few inches to the left or right, or a slower reflex by McWilliams, would have resulted in a single to centerfield and new National League record-holder.Dang it!
Rose grounded out to the shortstop in the 5th inning and then lined into a double play, third to first, in the 7th inning.Things were now looking pretty grim for his breaking the record.
By the end of the 7th inning, the game was out of hand for the Reds.Dale Murphy and Bob Horner of the Braves had each hit home runs in the 5th, as did Barry Bonnell in the 7th.The Braves scored five more runs in the bottom of the 8th to further secure the victory.However, the game was running long on time, and I began to worry that I might miss the last bus back to my hotel.
Rose was scheduled to bat again in the top of the ninth, so I rationalized I couldn’t leave the game then.My strategy became one of leaving my regular seat to search for the stadium exit closest to the bus stop outside the stadium and then watch the final inning in a seat near that exit.In that way, after Rose batted, I could minimize the amount of time it took to catch the last bus.Thus, before the top of the 9th inning, I found that exit, with the help of a stadium attendant, and wound up being the only person sitting in centerfield, since most everyone else, except some Rose fans, had pretty much gone home in the blowout game.
Rose was due up in the third spot in the top of the 9th inning.I was thinking the odds were good that he would finally get the historic hit to keep his streak alive.Furthermore, there was no additional pressure on the Braves to close out the Reds in a hitless fashion, after banging out 21 hits and 16 runs themselves.Braves’ relief pitcher, Gene Garber, had already pitched the 7th and 8th innings.Surely, he had tired somewhat.
Well, Garber had other thoughts about the 9th inning.Apparently he wanted to finish the game quickly, but not for the same reason as me.He wound up striking out Junior Kennedy and Vic Correll for the first two outs.As Rose came up to bat, I was struggling to see well from my centerfield viewpoint.Regardless, I just wanted him to get that hit.Garber turned out to be a bulldog on the mound that night and also struck out Rose for the final out of the game.Thus, the consecutive-game hitting streak had ended, with Rose still tied with Keeler.
I did wind up catching the bus back to my hotel on time.But it wasn’t any consolation though, as I was truly disappointed in not seeing an historic baseball moment in person.
In 2012, I got an opportunity to meet Pete Rose in person in Las Vegas.I had understood he spent a lot of days there, signing autographs at a store in a huge shopping mall.I brought him a complimentary copy of the book I had recently authored, Family Ties:A Comprehensive Collection of Facts and Trivia About Baseball’s Relatives, since he and his son, Pete Jr., are prominently mentioned in the book.Despite my gift of the book, he still made me pay $75 for his autograph, and he generally appeared unappreciative of the book.When I happened to mention that I had been at the game in which he snapped his hitting streak, he was not too interested in discussing the game or the streak.Consequently, his aloofness affected my opinion of him as a person.
However, I have to acknowledge Rose was indeed the “Hit King,” except for that 0-for-5 night in 1978.
By Richard Cuicchi | September 29, 2024 at 09:10 PM EDT | No Comments
With the end of the regular baseball season, I began to reflect on how the campaign went—the surprises, the disappointments, the winners, the losers, the expectations met and unmet.
Let’s start with a review of a few low points in the season.
The Chicago White Sox were the epitome of futility. They broke the New York Mets’ record for number of losses in a season, which was established in the Mets’ first season 62 years ago. Just four years ago, the White Sox won the AL Central Division.
The Oakland A’s played their final game in the Oakland Coliseum. After owner John Fisher failed to secure local funding for a new stadium from the city of Oakland, he decided to abandon the fans of the Bay Area and relocate the team to Sacramento. The A’s will play there for three years until a stadium can be built in Las Vegas, where the A’s ultimately plan to call home. The A’s had been in Oakland since 1968. I feel sorry for those fans.
Extensive player injuries were a common theme for many clubs.
·Atlanta Braves’ players were the poster children for a season riddled with injuries. They lost their best offensive player Ronald Acuna Jr. (last year’s NL MVP) at the end of May, and their best pitcher Spencer Strider (fourth-place finish for Cy Young Award in 2023) missed the entire season. Two other key players, Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies, also missed considerable time.
·After featuring one of the best starting pitcher staffs last year, the Astros’ pitching corps was decimated by injuries this season. They lost Cristian Javier, JP France, Jose Urquidy, and Justin Verlander (for a good part of the season). Lance McCullers Jr. missed his second straight season with a tendon injury.
·The Los Angeles Dodgers shored up its pitching staff last winter with the addition of Tyler Glasnow and highly sought after Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, only to have them with limited availability during the season. On top of that, former mainstays Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw spent significant time on the injured list. Relative newcomers to the starting staff, Gavin Stone and Bobby Miller, ended the season on the injured list.
·Cleveland Guardians ace Shane Bieber pitched only two games before being lost for the season due to an elbow injury.
New Orleans native Ron Washington suffered a long season in his first year as manager of the Los Angeles Angels. Angels fans were hoping Washington could bring some of the magic he had experienced as manager of the Texas Rangers. But the Halos finished dead last in the AL West Division. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise since the Angels lost Japanese megastar Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers and Mike Trout missed all but 29 games due to injury.
After capturing their first World Series championship last year, the Texas Rangers returned to their former status as a sub-.500 team. Manager Bruce Bochy wasn’t able to overcome having the second-worst pitching staff in the AL. Former Cy Young Award winners Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom barely played all season.
However, the injury woes experienced by numerous teams didn’t put a damper on the entire season. We saw some of the best individual performances in recent history and a few surprising team finishes.
Shohei Ohtani broke all kinds of records in his first season with the Dodgers. He is the first player in 50-50 club for home runs and stolen bases. He delivered the most extra-base hits since 2001. He surpassed Ichiro for the most stolen bases by a Japanese player. He holds the Dodgers record for most home runs in a season. In what many believe is the greatest hitting performance in a single game, Ohtani went 6-for-6, hit three home runs, and stole two bases.
In the American League, the season’s best story included New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge. He had another Ruthian season, putting up 58 home runs, averaging one for every 10 at-bats. He led the AL in seven other key offensive metrics which contributed to his 11.7 Offensive WAR.
When the Yankees landed Juan Soto over the winter, they expected the kind of season he ended up delivering. He hit a career-high 41 home runs and led the AL in runs scored. He and Judge were reminiscent of the legendary Yankees combos Ruth/Gehrig and Mantle/Maris.
Pittsburgh Pirates flamethrower Paul Skenes was everything we thought he would be. His 1.96 ERA is the second-lowest for a rookie with at least 20 starts since 1913. He finished with 170 strikeouts and only 32 walks. In games Skenes started, the Pirates had a 15-8 record. He’s one of the top two contenders for NL Rookie of the Year, along with Jackson Merrill. With the way Skenes pushes 99-100 mph on practically every pitch, let’s just hope he doesn’t flame out.
Jarren Duran quietly emerged as an offensive force with the Boston Red Sox. The outfielder led the American League in doubles and triples, to go along with 34 stolen bases. He reminds me of former Red Sox outfielders Johnny Damon and Jacob Ellsbury. But if Duran follows their history, he will eventually wind up as a Yankee.
Stolen bases returned as a major offensive threat, perhaps because of the larger base sizes. I guess the Moneyball strategy that de-emphasized stealing has been thrown out the window. Remember when all-time stolen base leader Rickey Henderson could get a rally going by just drawing a walk and then stealing second? Now we have Cincinnati Reds speedster Elly De La Cruz revving up crowds with his legs (when he doesn’t strike out—he leads the NL with 216 punchouts).
How about those Guardians, Tigers, and Royals? When was the last time the AL Central Division had three teams in the playoffs? How about NEVER! Was it because the division’s teams got better, or did other teams in the league get worse? It was not too long ago that we used to ridicule the AL Central as the worst in baseball.
By Richard Cuicchi | September 15, 2024 at 10:01 PM EDT | No Comments
The Cleveland Guardians are currently leading the AL Central Division by three games over the Kansas City Royals, as of games on Saturday. Based on winning percentage, they have the second-best record in the American League, trailing only the New York Yankees by .007 percentage points. But when you look at individual and team statistics, you wonder how they can be in this position.
The Guardians, under first-time manager Stephen Vogt, have led their division every day but four throughout the season. That’s pretty impressive, although many baseball analysts in past years would argue the Guardians play in the worst division in baseball. The cellar-dwelling Chicago White Sox, with only 34 wins to date, are often cited as being emblematic of the lack of competitiveness in the division.
When you look underneath the wins and losses, you scratch your head trying to figure out why they have the second-best record.
Offensively, the Guardians are barely above league average in Runs Scored Per Game (4.47). Division opponents Minnesota and Kansas City Royals are ahead of them.
They are below league average in Batting Average, On-Base Percentage, and On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage. Again, the Twins and Royals are ahead of them in all three measures.
When considering OPS+ (Weighted On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage), the Guardians are sixth (out of 15) from the bottom. Their OPS+ puts them just as close to the pathetic White Sox as they are to the league-leading Yankees.
Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, David Fry, and Stephen Kwan are carrying the team offensively. All four were selected to the American League All-Star team this year. The Guardians are a young team, with a lot of inexperience. Ramirez is the elder statesman at age 31.
So, with their middle-of-the-pack offense, you turn your thoughts to their pitching staff as the main reason for having the second-best record in the AL.
Well, that’s partially true.
The Guardians’ Runs Allowed Per Game is impressive, with the second-lowest (3.96) in the American League, behind Seattle.
However, the Guardians starting pitching is last in the American League in Wins Above Average (WAA), actually pretty bad with a -4.9. (By comparison, the division-rival Royals lead the league with 8.8 WAA.) Only second-year player Tanner Bibee gives them a chance among the starters. They miss their ace, Shane Bieber, who pitched only two games in April before his season ended in the with an elbow injury.
But looking at WAA for just their relief pitchers, they are the main factor why the Guardians are leading the division. The Guardians relievers lead the league with 6.9 WAA. The next closest team is Tampa with a 2.8 WAA. This translates to the Guardians’ winning most of their games if they hold a lead in the late innings, even if by a small margin.
Closer Emmanuel Clase leads the Guardians’ bullpen staff. He’s having one of the best seasons for relievers in recent history. He currently owns a 0.667 ERA in 67 appearances, while compiling league-leading 44 saves. He has a 0.668 WHIP and has yielded only five earned runs in 67.1 innings.
Middle relievers Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and Tim Herris have ERAs below 2.07. The entire relief corps has been credited with only 10 of the Guardians’ 64 losses.
The Guardians are a pretty safe bet to make the playoffs. How does their team makeup position them for a playoff run?
If the Guardians can maintain a lead into the sixth inning, their bullpen has a good chance of holding the lead, especially when they get into the ninth inning when Clase takes over. But don’t expect much from their starters, which could lead to an overworked bullpen over the course of the playoffs.
By Richard Cuicchi | September 10, 2024 at 07:14 PM EDT | No Comments
There’s no shortage of superstar position players in the majors this season. With performances from veteran players like Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, as well as relative newcomers such as Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, and Darren Juran, there are plenty of talented players to follow and root for.
Yet there hasn’t much opportunity to cheer for once-megastar Mike Trout, whose season has been impacted by the injury bug again.
When he was in his prime, I loved watching Trout play, to see how he would beat opposing teams with his bat and his glove. He was the subject of frequent ESPN Top 10 plays. There was a period when he was capturing AL MVP hardware, or finishing as runner-up, practically every year. It seemed like he was reaching major offensive milestones every season. I always viewed him as the “new Mickey Mantle.” He was the face of major league baseball.
The main difference between Trout and Mantle didn’t involve any aspect of their physical abilities—it was the fact that Trout didn’t have the surrounding cast of Angels teammates that Mantle had with the Yankees. The Angels have had only one playoff team among only four winning teams during Trout’s 14-year tenure. (It reminds me of Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, who played 19 years with some pretty awful Chicago Cubs teams and never appeared in a post-season game.)
But the Angels’ losing ways didn’t affect his own play. When he was healthy, he could single-handedly beat teams with his bat, his glove, and his legs.
However, Trout’s had only one season when he played over 100 games due to a variety of injuries since 2020. He’s been only a shell of the player he had once been. Ohtani came onto the scene in Anaheim in 2018 and took over for Trout as one of the best players in the league, combing hitting and pitching skills. (Ohtani sandwiched a fourth-place finish for the Cy Young Award with two MVP Award seasons, something previously unheard of.)
Despite Trout being 32 years old, I had hoped 2024 would be the beginning of a rejuvenation period, where he would leave behind the injury-filled period and get back on track to his former productive years. Since Ohtani had moved on to the Dodgers, I was ready for Trout to take center stage again with the Angels.
Instead, Trout has played only 29 games this year, with all of them coming at the start of the season. A torn meniscus sustained on April 29 sent him to the surgical table, and he followed with a lengthy rehabilitation period.
He had a rehab assignment with Triple-A Salt Lake on July 23 but left the game early with a sore knee. He ended up tearing his meniscus a second time, which put him back on the injured list for the rest of the season.
Trout could retire right now at age 33 and still get his bronze plaque in Cooperstown. Just his eight seasons between 2012 and 2019 were that impactful to warrant election. The best analogy would be Sandy Koufax, who had six of the most dominating seasons in history for a pitcher. He retired at age 30 because of a permanent arm injury and was still a first-ballot Hall electee.
Baseball is all too often unkind to many of its players, unfortunately including some of the game’s best. Hopefully, Trout will eventually make a successful full-season comeback and return to his greatness. In the meantime, I have no problem pulling for Judge and Soto to finally bring the Yankees their 28th World Championship.
By Richard Cuicchi | August 18, 2024 at 06:01 PM EDT | No Comments
When the Baltimore Orioles finished last in the AL East Division in 2017, winning 75 games, fans didn’t know then it could get a lot worse. But it did. They finished last during the next four years, too, winning only 47, 54, 25 (Covid-shortened season), and 52 games. The Orioles’ front office had decided to rebuild the roster which contributed to their futility during those losing seasons. It was hard for the fans to be patient.
But unlike other franchises who have been in similar situations, the Orioles haven’t stayed mired in their losing ways. Beginning in 2018, the Orioles emphasized talent evaluation and player development during the ensuing lean years and are now reaping the benefits. General Manager Mike Elias gets credit for leading the Orioles’ productive efforts.
Actually, the turnaround began in 2022 when the Orioles broke .500 for the first time since 2016. Last season they achieved 101 wins (their first 100-win season since 1980) and earned a first-place finish in the division.
They’re one of the best teams in the AL again this year. The number of young quality players on the roster doesn’t seem fair to the rest of the league, although Orioles management certainly didn’t feel that way. In fact, if not for some current injuries, they likely wouldn’t have a spot for all of them. Because of their depth in position players, a few of them were traded this season to address the need for additional pitching down the stretch. It’s a great problem to have for the front office.
In the discussion below about specific Orioles players, I am referencing their draft year and draft round to emphasize the Orioles’ success in the selection of players. They have quickly risen to major-league status and are now key contributors.
Three of the Orioles’ young studs made the AL All-Star team this year, along with eight-year veteran Anthony Santander. Adley Rutschmann (2019, 1st) quickly established himself as one of the best catches in all of baseball. He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2022. Shortstop Gunnar Henderson (2019, 2nd) was the 2023 AL Rookie of the Year and is making a strong bid for MVP honors this season. Jordan Westburg (2020, 1st), in his second year with the Orioles, has been a valuable player at multiple infield positions.
Last year’s Minor League Player of the Year Jackson Holliday (2022, 1st) made his major-league debut in early April, but was returned to Triple-A Norfolk when he struggled at the plate. When Westburg went on the injured list, Holliday was recalled to play second base and has demonstrated the power everyone expected (5 home runs in 14 games). Drafted as a shortstop, he will play second base in deference to Henderson.
Colton Cowser (2021, 1st) took over left field duties at the beginning of the year, while Heston Kjerstad (2020, 1st) became an everyday player splitting time between outfield and DH in July. They are competing for playing time with Santander and veteran outfielder Cedric Mullins (2015, 13th) who became a regular in 2021. After hitting 23 home runs in the minors, third baseman Coby Mayo (2020, 4th) made his major-league debut at the beginning of August.
The Orioles haven’t focused on pitching as much as position players, but Grayson Rodriguez (2018, 1st) has become a mainstay in the starting rotation in only his second major-league season, with 13 wins under his belt. If there is a weakness in the current roster, it is pitching depth.
Baltimore is in the enviable position to deal some of their prospects should they need to close gaps in the roster. For example, to address a lack of healthy pitching depth this season, the Orioles dealt several of its surplus youngsters near the trade deadline. Austin Hays (2016, 3rd) was sent to the Phillies for relief pitcher Seranthony Dominguez. Outfielder Kyle Stowers (2019, 2nd) and infielder Connor Norby (2021, 2nd) were traded to the Marlins for starter Trevor Rogers.
The Orioles have followed the blueprint the Houston Astros utilized during 2011 to 2014, when they overhauled their roster with young, highly productive prospects. Since 2017, the Astros have played in four World Series, winning in 2017 and 2022.
That’s what the Orioles are poised to do over the next few years.
By Richard Cuicchi | August 12, 2024 at 08:46 AM EDT | No Comments
It’s been a long time since I saw a baseball game under two hours. Actually, I ‘m not sure I’ve ever seen a major-league game under two hours. But’s that what I witnessed in person on Saturday night at Target Field in Minneapolis. The Cleveland Guardians defeated the Minnesota Twins, 2-1, in a game that lasted only 1 hour and 58 minutes. You read it correctly—that’s not a typo. And Greg Maddux didn’t pitch.
Here are the main factors that contributed to this unusual outcome.
There was only one walk.
There were only eight hits, including two home runs.
There was only a total of seven runners left on base.
There were no pitching changes in the middle of a half-inning.
There were only two mound visits by coaches.
Only six batters went to a full 3-and-2 count.
13 batters put the ball in play on the first pitch. Eight batters put the ball in play on the second pitch.
How does this game’s elapsed time compare with MLB averages?
In 2023, when the 20-second pitch clock was instituted, the length of MLB games dropped by an average of 30 minutes, to two hours and 40 minutes. Based on results so far in 2024, the average is projected to decrease by another five minutes.
The scoring in the game involved the only three extra-base hits of the game. Steven Kwan hit a leadoff home run in the first inning for the Guardians. Bo Naylor led off the Guardians’ sixth inning with a solo home run. In the bottom of the sixth, Minnesota’s Matt Wallner drove in Willi Castro, who had doubled.
The quickly-played game came as somewhat of a relief to the 31,000 fans who attended. That’s because an hour-long, mostly boring ceremony took place before the game, when the Minnesota Twins inducted two new members into their Hall of Fame. But it was a treat to see some of the former Twins greats, including Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat, Bert Blyleven, and Joe Mauer, honor new inductees Rick Stelmaszek and Terry Ryan.
The reference to Greg Maddux above is about his 1995 game in which he threw only 88 pitches in a complete-game victory against St. Louis that lasted only 1 hour 50 minutes.
By Richard Cuicchi | August 04, 2024 at 05:18 PM EDT | No Comments
Here are the pitching and hitting statistics for many of the 2024 major-league and minor-league players who prepped or played collegiately in the New Orleans area and Southeast Louisiana. All stats are cumulative for the season, through Wednesday, July 31.
Below are selected player highlights for the last month, followed by all of the players’ more detailed stats.
Tre Morgan (LSU) had two consecutive games in July in which he collected four hits. Click here to view the second game. He’s currently slashing .347/.430/.494, with five home runs and 41 RBIs.
Dylan Carmouche (Tulane) extended his winning streak to 8 games before suffering a loss on July 24.
Brendan Cellucci (Tulane) gave up only one earned run in five appearances totaling 10 innings in July.
Zach Arnold (LSU) batted .364 with 11 RBIs in July
Who’s Not
Keegan Gillies (Brother Martin HS, Tulane) had a poor July with batters slashing .345/.472/.414 against him, while posting a 10.29 ERA.
Drew Avans (Southeastern) batted only .195 with six RBIs in July.
D.J. LeMahieu (LSU) continued to struggle with the Yankees in July, batting only .172, although he did manage to collect a career-high six RBIs on July 31.
Promotions
Eric Orze—Mets (UNO) to MLB New York Mets
Hunter Feduccia—Dodgers (LSU) to MLB Los Angeles Dodgers
Will Warren—Yankees (Southeastern) to MLB New York Yankees
Josh Green—Diamondbacks (Southeastern) to Triple-A Reno
Cam Sanders – Cubs (E. D. White HS, LSU) to Triple-A Iowa
Garrett Edwards--Rays (LSU) to Low-A Charleston
Demotions
Grant Witherspoon (Tulane) Released June 25
Hayden Cantrelle—Cubs (Louisiana Lafayette) to Double-A Tennessee
On the Mend
Hayden Cantrelle—Cubs (Louisiana Lafayette) On 7-Day Injured List
Cole Henry—Nationals (LSU) On 60-Day Injured List
Ty Floyd—Reds (LSU) On full-season Injured List)
J.P. France—Astros (Shaw HS, Tulane) On full-season Injured List
Ian Gibaut—Reds (Tulane) On 60-Day Injured List
Kenya Huggins—Reds (St. Augustine) On 60-Day Injured List
Alex Lange—Tigers (LSU) On full-season Injured List
Wade Miley—Brewers (Loranger HS, Southeastern) On 60-Day Injured List
Hayden Robinson—Brewers (Berwick) On full-season Injured List
Grant Taylor—White Sox (LSU) On 60-Day Injured List
Jacob Waguespack—Rays (Dutchtown, Ole Miss) On 60-Day Injured List
By Richard Cuicchi | July 28, 2024 at 06:16 PM EDT | No Comments
Eighteen-year-old pitcher Lenny Yochim was only a year out of Holy Cross High School in 1947 when he made his professional debut in a game he would never forget. Pitching for the New Orleans Pelicans in a spring exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox at Pelican Stadium, Yochim struck out the legendary Ted Williams. Ten years later, Williams remembered the at-bat, too.
The New Orleans Pelicans had signed Yochim to a minor-league contract in September 1946. He went to spring training in 1947 with the Pelicans, expecting to be sent to the Pelicans’ Class D affiliate New Iberia for the regular season.
The Red Sox were coming off their best season in 28 years, when they won the American League pennant in 1946. The 1947 Pelicans were affiliated with the Red Sox, who made the trip to New Orleans for two exhibition games on March 29 and 30. The Red Sox took Saturday’s game, 3-2, behind the pitching and hitting of Boo Ferriss.
On a chilly Sunday afternoon following a morning rain, the New Orleans crowd of 9,000-plus was treated to lineups from both teams featuring homegrown talent. The Pels’ starting lineup included New Orleans natives pitcher Jesse Danna, left-fielder Ed Lavigne, and second baseman Billy Adams, while the Red Sox had first baseman Al Flair and starting pitcher Mel Parnell.
Danna, a former Jesuit High School pitcher, was tapped by Pelicans manager Fred Walters as his starting pitcher for the Pels. In four previous seasons with the Pelicans, Danna had already compiled 65 wins. His opponent on the hill was former S.J. Peters High School pitcher Mel Parnell, who was trying to make his first big league roster with the Red Sox.
Boston got the jump on Danna by scoring five runs in the first three innings. Parnell held the Pels scoreless in his five-inning outing in which he gave up only three hits and also contributed to the Red Sox offense with a single and a double.
Prior to the game Yochim had begged Walters to let him get into the game before being sent down to New Iberia the next day.
With the Red Sox still leading 5-0, Yochim got the call from Walters to pitch in the seventh inning, and the first batter he faced was Ted Williams. Yochim told the story of his first encounter against the American League’s 1946 MVP.
“As I was doing my warmup pitches, I hear the announcer say, ‘No. 9 Williams at the bat.’ Well, my arm got the jumps, my knees started shaking and I say to myself, ‘Yochim, that’s Ted Williams--$250,000 worth of ball player, and if you don’t relax and get that ball in there you might bean him and even the skipper would kill you. That’s all I was thinking about—not hitting Williams. Him hitting me didn’t enter my head.” It turned out Williams hit a grounder to first base, and Yochim was still so nervous that he forgot to cover the base. Fortunately, the first baseman outraced Williams to the bag.
Having settled down by the ninth inning, Yochim faced Williams again and managed to strike out the slugger who would go on to win the American League Triple Crown that season.
Ten years later, when Williams and the Red Sox were back in New Orleans for an exhibition game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Yochim, then out of professional baseball, went into the Boston Red Sox clubhouse to meet Williams. Lenny greeted him with, “Hi, Ted, say do you remember…” Williams finished Yochim’s sentence, “Do I remember you striking me out that last time I was here? You know a lot of guys have done that, but I remember Lenny.” Williams added, “I must have given you a wonderful start in baseball.”
Yochim won 20 games for New Iberia in his first pro season. He eventually played seven seasons with the Pelicans, with two partial seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates interspersed in 1951 and 1954. He retired from playing after the 1956 season with 98-55 (minor-league) and 1-2 (major-league) win-loss records. Yochim went on to a successful career in various scouting positions with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
By Richard Cuicchi | July 21, 2024 at 03:36 PM EDT | No Comments
I’ve probably watched every Major League Baseball All-Star Game on television since the 1960s. Until this year. That’s because I finally saw the Midsummer Classic in person last week at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. It was one of the biggest baseball events remaining on my bucket list. I have been to a World Series game. I’ve been to Cooperstown twice. I’ve made the trek to Spring Training in Florida twice, and I’ve been to the College World Series in Omaha. The All-Star Game was overdue.
Of course, the rosters of both teams contained some of the biggest names in the game today, especially the position players. Returning all-stars included several of the game’s best hitters--Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman, and Vlad Guerrero Jr. All of these players will eventually be on Hall of Fame watch lists.
Then there were the up-and-comers, including Gunnar Henderson, Elly De La Cruz, Adley Rutschman, Riley Green and Bobby Witt Jr., all of whom figure to return in future All-Star Games.
Sadly, I missed seeing Ronald Acuna Jr., Jose Altuve, and Mookie Betts, who were named to the All-Star teams, but did not play due to injuries.
On the other hand, there was a shortage of veteran all-star pitchers on the rosters. Except for Braves pitcher Chris Sale, there was no one else of the caliber of Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Gerrit Cole, Jacob deGrom, and Shane Bieber, all of whom have dealt with injuries this season. It was Sale’s eighth All-Star selection, but the rest of the two staffs consisted of pitchers who were making their first or second All-Star appearance. The newcomer everyone wanted to see was Pittsburgh’s sensational Paul Skenes, who was only the fifth rookie to start an All-Star game.
The pre-game’s first-pitch honors were carried out by Hall of Fame members from the Texas Rangers—Nolan Ryan, Ferguson Jenkins, Ivan Rodriguez, and Adrian Beltre, who was inducted on July 21. Beltre looks like he could still suit up for a game and smack yet another hit.
Skenes didn’t disappoint the capacity crowd of nearly 40,000 during his All-Star debut. Although he didn’t strike out any American Leaguers he faced, he overpowered Steven Kwan, Gunnar Hendeson and Aaron Judge on weak infield contact.
Ohtani got the National League on the scoreboard first with a three-run bomb in the third inning. It’s amazing how he can rise to the occasion, as he frequently does in regular-season games. The Americans immediately bounced back in the bottom of that inning when Juan Soto smacked a two-run double, and David Fry’s single scored Soto.
Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran, a first-time All-Star, broke the tie in the fifth with a two-run home run, which earned him MVP honors for the game. And that was all the scoring for the game. The AL made the most of their five hits, winning 5-3, their 10th victory in the last 11 games.
Both teams practically emptied their bullpens, as a total of 20 pitchers were used in the game. Not surprisingly, there were 15 strikeouts in the game.
I attended the game with my son Lee. Judging by the jerseys and caps that fans were wearing, we were surprised to see that the vast majority of the crowd attending the game appeared to be local Texans. We expected to see more of a national crowd.
We remarked how hideous the All-Star uniforms looked, especially the American League’s use of a bright orange color on the jerseys and caps. I’d prefer the players to wear the uniforms of the teams they represent.
As part of our journey to attend a game in every current major-league stadium, we had previously attended games at Globe Life Field, so that part wasn’t a new experience for us. The exterior of the stadium lacks the classic look of the best baseball stadiums, but the playing field and other amenities inside the stadium are first-class and a fitting environment for an All-Star Game.
I think one of the advantages MLB’s All-Star Game has over its counterparts in football and basketball is the fact that the competition among the teams and players is legitimate. The All-Star Game is played with the same intensity as regular-season games. Pitchers are not serving up batting practice-like pitches in the game. Runners are sliding hard into the bases. Batters are running out double-play ground balls. The best example came in the first inning when Skenes did his best to strikeout the American League’s leading slugger, Aaron Judge.
Lee and I have eight more stadiums to visit before we complete all 30. We’ll knock one more off our list in August, as we are scheduled to see Minnesota and Cleveland play at Target Field in Minneapolis. But that experience will be hard to beat the All-Star Game, where it was a real treat to see the game’s best players of 2024 assembled.
By Richard Cuicchi | July 07, 2024 at 09:59 AM EDT | No Comments
Here are the pitching and hitting statistics for many of the 2024 major-league and minor-league players who prepped or played collegiately in the New Orleans area and Southeast Louisiana. All stats are cumulative for the season, through Sunday, June 30.
Below are selected player highlights for the last month, followed by all of the players’ more detailed stats.
By Richard Cuicchi | June 23, 2024 at 07:34 PM EDT | No Comments
The spotlight will be on Rickwood Field in Birmingham on June 20, when Major League Baseball plays a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants. Rickwood is the oldest professional baseball stadium in the country, built in 1910 for the minor-league Birmingham Barons. The stadium is older than two legendary major-league venues still in use, Fenway Park (built in 1912) and Wrigley Field (built in 1914).
In addition to being the home of the Barons, Rickwood was the site of major-league exhibition games, barnstorming games, and Negro League games played by the hometown Birmingham Black Barons. Over the years, many Hall of Fame players and Negro League players appeared in games there.
The Birmingham Barons played in the Southern Association, where the former New Orlean Pelicans minor-league team also competed for nearly 60 years.
One of the more memorable games in Pelicans history occurred at Rickwood on April 10, 1953. The two teams dueled for 16 innings, with the Barons finally winning, 8-7. It was the longest Opening Day game in Pelicans history.
At the end of nine innings, the score was tied 7-7, as Birmingham remained alive with two runs in the bottom of the ninth.
The Barons’ winning run in the 16th inning was created by a combination of Emil Tellinger’s double, a Pelicans’ error on a sacrifice bunt attempt, an intentional walk to George Moskovich, and Hal Smith’s game-winning hit.
Local New Orleans pitcher Lenny Yochim pitched the final 5 1/3 innings for the Pelicans and gave up the winning run. He had hurled five scoreless innings prior to that.
Lou Klein, another New Orleans native, was the hitting star for the Pelicans. He got four hits, including a home run in the fifth inning.
Pelicans catcher Mel Brookey collected three hits and three RBIs and went the distance behind the plate.
A crowd of 8,044 attended the game at Rickwood Field that lasted four hours and 36 minutes.
The game between the Cardinals and Giants will be a tribute to the Negro Leagues. Hall of Famer Willie Mays, who played for the Black Barons in 1948 as a 17-year-old, played in Game 4 of the Negro League World Series that was played against the Homestead Grays in New Orleans.
By Richard Cuicchi | June 16, 2024 at 03:50 PM EDT | No Comments
Pitcher Pete Modica never made it to the big leagues, although he came close on two occasions. Instead, he became a permanent fixture in the minor-league Southern Association during the 1940s and 1950s, including parts of five seasons with the hometown New Orleans Pelicans. He was a five-time All-Star and played in three post-season Dixie Series (Southern Association champs versus Texas League champs). The lanky hurler got his start as a star pitcher with S. J. Peters High School in New Orleans in both prep and American Legion competition.
Modica’s name first appeared in the local sports pages in 1938 as a member of the Peters-based American Legion Class B team. As a 15-year-old pitcher in 1939, he played well enough to be recognized with honorable mention on the city’s American Legion All-Star team.
With the 1939 experience under his belt, he was one of the primary starters for the Papoose American Legion team in 1940. He started the season with back-to-back one-hitter and a no-hitter and went on to win 12 games in his first 13 starts. His 13th win came in the state championships, as Papoose defeated Ruston. They advanced to the Legion regional tournament but were ousted by Little Rock. Modica’s performance earned him a selection for the city’s Legion All-Star team.
Peters High School was a favorite to win the city prep title in 1941, behind a group of standout players that featured future major leaguers Ray Yochim, Mel Parnell, and Bo Strickland. In addition to Modica, the roster also included Ed Lavigne, Ray Campo, and Nelson Nocheck, all of whom eventually played in the minors. However, Peters ended up losing out in the championship round to Jesuit.
Modica, who was reported as six feet tall and weighing 130 pounds, played for Papoose again in the summer American Legion loop. The team was unable to repeat their prior season’s success, but the slim side-armer again made the All-Star team.
The 1942 Peters team won the state championship behind Modica and his batterymate Campo. Despite Modica’s defeat of Holy Cross twice during the regular season, Peters lost the city championship to the Tigers, who were led by their sensational pitcher Dick Callahan.
A week after the prep season ended, Modica and Campo were signed by St. Louis Cardinals scout Wid Matthews. Modica was sent to Class C Springfield where his catcher was 16-year-old Joe Garagiola, the future major-leaguer and later a celebrated baseball broadcaster.
New Orleans Pelicans general manager Charlie Hurth signed Modica for the 1943 season, but after only two appearances, the pitcher received his military service induction papers. He missed the rest of the season and all of 1944 and 1945 during World War II. However, Modica was fortunate enough to play on Army baseball teams while stationed in the States. He defeated the Detroit Tigers in an exhibition game.
Modica returned to the Pelicans for a brief period in 1946 before spending most of the season with Class B Anderson in the Tri-State League to get more experience.
1947 was Modica’ breakout season. The 23-year-old finished with a 13-10 record for the Pelicans, then an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. In one of the more exciting seasons in recent Pelican history, the team finished second in the Southern Association behind Mobile by one-half game.
Boston purchased the rights to Modica over the winter for $10,000. He went to spring training in 1948 with the Red Sox, where former S. J. Peters High School pitchers Jack Kramer and Mel Parnell were his teammates. But the Red Sox ended up shipping him to Triple-A Louisville. (Parnell and Kramer wound up winning 33 games between them for the Red Sox, who lost a one-game playoff to Cleveland for the American League pennant.)
After a 2-7 record with the Colonels, he was sent to Birmingham, a competitor of the Pelicans in the Southern Association. The Barons won the league championship playoffs, with Modica contributing seven wins. Birmingham also went on to win the Dixie Series, versus Texas League champion Forth Worth.
Modica became a journeyman pitcher during the next two seasons. He was with Birmingham and New Orleans in 1949, then Indianapolis, New Orleans, and Nashville in 1950. He pitched for Nashville in their Dixie Series loss to Texas League champion San Antonio.
He earned a full-time job in 1951 with Nashville, where former New Orleans Pelicans player-manager Larry Gilbert was the business manager. Modica appeared in both starter and reliever roles, finishing with a 13-6 record.
With Nashville in 1952, he was used strictly as a reliever and ended up setting a Southern Association record for appearances (66) in a season. He won 13 games again. By this time, he had developed a tantalizing screwball pitch to go along with a good fastball.
Modica earned a promotion to Triple-A Minneapolis in 1953 after winning nine games for Nashville, then a New York Giants affiliate. The big-league Giants conditionally bought Modica from Nashville in the offseason, with the intention of using him in the bullpen to augment their new relief specialist Hoyt Wilhelm. But Modica developed a sore arm and wasn’t able to stick with the Giants in 1954. Coming out of spring training, he returned to Nashville. Unfortunately, he missed out on being with the Giants team that won the 1954 World Series.
The Atlanta Crackers acquired Modica in June 1954. In a reliever role, he helped them finish in first place during the Southern Association’s regular season. Atlanta also won the postseason playoffs against New Orleans and defeated Texas League champion Houston in the Dixie Series.
In an article in the Times-Picayune in 1990, Modica said, “The Southern Association was a fast league after the war in the 1940s. We had guys coming home from the military and some coming down from the majors. It was popular with the fans. In 1947, when I was with the Pelicans, we drew over 400,000, and in ’54, when I played for Atlanta, we set an attendance record of more than 500,000.”
Some of Modica’s best seasons came in Nashville, where they played at Sulphur Dell Park. Modica said, “I liked pitching there because you didn’t have to throw strikes.” With the right field fence only 250 feet from home plate, he explained, “The short porch was appealing to hitters. They usually get anxious at the plate and swung at almost anything pitched.”
Modica finished his career in 1955, splitting his time between Atlanta, Beaumont, and New Orleans. He retired at age 31.
Altogether, Modica played for four different teams in parts of 11 seasons in the Southern Association. He is credited with a 55-41 win-loss record in 284 league games.
Modica died at age 69 on September 3, 1993. His brother Sal also played professionally from 1942 to 1949.
By Richard Cuicchi | June 09, 2024 at 04:54 PM EDT | No Comments
Nolan Vicknair was proud that he had played professional baseball in 1946 and 1947, but later in his life he expressed regret about not playing longer. Yet the Marrero native’s brief pro career never deterred his love of the sport, as he continued to play in local semi-pro baseball leagues, and later in softball leagues, until his 60s.
Vicknair participated in organized sports at an early age. Newspaper accounts reported he was a bicycle race winner and 75-yard sprint champion representing his hometown of Marrero. When he was in the sixth grade, the Marrero High School baseball coach recruited him to play on the team because of his athleticism and speed.
Vicknair’s initial thoughts of playing pro baseball originated when he pitched in an American Legion game in New Orleans that was attended by Branch Rickey, then St. Louis Cardinals general manager. Rickey told Vicknair that he had talent and should consider a career in the pros upon finishing high school.
But World War II interrupted further thoughts Vicknair had about pursuing professional baseball. In April 1943, he enlisted in the Navy as a 17-year-old. He served for nearly three years on the destroyer-class USS Bearrs as part of the Pacific Fleet.
After his discharge from the Navy, he revived the idea of playing baseball professionally. In 1946, Vicknair’s high school coach arranged for him to meet with legendary New York Giants baseball star Mel Ott, a Gretna native. Ott recommended that Vicknair attend the Giants’ spring training camp in Fort Smith, Arkansas for a tryout.
The Giants signed Vicknair to a minor-league contract and assigned him to their Class D affiliate in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. As an outfielder, speed and defense were his strengths. But he struggled at the plate. Injuries hindered improvement in his hitting. A leg infection, stemming from being spiked, hampered his progress. That was followed by a broken jaw incurred on a throw by an opposing infielder while sliding into second base. An unfortunate Vicknair was sent home after 45 games.
He attended the Giants’ spring camp in New Jersey in 1947. Upon learning he was being assigned to Oshkosh again, he asked the organization for his release. Vicknair felt he was being evaluated as a first-year player again, when he figured he should have been promoted to the next minor-league level.
Vicknair returned to New Orleans and ended up signing with Class D New Iberia in the Evangeline League, where fellow New Orleanian Lenny Yochim was a teammate. But after a change in the team’s manager early in the season, he was released by the club after playing only 11 games.
However, he didn’t give up the game, becoming player-manager of the West Bank-based Mohawks, a semi-pro team in the early 1950s. He also played for teams in the semi-pro Audubon League and Mel Ott League into the 1960s. As he got older, he began playing softball for his employer, Avondale Shipyards, a perennially formidable team in the city-wide CAA league. A newspaper account noted he hurled the first no-hitter in the league’s history. Vicknair continued to play softball into his 60s.
In an interview with Vicknair in 2015, he said he regretted not continuing to pursue a professional baseball career after his 1947 release. He blamed himself for not being persistent enough to overcome his setbacks. However, he was grateful for all the years he was able to compete afterwards in local leagues.
Vicknair was one of the original members of the Diamond Club of Greater New Orleans, whose members were former professional and semi-pro players and interested parties [umpires, scouts, sports writers, and sports announcers].
By Richard Cuicchi | June 09, 2024 at 04:51 PM EDT | No Comments
Here are the pitching and hitting statistics for many of the 2024 major-league and minor-league players who prepped or played collegiately in the New Orleans area and Southeast Louisiana. All stats are cumulative for the season, through Friday, May 31. Below are some of the highlights for the last month, followed by all of the players’ more detailed stats.
Who’s Hot
Paul Skenes (LSU) made his much-anticipated MLB debut on May 11. In his second start on May 17, he struck out 11 in six hitless innings. Through his first four starts, he struck out 30 and walked only five batters in 22 innings. He is one of only six rookie pitchers with these stats since 1901.
Kevin Gausman (LSU) was 3-0 in May, after starting out with a 1-3 record in April.
Tre Morgan (Brother Martin, LSU) slashed .403/.489/.610 with 2 HRs and 18 RBIs for the month of May. He struck out only six times in 92 plate appearances. His performance earned him a promotion to High-A Bowling Green. Click here to see Morgan’s four-hit game on May 21.
Alex Bregman (LSU) continued to languish at the plate. He is slashing only .219/.280/.372 although he added six home runs and 16 RBIs in May. His OBP is 88 points lower than his career average.
Tanner Rainey (St. Paul’s, Southeastern) made only three relief appearances for the Nationals in May. His ERA remains over 9.00.
Batters slashed .344/.500/.438 against Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Alex Lange (LSU) in May. His ERA was 9.00 in nine appearances.
Will Warren (Southeastern) won all three decisions in April, but then lost all four of his decisions in May with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He posted a whopping 15.88 ERA in 17 innings.
Austin Nola (Catholic HS, LSU) came off the Injured List after missing the first month, but he has struggled at the plate with Triple-A Omaha, batting only .095 in 14 games.
Jacob Berry (LSU) slashed only .138/.169/.163, with two extra-base hits, in 22 games in May for Double-A Pensacola.
On the Mend
DJ LeMahieu--Yankees (LSU) was on the Injured List for all but four games in May for the Yankees. He returned to the lineup on May 28
Cade Doughty—Blue Jays (LSU) On 7-Day Injured List
Garrett Edwards—Rays (LSU)—On 60-Day Injured List
Ty Floyd—Reds (LSU) On 60-Day Injured List
J.P. France—Astros (Shaw HS, Tulane) On 7-Day Injured List
Kenya Huggins—Reds (St. Augustine) On 60-Day Injured List
Ian Gibaut—Reds (Tulane) On 60-Day Injured List
Josh Green—Diamondbacks (Southeastern) On 7-Day Injured List
Wade Miley—Brewers (Loranger HS, Southeastern) On 60-Day Injured List
Jacob Waguespack—Rays (Dutchtown HS, Ole Miss) On 60-Day Injured List
Traded
Jake Slaughter (LSU)-May 14: From Cubs to Mariners
By Richard Cuicchi | June 09, 2024 at 04:46 PM EDT | No Comments
If you played in high school basketball and baseball games or industrial league softball games in New Orleans in the 1960s and 1970s, it’s likely Donald Bourgeois Sr. was a referee or umpire in your contest. And if you attended college basketball games in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana from the late 1970s to early 2000s, there was a good chance Bourgeois was one of the referees. Bourgeois, who was well-known in sports circles throughout Louisiana for his extensive officiating career, died on May 2 at the age of 88.
Bourgeois was graduated from St. Aloysius High School in 1953. Ironically, he didn’t play varsity sports in high school due to the interruption of a 15-month period in the seminary. However, Bourgeois grew up in a family of local amateur umpires, and he often accompanied his father and three uncles to CYO and recreation league games.
Bourgeois began his own officiating career in New Orleans area CYO leagues in 1957, and with the lure of higher level of competition, as well as higher pay, he joined the Louisiana High School Athletic Association in 1961. He officiated local high school baseball and basketball, as well as industrial league softball games, for twenty years.
He became recognized by his peers and coaches for his ability to call basketball games and eventually progressed to the college level of basketball, initially officiating games at junior colleges and Loyola University of New Orleans. By 1978, he had advanced to being a regular basketball official in the Southland Conference that included Texas and Louisiana schools like Lamar, Northeast Louisiana State, and McNeese State. He eventually became a member of six NCAA Division 1 conferences.
In an interview with Bourgeois in 2015, he commented on his time as a college basketball official, “You had to really be in shape to do college games. There were usually two months of physical training, in addition to attending officiating camps, to prepare for the upcoming season.”
Bourgeois was known for his fairness, knowledge of the rules, and not letting players and coaches get out of control in highly-contested games.
His abilities were further recognized when he was enlisted to officiate numerous high school and college basketball championship games, including the Louisiana High School Championships for ten years, the Southland Conference, the Sun Belt Conference, the American South Conference, an NIT regional in Gainesville, Florida, and the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City for four years.
Before calling it quits on the hardwoods, Bourgeois spent 1998-2004 as supervisor of officials for the NAIA Gulf Coast Athletic Conference, in which New Orleans-based colleges fielded several teams.
Among his most memorable officiating moments was a game in which a college coach in Mississippi wanted to fight Bourgeois at mid-court over some controversial calls, resulting in the security guards having to be summoned. Prominent LSU coach Dale Brown once came to the referees’ locker room after a game to launch a verbal attack on Bourgeois following a lop-sided loss to Arkansas State University. Bourgeois recalled telling Brown, “My officiating wasn’t the reason you lost the game—your team was terrible tonight.”
He recalled officiating college games involving Karl Malone from Louisiana Tech and Joe Dumars from McNeese State, both of whom are now in the NBA Hall of Fame. He also recollected the floppy-haired Pete Maravich playing in a freshman game he officiated at Tulane.
Sports halls of fame are usually reserved for players and coaches, the men and women who were highly accomplished in their sport. It’s not often that referees and umpires who officiate sports get recognition as hall of fame members. Bourgeois was an exception because of his outstanding career as a high school and college basketball referee. He was inducted into the St. Bernard Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
Bourgeois and his wife Marian have been residents of Arabi for over 60 years.
By Richard Cuicchi | June 09, 2024 at 04:44 PM EDT | No Comments
During the Great Depression in the 1930s minor-league baseball likely would not have survived if night-time baseball games had not been adopted by many teams in Organized Baseball. One historical account has the first official game played under the lights occurring in Independence, Kansas on April 28, 1930. It ushered in a new era of baseball. The local New Orleans Pelicans baseball team didn’t follow suit until May 15, 1936, but nighttime games ultimately became a staple of the franchise.
Like many minor-league franchises who were struggling financially, the Pelicans (a Cleveland Indians affiliate) had been losing money for several years. The team installed permanent lighting of 310,000 watts on steel structures, providing a well-lighted diamond at Heinemann Park. It was said to be on a par with the best lighted ballparks in the country. Pelicans club official Fred Baehr commented about the overflow crowd of 11,149 fans for the first game, “It was a great turnout. It looks like night baseball is going to be our salvation.” He added, “It will keep the club out of the red.”
On May 15, the Pelicans opposed a hot Atlanta Crackers team, who had won nine consecutive games and 24 of their last 29 games. Long-time Pelicans manager Larry Gilbert, who had been seriously ill for a month, showed up for the historic game, but ended up leaving after only a few innings.
The Crackers demonstrated why they were at the top of the Southern Association standings. They pounded Pelicans pitchers for 15 hits, banging out six extra-base hits on their way to an 11-5 victory. After seven innings, the Pelicans were still in the game, behind by a score of 5-4. But Atlanta broke open the floodgates in the ninth inning with six additional runs.
First baseman Alex Hooks was the hitting star for the Crackers, with two doubles and a home run. Future major-league player and manager Paul Richards chipped in a home run and a double.
The Pelicans’ offense was paced by future New York Yankees star Tommy Henrich, who went 3-for-5, including two doubles. Crackers pitcher Bob Durham pitched a complete game, although he allowed 10 hits and two walks.
After the game, comments about the lights were favorable. Crackers president Earl Mann said, “Your [Pelicans] system is plenty good. It is one of the very best I’ve seen. I am sure that New Orleans is going to like night baseball. Jesuit High School athletic director Gernon Brown, offered, “This crowd speaks for itself. Night baseball is going to be a great success in New Orleans.”
Local lawyer and former Tulane football star Harry Talbot was impressed with the lighting conditions. “It was better than I expected. It is really surprising how well you can see the ball.” He added, “Night baseball will catch back all the ground the game has lost around here.”
The predictions regarding how baseball under the lights would improve the Pelicans’ financial outlook proved to be true. The team realized a significant uptick in attendance in 1936, with 135,890 fans coming through the turnstiles. It represented a 47% increase over the previous year.
Minor-league baseball had adopted night games well before the majors, as the Cincinnati Reds became the first big-league team to host a game, on May 24, 1935, at Crosley Field. Over the next 13 seasons, the rest of the original 16 major-league clubs, except the Chicago Cubs, installed lights. The Cubs finally put lighting at Wrigley Field in 1988.
By Richard Cuicchi | June 09, 2024 at 04:41 PM EDT | No Comments
Here are the pitching and hitting statistics for many of the 2024 major-league and minor-league players who prepped or played collegiately in the New Orleans area and Southeast Louisiana. All stats are cumulative for the season, through Monday, April 30. Below are some of the highlights for the last month, followed by all of the players’ more detailed stats.
Who’s Hot
Aaron Nola (Catholic HS, LSU) is 4-1, with a 3.20 ERA and 1.068 WHIP for the Phillies.
Josh Smith (Catholic HS, LSU), a member of last year’s world champion Texas Rangers, is making the most of his time as their starting third baseman, while Josh Jung is on the Injured List. Smith is slashing .317/.417/.500 with 14 runs and 14 RBIs.
Jake Fraley (LSU) has a slash line of .293/.359/.414 for the Reds.
Collin Burns (De La Salle, Tulane) had the best day of his career on April 6, when he went 3-for-4, with a triple, home run, and 7 RBIs for Double-A Bowie.
Kody Hoese (Tulane) is slashing .347/.390/.507 for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Drew Avans (Southeastern) has a slash line of .311/.388/.476 for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Paul Skenes (LSU) has a .039 ERA, 0.870 WHIP, and 16 Strikeouts Per 9 Innings in six starts for Triple-A Indianapolis. Look for him to get a callup to the Pirates in June.
Will Warren (Southeastern) is 3-0 in six starts for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He’s averaging 10.9 Strikeouts Per 9 Innings.
Who’s Not
Kevin Gausman (LSU) is 1-3 with a 4.50 ERA in six starts for the Blue Jays.
Alex Bregman (LSU) is slashing only .216/.283/.294 with one home run for the last-place Astros. He is eligible for free agency after this season.
Tanner Rainey (St. Paul’s, Southeastern) has a whopping 9.82 ERA and 2.818 WHIP in 11 relief appearances for the Nationals.
Jake Rogers (Tulane) is slashing a paltry .167/.242/.283 with only three extra-base hits in 20 games.
J.P. France (Shaw, Tulane) is 0-3 with a 7.46 ERA for the Astros and has been demoted to Triple-A Sugar Land.
On the Mend
DJ LeMahieu (LSU) has missed the entire month for the Yankees due to a foot injury. He had only one at-bat in a rehab assignment in the minors but had to be sidelined again.
Garrett Edwards—Rays (LSU)—On 60-Day Injured List
Ty Floyd—Reds (LSU) On 60-Day Injured List
Cade Doughty—Blue Jays (LSU) On 7-Day Injured List
Austin Nola—Royals (Catholic HS, LSU) On 7-Day Injured List
2023 Players Who Didn’t Return
The following 2023 players have not returned this season: Jack Aldrich (Tulane); Jared Biddy (LSU); Giovanni DiGiacomo (LSU); Brandon Kaminer (LSU); Aaron Loup (Hahnville, Tulane); Greg Deichmann (Brother Martin, LSU), Landon Marceaux (Destrehan, LSU); Braden Olthoff (Tulane); Kramer Robertson (LSU); Mac Sceroler (Southeastern); Zach Watson (LSU)
By Richard Cuicchi | June 09, 2024 at 04:31 PM EDT | No Comments
The history of baseball has been captured in multiple forms of media over the years. One of the most popular has been baseball cards. There was a time when baseball fans, especially youngsters, relied heavily on the biographical and statistical information on the back of baseball cards to learn about major-league players. Retrosheet, Baseball-Reference.com, and other baseball-related internet sites weren’t available to keep up with player information until the mid-1990s or so.
Trading cards showing baseball players were produced as far back as the earliest days of the game. While they are considerably more expensive nowadays, they still remain a favorite of sports memorabilia collectors.
New Orleans has produced its share of major leaguers over the years. According to Baseball-Reference.com, John Peters was the first New Orleans area major-leaguer in 1874, as a member of the Chicago White Stockings in the National Association. But it wasn’t until Gretna native Mel Ott signed with the New York Giants in 1926 as a 17-year-old that a player from the metropolitan area became one of the sport’s main stars.
Ott appeared on his first significant baseball card in 1929 along with three other Giants players in what became known as the 4-on-1 Exhibits card set. The future Hall of Famer later appeared on more recognizable sets named Goudey, Diamond Stars, and Bowman Play Ball in the 1930s and early 1940s. Due to the age and small print runs of these early sets, these cards have become valuable. Beginning in the 1960s, card manufacturers began producing sets that included former major-league stars. Ott, who retired in 1947, was one of the more popular players, since he had been the career home run leader in the National League, until Willie Mays broke his record of 511 in 1966. Starting in the early 2000s, Ott has been frequently included in subsets of Topps’ major issues. His iconic batting stance with the leg kick is often the pose Topps has used.
Connie Ryan was an All-Prep player for Jesuit High School and the first player to earn a full baseball scholarship at LSU in 1939. He made his major-league debut with the New York Giants in 1942. He was named to the National League All-Star team in 1944. His first baseball card came in 1951 when Bowman produced a color set, with an artist’s rendering of the players, which competed with newcomer card manufacturer Topps Gum Company. Other major sets Ryan appeared in included 1952 Topps and Bowman sets and the 1953 and 1954 Topps sets. Ryan retired after the 1954 season and served as a coach for the Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers and as a scout for several organizations.
A major-league contemporary of Ryan was former Fortier High School pitching star Howie Pollet. The left-hander appeared in three seasons (1941-1943) with the St. Louis Cardinals before missing two seasons due to World War II. He returned from military service and led the Cardinals to a World Serie championship in 1946 with a 21-10 record with a 2.10 ERA. He had another 20-win season with the Cardinals in 1949. Pollet was a three-time All-Star. From 1949 to 1955 he appeared in Topps and Bowman issues as a member of the Cardinals, Cubs, and Pirates. His last season was in 1956.
Mel Parnell, who pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1947 to 1956, was known as the “Yankee Killer” for his five victories in five starts against the Yankees in 1953. A product of S. J. Peters High School, Parnell was a three-time All-Star whose best season came in 1947, when he posted a 25-7 record, 2.77 ERA, and 27 complete games in 33 starts. His first baseball card was in the 1950 Bowman set.
Larry Gilbert (1914) and his sons Charlie (1940-1943, 1946-1947) and Tookie Gilbert (1950, 1953) had brief major-league careers, but only Tookie made it on a major baseball card issue, in the popular 1952 Topps set. The brothers were included in a locally-produced collectors’ set of former Jesuit High School products that went on the big-leagues.
Before former Holy Cross High School standout Lenny Yochim became a renowned long-time scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he toiled as a player in the minors for 10 seasons while making only 12 appearances in the big leagues in 1951 and 1954. In the infancy of modern baseball cards in the early 1950s, Yochim signed an agreement with Bowman Gum Inc. in March 1952 to allow his image to be used in their baseball card sets. He was initially compensated $10 for granting Bowman exclusive rights to produce his card and was to earn $100 each year he was on a major-league roster for at least 31 days. However, because Yochim never became a major-league regular, he never appeared on a Bowman card, although he did collect $100 for the 1954 season. In 2008, Panini card manufacturer produced a set of baseball card stickers with former players in the Venezuelan Winter League. Yochim was included since he had pitched the league’s first no-hitter in 1955.
Rusty Staub signed out of Jesuit High School in 1961 with the Houston Colt ‘45s (predecessor of the Astros). He went on to play 23 seasons in the majors, with Houston, New York Mets, Montreal, Detroit, and Texas. The six-time All-Star collected over 500 hits for each of his teams, except the Rangers and totaled 2,716 for his career. Staub first appeared on a 1963 Topps Rookie Stars card with three other major-league prospects. He appeared in Topps sets for each of his five major-league teams, including the first Donruss and Fleer sets in the 1980s. He finished his career with the Mets in 1985.
Mike Miley was a standout shortstop and quarterback at East Jefferson High School and went on to play both sports at LSU. He was selected twice in the first round of the June amateur drafts, by Cincinnati in 1971 out of East Jefferson and by the California Angels in 1974 after finishing his junior season with LSU. He signed with the Angels in 1974 and reached the majors in 1975. He also played briefly for the Angels in 1976. His life was cut short in January 1977 when he died in an automobile accident. His only baseball cards were in the 1976 and 1977 Topps sets.
Like Miley, Frank Wills was a baseball and football player for De La Salle High School who later played both sports for Tulane. He was the first-round selection (16th overall) of the Kansas City Royals in 1980. The right-hander ended up pitching nine seasons in the majors, primarily as a reliever. In addition to the Royals, Wills played for the Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, and Toronto Blue Jays spanning 1983 and 1991. His 1987 Topps card is a noteworthy “error” card because it contains Will Clark’s stats of the back. He also had cards in Fleer, Donruss, and Score sets.
Will Clark, a Jesuit High School product, played in Babe Ruth World Series, American Legion World Series, College World Series, and the Olympics before signing with the San Francisco Giants in 1985. The Golden Spikes Award winner was the second overall pick in the 1985 amateur draft. He went on to a 15-year career, playing for the Giants, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles, and St. Louis Cardinals. He was a six-time All-Star with a career slash line of .303/.384/.497. His first major-league baseball card was produced in 1986 as part of the Topps Update set. He appeared on cards for each of his four teams. Due to the proliferation of baseball card sets starting in the mid-1980s and the advent of parallel sets of major card issues in the 1990s, Clark has easily appeared on over 1,500 different cards. He retired in 2000, yet he remains a popular player in archive and anniversary sets produced by Topps.
One of the more recent major-leaguers from the New Orleans area is Aaron Loup. He prepped at Hahnville High School and went on to pitch for Tulane. A relief pitcher during his entire career, his first major-league team was the Toronto Blue Jays in 2012. Loup’s rookie card came in the 2012 Topps Update Series. He was a member of the 2020 American League champion Tampa Bay Rays. His best season came with the New York Mets in 2021, when he went 6-0 with a 0.90 ERA. He appeared in multiple issues throughout the remainder of his career which ended in 2023.
The baseball card hobby has evolved to the point where most kids can no longer afford to buy cards. Premium vintage baseball cards are now considered art, commanding fine art-like prices. Some of the currently produced cards, which are only available as digital non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are treated by collectors as investments, but can only view their baseball card assets on-line.
Despite the above trends, there will always be something special about flipping through pages in a binder of baseball cards showing Ott, Parnell, Staub, Clark, and the rest of our hometown heroes.
By Richard Cuicchi | June 09, 2024 at 04:28 PM EDT | No Comments
Jim Bullinger had played in big games as a shortstop and pitcher with Rummel High School, followed by his career with the University of New Orleans. Yet none of those games likely involved an experience as exceptional as a game he played for the Chicago Cubs in 1992.
In his first at-bat for the Cubs on June 8, in a game in which he entered as a relief pitcher, he smacked a home run in his first major-league at-bat. Furthermore, he hit it on the first pitch he saw from St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Rheal Cormier. At the time, Bullinger was only the 14th player in major-league history to hit a homer on the first pitch of his first at-bat.
It should have come as no surprise that Bullinger was capable of clouting a home run. He had made hundreds of plate appearances as a position player throughout high school and college. While he wasn’t known as a power hitter, he could occasionally put the ball over the fence. He hit 23 home runs during his three seasons with UNO.
Bullinger had been a two-way player since his Babe Ruth days in Jefferson Parish. He continued to pitch and play shortstop for Coach Larry Schneider’s Rummel Raiders and Schaff Brothers American Legion teams. He was an All-District player with Rummel in 1982 and 1983 and was a member of 1982 and 1983 Schaff squads that captured Second District American Legion titles. During his senior season with Rummel in 1983, the Times-Picayune listed him among the top college prospects from the New Orleans area. He was one of eight Metro area players selected to participate in the LHSAA baseball All-Star Game in Lafayette.
He went on to play for the UNO Privateers whose head coach was Ron Maestri. Bullinger was the starting shortstop as a freshman on the talented 1984 team that went to the College World Series. They were the first in-state college in Louisiana to progress that far into the NCAA postseason. His batting record included a .258 batting average, 5 home runs, 39 RBIs, and five game-winning hits. He was the starting shortstop that summer for the New Orleans-based NORD All-American team that won the AAABA national tournament in Johnstown, PA.
The Privateers gained a berth in the NCAA Regionals again in 1985. Bullinger had 10 home runs and 45 RBIs for the season. His senior season in 1986 season included 14 games in which he pitched in relief. He posted a respectable 3.55 ERA and led the team with six saves, while batting .252, 8 home runs, and 31 RBIs.
Bullinger was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the ninth round of the 1986 amateur draft with the intention of being used as a shortstop. However, after struggling as a hitter during his first four seasons in Single-A and Double-A, the Cubs organization converted him to a pitcher for the 1990 season. He was used as a starter with moderate success and by 1991 had advanced to Triple-A Iowa.
He began the 1992 season with Iowa and was having his best season from an ERA standpoint (2.45). He got a call-up to the big-league Cubs and made his major-league debut on May 27 with a two-inning outing against the San Francisco Giants. One of the batters he faced was New Orleanian Will Clark, whom he retired on a flyball.
His fourth appearance with the Cubs came in the first game of a doubleheader on June 8 against the Cardinals. He entered the game in relief of Shawn Boskie, who was forced to leave the game because of back spasms. The score was tied, 0-0, in the fifth inning when Bullinger came in. As the leadoff batter in the top of the sixth, Bullinger got his first major-league plate appearance. On the first pitch from Cormier, he hammered a line drive down the left field line that went into the seats. The 6-foot-2 right-hander ended up pitching three innings of an 13-inning game in which the Cubs won, 5-2. After the game, Bullinger told reporters, “It’s probably as far as I’ve hit a ball. I was numb. I was just shaking my head, saying I can’t believe this. I was a converted shortstop because I couldn’t hit.” He was only the fourth Cubs player to homer in his first at-bat.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Bullinger was called on again by manager Jim Lefebvre, with two outs in the eighth and the Cubs leading, 5-4. He got the third out and then held the Cardinals at bay in the ninth, earning his first major-league save. It was a memorable day of “firsts.”
Bullinger followed the June 8 game with a streak of five consecutive saves. His results earned him National League Player of the Week for the week ending June 14. He finished the rest of the season in both starter and reliever roles, compiling a 2-8 record, 4.66 ERA and 7 saves.
He went on to play a total of seven seasons in the majors, including a year each with Montreal and Seattle after five seasons with the Cubs. He finished with a career record of 34-41 and 5.31 ERA in 184 games. His batting line was .188/.249/.315, with four home runs and 19 RBIs.
Bullinger’s last major-league season came in 1998, but he continued to play in the minors and independent leagues until 2005.
By Richard Cuicchi | May 26, 2024 at 09:09 PM EDT | No Comments
Shortstop Gunnar Henderson is the currently the best player for the Baltimore Orioles. Some would say he’s one of the best in the American League. He’s one of the main reasons the O’s are among the best teams in the league. The Orioles obviously thought a lot of him, since they selected him in the second round of the 2019 MLB draft. But did they think he was going to be as good as he has turned out?
Henderson was the ninth shortstop selected in that year’s draft, with the other eight being selected before him in the first round. Bobby Witt Jr., the No. 1 overall selection, was the prize of the draft, being selected out of high school by the Kansas City Royals. Four other current major leaguers were among those selected ahead of him, including CJ Abrams (Nationals), Bryson Stott (Phillies), Braden Shewmake (White Sox), and Anthony Volpe (Yankees).
Coming out of high school in Alabama, it might be expected it would take Henderson three or four years to reach the majors. The Orioles were really in no hurry to get him to the majors, as they already had speedy shortstop Jorge Mateo, only 26 years old, as the starter. Henderson missed the entire 2020 season due to the pandemic but progressed well enough to get a stint with the big-league Orioles in a September call-up in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Orioles continued to draft shortstops in high rounds (Jordan Westburg in 1st round and Anthony Servideo in the 3rd round in 2020, No. 6 Collin Burns in the 6th round in 2021, and the overall No. 1 pick Jackson Holliday in 2022). Was it because the verdict was still out on Henderson’s future as a potential starter?
Everyone just assumed the phenom Holliday would quickly ascend to the big leagues and become the starter at shortstop, and Henderson would be moved to second or third base, if he continued to progress. Holliday began to prove them right, as he progressed from Single-A to Triple-A during the 2023 season and was named the Minor League Player of the Year.
But Henderson had other ideas. Splitting time between shortstop and third base, he was the AL Rookie of the Year in 2023, earning a Silver Slugger Award and finishing eighth in the MVP voting. He and catcher Adley Rutschmann led the Orioles to a surprising AL East championship. Meanwhile the versatile Mateo and Westburg also found plenty of playing time in the infield.
Henderson has even been better in 2024. He leads the Orioles in HRs, RBIs, OBP, SLG, and OPS. He is third in the AL in OPS+ (174) and is cementing himself as one of the finest young shortstops in either league.
He is giving the Orioles front office second thoughts about Holliday becoming the heir apparent to the shortstop position. The 20-year-old Holliday got called up from the minors for 10 games in April and struggled at the plate. Now there is speculation that Holliday might man second base or even the outfield for the Orioles when he makes it back permanently in the big leagues.
There’s another school of thought that the Orioles should trade Holliday now for some top pitching talent, when his trade value is at its highest. That’s how confident the Orioles are with Henderson in the shortstop spot for years to come.
By Richard Cuicchi | May 04, 2024 at 04:23 PM EDT | No Comments
Here are the pitching and hitting statistics for many of the 2024 major-league and minor-league players who prepped or played collegiately in the New Orleans area and Southeast Louisiana. All stats are cumulative for the season, through Monday, April 30. Below are some of the highlights for the last month, followed by a link to all of the players’ more detailed stats.
Who’s Hot
Aaron Nola (Catholic HS, LSU) is 4-1, with a 3.20 ERA and 1.068 WHIP for the Phillies.
Josh Smith (Catholic HS, LSU), a member of last year’s world champion Texas Rangers, is making the most of his time as their starting third baseman, while Josh Jung is on the Injured List. Smith is slashing .317/.417/.500 with 14 runs and 14 RBIs.
Jake Fraley (LSU) has a slash line of .293/.359/.414 for the Reds.
Collin Burns (De La Salle, Tulane) had the best day of his career on April 6, when he went 3-for-4, with a triple, home run, and 7 RBIs for Double-A Bowie.
Kody Hoese (Tulane) is slashing .347/.390/.507 for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Drew Avans (Southeastern) has a slash line of .311/.388/.476 for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Paul Skenes (LSU) has a .039 ERA, 0.870 WHIP, and 16 Strikeouts Per 9 Innings in six starts for Triple-A Indianapolis. Look for him to get a callup to the Pirates in June.
Will Warren (Southeastern) is 3-0 in six starts for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He’s averaging 10.9 Strikeouts Per 9 Innings.
Who’s Not
Kevin Gausman (LSU) is 1-3 with a 4.50 ERA in six starts for the Blue Jays.
Alex Bregman (LSU) is slashing only .216/.283/.294 with one home run for the last-place Astros. He is eligible for free agency after this season.
Tanner Rainey (St. Paul’s, Southeastern) has a whopping 9.82 ERA and 2.818 WHIP in 11 relief appearances for the Nationals.
Jake Rogers (Tulane) is slashing a paltry .167/.242/.283 with only three extra-base hits in 20 games.
J.P. France (Shaw, Tulane) is 0-3 with a 7.46 ERA for the Astros and has been demoted to Triple-A Sugar Land.
On the Mend
DJ LeMahieu (LSU) has missed the entire month for the Yankees due to a foot injury. He had only one at-bat in a rehab assignment in the minors but had to be sidelined again.
Garrett Edwards—Rays (LSU)—On 60-Day Injured List
Ty Floyd—Reds (LSU) On 60-Day Injured List
Cade Doughty—Blue Jays (LSU) On 7-Day Injured List
Austin Nola—Royals (Catholic HS, LSU) On 7-Day Injured List
2023 Players Who Didn’t Return
The following 2023 players have not returned this season: Jack Aldrich (Tulane); Jared Biddy (LSU); Giovanni DiGiacomo (LSU); Brandon Kaminer (LSU); Aaron Loup (Hahnville, Tulane); Greg Deichmann (Brother Martin, LSU), Landon Marceaux (Destrehan, LSU); Braden Olthoff (Tulane); Kramer Robertson (LSU); Mac Sceroler (Southeastern); Zach Watson (LSU)
Click here to view the detailed batting and hitting stats of all the players on CrescentCitySports.com.
By Richard Cuicchi | April 14, 2024 at 01:22 PM EDT | No Comments
I maintain a database of New Orleans area high school players who go on to play at the college and professional levels. The database has over 2,200 players, going back to the early 1900's.
My latest piece for CrescentCitySports.com is an analysis of the 2024 college players--where did they come from and where did they go?
By Richard Cuicchi | April 01, 2024 at 09:51 AM EDT | No Comments
Jim Bullinger had played in big games as a shortstop and pitcher with Rummel High School, followed by his career with the University of New Orleans. Yet none of those games likely involved an experience as exceptional as a game he played for the Chicago Cubs in 1992.
In his first at-bat for the Cubs on June 8, in a game in which he entered as a relief pitcher, he smacked a home run in his first major-league at-bat. Furthermore, he hit it on the first pitch he saw from St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Rheal Cormier. At the time, Bullinger was only the 14th player in major-league history to hit a homer on the first pitch of his first at-bat.
It should have come as no surprise that Bullinger was capable of clouting a home run. He had made hundreds of plate appearances as a position player throughout high school and college. While he wasn’t known as a power hitter, he could occasionally put the ball over the fence. He hit 23 home runs during his three seasons with UNO.
Bullinger had been a two-way player since his Babe Ruth days in Jefferson Parish. He continued to pitch and play shortstop for Coach Larry Schneider’s Rummel Raiders and Schaff Brothers American Legion teams. He was an All-District player with Rummel in 1982 and 1983 and was a member of 1982 and 1983 Schaff squads that captured Second District American Legion titles. During his senior season with Rummel in 1983, the Times-Picayune listed him among the top college prospects from the New Orleans area. He was one of eight Metro area players selected to participate in the LHSAA baseball All-Star Game in Lafayette.
He went on to play for the UNO Privateers whose head coach was Ron Maestri. Bullinger was the starting shortstop as a freshman on the talented 1984 team that went to the College World Series. They were the first in-state college in Louisiana to progress that far into the NCAA postseason. His batting record included a .258 batting average, 5 home runs, 39 RBIs, and five game-winning hits. He was the starting shortstop that summer for the New Orleans-based NORD All-American team that won the AAABA national tournament in Johnstown, PA.
The Privateers gained a berth in the NCAA Regionals again in 1985. Bullinger had 10 home runs and 45 RBIs for the season. His senior season in 1986 season included 14 games in which he pitched in relief. He posted a respectable 3.55 ERA and led the team with six saves, while batting .252, 8 home runs, and 31 RBIs.
Bullinger was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the ninth round of the 1986 amateur draft with the intention of being used as a shortstop. However, after struggling as a hitter during his first four seasons in Single-A and Double-A, the Cubs organization converted him to a pitcher for the 1990 season. He was used as a starter with moderate success and by 1991 had advanced to Triple-A Iowa.
He began the 1992 season with Iowa and was having his best season from an ERA standpoint (2.45). He got a call-up to the big-league Cubs and made his major-league debut on May 27 with a two-inning outing against the San Francisco Giants. One of the batters he faced was New Orleanian Will Clark, whom he retired on a flyball.
His fourth appearance with the Cubs came in the first game of a doubleheader on June 8 against the Cardinals. He entered the game in relief of Shawn Boskie, who was forced to leave the game because of back spasms. The score was tied, 0-0, in the fifth inning when Bullinger came in. As the leadoff batter in the top of the sixth, Bullinger got his first major-league plate appearance. On the first pitch from Cormier, he hammered a line drive down the left field line that went into the seats. The 6-foot-2 right-hander ended up pitching three innings of an 13-inning game in which the Cubs won, 5-2. After the game, Bullinger told reporters, “It’s probably as far as I’ve hit a ball. I was numb. I was just shaking my head, saying I can’t believe this. I was a converted shortstop because I couldn’t hit.” He was only the fourth Cubs player to homer in his first at-bat.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Bullinger was called on again by manager Jim Lefebvre, with two outs in the eighth and the Cubs leading, 5-4. He got the third out and then held the Cardinals at bay in the ninth, earning his first major-league save. It was a memorable day of “firsts.”
Bullinger followed the June 8 game with a streak of five consecutive saves. His results earned him National League Player of the Week for the week ending June 14. He finished the rest of the season in both starter and reliever roles, compiling a 2-8 record, 4.66 ERA and 7 saves.
He went on to play a total of seven seasons in the majors, including a year each with Montreal and Seattle after five seasons with the Cubs. He finished with a career record of 34-41 and 5.31 ERA in 184 games. His batting line was .188/.249/.315, with four home runs and 19 RBIs.
Bullinger’s last major-league season came in 1998, but he continued to play in the minors and independent leagues until 2005.
By Richard Cuicchi | April 01, 2024 at 09:43 AM EDT | No Comments
Most New Orleanians remember Moon Landrieu as the progressive mayor of the city from 1970 to 1978. What they may not know is that he was quite a baseball pitcher from his early teenage years through college.
Born Maurice Edwin Landrieu, he acquired the moniker “Moon” from his family at an early age. The first appearances of Landrieu in the local sports pages were already referring to him by his nickname.
In the summer of 1944, prior to his entering high school, he was a star pitcher for the city champion Hooligans, an American Legion Class B team in the New Orleans Junior Sports Association. After his freshman year at Jesuit High School, he pitched for Jesuit’s Junior American Legion team which again won the city title in 1945.
On an experienced 1946 Jesuit High School team led by outfielder Tookie Gilbert and pitcher Hugh Oser, Landrieu didn’t see much action as a sophomore on the prep state championship team. When several of the players opted not to play for the Jesuit-based American Legion team that summer, it allowed less-experienced players to step into starting roles. Landrieu got appearances as a pitcher, mostly in relief roles. Under coach Eddie Toribio, the team surprisingly won theAmerican Legion World Series in Gastonia, North Carolina, only the second national Legion title by a New Orleans entry since 1932.
The 1947 Jesuit High team repeated at state champion. Yet Landrieu’s breakout season came with the summer Legion team. Winner in seven of eight games in district play and an All-Legion selection, he got the winning decision over Holy Cross in the city championship game. Landrieu struck out 19 in the first game of the state regionals. He pitched a five-hitter to defeat Shreveport for the state championship.
As a senior on the 1948 Jesuit High team, Landrieu had a poor outing to start the season, but recovered to win six consecutive games. He was the winning pitcher in the city championship game against Warren Easton. He was rewarded with All-State honors.
Landrieu went on to play baseball on a scholarship for Loyola University in New Orleans from 1949 to 1952. As a sophomore in 1950, Landrieu posted a 2-0 record for the Wolfpack that finished as runner-up for the Gulf State Conference title. In 1951, Landrieu went 4-2 and pitched in relief in the conference championship game to help Loyola secure its first GSC title. He was named to the All-Conference team. His senior season with Loyola was hampered by arm injuries.
Landrieu graduated from Loyola in 1952 with a degree in business administration. He earned his Juris Doctorate in 1954 and went on to a career encompassing all three branches of government. He served in the Louisiana House of Representative and the New Orleans City Council before being elected Mayor of New Orleans for two terms during 1970 to 1978.
As mayor he was instrumental in helping usher the city into desegregation in the 1970s.His sports background came in handy as a member of the commission that built the Louisiana Superdome. He served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Carter and finished his career as judge of the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1992 to 2000.
By Richard Cuicchi | March 17, 2024 at 07:55 PM EDT | No Comments
The New York Yankees haven’t been to the World Series since they beat the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009. The current 14-year absence has been the longest drought in Yankees history, tied with the miserable Yankee teams from 1982 to 1995.
Could the Yankees’ acquisition of superstar Juan Soto over the winter make a difference this year in getting the Yankees back to the Fall Classic? Yankee history in the past 14 years isn’t so convincing that he can be the difference-maker.
After the Core Four (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada) retired, the Yankees continued to be perennial postseason teams, but could never put it all together to win another American League pennant.
The Yankees front office allowed the roster to get old. In addition to the aging Core Fore, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixiera, and CC Sabathia were entering their golden years, too.
With respect to top prospects, the Yankee farm system had become bare. Instead, some of the bigger names in the game were brought in to shore up the team. The Yankees acquired players like Curtis Granderson, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Matt Holliday, Troy Tulowitzki, and Ichiro Suzuki. But they weren’t able to deliver a pennant, and they just became “pass-through” players.
The Yankees’ best player, Robinson Cano, was the last carryover position player from the 2009 team. He left the team for more dollars in Seattle, after becoming a free agent in 2013.
The Yankees farm system finally started to produce players in 2016 and 2017 who manned several of the starting lineup positions. Called the “Baby Bombers,” they included Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres, Greg Bird, and Tyler Wade.
After winning the AL MVP Award with Miami in 2017, Giancarlo Stanton was signed to a mega-contract with the Yankees in 2018, with expectations he would be “the guy” to bring them back to the World Series, along with Aaron Judge and the rest of the Baby Bomber. Yet after an initial productive season, Stanton had difficulty staying on the field after that, due to a number of injuries. Only Judge and Torres remain from the original Baby Bombers.
The team missed the postseason last year for the first time since 2016. With the exception of the lowly A’s, Tigers, and White Sox, they posted the worst slash line in the American League last year with .227/.304/.397. The Yankees’ pitching staff, led by Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole and an effective bullpen, was the only reason the team finished two games above .500.
The Yankees traded for Juan Soto, willing to pick up his expensive salary even though he has only one year left on his contract. But the team went “all in,” as the saying goes, thinking he could be one of the critical pieces needed, along with another front-line starting pitcher, to deliver an American League pennant. (The Yankees signed veteran pitcher Marcus Stroman, after failing to attract 2023 NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell with a contract offer).
There were similar expectations by Soto with the San Diego Padres in 2023, where he was part of a star-laden team. He did his part as their best offensive player, but the Padres finished behind division-winner Los Angeles and Arizona, the eventual NL pennant-winner.
The Yankees had their share of injuries last year, which contributed to their poor showing. But there is optimism this season those problems are behind them. Giancarlo Stanton is reportedly in better physical shape that would allow him to play a full season. DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo are expected to overcome nagging injuries from last year. Judge, who missed over 40 games due to a torn ligament in his toe, appears to be well enough to play center field now that Soto will be in right field.
All the stars seem to be aligning this season. A healthy batting order that consists of LeMahieu, Soto, Judge, Rizzo, Stanton, Torres, newcomer Alex Verdugo, Jose Trevino (or rookie Austin Wells), and Anthony Volpe would pose a threat for most opposing pitching staffs.
Soto has World Series experience, the breakout star of the Washington Nationals in 2019. Now entering his seventh major-league season, he’s still only 25 years old. He brings youth and a much-needed left-handed bat to the Yankees’ lineup. Will he be the catalyst to propel them back into contention for the pennant? Or will he be just another superstar passing through? Stay tuned.
Footnote: As I write this, pitcher Gerrit Cole’s has a nerve problem in his right elbow, and he is expected to miss at least the first two months of the season. He is a critical part of the Yankees’ potential resurgence. Yankees fans would like to see the team renew its interest in acquiring Snell to offset Cole’s absence, but that isn’t likely to happen at this point. Furthermore, Aaron Judge has experienced abdominal soreness, causing him to miss several spring training games. His status will also be crucial to Yankee success.
By Richard Cuicchi | March 10, 2024 at 08:51 PM EDT | No Comments
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout is a great player on a lousy team. Except for one season, it‘s been that way since he made his major-league debut in 2011. In some respects you have to feel sorry for the guy. But then he’s currently making $37 million per year, so feeling bad for him only goes so far. Trout’s contract with the Angels goes through the 2030 season, when he’ll be 38 years old.
A sure-fire Hall of Famer, Trout has been called the best player in the majors. Early on, he was labeled as the “next Mickey Mantle.” From 2012 through 2019, he was indeed the best player, winning three MVP Awards, finishing in the Top 2 in two seasons, and Top 5 in two seasons.
Despite Trout’s individual performances during his tenure, the Angels have won only one division title, in 2014, when they won 98 games. Since then, they’ve finished above .500 only one other time, in 2015. It doesn’t look like their losing ways will change any time soon.
His talent seems to be wasted by continuing to play for the Angels, who haven’t surrounded him with enough talent, primarily pitching, to be a postseason contender. He’s played with two Angels teammates who have also been referred to as the best players in the majors--Albert Pujols and Shohei Ohtani. Yet teaming up with them didn’t alter the Angels’ fortunes.
It must be frustrating for Trout to continue to play on a team that has no playoff hopes. The Angels’ front office doesn’t have a plan to rebuild the club in order to eventually capitalize on Trout’s talents. Given that situation, should Trout ask the Angels to trade him to a team that has a reasonable chance at getting to the playoffs?
Even if Angels owner Arturo Moreno was willing to trade Trout, is there another team that could absorb his salary for seven more years? The teams with the fat wallets are already shelling out big bucks themselves, including teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, and Astros. Plus, Trout’s health could be cause for concern by an acquiring club. He’s played 36, 119, and 82 games in the last three seasons due to injuries. At age 32, is this a true indicator of his future health?
The second question is, what do the Angels want for Trout? He would command a high price in a trade, in terms of multiple prospects and possibly several young players with high upsides who are already in the majors. Could the Angels maneuver such a trade with a potential suitor that could be part of a longer-term re-build for them?
The other side of Trout’s dilemma is that he just needs to honor his contract with the Angels, regardless of how bad they are. As the old adage goes, “He’s made his bed, now he’s got to lie in it.” He’s being well-paid for his services for the next seven seasons. He needs to earn his lucrative salary, even if he’s playing for a losing team. There are a several hundred other big-league players who would trade places with him in a heartbeat.
Thinking back to the past about players in similar situations as Trout, Ernie Banks comes to mind. He was a two-time MVP, 11-time All-Star playing for the inept Chicago Cubs of the 1950s and 1960s. The Hall of Famer played 19 years without ever appearing in a postseason. I don’t remember if he ever made a big deal about continuing to play for a perennially bad team. But he is the player who is famously remembered for saying, “Let’s play two.”
Trout could quit baseball right now and still be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, because he was so dominant between 2012 and 2019. He could also play out his current contract and still be a Hall of Famer.
By Richard Cuicchi | February 18, 2024 at 11:33 PM EST | No Comments
Twenty-five-year-old Willie Mays had just finished his fifth major-league season when he organized a barnstorming baseball tour that included New Orleans. As a former National League Rookie of the Year (1951) and Most Valuable Player (1954), he had established himself as one of the premier players in baseball.
Mays assembled some of the best Black major-league stars into a team called the Major League All-Stars. They were slated to play two games against the Negro American League All-Stars at Pelican Stadium on November 4 and November 6. In addition to New Orleans, the barnstorming troupe appeared in cities such as Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham, Charlotte and Austin.
Barnstorming during the offseason offered a way for players to supplement their income from the regular-season, at a time when major-league salaries were in the $15K - $30K range and Negro League salaries were much less.
Mays’s hand-picked team featured 20-year-old Frank Robinson who had been voted the National League Rookie of the Year; 22-year-old Hank Aaron who won the National League batting title; and 27-year-old Elston Howard, who helped the Yankees win the World Series. Monte Irvin served as coach and utility player.
Many of Mays’s player selections had started their professional careers in the Negro Leagues. As a member of the Birmingham Black Barons, Mays had previously played in New Orleans in 1948, when Game 4 of the Negro League World Series was played in the Crescent City.
The opposing Negro American League All-Stars were led by former Negro Leaguer Bob Boyd and included Black players who aspired to play in the majors.
The first game on Sunday afternoon drew a nice crowd of 5,330 fans.
The Mays team scored a run in the first inning, followed by a two-run homer by Hank Aaron in the third inning. The Negro American League squad tied the score with three runs in the fourth inning, only to lose the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. An outfield error and a timely single by Al Smith provided the winning run for Mays’s team. Pitcher Brooks Lawrence went the distance for the Major League All-Stars, while Marshall Bridges took the loss after holding the major-leaguers scoreless from the fourth through the eighth innings.
For the scheduled Tuesday night game, Sam Jones, a noted curveball pitcher in the majors, was slated to oppose Negro American League All-Stars pitcher Charley Pride, then an aspiring professional player who later became a legendary country singer.
However, the game was rained out. While the local newspapers reported the second game would be pushed to the following Friday, there wasn’t an account of the game having actually been played.
Aaron returned to New Orleans with the Atlanta Braves in 1974 for an exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles in Kirsch-Rooney Park. He thrilled the local crowd with a home run. Three days later in a regular-season game, Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s home run record of 714 home runs.
In 1984, Mays and Aaron were featured players in an exhibition game in the Louisiana Superdome between former major-leaguers, as part of the “All-Time All-Stars” series. Once again, Aaron delighted the crowd in the first inning with a home run off Bob Feller.
By Richard Cuicchi | February 11, 2024 at 06:07 PM EST | No Comments
Former Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer once made $32 million per year for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now he’s offering his services to any major-league team for the league minimum salary of $740,000.
So, how did that come about?
While playing for the Dodgers in 2021, Bauer was accused of domestic violence and suspended by Major League Baseball in June of that season for 194 games. Even though he was never charged with a crime, the Dodgers ended up releasing him in January 2023. Bauer spent last season pitching in Japan.
The 32-year-old Bauer showed he still had “stuff” while pitching for Yokohama in Japan, compiling a 11-4 record and 2.59 ERA. He averaged over 10 strikeouts per nine innings. His stats demonstrated he could be a viable option for pitching-starved major-leaguer teams in the United States.
With Bauer’s interest in returning to the big leagues for the 2024 season, the question now becomes: should a major-league team give him a second chance in baseball, given the baggage he brings?
First, there’s the risk that Bauer really isn’t up to his previous form as when he left the Dodgers in 2021. The overall talent level in the Japanese Professional League doesn’t match that of MLB. Yet it would seem that a one-year contract for $750K doesn’t represent an unusual risk for a team desperately needing pitching. Big-league teams take risks on Double-A and Triple-A prospects all the time.
Second, and probably the most significant factor, is the potential negative fallout a major-league team would incur from fans and media who will view his return as an acceptance by the team, or MLB itself, of his questionable moral character.
To a lesser degree, there’s the concern for how the tainted player would be accepted by his teammates. However, history shows that teammates, as displeased as they may be about the moral character of a player, only really care about the bottom line—winning.
There are at least three other recent cases of players involved in some type of domestic violence or sexual abuse that have been on MLB’s radar. As with Bauer’s case, MLB’s responses have been to uphold its domestic violence policy through suspensions, even though criminal charges weren’t levied against the players.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias, who finished third in the Cy Young Award voting in 2022, was put on administrative leave by MLB last September for an alleged domestic violence incident. He had previously been suspended for 20 days by MLB after an arrest for suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery, but he was not ultimately charged. The disposition of Urias’s most recent situation by MLB remains to be seen.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roberto Osuna was suspended for 75 games in the middle of the 2018 season for violating MLB’s domestic violence policy. It involved his assault of the mother of his three-year-old son. The charges against Osuna were dropped, and the Houston Astros subsequently traded for Urias for the balance of the 2018 season. The situation created a bad look for the Astros.
The Tampa Bay Rays’ best player Wander Franco hasn’t played since August 12, 2023, when he was alleged to have a sexual relationship with a 14-year old in 2022. He remains under investigation by Dominican Republic authorities and could face charges. MLB hasn’t taken a position on Franco yet, but it seems reasonable he will suffer some type of suspension from MLB even if charges are ultimately dropped.
Getting back to Bauer, I believe one of the MLB teams will pick him up, willing to absorb any flack they might receive. Will he perform to the same level before his suspension? We’ll find out in a couple of months.
By Richard Cuicchi | February 04, 2024 at 08:09 PM EST | No Comments
Everyone knows Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major-league baseball in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. What everyone doesn’t know is that New Orleans native Johnny Wright, a Negro League star pitcher in the late 1930s and 1940s, was slated by the Dodgers to join Robinson in the historic integration of baseball.
Wright was signed by the Dodgers shortly after Robinson, and both spent spring training in Daytona in 1946 as the first two African-American players in Organized Baseball. They started the regular season with the Dodgers’ highest-level minor-league affiliate in Montreal. But Wright was used sparingly and eventually sent to the Dodgers’ Class C team in Canada. When Robinson joined the big-league Dodgers in 1947, Wright returned to the Negro Leagues.
Ms. Robinson recently remarked about her efforts, “My journey has been a labor of love, driven by the lack of information and lack of recognition for my late father’s accomplishments in the world of baseball. First, I hope that I have reconciled some of the incomplete and incorrect writings that I have found over the years during my research of his career. And secondly, I believe that I have written the most complete compilation of his life and career currently available.”
She added, “It would be great to see him inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. And why isn’t there a historical marker in his hometown? To be continued.”
By Richard Cuicchi | January 28, 2024 at 10:04 PM EST | No Comments
Perhaps the autographed baseball by the New Orleans Pelicans that Gerry Schoen possessed as a youngster provided the inspiration to pursue a professional baseball career. But more likely it was his success as a pitcher at multiple levels of amateur baseball in the New Orleans area that propelled him into the professional ranks. Even though Schoen ended up with only a proverbial “cup of coffee” in the major leagues, he is nonetheless remembered for his seasons as a dominant local pitcher in the 1960s.
Schoen was a fan of the game at an early age. He acquired an autographed baseball signed by members of the hometown New Orleans Pelicans minor-league team, while he was bed-ridden with spinal meningitis at eight years old.
He was a product of Wisner Playground in Uptown New Orleans. Coached by legendary NORD playground supervisor Ronnie Aucoin, Schoen was a member of two Wisner teams, 10-and-under and 12-and-under, that won city championships.
His childhood friend Johnny Arthurs also played on those teams and remembers Schoen striking out all fifteen batters in a five-inning game. Arthurs, a future two-sport athlete at Tulane University, later played with Schoen at De La Salle High School and on American Legion teams, He recalled, “Everyone had a nickname in those days, and Gerry’s was the ‘White Whale,’ because he was big, husky kid with light-colored hair.”
While Schoen had not played on varsity teams in his freshman and sophomore years, he became a standout in his junior season in 1963. The “White Whale” had developed into a six-foot-two, 200-pound fireballer. Jerry Burrage, long-time local high school and American Legion coach in the New Orleans area, recalled Schoen’s sensational season, “Gerry was a hard-throwing right-hander with great control. He was dominant in his breakout season in 1963.”
Burrage was referring to Schoen’s five prep starts in which he allowed just 11 hits and one run. He was named to the Times-Picayune and States-Item All-Prep teams, as well as the All-State team selected by the Louisiana Sports Writers’ Association. He followed with an 8-0 record in American Legion play that summer for the De La Salle-based team, earning him MVP honors for his district.
Schoen’s undefeated season at the combined prep and Legion levels marked one of the best in recent times in New Orleans. His performance was reminiscent of Jimmy Harwell’s (also a De La Salle alumnus) in 1956.
In 1964, De La Salle captured the Louisiana state high school championship, with Schoen pitching a three-hitter in the finals. The victory gave renowned head coach John Altobello his fourth state title with the school. Schoen was a repeat All-State performer.
Behind the pitching of Schoen, the De La Salle American Legion team won the state title and fought its way to the Little World Series, only to be eliminated after three games.
Following the Legion season, Schoen signed a baseball grant-in-aid baseball scholarship with Loyola University in New Orleans. There were two reasons he chose Loyola over other local colleges. He would be allowed to play on the varsity team as a freshman, and he wanted to play again under the tutelage of his former Babe Ruth coach, Rags Scheuermann, who was the Wolfpack’s head coach. Scheuermann told the States-Item, “We are real glad to get Gerry. He is definitely the No. 1 pitching prospect in the state.”
Schoen had a promising debut game as a freshman with Loyola in 1965. He recorded a strikeout for the first seven outs in a 3-0 win against Southwestern Louisiana (USL). He finished the season with a 6-0 record.
After posting a 2-3 record with Loyola in 1966, Schoen was selected by the Washington Senators in the 25th round of the MLB amateur draft. He decided to forego the rest of his college career and signed with the Senators for a bonus reported as being between ten and fifteen thousand dollars.
Only 19 years old, Schoen’s first minor-league assignment was at Class Geneva in the New York-Penn League in 1966. His best outing occurred on August 23, when he struck out 18 in nine innings.
His 1967 season with Class A Burlington of the Carolina League was interrupted when he enlisted in the Army National Guard in July. He was 7-2 with a 2.69 ERA at the time.
With Double-A Savannah of the Southern League in 1968, his 3-9 record was misleading since he posted a 3.20 ERA and struck out 95 in 118 innings. After four games with Triple-A Buffalo, Schoen was called up by the Senators for the final month of the season. On September 14, he made his major-league debut in a start against the New York Yankees at D.C. Stadium. But he lost control of the game early, as he gave up three runs on six hits in only 3 2/3 innings. The Yankees won, 4-1. The game would be the only major-league appearance in his career. (Players who make a limited number of major-league appearances, like Schoen, are said to be in the big leagues for only the time to drink a “cup of coffee.”)
The American League held an expansion draft in October 1968 for the new Seattle Pilots and Kansas City Royals franchises. Not protected by the Senators, Schoen was the 20th overall selection of the draft by the Pilots. It seemed like a good opportunity for him to land a spot on their major-league roster in 1969.
However, he was traded by Seattle to the Baltimore Orioles in a five-player deal in April, having never pitched for the Pilots. Interestingly, one of the other players involved in the trade was Lloyd Fourroux, who had also prepped at De La Salle and was a career minor-leaguer in the Orioles organization.
Over the next three seasons, Schoen bounced around to minor league teams in the Orioles, Yankees and Minnesota Twins organizations, filling both starter and reliever roles. His highlight during these years was helping Syracuse, a Yankees Triple-A affiliate, win its first International League pennant in 73 years.
Unable to see a clear path back to the big leagues, Schoen decided to quit baseball at age 24.
Schoen is one of three De La Salle alumni to reach the majors. Allan Montreuil and Frank Wills are the others.
By Richard Cuicchi | January 21, 2024 at 09:56 PM EST | No Comments
The official results of the Baseball Hall of Fame voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will be announced on January 23.
You might recall on December 31 that I posted my (unofficial) votes for the 2024 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame, as a member of the Internet Baseball Writers’ Association of America. IBWAA members were asked to submit up to 12 names on their ballot.
Here are the top 12 players who received the highest percentage of votes by the IBWAA. (Per the Hall of Fame rules, players must receive a minimum of 75% of the votes to be elected.) I submitted only nine names on my ballot, which are marked by an asterisk below.
**Adrian Beltre (94%)
**Todd Helton (75%)
Joe Mauer (73%)
**Billy Wagner (73%)
**Andruw Jones (68%)
**Gary Sheffield (65%)
**Alex Rodriguez (60%)
**Manny Ramirez (58%)
**Carlos Beltran (52%)
Chase Utley (37%)
Bobby Abreu (32%)
Andy Pettitte (28%)
I also voted for Omar Vizquel (11-year Gold Glove shortstop) who received only 11% of the IBWAA votes. I believe his alleged off-the-field indiscretions have negatively affected the voters’ opinions of him.
The other major difference in my votes, versus the entire membership’s, is Joe Mauer, whom I left off my ballot. My rationale was, out of his 15 major league seasons, only six years were All-Star-caliber seasons. Is that enough for Hall-worthiness? It’s true, he won 3 batting titles, but what about all those analysts who now say batting average isn’t a relevant statistic? Mauer’s career stats were indeed impressive, including .306/.388/.439 slash line, 55.2 WAR, 127 OPS+, and four years with Top 8 MVP votes (including one MVP first-place finish).
But here are equally impressive stats for another 15-year major leaguer who has NOT been elected: .303/.384/.497 slash line, 56.5 WAR, 137 OPS+, six years as an All-Star, and four years with Top 5 MVP votes (with one second-place finish). Who is the player? Will Clark!
I suppose one could make a case for or against the merits of any two players. I’m just bummed out that Clark, my favorite player, didn’t get in.
Baseball Hall of Fame tracker Ryan Thibodaux compiles the official votes from BBWAA writers that make their ballot publicly available. With roughly 50 % of the ballots available, Thibodaux calculates that Beltre (98.8%), Mauer (84.2%), Helton (83.2%), and Wagner (79.9%) are the most likely inductees. He has Sheffield (74.5%) and Jones (71.2%) on the cusp of the minimum 75% required.
By Richard Cuicchi | January 15, 2024 at 06:01 AM EST | No Comments
The Baltimore Orioles weren’t expected to have the kind year they had in 2023. Their team rebuilding process since 2018 didn’t have them contending for a playoff berth until 2024. But their young core of players they had developed through their farm system surprised the baseball world, as they turned in a 101-win season and captured the AL East Division title.
The Orioles were swept by the Texas Rangers in the ALDS, perhaps because their youth caught up with them. It could be argued the Orioles are only a few players away from being a serious pennant contender for the next several years. While they were losing all those games between 2018 and 2021, they accumulated a lot of top talent in the minors through the draft process. So why aren’t they active in the trade market to acquire the missing pieces, by giving up some of their excess higher prospects?
The Orioles are largely in need of pitching depth, including several who can eat a lot of innings.
Kyle Gibson was the only true veteran pitcher (11 years in the majors) among the starters, but he turned in a team-worst 87 ERA+. In only his second major-league season, Kyle Bradish rose to the top of the rotation and was their best starter. 23-year-old rookie Grayson Rodriguez has the potential to be a top-flight pitcher, but he’s still trying to climb the big-league learning curve. Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells rounded out the rotation, but neither was particularly threatening to opposing offenses.
Bradish, Kremer, and Rodriguez were overmatched by the Rangers in the ALDS, as they collectively lasted only 6.6 innings in their starts. Their youth didn’t play well.
In the bullpen, closer Felix Bautista was one of the league’s best, turning in a 1.48 ERA with 33 saves. Yennier Cano led the team in relief appearances (72), and he was effective as a one-two punch with Bautista. Cano posted a 2.11 ERA. But like the starting rotation, the bullpen could use more depth to be a pennant contender.
Now is the time for the Orioles to move on beefing up their pitching. And they have the means to do it through trades.
Shortstop Gunnar Henderson was the AL Rookie of the Year. He is a franchise shortstop according to Baseball America. He wouldn’t be put up as trade bait, but other top infield prospects who saw part-time duty with the Orioles could be. They include Jordan Westburg, Terrin Vavra, and Joey Ortiz. Furthermore, in the minors, they have additional Triple-A infield prospects Coby Mayo, Caydn Grenier, and Cesar Prieto.
In the outfield, the Orioles system features prospects Colton Cowser, Heston Kjerstad, and Kyle Stowers, all of whom got a taste of big league action last year.
But the best of all the Orioles’ minor leaguers is the 2023 Minor League Player of the Year, shortstop Jackson Holliday. With the way Holliday progressed through all four levels of the minors in 2023, he’s probably not more than year away from being ready to compete in the majors.
With all the prospects the Orioles have, they won’t have a roster spot for many of them when they become big league ready on a full-time basis. They may not command the same interest and value as they have now, if the Orioles wait to trade them in a year or two.
Coming into the Hot Stove season, Dylan Cease (White Sox), Blake Snell (Padres), Lucas Giolito (Indians), Jordan Montgomery (Rangers), Jesus Luzardo (Marlins), Chris Sale (Red Sox) and Marcus Stroman (Cubs) were among those starting pitchers reported to be available on the trading block by their respective teams. These are the types of pitchers the O’s need to pursue. Sale, Stroman and Giolito have already been scooped up by the Braves, Yankees and Red Sox, respectively. If the Orioles don’t act quickly, the rest will have new homes elsewhere, too.
Perhaps one of the things that has been holding the Orioles back on making a deal is that they will have to shell out some serious long-term money for salaries of these type of players. The Orioles haven’t been considered a big spender on player payroll, but they have to realize in order to get a Blake Snell or Dylan Cease they’re going to have to open their pocketbook wider.
The time is now to do that, not a couple of years from now. Orioles fans got really pumped about their surprising team last season. The Orioles should give them something more to cheer about in 2024.
By Richard Cuicchi | January 07, 2024 at 06:09 PM EST | No Comments
When California Angels outfielder Taylor Ward was hit in the face while batting in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays last July, it revived memories of Boston Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigilaro’s incident in 1967.
Ward is expected to return to the Angels’ lineup in 2024. He didn’t suffer eye damage, instead requiring reconstruction of his left orbital bone. Not downplaying the seriousness of Ward’s injury, it wasn’t as critical as Conigliaro’s would be. He was hit in the eye and cheekbone, after his helmet flew off before impact. After attempts to return, the Red Sox phenom ultimately had to quit playing at age 26.
As a 19-year-old in 1964, “Tony C”, as he would affectionally be referred to by Red Sox sportswriters and fans, made an impact from Day 1 in the Red Sox lineup. Amazingly he had only played in 83 games in the minors at the Single-A level in 1963 before earning a regular spot in the Red Sox outfield the next spring.
The Red Sox were a second-division team in 1963, finishing seventh out of 10 teams in the American League, 28 games behind the AL champion New York Yankees. The Red Sox were led offensively by big first baseman Dick Stuart. Future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, only 23 years old at the time, had yet to mature as a hitter.
Conigliaro represented new hope that he could help turn around the team’s results in 1964. In his rookie season, he hit 24 home runs, the most by any teenager in history at the time. He also collected 62 RBIs in 111 games, while slashing an impressive.290/.354/.530. But largely due to weak pitching, the Red Sox slipped to eighth place.
Over the next two seasons he amassed 60 more home runs and 175 RBIs, including leading the American League with 32 in only his second major-league season. He started to receive votes for AL MVP. But the Red Sox, who continued to suffer from weak pitching, were still mired in the second division.
In 1967, Conigliaro started the season with a bang. He made his first All-Star team. Paired with Carl Yastrzemski, who was having an MVP season, the Red Sox were in contention for first place. By mid-August, Conigliaro had collected 20 home runs and 67 RBIs. Only Met Ott and Eddie Matthews had hit more home runs than Conigliaro by age 22.
On August 18, Conigliaro was hit in the face on a fastball from Angels hurler Jack Hamilton. He suffered from blurred vision in his left eye and headaches, and he wasn’t able to return for the rest of the season. There was concern that he might lose his vision. The Red Sox ended up winning its first pennant since 1946.
Still suffering from the effects of the injury, he attempted a comeback in the spring of 1968. But doctors warned him it wasn’t safe for him to play, and he missed the entire 1968 season.
Determined to get back in the game, Conigliaro spent the missed season, learning to use more of his peripheral vision while batting. He even tried pitching in the instructional league.
Still only 24 years old and his vision not fully recovered, he returned to the Red Sox in 1969 and remarkably earned Comeback Player of the Year honors based on his 20 home runs and 82 RBIs. He followed with the best season of his career in 1970, with 36 home runs and 116 RBIs. Outwardly, It appeared he had overcome the effects of the injury, but he would say later he never fully regained his vision in the left eye.
Desoite his productive 1970 season, the Red Sox traded him over the winter to the California Angels, in an unpopular move for the Red Sox fans. Perhaps the Red Sox had anticipated his vision would deteriorate over time.
In fact, his vision problem did get worse in 1971. Frustrated by not performing up to his standard with the Red Sox, he retired from the Angels in early July, at age 26.
Conigliaro attempted a comeback with the Red Sox four years later, but ultimately quit after 21 games, when he managed only seven hits in 69 plate appearances as a DH and pinch-hitter.
We can only wonder about the total career numbers Tony C would have achieved had he not suffered the heartbreaking injury. He was on a similar career trajectory as his teammate Carl Yastrzemski, who ended up in the Hall of Fame. However, he will always retain a place in the hearts of the Red Sox Nation. He was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995.
(Postscript: The tragedy in Conigliaro’s life didn’t end with baseball. He suffered a heart attack in 1982 that left him with irreversible brain damage. He lived another eight years before dying at age 45.)
By Richard Cuicchi | December 31, 2023 at 07:51 PM EST | No Comments
I’ve been writing this blog since 2013, and every year since then I have cast a “mythical” ballot for the annual Baseball Hall of Fame election. It was mythical because my ballot didn’t go anywhere, except to my readers. Only official members of the official Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) are eligible to vote for the Hall. Anyway, it was a fun exercise for me to go through the process of pretending to vote for the Hall-worthy players.
I joined the Internet Baseball Writers’ Association of America (IBWAA) this year. It’s a collegial organization of baseball writers and content creators who strive to increase the visibility of their work and networking opportunities for its members. Although it looks similar, it has no relationship with BBWAA. It does have a partnership with SABR (Society for American Baseball Research).
One of the activities of the IBWAA is to conduct its own election process for voting for players to the Hall of Fame. Members were asked to submit up to 12 names. (I’m not sure why 12, when the official BBWA balloting allows for up to 10 players.) 700+ members’ votes will be compiled and published at the same time the official BBWAA results are announced on January 23.
So here are the players I submitted in the IBWAA voting process.
Let’s deal with the big elephant in the room first--players who used or were suspected of using PEDs. I didn’t take a hard line on omitting these players from my selections in the past. My rationale was that I was in no position to be judge and jury over which players did or didn’t use, or when or how often they might have used PEDs. Thus, I voted for Bonds and Clemens because I thought they were among the best players in baseball history. Obviously, I was in the minority regarding their HOF worthiness, since both players never got voted in during their 10 years on the ballot.
There was also another element of my position on PEDs. Consider the following cases. Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax received cortisone shots in his elbow before many of his games in the 1960s. He would not have been as superior as he was, without those shots. All-Stars Dave Parker and Keith Hernandez and many other players reportedly took amphetamines in the 1980s. The drugs allowed them to suit up for practically every game, despite the wear and tear of the long season on their bodies. While it was may be frowned upon from a moral character standpoint, no one ever declared them ineligible for the Hall of Fame. If steroids and HGH keep players from Hall of Fame consideration, then why aren’t players who used cortisone shots and amphetamines put in the same category?
So, my first three votes are cast for Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, and Gary Sheffield, all dominant players in their eras. This is Sheffield’s last year on the ballot, and except for the perception that he was a PED user (he never tested positive), he would have been selected a lot sooner. He’s a player with 500+ home runs, 60.5 WAR and 140 OPS+. You can’t ever persuade me that Hall of Famer Harold Baines was better than Sheffield.
Todd Helton and Billy Wagner are next on my list. I also voted for them last year. Helton slashed .316/.414/.539 and recorded a 61.8 WAR and 133 OPS+. He has Silver Slugger and Gold Glove Awards as part of his credentials. Billy Wagner is currently sixth (422) on the all-time list for saves. His career stats include an impressive 2.31 ERA and .998 WHIP. His ERA+ was 187. Wagner didn’t get as much ink during his career as contemporary relievers Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, but he’s in the same class as them. Aside from Scott Rolen, who was elected in 2023, Helton (72.2%) and Wagner (68.1%) were the next closest to getting the required minimum of 75% of the votes.
Two outfielders I voted for last year and am including in this year’s selection are Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones. Beltran was AL Rookie of the Year in 1999 and went to collect nine All-Star appearances with the Mets, Cardinals, and Yankees. His WAR is 70.1, and he received MVP votes in seven seasons. He was a valuable post-season contributor, with a slash line of .307/.412/.609, 16 HRs and 42 RBI. My selection of Andrew Jones is primarily influenced by his defensive excellence. He was a Gold Glove centerfielder for 10 straight seasons with the Braves. But he wasn’t a liability for his teams on the offensive side, as he hit 434 career HRs and 1,289 RBIs.
Omar Vizquel is another position player I included for his defensive prowess. Like Jones, he was a perennial Gold Glove winner at shortstop for 11 seasons during 1993 and 2006. He was a career .272 hitter over his 24-year career, collecting 2,877 hits. But he displayed little power. (Pittsburgh second baseman Bill Mazeroski was voted into the Hall with the same defensive and offensive profile in 2001.) Vizquel appeared to be on track for Hall election, when he achieved 52.6% of the votes in 2020 (his third year on the ballot), but a domestic abuse accusation that surfaced in late 2020 has negatively affected his chances. He received only 19.5% in 2023.
Adrian Beltre is the only new player on the ballot this year that I voted for. He collected 3,166 hits, 477 HRs and 1,707 RBIs and was a five-time Gold Glove winner at third base. He received MVP votes in eight seasons, including seven after the age of 30. (If Beltre had done this back in the PED era, would he have been suspected of using.)
Even though the IBWAA allowed for 12 votes, I only submitted nine. There were a total of 26 players on the ballot this year, including 12 new players. Additional new players that I considered, but ultimately decided against, were Matt Holliday, Joe Mauer, and Chase Utley. I liked Holliday when he played. He was a gamer, but I just never thought of him as being of Hall of Famer-caliber. Maurer and Utley had periods of greatness, but I didn’t feel like theirs was long enough to warrant Hall of Fame election.
I'll give you a report on the IBWAA tally in late January.
By Richard Cuicchi | December 25, 2023 at 10:12 PM EST | No Comments
When the New Orleans Pelicans minor-league baseball team ceased to exist following the 1959 season, their absence created a void for baseball fans in the metropolitan New Orleans area. While local baseball diehards could still follow American Legion and All-American League teams during the summer, the level of competition in the city for players over 19 years old was limited. A group of businessmen banded together in 1961 to create the Mel Ott League, which was best described as a semi-pro league. Remarkably, its existence lasted nearly 25 seasons.
The new league became extremely popular with fans because they could follow teams featuring former professional and college players, as well as current college players who were no longer age-eligible for other amateur leagues. Most of these players had been the fans’ hometown heroes at one point.
The players favored the league because it provided an opportunity for former pro and college athletes to continue playing competitive baseball. Current college players were able to stay in “baseball shape” during the summer.
Unlike other notable semi-pro leagues across the country, such as the Cape Cod League, Kansas Baseball League, and Alaska Baseball League, the Mel Ott League did not recruit players from outside of the metropolitan New Orleans area.
Walter “Tiger” Ruiz was one of the first organizers of the league. He was also the coach of the Gretna Stars, one of the early dominant teams. The teams were generally sponsored by local businesses such as Deviney Clothiers, Buster Hughes, Lafitte Sash, M & W Marine Service, Roy Supply, and Staples Sporting Goods. Team sponsors recruited local players to fill their rosters. Players were allowed to switch teams from year to year.
The league usually had four to five teams per season. Initially, all of the games were played in Sunday doubleheaders, but it later expanded to play on Saturdays as well. In the early days, the season ran from April to September. The season was divided into two halves, with the winners of each half playing for the league championship at the end of the season. League organizers typically planned multiple games on July 4, in conjunction with other Gretna city celebration activities.
Local newspapers routinely reported on the upcoming schedule of games and then the weekend’s results and standings.
Some of the league’s players, particularly the former professionals, played well into their thirties. In a 1964 Times-Picayune article, it was noted that several Southern Association alumni, who were familiar to local baseball fans of the New Orleans Pelicans minor league team, had continued their passion for playing the game in the Mel Ott League. They included such players as Billy Reynolds, Charlie Williams, and Emil Panko. Nolan Vicknair, who had played a couple of seasons in the New York Giants organization in the late 1940s, competed in the first couple of seasons of the league.
Local professional players who came back to New Orleans following their careers and played in the Mel Ott League included Jim Harwell, John Olagues, Jim Moser, Fabien Mang, Wally Pontiff, Mike Trapani, and Keith Graffagnini. Local fans had followed these players during their high school and American Legion careers, when the players were first making their mark in the game.
Former University of New Orleans head baseball coach Tom Schwaner had played in the minors from 1959 to 1962 with the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City A’s organizations. He said the Mel Ott League gave him the opportunity to continue to play after his years in the pros. He remembers it as a very competitive league, but he also had fun. He said there would be as many as 300 to 400 people in the stands each Sunday rooting for their favorite team.
Yet the league wasn’t entirely dominated by ex-professional players. High school coaches Tony Reginelli and Joe Brockhoff played during the summer months. Former prep players Bill “Brother” Burke, Rick Tranchina, and Kenny Golden were long-time players in the league. Others like them were talented players who stayed in shape to compete each summer.
The league gradually turned to more college players to fill out team rosters. A 1974 States-Item article reported that the rosters “looked like a ‘Who’s Who’ of college baseball.” Tulane players Steve Mura and Jim Gaudet used the Mel Ott League as a steppingstone to major-league baseball careers. Maurice Ogier and Wayne Francingues played in the league before pursuing pro careers.
College players who didn’t want to leave the city during the summers opted to play competitively in the Mel Ott League to sharpen their skills. Players such as A. J. Musso, Jeff Fay, the other three Golden brothers (Pat, Wayne, and Steve), Jimmy and Larry Cabeceiras, and Wayne Silva were among them.
Terry Alario, a pitcher who prepped at West Jefferson High School and played collegiately at Northwestern State, played in the Mel Ott League during and after his college days. He said, “I played until I couldn’t get batters out anymore.” He says that players weren’t paid to play, but on occasion were the beneficiaries of fans passing the hat for donations when a home run was hit. Alario says there was also money passing hands in the stands among the older fans who liked betting on their favorite team.
A number of Mel Ott players eventually became prominent high school baseball coaches, including Jesse Daigle, Billy Fitzgerald, Frank Misuraca, Larry Schneider, Sam Dozier, Frank Cazeaux, and Barry Herbert.
Teams from the Mel Ott League often provided competition for the All-American League All-Star teams as they were preparing for national tournament competition in Johnstown, PA. In the early years, winners of the Mel Ott League and the Audubon League, another semi-pro league in the city, competed in an inter-city championship playoff.
The Times-Picayune reported in 1978 that the Mel Ott League was named the best semi-pro league in Louisiana for the fourth consecutive year.
Wayne Silva assembled a team of Mel Ott League all-stars in 1981 through 1983 to participate in the annual National Baseball Congress tournament in Wichita. Semi-pro teams from across the country vied for the prestigious championship in a 32-team double-elimination format. The New Orleans entries were entirely made up of local players, unlike most of the other teams who drew college players from around the country. Silva’s teams held their own with finishes of 14th in 1981 and fourth in 1982.
Former major-leaguer Ron Swoboda, then 39 years old working in New Orleans as a TV sportscaster, joined Silva’s team in 1983. Competing against players half his age, one of Swoboda’s contributions was a grand slam home run in the tournament. However, the hitting star of the team was Tulane first baseman Tommy Matthews, who hit five homers in the tournament. Silva’s team was eliminated by Fairbanks, Alaska, which featured future major leaguers Barry Bonds, Oddibe McDowell, Shane Mack, Joe Magrane, and Dave Stapleton. New Orleans finished in 5th place.
Marty Wetzel, who had been an All-Metro high school player in both football and baseball (as a pitcher), experienced a unique route to the Mel Ott League. His participation came after he had played football for Tulane and one season in the NFL as a New York Jets linebacker before an injury derailed his pro career. Wetzel says he had always favored baseball over football. Consequently, after he returned to New Orleans, he joined a few of his former high school teammates who were still competing in the Mel Ott League. He played a couple of seasons toward the end of the league’s existence, filling multiple infield and outfield positions, as well as pitcher.
The Mel Ott League established itself over the years as an important part of the baseball fabric of New Orleans. It became home to hundreds of men who wanted to continue competing at a level to which they were accustomed as professional, college, and high school players. Players such as Kenny Golden, Mike Culotta, “Brother” Burke, and Fred Krennerich were mainstays in the league year after year.
Perhaps no one was more committed than Krennerich, who participated as a player, coach, and president of the league, beginning in 1968 though the end of the league in 1983. In a Times-Picayune article in April 1984, Krennerich attributed the lack of a volunteer to replace him as the league president for the 1984 season as the main factor in the league’s demise.
Similar to the end of the old Pelicans minor-league team, the end of the Mel Ott League closed out a popular era of baseball in the city.
(Author’s note: There were other outstanding players, coaches, and teams in the Mel Ott League that are not mentioned in this article. I apologize up front for not being able to acknowledge all of them.
By Richard Cuicchi | December 17, 2023 at 09:23 PM EST | No Comments
Was Shohei Ohtani’s mega-contract with the Dodgers good for baseball? Which team will win the services of highly-prized Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto? Can Juan Soto get the Yankees back to prominence? Will anyone from this year’s candidates get elected to the Hall of Fame?
Let’s put aside all these questions and others that are consuming all the air in the baseball world right now. All of them will still be around for us to debate after the first of the year.
The Christmas season is a time to have some fun, so I’ve come up with an all-time baseball team of major-league players whose names fit with a Christmas holiday theme.Here’s a bit of background on each player of this eclectic team.
Starting Pitcher – Ervin Santana.Okay, his last name isn’t exactly “Santa,” but it’s close enough.Regardless, Santana wasn’t delivering any presents to the Cleveland Indians on July 11, 2007, when he threw a no-hitter.The two-time all-star has won 151 major-league career games through 2021.
Relief Pitcher – Clay Carroll.Carroll had a lot to sing about as a member of the Cincinnati Reds “Big Red Machine.”They won three National League pennants in the 1970s, including a World Series ring in 1975.The two-time all-star posted an impressive 2.94 ERA during his 15-year career.
Catcher – Steve Christmas.Of course, Steve has the ultimate holiday celebration name.But it’s too bad he wasn’t able to celebrate more on the playing field.In 24 major-league games scattered over three seasons, Christmas batted a paltry .162.
First Base – J. T Snow.J. T. Snow covered first base for the San Francisco Giants as effectively as a wintry snow covers the ground at Grandma’s house during the holidays.He was a Gold Glove Award winner for six consecutive seasons while playing for the California Angels and the Giants.Snow’s father, Jack, played 11 seasons the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams.
Second Base – Cookie Lavagetto.Lavagetto is best known as the hitter who broke up Bill Bevens’s no-hitter in Game 4 of the 1947 World Series.His all-star career was interrupted by four years of military service during World War II.If his family made cookies for the Christmas holidays, they would surely have been an Italian-style treat.
Third Base – Gene Freese.Freese had the best season of his 12-year career in 1961.He helped the Cincinnati Reds put a December-type “freeze” on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ attempt to overtake them for first place during the final two months of the season.It was the Reds’ first National League pennant since 1940.
Shortstop – Billy Klaus.Had Santa Claus also been a major-league player, he probably would have hit better than Klaus.Klaus was a weak-hitting shortstop with only 40 home runs and 250 RBI in 11 major-league seasons.Billy’s brother, Bobby, also played in the majors, and he didn’t hit much either.
Outfielder – Candy Maldonado.Maldonado helped to make sure his 1992 Toronto Blue Jays teammates’ Christmas stockings were filled with World Series candy (playoff shares), as he hit three post-season home runs in the Blue Jays’ first World Championship.
Outfielder – Jesus Alou.Alou was no savior for his major-league teams, as he hit only 32 home runs in 15 big-league seasons.He is best known for having been part of the first trio of brothers to play in the same major-league game, while with the San Francisco Giants in 1963.
Outfielder – Gift Ngoepe.Ngoepe’s name isn’t a nickname; it’s actually part of his given name.He is South Africa’s “gift” to baseball, since he’s the only major-league player in history born in that country.The Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder made his debut in 2017. His brother Victor played in the Pirates organization for four seasons.
DH – Rob Deer.Deer is the closest name to “reindeer” I could find.He made some appearances as a designated hitter, although he was primarily used as an outfielder and first baseman.He managed to “rain” on opponents’ parades many times during his 11-year career, as he hit 230 career home runs.But he also led the American League in strikeouts four times during 1984-1996.
Pinch-hitter – Turkey Tyson.Unlike Ngoepe, Tyson’s real name was Cecil Washington, but he was known by “Turkey” during his professional career.However, his only major-league appearance was as a pinch-hitter in 1944.The 29-year-old got his “cup of coffee” in the big leagues when there was a shortage of players during World War II.
Manager – Charlie Dressen.You can’t have turkey without the dressing for Christmas dinner, so Charlie Dressen is the closest name I could come up.He played eight seasons in the majors, but it was as a manager that he made his mark.He was the skipper of five different teams over 16 seasons between 1934 and 1966.His teams won over 1,000 games, and his Brooklyn Dodgers captured two National League pennants in the 1950s.
By Richard Cuicchi | December 10, 2023 at 07:41 PM EST | No Comments
Ian O’Dougherty knew his great-grandfather Joe Vitter had been a professional baseball player, originally from New Orleans. But he didn’t know much about the details of his career that spanned the 1930s and 1940s. The discovery of a family scrapbook by his mother, containing artifacts of his great-grandfather’s baseball career, triggered his quest to learn more about him.
O’Dougherty is currently a video producer working with the Vegas Golden Knights. He previously worked with the major-league Colorado Rockies for ten years, where one of his projects was to produce a documentary of baseball in Colorado. His hope is to find enough information and photographs about Vitter’s career so that he can eventually produce a film, likely a series of short episodes, that feature his great-grandfather.
Vitter was born in 1911 in New Orleans. One of the uncertainties about Vitter’s career is the high school he attended and whether he played baseball as a high schooler. O’Dougherty says Vitter’s brother attended St. Aloysius, so if his great-grandfather attended high school, it would likely have been there. The first mentions of Vitter in the local New Orleans sports pages were about his playing for numerous semi-pro teams in the area. It appears some of his teams played in what were likely the early days of the Sugar Cane League in Southeast Louisiana, while his teams’ travels also took them into Mississippi.
O’Dougherty discovered Vitter’s-father, uncles, and brothers were baseball players with brief appearances in the minors, while legendary New Orleans player “Oyster Joe” Martina was his uncle by marriage. This fact contributed to his desire to learn even more about the family’s baseball history. He found newspaper evidence that the Vitter family members, including his great-grandfather at one point, played for a local team called the Greenleafs.
At a time when numerous local players started out playing in the Evangeline League in South Louisiana or with the hometown New Orleans Pelicans, O’Dougherty says it’s not clear how Vitter ended up signing his first professional contract. Baseball-Reference.com, one of the definitive sources of pro baseball player information, shows Vitter playing his first professional season at age 23 for Pine Bluff in the Class C Dixie League in 1934.
In February 1936, The Sporting News noted Vitter as one of the hopefuls seeking a major-league job. He must have made an impression with his play for Pine Bluff, because the Chicago Cubs acquired rights to him. They sent him to Catalina Island for the Cubs’ spring training camp in 1936 when he joined the major-leaguers, including Charlie Grimm, Billy Herman, and others. However, on a Cubs barnstorming trip to the east coast, he was cut and sent to Portsmouth, Virginia, in the Class B Piedmont League.
He spent the 1937 season with several teams in the Pacific Coast League, then considered one of the highest leagues of Organized Baseball. With the San Francisco Seals, he was a teammate of 20-year-old Dominic DiMaggio, who later became one of three DiMaggio brothers, including Joe and Vince, in the majors. O’Dougherty found a box score of a game in which Vitter played against Ted Williams, then playing for San Diego.
In 1938 Vitter was shipped to Shreveport in the Texas League, where he spent five seasons. He was a teammate of New Orleans native Joe Valenti that year. In Nico Van Thyn’s book “That’s the old ballgame, Shreveport,” Vitter was noted as one of Shreveport’s most popular players during his stay. The book stated Vitter made the league’s All-Star team in 1938, 1940, and 1941.
The Brooklyn Dodgers farm system acquired him in 1943, and he played for their St. Paul affiliate for five seasons. One of his teammates in St. Paul was another New Orleans native, John “Fats” Dantonio. World War II was in full swing, but Vitter was rejected for military service in 1944 by his draft board. At a time when the major leagues had a shortage of players due to military service, it seems Vitter might have gotten a shot in the big leagues. Perhaps his age, then in the early to mid-30’s, likely worked against him.
He finished his career in the lower levels of the minors. He also served as manager for his teams in 1948 and 1949, after which he retired from baseball at age 38.
Vitter was elected to the New Orleans Diamond Club Hall of Fame in 1973. In the program for the induction ceremony for the honorees, prominent New Orleans baseball historian Arthur Schott wrote about Vitter, “He played all four infield positions and all three outfield positions and was probably the finest utility man ever to leave New Orleans.”
O’Dougherty’s initial research has surfaced that his great-grandfather’s career crossed paths with several prominent baseball names from the New Orleans area in the 1930s and 1940s--Dantonio, Valenti, Martina, and the Gilbert family. He’s hoping to connect with their relatives and others who can potentially help him fill in some of the missing details of his great-grandfather’s career. He’s especially interested in any original photos involving Vitter.
O’Dougherty was 17 years old when Vitter died in 1995. Of course, he now wishes he had spent more time talking to his great-grandfather about his sixteen years in pro baseball. For example, O’Dougherty would love to know how his great-grandfather came to be photographed in Denver in 1953 with major-leaguers Eddie Lopat, Lou Kretlow, Jackie Jensen, Billy Martin, Dave Philley, and Mel Parnell.
Crescent City Sports readers who have knowledge of Joe Vitter’s years in New Orleans or his baseball career can contact Ian O’Dougherty via email at ianomusic@gmail.com.
By Richard Cuicchi | December 03, 2023 at 07:06 PM EST | No Comments
All-American Paul Skenes turned in one of the most dominating seasons in college baseball history, as the ace of the LSU pitching staff in 2023. He helped them claim their seventh College World Series title. His performance landed him a No. 1 overall selection by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2023 Major League Baseball draft. Skenes will likely make his major-league debut early in 2024, so what can he expect from playing with a team that struggles with achieving a .500 record every year?
The Pirates have finished fourth or fifth in the NL Central Division since 2017. The last time they earned a postseason berth was in 2015, when Andrew McCutchen was one of the top players in the league. The last time the Pirates made it to the National League Championship Series was in 1992, when Barry Bonds was playing for them. The last time the Pirates won a World Series was in 1979, when Hall of Famer Willie Stargell was still playing for the famous “We Are Family” team.
The Pirates’ roster doesn’t have a Stargell or a Bonds now. McCutchen, now 36 years old with diminishing skills, was back with the team last year for the first time since 2017.
In other words, the Pirates won’t have the equivalent of a Dylan Cruz, Skenes’s former LSU teammate. Cruz was LSU’s primary offensive weapon, capturing the Golden Spikes Award in 2023, as collegiate baseball’s best overall player. (By the way, Skenes finished second to Cruz in the voting for the prestigious award.)
The Pirates’ offense was anemic in 2023. They were third from the bottom of the National League in Runs Scored per Game, Batting Average, and OPS. Their lineup was constantly in a state of flux. Only three players (K’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds, and Jack Suwinski) had more than 500 plate appearances. The Pirates deployed a good number of kids to see if they could stick at the major-league level.
The Pirates struggled equally with their pitching. They allowed 132 more runs than the Pirates offense scored. They were below league average in Runs Allowed, ERA, and WHIP. Their brightest star was relief pitcher David Bednar, one of the best closers in the league (66 games, 2.00 ERA, 39 saves, 222 ERA+).
The Pirates gave their fans a false sense of optimism last year when they were leading the NL Central Division as late as June 11. But then they suffered a ten-game losing streak, sending them on a downward spiral for the rest of the season. They finished in fourth place, 16 game behind the division winner Milwaukee Brewers.
The Pirates obviously have a shortage of talent with their roster. But then one has to ask, why can’t the Pirates get better players? According to a USA Today article in April 2023, the Pirates were fourth from the bottom of all 30 major-league clubs in payroll, at $74 million. By comparison, even the clubs in the middle of the pack were spending twice as much as the Pirates (the No. 15 Cardinals with $175 million and the No. 16 Rockies with $171 million). The old adage “you get what you pay for” definitely applies to the Pirates. Furthermore, the Pirates haven’t been particularly adept at developing young prospects through their farm system over the years.
So, what’s in store for Skenes in 2024?
The Pirates’ front office was guarded in its use of Skenes last year, since he had put in a heavy workload during LSU’s championship run. He only had five outings in the minors, totaling 6 2/3 innings.
It’s likely Skenes will start out the 2024 season at the Double-A or Triple-A level to allow him more time to adjust to professional lineups. The Pirates will be overly cautious with their investment in Skenes, who signed for a whopping $9.2 million bonus. Perhaps by June 1, he could be called up to the big-league club. The Pirates will be careful early on, with strict pitch counts in his appearances. And because they won’t likely be in contention for the playoffs, Skenes will have a limit set on his total number of innings for the season.
Skenes showed that he was a flamethrower in his 19 appearances with LSU. He averaged 98-99 mph with his pitches during many of his games. If there is a concern about his future, it would be that his career would flame out because of the amount of stress he would put on his arm using that level of velocity in every outing of 6-7 innings in the majors. It’s happened before. Remember Mark Appel, the overall No. 1 draft pick of the Houston Astros in 2013, and Steven Strasburg, the overall No. 1 draft selection of the Washington Nationals? Skenes’s power-makeup has been compared to these highly-regarded college prospects.
I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen to Skenes. Good major-league hitters have proven they can successively barrel-up on 100-mph fastballs, if that’s all a pitcher has in his arsenal. If he can master his secondary pitches as alternatives to his blazing fastball, he should be able to prosper in the majors.
Let’s hope for the Pirates’ sake that Skenes will turn out like another one of their former overall No. 1 draft selections, pitcher Garret Cole, who has been in the Top 5 for Cy Young Award voting in six seasons of his 11 seasons. The only problem was Cole had to leave Pittsburgh to play for a winning organization.
By Richard Cuicchi | November 26, 2023 at 09:46 PM EST | No Comments
My piece below was originally published by IBWAA’s “Here’s the Pitch” on September 19, 2023.
As kids, brothers sometimes miss the opportunity to grow up as baseball teammates, usually because their age difference is more than three or four years. That situation usually carries over as teenagers when they get to high school or college. Yet if they have dreams of eventually playing professionally, one of their fantasies is often that they can play alongside each other on baseball’s biggest stage.
Brothers talented enough to be selected in MLB drafts or signed as international players, crave the opportunity for their fantasy to materialize. But the odds are against them. There have been only about 400 sets of brothers that reached the majors. That’s out of over 23,000 players to ever appear in the big leagues. So, when brothers reach the majors, it usually makes the headlines.
According to MLB.com, there were nearly 100 sets of brothers to play as teammates before the start of the 2023 season. It’s been another active year for brothers in the major leagues in 2023. The trend for family relationships, including father-son combos, seems to be growing. Even though all of this season’s brother pairs haven’t ended up as teammates--at least for now—it’s still a rare event even when they suit up on opposing sides.
Below is background information for big league brothers this season.
Taylor and Tyler Rogers, only the tenth set of twins to play in the majors, now pitch for the San Francisco Giants following the acquisition of Taylor as a free agent over the winter. They took very different paths to the majors. They played at different colleges and were drafted four years apart. Taylor made his debut with the Twins in 2016, while Tyler debuted with the Giants in 2013. They have been key members of one of the most effective bullpens in the National League this season.
Josh and Bo Naylor had been first-round picks in 2015 and 2018, respectively. They are currently teammates with the Cleveland Guardians and celebrated together when Bo recorded his first major-league hit on June 21. Josh had a 4-for-4 day, including a home run. Bo scored the winning run in a 7-6 win against Oakland. They have a younger brother Myles who was drafted in the first round in 2023 by the A’s.
Nathaniel and Josh Lowe had visions of playing together in the majors when they both started out in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. They became teammates in the minors, for parts of 2017 and 2018, but Nathaniel was traded to the Texas Rangers after the 2020 season before Josh made the Rays big league club in 2021. They became opponents for the first time on June 10, exchanging their club’s lineup cards at home plate before the game. Josh had the better day at the plate, going 2-for-4, while Nathaniel went hitless and struck out three times in the Rangers’ 8-4 win.
Curacao natives Richie and Joshua Palacios had previously played as teammates in winter ball in Puerto Rico and naturally jumped at the chance to play together for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic in March. On August 21 they had the opportunity to face off as opponents for the first time in the majors--Richie with St. Louis and Joshua with Pittsburgh. Joshua paced the Pirates’ 11-1 win with a home run and a double as he drove in five runs. Richie got a pinch-hit single. Richie provided the power the next day with a solo home run in another Pirates loss while Joshua went hitless.
David and Dominic Fletcher had also appeared as teammates in the WBC in March, playing for the Italian entry. David is a six-year veteran with the Los Angeles Angels, while Dominic made his major-league debut on April 30 with Arizona. They played against each other for the first time in the majors on July 1, in Anaheim Stadium where they had watched plenty of games as youngsters. Dominic hit an RBI-single while David went hitless in the D’backs’ win. The milestone was especially meaningful for the brothers, as their father had died suddenly earlier in the month.
Ramon and Luis Urias grew up in a Mexican town known for its baseball heritage. Even though Ramon was three years older than Luis, he took special care to pass on his knowledge of the game. His efforts paid off. Luis made his major-league debut with San Diego in 2018, while Ramon broke in with Baltimore two years later. They faced each other in the majors for the first time on June 6 when the Orioles opposed the Milwaukee Brewers. However, it wasn’t a good day for either brother. Ramon struck out four times for the Brewers, while Luis fanned twice in the Brewers’ 4-3 victory.
Gus Varland made his major-league debut with the Milwaukee Brewers on the first day of the 2023 season, joining his brother Louie who is in his second season with the Minnesota Twins. The right-handed pitchers had played together for Concordia University. Gus is now with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they haven’t had the chance to play against each other.
Parker Meadows made his major league debut for the Detroit Tigers on August 21. His brother Austin started the season with the Tigers but has been on the Injured List since the first week of April. The brothers will have to wait until next season to play together.
June 21 wasn’t a good day for brothers Tylor and Trevor Megill, as both were demoted to the minors on the same day. Tylor is in his third season as a starter with the New York Mets, while Trevor is in his third season as a reliever with the Milwaukee Brewers. The good news is that both returned to the majors about a month later. They have yet to oppose each other in a game.
Willson and William Contreras made national headlines last year as starters on the National League All-Star team. Wilson represented the Chicago Cubs, while Wilson played for the Atlanta Braves. They are both with new teams this season—William with the Milwaukee Brewers and Willson suiting up for the St. Louis Cardinals. They played against each other six times in 2023. William held the edge in hits, 5 to 3.
Phil and Nick Maton played in the same game on April 3, when Phil’s Houston Astros opposed Nick’s Detroit Tigers. However, Phil, an Astros middle reliever, did not have an opportunity to face his brother in the game won by the Tigers, 7-6. The first time they faced each other occurred in 2022 when Nick got a single.
Other brother combos who have appeared in the majors in 2023 include Aaron and Austin Nola, Yuli and Lourdes Gurriel, Jimmy and Peter Lambert, and Nick and Zack Burdi. New York Mets relief pitcher Edwin Diaz suffered a season-ending injury in WBC competition before the major-league season started, while his brother Alexis currently plays for the Cincinnati Reds.
By Richard Cuicchi | November 19, 2023 at 08:57 PM EST | No Comments
For the second year in a row, there will be a significant turnover in major league managers. For the 2023 season, seven managers were in their first full season. This fall has seen another dip on the roller coaster ride involving managerial jobs, since eight teams will realize a change in managers for the 2024 season. Think about it, half of the 30 MLB teams will have made a change in only two seasons.
With these turnovers, it’s been interesting to watch the direction each is taking in naming its replacement. Let’s go back and review some history of manager selections in the last dozen or so years and how it is affecting decisions today.
When AJ Hinch first became manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2009, it raised a lot of eyebrows about how wise his selection was made, since he had never coached or managed in the minors or majors. He opened the door for future managers, who also didn’t have prior experience. Mike Matheny followed in 2012 with the St. Louis Cardinals. With no prior experience, he turned out to be very successful during his first four seasons with the Cardinals, winning three division championships and one NL pennant in 2013.
At about the same time, baseball analytics were becoming mainstream within major-league organizations. Many front office positions in baseball operations were being filled with MBAs, data scientists, and software engineers, rather than the traditional baseball lifers who went into front office jobs after substantial playing or managerial careers. The “Moneyball” craze had taken hold.
As a consequence, general managers and their staff began to consider prospective manager candidates they thought would embrace baseball analytics concepts and steer the implementation. The result was a trend in younger, inexperienced managers who generally accepted the influence of their front office in setting daily lineups and using data-driven strategies in game situations.
In addition to Hinch and Matheny, some of the other “newer style” managers in 2023 included Aaron Boone, Rocco Baldelli, David Ross, Gabe Kapler, and Scott Servais. They had all been major-league players, some had worked in front office jobs, but none had managed a team at a minor-league or major-league level before their first assignment.
But there remained a number of “old school” managers in the game, those who weren’t ready or willing to embrace these new approaches to the game. They came up through the more traditional path of managerial careers. They didn’t speak the analytics “language.” They operate more on past experience, gut instincts, and decision-making norms that had been around for decades. Some of these in 2023 included Buck Showalter, Dusty Baker, Terry Francona, Bud Black, Brian Snitker and Bruce Bochy.
That’s not to say “old school” managers can’t operate effectively in today’s game. 73-year-old Baker won the World Series with the Astros in 2022, and 68-year-old Bochy came out of retirement to lead the Rangers to their first-ever World Series championship in 2023. They successfully managed to bridge the gap with front offices by having analytics applied through their coaching staff who could implement the new approaches. Snitker, who was 60 years old in his first managerial job in 2016 with the Braves, captured the World Series in 2021. On the other hand, the Los Angeles Angels’ veteran manager Joe Maddon reportedly clashed with his front office over how to manage the team, and he was dismissed 56 games into his third season.
So, let’s look at each new manager selection for 2024.
New Astros manager Joe Espada came up through the traditional path to his first major-league manager’s job. He served as a major-league coach with the Marlins and Yankees before becoming the bench coach with the Astros. Espada, 48, had previous experience as a manager in the Puerto Rican Winter League and the 2017 World Baseball Classic. He had previously been interviewed by several major-league clubs for a manager’s job.
The Chicago Cubs returned to an experienced manager to replace David Ross, who had never held a managerial position prior to his Cubs assignment. Craig Counsell leaves the Milwaukee Brewers after nine seasons to replace Ross, who had a .480 winning percentage in his four seasons. Counsell went from a front office job with the Brewers to his first managerial job at any level in 2015.
Pat Murphy replaces Counsell as the Brewers’ manager. It is his first permanent major-league manager’s position. (He was interim manager with the San Diego Padres in 2015). He had a distinguished career as a college head coach, including stints at Notre Dame and Arizona State. Murphy, 64, spent the last nine seasons as bench coach for the Brewers.
The Cleveland Guardians are taking the youth route in replacing long-time manager Terry Francona, who retired after 11 seasons with the club. New 38-year-old manager Stephen Vogt retired as a player after the 2022 season and spent 2023 as bullpen and quality control coach for the Seattle Mariners. He seems like a huge gamble for a team that has made the playoffs in six out of the last eight seasons.
First-time major-league manager Carlos Mendoza takes over for Buck Showalter with the New York Mets. At age 43, this is Mendoza’s first managerial assignment. He spent 15 years in the New York Yankees organization, including the last four seasons as bench coach. A native of Venezuela, Mendoza is bilingual, which will come in handy with the Latino players.
71-year-old Ron Washington will return to the managerial ranks after ten seasons, replacing the Angels’ Phil Nevin. Washington managed the Texas Rangers during 2007-2014, when he became the winningest skipper in Rangers history. He won back-to-back AL pennants in 2010 and 2011. Since 2014 he has been third base coach for the Oakland A’s and Atlanta Braves. He is well-known for developing infielders.
The San Francisco Giants are replacing four-year manager Gabe Kapler with Bob Melvin, who was manager of the San Diego Padres last season. Kapler had epitomized the “new style” managers, gaining attention after leading the Giants to 107 victories in 2021, but falling to .500 during the next two seasons. This will be Melvin’s fifth major-league manager’s job.
The San Diego Padres have yet to name Melvin’s replacement. The team decided to defer their selection until after Thanksgiving, following the death of Padres chairman Peter Seidler last week. There are several experienced managers available, including Don Mattingly, Joe Maddon, Mike Matheny, and Joe Girardi.
At the end of the day, most major-league owners care more about wins than what type of manager they hire. But then you have a few teams like the Oakland A’s or the Kansas City Royals, where it doesn’t matter who the manager is—they don’t spend enough money on their rosters to produce playoff-caliber teams.
It’s a pretty good bet current managers Oliver Marmol (Cardinals), Pedro Grifol (White Sox), Bud Black (Rockies), Dave Martinez (Nationals), and Aaron Boone (Yankees) will be among those on the hot seat if they produce similar results next year.
By Richard Cuicchi | November 12, 2023 at 10:25 PM EST | No Comments
The Jesuit High School family was saddened by the passing of Tim Parenton on October 30. He played high school sports at a time when athletes routinely participated in multiple sports. In Parenton’s case, he excelled at Jesuit High School in football and baseball, while also lettering in basketball and track. Altogether, he earned 11 letters during his Jesuit career. In 1982, he was named the school’s Football Player of the Decade for the 1970s by the Times-Picayune.
Parenton refined his baseball skills as an infielder in Babe Ruth and Metro Prep Baseball leagues. He joined other players on those teams who would eventually become a core group of teammates at Jesuit.
As a junior in 1979, he anchored the Blue Jay infield at shortstop. Led by All-State pitcher Dickie Wentz, Coach Frank Misuraca’s Jesuit squad defeated New Iberia for the state prep championship. Playing for the Jesuit-based Odeco American Legion team, Parenton helped them win the 1979 state championship over Abe’s Grocery from Lake Charles.
Parenton missed the non-district baseball games in 1980 so that he could finish the Blue Jay basketball season. He eventually joined 10 senior members of the team, including six other starters from the previous season that included Wentz, John Faciane, Casey Snyder, Rodney Lenfant, Brian Shearman, and Gregg Barrios.
Jesuit won the first-round of district play, defeating Rummel twice. Rummel prevailed in the second round, defeating Jesuit twice to win the district title. Both teams advanced to the state playoffs, where Jesuit captured its second straight prep championship by defeating Rummel in the finals.
The Jesuit team proceeded to win its second straight state American Legion title and advance to the Legion World Series, but without Parenton. Instead, he opted to begin preparations for his freshman season in football at Mississippi State.
Parenton had been a four-year football letterman for the Blue Jays. He assumed the starting quarterback position in his sophomore year. Running the wishbone offense, Jesuit finished with a 4-6 record.
In the following season, the 5-foot-10 Parenton led the resurgent Blue Jays to a 10-1 regular-season record. Advancing to the state playoffs, they ended up as the runner-up to St. Augustine in an exciting 13-7 championship game before a Superdome crowd of 42,000. Parenton was recognized for his outstanding season at the National Sports Foundation’s Banquet of Champions.
In his senior season, continuing to run the high risk wishbone, Parenton suffered a separated shoulder in a game against St. Augustine which required surgery to repair. He missed Jesuit’s final two games of the season.
He was included in the Times-Picayune’s Blue Chip list representing the top football seniors in the New Orleans areas. He accepted a football/baseball scholarship to attend Mississippi State.
Parenton earned letters in football and baseball at Mississippi State. He continued his career in baseball as a coach and manager at the college and professional levels. In between some of those positions, he returned to Jesuit as head baseball coach in 2008-2010. His 2008 squad was runner-up to Barbe in the state finals. In 2009, he named District 10-5A Coach of the Year, as Jesuit won the district title.
Parenton’s former Jesuit baseball coach, Frank Misuraca, remembers him as a very competitive player, always giving 100%, no matter what sport he was playing. He said, “Tim fit in well on a team of talented players in 1979 and 1980. His consistency was key to being an excellent player.”
Jesuit pitcher Dickie Wentz had high praise for former teammate. He shared recently, “I think of Tim beyond just playing ball. He was Jesuit and encapsulated everything you would want a ‘Jesuit man’ or any person to be. He was kind, generous, intelligent and humble. As an athlete he had an incredible, innate intelligence. He could slow the game down in his head, see the field or the court, and make crucial decisions in an instant. And of course, he had the tremendous physical ability to match.” Wentz added, “As a teammate in both baseball and football, Tim was the kind of leader you can only hope for--rock steady, confident and always there for his teammates.”
Parenton would be an anomaly today. It’s hard to find an amateur athlete who plays more than one sport, let alone four sports. His legacy is secure at Jesuit High School and the New Orleans area.
By Richard Cuicchi | November 05, 2023 at 07:55 PM EST | No Comments
The Texas Rangers won the first World Series in their 52 year history in dominating fashion over the Arizona Diamondbacks. And if you count their legacy team Washington Senators, who preceded them as a franchise, you could add 11 more years to their previous futility. The only other times the Rangers appeared in the World Series was in 2010 and 2011.
Manager Bruce Bochy deserves much of the credit for Texas’ results. Coming out of retirement, it was reasonable to expect the three-time World Series winner with San Francisco could get the Rangers to break .500 for the first time since 2016.
But the Rangers ended up winning 90 games, 22 more than 2022. Surely no one expected the Rangers to lead the AL West for most of the season. Despite their awful streak between August 16 and September 8, when they won only four games, they still had a chance at a division title on the last day of the season. I attribute Bochy’s experience as responsible for not allowing the Rangers to completely disintegrate toward the end of the season.
So, Bochy did what Ron Washington was unable to do in 2010 and 2011. A New Orleans native, Washington got the Rangers to their first-ever World Series in franchise history in 2010 against the Giants, followed by a second appearance the next year against the Cardinals.
A baseball lifer, Washington got his first managerial job with the Rangers in 2007. Prior to that he had been a major-league coach for the Oakland A’s for 11 seasons. He began coaching and managing at the minor-league level following his retirement as a 20-year player in 1990.
In the 2010 World Series, Washington’s Rangers ran into the San Francisco Giants’ formidable pitching staff that included Tim Linceum, Madison Bumgardner, and Matt Cain. The Rangers were handily beaten in five games.
Determined to avenge their beating the year before, the Rangers’ 2011 high-powered offense (with Adrian Beltre, Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler) teamed with one of the best pitching staffs in the league to face the Cardinals, led by Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman.
The Rangers led with three wins after the first five games. They had the Series-clenching win in hand in Game 6, leading 7-5 going into the ninth inning. The Rangers were only one pitch away from capturing the Series, but David Freese saved the Cardinals with a game-tying two-run triple in the bottom of the ninth.
The Rangers regained the lead in the top of the 10th on a two-run blast by Josh Hamilton. The resilient Cardinals retaliated with two runs to even the score, 9-9, but not before there was a second situation in which the Rangers were only one pitch away from winning. With a two-out, 2-2 count, Lance Berkman delivered a game-tying single.
In the bottom of the 11th, leadoff batter David Freese delivered a walk-off home run to clinch Game 6. The Cardinals went on to win in Game 7, thus denying Washington and the Rangers their chance for World Series glory.
Those Texas teams still hold a place in his heart, although it is broken heart. Washington said, “When things don’t work out the way the way you want them to work out, you got to pick up the pieces and you got to move on.”
“Wash,” as he is affectionately called by his players, did move on. Now 71 years old, he has been a coach for the Atlanta Braves since 2017. He finally got his World Series ring in 2021 as the third-case coach for the Braves.
By Richard Cuicchi | October 29, 2023 at 08:20 PM EDT | No Comments
The Arizona Diamondbacks claimed the last wild-card spot in the National League with an 84-78 record, barely beating out the Chicago Cubs who had 83 wins. By most measures, the Diamondbacks were a below average team during the regular season, yet they found themselves as the National League champion with a berth in the World Series facing the Texas Rangers.
In two stats that measure overall batting and pitching performance, the Diamondbacks had a 98 OPS+ and 98 ERA+, both slightly below league average. The team’s season run differential (runs scored minus runs allowed) was minus 15. Their record against teams with winning records was 40-50. Arizona’s second-place finish in the West Division was a whopping 16 games behind the Dodgers.
A first blush, it seemed the Diamondbacks didn’t belong in the playoffs. That’s what I had postulated to my baseball buddies. The team didn’t have players whose names rolled off the tip of our tongue, you know--MVPs, Cy Young Award winners, and other long-time All-Stars.
So how do you figure that they would sweep their way into the National League Championship Series? It was impressive the way they sent Milwaukee and Los Angeles packing without a victory in the Wild Card Series and Division Series, respectively. You could somewhat rationalize their wins over the Brewers who weren’t exactly a powerhouse team during the regular season. But their three-game sweep of the Dodgers seemed out of character for the Dodgers who had defeated the Diamondbacks in eight of their 13 regular-season games, on their way to winning 100 games (second most in the NL).
The Dodgers must have forgotten how to hit, collecting only 17 hits in three NLDS games. Plus, none of the Dodgers’ starting pitchers went more than three innings. Some observers claim the extended layoff the Dodgers enjoyed by clinching the division early and drawing the bye in the first round of the playoffs was to blame for their poor performance.
It appeared as though Philadelphia would put the upstart Diamondback in their place by convincingly winning the first two games of the NLCS, behind the pitching of starters Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. Phillies hitters banged out six home runs in the two games, including three by Kyle Schwaber.
But the Diamondbacks weren’t ready to check out, as they evened the series at home. Ketel Marte demonstrated why he’s the unsung star of the team by going 5-for-9 in Arizona’s two wins. Wheeler stopped the Diamondbacks from sweeping at home, as he picked up his third win of the postseason in Game 5.
With Nola (3-0 in the postseason) slated to start in Game 6, it looked promising that the Phillies would be returning to the World Series. Yet the surprising Diamondbacks had other ideas. They took a tactic out of the Phillies’ playbook and got ahead early in Game 6. Nola was flat, and the D’backs won handily to force a Game 7.
It was Philadelphia’s turn to forget how to hit in Game 7, as six Diamondback pitchers held the Phillies to five hits, none after the fifth inning. Rookie Corbin Carroll provided the spark at bat and on the bases. The D’backs were grinders, bringing “small ball” back into the game.
The Diamondbacks returned to the World Series for the first time since 2001, when they prevented the Yankees from winning their fourth straight world championship ring. As of Saturday, they were even with the Rangers after two games. Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly pitched the game of his life, shutting down the Rangers’ big bats in Game 2. The Series could very well go seven games.
The Diamondbacks have shown us in the postseason that every team starts out with a 0-0 record, regardless of whether they won 104 games (like the Atlanta Braves) or 84 (like Arizona) in the regular season. And they have proved “small ball” still has a place in the game.
If you’re wondering whether any other team in history has pulled off what the Diamondbacks are attempting, the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series after winning only 83 regular-season games.
Many of us learned about the athleticism and grit of several relatively unfamiliar players on the Diamondbacks’ roster. Whether they end up winning the World Series or not, I have a feeling they won’t be taking opposing teams, or the fans, by surprise in the coming seasons, like they’ve done this year.
By Richard Cuicchi | October 22, 2023 at 08:43 PM EDT | No Comments
We’ve seen a lot of change in baseball in the past decade. It was perhaps never more evident than the rules changes implemented in the 2023 season designed to enhance the fans’ interest. For the most part, the results were what MLB intended.
We tend to think that most of the ideas for change have been the brainchild of current baseball analysts and strategists, as well as Major League Baseball. That’s generally true, but a look back at 50-60 years ago shows there was no shortage of innovation ideas in the game, some of which were still relevant today.
In my research activities related to writing about baseball history, I noticed several articles from The Sporting News in the 1960s that addressed innovations being considered then, some of which are finally being implemented today. The changes at that time were identified by some of baseball’s legendary figures of the game, including owner Charlie Finley and executive Branch Rickey.
Here are several TSN references mentioning changes thought to be innovative at the time. The comments are my observations of what has transpired since the 1960s.
“Greed Prevents a Third Major, Mahatma Insists”
The Sporting News, 12/21/1963, page 12, Melvin Durslag
Synopsis: Branch Rickey asserted that the expansion in baseball at the time was a mistake. Instead, he was a proponent of a third major league, whose champions would settle the World Series with round-robin play.
Rickey had been the leader of the proposed Continental League slated to begin play in 1961. However, his plan dissolved in 1960 when the American League and National League, then consisting of eight teams each, decided to expand.
Comment:Arguments over diluting existing team revenues likely killed Rickey’s idea back then. Expansion of the leagues has brought the current total number of teams to 30, while including some minor restructuring of the leagues. MLB is reportedly considering more significant restructuring of the two leagues, possibly including additional teams outside of the US continent.
“Bust Up Farm Chains—Richards”
The Sporting News, 1/19/1963, page 1, Clifford Kachline
Synopsis: Paul Richards, then GM of the Colt .45s (former name of the Astros), predicted the minor leagues would be dead within five years and that only a return to independent operation in the minors would avert this outcome. He contended that games in the minors were no longer played to determine the pennant winner, but strictly for developmental purposes. He suggested that in their place, major league clubs should operate concentrated camps and glorified winter leagues playing in the summer to develop their talent.
Comment: The minors still exist, but beginning in 2019, MLB took control of the minor league clubs affiliated with major-league teams and reduced the number of minor-league teams by 25%. Independent baseball teams are not affiliated with MLB teams. With the seemingly constant movement of players between the major league clubs and their farm teams today, there is indeed less importance on league titles, as Richards observed 60 years ago. Improvements in college baseball player development have also lessened the dependency on the minor leagues.
“Finley’s Night World Series Plan Put on Major’s Agenda”
The Sporting News, 11/30/63
Synopsis: Charles Finley asserted that by playing World Series games at night, baseball would have better exposure because of larger television audiences in the evenings. He also suggested playing the All-Star Game at night for the same reason.
Comment:The first night game in the World Series was Game 4 in 1971 in Pittsburgh.All Series games have been played at night since Game 6 in 1987. For the reasons touted by Finley in 1963, it is unlikely the World Series or All-Star Games will ever see another day-time game.
“Fan Poll Backs Inter-League Play, 2-1”
The Sporting News, 2/2/1963, page 1, Bob Burnes
Synopsis: According to a questionnaire circulated by The Sporting News, fans voted by a 2 to 1 margin, they would like to see American League teams meet National League foes for at least one series a season. Its opposition saw inter-league play as creating the potential to lessen the importance of and interest in the World Series. Other opposing views included thinking that the weaker teams would lose even more attendance, and fans, as well as the players, would look upon the games as exhibitions.
Comment: Interleague play was introduced in 1997. Fan interest in the interleague series was high, particularly with teams in the same cities/regions. It never detracted from post-season competition. As of the 2023 season, every team in the majors plays at least one three-game series against the other 29 teams.
“20-Second Clock Okayed in Texas Loop’s Speed-Up” The Sporting News, 2/2/1963, page 32, Bob Ingram
Synopsis: In an attempt to speed up the game, the Texas League adopted a timer clock for the 1963 season to allow hurlers a maximum of only 20 seconds between pitches. When the time expired a siren would sound. The umpires would call balls on slow hurlers. The electronically-controlled clocks would be operated from the press box.
Comment:The length of games and pace of play remained key issues for Major League Baseball for the next sixty years. After several years of testing in the minors, the implementation of the pitch timer in 2023 contributed significantly to a reduction of elapsed game times by an average of 24 minutes.
“Charley’s Brilliant Idea; Electronic Men in Blue”
The Sporting News, 2/1/1964, page 4
Synopsis: In the 1960s major-league player Charley James developed a concept for an electronic umpire as part of an engineering class project while at Washington University.He estimated the cost of such a device would be $50,000. His concept would not have eliminated the human umpire, but the device would help umpires improve their judgment in calling pitches.
Comment: The ABS (Automated Ball/Strike System) has been tested in the minors for the past couple of years. While a specific timeframe for utilization has not been established for the majors, it is only a matter of time before the technology underlying the calling of balls and strikes will be used. The new system will not totally eliminate the need for a home plate umpire.
“Let Sub Swing in Hurler’s Turn at Dish—Mauch”
The Sporting News, 2/2/1963, page 21, Allen Lewis
Phillies manager Gene Mauch requested permission to pinch-hit for his pitchers without having to remove them from spring training exhibition games. At the time, he was not advocating such a rule change during the regular season. In his proposal, before the game he would designate one man to hit for the pitcher without having to take the pitcher out of the game.
Comment:An official position for the designated hitter was instituted in the American League in 1973. However, it was not implemented in the National League until 2022. Many baseball “traditionalists” still prefer pitchers hitting for themselves, but it has certainly resulted in changes in game strategy and roster makeup.
“Orange Baseball’s Introduced Six Years Ago by Semi-Pros”
The Sporting News, 12/28/1963, page 2
Synopsis: A’s owner Charlie Finley suggested the use of orange baseballs because they would be easier to see by the players. In fact, semi-pro teams in the National Baseball Congress had been using orange baseballs, known as the Glo-Bal, for six years prior to Finley’s suggestion.
Comment:In 1970, the A’s introduced the use of orange baseballs in spring training games, but this is one idea that was never adopted by Major League Baseball.
By Richard Cuicchi | October 15, 2023 at 10:13 PM EDT | No Comments
If you saw the following season records for an MLB team, without an identification of what years were involved or who the team was, who would you say it was?
Season 1 – First place in division, Won WS
Season 2 – First place in division, Lost ALCS
Season 3 – First place in division, Lost WS
Season 4 – Second place in division, Lost ALCS
Season 5 – First place in division, Lost WS
Season 6 – First place in division, Won WS
If you’re thinking the Yankees (1996-2003), Atlanta Braves (1991-1999), Los Angeles Dodgers (2016-2021), or San Francisco Giants (2010-2014), you’d be wrong.
It’s the Houston Astros, the latest franchise to stake its claim as a “dynasty” team. With their victory over the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series, they are making their seventh straight appearance in the League Championship Series.
The Astros were one of the first teams to do a complete makeover of the roster from 2011 to 2014. I think they even surprised themselves when they made the playoffs in 2015—it was a year ahead of their makeover schedule.
In the rebuilt roster, Houston’s front office came up with their own version of the “Core Four” (like the Yankees of the mid-1990s through the 2000s.) with Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, George Springer and Carlos Correa, all of whom carried the team offensively from 2017 through 2020.
Springer and Correa bolted for free agency in 2021 and 2022, respectively; yet the Astros replaced them with equal or better talent in Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, and Jose Pena. So the Astros have benefitted from lineup consistency over those years. And the impressive part of this situation is that these were all home-grown players from the Astros farm system.
From a pitching standpoint, their farm system has also produced a corps of young starters that has served them well, including Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. They were supplemented with free-agent veterans like Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke, and Gerrit Cole.
And the good news about most of their players, both pitchers and position players, is that they are under team control for the next 2-3 years. So we could see a continuation of their success during the next few years.
The other factor going for the Astros has been Dusty Baker. He’s another big reason for the team’s consistency. He was just what the Astros needed –a steady hand--following their sign-stealing scandal. However, he’s 74 years old, so it’s not certain how much more time he will spend in the dugout. If the Astros were to win the World Series again this year, I could see Baker riding off into the sunset after the season, with a pretty certain case for a plaque in the Hall of Fame.
I realize the term “dynasty team” is often used carelessly. There really isn’t a commonly accepted definition. While the aforementioned Braves and Dodgers won a string of division titles, they didn’t win a commensurate number of World Series rings. The Bronx Bombers and Big Red Machine are more readily acknowledged as dynasty teams. Maybe the Astros aren’t in the same club just yet, but would they be with a couple more World Series championships?
By Richard Cuicchi | September 24, 2023 at 10:01 PM EDT | No Comments
Stolen Bases: A Rejuvenated Offensive Weapon
MLB has instituted several rule changes that favor the use of stolen bases. They have re-emerged as an offensive weapon. Ronald Acuna Jr. has attained the 40-40 Club (40 home runs and 40 stolen bases) this year, joining Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, and Alfonso Soriano as the only players to reach these combination of milestones. Acuna is also the first in the 40-60 Club and with two more steals, the 40-70 Club. Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez made it to the 30-30 Club, and there are 13 players who reached the 20-20 Club. Just eight years ago, there were only four players that reached 20-20.
Ohtani: A Money Machine
Sports Illustrated recently reported that the Angels’ superstar Shohei Ohtani will earn a non-baseball income that exceeds his baseball salary this year. Forbes estimates an income of $35 million from endorsement partners this year, while his salary is $30 million with the Angels. By comparison, Aaron Judge’s non-baseball income this year is $4.5 million. Some analysts believe Ohtani will command the first $500 million contract in sports history, including the NFL, NBA, and NHL. He will be a free agent after this season.
Spencer Strider: Keeping Company with Braves HOF Pitchers
Atlanta pitcher Spencer Strider is doing his best imitation of Braves Hall of Fame pitchers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. As of Saturday, he leads the National League in wins (18), Strikeouts (270), Fielding Independent Pitching (2.81), WHIP (1.063), and SO/9 (13.8). He’ll be a strong candidate for the Cy Young Award. The three Hall of Famers collected seven awards between them. Amazingly, all three played as teammates.
Kyle Schwarber: Unconventional Leadoff Hitter
Normally you wouldn’t think of a team’s leadoff batter hitting 45 home runs. Baseball-Reference displayed some distinctive stats for Philly’s Kyle Schwarber as their leadoff hitter. As of last Thursday, he was batting .196. 63 of his 109 total hits were extra-base hits, including 45 home runs. But his On-Base Percentage (OBP) is .344 (league average is .3xx), because he has walked 123 times. He has 99 RBIs. The only knock on him is that he has struck out 207 times. His total for the “three true outcomes” (comprised of walks, home runs, and strikeouts—those plate appearances in which only the opposition’s pitcher and catcher are involved) is a whopping 54.4%. The National League average is 34.3%.
AL West Division: Going Down to the Wire
Houston, Texas, and Seattle have been battling back and forth for the last couple of weeks for the division title and possibly one or two additional playoff teams. And it appears the battle will continue through the last few games of the regular season. None of the teams seem to want to separate themselves from the others. For example, the Astros lost three series to two of the worst teams in the league—the Royals (twice) and the A’s. Texas lost three games to the Guardians, a team it’s supposed to beat. Seattle can’t seem to break the Rangers.
St. Louis Cardinals: Most Disappointing Season
I don’t think anyone foresaw the pitiful showing by the Cardinals this year. For a team that won the NL Central title in 2022 to finish dead last in the division this year was unthinkable. It’s true the Reds and Pirates improved over last year, but they weren’t blowing teams away. The Cardinals stand to finish 20-25 games worse than last year. Offensively they were slightly better than league average, but their pitching was second from the bottom of the league. The Mets weren’t too far behind the Cardinals in having the most disappointing season.