Monthly Archives: January 2017

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 10

Harry Wright (1835)
Chick Stahl (1873)
Del Pratt (1888)
Ziggy Sears (1892)
Max Patkin (1920)
George Strickland (1926)
Jim O'Toole (1937)
Willie McCovey (1938)
Chuck Dobson (1944)
Wilfredo Sanchez (1948)
Richard Dotson (1959)
Kelvin Torve (1960)
Wally Bell (1965)
Kevin Baez (1967)
Gary Rath (1973)
Adam Kennedy (1976)

 Outfielder Ziggy Sears played in the minors for sixteen years, mostly in the Texas League.  He once drove in eleven runs in a game.  He was a National League umpire from 1934-1945.

Max Patkin was a well-known baseball clown from 1944-1995.

Wilfredo Sanchez was a star in Cuba from 1968-1986, winning five batting titles.

Wally Bell was a major league umpire from 1992-2013, when he passed away from a heart attack.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–January 10 →

Games

The Games We Play: Christmas Wrap Up

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Did everyone give new games for Christmas? Did everyone get new games for Christmas? Games were popular in our household, so I thought a rundown might be appropriate.

Kids Division:

Connect Four - My kids got it from someone. It's a classic at that age for a reason. Simple, but the game holds up, and they're loving it.

Race To The Treasure - DG shared this one during the last Games post, and I'd like to echo his recommendation. My kids have enjoyed this game immensely. The mechanic is simple - draw a tile, place it on the board, build a path that collects the required keys and get to the end before you draw too many troll tiles. I was worried the game would be too easy - and it borders on that - but we've just made it more difficult by requiring 4 keys instead of 3. Aquinas has played the game a number of times on his own too, and has made variations as he sees fit. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

Outfoxed - RPZ recommend this one. When I looked (a week-and-a-half out or more)I couldn't find it anywhere that would get it delivered before Christmas, so we didn't get it, and haven't played it. But I read up on it, and it seems strong enough that I'm excited to chase it down in the future.

Grown Ups Division

King Of Tokyo - Highest recommendation for this game, particularly for more casual gamers. Simple mechanics (roll dice, pick the ones you want to keep), multiple ways to win (smash other players, gain points), multiple ways to accomplish those tasks (roll dice, buy cards, hold the city), and cards you can buy during the game that effectively make each game significantly different. Aquinas is 7 and loves the game. He's not the greatest at it all the time, but once or twice he has come up with fantastic strategies that I didn't see, and won the game with them. So it's easy enough, but complex enough to be enjoyable many times over. Also, by Richard Garfield, the same guy what made Magic: The Gathering.

Hanabi - A simple cooperative card game that is incredibly difficult to win. There are 5 colors and 5 numbers. The goal is to create a pile of each color, in numbered order (Blue 1 - 5, Red 1 - 5, etc.). You play with your cards facing away from you, so all the others can see them but you can't. You then move around the circle either playing cards from you hand (if it's the next card on the stack, you can play it, if it's wrong, you discard it) or giving hints to other players. There are only a few of each card number though, and you can run out of hints to give, so you need to be very careful about your path forward. I played this with some darn intelligent folks and we never won (though we found out we were handcuffing ourselves a little bit, which might have changed 1 out of like 4 results... Maybe.). A great challenge.

500 - Look, it's a classic, and we played a bunch of it.

Adult Division

Cards Against Humanity - I'm well aware that I'm late to the party on this one, but I've played it now, and yes, it was fun and funny and awful. There were a number of things that I needed to avoid googling. So I felt good about that?

Codenames: After Dark - A slightly racier, more scatological take on the original, which is a great party game. Basically, the clue givers give a single word clue and how many cards on a common board that the clue applies to. They can't say anything more or otherwise hint in any way. The trick is that some of those words on the common board belong to the other team, and one is an assassin, so you need to be careful in your clues, and good luck in your guesses. The After Dark variant sets it up so that the clue givers are often in the position of saying things like "boob" or "poop." It's not really particularly adult, but it tries to be. Still a very fun game, and I recommend any version of it.

So what did you get? What did you give? What did you play? What are you excited to try?

Keeping Track

Winter Wonderland: Games of January 7-8

GAMES OF JANUARY 7

VENEZUELAN LEAGUE

ANZOATEGUI 13, LA GUAIRA 2 IN LA GUAIRA

Leading 3-2, Anzoategui scored six in the fifth to put the game out of reach.  Oswaldo Arcia was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk for Anzoategui, scoring twice and driving in four.

Anzoategui leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.

MARGARITA 2, LARA 1 IN MARGARITA (16 INNINGS)

Lara scored in the third, Margarita scored in the fifth, and that was it until the sixteenth, when Jesus Aguilar's two-out single brought home Junior Sosa with the winning run.  Omar Bencomo pitched seven innings for Margarita, giving up one run on three hits and two walks with two strikeouts.  Jose Osuna was 5-for-6 with two walks for Margarita.  Aguilar was 4-for-8.  Sosa was 3-for-5 with three walks and an RBI.  Lara used thirteen pitchers and Margarita used nine.

Margarita leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.

DOMINICAN LEAGUE

GIGANTES 7, ESCOGIDO 6 AT GIGANTES

Pedro Lopez doubled home a run in the top of the eighth to put Escogido up 6-5, but RBI singles by Nelson Cruz and Maikel Franco gave the victory to the Gigantes.  Jorge Polanco was 1-for-4 with a walk and a run for Escogido.  Franco was 3-for-4 with a walk for the Gigantes, scoring twice and driving in two.

STANDINGS

Aguilas, 8-1
Gigantes, 3-5
Licey, 3-5
Escogido, 3-6

PUERTO RICAN LEAGUE

SANTURCE 11, CAROLINA 0 IN SANTURCE

Leading 2-0, Santurce had an eight-run inning to take control of the game.  Darin Downs pitched four shutout innings for Santurce, giving up two hits and no walks with three strikeouts.

Santurce leads the best-of-seven series 2-1.

CAGUAS 5, MAYAGUEZ 4 IN MAYAGUEZ

Randy Ruiz hit a three-run homer in the fifth to take a 5-1 lead and held on from there.  Mayaguez had the tying run in scoring position in the seventh and ninth but could not bring him home.  Eddie Rosario was 2-for-4 with a double for Mayaguez, scoring twice and driving in one.  Benji Gonzalez was 1-for-3 for Mayaguez.  Kennys Vargas was 1-for-4 for Mayaguez.  Dereck Rodriguez pitched a scoreless inning for Mayaguez, giving up two walks with one strikeout.  John Brownell pitched 5.2 innings for Caguas, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

Mayaguez leads the best-of-seven series 2-1.

MEXICAN LEAGUE

LOS MOCHIS 4, MAZATLAN 3 IN MAZATLAN

With the score tied 3-3 in the seventh, Sebastian Valle doubled, went to third on a bunt, and scored on a sacrifice fly to give Los Mochis a lead they held the rest of the way.  Leandro Castro was 0-for-4 for Los Mochis.  Mazatlan out-hit Los Mochis 15-5 but stranded thirteen men.

Los Mochis wins the best-of-seven series 4-1.

CULIACAN 6, HERMOSILLO 2 IN HERMOSILLO

Culiacan scored one in the first and then got a single run in each of innings five through nine to win the game.  Daniel Rodriguez struck out seven in six innings for Culiacan, giving up two runs on three hits and a walk.

Culiacan leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.

NAVOJOA 8, MEXICALI 6 IN MEXICALI

Quincy Latimore hit a three-run homer to cap a six-run fourth that put Navojoa in the lead to stay.  Mexicali closed to 8-6 in the seventh and had the tying run on base in the seventh and the eighth.  Jesus Castillo was 3-for-4 with a double and a walk for Navojoa, scoring once and driving in three.  Niko Vasquez also homered for Navojoa.

Mexicali leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.

GAMES OF JANUARY 8

VENEZUELAN LEAGUE

No games scheduled.

DOMINICAN LEAGUE

AGUILAS 6, ESCOGIDO 2 IN ESCOGIDO

The Aguilas scored one in each of the first three innings and got three in the ninth to put the game out of reach.  Danny Santana was 2-for-4 with a triple and an RBI for the Aguilas.  Jorge Polanco was 2-for-4 for Escogido.  Jose Urena pitched five innings for the Aguilas, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk with one strikeout.  Samuel Deduno used his magical zoomball to pitch two perfect innings for the Aguilas, striking out two.

LICEY 2, GIGANTES 1 AT GIGANTES (12 INNINGS)

It was 1-1 after four and stayed there until the twelfth, when Yamaico Navarro drew a two-out walk, stole second, and scored on a Hanley Ramirez single.  The Gigantes used ten pitchers and Licey used nine.  Jason Rogers was 3-for-5 with a double for Licey.

STANDINGS

Aguilas, 9-1
Licey, 4-5
Gigantes, 3-6
Escogido, 3-7

PUERTO RICAN LEAGUE

CAGUAS 2, MAYAGUEZ 1 IN CAGUAS (12 INNINGS)

A bases-loaded walk to Rey Navarro with two out in the twelfth produced the literal "walk"off win.  Eddie Rosario was 1-for-5 for Mayaguez.  Kennys Vargas was 0-for-5 for Mayaguez.  Benji Gonzalez was 0-for-4 for Mayaguez.  Orlando Roman pitched six hitless innings for Caguas, allowing just one walk and two strikeouts.  Randy Ruiz was 3-for-5 with an RBI for Caguas.

The best-of-seven series is tied 2-2.

SANTURCE 2, CAROLINA 0 IN CAROLINA

Santurce scored single runs in the second and sixth.  J. J. Fernandez was 0-for-3 for Carolina.  Adalberto Flores pitched five shutout innings for Santurce, giving up four hits and a walk with three strikeouts.  Abiatal Avelino was 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI for Santurce.

Santurce leads the best-of-seven series 3-1.

MEXICAN LEAGUE

MEXICALI 6, NAVOJOA 4 IN NAVAOJOA (10 INNINGS)

Navojoa led 3-0 after three, but it was tied 4-4 after five and Mexicali got two in the tenth to take the game.  Jon Del Campo was 4-for-5 with two runs and an RBI for Mexicali.  C. J. Retherford hit a home run for Mexicali.

Mexicali wins the best-of-seven series 4-2.

HERMOSILLO 5, CULIACAN 4 IN CULIACAN

Culiacan took a 4-0 lead in the fourth, but Hermosillo got three in the fifth and scored two unearned runs in the seventh to win.  Barry Enright pitched seven innings for Hermosillo, allowing four unearned runs on four hits and a walk with two strikeouts.

The best-of-seven series is tied 3-3.

AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE

CANBERRA 6, ADELAIDE 1 IN ADELAIDE

Already leading 2-1, Canberra got two-run doubles from Robbie Perkins and River Stevens in the sixth inning to put the game out of reach.  Scott Cone pitched 4.1 innings for Canberra, giving up one run on four hits and a walk with one strikeout.

MELBOURNE 5, BRISBANE 1 IN MELBOURNE

James Beresford's two-run single in the fifth broke a scoreless tie and Melbourne led the rest of the way.  Sam Gibbons pitched two shutout innings of relief for Melbourne, giving up three hits and no walks with no strikeouts.  Aaron Whitefield was 2-for-4 with a double for Brisbane and is batting .342.  Logan Wade was 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI for Brisbane and is batting .314.

PERTH 7, SYDNEY 6 IN PERTH (11 INNINGS)

Perth had leads of 2-0, 4-2, and 6-4, but Sydney came back to tie it each time.  They apparently have a rule in the Australian League that, after ten innings, each team starts its inning with men on first and second.  Sydney failed to score even with that advantage, but two errors produced the winning run for Perth.  Tim Kennelly was 3-for-5 with a double for Perth, scoring once and driving in one.

Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game Ninety-eight

TORONTO 8, MINNESOTA 6 IN TORONTO

Date:  Friday, July 24.

Batting stars:  Greg Gagne was 2-for-3 with a double, scoring once and driving in two.  Tom Brunansky was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring twice.  Sal Butera was 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.

Pitching stars:  Mike Smithson pitched four innings, giving up one run on six hits and a walk with one strikeout.  George Frazier pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit and two walks with one strikeout.

Opposition stars:  Tony Fernandez was 3-for-5 with a double and two runs.  Juan Beniquez was 1-for-1 with a pinch-hit three-run homer, his fourth.  Rick Leach was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his second.

The game:  The Twins scored five in the fourth to take a 6-1 lead.  Doubles were the key to the inning:  Gary Gaetti had an RBI double, Gagne had a two-run double, and Butera had a two-run double.  The score stayed 6-1 until the seventh, when the roof fell in.  Not literally--Skydome remained intact--but it must have felt like that to Tom Kelly.  Keith Atherton was starting his third inning of relief, having blanked the Blue Jays for two.  He got the first batter out, but a single, a walk, and a single loaded the bases and a sacrifice fly brought home a run and brought Dan Schatzeder into the game.  Still, the Twins led 6-2, the tying run was not yet up to bat, things were still looking okay.  Schatzeder immediately gave up a three-run homer to Beniquez to make it 6-5.  He then walked Charlie Moore.  Jeff Reardon then came in to try for a seven-out save.  It didn't happen.  Willie Upshaw singled and Leach hit the second three-run homer of the inning to put Toronto ahead 8-6.  The Twins did not get a man on base in the last two innings.

Of note:  Al Newman replaced Steve Lombardozzi at second base and batted second...Kirby Puckett was 0-for-3 with a walk and was batting .324...Toronto starter Jose Nunez pitched 3.2 innings, allowing six runs on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts...Mark Eichhorn came in to throw 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up three hits and no walks with one strikeout.

Record:  The Twins were 53-45, in first place by two games over Oakland.

Player profile:  Submarine/sidearmer Mark Eichhorn was kind of up-and-down in his career, but when he was good, he was really, really good.  He was drafted by Toronto in the second round of the January draft in 1979.  He actually made his major league debut as a starter, getting called up in late August of 1982 despite not having done very well in AAA that season.  He didn't do much for the Blue Jays, either, going 0-3, 5.45 in seven starts.  He did not come back to the majors until 1986, when he was a relief pitcher.  He had an awesome year, going 14-6, 1.72, 0.96 WHIP and finished sixth in Cy Young voting despite the fact that he was pitching as a set-up man (closer Tom Henke did not receive any Cy Young votes).  He appeared in 69 games and pitched 157 relief innings.  He was not quite as good in 1987 but was still darn good, going 10-6, 3.17, 1.27 WHIP in a league-leading 89 games (127.2 innings).  The workload may have taken a toll, because he had a poor year in 1988, was sold to Atlanta and had a poor year there in 1989, signed with California as a free agent.  He did better in 1990 and then had another awesome year in 1991, going 3-3, 1.98, 0.93 WHIP in 70 games (81.2 innings).  He was pitching well again in 1992 when he was traded back to Toronto for Rob Ducey and Greg Myers.  He struggled at the end of that season, but was fairly good in 1993 for them and really good with Baltimore in 1994.  He was hurt in early August, though, missed all of 1995, and was not the same pitcher when he came back.  He had a poor year with California and that was his last shot in the majors.  He tried to come back, pitching in AAA for Tampa Bay in 1998 and for Toronto in 2000, but never got there.  Overall, he was 48-43, 3.00, 1.24 WHIP, which are fine numbers.  If you just look at his three best years, though, he was 23-14, 2.03, 0.99 WHIP.  At last report, Mark Eichhorn was coaching high school baseball in Aptos, California.  His son, Kevin, pitched in the Arizona and Detroit organizations, reaching high-A.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 9

Bill Thomas (1905)
Johnny Washington (1916)
John Kibler (1928)
Julio Navarro (1936)
Ralph Terry (1936)
Masaaki Mori (1937)
Al Clark (1948)
Joe Wallis (1952)
Ivan DeJesus (1953)
Otis Nixon (1959)
Stan Javier (1964)
Jay Powell (1972)

Bill Thomas pitched in the minors from 1924-1952. He set records for games pitched (1,016), wins (383), losses (347), innings (5,995), hits allowed (6,721), and runs allowed (3,098).

Outfielder/first baseman Johnny Washington played in the Negro Leagues for nearly twenty years.

John Kibler was a National League umpire from 1963-1989.

Masaaki Mori was involved with twenty-seven pennant winners in Japan, sixteen as a player, three as a coach, and eight as a manager.

Al Clark was a long-time American League umpire.

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Keeping Track

1987 Rewind: Game Ninety-seven

TORONTO 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN TORONTO

Date:  Thursday, July 23.

Batting stars:  Gary Gaetti was 1-for-4 with a home run, his eighteenth.  Tom Brunansky was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.  Kirby Puckett was 1-for-4 with an RBI.

Pitching star:  Joe Niekro pitched 7.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts.

Opposition stars:  Dave Stieb pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on five hits and three walks with eight strikeouts.  Lloyd Moseby was 2-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base (his twenty-first), scoring once and driving in one.  Tony Fernandez was 2-for-4 with a walk and two stolen bases (his twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth), scoring once.

The game:  The Twins scored two in the first to take a 2-0 lead.  Fred McGriff homered in the second to make it 2-1.  In the third, Rance Mulliniks delivered a two-out two-run single to put the Blue Jays ahead 3-2.  It stayed there until the sixth, when Gaetti homered to tie it at three.  It was still 3-3 until the bottom of the ninth.  George Frazier, who had come in to get the Twins out of a jam in the eighth, retired the first two batters, but then gave up a single to Garth Iorg.  We again see that not using your closer in a tie game was already a thing thirty years ago, because Tom Kelly brought in Keith Atherton.  He allowed back-to-back singles to Fernandez and Moseby to give Toronto the win.

Of note:  Gagne once again batted second...Puckett was now batting .326...Randy Bush was the DH in this game.

Record:  The Twins were 53-44, in first place by two games over Oakland.

Player profile:  I know people remember Dave Stieb, but I wonder if they remember just how awesome he really was.  He was drafted in the fifth round in 1978, came up to the majors in late June of 1979, immediately went into the starting rotation, and from 1980-85 he was as good as anybody.  He never had great won-lost records (his best was 17-12 in 1983), which probably hurt his reputation a little.  But he made the all-star team in five of those six years and probably should have made it all six.  He was in the top seven of Cy Young voting three times.  He had an ERA under four in all six seasons, an ERA under 3.30 in five of them, and an ERA under three in two.  He led the league in ERA in 1985, in complete games (with 19) in 1982, in shutouts with five that same year, in innings pitched twice, and in ERA+ twice.  He pitched over 240 innings in five of those years and almost certainly would have in 1981 if not for the players' strike.  He averaged 275 innings pitched from 1982-85.  He had one no-hitter and five one-hitters.  The workload took its toll, as he had down years in 1986 and 1987, although he remained in the rotation and still averaged 190 innings in those years.  He bounced back and had three more excellent seasons from 1988-90, and this time his won-lost records showed it:  in those seasons he was 51-22, 3.11, making two more all-star teams and finishing fifth in Cy Young voting in 1990.  He was off to another fine start in 1991, but was injured in mid-May, missed the rest of the season, and never was the same pitcher.  He stumbled through a poor 1992, made four starts for the White Sox in 1993, and then retired.  In 1998, though, at age forty, he decided to come back, pitched pretty well in AAA, and by late June was back with Toronto.  Unfortunately, this isn't a movie:  he went 1-2, 4.83, 1.49 WHIP.  It was a pretty fine career, though:  176-137, 3.44, 1.25 WHIP, 103 complete games, 30 shutouts, 2895.1 innings.  At last report, Dave Stieb was in the real estate business in Reno, Nevada.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–January 8

Walker Cooper (1915)
Jim Busby (1927)
Gene Freese (1934)
Reno Bertoia (1935)
Bruce Sutter (1953)
Ramon Romero (1959)
Randy Ready (1960)
Brian Boehringer (1969)
Jason Giambi (1971)
Mike Cameron (1973)
Carl Pavano (1976)
Jeff Francis (1981)
Jeff Francoeur (1984)

Three players named Jeff were born on this day.  In addition to the two listed above, this is also the birthday of Jeff Hoffman, who appeared in eight games for Colorado in 2016.

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