Monthly Archives: October 2020

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 26

Frank Selee (1859)
Kid Gleason (1866)
Lee Tannehill (1880)
Dick Hoblitzel (1888)
Tommy Griffith (1889)
Judy Johnson (1900)
Snuffy Stirnweiss (1918)
Bud Byerly (1920)
Toby Harrah (1948)
Mike Hargrove (1949)
Steve Rogers (1949)
Dave Coleman (1950)
Harry Chappas (1957)
Gil Heredia (1965)
Mark Sweeney (1969)
Francisco Liriano (1983)

Frank Selee was the manager of the Boston Beaneaters from 1890-1901, winning the National League pennant five times.  He also managed the Cubs from 1902-1905 until his health forced him to retire.

William Julius "Judy" Johnson was a star third baseman in the Negro Leagues.

We would like to wish a very happy birthday to AuntieWalt.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 26 →

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Twenty-four

CHICAGO 3, MINNESOTA 1 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Sunday, April 27.

Batting stars:  None.

Pitching stars:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits and one walk and striking out five.  Eddie Guardado pitched a perfect inning.

Opposition stars:  Esteban Loiaza struck out eight in seven innings, giving up one run on six hits and no walks.  Damaso Marte struck out two in two perfect innings.  Jose Valentin was 1-for-3 with a home run, his sixth.

The game:  The Twins got a pair of singles in the first but did nothing with them.  Valentin homered with one out in the bottom of the first to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead.  They made it 2-0 in the second.  Brian Daubach walked, Carlos Lee reached on an error, and the two then pulled off a double steal of second and home.

The Twins got on the board in the fourth when Torii Hunter had a two-out double and scored on an A. J. Pierzynski single.  Chicago got the run right back in the bottom of the fourth.  Magglio Ordonez led off with a double and scored on a one-out single by Lee, putting the White Sox up 3-1.

And that was it.  The Twins had only two hits after that, both singles, and neither man got past first base.  Chicago didn't do any more on offense either, but they didn't need to, and the game ended with a 3-1 score.

WP:  Loaiza (5-0).  LP:  Reed (1-4).  S:  Marte (1).

Notes:  Michael Cuddyer was at first base in place of Doug Mientkiewicz.  Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Bobby Kielty was at DH in place of Matthew LeCroy.

The Twins made no in-game lineup substitutions.

Kielty was 1-for-4 and was batting .339.  Gomez was 0-for-3 and fell to .310.  Jacque Jones was 1-for-4 and was batting .302.

Dustan Mohr was 0-for-3 and was batting .125.  Cuddyer was 0-for-3 and was batting .197.

By game scores, this was tied for the second-best game of the season for Reed, and was his best of the season so far.  It dropped his ERA to a still-high 6.26.  Guardado lowered his ERA to 1.04.

This was easily Loaiza's best season.  He went 21-9, 2.90, 1.11 WHIP.  He led the league in strikeouts and finished second in Cy Young voting to Roy Halladay.  It was the only season in which he had an ERA under three, and one of only two seasons in which he had an ERA under four.  I don't know what was different about 2003, but it is really an outlier in his career.  His career numbers are 126-114, 4.65, 1.41 WHIP.

The White Sox really didn't have a closer in 2003, with Tom Gordon (12 saves), Billy Koch (11), and Marte (11), sharing the job.  And it really does look like sharing the job--it doesn't appear that they went with one, then another, then another.

This was Cuddyer's first appearance at first base in 2003.  He would play just a few more games before being sent back to Rochester, not returning until September.

The Twins had now lost eight out of nine games.

Record:  The Twins were 10-14, in third place in the American League Central, eight games behind Kansas City.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–October 25

Jack Doyle (1869)
Smoky Joe Wood (1889)
Jack Kent Cooke (1912)
Lee McPhail (1917)
Russ Meyer (1923)
Bobby Thomson (1923)
Bobby Brown (1924)
Roy Hartsfield (1925)
Chuck Schilling (1937)
Al Cowens (1951)
Roy Smalley (1952)
Rowland Office (1952)
Tito Landrum (1954)
Danny Darwin (1955)
Andy McGaffigan (1956)
Steve Decker (1965)
Keith Garagozzo (1969)
Pedro Martinez (1971)
Wilkin Ramirez (1985)

Jack Kent Cooke, better known as the owner of the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Lakers, owned the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team in the International League from 1951-1964.  He made several unsuccessful attempts to bring major league baseball to Toronto and is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Lee MacPhail was the general manager of the Baltimore Orioles from 1958-1965 and of the New York Yankees from 1966-1973.  He was the president of the American League from 1974-1983.  He is the son of Larry MacPhail and the father of Andy MacPhail.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–October 25 →

Keeping Track

2003 Rewind: Game Twenty-three

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CHICAGO 7, MINNESOTA 4 IN CHICAGO

Date:  Saturday, April 26.

Batting stars:  Jacque Jones was 2-for-5.  Michael Cuddyer was 1-for-1 with a two-run homer, his second.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-4 with a home run, his second.  A. J. Pierzynski was 1-for-4 with a home run, his second.

Pitching star:  Mike Fetters pitched a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

Opposition stars:   Carlos Lee was 3-for-4 with a home run (his sixth), two doubles, and two runs. Jon Garland pitched 5.2 innings, giving up two runs on four hits and two walks and striking out five.  Tom Gordon struck out three in 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.  Frank Thomas was 2-for-3 with a home run (his fifth), two walks, and two runs.  Magglio Ordonez was 2-for-4 with two home runs (his fourth and fifth) and three RBIs.

The game:  There were no hits on either side until the second, when Lee hit a two-out two-run homer.  Pierzynski matched it with a leadoff home run in the third, so it was 1-1.  The Twins put two on with one out, but could do no more.

The White Sox took control in the fourth.  Thomas and Ordonez led off the inning with home runs.  Lee hit a one-out double and Joe Crede had a two-out RBI single to make it 4-1.  They added another run in the fifth.  Jose Valentin walked, Thomas singled, and Ordonez was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with one out.  Brian Daubach then singled home a run.  Fetters came in to retire the next two batters and hold the score at 5-1.

Koskie homered in the sixth to make it 5-2, but that was as close as the Twins would come.  Ordonez hit a two-run homer in the eighth to build the lead to 7-2.  Cuddyer hit a pinch-hit two-run homer to cut the margin back to three, but that was it.

WP:  Garland (1-2).  LP:  Kyle Lohse (2-3).  S:  None.

Notes:  Chris Gomez was at second base in place of Luis Rivas.  Bobby Kielty was in right field.

Cuddyer pinch-hit for Gomez in the ninth.

Gomez was 0-for-3 and was batting .346.  Kielty was 0-for-4 and fell to .345.  Jones raised his average to .305.

Lohse struck out eight but lasted just 4.1 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and two walks.  This was the second poor game in a row for Lohse.  Over those two games, his ERA rose from 1.69 to 4.80.  It is, of course, still early in the season.

This was Garland's fifth start of the season, and only the second one that was any good.  His ERA at this point of the season was 6.49.  Garland made over 30 starts a year for nine consecutive seasons, and pitched over 190 innings in each of those seasons.  However, only twice in those nine seasons was his ERA below four and only two other times was it below 4.50.  What he did still has value, but of course he would have had more value if he'd actually been good in all those years.

I have no memory of Tom Gordon as a member of the White Sox.  This was his only year with them, but it was a darn good one:  7-6, 12 saves, 3.16, 1.19 WHIP.  He would go on to have two excellent years for the Yankees and one fine year for Philadelphia.  2006 was his last good season, but he would pitch for three more years before his career ended.  His earlier years, of course, were with Kansas City and Boston.  It was a pretty good career.  He led the league in saves i 1998 with 46.  He was second in Rookie of the Year voting in 1989 (behind Gregg Olson).  He made three all-star teams.  He also pitched in 21 seasons.  He won't make the Hall of Fame, but he had a career to be proud of.

With the loss, the Twins streak of series sweeps to start the season ended at seven.

Record:  The Twins were 10-13, in third place in the American League Central, eight games behind Kansas City.

Keeping Track

Mazatlan Recap: Game Nine

CULIACAN 6, MAZATLAN 5 IN CULIACAN (12 INNINGS)

Batting stars:  Edson Garcia was 3-for-5 with a walk.  Anthony Giansanti was 3-for-6.  Ricardo Valenzuela was 2-for-5 with a double, a walk, and three RBIs.  Ramon Rios was 2-for-6.

Pitching stars:  Irwin Delgado pitched 5.2 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits and one walk and striking out one.  Ivan Zavala pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.  Alejandro Soto struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.  Ryan Newell pitched a 1.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Joey Meneses was 3-for-5 with two RBis.  Jose Guadalupe Chavez was 2-for-4.  Efren Navarro was 2-for-6 with a two-run homer (his second) and a double.  Jesus Adrian Castillo struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up two hits.  Gonzalo Sanudo pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out one.  Gerardo Sanchez pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out one.  Evan Miller pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one.  Alberto Baldonado pitched two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

The game:  Culiacan started the scoring in the first inning.  Johnny Davis singled, Ramiro Pena walked, and they pulled off a double steal to put men on second and third.  A pair of sacrifice flies made it 2-0.  In the second Chavez singled, an error put men on first and third, and another sacrifice fly made it 3-0 Culiacan.

Mazatlan came back in the third.  Diego Madera led off with a single and Garcia hit a one-out single.  Ramon Rios followed with another single to drive in a run and Carlos Munoz walked, loading the bases.  Ricky Alvarez was hit by a pitch to force home a run and Valenzuela walked to bring home another, tying the score 3-3.

It stayed 3-3 until the twelfth inning.  Apparently, in the Mexican League, the twelfth is when the "start with a man at second base" rule kicks in.  For Mazatlan, there was still a man on second with two out, but Randy Romero singled and Valenzuela hit a two-run double, putting Mazatlan up 5-3.  In the bottom of the twelfth, however, Meneses singled home a run and Navarro followed with a walkoff two-run homer, winning the game for Culiacan 6-5.

WP:  David Gutierrez (1-0).  LP:  Marco Antonio Rivas (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Valenzuela is batting .348.  Italo Mota is batting .333.  Carlos Munoz was 0-for-3 is batting .300.

Delgado has an ERA of 3.00.  Roberto Espinoza pitched two-thirds of an inning without giving up a run and also has an ERA of 3.00.  Newell has an ERA of 0.00.

Andres Ivan Meza started for Culiacan.  He pitched 2.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks and striking out one.

Culiacan had three sacrifice flies.  They were 1-for-12 with men in scoring position and stranded 11.  Mazatlan was 3-for-11 with men in scoring position and stranded 12.

The game took five hours and four minutes to play.

Record:  Mazatlan is 4-5, in sixth place, four games behind Obregon.

Next game:  Mazatlan is again at Culiacan tonight.