Don Sutton was a blue collar guy from Alabama. At age 21 he broke into the Dodgers starting 4-man rotation with Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen: all 20-game winners. He stayed there for 16 years by outworking everyone. He kept a written book on every hitter in both leagues, in several notebooks and got them out by controlling an array of off-speed pitches to expose their weaknesses. He had no natural ability, but he had no fear either. I saw him many times, including his matchup of 300-game winners with Tommy Seaver, when he was with with the Angels and Seaver with the White Sox. At the end of every inning, they tipped their caps to each other...
Well finally something goes the Astros way...Michael Brantley will not be going to Toronto instead he is resigning with Houston. 2 years/32 Million. Well now we have a left fielder! Actually we do have a right fielder as well. Kyle Tucker who was for a couple of years the Astros top minor leaguer but when brought up he choked. Last season though he had a good year, not a great year but showed he might be coming around to meeting his potential. Played quite a bit and hit .268 in the regular season and over .300 in the post season. Now for a center fielder... Yordan Alvarez seems like a guy who will be a perm fixture as a DH.
Dang....Hank Aaron has left this mortal plane. Truly one of the greatest players in baseball history. Aaron reached the height of his fame on April, 8, 1974 – a misty night in Georgia when he hit a pitch from Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing over the left-field fence in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium for his 715th home run in the big leagues. RIP
I agree. As a young kid I didn't like him because he played for the Cubs' archrival Milwaukee Braves. But as time went on, I recognized him as one of the the greatest players ever and a great man for all he endured off the field. RIP
I saw Henry Aaron for the first time in 1958 at the Coliseum in LA. He was the smoothest player that I ever saw; as cool as the other side of the pillow. R.I.P.
The gold standard for quick wrists. Most of his home runs looked like they were hit with a 2 Iron. You could hang your laundry on his line drives. More than his HRs or his .305 BA, his RBI total of 2297 and his hit total of 3771 set him apart. Or that he he only struck out an average of 82 times per year.
Don't be shocked if there are no players elected to the HOF this go around. Curt Schilling lost votes because of his political views, how screwed up is that, you're either a great baseball player or not.
HOF is in a real quandary now. They either lower their standards to fill the gap for all the PED users or we will see more of these empty classes.
Yeah with Barry Bonds and Rajah right behind Schilling and just looking down the list I don't see any slam dunks. I thought it interesting that Schilling is removing his name over the snub by the writers who were more concerned about his politics than his baseball. Said he'd leave it up to the Old Timers Committee.
Omar Vizquel fell to 49%. Not looking good. I guess the voters value hitting more than wizardry with the glove. He wasn't bad (hit .333 one year) but not a home run king. Lots of stolen bases too. 11 gold gloves. Defense All-time leader in double plays made while playing shortstop 11-time Gold Glove recipient Oldest shortstop recipient of the Gold Glove (age 38 in 2005, and again at age 39 in 2006) Highest career fielding percentage by a shortstop (0.9846) with at least 1,000 games played Lowest number of errors in a season by a shortstop (tie) (3 in the 2000 season) 6th in assists all-time, 3rd in assists at SS all-time Offense All-time leader in hits by a player from Venezuela[33] The 47th major league player to reach 2,800 career hits (April 3, 2011) At retirement was the second-most hits by an active (roster) player behind Derek Jeter, was the category leader for the 2008 and a portion of the 2009 seasons, 47th all-time At retirement had the most singles by an active (roster) player, 20th all-time At retirement had the most at-bats by an active (roster) player, 19th all-time Fifth all-time in sacrifice hits plus sacrifice flies behind Eddie Collins, Jake Daubert, Stuffy McInnis and Willie Keeler All-time leader in sacrifice hits in the live-ball era, and four-time league leader (1997, 1999, 2004 & 2005) Likely 5th to 7th all-time in sacrifice hits after accounting for the 1954 statistical change (40th all-time without adjustment) At retirement, had the second-most sacrifice flies by an active (roster) player behind Alex Rodriguez, 50th all-time (tie) At retirement had the third most stolen bases by an active (roster) player behind Juan Pierre and Carl Crawford, 68th all-time American League record holder (tie) for most hits in a nine-inning game: Vizquel hit six on August 31, 2004 Second-most hits while playing shortstop (behind Derek Jeter) Fourth-most runs while playing shortstop all-time (behind Herman Long, Derek Jeter and Bill Dahlen) Seventh-most stolen bases while playing shortstop all-time (behind Bert Campaneris, Ozzie Smith, Herman Long, Luis Aparicio, Honus Wagner, and Bill Dahlen) At retirement had most seasons by active player as a batting title qualifier with isolated power (extra bases per at-bat) under .100, with 12 43rd all-time in career hits (2,877) Overall 1st all time in games played at shortstop At retirement had played the most games by an active (roster) player, 14th all-time 3-time All-Star (1998, 1999 & 2002) Won 2 American League Championships (with Cleveland, 1995, 1997) Won 6 American League Central Division Championships (with Cleveland, 1995–99, 2001) Won the Hutch Award (1996), the only non-American player ever to do so Won the Willie Mac Award (2006) for spirit and leadership Finalist for the Heart & Hustle Award (2007) for embodying "the values, spirit and tradition of the game" Captain of Venezuelan World Baseball Classic team (2006) Member of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame Inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame (2014) Selected as one of the 4 greatest Indians in franchise history for the 2015 All Star Game's "Franchise 4"(2015)
Money and politics ruin everything . And in sports you can add in PEDs. Some guys benefitted from using them in a big way, some benefitted for a year or two and others were physically destroyed by them. And a lot of then were outstanding players before they started juicing. Why?
Ken Caminiti was a good example of that, he was a very popular player here in Houston and was a NL MVP in San Diego..but he was on roids and it destroyed his life. The 'roids made him a big HR hitter and the other drugs were the end of him.
Brett Boone and A-Rod both developed debilitating joint disease after taking roids. I'm sure there were more. I always thought Big Papi had to be juicing. Nobody knew him on Toronto; he comes to Boston and he is like Babe Ruth. He couldn't do anything but swing a bat but he got a lot of mileage out of the the one tool he was blessed with. I think he hit around .800 against the Yankees with 200-300 HRs
Joc Peterson to the Cubs for one year. The Cubbies got a good one. We have no room for these guys in an outfield full of future HOFamers. He was very popular here, as were his wife and kids.
AJ is bound to be pretty happy with the Cardinals new acquisition, All-Star 3rd baseman Nolan Arenado. Where does this leave Matt Carpender?
I'm VERY happy that Arenado is out of our division! He is one of the great players of this era. Kike Hernandez to the Red Sox...