Baseball Minutiae and Trivia Only

On August 7, 1982, Jim Rice’s Boston Red Sox were playing against the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park. In the fourth inning, Red Sox player Dave Stapleton rocketed a line drive foul over the Boston dugout. Four-year-old Jonathan Keane, who was sitting just above the dugout with his father and younger brother, had no time to react before the ball smashed into his face. People began screaming as they watched young Jonathan collapse forward, a huge gash on his face and covered in blood. Jim Rice jumped onto the field and looked above the dugout to see what had happened. As others were panicking, Rice leaped into the stands, grabbed young Jonathan, gently cradled him in his arms, and raced into the team dugout. There, the Red Sox team physician and his staff worked on Jonathan as they prepared to rush him to Boston Children’s Hospital. All the medical experts said afterward that Jim Rice’s heroics saved Jonathan Keane’s life.

As for Jim Rice, he simply replied, “If it was your kid, what would you do? The baby was crying and there was a lot of blood.”

Jonathan Keane is currently CEO of CustomerHD in Raleigh, NC. He still has a scar on his face but no memory of anything that happened that fateful day 42 years ago.

Jim Rice recently said of his own career, “I’ve hit a lot of home runs. I’ve driven in runs. But as far as something that stands out, it was when I went up into the stands and took that kid out of the stands who was hit by the foul ball.”…

In spite of a career that included being Rookie of the year, MVP, eight times an All-Star, eight times a Gold Glove winner, four times a Silver Slugger and a Home Run Derby winner, he was not elected to the Hall of Fame until his ninth (9th!) year on the ballot.

Elected to the Hall in 2010 receiving 77.1% of votes possible after not having the 75% required each year 2002-2009 with percentages ranging from 45.3% in 2002 to 67.0% in 2009.

Dawson is a member of the 300/300 HR/SB club @ 438/312. He officially joined in May of 1991 when he pilfered his 23rd base of the season.

Dawson.......... 438..... 314........... w/SB 23-May-1991…

Bobby Bonds

By the time he had racked up his fifth thirty/thirty season, only four other players had even done it once.

Stealing 30 bases & hitting 30 HR in the same season was first done in 1922 by Ken Williams of the Browns. Willie Mays did it twice. Hank Aaron & Tommy Harper each added one. Bonds Sr did in 1969, 1973, 1975, 1977 & 1978.

Bobby’s admission to the 300/300 club was completed when he hit his second HR of the 1979 season

Bonds Sr......... 332..... 461........... w/HR 02-May-1979…

Barry Bonds has both the most HR and the most SB in the 300/300 club, but who cares? He cheated… Did he join the ranks before he started cheating? Again… who cares. He won 8 gold gloves before his head got too huge to carry around in the outfield…

Bonds Jr......... 762..... 514........... w/HR 27-Apr-1996…

It's been widely reported that Bonds became jealous of all of the attention Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa received during the great HR record chase of 1998. Speculation is that Bonds began juicing after that season, making 1999 the first year he had "help." Interesting looking at his before/after splits of those dates:

First 13 years, 1986-1998, Ages 22-33
.290/.411/.556/.967, 411 HR, 1216 RBI, 445 S

Last 9 years, 1999-2007, Ages 34-42
.316/.505/.712/1.217, 351 HR, 780 RBI, 69 SB

Worth noting, he missed all but 14 games in 2005 due to injury. His durability took a hit during the "juicing years" as he averaged 146 games/season from 1986-98, and just 121 from 1999-2007. That would be expected as steroid use is reported to leave an athlete more prone to injury.

*Edit* It's humorous that his BaseballReference profile lists him at 6'1/185. He was easily playing at 230-240 lbs for most of the 2000's.

Yankees Starter Luis Gil Trivia:  Who did the Yankees trade away for him?


March 16, 2018: Minor League Pitcher Luis Gil was traded by the Minnesota Twins to the New York Yankees for ????.