|
|
Post by inger on Feb 22, 2023 0:07:10 GMT -5
Hall of Fame pitcher, Hal Newhouser (AL MVP 1944 & 1945) was working as a scout for HOU after his playing days when young Derek Jeter was brought to his attention. He gave Jeter the highest possible marks possible & strongly recommended that HOU, who had the first pick in 1992, take him with that pick. Draft day came and the HOU brain trust chose Phil Nevin. Jeter was still available at pick #6 and he went to NYY. Newhouser, incensed at being ignored over such an important matter, quit the next day…
Derek Jeter wax the first post-expansion era player to lead his team in hits in each of his first six seasons…
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 22, 2023 17:46:44 GMT -5
It’s been widely reported and oft repeated that Roger Maris received 0 IBB in 1961. It’s probably lesser known that he received 4 IBB in one game May 22, 1962, a feat only accomplished previously in the AL by Jeff Heath in 1941, and Manny Ramirez in 2001. We need not discuss the NL record because it was not an accomplishment, but an off-shoot of cheating, accomplished by one whose name I don’t like to invoke. (Hint: His first name is not Bobby, nor Gary US)…
|
|
|
|
Post by pippsheadache on Feb 22, 2023 19:13:15 GMT -5
More 1964: Kansas City A's rookie Bert Campaneris became only the second player (Bob Nieman) since 1900 to hit two home runs in his Major League debut during a 4-3 win over Jim Kaat and the Minnesota Twins. He also set the mark as the first American League player ever to knock one out on the first pitch thrown to him. Bill Roman of the Detroit Tigers equaled the feat later in the season during a 7-6, loss to the New York Yankees for his first (and last) career home run... This sent me to the archives to see who else had done it -- it's happened three more times since Campaneris -- Mark Quinn of the Royals in 1999, J.P. Arencibia of the Blue Jays in 2010, and most recently Trevor Story of the Rockies in 2016. So it's clearly a rare accomplishment. Bob Nieman is the only player in the history of baseball to hit home runs in his first two at bats in his first game. The very obscure Keith McDonald of the Cardinals hit HRs in his first two ABs in 2000, but they were in different games. Even more unusual, McDonald for his career went 3-9 -- all of his hits were home runs. No other player whose only hits were home runs has that many. So he finished his wink-of-an-eye career with the gaudy slash line of .333/.455/1.333 for an OPS+ of 329. Perhaps the greatest offensive machine in baseball history with a minimum of nine ABs. |
|
|
|
Post by pippsheadache on Feb 22, 2023 19:36:35 GMT -5
And about Bob Nieman. That guy fascinated me as a kid. First off, he was an outstanding hitter, although he had a Nick Johnson-like inability to stay on the field. In twelve seasons with six different franchises, he hit .295, had an OBP of .373 and an OPS+ of 132. But you rarely heard about him even when he was active, let alone now 60 years after his retirement. He had fewer than 3,500 ABs, enough to establish a track record but not enough to generate honors and awards. The guy had a different injury every year -- kidney problems, vision issues, lots of leg and back injuries, broken bones.
But every year I got his Topps card as he bounced from team to team and those numbers on the back compared very favorably to all but the elite hitters. The little cartoons they usually had on the back often recalled his feat of hitting home runs in his first two at bats, usually showing something like a guy hitting two balls off the bat and shouting "This is easy" or something like that.
Beyond his hitting skills, what interested me about Bob Nieman was that he wrote regularly for several newspapers while he was an active player -- he had a journalism degree from Kent State -- and he even wrote articles for The Sporting News. While still active, he had published a baseball novel called "Gone With The Wind-Up." When he came to Baltimore in the late 1950s, he used to host a baseball discussion show on Channel 13. He then branched out and hosted a bowling show and even a show about hobbies. I can remember him holding forth on everything from home building projects to coin collecting to model airplanes.
He moved on from the Orioles after just a few years, and his shows left with him. But he was an articulate and inquisitive guy who just happened to be able to also hit major league pitching very well. His last job was as a scout for the Yankees in the 1980s. As perhaps befit a guy who was always hurt, he died rather young from a heart attack at age 58 in 1987 while preparing to join the Yanks in Spring Training.
|
|
|
|
Post by pippsheadache on Feb 22, 2023 19:54:42 GMT -5
It’s been widely reported and oft repeated that Roger Maris received 0 IBB in 1961. It’s probably lesser known that he received 4 IBB in one game May 22, 1962, a feat only accomplished previously in the AL by Jeff Heath in 1941, and Manny Ramirez in 2001. We need not discuss the NL record because it was not an accomplishment, but an off-shoot of cheating, accomplished by one whose name I don’t like to invoke. (Hint: His first name is not Bobby, nor Gary US)… I had to look up that game. It was against the Angels. As you might have suspected, Mantle was not in the lineup that day -- in fact Maris played CF, as he did fairly often when Mick was injured. Maris was hitting cleanup, in front of Johnny Blanchard, who was playing RF. The four IBBs were from four different pitchers -- Tom Morgan, Jack Spring, Ryne Duren and Dean Chance. Roger also had an unintentional walk, giving him five for the game, which the Yanks won 2-1 in 12 innings. Whitey Ford pitched seven hitless innings, but allowed a run in the first from two walks, a stolen base, a fielder's choice and a sac fly. He was lifted for pinch hitter Phil Linz in the bottom of the seventh in an effort to generate some offense in a 1-1 game. The Angels only hit was a one-out ninth inning single off of Jim Coates by catcher Buck Rodgers. Bob Turley vultured the win by pitching a scoreless twelfth. |
|
|
|
Post by acuraman on Feb 22, 2023 20:12:05 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by acuraman on Feb 22, 2023 20:14:04 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 22, 2023 23:33:50 GMT -5
New York Yankees ace Mel Stottlemyre became the first pitcher in fifty-five years to hit an inside-the-park home run during a 6-3 win over their American League rivals, the Boston Red Sox, on July 20th, 1975…
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 22, 2023 23:37:55 GMT -5
A treat from 1966:
Baltimore Orioles slugger "Boog" Powell astonished the crowd at Fenway Park after hitting not one, not two, but three, opposite-field homers OVER the "Green Monster" on the way to a 4-3, victory in which he totaled thirteen bases himself. Powell would also go on to become the first player ever to appear in the Little League World Series as well as the Major League version...
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 22, 2023 23:41:14 GMT -5
Frank Robinson can give part credit during this Triple Crown season to Andy Etchebarren. Why? Because Andy saved Robinson from drowning at a pool party on August 22, 1966...
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 22, 2023 23:42:13 GMT -5
Emmett Ashford became the first black umpire on April 11, 1966 when he worked an American League game: Indians at Senators 5-2...
|
|
|
|
Post by kaybli on Feb 22, 2023 23:44:30 GMT -5
Frank Robinson can give part credit during this Triple Crown season to Andy Etchebarren. Why? Because Andy saved Robinson from drowning at a pool party on August 22, 1966... Whoa, never heard that story! |
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 23, 2023 9:41:44 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 23, 2023 13:29:36 GMT -5
St. Louis Cardinal and single-season home run champion Roger Maris hit a "one in a million" shot against the Pittsburgh Pirates for his first National League round-tripper. Unbelievably, Maris, who wore number 9, hit a ball into Seat 9, located in Row 9 during a game on May 9th, 1967…
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 23, 2023 13:34:45 GMT -5
On April 14, 1967, Red Sox rookie pitcher Billy Rohr made his Major League debut and pitched a no-hitter versus the Yankees through eight and two-thirds innings. Elston Howard broke up the gem and the Red Sox won 3-0. However, Rohr would finish his MLB career with a record of 3-3. The mouse that Rohr’d. He didn’t say that did he? Yes I did…
|
|
