BASEBALL DID YOU KNOW: Double Your Pleasure

Since 1916, only 27 players have had 4 or more doubles and no other hits in a single game. One player acheived this feat twice in his career, and he did it in a four week stretch in 1999. 

Name this player, if you can.

                            



Jersey Born - My Birthday Edition

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

With today, May 4, being my birthday, I thought I would take a selfish look at what Jersey Born players share my birthday. I only found TWO.



Joe Borowski (Bayonne, NJ) b.1971

Cubs/Indians/Marlins/Orioles/NYY/TBD/Atlanta

Career Highlights: Has a 1-0 post season record with 3 saves in 11 games with Cleveland and Chicago (N). Lead the AL in saves with 45 in 2007 while with the Indians.

Frank Bruggy (Elizabeth, NJ) b. 1891

Catcher - Athletics/Phillies/Reds 1921-25

Career Highlights: Went 2-5 in his ML debut for the Phillies versus the NY Giants. Also in the lineup that day was fellow Jersey Born player Dots Miller (1B), Casey Stengal (RF), Cy Williams (CF) and Irish Meusel (RF).


 

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.


George Case (Trenton, NJ) Peddie School
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/casege01.shtml 

Outfielder - Senators/Indians 1937-1947
Career Highlights: Case was a 3-time All-Star who lead AL in stolen bases 6 times. In a July 4, 1940 doubleheader at home in Washington against the Philadelphia A's, Case was 9-10 at the plate. His average went from .287 to .307 as a result.

Jersey Born - Father and Son Edition

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Bill Laxton (Camden, NJ) Padres/Mariners/Tigers/Phillies/Indians 1970-1977

Brett Laxton (Stratford, NJ) Royals/Athletics 1999-2000

Career Highlights (Dad): Was traded from PIT to PHL with Don Money and Woodie Fryman for Jim Bunning; Traded from the Mets with Rusty Staub to DET for Mickey Lolich. In ML debut against first ever batter, he hit Richie Hebner with a pitch.   

Career Lowlight (Son): In ML debut (6/21/1999) against Detroit, entered with bases loaded and threw a wild pitch to allow Luis Polonia to score and the next batter, Juan Encarnacion, hit a SF to allow another run to score. He then struck out Dean Palmer to end the inning. He was later dealt to KC for Jeremy Giambi.

Jersey Born - Father and Son Edition

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Eric Young  (New Brunswick, NJ) Rockies/Dodgers/Cubs/Brewers/Padres/Rangers 1992-2006

Eric Young, Jr. (New Brunswick, NJ) Rockies 2009-2013
 
Career Highlights (Dad): Has a .409 career post-season average (9-22) and 2 HRs (only 79 reg season career). Is tied for 44th all-time with 465 SBs and once lead the NL in swipes with 53 in 1996.

Career Highlights (Son): Singled in his first game (3rd AB) off Clayton Kershaw after an August call-up in 2009. Grounded out in his only playoff AB in '09 against PHL.  

 

Jersey Born - Military Brats Born

Some of our Jersey Born players are from military families and merely were born in our great state while their family was serving our country.

Rich Croushore (Lakehurst, NJ) Mount Vernon, TX H.S.
Cardinals/Rockies/RedSox 1998-2000

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/crousri01.shtml 

Career Highlights: Gave up a triple to Mike Piazza, the fifth batter in his MLB debut, that drove in 2 runs. These were 2 of the 5 runs Piazza drove in during his brief stint in Miami.

Croushore was 2-4 in his career at the plate.

BASEBALL DID YOU KNOW: Balk This Way

Bob Friend of the Pittsburgh Pirates is the only right-handed pitcher in ML history to have 4 or more balks in a game and not one time did he "balk in" a run.

In a 12-4 win over the Reds at Crosley Field, Friend had three of his balks in an eleven batter stretch during the third and fourth innings.



What is also crazy about this game is that the opposing Reds' pitchers (Jim O'Toole and John Tsitouris) had THREE balks between them for a TOTAL of SEVEN balks in one ML game. 
 

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Johnny Briggs (Paterson, NJ) Eastside HS
Phillies/Brewers/Twins 1964-1975

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/briggjo02.shtml 

Career Lowlight: Has the lowest career batting average of any NJ born player with over 1,000 hits (.253)

Career Highlight: After being traded by the Phillies early in 1971 to the Brewers, he hit 21 HR in only 375 ABs.

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Barney Schultz (Burlington, NJ) Burlington HS
Cubs/Cardinals/Tigers 1955-1965

Career Highlights: Pitching for St. Louis, went 3 innings for the save in Game 1 of the 1964 World Series vs the Yankees. Every game regular season game he pitched was in relief.  

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Bill (Froggy) Hands (Hackensack, NJ) Rutherford High School

Cubs/Twins/Rangers/Giants 1965-1975

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/handsbi01.shtml#trans 

Career Highlights: Won 20 games for the 1969 Cubs and cannot be blamed for the Chicago collapse, as he went 4-3 in September-October with 5 CG. Cubbies scored only 3 runs in those losses as he posted a 2.62 ERA in those losses.

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Leon "Goose" Goslin (Salem, NJ) Senators/Tigers/Browns 1921-1938

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gosligo01.shtml 

Career Highlights: First Jersey Born player born in the 20th century in MLB history with any significant impact. Had 100 or RBI in 12 seasons with a career batting average of .316. Won batting title in 1928 for while playing LF for the Washington Senators.
Goslin appeared in 5 World Series (3 with WAS and 2 with DET). In the 1924 WS, he had 3 HR, 7 RBI and 11 hits as the Senators beat the Giants in 7 games. In Game 4, Goose was 4-4 with 4 RBI.  

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

John "Dots" Miller (Kearny, NJ) Pirates/Cardinals/Phillies 1909-1921

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/milledo02.shtml 

Career Highlights: Miller had 4 RBI and 3 SB in the 1909 World Series as a member of the winning Pittsburgh Pirates.

Reportedly, he got the nickname "Dots" after someone asked Miller's thick-accented teammate Honus Wagner where they could find John Miller. Wagner pointed to Miller and replied, "Dots (That's) Miller."

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Jack Armstrong (Englewood, NJ) Neptune, NJ High School Reds/Marlins/Indians/Rangers 1988-1994

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/armstja01.shtml

Career Highlights: Started the 1990 All-Star Game in Wrigley Field and had 2 K's and gave up 1 hit. In the 1990 World Series for the victorious Reds, Armstrong pitched 3 scoreless innings against Oakland in Game 2. With Cincinnati was down 4-3, he kept the Reds in the game pitching 3 scoreless innings. In the 7th, he struck out Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire.

BASEBALL THINK TANK: Triple Crown Winners, Same City, Same Year

With Miguel Cabrera winning the American League Triple Crown in 2012, he joined a rare club. Since 1922, only nine other players accomplished this feat a total of twelve times.

On the pitching side since 1922, seventeen hurlers won the Triple Crown of Pitching a total of twenty-two times.

DID YOU KNOW:

Only ONCE in the history of Major League Baseball has the Triple Crown been won in the same season by players in the SAME CITY!

Name the players, the city and if you are able, the season......

Hint: it was the batting Triple Crown.

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Another first Jersey Born category to be profiled, a manager.

Jack McKeon "Trader Jack" (South Amboy, NJ) KC/OAK/SDP/CIN/FLA 1973-2011
http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/mckeoja99.shtml

Career Highlights: Beat the New York Yankees in six games to win the 2003 World Series. Managed his son-in-law Greg Booker when with the Padres. McKeon's overall winning percentage is .515.

McKeon got his nickname while holding the position of GM for the Padres for ten years. He was known for quickly turning around teams by utilizing many trades.

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Here is our first Hall of Famer to be profiled on Jersey Born.

Joe "Ducky" Medwick (Carteret, NJ) Cardinals/Dodgers/Giants/Braves 1932-1948
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/medwijo01.shtml 

Career Highlights: It is difficult to highlight an all-time great in a few words, but here we go. His MVP year of 1937 was as good a year as you can have .374 avg 31 HR 154 RBI.

Ducky had 11 hits in the 1934 WS for the victorious Cardinals against Detroit and was famously removed from a blowout win in Game 7 by Commissioner Landis for his own safety after Medwick kind of went "Jersey" on the Tiger 3B Marv Owen, as Ducky tripled.

Medwick was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968, his final year of eligibility.

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

The O'Brien Twins (South Amboy, NJ)

Eddie O'Brien - Pirates 1953-1958
Johnny O'Brien - Pirates/Braves/Cardinals 1953-1959

Career Highlights: Brothers became the first twins in major league history to play for the same team in the same game. They were bonus babies, which meant they went straight to the major league roster of the Pittsburgh Pirates, bypassing the minors after attending Seattle University.

The O'Briens were regulars in the 1953 season, Johnny served in the military in 1954 and Eddie did not play at all (bonus baby rule was you have to be on a roster, but do not have to play).

Johnny dabbled as a pitcher, appearing in 25 games with a 5.61 ERA and 1-3 record.

New York Baseball, Times Are A Changin

2013 could very well be the worst baseball New York City has to offer in a very long time. Fans of the Yankees have been treated to regular post season appearances and ultra winning seasons since 1994. Supporters of the Queens-based Mets have fallen on hard times since Carlos Beltran took that called third strike back in the 2006 NLCS.

Injuries, age, poor management and the emergence of other teams look to contribute to an early tailgating party at MetLife stadium for many Tri-Staters.

Over in The Bronx, the ARoid curse really took hold when the aging (but extremely productive) Derek Jeter was moving to his left to field a slow grounder by Jhonny Peralta in the final game of the 2012 ALCS. He broke his ankle and is still a question mark for this season, especially in the field.

Speaking of ARoid, he will probably miss half the season as a result of his steroid inflammed hip. That's alright, he will have plenty of time to count his undeserved salary, which by the way, is more than the entire Houston Astros team combined.

Injuries to Mark Texiera (in addition to his slow starts) and Curtis Granderson compound (sorry for the pun Grandy) the potential misery the Pinstripers are likely to have.

The irony of all of this is, that the Yankees have no where to turn in the free agent market. The LA-area teams have taken care of becoming the new spend-thrifts in baseball, leaving the Yankees to sign an now average Vernon Wells. No offense Vernon.

On the mound, gone are the days of Wells, Cone, Pettitte and Mussina.

Pettitte (40 years old) is still here, joining the more than able C.C. Sabathia (32), as well as Ivan Nova and Hiroki Kuroda (38). Phil Hughes is banged up with a bad back and will begin the season on the disabled list. Age and injury are issues in the bullpen, and Mariano Rivera (43) fits both categories. Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson are also tweeked.

Joe Girardi will have to manage his butt off this season to get the Yankees back to the playoffs.

Now the Mets. What can be said about Fred Wilpon's team. Not too much, but we will give it shot.

Starting with the newest news, Johan Santana is out for the year. While this is tragic news on the surface, it was really unclear what the Venezuelan lefty was going to contribute in 2013 anyway. His shoulder is shot and his career may very well be done.

Staying on the mound, Jon Niese is now going to be the ace and he has the makeup to perform this task. He has a winning record over the last three years for a dreadful team, so climb on his back and hope for the best every five days. Twenty-four year old Matt Harvey is a future star, and the Mets actually had the correct approach (imagine that) in bringing along this kid. He doesn't beat himself with walks and will pitch deep into games. Dillon Gee is the likely third man and is looking healthy after the blood clot in his shoulder has been resolved.

Let's talk bullpen. Bobby Parnell has finally got what I am sure he has always wanted. He is the closer. Frank Francisco is still banged up and will not be ready for Opening Day. No names and no talents make up the middle of the relief staff.

Offensively speaking, the Mets will be offensive (and not in the good way) in 2013.

David Wright is the only all-around batter the Mets have and is a potential Gold Glove winner, but with little protection in the lineup, he will have few opportunities to produce huge numbers.

Wright's protection includes, Lucas Duda, Kirk Neiuwenheiss, Mike Baxter, Reuben Tejada and John Buck. Young catcher Travis d'Arnaud (part of the R.A. Dickey trade) was sent to AAA in an apparent move to preserve his ML service. FML.

The Mets should let d'Arnaud start the season in New York this year and hold him to low offensive expectations with the opportunity to learn the staff and catch at the ML level, thereby "develop" ML skills at the ML level.

Whatever.

This could be a long season in New York and the upcoming regular season intra-city games (I will not call it Subway Series unless they play in October) should provide some interestingly meaningless games.

We can count on a lot of listening to John Sterling droning on and miscalling flyballs (ala Ralph Kiner) and Susan Waldman crying, this time sad tears. YES sound-a-likes John Flaherty and David Cone (the vanilla kids) will bore us with blowhard Michael Kay on the TV side.

At least the Mets have Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez to kill the time on the tube and Howie Rose on the radio.

It's going to be a long hot summer in N-Y-C....

MVP THROUGH THE YEARS - Same Position, Same Season

Diamond Nation takes a unique look back at the past winners of the Major League Baseball's Most Valuable Player award winners.

This week: Same Position, Same Season

Since 1950, there have been six occasions where the winners of the MVP in each league, in the same season have played the same position (we are not including OF for the purposes of this retrospective.)

Name the six times and the players if you dare.

HINT: Of the six remaining positions on the field (P - C - 1B - 2B - 3B - SS) only four positions have achieved this feat.

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Ray Narleski (Camden, NJ)
Indians/Tigers 1954-1959
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/narlera01.shtml 

Career Highlights: In 1955 for Cleveland, was 9-1, with an AL leading 60 games pitched and lead the league in saves, with 19. Pitched in 1954 World Series against New York Giants, giving up two runs in two appearances. Was involved in a five-player trade that included Billy Martin.

His father, Bill, played a couple of seasons with the Red Sox (1929-30).

BASEBALL THINK TANK: Since 1981, Lefty Pitchers, Season, More Than 200 IP, 200 K, Sub-3.00 ERA and 20+Wins

There have been seven (7) seasons since 1981, that a left-handed pitcher had a year with more than 200 innings, 200 strikeouts, 20 wins and an ERA below 3.00. Randy Johnson achieved this 3 of the 7 times.

David Price of Tampa did it last year and Clayton Kershaw got it done in 2011.

Who are the other two?

HINT: One guy did it in the 80's and the other was last decade.



Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.



Joe Cunningham (Paterson, NJ)
Cardinals/WhiteSox/Senators 1954-1966

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cunnijo01.shtml

Career Highlights: In 1959, finished second to Hank Aaron in the NL batting race, 10 points behind Hammerin' Hank (.355 to .345), but lead the league in OBP (.453)

From 1957-62, played in an average of 133 games/year and batted .305 over that period.

Jersey Born

A look at Garden State-born Major League Baseball Players. Some you will know and some are unknown to us all, but represented Jersey in the show.

Brant Alyea (Passaic, NJ)
Twins/Senators/Athletics/Cardinals 1965-1972

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/alyeabr01.shtml

Career Highlight: Cover Boy on Sporting News.
Started two games and appeared in the third of the 1970 LCS as the starting LF and PH for the Minnesota twins going 0-7 with 2 BB annd 3 K's. Was traded by Oakland to St. Louis in May '72 only to be returned by the the Cards in August.