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.