Rest in Peace Duke Snider.

•February 28, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Yesterday while I was on my way to play Baseball on a beautiful sunny San Francisco afternoon I received a text message from ESPN MLB News which read:  Hall of Fame OF Duke Snider dies at age 84; played 16 seasons with Dodgers, hit 407 HR. I gotta admit that my heart sunk a little bit with sadness when I read the message. Later on in the evening I was thinking about his death and posted the following statement on twitter: “We only got 1 member left of the Willie, Mickey, & The Duke NY-CF Trio. That’s a world I don’t want to live in.” That is obviously an exaggeration however I must say that with so many legends from the Golden Age of Baseball disappearing; it leaves an uneasy feeling that I do not like and can’t quite explain.

I could write a lot about how great the Duke of Flatbush was but everyone reading the blog is sure to already know this. So yeah, you know it works here at 90 feet of perfection; here are some great photos of old #4.

 

The Duke at-bat against the New York Yankees during the 1955 World Series. If I could go back in time to see any MLB World Series, it would have been 1955 without a doubt. So many of my favorite players from yesteryear on both teams and the fact that Dem Bums finally won a World Series would have been incredible to witness.

 

Duke taking BP during 1955 Spring Training. That’s Roy Campanella behind the plate.

 

Duke Snider was a coach for the San Diego Padres during their inaugural season in 1969.

 

Duke Snider played for the San Francisco Giants in 1964, his last season in the Majors. Here he is with teammate Willie Mays…that’s kinda weird to say.

 

And I leave you with a great color photo of the Duke in the uniform he should have stayed in for his entire career.

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The 1932 Crawfords. The Mick. Satchel. Yogi & Ted. The Say Hey Kid.

•February 27, 2011 • 1 Comment

The 1932 Pittsburgh Crawfords. Satchel Paige is on top row 3rd from left, Josh Gibson is in the jacket and to the right of Satchel, Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe is on the bottom row all the way to the right, and Oscar Charleston is on the top row, far right. It doesn’t get much better than this in regards to photos of old legendary teams.

 

Mickey Mantle in the cage taking some BP as members of the Kansas City Athletics watch The Mick hone his craft.

 

1948. Satchel Paige taking a break from warming up during his rookie season with the Cleveland Indians. If you think that I am going to ever stop posting Satchel photos on 90 feet of perfection, think again.

 

A pretty cool photo of Yogi Berra and Ted Williams during an at-bat. I just watched a DVD called “Yogi Berra: American Sports Legend” that I rented on Netflix. It is a pretty cool documentary that came out in 2004 that Bob Costas hosted which takes a look into Yogi’s life both past and present. Yogi’s good friend Ted Williams was interviewed in it which is great. One of the coolest parts of the film was Yogi playing wiffle ball with his family members in someone’s front yard. I thought this was pretty cool because at the time the film was made Yogi was in his late 70’s and his swing which I have become familiar with via watching movies of him my whole life is still physically there. I love Yogi Berra.

 

1951. Willie Mays slides safely past the Philadelphia Phillies’s Catcher Smoky Burgess. I love how Willie’s legs are bent at 90 degree angles in the photo.

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Support Eeephus League’s Scorebooks!

•February 24, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Bethany Heck over at Eephus League of Baseball Minutiae is working on a very awesome project which involves her take on Baseball Scorebooks. Check out her KickStarter page HERE where you can watch a cool video which describes the project and why she is doing it. She has a goal of $10,000 which she is getting very close to so if you have some extra cash and you are interested in the project after checking out the page, please try and donate!

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Edmonds Retires. Satche Debuts. Ozzie flys. Nellie has a shiner. Sweet Lou as a Beaver.

•February 23, 2011 • 1 Comment

This last Friday Jim Edmonds announced his retirement from Baseball. I always loved watching the guy play and even when he had his short (and horrible) stay with the Padres back in 2008 I still wished him the best after he was released. I was hoping he would come back and get to Homerun #400 this season but looks like that wont be the case. I can honestly say that he very well may be the best defensive Center fielder I have seen in my life.  During his prime years as a member of the Angels & Cardinals he made so many jaw dropping plays on a regular basis that after awhile it was expected from him to catch almost any ball hit his way regardless of the difficulty…and he usually was successful in doing so.

Is the Hall of Fame in future for ole’ Jimmy Ballgame? With 8 Gold Gloves and almost 400 Homeruns he very well may be considered in due time. So here’s to you Jim Edmonds, congratulations on a brilliant Baseball career. Oh yeah one more thing, this now means his last career at-bat in which he attained his injury which ended his career was a Homerun, kinda cool in a way.

(Thanks to Mike at Old Time Family Baseball for finding this video.)

 

July 9th, 1948. A very cool photo of Satchel Paige’s Major League debut as a member of the Cleveland Indians. Paige faced 7 St. Louis Browns that night, allowing 2 hits, striking out 1, and allowing no runs. Not bad for a 42 year old “Rookie” if you ask me.

 

1979. Ozzie Smith of the San Diego Padres attempts to literally fly past Pittsburgh Pirates Catcher Ed Ott on his way to home plate.

 

Minnie Minoso and Hall of Fame Second Basemen Nellie Fox of the Chicago White Sox were teammates from 1951 to 1957. I am not sure when this photo was taken but I think it captures old school Baseball perfectly in the sense that the dudes back then were way more tough than current players. In most cases now days if a player gets hit in the face like Fox above did, you probably can expect a short stay on the DL or at least miss a handful of games. My gut feeling tells me Fox didn’t miss more than 1 game.

 

Lou Pineilla as a member of the Portland Beavers. Sweet Lou played for the Beavers from 1966 to 1968 while the team was an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. I love the Beavers and their long and storied history from their PCL days to their AAA days as a Padres affiliate. Last night I was researching the team online and trying to find a photo of Satchel Paige from when he played with them in 1961 (no luck on that, any help?) and instead found this great photo. It’s really too bad the city of Portland lost the Beavers this last season, I hope in time they can get the team back in some capacity. The organization has been around far too long and is in my opinion a Baseball tradition in the Pacific Northwest and the West Coast.

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Billy steals home. Dick. Tony the Hit-Man. Satch. Shane vs. Brian.

•February 22, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Billy Martin in mid-sprint on his way to stealing home against the New York Giants. I fucking love how hard he played the game and I wish I was around to see him play back in the day. On Billy’s plaque at Yankee Stadium the following statement is engraved in it: “There has never been a greater competitor than Billy.” I can not disagree with that statement whatsoever as I would say he is one of the top 10 competitive players in Major League history.

 

The always controversial and great Dick Allen spent the 1971 season in Los Angeles as a member of the Dodgers. He had a pretty damn good season in LA with 23 Home Runs, 90 RBIs, and had a batting line of .295/.395/.468 however he still could not entirely escape some of the issues that plagued him during his prior years as a member of the Phillies.

 

A sweet poster of Tony Gwynn from his Nike “Hit-Man” ad campaign from back in the early 1990’s…or maybe even late 1980’s? All I remember is that I wanted this poster SO bad when I was a kid and I still kind of do.

 

July 21st, 1949. A great photo of Ole’ Satchel Paige of the Cleveland Indians pitching against the New York Yankees. Paige was a 43 year old in his second season in the Major Leagues at the time this photo was taken. He pitched 1.2 scoreless innings against the Bronx Bombers that day while allowing 2 hits, no walks and struck out 1.

 

I will always be a sucker for a good collision at home plate regardless of what the outcome is. I think the home plate collision is one of those little gold nuggets in Baseball that everyone can appreciate even if they are not a Baseball fan. Probably due to the fact that no matter what happens, it is probably going to painful for the players involved and be extremely entertaining to those of us watching it go down.

I love watching Shane Victorino play Baseball as he is one of those guys that always seems to play with with all his heart and usually has always has a dirty uniform after the game which is always a good thing in my book. In this photo from 2008, The Flying Hawaiian scores on a home plate collision with Brian McCann of the Atlanta Braves. I think it’s safe to say that McCann was not happy with the outcome of this play.

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