Albert vs Fernando. Ichiro. Billy gets spiked. George vs Graig. Lenny gets creative.

•February 11, 2011 • 2 Comments

May 30th, 1996. Cleveland Indians hot-headed slugger Albert Belle absolutely leveled Milwaukee Brewers Second Baseman Fernando Vina by hitting him in the face with his forearm and therefore starting a brawl between the clubs. Belle said Vina was standing in the baseline but was still fined and suspended 5 games for the incident. This photo pretty much captures Belle’s career in a nutshell: An angry dude who did not give a fuck what anyone else thought. I can respect that but from what I remember of this collision, it was still a cheap shot on Belle’s part. I wish I can find this video online somewhere, I’ve looked everywhere but to no avail.

 

Ichiro Suzuki chasing down a Robert Fick line drive in Right Field during a 2003 interleague game between the Mariners and Braves. Ichiro can do no wrong on a Baseball field as far as I’m concerned and this incredible photo represents that perfectly. Oh yeah, he definitely caught that ball.

 

Billy Martin’s Oakland Oaks Pacific Coast League Baseball card. Martin spent parts of the 3 seasons (1947, 1948, 1949) with the Oaks in the PCL before joining the New Yankees AAA affiliate Kansas City Blues in 1950. I have always envied the way Martin played Baseball, which was hard nosed with a “do anything to win” frame of mind. While he was a rookie with the Oaks, the following happend:

Billy Martin, covered in blood, was carried off the field in a game against the Stars. A baserunner spiked Billy in both legs at second base. In the dressing room, a doctor called in from the stands gave Billy a shot of whiskey, and trainer Red Adams and teammates held him down while the doctor stiched up the wounds without the benefit of any anesthetic.

Something tells me that Martin got up and was ready to play again the next day and was probably bummed that he couldn’t get back in the game he was just taken out of. Not many ball players in this day and age have the fire in the belly that Billy Martin did but then again that could have been just a mixture of his violent temper and alcoholism for all I know. By the way, I got this excerpt from this Sports Hollywood page which has some good information on the Hollywood Stars of the PCL. They have a great photo of Martin literally being carried off the field by teammates HERE but it is very small. I want a large version of VERY bad. If anyone has this please hook it up please!

 

October 9th, 1977. During the American League Playoffs between the Yankees and Royals. George Brett got into a nice little scrap with NY Third basemen Graig Nettles. Below is a nice little wrap-up of what went down that fateful October day, borrowed from The Baseball Page:

In the 1978 AL Playoffs, Brett hit a triple and crashed into Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles. “I came up and gave him an elbow, and he stepped back and kicked me in the face,” Brett said.

“We came to blows right there, but that was the kind of rivalry we had. Unfortunately, we didn’t win many of the games.” Three straight playoff losses to the Yankees, 1976-1978, were especially frustrating. “In 1980, finally winning, for us it was like winning the World Series,” Brett said.

It was Yankee Thurman Munson, though, who was a hero to Brett in that ’78 fight with Nettles in KC. “Craig and I are throwing haymakers at each other, and the next thing I know I’m on the bottom,” Brett recalled. “And Thurman is lying on top of me with his catching gear on and saying, `Don’t worry, George. I won’t let anybody hit you when you’re down.’ And they didn’t.”

I love Baseball fights and I love Thurman Munson.

 

At a May 27th, 1981 Mariners & Royals game at the Seattle Kingdome Amos Otis hit a slow roller down the Third Base line where Lenny Randle got down on his knees and tried to blow the ball foul. He was unsuccessful in the attempt as the ball stayed fair and Otis reached First Base. From that point on Randle was now known as the “Blowing the Baseball foul guy” on Sports blooper TV shows & movies for eternity. Sucks for him but hey it was worth the attempt due to the zero wind factor in the Kingdome, right?

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Satchel vs. Josh. Charlie Hustle. The Nationals as the Grays. Big Klu. Jackie & Pee Wee.

•February 9, 2011 • 2 Comments

An excerpt from Ken Burns’s Baseball documentary in which Buck O’Neil tells the story of the legendary match up between Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson during the 1942 Negro League World Series. “Ya know what Nancy? Nobody hits Satchel,” simply incredible.

Now I’m sure everyone has seen countless images of Pete Rose flying head first on the bath paths, whether it be to 2nd, 3rd or home plate but this photo is so cool and caught my eye more so than others. The dude has got to be a foot and half off the ground. Say what you want about ole’ Charlie Hustle but if I were to put together an all-time dream team you better sure as shit believe that Rose would be on it…as long as he didn’t bet against the team.

May 3rd, 2008. The Washington Nationals donned Homestead Grays uniforms in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. During the game, the Washington PA announcer referred to the Nationals as the Grays during the entire game which is incredibly awesome. The Nationals, or umm I MEAN Grays beat the Pirates 9-8 that day. It must have been the uniforms. Just look at those things, how can anytime lose a game wearing such cool uniforms??

Ted Kluszewski in his trademark sleeve-less uniform. I found this cool story about Kluszewski on his wiki page, in which it is explained why he began to wear his jersey with no sleeves as young player with the Reds:

Soon after the 6′-2, 240-pound Ted Kluszewski joined the Reds, he cut off the sleeves of his uniform, much to the chagrin of the Reds front office. He did it because the tight sleeves constricted his large biceps and shoulders and interfered with his swing. “They got pretty upset, but it was either that or change my swing — and I wasn’t about to change my swing”, said Kluszewski.

This guy was a monster but was also a smart and patient hitter. Modern power hitters could and should take note from Kluszewski, particularly players like Mark Reynolds. During his 15 year Major League career he had more walks (492) then strikeouts (365) and finished with a .298 batting average. Impressive and unheard of for the most part in this day and age.

Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese of the Brooklyn Dodgers at a game in Wrigley Field. When I found this photo it kind of took me off guard because I, like everyone else knew that Jackie was primarily a Second Basemen for the Dodgers. I knew he played some First Base for them also but I was not aware of him taking the hot corner. Well, I guess they’re right, looks like you do learn a new thing every day.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Mick. Rickey. Cal & Eddie. The Natural. The D-Train.

•February 7, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Mickey Mantle always looked so cool in his classic “kneeling in the on-deck circle” position he would take prior to his at-bats. I catch myself doing the same sometimes when I am playing Baseball just because the images of Mantle doing this have been so burned into my brain since I was a child. I can’t even imagine how many kids in the 50’s & 60’s mimicked this and the other things The Mick did on the Baseball field.

 

One of my favorite images in Baseball history is Rickey Henderson stealing bases head first. Here we have Rickey in mid flight against the White Sox on his way to stealing one of 1,406 career stolen bases. Thinking about it, I do not remember Rickey ever stealing feet first. If I remember correctly, in his autobiography “Off Base: Confessions of a Thief”  he mentions he injured himself stealing feet first at a young age and decided never to do it again. Rickey ruled.

 

Cal Ripken Jr and Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles clowning around. Man, I really loved those old Orioles jerseys. Hey Peter Angelos are you listening? Bring these baby’s back!

 

Speaking of awesome uniforms, how sweet is Josh Hamilton’s throwback Washington Senators uniform?? It looks so nice that I think the Rangers should consider tweaking their red alternate uniforms to this exact color scheme to pay homage to their organizational roots…minus the blue cleats.

 

August 29th, 2007. Pitcher Dontrelle Willis went deep against Braves pitcher Buddy Carlyle. Not only could he pitch with style, the dude could hit with style. I miss the D-Train and the way his career has been derailed since he left the Marlins has been an extreme bummer. Last week there was a good article in which Reds pitching coach Bryan Price says he likes what he sees in Willis so far with his off-season workouts. Myself, along with the most Baseball fans (I assume) would love to see Dontrelle pitch brilliantly again like he did back in Florida and this article gives me some faith that it may be possible. But then again that could be me just being an optimistic fan. Check out the article HERE.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ted Williams: The Splendid Splinter.

•February 4, 2011 • 5 Comments

Ted Williams. The name itself inspires many feelings and thoughts in anyone who is even slightly familiar with Baseball history. Usually these feelings and thoughts run along the lines of “The best hitter of all time” or something close to it. I have always been interested in the Williams, probably due to the fact that he was a West Coast dude as he was a San Diego native who spent his first 2 seasons of professional Baseball playing with the Padres in the Pacific Coast League. I love just about everything about Williams. I admired his cockiness as he let it be known at a early age as a member of the Padres that his intentions were simple enough: to be remembered as the best hitter of all time. He pretty much did that as his quest for hitting perfection was well known to all and he was always willing to discuss hitting technique and theory. The man knew more about hitting than anyone else in Baseball at that time and most likely in Baseball history up to that point.

In Boston his relationship with the fans and media was often strained but in the end they all loved him and he loved them back in his own very particular ways. A moment of his career that has always touched me and pushed me over the edge to embracing him was his 1966 Hall of Fame induction speech due to the fact that he made a very important push for the recognition of the Negro League players in Cooperstown:

“Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel. Not just to be as good as anybody else, but to be better. This is the nature of man and the name of the game. I hope some day Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren’t given the chance.”

When Ted Williams spoke, people listened and him giving props to these incredible players during his OWN induction will never be forgotten.

I can go on and on why Teddy Ballgame was great but like all my posts here on 90 feet of perfection, I am going to recognize and appreciate the people who have played this great game via photos I have collected. This is the last man in Baseball history to hit .400. This is a man who hit a Homerun in his last career at-bat. And this is a man who lost 5 years of his brilliant career to the military which leads to one of the biggest “what if” questions in all of Baseball history: what numbers could he have put up if he didn’t lose those seasons? We will never know but it certainly does not cast a shadow of his unbelievable career. Here’s to you Ted Williams, you ruled.

Ted Wiliams and Yogi Berra joking around at home plate as they often did with each other. Take note of this all of you Sox & Yanks fans, you CAN get along with and appreciate each other after all.

A great scene from the 1999 All-Star game at Fenway park. During Tony Gwynn’s career, Ted Williams became both a friend and mentor to him. Their careers were very similar in ways and Williams must have recognized this because he took him under his wing, which Tony has often said helped him tremendously.

A fun fact about their relationship is that Gwynn, who was never a power hitter by any means was told by Williams before the 1997 seasons to start pulling the ball more and try to take the ball out of the park more. He basically recognized that Gwynn had untapped power and suggested that he should utilize it. Gwynn was not very interested in power hitting as he thought it would negatively effect other aspects of his game but he did it anyways. Well, 1997 turned out to be one hell of a year for Gwynn as he hit .372, drove in 119 RBI’s, hit 17 homeruns, and had 220 hits. These were all career highs with the exception of the .372 which he bested back in the strike shortened season of 1994 with a .394 clip. Once again, when Williams spoke you listened.

Williams could hit almost anything as this hitting graph shows.

A great photo of Williams taking batting practice at Fenway park in 1953.

Ted Williams awaits his turn at the plate in old Comiskey park during a game against the Chicago White Sox. Something about this photo captivates me. It’s almost as if Williams is looking at the pitcher and thinking “Throw me whatever you got, it really doesn’t matter because I am going to smash it anyways.“

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Freak. Bo Still Knows. Satch. Baltimore Baseball in 1924. The Splendid Splinter.

•February 4, 2011 • 1 Comment

Timmy has never looked so good. How dope is that Brooklyn Royal Giants Negro League throwback jersey?? Without a doubt the Negro Leagues easily had the best uniforms in Baseball history. MLB needs to honor the Negro Leagues more often with throwback jersey days.

 

Speaking of awesome jerseys, look at this beauty. Bo Jackson’s classic #16 on a Kansas City Royals old baby blue jersey. I ran across this today while looking at Bo Jackson photos, almost started drooling and felt like I had to share. This may have to be my next nerdy Baseball purchase.

 

September 29th, 1968. At this point in Satchel Paige’s life he was a 62 year old Pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves trying to get his service time accumulated so that he can be eligible for a major league pension. Well like all of the chapters of Paiges life, there is an interesting story that comes along with it that leaves your scratching your head, thinking “wtf!?” and makes you admire him even more. According to the Baseball themed novel otherwise known as Satchel Paige’s WIKI page, this went down:

In August 1969, the owner of the Atlanta Braves, William Bartholomay, signed Paige to a contract running through the 1969 season—supposedly as a pitching coach, although it was mainly done so that Paige could gain service time to receive a major league pension. Paige did most of his coaching from his living room in Kansas City, but he did pitch in at least one pre-season exhibition game in April 1969, striking out Hank Aaron and Don Drysdale.

Satchel Paige was truly an American Badass.

 

I love finding stuff like this. I bet this game was simply incredible to watch on so many levels. The Baltimore Black Sox of the Negro Leagues vs. an All-Star team known as The Philadelphia Americans in an exhibition game in 1924. A cool note here is that Ed Rommel is mentioned as a member of the Americans, presumably as starting Pitcher. Rommel had a long interesting Baseball career: first as a player, then coach, then Manager and then as an Umpire. He is also known as being one of the originators and perfectors of the Knuckleball.

 

Well, you cant argue with this on any level.

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »