People are supposed to protest the ownership of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night.
Joe Tuscano, assistant sports editor for our newspaper, The Observer-Reporter, has written a column about the efforts. Click here to give a read.
Personally, I've managed to avoid paying a cent toward the Pirates ownership this year after attending probably an average of 20 times a season since PNC Park opened in 2001. Fool me six years ...
Congratulations to Frank Thomas (500 home runs) and Craig Biggio (3,000 hits) on reaching their respective milestones yesterday.
I've heard debate today about Biggio's qualifications for the Hall of Fame. Oh, come on! Just because the guy wasn't hitting balls into the ozone with the frequency of McGwire, Sosa and Palmeiro, let's not diminish his accomplishments. He's a very well-respected player who has put in 20 years with the same team, a rarity not only in these nomadic times but in major-league history.
By the way, he has hit 286 home runs so far. He also has scored 1,821 runs, hit 658 doubles (tops among active players) and stolen 413 bases to go along with a respectable .282 lifetime batting average. And he's done all that from switching his position from catcher to second base to center field, then back to second base.
He might not make it on the first ballot, but when all is said and done, Craig Biggio deserves a plaque in Cooperstown.
Trivia question 46 (courtesy of Bruce Brown): Who was the last 20th Century player to appear in 120 games in consecutive seasons for the same manager, but on different teams? Hint: He was an All-Star as a player and as a manager. Answer at bottom right
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The unfortunate Mr. McAndrew
As we approached Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia - what seemed like the most massive structure I'd ever seen - Dad pointed to the top and said, "We'll probably have to stand way up there because it will be so crowded."
I didn't realize he was joking. With Steve Carlton on the mound for the Phillies, coming off his 27 victories for a last-place team the previous season, I figured this would be one popular baseball game.
And even if I ended up hundreds of feet above the playing field, I wouldn't care. This was my first major-league baseball game, and I was going to enjoy it.
As it turned out, there was plenty of room inside the stadium, as the paid attendance was slightly more than 11,000 to see the Phillies play the Mets on April 14, 1973. Facing the mighty Mr. Carlton was New York's Jim McAndrew, a pitcher I'd never heard of before that night.
Carlton pitched a complete game as Philadelphia coasted to a 7-3 win. McAndrew, making his first start of the season, lasted into the sixth in taking the loss.
The 1973 season didn't prove to be a one to remember for either pitcher. Carlton ended up losing 20 games, while McAndrew staggered his way through his sixth and final year with the Mets and was gone from the majors by early '74.
About all I knew of McAndrew was that he was one of a crew of exceptional young pitchers the Mets' farm system developed in the '60s. Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan went on to the Hall of Fame, while Jerry Koosman and the late Tug McGraw achieved some degree of stardom.
McAndrew was one who didn't, perhaps in part because of his harrowing experiences at the very start of is major-league career.
The native of Lost Nation, Iowa - what a great place name! - was 24 when the Mets called him up from Jacksonville in July 1968. McAndrew must have known he wasn't joining an offensive juggernaut (New York batter his .228 and scored fewer than three runs per game that year), but nothing could have prepared him for what happened when he reached The Show.
In his debut, for example, he pitched exceptionally well, giving up one run on six hits and no walks by facing the defending World Series champion Cardinals. On the mound for St. Louis, though, was Bob Gibson, who was in the midst of a stretch of surrendering two runs in 100 innings (sic) on his way to a 1.12 ERA for the season. Gibson scattered seven singles, walked none and struck out 13 while posting one of his baker's dozen complete-game shutouts in '68.
The Mets gave McAndrew his next start two weeks later, against the Dodgers. He didn't pitch as well, giving up nine hits before manager Gil Hodges yanked him in the fifth inning. The two runs Los Angeles scored were plenty enough for mound opponent Mike Kekich, who pitched a one-hit shutout, striking out 11.
On Aug. 10, McAndrew faced the Giants. His one mistake was giving up a single to Bob Barton, which scored Jesus Alou from second. San Francisco's Bob Bolin, meanwhile, pitched a six-hit shutout and struck out nine in the 1-0 win.
A week later, it was McAndrew's turn against Houston, which was fighting the Mets for eighth place in the NL standings. McAndrew's only gaffe was hanging a ball that Jim "The Toy Cannon" Wynn hit out of the park in the top of the sixth. Houston's Don Wilson and John Buzhardt combined to give up four hits in the 1-0 victory.
To that point, McAndrew had compiled a 1.82 ERA, but was 0-4, with the Mets scoring exactly zero runs in any game in which he'd pitched.
So one couldn't blame him for being more than slightly frazzled when he took the mound again on Aug. 21 for a rematch with San Francisco, which had two future Hall of Famers, Willies Mays and McCovey, in the lineup and another, Juan Marichal, as the opposing pitcher.
This time around, the Mets actually scored on McAndrew's behalf, with Larry Stahl's home run in the third and Ed Kranepool's single later in the inning staking New York out to a 2-1 lead.
Perhaps the shock of seeing his team actually score was too much for Jim. After giving up Mays' 580th career home run, which put the Giants up 6-2, Hodges dismissed McAndrew, and the Mets were on their way to a 13-3 defeat. His record: 0-5, 3.38 ERA.
By then, McAndrew might have been hoping for a bus ticket back to Jacksonville, but Hodges put him out there again St. Louis on Aug. 26, vs. yet another pitcher on his way to Cooperstown: Carlton, the same guy he'd face in my first game.
In the '68 contest, Carlton shut out the Mets for the first seven innings, but the Cardinals had no success against McAndrew, either. In the eighth, Tommie Agee (on his way to a .217 season with a whopping 17 RBI) led off by bouncing a single to left field. Phil "Harmonica" Linz sacrificed Agee to second. Apparently, Carlton hadn't developed his killer pickoff move at that point in his career, and Agee stole third. Cleon Jones then hit a fly ball deep enough for Agee to cross the plate.
Knowing that probably was all he'd get in the run department, McAndrew mowed down the final six Cardinals, with Roger Maris, who'd retire after the season, making the last out.
Finally, McAndrew had a win to go with all those losses. But four days later, Carlton turned the tables and beat McAndrew and the Mets, 2-0. And five days after that, Pittsburgh's Steve Blass won a 2-1 battle over McAndrew, the deciding tally coming on a home run by all-time great Roberto Clemente.
Thus, in his first eight major-league starts, Jim McAndrew compiled a 2.53 ERA, but had a 1-7 record to show for it.
He won his last three decisions in '68, beating Cooperstown-bound Ferguson Jenkins and future All-Stars Ken Holtzman and Rick Wise. McAndrew finished 1968 at 4-7 with a 2.28 ERA.
The Mets' pitching staff was loaded in '69, and when McAndrew started the season by getting bombed in his first three starts (including failing to make it out of the second inning against the Montreal Expos in just the team's second game ever), he would up splitting time between the starting rotation and the bullpen.
Despite showing a flash of brilliance in back-to-back shutouts of the Giants (beating Gaylord Perry, yet another future Hall of Famer) and Padres in late August, he generally was nowhere near as effective as he'd been as a rookie.
His best overall season was 1972, when he went 11-8 with a 2.80 ERA for another offensively challenged Mets squad. But after a slow start in '73, he was used sporadically and finished 3-8, scoring his final win on May 13 for a team that ended up going to the World Series.
McAndrew's career ended a year later on yet another team that couldn't hit the ball, the San Diego Padres. Two decades later, he watched son Jamie pitch a couple of seasons with Milwaukee.
Jim McAndrew still seems to be a hero of sorts among the Mets faithful who revere the miracle team of '69 and anyone who was on the squad. Here he is (far right) at a recent Mets fantasy camp, along with former teammates Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones and Al Jackson, along with camp attendee Howie Abrams, whose photograph this is:
Jim is pictured a big smile on his face, which means he may finally have gotten over some of those other guys not scoring any runs for him!
Trivia question 45: Who was the first Kansas City Royals player to win the Rookie of the Year award? Question courtesy of the Society for American Baseball Research; answer at lower right
I didn't realize he was joking. With Steve Carlton on the mound for the Phillies, coming off his 27 victories for a last-place team the previous season, I figured this would be one popular baseball game.
And even if I ended up hundreds of feet above the playing field, I wouldn't care. This was my first major-league baseball game, and I was going to enjoy it.
As it turned out, there was plenty of room inside the stadium, as the paid attendance was slightly more than 11,000 to see the Phillies play the Mets on April 14, 1973. Facing the mighty Mr. Carlton was New York's Jim McAndrew, a pitcher I'd never heard of before that night.
Carlton pitched a complete game as Philadelphia coasted to a 7-3 win. McAndrew, making his first start of the season, lasted into the sixth in taking the loss.
The 1973 season didn't prove to be a one to remember for either pitcher. Carlton ended up losing 20 games, while McAndrew staggered his way through his sixth and final year with the Mets and was gone from the majors by early '74.
About all I knew of McAndrew was that he was one of a crew of exceptional young pitchers the Mets' farm system developed in the '60s. Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan went on to the Hall of Fame, while Jerry Koosman and the late Tug McGraw achieved some degree of stardom.
McAndrew was one who didn't, perhaps in part because of his harrowing experiences at the very start of is major-league career.
The native of Lost Nation, Iowa - what a great place name! - was 24 when the Mets called him up from Jacksonville in July 1968. McAndrew must have known he wasn't joining an offensive juggernaut (New York batter his .228 and scored fewer than three runs per game that year), but nothing could have prepared him for what happened when he reached The Show.
In his debut, for example, he pitched exceptionally well, giving up one run on six hits and no walks by facing the defending World Series champion Cardinals. On the mound for St. Louis, though, was Bob Gibson, who was in the midst of a stretch of surrendering two runs in 100 innings (sic) on his way to a 1.12 ERA for the season. Gibson scattered seven singles, walked none and struck out 13 while posting one of his baker's dozen complete-game shutouts in '68.
The Mets gave McAndrew his next start two weeks later, against the Dodgers. He didn't pitch as well, giving up nine hits before manager Gil Hodges yanked him in the fifth inning. The two runs Los Angeles scored were plenty enough for mound opponent Mike Kekich, who pitched a one-hit shutout, striking out 11.
On Aug. 10, McAndrew faced the Giants. His one mistake was giving up a single to Bob Barton, which scored Jesus Alou from second. San Francisco's Bob Bolin, meanwhile, pitched a six-hit shutout and struck out nine in the 1-0 win.
A week later, it was McAndrew's turn against Houston, which was fighting the Mets for eighth place in the NL standings. McAndrew's only gaffe was hanging a ball that Jim "The Toy Cannon" Wynn hit out of the park in the top of the sixth. Houston's Don Wilson and John Buzhardt combined to give up four hits in the 1-0 victory.
To that point, McAndrew had compiled a 1.82 ERA, but was 0-4, with the Mets scoring exactly zero runs in any game in which he'd pitched.
So one couldn't blame him for being more than slightly frazzled when he took the mound again on Aug. 21 for a rematch with San Francisco, which had two future Hall of Famers, Willies Mays and McCovey, in the lineup and another, Juan Marichal, as the opposing pitcher.
This time around, the Mets actually scored on McAndrew's behalf, with Larry Stahl's home run in the third and Ed Kranepool's single later in the inning staking New York out to a 2-1 lead.
Perhaps the shock of seeing his team actually score was too much for Jim. After giving up Mays' 580th career home run, which put the Giants up 6-2, Hodges dismissed McAndrew, and the Mets were on their way to a 13-3 defeat. His record: 0-5, 3.38 ERA.
By then, McAndrew might have been hoping for a bus ticket back to Jacksonville, but Hodges put him out there again St. Louis on Aug. 26, vs. yet another pitcher on his way to Cooperstown: Carlton, the same guy he'd face in my first game.
In the '68 contest, Carlton shut out the Mets for the first seven innings, but the Cardinals had no success against McAndrew, either. In the eighth, Tommie Agee (on his way to a .217 season with a whopping 17 RBI) led off by bouncing a single to left field. Phil "Harmonica" Linz sacrificed Agee to second. Apparently, Carlton hadn't developed his killer pickoff move at that point in his career, and Agee stole third. Cleon Jones then hit a fly ball deep enough for Agee to cross the plate.
Knowing that probably was all he'd get in the run department, McAndrew mowed down the final six Cardinals, with Roger Maris, who'd retire after the season, making the last out.
Finally, McAndrew had a win to go with all those losses. But four days later, Carlton turned the tables and beat McAndrew and the Mets, 2-0. And five days after that, Pittsburgh's Steve Blass won a 2-1 battle over McAndrew, the deciding tally coming on a home run by all-time great Roberto Clemente.
Thus, in his first eight major-league starts, Jim McAndrew compiled a 2.53 ERA, but had a 1-7 record to show for it.
He won his last three decisions in '68, beating Cooperstown-bound Ferguson Jenkins and future All-Stars Ken Holtzman and Rick Wise. McAndrew finished 1968 at 4-7 with a 2.28 ERA.
The Mets' pitching staff was loaded in '69, and when McAndrew started the season by getting bombed in his first three starts (including failing to make it out of the second inning against the Montreal Expos in just the team's second game ever), he would up splitting time between the starting rotation and the bullpen.
Despite showing a flash of brilliance in back-to-back shutouts of the Giants (beating Gaylord Perry, yet another future Hall of Famer) and Padres in late August, he generally was nowhere near as effective as he'd been as a rookie.
His best overall season was 1972, when he went 11-8 with a 2.80 ERA for another offensively challenged Mets squad. But after a slow start in '73, he was used sporadically and finished 3-8, scoring his final win on May 13 for a team that ended up going to the World Series.
McAndrew's career ended a year later on yet another team that couldn't hit the ball, the San Diego Padres. Two decades later, he watched son Jamie pitch a couple of seasons with Milwaukee.
Jim McAndrew still seems to be a hero of sorts among the Mets faithful who revere the miracle team of '69 and anyone who was on the squad. Here he is (far right) at a recent Mets fantasy camp, along with former teammates Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones and Al Jackson, along with camp attendee Howie Abrams, whose photograph this is:
Jim is pictured a big smile on his face, which means he may finally have gotten over some of those other guys not scoring any runs for him!
Trivia question 45: Who was the first Kansas City Royals player to win the Rookie of the Year award? Question courtesy of the Society for American Baseball Research; answer at lower right
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Nabors' nadir
As a baseball fan living in Pittsburgh, I've become fascinated with the sport's historic losers.
Well, that's not really true. I've been fascinated with baseball's losers since long before I moved to Pittsburgh. Maybe that's because I couldn't hit a lick when I was a kid. Seriously, it was embarrassing ...
Anyway, on the heels of Joe Cleary and his 189.00 ERA, I present Jack Nabors, who had the misfortune of pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics after Connie Mack decided to divest his payroll of any players making more than what passed for minimum wage.
Look it up. The A's went from winning the American League pennant in 1914 to winning a whopping 43 games against 109 losses the following year, in a plunge that was even more precipitous than Wayne Huizenga's 1997-98 Florida Fish.
Mack's apologists say he was embarrassed by his team being swept by the "Miracle" Boston Braves (and miraculous they were) in the '14 Series, but the cleaning of the house probably had more to do with competition from the upstart Federal League and the probability that Connie's stars were going to try to squeeze more money out of him.
The pitching staff of the 1915 Athletics is an interesting one. No less than 27 hurlers took the mound for the team at some point during the season, in an era when teams general had four-man rotations and a couple of guys on hand for emergencies. And Mack was going for a staff that was uniformly wet behind the ears: Their average age was 22.
Nabors, in fact, was the oldest pitcher to appear for the A's that year, having turned 27 the previous Nov. 19. The native of Montevallo, Ala., made his major-league debut in 1915 and turned in an 0-5 record in five starts and two relief stints, giving up 45 runs in the process.
(One A's pitcher, Bruno "Boon" Haas, set one of baseball's unbreakable records when he walked 16 batters in his very first start on June 23, 1915. Amazingly, Mack gave him another start and used him in relief four times after that.)
If the remaining Athletics fans thought '15 was a bad season, they were in for a rude awakening. The 1916 version holds the 20th-century record for lowest winning percentage, .235 (36-117), even worse than the '62 Mets.
The pitching staff had two decent hurlers in the rotation, Elmer Myers (14-23) and "Bullet" Joe Bush (15-24 with 8 shutouts), who combined for 80 percent of the A's wins that year. Another youngster having the proverbial cup of coffee, James "Rube" Parnham - a native of Heidelberg, Pa., my wife's hometown - went 2-1. That left the rest of the staff with a composite of 5 wins and 68 losses.
Contributing to that abysmal showing were two other members of the rotation, Tom Sheehan and Mr. Nabors. Sheehan, who was named manager of the San Francisco Giants 44 years later, went 1-16. Nabors did even worse, losing 20 while winning just once.
Philadelphia sportswriters apparently had a ball trying to describe what they were seeing on the field. Here's part of a late-season article that appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer following a loss to the Washington Senators:
Elongated Jack Nabors tried hard enough to stave off defeat No. 115 for the Athletics yesterday, but pop-eyed support by [shortstop Lawton] Witt and [second baseman Roy] Grover enabled two Washingtonians to travel the 360 feet of pathway around the diamond and these runs were sufficient enough to give the Senators their second victory over the much-abused Mackmen. The final verdict was 4 to 1, the other two markers being compiled in the ninth, when Rube Bressler, who succeeded Nabors in this round, gave a weird exhibition of pitching.
Had Jack been flawlessly supported the Senators would not have reached the counting station. Grover's fumble of Menesky's [actually, "Leaping" Mike Menosky's] roller in the sixth, when two were down and a man on second, set the stage for [outfielder Elmer] Smith to single in the first counter for the Capital brigade. In the very next inning "Whitey" Witt, who showed up poorly all day, erred on [Howard] Shanks' bouncer and that bull blossomed into the second tally scored on Nabors. ...
It was one of Nabors' best exhibitions, for he forgot to pass a man, eliminated wild pitches from his repertoire and in general behaved with all the skill and cunning a regular moundsman uses in his daily labors.
Gotta love that old-time sportswriting!
That turned out to be the last start for "Elongated" Jack (listed at 6-foot-3, very tall for the time). He returned for two relief appearances for the A's in 1917 without a decision, then passed into the record books with a lifetime mark of 1-25. He died Nov. 20, 1923, one day after his 36th birthday.
Just for the record, the last surviving member of the worst team of the 20th century was outfielder James "Shag" Thompson, who died in 1990 at the age of 96. He hit .203 in 79 career at bats. (I couldn't find any information on the final disposition of outfielder James "Don" Brown, who appeared in 14 games. He was born in either 1893 or 1897, meaning he'd be 110 or 114 if he were alive today. Either way, that would be a record for former major-leaguers!)
Trivia question 44: What pitcher of the 1980s left the majors with an 0-16 career record?
Well, that's not really true. I've been fascinated with baseball's losers since long before I moved to Pittsburgh. Maybe that's because I couldn't hit a lick when I was a kid. Seriously, it was embarrassing ...
Anyway, on the heels of Joe Cleary and his 189.00 ERA, I present Jack Nabors, who had the misfortune of pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics after Connie Mack decided to divest his payroll of any players making more than what passed for minimum wage.
Look it up. The A's went from winning the American League pennant in 1914 to winning a whopping 43 games against 109 losses the following year, in a plunge that was even more precipitous than Wayne Huizenga's 1997-98 Florida Fish.
Mack's apologists say he was embarrassed by his team being swept by the "Miracle" Boston Braves (and miraculous they were) in the '14 Series, but the cleaning of the house probably had more to do with competition from the upstart Federal League and the probability that Connie's stars were going to try to squeeze more money out of him.
The pitching staff of the 1915 Athletics is an interesting one. No less than 27 hurlers took the mound for the team at some point during the season, in an era when teams general had four-man rotations and a couple of guys on hand for emergencies. And Mack was going for a staff that was uniformly wet behind the ears: Their average age was 22.
Nabors, in fact, was the oldest pitcher to appear for the A's that year, having turned 27 the previous Nov. 19. The native of Montevallo, Ala., made his major-league debut in 1915 and turned in an 0-5 record in five starts and two relief stints, giving up 45 runs in the process.
(One A's pitcher, Bruno "Boon" Haas, set one of baseball's unbreakable records when he walked 16 batters in his very first start on June 23, 1915. Amazingly, Mack gave him another start and used him in relief four times after that.)
If the remaining Athletics fans thought '15 was a bad season, they were in for a rude awakening. The 1916 version holds the 20th-century record for lowest winning percentage, .235 (36-117), even worse than the '62 Mets.
The pitching staff had two decent hurlers in the rotation, Elmer Myers (14-23) and "Bullet" Joe Bush (15-24 with 8 shutouts), who combined for 80 percent of the A's wins that year. Another youngster having the proverbial cup of coffee, James "Rube" Parnham - a native of Heidelberg, Pa., my wife's hometown - went 2-1. That left the rest of the staff with a composite of 5 wins and 68 losses.
Contributing to that abysmal showing were two other members of the rotation, Tom Sheehan and Mr. Nabors. Sheehan, who was named manager of the San Francisco Giants 44 years later, went 1-16. Nabors did even worse, losing 20 while winning just once.
Philadelphia sportswriters apparently had a ball trying to describe what they were seeing on the field. Here's part of a late-season article that appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer following a loss to the Washington Senators:
Elongated Jack Nabors tried hard enough to stave off defeat No. 115 for the Athletics yesterday, but pop-eyed support by [shortstop Lawton] Witt and [second baseman Roy] Grover enabled two Washingtonians to travel the 360 feet of pathway around the diamond and these runs were sufficient enough to give the Senators their second victory over the much-abused Mackmen. The final verdict was 4 to 1, the other two markers being compiled in the ninth, when Rube Bressler, who succeeded Nabors in this round, gave a weird exhibition of pitching.
Had Jack been flawlessly supported the Senators would not have reached the counting station. Grover's fumble of Menesky's [actually, "Leaping" Mike Menosky's] roller in the sixth, when two were down and a man on second, set the stage for [outfielder Elmer] Smith to single in the first counter for the Capital brigade. In the very next inning "Whitey" Witt, who showed up poorly all day, erred on [Howard] Shanks' bouncer and that bull blossomed into the second tally scored on Nabors. ...
It was one of Nabors' best exhibitions, for he forgot to pass a man, eliminated wild pitches from his repertoire and in general behaved with all the skill and cunning a regular moundsman uses in his daily labors.
Gotta love that old-time sportswriting!
That turned out to be the last start for "Elongated" Jack (listed at 6-foot-3, very tall for the time). He returned for two relief appearances for the A's in 1917 without a decision, then passed into the record books with a lifetime mark of 1-25. He died Nov. 20, 1923, one day after his 36th birthday.
Just for the record, the last surviving member of the worst team of the 20th century was outfielder James "Shag" Thompson, who died in 1990 at the age of 96. He hit .203 in 79 career at bats. (I couldn't find any information on the final disposition of outfielder James "Don" Brown, who appeared in 14 games. He was born in either 1893 or 1897, meaning he'd be 110 or 114 if he were alive today. Either way, that would be a record for former major-leaguers!)
Trivia question 44: What pitcher of the 1980s left the majors with an 0-16 career record?
Monday, June 25, 2007
Fire
When you pore through the minutiae of baseball encyclopedias for the better part of three-and-a-half decades, you keep coming across interesting tidbits that stick in your mind.
So when I saw that the latest SABR Baseball Biography Project was about a pitcher named Joe Cleary, I recognized the subject of the profile right off the bat.
Cleary is one of the many players whose appearance in the baseball reference books comes about because of a solitary appearance in the majors. What makes Mr. Cleary memorable is one of the numbers attached to his entry: 189.00. That's his lifetime ERA, the result of pitching one-third of an inning for the 1945 Washington Senators and giving up seven earned runs. (I've read some reference books that don't even credit him with getting that one out, which would give him a lifetime ERA of infinity.)
And that's all I knew about Joe Cleary, except the biographical information that lists him as a native of Cork, Ireland, and having the nickname of "Fire" or "Fireman." ("Arsonist" would seem to be more appropriate ... sorry.)
At any rate, biographer Charlie Bevis does a fantastic job of putting a face, so to speak, on Mr. Cleary, who died in 2004 at age 85.
Even if you've never seen his listing in Macmillan, click here to read all about the man with the 189 ERA.
Irate fans
I've heard some mixed opinions on the planned protest of the Pirates coming up on Saturday at PNC Park. But in my opinion, the guys who are organizing it are showing that there still is interest in baseball in Pittsburgh, and those who still care are, to borrow from the late Peter Finch, mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
In a nut(ting)shell, the protest is planned for Saturday's game against the Washington Nationals. The objective is for people who are in attendance to walk out after the third inning, after they've collected their Bob Walk bobbleheads. But for those who don't want to give the Pirates ownership their money on Saturday, the organizers of the protest are planning activities on the public streets outside the ballpark (which, itself, came about pretty much with public money, apparently so that whoever ran the baseball team could turn a profit regardless of the product on the field).
Anyway ... supporting the protest is a group with a really catchy name for its Web site, Irate Fans, featuring a logo that sort of looks like there's a "P" in front of "Irate." Give credit where it's due when it comes to creativity. The site has been in place since last spring, and the publicity surrounding the protest really must be generating some hits these days.
Kraig Koelsch, one of the leading Irate Fans, forwarded this information regarding the protest planned by Fans for Change:
Hello everyone,
As you may have heard by now, Fans for Change will hold a formal press conference on Tuesday, June 26th at 2:15pm near the Roberto Clemente statue on Federal Street. At this time, we will officially announce our plans and objectives for the evening of Saturday, June 30th. All regional media outlets have been informed and will be in attendance.
We ask that all supporters of Fans for Change join us (if possible) on Tuesday afternoon, adorned in a green shirt, as a visual representation of the strength that we have gained in the span of less than two weeks! Our group presence will vividly illustrate the strength and passion of fans that truly demand and deserve change.
Remember, this movement is a team movement, and together we have power in unity.
We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday afternoon if you can make it.
Sincerely,
Seanpittsburghforchange@yahoo.com
So, if you're not doing anything tomorrow afternoon ... unfortunately, I am, so I won't hear firsthand what the Fans for Change have to say. But I'll pass on the information as I get it.
At any rate, the protest should be picking up a lot of steam following the Pirates' horrific showing on the just-completed West Coast trip, an interleague nightmare that included:
• Being shut out by a pitcher, Seattle's Jeff Weaver, who entered the game with an ERA above 10.
• Being shut out by another Mariners pitcher, Felix Hernandez, who seems to have a lot of potential but also seems to be injury-prone.
• Choking away an early lead and losing to the Los Angeles ... Anaheim ... whatever they're called, in extra innings.
• Giving up 10 runs to the Angels in a game started by Ian Snell, who has been mentioned as a possibility for the Pirates' representative in the All-Star Game (as if they deserve one).
• Tying the game in the ninth but blowing it in extra innings, giving the Angels the most victories in the majors to this point in the season.
Yeah, it's getting easier to protest. It's also getting easier to stay away from PNC Park while the Nutting ownership is reaping the profits. For Pittsburgh-area baseball fans, there's a viable alternative down the road in Washington, PA, with the Frontier League Wild Things. Read more about them in Chris Dugan's blog.
And unless you're protesting, you might want to consider steering clear of PNC.
Trivia question 43: Who was the second pitcher to win a World Series game for the Phillies? (The first was Grover Cleveland Alexander.)
Friday, June 22, 2007
The pride of Key West
In this case, Key West is in Iowa, a town I never knew existed ...
I remember Joe Hoerner as a decent relief pitcher for the Phillies toward the end of his career, but I knew little about him other than he was fairly old at the time and once had made the NL All-Star team. I also knew that at one point, he held the record (long since shattered) for fewest innings per appearance for his career. He never started a game, and as a lefty, usually came into the game to face left-handed hitters.
In the latest SABR Baseball Biography project installment, Brian Cooper writes about the life of Mr. Hoerner and tells me something else I didn't know: Joe died in a farming accident in 1996. RIP.
Click here to read the biography.
Oh, happy day!
Joe Saunders has to be smiling today. Or at least he will be, when he wakes up on Pacific Daylight Time.
Saunders, who turned 26 last week, is living every pitcher's dream: He faces the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight. Because of injuries in the Angels' rotation, Saunders has been called up from Triple-A Salt Lake City specifically for that purpose.
What a way to return!
Saunders actually has pitched very well when Los Angeles or Anaheim or whatever they heck they're called has used him as a spot starter this season, posting a 3-0 record with a 2.22 ERA. In 19 lifetime starts, he's 10-3.
The Pirates, meanwhile, are traveling down the coast from Seattle after being shut out in consecutive games, the latter marking the major-league-leading eighth time Pittsburgh has failed to score.
At least they were dominated last night by an up-and-coming pitcher, Felix Hernandez, who got back on track after some injuries to even his record at 4-4 and lower his ERA to 4.00. The previous game, the Pirates were shut out by Jeff Weaver, who managed to get his ERA below 9.
Pittsburgh did manage to scratch out six singles and a double against Hernandez and closer J.J. Putz. The Pirates also showed their typical lack of discpline at the plate, striking out 10 times while walking just once.
Here's a note from the Associated Press on the Pirates' ineptitude against certain pitchers this season: "The Pirates, next-to-last in the National League on on-base percentage and owners of its second-fewest hits entering Thursday, made another struggling pitcher happy. Four of their last five shutouts have come against Kyle Lohse, Kameron Loe, Weaver and Hernandez, who were a combined 5-22 until they got well against Pittsburgh."
Joe Saunders hasn't been struggling, but he sure must be happy nonetheless.
When the Pirates return home, "fans" (or more accurately, people who like baseball but are disgusted) are staging a protest.
A site called IrateFans.com contains information about the protest, as well links to relative articles that have been written about bottom-line, no-commitment-to-winning approach by the team's owners, the Nutting "clan."
The June 30 protest might be worth a trip over toward PNC Park, even if you don't spend a dime to get inside the place and give the Nuttings any of your hard-earned cash.
Saunders, who turned 26 last week, is living every pitcher's dream: He faces the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight. Because of injuries in the Angels' rotation, Saunders has been called up from Triple-A Salt Lake City specifically for that purpose.
What a way to return!
Saunders actually has pitched very well when Los Angeles or Anaheim or whatever they heck they're called has used him as a spot starter this season, posting a 3-0 record with a 2.22 ERA. In 19 lifetime starts, he's 10-3.
The Pirates, meanwhile, are traveling down the coast from Seattle after being shut out in consecutive games, the latter marking the major-league-leading eighth time Pittsburgh has failed to score.
At least they were dominated last night by an up-and-coming pitcher, Felix Hernandez, who got back on track after some injuries to even his record at 4-4 and lower his ERA to 4.00. The previous game, the Pirates were shut out by Jeff Weaver, who managed to get his ERA below 9.
Pittsburgh did manage to scratch out six singles and a double against Hernandez and closer J.J. Putz. The Pirates also showed their typical lack of discpline at the plate, striking out 10 times while walking just once.
Here's a note from the Associated Press on the Pirates' ineptitude against certain pitchers this season: "The Pirates, next-to-last in the National League on on-base percentage and owners of its second-fewest hits entering Thursday, made another struggling pitcher happy. Four of their last five shutouts have come against Kyle Lohse, Kameron Loe, Weaver and Hernandez, who were a combined 5-22 until they got well against Pittsburgh."
Joe Saunders hasn't been struggling, but he sure must be happy nonetheless.
When the Pirates return home, "fans" (or more accurately, people who like baseball but are disgusted) are staging a protest.
A site called IrateFans.com contains information about the protest, as well links to relative articles that have been written about bottom-line, no-commitment-to-winning approach by the team's owners, the Nutting "clan."
The June 30 protest might be worth a trip over toward PNC Park, even if you don't spend a dime to get inside the place and give the Nuttings any of your hard-earned cash.
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