Thursday, June 01, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
Dean Chance LAA,CAL b. 1941, played 1961-1966, All-Star: 1964, 1967. A Top 100 Angel, he was the Angels' only Cy Young winner prior to Bartolo Colón. He earned his Cy Young the hard way back in 1964, when they had only one award throughout baseball rather than one per league as they do now, and his competition included Sandy Koufax. In his 1964 season, gave up 14 hits all year to the Yankees; according to Robert Goldman's Once They Were Angels, Mickey Mantle was once overheard by Chance's teammate Albie Pearson to say, "When Chance pitches, I want to go hide." After hitting the only home run off Chance the Yanks would get all year, Chance glared at Mickey Mantle; Mantle, who had started smiling as he trotted round the bases, went back into a somber mood. "He knew he had cheated the hangman," wrote Goldman. He was that dominant.
Derek Lowe LAN b. 1973, played 2005, All-Star: 2000, 2002. An at times brilliant groundball specialist, he had three outstanding years in 1999, 2000, and 2001; now he's just a guy collecting a paycheck based on those performances and his 2004 postseason heroism, while providing occaisional off-field column-inches for Ron Fineman. Also known as the man who was saved from a series-ending loss to the Yankees (and eternal damnation in Boston) in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS by the stolen base of yesterday's birthday boy, pinch-runner Dave Roberts. In fairness, he was also on the mound for (and won) Game 7 in that ALCS, and three-hit the mighty Cards lineup through seven strong innings in the concluding Game 4 of the 2004 World Series. Paul DePodesta hopefully learned a lesson about paying guys based on their postseason exploits, but then, he's got a lot of time to think about a lot of things, now doesn't he?
Ken McMullen CAL,LAN b. 1942, played 1962-1964, 1970-1975. Signed by the Dodgers for $60,000 in 1960 and coming up in 1962, McMullin could play the corner infield positions but never really hit well enough to justify playing time as a starter. Traded with Frank Howard and others to the Washington Senators for Claude Osteen, John Kennedy and cash in what probably ranks as one of the worst trades of the 1960's Dodgers; Howard would go on to some of the greatest years of his 16-year career with the Senators, and so would McMullin, hitting 18 home runs his first year at RFK, then a slightly-hitter-friendly park. From 1964 through 1970, in which latter year presumptive hero-to-be Billy Grabarkewitz took the job, the Dodgers had seven different third basemen, while McMullen was posting solid if unspectacular numbers for the Senators. A mobile third baseman, he led his Washington teams in total chances three straight years; he also led the team in errors in 1967 with 18, and was consistently in double digits.
Eventually traded to the Angels, he played for California for two and three quarters seasons or so, and then found himself as part of another idiotic trade; this time, the Angels sent Andy Messersmith to the Dodgers for a handful of nothing, including Bobby Valentine and Billy Grabarkewitz. Eventually, he got Wally Pipp'ed by Ron Cey; he retired two years later after bouncing around Oakland and Milwaukee.
Otto Miller BRO b. 1889, played 1910-1922, d. 1962-03-29. Somewhere between a reserve and a starter, Otto Miller caught about half the Brooklyn Robins' games from 1910 to 1922. He's most famous as one of the men on the wrong end of the only unassisted triple play in World Series history, in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the 1920 Series.
Ray Moore BRO b. 1926, played 1952-1953, d. 1995-03-02
Chuck Templeton BRO b. 1932, played 1955-1956, d. 1997-10-09
Ty Tyson BRO b. 1892, played 1928, d. 1953-08-16
Roster Notes
- The Times has the skinny on the Escobar extension; $28.5M for three more years.
- Darin Erstad could be back in the starting lineup next week. Uh... at a loss for words...
- More pitching witch-doctory: the Dodgers claim to have found a mechanical flaw in Brad Penny's delivery that's resulting in a sore shoulder.
- Eric Gagné will be eligible to play tonight, having served his suspension.
- The Dodgers nixed a possible trade for Jerry Hairston, Jr. from the Cubs after the rise of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and Willy Aybar made it unnecessary.
- The Mariners may be the team to draft Luke Hochevar, the former Dodger draftee whose bizarre antics led the team to walk away from him. Good luck with that, then.
: 6/01/2006 08:39:00 AMI also remember Chance from his days with the Twins after he left the Angels. He had a kind of symmetry - he was as inept as a hitter as was proficient as a pitcher.
IIRC - of all baseball players with more career ABs than Chance, none of them have a lower career batting average than good old Dean.
I was a Frank Howard fan. His home run off of Whitey Ford in Game 4 of the 1963 World Series went right over my head. The facts are that by 1965-66 the Dodgers were better off with Sweet Lou Johnson in left field than with Hondo. This is not an argument about Winshares. I am arguing in favor of two N.L. pennants and one World Championship that were the fruits of this trade. This trade was a "mistake" that I would like to see made again. We are not talking Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas here!
Yes indeed, the Dodgers had a revolving door at third base after Junior Gilliam retired that was not solved until the Penguin migrated to L.A. More teams than not have a problem decade of "who's on third" or at some other position. Most long suffering fans can identify with that.
: 6/01/2006 12:58:00 PM : 6/01/2006 10:27:00 PM : 6/02/2006 07:42:00 AMNewer› ‹Older
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