Thursday, June 08, 2006 |
Today's Birthdays
Mark Belanger LAN b. 1944, played 1982, All-Star: 1976, d. 1998-10-06. An eight-time Gold Glove winner, yet he was only twice the league's best defensive shortstop during that stretch according to fielding win shares:
Appearing in ten postseason series over six postseasons, Belanger never could hit, a fact that got worse as he aged. Coupled with his declining performance, he publicly criticized Earl Weaver's managerial prowess toward the end of his career, and the Orioles thanked him by letting him walk. The Dodgers provided a paycheck and a uniform to collect it in for his final season in the Show; a lifelong smoker, he died of lung cancer in 1999.+--------+--------------+-----------+---------------+ | season | Belanger FWS | Other FWS | Other Player | +--------+--------------+-----------+---------------+ | 1969 | 6.9 | 10.5 | Leo Cardenas | | 1971 | 9.4 | 9.8 | Graig Nettles | | 1973 | 7.9 | 10.9 | Bobby Grich | | 1975 | 9.9 | 10.2 | Bucky Dent | | 1977 | 9.8 | 11.1 | Rick Burleson | | 1978 | 7.5 | 11.4 | Rick Burleson | +--------+--------------+-----------+---------------+
George Brunet CAL,LAA b. 1935, played 1964-1969, d. 1991-10-25. A Top 100 Angel, he turned into something useful for the Halos after bouncing around Milwaukee, Kansas City, Houston, and Baltimore; he still holds the minor league strikeout record, with 3,100.
Kevin Gross LAN,ANA b. 1961, played 1991-1994, 1997, All-Star: 1988. Said to have star-quality stuff, he never figured out how to harness it completely, though he was good enough to hang on for a 15-year career. Three times he led the majors in hit batters; the best game of his career was a 2-0 complete-game no-hitter against the Giants on August 17, 1992, but by then the Dodgers' season was irretrievably lost. After two unproductive years in Texas, the Angels took a flyer on him in 1997; they released him on July 28.
Dave Mlicki LAN b. 1968, played 1998-1999. Along with Greg McMichael, he's the guy the Dodgers got when they decided Hideo Nomo was done in 1998. An unremarkable right-hander whose promise never matched his delivery, his sole career highlight was a complete game shutout of the Yankees as a Met in the first year of interleague play, on June 16, 1997. The Dodgers moved him to the Tigers in 1999.
Van Lingle Mungo BRO b. 1911, played 1931-1941, All-Star: 1934, 1936-1937, 1945, d. 1985-02-12. He and Voros McCracken would have gotten along famously; he believed the only sure way to retire batters was to strike them out, and led the NL in that mark in 1936. Pitching for lousy Dodger teams of the 1930's didn't help his reputation, and he hurt his arm in the 1937 All-Star game. He became a junkballer and decreasingly effective, retiring in 1945 after pitching three final seasons with the Giants.
Matt Perisho ANA b. 1975, played 1997. Matt F*cking Perisho appears to be out of baseball. But somewhere, there's a manager or a GM who just needs a LOOGY fix...
Don Robinson CAL b. 1957, played 1992
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