6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

Joe Azcue CAL b. 1939, played 1969-1970, 1972, All-Star: 1968. Dumb luck: he was traded to Cleveland hours before their starting catcher broke his hand. "The Immortal Azcue" also hit into an unassisted triple play on July 30, 1968, the first in 41 years. Darren Viola has met him. One of his comps: Buck Rodgers, yet also Craig Biggio at 23 and Mike Scioscia at 25. Why was he "immortal"? I have no idea. But he did make the Indians' official top 100 team players list.

Billy Consolo LAA b. 1934, played 1962. When Sandy Koufax signed with the Dodgers in 1954 for a $14,000 bonus, he was subject to the "bonus baby" rule then in effect. Attempting to cap what it saw as exorbitant payouts to amateur players, baseball instituted a destructive rule forcing players signing for more than a certain dollar figure to remain on the team for two years instead of gaining experience in the minors. Koufax was one of the lucky ones: he survived his trial by fire, mainly through the expedient of pitching very little. Mostly, though, the rule shattered the confidence of young players, most of whom ended up like Consolo, who signed for $60,000 in 1953 with the Red Sox. He hit .270 once, in 1957, and spent a part of his last year in the Angels' employ; they put him on waivers, and he finished his career in an A's uniform. As for the bonus baby rule, it ended with the advent of the major league draft in 1965. Steve Treder has a more extensive article about the rule and its effects on the game.

Don Crow LAN b. 1958, played 1982

Burleigh Grimes BRO b. 1893, played 1918-1926, Hall of Fame: 1964 (Veterans), d. 1985-12-06. A great player but a losing manager, he was the last legal spitball pitcher in the majors; nicknamed "Old Stubblebeard" because he refused to shave on his pitching days, he said, because the slippery elm he used to increase his saliva output burned his skin. He twice led the league in wins, once for Brooklyn (in 1921) and once for Pittsburgh (in 1928), had five 20-win seasons, pitched on four World Series teams where he had a cumulative 9-7 record with a 4.29 ERA, and led the league in complete games four times. Combative and combustible on the field, he was a purposeful headhunter who scared batters with a yellow-toothed sneer from the mound; he managed for many years in the minors, bringing his pugnaciousness into the game that way, and often getting into altercations when calls did not go his way. Yet according to Bill James, he was an exceptionally nice man off the field ("[t]here are many stories in oral histories about Grimes going out of his way to be considerate of rookies or players who had somehow become isolated from the team...").

Grimes is something of a surprise to be in the Hall at all thanks to the fact that he had only 270 wins; James considers Grimes to be one of those players who got in by virtue of his W column ("... Burleigh Grimes, Eppa Rixey, Ted Lyons, Red Ruffing, Red Faber [...] [w]hat put any of those guys in the Hall of Fame, except their career Win totals?").

Matt Hensley ANA b. 1978, played 2004

Jack Howell CAL,ANA b. 1961, played 1985-1991, 1996-1997. Top 100 Angel Howell was the reason the Angels dismissed Doug DeCinces. He may be the prototype for Dallas McPherson, as he was a huge star in the minors who failed to impress in the majors. The Angels got the best years out of him as a starter, unloading him midway through his truly disappointing 1991 season. After several years in the Japanese leagues, he returned to the Angels as a platoon player for 1996 and 1997 and immediately improved, but by then he was too old to stick around long; besides, the Angels had Troy Glaus on the way up. He was out of baseball after 1999.

Charlie Hudson CAL b. 1949, played 1975

Bob Kennedy BRO b. 1920, played 1957, d. 2005-04-07. A fringy utility type who hit just enough to be a regular, he also managed the White Sox for a few years. Waiver wire junk when Brooklyn got him at the end of his playing career.

Jim Peterson BRO b. 1908, played 1937, d. 1975-04-08

Paul Popovich LAN b. 1940, played 1968-1969. The guys yowping about "Dodger tradition" forget that seasons like 1968 and 1969 were also part of that, and that "pitching and defense" teams can be taken to pathological levels. Popovitch, who hit .229 in his year and a half with the team, spent his days backing up the incomparable shortstop ... Zoilo Versalles, who hit .196 in an injury-plagued 1968. The insanity ended when Maury Wills returned to the Dodgers fold in 1969; he served two and a half very good seasons, and one awful one, before retiring.