Friday, October 06, 2006 |
Today's Birthdays
Jack Dunn BRO b. 1872, played 1897-1900, d. 1928-10-22
Benji Gil ANA b. 1972, played 2000-2003. The walking exemplar of the kind of scrap-heap pickup the Angels got lucky with in 2002. Matt Welch and others have argued that that team was not lucky in a sabermetric sense, inasmuch as they actually underperformed their Pythagorean won-loss ratio (they should have been a 101-win team instead of a 99-win team). But they certainly were lucky in getting exceptional value out of guys like Gil, and especially, Scott Spiezio, whose 2002 postseason line of .327/.424/.600 stands in stark contrast to his career line of .255/.327/.421. As for Gil, he'll always remind me of that one crazy fan he had, with her one crazy fansite.
Alfredo Griffin LAN b. 1957, played 1988-1991, All-Star: 1984. Between Sosh, Hatcher, and Griffin, this team has coaching staff with six World Series rings earned while players, not too shabby; Griffin got one of his with the Dodgers in 1988, and then a pair with the great Blue Jays teams of the early 90's. He's been linked with Miguel Tejada as a possible reason for Tejada to come to the Angels, though that's likely implausible as he also has said he doesn't want to play third base.
Jerry Grote LAN b. 1942, played 1977-1978, 1981, All-Star: 1968, 1974. A reserve catcher for the Dodgers, he backed up Steve Yeager in the Dodgers' two of the three seasons when they went to the World Series in the late 70's and early 80's, and even played a couple of games as a defensive replacement in 1981 after he'd retired. He also won a ring with the 1969 Mets (in fact, he was behind the dish October 6, 1969 when they won the pennant after sweeping the Braves).
Harry Heitmann BRO b. 1896, played 1918, d. 1958-12-15
Jim McGlothlin CAL b. 1943, played 1965-1969, All-Star: 1967, d. 1975-12-23
Jack Snyder BRO b. 1886, played 1917, d. 1981-12-13
Jerry Stephenson LAN b. 1943, played 1970
I saw him with the Dodgers and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
: 10/06/2006 12:31:00 PM
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