Saturday, October 21, 2006 |
Today's Birthdays
Bryan Corey LAN b. 1973, played 2002
Bill Russell LAN b. 1948, played 1969-1986, All-Star: 1973, 1976, 1980. "Rightward shifts along the defensive spectrum," Bill James once wrote, "almost never work", and yet here is Bill Russell, outfielder, to show him up. Russell moved to shortstop either as a result of Bobby Valentine's catastrophic injury, or because Walter Alston needed somebody to replace Maury Wills. Whatever the reasoning was, he formed the shortstop part of the famous Dodgers infield that lasted so very long, "a historical one-of-a-kind, the only major league outfielder to convert to shortstop and have a solid career ... he hit .270 and made the plays he was supposed to make." As a group, they would likely have ranked among the best in history in a single year, except that Russell broke his hand on April 12, 1975 while applying a tag to Cesar Cedeño, coming up lame when he returned.
In the Dodgers record book, he ranks second behind Zach Wheat in all time games played, and is in the top ten for career at-bats, hits, total bases, doubles, triples, strikeouts, singles, intentional walks, sacrifice hits and flies, GIDPs, outs, RBIs, extra base hits, and stolen bases. He also owns the franchise single-game strikeout record (earned with a five-whiff game on June 9, 1971 against the Phillies, for which he is tied with Darryl Strawberry).
Franklin Stubbs LAN b. 1960, played 1984-1989
The April 12, 1975 game you mention was started by Juan Marichal. Marichal's final game in the majors was an April 16, 1975 start at home against Cincinnati. I intended to go to that game but my Dodger Blue Rooter Bus, a 1964 Buick Skylark, acted up the night before while I was driving to a Reds-Dodgers game. With 190,000 miles on it the alternator decided that was a good time to fail. I specifically remember the April 16, 1975 game because the Toy Cannon, Jimmy Wynn hit a grand slam in that game. If I had attended that would have been the second grand salami I would have seen Wynn hit. It was not until 2006 that I saw a player hit two career grand slams in person. Juan Rivera and Vladimir Guerrero each hit a grand slam in 2005 and 2006 at games I went to.
: 10/22/2006 01:59:00 PM
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