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Thursday, February 15, 2007 |
Today's Birthdays
Rick Auerbach LAN b. 1950, played 1974-1976
Ron Cey LAN b. 1948, played 1971-1982, All-Star: 1974-1979. For a time, the home run king of the Los Angeles Dodgers (since supplanted by Eric Karros) and a godsend at a traditional trouble spot, he was one of the anchors of That Infield the Dodgers relied upon so long during my youth, and which I idolized. His nickname, "Penguin", came from his stocky build and his odd gait on the basepaths. His build was unusual in baseball, but as Bill James once wrote,
Did you ever notice how many great baseball players have what could be loosely described as a Hack Wilson type body? Kirby Puckett once said that his fantasy was to have a body like Glenn Braggs'. Kirby was a short, squat man who didn't look like a baseball player; Braggs was about 6-3, slender, fast, very graceful — and, of course, not one-tenth the player that Kirby Puckett was.
... [P]erhaps, just perhaps, the short powerful body is actually the best body for a baseball player. Long arms really do not help you when you're hitting; short arms work better. Compressed power is more effective than diffuse power. Yogi Berra had that kind of a body — a short, powerful, funny-looking kind of guy. ... Lousy players outnumber great players a hundred to one — but can you name a dozen guys who had bodies like [Berra's and Puckett's] and were lousy players?
George Earnshaw BRO b. 1900, played 1935-1936, d. 1976-12-01
Charlie Irwin BRO b. 1869, played 1901-1902, d. 1925-09-21
Hal Lee BRO b. 1905, played 1930, d. 1989-09-04
Joe Moeller LAN b. 1943, played 1962, 1964, 1966-1971
Labels: dodgers
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