Sunday, March 18, 2007 |
Birthdays, Yesterday And Today
Yesterday
Jimmie Hall CAL b. 1938, played 1967-1968, All-Star: 1964-1965. A short career as the Twins' star centerfielder (with not so much range), followed by a single season of goodness with the Angels and two-and-a-half years of club-jumping ignominy after.
Whitey Ock BRO b. 1912, played 1935, d. 1975-03-18
Robb Quinlan ANA,LAA b. 1977, played 2003-2005. Not always the best bat in the lineup, can't play third reliably, looks stiff at first, but he's got the right attitude, and he's a better bench player than you'll see on a dozen teams.
Pete Reiser
Pete Reiser BRO b. 1919, played 1940-1942, 1946-1948, All-Star: 1941-1942, 1946, d. 1981-10-25. Branch Rickey invented the farm system, but he also considered it a way to stockpile idle talent. In April, 1938, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis determined that Rickey had illegally held too much such talent in the minors, and declared 100 players free agents. Of those, the only one Rickey (then a St. Louis Cardinals executive) was truly sorry to see go was Pete Reiser. Fast, athletic, fearless, and blessed with the kind of bat that can lead teams to titles, Rickey had discovered the boy himself on the sandlots of St. Louis, and used him as his personal chauffeur before sending him to the minors. With Reiser suddenly a free agent, Rickey quickly cooked up an illegal scheme to nullify the ruling. Dodgers executive Larry MacPhail owed Rickey his job, and thus made him a trusted candidate for the shenanigan that was about to go down. MacPhail signed the 19-year-old centerfielder to a new contract, and promptly hid him in the minors; the two men made a handshake agreement that Reiser would stay with the Dodgers for two years, and then would be traded back to the Cardinals.
The deal didn't survive Leo Durocher. Durocher caught sight of the boy, and soon World Series rings started dancing in his eyes. In his first spring training appearances against major league pitching, he went 7-for-7 and got on base 11 consecutive times — all the while playing at shortstop, a position he had never played before in his life. The press saw Reiser and immediately dubbed him "Pistol Pete", a nickname that stuck, but that they knew of him at all was exactly MacPhail's worst nightmare. "Do not play Reiser again," MacPhail wired Durocher, after stories began to circulate in the New York press about the young phenom. Durocher ignored it. Instead, he declared Reiser the team's starting shortstop, prompting a MacPhail flight from New York in which Durocher ultimately slugged his boss over the kid.
Reiser did, in fact, play some shortstop, but ultimately his place was in the Dodgers' outfield, something that turned out to be disastrous. Like Darin Erstad, his recklessness was his undoing; he collided with unpadded concrete walls several times in his career, needing to be carried off the field 11 times in his career. One such collisions in 1947 was so severe that he was given last rights. It eventually took an enormous toll, and in December 1948, he was traded to the Braves. He survived four more years in the majors, but he was no longer the great promise he once was. He later pulled stints at coaching for the Dodgers, Cubs, and Angels.
Harry Riconda BRO b. 1897, played 1928, d. 1958-11-15
Today
Geronimo Berroa LAN b. 1965, played 2000
Bob Clark BRO b. 1863, played 1890, d. 1919-08-21
Johnny Cooney BRO b. 1901, played 1935-1937, 1943-1944, d. 1986-07-08
Ken Edenfield CAL b. 1967, played 1995-1996
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