January, 2008 | The Baseball Zealot

Library of Congress posting photos

The Library of Congress has posted over 3,000 photos on the popular image sharing site Flickr. The photos have no copyright restriction and are considered public domain.

The interest to us is that many are baseball-related such as the photo at left (Managers Bobby Wallace and Hal Chase in the year 1911). To view them, here is a good place to start. There are some real priceless photos going back to early 20th century.

As part of the project, the LOC wants the Internet community to “tag” them for easy categorizing. I believe the new term for that is “crowdsourcing”. If you are so inclined, get involved and help tag the photos.

Here’s a Zdnet article on the LOC project.

Browse around. There are some cool pictures to see.

Granderson inducted into Hall of Flame Fame

This Friday, Detroit Tiger Curtis Granderson will be inducted into the University of Illinois at Chicago Athletics Hall of Fame. There will be a ceremony marking the event at Lombard, Illinois. He and his fellow inductees will be honored at the UIC Flames-Mercy game on Saturday.

Grandy was named second team All-American after his junior year when he hit .483 with 9 homeruns.

At this point, Granderson is the only major leaguer from the University of Illinois Chicago.

It may possible that another UIC product may be on his way. In last year’s First Year Player Draft, Ryan Zink, also from UIC, was drafted in the 17th round (544th overall) by the Yankees. Zink is a righthanded pitcher who at this time in his career is working as reliever. A quick look at his stats shows he has done ok since going pro. In A ball, he’s gone 6-1 with a 3.23 ERA with a 7.42 K/9 IP.

2008 Cubs Convention: 3 days and counting

MLB.com Cubs beat writer Carrie Muskat chimes in with a piece about this weekend’s festivities.

For those in the Champaign-Urbana area, I’ll be doing a remote interview from the convention on Eric Loy’s Sports Night talk show heard on WDWS AM1400. Interview time is 6:30pm Friday night.

Train ticket bought… Accommodations secured… I’m ready!

A bad week for Miguel Tejada

Miguel Tejada has seen better days. First, he gets word that Congress is opening an investigation into whether he lied to the House Committee Oversight and Government Reform in 2005 on his use of PEDs.

Then, he finds out that his older brother was killed in a motorcycle accident in the Dominican Republic.

Astros management predictably expressed their condolences on Tejada’s brother’s death but kept their words to a minimum on the investigation issue, waiting for more information.

In a letter to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the Committee made their case:

“Mr. Tejada made statements to the Committee in a transcribed interview on Aug. 26, 2005, regarding his knowledge of and involvement with steroids. Evidence contained in former Senator Mitchell’s report on steroid use in Major League Baseball appears to be inconsistent with statements he gave to the Committee.”

Naive me. I had this feeling that the baseball powers-that-be were bringing the Mitchell Report out in the dead of winter so that it would blow over by the time Spring Training started. With Congress (and let’s face it, the media) getting involved, who knows how long it will last.

Minoso claims Robinson Award

On Saturday, White Sox legend Minnie Minoso was honored with the Jackie Robinson Legacy award. He was only the fourth person to get the award after Yogi Berra, Buck O’Neil, and Bob Feller.

The award honors those who are ambassadors for the game. Minnie’s comments after receiving the award exemplify his qualifications:

“As long as I be able to talk,” Minoso said, “I’m gonna be talkin’ about this game. I talk to anybody. I tell everybody how I feel.”

2008 Cubs Convention: What’s going to happen and who will be there

The official list of players and celebrities who will be attending this year’s Cubs Convention has been released.

From cubs.com:

Ernie Banks	Scott Eyre	Les Lancaster		Geovany Soto
Glenn Beckert	Oneri Fleita	Derrek Lee	Lou Piniella	Tim Stoddard
Bob Brenly	Mike Fontenot	Ted Lilly	Dan Plesac	Lester Strode
Bill Buckner	Sam Fuld	Bill Madlock	Mike Quade	Rick Sutcliffe
Randy Bush	Sean Gallagher	Carlos Marmol	Rocky Roquet	Ryan Theriot
Jose Cardenal	Kevin Hart	Sean Marshall	Larry Rothschild	Alan Trammell
Tyler Colvin	Jim Hendry	Matt Murton	Jeff Samardzija	Steve Trout
Doug Dascenzo	Rich Hill	Dave Otto	Ryne Sandberg	Jerome Walton
Jody Davis	Bob Howry	Andy Pafko	Ron Santo	Daryle Ward
Andre Dawson	Pat Hughes	Milt Pappas	Matt Sinatro	Tim Wilken
Ivan DeJesus	Fergie Jenkins	Gerald Perry	Dwight Smith	Billy Williams
Ryan Dempster	Len Kasper	Billy Petrick	Lee Smith	Michael Wuertz
Bob Dernier	Crane Kenney	Felix Pie	Alfonso Soriano	Carlos Zambrano
Mark DeRosa	Dave Kingman

One thing I noticed right away was that there was no Mark Grace. He showed up in 2007 and it was a big deal that he did. After many years of not coming to the Cubs Convention, he made the decision to attend in 07. And he was warmly greeted for his trouble. Unfortunately, it looks like it might have been a one-time thing.

A few players I see that weren’t there last year… Dave Kingman, Andre Dawson and of course the new kids, Geovany Soto, Jeff Samardzija, and Sam Fuld.

The signing of Samardzija by the Cubs was actually making big news during the weekend of 2007 Cubs Convention.

Also, the schedule for the weekend came out. Again from Cubs.com:

Schedule of Events

Friday, January 18
5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Opening Ceremonies
6:00 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. – Autograph Treasure Hunt
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. – WGN Radio’s “SportsCentral Live”
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. – CUBS BINGO!

Saturday, January 19
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. – WGN Radio’s “Meet Cubs Baseball Management”
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. – Injuries, Anatomy and Santo… Oh My!
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Cubs Jeopardy!
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Vine Line Presents Baseball in Latin America
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – WGN Radio’s “Not for Women Only”
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Baseball Conditioning Clinic
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Lou and His Crew
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Hitting Clinic
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. – WGN Radio’s “A Day in the Life of a Major Leaguer”
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Life as a Minor
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. – Cubs Win, Lose or Draw
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. – WGN Radio’s “Storytelling with Cubs Legends”
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. – From the Stretch
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. – 8-8-88… Or the Day After
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Wheelchair Cubs
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – For Kids Only Press Conference
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Cubs Forever: Celebrating 60 Years of WGN-TV and the Cubs
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. – The Northside Mystique
4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. – Pitching Clinic
8:00 p.m. – Midnight – Rock ‘n’ Roll Revue

Sunday, January 20
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. – Meet Cubs Business Management
10:00 a.m. – 12:30 a.m. – Baseball Hall of Fame Exhibit
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Down on the Farm

It’s a packed schedule so I’ll pick and choose. The Baseball in Latin America sounds very interesting.

By the way, I just saw the extended weather forecast for Chicago. Saturday shows a high (yes, a high) of 7 degrees and Windy. So bundle up Cub fans.

RIP Johnny Podres

Johnny Podres, the last Brooklyn Dodger to win a World Series game, passed away at 75.

Podres, was key to the Dodgers’ only World Series win in 1955 pitching two complete game wins. For his career, he was 148-116 over 15 seasons, thirteen with the Dodgers.

Tommy Byrne, who lost Game 7 against Podres in 1955, died less than a month ago on December 20.

Looking past the easy stats

As much as I like Harold Baines, I rather enjoyed Ken Tremendous’ posting on Fire Joe Morgan. Bit by bit, he dissects a Mike Downey article from the Chicago Tribune.

A snip:

(quoting from Downey) Harold Baines has more hits than Brooks Robinson, Charlie Gehringer, George Sisler, Luke Appling, Lou Gehrig … (keep going) … Billy Williams, Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Reggie Jackson, Ernie Banks … (don’t stop now) …

Who on blog’s green earth would evaluate HOF inductees solely by hits? What kind of insane cherry pick is that? Not any other stat. Not longevity or era…not even taking position into account. Just: hits. Hits! That’s like evaluating pitchers based on saves and deciding Pedro Martinez doesn’t get in because he only has three.

KT’s posting is lengthy, opinionated but actually on the mark.

Kittle to keynote Illini Hot Stove Banquet

The annual Hot Stove Banquet which benefits the University of Illinois baseball program is less than a month away. On February 9, the event will take place at the Round Barn Banquet Center in Champaign.

The keynote speaker is former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle. The 1983 Rookie of the Year, Kittle has stayed active in baseball since retiring in 1991. He’s managed a few minor league teams including the Schaumburg Flyers and Merrillville Mud Dogs. In addition, he’s served as hitting instructor for Valparaiso.

Kittle has also founded and acts as chairman of Indiana Sports Charities which raises dollars to fight cancer.

Individual tickets are $50 and group pricing is available. You can purchase tickets for the event by calling the University of Illinois baseball office at 217-333-8605.

The Ninth belonged to Gossage

DonS writes:

“How fitting that Rich Gossage was inaugurated in his ninth year of eligibility.

“The Ninth” was always Gossage’s time.”

Very true. Gossage did say in his interview with Harold Reynolds that his longest stint was probably an 8 inning appearance when he came in the 6th, gave up the tying run then finished the game.

I don’t think he said if he won the game or not.

Update: I believe I found the game he was talking about. Here is a game between the Red Sox and White Sox where Gossage pitched 7 2/3 innings. He got the loss on a Carl Yasztremski homerun in the top of the 14th.