Month: August 2008

RIP Elmer Blasco, inventor of the Gold Glove

Gold_glove_award_eric_chavez

Elmer Blasco, who worked in marketing for Rawlings, passed away last Friday.  Blasco was responsible for inventing the concept of the Gold Glove Award. 

From the Daily Herald: 

"I felt that since we represented defense with our gloves we should do something to honor the best in that area," Mr. Blasco, a 50-year resident of Mount Prospect, told the Daily Herald in 1981. "And what better way than with a glove, a golden glove at that."

He was a graduate of the University of Illinois and won his own Gold Glove for his effort in creating the award.

Ozzie opens his mouth about retaliation

ozzie-guillen3 Ozzie is not one to hold back when it comes to speaking his mind.  Something I consider an admirable trait if only because it annoys the higher-ups. 

His latest bit came Sunday afternoon when he all but admitted that he has ordered his pitchers to intentionally hit opposing batters.  All this came after a game when Sox D.J. Carrasco was tossed when he hit KC’s Miguel Olivio with the bases loaded.  That incurred a less than friendly interaction between the two teams.

“I’ve hit people before on purpose.  Yes I have, because that’s my job. Protect my players.”

Of course, the media jumped all over this like this was big news.  We all know that big story here is not that this kind of thing happens but that a MLB manager, even one with a big mouth like Guillen’s, came out and admitted it. 

I’ve heard a couple different strands of responses to Guillen’s statements:

1. What!  Managers are still condoning this?  I can’t believe this is still happening. 

and

2.  Of course, this happens!  It’s a part of the game of baseball.  Guillen is just a moron for talking about it.  Boy, in Bob Gibson’s day…

Response #1 usually comes from the office of MLB, the mainstream sports media, and little old ladies with blue hair.  The difference is that the Office of the MLB understands clearly that this is has been happening but fails to recognize it officially (see steroid scandal 10 years ago). 

Response #2 comes from most everyone else. 

Which MLB teams do better on the road?

 

Right now, I’m fixated on how major league teams do on the road.  Mostly, I’m sure, because for the first half, the Cubs were having a hard time doing that.  I will give them credit though.  They’ve managed to play themselves up to four under .500 which ain’t great but is a helluva lot better than they were (thanks, Brew Crew!).

Right now, there are five teams who have a better record as visitors than they do in front of their friendly crowds at home.   The Angels actually have the best record in all of MLB as visitors with a pretty dang amazing .664 winning percentage.    

   

Away

Home

  

W

L

W

L

  

Diff
San Francisco Giants
26
30
0.464
20
34
0.370
  
0.094
Philadelphia Phillies
31
26
0.544
29
34
0.460
  
0.084
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
38
21
0.644
31
21
0.596
  
0.048
St Louis Cardinals
31
25
0.554
31
26
0.544
  
0.010
Kansas City Royals
26
30
0.464
26
30
0.464
  
0.000

 

But it’s the San Fran Giants who have the largest difference between the two.  Though their visitor record of .464 is really nothing to write home about, it’s a whole lot better than their home record of 20-34 (.370), a .094 difference best in the majors. 

EI League Tournament: Down to 2 teams

Congrats to the Lexington Snipes and Buckley Dutch Masters of the Eastern Illinois Baseball League.  They played well enough at the EI League Tournament this past weekend to advance to the final round.   

They will face each other in a Best of Three round next weekend (Aug 9 and 10) for the Tournament Championship. 

I have seen Buckley face Chambana and they are formidable adversaries.  But this is baseball and anything can happen. 

Good luck to both teams!

Suspensions, fines handed down in bench clearing brawl

Yesterday, the Midwest League has issued their penalties for the "unfortunate bench clearing brawl" that took place between the Peoria Chiefs and the Dayton Dragons a little over a week ago in Dayton. 

The starting pitcher for the Chiefs, Julio Castillo gets the stiffest penalty with a 60-day penalty and a $1,000 fine.  He was also arrested and charged with felonious assault when a ball he threw hit a fan.  Castillo is no longer on the Chiefs’ active roster.

Six other Chief players were fined $150 and suspended three games. 

Carmelo Martinez, the Cubs Latin American Field Coordinator and Field manager in place of Ryne Sandberg who was at the Hall of Fame Ceremonies, was also fined $1,500 and suspended 20 games. 

I got most of this info from the Peoria Chiefs’ website.  I was hoping to get more detailed info on the Dayton Dragons on the Dragons site but no luck.  No news is good news, I guess.

—

Can you imagine what it might have been like for Ryne Sandberg in Cooperstown that weekend?  Here he is, probably hanging out with his buddies, Schmitty, Ozzie, maybe trying to avoid Morgan. 

Maybe something like this:

Schmitty:  Hey, Ryno!  How’s it goin’ in the sticks?  I hear you’re managing a single-A team?  The Chiefs?  Who’s in control while you’re gone?

Ryno:  Carmelo Martinez

Ozzie:  Who?  Never heard of him.

Ryno:  You remember… Edgar’s cousin.  Hit 21 homers in ’85.

Ozzie and Schmitty:  (nodding and looking at each other)

Ryno:  He’s got things well under control. 

Ozzie:  Uhh, Ryno.  You might want to check out the news on the TV here.  It doesn’t look good.

Schmitty:  Yeah, who’s this kid, Castillo?  He’s got quite an arm.

Ryno:  facepalm1

Griffey: Two games

Amazingly, the White Sox newly acquired centerfielder Ken Griffey Jr was able represent his whole career in the space of two games. 

Friday, a "young" Griffey "sizzled" against Kansas City and went 2 for 3 with 2 rbis, helping his new team to a 4-2 over the Royals. 

He appeared to age overnight as he left the game early Saturday due to cramping in his right leg.  He was 0-2. 

Tomorrow, maybe he’ll take a seat next to the Hawk. 

Wille Argo: I think we got a good ‘un

Willie Argo (Assumption Davenport, IA) has just been named Male High School Athlete of the Year by the second major Iowa paper.  Argo is a member of the University of Illinois baseball recruiting class of 2008. 

The Des Moines Register agreed with the Quad City Times (yay, my newspaper when I was a kid) by bestowing the honor last week. 

There’s a good reason for this award.  Yes, he plays baseball where he led the 2A Assumption team to a second straight title.  But that’s not all.  Oh no. 

He was running back for the football team where he rushed for 1,533 yards and broke the Mississippi Athletic conference record for TDs (39) and points (234). 

He was also a member of the wrestling team.  As a grappler, he had a 43-1 record came in third in state.  Argo ALSO qualified for the state track and field meet in four events. 

This was all in addition to his exploits on the diamond.  By the way, he was captain of his baseball team, too. 

Assumption… don’t assume anything with this guy. 

more details from fightingillini.com

Patterson at the bottom

Andy from Stat of the Day is probably stating the obvious but claims that Corey Patterson is an “awful” player at least when it comes to offense.  Among players with 200+ at-bats, He ranks last in batting average (.183 to second place Eric Byrnes’ .209) and ranks last in OBP (a paltry .216 to Kenji Johjima’s .252, a .32 difference).

The Cubs traded him in January ’06 after a miserable 2005 campaign not much better than this year’s (.215/.254/.348).  In the two years in Baltimore, Patterson picked it up slightly, hitting .276 and .269 and even managing to steal a combined 83 bases.  Of course, knowing us Cub fans, we wondered if it was a management issue then.

Looks like Corey is back to his old ways again.

EI League: A brain hiccup

They say memory is the second thing to go. 

When I was told about the Eastern Illinois League this spring, it didn’t ring a bell with me.  It did sound interesting… a wood bat league that apparently has been around for quite a while.  So, as avid readers know, I’ve been going to a good amount of Chambana games recently and enjoying it along the way. 

Then today, Bob Swisher wrote an article in the local News Gazette about the history of the EI League (its history can be traced back to 1930) and mentions one of EI’s greats, Ehm Franzen. 

Some EI unis on display at the exhibit last March

Ehm Franzen??  Then Boom! Bang!  The circuits in my brain did a somersault when I realized that I’ve had a run-in with the EI League last year.  Shawn Lee (of Vermilion Voles fame) and I went to a talk and exhibit at the Early American Museum in Mahomet that was entitled "A Whole ‘Nother Ball Game".  While the focus was on the Three-I League (a different league all together), there were exhibits on the Eastern Illinois Baseball League being displayed. 

Ehm Franzen

Even better, EI League great Ehm Franzen was in attendance at the talk.  Shawn and I got a chance to talk to him afterwards and boy, he had some stories!  He claimed to have faced Satchel Paige twice. 

Here are photos I took last March from "A Whole ‘Nother Ball Game" Exhibit.