Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Tino Martinez in Monument Park, good for business?

Tino Martinez was recently given a plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium in front of a sellout crowd, making him the 27th New York Yankee to receive this honor. Martinez's induction was met with much controversy, as the Yankees have multiple Hall of Famers (Earle Combs, Tony Lazzeri, and Herb Pennock) who have yet to be honored. As the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown found out in 2013, sending in a living player is good for business. The ones who remember the deceased superstars of yesteryear are either too old to attend, or have played their "final inning."

After watching Martinez have his likeness permanently installed in Monument Park, I immediately thought of another Yankee first baseman who won four World Series rings, Moose Skowron. He was a fixture at Old-Timers Day until his passing in 2012. Martinez and Skowron's career stats as a member of the Yankees are below.

Does Martinez's induction warrant consideration for Skowron? Is Martinez truly deserving of the honor, or was this decision motivated by reasons that have to do more with finances and less with baseball?

Tino Martinez stats.
Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
1996 28 NYY AL 155 671 595 82 174 28 0 25 117 2 1 68 85 .292 .364 .466 .830 108 277 18 2 1 5 4 *3/D
1997 ★ 29 NYY AL 158 685 594 96 176 31 2 44 141 3 1 75 75 .296 .371 .577 .948 143 343 15 3 0 13 14 *3/D AS,MVP-2,SS
1998 30 NYY AL 142 608 531 92 149 33 1 28 123 2 1 61 83 .281 .355 .505 .860 124 268 18 6 0 10 3 *3
1999 31 NYY AL 159 665 589 95 155 27 2 28 105 3 4 69 86 .263 .341 .458 .800 104 270 14 3 0 4 7 *3
2000 32 NYY AL 155 632 569 69 147 37 4 16 91 4 1 52 74 .258 .328 .422 .749 89 240 16 8 0 3 9 *3
2001 33 NYY AL 154 635 589 89 165 24 2 34 113 1 2 42 89 .280 .329 .501 .830 114 295 12 2 0 2 2 *3/D MVP-12
2005 37 NYY AL 131 348 303 43 73 9 0 17 49 2 0 38 54 .241 .328 .439 .767 104 133 10 3 0 4 3 *3/D
NYY (7 yrs) 1054 4244 3770 566 1039 189 11 192 739 17 10 405 546 .276 .347 .484 .831 113 1826 103 27 1 41 42
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/24/2014.
 
Moose Skowron stats.
Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
1954 23 NYY AL 87 237 215 37 73 12 9 7 41 2 1 19 18 .340 .392 .577 .969 167 124 8 1 0 2 3/54
1955 24 NYY AL 108 314 288 46 92 17 3 12 61 1 1 21 32 .319 .369 .524 .894 140 151 11 3 0 2 4 3/5
1956 25 NYY AL 134 523 464 78 143 21 6 23 90 4 4 50 60 .308 .382 .528 .910 142 245 16 6 2 1 3 *3/5
1957 ★ 26 NYY AL 122 501 457 54 139 15 5 17 88 3 2 31 60 .304 .347 .470 .818 123 215 17 3 3 7 6 *3 AS,MVP-22
1958 ★ 27 NYY AL 126 502 465 61 127 22 3 14 73 1 1 28 69 .273 .317 .424 .740 106 197 16 4 1 5 1 *3/5 AS
1959 ★ 28 NYY AL 74 309 282 39 84 13 5 15 59 1 0 20 47 .298 .349 .539 .888 145 152 10 3 2 2 0 3 AS
1960 ★ 29 NYY AL 146 584 538 63 166 34 3 26 91 2 3 38 95 .309 .353 .528 .881 141 284 17 2 0 6 2 *3 AS,MVP-9
1961 ★ 30 NYY AL 150 608 561 77 150 23 4 28 89 0 0 35 108 .267 .318 .472 .790 113 265 21 8 0 3 9 *3 AS
1962 31 NYY AL 140 524 478 63 129 16 6 23 80 0 1 36 99 .270 .325 .473 .798 114 226 13 5 1 4 4 *3
G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards
NYY (9 yrs) 1087 4102 3748 518 1103 173 44 165 672 14 13 278 588 .294 .346 .496 .842 129 1859 129 35 9 32 29
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/24/2014.

Monday, June 9, 2014

How Don Zimmer took the reins from Clemente and Mays in Puerto Rico

With a lineup that included Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays, it was very unlikely that a career .235 major league hitter would steal the spotlight, but for a week during the 1955 Caribbean Series, Don Zimmer reigned supreme.

Don Zimmer crossing home plate with Santurce
Zimmer was the starting shortstop on arguably the greatest winter league team ever assembled, the 1954-55 Santurce Crabbers.

“We had a team that I thought that could beat two-to-three of the lesser teams in the National League,” Zimmer said when spoke in 2011 at the MLB offices.

“We had Bus Clarkson at third base, I played short, Ronnie Samford at second, and George Crowe played first. Valmy Thomas and Harry Chiti caught. Mays, [Bob] Thurman and Clemente played the outfield. People laugh when I tell them that. They say, ‘No!’ I say, ‘Yes, that was our outfield.’ … That was a great club!”

Zimmer almost played his way out of Puerto Rico that winter, but was saved by the last minute due to some quick thinking by Santurce’s manager Herman Franks.

“I was struggling with Mayaguez and they let me go. There was some kind of rule that if I left Puerto Rico, then any other club could bring me back to Puerto Rico to play … went to Miami, and Herman Franks called me to play for Santurce … got on an airplane to Puerto Rico,” Zimmer said in Thomas E. Van Hyning’s "The Santurce Crabbers".

Holding down the middle of the infield, Zimmer helped Santurce breeze through the Puerto Rican Winter League for a spot in the Caribbean Series in Caracas. They were the clear favorites going into the series, much to the chagrin of Bobby Bragan who managed the Cuban entry from Almendares.

“I remember going to Caracas,” he said. “Bobby Bragan was managing the Cuban team. He said, ‘They said you got a good team, huh? You’ll wind up second.’ Ronnie Samford was in a bar that night with us, having a beer. I didn’t want to say nothing to Bragan, but Ronnie said, ‘You couldn’t beat us.’”

Samford was right, the Santurce team ran over the competition, winning their first five games to clinch the championship. Zimmer hit .400 with three home runs, including a leading off Game 2 against Panama with a circuit blast.

Zimmer earned MVP honors for his performance, besting his teammate Mays, who hit .462 after starting the series 0-14.

“I was a cinch to be the Most Valuable Player of the Caribbean Series, except Mays got hot the last two days and took over,” he said in 2011.

While Zimmer couldn’t duplicate the success that he had in Puerto Rico in the major leagues, the experience he gained from playing with all of the veterans from the Negro Leagues and the Caribbean was invaluable in shaping the rest of his career.

“I was just 21 years old,” he said. “Just being around them was good enough for me, learning and watching the way they went about things.”

Monday, June 2, 2014

Johnny Gray, 87, fond teammate of Roger Maris

Johnny Gray, a veteran of four major league seasons with the Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, and Philadelphia Phillies in the 1950s, passed away May 21, 2014 in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 87.
 
Gray starred in three sports at West Palm Beach High School before he entered the United Stated Army during World War II. Upon his discharge, he enrolled at Rollins College, where his play for their baseball team eventually earned him entry into their Hall of Fame in 1979.

Johnny Gray / Baseball-Almanac.com
The New York Yankees signed Gray in 1950 and it immediately paid dividends, as he posted a 10-4 record for their Class C team in Amsterdam, N.Y. Gray reached as high as Triple-A with the Yankees in 1953, before he was included in a massive 11-player deal at the end of the 1953 season with the Athletics. The major chip in that exchange was Gray’s Kansas City Blues teammate, first baseman Vic Power.

“Vic was always a happy-go-lucky guy,” Gray said in a 2010 interview. “He was easy to get along with. He was a great club man; there were no two ways about that.”

Leaving the crowded Yankees system opened the door for Gray to the major leagues. He made his major debut on July 18, 1954, pitching 4.1 innings in a loss to the Chicago White Sox. He struggled with his control during the season, finishing with a 3-12 record in 18 games.

Gray stayed with the Athletics in 1955, making the move with the club from Philadelphia to Kansas City, returning him to familiar grounds from his minor league days.

“I didn’t mind it much because I had been with the [Kansas City] Blues before,” he said.

The Athletics sold Gray to the Cleveland Indians in 1956, where they sent him to their Triple-A team in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis club breezed through the entire American Association with a 92-62 record, assisted by Gray’s 10 wins as both a starter and reliever. Continuing their dominance, they swept the Rochester Red Wings in the 1956 Junior World Series, 4-0.

As much as winning the championship was an exhilarating experience for Gray, his most cherished memory of that 1956 minor league season was the relationship he developed with a rookie outfielder named Roger Maris.

“One of the best ballplayers I ever played with in my life,” he said. “I can tell you this in all honesty, if you owned a business and you have to go out of town … and you couldn’t get back for three or four months, the guy that you would want is Roger Maris.

“If you left that business with him and came back, it would be twice the size. That was his attitude. I roomed with him in Indianapolis. He came to the ballpark to play. If you had nine guys that took the same attitude, you would have a club that would have never lost.”

The well-traveled Gray played winter ball in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Not only did the wide exposure allow him to fine tune his pitching, it allowed him to develop an appreciation for the passion the fans had for the game.

“They take baseball much more serious in Latin America than they do here,” he said. “They love it. I can remember when I was in Cuba they would sing and have a band for one team. I loved it because they had the name for baseball fans in South America and it sure fit, ‘fanáticos.’”

Gray made it back to the major leagues in 1957 with the Indians, and played a handful of games with the Phillies in 1958. He continued to play at the Triple-A level until hanging it up for good in 1960. He finished his major league career with a 4-18 record with a 6.18 ERA in 48 games.

In his post-baseball playing days, Gray became an avid golfer and managed an apartment complex in Florida.


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Mario Picone, pitcher for the 1954 New York Giants World Series team, dies at 87

Mario Picone, a pitcher for the New York Giants and Cincinnati Reds from 1947-1954, passed away October 23, 2013 in Brooklyn, New York. He was 87.

Born July 5, 1926, the Bensonhurst native grew up playing sandlot ball at the fabled Parade Grounds for a team called the “Chiros.” It was on those fields where Picone, who didn’t play for his high school team, earned the attention of Giants scouts just before his 18th birthday in 1944.

Mario Picone
“I grew up in the Parade Grounds,” he said in a 2008 phone interview from his residence in Florida. “Someone [from the Giants] spotted me there. They had me for tryouts in Jersey and they signed me.”

The Giants sent Picone to Bristol, Tennessee to play for their farm team in the Class D Appalachian League. The rookie phenom wasted no time making an impression. On June 15, 1944, he struck out 28 batters in a 19-inning victory over Johnson City, setting a professional record at the time. It was a feat that Picone almost didn’t have a chance to achieve if his manager Hal Gruber had his way that evening.

“In those days, you tried to finish everything,” he said. “It got to be the 9th inning, 10th inning, 11th inning … It was a 2-2 tie. Hal Gruber was the manager. He came to me and said, ‘I’m going to take you out.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. I’ll stay right here. If you take me out because you think I’m tired, I’ll be on the bus tomorrow and I’ll go home.’ Sure enough he left me there. We went 19 innings. Art Fowler came in the bottom of the 19th and pinch hit for me, he got a single, we scored the run and we won 3-2.”

Picone was a rising star in the Giants organization, skipping a level of minor league ball the next season to play with Class B Richmond in 1945. He led the league with a 19-6 record and 202 strikeouts. This earned him a promotion to AAA Jersey City in 1946, one step closer to the major leagues and a front row seat for one of baseball’s most historic moments.

In 1946, the Jersey City Giants opened their season against the Montreal Royals. Playing second base for the Royals was Jackie Robinson. Picone watched in amazement from the bench as Robinson started in his quest to break baseball’s color barrier.

“The first game that Jackie Robinson played in 1946 in Jersey City, I was there,” he said. “He had a bad day (laughs). He had a single, a double, a triple, a home run, and I think he walked. Isn’t that something? He was great. Exactly the way he broke in.

“It seemed like the people were watching, yet they didn’t know what to expect. He showed them. He sure did!”

Picone made his major league debut at the end of Robinson’s historical 1947 campaign. The Giants called him up in September, appearing in two games against the Philadelphia Phillies, starting the first and relieving the second. While Picone didn’t earn a decision in either contest, he ended the season with a .500 batting average, roping a hit in his first major league at-bat.

“I got a double off of the right field wall against Schoolboy Rowe,” he said. “He was in the twilight of his career and he didn’t throw that hard. I was fortunate enough to swing and I got into one.”

Picone had two more trials with the Giants in 1952 and 1954, making the team out of spring training during the latter. In his extended look in with the Giants 1954, Picone managed a 5.63 ERA in 24 innings and was sold to the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds sent him to the minor leagues after 16 days on their major league roster. He never returned to the big show, ending his career with a 0-2 record with an ERA of 6.30 in 13 appearances. He retired shortly after the start of the 1956 season.

“I gave it up in 1956,” he said. “I went into the home improvement business.”

Even though Picone only pitched in nine games for the Giants’ 1954 World Series championship team, the Giants included Picone in their 50th anniversary celebration at AT&T Park. They flew him and his wife out to San Francisco, providing them with a VIP treatment that included a limousine and first class accommodations.

While Picone languished during his trials in the major leagues, he took great pride in his ability to pitch complete games, something that definitely fueled the 19-inning effort at the beginning of his career.

“If I had to pitch every fifth day and pitch five innings,” he said, “I would have been pitching today with the arm I had. I can honestly say this. One guy for one inning, another guy and then comes the closer. That’s how you figured you were going to a higher grade. You had to finish a complete game. It was as good as winning.”