Lou Piniella:
— Won Rookie of the Year with the Royals in 1969, after making his MLB debut with the Orioles in ’64, and playing six games for the Indians in ’68.
— Hit .291 for his career, won two rings playing in the Bronx.
— 1,835 wins as a manager, winning the’90 World Series with Cincinnati.
Herb Washington:
— Scored 33 runs, stole 31 bases despite never batting in a big league game.
— Was a track star at Michigan State; was a pinch-running specialist.
— Helped the A’s win the ’74 World Series, their third in a row.
Nate Colbert:
— From 1969-72, slugging 1B hit 127 homers for the expansion Padres.
— Made three straight All-Star Games, was out of baseball four years later.
— Hit .155 in 342 at-bats for teams other than San Diego.
Jim Bouton:
— Went 39-20 in 67 starts for Bronx in 1963-64 at ages 24-25, then went 18-39 the rest of his career.
— Wrote Ball Four, a diary of his 1969 season with the Pilots/Astros.
— Retired in 1970, came back in 1978 as a knuckleball pitcher for Atlanta, stating five games.
Bob Uecker:
— Hit exactly .200 in 732 AB’s over six years as a backup catcher.
— Has 14 TV/movie acting credits, including 118 episodes of Mr Belvedere, and did a ton of TV commercials, most notably Lite Beer from MIller.
— Still works a partial schedule (home games) on Milwaukee Brewers’ radio.
Orlando Cabrera:
— In 2006, reached base in 63 straight games, longest streak since 2001, 6th-longest of all-time.
— Played 15 years in the majors for nine different teams.
— All-time record for reaching base is 84 games in a row (Ted Williams, 1949)
Dave DeBusschere:
— Was 3-4, 2.90 in 36 games (10 starts) for the ’62-’63 White Sox.
— Became famous playing 12 years in the NBA, winning two titles with the Knicks.
— Was player/coach of the Detroit Pistons when he was 24 years old.
Mark Budaska:
— Batted 41 times in 13 big league games, over two seasons.
— In his MLB debut, June 6, 1978, he batted with no name on the back of his uniform; Boston radio guys had no idea who he was until the next inning.
— Was a hitting coach for the Cardinals the last three seasons.
— Trivia: June 6, 1978 was 14 years to the day before I got married. Moving on…….
Diego Segui:
— Pitched for the expansion Seattle Pilots (’69), expansion Seattle Mariners (’77).
— Went 20-18, 2.83 in 73 games (40 starts) for the 1970-71 A’s.
— Pitched in the playoffs for the ’71 A’s, ’75 Red Sox.
Rick Monday:
— Was first player taken in the first amateur draft, in 1965.
— Hit 241 homers, had a .361 OB% in his 19-year career.
— To this day, still works Dodger games on the radio.
— Once saved an American flag from being burned during a game at Dodger Stadium.
Nick Adenhart:
— Started four big league games for the Angels, at ages 21-22.
— April 8, 2009, he threw six shutout innings, but was in a tragic car accident later that night, when a drunk driver ran a red light and t-boned the car Adenhart was riding in.
— To this day, whenever I go thru a 4-way intersection, I take an extra look because of that.
Mark Fidrych:
— Went 19-9, 2.34 at age 21, finishing 24 of his 29 starts.
— Hurt his arm , went 10-9 the rest of his career, was out of baseball at age 25.
— Didn’t strike out many guys; even in his great season, he struck out only 97 hitters in 250.1 IP.
Scott Hatteberg:
— Had a .361 OB% in his 14-year major league career.
— Hit walk-off homer for the A’s in their 20th consecutive win, in 2003.
— Had a .434 OB% in 17 career playoff games.
TV highlight of the day: SNY ran a Mets-Astros playoff game from 1986, at same time MLB Network was showing a Rays-Astros playoff game from last year. 1986 was a National League game, last year an American League game.
