Results tagged ‘ Earl Weaver ’
Hall Monitor: Hot Stove Around the Corner
By Trevor Hayes
Not much is left of 2010 and even less remains of the baseball season. With the Rookies of the Year, Cy Youngs and Manager of the Year Awards doled out this week, two awards remain – the League MVPs. The remnants of the season that was haven’t stopped a flurry of action building toward 2011.
Classic impact: Monday saw a pair of new-bloods honored with the Rookie of the Year Awards. And for the third time in history, both players helped lead their club to the World Series. The Giants’ Buster Posey and Rangers’ Neftali Feliz were the first pair since 
Fernando Valenzuela and Dave Righetti in 1981 for the Yankees and Dodgers. The first pair was Gil McDougald and Hall of Famer Willie Mays in 1951 for the Yankees and Giants, respectively.
Seven is Three’s Company: Your National League Cy Young Award winner, author of two no-hitters – one a perfect game and the other the second ever thrown in the postseason – is Roy Halladay. The Doc’s second Cy Young shows he is among the game’s elite, but he remains five behind the all-time lead in that category. His team however, just became one of only three teams with at least seven Cy Young Awards. Hallday is joined in Phillies history by Hall of Famer Steve Carlton (four), Steve Bedrosian and John Denny (one each).
Interestingly enough, the other two clubs with seven are also NL teams. The Braves racked up seven with Greg Maddux (three), Tom Glavine (two), Hall of Famer Warren Spahn and John Smoltz (one each). And the Dodgers out-rank all major league teams with nine Cy Young Award winners: Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax (three) and Don Drysdale (one), along with Eric Gagne, Orel Hershiser, Mike Marshall, Don Newcombe and Fernando Valenzuela (one each).
Nine years is a heck of a start: Minnesota’s Ron Gardenhire won his first Manager of the Year Award, and Twins fans think it’s about time. Gardy had previously finished second in voting five times. His teams have won 90 games five times and he is the first manger in history to win six division titles in his first nine years. With 803 career wins, only five managers had more wins in their first nine seasons than Gardenhire. All five now call Cooperstown home: Sparky Anderson (863), Al Lopez (836), Joe McCarthy (828), Earl Weaver (812) and Frank Chance (810). Current Angels manager Mike Scioscia, also had exactly 803 wins through his first nine seasons.
Hot Stove action: While the heat really turns up around the Winter Meetings, a least one big trade has already gone down. All-Star utility man Omar Infante is taking his talents to South Beach while slugging second baseman Dan Uggla shifts to Atlanta. Losing an All-Star who can play almost any position on the field is big, but the Braves may have picked up a steal. Uggla owns the third-best batting average of anyone at Turner Field since it opened in 1997 at .354. Only Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds have hit better.
But batting average aside, Uggla’s best skill is his power. He’s the first second baseman to produce four 30-home run seasons, let alone consecutively. And among the first five years of any middle infielder’s career, Uggla’s 154 home runs are tops. Three MVP-wining Hall of Famers round out the top five, with 500-home run club member Ernie Banks second (136), Joe Gordon third (125) and Cal Ripken Jr. fifth (108). Nomar Garciaparra is fourth with 117.
King Felix’s Mariners vs. Lefty’s Phils: Announced Thursday was the American League Cy Young winner, Seattle’s Felix Hernandez. The honor continues a trend of moving away from wins in the voting. In fact, the AL wins leader has won only five of the last nine Cy Young Awards.
With the lowest win total for a Cy Young winner ever, King Felix and his team set a new precedent. Previously, Steve Carlton’s 1972 Phillies were the worst team to boast a Cy Young winner. While the Hall of Fame lefty lead the league with an incredible 27 wins, his Phillies won 59 games – a .378 win percentage. This season, run support torpedoed Hernandez, who went 13-12, while Seattle posted a winning percentage of .377.
Catching up with the Hall of Famers: Drafted in 1978 and debuting in 1981 with the Phillies, Ryne Sandberg is returning to Philadelphia. After four seasons managing in the Cubs’ farm system, the 2010 Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year was hired to manage the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate. Starting next season, Ryno will head the Lehigh Valley IronPigs as he continues his quest to pilot a big league club.
Stan Musial made news this week as the Cardinals legend was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. The St. Louis faithful campaigned all season to get Stan the Man the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Also, two more Hall of Famers grace Studio 42 with Bob Costas tonight. Legendary hitters Tony Gwynn and Rod Carew will drop by to talk baseball and the art of hitting with the veteran broadcaster at 8 p.m. ET on MLB Network.
Trevor Hayes is the editorial production manager at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Baseball City, USA
By Samantha Carr
The new book “Silver Seasons and a New Frontier: The Story of the Rochester Red Wings” set out to show that Rochester, N.Y., has the deepest, longest and richest baseball tradition of any minor league city.
Since 22 Hall of Famers have a connection to Rochester, the book makes a pretty good case.
Authors Jim Mandelaro and Scott Pitoniak were in Cooperstown Friday for an Authors’ Series event at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and participated in a book signing following their talk. Mandelaro has covered the Red Wings for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle since 1991, and Pitoniak is the author of 10 books.
“We’ve known each other for a quarter of a century, and what keeps our friendship going is our love for baseball,” said Pitoniak.
The authors set out to compile a definitive history of the Red Wings, retrace the careers of the players and managers who called Rochester home. Rochester has been named “Baseball City, USA” by Baseball America magazine. Among the many great ballplayers who have been a part of the Red Wings are Hall of Famers Stan Musial, Cal Ripken Jr., Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, George Sisler, Billy Southworth, Jocko Conlan, Bob Gibson, Earl Weaver and Frank Robinson.
Each has a different connection with Rochester. Sisler came down to Rochester to play after his career in the big leagues. It was the only time the Hall of Famer spent time in the minors and was also the only team he was on which won a pennant. Hall of Fame umpire Jocko Conlan took the field as a player in Rochester, and Cal Ripken Jr. first came to Rochester as a boy in 1969 because his father managed the Red Wings for two seasons.
Cal and Billy Ripken would move to Rochester from their permanent home in Maryland for the summer and play ball in a lot near their rented home.
“The year Cal was inducted (into the Hall of Fame, 2007), I tracked down a few people who were neighbors during that time and they said the Ripken boys always played in their perfect full Oriole uniforms,” Pitoniak said.
Cal Ripken Jr. returned to the Red Wings as a player, earning International League Rookie of the Year honors and placing second in MVP voting in 1981. He also took part in the longest game in the history of professional baseball that season – a 33-inning affair against the Pawtucket Red Sox.
“How fitting that the man who symbolizes the Iron Man, Ripken played in all 114 Red Wings games (he was eligible for) that season and also played 33 innings in one game – of all the people who could have played in that game,” said Mandelaro.
Samantha Carr is the manager of web and digital media at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Classic dream fulfilled
By Bill Francis
A defensive whiz on par with the game’s greatest of all time, longtime center fielder Paul Blair fielded numerous questions pertaining to his distinguished big league career when he recently sat down for an interview with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
In Cooperstown on March 20 to greet visitors in line to buy tickets for the second annual Hall of Fame Classic, the 66-year-old Blair will trade in his beloved golf clubs for another chance to get out on the field in the June 20 legends game. Tickets for the Classic are on sale at www.baseballhall.org or by calling 1-866-849-7770.
During a 17-year big league career, spent mainly with the great Baltimore Orioles teams of the late 1960s and 1970s, the eight-time Gold Glove Award winner and four-time World Series champion was known for his play in center field. But, surprisingly, Blair was a shortstop until he signed his first professional contract.
“I went to my first spring training the manager said, ‘Everybody go to their positions.’ Seven guys went to short – I was going to be the eighth shortstop,” Blair recalled. “They had two in left, two in center and one in right, and I saw (the player in right field) running and throwing and I knew I could beat him out, so I went to right field and became an outfielder. It just came natural to me for some reason.”
Known as the premier center fielder of his era, Blair was renowned for how shallow he played.
“What I tried to do was play where most of the balls were going to be hit. I didn’t play guys like Harmon Killebrew and Reggie Jackson or the big home run hitters right behind second base, but most guys can’t hit the ball straightaway center field out of the ballpark. If they hit balls to center field they are basically going to be line drives or high pops,” Blair said. “The line drives are not going to go out of the ballpark, so what I tried to do was take some of those line drives away. I wanted to be the best center fielder, head and shoulders, over anybody on my team. That way those pitchers would make the manager play me.”
Raised in Los Angeles, Blair was a Dodgers fan but Hall of Fame center fielder Willie Mays of the hated San Francisco Giants was his idol.
“Whenever the Giants played the Dodgers, I would hope Mays would get four hits but the Dodgers would win,” Blair said. “When I was growing up I used to do the basket catch even though I was at shortstop, but when I became a professional I thought I better do my own thing and not copy Willie because if I ever droped one then it’s going to be heck to pay.”
A star athlete in high school, Blair’s decision to pursue baseball as a profession was influenced by another Hall of Famer.
“I guess that came from Jackie (Robinson),” Blair said. “As long as I can remember, since I was eight years old, I wanted to be a major league baseball player. That was my one desire, my one goal, and I was just fortunate that I had some athletic ability.”
Blair became a regular with the O’s at the tender age of 21 in 1965 and appeared in the postseason six times with Baltimore over his 13 seasons with the club.
“Our whole thing, and it came from (Hall of Fame manager) Earl (Weaver) and he was the catalyst of those ball clubs, is that you went out there and you played great defense, you pitched well, and you played the whole game,” Blair said. “The team came first. You did everything you possibly could to help win a ballgame.
“We already had a very good ball club but then (future Hall of Famer) Frank (Robinson) came in 1966 that really put us over the top. He was that big gun that all the other pitchers had to concentrate on. The rest of us just had to do our thing. When Frank said, ‘Let’s go,’ we just followed him.”
Looking back on his baseball career, Blair says that he is proudest of the fact that he got to play in the big leagues for 17 years.
“It’s a very big achievement for me because that’s something I always wanted to do, and it’s the only thing I ever want to do,” Blair said. “The bonus was winning the eight Gold Gloves and the four World Series championships.
“I was very fortunate being on the teams that I played on. I played on 10 first place teams. Every time I went to spring training I knew I had a chance to be in a World Series. I wound up getting in eight playoffs, six World Series, and we won four of them. Hopefully I did my part and contributed to us winning. That was very important to me.”
Bill Francis is a library associate for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Lasorda: Portrait of a winner
By Craig Muder
He was part of a historic stretch in Cooperstown, where six managers were inducted in seven years.
But in any group, Tommy Lasorda always stands apart.
The former Dodgers manager — and skipper of the 2000 United States gold medal-winning Olympic baseball team — turns 82 today. He is one of only 19 managers, out of more than 1,000 in the history of pro baseball, enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
Lasorda, who won two World Series, four National League pennants and eight NL West titles in his 21 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, remains one of baseball’s most popular figures — and one of the world’s most recognizable faces. Today, a portrait of Lasorda will go on display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Painted by renown artist Everett Raymond Kinstler, the portrait — measuring 60 inches by 50 inches — was commissioned to commemorate Lasorda’s legacy as part of the Dodgers’ organization.
Fitting, since Lasorda has always been bigger than life.
As a Hall of Fame manager, Lasorda belongs to one of baseball’s most exclusive clubs — a group that has welcomed only two new members since 2000, when Sparky Anderson became the sixth manager inducted in seven years. But starting this fall, the four living Hall of Famer managers — Earl Weaver, Dick Williams, Anderson and Lasorda — may have some company.
The Veterans Committee considers managers, umpires and executives this year — with the results of the election being announced at the Dec. 7-10 Winter Meetings in Indianapolis. Two years from now — the fall of 2011 — it is possible that at least one of the legendary troika of Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre could be retired and ready for the next Veterans Committee vote on managers.
But whatever the result of future elections, Lasorda’s place in history is secure.
He may bleed Dodger Blue, but his legacy is one of red, white and blue.
Craig Muder is director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Team Venezuela generous to Hall of Fame after loss in Classic
By Brad Horn
As Hall of Fame skipper Earl Weaver was known to have said during his managerial career for the Orioles, “Nobody likes to hear it because it’s dull, but the reason you win or lose is darn near always the same — pitching.”
No one could argue Earl on that point and have a realistic shot to win the debate. Consider Saturday’s World Baseball Classic semifinal at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Venezuelan roster boasted 22 players currently active on Major League teams. The Koreans? Just one. Still, just 20 minutes into the first of two Classic semifinals, it was clear the Korean team had a significant mental edge and a superior starter over the Venezuelans, jumping to a 5-0 lead after the first half inning.
By the time the dust cleared Saturday night at Chavez Ravine, the Koreans swung a mighty stick with a 10-2 victory to advance to Monday’s Classic final against Japan.
Pitching had a large role in Saturday’s contest. Korean pitcher Suk Min Yoon dazzled, baffling Venezuelan sluggers and surrendering just six hits thorugh his first six innings against a lineup of potent bats featuring Bobby Abreu, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez, among others.
Even though the Venezuelan team fell short to the Koreans on Saturday, ending its Classic bid, humility in defeat and graciousness permeated the Venezuelan clubhouse following the loss.
As we in Cooperstown strive to document and preserve the game’s history, the collection of artifact donations from current-day stars as these historic moments unfold is critical to our ability to tell the story in a timely manner for our visitors. We hope to represent all four semifinal teams in Cooperstown from the 2009 Classic through artifact donations from the teams and their players, and Saturday, Venezuelan stars Cabrera and Felix Hernandez were more than willing to help us commemorate this historic event.
Shortly after the loss, Cabrera donated the helmet he wore in the tournament to us. Excited for the opportunity of having his first item in Cooperstown, Cabrera didn’t think twice in handing his helmet to me. The pain was evident, though, in his eyes, after falling short in a quest for the Classic title. A powerful sense of national pride was visible in members of all four of the semifinal teams here in Los Angeles. The Venezuelans are very proud countrymen, and returning to their Major League camps and going home early surely was not their plan on this night.
Also after the loss, the Venezuelan team donated the cap worn by Hernandez in his two wins during Classic tournament play. If one word summed up King Felix in this Classic, it was excellence. His pitching line reads like a masterpiece: 2-0 in 8 2/3 scoreless innings, with five hits, six walks and 11 strikeouts. Opponents hit just .172 in his two starts. If I’m a Mariners fan, I have to be hopeful about this ace heading to Opening Day.
Sunday, the artifact chase continued with an acquisition from the USA. Prior to last night’s game, the Hall of Fame received the bat from David Wright, whose ninth-inning, game-winning base hit on Wednesday night propelled the U.S. past Puerto Rico, punching its first semifinal ticket in Classic play. It will be the first artifact from Wright’s young career to make its way to Cooperstown.
Today, we’ll also solicit artifact donations from both teams in the finals. The only things constant in baseball are winning and losing, but we’ll be hoping for continued generosity from the international baseball world so that these treasures can be viewed for generations, only in Cooperstown.
Brad Horn is the senior director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
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