Baseball News and Stats
Red Sox Nation Focused
There was a time in baseball history when three DiMaggio brothers, Joe, Vince, and Dom, patrolled major league centerfields. It was Dom DiMaggio who spent all 13 of his big league seasons with the Red Sox.
On this week that saw the passing of Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr, it’s good to recall the four fast friends of the ’40s: Doerr, Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams, and Dom Dimaggio.
Don Baylor, a 19-year Major League veteran, American League All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger and later, a Manager of the Year died early Monday at 68. The cause was cancer.
Baylor started his big league career in 1970 with six seasons for the Orioles. After one season with the Athletics he played six years with the California Angels where, in 1979, he was both an All-Star and league MVP, slashing .296 AVG/.371 OBP/.530 SLG with 31 home run, 71 walks, 139 RBI, and 51 strikeouts.
Known on the field for his might and off the field for his warmth, Baylor was a Red Sox for 268 games from 1986-87, the result of a rare trade with the Yankees for Mike Easler.
In his first season with the Sox, Baylor struck out a career-high 111 times but also belted 31 home runs (6th most in the AL) and knocked in 94 RBI. All the while, he functioned as the clubhouse Chief Justice, gleefully meting out fines—and even double fines, “if their name is Steve Lyons“—for player infractions.
Longtime Sox fans will, no doubt, recall Baylor’s dramatic 9th inning, two-run home run in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series, helping to make possible Boston’s march to the 1986 World Series.
Overall with the Red Sox, Baylor slashed .238/.348/.426 with 47 home runs and 151 RBI.
Baylor retired after the 1988 season with 338 career home runs, the 100th-most for all time. He was also hit-by-pitch 267 times, second-most after Craig Biggio since 1901.
After coaching hitting with the Brewers and Cardinals, Baylor became the first manager of the Colorado Rockies, 1993-99, and was National League Manager of the Year in 1995. Later, he managed the Cubs from 2000-02. He finished his managerial career at 627-689 (.476) but returned to Colorado as a hitting coach in 2009-10.
Along with Frank Robinson, Joe Torre and Kirk Gibson, Baylor was one of four in baseball history to earn both MVP and Manager of the Year awards, according to ESPN.
In 1986 with the Sox, Baylor told Sports Illustrated that he would like to be remembered “as a guy who played his hardest from day one to the end and was honest with every guy I played with.”
Baylor is survived by his wife Rebecca, son Don Jr., and two granddaughters.
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Sadly, Major League Baseball also mourns the passing today of Phillies great and three-time National League All-Star Darren Daulton, who died Sunday of brain cancer. Daulton was 55.
Red Sox manager John Farrell yesterday named Rick Porcello the Opening Day starter for 2017.
Porcello, of course, had a memorable 22-4 campaign in 2016 with a 3.15 ERA that included an MLB-best 13 wins at home split between two streaks: six straight from April 15 to June 16 followed by seven straight from July 4 to August 29. The only hiccup, a team win but a no-decision for Porcello on June 23 against the White Sox.
Porcello didn’t lose a game at Fenway last season until September 14.
Far from the glare of the Porcello-Sale-David Price spotlight is Sox non-roster invitee Kyle Kendrick, 32, who despite not playing at the MLB level at all in 2016, is having a great spring training. Over 18 innings, Kendrick has given up just three earned runs while collecting 16 strikeouts. The Boston Globe‘s Peter Abraham says Kendrick is giving the Sox something to think about. The Boston Herald‘s Evan Drellich also has a package on the righty saying that Kendrick has gone from longshot to a nice commodity.
Now, a few other notes of interest to Red Sox fans:
Back in October, as RSNStats mentioned briefly, the National Baseball Hall of Fame entertained 10 new names for enshrinement and on Sunday the decision was made for two.
Longtime baseball executive John Schuerholz and former major league commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig are the latest Hall of Famers, entering through the 16-member “Today’s Game Era” Committee. The Hall has four such Eras Committees (which was the group’s name going back to 1936 before it became known as the Veterans Committee). Each committee offers a second-chance for baseball immortality to players, as well as non-players, such as managers, umpires, and club executives.
John Schuerholz is known for his work with the Royals and especially the Braves, but he got his start in 1966 as a personal assistant to Lou Gorman, then director of player development for the Orioles. It was Gorman who took Schuerholz with him to the Royals, a new expansion team in 1969. Gorman went on to run the Mariners, itself an expansion team in 1976, before becoming General Manager of the Red Sox from 1984-93.
With Schuerholz and Selig the Hall now boasts 314 total inductees, 71 of whom are currently alive.
Schuerholz and Selig are considered members of the Class of 2017 along with any members elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America when their ballots are tabulated on January 18. The 2017 Induction Ceremony will be held at the Hall on July 30.
Up three games to none at this writing, the Indians seemed poised for a big win over the Blue Jays for a World Series berth. Of course, no one knows better than Cleveland skipper Terry Francona that you don’t celebrate until all is said and done.
While we wait to find out which teams will face off in the Fall Classic, here are some of the latest news and notes for Red Sox fans from RSNStats:
flickr photo shared by Keith Allison under a Creative Commons ( BY-SA ) license
Fans didn’t seem to know much about Hazen, and assumed his role was little more than a gopher for Dombrowski, but insiders report that just wasn’t the case. In Hazen, they say, Arizona found a capable executive with 16 years front office experience to lead the club out of its current rut. Perhaps of greatest concern to Red Sox Nation is Hazen’s tight relationship with Sox bench coach Torey Louvullo, who it is said will be a likely target to manage the D-Backs next season. Hazen was a two-time All-Ivy League outfielder playing for Princeton University in 1997-98 and played two minor league seasons in the San Diego system before joining the Indians’ scouting department, where he first met Louvullo.
Hazen was the 13th General Manager in Red Sox history, a role that started with Hall of Famer and player-turned-executive Eddie “Cocky” Collins in 1933-47. Three years after retiring from baseball in 1945, Hall of Famer and Red Sox shortstop Joe Cronin was Boston’s second GM, a position he held for ten seasons.
