Earlier this week, I complained about NFL scheduling the Oakland Raiders on Monday night. As expected, the game, in Denver no less, proved to be a blowout.
As a reminder of when the Raiders were Raiders, I pay tribute to an all-time favorite, Ken Stabler. Back in the 70s, the “Snake” and company were almost unbeatable on Monday night. Man, were they fun to watch.
Stabler’s best stat: He was 69-26-1 as Oakland’s starting quarterback. Pretty impressive.
With Pittsburgh finally in contention again, I thought I’d run a card from its past. Aside from the obvious stars (Clemente, Stargell), whenever I think of those old Pirates teams, Gene Alley keeps popping in my head.
Why? I don’t know. But I decided to pay tribute to Gene today.
For the record, Alley played 11 years for the Pirates and was a two-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner.
Here’s to you, Gene…and the Pirates.
It’s football. It’s Butkus.
Perhaps the best pairing of a name and player in the history of the game.
In a new book, Black Sox & Three Peats: A Century of Chicago’s Best Sportswriting, Ron Rapoport, the editor, selected a vintage 1979 column on Butkus from Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune, a legend in his own right.
Pierson wrote:
“Butkus. He was as Chicago as Daley, as Illinois as Grange. Some people are born to play football. Football was born for Dick Butkus. Some people name their children after heroes. In Chicago, people name their dogs after Butkus–out of respect. He symbolizes the ferocity of his sport. He is in the Hall of Fame now, and a thousand NFL players are oh so glad he’s there and not still on the field.”
A few weeks ago, my random baseball card was of Lou Brock as a young player with the Cubs. The Brock-for-Broglio trade always has served as one of the defining moments for Cubs futility.
However, it should be noted that not every trade imploded on the Cubs. Note this rookie card of Ferguson Jenkins as a young pitcher for the Phillies.
On April 21, 1966, Jenkins, along with John Hernstein and Adolfo Phillips, was sent to the Cubs for aging pitchers Bob Buhl and Larry Jackson. That’s definitely a trade the Phillies would like to have back.
Jenkins went on to post six straight 20-win seasons with the Cubs en route to a career that landed him in Cooperstown.
Here are Jenkins’ stats.
The great Carl Yastrzemski actually made his debut in 1961. And he most definitely wasn’t a second-baseman.
All he had to do was try to fill the shoes of the retiring Ted Williams. Pressure? What pressure?
Yaz went on to make himself a legend in his own right. He had 3,419 career hits and 452 homers. And his 1967 Triple Crown season, leading the Red Sox to the AL pennant, might have been the greatest one-man show in the history of the game.
Here is a link to his stats.
I was sorry to hear Jack Clark got himself in hot water for comments he made about Albert Pujols.
I’ll always have a fondness for Clark.
In 1985, when I still was a very young reporter, I was sent to St. Louis to do a story on the Cardinals. It was one of my first big opportunities and naturally I was nervous.
I was completely unaware of the routine for doing one of these stories. I tried to ask Whitey Herzog, the cranky manager, some questions, but he completely blew me off.
“Jesus Christ, I just answered those questions over there,” he said.
I had no idea I was supposed to be “over there” for his daily meeting with writers.
Herzog wasn’t alone. Other players also blew me off.
“Hey, Ozzie, got a minute?” I asked.
Mr. Smith, “The Wizard,” whizzed right past me through the dugout runway.
I have a feeling Clark saw that, and perhaps had a sense of my desperation. I approached him as he sat on the bench in the dugout. I fully expected to get blown off again.
To my surprise, he said, “Sure.”
Clark wasn’t warm and fuzzy. I remember him looking straight ahead at the field when answering my questions.
However, he gave me more than enough to write a decent piece on the Cardinals. He saved me from blowing my big assignment.
It’s funny how you never forget those kind of things. I know I will be forever grateful to Jack Clark.
Here is the link to his career stats: 340 career homers; on-base percentage of .459 in 1987.
Through 52 games in 1964, 25-year-old Lou Brock was hitting .251 with 10 stolen bases. The Cubs saw a chance to land Ernie Broglio from St. Louis and jumped.
On the surface, it looked like a great deal for the Cubs. They got a 28-year-old pitcher who went 18-8 in 1963 for a slow-to-develop outfielder. Really, who wouldn’t have made that trade in 2013?
Well, you know the rest of the story. Broglio developed a sore arm and faded to oblivion. Meanwhile, Brock took off with the Cardinals and went straight to the Hall of Fame.
Here is the link to his stats.
Oh what have been, Cubs fans.
RIP George Scott.
The former Boston and Milwaukee slugger had 271 career homers and was an 8-time Gold Glove winner. Here is the link to his stats.
Even more, he was a “sweetheart,” according to Leigh Montville, who recalled “Boomer” at Sports on Earth.
Montville writes:
He was a sweetheart. That was what he was, this one-time leader of the American League in home runs and runs batted in, winner of eight Gold Gloves, who died on Monday, sick and old before his time at 69 in Greenville, Miss. There were pieces of Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson in him, mixed with pieces of Jackie Gleason and Falstaff and, I don’t know, maybe Louis Armstrong and maybe your father’s brother, the big guy who comes to the house and makes everybody laugh for the entire evening.
He moved through his nine seasons in Boston, 14 in the major leagues, with thunder and charm. As soon as he arrived at Fenway Park in the summer of 1966, he dropped the word “tater” into the baseball lexicon as a better word for “home run” and promised to make so much money that he would be “driving an Oldsmobile with a Cadillac hitched up behind.” How could anyone not fall in love with a ballplayer like this?
When it comes to poise and precision, it is hard to beat “Catfish.”
Five straight 20-win seasons. Career 224-166 mark with 3.26 ERA. 9-6 record in postseason play. And a perfecto. Here is the link to his complete stats.
In honor Tom Seaver throwing out the first pitch Tuesday at the All-Star Game, a look back to when it all started.
I covered Seaver during his last season with the White Sox in 1986. It was a thrill to be around him.
