Rico Brogna, Good Fit - Mets in Retirement, 2009

[Guest Edgy DC]

Greg Goosen, ex-Met, ex-Pilot, ex-Hackman:

HOFFARTH: 40 years ago, Goossen got on crazy trip with Seattle Pilots

By Tom Hoffarth, Columnist

Updated: 07/24/2009 11:58:04 PM PDT

Greg Goossen had his best big-league season in Seattle: A .309 average, 10 homers in 52 games. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

On the slightly tattered Topps baseball card, Greg Goossen is in a light blue Seattle Pilots uniform, positioned for the camera with his first baseman's glove open and stretched out waiting for a throw.

Sitting in a Valley Glen pizzeria recently, the 63-year-old Goossen put the piece of cardboard on the table in front of him and squinted his eyes, focusing on the 23-year-old version of him, not so long after his glory days at Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks.

"It seems like yesterday," he almost mumbled in a rough, gravelly voice, "and it seems like 100 years ago."

Those 1969 Pilots were baseball's impractical joke, a one-and-done collection of past-their-prime veterans and unproven players who swooped into Seattle as an expansion team, staggered to a last-place finish in the American League West and then beat out of town to become the Milwaukee Brewers.

Anyone associated with them might both want to both forget everything that happened and embrace their unique place in baseball lore.

"That infamous, ragamuffins team," Goossen said of the Pilots. "Tommy Davis called us a bunch of mutts. Every team we played made sure we got from the airport to their ballpark safely."

Goossen, a multi-sport star in high school, was a young catcher drafted by the Dodgers but given a shot at becoming part of a young New York Mets team growing up as lovable losers.

The Mets, however, sent him to the Pilots just before spring training for that famous player-to-be-named later. And then they amazingly went on to win the '69 World Series.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, Goossen would have what would turn out be his best big-league season, even thought he didn't make it up to the majors until he was recalled at midseason from Triple-A Vancouver.

Exactly 40 years ago today, with a nation still fixated on the fact Neil Armstrong just walked on the moon, Goossen walked into Sicks' Stadium for the first time and went 3 for 4 with a home run in his initial game for the Pilots.

His solo blast in the seventh inning gave the Pilots a 5-4 lead over the visiting Boston Red Sox.

Of course, they'd lose it 7-6, as Goosen popped up a bunt into a double play to kill a rally in the bottom of the ninth.

But that's just how the Pilots' script would always seem to play out.

"Why would they ask me to bunt? I never bunted before in my life," said Goossen, still amazed at how that night ended. "Were they crazy? I didn't even know the bunt sign."

Somehow, that story didn't make the cut for the controversial book, "Ball Four," which was in the process of being written by 30-year-old Jim Bouton, trying to make a comeback from his post-Yankees glory.

During spring training in 1965 in Vero Beach, Fla., an 18-year-old Greg Goossen found himself catching future Hall of Famers Don Drysdale, left, and Sandy Koufax. The Dodgers won the World Series that year without Goossen. (Courtesy of Los Angeles Dodgers archives)

But as Bouton used Goossen as one of the main, colorful characters of his daily diary entries, the history of the '69 Pilots remains on library shelves all over the world.

♦♦♦

The first mention of Goossen in Bouton's classic memoir is an entry from February 26, when the team was in spring training in Tempe, Ariz.:

"I know a lot of guys on the club. Greg Goossen is one. He's a catcher, a New York Met castoff, and is up out of Triple-A. Two years ago, I was playing against Goose in the International League. There was a bunt back toward the pitcher and Goose came running out from behind the plate yelling, `First base! First base!' at the top of his lungs. Everyone in the ballpark heard him. The pitcher picked up the ball and threw it to second. Everybody safe.

"And as Goose walked back behind the plate, looking disgusted, I shouted at him from the dugout, `Goose, he had to consider the source.' I guess I got to him, because the first time he saw me - two years later - he said, `Consider the source, huh?"'

Asked if he was surprised that Bouton was chronicling that season, Goossen coughed up a hearty laugh.

"If you didn't know (he was writing a book) you had to be the biggest sap in baseball," Goossen said. "He'd pull out his notebook and start writing things down after you'd say them. Someone would ask: `What are you doing?' He'd say, `I'm writing a book.' He couldn't have been much more explicit.

During a recent visit to Dodger Stadium, Greg Goossen explains to Vin Scully the story of the lost photo. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

"Then people were saying later, `Bouton wrote a book?' I sorta got the idea when he told me he was. He did hurt some people and some things he didn't include. He planted candy kisses all over me.

"But so much of what Bouton wrote was just kid's play. There were much more things he didn't put in."

♦♦♦

Goossen and Bouton were already back in Vancouver when the Pilots' played their only season opener on Tuesday, April 8 - a 4-3 win at Anaheim over the California Angels.

But then again, the team also sent down a promising young outfielder named Lou Pinella during spring training. They then sent him to Kansas City. He ended up as the American League's 1969 Rookie of the Year with the Royals.

Three days into the season, the Pilots played their first home game at the aptly named Sicks' Stadium - after Emil Sick, owner of the Rainier Brewing Company and the Pacific Coast League's Seattle Rainiers. During the Pilots' 7-0 win over the Chicago White Sox, workers were still installing new benches at the converted minor-league park. Some fans had to wait three innings just to be seated.

These Pilots were piloted by an old salty catcher, Joe Schultz, with decisions made by the out-of-place general manager Marvin Milkes, once the assistant GM of the expansion Los Angeles Angels in 1961 who'd been in charge of their Triple-A franchise in Seattle and sort of fell into the new role - and was skewered in print later by Bouton. Milkes would later come back to L.A. to run the Aztecs of the North American Soccer League in 1981, and then died of a heart attack at age 58 two months after the team folded.

Wearing uniforms that Bouton described as "Technicolor gingerbread," complete with caps that had the yellow sea captain "scrambled eggs" wings on the bills, the Pilots were a mismatched, color-uncoordinated bunch.

Journeyman Jerry McNertney (128 games, .241, eight HRs, 55 RBIs) was the starting catcher over Goossen. Don Mincher was the regular first baseman (140 games, .246, 25 HRs, 78 RBIs) and made the AL All-Star team. Mike Hegan, whose call to military duty in July led to Goossen's promotion, mostly played right field (95 games, .292, eight HRs, 37 RBIs).

Of the 53 players who saw action on the Pilots' roster that season (25 were pitchers), other familiar names included Tommy Davis, the former Dodger All-Star; Tommy Harper, the leadoff man and second baseman who would lead the AL in stolen bases, and Mike Marshall, a young reliever who'd go on to win the National League's Cy Young Award with the Dodgers five years later.

After the All-Star break, Goossen, who had hit 18 homers in Triple-A the first half of the season, finally was added to a team that was actually third in the AL West, despite a 40-56 mark, but nearly 18 games behind leader Minnesota.

Goossen, who ironically had a fear of flying (again, documented by Bouton), was now a Pilot. For better or worse.

♦♦♦

Goossen was at a bar in New York and started talking to a young woman.

"So, what do you do?" she asked.

"I'm with the Pilots," Goossen said.

"What airlines?"

"No, the Seattle Pilots. I'm a baseball player."

She gives him a long, blank stare.

"TWA," Goossen finally said, breaking the awkwardness. "Can I buy you a drink?"'

♦♦♦

A catcher at heart, Goossen was wedged in at first base in 31 of his 33 Pilots appearances. The other two were an adventure in left field.

"Seattle really had no place to put me, so I sort of became a utility man, but I hated that term," Goossen said. "I had no idea what the warning track was for.

"I'm in left field one day. I could never figure out how to use those flip-down sunglasses. I'd flip them down, and they'd be behind my head or something.

"Man on first and third, one out. The sun's killing me. Fly ball comes out to me. I flip the glasses - and now they're hanging off my nose, crooked. I know the guy at third is tagging up. I somehow catch the ball and fire it in. But I have no idea what's happening because I can't see anything.

"All of the sudden, this cheer went up, like a boxer just scored a knockout. I thought, `I must have thrown the guy out at home trying to score.' Turns out, by accident, I threw out the runner trying to go from first to second."

Goossen was 6 for 15 with three homers after his first three games. Despite the fact Goossen was one of the team's most productive statistical players, he wasn't a regular in the patchwork lineup.

His teammates, including roommate and starting pitcher George Burnett, tried to go to bat for him once.

"Burnett and I lived in a Ramada Inn in Seattle, and the Soriano Brothers, who owned the team, decided to throw everyone a party at midseason," Goossen said.

"George says to me: `You've had problems with management, so just stay in the background. Here's what we'll do. You follow me, we'll say hello, then we'll go home.'

"Halfway through the party, I look over and George has Milkes in a headlock. He was negotiating a raise for me, saying, `Goossen needs at least $10,000.'

"After a while, the door bell rings. `Who called the cab?' George says, `I did.' `But we drove here together,' I told him. `I know,' he says. `Here are the keys. You drive to the Ramada Inn and I'll have the cab follow you."'

♦♦♦

By late August, Bouton was traded to Houston, taking the rest of "Ball Four" with him.

Goossen's assessment of how the season sputtered to an end: "They were always in a panic mode. It takes time to figure how to play with each other, and we didn't have any time to do that. It was a team that changed month to month. I was a notorious slow starter, but here I had one of my quickest starts ever, and I still didn't get to play full-time."

On Sept. 25, Goossen hit two homers off Minnesota's Jim Kaat in a 5-1 Pilots win, pushing his average from .283 to .308. It would stay above .300 the rest of the season.

The next night, Goossen homered off Jim Perry in a 14-inning victory - the same day his first of three daughters, Erin, was born in Canoga Park. Two hours after the game, Goossen finally saw a note given to him from a team official that his wife had gone into labor.

By the time he phoned home, Erin had already arrived.

At season's end, Goossen had a team-best .309 average, with 10 homers and 24 RBIs in just 52 games. All his home runs came in Sicks' Stadium. Projected over a 162-game schedule, he would have had nearly 35 homers and about 90 RBIs.

But Seattle finished 64-98, sixth (and last) in the newly formed AL West, 33 games behind the Twins. And going nowhere fast.

♦♦♦

All during the winter of '69, Goossen heard rumors that the team was out of money. As spring training approached in 1970, Bud Selig, a used-car salesman in Milwaukee, made a play to buy the franchise and move it. The Pilots filed for bankruptcy to stall the procedure.

A couple of days before spring training ended, no one still knew which city would have claim to it - all their equipment was in Provo, Utah, halfway between Seattle and Milwaukee.

The only thing sure was that Dave Bristol would be the new manager, since Schultz had been fired. Goossen called Schultz "one of the smartest managers of all time ... because he played me."

He knew from past history, Bristol didn't like him nearly as much.

On Opening Day 1970, Goossen and the rest of the new Milwaukee Brewers sported uniforms with the name "Pilots" removed but the stitching outline of the old name still visible across the front.

"Imagine if I still had that uniform," Goossen said. "No one knew what memorabilia sales would be what they are today."

Not long later, Goossen was out of baseball at age 24 - traded to the Washington Senators at midseason in 1970, then dealt to Philadelphia, then trying to catch on with Cincinnati and finally putting in a futile call to the Dodgers.

Goossen said he had enough of the egos and pecking orders that dominated who played and who didn't. He tried a new career selling women's shoes. He seemed to run into those same problems.

Thanks to his brother's success in the boxing world - Dan Goossen is in the World Boxing Hall of Fame as a promoter and trainer, while Joe has helped train some of the world's best - Greg had another chance at working in the gym as a self-defense instructor and trainer. Because of them, Greg's abbreviated big-league career might not make him the most famous sportsperson in his own family.

Playing on more than three dozen MLB, minor-league and Mexican League squads from 1964-72, it's still that one sleepless season in Seattle - the only team in modern baseball history to have such a short stay in one place - that might have best encapsulated Goossen's career.

"I still get letters from people asking about that team - they know it was kind of an oddity," said Goossen, who still lives in Sherman Oaks, not far from the Notre Dame High campus, and close to his three daughters and four grandkids. "In the end, I'm happy I just got to the big leagues. It was all I ever dreamed to be since I was a little kid."

Goossen�s brushes with greatness

Greg Goossen's major-league career lasted just 193 games over six big-league seasons, with seven franchises. But almost like a "Zelig" figure, Goossen had these people steering the direction of his life:

Tommy Lasorda and Al Campanis:

The eventual Dodgers manager, and team's GM, were at Greg Goossen's San Fernando Valley home to sign him to a Dodger contract on the night he graduated from Notre Dame High. Ben Wade officially signed him to a contract in June, 1964. The Houston Colt .45 s were also heavily scouting Goossen before he injured a knee in a fight.

Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax:

After accepting an invitation to the Dodgers' spring training in Vero Beach, Fla., in 1965 � less than a year out of high school � the 18-year-old Goossen was catching the two future Hall of Famers. Goossen tells the story about how his brother, Joe, was in a car accident, and someone suggested he take his picture with Drysdale and Koufax and have it signed for Joe. Years later, Joe misplaced the photo. After checking the team archives, Dodger team historian Mark Langill found it and had a copy made again for Greg Goossen, presenting it to him during a game last month at Dodger Stadium, where Goossen also met Vin Scully.

Casey Stengel:

Goossen's first manager with the New York Mets, who claimed him on first-year waivers off the Dodgers' roster in April 1965. At 19, Goossen caught his first game with the Mets late in the 1966 season.

But Stengel made him the punchline of one of his most famous quotes � which has evolved into several versions over the years. The story was that Stengel was talking to reporters about his two young catchers � Goossen and Ed Kranepool. "See that fellow over there? He's 20 years old. In 10 years he has a chance to be a star," Stengel said about Kranepool. Then, about Goossen: "Now, that fellow over there, he's 19. In 10 years he has a chance to be 29." Says Goossen: "I think Casey was referring to the fact that when I was 29, I'd have 10 years in the league, but of course, he mangled the quote. Even he probably didn't remember it."

Nolan Ryan:

Goossen caught the future Hall of Famer's first game in the big leagues. The Angels recognized Goossen when retiring Ryan's No. 30 in a 1992 ceremony.

Gil Hodges:

The New York Mets manager in 1968 converted Goossen into a first baseman, where Hodges had excelled with the Brooklyn Dodgers a decade earlier.

Bob Lemon:

The future Hall of Fame pitcher became Goossen's manager at Triple-A Vancouver after the Seattle Pilots sent him to the minors to start the 1969 season.

Jim Bouton:

Goossen was one of the characters in Bouton's ground-breaking book, "Ball Four," on his 1969 season. The first half of it was with the Seattle Pilots. "The only one I was really interested in was Greg Goossen, whom I'd come to like, mainly because he had the ability to laugh at himself," Bouton wrote of Goossen in a March 16 spring-training entry.

Bud Selig:

The future commissioner of baseball was a used-car salesman who bought the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved them to his hometown of Milwaukee. Goossen became his property. "Never met him," Goossen said. "In those days, you hardly ever saw the owner."

Ted Williams:

At midseason in 1970, the Milwaukee Brewers sold Goossen to the Washington Senators � managed by Teddy Ballgame. Williams told him he'd be the primary hitter against left-handers and he needed him in Washington immediately.

Goossen's wife had to drive herself and less- than-a-year-old daughter back to California by themselves. "And for two weeks, I sat on the bench," Goossen said. "(Williams) rushes me across the country, makes me leave my family like that, and then doesn't let me get off the bench." And then finally uses him � against a side-arming right-hander, Ted Abernathy.

Curt Flood:

After the '70 season, the Senators traded Goossen and two others to Philadelphia in a deal for the player who, following the '69 season, made history by taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight baseball's reserve clause in refusing a trade from St. Louis. The landmark case opened free agency. Yet Flood sat out the '70 season, then went to the Senators. He played in only played 13 games for that team in April of '71 before retiring.

Gene Hackman:

The Oscar-winning actor, researching a role for a boxing movie in 1988 called "Split Decisions," met Greg Goossen at the family's Sherman Oaks gym � and was taught the art of throwing a punch. The two hit it off, and Hackman eventually had it written into all his contracts that Greg was to be his stand-in/bodyguard, plus give him a small part in all his films. Hackman effectively retired from acting in 2004. "He gave me a good ride," Goossen said.

� Tom Hoffarth

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

That's a great story!

[Guest Edgy DC]

GG's IMDB credits:

Actor:

• N.B.T. (2003) .... Pat


• Behind Enemy Lines (2001) (as Gregory B. Goossen) .... CIA Spook


• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) .... Gypsy Cab Driver


• Heist (2001/I) (as Gregory Bryant Goossen) .... Officer #1
  ... aka Le vol (Canada: French title)


• The Replacements (2000) (as Gregory B. Goossen) .... Drunk #2


• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) (as Gregory Goossen) .... Prison Cell Lunatic


• The Chamber (1996) (as Gregory Goossen) .... J.B. Gullitt


• Get Shorty (1995) (as Gregory B. Goossen) .... Duke, Man at the Ivy


• Waterworld (1995) (as Gregory B. Goossen) .... Sawzall Smoker


• The Quick and the Dead (1995) (as Gregory Goossen) .... Young Herod's Man


• Wyatt Earp (1994) .... Friend of Bullwacker


• Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) .... Schoonover Gang member


• The Firm (1993) (as Gregory Goossen) .... Vietnam Veteran


• Mr. Baseball (1992) .... Trey


• Unforgiven (1992) (as Gregory Goossen) .... Fighter


• Class Action (1991) (as Gregory B. Goossen) .... Bartender at Rosatti's


• Loose Cannons (1990) .... Marsh policeman


• The Package (1989) .... Soldier in Provost Marshal's Office

Miscellaneous Crew:

• Runaway Jury (2003) (stand-in: second unit)


• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) (stand-in: Gene Hackman)


• Heist (2001/I) (stand-in: Joe Moore) (as Gregory Bryant Goossen)
  ... aka Le vol (Canada: French title)


• Under Suspicion (2000) (stand-in: Mr. Hackman)
  ... aka Suspicion (France)


• Enemy of the State (1998) (stand-in: Mr. Hackman)


• The Chamber (1996) (stand-in: Mr. Hackman)


• Extreme Measures (1996) (stand-in: Mr. Hackman, Toronto)


• The Birdcage (1996) (stand-in: Mr. Hackman)
  ... aka Birds of a Feather


• Get Shorty (1995) (stand-in: Mr. Hackman)

Stunts:

• Wyatt Earp (1994) (stunts) (as Gregory Goossen)

[Frayed Knot]

I remember his foray into the boxing business. There were a whole bunch of Goossens (him, his brothers, plus maybe some cousins or nephews) who ran the 'Eight Goose Fight Club' (or something like that) and every once in while I'd see a TV fight with all these blocky, blond guys with 'Eight Goose' logos on their shirts working the corners - although was never sure which one (if any) was Greg.

[dgwphotography]

Dave Mlicki, back when the Subway Series was unadulterated fun.

Former Mets pitcher Dave Mlicki has fond memories of subway ride BY ANTHONY MCCARRON DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Saturday, June 27th 2009, 4:47 PM Clipped stories from the Daily News and other New York newspapers arrive regularly in the mail at the Mlicki household in Dublin, Ohio. Fans want an autograph scrawled on the newsprint by the man who pitched one of the most memorable games in the history of interleague play. Ex-Met Dave Mlicki, now 41, is happy to oblige. The righty considers his nine-hit shutout of the Yankees in the very first Subway Series game between the teams "my World Series for me, one of my great memories." Around this time of year, with the Mets and Yankees facing each other in another incarnation of the series for city bragging rights, Mlicki's phone starts to ring more frequently. The traffic on Mlicki's Facebook page picks up. At his golf club, Muirfield Village, famous for hosting the Memorial Tournament, visiting New Yorkers want to talk about June 16, 1997, the night he whitewashed the defending world champions, beating them 6-0. Met fans want to praise Mlicki and tell him the Mets could use him now; Yankee fans want to say something like, "I hated you then and I hate you now." "I knew it was a big game when I did it and it's amazing that it's meant so much to so many people," says Mlicki, a "total underdog" in the game. "I remember the day after, my wife (Annie) and I were out to breakfast at a diner and people were talking about the game and no one had any idea I was sitting there. It's what people want to talk about." Mlicki's big games now are the ones that his sons, Avery, 7, and Gavin, 6, play. The boys are into baseball, hockey and golf and Mlicki trails them everywhere. When he isn't coaching one of his sons' teams or working with the pitchers at nearby Jerome High School, he's working on his golf handicap, which ranges from two to five. Golf, so difficult to master, channels his competitive edge. Sometimes, he plays with fellow club member Paul O'Neill. Folks in Dublin call Mlicki, whose last season in the majors was 2002, "The busiest retired guy around here," he says. Mlicki was 66-80 with a 4.72 ERA in 10 seasons for the Indians, Mets, Dodgers, Tigers and Astros. He looks back with no regrets. "It was a cool time in my life. New York was a cool place to be, and I was fortunate to play there. It's in the past now, and now I love spending time with my family. There's nothing greater than seeing them every day and we play catch or something, and baseball is what afforded me this luxury. For that, I am thankful." He's thankful for the memories, too. Mlicki still recalls striking out Derek Jeter for the final out on that big night "like it was yesterday. I remember the excitement in the Stadium, all the Met fans chanting, �Let's go, Mets' in Yankee Stadium. I thought that was really cool."

[Guest Edgy DC]

A Pioneer Press recalls some of the odder Twins in history. A lot of Mets in the mix.

[Fman99]

Greg Goosen, ex-Met, ex-Pilot, ex-Hackman:

HOFFARTH: 40 years ago, Goossen got on crazy trip with Seattle Pilots

By Tom Hoffarth, Columnist

Updated: 07/24/2009 11:58:04 PM PDT

Greg Goossen had his best big-league season in Seattle: A .309 average, 10 homers in 52 games. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'll disagree. He's a 64-year-old sunburned and wizened ex-catcher and he looks fine.

[Vic Sage]

Goossen could star in the Rondo Hatton Story.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2023096601/

[Guest Edgy DC]

Lenny Randle, giving rides to Newsday's Bob Glauber (a while back).

http://www.newsday.com/blogs/sports/glauber-s-nfl-hot-reads-1.811959/lenny-randle-gave-us-a-ride-yes-that-lenny-randle-1.812987

[Guest Edgy DC]

Tom Seaver, stolen: http://thetartan.org/2009/9/21/news/warhol

[soupcan]

The thread comes full circle with Rico Brogna -

For Brogna, Road Back to Majors Runs Through Football Rico Brogna expects the next step to be his first minor league managerial job. By BRIAN HEYMAN MIDDLETOWN, Conn. � As one of Wesleyan University�s receivers ran a one-on-none post pattern under the fading sun at practice on Wednesday, Rico Brogna spotted choppy footwork on his fake and his break toward the middle of the field. �Just keep running it with speed,� Brogna told Paulie Lowther as the team prepared for its home opener Saturday against Tufts. �Keep running it with speed.� Yes, this Rico Brogna, who volunteers as a receivers coach at this Division III college, is also that Rico Brogna, the former first baseman for the Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies and three other teams. And, as it turns out, Brogna�s decision to coach receivers, kickers and punters here at age 39 is part of his master plan to become a successful major league manager. Brogna, once a major-college football recruit, has been driving toward that goal since 2001, when his playing days ended at age 31. He expects the next step to be his first minor league managerial job. After talking with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who used him as a pro scout and minor league field coordinator this season, he said he was expecting to be named manager of their Class AA affiliate in Mobile, Ala., for next season. That team would be getting a leader so fluent in and enamored of football that he plans to carry some of its preparation principles over to baseball. At Wesleyan, Brogna has watched how Frank Hauser, the Cardinals� 18th-year head coach, handles his program. �What I�ve learned from Coach Hauser is attention to detail, the organizational part, and leadership,� Brogna said. �The model part of it is the way you organize all the different parts of a team and organization, to coach each part of it as best as it can be coached, whether it�s meetings for positional groups, how to study film, how to study scouting reports. I want to bring more of a football team mentality, revolve everything more around teamwork, team planning.� Hauser said Brogna has the temperament to coach baseball or football. �He knows how to deal with people,� Hauser said. �That�s what coaching really comes down to, because the most important thing in coaching is to get the guys to play for you. That�s true in any sport. He�s mild-mannered, but he also makes guys toe the line.� Brogna signed with Clemson as a lefty-throwing quarterback for Watertown High School in Connecticut. But the Detroit Tigers also drafted him in the first round in 1988, and he chose baseball. Brogna made his debut with the Tigers in 1992 and was traded to the Mets in 1994. When he was called up that June, Brogna became an immediate hit. He took over for an injured David Segui at first base and batted .351 before a strike in August ended the season. Injuries derailed his progress over the next two seasons, although he hit .289 and had 22 homers in 1995, and the Mets traded him to Philadelphia after the 1996 season. He said he was sad to leave. �It was home,� Brogna said. �I�d grown close to the fan base.� Brogna, a .269 hitter over his nine-year career, had his best seasons in Philadelphia, with three seasons of at least 20 homers and two with 100-plus runs batted in. After stops in Boston and Atlanta, Brogna retired in 2001. He battled a form of spinal arthritis his whole career. Brogna started working toward his managerial goal, earning a degree in business management at Post University in Waterbury, Conn., and coaching the baseball team there one year. He evaluated talent as a pro scout for Colorado and then Arizona, and coached high school football and basketball in Connecticut before taking the job at Wesleyan. �He�s helped out a lot with how to deal with the pressures of the sport,� said Kyle Weiss, a sophomore flanker and punter from Connecticut. �He�s been the farthest you can possibly be in his sport. I enjoy him. He�s a great guy. He�s a player�s coach.� Perhaps these players will someday say they were coached by a future major league manager. �It would be great to tell my kids or grandkids when I get older, to be able to have the personal experience with him here as well,� said Steve Hauser, a junior receiver from Rhode Island and a nephew of the head coach, who once heard Brogna speak at a high school camp. �It just puts the myth to light, to actually meet that kind of person that you idolize.�

[G-Fafif]

Injuries derailed his progress over the next two seasons, although he hit .289 and had 22 homers in 1995, and the Mets traded him to Philadelphia after the 1996 season. He said he was sad to leave. �It was home,� Brogna said. �I�d grown close to the fan base.�

The fan base, or this one-person segment of it, grew close to Rico Brogna. From a distance, you might say. Wish he'd been able to stay through the demi-glory years, John Olerud notwithstanding.

[soupcan]

Yeah - I've got a soft spot for the guy too.

[Farmer Ted]

Alan Probst, former farm hand

http://www.alanprobst.com/alan_probst.html

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Paul LoDuca, TV horseracing analyst... and deadbeat.

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/national-news/2009/October/09/Overbrook-Farm-sues-TVG-analyst-Lo-Duca.aspx

[Guest Edgy DC]

Seriously, on a scale from one to ten, where, one is Bobby Richardson and 10 is --- I don't know --- Hal Chase, how sleezy is LoDuca?

Speaking of catchers and where they fall on the Richardson-Chase scale, Gary Carter has agreed to run a Division II baseball program, where his daughter is the softball coach.

http://www.pbasailfish.com/article.asp?articleID=1039

On a scale of one to ten, where one is Ernie Lombardi and ten is Herb Washington, how fast will Carter abandon that post when even the hint of a big league job comes around?

[Frayed Knot]

TV horseracing analyst... and deadbeat.

Yeah, like that's an unusual combination

[Met Hunter]

Yikes!

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/taxingdetroitblog/index.php?blogid=177

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yikes!

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/taxingdetroitblog/index.php?blogid=177[/quote:1dihid3u]

Yeow. He needs to make "Something About Mary II: Electric Boogaloo"

[seawolf17]

Or maybe he can share a cell with Koos.

And both of Edgy's answers go to eleven.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Good article here about Boy Named Seo's neighbor. I never before heard him admit that he deserved to get cut in 1970.

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_13555506


KEISSER: Gaspar's time with '69 Mets a miracle
By Bob Keisser, Columnist
Posted: 10/13/2009 10:27:14 PM PDT

When the New York Mets won the 1969 World Series, they instantly became known as the Miracle Mets, having gone from the woebegone expansion franchise of the '60s to a 100-win season in '69 and upset of the lordly Baltimore Orioles in the series.


But it really wasn't one miracle. It was a series of miracles represented by a large handful of unique plays and interesting players, ranging from a future Hall of Famer named Tom Seaver to a thin outfielder from Lakewood, Long Beach City and Long Beach State named Rod Gaspar.

Forty years ago tomorrow, Gaspar

celebrates the anniversary of scoring the game-winning run in the tenth inning of Game 4, giving the Mets a 3-1 series lead that they turned into the title a day later.

The whole year has been a celebration for Gaspar. Besides a 40th anniversary reunion with his old teammates in August-"It was so much fun and didn't last long enough," he said - Gaspar has also celebrated his 39th anniversary of meeting and marrying his wife Sharon.

Gaspar was a rookie in '69 and it was somewhat miraculous that he made the team and played such a large role in the Mets' division title, NL pennant win over the Atlanta Braves, and upset of the Orioles.

He was the first 49er ever drafted, as an 18th-round pick by the Mets in 1966 and again in 1967 as a second-round pick in the secondary phase of the relatively new amateur draft. He had earned it on the field, hitting a team-high .393 in 1966 for

Bob Wuesthoff's team and earning CCAA first-team honors, and leading the team in hits, runs and doubles in '67.

In 1968, he hit .309 with 81 runs and 25 steals for Memphis, which earned him a spot on the Mets' 40-man roster for '69. But with Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee, Ron Swoboda and Art Shamsky returning - all in their mid-20s and improving - there didn't seem to be much room for Gaspar in the Mets outfield.

"I had a good year in the Texas League (with Memphis) but they really didn't know who I was and didn't expect me to do much," Gaspar said from his home in Irvine. "In spring training, Shamsky hurt his back and (Manager) Gil Hodges took me on a road trip to replace him, started me, and I had a 13- or 14-game hitting streak, so they kept me on the roster."

Gaspar started the season opener in right field. He had two hits, a walk, an RBI, a steal and scored a run, and he was 7-for-17 in his first four games. Even with a clubhouse crowded with outfielders, Hodges used Gaspar extensively, as a part-time starter, pinch-hitter, pinch-runner and defensive replacement.

"It all started with Hodges," Gaspar said of the former Dodger icon. "He did a great job with a bunch of young kids. We only had a few veterans on the team, and he used his roster the best way possible. He didn't wear any of us out. He gave young guys a chance to contribute.

"He played me a lot, and ahead of guys who all deserved to play. But we got along so well as a team that no one ever complained. Once we got rolling, all we wanted to do was win."

Gaspar admits the Mets didn't match up on paper with their division rivals, the Cubs with Ron Santo and Ernie Banks - "Santo used to laugh at our lineup," he said - or the Braves in the NLCS, with Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda and Phil Niekro, or the 109-win Orioles, with Frank and Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Boog Powell.

"Most of us were too young to care or feel any pressure, because we hadn't been through it before," Gaspar said.

Gaspar's only home run of the season helped win a pivotal game against the Giants, he rarely struck out, was third on the team in steals and he had 10 outfield assists and was in on six double plays.

His postseason moment came in Game 4, when he scored the game-winner from second when the Orioles threw away a sacrifice bunt. It was a controversial play, too, since Jerry Martin was running inside the baseline when Pete Richert's throw hit him and caromed away.

Gaspar is blunt in assessing the rest of his baseball career.

"I was very immature," he said. "I was a single guy with a nickel brain who thought he'd be in New York for the next 10 years. No excuses."

Hodges wanted Gaspar to play winter ball, but Gaspar decided to stick around in New York. He and teammates Ken Boswell and Wayne Garrett were on the Dating Game, and he was chosen and won a trip to Switzerland.

"That was the first year I didn't work out year-round," Gaspar said. "I used to come home and play with the Long Beach Rockets, which was always good training since there were so older guys on the team.

"I paid the consequences. Next spring, I couldn't hit and couldn't judge a fly ball. I deserved to be cut. Life is attitude. Sometimes people think they're owed something, and that was my attitude. I messed up in a big way."

Irony can be thick, too. He was sent to the minors by Hodges in '70 a year to the day after Hodges told him he'd made the '69 team. But he also met his future wife the next day. "God has plans for all of us," he said. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me."

Gaspar played well in the minors but never got a regular shot again in the majors. He played in 11 games for the Mets in 1970, then was traded to San Diego. He played in 33 games in 1974, then finished his career with two more years in the Padres' system in Hawaii.

On the islands, he hit .294 with a .402 on-base percentage in 1976, but had reached 30 and decided it was time to find another career.

He's had a successful career in insurance and retirement planning ever since.

"When I got out, I got out," he said. "I didn't miss the game much. But the last few years, with my participating in the Mets Fantasy Camp, I've got it in my brain that I wouldn't mind getting back in."

And maybe being part of another miracle.

bob.keisser@presstelegram.com

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I forget where I'd read it, but I seemed to know he partied too much and whizzed his chances with the Mets away. Anyway, yes, good article, though JC Martin is identified as Jerry Martin (he was Joseph).

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Or maybe he can share a cell with Koos.

And both of Edgy's answers go to eleven.[/quote:x82hg7qy]

Really? Steroids aside, he played it clean and hard on the field, it seemed.

I'd go 7ish. I've had shadier acquaintances.

[metirish]

Darryl Strawberry will join the likes of Cyndi Lauper , Bret Michaels , Rod Blagojevich,Sharon Osbourne and Sinbad on Donald Trumps Celebrity Apprentice......

[Guest Edgy DC]

Who watches this'm crap?

[metirish]

Who watches this'm crap?[/quote:3fmj7ldq]


Not I , but apparently enough people do

[Guest Edgy DC]

Tom �ieto, ma�agi�g the Rochester Red Wi�gs.

http://rocnow.com/article/red-wings/2009910210351

Keith Hernandez turned 56 yesterday and used to look like this:

[Benjamin Grimm]

That's Keith? He seems to have a different mouth these days.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The Mets from Mobile:

http://blog.al.com/press-register-sports/2009/11/online_extra_mobile_trio_playe.html