Baseball Passings 2015

[Edgy MD]

Before there was Diamond Mind Baseball, there was Pursue the Pennant, its ancestor card-based game that was that Strat-o-Matic for the guys who wanted to go deeper.

Occasionally, things got a little weird and borderline racist. There were little icons on a very few cards that would mean extraordinary occurrences would occur for these players and these players only. For instance, there was skate on Lonnie Smith's card (and presumably on the cards of a few other klutzy fielders), which meant that a certain roll of the dice on a hit in Lonnie's direction would mean some sort of disastrous error, such as falling down and losing his shoes, or kicking the ball into centerfield for a four-base error.

For Andujar and Jose Rijo and perhaps a few others, there was a chili pepper (I think) icon. This meant that they were eligible for plays from the "Latin Hothead" chart, and if the dice came up just so, they would go nuts, try and brain somebody with a pitch, tear off the uniform, attack an umpire, or maybe try to batter Johnny Roseboro with a Hillerich & Bradsby.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Latin Hothead Chart? Wow!

[Edgy MD]

It was a more innocent/more guilty time. I think Paul Molitor bankrolled the game's development in the early years. Maybe with some of his Brewer teammates like Don Money and Cecil Cooper?

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: First game I ever saw Seaver start in person, the opponent was Andujar. Seaver was brilliant: 8 IP, 11 K, 0 BB, 3 H. All he gave up was a barely fence-clearing line drive homer to Cesar Cedeno in the first. But that was all he had to give up. Andujar threw a complete game shutout and won, 1-0. Couldn't stand the guy in the heat of 1985, of course, but you're not supposed to cotton to the toughest of competitors on your archrivals.

There's a cool Mets trivia question in here. Anyone who scours Mets media guides would probably nail the question and the answer before even finishing reading this post.

[G-Fafif]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: First game I ever saw Seaver start in person, the opponent was Andujar. Seaver was brilliant: 8 IP, 11 K, 0 BB, 3 H. All he gave up was a barely fence-clearing line drive homer to Cesar Cedeno in the first. But that was all he had to give up. Andujar threw a complete game shutout and won, 1-0. Couldn't stand the guy in the heat of 1985, of course, but you're not supposed to cotton to the toughest of competitors on your archrivals. There's a cool Mets trivia question in here. Anyone who scours Mets media guides would probably nail the question and the answer before even finishing reading this post.

Well now I need to be enlightened.

This have something to do with the 1-0 games decided by home runs perennial filler entry?

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: G-Fafif wrote: First game I ever saw Seaver start in person, the opponent was Andujar. Seaver was brilliant: 8 IP, 11 K, 0 BB, 3 H. All he gave up was a barely fence-clearing line drive homer to Cesar Cedeno in the first. But that was all he had to give up. Andujar threw a complete game shutout and won, 1-0. Couldn't stand the guy in the heat of 1985, of course, but you're not supposed to cotton to the toughest of competitors on your archrivals. There's a cool Mets trivia question in here. Anyone who scours Mets media guides would probably nail the question and the answer before even finishing reading this post. Well now I need to be enlightened. This have something to do with the 1-0 games decided by home runs perennial filler entry?

You're definitely on the right track.

[G-Fafif]

Only time Seaver was the LP in one of those games?

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: Only time Seaver was the LP in one of those games?

Cesar Cedeno was the only player to twice hit a Home Run in a game that the Mets lost 1-0

[G-Fafif]

Cripes. The second time was presumably the 1-0 loss to STL from 30 years ago this week.

That's very good (well, very bad) stuff.

[Edgy MD]

Cedeño was one of the all-time great stretch run additions. LOOK at that month he had with St. Louis as he was limping toward the end of his career. How the heck did that happen?

That the Mets should lose a pennant because the Cards traded some going-nowhere minor leaguer for the Cedeño while the Mets gobbled up Larry Bowa who played exactly as bad as you might have expected (in fact, worse) ... well life isn't fair, Johnny.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Edgy MD wrote: Larry Bowa

Hothead Caucasian dudes.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Mets – Willets Point wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Larry Bowa Hothead Caucasian dudes.

Definitely. Instead a chili icon, Bowa's card had a nut.

[Edgy MD]

Milo Hamilton, long-, long-time MLB play-by-play announcer, who called Hank Aaron's 715th, among many other milestones, has died.

Spent the second half his career in Houston, but he also worked for the Cardinals, Cubs, White Sox, Braves, and Buccos.

Fantastic taste in jackets.

[Guest themetfairy]

Former Braves Pitcher Tommy Hanson


29 years old - sheesh!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Holy mackeral, I was just thinking about what became of him. "Catastrophic organ failure." I don't wanna speculate but is that substance abuse?

[seawolf17]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Holy mackeral, I was just thinking about what became of him. "Catastrophic organ failure." I don't wanna speculate but is that substance abuse?

I suppose we'll find out eventually, but man, stuff like that is terrifying.

[Guest themetfairy]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Holy mackeral, I was just thinking about what became of him. "Catastrophic organ failure." I don't wanna speculate but is that substance abuse?

I was thinking it could have been one of those fast moving systemic infections.

[Zvon]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Holy mackeral, I was just thinking about what became of him. "Catastrophic organ failure." I don't wanna speculate but is that substance abuse?

I am reading that it was.

[Edgy MD]

Do something excellently but futilely, because excellence is its own reward. Do it in honor of Ken Johnson, MLB's only loser of a nine-inning no-hitter, who passes at 82.

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Holy mackeral, I was just thinking about what became of him. "Catastrophic organ failure." I don't wanna speculate but is that substance abuse?

Overdose. Toxic levels of cocaine and alcohol.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/tommy-hanson-died-due-to-an-accidental-cocaine-overdose-172444428.html

Stay clean, young Mets.

[Guest themetfairy]

RIP Dave Henderson

Age 57 - kidney failure

[MFS62]

Jim O'Toole. 78.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/former-cincinnati-reds-star-pitcher-jim-otoole-dies-185322291--mlb.html

RIP.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Everybody of course remembers Henderson.
But even outside of the '86 post-season he was just a fun guy to watch because he always looked like he was having so much fun out there - even if we saw him only sparingly because he spent most of his career on the left coast.


I remember O'Toole vaguely. He had a string of strong years pitching for some good Cincy* clubs in the early/mid-60s -- going 69-43 from 1961-'64 -- even if often while playing second banana to staff-mates Joey Jay and later Jim Maloney.
But those four years also consisted of 131 starts plus 7 relief appearances and 2 WS games adding up to nearly 1,000 innings pitched. And, like most stories about how real men back in the day 'finished what they started' etc., those kinds of stories generally fail to add in the part about how this 'real man' had his last good year at age 27 and was out of the game completely by 30. Maybe that was from heavy use, maybe not, but that part is inevitably left out of the story when tales of pitchers of a certain era are told; see also: Koufax, Drysdale, Marichal (done, or virtually so, at 30, 31 & 33).





* Reds averaged 92.25 wins/yr from '61-'64 but won just one pennant ('61) before losing the WS to the Yanx in 5
In '62 they won 98 games but finished 3rd!! (LAD & SFG tied at 102),
and then in '64 they lost the pennant in the final weekend by losing 4 of their final 5 games right after leaping into 1st place by sweeping the Mets in a five game/three day series (DH's Fri & Sun). Mets scored just 4 runs over the five games.