Things Ya Didn't Know (Baseball Division)

[Edgy MD]

Keith Hernandez was a 42nd round draft choice.

[Edgy MD]

Royals pitcher Lary Sorensen wasn't named Lawrence. His actual name is just "Lary" named in honor of then-future Met Frank Lary.

Sorensen was born in Detroit in the mid-fifties, when Lary was a hot young pitcher.

[Edgy MD]

The St. Louis Browns mascot character was a brownie.

[Edgy MD]

Bullet Joe Rogan was also a star centerfielder on days he wasn't pitching.

[Farmer Ted]

Pete Rose was the matchmaker for Doug Flynn and his wife, Olga, a former Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader. I didn't know that!

[Benjamin Grimm]

How did Olga and Woody get along?

[Lefty Specialist]

Dave deBusschere pitched (fairly decently) for the White Sox, going 3-4 with a 3.09 ERA and 10 starts in 1962-63, all while playing for the Detroit Pistons as well.

[Edgy MD]

Johnny Bench, greatest catcher in Major League history, is one-eighth Choctaw.

[Guest cooby]

According to Tim McGraws song, Indian Outlaw, he's half Choctaw.

[Edgy MD]

Don't know the song. I don't tend to read mysteries, but I'm reading one now, and a Cheyenne man whose lost his legs to diabetes gets visited by the sheriff, who confirms rumors that the Cheyenne was a ballplayer in his youth, as he observes photos on the wall of the man with the Cubs (with Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins), the Cardinals (with Lou Brock and Joe Torre), and finally the Reds (with Tony Perez and Johnny Bench). "After I saw him coming up," the man says, "I just didn't see any reason to go on playing. He's part Indian too, you know. Choctaw. Mm, hmm ... Yes it is so."

I wonder how many minor league careers come to an end like that when the player crosses paths with a future star who is just playing a different game than they are. I remember meeting a former minor leaguer who was coming up through the White Sox system as a second baseman, a year ahead of Willie Randolph. Once he made the mistake of asking a team executive where he stood in the organization, and the guy honestly answered, "Well, we really like this kid Randolph."

He said he told the executive, "Randolph? That guy couldn't carry my glove." He was a year ahead of Willie and since Little League, he'd been able to look down on the younger players while he was moving up ahead of them. But that all stops at the bigs, where nobody moves up. And when he hit major league camp the same year as Randolph, he knew it was, in fact, him who couldn't carry Randolph's glove.

[stevejrogers]

cooby wrote: According to Tim McGraws song, Indian Outlaw, he's half Choctaw.

I doubt its autobiographial for the singer of the song as its written by Tommy Barnes, Jumpin' Gene Simmons and John D. Loudermilk.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy MD wrote: I wonder how many minor league careers come to an end like that when the player crosses paths with a future star who is just playing a different game than they are. I remember meeting a former minor leaguer who was coming up through the White Sox system as a second baseman, a year ahead of Willie Randolph. Once he made the mistake of asking a team executive where he stood in the organization, and the guy honestly answered, "Well, we really like this kid Randolph." He said he told the executive, "Randolph? That guy couldn't carry my glove." He was a year ahead of Willie and since Little League, he'd been able to look down on the younger players while he was moving up ahead of them. But that all stops at the bigs, where nobody moves up. And when he hit major league camp the same year as Randolph, he knew it was, in fact, him who couldn't carry Randolph's glove.

You mean Pittsburgh of course?

[Edgy MD]

Indeed.

[Fman99]

Edgy MD wrote: Indeed.

I never knew he had not come up in the MFY system, ironically, until reading this post.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I remember reading the headline in my favorite news outlet, SPORTS EXTRA.

[Guest 41Forever]

I knew because I was forever chasing this rookie card -- for the other guy!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Big fan of Dave McKay?

[batmagadanleadoff]

[fimg=555:bibs5lbb]https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4249/34124083673_205c8ac2df.jpg[/fimg:bibs5lbb]

[Edgy MD]

Great shot of the beat up field at Shea.

It was, of course, Rich Gossage who joined the late seventies Yankee dynasty by was of the White Sox, but he had put in several years without quite getting over the hump, and even started his final year, before coming to the Yankees. Randolph was traded after only 30 games as a Pirate.

[Guest 41Forever]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Big fan of Dave McKay?

Aren't we all?

I know Staiger also had a card in the 1977 set. But I have no recollection of seeing him actually play. Just checked his stats, and he actually appeared in 95 games in 1976 and had 335 at bats. I'm guessing that he got those after Garrett was traded in July. (Traded by the New York Mets with Del Unser to the Montreal Expos for Jim Dwyer and Pepe Mangual.)

[Edgy MD]

My recollection was that Staiger played under Joe Frazier in AAA and Joe was a true believer, and was committed to giving Roy the chance he wasn't getting.

Sort of like Wally Backman and Davey Johnson, only not. Was there a AAA player that Bobby Valentine believed in more than the organization that he was committed to giving a shot to?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Staiger was hyped as a superstar fielder. Also, he was involved in a strange Mets game where he batted out of order for three or four at bats. There are so many screwy details to this story that I'm not gonna go into it. Also, I probably don't remember all of them screwy details off the top of my head anyways, without me having to look them up.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: The St. Louis Browns mascot character was a brownie.

mascots?

The current Astros mascot, Orbit, zapped and killed the former mascot General Admission in the second to last game at the Astrodome.

[Frayed Knot]

I have this memory lodged in the back of my head somewhere that Roy Staiger had actually served in Vietnam.
Ballplayers weren't exempt from the military in those days although very few of those who were drafted wound up serving much time and rarely if ever saw combat.
If my memory of Staiger is correct, the timing would indicate that he did his military service prior to being a professional which would explain why he was 'in country' as they used to say.

[Guest 41Forever]

I'd forgotten that he was one of our rare trades with the MFYs, swapped for Sergio Ferrer. Staiger was in Triple-A for a whole season, then played four games for the MFYS.

His only ML experiences were with both the New York teams. Players who cam claim that is probably a pretty small club.

[seawolf17]

41Forever wrote: His only ML experiences were with both the New York teams. Players who cam claim that is probably a pretty small club.

[Benjamin Grimm]

41Forever wrote: His only ML experiences were with both the New York teams. Players who cam claim that is probably a pretty small club.

It is:

Yogi Berra
Brandon Knight
Phil Lombardi
Hal Reniff
Roy Staiger

[Edgy MD]

Roy doesn't make this list of 111 baseball Vietnam vets. That sounded high until I realized that the majority were minor leaguers, including those killed in action.

Metly figures on the list include Jim Bibby (originally signed by the Mets but traded before debuting at the big league level), Rich Folkers, the aforementioned Wayne Garrett (listed, but I don't know that any of the time he missed in 1971 when his reserve unit was called up was actually in country), Phil Hennigan, Bob Johnson, Jim Kern (paper Met), Larry Miller, Dave Schneck, and Leroy Stanton.

The last active Vietnam vet in uniform was umpire Jerry Crawford, who retired after the 2010 season. Biographies of Bill James say he was the last Kansan sent to Vietnam, but he never saw action there.

Unless I'm wrong about Wayne Garrett, his inclusion leads me to question the accuracy of this list. I imagine at least a few names I didn't recognize were Met minor leaguers. Former Met Danny Graves is the only major leaguer born in Vietnam.

[Frayed Knot]

I was conflating Schneck and Staiger

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I remember Staiger as a tall, boxy guy who wore No. 2. Seemingly lots of chances to stick but didn't.

As a poster on UMDB points out, he was an unknown victim of the '77 Midnight Massacre, being sent to the minors as a result of the new guys who arrived (I guess Valentine in particular), who one day would inherit his No. 2 jersey and make Mets HI2TORY