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Tom Underwood, 56, journeyman lefty mostly for teams we didn't like in the '70s and '80s, of pancereatic cancer. Remembered by his hometown paper in Kokomo, Ind. Underwood was really our first hometown hero Posted: Thursday, December 2, 2010 1:00 am Posted on December 2, 2010 by Steve Geiselman It's the kind of news that you hate to hear. Last Tuesday I came back to my office after taking photos of President Obama to find an e-mail from Dennis Kasey saying Tom Underwood had died. Underwood, Kokomo�s first major leaguer of the modern era (catcher Harold �Rowdy� Elliott played for Boston in 1910), had been fighting cancer for sometime. Underwood was the one athlete from our town who I, as a kid, looked up to as a big deal. Sure, his brother, Pat, and Dan Dumoulin were major leaguers as well. But neither of them had the prolonged career that Tom did. He played for the Yankees, Cardinals and Phillies, among others. Those are three of the most storied franchises in major league baseball. He was a Yankee in the 1980s. That is a big deal. Underwood, rightfully so, was one of the "no-brainers" in the first class of the Howard County Sports Hall of Fame. Perhaps he should have been the first choice. While the basketball heroics of Goose Ligon and Jimmy Rayl are in themselves astounding, neither one of them had the professional career that Underwood did. Underwood would be considered a journeyman pitcher, I guess. In 10 years he played for six teams and was traded four times. He was traded for and with some of the big-name baseball players of the era, including Bake McBride, Rick Cerone, Chris Chambliss and Damaso Garcia. His best season, arguably, was 1980 with the New York Yankees when he started 27 games. He finished the campaign with a 13-9 record and 3.56 earned run average. The Yanks finished with a record of 103-59, finishing in first place in the American League East, three games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles. The Kansas City Royals swept the Yanks in the ALCS. Underwood's tenure with the Bronx Bombers would be short, however, as he was traded the following May along with Jim Spencer to the Oakland A's for Dave Revering, Mike Patterson and Chuck Dougherty. He was solid for Oakland in 1982, going 10-6 with a 3.29 ERA. He was granted free agency in 1983 and after a season with Baltimore was released in October 1984. Underwood�s career record was one game under .500 (86-87), and his career ERA was a solid 3.89. The game Highlights of Underwood�s career had to come on May 31, 1979, when he was pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays. Even though his day ended with a loss, I am sure it was probably the most memorable moment of his career. Little brother Pat Underwood, pitching for the Detroit Tigers, was making his major league debut against the Jays. The game of brother versus brother was a pitching masterpiece. If the Underwoods wanted to show the world that pitchers from Kokomo knew what they were doing, then the game was solid evidence. Pat, in his debut, allowed just three hits against a formidable Toronto lineup that included the likes of Alfredro Griffin, Rico Carty, Rick Cerone and Bob Bailor. Griffin, Carty and future NBA star Danny Ainge were the only one that figure Pat out. On the other side, Tom went the distance and allowed six hits but only one run in the nine innings. Jerry Morales� home run in the eighth was the only thing that ruined a brilliant outing by Tom. The meeting head-to-head was the only time it would happen for the brothers Underwood. By 1983, both were out of baseball for good.

The pride of Hicksville gets covered by his hometown paper. Good to see him giving back to the community en route to stardom. Hicksville’s Camden Maron Finishes Second Season With Mets Affiliate Friday, 05 November 2010 00:00 Camden Maron, a 2009 Hicksville High School graduate and New York Mets’ 34th round draft selection in the 2009 Amateur Player Draft, completed his second summer season with the Mets Gulf Coast League minor league team in Port St. Lucie, Florida. He finished the season with an impressive .313 batting average. He’s been back on Long Island since early September where he has been concentrating on strength and conditioning as well as mentoring younger players at The Performance Factory in Farmingdale. He was especially proud to share his talents with the Hicksville Hurricane team. Maron left on Sunday, Oct. 24 for the Dominican Republic where he will be participating as a Met in a month long fall league. After that he’ll return home for the holidays and prepare to leave in February for spring training back in Port St. Lucie.

Bobby and Armando appear to be looking past each other, as I guess will happen in the victory lane. Subway Series set was great. Half of it, anyway.

The proliferation of Jeter in Nick Evans's uniform is rapidly moving up the nightmare ranks.

MLBS and outgoing Governor David Paterson spending the afternoon with YLDB Mike Francesa. Paterson knows his sports. Francesa informing Paterson that being governor of NY is a big job.

I'll bet Jenn Sterger has a different item at the top of her list.

SNY interrupts a blur of college basketball and other who-cares programmng to present Mets Yearbook: 1982 Thursday night (12/2) at 7:30 PM. This may be the first installment to which I'm anticipatorily hostile in that I seriously hated the 1982 season -- a harbinger for the venom with which I'd come to view 1992 and 2002. If they can make me gauzily nostalgic for the year of Georges Bamberger & Foster and the 15-game losing streak and the .333 ball played from June to October, then brother, they can sell me pay-per-view of Roberto Alomar's Hall of Fame induction speech. /crossing fingers regarding 2012

If you post a sign that says "FREE OLIVER PEREZ" in St. Lucie, I'm still not sure anyone would take him.

metirish wrote: Weird seeing Cappy in the body of Nick Evans If Evans deigns to give up 6.

Just try to tear my Mets uniform off me. You can try all year and you will not be successful. --Oliver Perez, 2010

"Prevention and Recovery" : 2010 :: "Prevention and Suck It Up, Nancy" : 2011 ? Suck it up Nancy... Suck it up! [clap clap] Suck it up Nancy... Suck it up! [clap clap]

The achievement will underline that consistency is his hallmark, that what Babe Ruth is to home runs and Lou Gehrig is to runs batted in, Jeter is to hits. In the last two seasons, Jeter first passed Gehrig for career hits as a Yankee and then Ruth for total hits in a career. If his agent makes this argument, Cashman should laugh hysterically and leave the room, whatever room he happens to be in.

In a predictable article on the necessity to have Cap'n Cocky collect his 3,000th hit in MFYwear, Ben Shpigel takes a modest shot at one of the indelible milestones achieved in black, blue and orange: You should devote your next BATS submission to tearing Shpigel a new one. That would be awesome. I'll have to see how that works. Thanks for the advice. Phil Niekro won his 300th passing through as an MFY. I don't remember a lot of indignation over that. The Red Sox would be a particularly appropriate opponent for the big moment, and not just because of the longstanding rivalry between the two teams. In September 1979, Carl Yastrzemski got his 3,000th hit in a game against the Yankees at Fenway Park. For those keeping score, Yastrzemski hit a ground ball to second off Jim Beattie that just eluded Willie Randolph and went into right field for a single. Now Jeter can return the favor. Do the MFYs really owe the Red Sox one for Yaz's 3,000th? That's stretching worthy of Mark Herrmann or John Harper.

Saw him hit a homer off Pulsipher (in his second go-round) that I swear flew by me from my seat in the first row of Mezzanine. He was invited to Omar's first Spring Training and then retired as not quite a Met. Regarding HOF, he scared the hell out of me. I'd have put him in the Hall just to get him out of the batter's box.

88 days to baseball! Given that the World Series ended on November 1, this means December and January are the only truly worthless months.

1st HR as a Brewer. 50th HR as a Padre. 100th HR as a Marlin. 150th HR as a Marlin. 200th HR as a Dodger. 250th HR as a Dodger. 300th HR as a Dodger. 350th HR as a Brave. 400th HR as an MFY. 450th HR as an MFY. 500th HR as a Met. Hard to say there's a "wrong uniform" for him to do his milestoning.

The perfect modern player: can't be readily identified by consensus as an Anything.

Edgy DC wrote: If the Yankees want Sheffield's 500th homer, I'd be happy to give it to them in exchange for Gooden's no hitter. Why stop there? They can have our 2009 and we'll take our chances with their 1996. They can have our 1996, too.

metirish wrote: Can one vote in say Bagwell but not Walker? Only if you want Larry Walker to fix you with the evil eye.

In a predictable article on the necessity to have Cap'n Cocky collect his 3,000th hit in MFYwear, Ben Shpigel takes a modest shot at one of the indelible milestones achieved in black, blue and orange: ...baseball history is littered with outstanding players who were essentially in the wrong uniform when they joined exclusive company � Wade Boggs (3,000th hit, Tampa Bay), Randy Johnson (300th win, San Francisco), Gary Sheffield (500th home run, Mets). My mission is not defend Sheffield's Metropolitan honor (it wasn't a big deal, but it was a perfectly fine thing when he hit it) but to wonder what uniform would have been essentially "right"? Sheff is a guy I don't particularly identify as a member of any franchise. He played his most games and years with the Marlins, but couldn't have been dumped much faster by Huizenga once he went about dismantling the 1997 champions, so I feel no real sentiment/equity for Gary in teal. Sheff wasn't a superstar in Milwaukee (a malingerer and proud of it, actually). He established himself in San Diego but didn't last two seasons there. Everywhere else among Dodgers, Braves, MFYs and Tigers was Mercenary City. Really, given the Doc connection and the rumors that always swirled about him coming here, the Mets were as good a 500th home run site for Sheffield as anywhere else.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Did Prince just exclude John Franco from the Hall? Not that there's anything wrong with excluding John, but I figured that if it's up to Prince, Matt Franco and Julio Franco also get in. Put me down for one more smiley for Olerud. John Franco got two John Franco Days already. Anything else would be anticlimax.

If someone handed me a ballot with John Olerud's name on it (for anything, not just baseball), I'd have a very hard time not placing next to it: � A check mark � A smiley face (adorned with hard hat) � And an aaahhh... It's the same principle that would likely keep me from ever voting for Roberto Alomar, except the pleasant inverse. I'd also be the guy who throws one vote Lenny Harris's way in deference to pinch-hitters everywhere. The rest, personally, is que sera, sera territory. By the way, I thought the waiting period was five years, yet Franco, Leiter and Olerud were all Mets about five minutes ago. What the hell?

The parochial perspective: Roberto Alomar: Met Carlos Baerga: Met Bret Boone: Brief Spring Training Met Kevin Brown: Same Name as Met John Franco: Met Juan Gonzalez: Rumored Met Lenny Harris: Met Bobby Higginson: Rumored Met Charles Johnson: Paper Met Barry Larkin: Vetoed Met Al Leiter: Met John Olerud: Met Rafael Palmeiro: Drafted Met Benito Santiago: Late Career Minor League Met B.J. Surhoff: Pursued by Mets as Free Agent

Appreciate it, guys. You can't go wrong with R.A. Dickey (though as Pet Clark might have noted, a year ago I never could have seen it).

Those rosters...it was like somebody decided to update " ," got depressed and looked to see what was on TV.