TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Jerry Parker of Queens, NY, who correctly identified the Cleveland Indians as the team Claude Osteen beat for his final win of his career. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.
NEW TRIVIA CONTEST: By answering the TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY you are automatically entered into a weekly drawing for a Starbucks Gift Card. Please enter via brillpro@gmail.com and please put your mailing address in with the answer so we can send you the gift card in the mail.
ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Claude Osteen beat the Cleveland Indians for the final victory in his career.
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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was the Dodgers super minor league player of the 1960's & 1970's who played well in the minors but over three seasons had a lifetime big league BA of .173?
When a big time major leaguer gets traded and a super minor league prospect is part of the deal in return, fans often wonder what happened when that minor league player goes "bust." There are any number of their stories in baseball. We will take a look at three. First, Dick Simpson.
Simpson made more of an impact because of who he was traded for. After Robinson, the Reds sent him to the Angels for Alex Johnson who had a lifetime average of .288 and a career best .329. He was also traded for Dooley Womack, Bobby Bolin, Norm Siebern and Ron Davis.
One of the most interesting careers was that of Moose Stubing who can be likened to Crash Davis in the film "Bull Durham." Stubing was signed by Pittsburgh in 1956, was sent to the NY Giants in 1957, who traded him in 1965 to the Cardinals for George Williams who then sent him to the Angels. His entire major league career as a player consisted of one season where he pinch hit five times and struck out four times. Actually I remember listening to the Angel games where that happened wondering if this guy would ever hit a fair ball.
Especially, this was interesting because, like the Bull Durham catcher Davis, Stubing had a grand minor league career belting 192 home runs over 15 seasons with a .283 BA and 811 RBI. Stubing of course went on to manage the Angels for eight games in 1988. The Angeles lost all eight. He did have a fairly successful minor league managing career. Over nine seasons he finished above .500 six times. In 1982 he was named PCL Manager of the Year and later became a college referee.