Roger Maris First Homers as a Yankee - Leading OFF

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Bill Frieberg of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who among others knew I screwed up last weeks trivia question and entered everyone into the drawing. He was the lucky one. 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: Anyone who emailed me. LOL!

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  Who gave up Roger Maris' LAST home run as a Yankee 56 years ago this week? HINT: It's a bit ironic.

 While Aaron Judge became only the third player in American League history to hit 60 home runs in a season he also solidified the way NY Yankee baseball is played. The only players to ever hit 60 in a season in the AL all wore Yankee pinstripes. Babe Ruth and Roger Maris both paid those dividends. However, in 1960 when Maris became a Yankee no one ever pictured him as a lead off man. But he was and he paid immediate dividends - twice with homers no. 1 & no. 2.

                                                            (The Roger Maris Game of Fame)

When Maris came over from the Kansas City A's the club wanted home runs not average. Why insert him into the lead off spot? It was a pretty ostentatious beginning too. New York opened on the road in Boston with a batting order which featured, in order, Maris, Richardson, McDougald, Lopez, Mantle, Skowron, Howard, Kubek with Jim Coates on the mound. 

In the first inning against Tom Brewer, Maris hit a double. In the third he grounded out. In the fifth, after Coates had singled, Maris blasted his first home run of his Yankee career. It came off Brewer and gave New York a 4-1 lead. Leading 6-2 in the sixth Maris singled home Kubek for his third hit. This time Nelson Chittum was the victim. 

Ted Bowsfield took the mound in the 8th and after striking out Coates, Maris went deep again for no. 2. A long shot to right and his fourth hit. But he wasn't done. He drew a walk in his last at bat. His line score read 5-2-4-4 and a walk, getting four hits in five at bats with two homers, a single and a double only missing the cycle wanting a triple. 

It should be mentioned Ted Williams also homered for the Sox in an 8-4 losing cause. Coates went the distance with a nine-hitter. Maris batted lead-off in game two before manager Casey Stengel decided Bobby Richardson should lead off and Maris was moved to the no. 4 slot behind Mantle. 

Maris would finish the year with 39 homers, 112 RBI and a .283 BA. His On-Base percentage was .371 to his slugging percentage of .581. It was obvious he was better positioned to hit with men on base rather than trying to start a rally in the no. 1 slot. 

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries.  Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment. 

Thank you to those of you who purchased my books after reading this column. 

The Fateful Day the Angels Changed Their Name

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Alan Drooz of San Diego, CA, who knew that Manny Jimenez played for the Columbus Jets of the International League. 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: Elmer Valo was the player in 1960 who came to bat 92 times, 81 as a Pinch Hitter.

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:   OOOOOOOOPPPPPPPSSSSS; YES I screwed up. My question was mis-worded as I meant to ask which teams were the only two teams he had a lifetime losing record with and that would have been the Angels (21-29) and Milwaukee (2-7). So as a result just send me an email to brillpro@gmail.com and you will be entered into this week's drawing. My Bad!

In eight MLB seasons Marcelino Lopez pitched for five different teams but only had one "losing" season. Which season was that and what was his record?

What's in a name change? For the Los Angeles Angels the answer is "not much," at least at the beginning. Since their inception the Angels, who played at Dodger Stadium, were known as the Los Angeles Angels. They were the Hollywood version of an American League team, counteracting the Dodgers who had arrived less than a handful of years later.

However, the day they changed their name to the California Angels should have been something much stronger and brighter. It wasn't to be. The teams first game as the new CA Angels they faced the not so strong 1965 New York Yankees. An aging Whitey Ford was on the hill for the Bombers to face Marcelino Lopez. Lopez, as it turned out, wasn't up to the name change.

Inning number one. Bobby Richardson led off with a single. Tom Thresh doubled him to third. It was too early to walk Mickey Mantle but he should have. The Mick blasted one deep to left center field and it was 3-0 Yankees. Elston Howard singled, Joe Pepitone bunted him to second and after a Hector Lopez ground out, Clete Boyer singled him home, 4-0. Phil Linz singled before Ford, batting before ever throwing a pitch, grounded out. It was pretty much all over.

Tresh and Mantle combined for another run in the second before Rudy May came on in relief of Lopez. New York would score three more in the seventh while the Angels lone run came on a Jose Cardenal single to drive home Paul Schall. The final 8-1 New York. Ford went the distance giving up four hits. 

The Angels would go 13-14 the rest of the way as the California Angels. The club would remain that way until 1996 when they became the Anaheim Angels and then later the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. With the team for sale again, who knows what they will become next.

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries.  Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment. 

Thank you to those of you who purchased my books after reading this column.   

 

When An Owner Screws UP; Charley O. FInley

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Jim Depitro of Syracuse, NY, who knew that Elmer Valo was the player in 1960 who came to bat 92 times, 81 as a Pinch Hitter. 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: Elmer Valo was the player in 1960 who came to bat 92 times, 81 as a Pinch Hitter.

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation.

===============================================================
NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:   In 1967 Manny Jimenez batted .331 for a Pittsburgh minor league team. What was the name of that team?

 In the classic baseball film "Field of Dreams" Shoeless Joe Jackson tells Ray Kinsella in response to the farmer's reasoning for adding lights to baseball fields; the owners thought it would bring in more fans and more money if they could play games at night. Jackson (played by the late Ray Liotta) answers back "phh, owners." He did it with a dismissive response, basically saying owners can do more to wreck the game than anyone else.

Such was the case with a rising star in Kansas City, who fell to earth way before he should have. Manny Jimenez was an outstanding hitter in the minor leagues and upon making his debut in 1962, he seemed to be on track for stardom. Jimenez batted .301 with 11 homers for the Kansas City A's.

In his first game on April 11, 1962 in front of only 4,064 fans in Kansas City, he faced the Twins Camilo Pascual and got three of the teams four hits off the all-star pitcher. It seemed he was well on his way. It should be noted the next night he did not even start. It was okay as only 854 fans remember it. That was the total attendance at game three of the 1962 season.

It was another week before Jimenez appeared again and he got a pinch hit in his only at bat. The season went on in strange fashion. When the dust settled on the A's season, they finished in 9th place out of 10 and won only 72 games while losing 90. Jimenez on the other hand capped an outstanding rookie season.

Not only did he bat .301, but slugged 11 homers and 24 doubles but he drove in 69 runs. Then in the off season owner Charlie O. Finley pulled Manny aside. He instructed him to stop trying to hit for average (he'd batted .340 in one minor league season) and to go for power. He wanted more home runs, like the Yankees asked Roger Maris to do after he was traded by the A's to New York. While Maris responded with 100 dingers over the next two years, Manny hit 12 over the next three years.

Not surprisingly, in his second year, the year after he debuted with 11 homers, he hit zero - none- nada! In addition, his average fell to .280, .225 and then .114. He was shipped off to Pittsburgh where he served as a pinch hitter and was out of baseball by the end of the 1969 season.

To take a rookie who could have been rookie of the year and turn him completely around, Finley later admitted what he did probably hurt the player more than helped. The proof was in the pudding.

Despite his devastating exit from MLB Jimenez did have some  highlights. He had three 4-hit games, including 3 home runs and 5 RBI against All-Stars Eddie Fisher, Sam Jones, Ken McBride, Camilo Pascual, and Juan Pizarro and hit a combined .429 (24-for-56) against Hall of Famers Whitey Ford, Ferguson Jenkins, Robin Roberts, Don Sutton, and Early Wynn.

Take it from Shoeless Joe; "phh owners."

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries.  Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment. 

Thank you to those of you who purchased my books after reading this column.