Meet Five Players Born on New Year's Day
PLUS: THE PITCHER WHOSE CARD SHOWED HIM AS A HITTER
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The 1975 Indians traded both Perry brothers (with one Cy Young Award apiece) before the trade deadline, which was then June 15, sending Jim to the Athletics on May 20 and Gaylord to the Rangers on June 13 . . .
Gaylord had two Cys five years later, when Texas sent him to the Yankees in a waiver deal on August 14 and dealt away another Cy Young recipient in Sparky Lyle, sent to the Phillies on September 13 . . .
One reason Yoshinobu Yamamoto picked the Dodgers over the Yankees is the chance to become the instant No. 1 starter — a spot occupied by Gerrit Cole in the Bronx . . .
A contingent of Mets led by owner Steve Cohen visited the 25-year-old pitcher in Japan and hosted him for a home-cooked dinner in Connecticut but struck out at the bargaining table when the Dodgers matched their offer . . .
During their meetings, the Yankees had presented Yamamoto with a pinstriped jersey bearing No. 18, widely considered a prestigious number in Japan.
Leading Off
Five Memorable Players Born on New Year's Day
By Paul Semendinger
With the new year comes new hopes. Anything is possible. An entire year stands before us waiting to be filled with magic moments, wonder, and joy. In many ways, New Year's Day is like Opening Day of the baseball season.
Anything is possible!
In the history of baseball some memorable players were born on New Year's Day. Here are a few:
Tim Keefe - A member of the Hall of Fame. Tim Keefe pitched from 1880 to 1893, winning 342 games in his 14-year career. Keefe won 20 or more games seven times but that's not so special. What is special is that he won over 30 games six times and he twice on more than 40 games in a single season. In 1886, Tim Keefe went 42-20, 2.56. He started 64 games and finished 62 of them. He pitched 535 innings that year. In 1883, he went 41-27, 2.41 and completed each of his 68 starts. Keefe pitched 619 innings that year!
Hank Greenberg - One of baseball's great home run hitters, Greenberg is also in the Hall of Fame. Greenberg played most of his career with the Detroit Tigers. In his career Greenberg batted .313/331/1,274. He won two MVP Awards. His first MVP came in 1935, he hit .328/36/168. In 1940, his second MVP year, he hit .340/41/150. In 1937, Greenberg drove home 184 runs. In 1938, he hit 58 home runs.
Ethan Allen - No, not the Revolutionary War hero who helped take Fort Ticonderoga, this Ethan Allen batted .300 across 13 seasons, playing mostly for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Phillies. In 1934, Allen led the National League in doubles with 42 while batting .330. After his playing career, Allen managed the baseball team at Yale University. One of his players was a young George Bush, the future President of the United States. Ethan Allen also invented a baseball board game that used spinners to replicate player's statistics. That game was a precursor to Strat-o-Matic.
Dallas Keuchel - A two-time Cy Young Award winner who also won five Gold Gloves, Keuchel has gone 103-92, 4.02 across his 12-year career.
LaMarr Hoyt - A one-time Cy Young Award winner (1983, when he went 24-10, 3.66), Hoyt also threw a near-perfect game in 1984 against the New York Yankees, facing only 27 batters across nine full innings. The only player who reached base for the Yankees that day was Don Mattingly, who singled in the seventh inning. Steve Kemp followed Mattingly's hit by grounding into a double-play.
Carl Scheib - It is appropriate that the youngest player to ever pitch in the American League was born on the year's first day. Carl Scheib was only 16 years old when he took the mound for the Philadelphia A's in 1943. He pitched .2 innings that day, allowing two hits and a run against the Yankees. One of the players he got out was future Hall of Famer Joe Gordon. Over his 11-year career, Scheib went 45-65, 4.88.
When one researches baseball, he comes across all sorts of interesting tidbits of information. The following players, all with fun names, were also born on New Year's Day:
Hiker Moran
Randy Bobb
Bumpus Jones
Coco Ferrer
and
Pearley Johnson.
Paul Semendinger runs the Yankees site Start Spreading the News. He is the author of numerous books including From Compton to the Bronx (with Roy White) and The Least Among Them. Paul's latest book, 365.2 comes out in March 2024.
Cleaning Up
Pitcher Portrayed As Batter On His Topps Card
By Dan Schlossberg
Jim Kaat is in the Hall of Fame as a pitcher but he was proficient as a batter too.
“I convinced Sy Berger to have a card printed of me hitting,” said the Class of 2022 member. “Topps has me as a hitter on my 1973 card. The photo was taken in 1972.”
It’s worthy of mention that Kaat did not bat after 1972 because the American League introduced the designated hitter, allowing a regular player to take the pitcher’s batting turn whenever it came up.
“Most of the cards Topps has me sign these days are artists’ renderings or old cards that Topps (now owned by Fanatics) has reconditioned and repackaged,” the lanky lefty said.
On most of them, Kaat’s surname was spelled correctly. Except in 1964.
“The ‘64 Topps misspelled my name as KATT,” said the now-retired pitcher-turned-broadcaster.
A three-time 20-game winner and three-time All-Star, Kaat won 16 Gold Gloves during a 25-year career spent mainly with the Minnesota Twins.
He won 283 games but missed the magic 300 Club because he was deployed as a situational southpaw reliever during his last five seasons.
Oddly, he hit 16 home runs — exactly matching the number of Gold Gloves on his trophy shelf.
Maybe Sy Berger had the right idea.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, Here’s The Pitch, and a bunch of others. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
“The gatekeepers of the MLB Hall of Fame need to get a life. Andruw Jones is the best defensive center-fielder in the history of the game. Any time someone is the best at something ever, that person belongs to be enshrined in Cooperstown for eternity. Oh, and he also hit 434 homers, most of all of which came before he was 31 years old. For a 10-year stretch, Jones was as good an all-around player as anybody in the game. The fact that he has had to wait this long is a travesty. Hopefully, that will change in 2024.”
— This first appeared on SportsTalkATL
When Frank Robinson signed a 1974 Cleveland contract to become a player-pilot (and baseball’s first black manager), his salary was $175,000, tip money in baseball these days . . .
Atlanta slugger Hank Aaron became baseball’s first $200,000 man when he inked a two-year deal after the 1971 season . . .
The 1993 Toronto Blue Jays were the first team to have players finish first, second, and third in the American League batting title chase (John Olerud, Paul Molitor, and Roberto Alomar) . . .
Justin Verlander’s 1.75 ERA of 2022 was the lowest of any Astro in a full season, topping the 1.87 of Roger Clemens in 2005 . . .
Verlander, a nine-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young Award recipient, has the most post-season strikeouts of any pitcher in baseball history . . .
Houston leads the majors with five no-hitters in the last five years, including one by Verlander in Toronto.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.