“When I asked the baseball writers why they hadn’t elected me to the Hall of Fame, they told me they thought I was still playing.”
 
~ Bob Uecker
 
 
Well, another off-season distraction. Today the 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot was announced. Members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will begin to analyze and vote on the listed 25 players. Their selections will be announced on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 6 p.m. ET by Hall of Fame President Tim Mead. The event will be covered live by the MLB Network.
 
As with elections, there are rules:
 
An elector will vote for no more than ten (10) eligible candidates deemed worthy of election. Write-in votes are not permitted. Any candidate receiving votes of seventy-five percent (75%) of the ballots cast shall be elected to membership in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, located in Cooperstown, N.Y. There are other rules to be followed for both electors and for the candidates; the one that is the most controversial is Rule 5: Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the team(s) on which he played.
 
It is only fair to tell you up front, I am NOT in the BBWAA and therefore I do not have a vote in this process. Here is this year’s list and my humble comments on each:
 
Bobby Abreu - Received 5.5% last year, which was his 2nd on the ballot. Solid career, but not HoF worthy.
 
Barry Bonds - Absolutely not, PEDs. Received 60.7% last year, which was his 9th on the ballot.
 
Mark Buehrle - New to the ballot. He was one of the best left-handed pitchers of his era. Not over-powering, but he knew how to pitch. I‘d like to see him get in at some point, he’s right there. He gets my vote. Can’t have too many stand up guys in the Hall.
 
A.J. Burnett - New to the ballot. Solid career, but not HoF worthy.
 
Roger Clemens - Absolutely not, PEDs. Received 61% last year, which was his 9th on the ballot.
 
Michael Cuddyer - New to the ballot. Probably a one and done candidate. I just don’t see him getting the votes.
 
Dan Haren - New to the ballot. Another player who will probably be a one and done.
 
LaTroy Hawkins - New to the ballot. Long career, but not HoF worthy.
 
Todd Helton - Received 29.2% last year, which was his 3rd year on the ballot. He was a great hitter but playing in Colorado probably hurts his chances. I go back and forth with his worthiness, but probably wouldn’t vote for him.
 
Tim Hudson - New to the ballot. Solid career, but not HoF worthy.
 
Torii Hunter - New to the ballot. Solid career, but not HoF worthy.
 
Andruw Jones - Received 19.4% last year, which was his 4th year on the ballot. He could surprise some folks by getting his vote percentage up, but I personally couldn’t vote for him.
 
Jeff Kent - Received 27.5% last year, which was his 8th year on the ballot. I don’t see him getting much higher a percentage. Another solid player, but not quite HoF.
 
Andy Pettitte - Absolutely not, PEDs. Received 11.3% last year, which was his 3rd on the ballot.
 
Aramis Ramírez - New to the ballot. He just doesn’t have the numbers to be in the HoF.
 
Manny Ramírez - Absolutely not, PEDs. Received 28.2% last year, which was his 5th on the ballot.
 
Scott Rolen - Received 35.3% last year, which was his 4th on the ballot. Again, not quite a HoF player in my book.
 
Curt Schilling - Received 70% last year, which was his 9th on the ballot. Numbers, probably, competitor absolutely, total idiot as probably. Let someone else vote for him.
 
Gary Sheffield - Received 30.5% last year, which was his 7th on the ballot. Another who had a long career, with solid numbers, but in my mind falls short.
 
Sammy Sosa - Absolutely not, PEDs. Received 13.9% last year, which was his 9th on the ballot.
 
Nick Swisher - New to the ballot. He’s a one and done. Nowhere near a HoF career. It’s a joke he’s even on the ballot.
 
Shane Victorino - New to the ballot. Another one and done.
 
Omar Vizquel - Received 52.6% last year, which was his 4th on the ballot. Omar would get my vote. Smooth fielder, an ambassador of the game. Not quite Ozzie Smith, but he was fun to watch.
 
Billy Wagner - Received 31.7% last year, which was his 6th on the ballot. Numbers aren’t quite there in my opinion, but he was a good one.
 
Barry Zito - New to the ballot. He could be surprising, but for me he lacks the big standout numbers.
 
So, I only voted for two. You may have noticed I didn’t include stats and metrics, sorry, but I saw all these players and felt my honest evaluation was the way to go. Of course, I ‘d enjoy hearing from you and who would get your vote.
 
An aside; if you haven’t, get yourself out to Cooperstown and visit the Hall. Allow at least two days. It is a magical place where history comes alive.
 
~ Coach Mike
 

"No one knows this yet, but one of us has just been traded to Kansas City."
~ Casey Stengel, on how he let Bob Cerv know he was traded.
 
The season has been over for 13 days now, and I think we have approximately 99 days prior to the opening of spring training camps. How do we fill the time? Well, let’s talk about a strange trade.
 
You never know how a trade will work out. General Mangers always hope they will get the better end of the deal, while hoping the other GM doesn’t notice. The perspective is, what does our team need and what can we give up without destroying another area. Not easy, but a fun part of the game. “They”, whoever “they” really are, say that it takes a couple seasons to truly evaluate who won the trade, while others say, the best trade is one were both sides win. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.
 
Harry Chiti was a was a 6’2”, 220lbs catcher who threw and batted right-handed. Harry was considered a competent receiver, who handled the knuckleball well. He made his major league debut at the age of 17 for the Chicago Cubs on September 27, 1950 and his last appearance in the majors was with the New York Mets on June 10, 1962. Harry played occasionally in 1951 and 52 before serving in the United States Army during the Korean War in ’53 and ’54. The 1955 season with the Cubs was his most productive season when he batted .231, hit 11 home runs with 41 RBIs in 113 games.
 
Harry bounced around after the 1956 season, first to the New York Yankees, then was a Rule 5 draft of the Kansas City Athletics in 1957. He was with the A’s, Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians during the 1958 to 1962 seasons.
 
Here’s where it gets interesting, on April 25, 1962, he was acquired by the expansion New York Mets for the ever popular “player to be named later” without ever having played in a game for the Indians. After 15 games for the Mets, compiling a batting average of .195, on June 15, 1962 Harry was sent back to the Indians as “the player named later”; he was the first MLB player traded for himself. Since this “trade”, three other players have been traded for themselves; Dickie Noles, Brad Gulden and John McDonald.
 
An evaluation of this trade is hard, since it was only 15-day experiment, but you’d have to say it was balanced. Harry was sent down to the minors and played two years in Triple-A ball. First with Jacksonville in the Indian’s organization and then Toronto of the Milwaukee Braves organization. He never made it back to the majors and retired in 1964.  
 
We will re-visit some other trades in the coming weeks. Thanks, Joe, for pointing me in this direction.
 
~ Coach Mike

We’ve covered some amazing stats in the past. Today, let’s look at two of the stranger things that have occurred on a baseball field.
 
Well, this first one occurred on two different fields, in two different cities. Joel Youngblood was a typical serviceable player. Joel made his MLB debut on April 13, 1976 and finished his MLB career on September 29, 1989 both in uniform for the Cincinnati Reds, this is not all that strange of course. During his career he played for the Reds (1976), the St. Louis Cardinals (1977), the New York Mets (1977-1982), Montreal Expos (1982), the San Francisco Giants (1983-1988) and again the Reds (1989). This 6-foot-tall, 180lbs, righted handed thrower and batter was predominantly an outfield, but also provided service at third base and handled pinch hitting duties. He had a career batting average of .265, hit 80 home runs and 422 runs batted in. He appeared in one All-Star Game in 1981 as the Mets only representative. After retiring, he served as a coach for several organizations and managed the Kane County Cougars, a Baltimore Orioles farm system team in the Midwest League in 1992. A nice baseball life.
 
Back to the strange occurrence, on August 4, 1982, Joel was playing for the Mets. He was playing centerfield and in the third inning, he hit a single driving in two runs against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in an afternoon game (this being prior to Wrigley having lights). The next inning, Mookie Wilson replaced him in centerfield, because Youngblood had been traded to the Montreal Expos. He quickly boarded a flight to Philadelphia to join the Expos who were playing the Phillies. He ended up hitting a seventh inning single. He is the only player in major league history to hit safely for two different teams, in two different cities. Not to mention, both pitchers he got his hits against were future Hall of Famers, Fergie Jenkins of the Cubs and Steve “Lefty” Carlton of the Phillies. Not a bad day.   
 
Ritchie Ashburn was a 5’10, 170lbs center fielder who threw right-handed and batted left-handed. Richie’s MLB debut was on April 20, 1948 and his last game was on September 30, 1962. His best years were the 12 seasons he spent with the Philadelphia Phillies, he played two years with the Chicago Cubs and endured the disastrous first season of the New York Mets and then retired. He was inducted into The Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995. In his career he had a .308 batting average, 2,574 hits, 29 home runs and 586 runs batted in. Ritchie was a six-time All-Star, two-time National League Batting Champ, and led the National League in stolen bases in 1948. After retiring, he broadcasted for the Phillies until his death in 1997.
 
Side note: Ritchie was known for his dry humor. He said to Harry Kalas, his broadcasting partner, that one of his superstitions while playing was keeping his bats with him while he was hitting successfully; taking them home or to the hotel and sleeping with them as he didn’t trust the clubhouse guys to give him the same bat each game. Ashburn put it to Kalas that he had “slept with a lot of old bats” in his playing days. Classic line; but sorry, I digress.
 
On August 17, 1957, playing for the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium in a day game against the New York Giants, Ritchie, always a contact hitter fouled a ball into the stands that struck a spectator, Alice Roth, breaking her nose. She was the wife of the Philadelphia Bulletin’s sports editor, Earl Roth. Play was stopped as she was treated; when play resumed, Ashburn fouled off another ball and you guessed it, hit Alice while she was being carried off on a stretcher. The second foul did more damage, it broke a bone in poor Alice’s leg. What are the odds? Richie and Alice formed a friendship through this incident, though she began sitting in the outfield seats from then on.  Eventually the Roth’s grandson became a Phillies bat boy. By the way, the Phillies beat the Giants 3-1 as Ashburn went 2-4 with a double. 
 
More strange occurrences at a later date. What are some of the things you remember?
 
~ Coach Mike