March 22- Pittsburgh Pirates

I realize that with all the hats I have if I were to tell you that I didn’t want this one in particular you probably wouldn’t believe me. I should actually word that better. At some point in time I was going to buy this; however, when I did pick it up it had more to do with impulse, rather than necessity. About two weeks before I left for New York City to be in the MLB Fan Cave my friend Leif Carpenter shot me a text and asked if I wanted to go hat shopping. Yes, hat shopping. You know? It’s like when women goes shoe shopping, except for the fact that we come back with something awesome and not something that looks cute and will cause our ankles to swell/bleed. This Pittsburgh Pirates hat was his favorite one to wear and he always try to get me to buy it any time we went to the Lids at Valley River Center in Eugene, Oregon. On that fateful day I rummaged around, looking behind random stacks in case they were styles not showing, but… the reality set in; I had actually bought every game worn style the store carried. So, without a good reason to not pick it up, I did. I think Leif was happier about it than I was.

The Pirates rocked this hat for all of their road games from 1997-2000 under than coach and current Detroit Tigers third base coach Gene Lamont. Lamont is one of the few guys in baseball I hate merely on the principle that he’s terrible at his job. Seriously, watch a Tigers game some time and watch Miguel Cabrera blow through every sign Lamont puts up. Even Miggy knows what’s up. It’s actually a known fact that the main reason Lamont still has his job with the Tigers is because he’s great friends with Jim Leyland. What’s really interesting about this fact is that Leyland’s last managerial year with the Bucs came at the end of the 1996 season. Lamont’s first year with the Pirates? 1997, at which he lasted until the end of the 2000 season with a record of 295-352. Bad.

I can’t exactly say that the Pirates had some stellar players during this time frame; however, they did have a few diamonds in the rough. Unfortunately I’ve all ready written about the two best players (Jason Kendall and Brian Giles) back on January 2, but I was able to find a few good ones to mark proudly on this cap.

#22- Before he became a lights out pitcher with the San Francisco Giants, Jason Schmidt was just another guy to take the hill for the Pirates. Originally an eighth round pick for the Atlanta Braves in 1991, Schmidt made his debut in 1995 with the Bravos, but was traded midseason to Pittsburgh during the 1996 season. Schmidt played for the Pirates until the middle of the 2001 season when he was dealt to the Giants, but he only found modest success in the National Eastern division. During his run Schmidt went 44-47 with 4.39 ERA and 596 strikeouts. He never won any awards, and the one stat he ever led the League in was wild pitches with 15 in 1998.

#28- If you haven’t noticed by now, I have a huge respect for former members of the Montreal Expos. A former third round pick for the ‘Spos in 1987, John Vander Wal was a well-known name, but not exactly the touting prospect everyone imagines he’d be. He made his debut in 1991 and hung around Montreal until the end of the 1993 season. From there he went to the Rockies from 1994- the middle of 1998 when he got dealt to the San Diego Padres until 1999. In 2000 Vander Wal found himself with the Pirates and made an impact quickly. That season he was a regular fixture in the lineup and received a career high 461 at bats… which led him to hit .299 on the season, a career best based on plate appearances. He also got career highs in home runs (24) and RBI (94), both of which were the second best for the team behind Brian Giles’s marks. But, like Schmidt, he was dealt to the Giants. In fact, the two were traded for Armando Rios and Ryan Vogelsong. Funny how that one worked out for everyone.

March 21- Colorado Rockies

During my baseball related travels of 2012 there were unfortunately three stadiums that I never had the opportunity to visit (Tuner Field, Target Field and Coors Field), but more importantly, there was only one team I have still yet to see play live at home or one the road… the Colorado Rockies. I didn’t really put two and two together until one night when I had a two hour layover in Denver International Airport. DEN is one of the few airports that still have smoking facilities on the inside so I made sure to pay a visit to relax having just been stuck on a plane that had left Kansas City, Missouri a few hours prior. It was September 10, and not exactly a particular day that I wanted to be flying, especially considering I hate flying. I was in the bar watching the Oakland Raiders versus the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football with the Rockies game tucked in the back corner on a significantly smaller television. What I didn’t realize until that moment was that the Rockies were playing at home against the San Francisco Giants. It was also in that moment that I realized that moment was the closest I had ever been to seeing the Rockies play in person.

It’s kind of a weird personal stat for me to carry around, especially when considering that I’ve had so many opportunities to catch them when I was living in Bakersfield, California. The Los Angeles Dodgers were two hours away from me, and the Giants were four hours away. But even with such proximity, I always blew the Rockies off. It’s really kind of sad how much love the Colorado Rockies never seem to get. Granted, they’ve only been in Major League Baseball since 1993; however, there are a lot of stats the team compiled in a short time frame which may be unbreakable, at least for the rest of my lifetime. For instance, did you know that the Rockies set the single season attendance record in their inaugural year? Yup! 4,483,350 people went to go see an unproven ball club play in Mile High Stadium. Granted, it did help their figures on account that they played in a NFL stadium, but it’s still impressive nonetheless.

I think one of the things that’s even more impressive is that in the upcoming 20 years the team has been around they managed to hang on to this one baseball cap. The all black with a purple button and purple/white interior “CR” has been one of the few hats to last the test of time. I’ll admit, I don’t give this hat much love, but it is still considered to be one of the best looking hats in baseball by fans and critics. Hell, this was actually the hat the high school (Columbia River) I attended in Vancouver, Washington for my senior year repped the most. It also helped that we had the same colors.

With the Rockies celebrating their 20^th birthday this season I figured I had to do something really special to mark this cap up with. I doubt I’ll get much of an argument. I should also point out that the order in which I threw these numbers on was not by accident. I’ll explain at the end.

#26- Ellis Burks is one of those few guys that many know the name, but very few remember what kind of a career he had despite the fact he played for 18 seasons. He was drafted by the Boston Red Sox with the 20^th overall pick in 1983 and made his debut in Bean Town in 1987. His best year came in 1990 when he went .296/21/89 which was good enough for his first of two trips to the All-Star game, 15^th on the American League MVP list and he even got himself a Gold Glove that season. Through 1992 the rest of his Red Sox career was mediocre at best; the same could be said about his one year with the Chicago White Sox in 1993. At the end of ’93 the Rockies came knocking and signed Burks to a five-year deal. He got off to a great start his first season, but the players strike cut it short. 1995 didn’t pan out all that wonderful; however, it was 1996 when Burks make his mark in MLB history. That season he finished third in the National League MVP vote after slugging a career high 40 home runs, a career high 128 runs batted in and even a career high in runs scored at 142. Oh, and he also had a .344 batting average which led the NL that season. Yah, Burks really got hosed that year. Thanks a lot Ken Caminiti. Burks never quite mustered anything even close to the same season he had in ’96 for the rest of his career. His finished at .291/352/1206.

#9- Vinny Castilla is arguably one of the greatest players in MLB history to be born in Mexico. The only other guy I might put ahead of him is Fernando Valenzuela. Castilla’s career began in 1991 with a two-year stint with the Atlanta Braves. He only played 21 games in that time frame so it made the decision easier for the Braves to allow him to get picked up by the Rockies in the 1992 Expansion Draft. From 1993-2000 Castilla was, and still is, one of the most beloved players in Rockies history. His time from 1996-1997 was especially magical as he went .304/40/113 both years. Yes! He posted the exact stats back-to-back years! What are the odds on that happening? I have no clue, and I sure as hell won’t try to figure it out either. In 1998 he went .319/46/144 which was somehow only good enough for 11^th in the NL MVP voting that season. Ludicrous!!! For his career Castilla made only two All-Star game appearances and won three Silver Slugger awards. Should have been more.

#14- Andres “The Big Cat” Galarraga was hands down one of my favorite players growing up, especially during his time on the Montreal Expos (1985-1991 and 2002), but it was his time with the Rockies that he truly shined. From 1993-1997 Galarraga finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting every season except 1995 when he finished in 16^th. His two best years in that stretch, statistically that is, came in 1996 and 1997. In ’96 he went .304/47/150 which put him three spots behind Birks in the voting that season. In ’97 The Big Cat went .318/41/140 which was good enough for seventh in NL MVP voting. Granted, the man did hit a career/League high .370 in his first year with the Rockies, but give the guy a break. Back-to-back 40 home run and 100 RBI seasons, are you kidding me!? (More on Galarraga’s accolades in a future post)

#33- Larry “Booger” Walker, like Burks, was another long term contract signing for the Rockies, but this time right before the start of the 1995 season. From 1989-1994 Walker was a member of the Expos and one of the key offensive factors in their storybook season that was cut short by the players strike. He also had a pretty solid glove, winning two Gold Gloves with the ‘Spos in 1992 and 1993. In 1997; however, Walker played out of his mind batting .366 while crushing a League high 49 home runs and raked in 130 RBI; all good enough for his one and only MVP that season. Walker then went on to win three batting titles in 1998, 1999 and 2001. He finished his career going .313/383/1311 while making five All-Star game appearances and winning seven Gold Gloves. He also served as one of the coaches for the Canadian World Baseball Classic team.

Now, as I mentioned above, there is a particular order in which I put their jerseys numbers on my hat which pertains to a record in MLB history which has only occurred twice. In 1996 Burks, Castilla and Galarraga became the first set of three teammates to record 40+ home runs and 100+ RBI in a season (26-9-14 jerseys). In 1997 Castilla, Galarraga and Walker became the second set of three teammates to go 40+/100+ in a season (9-14-33 jerseys). So, from start to finish, the numbers all line up.

Now, while I probably should have given a bit more focus to the 1995 season in which they became the first NL team to win the Wild Card that season, I didn’t find it to be as impressive, especially considering that the 2007 Rockies made the World Series. One last thing that should be pointed out is that 1997 was also the third time in which four teammates hit 100+ RBI in a season. The four: Castilla, Galarraga, Walker and Dante Bichette.

March 20- Australia World Baseball Classic

My story starts in New York City on August 22nd in front of the New Era Flagship Store, smoking the last bit of a cigarette. It had been two and a half months since I had been let go from the MLB Fan Cave, yet I was standing across the street from it tapping into their Wi-Fi network as the password was still locked into my phone. It was a little after 10 AM EST and it was the first chance I had to look at what was going on in the social media world; very little from what I can remember. At the moment when I threw my cigarette out Antoine, the store manager, happened to be walking up to pay a visit to the store. We said our hellos, asked how each of us was doing, as it turned out he was just promoted within the company to start to more social media based work. I congratulated him and he told me to keep things positive, that something would come along soon for my future. He then asked if I had seen the new World Baseball Classic hats to which I asked if hey had them in the store. He said yes and I immediately followed him in to take a peek.

They had all of them there, as they had just been released about a day or two prior to my visit. My purpose for my visit actually relied more heavily on a particular Texas Rangers hat that had been discontinued, but which they still had a few left in stock. Needless to say, my 3000 miles journey back was met with equal disappointment on account of them not having my size. However, I did walk out of there with two new hats, but for the life of me I can’t remember which ones I picked up. What I can tell you is that this Australian National Team cap was starring me down the second I walked through the door. I mean, look at it. It’s green and gold and has a big “A” with stars for the logo. Clearly it was fate, and I needed to own that hat… but for some reason, that too also didn’t leave in a nicely packaged New Era bag. That one would have to wait.

Between that day and August 27^th I made my way to Boston, Massachusetts for a third time before moving on to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the next leg of my trip. I got into Pittsburgh on the 25^th and rented a car for the next couple of days. I had been in correspondence with a few good people from the New Era head office in Buffalo, New York about taking a tour and they agreed to let me come by on the 28^th. Buffalo was only three and half hours away from Pittsburgh to the northeast so I figured it was no big deal. Unfortunately, Cleveland, Ohio was also three and a half hours away from Pittsburgh to the northwest and I had to be there on the 27^th for when the Oakland Athletics took on the Cleveland Indians. So in essence Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo made this very nice equilateral triangle. Feeling good, and very well rested, I didn’t see any foreseeable problems with this plan of going from one place to the other. Yaaaaaaahhhhh…

On the morning of the 27^th I left Pittsburgh around 10 o’clock in the morning. The game wasn’t until 7 PM so I figured I would kill time by checking out the sites and the Rock and Roll Museum about a mile away from the stadium. I got into Cleveland around 2 PM in the midst of a vicious storm. For a moment I remember being really angry that the game would be rained out, but I hadn’t gotten any reports to prove this. Starving, I went and got a sandwich at Subway before heading over and killing time at the Rock and Roll Museum. It was pretty awesome. They don’t let you take photos inside, but it was pretty rad nonetheless. Around 3:45 PM the clouds starting moving out and the rain had stopped. A wave of relief washed over me as I headed back to the car to get a spot closer to The Jake (yes, I realize it’s called Progressive Field now). Around 4 PM they opened the gates and let whomever come through. I think I was one of about 20 total people to be there that early. My excuse was that this was going to be the only game I would attend so I had to get in and take as many photos as possible before the game started. After about 30 minutes of walking around, snapping photos I headed down to the right field wall to take a few more. It’s at the time I realized that the A’s were not going to be taking batting practice, but the pitchers were all out on the field doing warm-ups. About halfway down the steps I heard someone yell my name. I looked around and figured there was someone else also named Ben in the area. Nope! Jerry Blevins had spotted me from a solid 60 yards away at which I realized that about 75% of the pitching staff was now waving at me as if they were my parent who had just dropped me off to school. I of course waved back, some greetings were yelled and that was all I really thought of it. About 20 minutes later Blevins, Ryan Cook, Travis Blackley and Sean Doolittle all came over to the bullpen and called me over. One-by-one each of them shook my hand and told me it was a pleasure to meet me. It was kind of an odd feeling at first as it had been quite some time, excluding the Fan Cave, since anyone within the professional sports realm had opened up and talked to me like a normal person. For years I had been on the journalistic side; always asking questions about their job, not really getting to know them on a normal plane as I always smart enough to discern between one atmosphere and the other. But today… today was the day when jobs and titles didn’t matter. Today was the day when grown men forgot about the barrier and took time to be kind, thoughtful to one another.

Flashback: Travis had been following me on Twitter since the day after I Got kicked out of the Fan Cave. Eddie Mata and I were at Chase Field about to catch the New York Mets versus the Philadelphia Phillies when I checked my Twitter account while we were in line for a pastrami sandwich. Several executives and employees of Major League Baseball that day, and every one of them came up to Eddie and me asking why we were there. It was an interesting lesson in how news does not travel well within the confines of the offices of MLB despite the fact that the entire internet knew we had been given the axe. Anyway, I was checking my Twitter activity when I noticed that Travis had started following me on Twitter. I remember thinking, “Bullshiiiiiiiit, this is probably a fake account.” When I saw the little blue checkmark next his name I was honestly taken aback. Not necessarily because he was following me, but mostly because I felt like a jerk for not following him in the first place. Oops!

Back to Reality: So Travis came over and introduced himself to me and thanked me for everything I had done to support the team. I thanked him back to the tune of I think, “thanks for being an all-around badass yourself,” which is totally something that I would say. A few kids came over and asked for autographs and we continued our conversation. I don’t think we talked about baseball at all beyond those first two sentences, which is a habit of mine I developed from all of my time working with the Bakersfield Blaze: if a player wants to talk about their job, or if you’re job is to talk about baseball with said players, do it; if not, talk about something else. This is a philosophy I have maintained for the better part of the last 13 years (damn, has it really been that long?) as well as during my time in the Fan Cave. (Even though it was our “job” to talk about baseball with the players we met, I never did. There are way more important things to talk about than work, and with that, all of the guys opened up to me, and confided in me. I will never violate that trust.) So, we kept our conversation about tattoos. Shocker, right? We chatted for about five minutes and parted ways on a solid note. After all, he actually did have a job to do.

The A’s won the game that night 3-0 behind a marvelous pitching performance from Brett Anderson and a save from Grant Balfour. One thing of note is that this game was certainly not the first, nor the last time I did Balfour Rage on the road, and especially without the accompaniment of music. It was weird to say the least. 

After the game I went out for a few drinks with some of the guys, but that part of the story will have to wait until later. The only part that you need to know is that I had a three and a half hour journey ahead of me back to Pittsburgh, only to have to do the same trip in the morning to Buffalo to be there by 1 PM for my New Era tour. Not the one to drive drunk, I decided to sleep it off in my car until I was good enough to drive back. I still can’t remember why I drove back to Pittsburgh, but I did incredibly fast and early in the morning. I got to the hotel around 9 AM, laid down for 20 minutes, got up, showered and got out the door by 9:30. Somehow I made it to New Era headquarters with 15 minutes to spare. I’m still baffled by that.

Now, back on January 5^th I had actually written about my visit to New Era HQ when I wrote about my Tucson Padres hat. There will come a time when I write about my visit in more detail, but that, and my nights in Cleveland will have to wait until I write about the A’s road hat. This hat, like the Padres hat, was starring me down even harder than when I ran across it at the Flagship Store. Not being the kind of guy who makes the same mistake twice, I of course picked it up without much of a struggle. When I walked out of the shop I checked my phone for the time: 2:45 PM. Jonny Gomes had left me tickets for that night’s game and I had yet another three and a half hour trip ahead of me. While that story will have to wait, what I can tell you is that I immediately marked this guy up and took an immediate photo to post before I headed west back to Cleveland. This one…

I think there will be little to no argument on my markings of choice.

#54- Travis is hands down one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met, and more importantly, one of the greatest guys I can consider a confidant throughout this whole life changing experience from 2012. I remember watching his early days with the Seattle Mariners back in 2004 at Safeco Field. Unfortunately both games I happened to attend were both games against the A’s. All I’ll say is that neither of them ended well, but I could tell by the amount of games he was getting, as well as how far apart they were, that he definitely had the stuff for a decent career. The biggest problem was that the Mariners didn’t know how to utilize him. A shoulder injury kept him out for the 2005 season, as well as the World Baseball Classic that season in 2006. Travis again resurfaced for two games in 2007 with the San Francisco Giants before bouncing around over the next four years including his 2009 WBC campaign in which he earned a no decision against Cuba, as well as spending the Australian summer of 2010 (December-March) playing for the Melbourne Aces and 2011 with the KIA Tigers in the Korean League. On February 16, 2012 Travis was signed to a Minor League deal by the San Francisco Giants which was picked up and allowed him to make four appearances after May 1. I remember his first outing well because Ashley Chavez and I talked about how much of a badass he is throughout his first game back. On May 13^th he was designated for assignment… only to have the A’s claim him off of waivers two days later.

This was the moment when I knew that all the great things he was capable of as pitcher would come to light. I realize it’s kind of BS to just say that now, but you should go back and look at my tweets from then if you don’t believe me. As expected, Travis zoned in. During his time with the Giants he had pitched five innings and gave up five earned runs giving him a 9.00 ERA. During his time with the A’s, Travis went 102 2/3 innings in 24 games earning 44 runs to give him a 3.86 ERA. For a guy who most critics left for dead, that’s beyond incredible. The two games I will remember most from Travis came one week apart, both of which were against the Texas Rangers.

The A’s had been slowly chipping away at the AL West division lead for the last two months and this was the time when the A’s were ready to swoop in a steal it out from underneath them. On September 27^th Travis got tagged for five runs in the first inning and the A’s lost the game 9-7. I’ll never forget walking back to the hotel and seeing the apology letter that Travis had posted on his Twitter account after the guy. I DMed him some words of encouragement and he thanked me, but in all seriousness, what the hell did I know about being in that position? I was supposed to fly back to Oregon and drive down for the game on September 1, but was too sick to make the drive. Instead, I watched the A’s clinch a playoff spot from home, crying like a little girl. Not one to wimp out, I rested, woke up early the next morning and bought a few boxes of Voodoo Doughnuts before I raced down to Oakland for the that night’s game. I knew in advance that Travis was pitching that night and my main priority was to get him one of the actual voodoo doll doughnuts to him before he took the field. I got to Oakland a little bit after the gates had opened and bolted down to the field. Lucky for me, AJ Griffin was walking around talking on his phone on the field. I flagged him down and handed both of the boxes I had in my hands. His response was, “of course you give the fat kid the doughnuts.”

I didn’t see Travis before the game, but all I could think was that if he was lights out tonight, he definitely crushed the doughnut. Sure enough, he dominated; to the tune of six innings with one earned run, two walks, three hits and five strikeouts. The A’s won the game and Travis received the W. It wasn’t until the next day when the A’s won their final game that I was able to talk to Travis about the doughnut. When we came out of the clubhouse and into the parking lot he gave me a big hug. His first words were, “I crushed that doughnut 15 minutes before I took the mound.”

That moment meant a lot, mostly for a random bit of kindness he had given me in the middle of September. After my tour of the Midwest I had gotten back to Oregon feeling more exhausted than usual. I was supposed to drive to Anaheim the next morning to catch the A’s play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim the following day, but I was way too sick to make it, so I tweeted to let everyone know. Travis was the first person to hit me up and offered to feed me Thera-Flu if I made it down. Sadly I didn’t, but it was a gesture that went a long way.

#50- I remember sitting in a chair in the Fan Cave, watching a game versus the Kansas City Royals on April 9 when I was first introduced to Balfour Rage. I was completely mesmerized, but laughing my ass off at the same time as the Right Field Bleacher Crew was going absolutely berserk with “One” by Metallica playing the background. It was at that moment, and Bacon Tuesday the following day, that I knew I wanted to be at the Coliseum as soon as I possibly could. Balfour had done well for the A’s in 2011, but served primarily as a late innings relief pitcher that season. Prior to his time in the green and gold he had modest success with the Minnesota Twins from 2001-2004, but didn’t get a lot of innings. In 2005 he was sidelined due to injury, but came back with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2007 before getting DFAed in July, only to then be dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Seth McClung. He would finish the season out in the bullpen. In 2008 he was DFAed by the Rays after Spring Training, but was called up in May during a series against the Chicago White Sox. He earned a save on 31 May against the White Sox, retiring Brian Anderson to end the game in a Rays 2-0 win. In a series sweep against the Chicago Cubs at Tropicana Field, he was credited with two of the three wins - the first on 16 June, relieving Scott Kazmir with the score 1–1 and bases loaded, pitching 1 1/3 perfect innings in a 3–2 win; the second on 18 June, entering the game trailing 1–2, and pitching 1 2/3 innings, recording three strikeouts, in a game the Rays won 8–3. For the rest of season, Balfour was lights out going 6-2 with a 1.54 ERA and as he and the Rays made the World Series for the first time the franchise’s history.

Balfour hung with the Rays until the end of the 2010 season. In 2011 he signed with the A’s and pitched well his first season going 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA. One thing that needs to be pointed out, that very few people know outside of the Coliseum, is that Balfour Rage made its first appearance during that season by Will MacNeil (@RFWill149). Here’s the proof… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIKWfJ22icI&list=UUQtwMGoIXlkY-wLnTUhXvXg&index=24  While it is true that a little bit of it was to do with Balfour’s behavior on the mound to psyche himself up, almost all of it has to do with randomness off the top of Will’s head. And look what it’s become. Glorious!!!

As I mentioned above my Balfour Rage moment was not the first such incident, nor was it the last. I did many of times in the Fan Cave, as well as on the road in Seattle, but the best night came on September 25 against the Rangers in Arlington. Like a lot of road games I had attended I went with someone I had been in regular correspondence with on Twitter. For this game I went with Mike Gonzalez (@TheTxGonzo). 

We hit it off pretty well, smack talking in person and on Twitter the whole game, even made it on CSN Bay Area late in the game…

Like all the road games I had gone to I broke out the Bernie Lean to massive confusion from the crowd. For Balfour Rage, most people had thought I was insane. I gave Mike my phone to take pictures while every starred on.

The first few moments were in absolute silence, but then, for some reason, the guy running the music at the Ballpark in Arlington kicked on “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns n’ Roses. I looked like less of a weirdo, but barely. Balfour closed it out and Mike and I went out for beers. What we didn’t know is that the bar we were invited to was also the bar the players went to after the game. Coincidentally, the only member of the A’s to roll in was Balfour. Not to drink, but to hang out with a few of his friends who had come in from Sydney, Australia. Mike and I on the other hand, knock a few mugs back. At the end of the night Balfour spotted me and yelled across the bar, “What do you want mate!?” At first I shook him off, having all ready had too much, but then I came to my senses and yelled whiskey. Unfortunately, my request was too late as the bar tender had stopped serving. Nonetheless, Balfour came over and chatted it up with us for a bit at which I showed him the photos from the night. He got a good laugh out of it and thanked me for being there to support him and the guys.

Balfour never got an opportunity to play for Team Australia in the WBC in 2009 because of his contract with the Rays nor this season due to injury, but he still deserves the credit for being one hell of a badass for his country.

The last thing I need to comment on is how big Balfour Rage became throughout the season. It came up at #37 on the MLB Network's Best Fan Moments of 2012. I'm just happy that I could have been a part of it throughout the year. Tip of the cap to you Will!

 

March 19- Quad City River Bandits

It’s been a while since I’ve written about a Minor League hat, but I can’t say I know too much about the Quad Cities River Bandits other than the fact that they have a sweet collection of New Era Caps. I’m totally kidding. I do know quite a bit about this team.

Baseball in the Quad Cities area (Davenport, Moline, Bettendorf and Rock Island) of Iowa is one of the oldest traditions in the history of professional baseball. The first incarnation was founded in 1879 as the Davenport Brown Stockings; and yes, I’m still trying to track that hat down. Throughout their history they’ve taken on many names, moved locations within a decent proximity and won a healthy amount of League Championships. The one cool thing about this team, which I suppose is a cool thing about other teams as well, is that it’s an A-Class squad, which in turn means that it has been a starting point for a hot bed of talent to pass through on their way to the Major Leagues. But, I’ll get to that toward the end.

Since 1960 the River Bandits, as they’re known now, began their current stint in what is now known as the Midwest League. This particular hat is an updated version of the original 2008 hat and logo, and it currently serves as the team’s alternate cap. The original version looked like this (it’s on my “to get” list)

From 2005 through the end of the 2012 season the River Bandits served as an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, winning only one League title during their tenure in 2011. Today, the team has changed hands to the Houston Astros, their former affiliate from 1993-1998. One of the coolest things about the River Bandits is the location of where they play their home games, Modern Woodmen Park. It was constructed on the banks of the Mississippi River in 1931 and has served as the host of eight Midwest League All-Star games, the most recent of which came in 2011. It also served as a concert venue for such acts as Johnny Cash (1974), the Beach Boys (1984) and as the location for an International Boxing Federation Middleweight Championship fight between James Toney and Davenport native Michael Nunn. It’s most recent renovation came in 2004 and has been listed as a five star stadium by Baseball America and has been continuously voted as the best baseball stadium in the Midwest League. Another interesting aspect of the stadium is a corn field beside left field in which the players are introduced much like the players of yesteryear who took the field in “Field of Dreams.”

In keeping with the theme of the 2008-present style I rolled with players who suited up for the River Bandits during the team’s time with the Cardinals.

#5- Brett Wallace was originally a 42^nd round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2005, but opted to go to college and play ball at Arizona State University where he won back-to-back PAC-10 Player of the Year honors in 2007 and 2008 in which he won the Triple Crown as well. From there he re-entered the draft in 2008 and was selected 13^th overall by the Cardinals. His time in Quad Cities only lasted 41 games, but during this stretch he went .327/5/25 before being promoted to AA Springfield in Missouri (have to be specific). In July 2009 he was dealt to the Oakland Athletics as part of the Matt Holliday deal, and by December he was dealt to the team who originally drafted him, the Blue Jays, for Michael Taylor as part of a three team deal which landed Roy Halladay in Philadelphia. Wallace was then deal again in 2010 to the Astros and made his MLB debut on July 31 against the Milwaukee Brewers. The irony of all of this? The River Bandits, as I mentioned above, are now the top level affiliate of the Astros.

#7- Pete Kozma was selected 18^th overall by the Cardinals in the 2007 draft out of a high school in Oklahoma. After shuffling around various Rookie League teams in 2007 he was promoted to Quad Cities in 2008 where he played 99 games and went .284/5/40 before moving on to Palm Beach to play with the Cardinals advanced-A squad with the same name though the following season. Kozma made his MLB debut on May 18, 2011 and played 16 games for the Cards that season as well as 26 games in 2012 where he served as a pivotal player in the National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals.

#31- This guy is one of the three players I had predicted to throw a no-hitter last season, the other two being Doug Fister and Felix Hernandez. Based on baseball numbers, going .333 on a prediction like that is certainly Hall of Fame worthy. Michael Lance Lynn was taken in the sixth round by the Seattle Mariners, but, like Wallace, opted to go to college at the University of Mississippi in Oxford where set the single season (146) strikeout record in 2007 as well as the career (332) strikeout record for the university. In 2008 he re-entered the draft and was selected 39^th overall by the Cardinals. Lynn played two games in Quad Cities toward the end of the 2008 season, going 0-1 with a 2.25 ERA and seven strikeouts. He made his MLB debut on June 2, 2011 in a losing effort against the San Francisco Giants. While many saw his potential, very few expected him be a major contributing factor in 2012; however, a key injury to Chris Carpenter threw him into the rotation. In 2012 Lynn went 18-7 in 35 games, posted a 3.78 ERA and struck out 180 batters. While he didn’t prove entirely useful in the 2012 postseason, he did however win a World Series ring with the Cardinals in 2011; winning one of the five games that he pitched in throughout the series.

March 18- Chicago White Sox

There’s a bit of nostalgia that comes with this hat, and it really has nothing to do with seeing a particular player wear during a certain game… sort of. Despite all the years of baseball I’ve witnessed I can still remember the first time I really recall seeing this game in action; and coincidentally, it’s also the first time I recall hearing the term and definition of south paw. Like most of you, the film “Field of Dreams” ranks very high on my list of favorite baseball movies of all time. With that, it also ranks very high on my favorite films of all time list, which is saying a lot. Unless you’ve known me for years, very few of you would know that I actually know way more about film, film theory and film production than I do about baseball. This was actually something that came up in the MLB Fan Cave way more than most would expect. For example, the day when the Avett Brothers came to do a live show we were paid a visit by actor David Keith who received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1982 for his role in “An Officer and a Gentleman.” He was also in “Firestarter,” “Brubaker,” “The Indian in the Cupboard” and a slew of other films that I rattled off. When I mentioned this seven of the other eight Cave Dwellers looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears… as did a few of the executives. I then said, “He played Jack Parkman in “Major League II.”” A collective, “OOOOOOHHHH!!!” washed over the crowd. I just shook my head.

Anyway, for those of you have seen “Field of Dreams” you know what I’m talking about. Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) is talking to his wife Annie (played by Ed Harris’s wife Amy Madigan) about how the farm is going under. Their daughter Karin (played by Gabby Hoffman who was making her film debut) is watching a Chicago White Sox game asking about the term south paw. One thing about that scene that very few know about is that the White Sox game was chosen specifically as in that same scene “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (played by Ray Liota) makes his first appearance wearing of course, his White Sox uniform.

While I had seen the hat before in baseball cards it never really had the same affect as seeing it in the film. What is even more unusual is that I somehow had missed out on or at least forgotten about that hat any of the times I watched the Oakland Athletics playing them on TV. After all, the film came out in 1989, the year the A’s won the World Series; however, filming was conducted in 1988 as the release date for the film was in April. Yes, I go pretty deep with my research. The White Sox wore this hat from 1987 until the end of the 1990 season, and in my opinion, it still stands as one of the best hats they ever wore mostly for its simplicity as well as it’s one of the few hats they wore with a logo on to not feature the word “SOX” in any form. This was in fact the first and only White Sox hat I ever wanted to scoop up and it took me 10 years to track it down.

Because of “Field of Dreams” I started to really take notice of the White Sox during the 1990 season. And with that, it made much easier to make my marking choices.

#12- From 1986-1990 Psycho Steve Lyons played on the South Side, only really get a chance to be an every day guy during the 1988 season when he played in 146 games. Born in Tacoma, Washington, but college bred at my rival Oregon State University, Lyons was never really the most dominant hitter nor defenseman, but he certainly made his presence known ever time he took the field. The biggest thing he had going for him was that he could play almost every position on the field… and he certainly did. No joke, during his time in Chicago he played every position at least once, including pitcher and catcher, throughout his tenure. One might say that he’s a modern day Trevor Plouffe (I threw that last part in for my Minnesota Twins loving girlfriend Angie Kinderman). After his playing career came to an end after the 1993 season Lyons got go hired by Fox Sports to do color commentary, usually with Thom Brennaman as his partner. The two of them even did the play-by-play for All-Star Baseball 2003 for the Playstation 2 and XBOX. (I have yet to be defeated in the XBOX version. 746 games and counting) But the one moment that Lyons is most known for took place against the Detroit Tigers on July 16, 1990.

In a televised, he created a stir that was replayed countless times. After sliding headfirst into first base to beat out a bunt hit, Lyons pulled down his pants to empty the dirt out and brush off his shirttail. After a few seconds (and a reaction from the crowd of over 14,000), he realized what he had just done and quickly pulled them up, humorously embarrassed. Although wearing sliding shorts under his uniform, this incident earned him another nickname, "Moon Man" Lyons. At the end of the inning, women in the stands waved dollar bills at him as he came to the dugout. How could you not love the guy!?

#72- The original Pudge made his MLB debut in 1969 with the Red Sox and ended his career at the end of the 1993 season with the White Sox. Carlton Fisk signed as a free agent to the White Sox at the end of the 1980 season despite playing 11 historic years, and being an all-around fan favorite in Boston. During his time with the BoSox Fisk made seven All-Star game appearances, won the American League Rookie of the Year award and his only Gold Glove in 1972, but he is most known for one of the most famous moments in World Series history… but that story will have to wait until October.

With the White Sox Pudge only made four All-Star game appearances, but did win three Silver Sluggers awards. Despite playing for 24 seasons Fisk unfortunately never won a World Series ring, and the closest he ever came to winning an MVP award came in 1983 when he finished in third place behind Eddie Murray and the winner, Cal Ripken, Jr. Fisk finished his career with 2356 hits (third all-time for a catcher), 376 home runs and 1330 RBI. The 1970s and 80s in the American League for catchers was a weird time period. Guys like Thurman Munson, Lance Parrish, Bob Boone and Jim Sundberg owned the Gold Glove awards, but all of them were mediocre hitters at best. In 2000 Fisk was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame; however, I honestly don’t see why. While he was one of my favorite players growing up, the reality is that he was an above average defenseman, and a pretty solid hitter for a catcher. My biggest beef, and this one come up later during a Milwaukee Brewers post in the future, is that he was not the greatest at his position during that era. But, the media loved him, which transitioned into votes after he retired, despite the fact that a guy like Ted Simmons, who played three less years than Fisk, did not get elected into the Hall of Fame even though he had equal defensive numbers and better offensive numbers. Shame.

Actually, the biggest thing to ever happen to Fisk during his time with the White Sox is that he was awarded a huge settlement by Major League Baseball for the owner’s collusion case in 1985 when Fisk got resigned by the White Sox for a lower yearly wage than the previous years despite being one of the top catchers in the game.

March 17- Boston Red Sox

Tonight’s post will be taken with a different approach. While a few of the others in the past have involved me enjoying a good beer that I nursed throughout the writing process, with this one I will be completely inebriated. I’ve slugged down two Pabst Blue Ribbons, a pint of Guinness and a shot of Jameson… all on an empty stomach. I know I don’t need to do this. Hell, there may not even be anything really that original about it. Nonetheless, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m Irish. Like the famous Irish writers who have come before me (James Joyce, Flann O’Brien and William B. Yeats) I have elected to follow in their footsteps and try to come up with something profound… but probably won’t. Enjoy!

Boston has been long known as a hot bed for the Irish immigrants and their families who sailed across the Atlantic in the hopes of making it big in America. Like their ancestors who came before them, professional baseball players are hardly different. Both had a particular skill or talent, and both had dreams of making it big in the country which has always been overtly prosperous. However, like Irish of old, sometimes you’re never given your shot; sometimes hard times and the unfortunately reality that your time has come to an end lies in your path.

This cap was first used on St. Paddy's in 2004 and every subsequent March 17th since.

#48- Unless you’re an extreme baseball historian, I highly doubt that any of you know who Tim Lollar is or was. Hell, prior to three days ago I didn’t even have a clue. But, in keeping with the day, and what I said in the previous paragraph, I doubt very few of you will forget him.

For the longest time I had always thought that the Boston Red Sox were the first team to introduce the green St. Patrick Day uniforms to Spring Training. The reality was that the Los Angeles Dodgers had done it briefly in the 1960s with their warm-up uniforms, but it was the 1978 Cincinnati Reds that first donned the actual St. Paddy’s unis in a game against the previous year’s World Series champion New York Yankees. But, as years passed and more and more teams jumped in the St. Paddy’s Day bandwagon it was only a matter of time before the Red Sox took notice as well. 1994 was the first year the Red Sox partook to be exact.

In keeping with the date and team I had to search intently through years of facts, numbers and stores in order to put together a legitimate St. Patrick’s Day story for the Red Sox. Unfortunately, no matter which book I combed through, and no matter which Web sites I pillaged, all I could find was this name, Tim Lollar.

Lollar was born on St. Patrick’s Day of 1956 in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. He attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and was drafted as a pitcher by the Yankees in the fourth round of the 1978 amateur draft. His career only lasted seven years, at which his most notable statistical came in 1982 with the San Diego Padres when he went 16-9 with a 3.13 ERA and 150 strikeouts. Lollar had begun his career as a starting pitcher; however, by the time he got to the Red Sox in 1986 he was utilized more out of the bullpen.

Lollar pitched in 32 games in ’86, going 2-0 with a 6.91 ERA for hands down the worst year of his career. His performance that season was so questionable that his final career game came on October 5^th, a few games before the season had ended. Lollar was so disregarded by the Sox that they left him off the playoff roster. The only time Lollar ever got a chance to lay in the postseason came in 1984 with the Padres in the National League Championship Series and the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. His performance in the ’94 World Series ended with 1 2/3 innings pitched, four earned runs, four hits, four walks, a home run given up and a loss. But that’s the way it goes in the Show sometimes. You have your good days, and certainly your bad ones. The one thing I can’t help but think about is Game 6 of the ’86 Series. Had Calvin Schiraldi gotten that final out against Gary Carter in the bottom of the 10^th inning, Lollar would have had himself a World Series ring to at least be prideful about. For Schiraldi, that was certainly a bad day; a day that affected more than the men on the field, but the guys who never got their shot to redeem themselves in the postseason.

After Lollar’s career ended he moved to Lakewood, Colorado and got heavily into the golf scene. So much that he became a PGA pro and built a more successful career as an instructor.

Unfortunately there’s not much else to be said about him. I still find it a bit odd that this is the only St. Patrick’s Day related bit of fodder within the history of the Red Sox organization; however, since the day falls within Spring Training, I suppose there isn’t much that can be done about that.

March 16- New York Mets

Back on March 6 when I wrote my piece on the Portland Beavers I had promised myself that any hat that I marked with a date I would wait until that date to write about it. Yet, here we are on March 16, ten days later, and I am breaking my own rules. Rebel!!! No, today was a bit inadvertent actually. I woke up this morning around 2 o’clock in the afternoon after getting home from the library around 5 AM. I got out of bed, did my usual routine and then shuffled through my New Era Caps to figure out which one I would be wearing/writing about. I’ve done a pretty decent job of spacing out writing about the same team; however, I realized that there were a few teams I had been neglecting for some time, even when it came to their Minor League affiliates. The New York Mets haven’t exactly been all that creative with their hats, as they’ve been using the same royal blue one since the first time they took the field in 1962. Nonetheless, I decided to pull the stickers off of this bad boy and take to the streets with it on my dome.

Believe it or not I do have about 45 or more hats that I still haven’t taken the stickers off. Therefore, I have about 45 or more hats that I haven’t marked up yet. This one was one of those few. The Mets introduced it in 1999 as their road cap, only a year after releasing the alternate cap I wrote about on January 7. Unlike the black panel with blue bill that went defunct after the 2011 season, this cap is still in active use. It is also only the fourth variation of a Mets hat to ever hit the market, while the alternate was the third. The second variation I will write about some time after the season starts up, and the fifth is hardly than hell to find as only one person I actually know owns it. Despite the fact that this is the road cap, the Mets still found themselves using it off and on during their time at Shea Stadium; a move that I can only assume was on account of an absent minded equipment manager. But then again, we are talking about the Mets here. They’re pretty absent minded themselves.

Throughout my shift at Max’s Tavern I kept looking up stats and jersey numbers in my phone so that I would be ready to crank my blog post out once I got off work. 2000 had some pretty decent moments. After all, that was the last time the Mets made it to the World Series where they were given a prompt five game exit by the New York Yankees. Numerous worth writing about players had been a part of the club since ’99: Paul Lo Duca, Shawn Green, Benny Agbayani, Rey Ordonez, Jose Reyes, Mo Vaughn, Jeromy Burnitz… ok, maybe not the last two. But regardless of all of their accomplishments, there was one specific moment associated with this hat that kept flashing through my head. Since I didn’t have another hat on me, and because I wouldn’t have been able to make it to my house and back to the library in enough time, I decided to bite the bullet and mark it up with the date of that moment.

6/9/99- As I mentioned just a little bit ago, the Mets made a habit out of wearing their “road” cap at home, and this was certainly one of those memorable nights. The Toronto Blue Jays were visiting Flushing, New York that night for the final game of a three game series. The Mets had won the previous two meetings and were looking for a solid sweep to give them momentum before their three game series versus the Boston Red Sox started the next night. David Wells started the game for the Jays and went 8 2/3 while only giving up three earned runs. Rick Reed took the mound for the Mets and was pulled out after going six innings and giving up three earned runs himself. After nine innings of play the score remained knotted at three apiece. Same with the 10^th. And then same with the 11^th. In the top if the 12^th the Jays had Shannon Stewart on first with second baseman Craig Grebeck at the plate. Mets pitcher Pat Mahomes threw a pitch out to the right side of the batters box for Mike Piazza to catch and throw out a stealing Stewart. As Piazza caught and immediately threw the ball, home plate umpire Randy Marsh (not this Randy Marsh)

immediately called catchers interference and Stewart was awarded the base. Mets manager Bobby Valentine came flying out of the dugout to argue the call. A few choice words were thrown around and Bobby V was given hook. A few more disgruntled words were exchanged before Bobby headed down the clubhouse tunnel to hit the showers. Now wanting to watch the rest of the game in his office, Bobby V broke one of the cardinal rules of baseball by donning a disguise to watch the rest of the game from the dugout.

Bobby was never caught during the game; however, League officials certainly took notice, thanks in part to the play-by-play crew pointing it out on camera. The game continued on, and in the bottom of the 14^th, with Brian McCrae on third base, the Mets got a walk-off victory after a deep single by Rey Ordonez. Bobby V was given a $5,000 fine and suspended two games for his stunt.

According to baseball lore, it has never been noted if anyone else has ever thrown on a disguise after being ejected from a ball game before, but it is known that Bobby V was certainly the Johnny Appleseed of this not-so-routine managerial decision. Winning!

One last little tidbit of info from this game which pertains to recent events; recently deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threw out the first pitch.