June 29- Arizona Diamondbacks

The 2012 Major League Baseball season is hands down the craziest, most enjoyable season I have had the privilege of following. While it truly would have been spectacular to be in the stadium of all the no-hitters, perfect games and cycles hit last season, thank God I have the power of MLB.tv to help me get as close to the action as possible without leaving the comfort of my home. I realize that sentence sounded like some cheesy promotion, just bear with me. As awesome as it was to be in the MLB Fan Cave for the first two-and-a-half months of the season to watch a lot of these games, that experience laid the foundation for what ultimately became one of the greatest baseball experiences on my life.

Of all the crazy historical things to occur last season there is one experience that now sits in my top-three “All-Time Greatest MLB Moments” list which started with a handshake back on May 5, 2012. If you read my post from June 26^th you’d know about the visit in the Fan Cave from Arizona Diamondbacks pitchers JJ Putz and Patrick Corbin.

After an hour or so of shooting the breeze both Putz and Corbin said that they would probably be back the next night to hang out and watch the Jon Bones Jones UFC fight against Rashad Evans. Now, one thing I’m a bit confused about is that according to his fight stats Jones fought Evans on April 21^st, soooooo… I don’t know what the hell we watched. All I know is that Jones and his crew had stopped by the Fan Cave about a week prior to promote the fight, which makes me all that more confused.

Anyway, Putz and Corbin lived up to their word and stopped by in the evening after their 3-4 loss to the New York Mets. Not ones to let a rough day get in the way of their fun, Corbin brought friends and relatives from upstate New York with him and Putz did the same with his parents and a life-long friend named “Rooftop.” As the evening progressed with beers in hand, intense pool and skee-ball games and excellent conversation, other members of the Diamondbacks arrived as well including Willie “The Igniter” Bloomquist and Aaron Hill. Most of the night I just chilled out, nursing the same bottle of Bud Light for an hour, chatting it up with Corbin’s brother and Putz. Lindsay Guentzel (the Minnesota Twins fan) had taken the duty of showing everyone around the Fan Cave and taking photos for the executives so the rest of us had to wait until she was finished to go over and talk to Bloomquist and Hill. Around the time the main event was getting underway Hill and a friend of his were on their way out as they had just stopped to poke around. It was at this time I finally had a chance to talk to him as he had apparently been interested in talking to me since he stepped in. I was a bit confused by that at first, but it all made sense when he talked about how he had seen me on the jumbotron at Citi Field before the game as one the episodes of “Player Poll” I had done was being shown. Putz confirmed this as well as he happened to walk by Hill at the right moment. Hill then asked me a few questions about myself which I kicked off with going to the University of Oregon, hailing from the Bay Area and especially Bakersfield, California. Hill lit up immediately, “Dude! I’m from Visalia! That’s crazy!” Bakersfield and Visalia are roughly 80 miles apart from one another off of Highway 99, but are practically the same city if you’ve ever spent time in either. Hill then asked which baseball leagues I played in growing up, trying to figure out if we had played one another. As it turned out, we missed each other by a year; which also would have made for an interesting conversation seeing as I played second base growing up and he’s an All-Star second baseman. Suddenly, the urge to head out went away as we continued to gab about growing up in the armpit of California… that is until Lindsay decided to butt in. It literally went from us totally bro-ing out to Lindsay wanted everyone to take a photo for all of the executives. I’m not sure why she cut in at that moment, but it completely changed the mood rapidly. Either way, it was good to get the chance to share a few words with someone who had a similar upbringing. What I didn’t expect, besides getting kicked out of the Fan Cave, was that Hill was about to embark upon a historical journey. But first, the cap!

The Dbacks unveiled this cap back in 2007 along with the cap I wrote about on April 29^th. While the red brick cap serves as their game cap, this black model with the “A” logo serves as the home alternate cap. By this I mean that the Dbacks generally wear it on Sundays OR whenever the starting pitcher decides to roll with it for their start which also contingent upon the jersey/pant combo they elect to roll with. What’s a little disappointing about this cap is that I decided to mark it up with dates and stories despite the fact that the cap wasn’t even worn when the events took place. No matter, it’s still worthy of praise.

6/18-29/12: If there was ever a fitting bit of irony in all of 2012, June 18, 2012 was certainly a fitting day. It was the fourth game of the Northwest League season and I happened to be down in Eugene to watch the Emeralds face off against the Yakima Bears in the fourth of their five-game series. I had all ready been to Opening Day, in which I wrote my experience on June 18^th (what a coincidence!) and I rolled back down from Portland to catch this particular game with my friend Chris Crude. The main reason why I say today was filled with irony is because the then-Bears, who are now the Hillsboro Hops, are the short season-A affiliate of the Dbacks. Now, even though I was all ready at a baseball game I always take the time to check up on how things are going around the league using my MLB.tv application on my phone. One of the games on interest I had was the Dbacks versus Seattle Mariners game taking place in Phoenix. Normally I would be blacked out due to the fact that Eugene sits within Mariners territory; however, I lucked out. Here’s why.

Flashback

During my time in the Fan Cave I had won the phone during a scavenger hunt challenge set up in the first two weeks we were there. It proved to be especially useful for me as I was the only one there who didn’t have a smart phone. So, anytime I went to the bathroom or upstairs to grab a drink I always made sure to have at least one game going. The only problem was that I ran into the same issues with blackouts from time-to-time. The worst instance came when I had to give fellow University of Oregon alum and SB Nation host Dan Rubenstein a tour of the Fan Cave. During the tour, I had to keep my eyes on the Mets versus Washington Nationals game that was taking place; however, the game was blacked out due to the fact that I was standing in Mets territory. When I pointed this out to the head of business public relations for MLB Jeff Heckelman, he took it upstairs for a moment and came back with the game on the screen. Apparently Heckelman had the tech guys play with it in which one of them installed a master key, so now I never have to worry about blackouts, missing spring training games, playoff games, the World Series and the All-Star game. Tight! All I need to do is take care of it and not lose it.

Back to reality

About two weeks prior to this game Hill had almost hit for the cycle June 5^th against the Colorado Rockies, but more important, since our chance meeting Hill had been hitting well so I decided to monitor his progress, plus deep down I’ve always had a soft spot for the Dbacks and enjoy watching them. At first the only true redeeming quality of the game was that Wade Miley was taking the hill for the Dbacks, just one of the many games in which he would be lights out and build a solid case for the National League Rookie of the Year award. Despite giving up a single to Kyle Seager in the first inning, Miley dealt the rest of the way. In the bottom of the first inning Mariners pitches Hector Noesi gave up three consecutive singles to Bloomquist, Hill and Justin Upton. At the time, no one really thought much of it and the Dbacks put a few runs up on the board by the end of the inning to take a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the third inning Hill led off with a triple, but was then brought in to score after an Upton sacrifice fly to deep right field to take a 4-0 lead. Once again, as the inning then came to a quick close, nobody really knew what was going on.

In the bottom of the fifth inning Miley led off with a strikeout while Bloomquist fired one to second baseman Dustin Ackley. With two outs, nobody on, Hill slapped a line drive into left field which allowed him to get to second on the stand. With the single, triple and double in the books in only the fifth inning, the mood of Chase Field tensed up a little bit, despite the fact that the Dbacks were still holding onto a 4-0 lead.

As the bottom of the seventh inning loomed the Mariners decided to make a pitching change and brought in Shawn Kelley to take things over with Bloomquist leading off as the Dbacks now led 6-1. If the first batter faced was any proof of how probable it was going to be for Hill to hit for his first career cycle, then anyone who had the chance to make a bet on Hill hitting a home run to finish it out should have been made. Prior to Bloomquist’s at-bat Kelley had only given up two home runs on the year; the first was Oakland Athletics outfielder Yoenis Cespedes’s first career home run on Opening Day in Tokyo, Japan and the second was on May 8^th against Detroit Tigers first baseman Prince Fielder. In both cases it’s not like Kelley was getting teed off of by some slouch. Against Bloomquist, Kelley served up a tater right down the middle, but Bloomquist could only get it to deep center. With a little more pop in his bat, if Hill was given the same pitch, it definitely would have gone over the way. Luckily for Hill, that happened. After taking the first pitch for a strike, Hill played the next pitch as aggressive as possible, launching it over the left field wall, becoming the fifth player in Dbacks history to hit for the cycle and the second player in MLB on the season to pull it off; the first being Mets outfielder Scott Hairston.

After Hill hit the double I began tweeting up a storm, mostly focusing on how had he hit the double he needed against the Rockies on June 5^th he would have been the third player in MLB history to hit for the cycle twice in a season. Once again, the irony of this day, and especially this tweet, were about to come back in a big way.

On June 28, 2012 I was laying in bed watching baseball on my computer as I had just gotten back from a three-day road trip in Seattle to watch the Athletics play the Mariners along with my friend, and 2013 Fan Cave hopeful Tommy Bentley (@RealTomBentley). Due to my fatigue level I was kind of in-and-out of the Dbacks game as they were playing the Milwaukee Brewers on the road. I don’t remember too much about the other three games I had going at the same time, but as the Dbacks game progressed I ended up closing the other screens out.

Just like the game on June 18^th (2012), Hill batted in the two-hole behind Bloomquist who ended up grounding out in his first at-bat against Brewers pitcher Randy Wolf. With a called strike against him, Hill mashed a hard liner into left field which bounced over the wall for a ground rule double. Aside from putting himself in scoring position, the hit also turned out to be the 1,000^th of his career. Upton and Jason Kubel followed Hill by both striking out looking, marooning Hill on second base to close out the first. Once again, no one really paid much attention.

In the top of the third inning “The Igniter” led off with a double which was then followed up with a bloop single just over the head of Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks and into centerfield by Hill. Hill then stole second base before Upton roped a single himself, scoring Bloomquist from and pushing Hill to third. After that, the floodgates opened as the Dbacks ended the inning with a 6-1 lead. With a double and a single in the bag, plus a five-run lead, very few gave much though to Hill, once again, despite the fact that he still had a solid amount of at-bats left in the game.

In the top of the fourth Dbacks starting pitcher Ian Kennedy struck out looking to lead off while Bloomquist reached on an error by Weeks. Not being the one to waste pitches, Hill took the first for a strike and then exploded upon the second. Hill sent a screamer to deep left field to not only put his team up by seven runs, but also got the social media world jibber-jabbing about how he still had five more innings to lock up a triple. Not since Babe Herman of the Brooklyn Robins in 1931 had a player hit for the cycle twice in one season, and not since John Reilly in 1883 had someone done it in games so close together.

In the top of the sixth inning catcher Henry Blanco and Kennedy both recorded outs. Bloomquist then legged out a slow rolling single to short, which paved the way for all of the eyes of the baseball world to be focused on Hill. Livan Hernandez had replaced Tim Dillard at the top of the inning who in turn had replaced Wolf at the top of the fifth. Hernandez started off by throwing two consecutive balls, none of which Hill wanted a piece of. As Hernandez let the third pitch go (a changeup) Hill dipped his head down after making contact as if he thought it was a pop out. Nope! The ball actually had a decent amount of speed behind it and as soon as Hill saw it drop into play he kicked his run into third gear. Morgan got to the ball slowly, which rolled to the wall as he figured Hill was going to holdup for a double. Nope! Weeks caught the cutoff throw and fired it slightly offline to the waiting Aramis Ramirez at third base… too late. Hill dug it out like a champion and slid his way into the record books when he touched (and stayed) on third base. A fair amount of Brewers fans applauded Hill for his effort, which was a bit classy on their part. Not too bad of an achievement for a kid from Visalia, California who went home with two balls in his pocket. You know, one for hit #1000 and the other for the double cycle. What were you thinking? Video

#46- Patrick Corbin was especially a treat to meet, but even weirder is that he looks almost identical to my U of O roommate Lyle Birkey, just a bit taller See..

Somewhat unknown last season, Corbin was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in the second round of the 2009 amateur draft only to be traded to the Dbacks on July 25, 2010 along with Rafael Rodriguez, Joe Saunders, a player to be named later (Tyler Skaggs) in exchange for Dan Haren… who I look nothing like.

From then until the end of the 2011 season Corbin muscled his way through the minor league system, posting solid numbers while playing with the Rookie League Orem Owlz, intermediate-A Cedar Rapids Kernels, advanced-A Visalia Rawhide and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and the AA Mobile Bears plus a brief stint with the AAA Reno Aces before making his Major League debut on April 30, 2012 against the Miami Marlins. Corbin got tagged for three earned runs in that first game, also allowing eight hits and three walks, but he struck out six and received the win for his efforts.

For the rest of the season Corbin had his highs and his lows, but in every case he stuck through it and didn’t make excuses. After the game on May 5^th against the Mets Corbin, his brother and I got into a bit of a discussion in regard to his performance that day. He was pulled after 83 pitches after going 3 1/3 innings and only allowing two runs. Despite the high pitch count it was a situation that his brother and I felt he should have been allowed to attempt to get himself out of. For being a first-year pitcher, sometimes you have to take the lumps in order to know how to correct your mistakes down the road; a lesson in baseball that isn’t much different from real life. Corbin finished the 2012 campaign with a record of 6-8 with a 4.54 ERA in 17 games started. Like I said, it had its ups and downs, but in the end it all proved to be an eye-opener for Corbin’s 2013 effort… which has gone by rather smoothly.

So far this season (as of July 28, 2013), Corbin is on pace to potentially win the National League Cy Young award with a 12-2 record, 2.24 ERA, 123 strikeouts and a .991 WHIP. That’s one hell of a turnaround! Not to mention the fact that the Dbacks are hanging tough in the NL West and looking to secure their sixth trip to the postseason since the team’s inaugural year in 1998. Lord knows I bet on them to do it. Here’s to hoping I’m not as crazy as I look.

April 6- Montreal Expos

If there’s one thing I learned today, it’s that it is incredibly difficult to write and research during an 18-hour train ride from the Bay Area to Portland, Oregon when you are sitting in the aisle seat next to a high school-aged kid who constantly gets up to go to the bathroom. I mean, I’m no big city urologist, but I think that kid should get checked out for early onset prostate complications, if such a thing exists. The biggest problem in my travel fiasco is that my train left from Richmond, California around 9:47 PM PST and I didn’t have a speck of internet until I reached my final destination of Union Station in downtown Portland. This posed a few problems as

1. I couldn’t research any of the players I’m writing about.

2. I wasn’t able to post my story.

But even at that, as I mentioned above, trying to type in such a rickety area because an incredible nuisance for me. Thus, the biggest lesson I learned is to get my ass writing way before I get into any kind of a moving vehicle when I have deadlines (even personal ones) to meet!

I first came across this cap in March of 2012 after my friend, and fellow MLB Fan Cave Dweller hopefully Bryan Mapes (@IamMapes) sent me photo from the local Lids in Brookfield, Connecticut. I had seen this hat before, but not since Andres Galarraga sported it in this photo from Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 

This Montreal Expos hat was only used for one season in 2002 as part of the first line of mesh batting practice caps which New Era introduced during spring training. Unlike the batting practice caps of the last eight years or so, these were 5950 style; in that they had a higher, stiffer crown, unlike the low profile 3950s. The one that I’m wearing in the photo above, as well as the one that Mapes had shown me was a replica wool style, which I much prefer. I was never the biggest fan of the mesh style caps; however, I did enjoy the color patterns as well as the original logo choices that New Era decided to produce for the vast majority of them. Obviously in the case of the Expos the logo is the same one they’ve used since their debut season in 1969 through their final year in 2004.

I’ve only worn this cap a handful of times; mostly because I’m honestly not a big fan of the way the color red looks on me. This is something you may notice if you ever shuffle through my photos of Facebook or Instagram (@shakabrodie). I always prefer wearing darker colors because they’re easier to match. Plus I have dark hair, a dark beard, green/blue eyes and very pasty skin. All those years of living in the Pacific Northwest have turned me into a bit of a cast member from “Twilight” reject to say the least. Wearing red makes this way more apparent. The one thing that I do love about this cap is the personal history it shares between my best friend Sam Spencer and myself.

Back in 2005 Sam served as my assistant manager at the Woodburn, Oregon Just Sports (@JustSportspdx) location where I served as store manager for two-and-a-half years. I lived about 15 miles north of Woodburn in the heavily Mormon populated town of Woodburn, a suburb of Portland. Sam unfortunately was still living with his parents up in Vancouver, Washington at the time and crashed at my house most nights since The Couve was an hour away from the store. On the nights in which he crashed we always made sure to get buy a 12-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, something for dinner and end the night with two to three games of All-Star Baseball 2003 for my old school XBOX. While I could have upgraded to later versions, I always found that the 2003 edition was the most fun for the sake of nostalgic lineups. Case in point: the Montreal Expos.

For those of you who have never scoured for hours playing any sports-related video games, the one thing you need to know is that whatever year was tagged on the game you’re playing, the company always used the rosters from the last date of the previous year. Therefore, in the 2003 version of All-Star Baseball, we rocked hard with the 2002 Expos squad. Both of us were especially miffed at how the 1994 Expos got the shaft on account of the players strike, so we figured we’d do the next best thing and make sure the Spos got themselves a well-deserved trophy to the tune of going 158-4 on the regular season and only losing one game in the playoffs; Game 2 of the ALDS versus the Houston Astros. Those jerks! It took us three nights a week for four months (plus several simulated games) to pull it off, at which all we got, was a congratulatory message and a weak-ass celebration from the computer-generated players on the field. We both looked at each other with disgusted looks on our faces, as if we could have done way more important things with our lives.

I finally picked this cap up at one of the Lids locations near Times Square in downtown Manhattan. It was kind of funny because Mapes had promised to buy it for me, but I ended up getting this and like six other hats in the process. Mapes saw what I was doing and gave me a wicked, “What the hell!?” Since I had all ready paid there wasn’t much I could do, so he offered to buy me another cap on the rack which I didn’t all ready won. Luckily they had a mid-1990s Milwaukee Brewers cap I didn’t own, but that post will come at a later date. When I got back to the apartment that MLB had hooked us up with in SOHO I couldn’t help but laugh when I thought back on Sam and my four month quest. With that, I knew exactly which numbers to throw on this cap.

#14- As I mentioned above, Andres Galarraga is the one person I remember most to wear this cap, but more important, Galarraga was the National League MVP throughout the season that Sam and I had played with the Expos. Sam and I had a foolproof system every time we played. I took care of the pitching, and he handled all of the guys in the field. When it came to batting, I took all of the odd batters and he took all of the even ones. Galarraga was a consistent pinch hitter for the Expos that season; however, in OUR season, Galarraga was the starting first baseman over Lee Stevens. Don’t get me wrong, as a loyal Expos fan, I love Lee Stevens, but in the video game world Lee Stevens can suck it. We needed the clutch power hitting; which Galarraga did to the tune of a .654 batting average with 74 home runs and 167 runs batted in. Yah! We were setting all sorts of records which unfortunately were not recognized by Major League Baseball. Damn shame too. In reality, Galarraga had only gone .260/9/40 that season, so in a way, Sam and I truly improved history.

#23- Javier Vazquez is one of those weird pitchers in MLB history who had moments of absolute brilliance and moments of absolute horror throughout his career. He was originally drafted in the fifth round of the 1994 draft out of Puerto Rico by the Expos and hung with the team from his debut in 1998 through the end of the 2003 season. During his six-year run he posted a 64-68 record with a 4.16 ERA and 1076 strikeouts, the largest chunk with one team for his career. He never won a single award, nor was he ever really in the running for one during his time in Montreal. For his career Vazquez only made one All-Star appearance in 2004 with the New York Yankees and finished in fourth place for the NL Cy Young in 2009 with the Atlanta Braves, the only finish he had for the award. While Vazquez can at best be viewed as a mediocre pitcher, the one thing that people tend to forget about is that he was one hell of a hitter (for a pitcher). Vazquez is a career .204 hitter with one home run and 29 RBI to his name. However, in the video game world, it was his start against the Cleveland Indians on June 21 at the Big O that Vazquez made history.

The thing about batting in All-Star Baseball 2003 is that the hitting zone for each player fluxuates in two ways: the contact zone is in the form of an isosceles triangle and ranges in size based on one’s batting average. The power zone is in the form of an equilateral triangle inside the contact zone and you can use the option of only using that in order to crush more home runs. The other thing is that you can tilt the angle of the contact zone to direct the ball wherever you want it to go after contact. In the case of Vazquez, he had a huge contact zone and little power; rightfully so. CC Sabathia was pitching for the Indians in the contest and I had control of Vazquez on the mound and at the plate. Because Sabathia pitches lefty and Vazquez bats righty I tilted my contact point toward the left field wall every time. And, every time I made contact, I was rewarded with bases. I got a double in the first at-bat and a single in the second. I really had no intentions of getting fancy with the bat, but on the third at-bat I decided to tilt the cursor toward right field and put it on the outside of the strike zone in case the computer decided to throw me some outside sliders. Sure enough, it did. And sure enough I hit the hardest low-flying home run in the history of pitchers at the Big O. By the time Vazquez’s fourth at-bat came around Sabathia had been pulled for Jerrod Riggan, but all I kept thinking about was going for the triple. I tilted my cursor in the same manner as the home run, but laid it flatter as to only get a chalk-scrapping punch to the right field corner. I fouled off the first two pitches and took the following two for balls. With a 2-2 count I got a little ahead of the pitch but chopped it perfectly to where I wanted. Matt Lawton was playing right field for the Indians at the time and I did my best to test his arm as I booked Vazquez around the bases. Vazquez was only a third of the way around second by the time Lawton threw the ball from the corner. By some miracle the defensive instincts for the computer kicked on and Omar Vizquel cut the ball off. Thus, allowing Vazquez to ring in the cycle with ease. Oh Javier!!!

#24- This player will ring a bell for a few of you, and be a completely afterthought for others. On April 23 the Expos played host to the Brewers as a free agent pickup by the Boston Red Sox from 1999 took the mound for the Spos. From 2001-2003 this Japanese national pitcher wore #24 for the Expos in which his 13-8 record with a 3.18 ERA in 2002 proved to be the bests of his career. On this date; however, Tomo Ohka had a day of destiny in the video game world.

Ben Sheets took the mound for the Brewers, a team whose only offensive threats came in the form of Richie Sexson, Eric Young, Geoff Jenkins and Ronnie Belliard. Ohka, for some reason, was feeling it. The first three innings went by fairly quick: three strikeouts and a lot of grounders and pop pouts. Innings four through seven were riddles with at least two strikeouts per inning and a lot of brilliant catches by Sam on the field defense. It was at this moment that I paused the game and noticed what was going on. We had built an 8-0 lead and Sheets had all ready been replaced by Mike Buddie in the fifth. But then we both took a look at the Brewers’ offensive numbers: zero hit and zero walks. With six outs to go I got a little nervous. I’ve always been prone to throw strikes as I hate playing games that last more than an hour; however, in this case I became a bit more daring and started painting corners a little bit harder as Ohka’s fatigue level hadn’t really registered yet. Sexson went down to strikes, Jenkins took on to the right field warning track where a patient Vladimir Guerrero was waiting to make out number two and Alex Ochoa grounded out for the final out. With the heart of the lineup gone, all I had left was Jose Hernandez, Raul Casanova and whomever was going to be pinch hitting.

I think the computer sensed what was about to happen and opted to bunt with Hernandez… but I was ready for it; a real jerk move on its part. One down. Casanova battled, taking Ohka’s total pitch count over 110; thus making it harder to control. With the eighth pitch of the at-bat Casanova bounced a dribbler up the middle, but slow enough for Jose Vidro to do a quick scoop and throw. Two down. Finally, it was time for the final test: Mark Loretta. I’d like to say it was more exciting of a finish, but Loretta popped it up to the first base side for an easy out by Galarraga. Sam and I went crazy despite the pathetic fireworks display I got; however, I did get a slew of baseball card points which ultimately unlocked retro jerseys. So that was awesome.

Yup! This hat will always have a special place in my heart to remind me of the day when my best friend and I did good by the fine people of Montreal… even if it was in the video game world.