April 14- Washington Senators

I’ve always been fascinated with all of the random activities that take place during a baseball game. As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to appreciate them on a much deeper level. As much as I want to include the pre-game 40 ouncer of Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor I usually polish off before every Oakland Athletics game on this list, I’ll spare the historians my one vice. The ceremonial throwing out of the first pitch is mostly the one I’m referring too actually. Throughout the season at 162 guests per team are elected to take part in one of the oldest fan-related traditions of our national pastime. That’s roughly 48600 first pitches thrown out each season (not taking into consideration the rare two or more people throwing out balls). The honor, once reserved for presidents, politicians, military officials, foreign diplomats and former players has evolved into something that we can all at some point in our lives be able to put into our pocket. I was fortunate enough to receive the honor on July 17, 2012, but I’ll spare you the details as I’ve all ready written about in my Athletics Opening Day post from April 1.

My first encounter with this tradition, like a few other nostalgic baseball-related moments in my life, came during my first viewing of the 1988 film “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad.” While I had been to professional games prior to seeing this film, I can’t honestly say that my little brain at the time was all too keen to remember that moment. The scene in the film is wonderful as Queen Elizabeth II is the guest of honor in a game between the California Angels and the Seattle Mariners during her tour of Los Angeles. Because of her status, the Angels allow her to throw out the first pitch. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw-ucaDiTME

It’s still one of those goofy moments that still makes me chuckle for multiple reasons:

1. Obviously it’s the greatest screwball ever thrown.

2. The mere fact that the catcher is the only one that seems to be blown away by the throw.

3. Dick Vitale being in the press box during a baseball game.

4. Tim McCarver before he went absolutely insane after being teamed up with Joe Buck.

5. The PA announcer nonchalantly saying, “How about that Queen ladies and gentleman!”

The Zucker Brothers know how to write a damn good comedy, that’s for sure. Anyway, as a five-year-old that pitch blew my mind. My brothers and I worked on it with our wiffle balls for hours, hoping that we would somehow be able to bend the laws of physics. Needless to say, after about three intense summer days of trying and failing, we gave up and played pickle instead.

This Washington Senators hat holds a special place in the history of the ceremonial first pitch, which leads me to the marks I opted for.

4/14/10- I should first point out the hat, as it is not exactly the accurate model for the date, so bear with me. This particular hat was used by the Senators for all of their home and road games from 1916-1925; however, the particular style of “W” featured on the front was used as a patch over the heart of their jersey only in 1910. From 1912-1925 and then again from 1929-1935 the “W” appeared as a patch on the outside sleeves of their jerseys. The Washington Nationals also used this hat for their Turn Back the Clock games in 2012. Now that I have that covered; the date I chose was Opening Day for the Senators against the New York Yankees at National Park, which was later renamed Griffith Stadium in 1920. The larger importance of this date is that it was the first time a United States President ever threw out the first pitch. Therefore, it was the first Ceremonial First Pitch. A lot of first taking place, I know.

William Howard Taft was a huge (no pun intended) baseball fan and started the tradition which took place at some time throughout the season (Opening Day, All-Star Game or World Series) on almost every year. There were a few gaps in time since 1910 on account some very important wars taking place. Another interesting tidbit from this particular day is that April 14, 1910 is also one of the three supposed moments in time when the seventh-inning-stretch first came to pass. The way the story goes is that President Taft while at the game was sore from prolonged sitting and stood up to stretch. Upon seeing the chief executive stand, the rest of the spectators in attendance felt obligated to join the president in his gestures. Whether it’s true or not, it’s still a fun little story to tell fans.

Since the tradition was started every president has thrown out at least one first pitch, and only Richard Nixon and James Sherman were the only two Vice Presidents to fill in for the President while they were occupied. Nixon in 1959 for Dwight Eisenhower and Sherman for Taft in 1912 on account of Taft being at a funeral for a friend who had died in the RMS Titanic sinking only four days prior on April 15. As for how each President stacks up: Franklin D. Roosevelt has the unbeatable record with eight Opening Day first pitches thrown while in office and Jimmy Carter has the fewest at zero as he only threw out one Opening Day first pitch at Petco Park in 2004 when the San Diego Padres first opened the stadium. Lyndon B. Johnson was the “kiss of death” for the Senators as they lost all three games in which he threw out first pitch, while Taft has the best win percentage at 100% having only thrown out first pitches in 1910 and 1911. Bill Clinton and Bush, Sr. tied for second place with a .750 win percentage as the teams won three of four in each case for various teams.

WJ- Only in a few cases do I ever mark the opposite front panel with anything; however, in this case it was very important. Due to the fact that this hat was technically used from 1916-1925 it was very important for me to write about someone who actually played under the hat, and witnessed the majority, including the very first of the Ceremonial First Pitches.

Walter Perry Johnson was born in Humboldt, Kansas in 1887 but moved to Southern California in his teen years where he attended Fullerton Union High School where he struck out 27 batters in a 15-inning game against rival Santa Anita High School. He later moved to Idaho, where he doubled as a telephone company employee and a pitcher for a Weiser-based team in the Idaho State League. Johnson was spotted by a talent scout and signed a contract with the Senators in July 1907 at the age of nineteen. Johnson won renown as the premier power pitcher of his era. Ty Cobb recalled his first encounter with the rookie fastballer:

"On August 2, 1907, I encountered the most threatening sight I ever saw in the ball field. He was a rookie, and we licked our lips as we warmed up for the first game of a doubleheader in Washington. Evidently, manager Pongo Joe Cantillon of the Nats had picked a rube out of the cornfields of the deepest bushes to pitch against us... He was a tall, shambling galoot of about twenty; with arms so long they hung far out of his sleeves, and with a sidearm delivery that looked unimpressive at first glance... One of the Tigers imitated a cow mooing, and we hollered at Cantillon: 'Get the pitchfork ready, Joe-- your hayseed's on his way back to the barn.'”

“...The first time I faced him, I watched him take that easy windup. And then something went past me that made me flinch. The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn't touch him... every one of us knew we'd met the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ball park."

Although a lack of precision instruments prevented accurate measurement of his fastball, in 1917, a Bridgeport, Connecticut munitions laboratory recorded Johnson's fastball at 134 feet per second, which is equal to 91.36 miles per hour (147.03 km/h), a velocity which was virtually unique in Johnson's day, with the possible exception of Smoky Joe Wood. Johnson, moreover, pitched with a sidearm motion, whereas power pitchers are normally known for pitching with a straight-overhand delivery. Johnson's motion was especially difficult for right-handed batters to follow, as the ball seemed to be coming from third base.

Johnson played his entire career with the Senators from 1907-1927. During his tenure he won two American League MVP awards in 1913 and 1924. He never played in an All-Star Game as the first one wasn’t played until 1933. He also never won a Cy Young Award as the first ones were given out in 1956, a year after his death. He only won one World Series in 1924 against the New York Giants. Johnson does have the distinction of being one of the first five players elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. The other four: Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner. Shockingly Cobb outlived them all.

Johnson has the second-most wins in MLB history with 417, only 94 behind Young. He has 3.509 strikeouts, which puts him at ninth place all-time. And he has a career ERA of 2.167, which is also the ninth best in MLB history. Throughout his career Johnson led the league in almost every positive category numerous time: Wins a total of six times at which 36 in 1936 was his career-high, ERA five times at which 1.14 in 1913 was his career-best, most innings pitched five times at which he topped out at 371 2/3 in 1914 and most strikeouts 12 times in which 313 was his career-high in 1910.

Walter Johnson retired to Germantown, Maryland. A lifelong Republican and friend of President Calvin Coolidge, Johnson was elected as a Montgomery County commissioner in 1938. His father-in-law was Rep. Edwin Roberts, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1940 Johnson ran for a congressional seat in Maryland's 6th district, but came up short against the incumbent Democrat, William D. Byron, by a total of 60,037 (53%) to 52,258 (47%).

Joseph W. Martin, Jr., before he was the Speaker of the US House of Representatives from 1947 to 1949 and 1953 to 1955, recruited Johnson to run for Congress. "He was an utterly inexperienced speaker," Martin later said. "I got some of my boys to write two master speeches for him – one for the farmers of his district and the other for the industrial areas. Alas, he got the two confused. He addressed the farmers on industrial problems, and the businessmen on farm problems."

At 11:40 pm, Tuesday, December 10, 1946 Johnson died of a brain tumor in Washington, D.C., five weeks after his 59th birthday, and was interred at Rockville Union Cemetery in Rockville, Maryland.

February 18- Washington Senators

Like a lot of kids I grew up with, we all had dreams of breaking out in Major League Baseball. I recall as a youth always going to Pin Oak Park or Leo B. Hart Elementary School in Bakersfield, California to play ball with my friends almost every day after school. We all had our favorite players that we tried to mimic; mine of course was Mark McGwire. I always made sure to keep my knees bent, and do the slow wag of the bat while taking wide, open-mouthed chomps of my Big League Chew every time I was at the plate. While I didn’t have McGwire’s ropey forearms, I could still muscle a few over the chain-link fence that stood, what seemed like a mile away, 200 feet away from home plate. On the inverse of that, anytime any of my friends teed off on me and gave the Kirk Gibson fist pump while rounding the bases, I made sure to plunk them the next time they were at bat. We fought, we cussed, we spit, we got down and dirty, but most of all, we played until we couldn’t see the ball anymore. Every walk home from the ball field was taken right out of the movie “The Sandlot;” discussions of how to hit the opposite direction and knowing the proper way to play the angles off the wall if we were stuck in the outfield. We were all modern day Sparky Andersons, Tony Larussas and Earl Weavers on and off the field. Baseball was our life.

I bring up this bit of my past because it’s not all the different from any kid growing up in any city, small town or country in which baseball is a national sport. Some of us make it to the Show, while the rest of us move on with our lives; but we still make sure to visit the local stadium for a brief reminder of how precious, endearing and simple life once was when we were young.

One player in baseball history knew this all too well, but very few, and I mean very few, even have the slightest clue who he is. I’ll start with the hat though. From 1952-1960 the Washington Senators donned the navy blue and red in what would be the final nine years of the original incarnation’s existence. At the end of the 1960 season the Senators packed up and moved to greener pastures in Minnesota; a tale I wrote on February 15. Poor attendance and poor showings in the standings year-after-year, not to mention western geographical expansion (Manifest Destiny), helped aid the team in their departure. Not a lot of well-known players came from this era with the exception of Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Whitey Herzog (went in as a manager). But… as I mentioned above, one player in particular popped out and I had to pay tribute to him.

.293/0/2- Pompeyo Antonio "Yo-Yo" Davalillo Romero was born in Cabimas, Venezuela in 1931 and made his Major League debit for the Senators on August 1, 1953. Yo-Yo was the fourth Venezuelan born player to make it to the big leagues at the time, but like the others (Alex Carrasquel, Chucho Ramos and Chico Carrasquel); they only went down in the history books as a name. At 5’3’’ and 140 pounds, Yo-Yo wasn’t expected to do much other than take up space at shortstop; however, he was remarked by some to being a pretty decent defensive player despite six career errors… in only 19 career games. Yo-Yo’s career came to a close on August 23, 1953, and yes, before the season even ended. He had an average on .293, no home runs and two RBI for his career. He is one of the very rare cases of a player leaving the game under their own volition while in the prime of their career. I realize the term prime is a bit arbitrary in this case as his career never really went up or down, but for someone who was still physically able to play, it’s a pretty big deal. Yo-Yo had played Minor League ball for 11 seasons, nine of which came in AAA; however, the one thing that most guys back in those days (as well as today) will tell you is that all travel to games came via the team bus. As it turned out, Yo-Yo was deathly afraid of traveling by airplane. Therefore, he walked away from his shot on the top. Yo-Yo continued to play ball in Mexico from 1962-64, as well as back in Venezuela from 1965-66. He was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 and even managed in the Venezuelan League for several years after his playing career ended.

Going back to my introduction, the case of Yo-Yo Davalillo is a reminder to all of us that we’re all destined for something great, but we don’t necessarily understand what that is until we come face-to-face with our dream once it’s attained. In my case, a series of injuries kept me from playing ball, but it didn’t keep me away from the game. I merely adapted and continued to love the game as I saw fit.

February 15- Minnesota Twins

If you didn’t read my post from January about the Minnesota Twins “M” logo cap, I highly suggest going back and checking it out before continuing with this. It’ll fill in a few gaps of back story on my personal relationship with the franchise. The most important thing to know is that my girlfriend, Angie Kinderman, is a huge Twins fan, while I am on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. Back on December 31, 2012 I flew out to Miami, Florida to visit Angie and spend a week with her before we both started up class again on January 7, 2013. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I decided to wear this cap when I flew in to put a smile on her face. Needless to say, it did the trick. Today she flew into Portland, Oregon to visit me and I decided to wear the same cap again. I suppose in this matter it’s best to leave my differences aside and do something nice for my sweetie. So now, this is my official Angie airport greeting cap.

I originally picked this hat up off of EBay, along with a few others from independent dealers. I had purchased the “M” logo cap at first, but ended up not really digging the 2010 Target Field patch in the side so I opted for a new style. I figured in this case, it’s best to go with the original. When the first incarnation of the Washington Senators moved to Minneapolis at the end of the 1960 season, the team changed its name to the Minnesota Twins, as to appease the obvious Minneapolis/St. Paul twin cities moniker. With that, the team also made the “TC”, which stands for Twin Cities, its official logo. From 1961-1986 the white “T” with a red “C” intertwined on a navy blue cap reigned throughout the league and made a reappearance prior to the 2002 season where it has remained as the team’s home field/game cap. As a fan of the classics, I had to roll with two greats when marking up this cap.

#3- The Killer himself, Harmon Killebrew is arguably the greatest Twin, and the greatest Mormon baseball player to ever take the field; however, in my humble opinion, is one of those few guys who made the Hall of Fame for having played during an interesting era. Killebrew started his career in 1954 and saw minimal playing time until 1959 when he hit a League-leading 42 home runs with the Senators. When the team made it’s debut in Minnesota Killer continued hitting bombs for the Twins by hitting at least 45 home runs for four consecutive seasons (1961-1964). His best year came in 1969 when he went .276/49/140 and won the American League MVP outright that season, the only one of his career. Killebrew made 11 All-Star appearances throughout his career and only made the World Series once in 1965 when they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games. Killebrew finished his career with 573 home runs and 1559 RBI, but only hit 2086 times with a career average of .256 in 22 years. Killebrew was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984 and sadly passed away on May 17, 2011.

#29- Like a lot of kids from my elementary school days, the first time I heard the name Rod Carew was in Adam Sandler’s “The Hanukah Song.” As I got older I made sure to do my homework as to not besmirch his name in jest. Carew started his Hall of Fame career in 1967 and played with the Twins until the end of the 1978 season. In ’67 Carew took home the Rookie of the Year crown after going .292 with 150 hits on the year. That year and the following would be the only two years in which Carew would hit below .300. In the 12 years that Carew gave to the Twins he went .334/74/733, but he attained 2085 of his career 3053 hits while rocking the “TC.” Carew won seven batting titles, lead the league in hits three times, but only one MVP in 1977. Throughout his 19-year career, Carew only missed making an All-Star appearance once; his final season. Carew made the Hall of Fame with ease in 1991 on his first ballot.

Update

#12- Cesar Tovar was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela where as a child, he shined shoes to earn extra income for his family. At the age of 15, he befriended Gus Gil, another Venezuelan who went on to play in Major League Baseball. In January 1959, Cincinnati Reds General Manager, Gabe Paul, attempted to sign Gil to a contract however; Gil insisted that Paul should also have Tovar sign a contract. Paul relented in order to make Gil agree to sign. Tovar began his professional baseball career when he was assigned to the Geneva Redlegs in the D-league New York-Penn League. He hit .252 in 87 games as an infielder for Geneva in 1959. That winter, he returned to Venezuela to play for the Leones del Caracas, and won the league's rookie of the year award.

In 1960, he played with the Missoula Timberjacks of the Pioneer League where he produced a promising .304 batting average along with 12 home runs and 68 RBI. After being selected to the league's All-Star team, he was rewarded by getting to play two games at the top level of the Reds' minor league system with the Seattle Rainiers. Tovar was sent back to Geneva in 1961, where he batted .338 with 19 home runs and 78 runs batted in. He stole 88 bases in 100 attempts to lead the league while setting a new league record for stolen bases. In 1962, he played for the Rocky Mount Leafs of the Carolina League, and led the league in batting with a .329 batting average along with 10 home runs and 78 runs batted in. The Reds had a promising second baseman in Pete Rose, who would win the 1963 National League Rookie of the Year Award, and with second basemen Bobby Klaus and Gus Gil in their minor league system, there was little room left for Tovar to progress. The Reds sent him on loan to play for the Minnesota Twins minor league affiliate, the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers. In 1964, Tovar returned to the Reds organization, where he played for the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League. He helped the Padres win the league championship by hitting for a .275 with 7 home runs and 52 runs batted in, while playing as a third baseman, shortstop, second baseman, and as an outfielder.

Before the start of the 1965 season, the Twins traded pitcher Gerry Arrigo to the Reds for Tovar. The Twins had originally sought to get Tommy Helms from the Reds, but they refused to trade him and the Twins settled for Tovar. At the age of 24, Tovar made his major league debut on April 12, 1965, becoming the ninth Venezuelan to play in Major League Baseball. Tovar’s career with the Twins stretched until the end of the 1972 season, but his career ended after the 1976 season after making a few stops with the Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees along the way. Between 1967 and 1971 Tovar finished in the top-25 in voting for the AL MVP thanks in part to his decent average, ability to steal bases and the amount of hits he was able to rake in ever season. His 204 hits lead the AL in 1971.

As far as career notes are concerned, Tovar racked up a few records: On September 22, 1968, Tovar became the second player after Bert Campaneris (Kansas City Athletics, 1965) to play all nine fielding positions in a game. The two were later joined by Scott Sheldon (Texas Rangers, 2000) and Shane Halter (Detroit Tigers, 2000) as the only four players in MLB history to have accomplished the feat. Tovar started the game on the mound against Oakland and pitched one scoreless inning in which he struck out Reggie Jackson. As fate would have it, the first batter he faced was Campaneris.

On May 18, 1969, Tovar combined with Carew to set a major league record for most steals by a club in one inning with five. In the third inning against a Detroit battery of Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan, Tovar stole third base and home. Carew followed by stealing second base, third base and home. The two steals of home in the same inning also tied a record

Along with Eddie Milner, Tovar is regarded as the major league's all-time leader in breaking up no-hit attempts with five. César Tovar died on July 14, 1994 of pancreatic cancer in Caracas, Venezuelan Capital District, Venezuela, at 54 years of age. Tovar was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003