August 8- Seattle Mariners

Back on March 4th I tackled the original trident cap that the Seattle Mariners wore from 1977-1980, but I purposely left out one particular detail as it pertains to the cap that I’m writing about today. The 1979 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 50th playing of the midsummer classic between the All-Star of the American League and National League and it took place at the four-year-old Kingdome in Seattle, Washington. The game is perhaps most remembered for the play of Dave Parker in the outfield, as he had two assists on putouts at third base and at the plate. With Parker receiving the MVP award for this game, and teammate Willie Stargell winning the NL MVP, NLCS MVP, and World Series MVP, all four possible MVP awards for the season were won by members of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game was also notable for the play of Lee Mazzilli, the lone representative from the then-lowly New York Mets, providing the 7-6 margin of victory. In his only All Star appearance, Mazzilli tied the game in the eighth inning with a pinch hit home run off of Jim Kern of the Texas Rangers, and then put the NL ahead for good in the ninth, drawing a bases-loaded walk against Ron Guidry of the New York Yankees. This would be the only time the Kingdome would host the All-Star Game. When it returned to Seattle for a second time in 2001, the Mariners had moved to their new home at Safeco Field. The other important detail from this game is that the Mariners inadvertently created one of the most iconic logos in All-Star Game history which they would ultimately don as the primary logo for their caps and uniforms.

Since the All-Star Game was first played in Chicago at Comiskey Field in 1933 it had become customary for the host team to come up with some sort of a cool logo when advertising for the game. You’re probably thinking that my math is off based in the year of the first game played and how the 50^th game took place in 1979. Well, from 1959-1961 the All-Star Game was played twice per year, typically one in June and the other in July. In 1961, the final double-dip, the second game, hosted at Fenway Park, ended in a tie. Now where have we seen that happen?

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that the logos created are usually only meant for their one-time use at the All-Star Game; however, the Mariners and their fans took quite a liking to the logo they had created for their midsummer classic and decided to make it their official logo for their game caps from 1981 through 1986. With the exception of a few of the teams who incorporated the cap logo into their All-Star Game logos, the Mariners are the only team to do it the other way around.

One of the unfortunate things about this cap is that not a whole lot happened for the Mariners while they wore it with the exception of the players strike which took place in 1981. I don’t know how many times I’ve said it or listed it, but changing uniforms does have a tendency to bring success for a lot of teams, but when it doesn’t, all Hell breaks loose. Besides the strike, this bit of bad fortune befell upon the Mariners: On April 25, 1981, Mariners' manager Maury Wills advised the Kingdome groundskeepers to enlarge the batter's box by a foot. A's manager Billy Martin noticed. Martin showed umpire Bill Kunkel that the batter's box was seven feet long instead of six feet. Martin felt that batters being able to move up a foot in the box could cut at pitches before a curveball broke. Wills was suspended for two games and fined $500. In May, while in Arlington, Texas to play the Texas Rangers, the Mariners' uniforms were stolen. 

On May 28th, this happened...

 

In the sixth inning, Amos Otis of the Kansas City Royals topped a ball down the third-base line. Lenny Randle, the Seattle third baseman, charged the ball, fell on his stomach and appeared to blow the ball into foul territory. Larry McCoy, the home plate umpire, ruled the ball foul, but manager Jim Frey protested. After a discussion, the umpires awarded Otis first base, ruling Randle had illegally altered the course of the ball. Two days later in a game against the Rangers, the Mariners wore their batting practice jerseys, Milwaukee Brewers' caps, and Rangers' batting helmets. The Mariners purchased the Brewers caps at the Rangers' souvenir-stand; the Rangers did not offer Seattle caps for sale.

The only other notable moment came in 1985. On July 9^th, in a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Mariners at Seattle, Jays catcher Buck Martinez executed a double play by tagging out two runners at home plate. In the third inning, Phil Bradley was on second when Gorman Thomas singled. Bradley was tagged out at home, on a throw from Jesse Barfield to Buck Martinez. There was a collision between Bradley and Martinez; Martinez broke his ankle. Martinez was sitting on the ground in agony and threw the ball to third base in an attempt to tag out Gorman Thomas. The throw went into left field and Thomas ran towards home plate. Toronto left fielder George Bell threw the ball back to Martinez. He was still seated on the ground in pain but was able to tag Gorman Thomas for the second out.

Despite having stars such as Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry (nicknamed the "Ancient Mariner"), 1984 AL Rookie of the Year Alvin Davis, two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner Harold Reynolds, three-time American League strikeout leader Mark Langston, and shortstop and team captain Spike Owen on their rosters, the Mariners teams of the entirety of the 1980s were characterized by perennial non-achievement, gaining a reputation for poor performances, low attendance, and losing records. Moreover, the team's ownership again changed hands after the 1988 season, as then-owner George Argyros sold the club to a group headed by communications magnate Jeff Smulyan. However, the 1989 rookie season of center fielder Ken Griffey, Jr., acquired with the first overall pick of the 1987 amateur draft, gave fans hope that a change of fortunes might be on the horizon.

The Mariners since wore the caps for their Turn Back the Clock nights on June 25, 2010 against the Milwaukee Brewers and July 1, 2011 against the San Diego Padres. With all that in mind, it made my markings a bit of a challenge, but I’m pretty happy with my selections and their place in Mariners’ history.

#12- Born and raised in San Diego, California Mark Langston was a second round draft pick by the Mariners out of San Jose State in the 1981 amateur draft. From then until the end of the 1983 season he came up through the ranks of the Mariners’ minor league system, but bypassed AAA altogether when he made is MLB debut on April y, 1984. His most notable season in the minors came in 1982 when he was with the Class-A Bakersfield Mariners and went 12-7 with a 2.54 ERA and 161 strikeouts in 177 1/3 innings.

Langston served as the team’s ace his rookie season, going 17-10 with a 3.04 ERA and a league-leading 202 strikeouts. He ended up finishing in second place for the AL Rookie of the Year Award thanks in part by his jerk of a teammate Alvin Davis who had a great offensive showing. Either way, the important thing to note from the two finishing one-two for the Rookie of the Year Award is that they both beat out Kirby Puckett and Roger Clemens. 1982 proved to be a pretty rough sophomore season for Langston, but he picked his game back up in 1983 when he led the league in strikeouts again with 245. Unfortunately he also led the league in earned runs with 129 as well. Yikes!

In 1987, of course the first year not wearing this cap, Langston had his best year in Seattle, going 19-13 with a 3.84 ERA and once again leading the league in strikeouts with 262. He also made his first All-Star Game appearance and won the first of his back-to-back Gold Gloves. Langston would win seven for his career. But not to sell him short, Langston also finished fifth for the AL Cy Young Award, the highest finish he garner for his career.

Langston went 15-11 with 235 strikeouts in 1988, but got off to a mediocre 4-5 start in 1989 when he found himself on the trading block in July where he was sent to the Montreal Expos along with Mike Campbell for Gene Harris, Brian Holman and Randy Johnson. Langston pitched for 10 more seasons, eight of which came with the California Angels from 1990-1997 when they changed their name to the Anaheim Angels. In 1998 he was a member of the NL pennant-winning San Diego Padres. Noted for his pickoff move to first base, his 91 career pickoffs were, at the time of his retirement, the most in baseball history. Today, he has the fourth-most pickoffs in baseball history, behind only Kenny Rogers, Terry Mulholland and Andy Pettitte, all of them also left-handed pitchers. Currently, Langston serves as a radio color commentator for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during Angels home games. Starting in 2013, Langston does radio color commentary for all games and is also a co-host of the Angels post-game call-in show Angel Talk on radio station KLAA. He also appeared as himself in an episode of “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.”

#29- Speaking of players most of you have probably never heard of, Phil Bradley is arguably one of the greatest hitters in the history of the Mariners’ organization. Bradley played high school baseball in Macomb, Illinois for the Macomb High Bombers. Due to his success there, the Macomb High School baseball field was later dedicated in his name. Also a talented football player, he played college football at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and was their starting quarterback from 1978 through 1980. One of the most decorated athletes in Mizzou history, Bradley lettered in football from 1977-81, and in baseball in 1979-81. Bradley quarterbacked the Tigers to three bowl games. He was a three-time Big Eight Conference "Offensive Player of the Year" and set the conference total offense record at 6,459 yards which stood for 10 years. In baseball, he starred as an outfielder on Mizzou teams that won the Big Eight championship in 1980, and went to the NCAA Tournament in 1980 and 1981.

Bradley was selected in the third round of the 1981 amateur draft by the Mariners and made his Major League debut on September 2, 1983, as a pinch hitter against the New York Yankees. Bradley became Seattle's regular left fielder in 1984, batting .301 in 124 games. In 1985 he hit .300 with career-highs in home runs (26) and RBI (880 in 159 games and was selected to the AL All-Star team. He also finished 16^th for the AL MVP that season. On April 29, 1986, Bradley was Roger Clemens' 20th and final strikeout as the pitcher set a major league record for strikeouts in a game. In December of 1987, the Mariners traded Bradley and Tim Fortugno to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Mike Jackson, Glenn Wilson, and minor leaguer Dave Brundage.

Bradley hit a respectable .264 in his only season with the Phillies. Almost one year to the day since arriving from the Mariners, the Phillies, desperately in need of pitching help, dealt Bradley to the Baltimore Orioles for Gordon Dillard and Ken Howell. Back in the more familiar AL, Bradley's batting average rose to .277 in his first season in Baltimore. In mid-season 1990, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Ron Kittle. His final major league appearance came on September 29, 1990, as he drew two walks and scored a run in a 5-2 White Sox win over the Seattle Mariners. For the Mariners Bradley his .301 lifetime with 52 home runs, 234 RBI and even stole 107 bases.

August 5- St. Louis Cardinals

This post is kind of an interesting follow up to my Baltimore Orioles post on Rafael Palmeiro’s Hall of Fame career from yesterday. By the time you’re done reading this you’ll understand what I mean.

I first came across this cap in Buffalo, New York during the New Era Fan Appreciation (CrewEra13) event back on June 24^th. When the time came to go on our totally bitchin’ shopping spree I saw this sitting underneath an old school Kansas City Athletics cap and made no mention that I even noticed. Why? Because I had no idea what it was. Upon first glance I could tell it was a St. Louis Cardinals cap of some variety, but outside of that I couldn’t pinpoint a timeframe. This became especially frustrating because I couldn’t get my phone to work in order to look it up to see if it was worth scooping up. So, without any real knowledge behind it, I let it sip through my fingers. When we got to the marketing part of the tour and we were shown the bevy of Turn Back the Clock caps New Era had in store for the season, that’s when everything had come into the light. However, still knowing what I did then, I still let it go.

It was kind of a weird move on my part for a few reasons, most of which had to do with the fact that I rarely ever let a Turn Back the Clock cap go unpurchased. But the one real oddity of this trip/moment was that at the time I only owned four total Cardinals caps, all of which I have written about (January 25^th, May 1^st, May 19^th and June 17^th). There is still one more cap the team currently wears that I still need to purchase, but there really is no rush in scooping that one up. As far as their Cooperstown Collection and Turn Back the Clock caps are concerned; yes, I really should have been more aggressive about things. Thankfully, I lucked out. I found this one on Hat Club while they were running a sale and made sure to out it at the top of my checkout list… but not before I did a background check.

Like a lot of caps from the turn of the 20^th century, the Cardinals “technically” only used this cap for two seasons; however, the years in which they used it (1903 and 1906) were not the specific year in which the Cardinals were celebrating. See, back on May 5^th of this year the Cardinals were playing on the road against their National League Central rival the Milwaukee Brewers when the whole Turn Back the Clock motif was presented. The timeframe that was selected was 1913, which played more heavily as a tribute to the Brewers than it ever did to the Cardinals as explained here…

Back in 1902 the original American League Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis where they were known as the St. Louis Browns until 1953. With the absence of Major League Baseball in town, Milwaukee entered a new team that adopted the Brewers name into the minor league American Association. That minor league franchise lasted 50 years as an affiliate of the Browns, Chicago White Sox and Cubs, Cleveland Indians and Boston Braves. Its first American Association championship came in 1913. And that's the reason 1913 is being celebrated today.

The Braves' association with Milwaukee led to the demise of the American Association Brewers in 1954 when the parent club moved from Boston to Milwaukee. That relationship, however, would only last a little more than a decade as the major league club moved to Atlanta in time for the 1966 season. The American Association Brewers were moved to Toledo where they became known as the Mud Hens. While Milwaukee doesn't have any Major League Baseball championships to celebrate, the 1913 Cardinals hadn't yet begun their National League best run of 11 World Series wins by that point in franchise history.

So in some crazy way, the Brewers were trolling the Cardinals if you really break down the where each team was on a success scale back in 1913. Clever! But, what does that have to do with this hat? Well, as I mentioned above the Cardinals only used variations of this cap twice back in 1903…

And 1906 (right)…

Both of them featured the same style “STL” logo on the front of the cap, but only the 1906 version comes the closest to the Turn Back the Clock cap of 2013. So what exactly were the Cardinals wearing back in 1913? These…

Like a lot of the Turn Back the Clock caps that I’ve written about already, the logo on the modern cap is a new edition. Most of the caps back in the old days really didn’t feature any kind of logo or anything too flashy, that’s what the uniform was for. Some teams brandished across the chest, but most stuck to sleeve patches and an occasional patch over the heart. The 2013 Cardinals Turn Back the Clock uniforms were spot on, but I can only speculate as to why New Era elected to go with a different cap other than the pinstripe model shown above. My theory, because it looks cooler.

The logo on the sleeves of the road uniform had a pretty good run as they were used from 1909 through the end of the 1917 season.

Now, due to the fact that this cap was technically only used for the one game on May 5^th I suppose I should mark it up with something having to do with that game. Matt Holliday and Allen Craig had great offensive nights and starting pitcher Jaime Garcia pitched eight strong innings while only allowing one run on eight hits and one walk. But, in keeping with the theme of the uniforms and tribute, I decided to go with something a little more historic. Rather, something that very few people outside of historians have ever really bothered to take a look at. For this, I had to go back to the origin of this cap in 1903.

PD: Contrary to my last name, Christensen (it’s Danish), I have a lot of Irish blood running through my veins which I inherited from my mother’s side of the family. The first tattoo I ever got marked the occasion.

My heritage though, goes beyond the traditional stereotype of drinking whiskey, eating potatoes and continually living with mistakes of the past. I for one am proud of my heritage and conduct research regularly on the men and women whose footsteps I have followed. This is the story of arguably the greatest Irish-born baseball player/mind to ever take the field.

It’s not secret that Irish players have come and gone throughout the ranks of Major League Baseball, some of the earliest players of the games weren’t too far removed from the boat that they had stepped off of when they picked up a bat and glove. Throughout the 144-year history of the league there have been 47 players and two additional managers to take the field who were born in Ireland. The last of which was born in 1945, Joe Clearly. Prior to that, the last Ireland-born player was in 1916. Since the 1960s the concept of foreign-born players started very small and has quickly worked its way into a regular part of the game. Countries like Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela have farm systems and plenty of talent ready to burst onto the Major League scene; however, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the league today who was originally born in a 150-mile circumference of the country that gave birth to the game we’ve come to know and love.

Back in the late 1800s the United States had just gotten finished the last war on home soil and all walks of life were taking a shine to this new game that was spreading throughout the East Coast like a wildfire. Despite claims that the Irish were blackballed from most jobs and contributions to the “American Way,” history has proven time and time again that the motto “Irish Need Not Apply” is merely a work of fiction. With that in mind, some of the greatest players early in baseball history were from the Emerald Isles. One of the first 46 born before 1917 played 17 seasons from 1890-1907 and was a player/manager for 11 of those years. His name was Patsy Donovan.

 Born in Queenstown, County Cork, Donovan established himself as the most successful Irish-born major leaguer. He broke into organized baseball in 1886 with the Lawrence, Massachusetts team in the New England League. In 1888 and 1889, Donovan played outfield for the London Tecumsehs of the International Association at Tecumseh Park (today's Labatt Park) in London, Ontario, Canada, where, in his first season in 1888, he led the league in batting with a .359 batting average (according to the Donovan family Web site; however, the London Tecumsehs' official scorer C.J. Moorehead, in a 1903 copy of The London Advertiser, cited Donovan's 1888 batting average as .398), had 201 hits, scored 103 runs and stole 80 bases. His second season with the Tecumsehs was less successful due to a leg injury.

In 1890 he made his Major League debut in the National League with the Boston Beaneaters, and moved to the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in midseason; it would be the only time in his career that he played for a league champion. In 1891 he played in the American Association (AA) for the Louisville Colonels and Washington Statesmen; he then returned to the NL in 1892, first with the Senators (the former Statesmen, who had joined the NL in a league merger) before going to the Pittsburgh Pirates for most of the year. Donovan starred with the Pirates from 1893 through 1899, notching six consecutive seasons batting .300 and serving as player/manager in 1897 and 1899. The team was sold late in 1899, during a time when the league was contracting from twelve teams to eight; new owner Barney Dreyfuss brought in Fred Clarke to be manager, with Donovan being sent to the Cardinals. He played for St. Louis from 1900–1903, sharing the league lead in stolen bases (45) in his first season, also managing the team in his last three seasons with them. By the end of the 1903 season he ranked among the NL's top ten career leaders in hits and at bats, though he would drop from among the leaders before his playing career ended. His 64 career double plays in the NL ranked one behind Jimmy Ryan's league record. He then served as player/manager for the American League's Washington Senators in 1904, his last season as a regular.

In 1903, he broke Sam Thompson's major league record of 1401 games in right field; Willie Keeler passed him in 1906, before Donovan played his last several games and retired with a total of 1620. In 1906, he became manager of the Brooklyn Superbas, and made his last few playing appearances that year, along with one more game at the end of the 1907 season. In a 17-season playing career, Donovan had 2246 hits, 1318 runs, 16 home runs and 736 RBI in 1821 games, along with 207 doubles and 75 triples. Donovan collected 302 stolen bases from 1890 to 1897 and 216 more after the statistic was revised to its modern definition in 1898. He batted .300 lifetime and set a major league record for career games in right field, as well as retiring among the career leaders in total games (fifth, 1813), assists (ninth, 264) and double plays (fifth, 69) as an outfielder.

Donovan joined the Boston Red Sox as a scout in 1909, and managed the team in 1910 and 1911. As a major league manager, he compiled a 684-879 record (.438) in 11 seasons. He was also instrumental in bringing Babe Ruth to the Sox in 1914 through his acquaintance with one of the Xaverian Brothers who coached Ruth at a Baltimore orphans' home. Later he went to the International League, where he led Buffalo to pennants in 1915 and 1916, and also managed Jersey City in 1921–22 and 1925–26. He finished out his career coaching High School baseball at Phillips Academy in Andover, where he coached the future 41st President, George H.W. Bush. Crazy!

Donovan died at the age of 88 in Lawrence, Massachusetts on Christmas Day 1953, and is interred at St. Mary Cemetery in Lawrence. Despite his accomplishments throughout the history of the league, let alone the game, he is not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Based on the time frame in which he played, his accomplishments should have gotten him in. He was a hell of a hitter, almost average by the standard of those days, but his is still one of the greatest defensive players to ever take the field. And yet, men who played less years and accomplished less than he did have found their way into the Hall by the Veteran’s Committee. None of it makes much sense. 

July 27- Oakland Athletics

Unlike a lot of my other posts, this one I have to jump forward to the date that I’m actually posting the story as opposed to when the story takes place. It sounds confusing, but you’ll get where I’m going as you read on. I promise.

This story starts back in Buffalo, New York back on June 24^th on Day 2 of the #CrewEra13’s trip to New Era headquarters. On of the highlights of our trip came during one of the focus group sessions when we were given a sneak peak on some of the Turn Back the Clock caps they were introducing for the 2013 season. One or two of the ones they had shown had already been worn; however, there were still about 10 more that hadn’t. The feeling that we all shared was the closest to getting presents from Santa Claus on Christmas. I could see one cap of a Kelley green variety deep inside the box and my mouth began to salivate more and more as one of the members of the marketing team drew closer to it. In a heartbeat, the moment this cap hit the table shifted my attitude shifted from curiosity to lust. 

I know I’m talking about a hat, but this is a thing of beauty. The design team at New Era did a fantastic job bringing this baby back to life, but with a modern touch. From 1968-1969 the newly located Oakland Athletics wore this cap for all of their home and away games. The only difference between then and now is that the logo on the cap back then was a bit skinnier…

Another cool thing about this time period is that the players and managers wore different colored hats, one of the only times in Major League history in which such a uniform difference occurred in the modern era.

But getting back to Buffalo, I didn’t care how much it was going to cost, I wanted this hat. The unfortunate part is that they didn’t have it for sale down in the Flagship Store; otherwise I would have made it my first purchase. Instead, I just took pictures with my new friend and reluctantly slid it down the table for the other guys to take a peek at. 

At the time I didn’t know what we were allowed to post on social media so I kept most of these photos a secret until after the game in which the A’s wore these caps were played (July 27th). Well, not too long after we got back from Buffalo one of the premier New Era Cap selling Web sites, Hat Club, posted them up. I was broke at the time with a paycheck coming in three short days. I also owed fellow #CrewEra13 member Chris Cornolo (@ccornolo) the cap after he had purchased and shipped out a Milwaukee Brewers cap I had been trying to track down. So, when the time came and I got the money into my bank account I went straight to the Hat Club site to make my purchase, or so I thought. Turns out this cap was a little bit more popular than anyone expected as EVERY 1969 A’s on the site had been sold. I was befuddled. I searched around on other sites keeping up the hope that I would be able to find it somewhere, if not just for Chris since he wears a size 8. No dice.

Weeks would go by before the caps appeared on another site, Lids and New Era. But like the previous time I didn’t have any money to purchase Chris’s size 8. And once again, as soon as I got the money into my account, they were gone. My frustration was near a boiling point if for no reason other than I just hate being in debt to people. Money-related matters is a much easier thing to be in debt to a person about as money is everywhere, but a specialty item? Good luck. I was fortunate to come across one on the MLB.com/Shop site in Chris’s size, but it’s on a 2-4 week backorder. Well, getting it order is better than anything I suppose. As for myself, I didn’t really matter as much. I held faith that more would be released down the road, but I also knew that I could pick an original one up off of one of my favorite Web sites if I wanted to. It was in this moment of acceptance that I got an email from Erin, our New Era host, saying that she had a gift for me and needed to know where to send it. This was in the middle of August, right around the time that I was packing up my stuff to move to Florida to be with Angie, so I gave her the address there. Erin said no problem and sent it out. She never told me what it was, just that it was a sample cap that happened to be lying around and she thought I might like it.

The day after I arrived in Florida there was a knock at the door in the early hours (11 AM). Angie had already gone to her rotation at the hospital so I was left to myself to look presentable and see what the commotion was about. As I opened the door a man in FedEx uniform asked if I was Benjamin and handed a small box over. All the sleepiness was washed out of my body by the surge of adrenaline that now coursed through my veins as I feverishly signed for the package, closed the door and sought out a knife to open it. As soon as I removed the tape and pulled back the flaps I achieved the biggest “hat boner” (yup, just made that up) of my life.

Not only was it the 1969 A’s cap, but it was the same one that I had fallen in love with back in Buffalo. You know that old expression “If you love something, let it go; if it comes back to you, it was mean to be?” Well… :)

When coming up with marks for this cap I decided to stick within the parameters of when it was used. Since this cap was specifically made for the “Turn Back the Clock Night” on July 27^th I made sure to highlight those who truly shined, as opposed to going back in time an writing about the older generation who wore the original cap. Those guys/moments I intend to write about when I get the original cap.

#36- Some people are meant to have mediocre careers, others become superstars, some fade into obscurity and then there are some who come through in the clutch. Derek Norris’s career has been too short to really establish which type he will become; however, one thing that has been a constant is that the man knows how to play in front of a nationally televised audience.

Norris was originally drafted by the Washington Nationals in the fourth round of the 2007 amateur draft out of Goddard High School in Goddard, Kansas. From 2007-2011 Norris climbed through the ranks of the Nationals minor league system, playing his best ball with the Class-A Hagerstown Suns of the South Atlantic League. A catcher, Norris had a hit of a challenge in front of him with the likes of Ivan Rodriguez and Wilson Ramos ahead of him in The Show, but his fortune changed two days before Christmas in 2011 as he, AJ Cole, Brad Peacock and Tommy Milone were dealt to the A’s for Gio Gonzalez and Robert Gilliam. Norris started out in AAA with the Sacramento River Cats, but impressed everyone enough to get called up to the Majors as veteran catcher Kurt Suzuki wasn’t displaying the hitter power he had in previous seasons. When Suzuki was finally dealt to the Nationals on August 3^rd, Norris became the team’s full-time catcher.

There are times when Norris really shines offensively, while in other moments it’s his ability to gun would be base-stealing jabronies out with ease that show off his talent. Either way, he has become a pivotal member of the American League West Champion A’s system. But hey, I was talking about being clutch a little bit ago, so let’s just stick to that. Someone I regularly talk to on Twitter, a San Francisco Giants fan named Joseph Canino (@CiNDER_JOE), had asked me after the “Turn Back the Clock” game about Norris’s numbers during nationally televised games. So, as soon as I got home and onto my computer I took to the stat sheets. The numbers were surprising to say the least: in six regular season nationally televised games in which he has played in he is batting .352 with three home runs, a double and six RBI. That’s pretty damn impressive, especially since on July 27^th his one an only at-bat was a pinch hit home run which ended up being the difference maker in the game. Clutch!!!

57: The man to get the start for the A’s on July 27^th just so happened to be the man who traveled to the West Cost with Norris in the Nationals trade, Tommy “Machine Gun” Milone. Milone was drafted by the Nationals in the 10^th round of the 2008 amateur draft out of USC. He made five starts for the Nationals in 2011, going 1-0 with a 3.81 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 26 inning of work. But, as business goes, Milone and the gang were sent to Oakland with little-to-no expectations on the season other than to be an arm. Not being one to lay by the roadside, Milone displayed a strong presence on the mound in 2012, going 13-10 with a 3.74 ERA and 137 strikeouts. He also had one of the strongest outings of the American League Division Series in Game 2 against the Detroit Tigers. He pitched six solid innings, only allowing one earned run off of five hits while still striking out six.

Milone has been up-and-down in 2013, but he will still remain as a key component to success if the A’s wish to finally get that World Series trophy that has eluded them since the start of the 1990 season. Milone’s strongest start of the 2013 season did in fact come on July 27^th against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as Milone tossed seven innings of four hit, one earned run ball, while still striking out six. The Athletics won 3-1 and the day ended with the A’s maintaining a five-game lead in the AL West.

Oh! And these were the uniforms they wore in the game. F---ing Amazin' A's!!!

 

July 26- Seattle Mariners

2001 was an incredibly difficult year to be living in the Pacific Northwest as an Oakland Athletics fan, but somehow I managed. I was just at the tail end of my senior year at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Washington and working at Just Sports (@JustSportsPDX) when it all began. First off, some of you may have heard of Columbia River recently, especially if you’re a big sports fan. Here’s a link to explain why. Yup, that was my high school, but that’s beside the point. No, my issues started in late November of 2000 when the Seattle Mariners purchased the contract of Ichiro Suzuki from the Orix Blue Wave of the Pacific League in Japan, sending Mariners fans into a feeding frenzy as they all needed to have a piece of the Ichiro sensation. As you could imagine, most of my days were filled with selling nothing but Mariners gear. On the outside this was good; more money for the store meant more money to pay my wage as more hours were available. However, on the inside I was a pot of hot water about to boil over. The Mariners had only been successful one year in my life, 1995, something that I covered in two posts on January 31^st and May 27^th. My Athletics had edged the Mariners by half a game in 2000 and all I wanted to do was rub it in the faces of the people who I felt were jumping onto the bandwagon of one of the biggest sporting fads of the last decade. After all, I grew up in Southern California when Hideo Nomo was brought over to the United States by the Los Angeles Dodgers and I also saw his career go from instant Hall of Famer to role player in a very short time. I thought the 2001 Mariners were going to be the 1995 Dodgers all over again. Boy, was I wrong.

Things immediately started off the exact opposite of how I thought they would. Within the first nine games of the season the Athletics and Mariners played each other six times with the Athletics biting it hard to the tune of 1-5. To make matters worse the Mariners finished the first month of the season with a 20-5 record while my Athletics finished 8-17. Needless to say, panic had set in. And of course to make matters worse, the store was doing so well in selling Mariners gear that we opened a separate kiosk at the opposite end of the mall which only carried Mariners gear. Guess who got stuck working at most of the time, yours truly. The Baseball Gods sung their praises and boasted the Mariners into the limelight, something that most had felt would take years to recover after the loss of Ken Griffey, Jr. Nope! It only took one full season with out him to reach a higher plateau than anyone could have imagined. From May 23^rd through June 8^th the Mariners went on a 15-game winning streak, a feat that would be bested by my Athletics the following season with a hard 20. But none of that mattered. Once the Mariners lost a game, two games in a row if a team was lucky, they would start another streak right back up.

The worst moments of the season (for the Mariners) came on August 5^th and September 20^th through September 23^rd. August 5^th, as some of you may remember, is a game that is routinely played on ESPN Classic, is probably the worst result in Mariners history and is by far one of the greatest games in Major League Baseball history. This is the night when the Mariners got out to a 12-0 lead against the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field and ended up losing in the 11^th inning by the score of 15-14 thanks in part to a miraculous comeback in the seventh through ninth innings and a walk-off RBI single by Jolbert Cabrera. As for the games in September, those four games account for the longest losing streak the Mariners suffered the entire season, three of which came at the hands of the Athletics, which ended up being key victories as the Athletics managed to finish the season with 102 wins and 60 losses despite the absolutely horrific start. The Mariners, on the other hand, tied the Major League record with 116 wins which was originally set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs. Most of the Mariners season consisted of one to two run victories; however, you can’t help by look back on these five games and easily say that any one of them could have, should have been a victory for the Mariners, especially their game against the Indians. To make matters worse, the Mariners were only able to notch one victory against the defending World Series champion New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. And like the 1906 Cubs, the Mariners ended their season with a record, but not a championship trophy.

For 10 of the last 12 years I held the piece of history above the heads of every Mariners fan I know. After all, until the Anaheim Angels won the World Series in 2002 the Athletics owned the American League West, except for 1985 when the Kansas City Royals were still in division. But the more I look at things, the more I notice how many empty seats are in Safeco Field for every game, the more I see how the team has gone through seven managers after Lou Pinella and the more I see homegrown talent traded away for overhyped multi-millionaires, it all makes me realize how important a World Series title would have been for that team, the fans and the city. Who knows how different things would be? Lou Pinella might have just stepped down two to three years ago, Pat Gillick would still be putting World Series-caliber teams together and even Portland, Oregon might still have a AAA baseball team if not a Major League team in the works. People outside of the sport realm don’t really understand how a championship can change the economy of a city or its surrounding area, but I sure as shit do.

It’s sad. My selfishness and spoils got the better of me I guess. I’m not at all taking the blame for what happened, but it’s all so clear now how rivalries should never be taken to intense depths. Wins and losses come and go, but sometimes, the grand scheme of things, the thing that will hurt your pride the most is the most beneficial for you in the end. If the Mariners winning the World Series that year helped keep the interest and support in Portland, I would have been comfortable with that in a heartbeat. But, it didn’t. And like Mariners fans of today, all I can do is look back on the season that once was.

This cap is an interesting relic from the 2001 season. Most of you have probably seen it, but very few probably remember that it was only used for 14 games, only on Sunday home games throughout the 2001 season. The Mariners went 11-3 under this cap, losing to the Toronto Blue Jays on May 6^th (11-3), the Indians on August 26^th (4-3) and the Texas Rangers on October 7^th, the last day of the regular season by the score of 4-3. Like I said earlier, a lot of one to two-run games. The silver material used for the bill is a metallic-looking thread which had only been used one other time on a baseball cap by the Houston Astros, a post I’ll get to in the not too distant future. The compass logo was first introduced in 1993 and has been a fixture on all the Mariners caps as it normally sits in the center of the “S” on the home and road caps. This particular cap for the first to use it as a primary cap logo and was subsequently used for all/most of the batting practice caps after the 2001 season.

#48- One of the most important figures for the 2001 team is somebody who has gotten very little credit over the last decade for his service, Paul Abbott. Abbott was a third round draft pick by the Minnesota Twins in the 1985 Draft out of Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California. He didn’t play a major role for them, but he was still a 3-1 winning relief pitcher for the Twins on the 1991 team which earned him his only World Series ring of his 11-year career. At the end if the 1993 season he was released by the Twins and signed by the Indians where made five stars, none of which were great, and was released at the end of the season. From then until January of 1997 he bounced between the Royals, Cubs and San Diego Padres, but never made it beyond the minors until the Mariners decided to give him a shot. Abbott had a decent 1998 and 1999 season with the Mariners, but still found himself getting released and re-signed by the Mariners twice during that time period. Finally in 2000 then-manager Pinella put Abbott in a starting role where he started 27, pitched in 35 and went 9-7 on the season with a 4.22 ERA and 100 strikeouts, the highest of his career. With a savvy, reliable veteran arm in tact, Abbott remained one of Pinella’s five starters going into the 2001 season.

Abbott was given the fourth spot behind Freddy Garcia, Aaron Sele and equally if not more grizzled veteran Jamie Moyer. The Mariners and their fans figured Abbott was nothing more than a 33-year-old arm to throw the ball until they got something better, they were wrong. Despite carrying a 4.25 ERA throughout the season, Abbott managed to score the best win percentages in the franchise’s history, 81%. Abbott mustered everything he had that season and posted a record of 17-4, as well as a new career-high in strikeouts with 118. All of this came in 27 starts once again. He wasn’t at all in the running for any awards like his teammates were, nor did he make the All-Star team that year, nor any year of his career.

Abbott pitched one more season with the Mariners, the worst of his tenure, and he was released at the end of the season. Abbott was picked up by the Arizona Diamondbacks soon after and traded to the Royals in August of 2003 where he would make his only MLB appearances of that season. He was then signed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in late 2003, made a few appearances in 2004, was released shortly after and picked up by the Philadelphia Phillies before the season ended. After that his MLB career was over.

#50- Jamie Moyer is hands down one of the greatest human being to every put on a Mariners uniform, let alone any MLB uniform. Moyer has received numerous awards for philanthropy and community service, including the 2003 Roberto Clemente Award, the 2003 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, the 2003 Hutch Award, and the 2004 Branch Rickey Award, and there was even this one time he almost fell of the second tier of Century Link Field while he was waiving the 12^th Man flag during a Seattle Seahawks playoff game against the Washington Redskins because he was so fired up. But, the one thing most people will remember him for is that he is one of only 29 players in baseball history to have appeared in Major League games in four decades.

Moyer’s career began when he was drafted in the sixth round of the 1984 amateur draft by the Cubs out of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To put things into a wild perspective, he was drafted the year before Rafael Palmiero (also drafted by the Cubs) and made his MLB debut on June 16, 1986, two months before Palmiero. From 1986-1996 Moyer had modest success, but jumped around to a lot of teams until ending up on the Mariners via trade by the Boston Red Sox for Darren Bragg. In Seattle he started 11 games and went 6–2. His record of 13–3 led the majors in winning percentage at .813.

In 1997, Moyer was fifth in the AL with 17 wins. His 17–5 record gave him the second-highest winning percentage (.773) in the league. Moyer made his first postseason start against his former club Baltimore, but was forced out with a strained elbow in the fifth inning. In 1998, Moyer went 15–9 with a 3.53 ERA. He was third in innings pitched with 234.1. He registered his 100th career win against the Indians on August 27, as well as his 1000th career strikeout with a sixth inning strikeout of David Bell. He was named Seattle's Pitcher of the Year by the Seattle chapter of the BBWAA. He walked two or fewer batters in 29 of his 32 starts. He ranked fourth in the American League averaging just 1.9 walks per nine innings. Moyer was also third among the league in innings pitched and seventh winning percentage. He matched his career-best seven-game winning streak from May 11 to July 7. He started the Inaugural Game at Safeco Field on July 15 against the San Diego Padres, throwing a called strike to San Diego's Quilvio Veras for the first pitch and getting a no-decision in Seattle's 3–2 loss after leaving with a 2–1 lead after eight innings. He defeated Baltimore for the ninth straight time on July 31; he did not lose to the Orioles in the 1990s. Moyer's only loss at Safeco came on August 5 against the Yankees. He recorded three complete games in the final month of the season, tossing back-to-back complete games on September 14 and 19. His 2.30 ERA after the All-Star break was the second-lowest among AL starters, behind only Pedro Martínez with his 2.01 ERA. He pitched 4 complete games for the second straight season, tying his career best. In 1999, Moyer went 14–8 with a 3.87 ERA and was voted to The Sporting News AL All-Star team. He again won the Seattle Pitcher of the Year award and finished sixth for the AL Cy Young award.

2000 saw Moyer rebound from an early shoulder injury to tally 13 wins, giving him at least 13 in each of his past five seasons. He made his first Opening Day start for Seattle, but lost to the Boston Red Sox 2–0 on April 4. His shoulder problems led his ERA to balloon to 5.49. A knee injury suffered on the last pitch of a simulated game caused him to miss Seattle's trip to the ALCS against the eventual World Series champion New York Yankees. Moyer lost five consecutive starts from August 4–24. He allowed a career-high and a club-record 11 earned runs in a 19–3 loss on August 9 against the Chicago White Sox. He allowed 11 runs, 6 earned, in a 14–4 loss on August 14 against the Detroit Tigers, joining the Astros' José Lima as the first two pitchers since 1950 to allow ten or more runs in consecutive starts. Moyer allowed a career-high seven walks in a no-decision on August 29 against the Yankees. The Mariners' 7–2 win on September 9 against the Minnesota Twins snapped a six-game losing streak. Moyer lasted just one and two-thirds innings in his final start, getting a no-decision September 28 against the Rangers. Moyer suffered a hairline fracture of left kneecap while pitching a simulated game on October 7.

In 2001 Moyer rebounded hard, winning 20 games, ranked tied for second in the AL, and his 3.43 ERA was sixth in the AL. He earned his 150th career win against the Rangers on September 24. He became only the second Mariner in history to win 20 games on October 5, former teammate Randy Johnson being the other. Moyer went 3–0 with a 1.89 ERA in the postseason. He won Games 2 and 5 for the Mariners against the Indians and also carried Game 3 against the New York Yankees before Seattle lost in Game 5. Moyer would finish in fourth place for the AL Cy Young that season.

Moyer continued to thrive with a successful campaign in 2003 wile becoming the first player 40 years or older to win at least 20 games. He went 21-7 that season and posted a career-low 3.27 ERA and 129 strikeouts. He was selected to the first and only All-Star Game of his career and finished fifth for the AL Cy Young that season. It would be the last time he would be on a Cy Young finishing ballot.

Moyer’s career with the Mariners came to a sad end on August 19, 2006 when he was traded to the Phillies for minor league pitchers Andrew Barb and Andrew Baldwin. The only important thing to take of note from this time period is that Moyer earned the elusive World Series ring in 2008 as the Phillies won for the first time since 1980. Most important about this is that Moyer was able to win it in his home city.

His career continued on until the end of the 2012 season. He is the oldest pitcher to record a win on April 17^th against the Padres as a member of the Colorado Rockies. He would subsequently break that record on May 16^th against the Diamondbacks which would ultimately be the final victory of his career.

Moyer brought me many years of absolute frustration as an Athletics fan, but in the end, I had the utmost respect for him. The one thing that I think really personified his career was a commercial the Mariners put together in 2006 about him which, in my opinion, is still one of the greatest team commercials ever released.

July 3- Seattle Turks

I kind of screwed myself a little bit on this post; nothing major, just a slight bit of oversight in the grand scheme of things. Back in early June my friend and co-worker Clayton Coyne (@Clayton_Coyne) informed that he and his girlfriend would be heading up to Seattle for the Saturday (June 29) game in which the Mariners were hosting the Chicago Cubs. What I didn’t know, until I looked the schedule, is that it was the Mariners’ “Turn Back the Clock Night” at Safeco Field. For those who don’t know what that means, I suggest you take a look at my post from January 23^rd to understand its importance to hat collectors. “Turn Back the Clock Night” is when the home team, and most of the time the away team, don old school uniforms from the respective teams’ history on the ball field. Leading up to this game the Mariners had pretty much rolled out all of the combinations years passed, including a rare Seattle Raniers get-up during their game with the Los Angeles Angels the year before. Going into this game I knew that both teams were reviving uniforms from 1909; however, I couldn’t really find anything for the Mariners until a few days before the game.

The Cubs uniforms were definitely made to the exact specifications of the turn-of-the-century team who had won what would be their last World Series the previous year (1908), while the Mariners dug deep and pulled something out from their storied minor league past. These.

I’m not going to get too deep into the Cubs cap as I have plans for that down the road. As for the Mariners, or Seattle Turks as they were known, it was really interesting to find that they only wore this uniform for one season. That year, 1909, happened to be their only year known as the Turks, and it was also the only year in which they won a Class-B Northwest League title under then-player manager Mike Lynch. The team played their games at Yesler Way Park, which was used for baseball from 1907-1912 as the Turks were known by their other team names: Siwashes (1903-1908) and Giants (1910-1918). For most of the league's history, there were no official playoffs following the regular season; in fact, 1915 was the only season in which a playoff was played. Therefore, the team that finished in first place was often the de facto league champion. That season the Turks went 109-58.

Now that we’ve established all of that, back to the story. Due to the fact that the hats were being unveiled during that game I had foolishly assumed that the Saturday in which the game was being played would be the only day in which the hats would be sold. Oops! To make matters worse on the subject, I had gotten a sneak peek at the Cubs cap a few days before the game, along with a few other teams’ “Turn Back the Clock” caps during the #CrewEra13 visit to New Era’s headquarters in Buffalo, New York on June 24^th. Basically I bring this up because I really should have known better in thinking that the Turks cap would only be available for one day.

The day before Clayton and his girlfriend left for Seattle I was supposed to meet up with him to give him money to get me one of the caps. Unfortunately, our meeting didn’t happen, but he did let me know that he would buy me the cap just as long as I paid him back immediately, a request I had no problem complying with. On a whim I had also asked him to pick me up the Cubs cap just in case he saw it. Based on this request he had phones ahead to one of his friends working for the team and asked if the Cubs hats would be available. His friend had told him “no” and we all just kind of left it at that.

Since I was working I watched as many little bits and highlights as I could on my break. It’s one thing to see photos of the uniforms, it’s another thing to see them in action. The game got off to a quick start as Cubs’ shortstop gave his tem an early 1-0 lead with a solo blast off of Aaron Harang in the first inning. Justin Smoak countered with a solo shot of his own off of Jeff Samardzija while Dustin Ackley plated Mike Zunino with an RBI single of his own to give the Mariners a 2-1 lead after two. In the sixth inning the Cubs added two more thanks to RBI-singles from Nate Schierholtz and Alfonso Soriano. The Mariners then tied it up in the ninth with an Endy Chavez RBI-single himself to force extra innings. Free baseball would sadly be short-lived as Soriano tagged Oliver Perez for a two-run homer in the top of the 11^th which ended up be the winning runs for the Cubs.

The next day I arrived at work without any money in my pocket as I had forgotten to stop by an ATM on the way, o when Clayton arrived to drop off the hat and pick up his money I had to run out to a random non-bank ATM in order to pay for the ware he picked up for me. In this case I had to shell out an extra $3.50 in fees on top of the $35 for the regular price cost of the cap. Therefore, I spent $38.50 for the cap. Things were just starting to go bad.

Before Clayton left to head back home I randomly stumbled across the Lids Web site to check out if there was anything new that they may have added over the last 24 hours. Sure enough, both caps were kicking it in their “TBTC” section. Not only that, the Mariners did in fact sell the Cubs’ caps at the game, thus making Clayton’s friend one of the most uninformed employees on their payroll. In other words, he works for general manager Jack Zduriencik. Kidding of course. But the point I want to make about the Lids Web site is that I could have gotten 25% off of both caps with my Lids card as well as gotten them shipped to the Lids location in the mall I work at for free. So you see, in summation, I blew it. For an extra $17.50 added on to what I paid I could have had both had I been a little more patient about things. But then again, that’s the trouble with hats that will only be used for one game during a season; they go fast. Now… I need to collect all of the other “Turn Back the Clock” caps before it’s too late.

#1909- When marking this up I decided to keep it simple in order to pay tribute to the lost championship season of yesteryear. One thing that I should point out on these caps is that the "S" logo is different than in the picture below. The ones on the modernized caps are identical to the "S" logo of the Seattle Pilots, who I will be writing about in August.

It’s a bit interesting to look around on seasonal stat sheets on BaseballRefernce.com only to find a slew of question marks next to almost every players’ name. Only six players from this team went on to have any kind of a career in the Major Leagues; they include: Emil Frisk, Pug Bennett, Mike Lynch, Lee Magee, Gus Thompson and Burt Whaling. One thing I can point out is that none of them had numbers on the back of their jerseys as that concept wouldn’t be introduced until the 1929 New York Yankees. Of all six only one had a worth-while career in the Majors while one had an interesting fact pop up on his bio sheet.

The random fact that popped up was how Bennett is buried in an “unknown” cemetery in Kirkland, Washington. Kirkland resides on the east side of Lake Washington about 21 minutes east and then north. I find this fact to be a bit eerie for the sake that I would hate to have my body missing when I die. I realize that when I’m dead it’s not going to matter, but still, it’s the principle of the matter.

As for the “stat king,” Lee Magee, born Leopold Christopher Hoernschmeyer, played in the Majors from 1911-191 for seven different ball clubs: St. Louis Cardinals (1911-1914), Brooklyn Tip-Tops (1915), Yankees (1916-1917), St. Louis Browns (1917), Cincinnati Reds (1918), Brooklyn Robins (1919) and Cubs (1919). His best season came in 1914 when he hit .284 with two home runs, 40 RBI and 36 stolen bases, which was good enough for an 11^th-place finish for the National League MVP. Johnny Evers of the Boston Braves took home the hardware that season. Aside from that, nothing else of real note. Magee finished his career going .276/12/277 with 186 stolen bases in 1015 games.