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ecognized the irony of the 1982 series as well saying my favorite baseball memory is my best friend s baseball disaster a few minutes with tony l simmons s entire life has been spent in baseball simmons moved from the cardinals front office to become the gm but he stepped aside in 1993 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 44 that led him to stop smoking start exercising and eat better so as he put it he would not be dead by the time you are 50 he then worked in scouting and or in the front office for cleveland san diego seattle and atlanta in addition he was the bench coach for the milwaukee brewers for the 2008 season their first trip back to the postseason since 1982 of course simmons was one of the guys who played a major role for my 1982 milwaukee brewers team as a catcher as a kid simmons was a personal favorite of mine he and gary carter but overall simmons probably does not rank much higher than 7th or 8th in terms of the favorite players on that team behind at least cecil cooper robin yount paul molitor ben oglivie jim gantner and gorman thomas and maybe rollie fingers too the major question that gets asked these days is if ted simmons belongs in the hall of fame my answer is a resounding yes looking to the jaws scores from baseball reference simmons is the highest ranked catcher who is eligible for induction but has not yet been inducted he s listed as the 10th best catcher overall and only the recently retired joe mauer ranks higher without being inducted simmons s main problem is similar to what tim raines went through simmons played at the same time as the 1st 2nd and 4th best catchers in baseball history johnny bench gary carter and carlton fisk bench debuted in 1967 simmons in 1968 fisk in 1969 and carter in 1974 even if simmons was the poorest defensively amongst those four there is a good argument that he is the best or at worst second best offensive catcher of the four the fact that simmons played at a time when the game s best ever catchers played however should not be a reason to keep him out simmons is a hall of famer and the voters made a mistake and continue to make a mistake in keeping him out posted by tony l at 10 11 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels baseball man brewer freeze frame hall of fame in or out ted simmons sunday january 3 2016 card 149 pat putnam who can it be now patrick edward putnam was born in bethel vermont on december 3 1953 there have not been many major leaguers born in vermont 38 total as of the end of 2015 and only 6 have made their debuts since 1965 those include carlton fisk putnam len whitehouse mark brown chris duffy and daric barton as the always excellent source of a sabr biography for him notes pat grew up outside burlington luckily for pat s baseball career his father s job transferred him to fort myers florida when pat was 8 years old pat first attended miami dade north jc on a baseball scholarship and then went to play at the university of south alabama under the legendary eddie stanky after his junior college graduation putnam was selected by the new york mets in the 12th round of the 1974 draft but chose not to sign and went to usa then sau the next year he was drafted in the 1st round of the june secondary draft by the rangers and chose to sign he first reached the major leagues in 1977 but putnam s major league career took off in 1979 he finished tied for fourth in the rookie of the year voting thanks to hitting 18 hr in 139 games for the rangers he followed that up in 1980 with a 18 hr season both of which were punctuated with an obp of 319 the problem for putnam though was that the rangers fell in love with mike hostetler in 1982 so after the 1982 season he was traded to the seattle mariners for a journeyman type pitcher named ron musselman putnam looked like a genuine steal for the mariners in 1983 when he hit 19 hr and drove in 67 but once again his team fell in love with a rookie at first base this time in 1984 the rookie was alvin davis who was a far better hitter than putnam who found himself traded at the end of august to the minnesota twins at the age of 31 and for the 1985 season putnam served as a triple a insurance policy for the kansas city royals tiring of that role and not having a family to consider as a single man putnam signed on with the nippon ham fighters for the 1986 season he did so well there 286 355 478 25 hr 78 rbi that he stayed another year his 1987 season in japan was his last real professional season not counting the senior league mustache check it s not the best photo of him but pretty much every pat putnam photo and card available shows pat as clean shaven so i m guessing that he is here too totally gnarly putnam had a reputation early in his career as being something of a nutjob as the 1980 topps blog noted the sporting news from june 7 1980 said that putnam belongs on any all whacko list for his proclivities of eating dog biscuits imitating shamu the whale in the whirlpool and assorted other eccentricities no wonder he s still a bachelor a few minutes with tony l maybe it was just holiday boredom that overtook me but i decided to post here again today maybe if try i do one of these a week or two a month or something i ll have the time to do it in my head when pat putnam s name comes up he s a mariner despite the fact that he spent less than two full seasons there that is almost certainly a recency bias on my part well that and the 19 homer season he had that year putnam spent most of his post baseball life as a businessman in his hometown of fort myers florida he started a company called home environment center which the sabr biography tells me specialized in air and water purification it appears that putnam may have retired from that company in the past few years after the sabr biography was written as the company is no longer an active florida corporation i m not 100 sure what mr putnam is up to these days though it s possible that he is a member of the lee county tennis association who is responsible for dealing with people interested in playing pickleball at waterway park on poetry lane in north fort myers i mean i could call the phone number on that page and ask if that person is the same pat putnam but that feels a bit intrusive to me posted by tony l at 1 00 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels mariners pat putnam pickleball totally gnarly wednesday may 13 2015 card 148 mickey klutts who can it be now gene ellis klutts was born on september 20 1954 in montebello california the new york yankees selected him in the fourth round of the 1972 june draft straight out of el rancho high school in pico rivera california klutts signed immediately and as a 17 year old played for johnson city in the appalachian league even as a young player though klutts was destined to be a utilityman the yankees played him at 2b shortstop and 3b as he worked his way up through the system he played more short than third but he never really seemed to be the yankee s top choice for either position with graig nettles at third of course shortstop became where he would be more likely to play his opportunity appeared to be coming in 1977 though he had debuted in new york at 21 in 1976 and incumbent fred stanley did not appear to be an impediment to klutts stepping into the starting role then on a play at second in the spring of 1976 klutts made a tag at second and pulled his hand away in pain the yankees told reporters that klutts had a jammed sprain the reality was that he had a broken finger but the yankees apparently were not convinced klutts could be a starter and were negotiating to trade for bucky dent with the white sox they feared the price for dent would increase if the white sox were aware of klutts s injury so out came that yankee version of news speak dent became the yankees starting shortstop and broke red sox hearts in 1978 klutts went on to be the co mvp of the international league in 1976 as it turned out klutts never got the chance to play in new york coming to bat just 24 times over three seasons before being traded at the trade deadline in 1978 to the oakland a s for gary thomasson injuries hampered his career as well lending credence to nominative determinism the theory that a person s name can have a significant role in determining key aspects of job profession or even character according to baseball library klutts was disabled at least ten times and suffered one injury when he ran into a tarp one article in 1978 mentioned that he went on the dl when he broke his left thumb while warming up relief pitcher ken clay in the bullpen the title of that article what a klutts klutts spent most of four seasons with the a s before they too decided at the end of the 1982 season that klutts was not the answer to their third base needs in fairness klutts was never the starter he only kept the position warm for real players like carney lansford after 1982 klutts signed with the toronto blue jays he received 45 plate appearances there before his major league career ended mustache check yes indeed gene has a mustache a few minutes with tony l other than his incredibly memorable name and all the jokes that went with it i knew and thought very little of mickey klutts as a kid i mean look at his stats does that appear to be the stat line of a guy who made an impression on opposing teams fans not particularly i d say i found an old blog that may or may not have a basis in reality about how gene klutts got to be known as mickey the theory here was that the yankees touted him as mickey in order to draw parallels to mickey mantle they wanted to teach klutts to switch hit supposedly and then become the center fielder now i don t know how much credence to put into this story but i have no other information as to how gene ellis became mickey i also haven t the foggiest idea what klutts has done since retirement he apparently is a pretty good ttm signer since i ve seen a number of autographs of his online he lives in lake isabella california according to contact any celebrity com and not to be too disparaging but if klutts is on that site they may not be kidding by saying you can contact any celebrity and despite featuring for just 20 at bats in new york over three seasons he still comes back and is invited back to the bronx for those yankee old timers games anyone else have anything to share posted by tony l at 6 00 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels athletics i got nothing mickey klutts mustache monday may 11 2015 card 147 denny walling who can it be now dennis martin walling was born on april 17 1954 in neptune new jersey he attended community college in new jersey before attending a second community college er clemson university in south carolina he was drafted initially after his junior college days in the 8th round by the san francisco giants in 1974 he did not sign and went to clemson for a year where his efforts and ability made him the first pick overall in the 1975 june secondary draft by the oakland athletics after signing with the a s he went straight to the major leagues going 1 for 8 in limited duty in september of 1975 for the al west champions perhaps due to their win now mentality or maybe walling just wasn t what they thought he was when they drafted him but the a s gave walling a grand total of 19 plate appearances over two year before trading him with cash to the houston astros at the trade deadline in 1977 for willie crawford crawford played the rest of 1977 with the a s played two years in mexico and was out of baseball in comparison walling became a long time astro pinch hitter for those houston clubs of the late 1970s through the mid 1980s he averaged less than three plate appearances per game played for houston 1072 g 2929 pa over eleven and a half seasons not counting his 3 game cameo in 1992 at the very end of his career walling was never much of a power hitter and he hit just 49 homers in his entire career some of that had to do with the cavernous astrodome certainly but walling was a guy who would come to bat and be willing to take a walk or often get the bat on the ball he struck out in less than 10 of his plate appearances in his career during the 1988 season walling was traded to the st louis cardinals for bob forsch apparently the teams wanted to swap a hitter near the end of his career for a pitcher near the end of his career walling stuck in st louis as a bat off the bench through 1990 played in texas a little in 1991 then hung up his spikes after the 3 game 3 plate appearance performance in houston in 1992 mustache check mr ginger oh your mustache has grown don t you know that you re the only one to say ok figure out that reference family ties according to the baseball reference com bullpen denny walling s older brother gregory walling played 47 games for covington in the appalachian league in 1967 in the astros system he walked a lot but gregory s 225 363 265 slash line did not convince the astros to keep him beyond that one season a few minutes with tony l yes i am going to resurrect this blog a bit i miss the history aspects of it i remember denny walling from watching the postseason in the early 1980s and again in 1986 walling struggled mightily against the mets in the national league championship series in 1986 158 158 211 in 19 ab but he was far from the only one who struggled of players with more than 10 at bats for the astros only craig reynolds 4 for 12 hit better than 300 walling ended up picking up four at bats in the epic game 6 of that nlcs the one that went 16 innings and finished with the astros coming up one run short in their rally to tie the game again after the mets scored 3 in the top of the 16th off aurelio lopez and jeff calhoun since his retirement as a player walling has been a coach he spent time with the oakland a s and new york mets when old pal art howe was the manager after that and from 2007 to 2014 walling was a hitting instructor in the orioles system first as a roving instructor and then as the triple a norfolk tides batting coach from 2012 through 2014 after the 2014 season walling now 60 years old decided to retire posted by tony l at 7 00 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels astros baseball man denny walling family ties mustache sunday february 8 2015 card 146 mike griffin who can it be now michael leroy griffin was born on june 26 1957 in colusa california griffin was the third round pick in the 1976 june draft of the texas rangers out of woodland high school in woodland california after two years in the rangers system griffin was part of a 9 player trade in november of 1978 in which he juan beniquez paul mirabella and dave righetti were traded to the new york yankees in return for mike heath dave rajsich larry mccall domingo ramos sparky lyle and cash the next...