Who Can It Be Now? Stephen Rance Mulliniks was born on January 15, 1956 in Tulare, California. Tulare is basically a suburb of Visalia, which itself is not much more than a suburb of Fresno. Mulliniks grew up in nearby Woodville and attended Monache High School in Porterville. He played both basketball and baseball there, but baseball was where his passion was. A week after he graduated high school in 1974, the California Angels selected Mulliniks in the third round of the 1974 June Amateur Draft with the 58th overall pick. He signed shortly thereafter and was assigned to Idaho Falls in the Pioneer League for his first professional experience. Perhaps it just took him a while to get acclimated to being a pro ball player, or maybe it was nothing more than league context and the parks in which he was playing, but Mulliniks seemed to do better with every step up he took in the Angels system. His 1974 season at Idaho Falls was not stellar -- .218/.329/.287 in 242 plate appearances with no homers and fourteen SB (7 CS). His bat control was very good, however -- 31 BB, 41 K -- and improved with each step of advancement. Similarly, his fielding was pretty atrocious at first -- 33 errors at Idaho Falls in 66 games at shortstop -- but that, too, improved as he progressed. That may be due to his fielding or due to playing on better fields, but he definitely showed improvement as he went along. He played in two Single-A leagues (California and Midwest) in 1975, and his hitting improved to .263/.361/.316 and made 31 errors in 111 games at shortstop. His 1976 season was spent in Double-A El Paso -- where pitchers' careers went to die -- and he hit slightly above average for his team -- .315/.427/.468 for Mulliniks versus .299/.379/.455 for the team. When 1977 dawned, Mulliniks went to spring training and was assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake City. In all likelihood, he probably could not have envisioned himself being a regular on the California Angels that season since the Angels had signed a new shortstop, Bobby Grich, in free agency. But, in mid-June, Grich went on the disabled list due to an ailing back that required surgery. Mulliniks was called up at the age of 21 and played fairly regularly. After a slow start, he ended up hitting .269/.329/.365 in 271 at-bats. Grich came back in 1978, and in an effort to help with his back, the Angels traded away second baseman Jerry Remy to clear a spot. Mulliniks was handed the job as starting shortstop for the Angels out of spring training. Unfortunately for him, however, he fumbled the opportunity -- hitting .143/.215/.186 in 22 games in the first month of the season (10-70 with 6 BB) before being supplanted as the regular shortstop by Dave Chalk. The Angels kept him in the majors as a reserve and sometime starter until June 30, when apparently they recognized that getting their 22-year-old shortstop some additional time in Triple-A would be a good idea. In 1979, Mulliniks beat out Chalk for the shortstop job in the spring. Once again, he started out the season hitting extremely poorly -- hitting .138/.191/.190 in 18 games before getting sent back down to Salt Lake City. This time, the Angels chose to fill their shortstop need by trading Chalk to Texas for 37-year-old Bert Campaneris who, along with 22-year-old Jim Anderson, filled in accordingly. Once a younger and apparently better option for a team appears, a team can do a few things. They can keep both players and have them compete with one another for the job. They can trade one away to get something for their effort while letting the other one play. Or, they can do as the Angels did (and as the 1980s Yankees tended to do) -- signing old free agents to fill the slot for a year and trade away the younger guys. The Angels signed the 35-year-old Fred Patek from the Royals in the offseason after 1979 to be paired with Bert Campaneris. Then, they traded Mulliniks along with Willie Mays Aikens to the Royals for Craig Eaton, Todd Cruz, and Al Cowens. The Royals had U.L. Washington at shortstop -- who was a year older than Mulliniks and was thought to be the guy there for the next decade. Mulliniks became the backup to Frank White at second and Washington at short, and, as a result, he played just 36 games all season in 1980 despite being on the roster all year. Granted, his team went to a World Series, but he did not play in either the ALCS or the World Series. 1981 was more of the same for him -- just 24 games played. In the 1981 offseason, Mulliniks recognized that he would not have much of a major league career if he stayed in Kansas City. After all, third base was manned by George Brett, shortstop and second were spoken for, and Jim Frey and Dick Howser did not like using their bench players all that much. So, Mulliniks asked the Royals to trade him. The Royals accommodated his request by sending him to Toronto in exchange for pitcher Phil Huffman, a move which occurred on the same day as the Blue Jays sending future Washington QB Jay Schroeder to Double-A. In Toronto, he got an opportunity to play reasonably regularly. Bobby Cox employed the best-named platoon in the history of baseball. By 1985, when Toronto was in the midst of winning its first ever AL East title, many writers decided to highlight Rance Mulliniks and Garth Iorg as a great platoon -- or, as SI put it, Gance Mullinorg. Cox decided to use his backup middle infielders as third basemen, and it worked out extremely well for both players. Mulliniks spent 11 seasons in Toronto as a DH and third baseman. He never played in more than 129 games -- which he did twice -- and he never played in a playoff series that his team won. He played 5 games in 1985 against Kansas City, 1 game against Oakland in 1989, and 5 games against the Twins in 1991 -- all losses to the eventual World Series Champion. In 1992, Mulliniks spent most of the year on the disabled list for his back. He rehabilitated it in Knoxville for a few games, and then closed out his career with the Blue Jays with three September at-bats. His final at bat ever was a pinch-hit appearance on September 18, 1992. Mulliniks hit for future Hall of Famer Dave Winfield and singled to left field in a 13-0 rout of the Texas Rangers. He closed out his career on the bench during the 1992 World Series in which the Blue Jays finally won their first World Championship. Mustache Check: Mulliniks is sporting his mustache here. According to this interview in 2008, he started growing the mustache when he was 21. This Is Radio Clash After his career as a player ended, Mulliniks spent several years as a part-time television analyst, first for the Montreal Expos in 2004 and then for the Toronto Blue Jays. Mulliniks generally provided color commentary for Blue Jays games on the West Coast, and he was let go by Rogers Communications after the 2010 season. Mulliniks spent five years as a commentator for the Blue Jays. A Few Minutes with Tony L. Every team has their version of a Rance Mulliniks -- a guy with limited abilities compared to his contemporaries but who fills a role well and plays a fairly long time with that club. These guys seem to tend to be middle-infielder types -- think Jim Gantner, Rich Dauer, or Mark Lemke, for example -- or catchers like Jody Davis, Javy Lopez, or Charlie Moore (and yes, I used the Braves and Brewers as examples because I am most familiar with those two clubs). These guys are legends in the city in which they played, but for the most part they are remembered little outside of their home city. An example of this phenomenon with Mulliniks can be found at Batter's Box Canada from a forum posted back in 2006, when Rance turned 50. Lots of chatter about Rance, lots of limericks in his honor. He still lives in the California area where he grew up. When the Blue Jays pulled the plug on his broadcasting career, he was not left flat footed. Indeed, he is a real estate agent in Visalia. I'm not sure about that blue-background Glamour Shot that he's using for his photo on his Century 21 website, but he's the one who has to live with that photo.
Who Can It Be Now? Robert Joseph LaceyJr. was born on August 25, 1953, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He attended high school in Tucson, Arizona, and was a year or two behind Andy Hassler at Palo Verde High School. He started at Central Arizona College -- a junior college -- in the fall of 1972 after he graduated high school. That ended quickly for him after he was drafted the next January in the 10th round of the Regular Phase of that draft. When you get to the 10th round of that January draft, you're not exactly high on the draft list -- only four players were taken in that round in total. Oddly, Baseball Reference lists Lacey as pitching in 1972 for the Oakland A's Northwest League affiliate in Coos Bay/North Bend, Oregon. I'm not sure if that is a mistake or whether Lacey was playing on some sort of "play well/show us something and we'll draft you" type agreement. It must not have been a "play well" thing, because his numbers look bad -- 0-3, 5.77 ERA, 39 innings, 30 BBs, 22 Ks, 6 HRA, and 43 hits allowed (9.9 H/9). Lacey appeared to be nothing more than organizational filler being a 10th Round January draft pick. But his 1973 season -- split at two levels of Single-A in Florida and the Midwest League -- put him on the "possible prospect" highway. Through these two stops, he finished 13-2 with a 2.24 ERA in 173 innings with 42 BBs and 120 Ks. While he benefited from 15 unearned runs that year, he had harnessed his control to make himself much more of a real prospect. So, for 1974, Oakland thought they may have something and pushed him to Double-A Birmingham. He struggled to the tune of 203 hits in 155 innings with the higher level of competition, and his outward numbers -- 6-13, 4.59 ERA -- hid the fact that he allowed a whopping 32 unearned runs of the 111 runs allowed. That Birmingham A's team was the worst in the league, though, so that did not help matters either -- the team had a 4.40 ERA; the next highest was 3.78 by Savannah. It was not surprising when Lacey was sent back to Birmingham for the 1975 season. He spent 68 innings there and was being transitioned to relief -- starting just 5 of 33 games. Inexplicably, though, Lacey got to go back to Arizona -- to Tucson -- and play in Triple-A before the end of the year. He went back there in 1976 and was really bad -- 3-9 record, 29 appearances (12 starts), 105 innings, 139 hits allowed, 26 walks and just 35 Ks. His 1976 season ended early due to what was called a "sore arm". Lacey admitted the next May that the sore arm was more of a cover story than anything else:
I had a sore arm late in the season and since we were 35 games out of last place [sic] I asked to go home to Phoenix. But the arm was no excuse. I was just a bad pitcher.
But, in an Oakland organization short on left-handed pitching, he still stuck around Triple-A. He went back to the PCL in 1977 -- this time in San Jose. He put up 16 scoreless innings in 11 appearances and suddenly found himself pitching against the Baltimore Orioles in May of 1977. Four appearances later, he faced and struck out future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson twice. Reggie said that Lacey acted bush league after the strikeouts: "He hollered at me and made some gestures too." Directly after the game, the AP said that Lacey was somewhat apologetic about the incident, which occurred in Lacey's first major league win. Lacey was quoted in that story as saying, "I was emotionally up. I might have said something derogatory. I don't remember. I just wanted Jackson. I wanted to strike him out." As a lawyer, I have found that people use the "I don't remember" or "I don't recall" line as a way to cover up when they actually do recall something that they do not want to talk about. The same appears true for Lacey and that game 37 years ago, since Lacey remembers pretty clearly today what happened. As he said in an interview earlier this year, he talked some serious sh*t to Reggie after the strike out:
I was a punk. Reggie was classier. After striking him out, I yelled a colorful expletive at him which went like this: "Take that mother f**ker." The next day my pal Michael Norris acted as a liaison between me and Reggie.
Through all of these issues, the A's kept Lacey on the roster from 1977 through 1980. Lacey appeared regularly for the A's in 1978 -- leading the American League in pitching appearances with 74 after finishing 5th in 1977 despite his time in the minor leagues for the first 6 weeks of the season. Those appearance numbers did not tell the whole story, either. As Lacey mentioned in 2011 to Tom Owens on Tom's great blog, Baseball By the Letters, though Lacey appeared in 74 games, he probably warmed up in at least 25 to 30 more. By 1980, Lacey had become Oakland's closer -- the go-to guy in the bullpen -- as he racked up six saves that year. As Matt Keough's shoulder would remind you, 1980 was the year that Billy Martin made a deal with Dr. Frank Jobe and Dr. James Andrews to send as many starting pitchers to them as possible by making them complete nearly every game -- 97 complete games total. Lacey himself even got one of those complete games -- throwing a shutout against the Milwaukee Brewers in October of 1980. The next season, Lacey came to spring training with a request -- perhaps even a demand -- to become a starter. He had complained in 1980 about not getting to pitch enough, so he thought being a starter would solve this issue. This led Lacey to end up in Billy Martin's doghouse. I know -- shocking that Martin would get upset with any of his players. Martin refused to put Lacey into games and, further, even ordered the rest of the team not to play catch with him. Through all of this, Lacey quickly gained a reputation as being a bit flaky and a difficult guy to deal with. The excellent Terry Pluto book The Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slumprelays the story about how Lacey dealt with being frozen out:
Right before the Indians traded for Lacey, Oakland manager BIlly Martin was so fed up with the lefty that he would not pitch him in spring training. In fact, he ordered that no one even play catch with Lacey.
So during an exhibition game, Lacey went to the bullpen, put on his glove, and pretended his was warming up. He would up, mimed throwing the baseball, then pretended to receive a throw back from the catcher. Then he did it again and again and again.
But, being frozen out in the spring meant that Lacey was going to be shipped out of town soon. Finally, on March 27, 1981, Lacey was sent with a minor leaguer to the San Diego Padres in exchange for infielder Kevin Bell, pitcher Eric Mustad, shortstop Tony Phillips, and two minor leaguers. I'm not exactly sure what happened between Lacey and the Padres in the four days he was in their camp, but apparently the Padres felt that having second baseman Juan Bonilla was better than having Lacey -- so Lacey was shipped to the Cleveland Indians on March 31. Lacey was terribly for the Indians -- 21-1/3 innings, 37 hits, 19 earned runs, 6 HR allowed, 3 walks and 11 Ks led to Lacey finding himself in Triple-A again for a couple of games that season. Then, on September 8, 1981, Lacey found himself traded for the third time in less than 6 months -- moving to the Texas Rangers when the Rangers bought Lacey's contract. Lacey faced a grand total of 4 batters as a Ranger and gave up one home run in his only inning of work. After that season and perhaps fueled by the perception of being difficult to deal with, no major league teams took a chance on signing Lacey for 1982. Instead, he pitched in the Mexican League in 1982 for Saltillo. In 1983, the Angels gave Lacey a chance to pitch at Triple-A Edmonton and in 8 games for the big league club. Finally, in 1984, the Giants employed Lacey. He pitched for 24 games in Phoenix -- badly -- but got called up in mid-July anyway. In his time with San Francisco, the Giants had a 7-27 win-loss record, and Lacey came into the game with a lead just 4 times. Lacey spent part of 1985 with the Giants Triple-A team in Phoenix. He pitched fairly well there, but on June 25, he was released. He finished the season with the independent Miami Marlins in the Florida State League and left baseball. For a while. But, in 1998, Lacey was managing in the independent Texas-Louisiana League for a team in Greenville, Mississippi. Yeah, don't ask me. He decided that it was time for him to pitch again at the age of 44 -- I mean, why not, since Jesse Orosco at the time was 41 and still had 4 more seasons to go? In both 1998 and 1999 Lacey appeared in 4 games for the Bluesman without a decision. He did call it quits at that point, and he moved back to Arizona. Mustache Check: Nope -- not a thing. He might need a shave, but it's not a mustache. Nanu Nanu Despite his half-season with the Giants in 1984, Lacey did not appear on a Topps card after this 1982 card. He appeared on a card in Fleer's 1985 set, though. I would think the rarest card possible for Lacey, though, would be to find a card on which he appears as a Padre. I'm not sure that any such photos still exist, and certainly Trading Card Database does not have any of him from that three-day spring training stint. Trivial Pursuit In 1980, Rick Langford had a streak of 22 consecutive complete games. That streak came to an end on September 17 when Langford pitched 8-2/3 innings against Texas. Billy Martin came to the mound and took him out, telling Langford, "I think it's time now." Into the game to end that streak came Bob Lacey. Lacey induced a groundball from Buddy Bell and picked up his fifth save. A Few Minutes with Tony L. This is a card that Topps painted for a guy who appeared in one September inning for the team on the card. We know it's airbrushed, they know it's airbrushed -- even Bob Lacey on the photo knows it's airbrushed. These days, Lacey has a far more important job than baseball -- he's a teacher. He obtained his teaching certificate a few years ago. According to his LinkedIn biography, he taught for an online high school for about a year-and-a-half before teaching at Desert Winds High School starting in August of 2011. He's back at Desert Winds today teaching American and World History to 7th and 8th Graders. Lacey seems to be fairly accessible today to bloggers and writers. He definitely comes across as regretting being a bit of an ass when he was a player. Certainly, if you "did a George Atkinson" on Darrell Porter -- which I take to mean that he hit Porter in the back of the head with a forearm a la Atkinson's hit on Lynn Swann in 1976 -- you probably qualified as being a "crazy, immature punk" as Porter called Lacey. His interview in July with the Coco Crisp's Afro blog on MLB Blogs has him recognizing this fact. He seems very regretful regarding how he interacted with Billy Martin -- "The articles were correct concerning my interactions with Billy Martin. Darrell Porter was correct I was an immature punk and I didn't handle my interactions with Billy very well. After saying that I will say that Billy was one of the best managers that I ever played for." I'm not sure if Lacey ever got the chance to tell Billy that himself before Billy died. That, too, may be a regret to Lacey.
Who Can It Be Now? Dan Lee Briggs was born in Scotia, California, on November 18, 1952. Briggs attended Sonoma High School in Sonoma, California. Briggs was young for his class -- graduating in 1970 -- but that did not deter the Angels from selecting Briggs in the second round of the 1970 June Amateur Draft with the 34th pick overall. Briggs was drafted initially as a left-handed pitcher. At Idaho Falls in the short-season Pioneer League in 1970, the Angels had Briggs pitch and play outfield. In 1978, the transition from pitcher to outfielder came up when he tripled and then scored the winning run to push the Red Sox out of first place. Briggs was quoted as saying:
I was a pretty good hitter and the club thought I should become a position player, so I became an outfielder. Pitching is such an insecure job anyway that I felt I would like to become a position player.
Despite minor dalliances on the mound later in his career -- including 7 appearances in 1984 and 1985 in the minor leagues -- Briggs effectively left pitching behind despite putting up a 1.29 ERA and a 2-0 record over 7 appearances (28 innings, 20 hits, 8 runs, 4 ER, 2 HRA, 19 BB, 33 K). Yes, he would have had to learned control, but a 17 year-old striking out 10.6 guys per 9 innings probably shouldn't have given up on pitching so quickly. But that's just hindsight talking. His hitting at Idaho Falls was pretty good -- .305/.411/.437 in 224 plate appearances (with 27 BBs but 52 Ks). And that definitely was not a bad showing for a kid who was 2-1/2 years younger than the average player in the league. Going forward, though, Briggs appeared to be on the slow-promotion scheme. He played another 51 games in Idaho Falls in 1971 because he fell flat on his face at Quad Cities in the Midwest League -- .171/.299/.195 in 97 plate appearances. The Angels promoted him to the California League in 1972, and he hit just .232/.315/.396 -- suddenly discovering some home run power but striking out 118 times in 449 at-bats. As a result, he started back in the California League in 1973 -- this time in Salinas rather than Stockton -- and he hit well enough to move up to Hitters Heaven in El Paso. In 1974, then, he was 21 and split time between Double-A El Paso and Triple-A Salt Lake City. He hit well at both stops, but the Angels did not give him a September call-up. That had to wait until 1975. The problem that Briggs ran into was this: even though the Angels were not a very good ball club in 1974 or 1975 or 1976 for that matter, the fact was that Briggs was limited to being a corner infielder/outfielder. In 1975, those spots were filed by guys who had progressed more quickly -- Bruce Bochte (24 years old), Dave Chalk (24), and Dave Collins (22) -- or the veteran Leroy Stanton (29). The other problem Briggs had was the fact that he simply appeared to be a Quad-A player -- a guy who ripped Triple-A apart but who could not hit major league pitching. Indeed, over 149 games from 1975 to 1977 with the Angels, Briggs hit just .204/.253/.286 with 3 HR, 23 BBs and 67 Ks in 383 plate appearances. For comparison's sake, in those same years at Triple-A Salt Lake City (and Indianapolis, where he spent some time "on loan" apparently with the Reds) his batting average was .310. His hitting in the majors just was not good enough to keep him in Anaheim. As a result, the Angels let Briggs go. It took him until the start of spring training in 1978, but the 25-year-old Briggs hooked on with the Cleveland Indians. He spent most of 1978 in Portland -- smacking the ball around as usual (.330/.403/.562; 20 HR, 109 RBI, 6 SB). Even a bad Indians team, however, could not find room for Briggs to play in front of Johnny Grubb or Paul Dade in the corner outfield slots since neither Andre Thornton at first nor Buddy Bell at third would be stepping aside. Then, in September when Briggs got his chance, he only tallied 8 hits in 49 at-bats with 4 walks for a .163/.226/.265 slash line. I mean, you can hit the crap out of the ball all day in Portland, but you better not fall into a slump when you hit the majors. So, Cleveland gave up on Briggs too. After losing out in a four-way battle for the left field slot in spring training in 1979, the Indians sent Briggs to San Diego for a player to be named later. The Padres actually gave Briggs his only 100 appearance season -- even though he had more plate appearances in 77 games in 1976. Briggs once again disappointed, hitting .207/.277/.357 with 8 of his 12 career home runs and both of his stolen bases. But at least he didn't play in the minor leagues that year -- the only time that happened for him during his entire career. At the end of the season, though, the Padres had seen enough and sent Briggs to the Expos with infielder Bill Almon in exchange for Dave Cash. The Expos had Rodney Scott and Tim Raines ready at second base, so they did not need Cash (who played one season in San Diego and was done with his career). Briggs did not so much as sniff the major leagues in 1980, and the nine games he played in 1981 were all in September or October. Even then, the .091/.091/.091 slash line for the one single that Briggs got in 11 at-bats makes his inclusion in the set a true headscratcher. Entering into 1982, Briggs recognized he was on his last chance. The Montreal Gazettequoted Briggs as saying that he had "to hit about .600 during this camp. I have to beat out some very good ball players." The story also mentioned that Briggs had some interest from teams in Japan and almost played there for the 1981 season. He changed his mind, but the story mentioned that Briggs had "taken out stock brokers' papers." Briggs did not hit .600 that camp. Instead, he ended up traded to the Chicago Cubs during spring training. Once again, Briggs got a bit of a chance to pinch hit and play on the corners. Once again, he failed to impress. After his final at-bat as a major leaguer on July 3, his numbers stood at .125/.143/.125 on the basis of getting hit by a pitch and tallying 6 singles in 48 at-bats, along with a sacrifice hit. The Cubs sold Briggs's contract to the Yakult Swallows in Japan midway through 1982. Briggs played all of the 1983 season for Yakult as well before coming back to the States and playing for the Triple-A Columbus Clippers in the New York Yankees' organization for 1984 and 1985. At the end of the 1985 season, Briggs's playing career came to an end. Mustache Check: Briggs was a mustache guy for only a few years. He was clean-shaven on the Indians, Angels, and Clippers, but he sported a mustache with the Padres, Expos, and Cubs. So, here, he has whiskers. Nanu Nanu It's not entirely accurate to say that this is Briggs's final Topps card. Apparently, since Topps included him in the main set, they felt obligated to update his team status when he was traded to the Chicago Cubs. Yes, instead of including Wade Boggs or Tony Gwynn, we got Dan Briggs. But, 1982 is the last year that Briggs appeared on a Topps (or any other) baseball card as a major leaguer. Don't You Want Me? I've neglected using this tag for those guys who got cut during 1982. But, here's a great opportunity to use it since, well, I don't have a whole lot else. A Few Minutes with Tony L. At first, when I saw Dan Briggs's name, I wasn't sure if he was either the Briggs who played with the Brewers in the early 1970s or whether he was related. Then I saw that John Briggs was the outfielder for Milwaukee, and that John is an African-American born in Paterson, New Jersey. So, I was entirely wrong. Since his retirement in the mid-1980s, Briggs settled in Ohio. He owned and operated a gym in North Columbus called Fitness Trend from 1984 to 1994. Briggs's LinkedIn profile mentions that this gym was the training headquarters for none other than one of the greatest upset artists in boxing history -- James "Buster" Douglas. Briggs also served as the Head Baseball Coach at Denison University in Ohio from 1989 to 1999. During that time and to the present day, Briggs is the co-owner (along with John Pacella) and is the marketing and program director for Big League Baseball School in Worthington, Ohio. I have no personal recollection of Dan Briggs. However, one blogger from 2009 probably wishes he could say the same thing. You see, he attended Briggs's baseball school. What follows are his words and not mine, but it's pretty scathing:
MEET HIDEOUS DAN BRIGGS
This hideous player hits a big closer to home then [sic] most. You see, Dan Briggs opened up a baseball school here in central Ohio. While Dan could open this academy, titled "Big League Baseball Academy" and host a camp, Dan really could hardly take credit for being a big leaguer.
We always wanted to say that to him. I guess now is our chance. Sure, he's been to the show. He's probably had drinks bought for him, probably seen beautiful women, he's played catch in the outfield of the greatest parks in the world. But being a self promoting hitting instructor when you hit .195 in 325 big league games is about like having a stripper teach a high school health class about abstinence.
It gets worse from there. Feel free to click over and read it, because it's pretty entertaining as a completely scathing take down of Briggs. Certainly, it's written by a less-than-impressed former student, but I personally wonder sometimes about these "baseball camps" that these former major leaguers run. This is a small glimpse inside.
Who Can It Be Now? It's still Mike Schmidt. In yesterday's post, I glossed over much of Schmidt's background other than his failure to be drafted directly out of high school due to his knees. A book available at least partly through Google Books called Mike Schmidt: Philadelphia's Hall of Fame Third Basemangives a bit more information about this told from the perspective of Phillies scout Tony Lucadello. Lucadello claims that he started following Schmidt when Schmidt was a sophomore in high school. One of Lucadello's local bird dogs, a guy named Ed French, told Lucadello about Schmidt. Schmidt was called an excellent athlete and an above average prospect -- but he was also incredibly raw. In other words, he was a toolsy prospect according to Lucadello. Stopping there for a moment, one can see this a bit in Schmidt's minor league numbers, but playing college ball definitely refined Schmidt's talents. To an extent, Schmidt's minor league numbers show his rawness -- at least in his first season in the minors in Reading where Schmidt struck out nearly three times more than he walked. Going back to Schmidt's high school years now and to Lucadello's story. What I really don't understand about the story Lucadello tells is this: if Lucadello was impressed enough to "follow" Schmidt, why couldn't he convince the Phillies to take a chance on Schmidt straight out of high school? Perhaps it was, as Lucadello said, that other scouts dismissed Schmidt as "damaged goods" due to the injuries to his knees that Schmidt suffered playing football. That said, one of Schmidt's high school coaches, Dave Palsgrove, talked about Schmidt's work ethic. Even in high school, Schmidt had issues making contact -- but if he did, he would hit it hard somewhere. Schmidt stayed after practices to get better at fielding popups and ground balls, and he would go to batting cages on his own to hit. Schmidt even got a scout for the California Angels, Buddy Bloebaum, to teach him to switch hit. Despite all that, only small schools were interested in Schmidt for baseball so Schmidt went to Ohio University on his/his parents' own dime to become an architect. Having worked in construction law for many years, I can tell you that Schmidt would have been a typical architect -- incredibly sure of himself and his own abilities and always quick to say that others should listen to him to learn. Okay, that's snarky, but architects tend to be pretty narcissistic; Schmidt's confidence in himself as evidenced through both his interviews during his playing days and in his columns for the AP is typical for a more senior architect. Okay, back to Schmidt and away from my amateur psychology. Schmidt himself recognized that he developed as an athlete in college. Again, from the book above:
I was about the fourth or fifth best baseball player in high school -- a .250 hitter, and if you don't hit .400 in high school, nobody knows you're alive. I was always the kid with potential, but even that potential was jeopardized by a couple of major injuries in high school. I was also a late bloomer when it came to confidence and aggressiveness. I don't think I was really willing to fight for myself until I got to college. Not that I wasn't cocky in high school about my athletic ability. I knew I had as much talent for sports as anyone -- I felt that whatever the season, I'd be the best athlete. But there were other players who had all the physical qualities I had and something else besides: they were meaner than I was, tougher mentally.
Schmidt was invited to walk on to the Ohio University baseball team. He sat as a freshman behind shortstop Rich McKinney (drafted by the White Sox in the first round of the 1968 Draft). Schmidt came to national prominence due to that College World Series run I mentioned yesterday. When I left off with Schmidt's career yesterday at 1982, I mentioned that I would finish his career today. Well, Schmidt won one more MVP award in 1986 -- though WAR says that Mike Scott was at least 2 wins better than Schmidt and 1.6 wins better than anyone else in the league. the fact that Schmidt won the MVP at the age of 36 came probably because he led the league in homers and RBI that season. 1986 was also the first time in his entire career that he struck out less than 100 times in a full season (he struck out 71 times in 102 games in 1981). But, when Schmidt's abilities started to slip, they went fast. He went from being the MVP in 1986 and putting up another strong season in 1987 to getting hurt in 1988. He was put on the Disabled List after playing both ends of a doubleheader on August 12, 1988, due to shoulder problems. He ended up visiting Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham in September and undergoing rotator cuff surgery. Andrews was quoted as saying that he found just a small pit in Schmidt's rotator cuff that needed to be repaired -- a slight tear. Schmidt came back in 1989, but it was evident quickly that he was not the same player. He started the season reasonably well -- hitting 5 homers in his first 17 games -- but then he really started to struggle. Over the final 25 games of his career, the Phillies performed poorly -- winning just 7 -- and the team's struggles mirrored Schmidt's. He hit only one home run, he had just 12 hits in 80 at-bats and only 2 hits in his final 41 at-bats, and he was struggling to make good contact, slashing at .150/.278/.200. Topping it off, the normally sure-fielding Schmidt had made 8 errors at third and five in his final 21 games. As Schmidt himself put it in his retirement statement:
My skills to make the adjustments needed to hit, to make the routine play on defense and to run the bases aggressively have deteriorated. Realizing this, I have decided not to keep on playing, but to retire effectively immediately.
Mustache Check: It's still there. The World According to Garp Schmidt has co-authored three books. The first was a reasonably brief (191 pages) autobiography called Always on the Offensethat was ghosted by Barbara Walder. His second book was an instructional book called The Mike Schmidt Study: Hitting Theory, Skills and Technique that he co-wrote with/had ghosted by Robert Ellis. Schmidt's final book was co-authored with/ghostwritten by one of the original founders of Rotisserie Baseball, Glenn Waggoner (who appears in the 2014 Topps Allen & Ginter set). This book is called Clearing the Bases: Juiced Players, Monster Salaries, Sham Records, and a Hall of Famer's Search for the Soul of Baseball. To be honest, I'm hesitant to read this book since I fear it may sound an awful lot like Schmidt's "Get off MY lawn" sentiments that I went through yesterday. But, at least it's available for just $5.58 from Amazon.com! Rabbit Is Rich In both 1985 and 1987, Schmidt was the highest paid player in the National League, pulling in over $2.1 million in each of those years. In 1986, he was the third-highest paid player behind two members of the New York Mets -- George Foster (who played just 72 games that year for the Mets before they released him on August 7) and Gary Carter. A Few Minutes with Tony L. There is no question whatsoever that Mike Schmidt is a deserving member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. When he retired in 1989, Schmidt was behind only Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, and Reggie Jackson on the all-time home run list. During the past twenty-five years, Schmidt has been passed by Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jim Thome, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro. Out of those, only Griffey and Thome have not been linked definitively with steroid use. So, in the "probably clean" category, Schmidt is tenth. Of course, literally everyone who played major league baseball "might" have used PEDs of some sort -- whether it was greenies/amphetamines, cocaine (not that coke enhanced anyone's ability), steroids, or chocolate bars -- so that's where I'm leaving that discussion for now. Schmidt was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995 by himself at the first time of asking. He received 96.5% of the vote. It's easy to ask this question, but what more could the guy have done to get inducted? I am guessing it is because he only had a career batting average of .267. I mean, this is probably the best third baseman ever to play the game -- Bill James said in his Revised Historical Baseball Abstract that Schmidt and George Brett are 1 and 2, with Eddie Mathews third and Wade Boggs fourth -- and I don't have any reason to disagree with James on that. Yesterday, I mentioned Schmidt's complaining about autograph seekers stalking him on the streets during his playing days. I can understand that complaint, certainly -- I'm sure that he'd like to walk the streets without being mobbed. It may just come down, however, to the fact that he was not getting paid for his autograph. Yes, more snarkiness from me, but it's tough not to be a bit snarky when you go to Fanatics.com and see the wide variety of autographed items that Schmidt has for sale -- balls for $160, incribed balls for $400, bats for $200, photos for $130 to $180, a variety of Topps cards for $110-140 a piece, etc. I don't begrudge him the right to make money off his signature at all, but it is a bit ironic that this is a guy who complains about little Johnny not being able to get autographs inexpensively.
Who Can It Be Now? The iconic Michael Jack Schmidt was born on September 27, 1949 in Dayton, Ohio. He attended high school at Fairview High in Dayton and graduated in 1967. Perhaps surprisingly for a future Hall of Famer, Schmidt was not drafted out of high school. The likely reason for this "oversight" is health. Throughout his career, Schmidt had knee problems. Those knee problems started in high school and led to him having major surgery on both knees during high school. The major leagues' loss was Ohio University's gain. Schmidt led the Bearcats to the College World Series in 1970, where they lost to Florida State and Texas despite beating eventual champions USC in their first game in Omaha. After playing all four years at OU, Schmidt was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies with the 30th pick overall in the Second Round of the 1971 June Draft -- one spot behind eventual Hall of Famer George Brett and 15 spots after another eventual Hall member, Jim Rice. The Phillies assigned Schmidt to Double-A Reading, where Schmidt struggled to make contact and, further, struggled to field the ball cleanly at shortstop. Schmidt was the starter for Reading at short in 1971 and made 23 errors in 74 games. Despite the less-than-stellar slash line of .211/.302/.350 at Reading, the Phillies pushed Schmidt to Triple-A Eugene for the 1972 season. There, Schmidt spent 76 games at second base and 52 games at third base while hitting 26 homers and slashing at .291/.409/.550 in a Pacific Coast League in which the league hit .274/.348/.409. His season in Eugene led to a September call-up with the Phillies. Schmidt played only third base and looked overmatched at times -- 15 Ks in 40 plate appearances and just 1 HR. Despite this, Schmidt never again played minor league baseball. He sat on the bench for the first 10 games of the season, watching Cesar Tovar play, before getting his chance as a regular starting in late April. To say, however, that his 1973 season was not his best season would be too kind. While he did rack up 18 HRs and 62 BBs in 443 plate appearances that season, he struggled mightily to make contact. He struck out 136 times. In his 367 at-bats, he totaled 72 hits -- giving him a .196/.324/.373 slash line. His power and on-base skills were evident, but Phillies fans focused solely on that .196 batting average and, as one story from 1989 put it, "[f]or the next 13 years, Phillies fans never forgot or forgave him." A story from 1982 expanded on this: "It wasn't just his numerous strikeouts as a result of swinging for fences, but the nonchalant way he seemed to accept the whiffs that drove the fans wild." Schmidt himself was not happy with this season, and recognized that he had issues. In that same 1989 story, Schmidt claimed that he "lacked . . . confidence, an understanding of patience. I didn't have a real good feel for failure. I was not good at handling failure. I got frustrated and I was real stubborn." To some extent, that stubbornness may have helped him to tune out the booing and to ignore the batting average. Starting in 1974, Schmidt led the league in both home runs and in strikeouts for three consecutive seasons. He also led the NL in slugging in 1974 at .546 and was named to his first all-star team as Ron Cey's backup. But, at a time when guys striking out 100 times was not common -- just 11 players did it in 1975, for example -- Schmidt struck out a massive 180 times. Though strikeouts are just another out, as sabermetricians like to point out, fans in Philly were not as forgiving. What those fans seemed to forget, though, was this: this three-year span -- over which Schmidt hit .264/.379/.531 with 112 HRs, 66 SBs, 307 BBs and 467 Ks in 2065 plate appearances -- were the years during which Schmidt was 24, 25, and 26 years old. His numbers even in those years were incredible. Every year saw him walk 100 times or more. He almost hit that magical 30/30 mark in 1975, coming up one stolen base short. Indeed, in the wake of that 1975 season, then GM Paul Owens turned down a trade offer of Dave Cash and Schmidt for Reggie Jackson. As hindsight tells us, Schmidt would only get better. Indeed, after 1976, he would lead the National League in strikeouts just one more time -- in 1983 with 148. At the same time as Schmidt was learning to make better contact, he started being recognized for the fact that he was also one of the best fielding third-basemen in the game and probably was the best in the National League. Beginning with 1976 and ending with 1984, Schmidt won 9 consecutive Gold Gloves. Tim Wallach received the 1985 award, but Schmidt came back in 1986 to win his 10th and final Gold Glove. All time, his 10 trail only Brooks Robinson among third-basemen for most all time -- and Schmidt is the NL's all-time leader for third basemen. Schmidt peaked in 1980 and 1981, winning consecutive MVP awards. According to WAR, he was probably second best in 1980 behind teammate Steve Carlton, but he definitely deserved the award in 1981. It's a shame that the 1981 season was interrupted by the strike, because Schmidt was putting up some ridiculous numbers that year -- in just 102 games, he had 31 HR, 91 RBI, .316/.435/.644 (the last two numbers both led the league), 228 total bases and 18 intentional walks. As those numbers make clear, it's no surprise that Topps handed Schmidt one of the marquis card numbers for the 1982 Topps set. With his In Action card tomorrow, we'll see how the rest of his career played out. Mustache Check: It's ginger, it's thick, and I don't know if Mike Schmidt would ever look right without his mustache. Well, here, he kind of looks like an older version of Brett Favre... This Is Radio Clash In both 1990 -- the year after his retirement -- and in cameo appearances in later years including this year, Mike Schmidt has served as a broadcaster for the Philadelphia Phillies. Freeze-Frame Well, sort of. After the 1980 World Series, the Royals and the Phillies squared off on the old-school original version of Family Feud -- the one where Richard Dawson hosted the show after he showed his game show chops on the old Match Game. Schmidt took part along with Larry Bowa, Garry Maddox, Dale Unser, and Dick Ruthven against Royals members John Wathan, Willie Wilson, Paul Splittorff, Dan Quisenberry, and Dennis Leonard. I almost gave this one its own category called "I Lost on Jeopardy", but that song wasn't released by Weird Al Yankovic until 1984. Too bad.
A Few Minutes With Tony L. If you were a baseball fan in 1982, you knew who Mike Schmidt was. I mean, it would be nearly impossible to be a fan and not know who the back-to-back NL MVP was. It was exciting to pull one of his cards out of an unopened pack back then because, well, it was a star card and those were our hits back then. I'll talk more tomorrow about Schmidt's legacy as a player. Today, though, I want to talk about Schmidt as a person today. He comes across as a bit surly. First, here's a long, rambling story on USA Today about autographs. Some high points include his claim that he was stalked for autographs and retired because of it (and not due to his declining abilities, as he said in 1989); that kids these days won't get the thrill of getting autographs from their parents and grandparents because people are charging for autographs; and, if something has his signature on it, it goes from being $10 to being $100 and shouldn't Mike Schmidt get a part of that monetary increase through charging? Yeah, that story meanders a bit. Second, apparently that "charge for autographs" thing isn't that big of a deal so long as you write legibly. Yes, Mike Schmidt complained about the penmanship of current baseball players. He got back on his soapbox to reiterate the same complaint we autograph collectors have heard since the early 1980s -- "You're going to sell that, I don't care what you tell me!" But, then he whines about how the current Phillies in 2012 signed free signed balls that the clubhouse man got for Schmidt to sell for charity so illegibly that Schmidt couldn't make out their names. Oh, the nerve of these kids. Third, here is an interview with Schmidt on ESPN from 2011. In that story, he says the biggest problem with the major leagues today is that "players are not motivated as much to attain a higher level of play [because of] the amount of money players are making and the security the players have causes a lack of accountability." He continued, "I think too many players who could be better than they are and could eventually become great won't [become great] because they signed long-term mega-money contracts. ... [They're treated like] celebrities and mega-stars, and their career batting average is .248 and very mediocre to below average in terms of statistics over the course of their career." This is coming from a guy who was the highest paid player in the National League in 1985 and 1987. Then, just a month ago, Schmidt once again started yelling at the kids on his baseball stadium lawn. He complained in his AP column that "today's hitters don't want much help." He talks in that column about getting together with his 1980s baseball contemporaries George Brett, Robin Yount, and Paul Molitor at Cooperstown (with Reggie Jackson, Eddie Murray, or Ozzie Smith dropping in) and talking about working with their major league teams today. His main point: "To the man, we find it amazing that this generation has little interest in our help." Now, intuitively, one would think that hitters would seek out the Hall of Famers in camp for advice. Wait, what's that you say? Here's a quote from a Hall of Famer about working with hitting coaches: "If I had listened to people my whole career and didn't trust in my own knowledge of the game, I'd be dipping ice cream cones in Dayton, Ohio, right now at my dad's restaurant." Yes, you guess it. The person who said that was Michael Jack Schmidt, May 9, 1989. Not to be disrespectful, but why should Schmidt expect players today to listen to him when Schmidt himself didn't?
After a weekend away and a busy day yesterday, the 1982 Topps Blog is back!
Who Can It Be Now? Robert Barry Bonnell was born on October 27, 1953, in Mariemont, Ohio. He grew up in Ohio and attended Milford High School in the Cincinnati area. He was an excellent high school baseball player -- indeed, in 2011, the Cincinnati Enquirer called him the 43rd best baseball player of all time from Cincinnati -- and he was also a star on the high school basketball team. Based on his high school prowess, Bonnell was drafted in the eighth round of the 1971 June Draft by the Chicago White Sox. He did not sign and instead matriculated at "THE" Ohio State University. His play at OSU was excellent, and it led to him being the first pick overall by the Philadelphia Phillies in the January Secondary Draft in 1975. Bonnell skipped his senior year at Ohio State and signed with the Phillies. The Phillies assigned him to Spartanburg (SC) in the Western Carolina League in 1975. He played a grand total of 23 games over a month and a week in the Phillies system before he was traded for the first time. The Phillies sent Bonnell and catcher Jim Essian to the Atlanta Braves along with $150,000 in exchange for Dick Allen and catcher Johnny Oates. The deeper story here revolves around Allen. The Braves made this trade because Allen refused to report to play for the team after the Braves had traded for Allen in the 1974 offseason. Wanting to get something to show for their work, Atlanta finally admitted defeat and traded for Bonnell (with Essian being sent to the White Sox as part of the original deal to get Allen). I'm not even sure that Bonnell had to move apartments after the trade -- Spartanburg is just over an hour away from Greenwood, where the Braves assigned him, and both are fairly close to Greenville. Bonnell hit well that season, so the Braves pushed him up their chain quickly. Bonnell spent a half season at Double-A and, despite a .223/.288/.372 line at Savannah, he moved up and spent a half season at Triple-A Richmond in 1976. Then, after 14 games and one month in Triple-A in 1977, he was called up to the Braves and never again played minor league baseball. Bonnell's three years in Atlanta were fairly decent. His best season was his first season -- perhaps before the scouting reports made the rounds -- as he hit .300/.368/.339 in 404 plate appearances with just one homer and 11 doubles. The Braves toyed with putting him at third base for a while during that season and in 1978 as well -- he was not good at third, though, so they kept him as a center fielder. One hyperbolic story compared Bonnell in center to Joe DiMaggio -- as a fielder, I'm guessing -- but it took going to winter ball in the offseason to get his bat back in shape after the 1978 season. After the 1979 season, however, the Braves decided that Barry Bonnell was not the answer to their outfield questions. Despite his ability to play any of the three outfield positions, the Braves determined that Dale Murphy could do the same thing and provide a bigger power threat. So, Bonnell was traded for the second time in his career -- this time, going to the Toronto Blue Jays with pitcher Joey McLaughlin and shortstop Pat Rockett in exchange for first baseman Chris Chambliss (whom then-Braves manager Bobby Cox had worked with in New York). Bonnell's time in Canada provided some of his best seasons. While 1981 was a terrible year for him, both 1983 and 1983 were fine mid-career seasons. In 1982, for example, Bonnell hit .293/.342/.407 with 14 SB (2 CS) and 6 homers. In 1983, he hit .318/.369/.469 with 10 HR and 10 SB (though he was caught 7 times). Perhaps in a bit of irony, Bonnell's these two seasons in Toronto came with Bobby Cox as the manager. That 1983 team was also Toronto's first winning season as a franchise. As is often the case, however, teams that improve to become contenders for the first time in a while based off building from their farm system also see weaknesses in their existing team that need to be improved. In Toronto's case, the same situation faced it in the offseason after the 1983 season as did the Braves in 1979. While Bonnell was a very good player who produced offensive seasons worth two wins (measured by WAR), the Blue Jays wanted more. Toronto decided turned to its farm system where George Bell was ready to take over in right field or left field from Bonnell and Dave Collins (who was traded after the 1984 season). As a result, Bonnell found himself being traded one more time -- this time to the other 1977 expansion team, the Seattle Mariners, in exchange for pitcher Bryan Clark. Bonnell was 30 years old when the 1984 season dawned. He played in 110 games that season, but his career was on the downside at this point. This "down side" in large part could be traced to his first spring training with the Mariners. He got sick in 1983 and struggled through them before finally going to a doctor. A chest x-ray showed that he had all kinds of blockages in his lungs -- he described it in 2003 as looking "like spider webs in there" -- and he was diagnosed with Valley Fever and pneumonia. The maladies he contracted in 1983 limited his ability to play for the rest of his career. It did not help that the Mariners of 1986 were in full rebuild mode. By mid-July, the Mariners had released high-priced veterans such as Gorman Thomas, Milt Wilcox, and Al Cowens. Bonnell saw the writing on the wall. He came up with an unusual offer to the Mariners' then-owner, George Argyros: let me earn the rest of my salary by serving as the pilot for your private jet. I'm not sure if Argyros took Bonnell up on that offer, but the Mariners did release Bonnell on July 16, 1986. His last game was against Milwaukee -- and he went 1-for-2. Mustache Check: It's an LDS thing to be clean shaven, so it should be no surprise that Bonnell is without a mustache. Goody Two-Shoes Bonnell was nicknamed "Preacher." Being of reasonable intelligence, Bonnell picked up on the fact that this nickname was not given to him as a compliment. Nonetheless, Bonnell received this nickname because of his strong beliefs and faith. As a devout member of the Mormon Church (Latter Day Saints), Bonnell used to read his Bible regularly on team bus trips. One of those trips in his first minor league season led a teammate to ask Bonnell questions about his faith. Bonnell eventually baptized that teammate into the LDS church. That teammate was Dale Murphy. Consistent with this theme, Bonnell became a Mormon bishop for a time after his playing days ended. The World According to Garp Barry has written his memoir called Steel Ribbons. As far as I can tell, no one has published it yet, but Bonnell has a website on Weebly to promote the book and to seek representation. But don't go to that site and think that you'll be able to get in touch with Bonnell. As his smaller print disclaimer on the Steel Ribbons page says in a perfectly long run-on sentence, "Thanks to all the baseball fans who browse this site with interest in my current work, however, this site is not intended to solicit requests from fans, rather to provide a place for literary professionals to sample my writing and to contact me if interested.."
Totally Gnarly MEETS The World According to Garp I had no other way of describing this one. Based on an article from a few years ago, Bonnell apparently was working on a teenage science fiction book called "MUFOC". Based in his hometown of Milford, Ohio, the story was about a UFO Club for kids in Milford. In writing the book, Bonnell said that he and his friends "actually had a UFO investigative club with an adult advisor." Perhaps Bonnell could be the LDS version of L. Ron Hubbard. A Few Minutes with Tony L. For whatever reason, I feel like Barry Bonnell always killed the Brewers. His career numbers against Milwaukee support that he did better than his career averages, and he had more doubles against the Brewers than against any other team in major league baseball. But that's not exactly "killing" the Brewers. I must just be remembering a game or two where he drove in some key runs or something. Bonnell has led an interesting, widely varying life. He played major league baseball, obviously. He had a dream as a kid to become a pilot, and he satisfied that passion as well. In fact, he became a professional pilot in 1989 with Northwest Airlink flying little SAAB 340 planes for Northwest. That plane, now discontinued, is a two-engine turboprop plane that seats 37 passengers in its current configuration for United Airlines. After ending his piloting career when he saw that airline consolidation would probably keep him so far down the totem pole that he would never fly any of the big jets, he turned to working in mail order medication for a home medical equipment company. His LinkedIn profile touts his progress in becoming the director of contracting for the northwest United States for Lincare, a national company. He apparently worked himself out of a job at Lincare since his bio says that "[w]hen the original risk plans began to fail, the contracting position was no longer needed at Lincare and the position was eliminated." After that, he started his own company to bring the world Britney Spears lunchboxes and N'Sync teddy bears. He sold off that company and turned to writing and to "Pet-activated turnkey products" with his current company "Roy's Boys Pet Toys." According to his high school's biography for him, Bonnell still lives in the Seattle area, where he settled after his playing days ended. A cautionary note for any Washington attorneys: Bonnell is the citizen member of the Washington State Bar Association's Disciplinary Board. Perhaps "totally gnarly" meets "The World According to Garp" is the most accurate way to describe him. Or, at least the term Renaissance man.
