Card #112: Billy Sample

Who Can It Be Now?
William Amos Sample was born on April 2, 1955, in Roanoke, Virginia. According to Billy's own webpage biography, Billy spent all but two years of his childhood in Salem, Virginia (a town just outside Roanoke) where he attended high school. His classmates there voted him "Most Versatile" after he lettered in three sports, was on the debate team his freshman year, and acted in two plays during his junior year. 

The Texas Rangers drafted Sample twice. The first time he was drafted was in the 28th round of the 1973 June draft -- straight out of high school. He chose instead to make the 108-mile trip north on I-81 to Harrisonburg to attend James Madison University, where he majored in psychology. After his junior year at JMU, the Rangers drafted Sample again in June of 1976 -- this time in the 10th Round. 

Sample signed after this second time being drafted and was assigned to the Rangers Rookie League team in the Gulf Coast League. Being a man among boys -- 1.2 years older than the average player in the league -- Sample destroyed the league. He hit .382/.505/.566 -- yes, .505 OBP -- in a league which averaged .237/.340/.306 overall. Unsurprisingly, he led the league in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging, finished second in steals with 27 (behind his teammate Greg Jemison's 32), led the league in triples with 9, tied for 9th in doubles with 7, and tied for twelfth in homeruns with just 1.  

Those video-game-style numbers led the Rangers to push Sample to a more age-appropriate league in 1977 -- the Double-A Texas League. He still looked to be a hitting star in Tulsa, slashing at .348/.426/.527, which was good enough for third in the league in hitting (first in the league in the non-El Paso standings), fifth in OBP, and seventh in SLG.  

Thus, in 1978, Sample moved up to Triple-A Tucson. Once again placed in a great hitting environment, Sample took advantage and increased his HR from 7 in Tulsa to 18 in Tucson with a .352/.471/.573 line in a league that hit .291/.369/.422 overall. Once again, placed in context, these numbers still were excellent -- 5th in hitting, 1st in OBP, 4th in SLG (and first among players who appeared in more than 100 games.

That impressive season in Triple-A earned Sample a call-up in September of 1978 to the big club. Then, in 1979, Sample made the Rangers out of spring training and never played in the minors again aside from a three-game stint on an injury rehab in 1981. 

Sample hit reasonably well in 1979 -- .292/.365/.415 -- but the Rangers had a stocked outfield that season. Sample played the most out of 6 players -- who included Al Oliver, Johnny Grubb, Richie Zisk, Mike Jorgensen, and Dave Roberts -- to record an appearance in left field that year. Never shy to express his opinion, Sample noted exactly that issue in a UPI wire story in 1979:

I can't make any excuses. I'll wind up with about 325 to 330 at-bats so I can't complain about the way I've been played. I wanted to hit better than .270 but I'd like to have a few more home runs and RBI. I'm not content, but this is good for starters. I didn't expect to come in here and tear up the league.  

Sure, everyone wants to play every day, but we've got a Mickey Rivers and an Al Oliver and a Richie Zisk in the outfield and those are tough people to move out. But push will come to shove someday.

Instead of pushing others out, however, the Rangers did exactly the opposite -- bringing in Mickey Rivers from the Yankees while trading away DH Oscar Gamble. Yes, that cleared a spot for Zisk to move to DH, but it put yet another player in Rivers ahead of Sample in the Rangers outfield. Add in the fact that the Rangers simply did not appear to be sold on Sample as a right fielder or left fielder -- putting Oliver in left most of the year and rotating 7 different players through right field including Grubb, Jim Norris, Zisk, Oliver, Rusty Staub, Roberts, and Sample. 

Then, throw in the other fact -- Sample was pretty bad at the plate for most of 1980, when he hit .323 in September to pull his average up from . 230 to .260. Of course, that coincided with his most regular playing time of the year. 1981 was not much better for Sample in terms of playing time either but that had to do with injuries as much as it did with players in the way.  Of course, as I mentioned back when I discussed their team checklist, the Rangers were not exactly a well-run organization. Still, why would the Rangers screw around like this with a guy who appeared to be a pretty good prospect with a good batting eye in the minor leagues? (Maybe it was because Sample was the players' rep for 5 years with the club?)

1982 wasn't much better. That year, Sample watched as the team promoted switch hitter George Wright directly from Double-A to be the regular centerfielder. The Rangers brought in third baseman Larry Parrish from Montreal and promptly made him a right fielder. Pushed back to left field, Sample played 85 games there while Johnny Grubb (still around after all these years), Leon Roberts, Lee Mazzilli, and even Pete O'Brien got playing time in left. 

To be fair, it wasn't like Sample's production at the plate was screaming "play me now!" Being as bad at the plate as the 1982 Rangers were (AL ranks: 12th in HR, 13th in AVG, 14th in OBP and SLG) was a team effort, but Sample's OPS+ put him squarely at league average.

Finally, though, in 1983 and 1984, Sample got the opportunity to play on a daily basis in Texas. He put up his best season in the majors in 1983 -- .274/.331/.401, 44 SB (only 8 CS), 12 HR, and 57 RBI. He did this despite hitting in every single spot in the order. His 1984 was less encouraging though, as his batting eye and his OBP deserted him. 

Thus, when the opportunity to get rid of Sample arose, the Rangers did just that. On February 27, 1985, the Rangers sent Sample and a minor leaguer to the Yankees in exchange for former Ranger Toby Harrah. Sample spent one entirely underwhelming season with the Yankees -- coming to the plate just 154 times. 

Despite this less-than-impressive year, he did provide one of the best lines I've come across so far. When asked what kind of guy he is, he said, "I'm like Daffy Duck in the cartoons. I'm black. I've got big feet, and I'm always bitching."

After the 1985 season, he was traded for a second time in his career -- this time to the Atlanta Braves. The Braves played him a little bit as a fourth/fifth outfielder type, but after the season, they let him go. He signed as a free agent with the Twins in February of 1987, but he did not make the team. Thus ended his major league playing career.

Mustache Check: Look closely...do you see it? Billy's got just a hint of a mustache, but he has one.

This Is Radio Clash
From 1988 to 1989, Sample served as a broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves. Then, in 1992, he was a broadcaster with the Seattle Mariners. After that year, he joined the broadcast team for the California Angels for two seasons.  When that ended, he signed on to work for the MLB.TV and MLB.com for 8 years as a writer and commentator.  He was also writing for USA Today and Sports Illustrated in that time as well.

Freeze-Frame
Sample's unique talents in his post-baseball career are best shown by his IMDB page. In 2012, he appeared in a slasher pic called The Meat Puppet. In 2013, he joined the same writers from The Meat Puppet (Billy and Joseph Pepitone, who are the nephews of former Yankee Joe Pepitone) as well as former major leaguers Brian McRae and Jim Leyritz in another horror film called Gravedigger. 

Once that acting bug bit, Sample had to carry out his own dream. He wrote, directed, produced, and starred in a film called Reunion 108.  The film has been rated pretty highly by IMDB users -- 8.2 out of 10 -- though it's not available on Amazon Prime quite yet.  The screenplay for his film won an award at the Hoboken International Film Festival in 2011, and that's what spurred him on to make the film.

With his own film in the can, he's now in two more indie films scheduled for release in 2015. There's Sugar, for which the IMDB synopsis is "A housewife of a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate secretly forms an all-women [sic] rock band turning her entire world up side down [sic]." And, then, Sample is scheduled to appear in another horror film called Amygdala. You can click through to read the plot summary yourself on that one.

Family Ties
Billy's son Ian was a wide receiver for the University of Hawaii about 10 years ago now -- the year before Hawaii got into the Sugar Bowl with Colt Brennan so that they could get exposed by Georgia.  Ian even wrote a book about being a football player.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
Sample absolutely owned the Brewers. In 198 plate appearances, he slashed at .353/.388/.500 with 4 HR, 6 SB (5 CS, though) and 13 doubles. That line compares to his career line -- .272/.329/.384 with 46 HR. Geez.

During his career, Sample was the target for some crazy racist jerks who threatened his life and his wife with phone calls (in the days before caller identification). They did this because Billy Sample married a white woman. Among the stunts they pulled, they called the ballpark and told the Rangers' traveling secretary Dan Schimek that Billy's wife had been shot. That was untrue. They also left a note cut out of magazine headlines that formed a death threat. To Sample's credit, he recognized that it was not endemic to Dallas: "But no matter how much hatred is involved, I'm going to refrain from bad-mouthing the whole (Arlington) area."

These days, Sample is busy with his film work. He is also represented by the same agency who represents Rick Cerone -- which means that yes, you can hire Billy Sample to join you at your birthday party for $750 or to play a pick-up game for $500.  Oddly, on his bio on that page, the tags listed for him are fitness, women's issues, health and wellness, arthritis, knee injuries, multiple sclerosis, and foodie.

When he's not busy acting or addressing women's issues through pick-up games or attending your live fantasy draft (only $500 guys!), he appears to spend a decent amount of time on Facebook. Other than commenting about the call on the game-deciding fourth-down measurement in the South Carolina v. Georgia football game a couple of weeks ago, Sample appears to spend a lot of time finding news stories about "neocons playbook of bullsh*t" in Iraq and, mostly, about how Israel is the cause of all the problems in the Middle East.

I'm not going to argue with him on those news stories. I don't know enough to do it. But to share a video that accuses Israel of "ethnic cleansing, colonialism, and apartheid" is pretty strong stuff. 

Click through if you wish to read them.

Card #95: Ozzie Smith

Who Can It Be Now?
Osborne Earl Smith was born on December 26, 1954, in Mobile, Alabama. His family moved from Alabama to the now well-known South Central Los Angeles when he was 6 years old. According to his biography on Biography.com, he learned how to perform his trademark backflips as a kid by doing flips into piles of sawdust at a local lumberyard.

He attended Locke High School in Los Angeles, which at the time that Ozzie was in attendance had one heck of a baseball program.  In a 5-year span, Locke turned out two Hall of Famers -- Ozzie & his teammate Eddie Murray -- and four other major leaguers, including pitcher Larry Demery, Gary Alexander, pitcher Darrell Jackson, and Eddie's younger brother Rich. 

As was the case for Alexander, Ozzie was not drafted out of high school. But, where Alexander went to junior college, Ozzie received a partial scholarship and attended baseball powerhouse Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. He was drafted for the first time in 1976 in the 7th round of the June Draft by the Detroit Tigers, but apparently he did not receive a sufficient contract offer to induce him to sign. As a result, he went back to school for his senior year and was drafted in the fourth round of the June Draft in 1977 by the San Diego Padres.

After Ozzie signed with the Padres, they assigned him to Walla Walla in the Northwest League, a Low-A league. He hit well there, got on base, and made consistent contact -- 12 strikeouts in 333 plate appearances is pretty consistent contact. He never again spent any time in the major leagues after 1977. 

Instead, he made the major league team directly out of spring training in 1978. The Padres had played Bill Almon at short the previous season and did not have a set third baseman. So, Ozzie's play allowed them to put Almon at third, push Tucker Ashford to the bench, and get better defensive play at shortstop. Ozzie played well enough to finish second in the 1978 Rookie of the Year race behind the Braves' Bob Horner -- even though both had fewer WAR than third-place finisher Don Robinson.

In Smith's four seasons with the Padres, the question was always whether Ozzie hit enough to justify playing him. His glove was never the issue, but a .260 OBP and a .262 SLG in 1979 made the case pretty clearly that Ozzie would have to rely on fielding to make his dollars initially. Even by 1980, however, Ozzie's glovework had gained him enough notoriety in baseball to earn him his first of thirteen consecutive Gold Gloves.  He took over the crown of best NL defensive shortstop from Dave Concepcion, and he did not give up the title until Jay Bell beat him out in 1993.

As I said, though, the real question was his bat. He was in the top 5 in outs made in 1978 (4th), 1979 (4th), 1980 (2nd), and 1981 (1st). Perhaps it was just that he was learning how to hit while in the major leagues, but his slash line in San Diego was pretty bad -- .231/.295/.278 and an OPS+ (a normalized rating where the average league hitter is 100) of 66. That's not good.  Despite that, his slick fielding led to his first selection to the All-Star team in 1981 as a back up to Dave Concepcion.

By the end of the 1981 season, however, circumstances aligned to end Ozzie's time in San Diego. The biggest issue was actually in St. Louis, where Whitey Herzog and his shortstop, Garry Templeton, had a major falling out -- as in, Herzog challenged Templeton to a fight after a game at Busch Stadium in 1981 when Templeton flipped off St. Louis fans. 

The other issue was what turned into a common theme throughout Ozzie's career -- an issue, by the way, which I had forgotten about and which often gets whitewashed out of discussions about Ozzie. That issue was Ozzie's salary demands. As this sarcastic article of "Christmas gifts" for athletes points out, Ozzie was complaining that he could not "make ends meet" on the salary he was making in 1981. 

This claim was nothing new. The year prior, in agitating for a better salary, Ozzie and his agent took out a classified ad in the San Diego newspaper in the "part-time help wanted" section. Ozzie even claimed that he might need to take a leave of absence over the summer of 1980 to take a temporary job.  In response to the ad, Joan Kroc replied, tongue-in-cheek, that her gardener Luis Torres could have used an assistant at $4.50 an hour. Indeed, as the news story mentions, he received offers to be a nude dancer at $500 a show and an offer to be a pizza delivery man for $3.25 an hour. He was making $72,500 that year (about $196,000 today).

To make up for this, Herzog offered Ozzie $450,000 a year. Herzog added that if Ozzie didn't like St. Louis, Whitey, or the Cardinals at the end of 1982, then he would release Ozzie. If Ozzie liked it, then they would offer him a 3-year deal. He got the three-year deal after helping the Cardinals win the first of two 1980s World Series. Ozzie signed a 3-year, $3.6 million contract. 

During his time with the Cardinals, Ozzie became a better hitter as well. I cannot tell you whether that happened because Ozzie left the green grass of San Diego for the fake plastic grass of St. Louis, but those Whitey Herzog-managed teams of the 1980s relied nearly entirely on speed, defense, getting on base, and smart baserunning in terms of stealing bases. In many of those respects, the team was built around Ozzie even though Ozzie tended to hit near the bottom of the order. Ozzie had a slash line of .272/.350/.344 in St. Louis, stealing 433 bases and getting caught just 102 times.  He walked 876 times against just 423 strikeouts. He was an All-Star in every year with the Cardinals but one -- 1993 -- though he probably didn't deserve the last three since those were pretty much "goodbye, Ozzie, we love you!" votes from the fans.  

Off the field and outside of his continued caterwauling about money, he was an exemplary character. He won the Branch Rickey Award in 1994 for his exceptional community service. He won the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1989 from Phi Delta Theta as the player who best exhibited the character and integrity of Lou Gehrig on the field and off. He was awarded the Roberto Clemente Award in 1995 for combining his good play and strong work in the community. I'm not sure how all those are necessarily different, but they are consistent in showing Ozzie's community work.

As Ozzie's career went on, he continued playing at a fairly consistently high level -- both offensively and defensively -- with St. Louis. His last three seasons were shortened by a strike, injuries, and manager's decision, however.  That last season of 1996 is worth looking at.

Smith got into a disagreement with manager Tony LaRussa, who was in his first year as Cardinals manager, in spring training of that year. Even as recently as February of 2014, Ozzie still seemed to carry a bit of a grudge against LaRussa for the way LaRussa handled the shortstop job that year. I mean, check out this quote: "I've always admired Joe Torre and Bobby Cox. The other guy ... uh, I never really knew him." Okay, Ozzie.

Midway through the 1996 season, Ozzie announced his retirement.  Ozzie reportedly thought about going to another team to extend his career, but instead he retired as a Cardinal and signed a personal services agreement with the Cardinals at that point.  Sitting behind Royce Clayton apparently told Ozzie that it was time to retire. So, he did.

Mustache Check: Yes, Ozzie is sporting whiskers.

Rabbit Is Rich
I'm belaboring the off-field stuff with Ozzie a bit, but I had completely forgotten how many times Ozzie appeared to be whining about money.  But, the real big contract was in 1986. After the 1986 season, Ozzie signed a contract which made him the highest-paid player in the National League for 1988 -- $90,000 more than Mike Schmidt and about $180,000 more than Gary Carter.

Trivial Pursuit
Ozzie Smith is the career leader in Defensive Wins Above Replacement at 43.4 (fully 4 wins better than Mark Belanger). He's also the career leader in most Gold Gloves at shortstop with 13, which is 2 better than Omar Vizquel. 

Finally, he has the most assists career among shortstops with 8375 -- 360 better than Luis Aparicio. For comparison, Derek Jeter has played 20 seasons at shortstop (1 more than Ozzie) and Jeter is more than 1800 behind Ozzie.  

Elvis Andrus has a very, very outside shot at catching Ozzie.  Andrus is 25 and has played 6 seasons already.  Andrus would have to keep up his current pace of assists until he reaches the age of 44 to catch Smith.

This Is Radio Clash
Ozzie Smith served as a Cardinals broadcaster from 1997 to 1999.  No word on whether he advertised for a part-time job in search of more money.

The World According to Garp
Ozzie has written two biographies -- Wizard in 1988 and Ozzie Smith: Road to Cooperstown in 2002 after his election to the Hall of Fame. He also wrote a Jerry-Remy-like book about the Cardinals mascot Fred called, Hello, Fredbird! in 2014.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
Honestly, I expected this biography to be much more based around Ozzie's fielding exploits and his home run off Tom Niedenfuer back in 1987. I was struck, though, that the first several stories that came up about Ozzie from his playing days through the Google News archives were about his feuds with Tony LaRussa, his apparent exultation at Whitey Herzog being fired in 1990, and still more contract issues  in 1991 -- when the AP ran a story about how talks had broken down between Smith and the Cardinals and that he would leave after the 1992 season.  He didn't leave obviously, but he was always walking that line.

These days, Ozzie is pretty easy to find. He can be booked through Premiere Speakers Bureau -- the same group that serves as Jim Palmer's speakers' bureau. I can't tell you how much Ozzie charges, though -- the website says that "we are not able to provide this information on the website." But, Ozzie will fly first class from St. Louis to speak to your group, giving either his "Hall of Fame Speech" about perseverance and success or his "Conversation with Ozzie Smith," which is a "light hearted, anecdotal presentation with stories from his childhood as a little leaguer to the present day."

If you're interested in Ozzie for a lower price than his speakers' fee must be, then you can follow him on Twitter (@STLWizard). A quick review of his timeline there shows that he golfs. A lot. 

For kids, Ozzie Smith's Sports Academy is in Chesterfield Mall in the St. Louis area is there with batting cage rentals, sports lessons, and summer camps.

Finally, if you're a collector or fan of Ozzie's -- and I apologize to you if I made you upset with this write-up about him -- then feel free to go to Ozzie's personal website. You can listen to Jack Buck call the NLCS homer when you get there, and then you can go to his memorabilia page to buy a signed baseball for $125 (or $150 if you want it signed "Osborne Earl").

Ozzie was a fantastic defensive player who was slightly below average at the plate over his career. The fact that he made the Hall of Fame essentially for his defense tells you what you need to know about him. I believe that his enshrinement was deserved as well.  

I also believe that it will be a long time before we see a mostly defensive player enshrined again. Teams these days are more willing to live with defensive lapses at key defensive positions, it seems. Or, more to the point, teams are less willing to live with the players that Ozzie was when he first came up -- great fielding and light hitting.   

Card #81: Jim Palmer In Action

Who Can It Be Now?
It's still Jim Palmer, this time "In Action".  The Action card highlights some of his career achievements in All-Star games, Championship Series, and World Series games and series.

Let's talk, instead, about his baseball cards for a moment.  Actually, one highlight in particular on what is called his "Official Biography" comes on page three of that website.  The first line there states, "In 1994, Jim was part of the Nabisco All-Star Legends, a consumer trading card program which was the largest and most successful in history."  

Being that this blog is a baseball card blog and, indeed, I collect baseball cards, that line piqued my interest.  I looked up that card set, and it's quite the set.  A blog called The Card Investor (which has not been updated since 2013) had a post in 2010 about the 1993 set which I found interesting.  

The Nabisco All-Star Legends cards were available from Nabisco in both 1993 and again in 1994 simply by sending in two proofs of purchase from Nabisco products and $5.  In return, you received an on-card autograph from one of Brooks Robinson, Catfish Hunter, Don Drysdale, Ernie Banks, Phil Niekro, or Willie Stargell in 1993 or from Bob Gibson, Jim Palmer, Frank Robinson, or Duke Snider in 1994.  Each card came with a certificate of authenticity, and, at least for 1993, the autographs were "limited" to 90,000 cards based on what Nabisco asked the Hall of Famers to sign.  

The Card Investor post notes that, midway through his efforts to complete his contract, Don Drysdale passed away suddenly.  That meant that his signed cards carry a premium due to those being limited to 25,000 total.  Catfish Hunter passed away in 1999 and Willie Stargell passed away in 2001, so their certified autographs are very limited in number.  A quick check of eBay on 7/28/2014 shows that these cards generally are not terribly expensive -- just $9.99 for a Jim Palmer, a Phil Niekro for $15.99, and even a Stargell for $26.99 at a BIN price.

If you are a Jim Palmer SuperCollector, the total number of cards that you would need to "complete" your Jim Palmer collection stands currently at 2866 according to The Trading Card Database.  For comparison's sake, that seems to mean that Palmer does not get as much attention from the card companies as guys like Robin Yount (TCDB total: 3753), Paul Molitor (card count: 4463), Bob Gibson (listed at 3301, though probably some mistakes in there) or Tom Seaver (Head Count: 4009) but a lot more attention than Phil Niekro (just 1285) or Robin Roberts (a spartan 687).  

I suppose those numbers are a function of the timing for Yount's and Molitor's careers -- picking up a lot more of the parallel-crazy 1990s versus Palmer's mostly 1970s career -- and a function of the fact that there are several other Orioles who simply engender more fan love than Palmer, such as Cal Ripken Jr. (card count: a massive 12,737) or Brooks Robinson (3117).  

Mustache Check: Nope, Palmer didn't grow a mustache for his action shot, unfortunately.

This Is Radio Clash
Palmer has been a television broadcaster for baseball for many, many years.  The minute that his baseball career ended -- and, indeed, for many years during his career, he served as a color commentator for ESPN, HTS, ABC, and local Orioles games.  His IMDB profile lists him as performing color commentary for the ALCS in 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1986; for the All-Star Games in 1984, 1986, 1988, 1993, and 1995; for the NLCS in 1988 and 1995; and for the World Series in 1981, 1985, and 1989.

Freeze-Frame
Palmer's Hollywood good-looks and charm and his broadcasting skills have gotten him many opportunities to appear in documentaries and in acting roles.  His most well-known acting role was playing a broadcaster in one of the funniest movies ever, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!  According to his IMDB profile, Palmer has also appeared as himself in a number of series such as Veep, Commander in Chief, George Lopez, The Chuck Woolery Show, and The Pat Sajak Show (though those last two were talk shows and I'm pretty sure Palmer was flogging a book at that point).

Also, as many folks remember, Palmer served as the spokesperson for Jockey brand underwear for many years in the late 1970s and into the 1980s.  He replaced Phil Rizzuto as the on-camera spokesperson for The Money Store after Rizzuto stopped during the spots in the 1990s.  He got in the shower on camera and pitched Tegrin Dandruff Shampoo in 1983. He also pitched Brylcreem for a while.  Finally, as he aged, he picked up a print-ad spokesperson role for Cosamin DS Dietary Supplement for Joint Health...and all of us who remembered him as a pitcher suddenly felt much older.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
When looking at newspaper articles about Palmer, the thing that tends to come through is that either a bunch of newspaper men are very jealous of Palmer's good looks and money, or else Jim Palmer is an incredibly narcissistic man.  One article written by a woman which appeared in newspapers around the country came out with the title, "From jock to Jockey: 'Hunk' speaks of self".

In that article, Palmer is quoted as describing his personal grooming habits as "fastidious," as preferring water to soda, wine, beer, or liquor, as rarely eating red meat, and as eating fruit for dessert.  The story quotes noted Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell as writing that "some ballplayers snort coke. Palmer won't even drink one."  So, I guess if we add everything together, we can say that Palmer was a metrosexual even before being a metrosexual was a "thing."

Palmer's personal life comes up frequently in these articles as well.  I've found references to him being married to at least three different women -- his high school sweetheart Susan, whom he divorced in the mid-1980s, a photographer named Joni Pearlstone, whom Palmer married in late 1990 and apparently divorced during that decade, and a second Susan whom Palmer met in Palm Beach in 2000.

No matter what the year, though, Palmer is noted for his charitable work.  For instance, with his most recent wife Susan, Palmer has become involved with autism charities since Susan's son from another father is autistic.  The Palm Beach Daily News article linked above noted that Palmer was involved as a spokesperson for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation both in Maryland and nationally since 1970.

A few other random notes which don't fit elsewhere:

• Though he was adopted, Palmer has never expressed any interest in tracing his birth family in any way.
• If you wish to hire Jim Palmer to speak at a corporate function, be advised that his speaking fee for a keynote address will run you $25,000 -- $32,500 if you are in Mountain or Pacific time -- and that he will require one first class plane ticket to come to your event.
• Palmer's comeback in 1991 was an odd occurrence.  Here you have a guy already inducted into the Hall of Fame who wanted to try to pitch again at age 45. 

Finally, did Jim Palmer deserve to be called "the most overrated pitcher in baseball history"? I am not as good at the transposition of players onto different teams as some folks may be.  Certainly, as I mentioned yesterday, Palmer's ERA was always worse than his Fielding-independent-pitching performance -- which would seem to indicate that Palmer was among the luckiest pitchers around.  

But overrated? I guess that depends on where you rate him.

To me, he's about an average Hall of Fame pitcher.  That's still really damn good. Most of his comps in similarity scores are in the Hall of Fame as well.  The only three who are not are Mike Mussina and Jack Morris at numbers 5 and 6 respectively and Andy Pettitte at 10.  All four of these pitchers share the fact that they pitched for great teams with good run support and good support in the field and racked up a bunch of wins over many years.  Should those other three guys be in the Hall of Fame? I don't know, honestly.

Looking further, the pitcher to whom Palmer is closest in similarity score is Bob Gibson with a similarity score of 901. Next is Bob Feller, score of 889.  Then, it's Juan Marichal at 874. None of these guys are extremely similar to Palmer -- just similar enough.  

I don't think Palmer can be considered overrated as a Hall of Famer.  He's dead smack in the middle there.  The only overrating that happened is the over-90% of the ballots on which Palmer appeared in his election.  But seriously, did anyone watching Palmer pitch in the 1970s ever think, "ah, this guy isn't that good"?  

Average Hall of Famer means damn good pitcher to me.  That's all I can say.

Card #55: Rick Burleson

Who Can It Be Now?
Richard Paul Burleson was born on April 29, 1951, in Lynwood, California.  He grew up in Southern California as a Dodger fan.  Growing up, he attended Warren High School in Downey, California -- a school once known as Earl Warren High School; its name was changed by a group of conservative parents in the early 1960s who didn't like the liberal decisions on race and prisoners' rights issues by the U.S. Supreme Court under former California Governor and then-Chief Justice Warren. 

Burleson was drafted in the 8th Round of the June 1969 draft by the Minnesota Twins, but he did not sign.  He enrolled at Cerritos Junior College (he did not play there, however), which meant he was available the next January in the Secondary Draft as a previous draftee who had not signed.  So, the Red Sox selected him fifth overall in the first round of that draft.

Burleson signed with the Red Sox and was assigned to their Florida State League team in Winter Haven.  He did not play especially well -- .220/.307/.277 in 485 plate appearances over 118 games along with 38 errors at shortstop.  As a result, he spent his next year in single-A again split over two different teams in the Carolinas -- Greenville (SC) in the Western Carolina League (low-level A) and Winston-Salem in the High-A Carolina League. 

He moved up to Double-A Pawtucket in the Eastern League in 1972 and again did not hit particularly well.  Nonetheless, the Red Sox still moved him up to Triple-A -- again in Pawtucket, this time in the International League -- in 1973.  Perhaps it is no surprise that in an interview in 2009, Burleson said that he felt that players in the minor leagues are older, more mature, and know better how to play baseball these days than when he was in the minor leagues.

He spent April of 1974 in Pawtucket again before he was called up to the major leagues on May 4, 1974 after the Red Sox decided to release Luis Aparicio at the end of spring training and also realized that Mario Guerrero was not going to cut it as a starter and that Juan Beniquez was not an infielder.  Burleson's first year in the major leagues was a fairly successful one.  He had a .284 AVG and fielded at both second base and shortstop fairly well and displaying excellent range -- 5.05 RF/9 Innings at shortstop, which was good enough for fourth place in the league that year.  He even got a single vote in the Rookie of the Year voting.

During his time with the Red Sox, Burleson earned his nickname of "Rooster."  The story Burleson tells is that the recently deceased Don Zimmer gave him the nickname.  Zimmer hit ground balls to Burleson all the time.  One day, Zimmer said, "look at [Burleson] out there, with his hat off and his hair standing up.  He looks like a rooster walking around."  

It may also have had a bit to do with Burleson's attitude toward the game.  Burleson himself recognized that being called a rooster was, "the kind of player I was too, a fighter.  It stuck." As pitcher Bill Lee put it in his hilarious book, The Wrong Stuff:

[Darrell] Johnson had brought Rick Burleson with him from Pawtucket to play short.  I had never met a red-ass like Rick in my life.  Some guys didn't like to lose, but Rick got angry if the score was even tied.  He was very intense and had the greatest arm of any infielder I had ever seen.  The moment he reported to camp, he brought a fire to the club that we had been lacking.

Starting in 1974 and ending in 1980, Burleson was a nearly every day fixture in the Red Sox lineup at shortstop.  He was named an All-Star in 1977, 1978, and 1979 and was the starter for the 1977 game.  He played the most games at shortstop in the league in 1975, 1980, and 1981, was second in 1977 and 1979, and was fourth in 1976 and 1978.  He was a part of the 1975 World Series team that lost to the Big Red Machine in seven games and of the 1978 team about which Red Sox fans still say, "F**k Bucky Dent."  He even won a Gold Glove in 1979.

Despite being from Southern California, Burleson really embraced being in Boston and loved the city and New England.  As he told MLB.com in 2002, "I didn't really ever want to be traded.  . . . I didn't want to leave.  I felt like I was part of that New England work ethic group there, and I would have [liked] to have stayed."  

But, the Red Sox front office did not want Burleson to leave as a free agent after the 1981 season, so after the 1980 season they sent he and third baseman Butch Hobson to the California Angels in exchange for reliever Mark Clear, third baseman Carney Lansford, and outfielder Rick Miller (who had left the Sox for the Angels via free agency three years before).  In a 2004 interview with Boston.com, Burleson said that he believed his trade -- along with the trade of Fred Lynn to the Angels and with letting Carlton Fisk leave in free agency -- resulted from those three players holding out in early 1976 in the first year of free agency.

In 1981, Burleson had perhaps his best season as a major leaguer.  He played all 109 games that the Angels played and formed a fine hitting, fine fielding combination with Bobby Grich. He was named as the shortstop on the Silver Slugger team, keeping Robin Yount from winning three straight, and he was an All-Star for the fourth and final time in his career.

As good as 1981 was for Burleson, it was the last year he had as a productive, every-day major league player.  As he recalled in a later interview, his shoulder started bothering him in spring training in 1982.  He was getting regular cortisone injections in the shoulder, and, after one of them, he might have been tricked mentally into thinking everything was fine.  As he said in the interview, a couple of days after a shot and before a game with the Twins, he actually told someone before the game that his shoulder was the best it had felt in a long time.  He had a play in the hole at short and threw the guy out, but "it felt like someone had stuck an ice-pick into [his] shoulder and then pulled it out.  It felt like a rush of air came out... I just knew something was wrong."  He stayed in the game, but felt an intense burning sensation on a later play turning a double play.

He had torn his rotator cuff in his shoulder.  Dr. Lewis Yokum performed surgery, and Burleson was out for 14 months.  Despite that length of time being gone, Burleson is pretty sure that he came back too quickly because, in mid-1983, Burleson injured it again.  He missed most of the 1984 season with it, pinch hitting and pinch running a few times but never playing the field that September.  During his rehabilitation, he severely dislocated his shoulder in December of 1984, causing him to miss all of 1985 as well. 

Finally, in 1986, he was able to play a little bit in the field again for the Angels.  He was named the 1986 Comeback Player of the Year, and he enjoyed his final run to the post-season that year with an Angels team that lost to his old club, the Red Sox, in the ALCS remembered today for the home run that Donnie Moore gave up to Dave Henderson. 

Burleson played in one more season with Baltimore in 1987.  He was released in July of that year at the age of 36, leaving his fans to wonder what "could have been" if he had not gotten hurt in 1982.

Trivial Pursuit 
Rick Burleson holds the major league record for shortstops for participating in the most double plays.  In 1980, he was involved in 147 double plays.

A second piece of trivia: in the bottom of the ninth inning of the "Bucky Dent game", the Red Sox had a chance to win the game.  Yankee's closer Rich Gossage was in his third inning of work, and had given up two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Burleson worked Gossage for a one-out walk and took second when Jerry Remy singled to right field.  Jim Rice followed with a fly-out to right on which Burleson tagged up and went to third base.   Up to the plate stepped Carl Yastrzemski.  Yaz popped out to Graig Nettles at third, and Burleson, who represented the tying run, was stranded at third base.

Freeze-Frame
As was the case with Buddy Bell, Burleson appeared in the documentary movie Looking for Oscar.  He also appeared in a Boston Red Sox history video.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
Everything I remember about Rick Burleson as a kid relates first to his rotator cuff injury in 1982 and second to my reading The Wrong Stuff during high school.  So, as a result, when I think Rick Burleson, I think "Red Ass."  This led me to Google that term to see if I could find a good, funny definition online, but it led me to something even more humorous: a guy in an online forum saying that he asked his doctor for a description of what it meant...I guess you could add "dumbass" next to "red ass" for that guy.

Anyway, other than a brief time after his retirement, Burleson has worked in baseball every year since 1989.  He worked for the Oakland A's in 1989 and 1990, then coached in the majors for the Red Sox in 1992 and 1993.  He next worked as a minor league base running instructor for the Angels in 1994, and then served on the big-league coaching staff in 1995 and 1996.  He started his minor league managerial career in 1997 in the Mariners organization and managed through 2007.  After that, he moved to the Arizona Diamondbacks system and served as a hitting coach from 2008 through 2012.  

We are getting closer, now, to having the ability to field a complete team through our personal appearances site.  Rick Burleson will join you at a baseball game if you have an extra seat for the low, low price of just $1,000 through the company as Rick Cerone and Greg Gross.  So, we've got our catcher, an outfielder, and a shortstop now, and we're just on card #55.  I bet we will get pretty close to a full major league roster by the time we're done!

Card #53: Greg Gross

Who Can It Be Now?
Gregory Eugene Gross was born on August 1, 1952, in York, Pennsylvania.  He grew up in York County in a little town called Goldsboro though, as he said in a story in The Sporting News in 1974, the mailing address for the whole town was Etters.  Gross's father was a steelworker, so Gross had a humble background.  

He worked out for the Phillies scouts in high school, but he was drafted in the fourth round of the 1970 June draft (80th overall) by the Houston Astros.  He signed almost immediately after the draft and, as a 17 year-old, spent his summer in the Appalachian League in Covington, Virginia.  He hit so well there that the Astros skipped him up to Double-A Columbus (GA) as an 18-year-old in 1971 and then to Triple-A Oklahoma City in 1972 and Denver in 1973.

The Astros gave Gross a September call-up in 1973.  He didn't hit very well that fall, but the next spring saw him break camp with the Astros.  His numbers from that 1974 season are very strange -- the .314/.393/.377 slash line is not that weird, but Gross had 21 2Bs, 8 3Bs, 0 HRs, 12 SB, 20 CS, and 76 walks against just 39 strikeouts.  For his efforts, Gross came in second in the Rookie of the Year voting behind St. Louis OF Bake McBride.  Oddly enough, Gross's first season in the major leagues was the only season in which he saw action in more than 140 games.  He hit so well that year that his teammates called him "Ty Williams" -- for Ty Cobb and Ted Williams.  No pressure, then, Greg.

The Astros determined in 1976, however, that they wanted more power from the corner outfield positions.  To be fair, Gross had spent three complete seasons in the massive Astrodome without hitting a homerun, so pretty much any kind of power would have been enough to replace him.  As a result, the Astros traded Gross to the Chicago Cubs for infielder Julio Gonzalez.  

Gross spent two years on Chicago's North Side.  In those two years, Gross hit his first six homeruns as a major leaguer.  Considering that Gross finished his career with seven total, that is significant.  It was not enough to keep him in Chicago, though, as the Cubs traded Gross to the Philadelphia Phillies along with Dave Rader and Manny Trillo for minor leaguer Henry Mack, and major leaguers Derek Botelho, Barry Foote, Jerry Martin, and Ted Sizemore.

Once he arrived in Philadelphia, Gross took on the role that he would play for the rest of his career -- through 1988 with the Phillies and then in 1989 with the Astros.  That role was "Left-handed pinch hitter."  Reviewing his game appearances totals against his plate appearances totals makes his role clear, and 1980 is as good an example as any.  Gross appeared in 127 games and came to the plate just 182 times.  He walked 24 times and struck out just 7 times.  His game log shows this as well -- Gross played just 17 complete games all season.  

But, doing that, Gross got to play 10 years with the Phillies and came to the plate 1819 times. In his 5 years in Houston, he batted 1866 times.

Gross was done in the majors after 1989.  He said in a later interview that he sat out from baseball for almost five years after that waiting for a team to call him because he thought he could still play. 

The Message
Gross is very involved with the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the ALS Association -- the association fighting to find a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, if you were wondering).  Indeed, if you are interested, you can help support the ALS Philadelphia Chapter by attending the Greg Gross Golf Outing on Monday, September 29, 2014, at the Old York Road Country Club in Spring House, Pennsylvania.

Trivial Pursuit
Greg Gross is fifth all-time in the number of hits achieved as a pinch hitter with a total of 143.  He is behind Lenny Harris, Mark Sweeney, Manny Mota, and Smoky Burgess.  Looking at the rest of the list on Wikipedia, I don't see anyone active on that chart.  It will be a long time before anyone comes close to displacing Gross.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
I never saw Gross play that I can recall.  And, it is very possible that we will not have too many more Greg Grosses to write about in, say, 20 years from now.  As Gross himself mentioned in a Sports Illustrated article thirteen years ago, teams carry so many pitchers these days that teams, "don't have the luxury of keeping someone around who can't take the field."

After his playing days -- and after he took five years off before he realized he was not going to get the call to come play any more -- Gross became another "Baseball Man." He started his coaching career with coaching a high school team in Pennsylvania (Malvern Preparatory School).  He moved up to the Colorado Rockies Minor League system, first in Double-A New Haven and then as a roving instructor.  

He got called up to the majors, so to speak, in 2001 when his pal Larry Bowa named him as bench coach for the 2001 season for the Phillies.  From 2002-2004, he was the Phillies hitting coach.  He then spent 6 years as a hitting coach in the Phillies minor league system before getting the call back up to be the major league hitting coach in July of 2010.  

Gross was let go by the Phillies after the 2012 season. GM Ruben Amaro didn't even let the showers get turned off in the clubhouse after the last game of the season (that's hyperbole, mind you...it was right after the game, but I don't know that for sure) before calling Gross into the GM's office to fire Gross.

Gross currently serves as the hitting coach for the Triple-A Reno Aces in the Arizona Diamondbacks system.

And, in case you're interested, you can hire him for a "Pick-up Game" for just $500 from the same folks who will bring you Rick Cerone.  Or, spend $200 and he'll "be your personal coach giving you access to a World Series Champion."

That might be more worthwhile than the pickup game.

Card #45: Rick Cerone

Who Can It Be Now?
Richard Aldo Cerone was born on May 19, 1954 in Newark, New Jersey.  He attended high school at Essex Catholic High School and college at Seton Hall University.  While at Seton Hall, he played in the 1974 Amateur World Series and won a gold medal alongside fellow future major leaguers Steve Kemp, Ron Hassey, Marv Foley, and Barry Bonnell...and why three future major league catchers were necessary for an 11-day competition, I do not know.

After his junior year at Seton Hall, Cerone was drafted 7th overall by the Cleveland Indians in the 1975 June Amateur Draft.  It was the same draft and same round in which Rick Sofield was drafted, and Cerone turned out to be the most successful first round pick that year.  

On his signing, the Indians sent Cerone directly to Triple-A Oklahoma City.  Cerone hit .250/.375/.350 at OKC in 170 plate appearances.  He came up to the majors that same year in August for a few games, and then again for three games at the end of the season for a mediocre Indians team managed by Hall of Famer Frank Robinson.  Cerone followed a similar pattern in 1976: start the year in Triple-A (this time in Toledo) and then get called up for 7 games starting in August.  

Apparently, those 14 games convinced the Indians that they did not need Cerone around.  To be fair, the Indians appeared to have no clue what they were doing at this point.  They traded two catchers -- Cerone and Alan Ashby -- to the Toronto Blue Jays.  Cerone went to the Jays because the Indians were fixated on getting Rico Carty back to the team after the Jays grabbed him in the expansion draft.  Joining Cerone in the trade for Rico Carty was John Lowenstein.  Lowenstein spent spring training with the Blue Jays before he was traded -- back to Cleveland.

Cerone again split the 1977 season between the majors and Triple-A.  In a weird anomaly created by expansion, Cerone actually spent his time in Triple-A with the Houston Astros Triple-A Affiliate in Charleston, Illinois because Toronto did not have a farm system level above short-season A ball.

In 1978, finally, Cerone was in the majors to stay (other than rehab assignments).  He split time at catcher with Alan Ashby for a terrible Blue Jays team.  He finished with a .223 AVG, a .284 OBP, and a .298 SLG -- wow, are those numbers ugly -- and an OPS+ that was 36 percent below the average player in the league.

The Blue Jays were seemingly impressed by these numbers and let him play 136 games as a starter in 1979.  Cerone hit for a little bit more average and power -- .239 AVG, .358 SLG. 

Despite this, Cerone was still somewhat in demand.  After the 1979 season, the Blue Jays sent Tom Underwood, Ted Wilborn, and Cerone to the New York Yankees in exchange for Chris Chambliss, Damaso Garcia, and Paul Mirabella.  The Yankees were looking for someone to replace the irreplaceable -- Thurman Munson -- after Munson's death in a plane crash on August 2, 1979.

Perhaps because he was back home and playing for the team that he loved as a child in Newark and against all odds and statistical projections, Cerone had his best season in the major leagues in 1980.  He hit 14 homers, had 85 RBI, hit .277/.321/.432 (his only SLG above .400 in his career), and finished seventh in the MVP race behind George Brett, Reggie Jackson, Rich Gossage, Willie Wilson, Cecil Cooper, and Eddie Murray -- and ahead of Rickey Henderson and Robin Yount, among others.

Cerone never again reached those lofty heights.  Certainly, as a catcher, injuries took their toll, but Cerone simply turned back into what he was before 1980 -- a solid defensive catcher whose hitting would be a negative if he had to play regularly for his team.  The Yankees traded for Butch Wynegar after the 1981 season, and Wynegar (a switch hitter) took over the main catching duties.  Cerone was buried on the bench a bit by Billy Martin in 1983 -- a year that Cerone described as, "a tough time.  In 1983, Billy was 91-0.  The 71 losses he blamed on somebody else".  

Yogi Berra barely used Cerone in 1984, paving the way for Cerone to be traded to the Atlanta Braves for pitcher Brian Fisher.  His time with the Braves was unremarkable; one Braves blog calls Cerone the #9 worst Atlanta Brave ever.  Perhaps because of this, the Braves decided that they would rather have Ted Simmons's skeletal remains on their bench in 1986 and traded Cerone and two minor leaguers to the Milwaukee Brewers for Simmons. From there, Cerone went back to the Yankees, then to the Red Sox, then back to the Yankees, then to the Mets, and then to the Montreal Expos.

Cerone did have one brief year of glory as a backup in 1990, though, on his third tour of duty with the Yankees -- he had his one, and only, .300+ AVG in a 49-game, 146 plate appearance season.  Otherwise, he was in demand as a backup catcher who would be stretched as a starter.

We Got the Beat
If you had to ask me what player or players I would have expected needing to come up with a new headline for related to being a musical talent, I would have gone through at least fifty or one hundred names before I got to Rick Cerone.  But, that's why we have this Go-Go's classic from 1982 here -- because someone used vinyl to record Rick Cerone's singing voice for posterity.

Yes, in 1981, Rick Cerone and The Dusty Road Band released a song called "A Long Run Home." It was a song recorded for the benefit of earthquake victims in Italy.  The New York Times in 1981 referred to it as an "uptown country-western song." I have not yet been able to find a version that you can listen to online.  I also did not look too hard to try to find it.

Freeze-Frame
While not technically a screen appearance, the New York Times article by Murray Chass linked above notes that Cerone was hired by something called "10" Jeans -- whom he selected over Jordache -- to promote their blue jeans.

Trivial Pursuit
I've lost the citation, so forgive me for that, but here's a very trivial note: Rick Cerone was both the first player to debut and the last player to retire from the 1975 Draft class.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
On a personal level, I met Mr. Cerone after one or two Brewers games in 1986 when he spent his one year in Milwaukee.  He was pleasant and quick to sign autographs for kids, from what I recall, and he enjoyed talking to people about baseball even after games. There weren't enough players like that even then, so it was always appreciated.

Rick Cerone was a decent player for a long time, and in 1982, there was an open question as to whether the 1980 season was an aberration or whether it should be the expectation. Certainly, in the offseason after 1980, people thought Cerone was going to be the next Yankees catching star.  It didn't turn out that way for him, but he led a successful career.

Indeed, his baseball playing career led first to an eight-year stint behind the microphone for the Yankees and Orioles in the 1990s.  After that, Cerone brought baseball to Newark by founding the Newark Bears and the independent Atlantic League in 1998 (he later sold his interests in both).  He is so well respected in Newark that the city named its best baseball field for him -- it's Rick Cerone Field at Branch Brook Park.  Indeed, Cerone was named one of 40 "New Jerseyans We Love" by New Jersey Monthly magazine along side such luminaries as Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen -- at least at some point.

Cerone is also active in charitable events.  He has participated in at least one golf tournament to benefit the Sean Kimmerling Testicular Cancer Foundation, named for the former WPIX anchor and pregame announcer for the Mets who died of the disease in 2003 at the age of 37. He was honored as Man of the Year by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Northern New Jersey and Rockland County Chapter for his "hands-on help in raising awareness and funds towards diabetes research."

Today, if you want to meet Cerone and have some money to spend on it, you can.  Would you like Rick to join you for lunch? It's just $2,750.  He will even come to your wedding for that price.  If you'd rather play a round of golf with him, that will run you $3,500.  For a personal appearance, you can get an hour of Rick's time for $4,400.

Wow, he charges lawyer rates.