-2005 Topps Retired Signature Anthony Young autograph. Anthony Young, nicknamed "AY" by Mets fans when he first came up, was one of the last ever true swingmen. That is, he was actually developed as a starter/reliever. I don't know of anyone in pro baseball since about 1995 or 1996 that was developed as a swingman; most were converted to purely relief pitching or purely starting at that point. If a swingman does come along these days, he's either an ex-starter or an ex-long reliever. And if Anthony Young had an iota of luck, he'd probably even be remembered for being one of the last true swingmen and certainly the last one the Mets ever had. AY was a right-hander, and he threw two fastballs: a two-seamer that sank (basically a sinker) and a four-seamer was straight and went about 89-90 mph. Unlike most pitchers of the early 1990's, AY went to his two-seamer more than his four-seamer. He also had a very good circle changeup and an average slider. What he didn't have was run support. In his rookie year, 1991, he went 2-5 in 10 games, including 8 starts. He had a very good 3.17 ERA, too. In April 1992, AY won his first two games. What followed has never even been approached by any other Major League pitcher. He took the loss against Cincinnati on the road on May 6. He lost his next decision, too. And the one after that and the one after that and the one after that. He would lose 14 straight games that year, mostly due to horrid run support (though also a poor September while pitching through dead arm). He finished the year 2-14 with a slightly-below-average 4.17 ERA. But AY was just getting started. He lost his first 13 decisions of the 1993 season, losing a record 27 straight games. The previous record for futility belonged to Bob Groom, a Deadball Era pitcher who'd lost 19 straight. Groom wasn't that bad of a pitcher, either, though...he had an ERA of 3.10 over his career. As for Anthony Young, he finished the 1993 season 1-16, despite a pretty good ERA of 3.77. Fans were divided about Anthony Young. A lot of people wanted to keep him, realizing that his horrible record was a statistical fluke. Others wanted to dump him and get rid of his losing ways. Though the latter got their wish, the Mets were even worse in 1994 than in 1993. Young was traded to the Chicago Cubs, where he went 4-6 in 20 games, including 19 starts, with a solid ERA of 3.92. The next year, AY pitched long relief, mostly. In 32 games, he made only one start, going 3-4 with a very good 3.70 ERA. In 1996, AY signed as a free agent with the Houston Astros and alternated as a righty reliever with young left-hander Billy Wagner (who would ironically come to the Mets as the team's closer a decade later). He started having arm problems during that season, most likely due to overuse at the beginning of his career. He missed all of 1997 recovering from Tommy John Surgery. In 1998, he tried making a comeback with the Cleveland Indians. However, he never regained his fastball command and struggled at AAA. AY was out of baseball at age 32. His Major League won/loss record, despite a solid ERA of 3.89, was a horrid 15-48.
-1969 Topps Leo Durocher, signed. Leo Durocher signed his first professional baseball contract at the age of 18, with Hartford of the Eastern League in 1924. Just one year later, the New York Yankees signed Leo to a Minor League contract. He played well enough in the Minors that he got one at-bat in the Majors in 1925. He grounded out. However, he also pinch ran and scored in a second game. He wouldn't make it back to the Majors until 1928. A weak hitter (Babe Ruth nicknamed him "The All-American Out"), he was regardless a terrific fielder. He was put on waivers in 1930 after he somehow ticked off Yankees general manager Ed Barrow and the Cincinnati Reds quickly picked him up. He continued his good-field/no-hit ways for the Reds from 1930-1933. In mid 1933, he was sent to the St. Louis Cardinals as part of a six-player deal. Leo played from 1933-1937 with the Cardinals and was named to an NL All-Star Team (his first of three) in 1936. By now, he was gaining a reputation as being a clubhouse leader, despite a reputation for being brash and abrasive. The Brooklyn Dodgers, desperate to win, traded four players for him in late 1937. He was the team captain for one season, in 1938. He was named to the NL All-Star Team a second time for his intangibles. After the Dodgers finished 7th in 1938, they fired manager Burleigh Grimes and hired Leo Durocher, on his way to becoming one of the best managers baseball has ever seen. Durocher was a player/manager in 1939, dragging the Dodgers all the way to third place. In 1940, when he was the NL All-Star Team's player/manager as well as Brooklyn's, he pulled them into second place in the National League. Brooklyn had the highest attendence of any team in the NL that year and Durocher was a fan favorite. Nicknamed "The Lip" for his frequent explosions at umpires, players who didn't hustle, and of course the other team, he motivated the 1941 Dodgers to win 100 games. Unfortunately, he lost the World Series to the very team that signed jhim, the New York Yankees. Dodgers General Manager Larry MacPhail went a little crazy afterward, placing all 25 players (including Durocher) on waivers. Ownership fired MacPhail and brought in Branch Rickey. It was Rickey who refined Durocher's management abilities. Given Rickey's extremely puritanical background (he counted among his proudest moments that was to be able to say that'd kept his promises to his parents after leaving home by never drinking, smoking, swearing, and praying at least half an hour every night before bed) and Durocher's less-than-puritanical background (he swore like a sailor, drank, gambled, womanized, and had four wives, including Laraine Day), it was rather surprising that the two became the best of friends, but they did. Rickey released Durocher the player after the 1941 season, but kept him on as a manager. Despite winning 104 games in 1942, the Dodgers came in second. Then WWII really started affecting the quality of play in the Majors and the Dodgers sank to third, going 81-72. In 1944, the Dodgers dropped all the way to 7th, but they recovered in 1945, going 87-67. In 1946, with his top talent back from WWII, Durocher guided the Dodgers to a 96-60 record, good enough for second place. Branch Rickey had planned it so that Jackie Robinson would come to the Majors with Durocher guiding the team. Like Rickey, he understood that the point of baseball was to win, no matter what the color of a player's skin. However, as Robinson debuted, Durocher was suspended from professional baseball for one year for associating with gamblers. Though Branch Rickey gladly re-hired him for the first part of the season in 1948, ownership wanted him gone and got their wish, with the Dodgers falling to third place. The crosstown New York Giants immediately picked him up to replace clueless though well-intentioned manager Mel Ott. On Ott, Durocher commented "nice guys finish last." It would become his catchphrase. The 1949 Giants were a weak team and they actually fell a few games under Durocher in his first full season as Giants manager. But in 1950, with a mostly-new group of players, Durocher helped his team to third place. In 1951, he won his second NL Pennant, though the Giants lost the World Series to the Yankees. Despite a potent lineup, the Giants finished second in 1952, mostly due to weak pitching (although Durocher was being somewhat innovative in his use of knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm as closer). In 1953, a rebuilding year, the Giants fell to fifth. However, it primed the pump for 1954, the first and only year Durocher won a World Series as a manager. Durocher used pitcher Windy McCall as one of the first left-handed specialist relievers that year. He also figured out the concept of the set-up man. Marv Grissom and Hoyt Wilhelm would take turns setting one another up in relief, while the other would finish the game. The Giants dropped to third in 1955, though it was the lineup, not the pitching, that was the problem (aside from Willie Mays, who was incredible, and Al Dark, Don Mueller, and Hank Thompson, who were just pretty solid, the lineup was basically a bunch of has-beens and nobodies). Durocher, for whatever reason, decided he'd had enough and became an early TV analyst. In 1961, Walter Alston of the now-Los Angeles Dodgers hired him as his bench coach. Considering that virtually all the Dodgers said that all he did was try and manage the team and undermine Alston, he was probably a failure in that department. He quit after the 1964 season. In 1965, he did color commentary for the Dodgers. In 1966, he accepted the rather dirty job of managing the dreadful Chicago Cubs. They went 59-103 that season, but in 1967, with Durocher calling some of the shots as to who to trade and who to trade for, the Cubs improved to 87-74, good enough for third. In 1968, the Cubs again finished third, going 84-78. In 1969, they seemed primed to win when the hapless Mets unexpectedly surged past them. The 1969 Cubs team, which has often been called "the best team that never won anything," won 92 games. The Cubs dropped back to 84-78 in 1970, though Durocher still guided the team to second place in the NL East. In 1971, despite a nearly identical won/loss record of 83-79, they finished fourth. In 1972, the Cubs were at 46-44 when Cubs management felt Durocher had to go. Reminiscent of the 1948 season, another team almost immediately picked him up. Said team was the Houston Astros, whom he managed to a 16-15 record near the end of the season. In 1973, he went 82-80 with them (fourth place) before walking into the office of the general manager after the season and that at age 67, he was getting too old to be a manager. However, he still missed baseball. At the age of 70 in 1976, he became the oldest new manager on paper for the Taiheiyo Club Lions of the Japanese Pacific League. Though he'd technically signed the contract, he was forced to miss out on managing in Japan due to illness (ultimately a good thing, considering Durocher's attitude toward umpires and the fact that verbally harassing an umpire in Japan, depending on the severity of said verbal abuse, can last up to a year). He became the first ever manager to win at least 500 games with three teams, each one dragged out of the dank depths. He won 2,008 games in total over his managerial career, losing 1,709. He died at the age of 86 in 1991. It took until 1994 for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, which was by most considered to be far overdue.
-2004 Upper Deck SP Authentic Future Watch Lino Urdaneta rookie autograph. A closer prospect who pitched in all of three Major League games (1 in 2004 with the Detroit Tigers, 2 in 2007 with the New York Mets), I actually literally remember and can recount for you Lino Urdaneta's entire Major League career if you'd like me to...I saw all three games on TV! He threw one good pitch...a 95 mph four-seam fastball. He complemented it with a completely flat slider and a straight-as-an-arrow changeup. The native of Caracas, Venezuela retired after the 2007 season, despite only being 27 years old. That's probably because his one good pitch, the fastball, was fueled by steroids; yep, he was caught and suspended fifty games. He was pounded in that one game in 2004...he gave up six runs in a humiliating 26-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals. He didn't even get anybody out. He faired a little better with the 2007 Mets. He pitched two thirds of an inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks and retired both batters he faced. He then pitched a third of an inning against the San Francisco Giants a couple days later, giving up a solo homerun. And that was it. He retired with a career ERA of 63.00. Why do I have his autograph? Well, I wanted everyone who appeared on the 2007 Mets, but changed my mind to having everyone on the 2008 Mets after the team collapsed. That said, I'll always remember Lino as the guy whose entire Major League career I saw on TV.
-2006 Grandstand Appalachian League Top Prospects Nick Carr, signed. Nick Carr is a right-handed pitching prospect in the New York Mets organization. Drafted in 2006, he's a starter now but projects ultimately to be a reliever. He throws a four-seam fastball that's been clocked at 98 mph, a very good slider, and a solid changeup. He was doing pretty well until he got shellacked in early 2008 with the St. Lucie Mets of the Class A Advanced Florida State League. When he was demoted to Class A Savannah, however, he responded well and got back in form. Carr is a strikeout/groundout pitcher, though he needs to improve his control and miss a few more bats. He also needs to work on repeating his complex delivery; he kinda curls himself into a ball and then explodes toward home plate. He has a big, somewhat violent head jerk in his followthrough (as you can probably see on the card), too. I think it's too late along the line to eliminate it, so he'll have to learn good control with it. If he does, then he can probably become a dominating reliever on a Major League level.
-1998 Donruss Signature Series Millennium Marks Fernando Tatis autograph. A member of the 2008 New York Mets, Fernando Tatis came up with the Texas Rangers in 1997. However, in 1998, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1999, he had his best year; he batted .298 with a superb .404 on-base percentage, belted 34 homeruns, and had 107 RBI's. Among the two homeruns were two grand slams in the same inning, incredibly off the same pitcher (right-hander Chan Ho Park). No one in Major League history had ever done that before and no one has done it since. Tatis was hampered by a groin problem in 2000, but the Expos still traded for him in 2001. He neither played well nor often and was hampered by more injuries. Worse, his batting eye seemed to be going downhill. By 2003, he was out of the Majors. In 2006, he came back with the Baltimore Orioles. Despite playing well in limited action that year, he retired. After missing all of 2007, he signed a Minor League contract with the New York Mets and donated most of the money he initially made to building a church in his small hometown in the Dominican Republic (just outside San Pedro de Macoris). He played well enough to make the team after early injuries, however, and wound up batting .297 with a .369 on-base percentage, 11 homeruns, and 47 RBI's. Fernando was admittedly statistically somewhat lucky, and it helped that the league forgot he never could lay off fastballs low and in, but his plate approach was greatly helped by Mets hitting coach Howard Johnson, himself a very patient hitter that hit for a low average. Fernando's batting stance actually changed and he is a different and at least somewhat improved hitter from 2001-2003. Despite earning the Major League minimum vs. the Minor League minimum, Fernando still donated over 50% of his 2008 salary toward the construction of his home town's church. Though technically a free agent, the Mets are expected to retain him for 2009.
More later!
But seriously, for those of you who are either just beginning with baseball or are merely just beginning with regards to its history, I could go on for pages and pages about Pete Rose. He was grit personified, for lack of a better term. He wasn't a particularly powerful hitter or that spectacular of a fielder (although he was good and his fielding prowess is often downplayed because he was such a great hitter), but he had a terrific batting eye and could hit lots and lots of singles. In fact, when Pete Rose retired, he had 4,256 hits. That's the most of anyone, and only Ty Cobb also has over 4,000. He had a career batting average of .303, with a very good on-base percentage of .375. He also hit 160 homeruns, though the most he ever hit in one season was just 16 (he played 24 seasons). My Dad says Pete had the best bat control of anyone he ever saw, even during Pete's 1980's years. Making that all the more remarkable was that he was a switch-hitter. He gained the nickname "Charlie Hustle" during a Spring Training game against the New York Yankees in his rookie year, 1963. After charging to first base after a walk (something that would become one of Pete's two hallmarks...the others of course being the head-first slide and running over the catcher when crossing homeplate), veteran Yankee first baseman Dale Long sarcastically said "Look at you kid! Charlie Hustle!" And it stuck, though not nearly as jokingly as Long had meant it. He never stopped hustling. In 1984, Pete became the last ever player/manager, holding that position until he retired as a player following 1986. In 1987, he retired as a player, but stayed on as the Reds manager. He was well-liked by his players and seemed a shoe-in for the Baseball Hall of Fame. And then, in 1989, it was revealed he'd bet on baseball. Ever since 1920, the penalty for that by an active player or manager was a permanent ban. And that's exactly what he got. I'm in support of Rose's banishment unless a rules change is made...you can't just go breaking random rules because he was one of the finest hitters ever walk the planet...though I do think his banishment from ballparks even as a spectator until 1997 was absurd. He remains the second greatest ballplayer on the outside looking in with regards to the Hall of Fame...I firmly believe that if Shoeless Joe Jackson's career had continued on, he'd have been just a bit better than Rose (and that more bespeaks my respect for Jackson as a player [not as a game-thrower...I support his banishment far more than Rose's and if forced to choose which guy I'd let in the Hall of Fame first, I'd say Rose], not my lack thereof for Rose; not factoring in the whole betting on baseball thing or really any of his off-the-field antics, Pete Rose is one of my favorite ballplayers). In extreme short, Pete Rose was an incredibly talented ballplayer. It's a shame he had to waste it on something as petty as betting on baseball.
