Baseball Digest articles from June 2003

Baseball Digest archives from June 2003

Letters to the editor. (The Fans Speak Out).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... In the February issue of Baseball Digest, there was a list in the letters section of foreign players who played in the World Series. According to that list, for Panama, there were only three players named: Hector Lopez (five World Series),...

Are Clemens and Maddux destined to be the last 300-game winners? (Warm Up Tosses).
June 1, 2003... SINCE THE NATIONAL LEAGUE CAME INTO BEING IN 1876, THERE HAVE BEEN approximately 6,900 pitchers who have toiled in the majors. Maybe that's a generous estimate, but from Don Aase to George Zuverink, these pitchers through the years have...

Brian Giles: consistency breeds greatness: Pittsburgh outfielder has ranked among the most productive hitters in the National League since joining the Pirates in 1999. .(Cover Story)
June 1, 2003... THE COMMON THREAD THAT binds star players in the major leagues--regardless of era--is consistency. Over the years, the Pittsburgh Pirates have featured such high-caliber players, including Ralph Kiner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and...

Sammy Sosa: 500 homers and beyond: Cubs outfielder has grown from a raw prospect into one of the game's most prolific sluggers.
June 1, 2003... DREAM BIG. YOU MIGHT MAKE YOUR wildest one come true. Sammy Sosa provides living proof. On April 4 at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park, the kid who once quit school to help support his mother and six siblings by selling oranges and giving...

Baseball's most improbable achievements: throughout the game's history, some seemingly impossible feats have been accomplished at the major league level.
June 1, 2003... NOBODY HAS EVER SUCCEEDED IN repealing, manipulating or even mitigating the inexorable laws of probability at Las Vegas or Monte Carlo, but there are virtually innumerable baseball achievements that defy gargantuan odds against their ever...

Picking up speed: A.J. Burnett emerging as Marlins ace: Florida's hard-throwing right-hander looks to join the ranks of the major leagues' elite moundsmen.
June 1, 2003... TWENTY BUCKS SAYS A.J. Burnett doesn't throw the perfect pitch, does, depending on whose side you take--his or Brad Penny's. It was late January--weeks before pitchers were to report to spring training--and the two Marlins were working their...

Pitching perfection is in the eye of the beholder; for Woody Williams, a perfect game is whenever he picks up a victory.
June 1, 2003... IT'S BEEN ALMOST TWO YEARS SINCE it was reported that John Curtis, the former major league pitcher, was writing a book on the 16 Perfect Games. Curtis knows whereof he speaks: he once carried a perfecto into the eighth, and plunged into the...

Baseball quick quiz.
June 1, 2003... Collect ten points for each question answered correctly. (If you score 80 or better, you are a baseball expert; 70 or better, superior; between 60 and 70, good, and between 40 and 60, average. 1. Hall of Fame outfielder Ty Cobb set a...

Flashback: Orel Hershiser's 1988 season: Dodger right-hander entered the record books by hurling 59 consecutive scoreless innings.
June 1, 2003... PITCHERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY rarely pitch complete games, let alone shutouts. Even the strongest starters are expected to work only six or seven innings, then let their fortunes sink or swim with their bullpens. That is why Greg Maddux...

Aiming high: Mark Buehrle has great expectations but would prefer to keep a low profile.
June 1, 2003... MARK BUEHRLE does not care for too much fuss. The White Sox' meat-and-potatoes pitcher grew up as the kind of kid who loved his birthday but hated all the attention. He wants to win the race, just don't expect him to parade around with the...

Baseball profile: Mark Buehrle--Chicago White Sox.
June 1, 2003... FULL NAME: Mark Anthony Buehrle AGE, HT., WT.: 24, 6-2, 200 Born: March 23, 1979 in St. Charles, Missouri HOME: St. Charles, Missouri STATUS/FAMILY: Single NICKNAME: Chin Strap LIFE OUTSIDE BASEBALL: I like to relax...

Hank Greenberg: former Detroit Tiger was one of the game's greatest sluggers.
June 1, 2003... DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION, there was no greater slugger than Tigers Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. Breaking in with Detroit 70 years ago this summer, he powered the Tigers to back-to-back pennants in 1934 and 1935, capturing an American...

Switch-hitters: batting from both sides of the plate can make or break a player's career.
June 1, 2003... BERNIE WILLIAMS WAS JUST A teenager coming up through the Yankees organization when a minor league manager by the name of Buck Showalter approached him one day about becoming a switchhitter. To say that Williams, then exclusively a...

The payoff: for Eddie Murray, switch-hitting experiment was a huge success; during the early stages of his career, future Hall of Famer faced reluctance by Baltimore management on his desire to bat from both sides of plate.
June 1, 2003... THE ORIOLES KNEW THEY HAD something special at Double-A Asheville in 1975, even if Eddie Murray wasn't showing it at the plate. He was 19 then, and the accolades were already piling up, so this hardly seemed like the time for drastic...

King for a day: some of the most unlikely hitters to club three homers in one game.
June 1, 2003... WHEN ANAHEIM'S ADAM Kennedy hit three home runs in the fifth and deciding game of the American League Championship Series against the Twins October 13, he joined only four other players to have accomplished that feat in the postseason. ...

7th inning stretch: with New York mets pitcher Tom Glavine.(Interview)
June 1, 2003... * Coming out of Billerica Memorial High in Concord, Massachusetts, you were a legitimate hockey prospect, with 41 goals and 44 assists in your senior year. In 1984, you were drafted in the fourth round of the NHL draft by the Los Angeles Kings,...

Club history: Chicago Cubs.
June 1, 2003... Club History Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs have been a part of major league baseball and the National League since 1876. All Statistical records listed are since 1900. Club Nicknames * White Stockings (1876-1889) * Colts...

Club home run leaders. (Career).
June 1, 2003... Club Home Run Leader ANAHEIM ANGELS Player HR Tim Salmon 269 Brian Downing 222 Garret Anderson 164 Chili Davis 156 Bobby Grich...

Club home run leaders. (Season).
June 1, 2003... CLUB Home Run Leasers ANAHEIM ANGELS Player Year HR Troy Glaus 2000 47 Troy Glaus 2001 41 Reggie Jackson 1982 39 Leon Wagner 1962 37...

Baseball Rules Corner: here are ten questions to test your knowledge of the rules.
June 1, 2003... IT'S TIME FOR MY ANNUAL RULES quiz. If you want to qualify for a major league job, you'll have to get at least nine correct answers. A score of seven to eight right answers places you in Triple A; five to six proper responses puts you in the...