Baseball Digest articles from November 2005

Baseball Digest archives from November 2005

The fans speak out.(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... I was wondering if you could provide me an address where I can reach Buck O'Neill, the great Negro League player. It would be greatly appreciated. Larry Feigh Clearfield, Pa. O'Neill is a director of the Negro Leagues Baseball...

Long losing streaks: can be stressful as well as embarrassing.(Warm Up Tosses)
November 1, 2005... BASEBALL'S LATE COMMISSIONER BART GIAMATTI ONCE EXPRESSED HIS DEEP feelings about the game in an essay entitled "The Green Fields of the Mind." In the essay, published in the Yale Alumni Magazine and Journal in 1977, he wrote this line about...

Miguel Cabrera: flirting with big league stardom: Marlins young slugger continues to dazzle fans and opponents with his offensive abilities.(Cover Story)
November 1, 2005... FELIPE ALOU HEARD THE question but couldn't come up with an answer right away. The 70-year-old San Francisco Giants manager needed a moment to collect himself, so he took a deep breath and paused while sitting back in his chair. Then he...

Baseball's most colorful managers: the game has had its share of field generals whose antics created a fan following and a perception of quirkiness.
November 1, 2005... SAD TO SAY, COLORFUL MANAGERS, field leaders with offbeat personalities who captivate the fancy of fans and media toilers, are almost as extinct as that long-gone bird the dodo. Their wings have been clipped by the serious-minded,...

Jeff Kent: his numbers will earn him hall of fame consideration: All-Star slugger holds the record for career home runs among second basemen and is one of the best run producers of his era.
November 1, 2005... DURING HIS 14-YEAR MAJOR league career with six teams, Jeff Kent has quietly established himself as one of the best hitting second basemen in big league history. He is the only player to have hit more than 300 career home runs as a second...

A wonderful group of vintage collectibles of great teams, great players, great records.(Advertisement)
November 1, 2005... (1) 1984 Detroit Tigers World Champion 30" Pennant--Huge 6" Tigers logo. Players' names in 10" scroll. Very Fine condition. It is now some two decades old and has a $55 value in The Standard Catalog of Sports Memorabilia. Baseball Digest...

Jason Varitek--Boston Red Sox.(Base Profile)
November 1, 2005... FULL NAME: Jason Andrew Varitek AGE, HT., WT.: 33, 6-2, 230 HOME: Suwanee, Georgia STATUS/FAMILY: Married with two daughters NICKNAME: Tek LIFE OUTSIDE OF BASEBALL: I spend time with my family. I also like to bass fish....

Unusual cache of vintage baseball collectibles scarce old cards, uncut sheets, prints, and signs.(Advertisement)
November 1, 2005... 1980s All-Time Greats Baseball Greats, 50-card set full of Hall of Famers. Included are Aaron, Banks, Berra, Campanella, Clemente, Cobb, DiMaggio, Feller, Ford, Foxx, Gehrig, Greenberg, Hornsby, Mantle, Mathewson, Mays, Musial, Ott, Brooks...

Batting triple Crown: HR * RBI * AVG an elusive achievement: since 1901, only 11 major league players have led their league in homers, runs batted in and hitting average in the same season.
November 1, 2005... BEFORE THIS SEASON, DERREK LEE had never heard of Hall of Famer Joe Medwick, which is understandable. His heyday was in the 1930s, and he died 30 years ago. "People brought his name up," Lee said. "Don't they call him 'Ducky' or...

The lost art of hitting .400: few players have flirted with the historic plateau since Ted Williams completed his .406 campaign 64 years ago.
November 1, 2005... THE STRIKE ZONE SHRUNK. SO DID ballparks. Muscles grew. So did technology. No one hit .400. Still. Of baseball's hallowed numbers, a .400 batting average tantalizes as much as any. Yet with all of the built-in advantages the game...

Baseball quick quiz.
November 1, 2005... Collect ten points for each question answered correctly. Answers on page 90 (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. Among players with...

When George Brett chased .400 in 1980: twenty-five years ago, the Royal's third baseman put together a memorable season during which he hit .390 and won the A.L. batting crown.(Turn Back The Clock)(Kansas City Royals)
November 1, 2005... ON A WARM FEBRUARY EVENING in Arizona, George Brett, the last batter to wrestle with .400 through the heat of a full summer, stands in a hotel lobby fighting off mosquitoes and middle-aged men who wish they were him. Brett knows this...

Livan Hernandez: from poverty to freedom ... and a major league career: Cuban hurler escaped his native land, eventually becoming a veteran star with the Washington Nationals pitching staff.
November 1, 2005... THE WORD "ENDURANCE" ISN'T the first thing that comes to mind when looking at the rather rotund physique of Livan Hernandez. At 6-2 and 245 pounds, Hernandez is a little tough for people to get their arms around, but make no mistake, over the...

Larry Sherry: former World Series MVP recalls his career in the majors: Dodgers reliever won two games and saved two in Los Angeles' six-game Fall Classic victory over the White Sox in 1959.
November 1, 2005... THE HOMETOWN HERO OF THE first World Series winner from the West Coast was an unlikely one, not because of what he accomplished but the lengths he had to travel to get there. In 1959, only a year after the former Brooklyn Dodgers landed in...

Bernie Carbo: the game I'll never forget: former N.L. Rookie of the Year and Red Sox outfielder recalls pinch-hit home run that tied Game 6 of 1975 World Series.(American League)
November 1, 2005... GAME 6 OF THE 1975 WORLD Series -- they still remember that in New England today. It was the Reds versus the Red Sox at Fenway Park. The Red Sox were losing 6-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning when I pinch-hit for Roger Moret. There...

Cycle hitters: single * double * triple * home run: in the same game.
November 1, 2005... SINCE 1900, THE CYCLE (SINGLE, DOUBLE, TRIPLE HOME RUN IN ONE GAME) HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 227 times in the major leagues by 204 different players. The feat has been achieved 111 times in the American League and 116 times in the National League....

Baseball rules corner: reversal of umpire's call may breed controversy.
November 1, 2005... WHENEVER ONE UMPIRE reverses another umpire's call, you can be sure there will be a fireworks display that will rival the best you will see on the fourth of July. And when Devil Rays' manager Lou Piniella is on the short end of such calls,...

Teams that have won consecutive World Series titles.
November 1, 2005... THE WORLD SERIES HAS BEEN WON IN CONSECUTIVE SEASONS 14 TIMES (through 2004) BY SEVEN DIFFERENT FRANchises and 12 different managers. Connie Mack managed back-to-back title winners twice, Dick Williams skippered two of the three Oakland titles...