Results tagged ‘ Scott Lauber ’
Leap Year Baseball Birthdays
Every four years we get presidential elections, the Olympics, the World Cup, and a leap day.
Dating back to the mid-1800s, there have been over 17,400 major league baseball players – 0.0006% celebrate their birthday today.
Pepper Martin, aka "The Wild Horse of the Osage," played third base and outfield for St. Louis.
1. Terrence Long, 1976 (8 seasons)
2. Bill Long, 1960 (6 seasons)
3. Jerry Fry, 1956 (1 season)
4. Al Autry, 1952 (1 season)
5. Steve Mingori, 1944 (10 seasons)
6. Al Rosen, 1924 (10 seasons)
7. Pepper Martin, 1904 (13 seasons)
8. Ralph Miller, 1896 (3 seasons)
9. Roy Parker, 1896 (1 season)
10. Ed Appleton, 1892 (2 seasons)
11. Dickey Pearce, 1936 (7 seasons)
Now that it’s officially snowing here at McCoy Stadium, here’s what’s going on today from Ft. Myers:
- Nick Cafardo (@NickCafardo) reported via Twitter that “Ryan Kalish did his first throwing since shoulder surgery from 45 feet. About 20-30 throws.”
- Scott Lauber (@ScottLauber) added, “Ryan Kalish, returning from shoulder surgery, made 20-30 “real light” throws. Everything went well.”
- Today Sean McAdam wrote about Kalish’s rehab:
Kalish isn't rushing his shoulder rehab (Comcast SportsNet)
- Like a kid buying school supplies, Rob Bradford reports this morning that PawSox shortstop Jose Iglesias recently received a shipment of new bats at the Red Sox Spring Training training complex:
“… a development [Iglesias] was clearly excited about, partly due to his decision to switch to a new model. Iglesias is using a Louisville Slugger B363 instead of a C271, which means he will be wielding a bigger barrel. It’s a practice he started at the end of last season.”
- Episode 2 of PawSox Insider should be up on iTunes shortly.
- Steve and I will be recording the third episode of the year tomorrow afternoon – it airs Saturday. Our guests will include Ben Crockett, the Red Sox Director of Player Development, Randy Mobley, International League President, and Brian MacPherson, Red Sox beat writer for the Providence Journal.
- For kids it’s school supplies. For Iglesias it’s new baseball bats. For minor league baseball employees it’s new magnetic schedules. Hours ago, our shipment of 30,000 magnetic schedules was delivered to McCoy. Now there’s no excuse for not knowing the date of Opening Day (April 5).
Enjoy the snow,
Monday’s News and Notes
Equally impressive: Roberts' 1990s hair, and ESPN's 1990s graphics (ESPN).
It wasn’t as good as Al Michaels and NBC’s Sunday Night Football, but I did enjoy watching the Oscars last night. From a behind-the-scenes standpoint, I was most amazed when, during the “pre-game show,” Robin Roberts talked about how the producers of the Oscars spent the past four and a half months preparing for the show. Speaking of which, remember Robin from her days on SportsCenter? Maybe it’s because I grew up watching her on ESPN, but I’ve always thought she does a great job.
Now that I’ve gotten over Horrible Bosses not winning Best Picture, it’s time to get my focus back on baseball, the Red Sox, PawSox, and Spring Training. Here’s what’s going on today that I think you might find interesting:
- Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com reports that Josh Beckett will start the inaugural Grapefruit League game at the new JetBlue Park this Sunday against the Minnesota Twins.
- Curious what third base will look like for the Red Sox next year? Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald wrote a nice article this morning about the relationship PawSox third baseman Will Middlebrooks has formed with Kevin Youkilis.
Said Youkalis, “’I think you owe it to the guy that’s below you at the minor league level to teach him how to play the game because that’s going to be the guy who’s going to succeed you when you’re done … He’s an outgoing kid, and I won’t shy away … You want him to take over and make history here. You’ve got to work with him and teach him the game.’”
- Peter Abraham wrote a great article this morning that touched on pretty much every topic of Spring Training. Out of all he wrote, PawSox fans might find this most interesting:
“Ryan Lavarnway may not make the Opening Day roster. But he is on the verge of doing some special things. He carries himself like a player who knows where he’s going.”
We'll know soon enough if Lavarnway breaks camp with Boston or Pawtucket (Joy R. Absalon/US Presswire)
The funniest line from his article: “The players get a snack break during workouts and are served mini granola bars and apple sauce. It’s like watching a bunch of oversized day campers.”
- FanGraphs.com is releasing their MLB television broadcaster rankings. Over the next three days, FanGraphs will publish the rankings in groups of 10, starting with No. 30. The results are taken from fans voting on a scale of 1-5 for charisma, analysis, and then overall performance. Should be interesting.
- Someone impersonated Red Sox shortstop Mike Aviles on Twitter, claiming he was traded. #identitytheft
- Gotta see more pics from Red Sox Spring Training? Here are some good ones.
- Love funny, terrible pics from Spring Training? Here’s a great site dedicated to just that.
- Thank you to my latest subscriber, msloops. You, too, can subscribe by by typing in your email address in the top-right hand corner of this page and clicking “subscribe.” It’s less complicated than it sounds.
I’ll leave you with a picture taken earlier this afternoon from my lunch-time talk with the Providence Rotary Club. Not only did they have a sizable group of around 60 members, but I was served one of the best lunches I’ve every had at a Rotary meeting: some perfectly cooked cod with vegetables.
-AG
@aaronmgoldsmith
agoldsmith@pawsox.com
