Tino Martinez in Monument Park, good for business?

Tino Martinez was recently given a plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium in front of a sellout crowd, making him the 27th New York Yankee to receive this honor. Martinez's induction was met with much controversy, as the Yankees have multiple Hall of Famers (Earle Combs, Tony Lazzeri, and Herb Pennock) who have yet to be honored. As the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown found out in 2013, sending in a living player is good for business. The ones who remember the deceased superstars of yesteryear are either too old to attend, or have played their "final inning."

After watching Martinez have his likeness permanently installed in Monument Park, I immediately thought of another Yankee first baseman who won four World Series rings, Moose Skowron. He was a fixture at Old-Timers Day until his passing in 2012. Martinez and Skowron's career stats as a member of the Yankees are below.

Does Martinez's induction warrant consideration for Skowron? Is Martinez truly deserving of the honor, or was this decision motivated by reasons that have to do more with finances and less with baseball?

Tino Martinez stats.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
1996	28	NYY	AL	155	671	595	82	174	28	0	25	117	2	1	68	85	.292	.364	.466	.830	108	277	18	2	1	5	4	*3/D
1997 ★	29	NYY	AL	158	685	594	96	176	31	2	44	141	3	1	75	75	.296	.371	.577	.948	143	343	15	3	0	13	14	*3/D	AS,MVP-2,SS
1998	30	NYY	AL	142	608	531	92	149	33	1	28	123	2	1	61	83	.281	.355	.505	.860	124	268	18	6	0	10	3	*3
1999	31	NYY	AL	159	665	589	95	155	27	2	28	105	3	4	69	86	.263	.341	.458	.800	104	270	14	3	0	4	7	*3
2000	32	NYY	AL	155	632	569	69	147	37	4	16	91	4	1	52	74	.258	.328	.422	.749	89	240	16	8	0	3	9	*3
2001	33	NYY	AL	154	635	589	89	165	24	2	34	113	1	2	42	89	.280	.329	.501	.830	114	295	12	2	0	2	2	*3/D	MVP-12
2005	37	NYY	AL	131	348	303	43	73	9	0	17	49	2	0	38	54	.241	.328	.439	.767	104	133	10	3	0	4	3	*3/D
NYY (7 yrs)				1054	4244	3770	566	1039	189	11	192	739	17	10	405	546	.276	.347	.484	.831	113	1826	103	27	1	41	42

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/24/2014.
 

Moose Skowron stats.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
1954	23	NYY	AL	87	237	215	37	73	12	9	7	41	2	1	19	18	.340	.392	.577	.969	167	124	8	1	0	2		3/54
1955	24	NYY	AL	108	314	288	46	92	17	3	12	61	1	1	21	32	.319	.369	.524	.894	140	151	11	3	0	2	4	3/5
1956	25	NYY	AL	134	523	464	78	143	21	6	23	90	4	4	50	60	.308	.382	.528	.910	142	245	16	6	2	1	3	*3/5
1957 ★	26	NYY	AL	122	501	457	54	139	15	5	17	88	3	2	31	60	.304	.347	.470	.818	123	215	17	3	3	7	6	*3	AS,MVP-22
1958 ★	27	NYY	AL	126	502	465	61	127	22	3	14	73	1	1	28	69	.273	.317	.424	.740	106	197	16	4	1	5	1	*3/5	AS
1959 ★	28	NYY	AL	74	309	282	39	84	13	5	15	59	1	0	20	47	.298	.349	.539	.888	145	152	10	3	2	2	0	3	AS
1960 ★	29	NYY	AL	146	584	538	63	166	34	3	26	91	2	3	38	95	.309	.353	.528	.881	141	284	17	2	0	6	2	*3	AS,MVP-9
1961 ★	30	NYY	AL	150	608	561	77	150	23	4	28	89	0	0	35	108	.267	.318	.472	.790	113	265	21	8	0	3	9	*3	AS
1962	31	NYY	AL	140	524	478	63	129	16	6	23	80	0	1	36	99	.270	.325	.473	.798	114	226	13	5	1	4	4	*3
				G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
NYY (9 yrs)				1087	4102	3748	518	1103	173	44	165	672	14	13	278	588	.294	.346	.496	.842	129	1859	129	35	9	32	29

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/24/2014.

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How Don Zimmer took the reins from Clemente and Mays in Puerto Rico

With a lineup that included Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays, it was very unlikely a career .235 major league hitter would steal the spotlight, but for one week during the 1955 Caribbean Series, Don Zimmer reigned supreme.

Don Zimmer crossing home plate with Santurce

Zimmer was the starting shortstop on arguably the greatest winter league team ever assembled, the 1954-55 Santurce Crabbers.

“We had a team that I thought that could beat two-to-three of the lesser teams in the National League,” Zimmer said when spoke in 2011 at the MLB offices.

“We had Bus Clarkson at third base, I played short, Ronnie Samford at second, and George Crowe played first. Valmy Thomas and Harry Chiti caught. Mays, [Bob] Thurman and Clemente played the outfield. People laugh when I tell them that. They say, ‘No!’ I say, ‘Yes, that was our outfield.’ … That was a great club!”

Zimmer almost played his way out of Puerto Rico that winter, but was saved at the last minute due to Santurce’s manager Herman Franks' quick thinking.

“I was struggling with Mayaguez and they let me go. There was some kind of rule that if I left Puerto Rico, then any other club could bring me back to Puerto Rico to play … went to Miami, and Herman Franks called me to play for Santurce … got on an airplane to Puerto Rico,” Zimmer said in Thomas E. Van Hyning’s "The Santurce Crabbers".

Holding down the middle of the infield, Zimmer helped Santurce breeze through the Puerto Rican Winter League for a spot in the Caribbean Series in Caracas. They were the clear favorites going into the series, much to the chagrin of Bobby Bragan who managed the Cuban entry from Almendares.

“I remember going to Caracas,” he said. “Bobby Bragan was managing the Cuban team. He said, ‘They said you got a good team, huh? You’ll wind up second.’ Ronnie Samford was in a bar that night with us, having a beer. I didn’t want to say nothing to Bragan, but Ronnie said, ‘You couldn’t beat us.’”

Samford was right, the Santurce team ran over the competition, winning their first five games to clinch the championship. Zimmer hit .400 with three home runs, including leading off Game 2 against Panama with a circuit blast.

Zimmer earned MVP honors for his performance, besting his teammate Mays, who hit .462 after starting the series 0-14.

“I was a cinch to be the Most Valuable Player of the Caribbean Series, except Mays got hot the last two days and took over,” he said in 2011.

While Zimmer couldn’t duplicate his Puerto Rican success in the major leagues, the experience he gained from playing with all of the veterans from the Negro Leagues and the Caribbean was invaluable in shaping the rest of his career.

“I was just 21 years old,” he said. “Just being around them was good enough for me, learning and watching the way they went about things.”

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Johnny Gray, 87, fond teammate of Roger Maris

Johnny Gray, a veteran of four major league seasons with the Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, and Philadelphia Phillies in the 1950s, passed away May 21, 2014 in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 87.
 
Gray starred in three sports at West Palm Beach High School before he entered the United Stated Army during World War II. Upon his discharge, he enrolled at Rollins College, where his play for their baseball team eventually earned him entry into their Hall of Fame in 1979.

Johnny Gray / Baseball-Almanac.com

The New York Yankees signed Gray in 1950 and it immediately paid dividends, as he posted a 10-4 record for their Class C team in Amsterdam, N.Y. Gray reached as high as Triple-A with the Yankees in 1953, before he was included in a massive 11-player deal at the end of the 1953 season with the Athletics. The major chip in that exchange was Gray’s Kansas City Blues teammate, first baseman Vic Power.

“Vic was always a happy-go-lucky guy,” Gray said in a 2010 interview. “He was easy to get along with. He was a great club man; there were no two ways about that.”

Leaving the crowded Yankees system opened the door for Gray to the major leagues. He made his major debut on July 18, 1954, pitching 4.1 innings in a loss to the Chicago White Sox. He struggled with his control during the season, finishing with a 3-12 record in 18 games.

Gray stayed with the Athletics in 1955, making the move with the club from Philadelphia to Kansas City, returning him to familiar grounds from his minor league days.

“I didn’t mind it much because I had been with the [Kansas City] Blues before,” he said.

The Athletics sold Gray to the Cleveland Indians in 1956, where they sent him to their Triple-A team in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis club breezed through the entire American Association with a 92-62 record, assisted by Gray’s 10 wins as both a starter and reliever. Continuing their dominance, they swept the Rochester Red Wings in the 1956 Junior World Series, 4-0.

As much as winning the championship was an exhilarating experience for Gray, his most cherished memory of that 1956 minor league season was the relationship he developed with a rookie outfielder named Roger Maris.

“One of the best ballplayers I ever played with in my life,” he said. “I can tell you this in all honesty, if you owned a business and you have to go out of town … and you couldn’t get back for three or four months, the guy that you would want is Roger Maris.

“If you left that business with him and came back, it would be twice the size. That was his attitude. I roomed with him in Indianapolis. He came to the ballpark to play. If you had nine guys that took the same attitude, you would have a club that would have never lost.”

The well-traveled Gray played winter ball in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Not only did the wide exposure allow him to fine tune his pitching, it allowed him to develop an appreciation for the passion the fans had for the game.

“They take baseball much more serious in Latin America than they do here,” he said. “They love it. I can remember when I was in Cuba they would sing and have a band for one team. I loved it because they had the name for baseball fans in South America and it sure fit, ‘fanáticos.’”

Gray made it back to the major leagues in 1957 with the Indians, and played a handful of games with the Phillies in 1958. He continued to play at the Triple-A level until hanging it up for good in 1960. He finished his major league career with a 4-18 record with a 6.18 ERA in 48 games.

In his post-baseball playing days, Gray became an avid golfer and managed an apartment complex in Florida.

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Mario Picone, pitcher for the 1954 New York Giants World Series team, dies at 87

Mario Picone, a pitcher for the New York Giants and Cincinnati Reds from 1947-1954, passed away October 23, 2013 in Brooklyn, New York. He was 87.

Born July 5, 1926, the Bensonhurst native grew up playing sandlot ball at the fabled Parade Grounds for a team called the “Chiros.” It was on those fields where Picone, who didn’t play for his high school team, earned the attention of Giants scouts just before his 18th birthday in 1944.

Mario Picone

“I grew up in the Parade Grounds,” he said in a 2008 phone interview from his residence in Florida. “Someone [from the Giants] spotted me there. They had me for tryouts in Jersey and they signed me.”

The Giants sent Picone to Bristol, Tennessee to play for their farm team in the Class D Appalachian League. The rookie phenom wasted no time making an impression. On June 15, 1944, he struck out 28 batters in a 19-inning victory over Johnson City, setting a professional record at the time. It was a feat that Picone almost didn’t have a chance to achieve if his manager Hal Gruber had his way that evening.

“In those days, you tried to finish everything,” he said. “It got to be the 9th inning, 10th inning, 11th inning … It was a 2-2 tie. Hal Gruber was the manager. He came to me and said, ‘I’m going to take you out.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. I’ll stay right here. If you take me out because you think I’m tired, I’ll be on the bus tomorrow and I’ll go home.’ Sure enough he left me there. We went 19 innings. Art Fowler came in the bottom of the 19th and pinch hit for me, he got a single, we scored the run and we won 3-2.”

Picone was a rising star in the Giants organization, skipping a level of minor league ball the next season to play with Class B Richmond in 1945. He led the league with a 19-6 record and 202 strikeouts. This earned him a promotion to AAA Jersey City in 1946, one step closer to the major leagues and a front row seat for one of baseball’s most historic moments.

In 1946, the Jersey City Giants opened their season against the Montreal Royals. Playing second base for the Royals was Jackie Robinson. Picone watched in amazement from the bench as Robinson started in his quest to break baseball’s color barrier.

“The first game that Jackie Robinson played in 1946 in Jersey City, I was there,” he said. “He had a bad day (laughs). He had a single, a double, a triple, a home run, and I think he walked. Isn’t that something? He was great. Exactly the way he broke in.

“It seemed like the people were watching, yet they didn’t know what to expect. He showed them. He sure did!”

Picone made his major league debut at the end of Robinson’s historical 1947 campaign. The Giants called him up in September, appearing in two games against the Philadelphia Phillies, starting the first and relieving the second. While Picone didn’t earn a decision in either contest, he ended the season with a .500 batting average, roping a hit in his first major league at-bat.

“I got a double off of the right field wall against Schoolboy Rowe,” he said. “He was in the twilight of his career and he didn’t throw that hard. I was fortunate enough to swing and I got into one.”

Picone had two more trials with the Giants in 1952 and 1954, making the team out of spring training during the latter. In his extended look in with the Giants 1954, Picone managed a 5.63 ERA in 24 innings and was sold to the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds sent him to the minor leagues after 16 days on their major league roster. He never returned to the big show, ending his career with a 0-2 record with an ERA of 6.30 in 13 appearances. He retired shortly after the start of the 1956 season.

“I gave it up in 1956,” he said. “I went into the home improvement business.”

Even though Picone only pitched in nine games for the Giants’ 1954 World Series championship team, the Giants included Picone in their 50th anniversary celebration at AT&T Park. They flew him and his wife out to San Francisco, providing them with a VIP treatment that included a limousine and first class accommodations.

While Picone languished during his trials in the major leagues, he took great pride in his ability to pitch complete games, something that definitely fueled the 19-inning effort at the beginning of his career.

“If I had to pitch every fifth day and pitch five innings,” he said, “I would have been pitching today with the arm I had. I can honestly say this. One guy for one inning, another guy and then comes the closer. That’s how you figured you were going to a higher grade. You had to finish a complete game. It was as good as winning.”

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Hector Maestri, Cuban pitcher for both Washington Senators teams, dies at 78

Hector Maestri, one of only nine major leaguers to ever play for both versions of the Washington Senators, passed away Friday February 21, 2014 in Miami according to his former teammate Jose Padilla. He was 78.

Born April 19, 1935 in La Habana, Cuba, Maestri was originally signed as a shortstop to the Senators organization in 1956 by the legendary scout Joe Cambria. Excited with the opportunity to follow in the Senators pipeline of rich Cuban talent, Maestri’s world was turned upside down only a few weeks into his professional baseball career.

“I played three [sic] games in Fort Walton Beach and they released me,” said Maestri in a 2012 interview with the author.

Hector Maestri Card / N. Diunte

Even though Maestri was deeply disappointed by the lack of a time the Senators gave him, he did not want to return to Cuba. Instead, he went to Houston to live with his uncle and work. It was there that he had a second chance at his baseball career.

“My uncle introduced me to a Mexican-American who had a baseball team out there,” he said. “The guy wanted me to play with him, so they gave me a job and I played baseball.”

While he was playing on the semi-pro circuit in Houston, he was approached by Senators scout Joe Pastor who offered him another shot with Washington. Maestri had his reservations about re-signing with the organization.

“I told him I was very angry because they didn’t give me a chance,” he said. “Fifteen days wasn’t enough.”

After Pastor reassured him that he would get a longer look, Cambria signed Maestri during the off-season in Cuba. Blessed with an exceptional arm, Maestri still fancied himself as a shortstop, but the Senators had other plans. Maestri split time between pitching and the infield in 1957 with Class D Elmira, N.Y., but when he was asked to pitch an impromptu bullpen session for Senators Vice President Joe Haynes during spring training in 1958, management made it very clear what his permanent role would be.

“The bullpen was near the clubhouse,” he recalled. “Anytime you threw the ball, there was a big echo. When I threw the ball, I looked [over] at him and he was smiling.

“The people in the clubhouse came out and said, ‘Dammit, who was throwing that ball?’ I was throwing very, very hard. We didn’t have radar guns, but they told me I was around 95. Mr. Joe Haynes came to me and said, ‘If I see you in the infield, I will throw you out. You are a pitcher.’”

Maestri spent another season at Elmira honing his craft on the mound, and it paid off. He finished with a 16-11 record, broke the league record for strikeouts and earned MVP honors for the team.

“I broke the strikeout record of Sal Maglie,” Maestri said. “He had 198 and I put [up] 210 in 156 innings.”

In 1959, he inched his way closer to the majors, playing at Class B Fox Cities where he was pared up with player-manager Jack McKeon. His 11-7 record earned him a AAA contract with Washington’s affiliate in Charleston.

He went home that winter and pitched for Cienfuegos in the Cuban Winter League, leading them to not only the league championships, but a sweep of the 1960 Caribbean Series.

It was the beginning of a year filled with highlights for the hard-throwing Cuban pitcher; however, it wasn't a straight rise to the top. Coming off of his championships in winter ball, he hit a bump in the road at the end of spring training in 1960. Just as the season was about to start, Charleston sent him down to Charlotte in the Class A Sally League. He wasn’t pleased with the decision and set out to prove to management that they made a mistake demoting him.

“I go to Charlotte, and on the first day our manager Gene Verble, told me I was going to be in short relief,” he recalled.

Verble summoned Maestri to close the game, and he delivered the goods.

“I threw nine pitches and struck out all three guys,” he said.

Nineteen-sixty was a banner year for Maestri. He was cited in the August 28, 1960 issue of Sports Illustrated for pitching a perfect game in relief during the course of the season.

“Hector Maestri, Charlotte (N.C.) South Atlantic League relief pitcher, did not give up a walk, a hit or a run in hurling nine consecutive innings of perfect baseball over a five-game span, went 16 consecutive innings before yielding his first hit.”

Cut from the organization only a few years earlier, Maestri made good on his second calling, earning a promotion to the major league club when rosters expanded in September. Biding his time in the bullpen, he finally was put into action on September 24, 1960 in relief against the Baltimore Orioles.

“I pitched two innings and didn’t allow any runs,” he said.

Maestri carried that momentum into winter ball, winning another championship with Cienfuegos. Along with his second championship came another career altering event, the 1961 Expansion Draft.

The original Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins and Washington created a new team to represent the nation’s capital. The new Senators paid Clark Griffith $75,000 for the rights to Maestri. He saw this as an opportunity to negotiate for a higher salary.

“At that time the big league contract was $6,000,” he said. “I was so fresh, I said, ‘If you don’t give me $15,000, I don’t go.’”

To further complicate matters, relations between Fidel Castro and the United States went sour, leaving the future of all of the Cuban players, including Maestri in doubt. Luckily for Maestri, tensions eased up and he was able to negotiate a raise to $11,000.

Unfortunately, all of his negotiations didn’t account to much because Maestri couldn’t curry enough favor with manager Mickey Vernon to make his way up north with the team to start the season. Vernon thought Maestri needed more seasoning and sent him back to the minors for most of 1961.

Once again, determined to show he belonged, he burned up the Sally League with a 10-1 record for Columbia. This impressive performance forced the Senators and manager Vernon to take another look at the Cuban fireballer.

“I was a relief pitcher all my baseball career,” he said. “Mickey Vernon came to me and said, ‘You are pitching tomorrow, starting against Kansas City.”

Not used to starting, Maestri soldiered on anyways. He took the ball and went six strong innings against the Athletics.

“I lost 2-1 and that was it,” he said.

He wouldn’t get back to the major leagues for the remainder of his baseball career, and almost didn’t get back to the United States. After the 1962 season, he returned to Cuba to see his newborn son. At the time, Castro wasn’t letting anymore players freely leave the country.

“When I got in Cuba, they didn’t let me get out," he said. "That ruined my career.”

Maestri was done at 27, or so he thought. A call from a Mexican League team gave him a new lease on his baseball career.

“I had taken a few years off when I got a call from the Mexican League to play ball,” Maestri said. “Veracruz called me. They asked what I wanted. I told them I wanted a visa for my wife and my two sons. They told me, no problem. That’s how I got out of Cuba, [through] Mexico, in 1965.

“When I finished the league in Mexico, I went to the United States embassy in Veracruz and I asked for asylum. They didn’t give it to me, but they gave me a chance to talk to a wonderful guy, Phil Howser. (The general manager of the Charlotte minor league team.) I told him that I didn’t want to go back to Cuba anymore. He said, ‘Stay right there in the embassy, let me talk to the ambassador.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about. The guy came to me and told me to go back to my apartment and come back tomorrow morning. I got my visa and jumped.”

Charlotte signed him for the 1965 season. He played one more year in the United States for the Wilson Tobs in 1966. Citing the lack of pay and burdensome travel schedule, he moved on from professional baseball.

“If you have a family, you have to do something because you can’t travel with your family,” he said. “My two sons had to go to school, so I said to my wife let’s go. I bought a car up there and came to Miami.”

Maestri had his own business career in Miami and his wife worked for the telephone company. Both of his sons grew up to be engineers, something he was very proud of.

“I owned my house and my kids got their education," he said. "It was wonderful.”
 

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Drew Denson, former Atlanta Braves first-round pick, dies at 48

Drew Denson, the first-round pick of the Atlanta Braves in the 1984 draft, passed away February 13, 2014 in Cincinnati due to complications from a rare blood condition called amyloidosis. He was 48.

Standing 6-foot-5, he was an ominous figure, earning all-city honors in basketball and baseball, at Cincinnati's Purcell Marian High School. As a switch-hitting first baseman, he gained notoriety for his monstrous home runs, including one that was estimated at over 500 feet.

Braves scout Hep Cronin told the Cincinnati Enquirer that the forecast was exceptionally bright for the young slugger.

“I not only thought he would be playing in the big leagues, I thought he would be a Hall of Famer,” Cronin said . “He had Frank Thomas power. He was big and strong and the ball just jumped off his bat.”

In his first two seasons in the minor leagues, Denson was right on track, batting over .300 in both campaigns. He hit a wall in 1986, experiencing a sharp decline, posting a lowly .234 average in Durham while fighting injuries all season.

Entering the 1988 season sensing a need for a change, he returned to switch-hitting. During his previous four seasons in the minors, he hit exclusively from the right side, abandoning his switch-hitting duties in his junior year in high school due to the urgings of his high school coach.  After a conversation with teammate and childhood friend David Justice, Denson started to take batting practice left-handed. After getting confirmation from Hank Aaron, he returned as a switch-hitter to All-Star form with Greenville.

The Braves gave Denson a chance in 1989 as a September call-up, and he batted .250 with no home runs in 36 at-bats. He returned to their Triple A team in Richmond in 1990, but his path was blocked by his friend Justice, who was his teammate on a Cincinnati little league team in 1976.

"It makes me happy knowing he's up there, doing what he can do," said Denson to the Free-Lance Star in 1990. "It's made me resolve to do that too."

Drew Denson at Orioles Spring Training 1997 / N. Diunte

Denson lived up to his word by returning to the majors in 1993, but with a different club, the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox were fighting for the American League West championship, and manager Gene Lamont waited until they had clinched the pennant before using Denson. He spelled Frank Thomas for a few games, batting 1-for-5, singling against Jerry DiPoto in what was his last major league at-bat.

He played in the minor leagues and Mexico through 1997. After his playing days, he returned to Cincinnati where he was a police officer and youth baseball coach until his blood disorder forced him to stop working.

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How Jim Fregosi resurrected Dave Gallagher's major league career

Dave Gallagher defined the blue-collar, lunch pail toting types that populate spring training every year. He did not have the one dominant skill that made heads turn during batting or fielding practice, but quietly got the job done with his steady play across the board. In 1988, Gallagher entered the Chicago White Sox camp with one last chance to make it in professional baseball; he just needed a believer. He found one in manager Jim Fregosi, but his conversion did not come easily.

“He believed in me in the time that I needed it,” Gallagher said via telephone from his home in New Jersey about Fregosi who passed away Friday morning in Miami due to complications from a stroke he suffered earlier in the week.

Dave Gallagher with the White Sox

By the time Gallagher reached the White Sox, his baseball career was on life support. He had the type of résumé that scouts had long written off. He was a career minor leaguer of eight seasons, who hit a paltry .111 in a 15 game trial with the Cleveland Indians in 1987. Scouts weren’t the only ones to turn away Gallagher’s prospects, he passed on himself too, quitting before the end of the 1987 AAA season after a trade to the Seattle Mariners organization. Only after a chance encounter with White Sox scout Ed Ford while working at a baseball camp, was Gallagher convinced to put his energies back into the game.

Gallagher flew to Florida to meet with the White Sox brass, who offered him a non-roster invite to their 1988 spring training. Teams often hand out these invites to see if they can find a buried treasure or bolster the reserves in their minor league system. After being told by general manager Larry Himes on the first day of spring training that he, along with the rest of the non-roster invitees, were in the latter category, Gallagher felt he had to do something drastic to ensure he was noticed. He headed straight to Fregosi’s door.

“I told him, ‘You don’t know me from anybody, but I’d really appreciate it if you could take me to every possible game,” he said. “I’m towards the end of my run and if I don’t make it, I’m done. I don’t care if you take me and I don’t play; I just want you to see me.’”

Gallagher did everything but beg Fregosi for an opportunity: however, he could not get a commitment from his new boss.

“He said, ‘I can’t promise you that. Everybody would want that.’ My reply was, ‘Not everybody asked.’ So I closed the door and walked out.”

While Fregosi’s response lacked the affirmation he sought, Gallagher felt that he had at least separated himself from the rest of the unknowns.

“I thought, man, he may love me or hate me, but at least he knows who I am.”

After a strong showing in spring training, Gallagher finally had the full attention of his manager. He was called into Fregosi’s office three days prior to breaking camp to be told that the team was trying to trade outfielder Gary Redus and that his fortunes with the club hinged on that deal.

“He wasn’t traded, so I went down to Triple-A for one month,” he said.

Gallagher responded by hitting .336 with Vancouver and was recalled in the middle of May. Immediately his call-up paid dividends. On his second day with the White Sox, he hit a home run in the 11th inning to beat the Toronto Blue Jays. His quick witted manager remarked, “He’s been here two days, it’s about time he hit one.”

It was this type of humor that Gallagher felt Fregosi used to take some of the pressure off of his players.

“There was a game in Texas and I’m about to lead off,” he said. “I walk past him to get to the on-deck circle and he’s got his arms crossed and he said, ‘C’mon Gallagher, do something, will ya?’ That was his humor … his way of relaxing you. I said, ‘I will carry us today on our shoulders.’ That was my relationship with him; he threw a sarcastic comment at me and I threw it back.”

Not known for his power, Gallagher deposited an early offering flying into the stands for a home run. He now had more ammunition to continue their exchange.

“When I circled the bases and came back in, he was staring at me. I said to him, ‘Why wouldn’t you ask me to do that more often?’”

For that entire 1988 season, it seemed whatever Fregosi asked of Gallagher, he delivered. He batted .303 in 101 games, committed zero errors in the outfield, and finished 5th in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Still, Gallagher had his doubters within the organization.

“I hit every day with our batting coach Cal Emery,” Gallagher said. “He told me, ‘David, they don’t think you can do it.’ He was trying to tell me not to let up. They didn’t think I could sustain it, that I didn’t have the skill set to continue doing what I was doing. It crushed me.”

Deep down Gallagher knew that Fregosi, while pleased with his play, was also skeptical of his ability to maintain his performance over his entire rookie campaign. The way Fregosi kept whatever questions he had about Gallagher’s abilities in house, spoke volumes about him as a professional.

“He never said it publicly,” Gallagher said. “He never made a statement in the press that would have really hurt my career. He kept it under his hat; he kept it in the meetings. What a professional he was, he could have killed me right there and knocked me out if he went public with that kind of statement.”

Fregosi never did knock out Gallagher; in fact, he became one of his biggest advocates. Fregosi was fired as the White Sox’s manager after the 1988 season, but knew if he had the chance to manage again, that he had the perfect role for Gallagher. Seven years later, while Fregosi was managing the Philadelphia Phillies, that opportunity arrived. At 34, Gallagher was no longer a minor leaguer trying to make it, but now an established veteran who was valued for his versatility on the field and leadership in the clubhouse. His old manager gave him another year under the sun.

“I think he saw me years later with the Phillies in 1995 as an excellent complementary type player,” he said.

Gallagher played that 1995 season as a reserve outfielder and pinch-hitter. He rewarded Fregosi by batting .318, and played flawless outfield defense. Grateful for another year in the big leagues, Gallagher felt this reunion cemented their kinship.

“The relationship with Jim," he said, "I don’t know if I ever had that kind of a relationship with anybody. I admired a man who didn’t think I could do it, but didn’t say anything publicly. He gave me a shot to empty my pockets to try and play and see if I could do this, and I did it.”

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Rare footage of Ralph Kiner interviewing Roger Craig during Mets 1962 spring training

A predecesor to Kiner's Korner, this is rare footage of the late Ralph Kiner interviewing newly minted New York Mets pitcher Roger Craig in 1962 during the team's first spring training. Craig entered the majors in 1955 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Kiner's last year in the majors. They never faced off in a major league game, as Kiner was in the American League with the Cleveland Indians.

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Ralph Kiner's early embrace of weight lifting fueled his prodigious drives

If more baseball players knew in the 1940’s how lifting weights would enhance their careers, Cadillacs would have been in short supply. What is now a common practice in all of professional sports, was often discouraged during the Golden Era of baseball.

Ralph Kiner, the Hall of Fame outfielder and legendary New York Mets broadcaster who passed away Thursday at the age of 91, was one of the early major league players to experience tangible results from weight training when it was unfashionable to do so.

Ralph Kiner signed card / Author's Collection

Kiner paced the National League with 23 home runs during his 1946 rookie season, yet returned to his home in Alhambra, Calif., unsatisfied by his performance as he also led the league with 109 strikeouts. He sought the advice of Clint Conatser, who lived nearby and served in the Navy at the same time as him.

Conatser played a few years in the low minors before going off to World War II. He had given up on baseball prior to enlisting, but during his time in the military, he took up body building and thirty pounds of muscle later, he resurrected his baseball career in the Texas League. (Conatser later made the major leagues with the Boston Braves in 1948, helping to lead them to a World Series appearance that season against the Cleveland Indians.)

“I was in the service and my friend was a bodybuilder,” said Conatser from his home in California during a 2008 interview with the author. “We’d go work out in a gym and we started teaching it. I wasn’t worried about getting muscle-bound because I figured I wouldn’t play again. It made me a better ballplayer. My arm was better, everything was better.”

At the time, lifting heavy weights was frowned upon in baseball circles, as popular opinion was that the excess muscle would impede the flexibility necessary to swing a bat and throw a baseball. Kiner saw the positive effect that Conatser’s training had in reshaping his career, and despite it being discouraged by many in the game, he wanted in. In the winter of the 1946-47 off-season, he paid Conatser a visit at his home.

“Ralph Kiner came over because he heard that I had a lot of power for my size and wanted to know if it would help him,” Conatser said. “I wasn’t sure, but I told him that he should work on his arms and maybe his calves and legs.”

Conatser’s uncertainty that Kiner would see the same results he experienced with his body-building routine didn’t phase the young slugger. Conatser told Brent Kelley in “The Pastime in Turbulence,” how Kiner viewed the physical training as an opportunity to truly place himself among the great power hitters of all-time.

“I studied the great home run hitters and they’re all strong,” Kiner said to Conatser. “I’m not strong. If they throw me high or change up on me, I can’t jerk it out of the ballpark. Jimmie Foxx, they used to fool him and he’d still hit it out. I realized I needed to get strong in my hands and arms to be a great home run hitter.”

He immediately went out and purchased a weight set, built a gym in his garage, and spent the entire winter working out. The dividends were immediate. He hit 51 home runs in 1947 and cut his strikeout total to 81. No longer could pitchers get away with fooling Kiner, as he made them pay repeatedly for the same pitches he was vulnerable to the season prior.

Eddie Basinski came to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a trade with the Brooklyn Dodgers during the same off-season that Kiner dedicated himself to building his physique. Basinski, speaking in a 2009 interview with the author from his Portland home, recalled the prodigious nature of Kiner’s newfound strength.

“Kiner put on a show at the Polo Grounds in batting practice that was absolutely phenomenal,” he said. “There were some sportswriters that compared him to Babe Ruth and he didn’t like it one bit. They said, ‘See that third flag over in left center field, Ruth hit a ball over the roof right at that flag, over the whole roof!’ On about the third pitch right after that, he hit one exactly in the same place. They shut up after that. He hit the ball so hard with a backspin that the ball was actually climbing and wouldn’t go down. It was a fantastic home run!”

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