I don’t know how many people remember 1-900-234-JOSE, but it’s obvious now that Jose Canseco was probably the first pioneer in the effort by pro sports players to forget the media and talk directly to fans with blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. The difference is that Canseco actually made money from his communications: it cost [...]
Archive for May, 2009
1-900-234-JOSE
Posted in Players, The Season, tagged 1-900-234-JOSE, Jose Canseco, Jose Canseco hotline on May 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
$150 for Jose Canseco’s Dirty Socks
Posted in Players, The Season, tagged Jose Canseco, sports memorabilia on May 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It was a sign of the escalation of the baseball card and memorabilia bubble in early September 1989 when the San Francisco Chronicle sent Steve Rubinstein to the All-American Sports Memorabilia Show at the Moscone Center and he came back with this report:
A pair of dirty socks was selling for $150 in San Francisco last [...]
Chris Bando, Part II
Posted in Players, tagged 1989 Oakland A's players, Chris Bando, Sal Bando on May 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
He is the much younger brother of Sal Bando, although a casual glance shows that he entered the bigs in 1981, the same year as Sal’s last, so you’d think it was a father/son relationship. Chris’ career with Oakland lasted for just a day (1-2 with a single), and you have to wonder whether the A’s [...]
Dick Scott, Part II
Posted in Players, tagged 1989 A's, Dick Scott on May 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Scott could well be the least-known member of this team: a shortstop with three pinch-hit at-bats in May, including a run-scoring groundout in his first game, against Boston. That 0-3 is it for his career: he never made it back to the majors. So, it seems important to note that he managed the Modesto A’s to a 96-40 [...]
Bill Dawley, Part II
Posted in Players, The Season, tagged A's relievers, Bill Dawley on May 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dawley joined Brian Snyder in helping fill out the Oakland bullpen in later June and early July of ‘89, when Eckersley was still out with an injury and Greg Cadaret and Eric Plunk were with the Yankees. Certainly his best performance of the season was a 4 1/3rd inning outing on June 23 against Toronto: [...]
Ron Hassey, Part II
Posted in Players, tagged 1989 A's, catchers, perfect games, Ron Hassey on May 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Hassey caught a perfect game for Len Barker with Cleveland in 1981 and left Oakland just in time to join the Expos and catch a perfect game for Dennis Martinez in 1991 before retiring: Hassey’s the only guy to catch two perfect games. Which brings up the question: how much credit does a catcher deserve [...]
Mike Gallego, Part II
Posted in Players, tagged Mike Gallego, Oakland A's, testicular cancer on May 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In 1989, when Walt Weiss went out with his knee injury in May, Gallego picked up for him and posted career highs in average (.252), at-bats (357), runs (45), hits (90), doubles (14), homers (3) and RBIs (30). Even before then, in late April, he had six doubles in the first 4 games, three [...]
Jose Canseco’s Wrist
Posted in Players, The Season, tagged 1989 Oakland A's, Dennis Eckersley, Jim Abbott, Jose Canseco, SkyDome on May 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The ‘89 A’s were the least powerful team of the A’s dynasty, and the injury to Canseco’s wrist that kept him out for the first half of the season was much of the reason why. On March 8, David Bush of the Chronicle described Jim Abbott’s spring debut and the last at-bat Canseco had before [...]
An Ode to Rick Reuschel
Posted in San Francisco Giants, tagged 1989 San Francisco Giants, 200-game winners, near no-hitters, Rick Reuschel on May 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Even back in July 1985, as portrayed in a Sports Illustrated article, Reuschel was an old-timer, then pitching for the Pirates: “Three years after rotator-cuff surgery, two years after a stint in Class A and one year after being told he was not wanted by anyone in baseball, the 36-year-old war-horse is 7-2 with a [...]
