20 % done 80 % to go

Your first thought might be that this post is about a set I am trying to complete and letting everyone know how far I have to go but no, I would not be advertising if I had such a long road ahead.

What I am alluding to is that I can not believe that the baseball season is already 20 % complete (most teams have played 32 games, give or take) and it is already over one month into this young season. It does seem like just a few days from opening day.

Being a numbers guy as I am (that is the former math teacher coming out in me) I was looking at some statistics and am interested to know how some players and teams might perform, such as:

a) Evan Longoria has 44 RBI's . . . projected to 220 . . . will he break Hack Wilson's record of 191 ?

b) Aaron Hill has 54 hits . . .projected to 270 . . . can he break Ichiro's 262 hits ?

c) Zack Greinke . . . 6 wins . . . projected at 30 . . . will he be the first since McClain to see 30 Wins ?

d) Juan Pierre hitting .426 . . . Youkilis is at .393 . . . will either of them stay the course and threaten a year long average of .400 ?

e) Blue Jays and Dodgers . . . 22 wins . . . will they be able to flirt with the Mariners 2001 "record" of 116 ?


f) will either the Nationals or Indians continue with their losing ways and challenge the 1962 Mets futility of 120 losses ?

I am fairly confident the records mentioned above will stand pat though if I was a betting man I might put some money on Longoria to break Wilson's RBI record. The season is only 20 % done . . . lots of games to go . . .

P.S. I thought this had posted to my blog a few days ago but in error I guess I never clicked on the "publish post" button . . . this all might be old news by now, but because I wrote it I am now posting it . . . this season has a long way to go . . .

Born in 1960: Dave Valle

since I have not written a post in a couple of days (no good reason or excuse plugged in here) I have been reading plenty and thought I would revert back to an "irregular special feature" of mine I have neglected: players born in the year I was born - 1960.

Today I present Dave Valle (pronounced "valley"); a 1978 2nd round draft choice held onto a thirteen year big league career who played the majority of his games in Seattle (1984-1993) and had short stays with the Red Sox, Brewers and Rangers until he called it quits in 1996.

Primarily a catcher though Valle did play a bit at first base. He caught over 100 games in only four big league seasons having played catcher in only 902 career games. Valle hit 77 HR's, drove in 350 runs had a career BA of .237 and would you believe also had 5 stolen bases (ok he got caught stealing seven times too).

Valle's biggest "claim to fame" might have been in 1993 when he led the league in being hit by a pitch with 17. Another story I read about Valle that in Seattle in the early 90's bars around Seattle would price beer based on his batting average - today that sounds like a great deal.

When Valle left baseball he became a color commentator for the Mariners and probably most importantly in 1995 he founded a non-profit organization called Espernza. Valle and his wife have strong ties to the Christian community (Valle is a strong student of the bible as well) and helps families in severe need in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Valle organizes golf outings, fund raisers and makes numerous trips to this area every year.

A not-so-spectacular major league career has brought Valle into a rather super-spectacular after baseball career.

Congratulations to Dave Valle . . . for being born in the same year as me and giving back more than baseball gave him.

Today in Baseball history

. . . the year was 1989, April 10th, and Ken Griffey Jr hit his first major league homerun as Seattle beat the Chicago White Sox 6 - 5. Nicknamed "the Kid", "the Natural" and "the Franchise" Griffey Jr has not disappointed.

Today is also Ken Griffey Sr's birthday - born in 1950 !

So Congratulations are in order to both ! The Griffey family certainly should celebrate "today in baseball history".

Topps 1970: card # 2

Diego Pablo Segui (pronounced say-gee) Gonzalez; played in the majors for 16 years, six different teams (ok seven if you count the KC and Oakland Athletics as two).

I am sure that 99 % of you have never heard of Diego Segui and would only recognize the last name attached to a guy named David, his son who played from 1990 to 2004. But the father (Diego) had a very interesting career.

As a right handed pitcher, his career numbers are: 92-111 with 1298 strikeouts and a 3.81 era. Nothing to brag about but he did lead the entire AL in 1970 with a 2.56 era.

Diego Segui is also the only major leaguer ever to play for both the Seattle teams; the one-year wonder Seattle Pilots in 1969 (having his most productive year going 12 - 6) AND the then new expansion team Seattle Mariners in 1977. He actually was the starting pitcher in their inaugural game in 1977 but retired at the end of the season going 0 - 7. { an interesting foonote: the Pilots and Mariners had identical records in their first year going 64 - 98 }

Here is a good example of the backs of the 1970 cards: as I said in my pre-view post, I like the color combination of blue and yellow - reminds me of outdoor day basball (the sky and sunshine). The cartoon image in the upper right was sometimes "humorous" (haha fork in the ball) and sometimes hobby related as we will see in some later posts.

Diego Segui; card # 2 for 1970 . . . the first Pilot . . . and then the first Mariner . . .