2010 MLB Random News & Comments thread

taosjohn · Nov 24, 2010

Forza La Juve said: ↑

The voters finally got it right. There should be no controversies this year regarding the big awards.
Click to expand...

Robinson Cano...

KensingtonSC · Nov 24, 2010

taosjohn said: ↑

Robinson Cano...
Click to expand...

Oh, give me a break. He plays on the freaking Yankees, so he was already surrounded by talent. Did he have a great year? Absolutely, but Hamilton led the league in slugging, OPS, and he was 5th in home runs. What he was able to produce with no real support around him was phenomenal. He earned every bit of that MVP.

taosjohn · Nov 24, 2010

Forza La Juve said: ↑

Oh, give me a break. He plays on the freaking Yankees, so he was already surrounded by talent. Did he have a great year? Absolutely, but Hamilton led the league in slugging, OPS, and he was 5th in home runs. What he was able to produce with no real support around him was phenomenal. He earned every bit of that MVP.
Click to expand...

And thus is controversy inevitably born...

riverplate · Dec 3, 2010

I loved the Cubs teams from the late '60s. They were my favorite NL club when I was a kid. Unfortunately, they were also classic underachievers. Blowing the division to the Mets(!) of all teams in 1969 was devastating.

Ron Santo, Stalwart for Cubs, Dies at 70 - N.Y. Times

Ron Santo, a star third baseman of the Chicago Cubs and their longtime broadcaster who became a revered figure for his exploits on the field and his battle against juvenile diabetes, died Thursday in a hospital in Arizona. He was 70. The cause was complications of bladder cancer, said WGN Radio, where Santo was a Cubs color commentator.

Playing for the Chicago Cubs from 1960 to 1973, then for a final season with the Chicago White Sox, Santo hit 342 career home runs, won five Gold Glove awards for fielding and was named an All-Star nine times. He was a key figure on the 1969 Cubs team that was leading the Mets by 13 games in August before collapsing. That team gained a particularly agonizing niche in the star-crossed history of the Cubs, who have not won a pennant since 1945. But Santo endeared himself to the Bleacher Bums in their hard hats at Wrigley Field that summer by clicking his heels with joy after victories.

That Santo was on a major league field, let alone starring alongside the future Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins, seemed remarkable...

He was a mainstay of a superb Cubs infield of the 1960s, with Banks having switched to first base from shortstop, Glenn Beckert at second base and Don Kessinger at short. Still, it was not enough to hold off the Mets in 1969.
Click to expand...

R.I.P. Ron...

riverplate · Dec 6, 2010

Pat Gillick Chosen for Hall of Fame; Marvin Miller Fumes After Missing - USA Today

Longtime baseball executive Pat Gillick has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the result of voting by the new Expansion Era Committee. Gillick, now a senior adviser to the Philadelphia Phillies, is the former GM of the Phillies, Seattle Mariners, Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. He was the only candidate to receive the required 12 votes from the 16-man committee that included Hall of Famers, executives and veteran baseball writers. Gillick received 13 votes...

Former baseball players' union executive director Marvin Miller missed by 1 vote and former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Dave Concepcion received 8 votes. Voting totals, which were not revealed, were fewer than 8 votes for the other candidates -- Vida Blue, Steve Garvey, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Billy Martin, Al Oliver, Ted Simmons, Rusty Staub and George Steinbrenner.
Click to expand...