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Thursday, September 22, 2022

Murphy Jersey


Alternate title: The Baby That Ate Dale Murphy.

Man I have had a busy day. At least five coworkers (and some wives) are in route to Augusta for a Ducks Unlimited dinner auction. Several have called me from the road. Still I've gotten a decent amount done, but I have several projects I have yet to touch. I can work on a problem figuring it out and it might take 30 minutes if not longer. Then I'll have ten new emails that have just come in for me to deal with. Hopefully tomorrow will be slower.

Tomorrow we're having a chili cookoff at work. I asked Ceil to cook chili tonight so I could take the leftovers tomorrow. Last night ceil fixed a meatless pasta dish, and green beans with a few purple potatoes.
I got to listen to yesterday's Braves game on the radio. Thought about sneaking over to the game, but didn't.

The Padres Juan Soto is the fastest to 500 career walks in the past 100 years. He walks over 20% of the time. If he hits .300, he's getting on base half the time.


The logos, names and uniforms of the new Cuban Baseball Elite League have been unveiled. Translated to English, the team names are: Tobacco Growers, Portiers, Centrals, Livestockers, Farmers, and Coffee Growers.


R.I.P. MAURY WILLS  [SABR Bio; MLB Obit] was the first player to homer from both sides of the plate in the same game for a MLB team based on the Pacific Coast. On 30-May-1962(1) in the Polo Grounds, Wills hit a solo, inside-the-park home run off Mets righty Bob Moorhead in the 5th inning. Wills then went over the fence off lefty Vinegar Bend Mizell in the 9th, scoring the Dodgers 13th and final run. Wills was the first player to win a Gold Glove and NL MVP in the same season: MVP in 1962 and NL SS GG in 1961 & 1962. His son Elliott Taylor "Bump" Wills played for Texas and the Cubs. Maury was the first player that the Topps baseball card company didn't sign to a contract who later made it to the majors. Wills' earliest card. Read the Topps/Wills story here. He was a mystery guest on "What's My Line" on 23-Jan-1966, the 800th episode of the show. Wills helped roast Leo Durocher on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. Wills led his league in stolen bases for six years straight, half of those seasons leading the majors, with 50, 35, 104, 40, 53 & 94 from 1960-1965. Wills became the first player in the modern era to steal 100 bases in a single year. Ty Cobb, with his 96 in 1915, was the only other player who had passed 90. [Stolen bases in the 19th century were calculated differently]. He was the first player to make a plate appearance for a major league team based outside the United States. He was drafted by the Expos in the expansion draft of 1969 and led off their first game on 08-Apr-1969. Though his peak was spectacular, his dominant numbers were there over the long haul. He retired with a career WAR of 39.6. Most of those in the Hall put up WAR ratings of 50 or above.

Fun fact: while managing the Seattle Mariners, Wills was suspended for two games for adding a foot to the front of the batters boxes in the Kingdome.


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