Sports Then and Now

Minnie Minoso

The May Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month is the only person in professional baseball history to appear in a game in seven different decades.

Santurnino “Minnie” Minoso made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1949 and appeared in a major or independent league professional game in each of the following six decades to establish a record that will likely never be broken. Read the rest of this entry →

Jim Thome's return to Cleveland is a reminder of past glory.

The decision by Jim Thome to waive his no-trade clause with the Minnesota Twins and accept a return to the Cleveland Indians brings the career of baseball’s newest 600 Club member full circle.

It was the Indians that picked Thome in the 13th round of the 1989 baseball draft and for the Indians that Thome blasted a franchise record 334 home runs while helping the team reach two World Series.

Cleveland fell just short in both of those Fall Classic appearances and the perfect ending to the Thome story would be for the slugger to help his old team finally achieve championship glory.

However, not every sports story has a happy “fairy tale” ending and it isn’t likely that even Thome playing at his best would be the enough to get this Cleveland team to championship glory.

The Indians are currently six games out of first place in the AL Central and are 30-44 since June 1st.

While Thome has enjoyed a brief resurgence with four home runs and 13 RBI in August, he is still on pace for his lowest full season home run total (not counting his injury-plagued 2005 campaign) since hitting 20 homers with the Indians in 1994.

Even if Thome and the Indians can catch lightning in a bottle and somehow reach the playoffs, Thome will have to change his recent postseason ways to help the Indians advance to the World Series. Read the rest of this entry →

Jim Thome is the fifth player to reach 600 home runs in the last decade and eighth all-time.

In baseball the number of career home runs needed to reach baseball immortality used to be 500. Thanks to baseball’s “Steroid Era” and the sudden rise of sluggers eclipsing that mark, that magic number now appears to be 600 career homers. That club just got a little larger on Monday night as Jim Thome became the eighth player in baseball history to reach 600 career home runs.

Since becoming a full-time starter for the Cleveland Indians in 1994, Jim Thome has been one of the most prolific and consistent sluggers in baseball while leaving the headlines and accolades to others.

He eclipsed the 40 home run plateau six times and hit 52 in 2002, but never finished higher than fourth in the MVP balloting and earned only five trips to the All-Star game.

Because his greatest talent was hitting home runs during a time when that skill was no longer unique, Thome has often been pushed aside as a product of his time.

However, unlike many of the other sluggers of his era, even though his career started right about the time that performance enhancing drugs began to engulf baseball, there has never been any evidence or accusations linking Thome’s home run proficiency to use of a synthetic product.

Yet, it has taken him nearing the 600 home run plateau for many baseball fans to even acknowledge that Thome belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Read the rest of this entry →

Bob Feller was the best pitcher of his generation and first major leaguer to enlist following Pearl Harbor.

The baseball world lost an icon and the United States lost a hero with the passing Wednesday night of Baseball Hall of Famer Bob “Rapid Robert” Feller.

It is hard today to imagine a situation where all the top stars in the baseball world would put their careers on hold for multiple years to serve their country, but that is exactly what happened during World War II and Feller was the first in line.

When the United States entered the war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the 23-year-old Bob Feller was without question the best pitcher in baseball.

Feller made his debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1936 and from 1939 through 1941 was nearly unbeatable. He posted a 76-33 record while leading the league in victories and strikeouts all three seasons. His best season during the stretch was in 1940 when he finished second in the American League MVP voting while posting a 27-11 record and also leading the league with a 2.61 ERA and 261 strikeouts.

Yet, after 1941, Feller wouldn’t pitch another inning in the major leagues until late in the 1945 season.

On December 8, 1941, Feller became the first Major League Baseball player to join the war effort as he enlisted in the Navy and volunteered for combat service. Amazingly, it was 69 years to the date of his enlistment that he was placed in hospice care and he passed away one week later.

While in the Navy he reached the rank of Chief Petty Officer and served as a Gun Captain on the USS Alabama. Feller was decorated with five campaign ribbons and eight battle stars. Read the rest of this entry →

Jason Grilli as he prepared to make the roster of the 2010 Indians

Over the past several months, one of my wildest baseball dreams has been realized. Not blessed with an overabundance of skill on the baseball field, it is beyond my greatest expectations that I’d ever have the chance to rub elbows with one of the chosen ones who has been dually blessed with extraordinary baseball skills.

As surreal as it seems to me, Cleveland Indians pitcher, Jason Grilli, and I became buddies last November through our work with the award winning children’s baseball book, A Glove of Their Own, and have become good friends over the six or so months that have passed.

Nearly every morning, the phone rings at my house in rural Massachusetts, and the name “Jason Grilli” pops up on the Call ID. I scratch my head in amazement that a “real live baseball player” would be calling ‘lil ol’ me, answer the call and hear the voice of a bonafide major league pitcher the other end of the line. Read the rest of this entry →

With Opening Day only four weeks away, it doesn’t get any better than hearing Jason Grilli talk about the ticket that got him here. Grilli sits down with Cleveland Indians beat writer, Nick Camino, on WTAM 1100 AM Cleveland Indians Radio, aka The Big One in this up close and personal talk about Spring Training 2010.

Listening to Grill Cheese talk about topics including, his chances of making the 2010 version of the Cleveland Indians, his off-season preparation and pitching for Team Italia in the World Baseball Classic makes it nearly impossible to think of anything, but Opening Day.

Grilli and fellow Italian, Camino, share some good ol’ Pisan humor during this candid and entertaining interview at the Indians Spring Training facility in Goodyear, AZ.  Grill and Camino even break away from baseball for a bit and discuss Grilli’s business, Perfect Pitch Marketing and the new CU3000 Globalinx Video Phone. Read the rest of this entry →