Frank is no longer posting in this blog . . .

 Virgil Trucks dead at age 95. Hurled two no-hitters for Detroit in 1952.

DETROIT -- Virgil Trucks, who pitched two no-hitters in 1952 for the Detroit Tigers, has died. He was 95. The two-time All-Star died Saturday near Birmingham, Ala. He pitched in the major leagues from 1941-58, helping the Tigers win the World Series in 1945.

"Fire" Trucks is one of five pitchers to throw two no-hitters in a season, according to STATS. He did it in a year the Tigers lost 104 games. Trucks went 5-19 with a 3.97 ERA in 1952, but he held Washington without a hit on May 15 and did the same to the New York Yankees on Aug. 25.

Trucks pitched 12 seasons for the Tigers and also had stints with the St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Athletics and Yankees.

Vintage photo of Connie Mack

Connie Mack with A's coach Ira Thomas in 1914.

Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Leonard

Proof that Men Have Better Friends...

Friendship among Women: A woman didn't come home one night. The next morning she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best friends. None of them knew anything about it.

Friendship among Men: A man didn't come home one night. The next morning he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend's house. The woman called her husband's 10 best friends. Eight confirmed that he had slept over, and two said he was still there.

What's in a name: Hunter Pence and Joaquin Andujar aka Underpants and Underwear

A few years ago, Mark Loretta and Hunter Pence were teammates on the Houston Astros. Loretta is now a San Diego Padres' vice president and Pence the starting right fielder for the San Francisco Giants.

Today, Loretta was filling in as a commentator on the Padres' telecast and recalled that his then four-year old son could not pronounce Hunter Pence's name. According to the former infielder, his son Frankie referred to him as "Underpants".

Do you remember former pitcher Joaquin Andujar? His name is not easy to spell, much less pronounce. Your blogger recalls that a few people called him "Walking Underwear".

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A REAL BASEBALL FAN IF YOU REMEMBER COCO LABOY

I can still remember Coco being introduced by the P.A. announcer at Jarry Parc/aka Parc Jarry. That was back in the John Boccabella era, before Rusty became a Met for the first of two times.

My reference to Rusty Staub in from "Willie, Mickey and the Duke".

Rose is at the Vet, Rusty again is a Met . . .

A BOOK THAT CELEBRATES "TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME"

My old friend from San Diego, Andy Strasberg, recently visited the grave of Jack Norworth who is buried about two miles from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim stadium. Norworth wrote the lyrics to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" with music by Albert Von Tilzer.

Andy has an extensive collection of recordings of the song and a large assortment of sheet music for baseball's anthem. You can see a book in the photo, "Baseball's Greatest Hit; The Story of Take Me Out to the Ballgame", by Tim Wiles, Bob Thompson and Strasberg.

A website selling the book has this information:

“Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is the third most frequently sung song in America, after “Happy Birthday” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” This special edition, full-color book takes us on a fascinating journey into how the beloved song has come to take a special place in our cultural landscape. A glorious celebration brought to life through historical photos and clippings, baseball cards, movie stills, and more."

If you would like to order a copy, do a Google search for information.

THE ALL MORMON BASEBALL TEAM

Provided by Darrell Berger

1B Wally Joyner

2B Jeff Kent

3B Harmon Killebrew

SS Bobby Crosby

LF Cory Snyder

CF Jacoby Ellsbury

RF Dale Murphy

LSP Bruce Hurst

RSP Roy Halladay

RP Kyle Farnsworth

This reminds your blogger of Major League Baseball before 1947.

Your blogger hopes that he does not resemble this cartoon. What is your opinion?

My favorite patriotic song . . Happy July 4, 2012

There are many that I love but this has special meaning to me. It was originally entitled, "You're a Grand Old Rag".

You're a Grand Old Flag

By George M. Cohan

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

FROM THE LONDON TIMES: A WELL PLANNED RETIREMENT

Outside England's Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and eight buses. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were the equivalent of about $1.40 for cars and about $7 for buses.

Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn't show up. So the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked them to send another parking agent. The Council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the Zoo's own responsibility. The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a City employee. The City Council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the City payroll.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, France or Italy is a man who apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own and then had simply began to show up every day, commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about $560 per day -- for 25 years.

Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over $7,000,000 and no one even knows his name.

_________________

This tale appears to be an urban myth, but your blogger enjoyed the story and felt it worthy of inclusion here. Thanks to Karen Biro Hewson for forwarding it to me.

Adam Sandler showed his Hofstra Pride last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon! Go Pride!

Hofstra University does not get much national publicity, so I wanted to share this. I graduated from Hofstra is 1964 when they were still known as the Flying Dutchmen. How they go by the name Pride, which bothers a lot of us. The school even dropped football a couple of years ago.

Sandler attended New York University, not Hofstra. But we'll take any plug the school can get.

TODAY IS MY 70th BIRTHDAY. MY BUDDY CLIFF SENT ME THIS LIST

Current Birthdays on June 9th. 2012

By The Associated Press

Actor Johnny Depp turns 49 years old today.

Actor Michael J. Fox turns 51 years old today.

Marvin Kalb, Broadcast journalist, turns 82

Dick Vitale, Sportscaster, turns 73

Frank Barning, Sportswriter turns 70

Patricia Cornwell, Mystery author, turns 56

Aaron Sorkin, Writer, producer ("The West Wing"), turns 51

Gloria Reuben, Actress ("ER"), turns 48

Tedy Bruschi, Football player, turns 39

Natalie Portman, Actress, turns 31

IS THERE SUCH A PLACE AS BASEBALL'S DISABLED LIST?

Eric Chavez in a familiar position and it is not third base

By VIVIAN BARNING

If you go there, you will see Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cliff Lee, Matt Kemp and Troy Tulowitzki. Dustin Pedroia is trying hard to avoid joining them. Eric Chavez and Mark Kotsay have been nearly permanent residents in recent years.

Where is this expensive piece of real estate? Nowhere. It does not exist as a physical entity. And yet, media descriptions of the disabled list (DL) certainly seem to indicate that there is such a place. It is often referred to as a “trip to the disabled list”. How far is that trip? Is it measured in miles? Is it closer for the East Coast teams or those west of the Rockies? Sounds like a summer vacation spot until you realize how hard most players work to stay away from there.

And this year major league baseball has added a room to the DL. It’s the seven-day DL for concussions. My fantasy league catcher Carlos Santana resides there at the moment while my other catcher Alex Avila seems to have narrowly avoided a recent trip there.

Among the other residents on the current DL are Chipper Jones, Brett Gardner, Carl Crawford, Jered Weaver, Evan Longoria, Cris Carpenter, Andrew Bailey, Brian Wilson, Jonathan Lucroy and many others. Several others play for my favorite team, the San Diego Padres.

The DL is a very expensive place indeed.

Johnny Ride the Pony -- also known as Johnny on the Pony

One person would stand as what we called the pillow. The rest of the team would line up crouched over head to butt with the pillow holding the head of the lead croucher. The other team would then run and jump leap-frog like to land straddled on the line of crouched kids.

The object of the game was to support the weight of the entire team long enough to say; "Johnny on a Pony 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3". Of course, the prevailing strategy would be to target one weak link (or unlikeable kid) in the chain and to have the entire team try to pile drive on the back of that kid. More often than not, the pile would tip over sideways and fall off. It's a miracle that no one broke their back playing this game.

I lived in Forest Hills, Queens, NY until I was 12 years of age. This game was often played. Then we moved about 30 miles east to Levittown NY and I don't think I ever played it again.
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Thank you to Warren Zaretsky

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOGI BERRA. . . You made this day necessary

Ponderisms

Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?

Why is the third hand on a watch called the second hand?

Why are they called "stands" when they are made for sitting?

Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

Why are a "wise man" and a "wise guy" opposites?

If all the world's a stage, where is the audience sitting?

Why is bra singular and panties plural?

Why do we put suits in garment bags and garments in suitcases?

Why is it called a TV set when you only have one?

Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

A baseball tale from 1943 involving the Chicago White Sox' Luke Appling

One of the charms of baseball is the little stories that can only have happened in our national pastime. Here is one from 1943 that I found in a book by Janice A. Petterchak, "Jack Brickhouse, A Voice for All Seasons."

Future Hall of Famer Luke Appling, who went on to win the American League batting title for the Chicago White Sox that season, had been asked by the American Red Cross in his hometown of Atlanta for some autographed baseballs. They were to be used in a fund-raiser to support the war effort.

As Brickhouse tells the story, "Luke asked the Sox for a couple of dozen baseballs. While he was getting ready for batting practice, he got the word that club vice president Harry Grabiner had turned him down -- 'Can't spare them.' Luke sent the messenger back to Grabiner to tell him, 'You better come out and watch my batting practice.'

"Grabiner went and watched as Luke fouled 12 straight pitches into the seats. On the last one, Grabiner yelled, 'You've got them. You can have the baseballs.'"

This season's Chicago Cubs tickets are a nostalgic collectible

Click on photos to enlarge

By TOM HENNINGSEN

Cubs' season ticket holders received quite a surprise when they opened their packages of tickets in mid-March. In what I consider a brilliant move guaranteed to appeal to anyone who ever collected baseball cards or is a ticket holder of more than a few years, the Cubs have turned every ticket into a collectible.

Each ticket pictures a replica of a Topps baseball card. Of course the greats (Ernie Banks, Lou Brock, Billy Williams et al) and very good players (Phil Cavaretta and Ron Santo for example) are included, but so are players such as Bob Dernier, Damon Berryhill, Rick Wilkins and others who, sometimes, flashed across the sports page's headlines and quickly faded into, at least, semi-obscurity.

The Cubs' Marketing Department has made every ticket a keeper -- a souvenir of a probably not-terribly-important game. I wonder how long it will be before complete sets of 2012 Cubs' tickets begin appearing on eBay.

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Chicagoan Tom Henningsen was a long-time columnist for Baseball Hobby News and operated a baseball card shop in his hometown for many years. His favorite player is still Hank Sauer.

FIVE DEADLY TERMS USED BY A WOMEN