Former Italian / American Player: Joe Randa (1995-2006)

-
Joseph Gregory Salvatore Randa was born December 18, 1969 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A star athlete from early on, in high school he played baseball, basketball, tennis & football having his #12 retired by the school.

The five foot eleven infielder, attended the University of Tennessee getting signed by the Kansas City Royals in 11th round of the 1991 draft. He hit over .290 three times in the minors making it to the big leagues in 1995.

In 1996 he became the Royals regular third baseman, leading the team (tied with Jose Offerman) in batting at batting .303. He also had 24 doubles 6 HRs 47 RBIs & 13 stolen bases. The next season he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Jay Bell & Jeff King. He spent just one year with the Pirates batting .302 helping the Pirates remain in the pennant race despite having the league's lowest payroll.

It was there he earned the nickname “The Joker” because his teammates said he resembled the comic book villain when he smiled. Randa was always smiling & was known for being a good guy with a positive attitude.

In late 1997 he got drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the expansion draft but was soon traded to the Detroit Tigers playing there for one season. On December 4th 1998 he was traded to the New York Mets for Willie Bair. He was a Met for just six days, never suiting up as he was quickly traded back to the Royals for a minor leaguer on December 10th 1998.

Randa would spend the next six seasons in Kansas City as one of the leagues better infielders. After coming in second place in fielding percentage three straight years, he led all AL third baseman in 2003 (.980%). That year Randa set the Kansas City Royals' team record for the most consecutive errorless games by a third baseman, going 75 games without an error. He also led the league in put outs three times (1999-2001) games played twice (1999-2000) & assists once (1999) at third base.

He batted over.290 three times, including two .300 seasons. He hit over 30 doubles six times & was among the league leaders in triples, singles, & sac flies over those seasons as well. In 1999 he had career highs in batting (.314) runs scored (92) & hits (197) posting a .363 on base %.

He followed up in 2000 with a career high 106 RBIs while batting .304 with 15 HRs & 186 hits. In 2005 he was granted free agency & signed with the Cincinnati Reds.

During the season he was traded to the San Diego Padres, and then finished out the year as thier main third baseman behind Sean Burroughs. Randa's last year was spent back in Pittsburgh in 2006.

After 12 seasons he hit .284 with 1543 hits 123 HRs 327 doubles 36 triples 739 RBIs 67 sac flies (150th all time) & a .339 on base %. At third base he played 1362 games (53rd most all time) & his .962 fielding % is 40th best all time . He made 2489 assists are 62nd all time with 1005 put outs (88th all time).

Retirement: He is currently a host of Crunch Time on Sports Radio 810 in Kansas City

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ON NOVEMBER 13th................. The Odd Couple Lives

-
Image
"On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. That request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that someday, he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Several years earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?" This was the opening dialogue of centerfieldmaz's favorite TV show: "the Odd Couple". This dialogue was used for the first two seasons. It is also featured on the third season of the DVD releases as well. The narration was done by actor Bill Woodson. The famous Odd Couple theme was written by non other than Neil Hefti, originally for the 1968 Odd Couple movie. Niel Hefti also did the classic Batman 1960's TV series theme song & music for that, another centerfieldmaz favorite TV sh
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

Remembering Mets History (1979) SNL's Chico Escuela Visits Mets Spring Training & Attempts a Career Comeback

-
Image
Bill Murray interviews (Garrett Morris) Chico Escuela In March 1979, original Saturday Night Live cast member; Garrett Morris joined the Mets at Miller Huggins Field for Spring Training. At the time the Mets were still holding Spring Training in St. Petersburg Florida.  Garrett Morris was posing as  the fictional Mets player, Chico Escuela who wore uniform #5 (cinque).  Escuela was doing his famous spoof of the Latin players of the time, posing as a popular infielder from the Dominican Republic that didn't speak much English. His legendary catch phrase was "baseball been berry- berry good to me". "baseball been berry-berry good... to me" The Chico Escuela character appeared nine times during on SNL's fourth & fifth seasons. He debuted on December 9th, 1978, in a Knight of Columbus sketch as a guest speaker. He then became the Weekend Update Sports reporter, where after being introduced by Jane Curtain, he would reply "tank you Hane". Chico woul
Read more

The History of Yogi Berra & the Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink

-
Image
Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo's  history go back to the 1950's. Yogi had met the Oliveri Family, the owners of the Yoo-Hoo company at a Country Club function near his home in New Jersey. Natale Olivieri started bottling the chocolate drink in 1928 in Garfield, w Jersey. By the late 1950's he Yoo-Hoo product wasn't selling all that well. Mr. Olivieri asked for Yogi's opinion at the new Jersey function. Berra said he actually liked the soft drink & started promoting it along with his teammates. Soon Yogi put Yoo-Hoo on the map, appearing in commercials, advertisements and supermarkets promotions.  Berra would show up at the factory in Carlstadt, New Jersey & became a hero to the factory workers. He soon became a Vice President of the company owning a large amount of Yoo-Hoo stock. In his auto biography Yogi wrote "One time I was in the office and the phone rang, I always answer a ringing phone, the woman on the other end asked if Yoo-Hoo was hyphenated. I
Read more