Former Italian / American Player of the Day: Pete Incaviglia (1986-1998)

-
Peter Joseph Incaviglia, known as “Inky” was born on April 2, 1964 in Pebble Beach, California. His dad played for the Brooklyn Dodgers system in the 1950's & his brother played minor league baseball as well.

Inky attended Oklahoma State University & was one of college baseballs all time biggest HRs hitters. He blasted 100 HRs in 213 games with a careeer slugging % of .915%. In 1985, his junior year, he setting a record that still stands today hitting 48 HRs, & 143 RBIs, all in just  75 games.

Inky led his team to three straight, College World Series, getting elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Also in 1985, the  Montreal Exposselected him as a first round draft pick, (#8 pick overall). He insisted to go right to big leagues without playing minor league ball, but the Expos had other ideas. He was soon traded to the Texas Rangers for Jim Anderson & Bob Sebra. In Texas he did go right to the majors, arriving at Arlington to be the Rangers main right fielder for 1986. The power hitter would hit a bunch of HRs but also would strike out quite often.

He made the Topps All Star Rookie team, setting personal career highs with 30 HRs (10th in the league) & 88 RBIs while batting .250. He also led the league in strikeouts with 185, striking out more than 135 times for the first of five straight seasons. In 1988 he once again led the league in strike outs (153). He also hit 20 plus HRs in each season in that time period, accomplishing that feat six times overall. In his career he had six 80 plus RBI seasons and five 20 plus doubles seasons.

Although he had big power numbers he was released by Texas in 1991 & then spent two uneventful seasons with the Detroit Tigers (1991) & Houston Astros (1992). In 1993 he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies & revived his career. He hit 24 HRs with 16 doubles & drove in 89 runs batting a career best .274 helping the Phillies get to the World Series.

Post Season: In Game #1 of the NLCS against the Atlanta Braves, he hit 6th inning HR off  Steve Avery, breaking a 2-2 tie. The Phils went on to a 4-3 win. He had two hits in that game & just one more over the next two. Inthe World Series he went 1-7 (.143) playing in three of the six games, in a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

The next season he was involved in some drama as he argued with Philly fans & walked out of an autograph session at a shopping mall. He was played  80 games hitting 13 HRs while batting just .230 in the strike shortened 94 season. In 1995 he went to play in Japan for one season.

The next year he returned with the Phillies, but was traded to the Baltimore Orioles with Todd Zeile that August in exchange for Garrett Stephenson & Calvin Maduro. He was a reserve player for 48 games batting .246.

Inky would bounce around with the AL New York team (1997-five games) & again with the Tigers & Astros in 1998 (20 games). Physically he suffered from weight issues  retiring at the end of that season.

In 12 seasons he hit 206 HRs with 1043 hits 194 doubles 655 RBIs batting .246 with 1277 strike outs in 4233 at bats.

Retirement: After his playing days he has coached for the AA ball Erie Seawolves from 2003-2006. Since then he coached in the Independent League at Durham, North Carolina & currentlt for the Laredo Lemurs in Louisiana.

Trivia: The Pete Incaviglia Rule was put into effect by MLB as a rule whereby a team cannot trade a drafted player until he has been under contract to the club for at least one year.

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

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

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