centerfield maz

Gary Cohen was born on April 29th, 1958 in Flushing New York. He was raised in Queens between Flushing & Jamaica attending the United Nations School. He was true Mets fan idolizing Bud Harrelson, attending many games at Shea Stadium as a boy growing up. Cohen & his father were in the last section of Shea Stadium’s left field (Section 48) for Game #3 of the 1969 NLCS, making it all the way down to the field to get his piece of turf after the game, as the Mets won the pennant. He attended Columbia University, graduating on the dean’s list while earning a degree in Political Science. He wanted to be a short stop following in Harrelson’s shoes but couldn’t hit well enough to remain on the baseball team. He loved basketball but was too short to play that sport. He then moved into a broadcasting career, beginning by calling soccer games at Columbia University. From there he began to broadcast minor league baseball, for Boston's AAA Pawtucket club of the International Leag...

Daniel Carrasco was born April 12th 1977 in Safford, Arizona. The six foot four inch right handed pitcher was a 26th round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 1997. He began pitching in the minor leagues in 1998 & has pitched there in every season but three. He has a 36-36 minor league record with 51 saves & a 3.86 ERA in 275 appearances. In his long up & down career he was been signed & released by the Orioles, Cleveland Indians & Pittsburgh Pirates before landing with the Kansas City Royals in 2002. Carrasco pitched three seasons in Kansas City, he went 6-5 as a reliever in his rookie season of 2003 appearing in 50 games for the third place Royals who made a good run for the AL Central title all year. In 2005 he was used as a starter in 20 games going 6-8 with a 4.79 ERA, 49 strike outs, 51 walks in 149 innings pitched. He was released & then pitched in Japan for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in 2006. That winter he signed on with the Arizona Diamondb...

Jeffrey Scott Keppinger was born on April 21, 1980 in Miami, Florida. The six foot infielder, attended the University of Georgia where he hit .380 getting to the college World Series in 2001. That same year he was drafted in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Pirates. His power numbers fell off in the minor leagues, but he still continued to hit well batting .325 at A ball Lynchburg. In the summer of 2004 he came over to the New York Mets organization in the Kris Benson deal. He made brief stops at AA Binghamton & AAA Norfolk early that summer. He got a break when a roster spot opened up, making his MLB debut with the Mets, on August 20th at San Francisco. He came into the game as a pinch hitter, going 0-1. The next day he came into the game in the 7th inning & got his first career hit in the Mets 11-7 extra inning win. On August 22nd he made his first start at second base & got two hits in the 3-1 Mets loss. At the end of August, he hit HRs in back to back games,...

John Robert Murff was born on April 1st, 1921 in Burlington Texas. He served in the Army in World War II & it was there he began to play baseball. The six foot three right hander was a star minor league pitcher as soon as he signed out of Gettysburg College. After winning 17 games in his first year of pro ball he went on to win twenty games the next two seasons. In 1951 he pitched a no hitter pitching for the Texas City Texans & the following year pitched 19 2/3 innings of a twenty inning game although he took the loss. By 1955 he was 27-11 with a 1.99 ERA for the AA Dallas Eagles winning the Texas League Player of the Year Award as well as the Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year. Back injuries prevented him from ever becoming a full time MLB pitcher. He was signed by the New York Giants but was soon traded to the Milwaukee Braves for a player to be named later. In 1956 he made the Braves staff and debuted as a rookie at the age of 35. He was the team's start...

Edward Abbaticchio who was known as “Batty” and at times “Abbey”, is the second Italian American to play major league baseball, although many sources have him also down as the first. Logically he has to be second because his career started after Lewis Pessano who was known as Buttercup Dickerson. One thing for certain, Abbaticchio didn’t change his name to sound more American. Not only is he an Italian American baseball pioneer, but he is believed to be the first Italian American to play pro football as well. Edward James Abbaticchio was born on April 15, 1887 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. After playing semi pro ball he made his debut in September of 1897 with Philadelphia. He played there briefly for two seasons, and then went to play in the Southern League for two seasons, leading the league in hitting both times. He came back to the NL with the Boston Bean Eaters for two seasons. There in 1905, he hit .279 with 30 stolen bases as well as career highs in doubles (25) &...

centerfieldmaz attended a book signing at the Yogi Berra Museum in Montclair, New Jersey the other day. The book was called "Kings of Queens" Life Beyond baseball with the 1986 Mets. The book features profiles & interviews with 14 members of that Championship Mets team. The book is written by Erik Sherman with a forward by Davey Johnson. Sherman is also the author of Mookie, Life, Baseball & the '86 Mets as well as two other baseball books. The special guest of the night was also non other than Mookie Wilson. Mookie was a pleasure to meet, he was good natured polite & just a great guy. He talked to everyone & was genuine, it wasn't just a book signing that was just "next please, keep it moving" event. Mookie took pictures & gave good conversation. I told him I was in the upper deck of left field during Game #6 of the 1986 World Series & from that point with no audio of broadcasters, I just saw a little white ball go from be...

  Pete Brian Walker was born on April 8th 1969 in Beverly Massachusetts. The six foot two right hander attended the University of Connecticut getting drafted by the New York Mets in the 7th round of the 1990 draft. Walker began as a starter winning ten games (10-12) games at A ball St. Lucie in 1991. At AA Binghamton he became a reliever & in 1993 saved 19 games going 4-9 with a 3.44 ERA. He was promoted to AAA Norfolk where he went 5-2 with 8 saves & a 3.91 ERA in 1995. That year he got called in June making his MLB debut on June 7th 1995, at Candlestick Park in a 9-8 loss to the San Francisco Giants. Walker came in the 6th inning & allowed a run on two hits with two walks, in 1.1 innings of work. On June 18th he allowed three runs to the Houston Astros which made his ERA balloon up over seven. He was sent back down after eight games, but returned to the Mets a week later. He pitched in two early July games, finishing up losses. He spent the next t...

Eric Christian Valent was born on April 4, 1977 in La Mirada, California. The six foot left handed Valent, attended U.C.L.A, playing baseball for the Bruins on a star studded cast of future MLB players. Along with team mates Troy Glaus, Eric Byrnes, Chase Utley, and Garrett Atkins, Valent was named Pac Ten Player of the Year, helping his team get to the College World Series. In 1998 he was drafted in the first round (the 42nd pick overall) by the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1999 at A ball he hit 20 HRs with 31 doubles getting promoted to AA Reading in 2000 where he would hit 22 HRs with 90 RBIs. In 2001 he hit 21 more HRs at AAA Scranton although he struck out over 100 times. He made his MLB debut as a September call up playing in 22 games batting just .098. He spent most of 2003 at Scranton/ Wilkes Barre getting traded to the Cincinnati Reds for former Mets catcher Kelly Stinnett in 2003. He appeared in 18 games that September for the Reds batting .214. In December of 2003 he ...

Thomas Mitchell Herr was born April 4th in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. the six foot second baseman, was originally signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974 as an amateur free agent. Herr spent five years in the minor leagues, he hit well batting over .290 twice including a .293 1979 season getting him a September call up. In 1980 he began the season with the Cardinals but after a quick start fell to .163 getting sent back down to AAA Springfield where he batted .312 & after 37 games when he was brought back up. In 1981 he became the Cards leadoff hitter & took over the second base job from Ken Oberkfell. He played the most games in the league at second base (103) & led the NL in assists (374) posting a .992 fielding % (second in the league). He stole 23 bases (10th in the NL) batted .268 with a .329 on base % in the strike shortened season, coming in 22nd in the league's MVP voting. In the 1982 Cardinals Championship season Herr stole 25 bases hitting .266 scor...