centerfield maz

Dennis Leroy Springer was born February 12th 1965 in Fresno California, the hometown of Tom Seaver. He was one in a long line of Major league players that attended California State University at Fresno. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 21st round of the 1987 draft. The five foot ten, right hander's specialty was his knuckleball. He would spend seven years in the minors before making to the big leagues. By that time he was with the Philadelphia Phillies debuting in 1995 going 0-3 in just four games pitched. He then signed on with the California Angels playing there for two years into the transition of the team being called the Anaheim Angles. In two seasons there he posted ERA's near six & went a combined 14-15. He allowed the second most HRs in 1997 (32) & was fourth in the AL in earned runs with 112. He did throw a shut out in each of his seasons in Anaheim. In 1998 he was drafted by the new expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays as the 25th pick. U...

Taylor Hill Teagarden was born December 21st 1983 in Dallas, Texas. The six foot right hand hitting catcher attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a star player. He was named Bug Twelve Conference Freshman of the Year & helped the 2005 Longhorns win the College World Series, making the All Tournament team as catcher. He was soon signed by his home town Texas Rangers in the 3rd round of the 2005 draft.  2005 was a rough year for him as he needed back surgery as well as Tommy John surgery. In 2008 he played on the US Olympic Team that won a Bronze medal. That year he also made his debut with the Rangers for two quick games in July & playing in 14 more games that September, batting .316.  In 2009 he played in a career high 60 games backing up Jarrod Saltalamacchia for the second place Rangers. He threw out 38% of would be base runners, while batting .217 with 6 HRs & 24 RBIs. Teagarden would spend four years in Texas as a part time player. He ...

Juan Centeno was born on November 16th 1989 in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. In 2007 the Mets drafted him out of high School in the 32nd round. The five foot nine, catcher Centeno, bats left handed while throwing right handed. He spent four years at the Mets A ball level between Brooklyn & St. Lucie, not hitting much but showing solid defense. After batting around or under .200 he hit .371 in 32 games (just 89 at bats) with the Cyclones in 2010. He then was pushed up to St. Lucie again even getting to AA Binghamton by the end of the season. In 2011 he was back at St. Lucie hitting .318. In 2012 he hit .285 at AA Binghamton as the clubs main catcher catching guys like Zack Wheeler & Jenrry Mejia. The next year he was playing in Puerto Rico, Binghamton & at AAA Las Vegas as their main catcher. He hit .305 & tossed out 56% of would be base stealers. With not much power he did not hit any HRs in 67 games. On September 18th he made his MLB debut catching & batting...

  Akeel J. Morris was born November 14h, 1992 in St. Thomas, United Sates Virgin Islands. The six foot one right hander pitched a perfect game in high school while in the Virgin Islands. He was selected by the New York Mets in the tenth round of the 2010 amateur draft. He pitched his first season with the Gulf Coast Mets & then at Kingsport, where he had great strike out numbers averaging 10.5 Ks per nine innings, but he had control issues, walking 6.5 batters per nine innings. In 2013 he was moved to Brooklyn where he went 4-1 with a 1.00 ERA with the Cyclones. He improved to strike out 60 batters while walking 23. In 2014 he got even better, while with the Savannah Sand Gnats he became a full time relief pitcher. He was 4-1 with 16 saves, posting a fantastic 0.63 ERA. He struck out 89 batters in 57 innings, which computes to a 14.1 strike out per nine inning ratio. In a rare instance, he struck out four batters in one inning in a game against the Augusta Green Jac...

Julio Ruben (Torres) Morales was born February 18, 1949 in Puerto Rico. The right hand hitting five foot, ten inch outfielder was originally signed by the New York Mets as an amateur free agent in 1966 at the age of 17. He was taken away as the 16th pick by the National Leagues new San Diego Padres during the 1968 expansion draft.  Morales was an original Padre outfielder, making his debut as a September call up that season batting .195 with one HR & 6 RBIs in 19 games. He had good speed in the outfield & often made two handed basket catches playing as a reserve his first three seasons. By 1972 he was seeing regular action hitting .239 with seven triples, (sixth most in the NL) 4 HRs & 18 RBIs in 115 games.  In 1973 he played 122 games in the Padre outfield under manager Don Zimmer on a last place team going 60-102. Morales had 23 doubles, while batting .281. He would bat over .270 each of the next five seasons. But by 1974 the Padres had young outfielders ...

Robert Peter Geren was born on September 22nd 1961 in San Diego, California. He was a star athlete in high school, winning the San Diego HS Player of the Year Award. The six foot three catcher, was drafted in the first round (24th pick overall) by his hometown San Diego Padres in 1979. A year later he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals as a player to be named later in the deal that sent Gene Tenace & Rollie Fingers to the Cardinals. Fingers was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in a huge deal four days later. As for Geren, it almost took him a decade to get to the big leagues, after spending five years at AAA ball where he eventually was signed by the AL New York club. He hit .271 at AAA Columbus in 1988 getting three call ups throughout the season. That year he appeared with his family, on the daytime version of the game show Family Feud. His family won the $5000 grand prize. He spent two years as back up to Don Slaught, taking over as the clubs main backstop in 19...

Jerry Manuel was born December 23, 1953 in Hahira, Georgia soon moving with his family west to Cordova, California. He was picked in the first round of the 1972 draft, by the Detroit Tigers, the 20th pick overall. He was a solid middle infielder never known for his hitting. Life time he was a .150 hitter, going 19-127 in his brief career. He made his debut in 1975 as a September call up, going 1-18 in six games. The next season he hit only .140 in 43 at bats and found himself toiling in the minors for the next three years. In 1980 he was traded to the Montreal Expos for former Mets backup catcher, Duffy Dyer. He spent two seasons playing sparingly in Montreal; hitting a career best .200, with 3 HRs & 10 RBIs in 27 games in 1981. The 1981 strike shortened season was the only time the Expos ever made the post season. I I n the first round of the playoffs, Manuel went 1-14 playing in five games as Montreal defeated the Philadelphia Phillies. In the NLCS he appeared as a pinch...

Robert Nathan Floyd was born October 20th 1943 in Hawthorne, California. He attended the University of Southern California, laying for the UCLA Bruins. He was drafted as an amateur free agent in 1964 by the Baltimore Orioles. Floyd was with the Orioles at the height of their AL domination, and not having much of a chance as a weak hitting infielder since the big league club had Brooks Robinson, Davey Johnson & Mark Belanger. He had cups of coffee in each season with Baltimore from 1968-1970. In those years they got to two World Series losing to the Amazing Mets in 1969 & beating the Cincinnati Reds in 1970. 1969 World Series: In 1969 was with the club all season & sat on the bench as the Amazing Mets upset the Orioles in five games. He did not expect to play unless Earl Weaver needed a pinch runner. He earned his $14,904 World Series share as well. Baseball Card: The back of his 1974 Topps baseball card noted, he was into hypnotism. He was long gone from the ...

So it seems the Philadelphia Phillies have two new murals painted at their Spring Training Facility, honoring the only two Championship Teams in their long 134 year history. (That's a Championship every 67 years.) One honors former New York Met & Phillie pitcher; Tug McGraw. McGraw started the phrase back in 1973, a rally cry that led the Mets to the 1973 National Leauge Pennant. (see post below). The slogan is legendary in Mets history & Tug McGraw's legacy where his baseball history began. In his career, McGraw did pitch one more year in Philadelphia (10 years)than in New York (9 years) & did use the phrase to less fan fare in Philly as well. Trivia: The slogan is now actually a trademark of the Tug McGraw Foundation. Tug McGraw was one of the star relievers in an age when the relief pitcher, known as "fireman" was coming into the lime light. McGraw was also a character that added to his celebrity status. He is not in Cooperstown but honored ...

Howard Rose was born February 13th, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up a big New York Mets fan, as well as a fan of the Jets & Rangers. He attended high school in Bayside, New York & then graduated to Queens College. Rose is somewhat of a pioneer in broadcasting as well a lucky enough to live his dream. Back in the late seventies, he was one of the original voices of Sports phone. The Sports phone was updated every half hour with scores as fans would call in to hear the recorded voices give the scores. This was a time long before the internet, cell phone alerts & full time sports networks. It was the only way diehard fans could follow pennant races or even regular season games through the night. He began to cover his beloved Mets as a freelance reporter in local New York radio. Rose had originally moved to WHN AM radio in 1977 where he served as the station's sports director and an on-air broadcaster until 1983. In early 1984, Howie moved over to WCBS Ne...

Travis Nathaniel Taijeron was born on January 20th 1989 in La Mesa, California. The six foot two right hand hitting outfielder, attended California Polytechnic State University getting drafted by the New York Mets in the 18th round of the 2011 amateur draft. Taijeron began his career at A ball Brooklynn hitting 9 HRs with 44 RBIs in 56 games with the Cyclones. He won a Player of the Week Award there making the NY Penn. League All Star team. He moved up to St. Lucie & Savannah hitting 19 HR total in 2012. He made another All Star team & Player of Week Award.  By 2013 he was pushed up to AA Binghamton making Top Prospect lists & another All Star team, becoming one of the clubs main outfielders the next two seasons. By 2015 he was promoted to the Mets AAA Las Vegas club. At AAA Las Vegas he became the 51's top slugger & top run producer the next seasons. In 2015 he hit 25 HRs with 71 RBIs batting .275. In 2016 he led the team in HRs (19) tied with Johnny Mo...

Thomas Mathew Szapucki was born on June 12th, 1996 in Palm Beach Gardens Florida. The six foot two, exceptional high school pitcher was drafted by the New York Mets out of West Palm Beach High in 2015. He was the fourth left handed pitcher drafted by the Mets in 2015 (the 149th pick overall). He started out pitching two innings of relief for the Gul Coast Mets. He began 2016 with the Kingsport Mets in the Rookie League, going 2-1 with a 1.55 ERA not allowing more than four hits in five starts. That got him the promotion to the A ball Brooklyn Cyclones. There he made four starts going 2-2 with a 2.35 ERA, his last two starts not as effective as his first due to a stiff back that ended his season early. Still his strike outs per nine innings rate was 14.9 was third best among all prospects. He struck out 86 batters walking 20 in 52 innings pitched. He pitched in the instructional league & some tweaks in his mechanics made his fast ball more lively, reaching the mid nin...

P.J. Conlon was born Patrick Joshua Conlon on November 11th 1993 in Belfast, United Kingdom. The five foot eleven left handed pitcher attended the University of San Diego getting drafted by the New York Mets in the 2015 June Amateur draft in the 13th round. In his first season he pitched out of the bullpen for the Brooklyn Cyclones & did not allow an earned run in 17 innings pitched. He became a starter for the A ball Columbia Fireflies & went an impressive 8-1 with a 1.84 ERA. He was promoted to St. Lucie where he was 4-1, as he kept the runs down, sporting a 1.41 ERA in 63.2 innings. Under pressure he held opponents to just a .152 average with runners in scoring position. He was invited to the Mets Spring Training camp in 2017 & will get the opportunity to compete for a bullpen spot. His best pitch his is his change up with a fastball only hitting the low 90's on good days.