2019 Mets Front Office Advisor & Former 2018 Coach: Ruben Amaro Jr. (2018-2019)

-

Ruben Amaro Jr. was born on February 12th 1965 in Northeast Philadelphia. His father Ruben Amaro SR. played in the Major Leagues for eleven years, with the St. Louis Cardinals (1958) Philadelphia Phillies (1960-1965) AL New York team (1966-1968) & California Angels (1969). Amaro is Russian Jewish, Cuban Mexican American.

 Ruben Jr. graduated from William Penn charter school where he played baseball as well as soccer. He attended Stanford University playing for the 1987 College World Series Championship team. He led the club in runs, triples & stolen bases. The outfielder was drafted by the California Angels in the 11th round of the 1987 draft.

 In December of 1991, he was traded along with Kyle Abbot to the Philadelphia Phillies for Von Hayes. By 1992 he was the Phillies main right fielder playing in 126 games but hit just .219 with 7 HRs 15 doubles & 34 RBIs.

He began the Phillies 1993 NL Championship season at AAA getting back to the Phils in mid June. A few days later he was the hero of an 8-6 Phillies win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. After an early RBI single, he hit a two in HR off John Candeleria in the 8th inning, putting his team in front for good. 
In 25 games he batted .333 but did not make the post season. After the World Series he was traded to the Cleveland Indians for Heathcliff Slocumb. 

 He played briefly as a reserve outfielder with the Indians including 28 games batting just .200 in their 1995 AL Championship season. He got into three ALCS games against the Seattle Mariners, getting one official at bat & scoring a run. In the 1995 World Series he went 0-2 in two games against the Atlanta Braves.

He then resigned with the Phillies as a free agent in 1996 playing three more seasons there. In 61 games he hit .316 in 1996 then played 117 games in 1997 while batting .234. In an eight year career he batted .235 with 16 HRs 43 doubles 100 RBIs & 218 hits in 485 games. 

 In 1998 he was hired by the Phillies as assistant to the GM, serving seven years under Ed Wade & three under Pat Gillick.
In 2009 he was named the Phils General Manager & got the team to the World Series that same year earning the MLB Executive of the Year Award. The Phillies  went on to win three straight NL East titles with a core of Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Shane Victorino & Cole Hamels. 

 By 2013 everything went rotten in Philly, manager Charlie Manuel was fired by Amaro & the fans voted 96% to fire Amaro as well. He was ranked the worst GM in baseball by the Sporting News with a reputation to sign washed up high price veterans. Amaro was fired by 2015.

 Philly Legacy: Amaro is co-founder of the Richie Ashburn Harry Kalas Foundation, which provides baseball camps for underprivileged children in the Delaware Valley.


In 2016 he was hired by the Boston Red Sox as first base coach. In November of 2107 he was chosed as the New York Mets first base coach for 2018. He replaced Tom Goodwin, who went to the Red Sox. Amaro will also work with outfielders & oversee base running.

 At the end of the season he was moved to a front office position as Glen Sherlock will be the 2019 first base coach.

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