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TWiB Notes -- May 13-19

Edgy MD May 15 2019 07:19 AM

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. becomes the youngest Blue Jay to homer, passing ... Danny Ainge. http://n8itude.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Jays-79-Kodak-Ainge-Waiste.jpg> He later homered a second time in the game, knocking Ainge to third. Copying Pete Alfonso, his first homer was an explosion to straight-away center. [TWEET]https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1128477872816046080[/TWEET]

Frayed Knot May 15 2019 08:17 AM Re: TWiB Notes -- May 13-19

Had you put that fact into a quiz I'm not sure that Danny Ainge comes up with the right answer. Junior's not built like his old man -- thicker though not as tall and rangy -- yet his running gait is similar.

Centerfield May 15 2019 08:33 AM Re: TWiB Notes -- May 13-19

Sure. But he's thinned out from when he was younger. http://www.mlb.com/assets/images/8/8/4/269900884/raw.jpg>

Edgy MD May 15 2019 08:55 AM Re: TWiB Notes -- May 13-19

Ainge looks about 16 in that photo above. I had forgotten but am reminded how desperately rushed to the majors Ainge was. In an effort to secure his commitment to baseball over basketball, the perennially last-place, expansion-era Blue Jays debuted him at AAA at 19-years-old to start his career. And despite him being completely out of his depth there, bumped him to the majors at 20. Every year, his NCAA basketball obligations (and possibly his academic ones) caused him to miss Spring Training and the start of the regular season, which is a lot to ask of a veteran, much less a kid who has been promoted to the majors before his time. By 1980, he was finally starting to catch up a little and look like a major leaguer — if only the most marginal of the sort — but more troubles in the strike-shortened season of 1981, combined with a high-profile finish to his NCAA basketball career, led him to jump to the NBA. He had some catching up to do in the NBA, too. According to Larry Bird, Danny shot "0-for–2547" on his first day of practice. I think he remains the only high schooler to achielve all-American status in baseball, football, and basketball — which has to get Dave Winfield's goat, if only a little.

Frayed Knot May 15 2019 10:13 AM Re: TWiB Notes -- May 13-19

Despite Ainge and I being almost the exact same age (I'm two weeks older although he currently leads me two to one in heart attacks): the combination of being in college at the time (less time to follow baseball), my utter cluelessness concerning college basketball (even less aware then than now), and the newness and irrelevance to me of the AL expansion Blue Jays, I don't believe I had any knowledge of Danny Ainge the baseball player until I heard it years later after he was already a pro basketball player. In short: I missed his entire career, such as it was. But, yeah, that sounds like a pretty good summation of a virtually impossible-to-succeed route. Not sure how good a prospect he was at the time -- scouting/drafting was less sophisticated then and this was the era when the Yanx drafted John Elway in the 1st round simply for 'Splash' purposes -- but it's unlikely that he was good enough to have made his chosen career look like the wrong choice in retrospect, and he's followed up his playing career with a good track record as an executive as well.

G-Fafif May 15 2019 02:16 PM Re: TWiB Notes -- May 13-19

Danny Ainge was a baseball player first in my mind because Topps no longer had a baseball card monopoly. With the coming of Donruss and Fleer into the market in 1981, I experienced a resurgence in card-buying interest the spring of my senior year in high school...and from one of those three companies I kept getting Danny Ainge of the Blue Jays. Later I noticed he also played basketball. SPEAKING OF THE BLUE JAYS, their starter in San Francisco this afternoon is Edwin Jackson, participating in major league game for his record fourteenth team, topping old friend Octavio Dotel.

Johnny Lunchbucket May 15 2019 02:59 PM Re: TWiB Notes -- May 13-19

I had to think a second to ask myself whether Edwin Jackson was ever a Met. I'm gonna say no

Frayed Knot May 15 2019 05:04 PM Re: TWiB Notes -- May 13-19

Some other miscellany from Tuesday: -- Chris Sale was working w/a 3-2 lead and had K'd 17 thru 7 innings [2 Runs, 3 Hits, 0 Walks, 108 Pitches] when he was pulled by manager Alex Cora, 3 K's short of the single game MLB record, 4 short of breaking it. The Sox pen coughed up the lead and Boston went on to lose the game in extra innings. Given how poor Sale had been early in this season combined with his history of slumping late in seasons, I can't fault Cora for this one. Plus it's only a strikeout record which are seemingly falling every week now. -- SD's Chris Paddack got smacked around by the Dodgers [6 runs, 3 earned, 5 hits] and out-pitched by Kershaw in his first game since out-dueling deGrom. Second loss for Paddack in his season/career following three straight wins.ERA 'jumps' to 1.99