Card #97: Paul Moskau

Who Can It Be Now?
Paul Richard Moskau was born on December 20, 1953, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He moved to Tucson, Arizona, as a child, where he was an all-star in Little League, Pony League, and Colt League.  He then attended Rincon High School in Tucson and was named to the All-City and All-State baseball teams.  

Strangely, despite making All-State in a baseball hotbed like Arizona, Moskau was not drafted directly out of high school. Instead, he attended his hometown university -- Arizona State.  He eventually left and went to Azusa Pacific however.  In the process, though, he finally received attention from scouts and was drafted twice -- first by the Cleveland Indians in the 1974 January draft (he did not sign) and, eventually, by the Cincinnati Reds in the 3rd round of the 1975 June Draft.

On signing, Moskau made one start in the Pioneer League before going to Low-A Eugene in the Northwest League. He dominated at these low levels, putting up a 10-2 record with a 1.53 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 88 innings.  Moskau spent 1976 in Double-A at Trois-Rivieres in the Eastern league and again appeared to dominate -- 13-6, 1.55 ERA. But, his strikeouts per nine innings dropped by over 3 -- from 9.9 K/9 to 6.2 K/9.  Still, it was an excellent season that showed Moskau might have some promise.

At the beginning of 1977, the Reds sent Moskau to Triple-A Indianapolis. By June 11, the Reds had scuffled to a .500 record (27-27), and decided that there was a need to shake things up a bit. By June 16, the Reds were 5 games into a 7-game winning streak and had remade the pitching staff. Gone were Gary Nolan, Mike Caldwell, Rawly Eastwick, and Pat Zachry. In came Doug Capilla and Tom Seaver.  

That math obviously didn't work out completely, so Moskau got the call from the Reds to report to the major leagues.  He made his first major league start on June 21 against the Phillies. It was rough going at first -- his ERA after his first four major league appearances was 10.45 thanks to the Dodgers tattooing him for 6 runs in 1/3 of an inning on June 26. By the end of the season, however, Moskau had put up creditable numbers -- 108 innings, 6-6 record with two shutouts, 71 strikeouts against 40 walks and a 4.00 ERA (3.77 FIP).  

Surprisingly, though, Moskau found himself back in Indianapolis for the start of the 1978 season. He did not pitch well in spring training -- Cincinnati magazine said that his work in the spring was "a little to casual for Red brass, who, despite their affection and esteem for [Moskau], found him more expendable than pitchers Dale Murray or Manny Sarmiento." Moskau was back with the big club by early May, however, and put up similar numbers to his previous season.  The Reds did very well in his starts -- 18-7 overall -- despite Moskau's overall 6-4 mark.  Still, one red flag appeared in June -- he had to leave a start against the Pirates with a "stiff" shoulder.

His 1979 season looked very similar as well. By this point, he had established a baseline of being pretty close to an average pitcher -- slightly below average, actually, in terms of ERA+ (a normalized measure comparing him to the league and adjusting for his home ballpark). But, 1979 continued the shoulder problems that would end Moskau's career by the end of the 1983 season.  Moskau was about to be sent down to Indianapolis in early August, but a medical exam revealed that he was suffering from "some inflammation in the rotator cuff" of his pitching shoulder.

The next season, however, Moskau spent the entire year in the major leagues. He tallied his career high in innings with 152-2/3, wins with 9, and strikeouts with 94. Still, troubled loomed. In a game on August 28, the game story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette started with the following opening two paragraphs:

With the first slider he loosed, Paul Moskau received a message of distress from his tender right shoulder. "Knock it off," the message read, "or I quit."

A prudent man, Moskau heeded the warning. "I think," he told his catcher, John Bench, in the Cincinnati Reds' dugout following the first inning of last night's game, "we had better stick pretty much with the fastball and the curve."

The story went on to note that Moskau had received a cortisone injection in his pitching shoulder the previous week and, further, that Bench then knew that the injection had not relieved Moskau of his pain. 

Well, no kidding. It should come as no surprise that, in October of 1980, Moskau went to visit Dr. Frank Jobe in Los Angeles. He had a portion of his right collarbone removed in the surgery. While the initial thought was that Moskau would be ready for spring training, "ready for spring training" really meant that he would be throwing on the side for much of the spring and that he did not make his debut in the spring until midway through March.

Due to the shoulder issues, Moskau started only one game in 1981. He did not pitch particularly well or, for him, particularly poorly either. He finished with a 4.94 ERA, but his FIP was 4.19 -- which was almost the same FIP as in 1979.  He just could not control his walks in 1981.  

The shoulder problems, though, led the Reds to decide to move on with rebuilding their team in 1982 without Moskau. In early February of 1982, the Reds traded Moskau to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for a player to be named later which turned out to be utility infielder Wayne Krenchicki.  

This trade did not go well for Moskau. By the end of spring training, he was on waivers. Luckily for him, he always seemed to pitch well against the Pittsburgh Pirates, so the Pirates claimed him. He pitched okay in Pittsburgh, but his shoulder issues flared up again. On June 27, the Pirates placed Moskau on the 21-day disabled list with shoulder tendinitis. He gave the team permission to send him to Triple-A to rehab the shoulder, but he only made it back to the major leagues with Pittsburgh for one game in late September. After the season ended, he was released.

The Chicago Cubs decided to take a flyer on Moskau to see if he could help them for the 1983 season. He made the team and made 8 starts for the Cubs. He gave up runs in every start, and after his appearance on May 31 against the Astros -- a 3-1/3 inning, 8-hit, 5-earned-run appearance -- the Cubs sent Moskau down in a transaction that only made it to the agate print. 

Then, after 11 terrible appearances in Triple-A at Iowa, the Cubs cut the cord on Moskau on August 8, 1983, giving him his unconditional release.

Mustache Check: This card is a whisker-free zone. Kids, say no to 'stache.

Nanu Nanu
Despite the fact that Moskau made 13 appearances in 1982 with Pittsburgh and 8 more with the Cubs in 1983, this 1982 Topps card is the last Topps card on which Moskau appears. He didn't even make it into the Traded set later in the year.

Louisiana Cooking
I will count this because it is cooking. Moskau's Facebook page lists him as working for his old pal Mike LaCoss at "ibaseballchannel.com". On YouTube, there are a number of videos posted under the iBaseballChannel name, many of which look like they could be very interesting.  One of these videos is Paul Moskau making his Holiday Peanut Brittle.

Family Ties
I THINK that Moskau's son Ryan Paul Moskau played at the University of Arizona and, then, in the Dodgers system in the late 1990s. I think this because I think this photo is Paul during Ryan's wedding in Atlanta in 2002.  And, I think Ryan is or was a police officer in the Atlanta area. But, I could be wrong.

Freeze-Frame
Yes, another category. I think that it was this Paul Moskau who appeared on one episode of the Michael Landon made-for-those-over-the-age-of-75 series "Highway to Heaven." The episode was called "Popcorn, Peanuts and CrackerJacks" and Moskau was credited as Game Announcer.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
Moskau never pitched in the American League in a game that meant anything. In fact, I doubt he ever faced Milwaukee unless the Brewers played against Arizona State in a spring training exhibition. I have no recollection of Moskau except for his name and the fact that I keep wanting to call him "Paul Moskau on the Hudson."

After Moskau quit as a player, he spent time as an assistant baseball coach in Tucson for Sabino High School.  He also spent the years between 1985 and 1988 as the general manager for the Tucson Toros. Otherwise, relying on his spartan LinkedIn biography, Moskau spent 18 years as a school administrator.

Moskau's LinkedIn page also refers to him being the current President of A&P Sports Marketing and Development. If I had to guess, I would guess that A&P refers to "Anna & Paul" Moskau (since that photo from the wedding 12 years ago shows him with a woman I would guess is his wife lighting a candle for use in the ceremony...I'm a sleuth like that).  

He does appear pretty active on Facebook, for what it is worth, and he recently befriended noted NFL Referee -- the one with the guns -- Ed Hochuli. His friend list includes a lot of former players -- everyone from Benny Ayala to Johnny Bench -- so feel free to run through his Facebook friends to see where some of those guys from 30 years ago are today.

Card #90: Nolan Ryan

Who Can It Be Now?
Lynn Nolan Ryan was born on January 31, 1947, in Refugio, Texas.  It's the same Nolan Ryan as the one who set a record for most no-hitters in a career, as celebrated on Card #5. As mentioned in the extensive SABR biography for him, Nolan grew up in Alvin, Texas, from the age of six weeks old because his father was transferred to the Hastings plant for Stanton Oil Company.  

From the time that Nolan was a sophomore in high school, he was his team's star pitcher. He had wildness issues -- the SABR biography mentions a game in which he hit the leadoff batter in the head (cracking the batting helmet) and the second batter in the arm (breaking the boy's arm) before the third batter had to be shamed into standing in the batter's box for three perfunctory swings and a strikeout. 

Despite the schoolboy stardom, however, Ryan was not drafted until the 12th round of the first-ever June Amateur Draft in 1965. The SABR biography appears to blame this drop on a bad outing that Ryan had in front of scouts from the Mets in May of 1965 -- an outing that took place "less than a day after Coach Watson had death-marched the Yellow Jacket team through endless wind sprints over a perceived lack of concentration in practice." Maybe so. Ryan had to choose, though, between the University of Texas and the New York Mets.  

He chose the Mets.  

Ryan signed immediately and headed to Marion in the Appalachian League. Baseball Reference does not have strikeout totals for Ryan that year; the Baseball Cube does.  In his 78 innings, Ryan racked up 56 walks (6.46 per 9 innings) and 115 Ks (13.27 per 9) while yielding 61 hits (7.04 per 9).  In other words, a fairly typical Nolan Ryan season in many respects.  

His 1966 season was his breakout year in the Mets system. His overall stats between Greenville in Single-A and Williamsport in Double-A was 17-4, 2.36 ERA, 202 innings, 118 hits allowed (5.3 per nine innings), 127 walks (6.25/9 IP), and 272 strikeouts (13.38/9 IP). The year earned him a late-season callup to the Mets in September, where the 19-year-old got knocked around some.  The first hitter he faced was Atlanta's Pat Jarvis, whom he promptly struck out.  He closed his first ever inning pitched by striking out future Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews looking., though he did give up a home run to Joe Torre in his next inning of work.

1967 was a lost year for Ryan due to arm trouble. A team doctor recommended surgery, but Ryan refused to go under the knife. He chose to rehabilitate his arm on his own, and he did so successfully. When he came to spring training in 1968, he was ready to go and ended up sticking with the big-league club out of spring training.  Quickly, baseball men around the league sang his praises -- with then St. Louis manager and later Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst calling Ryan, "the fastest I've ever seen. Period."  Ralph Kiner said, "I haven't seen anybody like him since Bob Feller." Catcher Jerry Grote claimed that Ryan "is faster than Koufax. He's got twice the speed of Juan Marichal."  I don't doubt he threw hard, but twice the speed of Marichal? That would have put him solidly in the 160 to 190 MPH range.

In any event, Ryan pitched a total of 5 seasons for the Mets, finishing with a losing record but earning his one and only World Series ring in 1969. Indeed,  But, by the end of the 1971 season, Ryan had suffered with a number of various ailments and interruptions in his Mets career. When he wasn't sidelined by repetitive blisters -- solved, apparently, by pickle brine bought at a Bronx delicatessen -- he would have to report for Army Reserve drills. Even the article from 1968 singing his praises noted that in the spring of 1968, Ryan had a tender biceps, an inflamed elbow, and blisters.

As a 1980 news article about Ryan quoted a New York Times article as stating, "He has been on the military list and the disabled list more often than he has been on the Mets rooming list."  As a result, the Mets gave up on the young fireballer and traded him with Frank Estrada, Don Rose, and Leroy Stanton to the California Angels on December 10, 1971, in exchange for Jim Fregosi.  The trade was new GM Harry Dalton's second major move of the off-season, and it turned out to be a winner for the Angels.  After all, Fregosi played 146 games in Flushing; Ryan threw four no-hitters in Anaheim.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Ryan was not as good in his years in New York as he would become later. After all, he was just about to turn 25 years old when the Mets traded him.  From 1972 through 1979, Ryan pitched with two good (1978 and 1979) and otherwise, with bad teams for Gene Autry. He still fought through some injuries, having bone chips removed from his elbow in the offseason before the 1976 season.

Ryan had some incredible statistical seasons with California -- 1974 in particular stands out. In that season, Ryan went 22-16 with a 2.89 ERA. He led the league in innings with 332-2/3, in walks issued with 202, in strikeouts with 367, in batters faced with 1392, in fewest hits per nine innings with 6.0, and in strikeouts per nine innings with 9.9.  In all, Ryan never had a season in California in which he walked fewer than 114 batters -- his lowest total was 114 in 1979. Despite incredibly low totals for hits allowed, he never had a WHIP (Walks plus hits divided by innings pitched) below 1.137 (his first year in California, 1972, when he allowed a miniscule 5.3 hits/9 IP).

During those years, however, Ryan was an All-Star on 5 occasions.  He did not pitch in the 1977 game, though, because he thought he should have been selected right off the bat.  Instead, he refused to play in the game only after he was selected as an injury replacement for teammate Frank Tanana -- a move which angered Billy Martin.  When Ryan was named to be the starter for the 1979 game against Steve Carlton, Ryan was quoted as saying that Martin had said that Ryan wouldn't have been on the team in 1978 even if Nolan were 40-0 -- so Bob Lemon being the Yankees manager helped Nolan become an all-star once again.

After the 1979 season -- a season which finished with Ryan having pitched one game in the ALCS -- Ryan became a free agent. Despite receiving significant interest from a number of teams, including the New York Yankees, the Texas Rangers, and the Milwaukee Brewers (!), he signed what was, at the time, the richest contract in American team sports with his hometown team, the Houston Astros, for a four-year, $4.5 million deal with a $1 million signing bonus and an additional $250,000 payment in 1984 with an option for 1984 at $1 million.  After the initial 5 years deal, Nolan inked for another four years with the Astros -- keeping him with the club through his age-41 season.

The signing was not universally loved.  In an article from the first ever issue of Inside Sports, now-ESPN loudmouth Tony Kornheiser wrote an article about Ryan and his big contract. A number of people were quoted being critical of Ryan.  Jim Palmer, for one:

Nolan's got so much more natural ability than the rest of us. He's like a child prodigy. You can't even comprehend what it's like to be that talented ... [but] he tries to intimidate people. I try to get them out. If you're going to lose, it's sure great to strike out 380 guys. I'm not saying he isn't a winner. Maybe his niche is 383 strikeouts. Mine is winning two-thirds of my games.

That's easy for Palmer and his incredible team defense to say.  Ryan even picked up on this in his response to that barb:

Don't tell me that Jim Palmer says he wouldn't throw a 3-2 curveball if he could throw 98; he wouldn't throw it down the middle if he could throw 98 -- and anyway, he couldn't know what it's like because he can't throw 98. He never stood on that mound with a bad team and no runs and knew if he threw one bad pitch he'd be beat. He was never in that position. Jim Palmer's always pitched for the best infield in baseball, and his team scored runs.

Ryan made another 2 all-star teams in Houston -- in 1981 and again in 1985.  He pitched for generally good teams in Houston, but he finished his 9 Astro seasons with a 106-94 record -- a .530 winning percentage.  In Houston, though, he was better able to harness his walks down to a far more manageable 3.9 BB/9 IP, which was 1.5 BB/9 lower than his totals in California.

If Ryan had quit after the 1988 season, he probably still would have made the Hall of Fame. By that time, he had racked up 4775 strikeouts and a 273-253 lifetime record. Instead, Ryan signed on with the Texas Rangers at the age of 42.  He made one final all-star team in 1989, and he picked up another 51 wins -- pushing his total to 324.  At the age of 42, he led the American League in strikeouts with 301 and in wild pitches with 19.  He gave up the fewest hits per nine innings in the American League in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and he led the American League in K/9 in each of those three seasons at the ages of 42, 43, and 44 respectively.  He did his pitching in 1990 while fighting a stress fracture in his lower back and a sore thumb injured by a car door being slammed on it.

He finally retired at the age of 46, after a 1993 season marred by ineffectiveness, wildness, and pain. He was then inducted into the Hall of Fame with Robin Yount and George Brett in 1999.

Mustache Check: Nope -- I've never seen a photo of Nolan with a mustache, and this one is no different.

Trivial Pursuit
Nolan Ryan's page at the Baseball Hall of Fame notes that Ryan is the only pitcher to have struck out the side on 9 pitches in both the American League and the National League.  

He did it in the National League, says the HOF, on April 19, 1968. Unfortunately, Baseball Reference does not have counts available for this game, so it could have been the first inning or the third inning in which Ryan performed the feat against the Dodgers.

His 9-pitch strikeout inning came in the American League on July 9, 1972, against the Boston Red Sox. Considering that Ryan pitched a one-hitter (1 walk, 16 strikeouts, game score of 100) against the Red Sox, that probably should not be a surprise.  Once again, without any information on the ball/strike count, it is impossible to know whether that 9-pitch inning came in the second or the third inning.

Incidentally, Ryan holds the record for most walks issued in a career, most strikeouts by a pitcher, and for the longest career in baseball, appearing in 27 seasons.

Louisiana Cookin'
A Texan like Ryan would bristle visibly at having his cooking abilities highlighted under a category named for another state.  But, when the recipe for Nolan Ryan's "Secret Barbecue Sauce" is published a newspaper article in 1983, is there any other place to put it?  The ingredients include onion, lemon, beer, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, and bottled pre-made barbecue sauce (which seems like cheating to me).

But that was 1983. Now, Nolan has his beef products available for purchase under the brand of Nolan Ryan's All Natural Beef. His website includes "Signature Recipes" which all call for beef, of course.  Four 20 oz. steaks can be yours for the low, low price of just $74.99 plus shipping.  Then, when you get those steaks, be sure to put some of his Signature Seasoning on it -- just $29.97 from Amazon!

The World According to Garp
Not only is Nolan selling food products, he's also writing cookbooks.  In May, Little Brown & Co. published The Nolan Ryan Beef & Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes from a Texas Kitchen. It has gotten good reviews on Amazon, though I'm not sure whether those recipes vary from his website's signature recipes.

Ryan has written at least 3 autobiographies. He combined with Harvey Frommer to write Throwing Heat: The Autobiography of Nolan Ryan in 1988. In 1992, he collaborated with Jerry Jenkins to write Miracle Man: Nolan Ryan: The Autobiography (a book title that looks like an SAT comparison question gone awry). Finally, in 1999 and to capitalize on his election to the Hall of Fame, Ryan worked with T.R. Sullivan and Mickey Herskowitz to write Nolan Ryan: The Road to Cooperstown.

He also lent his name and received authorship credit on a book written in 1991 by Jim Rosenthal and Ryan's then-pitching coach, Tom House, called Nolan Ryan's Pitcher's Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Power, Precision and Long-Term Performance.  

Ryan is credited with writing forewords for two books on top of all that -- Working at the Ballpark: The Fascinating Lives of Baseball People from Peanut Vendors and Broadcasters to Players and Managers and Once They Were Angels, a history of the Angels franchise.

Finally, in 1993, his name is on a book called Kings of the Hill: An Irreverent Look at the Men on the Mound.  I'm less sure on this book being his, since Amazon's summary of the book is, "An award-winning journalist probes the war of intimidation waged by American Express CEO James D. Robinson against banker Edmond Safra, as he used the resources of an entire corporation against one man. Reprint."  

Sounds pretty irreverent to me.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
There isn't much you can say about Nolan Ryan that hasn't been said before. Longevity, stubbornness, a mediocre win-loss record, control issues, a three-true-outcomes pitcher -- all of them are true.  

Now, some of the things written about him, though, may not be true.  I hate to give this guy any web traffic, but this blog post from TODAY sounds like the biggest bunch of spurious guilty-until-proven-innocent crap I've seen in a while.  Basically, it's an exercise in two plus two equals seven (five is too close to correct).

The summary is the first sentence of the article: "Nolan Ryan could have been using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PED), not just late in his career, but also in the 1970s."

Proof?

Tom House was Ryan's pitching coach in the early 1990s. House used steroids in the 1970s, as he admitted in 2005. House estimated that six or seven pitchers per team were at least experimenting with steroids or human growth hormones. Ryan pitched into his mid-40s. He threw fastballs by players years after other players his age had retired. Ryan's SABR biography does not mention the word steroid, nor does it "even . . . refute the idea that Ryan used PED."  Ryan was Jose Canseco's teammate in 1992 and 1993.

Summary: "How come no one challenges Nolan Ryan? He played long enough to have used steroids. His longevity is suspicious. . . . Ryan's final seasons leading the league in strike outs [sic] were at the ages of 40, 41, 42, 43. His previous age as league strike out [sic] leader was 32. Ryan went seven years without being strike out [sic] king until he recovered the touch at age 40. Ryan pitched a record seven no hitters at these ages: 26, 26, 27, 28, 34, 43, 44. This anecdotal evidence is completely ignored. Did Nolan Ryan use banned and/or illegal stuff to enhance his performance? I have no idea but I find it odd that the steroid zealots have such narrow vision."

My short response: Shouldn't you have more of an idea than "no idea" before you start throwing out your "anecdotal evidence" that has been "completely ignored"? I have no idea whether Ryan used steroids, HGH, Viagra, Valium, Penicillin, or injected himself with the blood of 15-year-old virgins, and neither does anyone else other than Nolan Ryan and perhaps his family and friends.  

The man was fanatical about working out, lifting weights, throwing all the time, and staying in good shape. Find someone who says, positively, that Ryan took steroids before you start throwing darts.  I mean, if Canseco knew Ryan took steroids, you know that Nolan's name would have been the first one on the cover of the book. It wasn't.

I've probably wasted too much energy and time thinking about that post, but the leaps of illogic are incredible.

On a brighter note, if you are interested in supporting Nolan Ryan's charity to assist the city of Alvin, Texas -- and the Nolan Ryan Exhibit Center at the Alvin Community College -- then check out the foundation here.  Part of the fundraising efforts consist of selling autographed balls and jerseys -- and the balls are only $80.  Considering the costs for autographs at the recent National Collectors Convention, that is a reasonable cost.  

Card #25: Jerry Remy

Who Can It Be Now?
Gerald Peter Remy was born in November of 1952 in Fall River, Massachusetts, and he grew up in the Boston area.  He attended Somerset High School in Somerset, Massachusetts, and he was drafted out of high school by the Washington Senators in the 1970 June draft.  He did not sign with the Senators and matriculated at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island.  Perhaps college life did not suit Remy, because he signed with the California Angels in 1971 after being drafted by them in the January 1971 Secondary draft in the 8th round.

Remy moved reasonably quickly through the Angels system, punctuated by splitting his age 21 season of 1974 between Double-A El Paso for 2/3 of the year and Triple-A Salt Lake City for the remaining third.  He hit the ball well -- though not with any home run power -- at every stop.  

His career minor league totals show a slap hitter with good bat skills and improving bat control -- a slash line of .307/.359/.409, 144 walks and 276 strikeouts (but with 100 of those coming in one year in the California League at age 19) in 1878 plate appearances.  Remy also showed decent speed but less-than-stellar base-running instincts: 95 Stolen Bases versus 43 times caught stealing.  

Unsurprisingly, this is exactly the player that Remy was when he reached the major leagues with the Angels in 1975.  He got on base at a decent clip, had a slugging percentage that hovered right around the same level as his OBP, and he got caught stealing more times than he should have for as often as he was running.  For example, in his rookie year of 1975, Remy hit .258, had an OBP and a SLG of .311 each, stole 34 bases, but got caught stealing a league leading 21 times.

Remy enjoyed the early success with the Angels, but the Angels needed pitching if they were to contend with the Royals in the late 1970s American League West.  For its part, the Red Sox were looking to improve at second base and upgrade from the 33-year-old Denny Doyle. So, after the 1977 season, the Red Sox sent promising 22-year-old pitcher Don Aase to the Angels for 24-year-old Remy. 

Moving back home to Boston, Remy responded immediately with his one and only All-Star season in 1978.  The future looked bright for both Remy and the Red Sox -- despite the Bucky Dent game.  

Everything changed for Remy on July 1, 1979.  The second-place Red Sox faced their bitter rival Yankees at Yankee Stadium.  Remy hit a triple to lead off the game, and he tried to score when Rick Burleson hit a pop-up down the right-field line that Yankee second baseman Willie Randolph tracked down.  According to one article, Remy had no chance to score on the play, but he tried anyway and, on the slide into home, Remy tore up his knee badly.

Jim Rice came onto the field and carried Remy off:

Remy hardly played in 1979 after the injury, and he appeared in only 63 games in 1980.  He played two full seasons after the injury -- 1982 and 1983 (though playing 88 games in the strike-shortened 1981 season has to be considered as a full season too).  He had had three knee operations by the time 1984 rolled around, and could only make it through one month of the 1984 season before shutting it down.  In spring training in 1985, Remy visited the Red Sox' team physician, Dr. Arthur Pappas, and after that appointment, made the decision to retire at the age of 32.

This Is Radio Clash
The Clash is one of my favorite bands -- one I've liked since 1982 and Combat Rock.  The song "This Is Radio Clash" was released in late 1981 and made its impact on the rock music charts in 1982.  I am going to use it to highlight those players who have gone on to careers in broadcasting.

To most people, Jerry Remy is more known now for being the television analyst on Red Sox games on NESN.  He has worked in broadcasting since 1988 as the color commentator for Red Sox games.

Louisiana Cookin'
Remy is an entrepreneur who has made a good living since his baseball career ended by leveraging his Bostonian background, playing days, and on-air commentating into a number of different ventures.  He's written a bunch of Red Sox-related books (see below), for example.  In addition, he is the "President of Red Sox Nation" which, apparently, was based on some kind of voting among Red Sox fans.  

But, relevant to our culinary category, Remy owns several eateries in the Boston area.  He has a hot dog stand on Yawkey Way called "RemDawgs," he operates "Jerry Remy's Sports Bar and Grill" at three locations, including at Fenway Park, in Fall River, and at Logan International Airport.  Perhaps oddly, there is a separate website for a fourth location at Boston Seaport.

The World According to Garp
Remy has authored a number of books related to baseball.  One series of books is for kids and follows the "journeys" of Red Sox mascot Wally the Green Monster.  Those titles are Wally the Green Monster and His Journey Through Red Sox Nation!, Hello Wally!, A Season with Wally the Green Monster, Coast to Coast with Wally the Green Monster, and Wally the Green Monster and His World Tour.  Ball Four it's not.

A second book, which Remy has updated four times as far as I can tell, was first published in 2004 and updated most recently in 2008.  It is titled Watching Baseball: Discovering the Game within the Game.

Remy's final book on Amazon is Red Sox Heroes: The RemDawg's All-Time Favorite Red Sox, Great Moments, and Top Teams.

I have not read these books, but feel free to chime in if you have.

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
In the early 1980s, I didn't really care about Remy that much. Now, I disliked Rick "The Rooster" Burleson and had fear about what would happen next when guys like Jim Rice and Dwight Evans stepped to the plate.  But Remy was sort of innocuous to me as a fan because he was not a guy who was going to hit the ball out of the park and beat you.  That said, he really enjoyed playing against Milwaukee over his career -- a .300 batting average, 15 stolen bases (though he was caught 10 times), and a .340 OBP.  

Yet, those numbers are skewed by how he absolutely destroyed Milwaukee in his home parks.  In Milwaukee County Stadium, Remy hit just .264 with a .301 OBP.  His career numbers -- including his good batting average -- were helped substantially by his performances in Boston.  Fenway in the early 1980s was a much better hitters' park than a lot of the stadiums around the league, and Remy took full advantage.

There is one item that lingers today when talking about Jerry Remy, and that is his son Jared Remy.  In recent months, Jerry's role as the Red Sox color commentator has been called into question by the fact that Jared is accused of killing the mother of one his children, Jennifer Martel. The Boston Globe recently printed a stunning story portraying Jared Remy as a steroid-addled, serial domestic abuser whose father's money was able to buy the best lawyers to get Jared out of trouble on multiple occasions -- nearly 20, in fact.  As one paragraph stated:

JARED REMY WAS THE KING of second chances.  A review of hundreds of pages of court files and police records revealed accounts that he terrorized five different girlfriends starting when he was 17, and that courts repeatedly let him off with little more than probation and his promise to stay out of trouble.  He rarely did.

A second quote puts some of the blame on Jerry Remy -- at least indirectly -- for this series of lenient decisions happening: 

"This is an old story for the American judicial system.  You get a high-priced attorney, you get better justice," said [Joshua E.] Friedman, the former Lowell prosecutor.  "If he had been Jared Smith from a well-off family, he may have gotten the same result."

But he was not Jared Smith.  He was the son of the man recognized as the president of Red Sox Nation, Jerry Remy -- the home-grown infielder-turned-broadcaster and air-guitar-playing commercial pitchman, best-selling author, and restaurant impresario revered as "The RemDawg."

I do not place blame on Jerry Remy's door for what his son did or even for how courts treated his son.  Yes, you get a better lawyer and you get a better result.  It works that way in many types of cases -- both civil and criminal.  Sure, Jerry Remy and his wife should have done a better job of raising their son so as to keep him off steroids.  

And, I totally agree that the Remy family should have taught their son that treating other people -- not just women, but everyone -- with respect is a requirement to being a human being.  Finally, the Remy family failed to teach their son that violence is not the proper way to solve one's problems.

All that said, if Jared Remy did stab and kill Jennifer Martel -- I have not followed the story, know nothing about it other than what I've read for this write-up, and have no opinion on his guilt and innocence -- the one responsible for that is Jared Remy and the one who will be punished for it is Jared Remy.
Yet, if Jerry is any kind of parent, he must feel anguish over this incident for the rest of his life.

Card #9: Ron Guidry

Who Can It Be Now?
Ronald Ames Guidry was born in 1950 in Lafayette, Louisiana.  The nickname I recall vividly for him was "Louisiana Lightnin'"; he also had the nickname of "Gator."  Without a doubt, Guidry was one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball in 1982.   By the time this card rolled off the printers, Guidry was already a two-time all-star and a Cy Yount Award winner for his incredible 1978 season: 25 wins against just 3 losses, a 1.74 ERA (and an ERA+ of 208, meaning he was twice as good as everyone else in the league at preventing runs), 248 strikeouts, and 8.2 K/9 innings.  

Louisiana Cookin'
As some of you may recall, it took a good while for people outside of urban areas to get cable TV.  In fact, where I grew up, we did not get cable TV at the house until some time in 1993 or 1994!  What that meant was we watched the over-the-air networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox (later) and any independent TV stations that were available.  

One of our favorite TV shows on a cold Saturday in Milwaukee was watching this Cajun crazy man named Justin Wilson on his show Louisiana Cookin' tell stories and maybe cook something too.  The show came on the air for the first time in 1982.  

Here's a sample of Wilson telling a joke about a prize bull:

In honor both of Justin Wilson and Ron Guidry, if there are any more stories about cooking or food, they will fall under the "Louisiana Cookin'" category.

At an appearance in 2010 in upstate New York near Albany, Guidry told a story about the Yankees playing an exhibition game against Grambling (and see this link for a great story showing that George Steinbrenner cared deeply about things other than firing Billy Martin and confirming that the exhibitions did take place) on campus at Grambling.  

Seeing as that was probably as close to Lafayette as Ron would get that year until after the season, Guidry's parents drove the three hours to Grambling, Louisiana.  Ron insisted that they bring along two frozen rabbits that he had shot and, since Guidry wasn't pitching that day, he and his parents tailgated together and cooked a rabbit stew.  That's when Steinbrenner caught wind of the stew and ambled over.  Here's where the blog from the Albany Times Union takes over:

Mr. Guidry, what are you cooking?” he asked the dad.

“I’m cooking Ronnie up a rabbit stew. Why don’t you sit down and try some?”

Guidry picks up the story …

“Well, every spring after that I had to cook (Steinbrenner) a rabbit stew and bring it to him in spring training. I cooked his rabbit stew for him this year. He had his rabbit stew and it was great that he had his last rabbit stew. … The family told me that the only time that he eats it is when when we cook it. So that was a compliment.”

A Few Minutes with Tony L.
With Card #10 being Guidry "In Action" (despite the fact that his base card looks pretty active to me already), I'm going to save a few thoughts for then.  

That said, one thing that puzzled me for a while after Guidry retired was why there hasn't been a hue and cry for Guidry to be considered more seriously for the Hall of Fame.  As I said above, in 1982, Guidry was certainly one of the top pitchers in the game.  He was in his prime -- aged 30 -- and on a good team in the major media market for the New York team at the time.

Despite all this, Guidry barely hung on at the bottom of the BBWAA ballots from 1994 through 2002 -- never getting more than 8.8% of the vote until he received 4.9% of the vote in 2002 and was dropped from the ballot.  

So what happened?  

There are a few things that happened here.  First, Guidry hit the disabled list several times during his career.  Certainly, with his slight build, that might have been inevitable, but it cost him in the counting statistics during the prime of his career.  

Next, reviewing his complete career stats, after 1982, Guidry enjoyed three more top-notch seasons, two mediocre seasons, and two seasons where it appeared that he was breaking down due to age and infirmities.  Starting at age 33, Guidry hit 200 innings only one time -- his excellent 1985, where he threw 259 innings and won 22 games.  Otherwise, he missed starts fairly regularly with elbow, rib, and shoulder issues.  

The basic problem for Guidry's Hall of Fame candidacy is that he does not have the career stats to make the case to get in, and the BBWAA (and the Veterans Committee) have more stringent standards on career stats these days than they did back in the days that they admitted Sandy Koufax, Dizzy Dean, and Rube Waddell into the Hall.  

Maybe some day it will happen, and if being the best pitcher in baseball for at least 5 seasons can be a qualifying factor, then Guidry should get in.