3sept Happy birthday to Eddie Stanky, who managed the Rangers for 1 game in 1977 and kicked off one of the wackiest chapters in team history which saw them run through 4 managers in 8 days…he had an 11-year career as a player, from 1943-1953, mostly with Brkln…he walked a lot; he had 996 career walks compared to only 374 strikeouts and was a 3-tine All-Star…he was a pesky player at a time when that was valued a bit more than now, and he managed for 7 years, 4 with StL in the ‘1950’s and 3 with CWS in the ‘60’s…he was coaching baseball and the University of South Alabama when the Rangers made him an out-of-the-blue choice to replace the fired Frank Lucchesi…he showed up in Minn, managed the game, which the Rangers won, and left in the middle of the night without telling anybody he was going to do so…later he said he’d had a change of heart; something about him saying he was homesick was also floating around at the time…we would later find out that even during the interview process, it was apparent to some that he was not all in on this thing, and there was a lot of ‘do we really want to do this’ conversation going around on the inside…needless to say, that was his last act in the major leagues…he would’ve been 99 today had he not passed on to the next plane in 1999 at the age of 83…Alan Bannister was the first pick of Phila in the January 1973 draft, and the first pick overall, out of Arizona State…he was in the big leagues for 12 years, 1974-1985, with 5 teams; the Rangers were his last…CWS got the best from him; he was there for the South Side Hit Men years, from 1976 through part of 1980…he was an everyday player for a couple of years with them and their everyday SS in 1977, when he led all American League SS in errors with 40…but mostly throughout his career he was a versatile, speedy backup; he played anywhere in the OF and SS and 2B on the infield…he didn’t hit much; he had only 19 career HR and his career high for RBI was 57…however, in 1980 with Cle he got 297 PA and hit .328…he never approached that again, but in his first year with the Rangers and the next to last of his career, 1984, he hit .295 with an astounding OBP of .407 and a .384 slug for an OPS of .791…that was over only 135 PA, though…the Rangers picked him up in a May 1984 trade with Hou for Mike Richardt and after the 1985 season he was done at 33…he once accidentally killed another player in a game as an amateur in 1972…he was on a Baseball Federation tour of Japan and while attempting to complete a double play against a Japanese team, his throw hit the runner in the head…the runner was knocked out and later died of cerebral contusion at the hospital…he’s 63 today…Rene Gonzales had 13 years in the major leagues, 1984-1997, with 7 teams, including a second hitch with one of them; the Rangers were his 6th…the Austin native was a utility guy who played all over the infield and some in the outfield…the most he ever played was 118 games and 389 PA with Cal in 1993; his longed stint with a team was 4 years with Balt…he didn’t hit much; he had 19 career HR…he was here in 1996, his next-to-last year in the majors, a free agent signee and he hit free agency again after the year…he got into 51 games, 104 PA and hit .217 with 2 HR and 5 RBI…for most of his career, including here, he wore #88, one of if not the first Ranger to wear a high number during the season… as one who doesn’t think any number higher than 59 should be a baseball number, this bothered me a good bit…he’s 54…Don Kainer was a lefthander from UT who had 4 games and 3 starts in 1980…he had no record and a 1.83 ERA but walked 9 and struck out 10 in 19 2/3 innings…why no more?...injury?...he’s 59
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 04:26:22 +0000
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