Toledo News-Bee, April 4, 1912:
Some athletes get up on the water wagon before they fall off, but Tubby Spencer slips back while scrambling up the sides. He was pinched and thrown into a Louisville booby hatch Wednesday for trying to dry up the distilleries.
Pittsburgh Press, April 4, 1912:
Tubby Spencer just doesn’t seem to get along. Louisville now declares that it is through with him.
Spencer, you may recall, was arrested in February 1912 for diving through a window into a restaurant because he was hungry (and presumably drunk).
Tubby apparently worked his way out of the Louisville doghouse, as he hit .194 in 31 games in 1912. Somehow he found himself in the PCL in 1913, where he hit .127. For reasons that are utterly beyond me, Spencer made it back to the big leagues in 1916 (after hitting .182 in 24 games in the Virginia League!) and was a semi-regular with the 1917-18 Detroit Tigers.
I’m not going to say Tubby’s millionaire father was paying teams to carry Spencer. I’ll just say the guy was an awful hitter, all kinds of trouble, and a drunk, and somehow he had a 20+ year career in the high minors/major leagues. I’m getting a mental image of a baseballing Gob Bluth.
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1. Neutral Milk Dotel (Dan Lee) Posted: April 04, 2012 at 05:38 AM (#4096262)C/Manager: Gil Hodges
1B: Mike Epstein
2B: Tommy Herr
3B: Scott Rolen
SS: Jim Fregosi
LF: Joe Vosmik
CF: Tris Speaker
RF: John Hummel
SP: Eddie Watt
SP: Willie Ramsdell
SP: Carlos Reyes
SP: Bill Upham
SP: Matt Wagner
RP: 1950s Frank Smith
Failed prospects: Brad Komminsk, Casey Daigle
Commissioner: Bart Giamatti
Feel free to let Jim Fregosi manage the team instead of Hodges. Wondering aloud: Is there any other day on which two different World Series-winning managers were born?
God, I love the 1912 writing style.
A's trade OF Cedric Hunter to the Cards for a PTBNL
Brewers claim P Josh Stinson from the Mets
Indians release OF Felix Pie, DFA OF Thomas Neal
Cubs claim IF Luis Valbuena from the Jays
EDIT: Also, people were thinner back then. These days, someone who is 5'10", 215 (BMI: 30.8) is practicaly malnourished as Americans go.
Thomas Neal: another example of what happens when you rely on Cal League stats too heavily in evaluating a player (see: Brandon Wood). There's potentially a cautionary tale here for the Brandon Belt fan club.
-- MWE
We also tied an onion to our belt, which was the style at the time.
What do you have against Mexico?
I don't remember Neal ever being that loved, am I wrong?
I presume the Pie release was at his request - iirc, he had an opt-out.
HOU: Rhiner Cruz - made the team
MIN: Terry Doyle - returned
SEA: Lucas Luetge - made the team
BAL: Ryan Flaherty - made the team
NYY: Cesar Cabral - will be DL'd
CHC: Lendy Castillo - made the team
PIT: Gustavo Nunez - 60-day DL
ATL: Robert Fish - 15-day DL
STL: Erik Komatsu - made the team
HOU: Marwin Gonzalez - made the team
ARI: Brett Lorin - traded for and outrighted by AZ
NYY: Brad Meyers - will be DL'd
BA put him into their top 100 before 2010, and #4 overall for SF behind Posey, Bumgarner, and Wheeler, based almost entirely on his 1.010 OPS at San Jose in 2009. He wasn't even in the top 10 a year earlier, and most of the guys he passed were in the organization in both years.
-- MWE
interestingly, so did domestic Indian cricket
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