Also in the news 100 years ago...

Jiggs Donahue, hero of the 1906 "Hitless Wonders" White Sox, has been admitted to the Ohio State Hospital. He's suffering from "nervous trouble" and "melancholia", and "has never been himself since his wife brought suit for divorce" the previous winter. Well, actually, he had contracted syphilis. That explains the mental health issues and the divorce. Jiggs never did recover; he was erroneously reported dead a number of times and eventually passed away less than a year later at age 34.

Elsewhere, boxer Abe Attell has fired his manager and says that when the two meet, he intends to punch his ex-manager in the face. Eight years from now, White Sox fans will know exactly what you mean, Abe.

And an utterly bizarre note in the Pittsburgh Press:

A number of big leaguers have indulged in a "999" haircut this season. The "999" makes the knob resemble an onion.

So, uh, something like this, I guess? Maybe?

Not a ton of quality on today's Birthday Team in terms of position players, but an excellent pitching staff.

Tener is a fascinating guy. In addition to being a cromulent pitcher for a couple years, he also umpired during his playing career, served in Congress, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania, and spent four years as National League president.

C: Biff Pocoroba
1B/Manager: Whitey Lockman
2B: Torey Lovullo
3B: Ed Sprague Jr.
SS: Mick Kelleher
LF: Alex Presley
CF: Buddy Bradford
RF: Marv Rackley

SP: Doug Drabek
SP: Javier Vazquez
SP: John Tener
SP: Doc Reisling
SP: The other Jose Bautista
RP: Billy Wagner
RP: Guillermo Mota
RP: Larry Sherry

Player to be named later: Santiago Casilla
Not that one: Matt Williams
Beneficiary of nepotism: Marc Sullivan

Man, I was so sure that Sprague was gonna be a star. No idea why anymore.

I have absolutely no recollection of Sprague being a catcher, but he caught 15 games for the '92 Blue Jays. Borders caught 137 (!) games, Myers 18, Sprague 15, and Randy Knorr 8.

hamels resigns with phils

6 years at 140 million

yowsa

Tener is a fascinating guy. In addition to being a cromulent pitcher for a couple years, he also umpired during his playing career, served in Congress, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania, and spent four years as National League president.


He also has a dorm named after him at Penn State!

I remember Sprague being a catcher in the Jays minor league system. Not sure why the switch was made, although the big club having the Borders/Myers combo may have had something to do with it. And heck, someone had to replace Gruber

Looks like Sprague was a third baseman in college. My guess, solely from looking at the stats, is that after Gruber's huge 1990 season (4th in the MVP voting!), they figured he'd have to find a new position if he was going to be a big leaguer. 1990 was the first time Sprague caught as a pro, so the timeline fits.

I'm not entirely sure why they decided to continue farting around with Candy Maldonado in LF and turn Sprague into a catcher instead of an outfielder - maybe they didn't think Sprague had the bat for LF. They'd have been right, I guess.

Grin...to read this thread, you wouldn't guess that 90% of the time Sprague spent in the field was at 3B.

Adam Dunn leads the majors in home runs, walks, and strikeouts. He's not tied with anyone for the leadership of any of these categories. He could go on the DL for a month and not have to worry much about his strikeout lead.

Prior to today's game, AAAA Catcher Eric Kratz had this cool slash line for the Phils: .273/.273/1.091.

He has wrecked the symmetry though, with a 1B, 2B, GIDP day so far today.

Sadly Kratz has now blown his chance at immortality, as the most home runs in a season by someone with no other hits is still 3. As we all know, this record is held by Jorge Sosa, Clem Labine, and household names Keith McDonald (career OPS+ 329) and Ed Sanicki (career OPS+ 229).

Kratz also scored the game-winning run Monday night, pinch-running for Ryan Howard.

Game of the day (yesterday): Reds 4, Astros 2. Houston's Lucas Harrell and Cincinnati's Mike Leake both worked into and out of moderate amounts of trouble for the first three innings - they combined to allow 5 hits, a walk, and two steals, but no runs. The Reds, in particular, left a runner on second in each of the first three innings. The Astros opened the scoring in the fourth. Marwin Gonzalez led off with a walk, and Chris Johnson singled with one out; Gonzalez tried for third on the play and was thrown out, but Johnson took second on the throw. Justin Maxwell followed that with a two-run homer.

Now given the first lead of the game, Harrell continued to pitch well. He walked Drew Stubbs with two out in the fifth, but stranded him. In the sixth, Brandon Phillips led off with a double, Jay Bruce walked, and Scott Rolen hit into a forceout, moving Phillips to third. Xavier Paul then beat out an infield single, bringing Phillips home with Cincinnati's first run of the game, but Harrell recovered to retire Todd Frazier and Devin Mesoraco, stranding the tying run at third (which Rolen had reached after tagging on Frazier's foulout).

The teams each managed a single single in their next sets of at bats. In the bottom of the seventh, Maxwell led off by reaching on an error and Ben Francisco followed with a single, but Leake rallied, striking out Jordan Schafer, getting Chris Snyder to hit into a force, and finished the inning when pinch hitter JD Martinez hit a grounder back to the mound.

With Harrell out of the game, the first two Reds to hit in the eighth reached base - Bruce on a walk, Rolen on a single. Paul bunted with the intent of moving the runners, but Bruce was thrown out at third (that seems to be a theme lately). Frazier then struck out, and Chris Heisey lined out to leave the tying run in scoring position.

Leake allowed a leadoff single to Jose Altuve, but Altuve was thrown out stealing second and the rest of the inning passed easily. In the ninth, facing Francisco Cordero, pinch hitter Ryan Ludwick flied out. Zack Cozart then singled, and Drew Stubbs followed that by taking a 2-0 pitch over the left field wall for a go-ahead 2-run homer. After Phillips grounded out, the Reds tacked on some extra lead padding when Bruce and Rolen walked and Paul grounded a single to right. Aroldis Chapman gave the home fans a brief moment of hope by allowing a leadoff hit to Johnson, then quickly struck out the side to end the game.

This one is the best of the day on the strength of the comeback in the ninth, obviously. But it also doesn't hurt that Harrell pitched roughly as well as you can possibly pitch without having a perfect inning - Cincinnati had at least one baserunner in every frame, and since they spent almost the entire time either tied or behind, that makes for pretty good dramatic baseball.

The A's apparently got bored with winning one-run games in the 9th inning, and have instead switched to playing completely out of their heads.

Game of the day (last year): Cubs 5, Astros 4 (10). Chicago's Matt Garza recorded the first out of the game on three pitches. The next at bat lasted three pitches as well, but this time the third one was hit over Wrigley's left field wall by Clint Barmes to give Houston an early lead. Jordan Lyles maintained that lead for an inning, despite giving up two singles; his efforts in the second were somewhat less successful. Marlon Byrd and Geovany Soto opened the inning with back-to-back doubles, tying the game. After Alfonso Soriano (who is available) struck out, Darwin Barney doubled as well, putting the Cubs in the lead, and Garza singled Barney home to provide himself an extra run of padding.

It quickly looked as though he'd need it; the Astros opened the third with a walk (to Lyles) and a single by Michael Bourn, and went on to load the bases on a two-out walk by Carlos Lee before Chris Johnson struck out to leave all three runners on. The Cubs had a similar opportunity in the fourth, getting singles by Soto and Barney to put two on with one out. Garza bunted into a force at third, but Kosuke Fukudome walked to load the bases before Starlin Castro hit into a force to leave them that way.

The Astros drew closer in the fifth. Lyles and Bourn started the inning with back-to-back singles, and Barmes advanced them with an actual successful sac bunt. Pence grounded to short, allowing Lyles to come home safely; Lee then flied out to leave the tying run on.

Lyles and Garza then traded zeroes until the Houston hurler was lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh; Enerio del Rosario and Sergio Escalona combined to pick up where Lyles left off, keeping the Cubs off the scoreboard in that inning as well. Jeff Samardzija replaced Garza to start the eighth, and quickly walked Pence. Up next was Lee, and Samardzija's first pitch to him was hammered over the left field fence to give Houston the lead. Samardzija struck out Johnson, but walked Brett Wallace, prompting the Cubs to replace him with Rodrigo Lopez. Pinch runner Jason Bourgeois was caught stealing on Lopez's fourth pitch, and Matt Downs struck out on his fifth.

With their lead restored, the Astros made wholesale defensive changes in the bottom of the eighth, moving Lee from left to first and sliding Bourgeois into the outfield spot while also double switching Jose Altuve into the game at second and putting Wilton Lopez on the mound. Lopez quickly gave up three consecutive singles to Byrd, Soto, and Soriano to tie the game. Barney then bunted, and once again, the lead runner was cut down at third; Blake DeWitt flied out and Fukudome fanned to end the inning with the go-ahead run on second. But at least the score had been re-tied.

Carlos Marmol pitched the ninth for Chicago. Naturally, the Astros loaded the bases; the only question was how it would happen. In this case, Altuve reached on a one-out infield single, and Bourn dropped a single into left; the runners advanced to second and third when new left fielder Tony Campana made an error in fielding the ball. Marmol intentionaly walked Barmes for forcing purposes, then fanned Pence and retired Lee on a flyout to preserve the tie. Lopez's ninth was rather less exciting; Castro led off with a hit, but was removed on a one-out double play.

John Grabow entered for the tenth. Johnson led off the inning with a single, and took second on Bourgeois's bunt; Grabow then intentionally walked pinch hitter Jason Michaels, and coaxed Humberto Quintero into an inning-ending GDP. David Carpenter pitched the bottom of the inning for Houston, and Marlon Byrd tagged his fourth pitch for a leadoff triple.

The approach the Astros took from here bewilders me a bit. Carpenter struck out Soto for the first out of the inning... and then issued back-to-back IBBs (to Campana and Barney) to load the bases. The IBBs to load the bases make some sense; pitching to the first guy makes some sense. But I don't know why you pitch to the first guy, get him out, and then decide to set up the force everywhere.

Regardless, Jeff Baker worked a full count, then lined a game-winning single to left.

This is a good one. Both teams rallied in the eighth, and the Astros had very good opportunities in both the ninth and tenth. Also, the fact that both games today involved Houston gives me a chance to point out that it's much easier writing about the 2011 and 2012 Astros at the same time than it is most other teams, because they have barely any of the same players.