I have a mental block which prevents me from knowing the difference between Hank Bauer and Hank Sauer. The difference today is that Hank Bauer is the manager of the Birthday Team.

C: Joe Sugden
1B: Leon Durham
2B: Larry Doyle
3B: Bob Unglaub
SS: Billy Hitchcock
LF: Gabe Kapler
CF: Vic Davalillo
RF/Manager: Hank Bauer

SP: Art Nehf
SP: Elmer Riddle
SP: Allen Russell
SP: Mike Bielecki
SP: Scott Bankhead
RP: Terry Fox

Umpire: Ted Barrett
Minor League 4C guy, helluva college football player: Chris Weinke
Not a Dickens character: Pembroke Finlayson
Mindblowingly terrible hitter: John Vukovich

Ron Schuler wrote an excellent biography of Pembroke Finlayson several years ago. Well worth a read.

Pretty good team today. Not a clue about those first 3 starters but if Bielecki and Bankhead are the 4/5 starters that's a very deep rotation. And indeed it is with 446 career wins. And maybe this isn't as rare as I think it is but there are 15 guys with 100+ career IP born on July 31. OK, probably not so rare, my birthday has 13.

2B: Larry Doyle

It's great to be 126 years old and a Giant.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Dick Allen hitting two inside the park homers in one game.

It's only happened once since then, in 1986. Incredibly, the pitcher who allowed both of Dick Allen's insiders in 1972 was also pitching in the other game where it happened (though he didn't allow them in the more recent game - it was his teammate that did it). Anyone care to take a guess as to who it would be? You can click on the link above to see the answer. If you want a hint, it's a pitcher everyone here has heard of many times.

I guess I had heard of Larry Doyle, but I never realized how good he was. Offensively, he was Chase Utley plus an early start to his career. He had half again as many PAs as St. Utley.

If you want a hint, it's a pitcher everyone here has heard of many times.

Jack Morris? :) (I know that the time is wrong but couldn't resist)
The other meme name would have been Frank Tanana, but alas, he didn't make the majors until 1973.

Just a heads up for tomorrow's birthday team: August 1 is the birthday of the only 400 game winner in Japanese baseball.

Blyleven is the only guy I can think of who fits all the criteria.

Blyleven was my first guess. My second is Nolan Ryan.

Larry Doyle was an answer to last weeks secondbaseman trivia question.

Blyleven was my first guess. My second is Nolan Ryan.

Ok, since I take it my first is wrong, I'll choose Vida Blue as my second.

I got to see Dick Allen's next homer in the first ballgame I ever attended. Sox 5, Royals 0.

I have dim memories of the replays of Allen's two ITPHRs, which I saw while getting ready for school the next morning. On both, center fielder Bobby Darwin tried to move laterally to catch a line drive only to have it sail over his head and bounce to the distant CF wall in Metropolitan Stadium. It would be easy to blame the homers on Darwin, but Allen hit savage line drives. Gary Sheffield was a close comp to Allen in many ways, both right-handed hitters who would uncoil in the box and attack the pitch. When they hit it square, you had to feel sorry for the fielders.

Ok, since I take it my first is wrong, I'll choose Vida Blue as my second.

I don't know Blyleven is wrong. As a matter of fact, I just checked and he is correct.

Kirby, I saw Allen in Philly when he came. He seemingly had no problem clearing the 447' CF wall, at least in my fading memory. When he got one on the barrel, he hit rockets as hard as anyone I've seen. Sheff is a good comp that way.

I have a mental block which prevents me from knowing the difference between Hank Bauer and Hank Sauer. The difference today is that Hank Bauer is the manager of the Birthday Team.

Sauer was pretty much a one-dimensional slugger who didn't play regularly in MLB until he was 31 and still ended up hitting almost 300 homers. He lost some of his career to WWII but also spent several years tearing up AAA pitching because the Cincinnati manager (Bill McKechnie?) was a defense first type of guy and didn't want Sauer on his team. Bauer also was in the military during WWII but may or may not have lost any MLB time as he played in minors in 1946-47 and most of 1948. Bauer was a much more rounded player than Sauer, although with less raw power, and was a key component of the Yankee teams of the 1950's. He was a good corner outfielder who could handle CF if necessary.

Game of the day (yesterday): A's 4, Rays 3 (15). The pitching matchup is David Price and AJ Griffin. Given how the A's have played lately, of course they won.

Oakland started the scoring against Price in the bottom of the second. Yoenis Cespedes led off with a single, and Chris Carter and Kurt Suzuki followed with non-consecutive doubles, each of which drove in a run. Tampa tied it up in the fourth; Ben Zobrist led off with a hit and was forced at second on Jeff Keppinger's grounder. Matt Joyce walked, and after the second out, Carlos Pena doubled to bring both runners home.

The score remained tied at 2 until the sixth, when Joyce hammered a 2-out solo homer. Oakland put two in in the bottom of the inning on a Cespedes single and a Carter walk, but Price worked out of the jam. In the seventh, however, Brandon Hicks took Price deep to tie the game once more.

The Rays threatened mildly in the ninth when Ryan Roberts walked and stole second with two outs; the A's threatened more emphatically, with Kurt Suzuki singling and taking second on an error, then two walks (one intentional, one not) loading the bases with two out before Wade Davis sent the game to extras by striking out Jemile Weeks looking.

After Ryan Cook's second scoreless inning of the day, Jake McGee replaced Davis, and the bottom of the tenth went very similarly to the same half of the ninth. Jonny Gomes singled to lead off, and moved to second on a grounder that made the second out. Carter drew an intentional walk, and the last pitch of it was wild, sending Gomes to third; Carter moved up on defensive indifference, Brandon Inge drew a walk, and Suzuki struck out to leave the bases loaded for the second straight inning.

Grant Balfour kept up Cook's work, allowing only a walk in the eleventh. JP Howell also continued the trend of the Rays' pen. He walked Seth Smith to lead off; Eric Sogard bunted into a force at second, but then stole second to make up for it. Weeks grounded out, Gomes walked, and Reddick whiffed to leave the winning run in scoring position for the third straight inning. Balfour and Jerry Blevins combined on a perfect twelfth; Burke Badenhop allowed only a single single in the bottom of the inning, breaking the winning-RISP streak. Blevins and Badenhop were both spotless in the thirteenth.

With Blevins still on the hill, the Rays finally threatened again in the fourtheenth. Zobrist and Keppinger started the inning with singles. Brooks Conrad struck out, Roberts flied to right to move Zobrist to third, and Pena also flied out to strand them on the corners. Fernando Rodney worked around a two-out Cespedes hit to keep the game going. Jordan Norberto replaced Blevins in the fifteenth; he gave up a one-out hit to Jose Lobaton and a walk to Elliot Johnson, but retired BJ Upton and Zobrist to leave them on base.

In the bottom of the fifteenth, Kyle Farnsworth gave up a leadoff hit to Inge. Suzuki bunted him to second, Smith was intentionally walked, and Sogard was unintentionally walked to load the bases. Weeks then hit the first pitch sufficiently deep into center to bring Inge home with the winning run.

Honorable mention to Mets 8, Giants 7 (10), which was the third-best 10-inning game of the year (A's-Rays was the #3 15-inning game of the year, which is mildly more impressive). Had the Giants successfully brought the tying run home from third with 2 outs in the bottom of the tenth, this one would almost certainly have won the day.

Game of the day (last year): Indians 5, Royals 2. Cleveland's Justin Masterson allowed a run in the first, and was lucky it was only one: Alex Gordon led off with a walk, and Melky Cabrera followed with a double to put two in scoring position with nobody out. Billy Butler struck out, Eric Hosmer grounded out to bring Gordon home, and Jeff Francoeur flied out to leave Cabrera at third.

Given a lead, Royal starter Felipe Paulino pitched quite well. He was perfect through two innings, then issued a leadoff walk to Lonnie Chisenhall in the third but erased it with a double play. A second leadoff walk in the fourth was removed when Michael Brantley was caught stealing. The no-hitter and minimum batters faced start both ended in the fifth when Carlos Santana doubled and was stranded. Meanwhile, the Kansas City offense was putting runners on, but not bringing them home. Chris Getz doubled in the second, Cabrera and Butler both singled in the third, Gordon singled in the fifth, and Hosmer in the sixth, but none of them scored.

The Indians put together their first serious threat in the sixth when Matt LaPorta doubled and Ezequiel Carrera singled with nobody out. Brantley flied to left, and LaPorta tagged up and was thrown out at home (with the play at the plate apparently injuring Matt Treanor, who was replaced by Brayan Pena at this point). Carrera took second on the play, but was left there when Jason Kipnis struck out.

Pena led off the seventh with a hit, but a pair of forceouts and a flyout kept the inning from progressing further. Asdrubal Cabrera led off the bottom of the inning with a single, chasing Paulino from the game in favor of Tim Collins. Collins recorded a pair of flyouts, then allowed Cabrera to steal second before inducing an inning-ending groundout from Kosuke Fukudome. Melky Cabrera made it three leadoff singles in a row in the top of the eighth, but was caught stealing after two strikeouts.

In the bottom of the eighth, Collins walked Chisenhall and was pulled for Aaron Crow. Crow's first pitch became a passed ball that moved the runner to second; he then recorded two outs before Brantley grounded a single through the right side to bring Chisenhall home with the tying run.

Masterson was left in to start the ninth. He gave up a leadoff hit to Francoeur, and was then pulled; with Tony Sipp now on the mound, Francoeur stole second and was moved to third on a bunt by Mike Moustakas. Pena flied to left, with Francoeur staying at third; Getz then dropped a single into right to bring in the go-ahead run.

Closer Joakim Soria entered to preserve the lead for the Royals. His fifth pitch hit Asdrubal Cabrera. Travis Hafner hit into a force, and was removed for pinch runner Orlando Cabrera, making a total of three Cabreras and one Carrera in the game. Santana doubled the runner to third, and Fukudome brought him in with a game-tying sac fly. After Chisenhall worked his third walk of the game, LaPorta lauched a game-ending homer over the left field wall.

Thank goodness for this game, because outside of it, 7/30/11 was a really boring day in baseball. Despite an extra game (the Yankees and Orioles played a doubleheader), only 4 of the 16 games played were above the median, and 10 of them were below 30th percentile.