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April 23, 2012

Ivan Rodriguez career highlights

It was recently announced that veteran catcher and current unsigned free agent Ivan Rodriguez intends to officially retire in Texas on Monday.

When a great player like Rodriguez retires, it’s nice to look back over his career, what his highs and lows were, his career milestones, and the best (and oddest) games he ever participated in where. That’s what’s listed below, the career highlights of Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez.

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Posted by: Chris Jaffe

March 06, 2012

Don Mincher career highlights

The other day, the baseball world lost another one of its veterans, as Don Mincher passed away at age 73. The first baseman enjoyed a 13-year career mainly with the Twins, but he also played with the Angels, Pilots, Rangers and A’s, and he played with both Senators squads—he was on the clubs that moved out of Washington to both Minnesota and Texas.

After his playing days, he became general manager of the Huntsville (Ala.) Stars, the Double-A affiliate of first the A's, then (and now) the Milwaukee Brewers. And he served as president of the Southern League from 2000 to last October..

When a player dies, it’s time to look back on his life and career. Others can do a better job looking at the man himself. Below are his career highlights. These include his personal highest and lowest moments, the greatest and most important games he participated in, and some of the oddities he was personally on hand for. Also, because he was a Pilot, we’ll also include one or two of the better Mincher-related anecdotes from Jim Bouton’s book, Ball Four.

Here they are, in order and divided by team he played for:

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Posted by: Chris Jaffe

October 31, 2011

Postseason predictions wrap-up

Twenty Hardball Times staffers made their predictions of how the 2011 postseason would play itself out. Some proved prescient, a few less so. Let's take a look at the rankings to see whose guesses came closest to, and shortest of, perfection.

Scoring was based on a 5-3-1 system similar to regular-season awards: If someone picked a Division Series correctly, that person received one point, choosing an LCS winner garnered three points, while being a fortune teller and predicting the World Series winner earned five points. (Nobody got those five points.)

Here are everyone's picks and the results, ranked by total points.
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Posted by: Greg Simons

October 29, 2011

World Series live blog: Game Seven

Hardball Times copy editor Greg Simons is not one of those people the TV moguls feared would be put off by a Middle America World Series. He's a lifelong Cardinals fan. As with Games One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six, we asked him to put on his red cap and share his observations as he watches.

Pregame
Writing this about an hour before game time, I'm reminded that within a few hours, regardless of which team you root for—St. Louis, Texas or another franchise—the baseball season will be over shortly.

After six wonderful months, with the last several weeks giving us some of the most memorable games of my lifetime, the fields will go silent as winter looms. There will be other diversions, in sports and otherwise, but for those of us who give our loyalty first and foremost to baseball, tonight is our last chance to witness the best of the best playing the greatest game ever created.

Will we see all the best players on the field tonight? Well, we know we won't see the Cardinals' Matt Holliday. His injured finger had led to him being deactivated Friday morning. Allen Craig will take his spot in left field, while Adron Chambers now occupies his spot on the active roster and serves as a potential pinch runner and defensive replacement.

For the Rangers, somehow Mike Napoli didn't destroy his ankle at second base Thursday night and looks to start with little or no ill effect. Nelson Cruz has a tweaked hammy, but he's also in the starting lineup. Derek Holland pitched last night, so he may not be available for Game Seven, but this is a kitchen sink game, so you never know.

Now let's get to the action.
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Posted by: Greg Simons

October 28, 2011

World Series live blog: Game Six

Hardball Times copy editor Greg Simons is not one of those people the TV moguls feared would will be put off by a Middle America World Series. He's a lifelong Cardinals fan. As with all the previous World Series games, we asked him to put on his red cap and share his observations as he watches.

Pregame
Who has the most pressure tonight? Is it the Rangers, who hope to avoid a Game Seven on the road? Is it the Cardinals, with their backs against the wall and their hometown fans aching for victory? Is it Tony La Russa, who utterly collapsed mentally in Game Five? Maybe it's Albert Pujols, who has had one stellar game and no other hits, and who has free agency looming.

Truthfully, there's plenty of pressure on everyone, and plenty of fun ahead for all of us.

Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and (my all-time favorite) Ozzie Smith—that's some nice inspiration for the team and the fans. What a collection of talent.

Mike Napoli certainly deserves that feature, because he's been awesome.

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Posted by: Greg Simons


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