Cleaning out the inbox-Baseball

Cleaning out the inbox brings an all baseball version as I attempt to catch up here at the home office from various time spent doing several things, few of those that I wanted to spend my time doing.

One baseball goodbye of note that I didn't want to wait for a passings post as Bill Buckner passed at 69 from complications from Dementia.

Remembered by most for his error in game six of the 1986 World Series with the Red Sox that really shouldn't have happened (I still wonder why Red Sox Manager John McNamara with a two-run lead moving into the bottom of the tenth, didn't replace Buckner with the defensively superior Dave Stapleton), I'll remember Buckner for reasons other than the error.
Buckner started with the Dodgers and hit over .300 three times for Los Angeles including a .314 mark for the 1974 National League champions, but really flourished after being traded to the Cubs as the main part of a package that sent Rick Monday to the Dodgers.
Buckner won the 1980 batting title, hit over .300 four times with the Cubbies and it was his lefthanded contact first swing that I envied as I couldn't emulate that swing because I was a right-handed swinger.
Never a power hitting first baseman (Buckner's career high was 18 with those 1986 Red Sox), Buckner was similar to Wade Boggs before Wade Boggs as he consistently made contact, put the ball into play and see what happened.
Buckner's ability to make contact shows with his strikeout numbers as he never struck more than 39 times in a season and only 18 times in over 600 at-bats in his battling title-winning season.
I'll remember the error of course, but there were far more good things to recall about the career of Bill Buckner than just one miscue.

Photo Credit: Josh Bean AL.com

Alabama.com discusses the past and the possible future with plenty of cool pictures of the slowly crumbling Joe Davis Stadium in Huntsville Alabama, the former home of the AA Southern League's Huntsville Stars.
The Stars moved to Biloxi, Mississippi after the 2014 season and Joe Davis Stadium has sat idle ever since.
Joe Davis was built for the Stars franchise in 1985 and will likely be demolished rather than renovated
Minor league baseball will return to the Huntsville area next season in the Huntsville suburb of Madison as the (sigh) Rocket City Trash Pandas as Madison built a new stadium to entice the move of the current Mobile Bay Bears to the Huntsville area.

The Athletic and baseball writer Ken Rosenthal looks at the man that seems to be possibly behind the turmoil of the Miami Marlins front office as Gary Denbo isn't looking to make friends and that's good for him as he doesn't seem to be making any.
Derek Jeter's right-hand man, as the article referred to Denbo certainly has his own ideas and apparently has more than a few problems in dealing with employees.
One very interesting area was where it was an incident with Denbo that caused the Greensboro Grasshoppers to change affiliates leaving the Marlins after 16 seasons and joining the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I was surprised to hear the news of Greensboro's decision last year and the story behind it was one that I did not know about.

The Athletic is back again with an article on the Giants 2014 trade for Casey McGhee that resulted in two minor league pitchers joining the Reds organization.
Five years later, one of those pitchers is Luis Castillo, who is 6-1 with an ERA under two and a half.
The article also mentions other bad trades that were made by the Giants of that era, which has set the stage for the current state of the parent club.

We wrap up with Dallas SportsDay and their behind the scenes article on Fox Sports Southwest field reporter Emily Jones McCoy and her relationship with some of the Texas Rangers.
I found it interesting because I've mentioned before remembering McCoy in her first days in television covering various Big 12 sports and football previews, but I've met many of the Rangers mentioned in the article and I found their thoughts on Jones intriguing as well.