Cleaning out the inbox

We return to the inbox with plenty of news and some passings as well....

The post on the Hagerstown Suns pitchers was our 3000th post here!
It's hard to believe that I have done so many posts.
I am amazed that I actually stuck with this....


Starting with the passings as "Lefty" Koch sends word of the death of former pitcher Joaquin Andujar at the age of 62.
Andujar won 20 games in 1984 and 1985 with the St,Louis Cardinals,but was surprisingly out of the game by 1989,
The righthander blossomed after becoming a Redbird after a journeyman-like tenure with the Houston Astros that never saw him win more than 12 games in the rainbow uniforms in the Astrodome.
Andujar is also remembered for being ejected in the middle of the Cardinals game seven loss in the 1985 World Series in what would be his final game as a Cardinal,as he was traded to Oakland at the end of the season.
Andujar might be best remembered as he dubbed himself "one tough Dominican" and once said his favorite word in English was "Youneverknow"......

Another passing was that of former Iowa forward Roy Marble at the age of 48,
Marble,who is the father of the Orlando Magic's Devyn Marble,left Iowa in 1989 as the schools all time leading scorer and would spend two seasons with the Atlanta Hawks.
Marble could play small forward or shooting guard and I thought that he would have been a better pro than he turned out to be.
Marble passed away due to lung cancer..

I really enjoyed the SEC Network program on former N.C.State and LSU head coach Bo Rein.
A forgotten figure,Rein took the LSU job in 1980,but never coached a game after dying in a mysterious plane crash.
I think you'll be pleased with the half hour on the former Buckeye baseball and football star.
Eleven Warriors brought it to my attention and I enjoyed the program.

Hardball Times looks at the career of Bobby Murcer.
Hardball Times often looks at players on the 40 year anniversary of Topps baseball card sets and the Murcer card from that season was after the winter trade to the Giants (we wrote about it here) for Bobby Bonds.
The card features one of those awful Topps airbrushing jobs of the day with a not so swift Giants cap on Murcer.

Grantland discusses two southwestern programs with two different types of problems.
The first topic is about the problems that the SMU Mustangs have had since their death penalty in the late 1980's.
What I thought was most interesting was the comparison to fellow Dallas/Ft.Worth metroplex school TCU,which was of the same status as SMU for years before the investment into their program and resulting rise....

The other talks about the Arkansas State football program and the difficulty in keeping coaches as for the first time in years,ASU has been able to retain their coach (Blake Anderson) for a second year.
Arkansas State lost three coaches in a row to more successful programs after their first season in Jonesboro and this article talks about the issues in retaining coaches after success at lower levels...

Hagerstown is considered part of the Washington TV market,which moved up one spot in the Nielsen ratings.
Nielsen has been the name brand in TV ratings for decades and their research saw Washington nose out Boston for 7th place.
Baltimore is 26th overall and if Baltimore and Washington were to be considered one market,it would move up to 3rd behind just New York and Los Angeles overall.

Bobby Bonds for Bobby Murcer

Today I wanted to discuss the biggest one-for-one baseball trade of the '70s, although not the most influential to a kid from the '70s (who happens to write this blog), that is for another day.

In the winter of 1975, the New York Yankees swapped their most popular player Bobby Murcer to the San Francisco Giants for Bobby Bonds in a deal that involved two terrific outfielders who were disappointments to fans of the respective teams.
Murcer was heralded as the "next Mickey Mantle", while Bonds was regarded as the "next Willie Mays" and despite becoming terrific players, neither was able to live up to those high standards.
After all, those are two of the greatest players ever.

Murcer arrived in San Francisco at the age of 29 and had made the American League All-Stars for the previous four seasons.
Murcer's 1974 numbers were down from three terrific seasons previously but the numbers could have been affected by the Yanks' temporary move to Shea Stadium.
The lefty swing of Murcer produced many homers down the short right field line in the Bronx but was not enough to leave the park in the larger Shea.
Murcer's power numbers fell from 22 to 10 and his average tumbled 30 points as well.
Murcer had spent the season in right field after spending his career in center and the move likely did not help his adjustment to the larger confines of Shea Stadium defensively either.

Bonds appeared in Gotham at 29 as well and was a two-time National League All-Star member.
Please remember though the NL was the far superior circuit at the time and it was much harder to make an All-Star team in the National League than in the younger league.
Bonds numbers had slid a bit in 1974, but one could not expect less after just missing by one homer being the first man to ever hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in one season in baseball history in 1973.
Bonds's average spiraled downward 27 points, his power numbers moved from 39 to 21 and his RBI totals dropped from 96 to 71.

So looking at this deal beforehand, Bonds hit more homers and stole many more bases than Murcer, but Murcer generally hit for a higher average and struck out far less than Bonds.
Both are the same age and except for the one-year stint in right for Murcer were center fielders.

Do you make this trade?
Honestly, looking at things from the 1975 perspective, I would be more likely to pull the trigger if I was getting Bonds than I would if I was getting Murcer, but I can see getting the more reliable Murcer than the boom or bust of Bobby Bonds.

Ironically, neither player was playing in their new home by 1978.
Bonds spent one season in New York in which his numbers looked great, but was never truly accepted by the Big Apple faithful in adding another 30/30 season with 32 homers and 30 steals and making the AL All-Stars.
Bonds was shipped to the California Angels after the season for two players that would figure prominently in the Yankees pennant-winning teams of the late 70s Ed Figueroa and Mickey Rivers.
Bonds would travel from team to team for the next few years going from the Angels to the Chicago White Sox to Texas to Cleveland putting up his usual numbers at all stops before finishing his career as a backup for the Cardinals and Cubs.

Murcer would make the NL All-Stars in 1975 in a .298 and 91 RBI season but hit just 11 homers.
Murcer changed his swing in 1976 and increased his power numbers by hitting 23 homers but watched his average plummet almost 40 points in doing so.
Murcer was sent to the Cubs in 1977 as part of a multi-player trade where the main return for the Giants was Bill Madlock, where he hit 27 homers before eventually returning to finish his career as a Yankee as a backup outfielder and pinch hitter.

In the end, both of these players are excellent, top-of-the-line players, but if I had to choose between them-I give the edge to Bobby Bonds.

A one-for-one trade of superstars in their prime does not happen much anymore, but when they do they always are remembered fondly.

Bullpen Notes

I admit I was a Bonds fan more than a Murcer fan when I was a young baseball fan.
My fondest memory of Bonds was a pregame hand slap during my first visit to Cleveland Stadium in 1979 as Bonds was spending his only season with the Tribe in what proved to be his last good season.

Take a look at the airbrushed hats on the 1975 cards of Murcer and Bonds that are pictured.
The trade happened late in the Topps press run and they had to settle for that instead of cards that showed them with the new caps on.

An excellent blog by Joe Posnanski on the Bonds-Murcer trade can be found here.

Look for the next poll to be on the Bonds-Murcer trade.

Billy Packer is out at CBS and Clark Kellogg is in?
I know many hate Billy Packer, but I have always enjoyed the honesty and candor of his work.
Plus living in MD, ACC fans got Packer way before the national fans as part of his terrific team with the late Jim Thacker on the Pilot Life ACC network.
Maybe sometime during hoop season, I will reflect on Packer and Thacker.

On the other hand, Kellogg is the basketball model of Jim Palmer in sounding like he is almost asleep.
I don't hate Kellogg, but far from a fan either.

Photo Credits Topps