On Monday, Brooklyn Dodgers great Preacher Roe passed away. I am linking you through to the Bill Madden column about his passing because I think the comments that follow by readers of the paper are amazing.  Anyone who doesn’t think the Dodgers are still missed in Brooklyn, or doesn’t understand that needs to just skim through the responses.  In those days came lifetime loyalty.  It isn’t free agency that has changed that, its a shift in thinking of those that follow the game from fans to consumers, but more on that another day.  

Yesterday, the passing of Herb Score -one of the greatest names in baseball– was announced.  Score set the rookie record for strike-outs per innings pitched that stood for nearly 30 years until Dwight Gooden broke it in 1986.  Score’s career ended because of elbow soreness– one wonders if a pitching program might have helped. He was also involved in one of the scariest accidents on the mound when he took a line drive right of the bat of Gil McDougald in the eye socket. Score moved into the broadcast booth, and was the announcer for the Indians for 34 years.  Again, Madden writes the piece.  Personally, I had never heard of Gil McDougald, so I went to his page at Baseball-reference.com and discovered that Gil McDougald was Rookie of the Year in 1951, and a five time All-star while playing 10 seasons for the New York Yankees.  He played some combination of second and third throughout his 10 years in the game.  Clearly, overshadowed by teammates like Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Mosse Skowran, McDougald was a great player largely overlooked. Tip of the hat to Preacher, and Mr. Score and finally to Gil McDougald.

Tuesday Trivia

(on Wednesday): Apologies about the lateness of the contest this week, I got so fired up yesterday about the ridiculous nature of  Dave Krieger’s article that I actually forgot it was Tuesday until very late in the day. Today’s Contest is brought to you by CustomSportsCards.com! The folks at Custom Sports Cards make baseball-style cards for all occasions: birth announcements, wedding invites, kids sports teams.  Its a great idea.  The winner of today’s contest will receive 50 free cards! Simply email me the answer by filling out the text box at the bottom of this page, and include your email address and if you are the first correct answer, I will email you a promotional code so that you can claim your prize.  I think  with the passing of the 1955 Rookie of the year, and with the discovery of the 1951 rookie of the year its only fitting that this weeks trivia question focuses on the ROY award.  On Monday, Geovanny Soto won the NL Rookie of the Year award. Prior to Soto, there were four other Cubs to win the ROY award.  This is a tough one, so I will give the prize to the first person that can name 3 of the 4.  Good Luck!