Posts Tagged ‘Mark McGwire’
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For Jay Gibbons, Forgiveness Is a Minor League Contract AwayJune 19th, 2008
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Jay Gibbons dropped to his knees and asked for a second chance.
After being named in the Mitchell Report and being released from the Baltimore Orioles by Chief Operating Officer Andy MacPhail for reasons disclosed as performance-related, Gibbons did something he termed, “both painful and humiliating.” The designated hitter wrote a letter to all thirty Major League teams hoping that someone, anyone would give him a chance to ride the buses of the Minor Leagues.
It’s a move of passion not economics.
Because the Baltimore Orioles still owe him $11.9 million over the next two years, presumably, Gibbons could easily thrust his head into the sand, like the higher profile PED user Mark McGwire, and be comfortable in his anonymity for the rest of his life.
Gibbons even offered to donate his entire Minor League salary to his parent team’s charity. Should he make it to the Big Leagues, he writes that he would “gladly donate a significant sum to that same charity.” Read more
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Does playing for the A’s lead to the Hall of Fame?May 27th, 2008
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What is it about the Athletics franchise and the Hall of Fame? I was thinking about this the other day when Mike Piazza announced his retirement. What I wanted to know was how many players in baseball history played for the A’s franchise and were also enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame. What I came across was outstanding.
In the A’s 41 year history in Oakland, 11 players, coaches, or managers have passed through the green and gold before going on to the Hall of Fame. In addition to them, at least five (Mark McGwire, Tony La Russa, Rickey Henderson, Frank Thomas, and Piazza) more have made stops that are not eligible yet or are on the ballot but have yet to be selected.
Some of those players spent long portions of their career in Oakland (Reggie Jackson, Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter and Dick Willliams) while others were here for anywhere from a season to few months to a couple of games (Joe Morgan, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Don Sutton, Goose Gossage and even Joe Dimaggio). These players are not all there is though. This is just the Oakland side of it. DiMaggio was a coach with the A’s after he retired and Williams was a manager for the A’s.