centerfield maz

Charles Dillon Stengel was born on July 30th, 1890, in Kansas City Missouri. His parents were German Irish & originally lived in the Illinois-Iowa, Quad Cities area. The five foot eleven Stengel batted & threw left-handed. He was a star athlete in high school playing baseball, football as well as basketball. He would play on semi pro baseball & sandlot leagues all around the Kansas City area. Eventually he was offered a contract with a Kansas City minor league team that earned him more money than his father was making.  Casey had a backup plan in case baseball didn't work out, he attended Western Dental school since he always wanted to be a dentist. He would later tell stories about how difficult it was as a left hander to use the right-handed dental equipment. His dental school background also helped him negotiate a contract in baseball.  Casey Stengel Brooklyn Superbas Originally,  he was signed as a pitcher, but he ran fa...

Tuesday July 29th, 1986: Today the Mets played a double header at Shea Stadium, with the first game being a rescheduled game from a July 19th rain out. The Mets had won their last two games, five of seven including the previous night's series opener with the Cubs. They were riding high in the NL East with MLB's best record (65-30) & a 16.5 game lead over the second place Expos. Today Ron Darling started the first game for the Mets. On July 13th, Darling had thrown a complete game shut out over the Braves at Shea Stadium. In his next two starts he gave up two runs in each game splitting the decisions, winning the latter in Cincinnati. In the top of the 1st, the Cubs started the game with back-to-back base hits from Jerry Mumphrey & Ryne Sandberg. With Thad Bosley at bat, Ron Darling caught Mumphrey leaning & picked him off at second base for the first out. It was the third pick off out Darling had made on the season.  Gary Carter then threw out Sandberg trying to st...

Saturday July 28th, 2001: Bobby Valentines reigning NL Champions Mets (48-57) were  having a rough follow up the pennant. They were lingering in fourth place, eleven games behind the rival Atlanta Braves.  In the off season the Mets did not make any big signings, only coming up with former A's pitcher Kevin Appier. In July they had gone 12-10, a mid month five game win streak was followed up by losing five of seven leading up to this afternoon's matchup.  A good crowd of 38,972 came out to support the Mets as they hosted Larry Bowa's second place Philadelphia Phillies (57-47). New York's  Al Leiter (6-8) went up against one of the leagues winningest pitchers, Omar Daal (10-3). In 2000 after winning 16 games the previous year, Daal led the NL with 19 losses then  rebounded in 2001 to go 13-7. In the bottom of the 1st, Todd Zeile doubled to left field. Mike Piazza then drew a walk. Jay Payton & Benny Agbayani followed with back-to-back RBI singles giv...

Saturday July 29th, 2000: At this point in the 2000 season, Bobby Valentine's New York Mets were in second place, five games behind the Atlanta Braves & in the front runner for the Wild Card spot. The Mets had lost their main short stop Rey Ordonez for the rest of the season & were not willing to gamble on the young Melvin Mora to get them to the playoffs.  In a deal with the Baltimore Orioles, the Mets dealt Mora, Mike Kinkade & Leslie Brea in exchange for solid veteran; Mike Bordick. It was a good short-term move, as Bordick solidified the position, hit well enough & did help get the Mets to the World Series.  In the long term Bordick left via free agency signing back with the Orioles. Melvin Mora went on to a fine ten-year career in Baltimore, making two All Star team's the Orioles' Hall of Fame.  Mike Bordick arrived in New York to suit up for a Saturday afternoon matinee at Shea Stadium in front of 50,726 as the Mets hosted Tony LaRussa's ...