centerfield maz

Neil Patrick Allen was born January 24, 1958, in Kansas City, Kansas. His father Bob was an elevator operator & his mom Betty Rae worked for the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. Neil had three other brothers. The six-foot three right hander was selected by the New York Mets out of Bishop Ward high school in Kansas City, Kansas in the 11th round of the 1976 draft. In 1977 at A ball, with the Lynchburg Mets, Allen was 10-2 with 126 strikeouts & a 2.79 ERA.  The next year he was brought up through the ranks going 7-16 but posted a strong 2.79 ERA, getting a promotion to the Mets staff for 1979.  Mets Career: On April 15th, 1979, Allen made his debut, pitching against the Phillies & former Met Nino Espinoza. Allen gave up four runs & took the loss. Allen struggled as a starter losing his first five decisions, allowing 18 earned runs in 21.2 innings for a 7.48 ERA. He was brought up too early by the Mets who were too cheap to acquire q...

  Jacob Tanner Diekman was born January 21st, 1987, in Wymore, Nebraska. His small high school had no baseball team, so Jake would focus his time playing golf there.  In summertime he joined an American Legion baseball league where his baseball career stared.  The six foot four, left hander attended college in Kansas where he was be drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 30th round of the 2007 draft. Just before Jake was drafted, his mom passed away at age 57. She was his biggest supporter & the family took the loss hard. Jake credits his father with helping him thru the loss as he calls him his best friend.  MLB Career: Diekman became a journeyman pitcher would pitch for nine teams in his 13-year career. In 2012 he debuted with the Phillies making 32 appearances with a 3.95 ERA. He showed promise & was being considered as a closer for the team over the next couple of years. Combined No Hitter: On September 1st, 2014, he was one of four Phillies pitche...

Thomas Patrick O’Malley was born Christmas day 1960 in West Orange, New Jersey. The Irish American family moved to Montoursville, Pennsylvania where Thomas would grow up. The six-foot left hand hitting outfielder, was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 16th round of the 1979 draft. At age twenty he was a Texas League All Star leading all third baseman in fielding. By 1982 after 26 games, he was batting .446 at AAA Phoenix, when the Giants wanted him in their lineup. They made room for his bat, by moving veteran Darrel Evans over to first base. MLB Career: The Giants had high hopes for Tom; he hit .275 with 12 doubles, two HRs & 27 RBIs in 92 games that year as they finished third under Frank Robinson.  1983 would prove to be O'Malley's only full season, batting .259 with five HRs, 16 doubles & 45 RBIs in 135 games as the team finished fifth. Over the next two seasons he spent most of his time in the minors, where he hit well, batting .346 at AAA P...

Jesse Lamar Gonder was born on January 20, 1936, at Monticello, Arkansas. Gonder’ s family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in Oakland during his teen years. There he played high school ball with the likes of Frank Robinson, Curt Flood & Vada Pinson. Robinson was the first to get signed by a Cincinnati Reds scout Bob Madic, who later became a GM in Toronto. He ended up signing all three players for the Reds including the more out spoken Gonder in 1955. Gonder hit over .320 in his first two years at the AA Level but fell off to .238 when he reached AAA IN 1959. He was traded over to the A.L. New York club in 1960 but didn’t have a chance to beat out Elston Howard, who had just secured the catcher’s job from Yogi Berra.  MLB Career: Gonder batted .326 that year at AAA & got a September 1960 call up debuting for seven brief games going 1-7 mostly as a pinch hitter. The next year he went 4-12 gathering his first three career RBIs in another September call up. ...