Former Italian / American Player & TV Star For a Day: Buddy Biancalana (1982-1987)

-
Roland Americo Biancalana was born February 2, 1960 in Larkspur, California. The five foot eleven infielder, was the first round draft pick of the Kansas City (25th pick overall) in the 1978 draft.

The defensively solid shortstop five seasons in the minors, before having two cups of coffee with the Royals in 1982 & 1983. He saw action in 66 games in 1984, batting just .194 with two HRs & nine RBIs. His first career HR came in a 5-4 win over the Texas Rangers off pitcher Dave Stewart.

In the Royals 1985 Championship season, he started 35 games, seeing action in 81 games, behind Frank White & Onix Concepcion. He batted just.188 with one HR, five doubles & six RBIs.

Trivia: He became the subject of a joke on the David Letterman show, when Pete Rose was chasing Ty Cobb’s all time hit record. Letterman started a Biancalana hit countdown of his own calendar and eventually invited him on the show.

When he appeared on the Letterman show, he got his own laughs when he told Letterman, “I’m closer to Cobb, than you are to Carson”.

After the Royals won the Western Division title that year, manager Dick Howser made a choice to play Biancalana over regular short stop Onix Concepcion, who only was hitting .204 himself.

Post Season: Biancalana went on to play in every 1985 post season game for the World Champion Royals, playing an errorless solid defensive shortstop. In Game #6 of the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays, he had a 6th inning RBI double driving home Jim Sundberg. He then scored on a Lonnie Smith double, on the way to a 5-3 victory. Overall he batted .222 (418) in the series.

In the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, he had two hits in the Royals Game #3 victory, driving in a run with a base hit. He added two more hits with an RBI, in the Royals Game #5 victory as well. In both games he also scored a run each time. Overall he hit .278 in the World Series with a .435 on base percentage.

The next season he shared short stop duties with Angel Salazar playing in 100 games batting .242. In July 1987 he was batting .213 when he was traded to the Houston Astros for Mel Stottlemyre Jr. In just 18 games with Houston he batted a poor .042.

He finished his career at the end of the season, with a .205 batting average, 113 hits which is over four thousand less than Cobb if Letterman is still counting. He hit six HRs with 16 doubles seven triples & a .261 on base %.

At short stop (243 games) he posted a .945 fielding % turning over 94 double plays.


Retirement: Since his playing days, he has managed in the minor leagues & was an infield coordinator for the Tampa Rays.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

The 1970's Oakland A's Ball Girls- (MLB's First)

-
Image
In the days of the early seventies the Oakland A's won three straight Championships & changed the face of baseball forever.  The team's controversial owner was known to be cheap in paying his star players & known to meddle in the teams on field affairs. He drove managers crazy & even had Dick Williams resign after winning his second straight World Series. But Finley also revolutionized baseball in many other ways. He was instrumental in getting the designated hitter in the American League & have the World Series played at night, so fans could attend after work. He gave his players fancy names like Catfish, Blue Moon & True Blue.  When his star Reggie Jackson refused to shave his beard, he encouraged the whole team to grow facial hair by paying them $200 each.  The A's team even grew their hair long, a sign of the times. But before that baseball players had not had facial or long hair since the 1800's.  He introduced bright colored yello
Read more

The Odd Couple TV Show's Beloved Supporting Cast

-
Image
On this the 45th Anniversary Season of when my favorite television show of all time The Odd Couple first debuted it's time to pay tribute to the great supporting  cast. Murray Greshler was a  big hit with fans as the simple minded bumbling NYPD Officer: Murray the Cop . Murray was a long time friend of Oscar Madison & usually becomes the subject of Oscar's jokes. Some great lines referenceing Murrays nose are "N ose' Feliciano" / "Tokyo Nose" & "Come inside Murray, your sucking up all the air in the hallway".  Even Felix chimed in asking him if the other army reserve soldiers made fun of him saying "when you look up it looks like a two car garage". Murray would become one of both Felix & Oscars best friends appearing 73 of the 114 Odd Couple episodes . Murray wouldn't think twice about double parking his patrol car double parked outside the Park Avenue or Central Park West building where Felix & Oscar
Read more

Fictional Mets Infielder Chico Escuela ( of SNL) Visits Mets Spring Training (1979)

-
Image
Bill Murray interviews (Garrett Morris) Chico Escuela In March 1979, original Saturday Night Live cast member; Garrett Morris joined the Mets at Miller Huggins Field for Spring Training. At the time the Mets were still holding Spring Training in St. Petersburg Florida.  Morris was filmed being interviewed by his SNL cast mate, Bill Murray as the fictional Mets player: Chico Escuela who wore uniform #5 (cinque).  Escuela was famous for his spoof of the Latin players of the time, who did not speak much English. His famous quote "baseball been berry- berry good to me" began the previous year on SNL's weekend update. Bill Murray & Ed Kranepool It was said during the mock 1979 Spring Training interview, that Chico who was a nine time All Star second baseman, had given up his job at the Weekend Update Sports desk to make a comeback with the Mets at age 41.  Chico had fictionally written a tell all baseball book; "Bad Stuff About the Mets" which tick
Read more