centerfield maz

Scott Edward Kazmir was born January 24, 1984 in Houston, Texas. He was a star quarterback & pitcher in high school, who once tossed four straight no hitters. He verbally committed to his home state Texas Longhorns college football team, but instead went with baseball. He was chosen by the New York Mets in 2002 as a first round draft pick (#15 overall). The left handed Kazmir began with the Brooklyn Cyclones at A ball in 2002, pitching in five games (0-1) with a 0.50 ERA in 18 innings pitched. In 2003 he struck out 145 batters in 109 innings pitched at A ball St. Lucie & Capital City. He was highly touted by the time he got to AA Montgomery, rated as the #7 prospect in the country by Baseball America in 2004. That year he struck out 104 batters in 101 innings pitched between A & AA ball. On July 30th 2004 the New York Mets made an unpopular trade that sent Kazmir to the Tampa Rays in exchange for Victor Zambrano & Bartlome Fortunato. The trade was hi...

William Howell Taylor was born October 16, 1961 in Monticello, Florida. The towering six foot eight right hander was originally signed as a hard throwing right hander by the Texas Rangers in the second round of the 1980 draft. He spent all of the 1980’s in the Rangers minor leagues as both a starter & reliever. A decade later he was sent to the Atlanta Braves organization & toiled there in the minors as well due to their pitching rich talent of the early nineties. In that time he became one of the best closers at the AA level. In 1993, at the age of 31, he was an AAA All-Star, saved 26 games with a 1.98 ERA, winning the league's reliever of the year award. In October of 1993 he signed as a free agent with the Oakland A’s & made his big league debut the next season at age 32, after fourteen seasons in the minors. Taylor pitched the 7th inning on an Opening Day loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. He remained on the club until July going 1-3 in 41 appearances before bein...

Joseph Emanuel Margoneri was born on January 13th, 1930 in Somerset, Pennsylvania. The six foot lefty was signed by the New York Giants in 1950. At age 20 he led the Wisconsin State League in wins (23) & strike outs (288) at Oshkosh. After another 18-8 season he went off to serve in the military during the Korean War. He returned to win 15 games (15-10) in 1954 in both AA & AAA at Minneapolis where he spent parts of the next three seasons. He was with the Giants at the start of the 1956 season debuting at the Polo Grounds against the Brooklyn Dodgers where he mopped up in a 7-2 loss. In his next outing he got his first career win against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. His ERA was a t 4.65 in early June when he was sent back to AAA Minneapolis, but returned to the Giants in mid July. In his return he gave up a walk off RBI single to the Reds Rocky Bridges. After another loss went into the starting rotation & he won four straight games, including a complete game...

I am not the biggest David Bowie fan in the world, but as a life long Rock & Roll fan he could not be ignored. Growing up on Rock Radio, Bowie was an icon & few hours went by without hearing a few Bowie tunes. As the video age came Bowie again was there on the front, I always remember seeing the video for "Fashion" when it came out (1980) & thinking how kool it was. As time passed & you put all his accomplishments together, you realize how many great songs David Bowie has. I may not like everything he did, but Bowie was great- here is a centerfieldmaz tribute. David Bowie was born David Jones on January 8th 1947, in London, England. At the age of 19 he changed his name to David Bowie due to the success of the Monkees & their star named Davey Jones. Trivia: The Bowie reference was to that of American icon Jim Bowie, legend of the Alamo & the man whom the knife is named after. He first achieved success with "Space Oditty" in 1969 as the...

Joseph Lovitto Jr. Was born January 6, 1951 in San Pedro, California. The six foot outfielder was a highly touted prospect, getting picked in the first round (the number two overall pick) of the 1969 draft by the Washington Senators. He had a brief but good minor league career hitting over .300 twice in 1971 between AA & AAA. He hit .326 in 34 games at AAA Denver getting a call up to the big leagues the next year. By then the Washington Senators had moved to Arlington Texas & became the Texas Rangers. Lovitto was the Opening Day centerfielder as rookie under manager Ted Williams for the Rangers in the first game of their history. He showed good range in centerfield, posting a . 976 fielding % with seven assists, although he made six errors. He played in 117 games for Texas batting only .224 which wasn’t as bad as the team .217 average. He only had 1 HR with 19 RBIs & 9 doubles in 330 at bats. The following season he injured his leg & only saw action in 26...