'80s PITCHERS IN THE NEWS: Jesse Orosco, the oldest current major leaguer, announced his retirement this week after a nine-team, 25-year career that began in 1979. Orosco's retirement at the age of 47 means that the only players remaining who were active when I first started watching baseball in 1985 are the two Francos- John and Julio, along with Andres Galarraga and Rickey Henderson. And Roger Clemens, until he retired. Oh, wait.
In other news, Tommy John this week was named manager of the Class A Staten Island Yankees, and is being mentioned as a possible heir apparent to retiring Yankees pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre.
For those who've started following baseball only in the last ten years, yes Tommy John was an actual guy- he pitched 26 years in the majors and won 288 games- not just a surgery.
UPDATE: A Baseball Primer writer on Orosco:
When Orosco began his career, Kirby Puckett was in high school. Now he's a Hall of Famer with a tarnished reputation & a street named after him in Minneapolis.
AND SPEAKING OF TWINS EMBARRASSMENT: As pointed out by "TwinsGeek" John Bonnes, a couple in St. Paul recently gave birth to twins, and being, pardon the pun, Twins fans, they named their twin children "Torii" and "Hunter," after the Twins' centerfielder. At a press conference attended by Bonnes, St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly felt the need to point out that the couple made this decision even though the mother had never met Hunter before in her life. Which may be necessary to mention, considering that Hunter is known to have as many illegitimate children as he has fingers on his throwing hand.
Posted by Stephen Silver at January 24, 2004 11:29 PM