Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

Check out the revisited Ben McDonald feature from September 2011: Ben McDonald, High Expectations Can't-miss prospects can still miss, something Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo noted last year to the USA Today . Rizzo spoke as the Nationals were about to pick Stephen Strasburg , the can't-miss, hard-throwing college pitcher No. 1 overall. Twenty years earlier, the can't-miss, hard-throwing college pitcher-turned top pick was Ben McDonald . It was a comparison not lost on Rizzo . "He had unbelievable stuff, too, just like Strasburg," Rizzo told the paper , "but he got hurt all of the time. He had a very lackluster career. … There's nothing guaranteed in this game." McDonald came out of LSU in 1989, selected by the Orioles to anchor their starting rotation for years to come. He hit Baltimore Sept. 6, 1989, the second member of that year's draft to hit the majors, John Olerud being the first. McDonald went on to have a respectable 9-season maj...

Check out the revisited Geovany Miranda feature from September 2012, Geovany Miranda, No Rest Geovany Miranda regularly sent stuff home to his mother during his playing days. The Panama-native first sent part of his check home. When his mother insisted he keep the check, Miranda sent home newspaper articles of his work, according to The Eugene Register-Guard . "In Panama," Miranda told The Register-Guard in July 1990, "being a pro baseball player is good." Miranda was playing with the short-season Eugene Emeralds, after starting the year at the Midwest League's Appleton Foxes. The move saw his batting average improve from just .227 to .338. He was signed by the Royals out of Panama in 1988 as a free agent. Miranda would return to Appleton for 1991. His b atting average would return to its lows, as well, at .236. He didn't make AA until 1993, by then with the White Sox system. In 1994, he made it up to AAA Nashville for 16 games, but that would...

Coming off a spectacular year at AA Jackson, Dave Trautwein had high hopes for 1990. He was on the Mets 40-man roster . But with spring training virtually wiped out by the 1990 lockout , Trautwein found himself unprepared for the next step. "A couple of times I had no one to throw to so I just threw at a brick wall," Trautwein told The Daily Press of Hampton Roads, Va. , that April, adding later, "It got to the point where I didn't think I was going to get a chance to play this year." Once the season started, Trautwein ended up hitting another brick wall, the proverbial kind. Taken by the Mets in the 22nd round of the 1987 draft , Trautwein was the brother of would-be major leaguer John Trautwein . Despite spending six seasons in professional baseball, the younger Trautwein never followed his father to the majors. He made AA Jackson that year in 1989, posting a 1.65 ERA. But by May 11, 1990 , at AAA Tidewater, Trautwein's ERA had nearly hit 6.00, ...

Read the revisited Ray Lankford feature from September 2012,  Ray Lankford, Some Kind A rookie trying to make the big club in 1990, Ray Lankford found himself just trying to show he fit in, he told The Orlando Sentinel earlier this month. "When you're a young man, your main objective was to come in and prove that you belong here, make the team," Lankford told The Sentinel after returning to his one-time spring training home. Lankford, of course, did belong. He ended up playing in 14 major league seasons for the Cardinals and the Padres. He even made the Hall of Fame ballot in January 2010, an accomplishment in itself, though, as expected, he received no support for induction. Taken by the Cardinals in the third round of the 1987 draft, Lankford made St. Louis on Aug. 21, 1990. His first outing was a strong one , he singled in his first major league at bat, doubling later in the game. The Cardinals even traded Willie McGee to make room for Lankford to play...

Last week's episode was another easy finish for 1990 CMC setter Steve Smith and his daughter Allie. The pair finished third, after several weeks finishing second. In videos on CBS.com , Steve explained another secret to their success, the father-daughter angle. They just introduce themselves as a dad traveling with his daughter and hopefully whoever they're talking to will relate. "There's something about, you know, your daughter, there's no threat or anything like that," Steve said. The pair were also helped by Steve, the oldest competitor left, bringing his reading glasses, and not by Allie's French. Allie spoke in the same video of not being a fan of her college French classes. But in another video, Steve talks of searching the winery for one marked bottle. The mark was small, something he couldn't see without his glasses. He's also better with patience challenges. "I'm usually five minutes better at not panicking than she is," th...

Scott Anderson had a solid spring . In three starts, he gave up four hits, struck out five and walked one. His latest start this spring went four shutout innings. "Anderson has been very impressive in games and working on the sidelines," Royals Manager Bob Boone told The Associated Press . Boone had seen Anderson pitch in AAA. "If he's healthy, he'll be a quality pitcher in this league." It was high praise for a pitcher. It was also March 14, 1995, the strike year. Anderson was making a bid to return to the majors for the first time since 1990. He pitched in four games for the Expos that year, 1990. That was after pitching eight games for the Rangers in 1987. Outside those 12 games, the rest of Anderson's nine-year professional career had been spent in the minors . Anderson was taken by the Rangers in the seventh round of the 1984 draft. He made AA Tulsa in 1985 and AAA Oklahoma City in 1986. By 1987, Anderson was being counted among the Range...

Read the revisited Dave Hajek feature from September 2012, Dave Hajek, Made Himself Assigned to single-A Asheville, Colorado Rockies' 13th round pick from 2004 Matt Miller needed to learn to hit the ball to all fields. He used the Tourists' ballpark to help. He also used the Tourists' hitting coach, Dave Hajek . "Our hitting coach, Dave Hajek, helped me a whole lot," Miller told MLB.com in December 2005 , "and a lot of my success came from hitting to all fields and not just the right-center field gap. I hope I can follow up next year with the kind of year I had this year." With Hajek's help, Miller has followed up. He's spent the last two seasons at AAA Colorado Springs, knocking on the door of Denver. It is a career that, so far, has mirrored that of his old hitting coach Hajek. It was even with the Tourists that Hajek spent his own first full minor league season, in 1990. Hajek was assigned to Asheville after being signed by the A...

Check out the revisited Wilfredo Cordero feature from September 2012, Wilfredo Cordero, Athletic Ability Asked by The Times Herald Record of Middletown, NY, about his most memorable moment as a player, Wilfredo Cordero went right to the start, his first big league game. "It is like a dream," he told Times Herald Record in 2007. "After all this hard work — I made it. Once you're there, all the real work begins because you don't want to go down to the minors." The paper didn't ask , but Cordero's personal least memorable moment came five or so years later. Cordero's first big league game came July 24, 1992, for the Expos. He had been signed by the team as a free agent, out of Puerto Rico, in 1988. He made AA Jacksonville in 1989 and returned for '90. Cordero played 45 games for the Expos in 1992, 130 the next year. In 1994, the strike year, Cordero made the All Star team. Two years later, Cordero was with the Red Sox, traded...

Check out the revisited Eddie Zosky feature from September 2012, Eddie Zosky, Confidence Builder On draft day 1989, Blue Jays sports writer Bob Elliott recalled a couple years ago with Slam! Sports, the story on the Jays No. 1 pick Eddie Zosky was already in the bag when they heard about the third round selection, John Olerud . The later selections then wern't as public as they are now and what they heard of Olerud was intriguing, more so than Zosky. Olerud became the lead, Zosky a footnote. In the long run, it turned out to be the correct choice. Olerud hit Toronto that September, never playing a game in the minors. Zosky played almost his entire career in the minors. Zosky was taken by the Blue Jays 19th overall that draft out of Fresno State. Zosky arrived in AA Knoxville that year , AAA Syracuse in 1991. It was in September that year that Zosky made his own way to Toronto, playing 18 games and batting just .148. Zosky returned for just eight games in 1992. In ...

Check out the revisited feature on Carlos Garcia from August 2011: Every Time Fresh off a full rookie year that saw him hit 12 home runs and hit .269, some saw great things ahead for Pirate Carlos Garcia . In spring 1994, one writer even asked whether Garcia was the next great Pirate second basemen. "Sometimes I think that I don't want to feel as confident, or as overconfident, as I do," Garcia told the Associated Press in an account from the Ocala Star-Banner. "I have my first year behind me and that's out of the way and I don't have to prove myself anymore. Sometimes I don't know if that's good or that's bad." Garcia was signed by the Pirates as a free agent out of Venezuela, hitting AA in 1989 , then AAA and the majors in 1990. He debuted with Pittsburgh Sept. 4, 1990, playing in four games. His next two years were spent mostly at AAA Buffalo, before sticking in the majors through 1997. But Garcia never again matched that rookie campai...

Read the revisited Pat Kelly feature from September 2012, Pat Kelly, How Good Managing AA Harrisburg in 1996, Pat Kelly knew he had a good outfielder in Vladimir Guerrero . "The thing that amazes you about Guerrero is that he can contribute in all facets of the game," Kelly told The Day of New London, Conn. , adding later, "He does things other people just can't do." It was high praise from a manager who'd already managed a decade in the minors, including 1990 in Las Vegas. Kelly's current managerial tally is 21 seasons, with this year his 22nd. Kelly was named this past off season as the manager of the Reds single-A affiliate the Lynchburg Hillcats. He'd spent the past three seasons with the Reds' rookie-level Gulf Coast League team. Kelly has been almost continuously in baseball since 1973. He was drafted in the third round that year by the Angels. He made it to AA in 1977 and AAA in 1978, by then with the Blue Jays system. Th...

Up to bat in the 11th inning of a 2-2 game, Ron Washington did on April 20, 1980 what he did only once the year before, hit a home run. This one would be a game winner for the AAA Toledo Mud Hens. It was enough for The Toledo Blade to feature the 27-year-old who'd seen only 10 major league games in a decade of minor league service. "I've had a lot of adversity," Washington told The Blade after the victory, noting a decade that included a late entry into baseball due to the draft, the military kind, and torn up knees that almost ended his career in 1978. Washington is going through another type of adversity , now 30 years later, a kind that is entirely of his own making. In July 2009, Washington, now the manager of the Texas Rangers, admitted at a press conference last week, Washington used cocaine. A random drug test prompted him to inform the Rangers of his cocaine use. He only used the drug once, he told the team. "I had a very weak moment," Washingto...

Steve Smith and his daughter Allie showed their race skills again last week, coming in again in second place. Now Steve has told USA Today what may be their secret: his time in the minor leagues. "I had 20 years in the minors," the member of the 1990 CMC set told the paper in a story Friday . "I made every ride. Baseball is a grind, you play 162 games. My daughter used to come and see me every summer, so she was used to traveling, too. We were perfect." Last week's episode took them from Germany to France, picking up a baggette, taking part in a World War I reenactment, and donning mustaches for a bike ride. That's them in the picture above from CBS.com . They escaped a U-Turn, having to do an extra challenge, when the lead team, Rhode Island police officers Louie and Michael chose another team, Joe and Heidi. However, from the outside, the better choice for Louie and Michael would have been Steve and Allie. They've proven to be a strong team, and the...

Read the revisited Dave Pavlas feature from September 2012. Dave Pavlas, That Feeling   When David Pavlas signed with the Cubs in 1984 out of Rice University, he had no illusions of a long career. "I figured it would last a couple years," Pavlas told his hometown paper The Victoria Advocate in 2002, "but I was going to give it a shot. I kept thinking this would be my last year and now, 18 years later, it's finally a reality." That spring would be Pavlas' first out of baseball since he signed that initial contract. But it wasn't a steady trip through to retirement, one that The Advocate calculated took him through 12 organizations, playing in seven countries. Pavlas even got himself a World Series ring with the Yankees in 1996, pitching in 16 games in August and September. He didn't pitch in the Series itself. Pavlas showed early promise in the Cubs system, going 14-6 at single A Winston-Salem in 1986 and 6-1 the next at AA Pittsfield...

Read the revisited Greatest 21 Days Dave Masters feature from September 2012, Dave Masters, Long Shot Dave Masters was as accustomed to serving up fastballs as he was serving up cocktails during his playing career. The pitcher, selected by the Cubs in the first round in 1985, worked as a bartender in the off season. It was out of necessity, he told the New York Times in 1989 . The job of minor league pitcher didn't pay well. ''I don't know anyone in the minors who isn't really scraping financially just to exist,'' Masters told The Times . ''You always keep hoping you'll get called up to the majors. But you can go from prospect to suspect almost overnight.'' After a rocky start at single-A Winston-Salem, he went 1-11 with a 5.59 ERA, Masters made steady progress. He hit AA Pittsfield in 1987, making the Eastern League All Star team , then hit AAA Iowa in 1988. He spoke to The Times July 5, 1989, after an injury that would pla...

Willie Greene put up power and average in high school, enough to get him taken by the Pirates in the first round. But his coaches didn't know where the 6-foot, 155 pound 17-year-old got it from, according to The Pittsburgh Press . "I guess it's quick wrists," Greene told The Press after his selection, "I've been playing since I was little, 11 or 12. It took a lot of work. I just went out, took batting practice and fielded balls in my spare time." The Pirates were looking for to make a difference, as their top pick from the previous year , Austin Manahan fizzled. Greene ended up making a difference for the Pirates, just not in the way they had envisioned. On Aug. 16, 1990, the Pirates were closing in on their first of three consecutive division crowns. but they needed a pitcher. That pitcher was the Expos' Zane Smith . To get him, they only had to send Greene, Scott Ruskin and a player to be named: another fellow CMC setter, Moises Alou . Smith wen...

The Greatest 21 Days caught up with Reed Olmstead in July 2012, read the two-part interview: Reed Olmstead, That Confidence Also check out the revisited Reed Olmstead feature from October 2011: Reed Olmstead, Extra Innings Reed Olmstead took part in a ninth-inning rally to pull the Orlando SunRays into a tie. Then, in the 10th, he came to bat again, hitting a game-winning grand slam. Still, Olmstead wasn't happy with his swings , either of them. ''I was just looking for something to put the bat on, trying to make contact,'' Olmstead told The Orlando Sentinel after the game. ''I didn't take a good swing at it (the homer in the 10th). Actually, the first time up (in the ninth) I hit a good pitch, and I swung terribly at that one, too.'' Olmstead was in the midst of his best season of his six in affiliated ball. He hit eight home runs that year, hitting .266. But those six seasons were filled with other bad swings, ones that ended markedl...

Check out the revisited Don Vesling feature from December 2011: Don Vesling, Too Fine Don Vesling would eventually become a Detroit Tigers farmhand, pitching for six seasons, trying to put the ball where he wanted it, past batters. But on Sept. 20, 1986, Vesling was putting another ball where he wanted it - through the uprights. Then a junior for Eastern Michigan University, Vesling kicked the game-winning 20-yard field goal with 1:09 left, beating the Akron Zips. Vesling had been a three sport star since high school, playing football, basketball and baseball at Midview High in his home state of Ohio. But it was baseball that he ultimately chose. In the 1987 baseball draft, the Tigers took Vesling in the 14th round . Vesling spent that year with the Tigers' rookie league teams in Bristol and Lakeland. He made AA London in 1989 and AAA Toledo later that year. He owned the Eastern League's best ERA into late May 1989 before losing to the Albany Yankees and fellow 1990 CMC sett...

Check out the revisited Manny Hernandez feature from September, 2012: Manny Hernandez, Few Minutes Manny Hernandez had just made the big club. He had also just got his first major league win, June 13, 1986, pitching 5.2 innings in a 4-1 Astros win. "I'm so happy," Hernandez said in a wire account of the game published in the Miami News . "I've been waiting since 1979 to pitch in the big leagues. My dream has come true." Hernandez had been signed by the Astros as a 17-year-old free agent out of the Dominican Republic. Hernandez worked his way through the minors, staying in A ball through 1983. In 1984, he made the jump to AAA Tucson, then to Houston in 1986. His 1986 call-up came after an opening left by Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan . Ryan suffered an elbow strain and Hernandez was the beneficiary. Hernandez pitched in nine games for Houston in 1986. He was a longshot to make the Houston rotation for 1987. He made it back, but not until September...