Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

Dave Eiland was in a forgiving mood , especially after seeing the Yankees bullpen fail to hold what would have been his first major league win. Eiland went seven innings in that August 1988 contest, leaving with a 5-1 lead . Eiland's Yankees lost 6-5. "It's happened to me before," Eiland told The New York Times . "That could have been me out there. It's part of the game. It happens." Eiland went on to see time in 10 major league seasons, starting 70 big league games . But wins would be at a premium, he would only pick up 12. Eiland, though, would go on to oversee many more wins, as pitching coach for the team that first brought him to the majors, the Yankees. Eiland's three season stint there also included overseeing a world title. Eiland's career began in 1987, taken by the Yankees in the seventh round out of the University of Florida. He split that first year between short-season Oneonta and single-A Fort Lauderdale. In his secon...

Called into Mets manager Bud Harrelson's office at the close of spring training 1991, Darren Reed thought he was being told he'd made the team. Instead, he'd been traded, to the Expos, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote . The news from Harrelson came with a bit of optimism for the outfielder who'd gotten just 26 big league games in his seven seasons as a pro. "Bud told me that I'd be a fifth outfielder," Reed told The Sun-Sentinel , "and I would get a lot of playing time." That optimism soon came to an abrupt end. Days after the trade, Reed took an Alejandro Pena fastball off his left hand . The resulting injury put him out for the year , and left a plate in his wrist. Reed made it back for 1992, getting into 56 games for the Expos and the Twins, but that and the 26 games he played for the Mets in 1990, proved to be the extent of his big league playing time. Reed's career began in 1984, taken by the Yankees in the third round ...

Speaking of new Tiger Travis Fryman , Detroit manager Sparky Anderson told The Associated Press in August 1990 that Fryman reminded him of another Tiger, Alan Trammell. Trammell had the talent and he used that to be a great ballplayer, Anderson told The AP . "He's going to hit 20 homers," Anderson told The AP of Fryman. "There's no stopping him from that, with his strength and fast hands." Before Fryman's career was out, after 13 seasons in the majors , Fryman would hit 20 home runs or more seven times. He also made five All-Star teams, won a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove. The Gold Glove came in 2000, at third base, a position Fryman moved to early in his career from shortstop. The move was necessitated as the Tigers' shortstop position, aside from injuries, was already taken by the player Fryman reminded Anderson of , Alan Trammell. Fryman's career began in 1987, taken by the Tigers in the first round out of high school in Pensac...

Taken first overall by the Expos the year before, the pressure was on Kevin Dean and Dean knew it, Dean told The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in June 1987. Just 19 years old, Dean was hitting .286 at class-A West Palm Beach . "They expect a lot out of you, but you can only do so much," Dean told The Sun-Sentinel . "I always have a lot of pressure on me, (but) I'm just like other players. I was just more fortunate to get drafted No.1." Dean, though, was never fortunate enough to make the majors. He made AAA Indianapolis in 1989, but he never made Montreal or any other big league club. Dean's career began in 1986, with his selection by the Expos 15th overall out of Hogan High School in Vallejo, Calif. Dean played that first year in the rookie Gulf Coast League, hitting .309 in 51 games. He also stole 16. At West Palm Beach, Dean hit .288 on the year, with 10 home runs and 24 stolen bases. In late April, Dean scored three runs , going 2 for 2 in...

Hipolito Pena wasn't nervous for his first major league appearance, he told The Pittsburgh Press after that September 1986 game. He'd pitched in front of big crowds in his native Dominican Republic, and in spring training. He'd also gotten some advice from the Pirates' minor league pitching coach, Spin Williams, he told The Press . "Spin Williams told me," Pena told The Press , "minor leagues, big leagues, it's all the same." For Pena, though, it wasn't exactly the same. Called up from AA Nashua, where he posted a 3.55 ERA on the season. In the majors, Pena gave up eight earned runs in 8.1 innings. His big league career lasted just two more seasons, 16 appearances each. Pena, though, continued pitching in the minors and independent ball through 1996, his 14th season as a pro . Pena's career began in 1981, signed by the Brewers as a free agent, out of his native Dominican Republic. He played that first year at rookie Butte, his second...

Glenelg High baseball coach Terry Coleman tried in 1993 to put his current player Brian Boteler's work ethic in perspective by referencing one of his players from a decade earlier, Greg Smith , according to The Baltimore Sun . "Not since we had Greg Smith," Coleman told The Sun , "has anyone worked as hard as Brian." Smith took that work ethic, working his way through the minor leagues and making the majors for parts of three seasons. Those parts, though, consisted of all of 27 big league games . Though he was still playing at AAA, by the time Coleman spoke to The Sun in 1993, it had already been two years since what ultimately became Smith's final major league appearance. Smith's professional career began in 1985, taken by the Cubs in the second round of the draft, directly out of Glenelg High School in Maryland. Smith started that first season at rookie Wytheville, hitting .235 in 51 games. He moved to single-A Peoria in 1986, staying there...

Making the jump from short-season to AA for 1990, Scott Centala pitched well. He also pitched especially well for a pitcher moving from relief into starting, going 11-8 at AA Memphis that year, with a 3.22 ERA. "I felt like I could throw at this level," Centala told The Memphis Commercial Appeal , according to The Eugene Register-Guard. "It was just a matter of getting an opportunity and taking advantage of it." Despite the success, and the introduction later to the knuckleball, Centala never got the opportunity to have success in the majors. His affiliated career lasted just four seasons, getting as high as AAA , but never making the majors. Centala has since continued in a different form of the game, as a coach and instructor of softball. Centala's career began in 1989, taken by the Royals in the 15th round of the draft out of Texas A&M . He played that first year at Eugene, getting 27 outings in relief, posting a 2.25 ERA and claiming nine sav...

Steve Carlton got off to a slow start in 1975 , but his pitching coach Ray Rippelmeyer wasn't concerned. The 30-year-old future Hall of Famer had a record of 1-4 by early May, with a 6.27 ERA. Rippelmeyer told The Associated Press he just thought it was "one of those things." "He was getting the ball up, but I don't think it was anything that had to do with his motion," Rippelmeyer told The AP . "Mechanically, I think he's sound and we're not discouraged." Carlton was sound enough to pick up 14 wins the rest of the way, for an overall 1975 record of 15-14. He also brought his ERA back down to 3.56. He won 20 the next season and 23 the season after that, all under Rippelmeyer's watch. Rippelmeyer served as the Pillies pitching coach through much of the 1970s, after a decade-long career as a player. That playing career saw Rippelmeyer pitch in all of 18 big league contests , one of them starts, and all in 1962 for the Senators...

What began in May 1998 as numbness and tingling in his leg ended months later for pitcher Stan Belinda , with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis . Despite that finding though, Belinda continued pitching for parts of two more seasons, continuing a career that spanned 12, pitching in 29 games in 1999 and 56 in 2000. "I hope some people find inspiration from this," Belinda told The Associated Press going into the 2000 season with Colorado. "My inspiration is my family and God. Unfortunately for me, I got some bad news, but I'm dealing with it and I'm trying to stay upbeat and trying to perform." By the time he finished out with his final big league appearance in September 2000, Belinda had amassed a total of 585 appearances in the majors, all in relief, a 4.15 career ERA and 79 total saves. Belinda's on-field performance, though, is perhaps best remembered - or best forgotten, depending on who is talking - for one ill-fated pitch thrown in perhap...

Casey Close was having a season in 1988 that not even he could argue was good . In his third year as a pro, Close hit AAA Columbus, but the outfielder didn't even hit .200. He did no better back down at AA Albany . "It's been an extremely frustrating season," Close told The Schenectady Gazette that August after returning to Albany. "After four months you start to wonder if you're losing it. This is a game of recency, what have you done lately. I just want to salvage something out of it." Despite the poor numbers, it was an assessment that Close would likely never give today. His own career lasted just five seasons, getting three seasons at AAA . Close has been working with major leaguers ever since, as a player agent , emphasizing the positives of a player's resume and the potential in the player's future, rather than dwelling on the negatives of frustrating seasons. Close's biggest client is one he has been with since almost the ...