Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

Originally published May 14, 2016 Tom Newman and the Sumter Braves appeared to have gotten out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation in this May 1990 game. Except for the mental lapse . The pitcher Newman fielded the come-backer, but instead of going for the double play, he went to first, The Sumter Item wrote . "I have no idea what (Newman) was thinking about that play," Sumter manager Ned Yost told The Item . "He knows better than that. I guess it was just a case of mental vapor lock." The Braves went on to win that game, despite the mental lapse. Newman, in his second season in the Braves organization, played few other games. He pitched in a total of 15 games that year between two levels, marking the extent of his career . Newman's career began in 1989, signed by the Braves as an undrafted free agent out of Le Moyne College. Newman started with the Braves at rookie Idaho Falls. He got into 12 games , starting three, posting a 8.46 ERA. He also...

Jeff Baldwin knew he didn't have much natural speed, he told The Orlando Sentinel in 1987. To get around that, he told The Sentinel , he just had to play harder. ''Pressure? I don't put any on myself," Baldwin told The Sentinel that May. "I give 100 percent, play hard every day. I thrive on pressure situations because that's when it counts the most and when people stand up and take notice. Anybody that doesn't like those situations shouldn't be playing the game." Baldwin was playing games in his third professional season that year, trying to make sure people took notice. Eventually, people would take notice, and Baldwin would play in the major leagues. The chance for people to notice him there, though, was brief. Baldwin's stay amounted to nine plate appearances , over the span of just two weeks in the bigs. Baldwin's career began in 1985, taken by the Astros in the 14th round of the draft out of Camden County ...

Scouts had begun frequenting his games and Willie Ansley 's high school coach Fred Oliver spoke with the young sports talent, to make sure he stayed calm under the added pressure , the coach told The Associated Press in 1988. "I pulled him aside and said, 'Willie, they're not out here to see you get a hit every time at bat," Oliver told The AP . "They know you'll make errors - major league errors. They want to see what their money's going to buy." It was eventually the Astros money that bought Ansley, the team selecting him in the first round , seventh pick overall in the 1988 draft. But, before he signed, Ansley had to choose between the professional baseball ranks of the Astros and the college football ranks of the Oklahoma Sooners. He ultimately chose the baseball ranks. But he never would join the major league ranks, getting only as high as AAA before his career ended. Ansley played his first professional year in 1989, startin...

Coming out of college in 1987, Andy Mota could hit well. But he didn't show much that first year out. He hit .263 for short-season Auburn. Returning for 1988, Mota heated up, hitting nearly 90 points better and taking the league batting crown. In an interview with The Associated Press , Mota credited that improvement to a year of experience in the pros. "You've got to work hard for yourself to get better because there's no one there to force you," Mota told The AP . "As you get more success, like what happened to me, you get more confident, the butterflies are gone." Mota went on to hit well at single-A Osceola the next year, at .319, and .286 in 1990 for AA Columbus. But, when he finally made the majors in August 1991, those butterflies apparently returned. Over 27 games in the majors, he hit just .189 , a stint that marked the extent of his major league career. Drafted by the Astros in the 12 round of the 1987 draft, Mota followed his f...

Closing out the 1993 season, Luis Gonzalez needed one hit to reach a milestone . In only his third full season in the majors, Gonzalez had a .300 batting average within reach and he got it, a single putting him over the top . "To hit .299 would have been a good year," Gonzalez told The Chicago Tribune the next spring, "but .300 sticks out a lot better when you've finished your career and look back." While that hit in 1993 put Gonzalez at the .300 mark , a mark he would reach four more times in his career, it's another hit, achieved on the biggest of stages and the biggest of moments, that is the Gonzalez hit that would come to stick out most. Gonzalez' road to that moment, though, began in 1988, taken by the Astros in the fourth round of the draft, out of the University of South Alabama . Gonzalez spent his first two seasons at single-A, moving to AA Columbus in year three. By the end of year three, Gonzalez was in Houston. That fir...

When Andujar Cedeno was in a slump earlier in 1994, Cedeno believed he was swinging at too many high fastballs and was swinging too hard, he told The Associated Press . "Now," he told The AP at the start of June, "I'm just trying to get base hits with whatever they throw me. Even though I was looking for the fastball, I was glad to see the curve." The result, The AP wrote , was a two-run, bases-loaded single that proved the difference in a 5-3 Astros victory. Cedeno was in his fifth season with time in the majors in 1994, ultimately hitting .263 that year. That was two seasons after he hit just .173 over 71 games with Houston. Cedeno went on to play in two more seasons in the majors, for a total of seven . And he continued playing, in the minors, through 2000. But Cedeno's playing days, and his life, were cut short that October, when he was killed in a car accident in his native Dominican Republic . Cedeno's career began in 1986, si...

Originally published Aug. 12, 2012 The Bowie BaySox were down by one in the ninth, with two on base when T.R. Lewis stepped to the plate, The Baltimore Sun wrote . Lewis promptly ended this May 1993 night, with a walk-off double . "It's what we all dream of -- getting the game winning hit with two out in the ninth," Lewis told The Sun . "You don't get many bigger than that." Lewis was in his fifth year of professional ball that year at Bowie. He would go on to play in 11 pro seasons. Lewis, though, never got to play a game in the majors, making it to AAA for parts of five seasons, but never making it to the bigs . Lewis, whose full name is Theodore Roosevelt Lewis, began his career in 1989, taken by the Orioles in the fourth round of the draft out of Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville. The 18-year-old started at rookie Bluefield, hitting .331 in 40 games . He also hit 10 home runs. He moved to single-A Wausau and then high-A Frede...

Originally published Aug. 12, 2010 The Midwest League came down hard. Jimmy Roso and three other players were suspended, a fifth let go outright by his team. Their crime? Apparently trying to cause a rainout . "Somewhere down the line, two or three years down the road, we'll probably smile a bit," Midwest League President George Spelius told The Los Angeles Times . "But now the smile comes harder when you think of what could have happened." In something compared to a scene from the movie Bull Durham , Roso and the four other members of the Wausau Timbers were accused of climbing into South Bend's Coveleski Stadium overnight and pulling the tarp off during a rain storm. A double header had already been scheduled for that next day, but groundskeepers got the field ready and the games went ahead. The suspension concluded the second year in professional baseball for Roso. He was taken by the Orioles in the 21st round of the 1989 draft out of ...

Originally published Nov. 29, 2011 The San Clemente All Stars didn't make the Little League Junior World Series in 2011, but their manager Dave Riddle told the team that there was nothing to be ashamed of, The San Clemente Times wrote . "I told them the one thing to take out of the game is that it just doesn’t come down to the score," Riddle told The Times after the August loss. "It comes down to all they did to get to this point -- all the days they skipped going to the beach, all the days of practice." Riddle managed that team of 13- and 14-year-olds , a team that included his son Dylan Riddle, having played himself, years earlier. Riddle played three seasons in the Orioles system, but was unable to make it out of high-A, his career ending two decades before his team of All Stars' season ended. Riddle's career began in 1989, taken by the Orioles in the 20th round of the draft, out of San Diego State University. Riddle ...

Originally published Jan. 20, 2011 During Tommy Taylor 's first week in the summer amateur league, he was ready to come back home , his coach recalled later, during Taylor's senior year in high school. Then his attitude changed, Louisa High coach Bill Pelot told The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star in March 1989. He threw a no-hitter and he met some new friends. "I think it is going to help him down the road," Pelot told The Free-Lance Star . Pelot spoke while his pitcher was in the midst of a 7-1 season at his high school , posting an ERA of 1.15. It was enough to get scouts interested , and for the Orioles to bite, selecting him in the second round, 33rd overall in that June's draft . But, while it was enough to make him Baltimore's second selection, behind Ben McDonald, it wasn't enough to get him to the majors. Taylor started his professional career slowly with the Orioles' rookie league team in Bluefield. In 10 starts, he went 1-3 an...

Matt Anderson signed with the Orioles and the new high school graduate was ready to go . He was ready to go to Bluefield, Virginia, home of the rookie league Bluefield Orioles. He was looking to move right into the Bluefield starting rotation, The Los Angeles Times wrote . "I can't wait. I'm really excited," Anderson told The Times in June 1989. "I need to get out and get a chance to grow up." While Anderson got his chance to grow up, in a career that lasted six seasons and was spotted by injury, Anderson never got his chance to pitch in the major leagues. Anderson's career started that year in 1989, taken by the Orioles in the fifth round of the draft, out of Buena High School in California. The left-hander chose the Orioles over Cal State Northridge . At Bluefield that first year, though, Anderson got off to a slow start. He started only five games, getting into nine others. He picked up four losses to no wins, and an ERA of 8.66 ...

Originally published May 14, 2014 Dean Palmer started off 1992 about as hot as anyone. He hit a home run in each of his team's first three games. To The Associated Press later that month, Palmer credited a new outlook he took late the previous year. "I'm a different person now," Palmer told The AP . "I'm more relaxed and I'm playing my game. I'm going out there and trying to have fun and I think it shows." Palmer ended up hitting 26 home runs for the Rangers that year and 33 the next . By the time his 14-season major league career was over, Palmer had hit 275. Palmer's career began in 1986, taken by the Rangers in the third round of the draft out of Florida High School in Tallahassee, Fla. Palmer started in the rookie Gulf Coast League. He made single-A Gastonia in 1987, then AA Tulsa in 1989. In September 1989, Palmer made the Rangers in Texas. He got into 16 games, hitting .105. He then didn't make it back to Tex...

Originally published Sept. 6, 2010 It was the bottom of the third. The Rangers were already up 4 to 2 against the Yankees when Dan Peltier stepped into the batter's box to face Bob Wickman. On a 3-0 count, Peltier swung away, hitting the ball over the right field fence . "It was phenomenal," Peltier recalled to a television interviewer years later. "I remember rounding the bases, thinking this is unbelievable. I had goose bumps, chills, everything that you could possibly imagine, especially doing it against the yankees, which was my favorite childhood team." It was Peltier's first major league home run. It would also be his last in a career that spanned three major league seasons. Peltier began his professional career in 1989, taken by the Rangers in the third round out of Notre Dame. He signed with the Rangers after a junior season to remember with the Fighting Irish. Peltier hit .446 with 15 home runs and 93 RBIs for Notre Dame, in 68...

The Jackson Mets broke an unwritten baseball rule and Kevin Belcher took it upon himself to instruct them. Up 10-1 on Belcher's Tulsa Drillers, Jackson runner Terry McDaniel stole second, The Orlando Sentinel wrote . Belcher, serving as designated hitter, responded by yelling at McDaniel. Belcher was ejected. Seven others would also be tossed after the ensuing bench-clearing brawl. "That stolen base got my players upset," Tulsa Manager Tommy Thompson told The Sentinel after that June 1990 game. "We don't try to show up professionals. They had a big lead at the time." Belcher took that passion from AA Tulsa in June 1990, all the way to majors by September . The 16 games he got into that year, though, were the only 16 games he would see in the majors. Belcher's career began in 1987, taken by the Rangers in the sixth round of the draft out of Navarro College . Belcher played that first year in the rookie Gulf Coast League, hitting .209 in...

Originally published Nov. 22, 2011 There were times in Rob Maurer 's first professional season where he got upset with the way he was hitting, he told The Evansville Press in 1988. Then someone would remind him he was still hitting .370 . "That's just the way Rob is," Rangers director of player development Marty Scott told The Press . "He's a perfectionist. When he lets his bat fly or his helmet fly, it's not anger so much as it is frustration." Maurer ended up hitting .391 that first season in rookie ball at Butte, Mont. He'd make the majors three seasons later . Maurer, however, couldn't bring that early success with him, getting into only 21 big league games, getting three hits in 25 at bats . Maurer's career began that year with Butte in 1988, taken by the Rangers in the sixth round of the draft, out of the University of Evansville. After that first season with Butte, where Maurer hit .391, Maurer moved to single-A ...

Originally published April 23, 2010 While it might not have been as unusual as a left-handed second baseman, Monty Fariss still got some looks at his chosen position of shortstop, according to The South Florida Sun-Sentinel . Listed at up to 6 feet, 5 inches tall, Fariss was a rare tall fielder at short, something Fariss was unconcerned about talking to The Sun-Sentinel in 1991. "Shortstop has felt like my natural position ever since I first started playing as a kid. Being big has never bothered me, or hurt my play," Fariss told The Sun-Sentinel . "Being a big shortstop gives me some advantages. I can cover as much or more ground than anyone going from side to side, and offensively I can hit with some power." "A big shortstop has the ability to field and really produce at the plate," he told The Sun-Sentinel . "That's a great combination." Fariss spoke to The Sun-Sentinel as he was fighting for a spot that spring on the R...