Welcome to the Rays Tank, where the stats are made up and the jokes don't matter. Before we get to the Link Dump and the Banal Chatter, let's take a look at what happened on This Day in Baseball. Ladies, Gentlemen, and Rays fans, I give you: August 13th.
Our first stop lands us in 2010, when Evan Longoria made a routine (for him) over the shoulder catch of a foul ball. Yawn, right? But check those jerseys!
Those are pretty sweet. Not that I don't like the faux-backs they use now, but I'm kind of over them. Plus, they feel very Joe Maddon. It would be nice to rock the Tarpon jerseys again, or the St. Pete Saints, or even (gasp!) the Original DRaynbows. A guy can dream, right?
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For our next stop we go to 1997, where the Giants' Darryl Hamilton goes Kevin Kiermaier on a Jose Hernandez drive.
Darryl Hamilton played in the wrong era. Not much pop, but the dude could fly.
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For stop #3, we find my favorite original DRay, Miguel Cairo, playing out the string in Cincinnati in 2011.
That's the way you do it! And he wasn't the only ex-Ray with a two-homer game for the Reds that day; Ryan Hanigan did the same thing. But we don't like Hanigan as much, because he kept getting hurt, which subjected us to repeated viewings of Jose Molina behind the plate (not awful) and at the plate (uuuuugggggghhhhh kill me nowwwwww!). So if you want to see Hanigan's daily double, you can look them up yourself. In all, the Reds would finish with 69 homers on the night.
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Our last stop takes us to Cleveland, where Travis Haffner is just stepping into the batter's box with the bases loaded. He's already hit five grand slams so far in 2006, one shy of Don Mattingly's record. Let's watch Pronk do Pronk things.
That's Luke Hudson looking like somebody just ran over his dog, though it's probably more that the Royals are now down 11-0 rather than the fact that he's now on the wrong side of an obscure trivia question. As for Hafner, this would be his last good year. He was okay in 2007, then off to Grady Sizemore land of alternating between hurt and ineffective. But it was quite a ride up till then.
Here's some other stuff that happened on August 13th:
- 1945: Branch Rickey becomes principal stockholder of the Dodgers.
- 1948: Satchel Paige, 41 year-old Negro League legend and major league rookie, pitches his first major league shutout in front of 50,000 fans in Comiskey Park.
- 1978: The Yankees score five times in the top of the seventh inning to take a 5-3 lead on Baltimore. But when heavy rains come in the bottom of the inning, the score reverts to the previously completed inning and the game is called, giving the O's the win. The rule is changed in 1980, because Yankees.
- 1979: Lou Brock gets his 3,000 career hit. And you thought he just stole bases.
But enough about ancient history. What's going on with your Rays right now? As promised, here's your Link Dump:
- Desmond Jennings will rejoin the Rays tomorrow, and as expected, the Rays optioned Joey Butler to Durham to make room.
- Drew Smyly says that he too is ready to return (article from Marc Topkin, TBT)
- Part two on little league home runs. Turns out the Rays have hit two. Yesterday people already identified the Steven Souza Jr. play from this season as one of them. What's the other? Also, the Rays are the only team never to have given one up.
- There's been a lot of talk lately about the Rays being more aggressive at the plate. That may or may not be helping their offense, but here's Eno Sarris talking to and breaking down Michael Brantley, who says that his success has come from being more aggressive.
- Hisashi Iwakuma threw a no-hitter.