Friday Five - Top 5 MLB Players From NC State

It's the first day of the college baseball season. My Wolfpack are home for three games against Seton Hall.  If it weren't going to be 40 this weekend I would consider venturing out for a game.  I will wait for a little warmer weather.  

In the meantime, here are a few former Wolfpack players who made their way from Raleigh to the Major Leagues.  No Hall of Famers, but maybe you know a few of these players.....

Honorable Mention- Adam Everett 

Everett played for the Astros, Twins, Tigers, and Indians during his eleven year Major League career.  You probably best remember him as a member of the Astros in the early 2000s.  Not much of a hitter, but he was a really underrated defensive player.  Everett ended his career with a .242/.294/.346 slash line.  That's really painful.  He also ended his career with a 15.6 dWAR, which included seasons of 2.2, 2.5, 3.3., and 4.1.  He finished in the top 5 in that category four different times during his career and he somehow managed to not win a Gold Glove.  

#5- Tim Stoddard 

Stoddard is the only Major League Baseball player who has both a World Series ring and an NCAA National Championship in basketball.  Stoddard was a member of NC State's 1974 National Championship team who beat Marquette for the title.  He averaged 20 minutes a game, scored 5 points per game, and grab 5 boards too.  Stoddard was not just sitting on the bench.  

He spent time guarding Bill Walton in the National Semi-Final Game against UCLA.  Former Braves and Indians outfielder Kenny Lofton played basketball at Arizona, appeared in World Series games and Final Four games, but won neither.  Interestingly enough, both Lofton and Stoddard went to the same high school outside of Chicago.  

Stoddard played 13 years for the Orioles, Yankees, Padres, and several other teams.  He spent his entire career as a fairly solid relief pitcher, including for the 1983 Orioles, who won the World Series.  Stoddard ended his career with a 41-35 record, a 3.95 ERA, and 76 saves.  

#4. Mike Caldwell 

Caldwell played a total of 14 years, most of those came with the Brewers after bouncing around between the Padres, Giants, Reds, and Cardinals early in his career.  His best seasons were almost all over 30 too, sort of a late bloomer.  At 29 in 1978, in his first full season with the Brewers, Caldwell won 22 games, and had an ERA of just 2.36.  He would go on to win in double digits for the Brewers six times and helped them win the American League East twice.  In 1982 the Brewers advanced to the World Series.  Caldwell won two starts for the Brewers against the Cardinals.  

#3. Dan Plesac 

Dan is on MLB Network, or at least the last time I checked he was on there.  He had a long career which had long stretches with the Brewers and Blue Jays, several other teams in there too.  At the beginning of hid career, Plesac was used as a closer, but spent the majority of his career as a middle reliever.  Not bad either, averaging almost a strikeout per inning over an 18 career.  Plesac made three All-Star Game rosters early in his career while he was serving as the Brewers closer.  Overall, he won 65 games, saved 158, and had an ERA of 3.64.

#2 Roger Craig 

Craig had some nice years for the Dodgers early in his career and helped the team win the World Series in 1955 and 1959.  He eventually ended up on the expansion Mets in the early 1960s and lost 46 games between the 1962 and 1963 seasons.  Craig was later traded to the Cardinals and picked up his third World Series ring in 1964, helping to beat the Yankees.  He ended his career in 1966 after a brief two year stint as a relief pitcher for the Reds and Phillies.  After retiring as a player, Craig managed the Padres (1978-1979) and Giants (1985-1992).  He led the Giants to the 1989 National League Pennant and won the 1990 National League Manager of the Year.  

#1- Dave Robertson 

It's hard to find a lot of biographical information about Robertson's MLB career, but there are a lot of gaps and partial seasons.  He was a World War I era player, but I cannot actually find any information about him being in the Army.  Not sure if he was injured, or what happened during some of the spaces in his career.  Tim Peeler, who works at NC State and does a lot of great writing about the athletic program, wrote a piece a few years back about the legend that is Dave Robertson around Raleigh.  The Peeler article mentions that he retired because of injuries, but more on that later.  

There was a three year stretch for Robertson starting in 1915 where he played more than 140 games in a season.  That only happened four times during his career.  He led the National League twice in home runs during that stretch.  The National League leaderboard is littered during those three years with appearances by Robertson.   He finished in the Top 10 in average, slugging, on base, runs, hits, total bases, doubles, and RBIs at some point during that time span.  

Robertson helped the Giants reach the 1917 World Series against the White Sox.  The Giants lost that World Series, but Robertson had a 11 hits in the Series.  The record is for hits in a World Series is 13, but Robertson played one less game than the record holder, who is former Red Sox second baseman Marty Barrett.  

Robertson's only other full season in the Majors came in 1920 with the Cubs.  He hit .300/.353/.462 with 10 home runs, 11 triples, and 29 doubles.  The next season, during 1921 he would hit for the cycle becoming just the 29th player to accomplish the feat in Major League history.  In 1922, he would pick up a World Series ring with the Giants in his final season, though he did not step foot on the field during the Fall Classic against the Yankees.  

For what it's worth, after leaving the Giants because of injuries, Robertson played another nine seasons in the Minor Leagues while managing various teams.  He never hit below .300 during his final stretch in the Minors and had a season with 35 home runs and another with 24.  Pretty impressive totals for the 1920s.  

Not a long career, but he was great when he stayed on the field.   

Friday Five: Five Coolest Baseball Games I Have Seen In Person

It's been a long time since I have made one of these Friday Five posts.  I should make this a regular thing again.  I know there were several regular readers who used to really like these, so to reward your patience I am going to double the normal five and go with ten for this week.  Really, I came up with five games, then had an honorable mention or two.  That quickly ballooned into another five games.  The Friday Ten just sounds terrible though.  Here's the list.


10.  July 22, 1986 San Francisco Giants vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

A lot of Cardinals fans will tell you that the Gold Standard for baseball brawls was the Cardinals and Reds from 2010 with Brandon Phillips and Yadier Molina.  Maybe an older fan will tell you it's the time Will Clark tried to take out Jose Oquendo and it ended up in a huge fight between the two and Ozzie Smith.  They're all wrong.   I went to a baseball game once for my mother's birthday and this happened.....

The video quality is not great, but this whole thing was basically set off by Whitey Herzog and Roger Craig, the two managers of the teams.  You know it's good when the St. Louis Police get involved, Mike Heath has to restrain Vince Coleman by carrying him off the field, and fans throwing beer at Chris Brown.  It appears that Tito Landrum might have been some sort of peace maker throughout.

9. April 14, 2006 Toledo Mud Hens vs. Durham Bulls 

My first Opening Day in Durham had a pretty memorable finish.  The Bulls were losing for the entire game including a 4-1 deficit entering the ninth inning.  Good old Lee Gardner pitched the ninth inning for the Mud Hens, but walked Shawn Riggans, Brent Butler, and Darnell McDonald to load the bases for the Devil Rays top infield prospect B.J. Upton.  As I remember it, there was not much doubt that the ball was over the fence.  A great way to start off my first full season of Durham Bulls baseball.  Here is the box score.

I don't remember Ryan Ludwick being on the Mud Hens that season.  See, these posts are already doing me some good.  I saw a Cardinals player and I don't even remember it.  

7.  July 16, 2006 Columbus Clipper vs. Durham Bulls 

This was the first no-hitter that I ever attended, but I did not stay for the whole game.  This is what happens when you go out to a game with a bunch of people that you work with and they say, "let's walk across the street and eat garlic fries and drink beer".  The garlic fries at the restaurant across the street from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park are excellent, but I deeply regret my decision.  Hammel ended up pitching into the ninth inning, but was at 125 pitches when manager John Tamargo pulled him out the game.  I didn't see it.  

Requisite picture of Jason Hammel pitching in Triple A.  

In the end Juan Salas came in and got the last two outs of the game.  The Clippers actually ended up scoring a run at the end of the game because Wes Bankston and Delmon Young committed errors on the same play, a ball hit by Carlos Pena, which was followed up by a wild pitch by Salas.  Always had this terrible feeling that I would not see another no-hitter ever and that this was the dumbest time to ever leave a game early...it worked out okay though. Read on.

6. October 5, 1985 Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

I moved to St. Louis at some point in the summer of 1984.  I know I went to a baseball game or two that summer and I know I went to a few during the 1985 season too.  The best game out of my first two years living in St. Louis was the second to last game of the year between the Cardinals and Cubs.    The Cardinals and Mets were in a heated pennant race, with no wild cards at that time, which meant you had to win your division.  This was the game where the Cardinals clinched the National League East by beating the Cubs 7-1.

Ozzie made this great play, Cesar Cedeno hit a home run, and John Tudor pitched great.  Definitely one of my better memories watching baseball as a kid in St. Louis.  

5. (tie)  September 5, 1998 Cincinnati Reds vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

I went to this game for a friend's birthday.  Drove home from college and watched the game.  It was McGwire and it was 1998.   I was actually sitting in left field for this game, but I was over about three sections towards center field and up about twenty rows from where the ball landed.  

The whole home run chase thing has lost some of its luster over time due to the steroid stuff, Bonds breaking the record again a few years later, etc.  It was something that was really important to baseball in St. Louis at the time it happened though.  If you could ask the 21 year old version of me about this game when it happened, or maybe a month after, it would have been higher than 5.  Same with the next one.  

5. (tie) September 7, 1998 Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

Same kind of stuff as the previous moment.  I thought this one was a little bit better, still going with a tie though, since it came against the Cubs.  Sosa was there and the Cubs were high fiving McGwire running around the bases.  Something always great about a Cubs and Cardinals game.  This one was the best I have seen of that rivalry.  

4. July 1, 2015 USA Baseball National College Team vs. Cuban National Baseball Team 

This was the second no-hitter I watched in the span of a year and the third one overall.  If you keep reading I promise you there is another one.  The summer time version of the USA Baseball National Team is made up of college players.  In this case the no-hitter was thrown by three pitchers from the SEC: Tanner Houck from Missouri, A.J. Puk from Florida, and Ryan Hendrix from Texas A&M.  All three are now in the Minors.  The final out....

This was a cool game to watch because it was a bunch of college kids taking on Cuban players who are in a professional league back home.  If you have never been to a USA Baseball game in Cary, NC the crowd tends to have more scouts than fans.  It's why there isn't a ton of noise at the end of the game when Hendrix gets the final out.  The one ding against this game is the fact that two of the Cuban players, both started the game, defected after the game.  Don't get me wrong, the three pitchers are great, but I have often wondered how much the Cubans were into the game.  

3.  April 26, 2014 Scranton Railriders vs. Durham Bulls 

The second no-hitter I saw, but the first one that I watched in its entirety.  I went to this game because my brother was in town for something work related.  We sat behind the Scranton dugout and watched Luis Sojo coach third base for the Yankees Triple A team.  I think I first noticed that Montgomery had a no-hitter going sometime in the fifth.  

Montgomery pitched into the ninth inning, but was pulled out of the game by the Rays.  Brad Boxberger finished the no-hitter off with a ground out and a strikeout.  Montgomery actually just missed a perfect game, walking just one batter, which happened to be former Bulls player Russ Canzler.  

2. September 27, 1998 Montreal Expos vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

A younger version of me would have put this at number one all day long.  I still love Mark McGwire as a player, still love what the home run race in 1998 did for baseball, and still remember the excitement this generated.  As previously stated though, it's luster has been somewhat diminished.  

Still a pretty awesome moment to witness.  I consider myself a pretty fortunate to have seen as many baseball games as I have in my life, not many people have seen something like this before.  

1.  September 15, 1991 New York Mets vs. St. Louis Cardinals 

I went to tons of Cardinals games while I was in high school with my father on Sunday afternoons.  The Cardinals were not good for most of my teen years, but they had a few good players and a few bright spots along the way.  Probably the best player on those teams was center fielder Ray Lankford. He's really an under appreciated player in the history of the team who is in the all-time top 10 in dozens of offensive categories.  Yet, he's not in the team's Hall of Fame likely because he's the only player on those top 10 lists who spent the majority of his career playing on bad teams.  Ted Simmons might fit that too. 

The best moment I had watching Lankford came early in his career against the Mets when he hit for the cycle.  It was a great moment at the time, but I think it has become a little bit better with time just for the fact that I am pretty doubtful I will see another player hit for a cycle again.  It could happen, but the odds are heavily against it.  

Here is the box score from Baseball-Reference.  

While I am really into collecting Ray Lankford cards, I also have several non-baseball card items of his too.  Probably my favorite item is my scorecard from that game.  I wrote in pencil, so I try not to take it out to often.  

While this is my best baseball moment, I am always open to further suggestions if someone wanted to hit four home runs in a game I attend, or pitch a perfect game.  I will have to revisit this post in a few years and see if it has changed at all.  

Gaggle of Great Graphs

I had posted a Scott Rolen autograph a few days back.  I had actually ended up with that Topps Heritage autograph through a fellow collector who was also trying to get rid of a few old Fleer Greats of the Game autographs.  I really enjoyed collecting those sets way back in the day, liked the autographs that were in the lot, so I decided to jump at the chance to pick up these cards.  I ended up with five in all.  Here's a look at the cards, all from the 2001 Great of the Game set...

I have a bunch of Enos Slaughter autographs, but I had never picked this one before now.  Slaughter had a really nice autograph and this one is generally his roughest signature on a certified card.  At the time this set came out the Roxboro, North Carolina native was fighting Lymphoma.  While it's not his best signature, it's one of his last.  I like the black and white photo on the card too.  These were the simplest design of the Greats of the Game set, but I think the simplicity works well. 

So this is where I am a little bit lost on the design of this set.  The Mazeroski autograph above has a color picture.  The card still looks really nice.  I thought perhaps the color/black and white pictures were based on when they played, but Orlando Cepeda's career lined up almost exactly with Mazeroski and he had a bacl and white photo.  Same with Killebrew at the bottom.  Let's just enjoy the autographs.  Prior to this card, I did not have a Mazeroski autograph.  His signatures are never expensive, nor hard to find, just never got around to picking one up.  

I have other Cepeda autographs, with the Cardinals, but I liked the look of this card.  Obviously a younger version of Cha Cha at the beginning of his career with the Giants.  

This is my only duplicate out of the lot.  Roger Craig is a Durham native, so I have picked up a few of his autographs over the years.  I remember Roger Craig best as the manager of the Giants when I was a kid, but as I have gotten older I have run into him as sort of local sports legend around central North Carolina.  I am pretty sure that three different high school's in Durham try to claim him, he went to NC State, and every baseball fan I have ever met from North Carolina over the age of 65 saw him pitch locally in the minor leagues.  

Not my first autograph of the Twins Hall of Famer, but Harmon always has a nice autograph.  Great looking card.  

Buy Local #5: Roger Craig

I do not do a lot of vintage cards on my blog, nor do I bring in a lot of players who played before the 80s, but it's really hard to do a series of posts on local North Carolina players and not mention the legendary Roger Craig.  Craig is best known for his role in helping the 1950s Dodgers teams to a pair of World Series titles in 1955 and 1959, and also for leading the San Francisco Giants as their manager in the late 80s and early 90s.

Roger Craig grew up in Durham, North Carolina and had a job as the bat boy for Durham Bulls at the time.  The Bulls have never listed Roger Craig as an official alumni, but there is a sidewalk square outside of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park which recognizes the Durham native.  

After graduating from high school, Roger Craig took a basketball scholarship to play at NC State and also ended up playing on the baseball team while he was there.  The Dodgers signed Craig as an amateur free agent in 1950.  His career was delayed when he was drafted for the Korean War, but by the summer of 1955 he was up in the Majors playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

1956 Topps Roger Craig 

Craig first appeared on cardboard during the summer of 1956, a year after he helped the 1955 Dodgers win the World Series by winning the pivotal game 5 against the Yankees.  One of the first vintage cards I ever bought when I moved to North Carolina was this copy of Craig's rookie card.  There used to be a card shop on Duke Street north of I-85 when I moved to Durham in the fall of 2005.  One of my first trips into the store,  the owner told me that I could not officially be a baseball fan in North Carolina without a copy of a Craig rookie.  He gave me a bargain and sold me this excellent copy for $10.  I have a few extra copies now, but it's definitely a really cool card to own.  

1963 Topps Roger Craig 

Roger Craig was also pretty famous for being one of the original New York Mets.  He spent the 1962 and 1963 seasons with the Mets and posted a record of 15-46 during his two season stay in Queens.  Despite leading the National League in loses both seasons with 22 and 24 loses, Craig was really not that bad of a pitcher.  In fact, between the two seasons he posted a WAR north of 5 with 3.0 number in 1962.  Just to give that a modern comparison, Shelby Miller won 15 games last season with the Cardinals and had a WAR of 3.  

Craig did make an appearance with the 1964 Cardinals and pitched two games in relief during the World Series.  The ring with the Cardinals was his third and final as a player.  Craig made a few minor league appearances in the late sixties, but was basically retired from baseball.  He went into coaching and ended up have several pitching coach gigs with the Padres, Astros, and Tigers.  The Tigers job gave Craig his fourth ring during the 1984 season.

Of course, many modern collectors probably best know Roger Craig as the manager of the Giants during the late 1980s and early 1990s.  He led the Giants to the playoffs in 1987, where the team missed out on the World Series by one game, and again in 1989, when the Giants won the National League and appeared in the World Series against the A's.

Craig retired from baseball in 1992, but has still been pretty active around baseball.  IBaseball recently posted a cool interview with Craig on their YouTube channel and he still shows up on baseball cards from time to time.  He even signs a few from time to time.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Roger Craig Autograph