That picture pretty much sums up Fred Lynn better than any picture I could. That’s just a guy livin’ life, fashion be damned. He is going to throw on his Tommy Bahama shirt with the squares on it and go to a seaside memorabilia shop and sign some autographs. And you know what? It’s Saturday. He’s not buttoning the top button.
Lynn was the popular center fielder for the Red Sox late in the 70s before bouncing around from California to Baltimore Detroit and San Diego. He was the Rookie of the Year AND the American League MVP in 1975, all while getting a gold glove and hitting a league leading 47 doubles. That same season, he had a game in which he had 10 RBI, 3 homers and a triple. When he was traded from Boston to California, his career trajectory took a sudden downturn, and that’s probably why he isn’t in the Hall of Fame. He was pretty good to start his career though, aided by Fenway’s generous dimensions for lefties. , and just wasn’t able to match the numbers he put up in Beantown
But it’s not like he cares. He shows up at celebrity softball games whenever they are being played, and he is one of those guys who seems like he is always available for a charity event or an autograph signing. Just let him grab his glasses, a pen and a pina colada.
Every Thursday, 7IS Contributor Ryan Henning will take a look at a rumor burning up the hot stove. You may not think it’s important, but it must be important to someone.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought that the best way to tell whether or not a Tweet is important is to see how many hash tags there are in it. Ken Rosenthal has three in this Tweet about Ryan Shealy! Ryan Shealy must be really important! And he’s going to the Red Sox! That means it’s a doubly important Tweet!
The Red Sox used to be a home for elite free agents and trade acquisitions, but not anymore! When there is a hole in the outfield, who do they look for? The next Manny Ramirez or Jason Bay? No! Jeremy Hermida! Bill Hall! Darnell McDonald! And now they add Ryan Shealy.
As Rosenthal intimates, Shealy had a pretty high OPS in Triple A, which must be why Theo Epstein loved the idea of adding Shealy. Stats are AWESOME. But the best part is, if he did well against Triple A opponents, that means he brings a certain familiarity to games against divisional rival Baltimore.
I hope I got this post up in time for you all, Red Sox Nation. I hope you get to the team store before all the Shealy jerseys sell out.
7th Inning Stache would like to congratulate Juan Samuel and his mustache on their first career win as a Major League manager. Samuel took on the unenviable task of interim managing the Baltimore Orioles on Friday when the team finally canned Dave Trembley. Trembley’s managerial record was awful, even by Orioles standards.
After getting blown out in the first two games of a series with the Red Sox at Camden Yards, Samuel’s squad eked out an 11th-inning victory over Boston on Sunday.
The Orioles still have baseball’s worst record and are 21 games out of first and 19 games out of the AL wild card, but at least they have a manly-looking manager.
Every Friday, 7IS Contributor Ryan Henning will take a look at what’s happening in the life of a former, possibly forgotten player. You may not think it’s important, but it must be important to someone.
I remember Mike Greenwell being a lot better than he was. Perhaps it was because he played out east, and his hot start to his career was during my formative years. After the 1991 season, though, things fell off fairly rapidly, and he wasn’t really ever the same player. He was 2nd in MVP voting in 1988 to Jose Canseco. He played his entire career with Red Sox before everyone hated them, then went over to play in Japan for a year. Obviously, the best part of Mike Greenwell ended up being his creepy mustache he wore early in his career.
Unlike most players we have profiled here on the FCS, Greenwell is not still involved with baseball, lost to the ether or in prison. He took his glove and left baseball, and is now racin’ trucks. He was only in his early thirties and still hitting in the .290s when he left the game, but he wanted to go drive really fast for a career.
He spent 10 years racing in south Florida before he latched on with former NASCAR pro Todd Bodine and is now racing trucks. Well, sort of. He only has two career starts, both in 2006. That means a career earnings of a almost 16K from his NASCAR Truck racing. I would make fun, but 16K for 5 hours of work sounds pretty darn good.
His son Bo (who got his name because Mike was too dumb to spell “Bob” as the jokes of the time went) is now part of the Cleveland Wahoos system. His signing bonus was 123300 dollars, or roughly 8 times what his dad made racing trucks.
Every Friday, 7IS Contributor Ryan Henning will take a look at what’s happening in the life of a former, possibly forgotten player. You may not think it’s important, but it must be important to someone.
Yep… That guy was a major league baseball player. Before Ryan Howard, there was the exact opposite baseball player David Howard. In what ways was he opposite? Well, Ryan Howard is a power hitter, and David Howard is not a hitter at all, not even when he was in the minor leagues. Ryan won a World Series. David played for the Royals. Ryan has been the subject of trade rumors as he approaches the end of his contract. The Royals seemingly couldn’t get rid of David.
My favorite part about David Howard is that the Kansas City Royals blogging community can pinpoint Howard as particularly mediocre, even when considering their recent history. In their list of top 100 Royals of all time, he ranked at #84, and he apologizes to players like Jorge Orta, because Howard ranked higher than him. That’s pretty humbling, I imagine, when someone wants to make it clear that Jorge Orta is a better baseball player than you. I’m not sure Jorge Orta is a better player than David Chalk.
In perhaps the longest interview ever granted to a poor utility infield, we find out that as of 2007 he was a member of the Red Sox scouting staff, perhaps warning the Sox against players that were similar to him. They would hate to end up like the St. Louis Cardinals, who actually signed him as a free agent in 1997 and let him play for 2 seasons.
It turns out that every single MLB nickname is offensive. Stick with me here…
In name, the Fighting Sioux are no more, which opens the door to other sports teams changing their nicknames due in-part to political correctness. The problem with Major League Baseball is that every single team nickname is wildly offensive.
Baltimore Orioles - Sounds like Oreos, and obesity is killing the G-8 nations.
Boston Red Sox - Grammatically and democratically offensive, which is a double whammy.
New York Yankees – This name is far too sexual for America.
Tampa Bay Rays – Named after Rachael Ray, who offends anyone who has taste or dignity (or both).
MLB, Where it is OK to be “Totally GAY For Your Team!”. Do you have a favorite shortstop? This guy does. 
