Author Archive: Phil Gurnee
Empath mode
The dream was swirling around just before I needed to wake up. My friend Jerry was there, the old companion and I were in a somewhat modern world but different. People were around us and as we wandered a 50ish African American woman with a companion came up to us and we wandered around together. …
Dodger offensive resurgence fueled by Bellinger / Taylor / Toles
On the day the Dodgers brought up Cody Bellinger on April 25th their record was a floundering 9 – 11. Chris Taylor had been brought up on April 19th. Toles had an OPS of .678 on April 24th. It was like Bellinger lit a fire under his arse because one of them was going to …
On this day in baseball – Eddie Murray makes history
I’ve always loved switch hitters who could hit from both sides of the plate. Most can’t but the ones who can and who can hit with power are a rare breed. Eddie Murray was a rare breed and one of the greatest switch-hitters in baseball history. On May 8th, 1987 Eddie Murry puts his stamp …
Chris Taylor RBI machine
Before Chris Taylor reaches 100 at-bats tonight I wanted to get this little RBI leaderboard out there. Taylor has shown a propensity for multi base-runner hitting and thus has accumulated a startling number of runs batted in before reaching 100 at-bats. Hitting up Baseball Reference I found three players who had driven in at least 15 …
On this day in baseball – Frank Robinson rolls a 541 home run off of Luis Tiant
On this day, future HOF, future Triple Crown Winner, and future Dodger Frank Robinson hit a home run out of old Baltimore Memorial Stadium that was measured to roll 541 feet. The ball cleared the football press box (Memorial Stadium was also home to the then-Baltimore Colts), then a good 50 rows of bleachers, then …
MLB surprises on May 8th
We are now six weeks into the season and some huge surprises continue to dominate the baseball landscape. You would have to be living under a baseball rock to not know that Ryan Zimmerman has emerged from his three-year cocoon to become the spring butterfly of 2017 major league baseball. Zimmerman has a ton of …
Bellinger and the LAD multiple HR multiple position list
Eric Stephen put together a nice list of the exploits by Cody Bellinger based on what he had done in his first eleven career games. However, the one stat that fascinates me was the one where he had hit multiple home runs from multiple positions. I had to update this column because Cody Bellinger keeps …
LAD pinch hitters are ruling the day
The LAD have a long history of productive pinch hitters but in 2016 the tough role only produced a .567 OPS and that included the great work by Andrew Toles. In 2017 however, they are hitting like Manny Mota, Lee Lacy, Lenny Harris, Mike Sharperson and Olmedo Saenz combined. It is only May 6th …
Bellinger goes boom
Cody Bellinger stepped right into Adrian Gonzalez’s big shoes last night and set a few records when he slugged two home runs. Bellinger became the youngest LAD first baseman to ever hit two home runs in a game. Before that James Loney owned the feat. Below is every LAD 1st baseman to perform the feat …
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 