Thursday, December 11, 2014

#358 - Tony Pena


What a card: Tony Pena continued to be a force behind the plate in his third full season with the Pirates in 1984. He won his second of three straight Gold Gloves.

My observation on the front: Tony Pena's arms have legs!!!

More opinion from me: I will always remember Pena for his catching squat in which he stuck one leg out in order to offer a lower target to the pitcher. It was very bizarre at the time.

Something you might know: Pena was a five-time all-star with a terrific throwing arm who hit well during the first half of his career.

Something you might not know: Both of Pena's baseball-playing sons have played for the Royals organization. Tony Jr. was a shortstop for the Royals from 2007-09 and Francisco Pena played for Triple A Omaha last season and could be a backup to Salvador Perez next year. Tony Pena, of course, managed the Royals from 2002-05.


My observation on the back: Way to go, mom!! If you have the time (and you'll need a lot of time), Joe Posnanski wrote a great story about 10 years ago about Pena and his mother.

The blog wants to speak now: The Pop Culture tab is updated.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tony Pena Jr. was actually an infielder. Tony Pena the pitcher was unrelated. According to Omar Vizquel, during their time as Indians Dennis Martinez preferred throwing to Pena instead of Sandy Alomar because Alomar wasn't intense enough.

night owl said...

Got the positions mixed up. It's fixed. Thanks.

jacobmrley said...

Are you saying Joe Posnanski is a tad verbose?