Tuesday, January 30, 2018

#749 - Julio Cruz


What a card: Julio Cruz played in 143 games for the White Sox in 1984 but batted just .222. It was the beginning of the end for Cruz, who would play part-time the rest of his career.

My observation on the front: Cruz is either really zeroing on the pitcher or struggling to hold up.

More opinion from me: Cruz was the favorite player of a former boss, who is a Mariners fan. It was the first time I knew a Mariners fan.

Something you might know: Cruz held the Mariners' record for career stolen bases until Ichiro Suzuki broke it.

Something you might not know: One of Cruz's high school basketball teammates was Brian Billick, the former coach of the Baltimore Ravens.


My observation on the back: The answer to this is interesting as Branch Rickey is often credited with formalizing and popularizing the farm system while with the St. Louis Cardinals beginning in the early 1920s. I didn't find any reference to the Reds being first.

The blog want to speak now: The TV category is updated.

1 comment:

Jeff said...

That trivia is definitely wrong. Rickey was running the underfinanced Cardinals and was tired of optioning players to minor league teams, only to have them turn around and sell that player to another club for more money. So in a bit of genius, he bought the Houston Buffaloes around 1919-1920 for the Cardinals. He could then control that player after optioning him to Houston. By the time the Reds starting having farm teams in the early 30's, the Cardinals had at least 11 farm teams around 1932, many of them owned by the Cardinals.