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run in his first rehab game with Triple-A Iowa
Over the winter, we wrote about the Blue Jays coming to terms with a pair of pitchers who were trying to become knuckleballers. Davante Adams Super Bowl Jersey . They were Josh Banks and Tomo Ohka. Banks had been a Blue Jays draft pick who had a brief stint with the club in 2007 before moving on to San Diego and then Houston, compiling a career record of 4-8. The other was Ohka, a journeyman from Japan who spent time with six organizations, including the Blue Jays in 2007, where he went 2-5. Ohka, who turns 38 next week, was already sent to the minor league camp last week. Now there is a third. Hes 30-year-old Frank Viola III. If the name is familiar, it should be. Hes the son of former big league star lefty, Frank Viola Jr. Frank Jr. had a very good career, predominantly with the Twins and the Mets. He was the MVP of the 1987 World Series - the Twins first win ever - and won the Cy Young Award in the American League the following season - his final full season with the Twins with a 24-7 season. Frank "Sweet Music" Viola, as he was affectionately known, is a member of the Twins Hall of Fame. Viola actually finished off his major league career in a short stop over with the Blue Jays in 1996. He went 1-3 for the Jays and ended his career on May 28 of that year. His son chased that major league dream as well and pitched in the White Sox organization thtough 2007 before injuries appeared to cut his career short. He dabbled in the media doing Florida State League games and even had his own fishing show, but Viola III never gave up his dream of pitching in the majors. The next step was trying to master the knuckleball. He worked with the likes of R,A Dickey, Tim Wakefield and Hall of Famer Phil Niekro and finally impressed the Blue Jays enough that they signed him last week. This doesnt necessarily mean the 30-year-old will make it to the big club. The Jays game plan is to have a knuckleballer or two in the minors to work with their catching prospects. That way, if they get called up to the Jays theyll be ready to work with Dickey without any major adjustment. Still, it would be great to see one of these knuckleballers eventually make it to the majors. Frank Viola Jr. incidentally is entering his second season as the pitching coach with the Mets Triple A farm club, the Las Vegas 51s. After writing about the passing of Dr. Frank Jobe, the man who pioneered Tommy John surgery last week, I discovered another interesting twist to the Tommy John story. Back in 1968, in a game at old Tiger Stadium, John was pitching against Detroit. In the first inning he hit Dick McAuliffe with a pitch. He later scored on an RBI single by Al Kaline. When McAuliffe came up again in the third, threw one pitch high and tight and then a 3-2 pitch behind McAuliffes head that sent him sprawling in the dirt. When he got up he dusted himself off and started to head to first glancing out towards John. McAuliffe claims that John taunted him by saying "What the F are you looking at?" That was the final straw for McAuliffe and he charged the mound. John got into a defensive position and the knee of the charging McAuliffe dug into Johns left shoulder. He suffered a separated shoulder and torn shoulder ligaments and missed the rest of the season. McAuliffe was suspended for five games and was fined $250.00. The interesting thing about John is that he resisted the advice to have surgery and let the shoulder heal with rest and rehab. The plan worked, though it took a while for John to get back to peak efficiency. 1974 was different. When Tommy John blew out his elbow, he said his arm simply felt dead. This time he agreed to surgery, which not only changed his career but revolutionized baseball in terms of treating this type of elbow injury. The Detroit Tigers have made history over the last three years, winning five of the six major awards handed out. They have won three straight MVP awards - the last two by Miguel Cabrerra and three straight Cy Young awards. The Tigers have made the postseason in each of the last three years. The only other time the organization did that was in the hay day of Ty Cobb in 1907, 1908 and 1909 when they dropped three straight World Series - two to the Cubs and one to the Pirates. This season under rookie manager Brad Ausmus, they will be trying to make the playoffs for the fourth straight time and for the first time in franchise history. Over the weekend, Tigers GM Dave Dumbrowski denied rumours he was listening to offers for starting pitcher Rick Porcello. In fact, he denied trying to trade any of his starters. But considering the Tigers have question marks at 3rd base and left field, you have to wonder a bit. Its still a bit too early to get too excited or too worried about this but Baltimore is 8-2 so far this spring and is scoring nearly eight runs-again, even without a rehabbing Manny Machado (knee) at full strength. David Bakhtiari Super Bowl Jersey . 1 Caroline Wozniacki and three-time champion Serena Williams cruised into the semifinals, while last years runner-up Vera Zvonareva succumbed to Aussie Samantha Stosur in Thursdays womens quarterfinal action at the U. Clay Matthews Super Bowl Jersey . This was one of them. Omar Infante homered and tied a career high with six RBIs to carry the Kansas City Royals over the Baltimore Orioles 9-3 on Sunday.CHICAGO - The hard-hit grounder went right to shortstop Starlin Castro, and he made a strong throw to first. It was just too late to get Gregory Polanco. The play proved costly when Josh Harrison followed with a two-run homer, sending Castro and the Chicago Cubs to a rain-delayed 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night. "It was a bad bounce," Castro said. "I had to turn around. It was really hard, too, and the guy run pretty hard from home plate, thats why I didnt get him." Jordy Mercer went deep for the second straight day and Andrew McCutchen had a tiebreaking RBI single for Pittsburgh, which had lost four of five. Vance Worley (1-0) pitched into the seventh inning for his first win with the Pirates. Harrisons fifth homer with two out in the seventh made it 5-2 and came after Polanco was the beneficiary of baseballs replay system. He was originally called out by umpire James Hoye in a close play at first after he hustled down the line on his sharp grounder. "The play was a hard-hit ball to Starlin, who came up slower than he probably should have," Cubs manager Rick Renteria said. "Polanco is busting his rear end down the line." The review also extended Polancos hit streak to 11 games, making him the first NL player to begin his major league career with such a streak since Juan Pierre hit in 16 straight games for Colorado in 2000. "He looked safe, so you go out and you have your people run the replay," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "As sure as you are, you dont know until you know. It turned out to play very big for us." Anthony Rizzo hit a two-run homer for Chicago, which had won four of five. Eli Whiteside doubled home Darwin Barney in the seventh. "The guys keep battling, they keep playing," Renteria said. The start of the game was delayed for 2 hours, 1 minute while a storm passed through the area. Rizzos 15th homer, a drive to the bleachers in right in the fourth, gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead. The big first baseman, making a case for a spot on tthe NL All-Star team, is batting . ZaDarius Smith Super Bowl Jersey. 318 (27 for 85) with seven homers and 19 RBIs in his last 23 games. Pittsburgh responded in the fifth. With two outs and runners on first and second, Harrison and McCutchen each singled back up the middle to put the Pirates back in front. Brian Schlitter then replaced Travis Wood with runners on the corners and retired Russell Martin on a bouncer to third for the final out. Wood (7-6) allowed four hits, walked three and struck out four. The left-hander had won each of his last two starts, including a season-high eight innings of three-hit ball in a 3-0 victory at Philadelphia in his previous outing. "We got a little wild for a little bit, brought the ball up a little bit where they could find some holes and put some runs on the board," Wood said. Worley gave up three runs and five hits in 6 2-3 innings. The righty, who was acquired in a March 25 trade with Minnesota, pitched seven shutout innings in his first start of the season last Sunday at Miami. "Used all his pitches, pounded the strike zone, gave us a real good effort," Hurdle said. Jared Hughes got the final out of the seventh, Tony Watson tossed a perfect eighth and Mark Melancon struck out the side for his 11th save in 14 chances. It was Melancons first opportunity since Hurdle announced on Friday he was removing struggling righty Jason Grilli from the closer role. The Pirates played without speedy outfielder Starling Marte, who left the team to attend to a personal matter in his native Dominican Republic. Jose Tabata got the start in left and went 0 for 3 with a walk. Hurdle said he thinks Marte will be back in time for Monday nights game at Tampa Bay. NOTES: Cubs C Welington Castillo (rib injury) went 1 for 5 and drove in a run in his first rehab game with Triple-A Iowa on Friday. "Felt good, and he continues to progress," Renteria said before Saturdays game. ... Cubs RHP Jason Hammel (6-4, 3.02 ERA) faces RHP Brandon Cumpton (2-2, 5.82 ERA) in the series finale on Sunday. ' ' '
- Created: Mar 11 '20
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