Status: RETIRED HERO Moises Alou didn’t wear batting gloves when he hit. Instead, he’d toughen up his hands by urinating on them before games. He enjoyed pranking teammates he caught sleeping in the clubhouse. Moises came from a Dominican baseball family. His father Felipe was a star player in his own right, and managed several […]
Luis Gonzalez
Status: RETIRED HERO Luis Gonzalez is a 5-time All-Star. He spent his best years with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and became the first player to have his number retired by the Diamondbacks. He hit 57 home runs in 2001, the third-most in National League history by a left-handed hitter. Gonzalez was a mediocre hitter during the […]
Jason Giambi
Status: RETIRED HERO He was one of those people who’s just good at every sport. In high school, he played baseball, basketball, and was quarterback for the school football team. He excelled at them all. Jason Giambi went on to play baseball for his college team, the Long Beach State 49ers, where he was a […]
Alexi Casilla
Status: FAILED PROSPECT Alexi Casilla was my #4 prospect in 2006. He had a 44% chance of someday becoming an MLB All-Star. Casilla played in the MLB between 2006 and 2014. His best season was in 2012, when he batted .241 with 1 home run and 21 stolen bases for the Minnesota Twins. He went […]
What Matters the Most?
One of our primal instincts is the desire for tasks to be completed. It’s aggravating to see something partially completed, but with nobody making a move to progress it toward completion. That’s especially true when something is almost done, but not quite. I think this is what drives people to collect things. A collector’s ultimate […]
An Autograph from Jim Gott
Back when I was in seventh grade, around 1991, I went to Campus Middle School in Englewood, Colorado. My gym teacher was Mr. Gott. At the time, I was a huge baseball fan and knew of all the baseball players. But I never put two and two together that Mr. Gott was related to Jim […]