Five Facts: Andy Pettitte

Here are five facts about one of my favorite Yankee, Andy Pettitte.
Other five facts can be found in here: Ellsbury and Betances, Tanaka, Rivera, Ruth, Sabathia, Gregorius



1. Andy Pettitte is MLB's All-time postseason wins leader, 19.
John Smoltz is the second with 15, Tom Glavine is the third with 14. CC Sabathia is the leader among active pitchers with 9, followed by Justin Verlander, Cliff Lee, John Lackey, Cole Hamels, and Madison Bumgarner (?!) all with 7.

2. Once threw this as his two-strike pitch: knuckle ball.
It is in this article from 2010. Posada is not known for his catching, so it is not so hard to imagine that Posada had a trouble catching Pettitte's knuckle balls. In the article, it says that Pettitte used a knuckle ball briefly when in minors then coaches told him to cut it out, so he forgot how to throw it.

3. First pitched to Jorge Posada in 1992, last pitched to Jorge Posada in 2010.
We are so lucky to have both of you on the team for the long period of time.

4. The Yankees drafted his son in the 2013 MLB draft, Josh is currently enrolled at Rice University.
We do have Michel O'neill in the system, a nephew of Paul O'neill.

5. One of the only two players in the history to have four of the same consonant in his name, Mickey Tettleton is the other. 
Here is his reference page.

Five Facts: Didi Gregorius

Here are five facts about Sir Didi Gregorius.
Other five facts can be found in here: Ellsbury and Betances, Tanaka, Rivera, Ruth, Sabathia.



1, Didi Gregorius' father played pro baseball in Netherlands.
His name is Johannes and he played in Honkbal Hoofdklasse.

2. Named a Knight of the order of Orange-Nassau in 2011.
According to Mike Vorkunov of nj.com, the Netherlands team won the 2011 IBAF Baseball World Cup, and each player on the team was knighted in Curaçao instead of getting money as a reward.

3. Biggest hobby off the field: Art.
This is quite good.

4. So much that he drew this Yankee legend.
You can also see it here.

5. His first home run at Yankee Stadium on April 18, 2013.
He hit if off Phil Hughes, and you can see it here:

Five Facts: CC Sabathia

I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but this blog's address contains Sabathia's number, 52. He is never going to be able to pitch like he did in the postseason of '09, but I do hope that he bounces back and finishes his career well so that he can get into the Hall of Fame some day.

Here are five facts about CC Sabathia.
Other five facts can be found in here: Ellsbury and Betances, Tanaka, Rivera, Ruth



CC Sabathia has the most complete games of any active pitcher.
1. Sabathia (37) 2. Colon (35) 3. Buehrle, Lee (29) 5. Hudson (26) 6. Burnett (24) 7. Hernandez (23) 8. Shields (22) 9. Wainwright (21) 10. Verlander (20). Kershaw is right behind Verlander at 17. By the way, Clemens, Maddux, and (Randy) Johnson each pitched 100+ complete games. For shutouts, active leader list goes: 1. Hudson (13) 2. Sabathia, Colon, Lee (12) 5. Burnett (10) 6. 7 others (9). Hopefully CC can pitch another shutout this season to be on the top.

Was selected to the 2000 U.S. Olympic baseball team.
He was in the roster, even spent few weeks with the National team, but then his team (Indians) and the National team disagreed on how he should be used (Indians didn't want their prospect to pitch out of bullpen) so they just flew him back.

Was an All-Conference tight end playing high school football in California.
It is kind of hard to imagine him running around, but he was (obviously) skinnier back in high school.


Youngest American League played his rookie season in 2001. (20)
I digged up who were the youngest players in each league for last 20 years.

Year	AL youngest player	team	NL youngest player	team
1995	Alex Rodriguez	SEA	Karim Garcia	LAD
1996	Gene Kingsale	BAL	Andruw Jones	ATL
1997	Ben Grieve	TOR	Andruw Jones	ATL
1998	Dee Brown	KCR	Adrian Beltre	LAD
1999	Matt Riley	BAL	Rick Ankiel	STL
2000	Jon Garland	CHW	Corey Patterson	CHC
2001	CC Sabathia	CLE	Wilson Betemit	ATL
2002	Francisco Rodriguez	ANA	Wily Mo Pena	CIN
2003	Chad Gaudin	TBD	Edwin Jackson	LAD
2004	B.J. Upton	TBD	Edwin Jackson	LAD
2005	Felix Hernandez	SEA	Matt Cain	WSN
2006	Felix Hernandez	SEA	Lastings Milledge	NYM
2007	Cameron Maybin	DET	Justin Upton	ARI
2008	Travis Snider	TOR	Clayton Kershaw	LAD
2009	Rick Porcello	DET	Madison Bumgarner	SFG
2010	Chris Sale	CHW	Starlin Castro	CHC
2011	Mike Trout	LAA	Julio Teheran	ATL
2012	Jurickson Profar	TEX	Bryce Harper	WSN
2013	Jurickson Profar	TEX	Bryce Harper	WSN
2014	Rougned Odor	TEX	Dilson Herrera	NYM

[edit: I spent some time to make the list above, but I found out after that it was nicely organized in here]

Hit a 440-foot home run in 2008.
I was able to find the video for it, but only with poor video quality.


He is 25 for 111 with three home runs in his career. He hit home runs against Elizardo Ramirez, Homer Bailey, and Chan Ho Park.

Five Facts: Babe Ruth

Here are five facts about Babe Ruth.
Other five facts: Ellsbury and Betances, Tanaka, Rivera.



Babe Ruth hit his first pro home run during a game in which he played shortstop in 1914
Unfortunately, baseball-reference does not have that record.

Only made two All-Star teams... because the first game wasn't until 1933
The starting lineup for the very first ASG was the following (bold fonts for the Hall of Famer.)

National League
1, Pepper Martin 3B
2. Frankie Frisch 2B
3. Chuck Klein RF
4. Chick Hafey LF
5. Bill Terry 1B
6. Wally Berger CF
7. Dick Bartell SS
8. Jimmy Wilson C
9. Bill Hallahan P

American League
1. Ben Chapman LF
2. Charlie Gehringer 2B
3. Babe Ruth RF
4. Lou Gehrig 1B
5. Al Simmons CF
6. Jimmy Dykes 3B
7. Joe Cronin SS
8. Rick Ferrell C
9. Lefty Gomez P

Hit the first home run in All-Star Game history in 1933.
It was off Hallahan. The second home run was by Frisch off General Crowder. The American League won 4 to 2, thanks to Ruth's home run. Ruth went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI's with a home run in 1933, 0 for 2 with 2 BB's in 1944. AL won both games.

Was once a pitcher... a side-arming power pitcher.
In 1916, Ruth started 40 games (41 games on Fangraphs), pitched 323.2 innings, and went 23 - 12 with 1.75 ERA. In '17, he started 38 games (completed 35 games!), pitched 326.2 innings, and went 24 - 13 with 2.01 ERA. He collected 20.6 WAR (14.3 on Fangraphs) from 10 years of pitching, although it seems like he did not pitch too well for the Yankees.

Originally supposed to be a shirt maker.
I'm glad he played baseball instead.

Five Facts: Mariano Rivera

I have posted five facts about Ellsbury and Betances and about Tanaka. Now it's Mariano Rivera's turn.



The age Mariano Rivera began pitching: 19
That is pretty late, considering many players who played since little league or even before that.

His first pitching coach was Hoyt Wilhelm: Wilhelm is the first-ever relief pitcher in the Hall of Fame.
Hoyt Wilhelm was inducted in 1985 with 227 saves. I am not exactly sure what defines a relief pitcher. If we look at GS/G for example, Satchel Paige started 26 out of 179 games, and was inducted in 1971. If we look at the number of saves, Wilhelm is the first one with 200+ saves. The others with 200+ saves: Rollie Fingers (inducted in 1992, 341 saves,) Dennis Eckersley (2004, 390,) Bruce Sutter (2006, 300,) and Rich "Goose" Gossage (2008, 310.) Rivera has 652 and Trevor Hoffman has 601 saves.

Only pitcher to make more All-Star Game: Warren Spahn
Spahn pitched in 17 All-Star Games. Next few include Rivera (13) Tom Seaver (12) Roger Clemens (11) Steve Carlton, Whitey Ford, Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, Juan Marichal (10.) The most game started is 5, by Don Drysdale, Lefty Gomez, and Robin Roberts. Rivera owns the most saves with 4 followed by Dennis Eckersley with 3.

He saved 72 of Andy Pettitte's wins: That's a record for any starter & closer combination
I knew about this stat. Here is a complete list of the winning pitchers of Rivera's saves:

72    Andy Pettitte
49    Mike Mussina
35    Roger Clemens
32    Orlando Hernandez
26    CC Sabathia
25    David Wells
24    Chien-Ming Wang
23    Ramiro Mendoza
20    David Cone
17    Mike Stanton
15    A.J. Burnett, Javier Vazquez
13    Phil Hughes, Randy Johnson
12    David Robertson
11    Joba Chamberlain, Jeff Nelson, Ivan Nova
10    Tom Gordon
9    Kevin Brown
8    Dwight Gooden, Hiroki Kuroda, Boone Logan, Jaret Wright
7    Tanyon Sturtze
6    Alfredo Aceves, Brian Bruney, Scott Proctor, Paul Quantrill
5    Jose Contreras, Freddy Garcia, Jason Grimsley, Hideki Irabu, Jon Lieber, Ted Lilly, Carl Pavano
4    Phil Coke, Kyle Farnsworth, Aaron Small, Cory Wade
3    Shawn Chacon, Bartolo Colon, Sterling Hitchcock, Steve Karsay, Shawn Kelley, Denny Neagle, Kenny Rogers, Rafael Soriano, Luis Vizcaino, Allen Watson, Jeff Weaver
2    Willie Banks, Randy Choate, Tyler Clippard, David Huff, Aaron Laffey, Al Leiter, Damaso Marte, Sergio Mitre, Mike Myers, Donovan Osborne, David Phelps, Sidney Ponson, Edwar Ramirez, Darrell Rasner, Jose Veras, Adam Warren, Gabe White, Jay Witasick
1    Jonathan Albaladejo, Jason Anderson, Luis Ayala, T.J. Beam, Armando Benitez, Brian Boehringer, Ryan Bradley, Brandon Claussen, Chad Gaudin, Dan Giese, Kei Igawa, Randy Keisler, Ian Kennedy, Graeme Lloyd, Esteban Loaiza, Dan Naulty, C.J. Nitkowski, Ross Ohlendorf, Antonio Osuna, Chan Ho Park, Bret Prinz, Clay Rapada, Ron Villone, Bob Wickman, Todd Williams, Kerry Wood

Before choosing "Enter Sandman"...: He tried "Welcome to the Jungle" "Paradaise City" by Guns N' Roses
I am glad he chose Enter Sandman. What a great song for the greatest closer ever.

Five Facts: Masahiro Tanaka

I've posted five facts about Ellsbury and Betances. This time is about Masahiro Tanaka, also courtesy of YES Network.



1. Masahiro Tanaka's first position: Catcher.
Kenley Jansen of the Dodgers is the first one came across my mind. I googled around and found few more players such as Chris Hatcher (Marlins) who actually debuted in the Major League as a catcher, Art Doll who did the same in the 1930s, and a prospect for the Royals Kenny Swab. To get the complete list, I tried Play Index from the baseball-reference, and there were 72 players who played at least one game as a pitcher and one game as a catcher. In most cases, it was like J.P. Arencibia who made just one relief appearance. I made at least three games at each position and got 11, Drew Butera and Chris Hatcher were the only two since 1947.

2. He's also a pretty good fielder; 2011 - 2013 Gold Glove winner in Japan.
Two pitchers win the Gold Glove every year (one per each league) and a list of winners contains familar names: Yu Darvish won in 2007 and 2008, Hiroki Kuroda won in 2005, Koji Uehara won in 1999 and 2003, Kenshin Kawakami who used to pitch for the Braves won in 2004, 2006, and 2007. Daisuke Matsuzaka won 7 times; 1999 - 2001, 2003 - 2006.

3. He is a huge fan of Momoiro Clover Z.
I have absolutely no idea who that is, but I know their song "my dear fellow" is Tanaka's warm-up song.

4. His nickname in Japan: Ma-kun.
I don't think it means anything much other than Mr. Ma (from Masahiro.)

5. He and his wife got married in Hawaii.
I know his wife was an actress (not sure if she still is.) I've never been to Hawaii but I bet it's an amazing place.

Five Facts - Jacoby Ellsbury, Dellin Betances

Courtesy of YES Network (and Baseball-reference:)



1. Ellsbury is the only Red Sox player to be part of the 30-30 club.
He hit 32 HR and 39 SB in 2011 with the Red Sox. It was the only year he hit more than 10 HR other than this year (16 with the Yankees.) There were only 38 people who did this: For the Yankees, Bobby Bonds did it in 1975 (32 HR 30 SB,) Alfonso Soriano did it in 2002 (39 HR 41 SB) and in 2003 (38 HR 35SB.) The next closest Red Sox was Nomar Garciaparra in 1997 (30 HR 22 SB) and Carl Yastrzemski in 1970 (40 HR 23 SB.)

2. He is 1 of 3 rookies to collect 4 hits in a World Series game.
I think YES used 'rookie' as someone in his debut year, not someone with rookie status. For example, Donnie Bush did it in 1909 and he was still a rookie, but debuted in September 1908. The other two 'rookies' were Freddie Lindstrom (1924) and Joe Garagiola (1946.) There were 65 players in total who hit 4 or more hits in WS with Pablo Sandoval being the most recent one in 2012.

3. Ellsbury is the first American Indian of Navajo descent to reach the Majors.
Kyle Lohse (Nomlaki Wintun) and Joba Chamberlain (Winnebago) are other American Indians playing in MLB.

4. For Halloween, he once dressed as Johnny Damon.
Johnny Damon was CF of the Red Sox when Ellsbury signed with the team in 2005. They were never teammates in the Majors.

5. His favorite player growing up.. Ken Griffey, JR.
Not a surprise as Ellsbury was born and raised in Oregon, only few hours away from Seattle.



1. A 10-year old Betances was in the bleachers for this: David Wells' perfect game (1998.)
That's the year I went to my first Yankee game, too! (David Cone didn't pitch a perfect game that day, though)

2. Drafted 254th overall in the 2006 draft, 270 picks ahead of current Yankees closer David Robertson.
In 2006, the Royals selected Luke Hochevar with the first pick. Other notable names include: Evan Longoria (TB, 3,) Clayton Kershaw (LAD, 7,) Tim Lincecum (SF, 10,) Max Scherzer (ARI, 11.) The Yankees selected Chamberlain and Kennedy in the first round, Betances in the 8th, Melancon in the 9th, and Robertson in the 17th.

3. He wears 68 because he is 6' 8".
I didn't know this! Pretty cool thing to know. 6' 8" is pretty big. according to therichest.com, there are currently only 6 players in mlb who are 6' 8" or taller; Chris Martin (COL, 6' 8",) Doug Fister (WSH, 6' 8",) Logan Ondrusek (CIN, 6' 8",) Johnny Hellweg (MIL, 6' 9",) Chris Young (SEA, 6' 10",) and Betances. In MLB, there were notable players who wore #68 include Josh Reddick, Craig Gentry, Joe Saunders, Yan Gomes, and Dioner Navarro. Betances also wore #61 in 2013 with the Yankees and now Shane Greene is wearing it.

4. 2014 MLB All-Star, 1947 was the last time a Yankees rookie pitcher made the All-Star team.
He didn't get to pitch, though.

5. Set the single-season franchise record by a Yankees reliever in 2014 for the most strikeouts. 135.
From 1901, there were only 14 pitchers with 135 or more strikeouts with 0 game started. The former franchise record holder was Mariano Rivera who struck out 130 in 1996. Betances' 135K is especially impressive because it was done only in 90.0 IP. That is 13.5 K/9. I hope Betances does the same for the Yankees next year and for many more years.