Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the National League West division. Established in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York, the team moved to Los Angeles before the 1958 season, they played for four seasons at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before moving to their current home of Dodger Stadium in 1962. The Dodgers as a franchise have won 23 National League pennants. 11 NL MVP award winners have played for the Dodgers. The team has produced 18 Rookie of the Year Award winners, twice as many as the next closest team, including four consecutive from 1979 to 1982 and five consecutive from 1992 to 1996. In the early 20th century, the team known as the Robins, won league pennants in 1916 and 1920, losing the World Series both times, first to Boston and Cleveland. In the 1930s, the team changed its name to the Dodgers, named after the Brooklyn pedestrians who dodged the streetcars in the city.
In 1941, the Dodgers captured their third National League pennant, only to lose to the New York Yankees. This marked the onset of the Dodgers–Yankees rivalry, as the Dodgers would face them in their next six World Series appearances. Led by Jackie Robinson, the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Following the 1957 season the team left Brooklyn. In just their second season in Los Angeles, the Dodgers won their second World Series title, beating the Chicago White Sox in six games in 1959. Spearheaded by the dominant pitching style of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, the Dodgers captured three pennants in the 1960s and won two more World Series titles, sweeping the Yankees in four games in 1963, edging the Minnesota Twins in seven in 1965; the 1963 sweep was their second victory against the Yankees, their first against them as a Los Angeles team. The Dodgers won four more pennants in 1966, 1974, 1977 and 1978, but lost in each World Series appearance, they went on to win the World Series again in 1981, thanks in part to pitching sensation Fernando Valenzuela.
The early 1980s were affectionately dubbed "Fernandomania." In 1988, another pitching hero, Orel Hershiser, again led them to a World Series victory, aided by one of the most memorable home runs of all time, by their injured star outfielder Kirk Gibson coming off the bench to pinch hit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of game 1, in his only appearance of the series. The Dodgers won the pennant in 2017 and 2018, but lost the World Series to the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox respectively; the Dodgers share a fierce rivalry with the San Francisco Giants, the oldest rivalry in baseball, dating back to when the two franchises played in New York City. Both teams moved west for the 1958 season; the Brooklyn Dodgers and Los Angeles Dodgers have collectively appeared in the World Series 20 times, while the New York Giants and San Francisco Giants have collectively appeared 20 times. The Giants have won two more World Series. Although the two franchises have enjoyed near equal success, the city rivalries are rather lopsided and in both cases, a team's championships have predated to the other's first one in that particular location.
When the two teams were based in New York, the Giants won five World Series championships, the Dodgers one. After the move to California, the Dodgers have won five in Los Angeles, the Giants have won three in San Francisco; the Dodgers were founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Atlantics, taking the name of a defunct team that had played in Brooklyn before them. The team joined the American Association in 1884 and won the AA championship in 1889 before joining the National League in 1890, they promptly won the NL Championship their first year in the League. The team was known alternatively as the Bridegrooms, Superbas and Trolley Dodgers before becoming the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1930s. In Brooklyn, the Dodgers won the NL pennant several times and the World Series in 1955. After moving to Los Angeles, the team won National League pennants in 1959, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988, 2017, 2018, with World Series championships in 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981 and 1988. In all, the Dodgers have appeared in 11 in Los Angeles.
For most of the first half of the 20th century, no Major League Baseball team employed an African American player. Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play for a Major League Baseball team when he played his first major league game on April 15, 1947, as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers; this was due to general manager Branch Rickey's efforts. The religious Rickey's motivation appears to have been moral, although business considerations were a factor. Rickey was a member of The Methodist Church, the antecedent denomination to The United Methodist Church of today, a strong advocate for social justice and active in the American Civil Rights Movement; this event was the harbinger of the integration of professional sports in the United States, the concomitant demise of the Negro Leagues, is regarded as a key moment in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement. Robinson was an exceptional player, a speed
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, contested since 1903 between the American League champion team and the National League champion team. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff, the winning team is awarded the Commissioner's Trophy; as the series is played during the fall season in North America, it is sometimes referred to as the Fall Classic. Prior to 1969, the team with the best regular season win-loss record in each league automatically advanced to the World Series; as of 2018, the World Series has been contested 114 times, with the AL winning 66 and the NL winning 48. The 2018 World Series took place between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox from October 23–28, with the Red Sox winning in five games to earn their ninth title; this was the first World Series meeting between these two teams since 1916. Having lost to the Houston Astros in the 2017 World Series, the Dodgers became the 11th team to lose the World Series in consecutive seasons.
In the American League, the New York Yankees have played in 40 World Series and won 27, the Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics have played in 14 and won 9, the Boston Red Sox have played in 13 and won 9, including the first World Series. In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals have appeared in 19 and won 11, the New York/San Francisco Giants have played in 19 and won 8, the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers have appeared in 20 and won 6, the Cincinnati Reds have appeared in 9 and won 5; as of 2018, no team has won consecutive World Series championships since the New York Yankees in 1998, 1999, 2000—the longest such drought in Major League Baseball history. Until the formation of the American Association in 1882 as a second major league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players and the National League represented the top level of organized baseball in the United States. All championships were awarded to the team with the best record at the end of the season, without a postseason series being played.
From 1884 to 1890, the National League and the American Association faced each other in a series of games at the end of the season to determine an overall champion. These series were disorganized in comparison to the modern World Series, with the terms arranged through negotiation of the owners of the championship teams beforehand; the number of games played ranged from as few as three in 1884, to a high of fifteen in 1887. Both the 1885 and 1890 Series ended in each team having won three games with one tie game; the series was promoted and referred to as "The Championship of the United States", "World's Championship Series", or "World's Series" for short. In his book Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883, Simon Winchester mentions in passing that the World Series was named for the New York World newspaper, but this view is disputed; the 19th-century competitions are, not recognized as part of World Series history by Major League Baseball, as it considers 19th-century baseball to be a prologue to the modern baseball era.
Until about 1960, some sources treated the 19th-century Series on an equal basis with the post-19th-century series. After about 1930, many authorities list the start of the World Series in 1903 and discuss the earlier contests separately. Following the collapse of the American Association after the 1891 season, the National League was again the only major league; the league championship was awarded in 1892 by a playoff between half-season champions. This scheme was abandoned after one season. Beginning in 1893—and continuing until divisional play was introduced in 1969—the pennant was awarded to the first-place club in the standings at the end of the season. For four seasons, 1894–1897, the league champions played the runners-up in the post season championship series called the Temple Cup. A second attempt at this format was the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series, played only once, in 1900. In 1901, the American League was formed as a second major league. No championship series were played in 1901 or 1902 as the National and American Leagues fought each other for business supremacy.
After two years of bitter competition and player raiding, the National and American Leagues made peace and, as part of the accord, several pairs of teams squared off for interleague exhibition games after the 1903 season. These series were arranged by the participating clubs. One of them matched the two pennant winners, Pittsburgh Pirates of the NL and Boston Americans of the AL, it had been arranged well in advance by the two owners, as both teams were league leaders by large margins. Boston upset Pittsburgh by five games to three, winning with pitching depth behind Cy Young and Bill Dinneen and with the support of the band of Royal Rooters; the Series brought much civic pride to Boston and proved the new American League could beat the Nationals. The 1904 Series, if it had been held, would have been between the AL's Boston Americans and the NL's New York Giants. At that point there was no gover
Cal Ripken Jr.
Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. nicknamed "The Iron Man", is an American former baseball shortstop and third baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Baltimore Orioles. One of his position's most offensively productive players, Ripken compiled 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, 1,695 runs batted in during his career, he won two Gold Glove Awards for his defense, he was twice named American League Most Valuable Player. Ripken holds the record for consecutive games played, 2,632, surpassing Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 that had stood for 56 years and that many deemed unbreakable. In 2007, he was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, has the fifth highest voting percentage of all time. Born in Maryland, Ripken grew up traveling around the United States as his father, Cal Sr. was a player and coach in the Orioles' organization. After playing at Aberdeen High School, Ripken Jr. was drafted by the Orioles in the second round of the 1978 MLB draft. He reached the major leagues in 1981 as a third baseman, but the following year, he was shifted to shortstop, his long-time position for Baltimore.
That year, Ripken won the AL Rookie of the Year Award and began his consecutive games played streak. In 1983, he won a World Series championship and his first AL MVP Award. One of Ripken's best years came in 1991, when he was named an All-Star, won the Home Run Derby, was recipient of his first All-Star Game MVP Award, his second AL MVP Award, first Gold Glove Award, he broke the consecutive games played record on September 6, 1995, in his 2,131st consecutive game, which fans voted as the league's "most memorable moment" in the history of the game in an MLB.com poll. He switched back to third base for the final five years of his career. In 2001, his final season, Ripken was named the All-Star Game MVP and was honored with the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award. Ripken is considered one of third basemen in baseball history. At 6 ft 4 in, 225 lb, he pioneered the way for the success of larger shortstops, he holds the record for most home runs hit as a shortstop breaking the record held by Ernie Banks and was selected as the starting shortstop for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
Ripken is a best-selling author and the President and CEO of Ripken Baseball, Inc. whose goal is to grow the love of baseball from a grassroots level. Since his retirement, he has purchased three minor league baseball teams, he has been active in charity work throughout his career and is still considered an ambassador of the game. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland and is married to Laura Ripken, nee Kaufman, a circuit court judge in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Ripken was born in Havre de Grace, the son of Violet "Vi" Ripken and Cal Ripken Sr, he has German and Irish ancestry. Though the Ripkens called Aberdeen, their home, they were on the move because of Cal Sr.'s coaching duties with the Baltimore Orioles organization. Cal Sr. in fact, was in Kansas with one of his teams when his son was born. Cal Jr. grew up around baseball and got started in it at a young age. He was able to receive instruction from players on his father's teams, notably Doug DeCinces, he got advice from his father, who once remarked to his mother that his questions were better than the ones reporters had.
At the age of three, Ripken knew he wanted to be a ballplayer and, at the age of 10, Ripken "knew the game inside and out." Ripken and his brother Billy attended Aberdeen High School. They both played baseball there, he has two other siblings and Fred. Ripken began his high school career playing second base. Despite Morrison's concerns, Ripken did move to shortstop as a sophomore, combining strong fielding with a team-leading 10 runs batted in. Needing pitching help, the Aberdeen Eagles began using Ripken as a pitcher as well in his junior year, he responded by striking out 55 batters in 46 1⁄3 innings pitched with three shutouts while batting.339 with 21 hits and nine RBIs. He was named the Harford County Most Valuable Player while helping Aberdeen become county champions for the first time since 1959. During his senior year, Ripken again had a strong season, lifting his batting average to.688 at one point and posting a 0.79 ERA with 45 strikeouts over his first 26 innings. In the playoffs, Ripken pitched the state championship game against Thomas Stone High School.
The Eagles trailed 3–1 when Ripken, noting that rain was coming and that the game would be cancelled and replayed since the Eagles had not yet played the fourth inning, made nine throws to first base to ensure the game would be replayed. When the game was played the next week, Ripken struck out 17, allowed two hits, threw a complete game as Aberdeen won the state championship, he threw 102 pitches in the 7 to 1 victory. Ripken was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the second round of the 1978 Major League Baseball draft 48th overall. Despite a story written by SABR, Ripken was selected with the Orioles' predetermined draft pick, not through a forfeited pick from the Boston Red Sox after the Sox selected Dick Drago in the 1977 re-entry draft; the Orioles would select catcher Cecil Whitehead with the pick they received from Boston two picks after Ripken. On deciding to go straight from high school to the professional level, he said, "When the colleges started coming around, Dad and I talked about whether I was going to pursue a caree
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams play with 15 teams in each league; the NL and AL were formed as separate legal entities in 1901 respectively. After cooperating but remaining separate entities beginning in 1903, the leagues merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000; the organization oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises 256 teams affiliated with the Major League clubs. With the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Baseball's first all-professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869; the first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era. Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal.
The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier; the 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL new stadiums and artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s. Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s, media reports began to discuss the use of anabolic steroids among Major League players in the mid-2000s. In 2006, an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, including at least one player from each team. Today, MLB is composed of 1 in Canada. Teams play 162 games each season and five teams in each league advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions that dates to 1903. Baseball broadcasts are aired on television and the Internet throughout North America and in several other countries throughout the world.
MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 73 million spectators in 2015. MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution; this document has undergone several incarnations since its creation in 1876. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, negotiates marketing and television contracts. MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball; this is due in large part to the 1922 U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law; this ruling has been weakened only in subsequent years. The weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLB's primacy in the sport between the 1870s and the Federal League in 1916.
The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner Rob Manfred. The chief operating officer is Tony Petitti. There are five other executives: president, chief communications officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer, chief baseball officer; the multimedia branch of MLB, based in Manhattan, is MLB Advanced Media. This branch oversees each of the 30 teams' websites, its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, but it is under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media. MLB owns 67 percent of MLB Network, with the other 33 percent split between several cable operators and satellite provider DirecTV, it operates out of studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, has editorial independence from the league. In 1920, the weak National Commission, created to manage relationships between the two leagues, was replaced with the much more powerful Commissioner of Baseball, who had the power to make decisions for all of professional baseball unilaterally.
From 1901 to 1960, the American and National Leagues fielded eight teams apiece. In the 1960s, MLB expansion added eight teams, including the first non-U. S. Team. Two teams were added in the 1970s. From 1969 through 1993, each league consisted of an West Division. A third division, the Central Division, was formed in each league in 1994; until 1996, the two leagues met on the field only during the All-Star Game. Regular-season interleague play was introduced in 1997. In March 1995 two new franchises, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, were awarded by MLB, to begin play in 1998; this addition brought the total number of franchises to 30. In early 1997, MLB decided to assign one new team to each league: Tampa Bay joined the AL and Arizona joined the NL; the original plan was to have an odd number of teams in each league, but in order for every team to be able to play daily, this would have required interleague play to be scheduled throughout the entire season. However, it
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the National League East division. Since 2004, the team's home has been Citizens Bank Park, located in South Philadelphia; the Phillies have won two World Series championships and seven National League pennants, the first of which came in 1915. Since the first modern World Series was played in 1903, the Phillies played 77 consecutive seasons before they won their first World Series—longer than any other of the 16 teams that made up the major leagues for the first half of the 20th century, they are one of the more successful franchises since the start of the Divisional Era in Major League Baseball. The Phillies have won their division 11 times, which ranks 6th among all teams and 4th in the National League, including five consecutive division titles from 2007 to 2011; the franchise was founded in Philadelphia in 1883, replacing the team from Worcester, Massachusetts in the National League.
The team has played at several stadiums in the city, beginning with Recreation Park and continuing at Baker Bowl. The team's spring training facilities are located in Clearwater, where its Class-A minor league affiliate Clearwater Threshers plays at Spectrum Field, its Double-A affiliate is the Reading Fightin Phils. From 1883 to 2018, the team's win-loss record is 9744-10919. After being founded in 1883 as the "Quakers", the team changed its name to the "Philadelphias", after the convention of the times; this was soon shortened to "Phillies". The nickname "Phillies" first appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer for April 3, 1883, in the paper's coverage of an exhibition game by the new National League club. "Quakers" continued to be used interchangeably with "Phillies" from 1883 until 1890, when the team became known as the "Phillies". Though the Phillies moved into a permanent home at Baker Bowl in 1887, they did not win their first pennant until nearly 30 years after the likes of standout players Billy Hamilton, Sam Thompson, Ed Delahanty had departed.
Player defections to the newly formed American League to the cross-town Philadelphia Athletics, cost the team dearly over the next several years. A bright spot came in 1915, when the Phillies won their first pennant, thanks to the pitching of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the batting prowess of Gavvy Cravath, who set what was the modern major-league single-season record for home runs with 24. Poor fiscal management after their appearance in the 1915 World Series, doomed the Phillies to sink back into relative obscurity. Though Chuck Klein won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1932 and the National League Triple Crown in 1933, the team continued to flounder at the bottom of the standings for years. After lumber baron William D. Cox purchased the team in 1943, the Phillies rose out of last place for the first time in five years; as a result, the fan base and attendance at home games increased. Cox revealed that he had been betting on the Phillies, he was banned from baseball; the new owner, Bob Carpenter, Jr. scion of the Delaware-based DuPont family, tried to polish the team's image by unofficially changing its name to the "Bluejays".
However, the new moniker did not take, it was dropped by 1949. Instead, Carpenter turned his attention to the minor league affiliates, continuing an effort begun by Cox a year earlier; this led to the advent of the "Whiz Kids", led by a lineup of young players developed by the Phillies' farm system that included future Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts. Their 1950 season was highlighted by a last-day, pennant-clinching home run by Dick Sisler to lead the Phillies over the Brooklyn Dodgers and into the World Series, where the New York Yankees swept them four games to none. In contrast, the Philadelphia Athletics finished last in 1950, longtime manager Connie Mack retired; the team struggled on for four more years with only one winning season before abandoning Philadelphia under the Johnson brothers, who bought out Mack. They began play in Kansas City in 1955; as part of the deal selling that team to the Johnson brothers, the Phillies bought Shibe Park, where both teams had played since 1938.
Many thought that the "Whiz Kids", with a young core of talented players, would be a force in the league for years to come. However, the team finished with a 73–81 record in 1951, except for a second-place tie in 1964, did not finish higher than third place again until 1975, their lack of success was blamed on Carpenter's unwillingness to integrate his team after winning a pennant with an all-white team. The Phillies were the last National League team to sign a black player, a full 10 years after Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Dodgers, their competitive futility was highlighted by a record that still stands: in 1961, the Phillies lost 23 games in a row, the worst losing streak in the majors since 1900. Though Ashburn and Roberts were gone, the 1964 Phillies still had younger pitchers Art Mahaffey, Chris Short, rookie Ray Culp.
Tim Teufel
Timothy Shawn Teufel is a former Major League Baseball second baseman. He is a New York Mets minor league instructor and club ambassador. Teufel was a member of the 1986 World Series champion New York Mets. Throughout his career, Teufel was known for his batting stance, the "Teufel shuffle", in which he wiggled his buttocks back and forth before the pitcher's delivery. Teufel attended St. Mary's High School in Greenwich, Connecticut, St. Petersburg Junior College in St. Petersburg and Clemson University in South Carolina where he earned All American honors and participated in the College World Series as a senior in 1980. At age 19, he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the sixteenth round of the 1978 Major League Baseball Draft, but did not sign. Teufel was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the third round of the secondary phase of the 1979 Major League Baseball Draft, but again did not sign. In the 1980 Major League Baseball Draft, Teufel was drafted in the second round and signed with the Minnesota Twins.
Teufel spent all of 1981 with the Double-A Orlando Twins. He raised his average to.282 in 1982, earning a mid-season promotion to the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. In 1983, Teufel lit up the International League with a.323 batting average, 1.022 OPS, 27 home runs and 100 runs batted in resulting in a September call-up to the major leagues. He made his major league debut on September 3 in 13-0 drubbing at the hands of Scott McGregor and the Baltimore Orioles. Teufel went 2-for-4 and score two runs to help the last place Twins snap a five-game losing streak on September 6. On September 16, Teufel led off the game by hitting his first major league home run off Jim Gott of the Toronto Blue Jays, his second career home run came in the eighth inning of the same game. In all, Teufel went 5-for-5 with two home runs and five runs scored in arguably the best offensive game of his career. By the end of the season, the Twins surpassed the Seattle Mariners to avoid a last place finish; the following season, Teufel snatched the starting second base job away from former Rookie of the Year, John Castino.
In his rookie season, Teufel had 149 hits, 30 doubles, fourteen home runs, 61 RBIs, provided solid defense at second base for the Twins. The Twins improved to 81-81 in 1984, good enough for a second-place finish in the American League West. Teufel finished fourth behind Alvin Davis, Mark Langston and teammate Kirby Puckett in American League Rookie of the Year balloting; the Twins fell back into fifth place in 1985. Following the season, Teufel was traded with minor leaguer, Pat Crosby to the New York Mets for Billy Beane, Bill Latham and Joe Klink. Although Tim had hit far better against right-handed pitchers in 1985, he was used against left-handed pitchers in a platoon system with New York. Splitting time with Wally Backman, Teufel started in 1986 with a go-ahead 14th inning single in his first game with the Mets, his average stayed around.220 into June. On June 10, Teufel had one of the most exciting moments in the Mets championship season with a walk-off pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Mets' reputation as a rowdy bunch was punctuated on July 19 when Tim, Ron Darling, Bob Ojeda, Rick Aguilera were arrested after a bar fight with off-duty police officers in Houston, Texas. Tim was sentenced to a year of probation and fined $200 for his part and none of the four missed any playing time, though this incident did help fuel some rivalry between the Mets and their impending 1986 National League Championship Series competitors, the Houston Astros. Teufel managed just one hit and no RBI against the Astros in the Championship Series won by the Mets in six games. In game one of the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, the Mets suffered a fate eerily similar to that which they suffered in game one of the 1973 against the Oakland Athletics, in which the sure handed Félix Millán committed a third inning error that led to both of Oakland's runs in their 2-1 victory over the Mets. With a runner on second and one out, Rich Gedman hit a ground ball to Teufel at second which Teufel misplayed, allowing the runner to score.
Boston held on for the 1-0 victory. He hit a home run in Game five of the Series. For the series, Teufel batted.444 with four hits in nine at bats. The home run was the only postseason run scored of Teufel's career. 1987 was Tim's best season statistically as he tied his 1984 home run and RBI highs despite playing in only 97 games. His.308 batting average.398 on-base percentage and.545 slugging percentage were career-highs. Despite outperforming Wally Backman, he continued to be used in a platoon role, he was given the chance to play every day in 1988, but spent all of April below.200 and missed three weeks from mid-May with an injury causing the platoon to be reinstated. After a poor second half, Teufel was used in just one game in the 1988 NLCS. In 1989, hot prospect Gregg Jefferies was given most of the time at second base and Tim spent half of his time at first base, his playing time further decreased in 1990 as he played in career-lows of 80 games with 175 at-bats while shifting between first and third base.
Teufel's 1991 average was at a paltry.118 on May 31 when the Mets traded him to the San Diego Padres for Garry Templeton, who retired after the season. Teufel hit between.220 and.250 in all three seasons with San Diego while continuing to play at all three bases defensively. On April 14, 1993, he went 5-for-5 for the second time in his career but the Padres lost the game on their way to a 101-loss season. Teufel was retired after the 1993 season. Teufel returned to the Mets as a
Howard Johnson (baseball)
Howard Michael Johnson, nicknamed HoJo, is a former Major League Baseball switch hitting third baseman. He is best known for his career in Major League Baseball, where he played for the Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, Colorado Rockies and Chicago Cubs from 1982 to 1995, he is third on the Mets' all-time lists for home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases. He played for the Rockland Boulders of the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball. On July 13, 2007, he was promoted from his position as the Mets' first base coach to their hitting coach which he held until the end of the 2010 season. From 2014 to June 2015, he was the hitting coach of the Seattle Mariners after starting 2013 as the batting instructor for the Tacoma Rainiers, the Mariners' Triple-A affiliate. Johnson was born in Clearwater and attended Clearwater High School playing baseball as a pitcher, he attended St. Petersburg Junior College and, at age 17, was drafted in the 23rd round of the 1978 Major League Baseball Draft by the New York Yankees.
Johnson did not sign with the Yankees and, the following January, he was drafted in the 1st round — 12th overall — by the Tigers. In the minor leagues, the Tigers soon converted Johnson from a pitcher to an infielder and, in 1981, he hit 22 home runs for the AA Birmingham Barons, he was promoted all the way to Detroit to start 1982 but was hitting only.188 in early May when he was sent back to AAA. He was back in the majors in mid-August and posted fantastic numbers for the rest of the season, including a.405 average in September which raised his final average to.316. He was sent down again in late May with a. 212 average. In 1984, Johnson was made the left side of a platoon with Tom Brookens. Johnson started well but had a poor second half; the Tigers led the division for the entire season but Johnson sat the bench for the entire 1984 ALCS while Brookens, Marty Castillo and Darrell Evans split time at third. Johnson wound up pinch-hitting only once in the 1984 World Series, reaching on an error by second baseman Alan Wiggins as the Tigers eased through the postseason en route to the world championship.
After the season, Detroit traded Johnson to the New York Mets for pitcher Walt Terrell. The move put three players at third base for the Mets but, three days they sent Hubie Brooks to the Montreal Expos as part of a trade for catcher Gary Carter. Johnson's inability to hit well from the right side resulted in him being platooned by the Mets in 1985, this time with Ray Knight. Both started and neither reached.200 until early July. Johnson hit below average all season while Knight was worse; the Mets, as they had in 1984, narrowly missed the postseason in 1985. 1986 was the year of the Mets and both Johnson and Knight started well. The Mets' problems shifted from third base to shortstop as Rafael Santana struggled to keep his average above.150 most of the season. Johnson was a capable shortstop defensively and picked up extra playing time moving between short and third but his hitting started declining in May. Between his mediocre hitting, continued lack of power, an injury that wiped out three weeks in June, Johnson played in only 88 games in the regular season.
When he returned from the June injury, Johnson went on a home run tear including two in his first game back and, within six weeks, his slugging average jumped from.376 to.510. One of Johnson's home runs occurred in a legendary game on July 22, 1986 against the Cincinnati Reds; when a tenth-inning bench-clearing fight ended, three Mets players were out of the game and they were forced to spend the rest of the game with a pitcher in the outfield and two pitchers in the batting lineup. When one of the pitchers, Jesse Orosco, drew a walk in the fourteenth inning, Johnson followed with a three-run home run which led to a Mets win. Johnson faded down the stretch and was shut out of the postseason, going 0-for-7 in four games combined, his only start was Game 2 of the 1986 World Series when he went 0-for-4 in a crucial Mets loss that put them in an 0–2 hole. His only other at bat in the series was in Game 6. At age 25, Johnson had his second World Series ring. Ray Knight was allowed to become a free agent after the 1986 World Series.
Johnson, given sole ownership of the third base position, began a three-month power surge in mid-May. In ten games, he hit five home runs, including a pair of three-run shots, with thirteen RBI. In an eleven-game span a month he hit another six home runs with ten more RBI. In seven games around the All-Star break, he hit another six home runs and seven RBIs raising his slugging average over.520. With his 22nd home run in mid-July, the light-hitting Johnson took over the team home run lead from Darryl Strawberry, all the while hitting from the seventh spot in the batting order, he ended July with six RBIs in seven games along with a four-hit game and started August with a grand slam. In a thirteen-game span in late July and early August, he had at least one RBI in all but one game and amassed an amazing seventeen RBIs overall. Three games in mid-August brought another three home runs and seven RBIs but the power tear was about over for his breakout season. Johnson's power surge was complemented by a surge in speed.
While he had 31 stolen bases in five previous seasons, on September 11, 1987, Johnson stole his 30th base to join the 30–30 club for the first time. He and Strawberry became the only teammates to achieve 30–30 status in the same season. Another grand slam in September brought Johnson's home run total to 36, just four shy of his entire
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