SB Nation User Blog: Stirrups

Food For Thought: Angels vs. Boston Game #1.

Stirrups — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:27:51 -0000

Psychology is a funny thing. Lakers coach Phil Jackson is famous for calling out NBA refs in public, paying his fines, and then benefitting from the impact of calls going his way for a change. He is not the first coach in the NBA to do this, nor will he be the last. He just is, currently, the best.

Might we have seen something similar to this effect last night, but in baseball?

It is possible that when Scioscia called out the umps like that after game 2 of that series, he could have (intentially or accidentally) had an impact on the umps on the field in a pressure situation between these same two teams now. Normally Sosh just gives his goofy look of incredulity, or trots out and speaks forefully and shrugs his shoulders a lot and walks back to his spot inthe dugout. Maybe the Angels file a lot of complaints and maybe they submit lots of paperwork to the MLB office. Whatever. This team has a history of not getting the close calls, and especially at home where one might expect some home-field intimidation at play. In this respect, we have always felt a little 'soft' for my tastes.

But what happened after the umpiring debacle in Boston a few weeks ago was different. By orders of magnitude. Sosh himself made declarative statements in public that called out the umps. So one thing to consider is that after the last Halo visit to Fenway, where the Angels got jobbed and the umps got called out for succumbing to home field pressure and Red Sox bias, the umps last night may have been more than a little intimidated to fail in favor of the Angels.

Is that what we witnessed last night?

I know that the Angels did not benefit from those blown calls in their favor (this guy's incredible stretch notwithstanding), but I have never seen so many obviously bad calls in a single game. Ever. And I have never seen more than one close call go the Angels way in a game, much less multiple calls not even close. The umps were definitely NOT on their game, nor were they behaving to the level of anti-Halo bias we expected. Hell, even Joe West seemed to be calling a straight up game behind the plate.

So I wonder if something was inside the umps heads last night. And I also wonder if they are realizing that this morning, and we are not going to see a favorable call the balance of this series.

"Oh, life is just so unfair!"

Stirrups — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:50:10 -0000

"Oh, life is just so unfair!"

John Henry, owner of the Red Sox, speaks concerning the "unfairness" of the 'roid accusations leveled against the Red Sox in general, and Ortiz in particular.

(This link, interestingly enough, showed up in the banner ad on HH today.)

An Interview With Luis Polonia - Part 2

Stirrups — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:43:40 -0000

Luis Polonia. "Atom Ant". In Part 1of our interview we looked back on the highlights of Luis' career. For specific references about his bio, check out his chronology at baseballlibrary.com.

In this concluding half of the interview ,brought to us by his agent, Christie Gibson (from www.luispoloniapba.com), Luis lays it all out there concerning the inefficiencies of the Angels Latin American scouting efforts, the challenges he faces among Dominican youth with PEDs and age cheating, the unfortunate loss of talented players due to unimaginative age discrimination by Major League Baseball, the growth of his Academy, and the exclusive news concerning his future prospects - including his own son.

**UPDATE**: In response to this interview, Luis Polonia has reached out to us here at HH and offered up his Facebook page and twitter account. Those can be found at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1103199717&ref=ts and http:/twitter.com/polonia respectively!

HH: Now recently here, the Angels, they fired their Latin American Director of Scouting. That would seem to put the Angels at a disadvantage in reaching out to Dominican prospects. So can you tell us how your Academy works to stay in contact with MLB teams?

LP: Well, I have every [MLB] contact and, normally what I do, I get the kids at a young age (13, 14, 15) and when they are ready to go I just make the call and they will be right there checking my kids.

I haven’t been really successful with the Angels. Which, as a matter of fact, I sent them a letter via email last week. Because it makes me sad that I had all these players and the only organization that I cannot get to go to my Academy and check my players is the Angels, because I don’t think they have the right people here in The Dominican. Those people they just want to sit in their chairs, and wait for us to take the players there. It’s like they don’t want to get out of there to see the players.

It’s sad. Knowing that (the Angels) this is my new job so I always be after baseball players and they won’t have the conversation that I show off the players. That they have these people here that they treat me that bad, you know. And I hope, I hope, that the email gets to them so they know what they have working here is no good. It’s just people that they sit in their Academy waiting for the guys to take a player there. And normally that’s not how you work. If I got the player for you, you got to come see him because that’s what you are here for. And I haven’t had the chance. I have had 34 players signed and I have only 1 player signed by the Angels. And [name unintelligible] has never been to my Academy, they don’t know what my Academy looks like.

HH: And that’s kind of obvious when you look at the Angels roster through all their organization in the Minor Leagues, right? Like we talked earlier, we got notable players on their roster now, like Arredondo, and Aybar, Guerrero, Santana but your go into the minor leagues and there’s, like, nobody there. Right?

LP: That’s because they don’t take care of business.

HH: Something’s changed here. They had a good program for getting players in the past and they don’t now, and you’re saying that it’s because they don’t have a good organization in the Dominican and not being active in reaching out to you guys to see players.

LP: They’re not doing the job. They are just waiting, they are just getting paid.

HH: Ok…

LP: And it’s sad. They are just getting paid.

HH: Like I said, just a few weeks ago we just fired our Director there, of Latin American scouting so I’ll hope that changes will be coming soon.

LP: Tell them I’m available!

HH: Alright! I will do that!

LP: I would LOVE to work as a scout…the main guy for Latin America from the Angels. That will be my highlight right there. Just tell them I’m available.

HH: I will put that in the article. You betcha.

LP: Oh, yeah. Tell them I’m available.

HH: So you got a lot of Academies, competing programs down there in the Dominican, do you find it challenging to promote your Academy to your players and to the MLB when you have so many other Academies?

LP: Well, we have what is called…there is one here that is called "Born To Play". Right now that’s the number 1 and that’s what we want to compete with, because there are so many, there’s so many, Academies working kids right now. I mean, it’s becoming the number 1 priority in The Dominican Republic. You know, it’s been now so many young guys signing with the millions of dollars contract. So for a signing bonus, that is unbelievable how high you think that has gotten in the Dominican. And we have the good players right now…14, 15 16,…and that’s the type of competition that we want to be.

HH: Ok, You’ve got other challenges too and I have heard somewhat about this – not with your Academy - but some of the problems that have happened in the Dominican. It’s now become a number one thing and a real big important thing for parents to have their kids get a chance to compete for a baseball contract. So with all the parents putting pressure on the kids to do well and get into Academies, and the Academies trying to get a bunch of kids and get them signed by teams, there’s been a lot of pressure there for, like, steroid abuse and false birth certificates and such. And you have got to compete with all these other Academies that are trying to sign kids that too old, and give some kids some steroids to pump them up so they can showcase them for a scout and such. Talk about your challenges that you’ve got to keep your kids clean, because I have read interviews and you are very committed to fight back against these things.

LP: Yeah, it IS hard, because normally I have my kids, and they would leave my Academy on the weekends and go home. So how would I stop them when they are home? Normally they want to be better, they know that steroids can make them better, that’s what they think. Until they see everything that is happening. You know, I let them know for sure. I have meetings every week. Let them know for sure, look, you get caught on it you will now be out of baseball for life, you are not going to be able to play. I mean, I can make a baseball player, you don’t need to take it. Just let me develop you. Let me do the job. You don’t need that. You just need to be good in the field.

But also now, talking about over-age and the competition, there are so many people who have kids that are 20, 21, and 22, trying to come back with a different age – 12, 15, 16 – that sometimes I take my kids to compete with them and there’s no way. Because I know my kids, I know what age they have, I know I haven’t had that problem that I sign a kid and they come with a different age. My kids are legal. But I know sometimes when I take them to those showcases it’s hard for my kids to compete. It’s hard for my kids to compete when the other guys you have there. You are giving me a guy who is 21 years old competing with a guy who’s a REAL 16 year-old, thinking that your guy is 16 when YOU know that this guy, in the top of your mind, that this guy, there’s no way he’s 16. Because I know what my 16 year-old can do, and they know when my kid, 16, can’t do what a 21 year-old kid can do. Even though you tell them hey, that kid ain’t 16, that’s something that you have to fight. That’s something that you have to deal with.

But, like I say, the kids 16 years old, that’s not the right age to get signed. I think t hey should forget about those 16’s, 17’s, and they should go back to sign the kids when they are 19, 20, 21 because that’s when they are really ready. Because you sign them being 16 with a little paper for what they do. And then when you find out that they are 20, why didn’t you sign them when they’ve been 20 and it’s not going to cost you all those millions of dollars?

You know what I’m saying? It’s hard. But you have to deal with the problems.

HH: So let’s review your Academy itself. You instruct your players between the ages of 14 and 17, how many players do you house at a time?

LP: Right now I have about twenty some players. I have about 12 American kids right now that I have for a summer camp, some kids from the United States which I work them for 2 or 3 months to get them ready to back into school and be better.

But for my school right now I can say that I have two players that are 18 and they are ready to go. I have four players that are 16, beside the one from Chile. I also have four players 15 years old and I have another four, 14, they are from 2011.

HH: What are the number of instructors you have, so the ratio of instructors to the players in your Academy?

LP: I have, yeah, I have two pitching coaches. I have me and my son, we do the infield and the outfield and the hitting so we are at four, and the field coordinator ( a guy to make sure that the kids are there on time, that the equipment is outside). So we are, like, five guys total.

HH: Describe a typical day in your Academy for one of your players.

LP: We get there, we start, at 8:45. We got thirty minutes of stretch. We get the guys loose. Then we throw for 10 minutes. We do infield first. They go infield for like 20 minutes. Then sometimes we do some situations, fundamentals, and then we go back to hitting. And that’s normally what we do, almost every day, three days a week. And then we have Tuesday and Thursday we plays games with other programs with other baseball academies around the city. There are eight more programs that we have here so we have, like, what we call a little tournament that we play every Tuesday and every Thursday.

So we work the kids three days a week: fundamentals, defense and hitting. Then we go straight to the games for two days. And then Saturday/Sunday they are off.

HH: So when do they finish at night? How long do they work in a day?

LP: About 1:00

HH: About 1:00 in the afternoon.

LP: About 1:00

HH: Ok.

HH: You’ve been quoted elsewhere discussing your current crop of prospects. Arbienny Martinez, Alberto Manyeti, your own son Rodney, Elvis Martinez, Carlos Garcia. Now we know you plan is to hold Rodney out and send him to college, but, uh, do you any feel yet for how well the others are going to do in terms of signings this year?

LP: I think that we are going to sign Garcia. In fact, right now I am on my way to Santo Domingo because Rodney has a couple of tryouts. He has a tryout tomorrow [ed. 2/28/2009] with Boston and another tryout on Wednesday [ed. 2/29/2009] with the Yankees.

HH: Really?

LP: Yeah. I want him to go over to school there, but I don’t think that we are going to attack that one. I think that he will be signed before.

HH: Ok, Ok. Well, that’s news.

LP: That’s what he wants to be. And I think that I’m gonna give him the opportunity to sign early.

HH: Maybe we will see Rodney sign with the Yankees and we will see Rodney come up through the Yankee organization, huh?

LP: It would be nice. It would be nice.

HH: They got a really good program, obviously. You know that. Do you have any news on some of the other players, you know, from past years? Jorge Madera, Hendry Colon, Alvaro Vidal?

LP: Yeah. Vidal? He’s almost 20 years old.

HH: Yeah.

LP: And that’s a kid that is ready to play right now, but they don’t want him. Because he is going to be 20. That is what I am trying to tell them, that kid is ready to play summer leagues right now. But they would rather go with a kid who is 16 then go with him because he is going to be 20.

You see, for now, if Vidal would come with a birth certificate that says he is 16, now they won’t give up, this morning, to this kid because he is 16 and he has all this ability. But, at 16 years old he cannot have the ability that he has right now!

You see? That’s the problem.

HH: Right.

LP: And it’s going to be hard for me to try and get him signed. They don’t want to deal with 20 year old right now. They want to deal with a 16, a 17.

You see, Carlos Garcia, he is a shortstop. Boston is going to see him tomorrow [ed. 2/28/2009], but is going to see him as a pitcher because his arm, right now, he is throwing 88, 89. And he hasn’t even been on the mound. We just put him on the mound the other day and he started throwing and they wanted to see him from the mound and he started throwing 88, 89 with no mechanics. So we want to try and see if we can get him signed as a pitcher.

HH: You know, in your experience here in the United States, in our Minor League program we don’t have 16 year-old kids. They gotta be 18 years old, be out of high school. Right? [ed. note: I know, I know…let it be. I’m making a different point here…]

LP: Exactly

HH: You got Vidal he’s 20, he is still of a good age to come over here and be in the Minor League system for a couple of years and work his way up like you did. Why would you think that a Vidal – just because he is 20 – is not going to sign?

LP: Because they don’t want him! I showed him to every single under section here! And they say ’Yeah, um, he could probably play ball, but we are looking for the July 2nd guy’. And it’s so sad, because now is when the kid is ready to play.

HH: So, what our Major League teams do is that they try and sign the kids when they are young, they are like, 16 years old, and put them into baseball programs and Academies in Latin American countries? We don’t bring them over here and put them in our own Minor League system?

LP: They keep them here. They wait until the kids are 20 years. They take them over there and they give them a shot to go through Minor Leagues. And they develop the kids themselves.

HH: I have just two last questions to ask you. The first one is where do you see your Academy going in the next 5 years?

LP: Oh, well, I think that we are going great! We have the kids for the 2010 and the 2011 all ready. That’s when we are really going to hit the spot. You know, I mean, we have one kid, maybe you get the chance to go to my web site [ed. http://www.poloniabaseballacademy.com], the name is Edwin Espinal, who is 6’2", 15 years old, first baseman, he is at 220 pounds. That’s going to be the kid right there, for next year, in this country.

And we are headed [in the right direction] really well. We now know the situation, We now know what we are looking for, and we get out there and are getting it. I mean, we have four kids for 2010 already. We have four kids for 2011. And this is just getting better.

HH: Good. And so you think that 2010 and 2011, that’s when you are really going to hit the mark, huh?

LP: Exactly. I think that’s going to be our explosion years.

HH: Great. I’ll go to your web site even as we talk here actually, I’ll go to your web site and see if I can find this young man.

LP: Yeah.Go to, also, www.luispoloniapba.com which is Polonia Baseball Academy. That’s another web site that I have. It’s more up to date. You can check that one, too. [ed. warning! Mute your volume first! Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Although, it is a pretty hip Luis Polonia theme song that autoplays ont he main page!]

HH: Ok. I’ll do that.

HH: And, finally, one last question here. Christie Gibson seems to be one of your biggest promoters, of you and your Academy and your players here. So tell me about Christie. Who is she, and what does she have to do with your Academy?

LP: It’s unbelievable. I met Christie in 1985. Jose Canseco used to live in Christie’s house that year, in Hunstville, when she was 15 years old. I met her, and I met her mom, because of the relationship they had with Jose Canseco at that time. And we had been lost for a while and all of a sudden we found each other through Facebook and the Internet. Christie found me there. She sent me a note: ‘Hi, this is Christie, the young girl you met in Hunstville where Jose Canseco used to live, blah blah blah…" I knew exactly who she was. I accept her [ed. into his Facebook friend list] then, and we started communicating. And I have to tell you, she has been the greatest. I have fun in my life again because she has put my Academy on top, she has put Luis Polonia right back there where he belongs, and she has been a great asset to me and my Avademy.

HH: That’s awesome. She was the one who you and your Academy to our attention at SBNation.com and to the Angels fan blog here. So, hat’s off, she is doing a fine job for you. She also thinks that she can keep our fans in contact with your players as they get signed and, going forward, maybe help promote your players in their careers too. So that’s a good thing for you that you have someone like that helping you out.

Any last things you would like to share with your Angels fans, about your Academy, about your career, about you and where you are going?

LP: First of all I want to thank your beautiful fans. I want to let them know that even though I played 5 times for the Yankees, I played for the Orioles, I went to the Braves, I never had the opportunity to go to a playoff with the Angels. But I want to let them know that they were the best fans I ever had. That was the best team I ever played with and the best team I ever had. In my mind, in my heart, the Angels have been my number one team and the one that gave me the chance to play for the first time being an every day ballplayer in the Major Leagues, and gave me the chance to be somebody. I love the Angels, I love the fans. I love the people there and I think they are really great.

And I hope that the Angels organization gets my message. I would love to be the scout, the main guy, for Latin America, for the Angels. That would be the highlight of my career.

HH: Well, thank you sir. From a long time Angel fan going back to 1966, whose followed the Angels up and down and seen ballplayers good and bad come and go, let me tell you from my heart I think you for being an Angel, I thank you for showing this fan an exciting way to play baseball, and I thank you very much for your kind words for our fans.

Let’s see if we can fix some of these Dominican players that are no longer in our system, who we know are carrying our team today. They are not going to be around forever, and we are going to have to replace them. So let’s see if we can help you become part of the Angels organization again.

LP: Well, thank you very much. And I want to ell all my people in Anaheim and the whole area that if you want your ballplayer to be as good a hitter as Luis Polonia, I am here to work with them. They can go to my website. They can get information about my Academy. And I would be more than glad to work with them and make them a better hitter and a better baseball player.

HH: Very good. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much for your time today. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. I appreciate very much the information that we have had a chance to share.

LP: Thank you very much. My pleasure.

HH: God bless you, sir.

(interview conducted on 7/27/2009. All images used with permission.)

[Concluding comment: I want to apologize on behalf of Luis right now, if anyone reading this interview felt anything but interest and respect for him. In truth, he was very warm and gracious. Not nearly as conceited as my transcribing of his oral interview may have rubbed some of you. In some cases, I really did struggle with the audio and the accent. Those are all my fault, not Luis'. To do this, I caught Luis while he was driving a car to Santo Domingo, D.R, with his son at his side, on their way to tryouts for the Yankees. He was using a cellphone, and I was using an office speakerphone which I played into my laptop mic, running Audacity to record. Not the best scenario, and easy to lose information in the process. Again, my fault, using the tools in hand rather than preparing the technology. I still have the full audio track. Listening to it in real time gives a sense of a very nice man, passionate about baseball, still reveling in the successes of his life, still hoping to do good things, honorably. If you got some other impression, my bad.]

An Interview With Luis Polonia - Part 1

Stirrups — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:08:20 -0000

Luis Polonia. "La Hormiga Atomica". "The Atomic Ant". In the early 90's, he was my Chone Figgins of the day. He began his American career with the Oakland Athletics in 1984 and ended in 2000 with the New York Yankees. In between, he won three World Series titles and played shoulder to shoulder with a constellation of baseball stars. In 1990 he came to the Halos from the Yankees in exchange for Rich Monteleone and Claudell Washington. He remained here until granted his release in 1993.

Polonia still ranks among the Halos Heaven Top 100, having dropped a little bit to #65. Not bad for only 3 seasons. There are good reasons: blazing speed and daring baserunning. Sure, he got caught stealing a lot, but I would like to believe that falls somewhat on the shoulders of the managers of his day, who were not as sophisticated as today's crew in creating and controlling good situations for speed burner skills. In a way, it was always like he was encouraged to get on base, but nobody knew what to do with him once he got there. So they just turned him loose. Pretty fun stuff to watch when the team itself is close to garbage.

Well, thanks to his agent Christie Gibson (from www.luispoloniapba.com), this week Halos Heaven got a chance for a private, one-on-one interview with Luis. It turns out that he is pretty active and pretty prolific. Believe it or not, he still plays professionally to this day. In fact, in 2006 he subbed in the WBC for Vladdie and outhit all other Dominicans. In 2007 he was THE major factor in the Dominican Republic national team securing the Caribbean Series title.

I can promise that in this interview there are a couple of newsworthy scoops. I encourage you all to read on.

**UPDATE**: In response to this interview, Luis Polonia has reached out to us here at HH and offered up his Facebook page and twitter account. Those can be found at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1103199717&ref=ts and http://twitter.com/polonia22 respectively!

HH: So let’s start briefly with your career. You were drafted in 1984 by the Oakland A’s when you were about 20 years old. Can you compare your development as a young boy leading up to your signing, to the training that you provide in your Academy today?

LP: When I signed, I didn’t have anybody to show me the way to play, and to teach me how I can prepare to become a professional baseball player. Because, you know, everything we did we learned it because of our ability to play baseball not because somebody came here and told me "you have to grab a bat like this…you have to throw like this…you have to catch like this…", you know it wasn’t anything like that. We would just play the game…by ourselves, you know, and that was a different situation. You know, now we get at the Baseball Academy we get the kids at a young age and we teach them the fundamentals of the game. We teach them how to hit correctly. We show them the way how they can be better defensively, and how they can play the game. And it’s really a whole different story now.

I mean, now they come up prepared. They make more money. They sign for millions of dollars now. Before we used to sign for $2,000, $3,000 $10,000 the top guy. The game has changed a lot. The kids now have a better chance to make it. They prepare, and they prepare in a lot better way than we did before.

HH: Back in your day when you were a youngster did you know of any other players, any other kids, that you competed against and that you thought should have had a shot at a big league career, but they did not make it and they would have benefitted by the Academy system you have now?

LP: I can say, not that they’d make it, but I can say that a lot of my friends that used to play together when I was a kid that they didn’t have a chance. Maybe I had a better opportunity because my father was out working with me, my father was moving me places, and they didn’t have that chance. Now the Academies do for them. So I will say that we have, what the young kids have right now, this opportunity to go to an Academy and to go these nice fields, every major league team has an Academy here and they go there and they go practice on those nice fields and, you know, if we had that before more of my young friends would have made it. Because I wasn’t the only player that was good at that time. Some of my friends that we played together at that time had the same talent that I had but they didn’t have the chances that I had and that’s why they didn’t become a baseball player.

So now the parents, they want the kids to be baseball players. Before, there wasn’t that much of that. My friends played with me, but their parents really didn’t care. My father did. So that has changed, you know, when you know everybody wants you to be that. Every parent in the Dominican wants their kid to be a baseball player. Before it was not like that. In this Academy and everywhere there are people working with young talent in every corner of the country. So now you find those guys who will help you, that will move you places, that will show you to the scouts so you can become a baseball player. Before we did not have that.

HH: Let’s talk a couple of quick minutes on your career. So you make it through the hurdles, you get yourself signed by Oakland, you’re here in America and you’re playing Major League Baseball. And your fellow rookie is Mark McGwire. He’ll become Rookie Of The Year. Jose Canseco was Rookie Of The Year just the year before and he is going to become the League Most Valuable Player the next season. Your third year you claim your first World Series title. Those must have been pretty exciting times to be among players of that caliber right out of the gate. Describe your early years. How did you make those adjustments?

LP: It wasn’t that hard for me because I had that as a dream and now I am living the opportunity to become what I wanted to be: a professional – or major league - baseball player. And I got the opportunity to play with all these guys and my talent was just there with them. I signed with the A’s, and I only spent 3 years in the minor leagues. I went Class A, Double A, Triple A, pulling numbers, and seeing all these other guys that I knew that I knew were going to be a star. Like you say I was played with Canseco my second year, McGwire came up and in my third year, there I am in Triple A and I have McGwire, Walt Weiss, those guys playing AA that year. Then all of a sudden they all come up. Canseco becomes the Rookie Of The Year. Then the year after comes McGwire, then Walt Weiss comes, and then - unbelievable! – knowing that I played with all those guys in the Minor Leagues and now we are all new and now we are all in the Major Leagues and see how they are all getting there and becoming stars and see also how quick I made it to the Major Leagues and how I stayed there. They gave me no chance to send me down no more, and I just played. I got an opportunity to play for my 14 years in the major leagues and so there I am in the World Series. I’m like ‘Hey! This is happening too fast!’ I paid a cab and go on up and then that was it. I got the chance to do all right.

HH: Yeah, you spent time in Oakland, then you had a brief jump to the Yankees, and then you come here to Anaheim with the Angels. Now the Angels teams back then, they weren’t very good but I can tell you, we fans, we sure remember your style of play. You were very aggressive on the base paths, very fast runner, stole a lot of bases, took a lot of chances, not always worked out but that style of play, um, that’s really the style of play that Mike Scioscia of the Angels encourages with his teams today, A lot of fundamentals. You were playing a style of baseball, very exciting and very daring. That must have been kind of unusual in your time, huh?

LP: Yeah, it didn’t happen that much like that but that was my game. I was sure that I knew what I needed to do to stay in the Major Leagues. I knew that I had to be on base, I had to run the bases, I had to score some runs, and I kept myself up on my game. And the good thing about myself was that I knew the things that I had to do to stay there and I did it. I did it.

And now, you see some teams that have that same…like the Angels, yeah, they uh… Aybar, Figgins, they play the game which was the one I used to play and that’s what makes the team so successful. Because a lot of teams they are just concerned about all the power hitters. How about the guys who are going to be on base when those guys hit the homers? And this is why the Angels are so successful. Because Scioscia knows…that he needs to have the little names on the bases for the big names to drive them home. And you can see the Yankees. The Yankees think all you need are people who can hit the ball out of the ballpark. Oh hey, how about the 1-2 guys? The 8 and 9? You know, the ones who set the table for the big guys? They don’t have it. They don’t have it and that’s why they have been struggling for so many years.

HH: The game that you played, the game that you brought to your career, is a very potent game…and it’s made the Angels really successful this decade. Have you followed the Angels very much?

LP: Of course! I mean, you know, the Angels, believe me, everybody can ask me, ‘Which is the team that you feel for the best?’ I go, you know what? The Angels. You know why? The Angels kept me from being a DH. The Angels gave me the consideration to become a baseball player, gave me a chance to go out there and play my game. I was with the Yankees, I was with Oakland, and I was like a DH most of the time. I mean, they didn’t see fit to throw me into the outfield because I wasn’t a good outfielder. But I go to the Angels and, all of a sudden, the first thing that Doug Rader told me was ‘You know what? You are not a DH. You are a leadoff man and you are my Left Fielder, and you will be out there the whole year. Go out there, and screw up, and then work with the things that you screwed up and try to make it better next time, and that’s what you are going to need to do.’

THAT’S what you need to hear from him [the manager]. And all of a sudden I became one of the most perfect Left Fielders in the League [editor’s note: uh…not exactly. But the love is there, so let’s just go with it!]. Because they gave me the opportunity to screw up, go and work, and come back and do better. And I enjoyed my time with the Angels and I was so sad when the time came that I had to go. I was feeling like home. That WAS my home. That was when I really learned how to play the game. [editor’s note: The Halos granted Polonia his free agency after the 1993 season.]

HH: I remember seeing you play. I loved the way you challenged the catcher, the pitcher on the base paths. I loved the way you challenged the fielders to try and force them to make the good throws and keep the pressure on the defense at all times. That was a lesson I was learning while I was watching you play.

LP: Now, they believe now, that you need to hit the ball out of the ballpark to score runs. And when I played I believed that with a fly ball, I could make a run score. I could get on base, I steal second, I steal third, go ahead and hit me a fly ball to Center Field, Left Field, Right Field, and then, one run. I didn’t need to wait! I could have gone. I could have done it myself. I made sure my legs would get me there and I would be on third base for you to hit the fly ball, and we would have a run. We would have a run scored right there.

HH: I hope that these are some of the fundamentals that you are teaching your players as they come through your Academy.

LP: Exactly! I mean, it’s my game. I have the little guy, I have the big guy. I need to teach the big guy, I know what I need to teach the little guy.

HH: I don’t read Spanish so well anymore but I do believe that on your website you do promote one of your players as running the base paths really well. So I can see that you are putting things out there.

LP: Exactly. That’s my game. That’s my game.

HH: So you finish up with the Angels. You get another World Series title with Atlanta – hey, you hit a home run off of Orel Hershiser, too, right?

LP: Yeeeahh!

HH: And then you finish your career up here in America with one last title with the Yankees in 2000.

LP: That was big. And we home city champions. [editor’s note: the 2000 World Series was a subway series with the Yankees defeating the Mets in 5 games.]

HH: So give us, like, three great moments outside of those World Series titles that you think back on in your time here in America and with your career and make you smile.

LP: Besides the World Series, right?

HH: Besides the Word Series, yes.

LP: Ok, Well there was one when I broke the no-hitter against Bartolo Colon in 2000 with the Yanks.

HH: Aha!

LP: That was probably the one that I remember the most. Um, there’s another one that really was the most exciting play I ever had in my career. It was when I hit a Grand Slam, inside the park, with the Angels against the Yankees in 1990. And the third one was when I got a hit against Nolan Ryan the first time I faced him.

HH: Ha ha! Good for you!

LP: Yeah, that was one because for me, that man was a god. And to have the opportunity to go out there and face the guy that I used to watch when I was a kid, that I thought was an untouchable guy, and then I would go and get a hit off of him, that was one of my highlights.

HH: Oh man, and I would be right there with you. I have been in batting cages where you can dial it up to 90 and I can still make contact with the ball, but I cannot believe you can even see a ball coming at 100.

LP: Yeah, I can hit one now and I am 45.

HH: God bless you, man. Ok, so you are playing in the Dominican Leagues now and you are representing the DR in international competition, You play for Aguilas, you have yourself more championships and you also played in the World Baseball Cup, how much longer do you see yourself playing?

LP: Well…the only thing I can tell you is that I go year by year. I know I am healthy. I am already side playing in a AA team in the Dominican to get ready for the winter ball that is coming, and I am almost on the record books as the [top] guy for hits doubles, triples, runs scored. I mean, 25 years in the league and playing in all the finals I have every single record too, career series I have all the records, I mean, like, it’s unbelievable.

HH: I know! I was shocked. I know you have a lot of records. I know you have a lot of championships, I was really, really shocked that out of all the great Dominican players who have played baseball professionally and to look back and see who owns all the records for all those great Dominican players…IT’S YOU!

LP: Yes, I have been a champion 25 times in my career. I am 25 out of 25 in my career: Mexico, Caribbean Series, Dominican League, Big League, finally I have won 25 times.

HH: So I would assume this gives you a lot of credibility with your Academy, that players and their parents would say ’Ok, I am going to go listen to this guy’.

LP: Yeah. Oh yeah. There is no doubt about it. I mean, if you put all the Academies here, and my name is there, believe me they are going to say I am going to go to Luis Polonia.

HH: And has that helped you also make sure that you get good coaches and other pros to come to your Academy to help teach your kids?

LP: Exactly. All my coaches are professional. We all play professionally and we all know what we are doing.

PART 2: The Angels and their Latin scouting efforts (or, more accurately, their lack thereof...) and an update on players in the Polonia Academy for this International Signing Season.

Ken Ash Day!

Stirrups — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:53:32 -0000

Ken Ash Day!

FUN TRIVIA MOMENT:

On this day, July 27th 1930, Ken Ash of the Cincinnati Reds came in to pitch relief with two men on and nobody out. Ash’s first pitch to Charlie Grimm of the Chicago Cubs resulted in a triple play. In the bottom of the inning, Ash was pulled for a pinch hitter and the Reds rallied to a 6-5 win. That made Ash the pitcher of record, with a one-pitch victory!

2009 ASG Team Participation

Stirrups — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:28:12 -0000

Here is an interesting take on the 2009 ASG:

Taking all the pitches that each player experienced, either while on offense or defense (even if just waiting their turn to bat while sitting in the dugout), and aggregating those numbers by team, I can take the team totals and divide by the total pitches possible for all players. I end up with a table that looks something like the following (teams arranged to match the current standings in each division)... after the jump... what jumps out at YOU?

via i26.tinypic.com

From July 7, 2009. Texas visiting Anaheim. Halos Baserunning Follies, Part 2: Abreu gets caught...

Stirrups — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:14:21 -0000

From July 7, 2009. Texas visiting Anaheim. Halos Baserunning Follies, Part 2: Abreu gets caught out...

From July 7, 2009. Texas visiting Anaheim. Halos Baserunning Follies, Part 1: Figgy gets picked...

Stirrups — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:12:30 -0000

From July 7, 2009. Texas visiting Anaheim. Halos Baserunning Follies, Part 1: Figgy gets picked off...

Wedding Pictures From The Peanut Gallery

Stirrups — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:41:55 -0000

Yesterday, SoCalWine graced us with the announcement that his son, Tyler, was wedding Beth Peters prior to the start of the game, in a luxury box. Since my son (HaloVet) was treating me to field-level seats behind the home dugout, I was poised to take some snapshots from below of the ceremony. Enough folks were in that area already (for foul balls from batting practice, and autographs from players shagging flies in left field) that they started noticing me looking the wrong way, and up, and taking pics, and they began to follow my gaze and join in creating an audience for the ceremony and the congratulate the newlyweds!

Not to jump the gun on SoCalWine and the families, I wanted to share the pics here at HH. If any of these are interesting enough to anyone in the families, I obviously do have the originals that I will gladly hand over gratis upon request. I will keep them for quite a while, so there is no hurry for anybody to raise a hand.

From far away, as I approached the ceremony. I ended up deleting every pic wherein the electronic board below the box showed an image in orange, as this changed the aperture settings on the camera and rendered the pics too dark to be usable.

Here I have moved a little to my right, so that I can include the minister:

These are from when I was almost below the wedding party:

Now I am below the wedding. I have all my remaining shots from here:

Now zooming in to the wedding party:

This one is extremely dark, mostly because of the colors that jumped out onto the electronic board beneath the box when the photo was shot. Just unfortunate timing. But I include it because it is the moment that Tyler places the ring onto Beth's finger.

"You may kiss the bride". Note that you don't have to command a Marine more than once!

Ladies and Gentlemen, and Halo Fans everywhere, we present to you Mr. And Mrs. Berry!

Congratulations once again to the happy couple, and to both families. And the greatest thanks for your service to our country. (And, no, I did not wait around to catch the bouqet!)

AmyAngel In Search Of Funding Flowchart: Chapter 1

Stirrups — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:22:48 -0000

So, as many of you are aware, our AmyAngel is in hot pursuit of charitable funding on behalf of her AA UK baseball club, the Thames Valley Bisons. Things don't seem to be going well with Amy's search, and she came to us for guidance and tutelage.We tossed out a few ideas, and bandied about some methods that have worked for us in our respective pasts. Armed with that insight, our AmyAngel has gone off renewed, refreshed, and re-energized!!

Settle in as we follow Amy on her Epic Quest to discover the Lost Treasure of The Battle Nine!!

I present to you the first of our multi-part flowchart, Chapter One: The Runaround:

As always, click the image to open in a new window, then expand the image to make it readable. (If there are problems with readability, let me know. I can upload a larger version...)