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Out of the Shadows: Cory Aldridge
Most - almost all, in fact - of these OotS features will be about Negro League players. But - as has been the case with John D'Acquisto, Stolmy Pimentel, Felix Pie and Ruben Quevedo - by no means are MLBers excluded. Especially when I stumble across a story as fascinating as that of Cory Aldridge.
The son of NFL / USFL player Jerry Aldridge, Cory was born in 1979 down in San Angelo, TX. Between his debut for the Gulf Coast League Braves in 1997 and his final appearance for the 2015 Sultanes de Monterrey in the AAA Mexican League, Cory played a whopping 2068 games of pro baseball. Just 13 of these were in the MLB. He got his first cup of coffee going 0-for-5 with a run scored and 4 strikeouts while appearing in 8 games for the 2001 Atlanta Braves. Then, after the better part of nine years kicking around the minors, he got his second chance for the 2010 LA Angels. Things weren't going much better this time around for poor old Cory. Entering the Angels' July 10 game at Oakland, he was still looking for his first big-league hit. That game turned out to be a 15-1 laugher in favour of the home side. Nevertheless, one thinks it might just have been the greatest day in Cory's life. With the score already an embarrassing 13-0 in the top 8th, LA skipper Mike Scioscia sent Cory in to PH against Ross Wolf. Down to his last strike with a 1-2 count on him, Cory laced a long flyball to deep LF, earning him not just his first MLB hit - a triple - but RBI as well. The next day's game, another loss to the A's in which Cory went 0-for-3 with 2 Ks, would be his final one in the bigs. Archie Graham would be so jealous. But also, you'd have to think, just a little bit proud as well. The EL version of Cory has so far had a similarly interesting career since entering the league as a Free Agent in 1975. He signed a minor league contract with the ABCs and spent the early part of that season at the Clowns, impressing enough to be named to the Futures game in midseason. All the same, he was traded not long after that to the AGs for a certain pitcher by the name of Mariano Rivera. Like a bent penny, Cory was traded back to Indy the next year and then, with Bernardo Baro, was traded again a few months later to the Red Sox, his current organisation. After performing solidly without exactly setting the world alight over his first two seasons in the AAA Transit League, Cory has been nothing short of a revelation so far in 1977 for another set of ABCs - the Atlanta Black Crackers. With 63 of the 144-game TL schedule having been completed, Cory has already amassed 4.1 bWAR and is on target for 58 home runs, which would smash the current TL record of 51. He is yet to see one pitch in the bigs. We'll keep a close eye on his progress and see how things play out. |
Notes from the Transit Lounge
Gary Redus is another one of those fringy guys who will no doubt get a handful of big-league post-roster-expansion ABs over his career but is unlikely to ever hold down a regular spot.
Meanwhile, at the AAA level he is a standout, and he is putting together a season for the ages at the moment. His good TL form continues with this outstanding performance against Newark. |
June 1977 Recap
What an odd and yet still fascinating 1977 season is unfolding in the EL. All four races remain super tight, with the Grays' 4-game lead the widest of all.
The FC American is perhaps the most bizarre of all. I have mentioned the BYs' travails a couple times already and they continue. And yet, because their rivals are also going so poorly, you'd have to think they have a much better chance of hauling them in than, say, the BBs in the FC National, despite the fact that each sits a dozen games from the lead. The WC American is Homestead's to lose from here, while in the WC National, the bunched field means that all five teams are still well in it. Monthly Award Winners
Points of Interest
Top 20s - overall Top 20s - NeLers Transit League Again, the TL remains tight although with fewer clubs still realistically in the hunt.
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Stat Check: 3B
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EL Top 100 Prospects
The midseason rerating of prospects is in, with Hilldale's Dusty Baker finally making it to #1 and Detroit's Henry "Cream" McHenry at #2 and the top-ranked pitcher.
A real concern for the two New York clubs - both are travelling terribly but have little by way of future recourse to arrest their slides. |
Transit League All-Stars, 1977
Our new friend Cory Aldridge wins the HR Derby, while Milwaukee's Mel Almada wins the ASG MVP in a 6-4 victory to the Francis Conference. |
1977 EL All-Star / Prospects Squads and Games
The stars of today:
And tomorrow: HR Derby winner Ken Singleton (American Giants) def Leon Durham (American Giants) ASG result Weldy 6, Fleet 4 ASG MVP Mike Easler (Black Barons) Prospects Game result Fleet 8, Weldy 3 Prospects Game MVP Mooney Ellis (Tigers) |
Stat Check: XBH; RBI
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El Clásico, 1977
This year's Cuban Stars matchup is earlier on the schedule than usual and proves to be one of the most competitive we've seen, with the two sides throwing everything at each other before the West squeezes out another series win to further extend their cumulative lead over their archrivals to 7-3.
That decider comes in the face of a supreme effort by the East's Amos Otis. |
DownTime
Sadly it seems all his years of two-way service are starting to have a detrimental effect on Shohei Ohtani's ability to stay on the paddock, with this the second straight season he's gone down with a major injury. This one means he won't be back until next year and leaves Cleveland with quite a mountain to climb if they want to make the playoffs.
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CC for C.C.
A rare highlight in a most difficult year for the BYs, as CC Sabathia notches his 200th EL win, the first player to do so.
The chasing pack. |
July 1977 Recap
So many permutations still at play as we enter the latter part of the season, including a non-too-far-fetched fairytale finish for two of the league's smallest clubs.
With just on 60 games left, both the Giants and Bacharach Giants sit just a game off the lead in their respective FC group. Of the 10 teams on this side of the draw, only Birmingham looks without a chance, so we appear set for yet another grandstand finish. Same goes across in the WC, with Hilldale and Detroit currently holding narrow leads ahead of bunched fields including the top three in each being within a couple games. Monthly Award Winners
Points of Interest
Transit League Still a bunch of teams who'd be liking their chances here.
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Stat Check: pWAR
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Duking it Out
With both sides well and truly in the mix and everything still so close this year, it's no surprise to see the Giants and ABCs engaged in a wild one - one of the best of the season for the offensively-inclined and in front of a nice crowd, to boot.
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Out of the Shadows: Louis Santop
Ahhh how refreshing after quite a few of these features in a row being unable to shine much light on their subjects to be able to cover a player who is quite a bit better-known and therefore better-covered by my various sources. He's also among my favourites of all NeL players.
Louis "Top" Santop Loftin was born early 1889 in Fort Worth, Texas, and it is in that city the first record of his professional playing career appears about two decades later as a member of the local Wonders and 1910 Oklahoma Monarchs - one of the Western Independent group of clubs from that era. Almost from the moment he broke into the NeL with the 1911 Giants of first Philly and New York (the Lincolns), "Top" was highly regarded both for his prodigious hitting and solid defensive skills (he would put on pregame shows displaying the latter). After a brief hiatus where he served in WW1, Top - who had by now collected the nickname "Big Bertha" because of the tape-measure home runs he hit with great regularity but dropped his birth surname - became a fixture at Hilldale, where he played with great albeit diminishing success from 1921 until 1926. At this point, Biz Mackey was on the scene and eventually usurped Top at Hilldale - continuing the catching chain that would extend to Roy Campanella a decade and a half later - with a key error he made in the 1924 World Series perhaps accelerating his decline in stature at the club. After a few years playing semipro, Top retired in 1931. Seamheads gives him a career line of 328/391/464 with 24 HR and an OPS+ of 148, while EC's MLEs allocate him a healthy 53.2 WAR. Top died in 1942 after a fall, aged just 53, and in 2006 was elected to the HoF beside the man who replaced him at the Athletic Club, Raleigh "Biz" Mackey. For more info, check out his BBRef Bullpen entry, which is most informative and will fill in a lot of the blanks omitted by this brief piece. Top joined the AtHoL ranks via the 1972 Rookie Draft, with the Motown Stars picking him 2nd overall. In his five seasons to date, he has justified that lofty selection with a career 261/318/409 slash with 62 HR and over 12 bWAR. He recently signed an extension that will keep him at Mack Park thru 1980, and his club is on track for its first playoff appearance. We'll keep close tabs on him from this point on. |
August 1977 Recap
Still far from settled in all four races as we enter the stretch. Remarkably, more through the incompetent play of the entire division than anything else, even the Black Yankees aren't out of it just yet. Can they fashion what would be one of the most remarkable comebacks in the league's history?
Hilldale has overtaken Homestead in the WCA and is now in possession of the biggest lead of any, albeit only 4.5 games. The Giants and MoStars are both hanging tough but under enormous pressure to continue doing so for the duration. Leading from the front, while tautological, is also incredibly difficult to do. Monthly Award Winners
Points of Interest
Top 20s - overall Transit League Atlanta looks home and hosed in the CCN, the rest are still anyone's to win.
Points of Interest
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Field of Dreams
If there's such a thing as the game that perfectly encapsulates why I set up this save, then this one goes pretty darn close: Smokey Joe Williams v Rube Foster, with Hurley McNair, Alex Radcliff, Louis Santop, Mookie Betts, Pop Lloyd, Rickey Henderson, Cristobal Torriente and Tim Anderson on show. For any of you feeling frustrated by what's gone on recently in the OOTP universe, some unsolicited advice: put it behind you and just go play. Before you know it, you won't hurt anymore.
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Alas, Smith
It is absolutely red-hot as we enter the final few weeks of the regular season, with all four races still on a knife-edge. Sadly for the Athletics, the remainder of their 1977 campaign will be done in talisman Charlie Smith's absence after he suffers ligament damage in his thumb.
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A Moving Feast for the Eyes
It is almost impossible to know where to look at the moment with so much going on and so many permutations at play. Still, this one between two FC National rivals fairly jumped off the screen - it had just about everything, including a rain delay.
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Stat Check: WHIP
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