Monday, July 6, 2009

Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Round Rock to Waco Texas

It was a long trip from Round Rock to Waco but I'm averaging 8.9 miles per trip to the gym and I'm going 3 days a week. Waco looks like a hot town for baseball players.

My next stop is going to be Arlington Texas, the home of the Rangers. After that I'm not sure where I'm heading next. Most likely I will head north (toward Kansas City) and then east as there are more cities with baseball teams east of the Mississippi.
I'm not sure why I remember Kevin Belcher's name because he only played 16 games total for the Rangers in 1990. I found this image through Google image search.

Lance Berkman is the best hitter born in Waco. The card is a 2006 Bowman Heritage Pieces of Greatness relic card that I own. Lance is a career .300 hitter with 305 home runs. He's gotten off to a slow start this season but he's been hot for the past few weeks.

A few players I wasn't able to find images of: Buzz Dozier (a pitcher for the Senators in 1947 and 1949); Louis Drucke (a pitcher for the New York Giants 1909-1912); Boob Fowler (a middle infielder for the Reds and Red Sox in the 20s). Waco has produced a player named Buzz and a player named Boob. By the way, a word of caution if you're looking for pictures of someone named Boob on Google Image Search. I got a few pictures I wasn't expecting and don't care to show here.

Charlie Gorin (a pitcher for the Braves in 1954-55. He had a 54.00 ERA in .1 innings of work in 1955); Todd Haney (another middle infielder for the Expos, Reds and Mets in the 90s).
Harris was a 1st round draft pick by the Rangers in 1989 but never made it to the majors. I'm sure I own this card since I had purchased the entire 1990 Score set when new. I found this autographed card through Google.
Andy Hawkins was a pitcher with a 10-year career mostly with the Padres in the 1980s. The caption for this photo said he was named the Rangers pitching coach in 2008. Looks like these Texas boys don't wonder too far from home.

Al Jackson (10-year career in the 1960s, he was 8-20 for the 1962 and the 19645 Mets); Scott Jordan (he was 1 for 9 with the 1988 Indians).
Rudy was an outfielder in the 1980s, mostly with the White Sox. Another card I found through Google.

Dutch Meyer was the nephew of Dutch Meyer who was the head football coach at Texas Christian University from 1934 to 1952. Younger Dutch (also called Little Dutch) was an undistingushed player for the Cubs, Tigers and Indians in the 1940s. After his playing career he became a minor league manager in the Yankees system. In 1955, he was fired for kicking a slumping Roger Maris off the Tulsa team.
Arthur Rhodes, currently pitching for the Reds, has had an 18-year career in which he is 79-61 with 32 saves.
Schoolboy Rowe was a 3-time All-Star pitcher (Tigers 1033-1942, Phillies 1943-1949). He has a career record of 158-101 and an ERA of 3.87. I found the card through Google but I'm not sure what it is. It looks like a Goudey to me.

And finally we have Ted Wilborn who had a 30 game career in 1979-1980.

2 comments:

Matt Runyon said...

Rudy Law looks like he's about to brain somebody with that bat.

The Rowe card is a Diamond Kings card, produced sometime from 1934-1936.

Matt Runyon said...

Oops--I meant Diamond Stars. (blush)