Coopers Town Baseball League
SPRING TRAINING REPORT
The feeling of spring was throughout the air like never before as the biggest stars to ever play the game reported to camp and teams tried to mesh chemistry among superstars. This spring in the Cooperstown Baseball League had the usual position battles and small to major injuries, but all of it like a freight train heads towards opening day and the classic struggle towards a pennant.
Here is an update of Spring Training battles as the spring came to a close:- Andrew Jones beat out Dale Murphy for the Braves starting center field job.
- John Wetteland beat Jeff Reardon for the Nationals closer job and Ed Yost beat out Tim Wallach at third.
- Cap Anson outplayed Mark Grace this spring and will platoon with him. Carlos Zambrano also beat out Kerry Wood for a rotation spot.
- John Candelaria beat out Bob Friend for the Pirates rotation spot.
- Don Newcombe won the rotation battle over Fernando Valenzuela and Pedro Guerrero outplayed Ron Cay at third.
- Will Clark won a platoon role for the Giants first base job with Willie McCovey. Benito Santiago won the catchers job.
- Muse Haas beat Ben Sheets for the Brewers rotation spot.
- Don Mattingly outplayed Dave Winfield for the DH spot.
- David Ortiz will be the Boston DH over Mike Greenwell.
- John Olerud is the man out in Toronto to Carlos Delgado and Fred McGriff.
- Bob Wickman is the Indians opening day closer. Larry Doby will start over Kenny Lofton.
- Jack McDowell is the fourth White Sox starter over Tommy John. Magglio Ordonez won the outfield job over Minni Minoso.
- Miguel Cabrera beat out George Kell for the third base job in Detroit while Kirk Gibson outplayed Sam Crawford.
- Justin Mornueu is the starter at first base for the Twins over Kent Hrbeck,
- Bert Campeneris defeated Miguel Tejada as the A's short stop.
- Mark Langston will be in the Mariners rotation over Jamie Moyer.
- And in Texas Roy Oswalt beat out Kevin Brown for the rotation spot on the team while Mark Teixeira outplayed Jeff Bagwell.
Other interesting notes
- The Yankees had the best record this spring at 15-9. The Chicago White Sox had the worst at 8-16.
- Shoeless Joe Jackson led the spring in hitting at .444 pace.
- Lou Gehrig and Eddie Murray both hit league leading seven home runs.
- Willie Stargell struck out 31 times.
- Andy Messersmith of the Angels struck out 66 men.
- Babe Ruth batted .333 with 3 home runs.
Injuries
- Luke Appling of the Chicago White Sox sprained his ankle badly and will miss the first two weeks of the season. Robin Ventura will be the opening day starter.
- Lou Whitaker will miss the first week of the season with an oblique strain suffered in early spring.
BROOKS ROBINSON SUSPENDED
To show the intensity of the upcoming season. The biggest news this spring was the outburst of Orioles third base man Brooks Robinson. For whatever reason Robinson was infuriated by a call at third base in which he was covering and the runner was called safe.
Robinson went off on a tirade and had to be restrained before he was ejected. Robinson didnt offer an apology afterward which hurt his cause to calm the situation.
The league came down hard on Robinson with a five game suspension to start the season. The penalty was harsh but is a first view of the stance the league will take on such matters. The league is cracking down in rough house play many are saying due to the old time players like Ty Cobb who think it is second nature.
Robinson still hasnt apologized.
ON TO OPENING DAY.....