Michael Trzinski

From sabr.org: Union Park, Baltimore And that in no small part began with the hiring of a new head groundskeeper, Thomas Murphy. With 10 years of experience under his belt, Murphy no doubt knew what improvements were needed at Union Park. He assured Ned Hanlon he would have Union Park as “level as a billiard table” by the time the Orioles returned from spring training. Although the improvements to the field noted by the press made for good copy, Murphy’s changes to the diamond resulted in a great offensive weapon for Ned Hanlon’s brand of “inside baseball.” The advantages afforded by Murphy’s work were detailed in Peter Morris’s Level Playing Fields. The infield soil was mixed with clay and water, and when rolled became as hard as concrete. Placed in front of home plate, it led to the invention of the “Baltimore Chop.” The players would “hit down on the ball so sharply that they could make it to first base before any infielder could make a play.”

John Emil Jaha was born in 1966 in Portland, Oregon, ‘Jaws’ was drafted by the Brewers in the 14th round of the 1984 MLB Amateur Draft. After seven long years in the minors, Jaha finally made his major league debut in 1992, slashing .226/.291/.308 in 47 games. Jaha became the full-time first baseman in 1993 and fashioned a batting line of .264/.337/.416 across 515 at-bats, including 19 home runs and a career-high 13 stolen bases. A three-week demotion to the minors and a player strike limited Jaha to 84 games in 1994. In 1995, Jaha had a great season that was derailed by two stints on the disabled list. He slashed .313/.389/.579 across 316 at-bats along with 20 round-trippers. Jaha finally put it all together in 1996 when he led the Brewers with 34 HRs and 118 RBIs and had a batting line of .300/.398/.543 across 543 at-bats. Shoulder and foot injuries hijacked the next two seasons for Jaha, who played in only a combined 119 games. After the season Jaha was granted his free agency, and was scooped up by the Oakland Athletics in February 1999. So little was expected of Jaha, he was left out of the A’s media guide that spring. But he surprised them all, slamming 35 home runs and knocking in 111 across 457 ABs while slashing .276/.414/.556. He made the All-Star team for the first and only time and was also named AL Comeback Player of the Year. Jaha played in only 45 games combined the next two seasons and retired in June 2001, earning a standing ovation in the Oakland locker room. View full player

Felipe Rojas Alou was born in 1935 in Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic. He was signed by the New York Giants in November 1955 for $200, which paid off his parents’ grocery bill. Early in the 1956 season, Alou was shifted from Lake Charles (Louisiana) to Cocoa (Florida) because the Class C Evangeline League did not want black players in their league. All Alou did was lead the Class D Florida State League in all three slash numbers, .380/.460/.582 and slammed 21 home runs. The righty hitting outfielder made his major league debut in 1958 for the Giants, who had moved to San Francisco prior to the season. By 1962, Alou was an NL All-Star and received MVP votes with his .316/.356/.513 season, along with 25 homers and 98 RBIs. After the 1963 season, Alou was traded to the Milwaukee Braves. He spent two seasons in Milwaukee and then moved with the Braves to Atlanta, where he would play through the 1969 season. Alou was traded to the Oakland Athletics prior to the 1970 season and although he had a solid season, he was traded to the New York Yankees two games into the 1971 season. He played three seasons in New York but was waived and picked up by the Montreal Expos in September 1973. Alou had a batting line of .208/.240/.292 in 19 games and was released. Alou was purchased by the Brewers after the season but only played three games for Milwaukee in April 1974 before he was given his release. His in 17-year MLB career, his batting line was .286/.328/.433 with 2,101 hits and 206 home runs. The respected Alou managed for 14 years in the majors (Montreal and San Francisco), retiring from the bench after the 2006 season. View full player

Wallace Larry Haney was born in 1942 in Charlottesville, Virginia and attended Orange County High School. His plan was to enroll at Virginia Tech as a quarterback but instead signed with the Baltimore Orioles in 1961 for a reported $60,000 bonus. The four-sport star (track, baseball, basketball, football) became a full-time catcher in the pros. He spent six years in the minors before making his big-league debut with Baltimore in July 1966. Haney played 116 games for Baltimore over three years before he was drafted by the Seattle Pilots in the 1968 expansion draft. After splitting time at catcher for the Pilots for two months, Haney was traded to the Oakland Athletics in June. He played 53 games for the A’s but only hit .151/.221/.267. Over the next two years he played only two games for Oakland and in mid-1972, was purchased by the San Diego Padres. Haney played at Triple-A Hawaii and never suited up for Sand Diego before he was sold back to Oakland. After a ‘lost’ season in 1973, Haney was once against purchased by Oakland, this time in spring training before the 1974 season. Although he didn’t hit that well, Haney was a key part of the A’s between 1974-76, playing 211 games while slashing .201/.241/.247. The A’s won the World Series in 1974. The Brewers purchased Haney in December 1976. The right-handed hitter split time with Charlie Moore in 1977 but only played four games during a September call-up in 1978. Haney retired from playing but served as a pitching coach, bullpen coach, and major league scout for Milwaukee until 2006. View full player

Keith Michael Ginter was born in 1976 in Norwalk, California. After high school, he attended Cypress College for two years and then transferred to Texas Tech, where he was a two-time All-American. Ginter was selected in the 10th round of the 1998 MLB Amateur Draft by the Houston Astros. The right-handed batting infielder made his major league debut in September 2000 and got his first big-league hit and home run off Jimmy Haynes of the Brewers. Over three seasons, Ginter only had 14 at-bats with Houston before being traded to the Brewers in September 2002. Ginter started 21 games at third base for the Brewers in September because Mark Loretta, the regular third sacker, went to Houston in exchange for Ginter. Ginter split time between second and third in the infield for Milwaukee the next two years, playing in 240 games for the Brewers in 2003 and 2004. Just before Christmas 2004, Ginter was traded to the Oakland Athletics. Ginter had a three-year batting line for Milwaukee of .257/.344/.448 across 261 games and 820 ABs. He also hit 34 homers and drove in 112 runs. The California native played 51 games for Oakland in 2005 but never made another major league appearance after that. He spent the next four years playing in the minors for Oakland, Cleveland, Boston, and the Chicago White Sox. In 2010, Ginter played for Orange County (California) in the independent Golden Baseball League, along with former MLB stars Byung-Hyun Kim and Mark Prior. Ginter played six years in the bigs, finishing with a slash line of .243/.329/.422 across 971 at-bats, including 38 home runs. View full player

Your point is taken, but I would guess that a majority of Brewers fans loved GoGo, just as opposing fans hated him.

Carlos Gómez played with passion, utilizing his speed on offense and Gold Glove-caliber defense to inspire the Milwaukee Brewers and their fans at Miller Park between 2010 and 2015. 'Go-Go' was capable of slamming a three-run homer, stealing a base, or legging out a three-bagger, much to the jubilation and adoration of the fans at 1 Brewers Way. Carlos Argelis Gómez was born in 1985 in Santiago, Dominican Republic. While a student at Ana FA Jimenez School, he was scouted and signed by the New York Mets at the tender age of 16. Gómez finished school, played with two different teams in 2004 at the Rookie level, and had a combined hitting line of .281/.324/.407 across 221 at-bats. Carlos Gómez was promoted to Hagerstown (Maryland) in the Class-A South Atlantic League the following season. The speedy outfielder slashed .275/.331/.376 across 487 at-bats and pilfered a league-leading 64 bases. In 2006, Gómez moved up to Double-A Binghampton (New York) in the Eastern League, where he had a batting line of .281/.350/.423 in 430 at-bats. His eight triples were tied for fourth in the league, while his 41 steals ranked in a tie for second. Gómez and Michael Abreu were co-winners of the 2006 Sterling Award at Double-A, presented to the team MVP at each level in the Mets organization. Gómez played in the Dominican Winter League and would do so for the next six years through the 2011-12 season. Gómez started the 2007 season at Single-A Advanced Port St. Lucie (Florida) in the Florida State League but moved up quickly to Triple-A New Orleans in the Pacific Coast League. Gómez was batting .286/.363/.414 with 17 stolen bases in just 36 games when he got called up to the Mets. He made his big-league debut on May 13 against Milwaukee and didn’t disappoint, going 2-for-4 with a double, steal, and two runs scored. Gómez was hit by a pitch on July 4 and missed nine weeks with a broken hand. He came back in September and finished 2-for-17 in limited play. His season batting line read .232/.288/.304 with 12 steals in 58 games. In February 2008, he was traded with three other players to the Minnesota Twins for pitcher Johan Santana. That season, Gómez had 33 steals in 153 games for the Twins, a number that ranked seventh in the AL. He slumped in 2009, playing in 137 games but getting only 86 starts. His batting line was .229/.287/.337, with 14 steals across 315 ABs. In November, Gómez was traded to the Brewers for shortstop J.J. Hardy. Gómez was limited to 97 games in 2010, as manager Ken Macha used a three-headed center field platoon of Gómez, Jim Edmonds, and Lorenzo Cain. In 2011, Gómez again split playing time with Nyjer Morgan, aka ‘Tony Plush.’ Gómez amassed only 522 ABs and 34 stolen bases in two seasons, slashing .238/.288/.377. The lack of playing time would end, as Gómez would accumulate 1,525 ABs over the next three years and make the NL All-Star team in 2013 and 2014. He added a Gold Glove to his trophy case in 2013. In that span, he stole 111 bases and slammed 66 home runs, reaching double digits (19-24-23) in that category for the first time in his MLB career. On July 30, 2015—with the Brewers mired in fifth place in the NL Central—Gómez and pitcher Mike Fiers were involved in a blockbuster trade with Houston, who sent pitchers Josh Hader and Adrian Houser, plus outfielders Brett Phillips and Domingo Santana to Milwaukee. Gómez finished the season with a combined slash line of .255/.314/.409 with 17 stolen bases and 12 round-trippers across 435 ABs. In 2016, Gómez was traded once again, this time to the Texas Rangers. As his career wound down, Gómez played for Texas, Tampa Bay, and the Mets over the next three years. Although his last MLB game was in 2019, he didn’t officially announce his retirement until September 2021. In his 13-year career with six teams, Gómez held a slash mark of .252/.313/.411 with 268 steals and 145 home runs. Always a fan favorite at Miller Park, the fiery player known as ‘Go-Go’ never failed to entertain the audience. View full article

Jeffrey Bryan Hammonds was born in 1971 in Plainfield, New Jersey. He was drafted out of high school in the ninth round of the 1989 MLB Amateur Draft but did not sign. Instead, he attended Stanford University and was picked as the fourth overall selection in the first round of the 1992 draft by the Baltimore Orioles. Hammonds played in the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona, Spain. Hammonds began his pro career in 1993 and played just 56 games at two levels before getting called up to Baltimore. He was batting .323/.330/.500 in early August but was forced to the disabled list with a herniated disk in his neck. After playing four more games in September, the Orioles shut Hammonds down for the season. His finals numbers showed a slash line of .305/.312/.467 across 105 at-bats with three homers and 19 RBIs. The following season Hammonds missed six weeks because of a concussion and strained knee, and the last seven weeks of the season due to a player strike. Hammonds still got enough votes to place sixth in the AL ROY race, even though he only played in 68 games. Injuries and poor performance plagued Hammonds in 1995 and 1996, but he had a solid season in 1997 when he slashed .264/.323/.486 and hit 21 home runs and stole 15 bases in 118 games. Hammonds was traded to Cincinnati in 1998, and he would also play the 1999 season with the Reds. He was traded to Colorado and spent the 2000 season there before the Brewers signed him as a free agent after the season. Hammonds played 187 games for Milwaukee over the next three years with a slash line of .248/.321/.398. He was released by the Brewers mid-season 2003 and went on to play through the 2005 campaign with San Francisco and Washington. View full player

Carlos Argelis Gómez was born in 1985 in Santiago, Dominican Republic. While a student at Ana FA Jimenez School, he was scouted and signed by the New York Mets at the tender age of 16. Gómez finished school, played with two different teams in 2004 at the Rookie level, and had a combined hitting line of .281/.324/.407 across 221 ABs. Gómez was promoted to Hagerstown (Maryland) in the Class A South Atlantic League the following season. The speedy outfielder slashed .275/.331/.376 across 487 at-bats and pilfered a league-leading 64 bases. In 2006, Gómez moved up to Double-A Binghampton (New York) in the Eastern League, where he had a batting line of .281/.350/.423 in 430 at-bats. His eight triples were tied for fourth in the league, while his 41 steals ranked in a tie for second. Gómez and Michael Abreu were co-winners of the 2006 Sterling Award at Double-A, presented to the team MVP at each level in the Mets organization. Gómez played in the Dominican Winter League and would do so for the next six years through the 2011-12 season. Gómez started the 2007 season at Single-A Advanced Port St. Lucie (Florida) in the Florida State League but moved up quickly to Triple-A New Orleans in the Pacific Coast League. Gómez was batting .286/.363/.414 with 17 stolen bases in just 36 games when he got called up to the Mets. He made his big-league debut on May 13 against Milwaukee and didn’t disappoint, going 2-for-4 with a double, steal, and two runs scored. Gómez was hit by a pitch on July 4 and missed nine weeks with a broken hand. He came back in September and finished 2-for-17 in limited play. His season batting line read .232/.288/.304 with 12 steals in 58 games. In February 2008, he was traded with three other players to the Minnesota Twins for pitcher Johan Santana. That season, Gómez had 33 steals in 153 games for the Twins, a number that ranked seventh in the AL. He slumped in 2009, playing in 137 games but getting only 86 starts. His batting line was .229/.287/.337, with 14 steals across 315 ABs. In November, Gómez was traded to the Brewers for shortstop J.J. Hardy. Gómez was limited to 97 games in 2010, as manager Ken Macha used a three-headed CF platoon of Gómez, Jim Edmonds, and Lorenzo Cain. In 2011, Gómez again split playing time with Nyjer Morgan, aka ‘Tony Plush.’ In two seasons, Gómez amassed only 522 ABs and 34 stolen bases, slashing .238/.288/.377. The lack of playing time would end, as Gómez would accumulate 1,525 ABs over the next three years and make the NL All-Star team in 2013 and 2014. He added a Gold Glove to his trophy case in 2013. In that span, he stole 111 bases and slammed 66 home runs, reaching double digits (19-24-23) in that category for the first time in his MLB career. On July 30, 2015—with the Brewers mired in fifth place in the NL Central—Gómez and pitcher Mike Fiers were involved in a blockbuster trade with Houston, who sent pitchers Josh Hader and Adrian Houser, plus outfielders Brett Phillips and Domingo Santana to Milwaukee. Gómez finished the season with a combined slash line of .255/.314/.409 with 17 stolen bases and 12 round-trippers across 435 ABs. In 2016, Gómez was traded once again, this time to the Texas Rangers. As his career wound down, Gómez played for Texas, Tampa Bay, and the Mets over the next three years. Although his last MLB game was in 2019, he didn’t officially announce his retirement until September 2021. In his 13-year career with six teams, Gómez had a slash mark of .252/.313/.411 with 268 steals and 145 home runs. Always a fan favorite at Miller Park, the fiery player known as ‘Go-Go’ never failed to entertain the audience. View full player

Valerio Lorenzo de los Santos was born in Las Matas de Farfan, Dominican Republic in 1972 and was signed by the Brewers as an amateur free agent in 1993. The left-hander spent three-plus years in the minors before making his major league debut in July 1998. In 13 relief appearances, de los Santos had an ERA+ of 150 and a WHIP of 0.600 across 21 innings. De los Santos underwent back surgery to remove a protruding disk in June 1999 and missed the entire season. He pitched in 66 games in 2000, and while he was healthy, his results weren’t the best as he compiled a FIP of 5.27 FIP and a WHIP of 1.425. The following year, de los Santos tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow in April and missed the entire season. In 2002, de los Santos started at Triple-A Indianapolis but was called up to Milwaukee in mid-May and had a nice season with a WHIP of 1.179 and an ERA of 3.12 in 51 appearances. De los Santos made 45 relief appearances in 2003 before being sold to the Philadelphia Phillies in September. He pitched in six games and was released after the season. De los Santos bounced around after that, playing for the Toronto Blue Jays and Florida Marlins the next two years, but then played in the Mexican Leagues in 2006 and 2007. He made two starts for the Colorado Rockies in 2008, which were his last games in the big leagues. After three years of playing in China, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, de los Santos retired after the 2011 season. View full player

John Thomas “Rocky” Coppinger was born in El Paso, Texas in 1974. He was a three-sport star at Coronado High School in El Paso. Coppinger was selected in the 19th round of the 1993 MLB Amateur Draft by the Baltimore Orioles but didn’t sign, instead electing to attend Hill Junior College near Dallas. After a spectacular year at Hill, Coppinger signed with the Orioles in May 1994. Coppinger made his big-league debut in 1996 after two solid seasons in the minors, and made 22 starts, winning 10 games and finishing fourth in the AL ROY voting. The big (6-foot-5, 245-pound) righty lost two-plus seasons to injuries and only appeared in 22 games for Baltimore and as a result, was traded to the Brewers in July 1999. Coppinger made 29 relief appearances for the Brewers over the last two months of the season. His bad luck continued as he missed all of the 2000 season when he underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. Coppinger tried to make a comeback in 2001 and pitched well at two stops in the minors (1.97 ERA, 1.082 WHIP) across 31 games. He did not have as much luck in the last six weeks of the season in Milwaukee, amassing a FIP of 6.71 and WHIP of 1.721. Milwaukee released Coppinger after the season. The Oakland Athletics signed him in 2002 and released him mid-season. Coppinger became an assistant to the general manager for the El Paso Diablos in the independent Central League in 2005 and even pitched in one game. View full player

Louis Keith Collier was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1973. After high school, he was drafted in the 56th round of the 1991 MLB Amateur Draft by the Houston Astros. He declined to sign, instead attending Kishwaukee College (Malta, Illinois), from where he was drafted in the 1992 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 31st round. He moved on to Triton College (River Grove, Illinois) where he played in 1993. He then signed with the Pirates after the season. After five years in the Pirates organization, Collier got called up to Pittsburgh in 1997. The following year, Collier played in 110 games for the Bucs but hit a disappointing .247/.316/.338 and was waived, where he was picked up by the Brewers. Collier played three infield spots and all three outfield spots over the next three years for Milwaukee. In 138 games, Collier had a slash line of .252/.332/.371 across 294 ABs. He was included in a three-way trade with the New York Mets and Colorado Rockies in January 2002. Two months later, he was traded from the Mets to the Montreal Expos. Collier played in just 13 games for the Expos before being released. Over the next two seasons, Collier played in the majors for Boston and Philadelphia before traveling to play in the Korean Professional League for two years. In 2007 while playing in the Phillies organization, he announced his retirement. Collier has worked as a scout, a coach for the US National team, and has a baseball school that instructs youngsters. Collier’s 20-year-old son Cam is currently a Top 10 prospect in the Cincinnati Reds organization. View full player

Charles Lee Glenn Carr was born in 1967 in San Bernardino, California. After graduating from Fontana High School, Carr was selected in the ninth round of the 1986 MLB Amateur Draft by the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds had little patience with Carr, releasing him after just one season. He was signed by the Seattle Mariners, and they held onto Carr for two seasons in the minors and then he was traded to the New York Mets. Carr made his major league debut in 1990, but he bounced around for the next two years between the Mets and the minors before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals after the 1991 season. After a September call-up in 1992 with the Cardinals in which Carr stole 10 bases, the Florida Marlins selected him in the 1992 expansion draft. The switch-hitting speedster led the NL with 58 steals in 1993 and finished fourth in the NL ROY balloting. He stole 57 bases over the next two years and was traded to the Brewers after the 1995 season. Carr got off to a good start in 1996, but his season ended after two months due to a major knee injury. He came back in 1997 but got off to a terrible start (6-for-46) and after popping up on a 2-0 pitch he had been instructed to take, he reportedly told manager Phil Garner, “Chuckie hacks on 2-0.” He was released after refusing an assignment to the minors. He finished up the season with Houston and was granted his free agency after the season. He never played in the bigs again. After a battle with cancer, Carr died on November 12, 2022. He was 55 years old. View full player