The Green Phone was created so the fans could voice their opinions. Give us a call and let us know what’s on your mind.
CALLER 1: Yeah, hi, I’m just calling to complain about the paper’s Little League All-Stars pictures. It’s very small and we have a game at 6pm and none of the other papers are coming to take pictures in Salinas. And there are humongous pictures of the American team and it’s just so big and our pictures are just so small. That’s why I’m calling to complain. This game is so important for us. This is the championship. The pictures look like a little ant squirreling around the papers and that’s the reason I’m calling.
GREEN PHONE: Thanks, Caller. Unfortunately, from your message, the Green Phone can’t tell what game, issue of the paper or team you’re talking about. Regardless, the Phone wants you to know that the paper does its best to get photos for Little League games to go with the stories. However, not every picture in the paper can be run as big as you would like it to. If every picture on the page was huge, all the news that has to go in the paper just wouldn’t fit on the page. So, decisions have to be made. We’ll try our best to make Little League photos more satisfactory in the future.
CALLER 2: I think you left somebody off the Bay Area baseball team there. It said here in the paper to call you. You left off Jerry Coleman. He played for the Yankees, played in about five or six World Series, and was the Most Valuable Player in the 1950 World Series, Rookie of the Year in 1949, one of the best fielders the Yankees ever had, a double-play leader, I’m not sure where, but historically pretty high. Born in San Jose, brought up in San Francisco.
GREEN PHONE: Thanks for bringing Coleman to our attention, Caller 2. He was indeed a valuable player for the Yanks in the 1950’s, making the All-Star team in 1950 and winning MLB’s Babe Ruth Award the same year. Coleman batted .287 in that 1950 campaign, with 19 doubles and 69 RBI’s. He was a great guy to have in your infield – able to handle either shortstop or second base, and even logged 41 games at third base during his nine-year Major League career. He also gets plenty of points for going to six World Series with the Yankees, and winning four. Particularly impressive were the first three championships, in 1949, 1950 and 1951, which came when Joe DiMaggio’s career was winding down and before Mickey Mantle’s had heated up (though DiMaggio did bat .301 with 32 home runs and 122 RBI’s in 1950, his second-to-last season in the bigs). You’re also correct about the double plays – Coleman turned 532 of them during his career. Did you know that he also managed a ballclub for a season? Coleman led the 1980 San Diego Padres to a 73-89 record.
CALLER 3: I think you might have left off Frank LaCorte from Gilroy and Don Larsen. When Larsen retired, I know it’s not his playing years, but when he retired he moved to San Martin. So those are really local guys that maybe should be looked at. And there’s one other. I don’t know how well he did when he was in the pros, but Bobby Stoddard from Morgan Hill pitched for the Seattle Mariners and he went right from Gavilan College to the Mariners. So that might be another guy to look at. Thanks for your time. Really appreciate your paper. I hope to see this in print.
GREEN PHONE: Caller 3, we made mention of LaCorte, Larsen and Stoddard in Part II of our All-Time Bay Area-Central Coast All-Star Team package, which ran Thursday. Thanks for mentioning those three players with strong local ties, but we have a question of our own about Stoddard. According to his profile on BaseballReference.com, it says Stoddard attended Fresno State, but you say he went straight from Gavilan to the Seattle Mariners. Can anybody out there clear that up?
CALLER 4: I wanted to applaud you on your series on the All-Time Bay Area team and the local ties to the Majors. I really enjoyed it. One that I’ve found that you missed was Ken Caminiti. National League MVP for San Diego, recently died of a drug overdose. He went to Leigh High School in San Jose and San Jose State. I think he might not be your all-time third baseman, but he did play a little bit of first base. So he might qualify for your first base. You were searching for somebody for first base and found that guy from like 1918 or something like that. So Caminiti might be able to fill that spot. Other one was Chris Codiroli, a pitcher from Archbishop Mitty High school. He pitched for the A’s. I believe he has a son who’s playing in the area now. So anyway, Chris Codiroli’s another pitcher from Mitty High School. Looking forward to reading about Frank tomorrow.
GREEN PHONE: Caller 4, thanks for the feedback and first things first – our piece on Frank LaCorte isn’t coming until Tuesday, just to clarify. As for Caminiti, we feel pretty dumb for not including him in the All-Star lineup. Whether he should start over Carney Lansford is another question. Caminiti at his peak was better than Lansford at his, but Carney had the more consistent career over the long haul. On the other hand, Caminiti had the better glove – he won three Gold Gloves at third base – so perhaps it’s closer than we think. Because Caminiti played only 33 games at third base, it’s pretty tough for us to put him in there. Especially when there are some pretty good first baseman vying with old George Kelly for the starting spot – including Bill Buckner (2715 hits, 498 doubles and one colossal error) and Keith Hernandez (2182 hits, 11 Gold Gloves and one colossal drug trial). Kelly, unlike Buckner and Hernandez, is a Hall of Famer (though a pretty tenuous one, to be sure) so that’s why we picked him. On to Codiroli – decent pitcher, but a 38-47 career record and 4.87 career ERA just doesn’t cut the mustard for us. This is the All-Time All-Star team, after all.
