In the Margins of the Brad Brach interview
Corner to corner coverage
Notes, observations, and elaborations based on the last post
Brothers in arms in San Diego
The conversation on San Diego closers starts and often ends with Trevor Hoffman, seven time All-Star, two time National League saves leader, and Hall of Famer with 601 career saves. But there were important Padres relief pitchers before and after Hoffman, including a connection that has continued with a new generation of players.
Rollie Fingers was an iconic pitcher pretty much everywhere he went: first for the 1970s Oakland Athletics where he won three straight World Series titles and later on for the Milwaukee Brewers in the early 1980s where he won both the National League Cy Young (one of only nine relievers to win since 1967) and Most Valuable Player Awards in 1981 with a 1.04 ERA with 28 saves and 61 strikeouts in 78 innings. In between those eras, Fingers played four seasons with the Padres from 1977 to 1980 and led the NL in saves two years in a row. From his rad handlebar mustache to the way he helped establish the modern mold of the closer, Fingers has to be included when talking San Diego closers. With Hoffman and Fingers, the Padres can claim two Hall of Fame closers. Not bad for a franchise that still can’t win a World Series.
Heath Bell didn’t have the best start to his career: appearing in 81 games over three seasons with the New York Mets. But once he got to San Diego, Bell found the magic. He began as the setup man for Hoffman and then stepped into the closer role in 2009 after Hoffman left the team for free agency. Bell recorded 40+ saves in each of the next three seasons and kept his ERA well under 3.00 each year. He played for three more seasons after those big years in San Diego with the Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Rays and could not reach the same heights. It’s a hell of a thing for an undrafted free agent to make a Major League roster, much less become a three-time All-Star and win two Reliever of the Year awards.
Akinori Otsuka had a long career in Nippon Professional Baseball as a great closer for the Kintetsu Buffaloes (1997 to 2002) and Chunichi Dragons (2003) before signing with the Padres and becoming the setup man for Hoffman in 2004, when he finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting, and 2005. Otsuka played his final two seasons in MLB with the Texas Rangers and racked up 32 saves in 2006.
His two seasons in San Diego made a massive impact on the culture and legacy of Padres baseball. Hoffman’s entrance music was Hell’s Bells by AC-DC, and in the 2006 World Baseball Classic title game, Otsuka came in to close the game out for Japan with Hell’s Bells blaring and Japanese fans going nuts at Petco Park. I was at that game and it was complete madness. When the first bell tolled over the speakers, I had an out of body experience. Later I learned that Hoffman gave his blessing to let Otsuka use the song, even after Otsuka left the Padres that winter. “I thought it was a great touch, a great connection,” Hoffman says.
Their connection goes on with Hoffman and Otsuka’s sons playing together in the San Diego Summer League in 2020 along with fellow sons of former Padres (see what I did there?) Phil Nevin and Dave Roberts. Tora Otsuka has been friends with Quinn and Wyatt Hoffman, as well as Kyle Nevin and Cole Roberts, since they were all kids.
A monument to Monmouth baseball
Monmouth University has a small but significant footprint in MLB, with Brad Brach’s record-setting success as the most recent example. Before Brach made headlines at Monmouth, he was the New Jersey high school pitcher of the year in 2006. Over his four years with the Hawks, Brach set the school record for wins with 29 and strikeouts with 277 and was Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2007.
32 other Monmouth players have played in pro ball in the U.S. since Bob Hooper debuted in the Coastal Plain League in 1941, including Ed Halicki, who played seven years in MLB from 1974 to 1980, mostly with the Giants who drafted him in the 24th round in the 1972 Amateur Draft. His big moment came on August 24, 1975, when he threw a no-hitter for the Giants against the New York Mets. Halicki’s no-hitter was the last by a Giants pitcher at home until Jonathan Sánchez’s no-hitter in 2009. Yes, I cried watching that 2009 game. There was a time when Giants fans thought that was as good as it gets. Little did we know.
Trey Dombroski and Rob Hensey are the most recent draftees from Monmouth with high MLB potential. Dombroski, a 4th round pick of the Houston Astros in the 2022 Draft, was named NJ.com Pitcher of the Year in 2019, won Cape Cod Baseball League Pitcher of the Year in 2021, and was the 2022 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Pitcher of the Year. Hensey was the 2021 MAAC Pitcher of the Year, 2022 MAAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year, and the 10th round choice for the Cincinnati Reds in the 2022 Draft.
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I don’t know a lot about the MAAC, New Jersey baseball, or Monmouth’s program, but they must be doing something right to produce two draft picks within the first 10 rounds in the same year. Usually college baseball recruiting and prospect discussions are dominated by big programs like Vanderbilt, USC, Florida, etc. It’s rare to see a smaller program like Monmouth turn out prospects like this. It’s worth keeping an eye on what’s going on in coastal New Jersey.
Know the Newark Eagles
The Newark Eagles are an essential piece of New Jersey baseball history. The Negro Leagues franchise lasted from 1933 to 1950, becoming the team we know as the Eagles in 1936 when the Brooklyn Eagles merged with the Newark Dodgers. Black superstars and Hall of Famers Monte Irvin, Larry Doby, and Don Newcombe all played for the Eagles before MLB integrated in the 1940s and 1950s.
Abe and Effa Manley owned the Eagles, but Effa was the key architect of the team’s success. She was the team’s business manager and fulfilled many of her husband’s duties as treasurer of the Negro National League. Under Effa’s leadership, the Eagles won the 1946 Negro World Series and enjoyed many more successes in the game: improved working conditions for the Eagles players like better scheduling, pay, and accommodations, including traveling in an air-conditioned bus, which was a luxury in the Negro Leagues. Effa’s advocacy for her players expanded access to quality of life improvements for all Negro Leagues players.
She did it all: running day-to-day business operations of the team, arranging playing schedules, planning the team’s travel, managing the payroll and cutting the checks herself, purchasing the equipment, negotiating contracts, and handling publicity and promotions. She was widely recognized for being a top-tier baseball executive, getting props from fellow manager Cumberland Posey. Effa also was a champion in the community, active in the NAACP and many other civil rights causes.
Effa is the first and only woman in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and although she’s best remembered for being one of the first women to own a baseball team, two other women predate her: St. Louis Cardinals owner Helene Hathaway Britton (1911 to 1917), and the Indianapolis ABCs owner Olivia Taylor (1922 to 1926), another Black community leader and Negro Leagues legend.
As with every topic I write about here, there’s volumes of history, stories, and other information out there about the Negro Leagues, the Newark Eagles, and Effa Manley (and now Britton and Taylor) that I either couldn’t include to save space or that I just don’t know about yet. I encourage you to seek out those resources to learn more about this fundamental chapter of baseball history. One such resource is a new documentary called The League coming out in July. It looks very different from previous documentaries on the Negro Leagues, because it connects the success of the Leagues to thriving Black communities and seeks out Black voices, including the actual players plus Black historians and fans of the Negro Leagues.
I am so there.
Presenting: Jam of the Week
While researching Minor League Memories this week I came across this song and it fit really well:
So I decided to add a new section to In the Margins where I share the Jam of the Week, a song that fits the theme of the featured player or makes me think of them in some way. I’ll share the Spotify playlist every week as well as the new song. We have several weeks to catch up on, so keep an eye out for those songs as well as the new ones coming up.
Related entries in this series:
Didi Gregorius: Good guys wear orange
