Tony Kemp’s pinch-hit strikeout-that-turned-into-a-home-run and Ross Ohlendorf’s immaculate inning were just two stories in a fun-filled day at the chapter’s winter meeting on Saturday.
Oakland Athletics (and former Houston Astros) utility player Tony Kemp and Austin native Ross Ohlendorf dazzled more than 30 members and guests at the 15th Annual Bill Gilbert Winter Meeting of the Rogers Hornsby Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research.
Tony Kemp, who made his MLB debut with the Astros in 2016, talked about the challenges in playing the shortened season in 2020 without fans because of the coronavirus. He also said he was excited and proud to play for the Oakland A’s, which won the American League West.
He remembered 2019 as a roller coaster year because he was released by the Astros and picked up by the Cubs. Having grown up a St. Louis Cardinals fan, he said it was odd to don the Cubs uniform, but he loved “being on the other side.”
He was asked about the time he struck out against Cardinals reliever Giovanny Gallegos on Sept. 21, at Wrigley Field. Or so he thought. Because a balk was called prior to the pitch, Kemp had new life in the batter’s box with a full count. Kemp remembers the at-bat well. The balk moved Ben Zobrist from second to third.
What would Gallegos throw? Kemp thought. And what would the location be?“I [sat] on a heater,” he remembered, and he got it. All of it. He launched a two-run home run to straightaway center field that put the Cubs ahead, though they later lost the game. For more about this play, check out the video on MLB.com: https://www.mlb.com/news/tony-kemp-go-ahead-home-run-strikeout-balk
Kemp also remembered playing at Minute Maid Park in the first games played after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He had been called up from Triple-A to join a talented team that went on to win the World Series that year.
He remembered manager A.J. Hinch’s emotional pep talk to the crowd that day.
“The feeling in the clubhouse was very eerie, not nervous,” he said. “We realized that the game was bigger than us. That we were not just playing for ourselves.”
In the past year, Kemp has been active on social media and engaged with fans. After the George Floyd murder, he said he wanted to do more to address racial injustice and sought to have conversations about race relations in America. He said he’s had more than 500 conversations with people from across the country.
“I think the biggest thing is that you take yourself out of your shoes,” he said as a first step to understanding the climate in America today. “A lot of people were hurting and… needing questions answered that they never had before.”
Kemp said this inspired him to create and lead the +1 Effect movement, in which candid conversations, he hopes, can lead to healing and understanding. He partnered with BreakingT to raise money for a campaign to decrease police violence and improve race relations in America. Read more about his effort on MLB.com: https://www.mlb.com/news/tony-kemp-starts-campaign-fighting-racial-injustice
To help support Kemp and his +1 Effect campaign, you can purchase T-shirts and use a promotional code (HORNSBY) for a 15% discount at this link: https://breakingt.com/products/plus-1-effect
Kemp also talked about the Astros sign-stealing scandal and how he didn’t want any part of that when he returned to the team in September 2017. “I’m thankful for my younger self,” he said of his decision.
Before our talk ended, he gave us a tour of his memorabilia, showing signed jerseys from baseball greats such as Edgar Martinez and David Price and signed baseballs from Craig Biggio, Nolan Ryan and others. He keeps in touch with his teammates from Vanderbilt University and was part of the team that led Vandy to its first College World Series.
Later, Austin native and former MLB pitcher Ross Ohlendorf shared his memories of his Major League career pitching for the Yankees, Pirates, Padres, Nationals, Rangers and Reds. Drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ohlendorf was the key prospect in the trade that sent him to the Yankees and Randy Johnson to the D’backs in 2007.
He shared how much he appreciated the great Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who took an active interest in helping Ohlendorf when he struggled.
“Some players want to be great and some want the team to be great,” Ohlendorf said, noting that Rivera was both.
“I’ve never seen someone else take such an interest in helping others — at least, in helping me,” he said. While some pitchers may watch and offer tips, Ohlendorf said Rivera would catch him on flat ground and offer guidance.
He also remembered working with Pittsburgh Pirates pitching coach Joe Kerrigan, who he said helped him greatly with pitching mechanics and location.
“There are two parts to pitching: the right pitch and execution,” Ohlendorf explained. He said sometimes in his career, he had the right pitch but not the conviction in the moment to throw that pitch, causing poor execution. He said he was at his best when he could align the right pitch with the confidence and conviction to throw it, which often led to better execution.
Ohlendorf finished his professional playing career in a season with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2017. Though he said he wished he pitched better, he said that he and his family had a great experience in Japan, and he hopes to visit in the future with his family. Of the quality of play, Ohlendorf said that most teams had one or two players that would be good players in MLB. He also said that the style of play is different in Japan, where teams rely on small ball to score runs and defense.
Of his immaculate inning – an inning in which a pitcher retires three batters with nine pitches – Ohlendorf said he didn’t know until after the game that he had become the 40th pitcher in MLB history to achieve the feat. However, Ohlendorf, pitching for the Pirates against the Cardinals on Sept. 5, 2009, said he did think about the feat during the inning.
“When I went 0-2 on the second batter, I thought about it,” he said, noting that he had a shot. He remembered also that all three strikeouts were completed with putouts by the catcher to the first baseman.
You can watch each strike and out at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VViT34ETHBU
Before Ohlendorf finished, he talked about the lineup cards displayed on his wall at home. One lineup card is from his Major League debut with the Yankees, and another was from a win with the Rangers. He got signatures from most of the players on each card.
We also thanked Ohlendorf for his participation with the chapter’s BasebALZ program, a therapy program that uses baseball memories to help Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. For more about the program, click this link: http://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/
Longtime Round Rock Express broadcaster and award-winning journalist Mike Capps (pictured above) joined us and shared his insights about the state of Minor League Baseball and the uncertainty about the upcoming season. He plans to return to the Express broadcast booth, where he’s been known as the Voice of the Express since 2000.
After MLB contracted the number of minor league teams from 160 teams to 120 in late 2020, unknowns about the upcoming season include team schedules and the makeup of divisions. Under the new model headed by MLB, most decisions involving the minor league clubs, such as marketing, will be decided at the MLB office in New York.
Capps said it appears that the start of the minor league season may dovetail with Opening Day for the major league teams.
Another feature of our winter meeting involves having a mock Hall of Fame election to capture the chapter’s impression of the players on the ballot. Our results have often suggested how the baseball writers vote on their real ballots.
We had 22 participate in our ballot in which none of the players reached at least 75% of the vote (17 of 22). The highest vote-getters on our ballot were Barry Bonds and Rogers Clemens (each with 13 of 22 votes, or 59%), Curt Schilling (12 of 22 votes, or 55%) and Scott Rolen (11 of 22 votes, or 50%). No other player on our ballot reached double digits in votes.
We’ll see how our mock election compares with the real deal on Tuesday, Jan. 26, when the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announces its results.
Longtime chapter member Jim Baker opened our meeting with a collection of photos of baseball players with dogs and invited participants to share interesting tidbits about the players such as Hank Aaron (seen above), Ichiro Suzuki, David Ortiz, Willie Mays and Rogers Hornsby, among others.
Sprinkled throughout the meeting, some participants shared their favorite memorabilia. Monte Cely shared his 1958 J.C. Higgins glove (Don Blasingame model); Mike McNulty shared a souvenir minibat from the 1932 World Series between the Cubs and Yankees (his uncle obtained the bat at the game in which Babe Ruth famously called his home run shot); Jerry Miller shared a variety of items related to Dodgers great Tommy Lasorda; Jan Larson shared a ballcap for the now-defunct Minor League team the New Orleans Baby Cakes; Bob Dorrill shared a signed card featuring Nolan Ryan and Reid Ryan in uniform; Linda Nichols shared a 25th Anniversary Commemorative Ticket of the opening of the Houston Astros’ Astrodome; guest Ryan Gonzalez, who worked as a live content creator for MLB and the Astros, shared confetti that landed on the mound after the Astros won the AL pennant in 2017, and I shared a Craig Biggio ball he signed the night of his 3,000th hit on June 28, 2007 (Biggio signed the ball and gave it to Colorado Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, who gave it to Steve Braccini, former Hornsby Chapter member, who gave it to me).
Ryan Pollack crafted a quiz about runners-up in a variety of career and single-season categories. Inspired by Tom Melecki’s turkey quiz in November, Ryan noted that we often know the names of the players with the highest accomplishments, so he tested our knowledge of those with second most.
Use this link to access the quiz: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ORM1vRLMu4ZQ1b7t6TOwjwMKYVNELjgVLh-9RnC1mc8/edit?ts=5ffb3d28#slide=id.p
Correct answers can be found by clicking on the lower-right side of each slide and deleting the box to uncover the correct answer.
Gary McIntosh won the quiz with four (4) points, followed by Cy Morong with three (3) and Jim Baker with two (2).
This was the 15th annual winter meeting and the first held virtually online. We also took a few minutes at the beginning to recognize and remember Bill Gilbert, for whom the winter meeting is named; he founded the Rogers Hornsby Chapter in 2005 and the Larry Dierker Chapter and conceived of the winter meeting.
Many thanks to Tony Kemp, Ross Ohlendorf, Mike Capps and Jim Baker for filling out a great day of baseball. Also, thanks to everyone who joined us for a fun-filled day. And special thanks to Ryan Pollack for coordinating and planning the winter meeting with help from Monte Cely, Jan Larson and myself.
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