Whatever Happened to Andy Musser?

From 1976 to 2001, Andy Musser was a mainstay of the Philadelphia Phillies broadcast team, sitting in the booth alongside the famed Harry Kalas, immortal Richie Ashburn, and the Penn State alum Chris Wheeler. During that span, Musser missed only two games, both due to laryngitis. And prior to that, he could be heard calling Eagles and Sixers games, according to baseball-reference.com. He retired from the Phils in '01 and has subsequently, seemingly disappeared.

I did some internet trolling and had a hard time finding good stuff on Musser or any real updates. But here are some things I did find:

-Check out the three calls by Musser on this 1980 Philadelphia Phillies World Series tribute page

-Unbelievably funky photo of the Phils 1980 broadcast team on the same 1980 Phillies World Series tribute site

-And unfortunately other than a few wry comments on random blogs and articles about Musser's apparent love for beer, philosophical chatter, and dry conversation during games, I didn't find much else online. Anybody else got anything to contribute???

If you're out there Andy, drop us a line and give us an update... and go Phils!

Small Request to Charlie Manuel

Ok, this has been bugging me since Charlie Manuel first became manager of the Phillies.

Scenario:

It's time for a pitching change in the middle of an inning.

Coach Manuel walks to the mound.

And walks.

And keeps walking.

And what does he forget?

Oh yeah-- to signal to the bullpen to send the pitcher in.

Just a thought, Charlie... when first stepping onto the field from the dugout, wave to the bullpen right away so you don't forget. It's a long walk out to that mound and anything can happen from start to finish.

In today's playoff game against the Brewers, he walked all the way out to the mound and then finally waved in the middle of conversation with the players who had convened together. Oy.

It's a simple matter, really. Just wave.

Phillies' Opening Day Memory: 2002

Allow me to reminisce for a spell.

With the Phillies' opening day less than 3 days away, I'm harkening back to the Phillies' home opener six years ago. Actually I don't think it was the home opener but it was definitely one of the first games of the first home series. Who needs exact details?

Anyway, I don't remember a single moment from the game. It was just another non-descript Phils game from a dull team in unremarkable Veterans Stadium. This was back in the days of Travis Lee, Joe Roa, and yes, Nick Punto. So I do remember that much. But even moreso, I most definitely do remember the weather.

It was NASTY.

It must have been about 30 degrees, and having the pleasure to stand on the frozen concrete of the Vet was nothing short of dismal. The wind whipping around the top of the stadium's bowl in the 500 level didn't help a bit either. I remember my cousin having to go to the bathroom where there was a heat vent and he had to thaw out his feet. Some baseball weather...

On the bright side, I got the tickets for free from the neighborhood bank that I went to every day to take checking deposits for my work downtown. That was nice of them. I think it was Citizens Bank, but even that's a bit fuzzy now.

But the cold is not fuzzy in my memory.

I'm looking forward to attending the Phillies opening day game on Monday but hopefully the weather will be more favorable.

And without a doubt the team will be much better than from the days of yore.

More Moyer Facts

In case you missed it, the Philly Inquirer ran an insightful interview with the Phils' 45 year old lefty Jamie Moyer today. The article pointed out that over his career, Moyer has faced a challenging group of Hall of Fame hitters and he reviewed his perspective of facing each one. Some of the names on the list include Mike Schmidt, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, and some other pitchers' nightmares.

I'd like to add on to that list with a few facts and some names of players Moyer has faced over the years...

-According to Baseball Reference.com, my calculations show that Moyer has faced a total of (get this) 2,149 different batters in his career. There's no other way to say that that is an insane number of batters to face.

-Furthermore, Moyer has faced a whopping 15,102 batters in his career during the regular season

Now, here are some other results he's had against various batters throughout his career:

-He has faced Garrett Anderson the most times (107 plate appearances), and Moyer has not fared well, allowing him to hit .317 with 5 homers and 17 RBI's.

-Scott Brosius has the distinction of having the lowest batting average against Moyer out of any player who has faced him 50+ times (currently listed as 50 plate appearances), and having an average below .200. He's hit a meager .146 against Moyer throughout the years.

-Moyer has never faced Nick Punto.

-In 50 plate appearances, Juan Samuel had Moyer's number, hitting .364, compared to a .259 career average.

-Steve Jeltz faced Moyer 13 times and managed a Mendoza line against him. He hit .200 on the button against the veteran lefty.

-The highest batting average against Moyer for any player with a minimum of 10 at bats goes to Alan Ashby, who had 11 plate appearances and hit .636 against the lefty. Ouch.

-The most home runs agains Jaime Moyer by any one batter is 10 by Manny Ramirez in just 57 appearances. Wow.

-Tim Salmon struck out the most times out of anybody with 17 K's in 99 at bats. Scott Brosius is second with 16 in half as many appearances. Back to the batting cage fellas.

-In all, Moyer has faced 18 current Hall of Famers. Taking out the pitchers on this list (Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton), the 15 remaining Hall of Famers hit a total of .331 with 8 homers and 44 RBIs and 1 triple against him in a total of 284 at bats. All things considered, that's not too bad. That's 1 homer in 35 at bats and not a ton of RBIs. It appears that Moyer has managed to make his living by allowing the "big dogs" to basically scatter around some hits, but not do a ridiculous amount of damage against him. That's cool.

So there's your update on our favorite 40-something fella on the Phils. I hope he's able to continue his consistent pitching this year, and maybe in a few years we'll be able to go back and look at the numbers again to see how things have changed.

Phillies Stat of the Day

So in case you haven't been emotionally traumatized enough after the Phils tremendous sweep of the Mets, followed by a disastrous collapse against the Marlins and Braves, Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports this little nugget:

According to the Elias Sports Bureau... teams that held a six-run lead in the eighth inning had a winning streak of 517-0 before (the Phils crumbled against Atlanta with a six-run lead this past weekend)

If nothing else, this team will go down in history for something, alright. You can fill in your own blank as to what that history will be...

You Otta-watch the Phils Triple-A Squad

In case you were busy doing other things, like watching the Sixers sit idle at the free agent table or catching the latest injury update at Eagles' training camp, the Phils Triple-A Ottawa Lynx team is suffering through this season with a record of 46-72, a mere 21 1/2 games out of first place. Youch.

On the bright side, there is much to be hopeful for in the way of future entries into the Phillies' Classic Names of Fame, as found on the Lynx' roster, such as:

• Our old buddies Eude Brito, Yoel Hernandez, and Fabio Castro
  
• Dusty Wathan, son of former Royal John Wathan
• Bubba Nelson, who may be drunk in this photo
• Gookie Dawkins (real name Travis, no apparent relation to Mookie Wilson)

So while there's not much hope in the way of winning as far as the Lynx go this year, at least we have some great names in the waiting.

Steve Jeltz Shoutout in Today's Phillies' Game!

For those of you watching today's wacky Phils/Giants game on the boob tube in the Philly market, you probably caught the Aflac trivia question of the day. It went something like this:

Name the only two French-born players to record a stolen base in either the AL or NL.

Answer:

Bruce Bochy (current San Francisco Giants coach)
Steve Jeltz (ex-Phillie extraordinaire)

Upon further inspection on Baseball-reference.com (search Jeltz, click on France), it turns out that Mr. Jeltz is actually the all-time stolen bases leader for players born in France. As a matter of fact he leads all French players in several other categories, including doubles, triples, and RBIs, to name a few. Who knew?

Jeltzy sure could swing a mean baguette!

A Question for the Powers that Be in the MLB

Pardon me as I take a sidestep from the world of dissecting the peculiarities that define Philly sports. Instead, I'd like to raise an issue that I have with Major League Baseball's officials.

So far this year, weather has wreaked havoc on trying to get some baseball games in. Snow-outs in Cleveland. Thirty degree temps in Flushing Meadows. Generally cold, nasty stuff to contend with in many cities east of the Mississippi. This type of weather is not conducive to baseball.

So why, then, are any games even scheduled to be played in cold weather cities in the first couple of weeks in April? There are quite a few warm weather cities (Miami, Tampa, Phoenix, LA, etc.) and domed stadiums (Toronto, Minneapolis, etc) where games could easily and sensibly be scheduled to start the season until weather hopefully clears up in the middle of the month.

On a related note, the Phils are playing the Astros this weekend in Philly. It's the middle of April and ordinarily the weather is warming up by now, but by freak of nature (no pun intended), we're going to get hit by a nasty Nor'easter storm with buckets of rain, howling wind, and possibly even snow tomorrow. So it looks like there's a 99% chance Sunday's game will be cancelled-- and if not, it will be a soggy mess with minimial attendance and probably multiple delays. Yet today was a gorgeous day-- 55 degrees or so, mostly sunny. Why not hedge your bets and play a double header today, instead of cancelling tomorrow's game and trying to squeeze it in at the end of the season? It may be short notice for fans, but offer rainchecks to those who can't make it, cut prices to encourage people to come out to the park, and voila!-- you've got yourself a game completed, some happy fans, and potential scheduling nightmares to avoid.

I'd say that argument holds water, wouldn't you?

Another Veterans Stadium Memory...

In 1991 or '92, I went to a game with my parents and two of my cousins at the Vet. It was Phils v. Cards. We sat in the right field seats, 10 or 20 rows up from the wall. There was a fairly good crowd on hand, and the vintage Phillies fans were in attendance, of course yelling smack at the Cards' rightfielder whenever he came out on defense.

For a couple of innings, one guy in particular, probably hopped up on liquid courage, kept a steady stream of trashtalking going.

"Hey, Jose-- you're a bum!"

"Hey, Jose-- nice strikeout!"

"Hey, Jose-- go back to Saint Louie!"

This went on for a couple of innings. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Then, in the middle of the game, I guess the guy got flustered that Jose wasn't acknowledging his taunts, and-- I'm actually chuckling out loud already as I think back-- this fan busts out with:

"Hey, Jose-- what's your last name?"

(Note: I was an avid baseball fan at my young age and I knew very well that the player's first name was Felix and his last name was emblazoned on the back of his jersey, facing our section's direction most of the time.)

But without missing a beat, another guy from a few rows back hears the trashtalker's question and replies out loud with (again, I'm laughing)...

"Hey! Isn't that Jose Snyder?!"

I heard this and I was practically crying! Right along with everybody else! The timing was perfect and the name was right out of a movie. It reminded me of the movie Naked Gun, when the fan yells out, "Hey, it's Enrico Pallazzo!"

So anyway, the rest of the game, what do we hear from the taunting fan?

"Hey Snyder-- you suck!"

That's vintage Vet Stadium verbiage folks.

Passing of a "King"

While this is not a local story, I just couldn't help but take notice when I saw this AP-published obituary for Eddie Feigner, the "King of Softball" who toured with "The King and His Court" group for 50+ years, performing Harlem Globetrotters-style exhibitions..

Perhaps I'm showing my age, or just general lack of awareness, but I never heard of this spunky gentleman. But reading about his achievements in the world of softball really opened my eyes. Mind you, I realize that the following statistics for Mr. Feigner were compiled during his days of barnstorming, which involves notoriously unofficial records, but take a look at these numbers:

• 930 no-hitters thrown
• 238 perfect games
• 141,517 strikeouts
• 10,000+ games played
• Struck out Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Maury Wills, Harmon Killebrew, Roberto Clemente, and Brooks Robinson all in a row on a nationally televised exhibition game

Wowzers. And to think that the Phils never went after this guy to figure out a way for him to play some pro ball and bring home a World Series. For God's sakes he had to have been better than Mitch Williams in the bottom of the 9th inning against Toronto, even if "the King" would have been in his late 60s at the time.

(See, I tied it all back into the Philly sports scene nice and neatly. Dang, it's tough being this good.)

(Note to Mitch Williams: sorry to single you out here, but unfortunately you provided the best example as to why this town is so jinxed with winning. Thanks in advance for being a sport about it. Carry on.)