COMMENTARY: Spring training is full of fun facts

March 01, 2003

Jim Ingraham
Morning Journal of Ohio

Spring training is a tidbits time of the year. These are a few of my favorite tids and juicy bits involving your 2003 Cleveland Indians:

LUIS ISAAC -- During his playing career, the Indians' bullpen coach played 15 years in the minor leagues and never got a single at-bat in the major leagues. Hitting was a problem. In seven of Isaac's 15 years in the minors he hit under .200.

GO FIGURE -- This has undoubtedly never happened before in the history of the Indians: There are no third basemen on their 40-man major league roster. The three candidates for that position -- Casey Blake, Bill Selby and Greg LaRocca -- are all non-roster invitees.

EDDIE MURRAY -- Murray hit 504 home runs in his career, but never hit more than 33 in any one season.

JASON BERE -- Has pitched complete games in two of his last 116 starts, and has just four complete games in 201 career starts overall.

JASON BOYD -- A minor league pitcher who is a cousin of former Red Sox pitcher Dennis ''Oil Can'' Boyd, Jason was recruited as a football quarterback by Penn State, Notre Dame and Nebraska.

NAME GAME -- The Indians have six players in their camp named ''Jason'' and all of them are pitchers: Bere, Davis, Beverlin, Boyd, Phillips and Stanford.

BEN BROUSSARD -- Attended McNeese State University, where he was a nursing, that's right, nursing, major.

DAVE BURBA -- His uncle Ray Hathaway pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945.

ELLIS BURKS -- During his career he has made nine trips onto the disabled list for eight different injuries: ankle, shoulder, back, wrist, groin, knee, quad and thumb.

DAVE ELDER -- Pitched on the Georgia Tech team whose shortstop was Nomar Garciaparra.

GREG LaROCCA -- At Buffalo last year he was hit by pitches 23 times, and he has been hit by pitches 93 times in 846 minor league games overall.

COLLEGE OF COACHES -- The Indians have no fewer than 25 instructors in uniform during spring training. That includes Manager Eric Wedge and his coaches, plus various other infield coordinators, pitching coordinators, minor league managers, coaches, base-running coordinators, special assistants, a player personnel director, hitting coordinator, field coordinator and a Latin coordinator.

MATT LAWTON -- Played on the same American Legion team in Mississippi with Packers quarterback Brett Favre. Lawton was the second baseman, Favre the shortstop.

CLIFF LEE -- Played at the University of Arkansas, and was named winner of the coveted 2002 Hog Nation Minor League Player of the Year by hognation.net. Honest.

WENDELL MAGEE -- His cousin is Fox Sports NFL broadcaster James Brown.

CHRIS MAGRUDER -- His first cousin is Bengals quarterback Jon Kitna.

TERRY MULHOLLAND -- In his 19-year career in professional baseball he has pitched in 673 games, throwing 3,002 innings, and has pitched for nine different major league teams: the Giants (three different times), Phillies (twice), Cubs (three times), Yankees, Mariners, Braves, Pirates, Dodgers and Indians.

ZACH SORENSEN -- In his five-year minor league career he has hit more triples than home runs (34-30).

SHANE SPENCER -- Played for Granite Hills High School in California, where his teammate was former Tribe outfielder Brian Giles. Spencer's career average in the major leagues is .423 vs. the Indians and .255 vs. everyone else.

BRIAN TALLET -- Was drafted three times by three other major league teams (by the Marlins in the 14th round in 1996, by the Yankees in the 13th round in 1997 and by the Pirates in the 19th round in 1999) before finally signing with the Indians, who selected him in the second round in 2000.

MIKE THURMAN -- Was originally drafted by the Expos in the first round of the 1994 June Draft, with a pick that Montreal received as compensation for the Indians signing free agent Dennis Martinez.

BILLY TRABER -- Is ambidextrous and can pitch batting practice with either arm.

OMAR VIZQUEL -- Needs 79 hits to reach 2,000 for his career.

MARK WOHLERS -- While struggling with his control in 1998 at Class AAA Richmond, he walked 36 batters and threw 17 wild pitches in just 12 innings, but did not hit a batter.

KARIM GARCIA -- His combined career batting average at Central Division rival ballparks Comiskey Park, Comerica Park and Kauffman Stadium is .395.

JEREMY GUTHRIE -- Show off! At Ashland (Ore.) High School he was named the MVP of his football, basketball and baseball teams, and he was also the class valedictorian.

TRAVIS HAFNER -- His career average at Jacobs Field is .545 (6-for-11).

VICTOR MARTINEZ -- Has a career average of .314 in his six-year minor league career, and in his last three minor league seasons he has hit a combined .335.

LONG MEN -- The tallest players in camp are both named Jason -- Davis and Phillips. Both are pitchers, and both are 6-foot-6.

DAVID RISKE -- In 1999 at Akron, he had over twice as many saves as hits allowed (12-5).

BILL SELBY -- His career batting average in the major leagues is .400 against the Indians and .223 against everyone else.

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME -- The Indians played two intrasquad games this spring. Their record in those games was either 1-1 or 2-2. I'm not sure.