Email a copy of 'AL Central Notes: Benoit, Chisenhall, Fuld' to a friend
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By Mark Polishuk | at
Email a copy of 'AL Central Notes: Benoit, Chisenhall, Fuld' to a friend
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tom1998
Would fuld be a good fit in Chicago to replace Garcia or are danks and viciedo better alternatives?
0vercast
Sam Fuld would be a fine pickup for the Twins right now. The Target Field OF is a little spacious for both Kubel and Colabello to be out there at the same time. Plus, Fuld is basically the OF version of Little Nicky Punto (LNP), who had a large following here due to his Grit, Hustle, and Getafteritness. We’ll take him!
gil4
LNP had a following of one. Unfortunately, that one was Gardy.
0vercast
I saw it differently. We had tickets a stone’s throw from the dugout, and the ladies loved Nick Punto. They thought he was a stud. No joke.
He was fun to watch too. Always unnecessarily diving and getting his uniform dirty, grimacing frightfully with every throw to first, throwing his batting gloves comically after every strikeout, etc.
All jokes aside, Punto was the butt of many jokes for his on-field play, but off the field, I think he was more valuable to the Twins than most fans give him credit for. The departure of clubhouse leaders like Punto, Nathan, and Cuddyer marked the beginning of dark days in Twins Territory. Those guys played their tails off, and it was infectious.
gil4
I didn’t know he was such a ladies man.
Some years he was a good player, others he was marginal (very up and down). He was useful but limited, an asset if the price was right, but way overpaid his last two years with the Twins, which was a problem for a team trying to contend on a tight budget.
Mis-cast as a starter, valuable as a utility guy, if the Twins could have kept him for what the Cards gave him the year he left (under $1M) I would have been all for it (despite the ridiculous head-first slides into first.) .
Mikenmn
What a shame about Fidrych. What people forget is that he did those 250 innings with his first start May 15 (he had two relief stints before that.) In his 3rd and 4th starts, he went 11 innings each. In August he had 7 starts, 63.1 innings.
tom 23
i was in detroit on bussiness in 1980 when the meeting i had scheduled got canceled(was told later that the guy i was to meet with had a heart attack, always thought it a flimsy excuse.). went over to tiger stadium to catch the game instead. the bird was pitching, only lasted a few innings, one of my favorite memories.
gil4
Sometimes it’s fun to check out the box score and compare it to your memory. Here is is game log for 1980:
baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=fidryma01…
Best guess is it was Aug 28 vs. Brewers (W 11-7, 2.0 IP) or maybe Aug 17 vs. Tex (L 9-3, 4.2 IP).
kungfucampby
Tigers should have re-signed Benoit as a setup man because that bullpen is a dumpster fire.