Tuesday, July 16, 2013

#37 Lenny Webster

About the Front: I love the Twins' "m" logo on Lenny Webster's stirrup! Okay, the logo itself isn't so hot, but having your logo on your socks is an idea that's woefully underutilized. The only other time I remember seeing this was when Jamie Moyer was with the Phillies.

About the Back: How many baseball players can you name who studied criminal justice?

Triple Play:

1. Lenny switched to #42 when he joined the Orioles in 1997 to honor Jackie Robinson. The number was retired across Major League Baseball that same year, except for those players wearing it at the time. So he was the last player in O's history to regularly wear #42.

2. Webster was Baltimore's number two catcher in 1997-1998, at the tail end of Chris Hoiles' career. Because of Hoiles' various injuries, Lenny actually appeared in 206 games over those two seasons, batting .271 with 17 home runs and 83 RBI.

3. His only career walk-off home run came on July 23, 1998, when he hit a two-run tiebreaker off of Mike Fetters in the bottom of the ninth to give the Orioles a 9-7 win over Oakland.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I'm deferring to Teenage Kevin here. I really enjoyed watching Lenny Webster play for the O's. A lot of that probably had to do with his performance in the summer of 1997. From June through August, he played in 54 games and batted .287 with 23 RBI, helping the Birds stay on top of the American League East while Hoiles healed on the sidelines.

Bill James Said: "Like many of the Twins, he had a bad year." Webster hit .198/.274/.275 and Minnesota finished fifth in the American League West at 71-91.

On This Date in 1993: July 16. The British intelligence agency MI5 publishes a booklet, The Security Service. This is the first time MI5 has revealed public details about its activities and duties, as well as the identity of its Director General Stella Rimington.

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