Elephant Rumblings: Baseball in Korea in early May?

A’s Coverage:

• Charity Fundraiser: Meet Bob Melvin & Mark Canha of the Oakland A’s via ZOOM
• Slusser: ‘It’s disgusting’: Will coronavirus force baseball to clean up its act? ($)
• Fosse: What Ray Fosse misses about sports during MLB’s coronavirus hiatus
• Coffey: How Ken Korach’s 101-year-old father gives him perspective in a time of darkness ($$$)
• Hickey: The 1979 Athletics Could Teach Us Something About Social Distancing
• Hickey: Bobby Winkles, Who Quit Athletics’ Finley While on Top, Dies at 90
• Hickey: On This Date in A’s History: Athletics Set Record With 11-0 Start to the 1981 season
• Lockard: A’s OOTP week in review: They’re setting the early pace in the American League ($$$)

Best of AN:

• Hall: Today in Oakland A’s history (4/17): A’s play first-ever game in Oakland in 1968
• Nico: “Away From Family” Concern May Be Slightly Overblown
• Retro Recap (1972): Joe Rudi, Catfish Hunter carry Oakland A’s to Game 2 victory
• Retro Recap (1972): Oakland A’s bench fuels walk-off win in Game 4

MLB News:

• Hickey: MLB Best Avoid Any Sort of Financial Squabble Between Owners, Players
• Polishuk (via Yoo): Korea Baseball Organization Preparing To Begin Regular Season In Early May
• Polishuk (via Fletcher): Angels GM Billy Eppler Discusses Wheeler, Simmons, Ohtani, Canning

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Jaffe: Half a World Away, the Korea Baseball Organization Looks to Play
• Landers: Here are 11 of the wildest forgotten MLB mascots
• Kelly: Don’t forget how good this slugger was
• MLB Quiz of the Day: Best current nicknames
• Todd: Does Baseball Have Its Next Zobrist?
• Franco: The Mariners Might Have Found A Core Piece For The Future
• Byrne: The Twins’ Breakout Slugger
• Adams: The Angels’ Waiver Closer
• Adams: Trading An Ace In 2014 Is Still Paying Dividends For The Rays
• Zencka: Which Pitchers Should Fear Robot Umpires?
• Polishuk: Transaction Retrospection: The Rocky Colavito/Harvey Kuenn Blockbuster

Today in Baseball History:

• 1916 - The Chicago Cubs play their first game in the newly-built Federal League Weeghman Park, which will be renamed “Wrigley Field” in 1926. The stadium, minus the upper deck added later, seats 14,000, but 20,000 fans are on hand. Greeting fans on the Addison Street side is JOA, a bear cub owned by Cubs (partial) owner J. Ogden Armour. Everyone goes home happy as Vic Saier’s 11th-inning sacrifice fly gives the Cubs a 7 - 6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
• 1941 - The Brooklyn Dodgers become the first major league team to wear protective headgear. Each player’s cap features a special plastic lining designed to fend off the effects of beanballs. It is a cautious response to the numerous beanball wars of 1940 that hospitalized Joe Medwick and Billy Jurges, among others. The liners in the caps are thin enough to be hardly noticeable, but most major league players disdain the protection.
• 1943 - The season starts, two weeks later than customary. Stalwarts such as Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Enos Slaughter and Johnny Mize are gone to military service, among some 60 players who could have been classified as regulars in the 1942 season.
• 1944 - Elmer Gedeon becomes the first major league player to lose his life serving in World War II. The 26-year-old Gedeon, who played briefly as an outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1939, dies when his plane is shot down over St. Pol, France. Gedeon served in the Army Air Corps.
• 1982 - The Atlanta Braves record their 12th consecutive victory from the beginning of the season, a 4 - 2 decision over the Cincinnati Reds at Fulton County Stadium. The Braves eclipse the major league record set a year ago by the Oakland Athletics.
• 1987 - The Milwaukee Brewers win their 13th consecutive game to start the season, matching the Atlanta Braves of 1982 for the best start in major league history. Robin Yount drives in the game-winning run in the 7th inning, as the Brewers defeat the Chicago White Sox, 5 - 4.
• 1990 - Brian Holman of the Seattle Mariners loses his bid for the major league’s 13th perfect game with two outs in the 9th inning on Ken Phelps’ pinch-hit home run in the Mariners’ 6 - 1 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
• 1997 - Mark McGwire becomes the fourth major leaguer to hit a home run over the left field roof at Tiger Stadium. The Athletics first baseman joins Harmon Killebrew (1962), Frank Howard (1968), and Cecil Fielder (1990) as the only players to accomplish the feat.
• 2006 - Julio Franco, at 47 years, 240 days old, becomes the oldest player in major league history to hit a home run. At Petco Park, Franco connects for a two-run, pinch-hit shot off Scott Linebrink that launches the Mets’ six-run 8th inning and propells them to a 7 - 2 comeback victory against the Padres. This gives Franco the spot in the record book that had belonged to Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Jack Quinn, who was 46 years, 357 days old when he homered on June 27, 1930.

Best of Twitter:

This one is from a couple days ago, but worth sharing anytime.

Little League Foodie? (That’s a Mark Canha joke.)

Jose being Jose