From: king@cogsci.ucsd.EDU (Jonathan King)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Pirates pull off triple play! / ZSmith on the DL! / Other News!
Summary: The Gleaton/Robinson/Roesler era is gone! / changes are coming
Keywords: triple play, comings, goings, goodbye, binaca continues
Date: 26 Jul 92 22:08:35 GMT
Organization: Binaca Blast Deep Drive Research Institute

Well, they Bucs finally did it:  yesterday, they waived the following
three players for the purpose of canning them:

"Jerry Don Gleaton"
Jeff M."onster" Robinson
Mike "$%*# @&!" Roesler

It must be a happy day in Pittsburgh.  

"Jerry Don Gleaton" was one of the top performers in the NL Binaca
Blast Deep Drive Derby at the time of his release, and was a pretty
pathetic excuse for a pitcher in most respects.

Jeff M."onster" Robinson was threatening to push his ERA over the
magic 5.00 mark when suddenly granted his free agency, and all I can
say is: Nyah, nyah, told you so. ;-)

Mike Roesler was a carer minor leaguer whose main claims to fame were:

1) being traded along with never-was infielder Jeff Richardson for
   Billy Hatcher.
2) Getting canned by the Bucs after verbally abusing fans sitting behind
   the Bison dugout after another dismal performance.  Oops.

Meanwhile, the Pirates placed Zane Smith on the 15-day disabled
list, retroactive to some time or other.  This is *not* good at all, but
it opened up another roster spot, for a total of three at the major
league level, which are being taken by these guys:

Steven Cooke, who is a young lefty starter promoted from Buffalo, and
is completing his quick tour through the minors to the majors.  You
should make a note of this name, even if he doesn't last too long this
time around.  He had a quick start after his promotion to Buffalo, but
was actually not tearing up AAA recently.

Paul Wagner is a right-handed starter who did pretty well at Salem
(high A) last year, and who was doing even better at Carolina (AA)
this year.  He's somewhat of a mystery man, as far as being a prospect
goes, but he was out-pitching the more highly touted Mike Zimmerman
this year.

The last call up was, uh, rats.  The old hippocampal lesion strikes
again. :-) Either it was Blas Minor, a 27-year-old reliever who is
frankly running out of chances to make it, but who has been pitching
much better this year than last, or it was Joe Ausanio, also 27, who
was the Bison closer this year and throws a split-finger thingie and a
fastball.

The Bucs finally decided that these guys couldn't be any worse than
the Robinsons and Gleatons of the world, and I hope they're right.
(Thanks to Sherri for some of the info on the above players.)

***AN ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING THE BB DDD UPDATES***

At this time, I must sadly announce that this will be my last
non-Binaca post to r.s.bb for an indefinite period of time.  

I hope to continue posting DDD updates on a regular basis for the rest
of the season, and I would still appreciate you DDD tidbits.  The
anticipated schedule for remaining updates is: August 7, August 28,
September 18, and the year-end wrap-up the week of October 12, which
is expected to feature another contribution from Gary Huckabay and the
Pitching Legends Oral History Project (PLOHP).  As far as next year
goes, it is possible that I might return, but it might be a better
idea to pass on the torch, as they say.  I'm beginning to run out of
True Tater Names, and new ways of saying "home run". :-)

***Personal Stuff, non-baseball related***

Life has gotten very busy recently, and will get even more so.  My
research career is really beginning to get somewhere, which is
wonderful, but also a real time-sink. :-) There is also a major
election this year, which will make further demands on my time this
"Autumn" (only an honorary season here in San Diego).

But, most importantly, Karen and I are expecting our first child
at the end of September, and I can tell already that life will
never be the same.  (It's going to be better.) 

To forestall the obvious question, I can reveal at this time that 
there is a better than average chance the baby will be a:



Southpaw.  Yup, it seems to run on both sides of the family, although
not through me.  There's also about an 80% chance it will be a girl;
sorry, no confidence intervals available for either prediction.  But
all the gory details and complete stats will be place in my .plan file
at this account, as they happen.

It's been wonderful to be part of the r.s.bb community for the last
four and a half seasons.  I have learned a lot and laughed a lot, and
met a bunch of truly lunatic characters.  Usenet is very strange.  I
feel as though I know many of you quite well, although I have never
actually met any of you personally.

And as far as the Red Sox are concerned:  

Next year, we're going to win it all.

jking