Player Name Pronounciations

A few months ago, I was watching an 1978 Angels-Yankees broadcast on ESPN Classic. The announcer made note of Angels' first base coach, Bobby Knoop, and pronounced the last name "kuh-NOPP". Bobby's playing career preceded my baseball memories so this pronunciation was news to me. I thought the pronunciation was more with a silent K. Anyhow, this created a discussion on the Delphi Diamond Mind forum Later, I was listening to a radio broadcast of the 1969 World Series and the announcer mentioned Detroit pitcher Hank Aguirre. I had to rewind because I did not recognize the pronunciation, "ah-GEAR-ee". I was pronouncing the name like Mark Aguirre, DePaul and NBA basketball player in the 1980's. His last name was pronounced a-GWIRE. So now I'm wondering how many other player names am I mispronouncing in my replay. So here goes a brief list of correct pronunciation of some players names from 1967. Please feel free to add your own, either from 1967 or otherwise.

Bobby Knoop .............Kuh-NOPP
Hank Aguirre ..............ah-GEAR-ee
Chico Salmon.............sa-MONE
Mike Cuellar...............kweyar
Marv Staehle...............STAY-lee
Dick Tracewski...........Tra-sooz-ski
Paul Schaal................SHAWL

Schaal is one of a few big leaguers whose first and last names rhyme. Others are Don Hahn and Greg Legg.

Angels pitcher Dick Wantz

The untimely passing of Angel pitcher Nick Adenhart yesterday was tragic. Thanks to DirecTV's free week of Extra Innings, I watched some of Adenhart's performance while flipping around while watching the Dodgers-Padres game and listening to the brilliance of Vince Scully. Being on the East Coast, I don't hear Scully that much, and I take every opportunity to listen to Scully's words paint the unfolding story of a baseball game. However, I now wish I had paid more attention to that A's-Angels game.

The Angels went through a similar situation in 1978 with death of Lyman Bostock during that season, but unknown to most, another active Angels pitcher died young after making one appearance. I was not aware of this story until I began my replay of the 1965 baseball season. The pitcher was Dick Wantz who made only one appearance for the Angels on April 13, 1965 and one month later was dead of a brain tumor. This is from the Oakland Tribune, May 14, 1965:

Wantz, 25, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound right-hander who had appeared in only one game this season, had an operation Thursday to relieve pressure on the brain. He began experiencing severe headaches during a late April series between the Angels and Yankees in New York. When the club moved to Detroit, he was hospitalized there for a few days. He flew here (Englewood, CA) last week, and reportedly was feeling much better.

But last weekend he was hospitalized, given a spinal tap and X-rays, and a tumor was found. Wantz lived in nearby Artesia and has a young son. He was born in suburban South Gate and attended high school in Long Beach. He spent four years in the minors and had a 2-7 record as a reliever for Hawaii in the Pacific Coast League last year.

He made a strong impression on Angel pitching coach Marv Grissom, "He can be a great pitcher," Grissom said after the Angels decided to retain Wantz this year. He showed considerable promise in spring training.

1967 Uniform Changes

There were a couple of uniform changes in the 1967 season. First, The Chicago White Sox, who likely hold the record for most uniform styles in baseball history, make a revision to their road uniform by changing to a script "Chicago" with "White Sox" written within the bottom part of the script "o" looping back. Their road uniforms will feature this script for the next nine years. The uniform numbers are also added to the front of the home and road uniforms. Their 1966 uniforms are shown above and 1967 below. These digital images are from Dressed to the Nines, a Baseball Hall of Fame on-line exhibit. The actual images are from Marc Okkenen's 1993 book, Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century: The Official Major League Baseball Guide



The second change was the Cincinnati Reds who dropped the sleeve-less vest that originated in 1956. The 1966 uniforms are on top and the 1967 versions below. One of the interesting features not visible in these images is that in 1966 the back of the uniform had the player's last name below the uniform number. The 1967 candy stripe home uniforms lasted only one year.


The final uniform change is not quite as noticeable at first, but it perhaps had the biggest impact for years to come. The 1967 Kansas City Athletics were the first major league club to wear white shoes. It marked the first time a major league team wore anything other than black shoes as regular footwear. American League President Joe Cronin gave his approval for the white shoes, but indicated that if protests develop, they would be forward to the Playing Rules Committee. Stay tuned if any protests do develop.

This change is notable because as I grew up white shoes were the standard. I recall 49ers WR Freddie Solomon wearing black shoes in Super Bowl XIX in January, 1985, and thinking how slow they made him look. I think that was part of the "old school" ploy, and now, of course, wearing white shoes is considered "old school". BTW, kudos to those current baseball players, like St. Louis' Brendan Ryan, wearing sanitary socks and stirrups. Now if a player would stretch those stirrups like Frank Robinson instead of wearing them a la the 1950's. And, of course, with those white shoes to match.

Herman Franks

This may be strange to say, but as I replay and research these baseball seasons, I get a feel for certain players, and in this case, managers of the era. Herman Franks became the manager of the San Francisco Giants in 1965, and he recently passed away at the age of 95. Plenty has been said about his involvement in the spying that took place during the 1951 National League pennant chase. However, one of the things I thought of after hearing of his passing was from the 1965 season. That summer, Franks received death threats for playing Japanese pitcher Masanori Murakami. From The Sporting News, July 3, 1965:

An anonymous anti-Japanese man from Missouri threatened the life of Giant Manager Herman Franks by letter, it was learned recently in Los Angeles, and the FBI is on the case. The two-page, handwritten letter, unsigned, was received by Franks in New York. The writer objected to the Giants having a Japanese (Masanori Murakami) on their team and threatened Franks. "You won't know where or when I'll shoot you," the letter read, "But I will." Franks tried to shrug it off, but coach Charlie Fox, who has a cousin in the Los Angeles FBI bureau, advised Herman to turn the letter over. The writer based his threat on the presumption that Murakami had relatives who fought against and killed Americans during World War II. The letter writer ranted that Murakami should not be in America playing America's national game. "The guy is just a crank who possibly did lose relatives or friends in the war," the Giants manager speculated. "Or possibly the guy was in the war himself and is an avowed reactionary," guessed Franks.

When Franks resigned as Giants manager following the 1968 season, his famous quote was "Is finishing second so evil?" In my replays, the Giants finished third in 1965, second in 1966, and are the pre-season favorites in 1967.