Category / Baseball

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#285 – Luis Terrero

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Name: Luis Terrero

Rank: 285

Position: CF

Year With White Sox: 2007

Luis Terrero joined the White Sox organization as a free agent on March 30, 2007.  One month and a day later, his contract was purchased from Triple A Charlotte and he joined the big league club.  Few things went right for the White Sox in 2007, and Terrero benefited from that with additional playing time.  After the disastrous year came to an end, so did Terrero’s time with the White Sox, and in the major leagues.

Terrero’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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#286 – Shawn Hillegas

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Name: Shawn Hillegas

Rank: 286

Position: P

Years With White Sox: 1988-1990

Shawn Hillegas joined the White Sox on August 30, 1988 from the Dodgers in exchange for Ricky Horton.  He made his White Sox debut on September 6, taking the place of an injured Jack McDowell in the starting rotation.  Hillegas ended up starting six games that September, going 3-2 with a 3.15 ERA.

Hillegas broke camp in 1989 as part of the starting rotation, but he struggled early, going 1-6 by May.  Hillegas went to manager Jeff Torborg and asked to be used in relief.  “I told him I didn’t feel like I was doing the job starting,” Hillegas told the Chicago Tribune. “I’m putting the team behind in the game.”  Hillegas moved to the bullpen, where he made 37 appearances, and finished the year with an ERA of 4.74.

Hillegas spent most of 1990 at Triple A Vancouver, only making 7 appearances for the big league club.  That December, he was packaged, along with fellow pitcher Eric King, to the Indians in exchange for Cory Snyder.

Hillegas’ numbers in a White Sox uniform were:

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#287 – D’Angelo Jimenez

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Name: D’Angelo Jimenez

Rank: 287

Position: 2B

Years With White Sox: 2002-2003

D’Angelo Jimenez came to the White Sox via a July 12, 2002 trade with the Padres for two minor leaguers, one of which eventually became Humberto Quintero.  Jimenez was optioned to Triple A, but he rejoined the big league club in September, appearing in 27 games and hitting .287.

Jimenez became the everyday second baseman for the club in 2003, and, as of early June, he led the team in multi-hit games and joined Frank Thomas as the only two regulars hitting over .280.  However, a June slump combined with a July 1 trade that brought Roberto Alomar back to the south side made Jimenez expendable.  5 days later, on July 6, he was sent to the Reds for Scott Dunn.

Jimenez’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

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Ballpark Tour: McAfee/Network Associates Coliseum

Stadium Name: McAfee/Network Associates Coliseum

Location: Oakland

Home Team: A’s

Years in Service: 1968 – Present

Visits: 2

The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum opened in 1966 as the home of the Oakland Raiders.  Two years later, Charlie Finley moved his A’s from Kansas City to Oakland and became the baseball tenant of the stadium.  In 1998, the stadium became known as Network Associates Coliseum.  In mid-2004, Network Associates was renamed McAfee and the stadium was renamed McAfee Coliseum accordingly.  Following the 2008 season, the name reverted back to Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum until April 27, 2011, when it was renamed Overstock.com Coliseum. Just over a month later, the Coliseum was renamed O.co Coliseum, after Overstock.com’s marketing name.  The A’s have officially been looking for a new home since 2005, with Major League Baseball sitting on a feasibility study for over 4 years on the team’s potential future in the East Bay.

Both times I’ve traveled to the Bay area, I’ve taken in both Giants and A’s games.  My first trip to what at the time was called Network Associates Coliseum was on September 6, 1999 while I was out west visiting my friend Scott.  The Tigers triumphed over the A’s that day, and my one memory of the stadium is that the seats were not necessarily positioned in such a way as to face the field for baseball purposes.

My second trip to the Bay area, for the JavaOne conference in 2008, actually started out with a BART trip out to Oakland for a 2-1 A’s victory over the Orioles on May 5th.  The A’s had opnened up three sections of the third deck as designated All-You-Can-Eat seats, where, for the price of the ticket, free ballpark fare was included.  While I enjoyed the novelty of the free foodstuffs, the seats, while directly behind home plate, were horrible.  Leaving early in order to catch the train back to San Francisco led to the problem of trying to get out of the stadium, since none of the gates were open.

The A’s have spent nearly a decade trying to find a new home, and with good reason.  The Coliseum is mainly configured for the Raiders and the A’s have been second class citizens in their own home for decades.  Earlier this year, a game had to be postponed due to a sewage backup.  While the A’s, MLB, and San Jose try to figure things out in the courtroom, the A’s will continue to be behind the 8-ball due to their stadium situation.

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#288 – Shawn Abner

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Name: Shawn Abner

Rank: 288

Position: RF

Year With White Sox: 1992

Shawn Abner, the overall number one pick in the 1984 draft, joined the White Sox as a free agent on April 3, 1992.  He enjoyed his finest season as a major leaguer with the White Sox, batting .279 in a career high 97 games.  After the season, he was released by the Sox and, thanks to knee injury suffered the following year in the minor leagues, he never played in the major leagues again.

Abner’s numbers in a White Sox uniform were:

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#289 – Jeff Carter

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Name: Jeff Carter

Rank: 289

Position: P

Year With White Sox: 1991

Jeff Carter came to the White Sox organization in the Decmber 23, 1990 trade that sent Tim Raines from the Expos in exchange for Ivan Calderon and Barry Jones.  Carter made it to the big leagues on July 29, 1991, replacing an ineffective Greg Hibbard on the roster.  He made his major league debut 2 days later, getting the start in the White Sox 10-8 victory over the Rangers at new Comiskey Park.

Carter appeared in 4 other games over the course of the season, finishing up with 2 innings of relief in the second game of a double header against the Twins on October 3rd, which ended up being the final appearance of his White Sox, and major league, career.

Carter’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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#290 – Jason Bourgeois

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Name: Jason Bourgeois

Rank: 290

Position: 2B

Year With White Sox: 2008

Jason Bourgeois joined the White Sox organization as a minor league free agent prior to the 2007 season.  He made his major league debut for the White Sox on September 9, 2008, pinch running for Paul Konerko in a 3-1 loss to the Blue Jays.  Bourgeois made it into 6 games during the final month of 2008 as the White Sox battled the Twins for the AL Central crown and his one claim to fame is that he became the last player to get his first major league hit at the original Yankee Stadium.

Following the season, Bourgeois became a free agent and his brief tenure on the South Side came to an end.

Bourgeois’s numbers in a White Sox uniform were:

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Ballpark Tour: AT&T Park

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Stadium Name: AT&T Park

Location: San Francisco

Home Team: Giants

Years in Service: 2000 – Present

Visits: 1

The San Francisco Giants opened Pacific Bell Park in 2000 after 40 seasons at Candlestick Park.  The ballpark was the first stadium built without public funds since the completion of Dodger Stadium in 1962.  The stadium was renamed SBC Park in 2003 and then finally AT&T Park in 2006 thanks to the corporate upheaval in the telecommunications world.  In April 2010, the stadium became the first MLB ballpark to receive LEED Silver Certification for Existing Buildings, Operations and Maintenance.

In May of 2008, I made my second trip out to Bay Area, this time to attend the Java One conference.  The week started with the A’s in town while the Giants returned home for a weekend series, so I adjusted my schedule so that I could attend games at both stadiums.  Friday night, after most of the techies had left town, I hopped on the bus down to AT&T Park to see the Giants, once again, take on the Phillies.  I dropped some major coin for the best tickets in the house, which got me in a box between home plate and the Phillie dugout and a prime spot on the evening’s telecast.  The Phillies, on their way to a World Series championship, defeated the Giants 7-4.

As one would expect from a newly built stadium, AT&T Park offered all the amenities one would expect.  The park is a huge upgrade over Candlestick and, given the Giants recent success, has proven to be a boon for the franchise.  Given the opportunity, I would love to go back for another game.

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#291 – Carlos Castillo

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Name: Carlos Castillo

Rank: 291

Position: P

Years With White Sox: 1997-1999

Carlos Castillo joined the White Sox organization after being drafted in the 3rd round of the 1994 draft.  Castillo worked mostly as a starter in the minor leagues, but joined the bullpen when he made the jump to the major leagues after impressing everyone during spring training in 1997.  Castillo spent the majority of the year in the majors, putting up a 2-1 record with a 4.48 ERA in 37 games.

Castillo again spent the most of 1998 in the White Sox bullpen, appearing in 54 games, but saw his ERA jump up to 5.11.  In 1999, Castillo’s troubles continued as his ERA continued to rise, up to 5.71, and he split the season between Chicago and Triple A Charlotte.  Things boiled over after a double-header loss August 30 at Comiskey Park, when Castillo lashed out at the fans, blaming them for booing Frank Thomas and Greg Norton.

The next spring, Castillo competed for a spot in the rotation, but his struggles continued and, on March 29, 2000, he was released and his time with the White Sox came to an end.

Castillo’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

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Ballpark Tour: Busch Stadium

Stadium Name: Busch Stadium

Location: St. Louis

Home Team: Cardinals

Years in Service: 1966 – 2005

Visits: 1

Busch Memorial Stadium, more commonly known as Busch Stadium, was the home of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1966 until 2005.  The stadium also played host to both the St. Louis Football Cardinals from 1966 until their move to Arizona in 1987 and then the newly-relocated Rams in 1995.  Following the 1995 season, the stadium was retro-fitted for baseball use only, replacing the astroturf field with grass and installing a new scoreboard.  The stadium was demolished during November of 2005, in part to make room for its replacement.

I made my one and only trip to Busch Stadium on June 21, 2001 for an exciting Cubs victory over the host Cardinals.  It was a packed house that day, and we had standing room only tickets, so I didn’t get to see much of the stadium.  I do remember a conversation with a local, who in a deep southern accent, kept talking about Todd Dunwoody, who got the start in right field that day in place of Sammy Sosa.