Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Odd trade no curse for Kurcz
It’s No. 75 on Baseball Round Table.com’s list of Top 99 Trivia questions (and answers): Q: Who was the last switch hitter to be named Most Valuable Player of the American League? A: Vida Blue, Oakland A’s, 1971. Blue was a pitcher, of course, and that’s why this is sort of a trick question. But it’s guaranteed to win you a beer in a bar bet. Or a sock in the nose — especially if the guy you bet answered Mickey Mantle, the only other switch hitter to be named MVP of the American League.
Here is a trivial matter nearly as interesting.
Q: Who was the player to be named later in the “trade” that sent general manager Theo Epstein from the Boston Red Sox to the Chicago Cubs?
A: Aaron Kurcz. Durango High’s and the College of Southern Nevada’s Aaron Kurcz, who is now the Nashville Sounds’ Aaron Kurcz.
Kurcz spoke about being a footnote in baseball history during a recent trip home and to Cashman Field when Nashville was here to play the 51s.
“I was part of it, yeah. I was one part of the deal,” Kurcz said with a chuckle in the runway behind the third-base dugout. Relief pitcher Chris Carpenter was the other part of the deal. He was the player announced right away.
“My minor league coordinator called and said, ‘You’re going to Boston. You’re part of the Theo Epstein deal.’ I was like … I didn’t know what to think. You never hear of guys getting traded for general managers.
“But it’s kinda cool to be able to say that, for sure. He’s a good general manager. It’s definitely an honor to be part of that trade.”
Kurcz, a former Cubs’ 11th-round draft pick, is 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in nine games and 13 innings out of Nashville’s bullpen. He’s 25, and like a lot of 25-year-old farmhands, he has bounced around a bit — he has been traded several times, and also missed the 2013 season because of Tommy John surgery.
But after being recalled from Double-A Midland, where he was 4-0 with a 1.26 ERA to start the season, he is just one step from the big leagues — despite being only 5 feet 11 inches tall, which is short for a pitcher in today’s game dominated by strapping right-handers and lanky lefties.
“The biggest thing for me is just throwing strikes,” Kurcz said. “I started the year in Double A, and I was throwing a lot of strikes and the results were pretty good.
“That makes a lot of sense: throw strikes, get a lot of good results. Those go hand in hand.”
If he throws enough strikes, and gets enough good results, will it eventually make Cubs fans think they got the short end of the stick in the Theo Epstein deal? Probably not. But it still was pretty cool to have been one of the guys traded for him.
INAUSPICIOUS DEBUT
Would former UNLV basketball standout Rashad Vaughn have benefited from another year with the Rebels, instead of declaring for the NBA Draft after only one college season? Yes. A resounding yes, according to a statistical and analytical website called PointAfter, which has declared Vaughan the second worst player in the NBA.
It said Vaughan’s PER (Player Efficiency Rating) of 4.2 was worst among 323 qualified NBA players.
Wrote Will Laws of PointAfter: “It was simply a nightmarish season in Milwaukee for the No. 17 overall pick of last summer’s draft, as he barely made 30 percent of his shot attempts.”
Vaughn was the second least valuable player in the NBA, according to PointAfter, trailing only “goofy seven-footer” Andrea Bargnani, released by Brooklyn in February.
PDW STRIKES AGAIN
When I was a youngster and my dad made me and my brother watch bowling on TV, I chose Dick Weber as my favorite bowler. My brother chose Ray Bluth. My brother’s name is Ray, so that’s probably all it took. (Later, I think he might have switched allegiance to Earl Anthony.)
Anyway, Dick Weber’s more famous and sometimes bombastic son, Pete, PDW — Peter David Weber — won his record fourth consecutive PBA50 Tour title Friday by successfully defending his Senior U.S. Open championship at the Suncoast. Weber defeated Harry Sullins 223-184 in the final match of tenpins.
Afterward, Weber said the record “ranks up there as far as my career accomplishments,” and “I think this is the best I’ve ever felt or thrown the ball for five consecutive weeks in my whole career.”
He did not say “Who do you think you are? I am!” Which is what PDW said to the ESPN cameras during a postmatch rant that went viral back when videos first starting doing that.
MAN IN BLUE
Umpires have friends, too. True, they are mostly other umpires and referees. But they do have friends.
Local ump John Turzer sent an email to say that was his pal Phil Schlosser at Cashman Field last weekend filling in during the 51s’ series against Memphis.
“Local guy — high school, junior college, NCAA D1. Filling in and living the dream,” Turzer wrote.
There weren’t any reports of rhubarbs, or of Las Vegas skipper Wally Backman hurling batting helmets down the right-field line, so it can be assumed Phil Schlosser’s Pacific Coast League fill-in assignment went well.
BOOMER SWOONER
A long, long time ago, when that music used to make me smile … and before Chris Berman was the Swami, and the Boomer, and before he was being nudged toward the door by ESPN, according to published reports, he wrote a letter to a young sports writer. This was after the marching band had refused to yield, but before there was email. This was during ESPN’s infancy. Cable TV still was sort of new. During the highlights, Berman started calling ballplayers by nicknames he had concocted. The entire sports staff at the little newspaper in New Mexico — all three of us — started chortling and guffawing, because this was when the nickname schtick was new.
I called ESPN and asked to speak with Chris Berman. I was told he was eating. I was stunned when he called back. Berman remembered a friend of mine, who had played football at Brown, when he was going to school there and/ or broadcasting football games.
I wrote about Rich “280-Z” Dotson and the other nicknames; Berman said to send him a copy of my story. I did. I was surprised to receive a thank-you note.
The Swami said one day our paths would cross, and he looked forward to that day. It never happened. But regardless of what you may think of him, or his concocted nicknames, or of football players who could go all the way — I thought it was pretty cool for Chris Berman to return my call, and to write that thank-you note.
All these years later, I still do.