Ollie Brown, known to the San Diego faithful as the “Original Padre” has died of complications from mesothelioma, reports Corey Brock of MLB.com. The outfielder was the first player selected by the Padres in the 1968 Expansion Draft. Brown hit 52 home runs in parts of four seasons with the Padres including 23 blasts in 1970. Brown was 71 and is survived by two brothers, a wife, a daughter, and five grandchildren. We at MLBTR wish to extend our condolences to Brown’s family and friends.
- Cuban outfielder Eddy Julio Martinez could sign for $10MM, tweets Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports. The 20-year-old is subject to the international spending pool which could affect the bidding. Among the interested teams include the Braves, Giants, Yankees, Cubs, Nationals, and Diamondbacks. New York and Arizona may have an advantage since they’ve already exceeded their bonus pool. Chicago won’t be able to jump into the bidding until July 2nd. It was reported two days ago that Martinez could sign as early as next week.
- While still with the Angels, Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton repeatedly tried to reach out to owner Arte Moreno, writes Anthony Andro of FOX Sports Southwest. Instead, Hamilton says his efforts were blocked by GM Jerry Dipoto and team President John Carpino. Hamilton attempted to contact Moreno regarding his poor performance last season and again after his offseason relapse. The embattled slugger is currently rehabbing in Double-A and could return to major league action soon. Los Angeles is responsible for most of the remaining $80MM on his contract.
How the Angels handled Hamilton is really dissapointing. No surprise that he failed on the field and relapsed.
When an addict/alcoholic is still practicing he/she spends their life blaming others for their own failures. An addict/alcoholic who is truly in recovery accepts responsibility and blaming others is not an option.
Although Josh has done some lying in the past, I think he has been pretty honest in this case. He admitted that he performed rather poorly, and he voluntarily admitted the relapse regarding drugs. If he would not have done that, no-one would have found out about it, at least in the past few months.
But airing out that addict’s relapse in the media is what I believe was the irresponsible part of the equation.
In our society, the addict/alcoholic may take responsibility, but others – often using electronic sites – will do it for them.
This only came out because he was asked about it. It’s not like he went out and blamed them. He’s saying this stuff now, a few months in some cases and a few weeks in others, after the fact. So I don’t look at it as him blaming anyone. More like trying to shed more light on the fact that the Angels front office is terrible.
How can you blame the Angels for his failure on the field? The only thing they lacked in was judgement when they signed him.
he should of never been signed in the first place, that money at the time should of been used on pitching and pitching only, they had plenty of offense at the time with pujols kendrick trout and trumbo plus morales but they ended up trading him.
Brown’s passing bring’s to mind a ball player of an era who will be missed. A guy who earned his nickname from an outgoing personality personality, as much as his ability to hit lengthy shots at the massive old San Diego field, which wasn’t easy for anyone.
To which current mlb player is Eddy Martinez comparable??
The question that I see missing from the article is whether Moreno made himself available to other players, or did he treat them all equally? This article might mean more if it stated that Hamilton going thru the GM and the Team President was “unusual”. If it is the norm, the article has no substance. I wonder how many teams provide their players with direct access to the owner?
That’s a very good question. To be fair, this is an unusual case and could be seen as an exception to the general rule.
Another question would be if, upon being told the owner was unavailable, did Hamilton have the discussion he wanted with the GM or the Team President, or did he decide not to say anything? Without knowing what the discussion is about, Management cannot tell when an exception to the rule might be needed.
I have two memories of Ollie Brown. One was a home run he hit right at me in the left field bleachers at Wrigley. Yes, I flubbed it. Two was he got the only hit in Juan Pizzaro’s one hitter.Sorry to see you go Ollie.
Hamilton’s story is not what has been previously reported.