Happy Valentine’s – A Day Early
Posted by Steve Lombardi on February 13, 2010
Just for the fun of it, because of what tomorrow is, I punched in "Valentine" into the SEARCH box of Baseball-Reference.com to see what I could find. And, one of the answers that it spit back to me was the page for "Jersey Joe" Valentine Stripp.
Now, having the words "Valentine Stripp" in your name is interesting enough. But, when I looked at the B-R.com page for "Jersey Joe," I saw some other interesting things as well.
First, he was a pretty useful player from 1930 to 1932 and from 1934 to 1936. (Have to figure here that he had something which was bothering him in 1933.)
But, more so, dig the trades that he was involved in:
- March 14, 1932: Traded by the Cincinnati Reds with Tony Cuccinello and Clyde Sukeforth to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Wally Gilbert, Babe Herman and Ernie Lombardi.
- October 4, 1937: Traded by the Brooklyn Dodgers with Jim Bucher, Johnny Cooney and Roy Henshaw to the St. Louis Cardinals for Leo Durocher.
That's some nice company there. Clyde Sukeforth later became the Dodgers scout who helped bring Jackie Robinson to the (then) Brooklyn organization. Babe Herman went on to have a storied career. Ernie Lombardi is in the Hall of Fame. Ditto Leo Durocher who went in as a manager.
To be candid, I never heard of Joe Stripp before today. But, thanks to playing around with Baseball-Reference.com, finding him by random, I discovered that he did play in the majors and then I learned more about him. And, that's a baseball fan's version of a dozen roses or a box of chocolates, no? Cool stuff.
February 13th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
There's a great quote about him. From Bill James' Historical Baseball Abstract, about Stripp and another third baseman with a great name:
"They were teammates on the 1931 Cincinnati Reds. Boston coach Tom Daly insisted that the Cincinnati team was going to build a screen around third base. 'Why?' asked a reporter. 'Well,' replied Daly with a straight face, 'I don't think the fans want to see Joe Stripp or Charlie Dressen...'"
February 13th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
When I read, "Babe Herman went on to have a storied career," I noticed for the first time that "storied" is an anagram of "steroid".
February 14th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Me too, Gerry!
February 14th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Here's my story connected to a baseball figure named Valentine:
In the summer of 1997, several of us at the company where I worked at the time were sent to a training class in Stanford, CT. It was supposed to start on a Monday afternoon, go all day on the next three days, and wrap up at noon on Friday. We got there late Monday morning and headed out for a place to have lunch before the class started.
We found a sports bar type of restaurant near by. I noticed that this restaurant sponsored several bus trips to Mets games that season. It seemed like this restaurant had some close connection to this team. And then I caught the name of the restaurant:
Bobby Valentine's Sports Gallery Cafe
By the way, we had a great lunch there that day and returned for dinner another night that week.
February 14th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Figures that one of the dumbest things I've ever heard about baseball was uttered today -- of all days -- by Bobby V.
February 15th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Which was...?