Brad Mills was drafted in the 17th round by the Montreal Expos and by 1980, he was in the major leagues. In 1983, he suffered a severe knee injury, which ended his playing career, but not his career in baseball. After his injury, he got a job managing in the Cubs minor league system and spent parts of 11 seasons with the Cubs as well as the Dodgers and Rockies. By 1997, then Phillies manager Terry Francona hired Brad to serve as a bench coach, a job he held until 2000. In 2003, he returned to Montreal to serve as a bench coach before being tapped once again by Terry Francona to join him in Boston. In 2009, the Houston Astros hired Brad Mills to manage the team. It's been a rough 2 1/2 years for Brad, but he continued to help the young talent develop and lead the team during a rebuilding period.
I was able to catch Brad before the game on Tuesday and ask him who his favorite player was.He spent some time thinking about it saying, "it's a real tough question, but I would have to say Willie Mays." I didn't get to ask him more as there was a lot of noise going on in the field and he could barely hear me, but I was thankful for the time he took to answer my question.
Here is a picture of the ball Brad signed for me.
Brad Brach is a young pitcher with a lot of talent. Drafted from Monmouth College with the Padres 42nd round draft pick in the 2008 draft, Brad has moved quickly through the Padres farm system. Between 2008-2012, he has saved 115 games and is looked at as a future setup man or closer by the club. He has a fastball which has been clocked as high as 94MPH and his slider comes in between 80-85 MPH with a lot of movement. He's struggled with his control since coming up to the big leagues, but has shown flashes of brilliance. As Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley says, "he needs to trust his stuff."
Before Sunday's game, I was able to talk to Brad about who his favorite player was growing up. Brad is a "Cal Ripken Jr. Fan." He grew up watching Cal play and he told me "I grew up playing SS in Little League because it was Cal's position." Brad took this picture with me and I thanked him for his time. Keep up the hard work Brad.
Dusty Baker was a hard-nosed player who hit well in the clutch. He witnessed history from the on deck circle on the night of April 8th, 1974 when he saw Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run. Drafted out of high school in 1968, he quickly made his major league debut in 1969 and came up to stay in 1972 and hit for a career high .321 average. Traded to the Dodgers in 1976, he became their starting left-fielder. He made history in 1978, when he became the 4th Dodger to hit 30 home runs in a season, a feat that no team before had ever accomplished. He remained with Los Angeles for 7 seasons and won a World Series ring with the 1981 team. He left the Dodgers in 1984 and joined the Giants for a season before moving on to Oakland where he played his last 2 seasons. After his retirement, Dusty joined the San Francisco Giants as a coach and became their manager in 1993. He led the Giants to a 2002 World Series appearance, losing to the Angels who were led by former teammate Mike Scioscia. After the 2002 season, Baker jumped to the Chicago Cubs and in 2007, Dusty became the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, the team he currently manages.
In my last blog, Ron Washington had told me his favorite player was Dusty Baker because, "he took care of me when I first came up." I couldn't wait for the Reds to come to town so I could mention this to Dusty and I was lucky because the Reds were the first team the Padres played on their next home stand. My friend Brian and I got to the ballpark early and walked to the Reds dugout and saw Dusty walking out of the dugout. We got his attention and had him sign my new baseball and a ticket for the game. I asked Dusty who his favorite player was and he said, "Hank Aaron, because he was the best player ever." I told Dusty I asked Ron Washington the same question and he has said it was you, because you took care of him when he first came up. Dusty responded, "I did take care of him and I felt the Dodgers didn't play him enough." It was great to hear Dusty's reaction to what Ron said about him. Here is a picture of the ball Dusty signed:
