Friday, June 10, 2011

Hail To "The Chief"

This player hold the distinction of being the 3,000th strikeout victim of both Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan:

Card #156 -- Cesar Geronimo, Cincinnati Reds

Here he is standing in front of a batting net. I'm guessing it's a spring training shot...and I'm also guessing he just posed quickly for the camera since and pitch tossed toward him would end up going past the net.
Cesar Geronimo played from 1969 through 1983, with the best of those seasons as a member of the Big Red Machine. He was signed by the Yankees, who tried to turn him into a pitcher. After being drafted by the Astros after the 1968, he went to the majors and never went back down. He spent three years in Houston and came to the Reds in the same trade that also added Joe Morgan to the club.

Geronimo was a regular player in the Cincinnati outfield through 1979. He won two World Series and four Gold Glove awards during that time. After his playing time diminished in 1980, he was traded to Kansas City, where he spent the final three years of his career.

I had very little immersion in Spanish language before attending high school, so I pronounced his last name the same way I would the famed Apache (or the way paratroopers did in war movies as they jumped out of planes). Looks like others did as well; one of his nicknames was "Chief."

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