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Today is Joaquin Andujar's 55th birthday! Woohoo!

Okay, and why does Da Box even care about the eccentric -- some would say "wacky" -- old righthander? The four-time All-Star won 127 big-league games (and three more in the post-season) but was best-known for his, ah, irascible behavior and wacky (there's that word again) quotes. We even had a Batter's Box award named for him back in 2003 and 2004. (Um -- then we didn't any more.)

But the Andujar mojo lives on here at Da Box as well as in the spirit and gumption of all baseball fans. Celebrate the man's birthday today because ... well, hey, youneverknow.



  • Here are some of the great quotes by and about Andujar, thanks to our friends at Baseball Almanac.

And because Andujar would no doubt want it that way, feel free to use this thread for topics wholly and completely unrelated to this Batter's Box holiday!

Happy Happy, YouNeverKnow | 6 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
HollywoodHartman - Friday, December 21 2007 @ 11:34 AM EST (#178159) #
Bravo Jordan. Bravo.

"1. David Ortiz, Boston

Ortiz was criminally misused by Tom Kelly early in his career, then suffered through a rash of injuries when he was just starting to get on track. Even so, in just 412 at-bats last season, he cracked 32 doubles and 20 HRs, both career highs. He's only batted below .272 once in his career,and he slugged an even .500 last season. His career OPS on the road is higher than at home (827 to 791). Many people think of him as a platoon player, but his OPS against lefties lifetime is 795, while against righties it's 813: he can hit anyone from either side of the mound. He'll take the first-base job in Boston in spring training and run with it, cracking 30-35 HRs and posting an OPS in the 875 range."
Four Seamer - Friday, December 21 2007 @ 11:39 AM EST (#178161) #

55!  Oh my lord, where has the time gone? 

The passing of Don Chevrier has got me thinking more and more about this - I was mildly surprised to learn that he was only 69 when he died, given that in the 80s when I was much younger myself, I couldn't have imagined that he was only middle aged at the time.  That there were only fourteen years between him and Andujar even now almost beggars belief.  Additional evdience, I suppose, of how distortedly we receive information, and how the passage of time warps it even further.

Mike Green - Friday, December 21 2007 @ 03:58 PM EST (#178170) #
"Let's do the time warp" does seem like appropriate theme music for Joaquin, anyways. 

In 1985, when Joaquin had his World Series meltdown, he was 33.  I guess that I had figured he was younger then, but youneverknow.

Mick Doherty - Friday, December 21 2007 @ 04:04 PM EST (#178171) #

Among the Joaq's Most Similar pitchers are John Denny, Ed Whitson, Dock Ellis and Pat Dobson ... not the most even-tempered group of guys ever mentioned in the same paragraph!

At 33, he was coming off back-to-back 20-win seasons, then won only 17 the remaining three years of his career combined!

3RunHomer - Saturday, December 22 2007 @ 11:33 AM EST (#178192) #

There was a 2005 Andujar too. It was never finalized because my incredible pick of Bobby Jenks just blew everyone's mind. The comment I made selecting Jenks was even deleted from the page (!) but evidence remained in this comment by Mick: "Greg, claiming a player off waivers seems to me to be a weird sort of free agent signing, so yeah, let's go with that. If Jenks wins the Andujar, I will eat a Shea Hillenbrand jersey."

Jenks should've won the Andujar and that jersey should've been eaten. Nuff said.

Bones - Saturday, December 22 2007 @ 02:48 PM EST (#178195) #
If Jenks wins the Andujar, I will eat a Shea Hillenbrand jersey.

Someone eating a Hillenbrand jersey is much more appropriate than someone paying Shea to play baseball in it.
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