To
mark publication of my novel, Sports Therapy for the Mediocre, I am
launching my MEDIOCRE HALL OF MENTION.
Great players have a Hall of Fame. My players don’t deserve fame, but they do deserve mention.
These are my personal heroes who never achieved the immortality required for inclusion in a Hall of Fame. But they all made the Major Leagues (or equivalent in other sports), so they had to be very very good. Mediocre by big-show standards, but among the best.
For each member of my Hall, I review their career, and explain why they maintain a place in my memories.
Danny Ainge, basketball and baseball
CAREER: A college basketball star, Danny started his professional career as a second baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays. The Boston Celtics bought out his contract, and he played for them for 8 years before being traded, ending his career playing for 3 more teams. He went on to become a coach and general manager.
MEDIOCRITY: Danny was a lifetime .220 hitter in baseball, with 1 homerun in 3 years. As a basketball coach, his team was eliminated in the first round in all 3 years, giving him a 3-9 playoff record.
HIGHLIGHTS: Ainge was a decent basketball player, winning a couple of championships with the Celtics, and getting named to the All-Star team once.
As a general manager, he pulled off deals that won the Celtics a championship in 2008. His starting five never lost a playoff series, but he traded one of his starters, Kendrick Perkins, and the Celts haven’t won a championship since.
He cemented his place in my Hall of Mention by recently trading Rajon Rondo, an All-Star, for three mediocre players.
WHY I LIKED HIM: It’s rare for a player to make the Majors in two sports. Also, Danny was fearless on the court, tackling the much larger Tree Rollins in a game, and getting bitten by him.
YOU CAN SEE HIM: A video of the Rollins fight is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VlM1h5vwyY. The announcer notes how many people think Ainge was the biter in that confrontation, rather than the victim.
Jed Lowrie, baseball
CAREER: Lowrie is still active, recently signing a big contract with the Houston Astros.
MEDIOCRITY: He’s a career .261 hitter, averaging 8 homeruns per season. He’s been on the disabled 4 of the last 5 years.
HIGHLIGHTS: Filling in as a rookie after the regular shortstop got injured in 2008, he sparkled in the playoffs, hitting .364 in the ALDS. Lowrie started the 2010 season on the disabled list. When he was ready to return in July, the regular SS was again injured, and Jed hit .287 the rest of the season. Traded twice, he came back to hit .290 for Oakland in 2013.
WHY I LIKED HIM: He’s a small guy, listed at 6 feet (doesn’t look it) and 180 pounds. He went to Stanford, so he’s got to be smart. And he came from nowhere twice to win a starting job, only to lose it to hard-luck ailments like mononucleosis.
VIDEO: You can see a pitcher trying to hit Lowrie…because he bunted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPo1ANEm1oY
Ron Hunt, baseball
CAREER: Hunt was a second basement for a number of National League teams.
MEDIOCRITY: Hunt was a lifetime .273 hitter. He began with the NY Mets, perennial cellar-dwellers in the mid 1960’s. He never played in the post-season.
HIGHLIGHTS: Hunt often led the League in getting hit by pitch. He stands 4th all-time in this category. He was elected starting 2B for the 1964 All Star game, held in the Mets’ stadium.
WHY I LIKED HIM: In the days when Major Leaguers didn’t make much money, they did personal appearances for a few extra bucks. I went to one of these at a department store and met Hunt. A fan commented that he wasn’t very big for a ballplayer, and Hunt said if the Mets had nine players like him, they’d win. When there wasn’t much for New York fans to cheer about, Hunt was the first Met elected to start in the All-Star game.
You can see an interview with Hunt and other former Met stars at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNI2s2Uk4Ng
Rory Calhoun, boxer
CAREER: Calhoun had a record of 45 wins, 15 losses and 2 draws
MEDIOCRITY: Calhoun fought the best middleweights of his time: Spider Webb, Joey Giardello, Joey Giambra, Gene (Ace) Armstrong, Ralph (Tiger) Jones, Carl (Bobo) Olson, Dick Tiger, Florentino Fernandez, Eddie Cotton, and Jimmy Ellis. He had an occasional draw and a rare win, but mostly he was outclassed.
HIGHLIGHTS: Calhoun fought many times on television. In 1958, he reached the #3 middleweight ranking, behind only Sugar Ray Robinson and Gene Fullmer.
WHY I LIKED HIM: Born Herman Calhoun, his manager changed his name to that of a movie . When he retired and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career that got him parts in such classics as “Requiem for a Heavyweight, he befriended his namesake actor.
Calhoun lived in White Plains, NY, near my childhood home. At one point, my father was offered a chance to buy into Calhoun’s management. Though he declined, I always identified with the boxer.
You can see won of Rpry's wins at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NskgRiKRgRI
Dave Marr, golf
CAREER: Davey Marr was a touring golf pro and television golf commentator.
MEDIOCRITY: Marr won just four PGA events during his entire career.
HIGHLIGHTS: Marr won the 1965 PGA Championship, his only major victory. He also won the Ryder Cup as non-playing captain.
WHY I LIKED HIM: At the time he won the PGA, Marr was living in Larchmont, NY, my hometown. When I saw a local boy was leading the PGA, I rooted for him, only finding out later he was from Texas. He was a pro at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY, a place where I had a couple of lessons in a fruitless attempt to improve my game.
You can see him at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjrr-85mTbQ
Janeen Jewett, wrestler
CAREER: She portrayed "Palestina" for Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) and “The Syrian Terrorist' Pali Al-Azar Rashan Yerovich for Powerful Women of Wrestling (POWW).
MEDIOCRITY: Jewett was a “heel” (villain) in wrestling terms, so she lost a lot. I don’t know if anyone kept track of won-lost records, but Imdb.com lists one bout on pay-per-view that she lost, a “lingerie battle royale” in AWA SuperClash III 1998.
HIGHLIGHTS: Each GLOW wrestler introduced herself with a rap song. Palestina’s was:
“I'll get you all, you're on my list
You can't escape this terrorist
So when you hear my battle cry
All infidels prepare to die”
WHY I LIKED HER: One of the great names in wrestling, a variation on the Italian Renaissance composer Palestrina. Characterizing a Palestinan as a terrorist tells it like it is. She wore hideous makeup, inspiring insults like “Palestina looks like she put her makeup on with a PAINT ROLLER.” Not to mention, “Palestina went to Ugly school and got straight A's! . Palestina went hiking in the Ugly Forest and got lost! Palestina went swimming in the Ugly Pool and drowned! Palestina fell off the Ugly Tree and hit EVERY BRANCH on the way down!”
Some of the POWW wrestlers went on to make a movie, “American Angels: Baptism of Blood (1989).” One of the actors in it was named Bruce Caplin. It’s rare to find someone who spells his last name the way I do (even my grandfather’s bothers didn’t). This reminds me of a song a camp counselor made up about me:
With a C instead of a K
And an I instead of an A
That’s “Caplin,”
Spelled the Jewish way.
You can see her at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esPhkyvj0cw
Camille Henry, hockey
CAREER: Henry was a left wing who played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League, 12 of them with the New York Rangers.
MEDIOCRITY: Henry played for bad Ranger teams that rarely made the playoffs and never advanced. In 1965, he did make the Stanley Cup finals with Chicago, scoring 1 goal in 14 games as the Blackhawks lost.
HIGHLIGHTS: He was named Rookie of the Year in 1954, won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship in 1958, and once scored 37 goals in a season.
WHY I LIKED HIM: When I was a kid, Henry wasn’t much bigger than I, only 5’ 7” and 138 pounds. His “New York Times” obituary said “his frail physical stature and artistry with a stick made him one of New York’s most beloved hockey players.”
Marvin Barnes, basketball
CAREER: “Bad News” Barnes was a star at Providence College. He played professionally in the short-lived American Basketball Association, and four years in the NBA.
MEDIOCRITY: Barnes was unable to last in the NBA, playing for four different teams. He ended up playing in Italy, and then with three different CBA teams. His career was also marked by arrests: for robbing a bus in high school (caught because he wore his state championship jacket during the holdup); hitting a teammate with a tire iron in college; carrying a gun at an airport during his NBA career. Post career record includes busts for burglary, drug possession and trespassing. (After rehab, he is a youth worker today.)
HIGHLIGHTS: Barnes set school records while at Providence College, and was rookie of the year in the ABA.
WHY I LIKED HIM: You’ve got to like anyone whose nickname is “Bad News.” Popular opinion has it he got tagged with that from “frequent off-court problems,” but I think it’s because he was bad news for opponents, like the Bad News Bears. He was born in Providence, and went to college there, and I favor the rare New Englander who makes it into the NBA. He still had great potential when he landed with the Celtics, his fourth pro team. I was excited to see him play, and disappointed when he was cut, Boston saying he “no longer figured in our plans.”
You can see a clip of him at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oFeXHBVuCE
Daryl Spencer
PLAYER: Daryl Spencer, infielder, NY Giants, SF Giants
CAREER: The NY Giants won their only post-War World Series in 1954. Daryl Spencer was a utility infield on the 1953 team, but was drafted by the US Army the next year, and missed that championship season. (He did win the military World Series in 1955).
He became the Giants’ starting shortstop, and stayed with them after they moved to San Francisco in 1958. After 1959, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, and later played for the LA Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.
After being released on his birthday in 1963, he hooked on with a Japanese team, and became a star there over the next 7 years.
MEDIOCRITY: Spencer ended his 10-year Major League career with a .244 batting average and 105 home runs. In a season preview, “Sports Illustrated” called hi erratic, noting he was near the top of the NL in double plays, and the bottom in errors.
HIGHLIGHTS: Spencer hit the first home run ever for the Giants after they moved to SF. He had his best year then, hitting 17 homeruns with 74 RBIs.
He set Japanese homerun records for an American player with 152 career round-trippers. After 3 years of retirement, he came back to Japan as a player-coach, hitting .260 at age 43.
WHY I LIKED HIM: Of course Willie Mays was the star of the Giants, then and my favorite player, but could never be included in a roster of the mediocre. Spencer had a breakout year when the Giants moved to SF. I was (and am still) a Giants fan, no matter where they were located.
Spencer was tall for a shortstop in his day (6’ 2”), and was tagged with the nickname “Big D.” I was tall for my age that year, and began calling myself “Big D,” a monicker I continue to use to this day, despite the fact I stopped growing that year after achieving my mediocre adult height (5’ 9”).
Janet Newberry
PLAYER: Janet Newberry, tennis
CAREER: Newberry played on the tennis tour in the 1970’s, and was a mainstay of the Boston Lobsters team in the original World Team Tennis (WTT).
MEDIOCRITY: Newberry ‘s highest world ranking was #17.
HIGHLIGHTS: She reached the semi-finals of the French Open twice, and the finals of Wimbledon mixed doubles once.
WHY I LIKED HER: Most of the enshrinees in my Hall of Mention are men. That’s because there are no equivalent women’s teams in the big team sports (sorry WNBA), and because my favorite women players were champs, not mediocre: Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, and Amelie Mauresmo.
I liked Newberry because I saw her when I was one of the few people to attend a WTT event. She looked like a regular person, not a superstar like teammate Martina Navratolova.
Great players have a Hall of Fame. My players don’t deserve fame, but they do deserve mention.
These are my personal heroes who never achieved the immortality required for inclusion in a Hall of Fame. But they all made the Major Leagues (or equivalent in other sports), so they had to be very very good. Mediocre by big-show standards, but among the best.
For each member of my Hall, I review their career, and explain why they maintain a place in my memories.
Danny Ainge, basketball and baseball
CAREER: A college basketball star, Danny started his professional career as a second baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays. The Boston Celtics bought out his contract, and he played for them for 8 years before being traded, ending his career playing for 3 more teams. He went on to become a coach and general manager.
MEDIOCRITY: Danny was a lifetime .220 hitter in baseball, with 1 homerun in 3 years. As a basketball coach, his team was eliminated in the first round in all 3 years, giving him a 3-9 playoff record.
HIGHLIGHTS: Ainge was a decent basketball player, winning a couple of championships with the Celtics, and getting named to the All-Star team once.
As a general manager, he pulled off deals that won the Celtics a championship in 2008. His starting five never lost a playoff series, but he traded one of his starters, Kendrick Perkins, and the Celts haven’t won a championship since.
He cemented his place in my Hall of Mention by recently trading Rajon Rondo, an All-Star, for three mediocre players.
WHY I LIKED HIM: It’s rare for a player to make the Majors in two sports. Also, Danny was fearless on the court, tackling the much larger Tree Rollins in a game, and getting bitten by him.
YOU CAN SEE HIM: A video of the Rollins fight is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VlM1h5vwyY. The announcer notes how many people think Ainge was the biter in that confrontation, rather than the victim.
Jed Lowrie, baseball
CAREER: Lowrie is still active, recently signing a big contract with the Houston Astros.
MEDIOCRITY: He’s a career .261 hitter, averaging 8 homeruns per season. He’s been on the disabled 4 of the last 5 years.
HIGHLIGHTS: Filling in as a rookie after the regular shortstop got injured in 2008, he sparkled in the playoffs, hitting .364 in the ALDS. Lowrie started the 2010 season on the disabled list. When he was ready to return in July, the regular SS was again injured, and Jed hit .287 the rest of the season. Traded twice, he came back to hit .290 for Oakland in 2013.
WHY I LIKED HIM: He’s a small guy, listed at 6 feet (doesn’t look it) and 180 pounds. He went to Stanford, so he’s got to be smart. And he came from nowhere twice to win a starting job, only to lose it to hard-luck ailments like mononucleosis.
VIDEO: You can see a pitcher trying to hit Lowrie…because he bunted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPo1ANEm1oY
Ron Hunt, baseball
CAREER: Hunt was a second basement for a number of National League teams.
MEDIOCRITY: Hunt was a lifetime .273 hitter. He began with the NY Mets, perennial cellar-dwellers in the mid 1960’s. He never played in the post-season.
HIGHLIGHTS: Hunt often led the League in getting hit by pitch. He stands 4th all-time in this category. He was elected starting 2B for the 1964 All Star game, held in the Mets’ stadium.
WHY I LIKED HIM: In the days when Major Leaguers didn’t make much money, they did personal appearances for a few extra bucks. I went to one of these at a department store and met Hunt. A fan commented that he wasn’t very big for a ballplayer, and Hunt said if the Mets had nine players like him, they’d win. When there wasn’t much for New York fans to cheer about, Hunt was the first Met elected to start in the All-Star game.
You can see an interview with Hunt and other former Met stars at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNI2s2Uk4Ng
Rory Calhoun, boxer
CAREER: Calhoun had a record of 45 wins, 15 losses and 2 draws
MEDIOCRITY: Calhoun fought the best middleweights of his time: Spider Webb, Joey Giardello, Joey Giambra, Gene (Ace) Armstrong, Ralph (Tiger) Jones, Carl (Bobo) Olson, Dick Tiger, Florentino Fernandez, Eddie Cotton, and Jimmy Ellis. He had an occasional draw and a rare win, but mostly he was outclassed.
HIGHLIGHTS: Calhoun fought many times on television. In 1958, he reached the #3 middleweight ranking, behind only Sugar Ray Robinson and Gene Fullmer.
WHY I LIKED HIM: Born Herman Calhoun, his manager changed his name to that of a movie . When he retired and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career that got him parts in such classics as “Requiem for a Heavyweight, he befriended his namesake actor.
Calhoun lived in White Plains, NY, near my childhood home. At one point, my father was offered a chance to buy into Calhoun’s management. Though he declined, I always identified with the boxer.
You can see won of Rpry's wins at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NskgRiKRgRI
Dave Marr, golf
CAREER: Davey Marr was a touring golf pro and television golf commentator.
MEDIOCRITY: Marr won just four PGA events during his entire career.
HIGHLIGHTS: Marr won the 1965 PGA Championship, his only major victory. He also won the Ryder Cup as non-playing captain.
WHY I LIKED HIM: At the time he won the PGA, Marr was living in Larchmont, NY, my hometown. When I saw a local boy was leading the PGA, I rooted for him, only finding out later he was from Texas. He was a pro at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY, a place where I had a couple of lessons in a fruitless attempt to improve my game.
You can see him at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjrr-85mTbQ
Janeen Jewett, wrestler
CAREER: She portrayed "Palestina" for Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) and “The Syrian Terrorist' Pali Al-Azar Rashan Yerovich for Powerful Women of Wrestling (POWW).
MEDIOCRITY: Jewett was a “heel” (villain) in wrestling terms, so she lost a lot. I don’t know if anyone kept track of won-lost records, but Imdb.com lists one bout on pay-per-view that she lost, a “lingerie battle royale” in AWA SuperClash III 1998.
HIGHLIGHTS: Each GLOW wrestler introduced herself with a rap song. Palestina’s was:
“I'll get you all, you're on my list
You can't escape this terrorist
So when you hear my battle cry
All infidels prepare to die”
WHY I LIKED HER: One of the great names in wrestling, a variation on the Italian Renaissance composer Palestrina. Characterizing a Palestinan as a terrorist tells it like it is. She wore hideous makeup, inspiring insults like “Palestina looks like she put her makeup on with a PAINT ROLLER.” Not to mention, “Palestina went to Ugly school and got straight A's! . Palestina went hiking in the Ugly Forest and got lost! Palestina went swimming in the Ugly Pool and drowned! Palestina fell off the Ugly Tree and hit EVERY BRANCH on the way down!”
Some of the POWW wrestlers went on to make a movie, “American Angels: Baptism of Blood (1989).” One of the actors in it was named Bruce Caplin. It’s rare to find someone who spells his last name the way I do (even my grandfather’s bothers didn’t). This reminds me of a song a camp counselor made up about me:
With a C instead of a K
And an I instead of an A
That’s “Caplin,”
Spelled the Jewish way.
You can see her at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esPhkyvj0cw
Camille Henry, hockey
CAREER: Henry was a left wing who played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League, 12 of them with the New York Rangers.
MEDIOCRITY: Henry played for bad Ranger teams that rarely made the playoffs and never advanced. In 1965, he did make the Stanley Cup finals with Chicago, scoring 1 goal in 14 games as the Blackhawks lost.
HIGHLIGHTS: He was named Rookie of the Year in 1954, won the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship in 1958, and once scored 37 goals in a season.
WHY I LIKED HIM: When I was a kid, Henry wasn’t much bigger than I, only 5’ 7” and 138 pounds. His “New York Times” obituary said “his frail physical stature and artistry with a stick made him one of New York’s most beloved hockey players.”
Marvin Barnes, basketball
CAREER: “Bad News” Barnes was a star at Providence College. He played professionally in the short-lived American Basketball Association, and four years in the NBA.
MEDIOCRITY: Barnes was unable to last in the NBA, playing for four different teams. He ended up playing in Italy, and then with three different CBA teams. His career was also marked by arrests: for robbing a bus in high school (caught because he wore his state championship jacket during the holdup); hitting a teammate with a tire iron in college; carrying a gun at an airport during his NBA career. Post career record includes busts for burglary, drug possession and trespassing. (After rehab, he is a youth worker today.)
HIGHLIGHTS: Barnes set school records while at Providence College, and was rookie of the year in the ABA.
WHY I LIKED HIM: You’ve got to like anyone whose nickname is “Bad News.” Popular opinion has it he got tagged with that from “frequent off-court problems,” but I think it’s because he was bad news for opponents, like the Bad News Bears. He was born in Providence, and went to college there, and I favor the rare New Englander who makes it into the NBA. He still had great potential when he landed with the Celtics, his fourth pro team. I was excited to see him play, and disappointed when he was cut, Boston saying he “no longer figured in our plans.”
You can see a clip of him at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oFeXHBVuCE
Daryl Spencer
PLAYER: Daryl Spencer, infielder, NY Giants, SF Giants
CAREER: The NY Giants won their only post-War World Series in 1954. Daryl Spencer was a utility infield on the 1953 team, but was drafted by the US Army the next year, and missed that championship season. (He did win the military World Series in 1955).
He became the Giants’ starting shortstop, and stayed with them after they moved to San Francisco in 1958. After 1959, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, and later played for the LA Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.
After being released on his birthday in 1963, he hooked on with a Japanese team, and became a star there over the next 7 years.
MEDIOCRITY: Spencer ended his 10-year Major League career with a .244 batting average and 105 home runs. In a season preview, “Sports Illustrated” called hi erratic, noting he was near the top of the NL in double plays, and the bottom in errors.
HIGHLIGHTS: Spencer hit the first home run ever for the Giants after they moved to SF. He had his best year then, hitting 17 homeruns with 74 RBIs.
He set Japanese homerun records for an American player with 152 career round-trippers. After 3 years of retirement, he came back to Japan as a player-coach, hitting .260 at age 43.
WHY I LIKED HIM: Of course Willie Mays was the star of the Giants, then and my favorite player, but could never be included in a roster of the mediocre. Spencer had a breakout year when the Giants moved to SF. I was (and am still) a Giants fan, no matter where they were located.
Spencer was tall for a shortstop in his day (6’ 2”), and was tagged with the nickname “Big D.” I was tall for my age that year, and began calling myself “Big D,” a monicker I continue to use to this day, despite the fact I stopped growing that year after achieving my mediocre adult height (5’ 9”).
Janet Newberry
PLAYER: Janet Newberry, tennis
CAREER: Newberry played on the tennis tour in the 1970’s, and was a mainstay of the Boston Lobsters team in the original World Team Tennis (WTT).
MEDIOCRITY: Newberry ‘s highest world ranking was #17.
HIGHLIGHTS: She reached the semi-finals of the French Open twice, and the finals of Wimbledon mixed doubles once.
WHY I LIKED HER: Most of the enshrinees in my Hall of Mention are men. That’s because there are no equivalent women’s teams in the big team sports (sorry WNBA), and because my favorite women players were champs, not mediocre: Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, and Amelie Mauresmo.
I liked Newberry because I saw her when I was one of the few people to attend a WTT event. She looked like a regular person, not a superstar like teammate Martina Navratolova.