I fell in love with baseball growing up in Venezuela. My dad is a HUGE baseball fan and got me into it. We lived in Valencia but he was fan of the mighty Leones del Caracas where he was born and raised. In the early 80's the Leones brought a second basebman named Dan Rohn. Then they brought him back which wasn't unheard of but not common. One time he signed my glove, he was a nice guy.
Dan was like Kuip, a scrappy player that played hard. The other notorious thing about him is that, like Kuip, he didn't hit home runs (I wish Baseball Reference included data from countries like Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the DR), during his second season with Leones this was notorious, at least for ~10-11 yo me.
One game he hit his only homer in Venezuela. Again, I wish I had the specifics, but I do remember finding my dad and telling him. He didn't see impressed at all but I was really happy for him.
Dan was not even (at ten years old) in my top 50 and I still remember this moment fondly. I can only imagine how big this would be for me if it was my favorite player.
Good news / bad news. BB-Ref does include data from Venezuela and elsewhere, but it is all much more recent than that which would capture Dan Rohn's time there.
For example, we can see that Ronald Acuna batted .358 playing for La Guaira last winter. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=acuna-002ron For the more recent players, you can find the data by clicking "Minor, Fall, Winter & WBC" on the left side of the player's page.
BB-Ref has been filling in the blanks elsewhere (especially for the Negro Leagues!) so perhaps one day they can go back far enough to capture Rohn's time.
I think I might have memory-blocked this. As much as I love Ronald, and I really love him, I can't forgive him for playing for La Guaira. :-)
In all seriousness, thanks for letting me know about this. I think I might have seen it in other player's pages but didn't see it in Dan's and just assumed it didn't exist.
When I created the Home Run Power Ratio (HRPR) in the late 1990s, the inflation index for home runs that would allow people to compare sluggers across generations--Babe Ruth with Mel Ott with Ted Williams with Graig Nettles with Sammy Sosa with Barry Bonds and on and on-- I summoned Kuiper's one home run in 3379 career at bats as an extreme frame of reference for a very low career HRPR.
Yesterday during the Cubs broadcast, Pat Hughes asked his sidekick Ron Coomee who had given up Kuiper's home run. Initially, Coomer said Bert Blyleven, but then he recovered and provided the correct answer of Steve Stone. I am confident there were thousands of listeners yelling Stone's name (as I was) at the radios during that exchange :-)
Sorry for the long story but thought you might get a kick out of this:
My Duane Kuiper Story
In 1976 I was a pitcher for the Southern Illinois Salukis and, after our regular season ended, was lucky enough to be invited to play for the Yarmouth Red Sox in the Cape Cod Collegiate League. We had a day off on July 26th I decided to take the opportunity to attend an Indians/Red Sox game in Boston and experience the legendary Fenway Park.
In those days in the Cape League, players were provided a job during the day to pay our expenses and games were played almost every night. My day job was pumping gas at Wynn’s Mobil in Yarmouth. I asked one of my fellow employees if he wanted to accompany me to the game since he was a big Red Sox fan.
Even though I had never met Cleveland’s Duane Kuiper, he had also played for the Salukis several years before me. Because of that connection I had high hopes of chatting with him before the game. I thought, surely he’ll be accommodating to a fellow Saluki and maybe spend a couple minutes sharing big league stories prior to the game or, better yet, send us to Will Call to pick up a couple front row box seat tickets. I prepared my gas station buddy for the likelihood that we’d probably get to hear some good big league stories at the very least.
We arrived early to the game in order to catch Kuiper during warmups. The usher was nice enough and let us down to the field. As we stood at the end of the Indians dugout along the third base line, the excitement was building in me. Kuiper popped out of the dugout and began throwing with a teammate in front of us. After a few throws, I yelled, “Hey Duane, I play ball for the Salukis and Itchy Jones (our beloved coach) Have you got a minute?” He looked over at me while continuing to toss the ball and said, “That’s great!” And then he just kept tossing, never making a move to join us. I stood there, embarrassed, and fully realizing he had no intention of coming over. So after the big buildup with my buddy I had to tuck my tail between my legs. As we walked back up the steps to our seats. My buddy said with a smirk, “Yeah, he’s your best friend”.
As a little consolation, however. I noticed Indians all-star catcher Ray Fosse jogging along the base of the Green Monster. We made our way out there and, knowing he was a native of Marion, Illinois, near SIU, I shouted (and lied), “Hey Ray, I’m from Marion, Illinois!” He looked up, smiling and waving and yelled, “Alright!”
I told my buddy, “Not what I was hoping for but I guess the best we’re gonna get tonight.” The Indians won the game 9-4 and chased Boston starter Luis Tiant after 1.1 innings, scoring five runs. Kuiper went 3 for 5 with two runs scored and a rbi.
Things tightened up in later years. In 2000, I won an auction item that included a pre-game on-field pass to Jack Murphy Stadium for a Mariner-Padres game. We were roped off and told that under no circumstances, on pain of being kicked out of the stadium, were we to address a word to the players. I did get to stand close enough to A-Rod (rope in between) to know how big he was even at that young age.
I saw Kuiper play in an old-timers game (remember those?) in Cleveland in the early 90’s, and I’ll never forget him hitting a pop-up to shallow left field and the PA announcer saying “That was the second-furthest hit ball of Kuiper’s career”.
Joe: As a Bay Area native, it has been a great joy listening to Kuip and his broadcast partner Mike Krukow for over three decades. I particularly enjoy it when Duane talks about his time with playing winter ball in Latin America, where he was introduced by the public address announcer as “Dwannie Kweepay”!
For what’s worth, I have a Duane Kuiper story. In 1981, I played 2B for the varsity baseball team. Our season had just come to end and our coach took a few of us who would be returning the next year to an Angels game. June 8, 1981, they were playing the Indians. Coach told me to watch everything Kuiper did, as he was one of the smoothest 2B in the league. I knew Kuiper because of all the baseball cards I had. Indians weren’t on the game of the week very often. I have never watched a game like that before or after, but left that game with a deep appreciation of Duane Kuiper. It also helped that he went 2-4 with an RBI. Angels won 10-2. Cheers Duane.
Being a Giants fan for decades the story of Kuip’s lone mlb homer is mythological - yes here a true myth, yet embroidered to legendary status through the great pleasure Kruk and Kuip, true broadcasting bards, have in recounting it to us over the years, and our great pleasure in hearing it again.
I love how, as kids, we can latch onto players who aren't superstars but who somehow bring joy. I hope we never lose that ability to fall in love with people and things that simply bring joy, from our sometimes struggling baseball teams to our sometimes struggling kids.
Kuip was a big part of my childhood Giants infield too. Kuip at 2nd, Johnnie LeMaster at short and Darrel Evans at 3rd. can't remember 1st. #HappyKuipDay❤️
I love it when Joe writes about this story. Because it reminds me of my happiest baseball moment as a boy. It involved my favorite player, Nellie Fox. He hit about 2 homers a year in his career, so I guess compared to Duane he was a real slugger.
I was not quite 10 years old when my team, the White Sox, were on tv on the game of the week in 1961. It was exciting enough that the Sox were on tv at all. Back then it seemed most games of the week involved the Yankees. As I did not live in a major league city, the game of the week was my only option for watching an MLB game.
Anyway the Sox were down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th. Pinch hitterBilly Goodman hit a game tying two run homer. After another out Nellie came to bat with two outs. He came to the plate with a black- or at least dark colored- bat which I seemed to remember he called “Old Betsy” rather than his normal ash colored bat. (One of my prized possessions was my own Nellie Fox Louisville slugger.) If my memory from an interview with Nellie is correct (and this may be fantasy on my part) , he came up with the intent to hit a homer. And to my utter astonishment and joy he did- a game winning homer in the bottom of the ninth. I ran around the house shouting in joy.
One of the good things about the internet is the historical stuff you can find. Here is a link to a write up about the game. It’s amazing to see documentation of one of my favorite childhood memories.
Ryan's ego couldn't handle it and he hit Grebeck the next time he faced the Sox (a week later), and his relations with the South Siders infamously went downhill from there. But as much as I lost respect for him over that, you have to give the man his due, he pitched ten shutout innings in that follow-up game with three hits, 15 strikeouts, and no walks.
Pretty cool company in that Bartolo only has the one (famous) home run. And Joe Niekro just one too, off brother Phil. OK, pitchers, few at-bats, yes. But there are always so many tangential rabbit holes to explore. That's one of the great things about Joe's columns.
Geez, Aug 29, 1977. I was 15, enjoying the Blue Jays inaugural first season, maybe going to the Ex after buying Rush's Farewell to Kings album (released on that date too).
Cool, a Rush mention! I was watching Jeopardy! the other day (do only old people watch Jeopardy!?) and they had a music category. They put up a picture of Geddy Lee and the contestants (the oldest might have been 40) had no idea who he was.
Love this. Love whenever Joe writes about Duane Kuiper. Of course it sent me to Kuiper's Baseball Reference page and ... man, if that guy wasn't drafted a lot. Has Joe written about that? Dude was drafted in '68, '69, '70 (twice!), and '71 before the Indians got him in '72. Six times. All different teams, too.
That made me wonder what the record is. Per ChatGPT (so grain of salt), it's seven times, by both Pete Varney and Luis Medina. Medina also wound up playing for the Indians.
I fell in love with baseball growing up in Venezuela. My dad is a HUGE baseball fan and got me into it. We lived in Valencia but he was fan of the mighty Leones del Caracas where he was born and raised. In the early 80's the Leones brought a second basebman named Dan Rohn. Then they brought him back which wasn't unheard of but not common. One time he signed my glove, he was a nice guy.
Dan was like Kuip, a scrappy player that played hard. The other notorious thing about him is that, like Kuip, he didn't hit home runs (I wish Baseball Reference included data from countries like Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the DR), during his second season with Leones this was notorious, at least for ~10-11 yo me.
One game he hit his only homer in Venezuela. Again, I wish I had the specifics, but I do remember finding my dad and telling him. He didn't see impressed at all but I was really happy for him.
Dan was not even (at ten years old) in my top 50 and I still remember this moment fondly. I can only imagine how big this would be for me if it was my favorite player.
Good news / bad news. BB-Ref does include data from Venezuela and elsewhere, but it is all much more recent than that which would capture Dan Rohn's time there.
For example, we can see that Ronald Acuna batted .358 playing for La Guaira last winter. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=acuna-002ron For the more recent players, you can find the data by clicking "Minor, Fall, Winter & WBC" on the left side of the player's page.
BB-Ref has been filling in the blanks elsewhere (especially for the Negro Leagues!) so perhaps one day they can go back far enough to capture Rohn's time.
I think I might have memory-blocked this. As much as I love Ronald, and I really love him, I can't forgive him for playing for La Guaira. :-)
In all seriousness, thanks for letting me know about this. I think I might have seen it in other player's pages but didn't see it in Dan's and just assumed it didn't exist.
When I created the Home Run Power Ratio (HRPR) in the late 1990s, the inflation index for home runs that would allow people to compare sluggers across generations--Babe Ruth with Mel Ott with Ted Williams with Graig Nettles with Sammy Sosa with Barry Bonds and on and on-- I summoned Kuiper's one home run in 3379 career at bats as an extreme frame of reference for a very low career HRPR.
Yesterday during the Cubs broadcast, Pat Hughes asked his sidekick Ron Coomee who had given up Kuiper's home run. Initially, Coomer said Bert Blyleven, but then he recovered and provided the correct answer of Steve Stone. I am confident there were thousands of listeners yelling Stone's name (as I was) at the radios during that exchange :-)
Sorry for the long story but thought you might get a kick out of this:
My Duane Kuiper Story
In 1976 I was a pitcher for the Southern Illinois Salukis and, after our regular season ended, was lucky enough to be invited to play for the Yarmouth Red Sox in the Cape Cod Collegiate League. We had a day off on July 26th I decided to take the opportunity to attend an Indians/Red Sox game in Boston and experience the legendary Fenway Park.
In those days in the Cape League, players were provided a job during the day to pay our expenses and games were played almost every night. My day job was pumping gas at Wynn’s Mobil in Yarmouth. I asked one of my fellow employees if he wanted to accompany me to the game since he was a big Red Sox fan.
Even though I had never met Cleveland’s Duane Kuiper, he had also played for the Salukis several years before me. Because of that connection I had high hopes of chatting with him before the game. I thought, surely he’ll be accommodating to a fellow Saluki and maybe spend a couple minutes sharing big league stories prior to the game or, better yet, send us to Will Call to pick up a couple front row box seat tickets. I prepared my gas station buddy for the likelihood that we’d probably get to hear some good big league stories at the very least.
We arrived early to the game in order to catch Kuiper during warmups. The usher was nice enough and let us down to the field. As we stood at the end of the Indians dugout along the third base line, the excitement was building in me. Kuiper popped out of the dugout and began throwing with a teammate in front of us. After a few throws, I yelled, “Hey Duane, I play ball for the Salukis and Itchy Jones (our beloved coach) Have you got a minute?” He looked over at me while continuing to toss the ball and said, “That’s great!” And then he just kept tossing, never making a move to join us. I stood there, embarrassed, and fully realizing he had no intention of coming over. So after the big buildup with my buddy I had to tuck my tail between my legs. As we walked back up the steps to our seats. My buddy said with a smirk, “Yeah, he’s your best friend”.
As a little consolation, however. I noticed Indians all-star catcher Ray Fosse jogging along the base of the Green Monster. We made our way out there and, knowing he was a native of Marion, Illinois, near SIU, I shouted (and lied), “Hey Ray, I’m from Marion, Illinois!” He looked up, smiling and waving and yelled, “Alright!”
I told my buddy, “Not what I was hoping for but I guess the best we’re gonna get tonight.” The Indians won the game 9-4 and chased Boston starter Luis Tiant after 1.1 innings, scoring five runs. Kuiper went 3 for 5 with two runs scored and a rbi.
Things tightened up in later years. In 2000, I won an auction item that included a pre-game on-field pass to Jack Murphy Stadium for a Mariner-Padres game. We were roped off and told that under no circumstances, on pain of being kicked out of the stadium, were we to address a word to the players. I did get to stand close enough to A-Rod (rope in between) to know how big he was even at that young age.
WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL. That’s it. Right there.
I saw Kuiper play in an old-timers game (remember those?) in Cleveland in the early 90’s, and I’ll never forget him hitting a pop-up to shallow left field and the PA announcer saying “That was the second-furthest hit ball of Kuiper’s career”.
Joe: As a Bay Area native, it has been a great joy listening to Kuip and his broadcast partner Mike Krukow for over three decades. I particularly enjoy it when Duane talks about his time with playing winter ball in Latin America, where he was introduced by the public address announcer as “Dwannie Kweepay”!
For what’s worth, I have a Duane Kuiper story. In 1981, I played 2B for the varsity baseball team. Our season had just come to end and our coach took a few of us who would be returning the next year to an Angels game. June 8, 1981, they were playing the Indians. Coach told me to watch everything Kuiper did, as he was one of the smoothest 2B in the league. I knew Kuiper because of all the baseball cards I had. Indians weren’t on the game of the week very often. I have never watched a game like that before or after, but left that game with a deep appreciation of Duane Kuiper. It also helped that he went 2-4 with an RBI. Angels won 10-2. Cheers Duane.
Being a Giants fan for decades the story of Kuip’s lone mlb homer is mythological - yes here a true myth, yet embroidered to legendary status through the great pleasure Kruk and Kuip, true broadcasting bards, have in recounting it to us over the years, and our great pleasure in hearing it again.
and I have the bobblehead of course
“…Duane made it look like a dream worth dreaming.”
Such a lovely phrase.
As I told you when we met in Santa Monica, Duane is one of the reasons that Cleveland is my AL team, behind my main squeeze, the Giants.
I love how, as kids, we can latch onto players who aren't superstars but who somehow bring joy. I hope we never lose that ability to fall in love with people and things that simply bring joy, from our sometimes struggling baseball teams to our sometimes struggling kids.
Kuip was a big part of my childhood Giants infield too. Kuip at 2nd, Johnnie LeMaster at short and Darrel Evans at 3rd. can't remember 1st. #HappyKuipDay❤️
Johnnie LeMaster ended up with Cleveland.., not for too long though.
I love it when Joe writes about this story. Because it reminds me of my happiest baseball moment as a boy. It involved my favorite player, Nellie Fox. He hit about 2 homers a year in his career, so I guess compared to Duane he was a real slugger.
I was not quite 10 years old when my team, the White Sox, were on tv on the game of the week in 1961. It was exciting enough that the Sox were on tv at all. Back then it seemed most games of the week involved the Yankees. As I did not live in a major league city, the game of the week was my only option for watching an MLB game.
Anyway the Sox were down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th. Pinch hitterBilly Goodman hit a game tying two run homer. After another out Nellie came to bat with two outs. He came to the plate with a black- or at least dark colored- bat which I seemed to remember he called “Old Betsy” rather than his normal ash colored bat. (One of my prized possessions was my own Nellie Fox Louisville slugger.) If my memory from an interview with Nellie is correct (and this may be fantasy on my part) , he came up with the intent to hit a homer. And to my utter astonishment and joy he did- a game winning homer in the bottom of the ninth. I ran around the house shouting in joy.
One of the good things about the internet is the historical stuff you can find. Here is a link to a write up about the game. It’s amazing to see documentation of one of my favorite childhood memories.
https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-18-1961-goodman-fox-win-it-for-white-sox-in-9th-with-unlikely-homers/
Baseball memories of when you were a 10 year old boy are the best.
Thanks for that story! I'd never heard that one. For my generation, the equivalent was the
game where Craig Grebeck and Ozzie Guillen went back-to-back off of Nolan Ryan (the first of Grebeck's career, and Ozzie's only one that season).
https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-10-1990-craig-grebeck-ozzie-guillen-derail-ryan-express/
Ryan's ego couldn't handle it and he hit Grebeck the next time he faced the Sox (a week later), and his relations with the South Siders infamously went downhill from there. But as much as I lost respect for him over that, you have to give the man his due, he pitched ten shutout innings in that follow-up game with three hits, 15 strikeouts, and no walks.
these are the articles I Love… a seemingly simple premise that turns into a heartwarming boyhood memory of our favorite sport…
thank you, joe …
🤷♂️ ⚾️ ⚾️ ⚾️ ❤️
Happy Anniversary Joe (and Duane)!
Pretty cool company in that Bartolo only has the one (famous) home run. And Joe Niekro just one too, off brother Phil. OK, pitchers, few at-bats, yes. But there are always so many tangential rabbit holes to explore. That's one of the great things about Joe's columns.
Geez, Aug 29, 1977. I was 15, enjoying the Blue Jays inaugural first season, maybe going to the Ex after buying Rush's Farewell to Kings album (released on that date too).
Great story!
Mobile Fidelity Audio Labs is re-releasing A Farewell to Kings on 180 gram 45 rpm in a box set - I'm holding out for 2112.
Also, the new Rush tour baseball jersey is awesome! My wife would kill me if I bought it.
Cool, a Rush mention! I was watching Jeopardy! the other day (do only old people watch Jeopardy!?) and they had a music category. They put up a picture of Geddy Lee and the contestants (the oldest might have been 40) had no idea who he was.
Love this. Love whenever Joe writes about Duane Kuiper. Of course it sent me to Kuiper's Baseball Reference page and ... man, if that guy wasn't drafted a lot. Has Joe written about that? Dude was drafted in '68, '69, '70 (twice!), and '71 before the Indians got him in '72. Six times. All different teams, too.
That made me wonder what the record is. Per ChatGPT (so grain of salt), it's seven times, by both Pete Varney and Luis Medina. Medina also wound up playing for the Indians.