It doesn’t seem that baseball “Runs in the family” as
most as it did it in years past. The same can probably said for any line of
business in the modern era. This possible could be due to the increased numbers
of “Things to do” in the world as well as the theory that a generation wants to
be a rung up on the previous. Parent, in some respects, have a job of giving
their kids the better opportunity than they had. Back in the day more folks did
what their fathers or brothers did as it what all they knew.
That said, there are some relatives in baseball today.
The first one that comes to mind is the Seager brothers. Most of us know about
at least two of them, Kyle (Mariners) and Corey (Dodgers). Low and behold there
is a third Seager brother Justin, who is currently in the minor leagues also
with Seattle. It’s an interesting dynamic in that all three of these guys are
excellent players. This has happened in the past, but many of the brother
combinations were that of a slanted scale with one being great and the other
just getting by.
Many moons ago Mr. Clutch worked, not in sports, with a
gentleman by the name of Geno. It was Geno DiSarcina to be exact. The relevance
of this is that Geno was the younger brother of Gary. Gary of course had a
better than average 10+ year career at SS for the California Angels. Why it’s
also relevant is that there was also a third brother here Glenn who was drafted
by the White Sox. Glenn’s claim to fame was that he played for the Birmingham
Barons in the minor leagues with – you guessed it; Michael Jordan. The best
part about this is that Geno, who never played baseball at any professional
level, claimed he was the best of the three!
There have also been many generational players in the
game of course. The most famous ones that come to mind are The Griffey’s, with
both Ken’s being phenomenal players, with the latter of them being a first
ballet hall of famer. Ken and Ken also hold the pretty cool distinction of
being the only father and so duo to play in an MLB game together. It was August
of 1990 when Ken Sr. was on his way towards retirement and Jr. was just
starting to make his mark.
There were also a few odder family tree relations in the
game. Mr.Clutch’s favorite player, or at least one of, Dr.K Dwight Gooden was
the Uncle of Gary Sheffield the power hitter from the Marlins. One of
Mr.Clutch’s confidants and personal friends Joe McEwing’s former brother-in-law
is also Bristol, PA native Jeff Manto. Matt Franco, former Met utility guy, is
the nephew of famed actor Kurt Russel. One could argue that’s a stretch since
Kurt “played” a role in sports movies, but – little known fact that Kurt played
minor league ball in the early 70s for the Angels!
There are some better known tandems who played together,
meaning in the same time, from back in Kid Clutch days. These are combinations
that we, we meaning people of similar age, likely recall with a grin. George
Brett was a great hitter, while Ken Brett was a mediocre pitcher. The Forsch
brothers were both mediocre pitchers if memory serves correctly. Then there
were the Niekro’s Phil and Joe who were both high quality pitchers. Phil was
the top half of that and a hall of famer.
Twins have also factored into the MLB relative landscape.
Controversial player and former “Smash Brother” Jose Canseco has an MLB player
twin brother named Ozzie. The strange thing about this is that they were
identical twins, which would make you think that they had the same DNA strand
and the same skills. This was not the case here, as the career HR difference
between the two was 462. That also happens to be the number of career HRs hit
by Jose. Ozzie had no dingers in his three year limited career. He actually
only had 65 At bats over that span. The twins did play together in Oakland for the
A’s in 1990. That alone is an interesting dynamic. The Clutch research staff
just returned some information that you probably assumed they would. Ozzie
often “Subbed” in for Jose at autograph signings and other promotional events.
Twin shenanigans with these guys, would anyone think otherwise?
Last of the list of those from the same era is the
Reuschel brothers. Rick and Paul Reuschel both had major league pitching
careers. Similar to the common theme of the majority of the DNA going one way,
Rick had a much better career than Paul. Rick had 214 career wins, over 2,000
strikeouts and a respectful career ERA of 3.37. Brother Paul, on the other
hand, only played in the big leagues for five years and ended up with a 16-16
record. One of the interesting factoids about these guys is they are, and
likely will continue to be, the only brothers to pitch a combined shutout,
which was for the Cubs back in 1975. It’s also noteworthy that towards the end
of Rick’s career he appears on a baseball card and was the spitting image of
kid Clutch’s 11th grade Spanish teacher.
What spurred a discussion on sibling athletes is that Mr.
Clutch recently listened to an interesting lecture on Catholic faith recorded
live on CD by a gentleman named Darrell Miller. It would take too long to
explain how and why this happened, though the short of it is that the CD cover
had a baseball field on it with the title being “More than a game” or something
like that. Darrell had a brief nondescript career with the Angels from 1984 to
1988. The interesting part is that he is the big brother of Reggie Miller (NBA
Pacers HOF) and Cheryl Miller (Women’s basketball in many HOFs). What a
talented family!
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