1st Phillies Rumor; Pete Rose Anniversary
They began arriving at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD, yesterday for baseball’s annual four-day meeting of major league and minor league club officials. Player agents will be floating around trying to get their free agent clients a new contract. Some of the free agents will actually show up for face-to-face meetings.
It is an event unlike any other professional sport. Baseball will be getting national attention all week thanks hundreds of stories and a social media rumor mill that is endless. Something like 700 media members are there to report on news of the week which can be trades and free agent signings. Twitter was a-twitter yesterday with rumors. Jim Salisbury of csnphilly.com fired off the Phillies first rumor at 10:30 Sunday night….sources claiming the Phillies are close to signing veteran free agent reliever Joaquin Benoit.
MLB.com and The MLB Network will provide hours of live coverage, including the annual Rule 5 draft at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Among the Phillies contingent are officials from Philadelphia as well as Lehigh Valley, Reading, Clearwater, Lakewood and Williamsport. Heading the group is GM Matt Klentak, joined by his assistants, scouts, analytical staff members, PR persons, athletic trainers and manager Pete Mackanin. Each manager will be scheduled for a session in the media center. Dylan Cozens, the power-hitting Reading Fightin Phils outfielder, will receive the Joe Bauman Award at a luncheon today for leading the minor leagues in home runs (40).
Hundreds hoping of landing a job in minor league baseball will be participating in a Job Fair. Scott Franzke went to the one in Nashville in 1998 looking for a broadcasting job in the minors but had no luck. But, the next year he began his baseball broadcasting career in Kane County of the Class A Midwest League.
Big Splash
The rumor mill is filled with potential major trades including some blockbusters. The Phillies aren’t expected in that high altitude this year. If they do sign Benoit, they will need to remove someone from their filled 40-man roster. Same, if they make a Rule 5 selection.
Today is the anniversary of their biggest winter meetings splash, the signing of free agent Pete Rose. It happened 38 years ago in Orlando. They signed the 37-year-old to a four-year, $3,225,000 contract making him the highest-paid athlete in team sports.
Rose, a three-time batting champion, was expected to be the catalyst for a Phillies team that won three straight division titles but only two postseason games in that time frame. He had played two on World Championship teams in Cincinnati. Well, the Phillies fell to fourth place in 1979, his first season in pinstripes, before capturing the World Series the following year.
Despite being out of the race that first season, Pete put on a September hitting clinic unseen in baseball. In 29 games, he collected 51 hits in 121 at-bats for a .421 average. Yes, 51 hits in one month.
