You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we'll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.
ON THIS DATE IN 2015, Craig Counsell was named manager of the Brewers.
He has become a template for managers today. He is smart, he is a great communicator, he played in the big leagues for 15 years, he has embraced analytics while never losing a feel for the game or the human element, and he has a great, self-deprecating sense of humor.
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"When I first came up to the bigs (1995 with the Rockies), I wasn't allowed in the clubhouse because the security guard thought I was the bat boy,'' Counsell said, laughing. "In my final year as a player (2011), I got asked for my credentials at the security gate. I entered the ballpark with Tom Haudricourt (a baseball writer), and the security guy thought I was a member of the media. I came in as a bat boy. I left as a writer.''
There was a lot in between. He played for 15 seasons. He scored the winning run in extra innings in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. He was on base when the winning run was scored by the Diamondbacks in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series against the Yankees. Counsell went to Notre Dame; former Diamondbacks teammate Mark Grace once described Counsell as "Rudy, with talent.'' He had an unusual batting stance, he held his hands exceptionally high, and he flapped his back elbow. He looked like a man stuck in a phone booth with a bee.
"I don't know why I hit that way, I just tried it one day, and it felt comfortable,'' he said. "But it looked ridiculous.''
Counsell was born and raised in Milwaukee. After his playing career ended in 2011, he worked in the Brewers' front office. At a hot stove function held by the team and open to the public, Hank Aaron, who began his career in Milwaukee, spoke. He called Counsell out of the crowd to join the panel, and to discuss how a Milwaukee kid, with all that cold weather, could made it to the big leagues. Counsell later said, "At first, I couldn't go up there, I thought 'that's Hank Aaron! I can't be on the same stage as him!' Then he started asking me questions. I thought, 'Oh my, Hank Aaron is asking me questions.'''
As for playing in the cold, Counsell said the coldest he has ever been was the 1997 World Series in Cleveland. "I was the second baseman, and our shortstop, Edgar Renteria (from Colombia), hated playing in the cold,'' Counsell said. "If a guy from Milwaukee showed him he was cold, that would have been it for Edgar. I was freezing, but I had to pretend I wasn't.''
Counsell has a picture of himself riding a lawnmower in full Brewers uniform, with a helmet/beer dispenser on his head. It's a picture he sent to former teammate Trevor Hoffman after Hoffman gifted Counsell a riding mower that he bought at a charity auction.
Counsell, manager of the Brewers, still mows his lawn today.
"I like to mow the lawn,'' he said. "It's relaxing.''
Other baseball notes from May 4
In 1966, Willie Mays hit home run No. 512 to pass Mel Ott for the most homers in the history of the National League. Ott was 5-foot-9. The top three baseball players ever under 5-10, I believe, are Ott, Joe Morgan and Yogi Berra.
In 2018, Albert Pujols recorded his 3,000th hit. He, Alex Rodriguez, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays are the only players with 3,000 hits and 600 homers.
In 1963, Bob Shaw set a major league record with five balks in one game. Jeff Samardzija has the most innings (1,628 2/3) among active pitchers without committing a balk.
In 2000, ESPN teammate Doug Glanville went 5-for-5. Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez never had a five-hit game.
In 1989, Junior Felix became the 53rd player to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat. "If he's Junior Felix,'' Orioles scout Ed Farmer said at the time, "I'd hate to see Senior Felix.''
In 1980, Mike Squires, a left-handed first baseman, caught in a major league game, the first left-hander to do that since Dale Long in 1958. When I asked him why there can't be an everyday left-handed catcher in baseball, he said, "the only downside is throwing to second or third on a steal; there are more right-handed hitters to get in your way. That's a small thing. That's the only thing.''