There once was a man named Mulliniks
Who, on his birthday, just for for kicks
Put on some catching gear
And caused some great fear
For he went to a concert by Styx

Worst... Limerick... Ever

Ance.
Bance.
Cance.
Dance.
E-ance.

Rance.

Walter Young has been designated for assignment. He will have to clear waivers before he is optioned to AAA.

Damn good color guy
Good Chemistry with Jamie
We love you Willie

Though I've been a huge follower of the Jays since their inception, it's odd that I have few vivid memories of Mulliniks. More than specific moments, I retain an overall impression of him as being someone you could count on to get a timely base hit.

My more immediate impression of him is that he has good presence on TV and should stick as the Jays main commentator next year. As long as he limits his use of the phrase "most certainly."

By the way, on another topic, Bill Madden of the Daily News says he expects Bengie Molina to sign a one-year deal with the Blue Jays.

Now, I'd be happy to have Bengie on the team, but what would signing another catcher for one year do for the Jays in 2007? With no room for Quiroz the team would have had to offer him up on waivers, and then they'd be left with two catchers who were free agents.

I guess it happens if they think that Quiroz isn't going to make it, and that Thigpen will be ready next spring.

Not really anything specific, but to me Rance personifies everything Blue Jay. He spent all but the first few years of his career as a Jay, never complained(that I know of) about his mostly part time role. He was a team player and I never heard anything but good things about him from the media, other player or management. Now he's completing the cycle as a color man and doing a fine job there as well. Happy Birthday Rance.

In days of old, when I was a much younger man, the Jays had two guys, Rance Mullinorg and Garth Mullinorg that shared third base. Rance was the good-looking one. Garth sometimes played second base, but only because he always wanted his own way.

The Mullinorg twins, conjoined at birth, were surgically separated by Dr. Otto Von Gaston, noted orthopedic surgeon and candy storeowner. Once separated they couldn't bear to not be together, hence their gig with the Jays.

Rance went on to become a world famous TV Sports guy that every six or seven innings would say something profound. The rest of the time he would stare at the camera to see whether the lens or he would blink first. Usually the lens blinked first.

Happy Birthday Rance! You can commentate on MY Jays' broadcasts anytime you want! All the best!

whoops, to clarify, that should be: Urkel

I recall Rance hitting an inside the park HR...after the game, when he was being interviewed, he mentioned that he never wanted to hit one again. He said he thought he was going to need an oxygen machine as he rounded third base.

Mulliniks/Iorg will go down as one of the all-time platoons in my mind, too...

Forgot the limerick. :)

My Memories of Rance it appears
Have faded a bit o'er the years
But I remember quite well
Back with Gruber and Bell
How the Jays always garnered my cheers!

Mulliniks used to platoon with Garth Iorg
A good player but nothing like Bjorn Borg
Rance served up game winners
Which sent Jays home for dinner
While opponents were sent to the morgue

The Sultan of Swat he was not
At getting on base he was hot
As slight as he was
No pitcher would fuss
Till the alley he hit on the dot

Thanks for the memories Rance. Happy 50th. Nice to see a true gentleman getting a chance in the broadcast booth. How long before 'the professor' gets a job as hitting coach? You'd be great at it. Your players (students) would be learning from a coach (teacher) who truely made the most of his abilities.

Kieran: I remember watching that game as well. I had taped it and didn't want to know who had won, but my Dad saw the highlights and told me to watch out for Rance in that game. So it came down to his last AB and he hadn't done anything distinguishing up to that point, and then he hit a line drive to short left field. Sure enough, it bounced right on by the fielder and there he went, chugging around the bases at a distinctly un-Alomaresque pace. Funny how you remember certain things from your childhood like that.

Funniest recent memory - last season when gv27 (tongue firmly in cheek) said that the reason O-Dog didn't win the Gold Glove in 2004 might have been that he didn't use a Rawlings glove. Rance didn't catch the humour and went off on a lengthy rant about how unfair the process was - too funny!

I recall, in a foggy, distant sort of way, one day at Tiger Stadium when Rance hit not one but two home runs that came within feet of leaving the Stadium entirely. I wish I had more detail...

boob stud

There once was a man named Rance
Tight, baby blue were his pants
The 'stache? For the lasses
Those over-sized glasses?
Worn for interpretive dance!

"I recall, in a foggy, distant sort of way, one day at Tiger Stadium when Rance hit not one but two home runs that came within feet of leaving the Stadium entirely. I wish I had more detail..."

The Tiger Stadium game might've been on June 24th, 1987. Rance hit two homers off Jack Morris, giving him his first loss since April 20th. There's no mention of the distance of any of the home runs in newpaper archives, but that's the only time that Rance went deep twice at Tiger Stadium.

More Jays moves possible..LINK
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=citadel-2_489000_325&prov=citadel&type=story

My most vivid recollection of Rance is the look on his face in that disastrous weekend in Baltimore 1983 when the wheels fell off. Joey McLaughlin (or was it Roy Lee Jackson?) had just coughed up a nail-in-the-coffin homer, and Rance started to walk toward the mound, then hesitated, and with a look of unutterable chagrin on his face did a 180 degree turn and simply sloped back toward third base. Everybody knew the Jays run was over.

He was one of the most rock-solid, down-to-earth Jays ever. Almost a match for Tom Henke.

Since this is a miscellaneous thread, I thought I'd ask if anyone else heard Wilner interviewing Doc a few days ago. Wilner asked Roy how his leg was coming along, and to me Doc's response seemed more than a bit evasive. He said something vaguely reassuring but left enough doubt that I wondered if anyone alse had heard the interview and also shuddered a bit. Anyone heard anything reliable about Doc's leg?

Perhaps he was leaving enough doubt so that the US team wouldnt come knocking on his door.

Joey McLaughlin (or was it Roy Lee Jackson?) had just coughed up a nail-in-the-coffin homer, and Rance started to walk toward the mound, then hesitated, and with a look of unutterable chagrin on his face did a 180 degree turn and simply sloped back toward third base.

I don't want to ruin the memory, but if you mean this game, well, Rance didn't play that day. McLaughlin did give up a game-tying leadoff homer in the bottom of the 10th to Cal Ripken, but Garth Iorg played third the entire game.

The next day, Jackson blew the game (also in the 10th), but it went single-single-two run double. Wow, then it happened again the next night in Detroit in the 10th: a Trammell homer against Jim Gott. I bet that weekend wasn't too much fun. (Good thing I wasn't born for a while longer, then...)

Thanks, Rob. I'm beginning to think that the game I'm trying to remember is the Sunday one in Detroit--again McLaughlin messing things up late in the game, part of that horrible late August string of late-inning losses for the Jays. It's not so much the particular game as the look on Rance's face, and his body language as he walked back to third. Couldn't even walk to the mound. Nothing to say. Just nothing. Joey's death knell.

What a great resource Retrosheet is.

This is my second message ever on this board - I love the site... It is a question, and I know you can just refer me to another source, but you guys seem to really know what you are talking about because it comes up a lot: what exactly is OBP and slugging percentage? Like, I know what they are superficially, but what is a good one for each position? How important is it (I always look at rbis, homeruns, and batting average before I came here)....Thanks!

Not on topic -- but if anyone is interested, TSN has begun to update their player profiles. The Jays have definitely been updated, but I am not sure if all the other teams have been completed yet.

My best Rance Mulliniks memory is from a Beckett Baseball Card magazine sometimes in the late 80's that had an account from a batboy about what it was to hang out and service the visiting major league clubs in Cleveland (I think). His memory about the Jays was that they were a fractured bunch that barely talked to one another in the clubhouse, each of them doing their own thing. The only Jay he mentioned individually was Mr. Mulliniks, who he said mostly sat around in front of his locker, reading novels. Everytime I saw him play after that I would wonder what book he was just waiting to get back to. Shoeless Joe? Eight Men Out? Catcher in the Rye?

(I still live the guy though! Happy Birthday!)

My favourite Rance memory/story:
1992 World Series. Reardon on the mound. Sprague up at bat cranks the first pitch over the left field wall for the go ahead runs. After the game he thanks Rance for telling him that Reardon liked to throw first pitch fastball strikes and Sprague went up looking for one.
Rance's advice helpled put the Jays on their way that Series.
Thank-you Rance.

Loquax,

Wow......

I was just going through a box of old baseball books and magazines, and came across that very same Beckett! What are the odds of that..... I remember using the information in that article to get myself a Tim Raines autograph through a batboy!

Now that I found the biographies of Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Duke Snider alonside; it's time to do some nostalgic reading!

From the LOL files,

Anyone remember that strange man who seemingly attended every game Rance every participated in?

FROM INNINGS ONE THROUGH NINE:

"PARK it Rance, PARK IT!"

I remember hearing it in the 500 level as a young man and hearing the guy during every game I watched on television. Never actually did see his face, though.

Cheers

eeleye99,
OBP is times on base (hits plus walks plus hit by pitch) divided by opportunities to do so (at-bats plus walks plus hit by pitch plus sacrifice flies). Slugging percentage is total bases divided by at-bats. The American League average OBP last year was .333; the AL average slugging percentage was .424.

The Hardball Times Stats pages make it easy to find out OBP and slugging percentages by position. For instance, Here are the first baseman in the AL sorted by OBP. You can sort for the other positions yourself. Have fun.

To add to GeoffAtMac's post, it was interesting to read TSN's scouting report on Troy GLAUS.

"He's a stellar defensive player, capable of multiple Gold Gloves at the hot corner".

Righty on the mound
Whack! line drive into the gap
Mulliniks rounds first

Instead of becoming a mountie
Rance chose to play ball in Orange County.
Then one day at the hearth
his platoon-mate named Garth
said,"we both hit--they'll put up a bounty."

Thankyou everyone for revisiting the famous 'melt down' week of 1983. Some of you that brought it up were commenting that you weren't alive at the time. Well, some of us geezers were and it's one of the most painful weeks I can remember.

It was five games in Baltimore and Detroit (the Jays actually won the first game of the Balt series) that began with Tippy Martinez picking off 3 in the top of the 10th and a Lenn Sakata game winning homer in the bottom of the 10th. Would the statistically minded Bauxites please give me the odds on that one. That was Wednesday's game. Thursday and Friday, two more extra inning blowups. Saturday a win (yay!) and Sunday, the Joey McLaughlin no doubt walkoff in the ninth.

All these years I was convinced we had lost all six games against Baltimore and Detroit and we only lost four. That tells you how bad a week it was. Walk off losses will do that to you, especially that many in a week. Thanks retrosheet for correcting my depressed memories. Those that didn't live through it, may you never have to, it was completely devastating. From "we're still in the race in late August", to "I can't take it anymore!" in 1 week.

I wonder if my old apartment still has the dent in the wall that occurred about 5 seconds after the Sakata game ended.

This, of course, was also pre-TSN/RSN with 140+ games/year being on TV. Wednesday and Sunday were the "regular" days that CTV would broadcast the games, so of course the most painful losses had to come then... looking at the Retrosheet recap, I'd forgotten that the Jays actually took the lead in that awful 10th inning...

1 R, 3 H, 0 E, 0 LOB.

Aarrgh...

I am partial to haiku (and senryu) myself, and though literally all but one entry has opted for the limerick option, none of those win. Congratulations to jamesq (#139771) for his technically correct and visually appealing haiku -- I argue that the appearnce IN the haiku by Rance makes it a haiku rather than a senryu, so jamesq wins the No-Prize.

Unless someone else posts something better later today, of course. The deadline for entry is ... ah ... is uhm ... *flexible* ...

The Japanese haikus/senryus remind me of another Japanese form of poetry, the Ninja poem in the style of realultimatepower.net Here is my entry:

Rance Mulliniks is a mammal
Rance Mulliniks fights ALL the time
The purpose of Rance Mulliniks is to flip out and kill people

Man, I was robbed. I rhymed with Iorg twice!

Spring in eighty-two
The stage is set for success
Rance is a Blue Jay

(remember, those traditional haikus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku) must have a season word in there!)

Might I suggest that when celebrating a famous person that the most useful poetic form is the Clerihew: MSN Encarta defines this as follows:

A humorous verse about named person: a humorous or satirical verse consisting of two rhyming couplets in lines of irregular meter about somebody who is named in the verse

[Early 20th century. After Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), British writer]

What I remember best about Rance was his love of the two-base hit. And also how the Toronto Star baseball writer, Alison Gordon (who also wrote mystery novels about baseball, as I recall), dumped all over him and the Jays on the day they acquired him. She couldn't have been more wrong.

Meanwhile:

A Blue Jay 3rd baseman named Rance,
Lacked his platoon partner's uniorthodox stance,
But whenever his team started getting into trouble,
He'd hit a double.

The Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to terms on one-year contracts for the 2006 season with first baseman Lyle Overbay for $2.525 million and lefthanded pitcher Scott Downs for $705,000.
http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?id=151074

Opening day 1983 (I think). The Jays are in Fenway and Rance hits a homer off of Dennis Eckersley in a Jays win. After the game, Eckersley says that he shouldn't be giving up homers to guys like Mulliniks.

F-Cat is the reincarnation of Mulliniks.

The 1983 bullpen collapse in Baltimore was something else. The Tuesday game in Baltimore was a gem by Leal which the Jays won. The Wednesday TV game had a gem by Clancy going 8.1IP and allowing only one run and leading 3-1. The bullpen blew the lead only to have Cliff Johnson hit a HR off Tippy in the 10th to take the lead followed by the the 3 pickoffs. The Sakata grand slam resulted in my flinging of one of those old heavy corded cable converter channel changers (sort of looked like a typewriter) off of the headboard in my room. The following night Stieb and Storm Davis throw shutouts into the 10th when Barry Bonnell hits one out only to be followed by the bullpen blowing it in the bottom of the 10th. This became a pattern for the rest of the season.

Cool. I did that from memory and just checked retrosheet and I was almost bang on. That's how imprinted in my brain those days in August of 1983 were. The only differences are that Cliff Johnson (the ugliest player of all time) hit his HR in the 10th off of Stoddard not Martinez who then replaced him. Storm Davis pitched 8 shutout innings before being replaced by Martinez who gave up the HR to Bonnell in the 10th only to have Jackson blow it in the bottom of the 10th.

The Jays made a big run at Goose Gossage as a free agent after the season but he chose San Diego and the Jays settled for Dennis Lamp who was not the answer (and blew his 1st save opportunity of 1984).

Around what I expected on Downs but, around $1 M less then I thought we'd pay for Overbay.

MatO, Bill James used to argue that Don Mossi was the ugliest ballplayer of all time. He made a pretty good argument.

Oh man. James knows ugliness. Those ears almost look photoshopped.

Mat O, not that it matters much, but Ripken hit a game tying homer off McLaughlin in the 10th. McLaughlin then walked a couple of hitters (one intentionally) before Randy Moffitt came on to serve up the game winning 3-run shot to CATCHER Lenn Sakata (he of the 3 HR in 1983, 25 HR for the career in 1423 PA, and a 71 career OPS+ - Thanks Baseball-Reference).

Also, in that horrible top of the 10th, John Lowenstein (an outfielder) was playing 2B, Gary Roenicke (another outfielder) was playing 3B, and Benny Ayala (a part time outfielder). It was a crime to have 1 runner picked off in those circumstances, but 3, THE HORROR! THE HORROR! Joe Altobelli (Orioles manager) certainly showed cahones that night, and they did go on to win the World Series, but it's a game I'll never forget because of what might have been. Whenever we have one of "those losses" I try to find solace in the fact that nothing will ever top that night (or that stretch) in Blue Jays' history. The odds say that kind of run with all of it's oddities will never happen again. Thank (the baseball) God(s).

My most vivid memory of Rance Mulliniks was a 1998 spring training game in Port Charlotte, Florida. Mulliniks hit 2 homers the opposite way which impressed the hell out of me, but it was just a perfect day at the ballpark (beautiful weather, relaxed atmosphere at the park, and a meaningless victory).

There was a three-bagger named Mulliniks
who noticed his vision was full'o'tricks
he put on some glasses
but not for the lasses
it was the balls he was pullin' quicks

Rance was a fine, smart and dedicated ballplayer. A belated Happy Birthday.

Wow someone actually rhymed Borg with Iorg. That is most impressive.
Rance, as is well known, can't dance
so slow was he on the basepaths.
So to stay clear of trouble
he'd steer clear of theft stats.
He'd smile and grin while avoiding this sin
and line one into the gap for a double.

What I remember most about Rance is that he decent person on and off the field. He and Iorg were,arguably, my favourite platoon. See also Bonnell and Collins in left. Back in the day (like 1977) a recollect Jay players that were given Honda Civics with old Blue Jays logos emblazoned on the doors. Not to many ball players these days have sacrificed so much integrity for some hilarious promotional stunt. I thought all ball players were rich, until I saw Bill Singer pull up in a Honda Civic and start signing autographs. Just because I chose the J Mc moniker doesn't mean I like the Tigers. Michael

Hmmm Jays given Honda Civics, and recently H.C's were the most stolen car in Canada. If it happened 30 years ago I would have been real suspicious.

http://news.boom.ge/eng/9/20051208/

I remember--maybe in 1983--driving along Lakeshore Blvd. and seeing in my mirror a silver Honda sitting on my tail, filled with some huge presence--which as he rumbled past me turned out to be Cliff Johnson. Tight squeeze for Cliff. (He looked altogether more comfortable one Photo Day at the Ex when he had a tractor to sit on.)

Don't know if anyone posted this Skychiefs article.

http://www.syracuse.com/sports/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1127723764180360.xml&coll=1

There is some discussion on Primer about it if anyone is interested.

That's real ugly Mike. Time for a Hall of Ugly?

I sold Hondas in the mid-1980's. Each year at the end of the baseball season, dealers could bid on the cars driven by Jays players and then sell them on their lots.

The dealer I worked for in 1983 got three of the cars (I wish I could remember who had driven then during the season) and, even though they were used, sold them all within 24 hours for well over list price. Customers were more than willing to pay a premium to be able to tell their friends and neighbours that their new car had been driven by a Jay.

My favourite Mulliniks memory is a very recent one, from his recent star turn as an excellent colour man. While I think he's great, and very insightful when he talks about the game on the field (which is what I care about) I don't think anyone would argue that he's a great pitchman for the various promotions the Jays run. So when Jamie Campbell began talking about an upcoming Bad News Bears promotion, hilarity ensued, as Jamie kept leaving increasingly obvious cues for Rance to talk about the movie, before giving up entirely and asking him directly, at which point Rance proceeded to wax lyrical about the movie's greatness for a good fifteen seconds. It was hilarious, and coupled with Rance's excellent analysis perfectly encapsulated what I like about him as a colour man.

Oh, and he was one of my favourite players as a kid, but that was a while ago now.

Yes, I won!

All those years in that hybrid haiku/baseball school finally paid off.

Funny my memories of Rance also revolve around promotional vehicles. In the late 80's while walking on Lakeshore ( my sister lived near Hyde Park) I was waiting at a light to cross the street, up pulls Mullinicks, with family in tow, driving a Chrysler Minivan(?) with big promotional signs all over it. I thought to myself "these guys don't make as much money as I presumed". I guess the Honda's were ditched.

Orlando's predictions & feelings in this interesting article from today's Slam site:
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseball/MLB/Toronto/2006/01/17/1398286-sun.html

You think that's funny Wildrose?

Orlando Hudson drives/drove a red minivan last season. When I saw him, I just about hit the floor laughing.

I guess he was waiting to cash in on arbitration.