Tag: Amaury Pi Gonzalez

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Roberto Clemente Award Nominees and Where to Vote

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By: Amaury Pi-González

It was once called the Commissioner’s Award when it was first given in 1971, but it eventually became the Roberto Clemente Award in 1973 — a year after the great Pirates outfielder died when a chartered plane he was taking to Nicaragua to help the people of that country suffering from a terrible earthquake crashed after leaving San Juan, Puerto Rico. Every major league team nominates a player. Fans and media can vote by going to this site: https://www.mlb.com/mlb/community/roberto-clemente-award

Here are the nominees:

Arizona Diamondbacks – Eduardo Escobar
Atlanta Braves – Charlie Culberson
Baltimore Orioles – Chris Davis
Boston Red Sox – Brock Holt
Chicago Cubs – Jon Lester
Chicago White Sox – Tim Anderson
Cincinnati Reds – Michael Lorenzen
Cleveland Indians – Carlos Carrasco
Colorado Rockies – Ian Desmond
Detroit Tigers – Miguel Cabrera
Houston Astros – Alex Bregman
Kansas City Royals – Alex Gordon
Los Angeles Angels – Andrew Heaney
Los Angeles Dodgers – Kenley Jansen
Miami Marlins – Martín Prado
Milwaukee Brewers – Chase Anderson
Minnesota Twins – Kyle Gibson
New York Mets – Steven Matz
New York Yankees – CC Sabathia
Oakland Athletics – Liam Hendriks
Philadelphia Phillies – Rhys Hoskins
Pittsburgh Pirates – Trevor Williams
San Diego Padres – Hunter Renfroe
San Francisco Giants – Pablo Sandoval
Seattle Mariners – Dee Gordon
St. Louis Cardinals – Adam Wainwright
Tampa Bay Rays – Kevin Kiermaier
Texas Rangers – Elvis Andrus
Toronto Blue Jays – Randal Grichuk
Washington Nationals – Anthony Rendon

No city loved a player more like Pittsburgh loved Roberto Clemente. He has a statue and a bridge named after him.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Lifelong Bay Area Baseball Man, Charlie Silvera, Dies at 94

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By: Amaury Pi-González

Charlie Silvera was born in San Francisco, California on October 13,1924 and passed away in Millbrae, California on September 7, 2019. An original Bay Area baseball man, he attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School. In 1942, he signed with the Yankees and played the outfield for the Wellsville Yankees at 17 years old. He didn’t play from 1943 to 1945 as he served in World War II.

In 1946, Silvera was converted to catcher with Kansas City Blues (AAA team). Three years later, he was playing for the New York Yankees.

Silvera was a catcher, a coach and a scout for most of his life. He won six World Series rings with the Yankees during their title runs in 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1956. He played with Yogi Berra (as his back-up), Tommy Henrich, Jerry Coleman, Phil Rizzuto, Hank Bauer, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mike, Ralph Houk and many others.

As a back-up catcher to Berra, Silvera had many great baseball stories because he was a storyteller. Many times, he would show up at the Giants or A’s press boxes and we would just sit there and listen to endless stories about his playing years. My favorite was about his last year with the Yankees in 1956. It was October 8, 1956 when Yankee pitcher Don Larsen threw a perfect game in Game 5 of the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, the only perfecto to date in a World Series.

That was the way it went, according to Silvera, who said: “I warmed-up Don Larsen prior to that game. After the game, I told Yogi if he could give me a souvenir of that game. Yogi told me, he will see what he could do. Next day after the game, Yogi came to me with a brown bag on his hands, as I opened it was a jockstrap, Larsen’s cup! I said, is that all? Yogi told, me the ball used on that last out went to the Yankee Museum, his Uniform to the Hall of Fame and there was not much left besides that. To this day,I have that jockstrap on the mantle of my house in San Mateo.”

That was one of the many great and funny stories about Silvera’s years as part of the Yankees dynasty. He loved the Bay Area. He was a treasure, and while he was not a famous player by any means, he was part of our baseball world. I got to know him as a scout when he came to the park or at functions or events related to baseball.

Silvera was one of the greatest characters of the game, and a man that lived a long life in and out of baseball. I will never forget him.

Rest in peace, Charlie.

Amaury Pi-González is a pioneer in establishing Spanish baseball play by play in the Bay Area and began his long broadcasting career during the late 1970’s when Charlie O Finley was the team’s owner.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Beane and Forst made the right decisions staying at the A’s

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On That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:

#1 The Boston Red Sox fired their general manager David Dombrowski citing reasons why the Oakland A’s Billy Beane and David Forst declined to work for the Sox.

#2 Dombrowski led the Sox to a World Series last year. The Sox beat the Dodgers. Dombrowski will have no problem getting another front office job.

#3 A’s pitcher Sean Manaea has had such a great comeback his last outing. He beat Detroit with ten strikeouts for a 3-1 win. Manaea will be a huge plus for the A’s rotation.

#4 The A’s are close to calling up Jesus Luzardo from Las Vegas. Luzardo is ranked #3 as a left-handed pitching prospect.

#5 The A’s are in Houston facing their toughest American League opponent and the road to the World Series goes through Houston in the postseason.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s Spanish radio play-by-play talent on KIQI 1010 San Francisco and does News and Commentary each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: A Coup D’état in Boston, Dombrowski Is Out

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By: Amaury Pi-González

It has not been very long since Dave Dombrowski held the World Series trophy over his head during the parade in Boston. But today, Dombrowski is not the reigning World Champion General Manager anymore. In a town that lives and dies with their beloved Red Sox, there is no mercy. Although I believe, and most sane people also believe there is a whole world outside of baseball; In Boston, the Red Sox are breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. There is nothing laid back about Boston or New York — you are a great guy, a nice guy, a genius, as long as you will; but when you do not win, Au Revoir!

Dombrowski was also GM of the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers before taking over the Boston Red Sox. He always has enjoyed the reputation of one of the best baseball executives around. But today, he is Au Revoir!

For now, it will take three executives to replace Dombrowski: Zack Scott, Eddie Romero and Brian O’Halloran, who served as assistants to the fired GM. Also, Raquel Ferreira, a longtime Red Sox senior Vice President of the Sox Minor and Major League operations for the last 21 years. She automatically became the highest-ranking woman in the MLB.

Red Sox Field Manager Alex Cora,was asked if he was surprised. Cora said: “Surprised? I am shocked!”

The way this happened, not waiting until the conclusion of the season, sounds to me like a typical baseball Coup D’état.

I wish Dave Dombroski the best in his future endeavors. He is a real gentleman and an accomplished man in the world of baseball.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Could the A’s Win Their Fifth World Series?

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By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

This Saturday, the Oakland Athletics will conclude their crucial nine-game homestand hosting the San Francisco Giants for the last two games this year against their Bay Area rivals. The A’s won three of four against the Astros and swept the Yankees in three games. Those are the best two teams in the American League this season. So, with the thought in mind, could the A’s shock the baseball world and win the World Series?

Beginning tomorrow against the Giants, the A’s have 35 games left this season — 15 at home and 20 on the road.

Included in those 15 at the Coliseum, they still have to play a game suspended in May while at Comerica Park in Detroit, which began at the bottom of the seventh inning with the A’s ahead 5-3. It will be resumed when the Tigers visits Oakland on September 6, prior to that night’s scheduled game at 7:07 p.m.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The A’s have to play these teams during the remaining of their schedule:

The Good
Yankees and Astros

The Bad
Giants, Angels and Rangers

The Ugly
Tigers, Royals and Mariners

The beauty of this game is that at any given moment a last place team at anytime at the end of the season can beat a good team like the A’s. Some of these teams with no chance are like the house party with one guy you invited that spoils the whole thing. Therefore, do not trash Detroit, Kansas City or Seattle, but keep in mind those three teams combined are on their way to losing more than 250 games.

The wild card situation looks good for the A’s, and as of now, Tampa Bay and Cleveland are the competitors. The A’s are a good bet to make it as a wild card, but after that, all bets are off. Last year, the A’s won 97 games and lost the whole season in 3.25 hours on October 3 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. There is a chance if they win the wild card game this October, they will have to play the Yanks again, but in the best of five divisional series. The way they have played the Yanks would not be bad, but there is one exception: Playoff baseball is a total different animal that regular season.

The A’s last World Series title was 30 years ago. That was one of the best A’s teams ever during a stretch of three consecutive trips to the October Classic. One of my favorite quotes about the World Series comes from Bay Area native Dennis Eckersley after the A’s defeated the Giants in 1989.

“But more important than personal awards is winning the World Series. That’s the max that anyone could ask for. Let alone to have the ball in your in your glove for the final out of the World Series. That was the ultimate.” — Dennis Eckersley

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Major traffic worries clog Warriors’ new SF arena in Dogpatch neighborhood

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On That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary:

#1 San Francisco Mayor London Breed said with a lot of events scheduled at Chase Center in San Francisco, how are people going to get in and out of Dog Patch especially with USCF Hospital next door on game nights at Golden State?

#2 The A’s almost had a shot at sweeping the Houston Astros in a four-game series taking three out of four. Every game is important now when the A’s face the Astros next series at Minute Maid Field in Houston.

#3 The A’s opened a three game series at the Coliseum on Tuesday against the New York Yankees all games at this stage of the season are huge with the A’s being 1.5 games back in the AL wild card.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is the Spanish play-by-play voice for the Oakland A’s on 1010 KIQI San Francisco, also is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Sox get a taste and get shut out from former Sox pitchers Bassitt and Golito

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On That’s Amaury’s podcast:

#1 The Oakland A’s on Sunday combined for a shutout 2-0 against the Chicago White Sox and got it from pitchers Chris Bassitt and Lucas Giolito, who combined for 20 strikeouts, allowing three hits over 13 innings

#2 The Sox gave up on Giolito and Bassitt while they were struggling to stay on the team. Both pitchers had the date circled on their calendar for an opportunity to get some pitching revenge out on the team who gave up on them.

#3 Bassitt, who pitches every other five days, has a career wins total tying his total in 2015.

#4 On the shutout, A’s manager Bob Melvin said that was the best outing that he’s seen out of Bassitt this season.

#5 The A’s head to San Francisco where you and Manolo will be doing play-by-play coverage for the A’s Spanish. What’s that going to be like getting back to the City and watch these two teams who are hungry for a wild card spot?

Amaury does News and Commentary each Tuesday and is the Oakland Spanish A’s play-by-play voice on KIQI 1010 San Francisco

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Baseball — ¿Qué Pasa?

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By; Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

I remember the old Cuban winter league in the late 1950’s as a kid. My father would take me every Sunday to watch the four teams that made that league. Leones del Habana (Havana Lions), Alacranes (Scorpions) del Almendares, Tigres (Tigers) del Marianao, and Elefantes (Elephants) del Cienfuegos.

Every Sunday, there was always a double-header. The first game Cienfuegos vs. Marianao, and then in the second game, the “eternos rivales” (eternal rivals, sort of like the Yankees and Red Sox), which was the Havana Lions vs. the Scorpions del Almendares.

There was a plethora of Cuban-born and American players: Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso, Brooks Robinson, Jackie Brandt, Lew Burdette, Bob Skinner, Bob Shaw, Miguel “Mike” Cuellar, Camino Pascual, Al Spangler, George Altman, Pedro Ramos,Sandalio “Sandy” Consuegra, Jim Bunning, Mike Fornieles, Luis Tiant, and dozens more,which I remember. After the season ended, they went to Cuba during the winter.

William “Bill” Werle a left handed Major League pitcher, born in Oakland, California, who pitched for the Pirates, Cardinals and Red Sox in the mid-1950’s. He also pitched for the Marianao Tigers in Cuba in 1956. That was the last time that team won the Cuban Professional Winter League title.

As a Major League scout later in life, Bill told me: “Most of the Major League players, we went to Cuba, not only because of the proximity to the US, but because they paid the best in all Latin America.”

Back then, players did not have the strong union like they have today, so they had other jobs to supplement their income after the regular MLB season.

Back then,there was a lot of speed and a lot of strategy deployed by managers. Pitchers went nine innings and more. The guys in the bullpen where mediocre pitchers than didn’t have the talent to be starters. There were professional pinch-hitters, stolen bases, lots of speed, hit and run, bunts galore and even the suicide squeeze was evident in close games when one run was all that you need it.When a player struck out, it was shameful and fans would boo, and yes, games were under three hours with frequency.

Today, it is 2019 and a totally different type of game.

– The game is all about power
– The Home-run is king,there is less creativity
– Strike outs are common,on way to record
– The Hit and Run is an endangered play
-A Bunt is “Breaking News”
-The Professional Pinch Hitter doesn’t exist (not even in the National League,where there is no DH)
-Intentional Walks continue to diminish each year
-The pitchers throw harder and ‘bat speed’ was replaced years ago by ‘launch angle’
-Tampa Bay was the first team to use the now popular “opener,” a guy whose mission is to pitch the first inning

As of today,we are on a pace to hit over 6.000 home-runs for first time in a season. The Oakland Athletics recently became the first team in their franchise history to have 10 players with 10 or more home runs.

If Bill Werle came back to life today, he would see this game and would not recognize it.

It is what it is. Today’s technology has replaced strategy. Baseball still a great game ,but those of us who witnessed the “old school” style of baseball, that was the way it was meant to be played. I actually miss all the strategy and gamesmanship in the greatest game ever invented by humans.

¿Que Pasa?=What’s happening? Answer: Pasa mucho.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s Spanish play-by-play announcer on KIQI 1010 San Francisco and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Historic A’s Spanish Radio Now 10,000 Watts, 24 Hours a Day

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Photo credit: athleticsnation.com

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Historic KIQI1010AM/990AM Oakland Athletics Spanish Radio Network used to be 10.000 watts at day and 500 Watts at night, but is now a clear 10,000 watts all day and all night. Owned by Multicultural Radio, a media company based in New York City owned by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. it caters mostly to the multi-cultural community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets’ multiple languages. One of those stations is the flagship station for the Oakland Athletics Radio Network KIQI1010/990AM covering the nine counties of the Bay Area as well as Sacramento/Stockton and other communities in Northern California.

KIQI1010 AM radio is a historic radio station in the Bay Area that was once owned by James Gabbert, a radio and television entrepreneur and innovator. I met Gabbert at the last year’s Christmas party for the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame and we reminisced of the year 1980 when he sold the station to Cuban-born René De La Rosa, who became one of the first Latino owners of a radio station in the State of California. During the 1980’s, De La Rosa’s KIQI 1010AM broadcasted MLB and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors in Spanish with a format that included live news, sports and talk shows.

Gabbert, who speaks fluent Spanish, told me how proud he was of selling the station in 1980 to De La Rosa, who intended to change the format to Spanish. James Gabbert, who is still involved in the media business of radio and television, also told me he travels frequently to Latin America and predicted that California would become one of the largest markets in the US for Spanish format stations with the influx of the Hispanic population, the largest minority in California and in the United States.

With a signal of 10,000 watts, located in the middle of the radio dial (1010AM frequency), KIQI now can serve the over 2 million Hispanics in the Bay Area with a much stronger signal at night, which is vital for sports, especially most Major League games, which have night schedules.

These increases in wattage power are authorized by the FCC and sometimes takes years for a radio station to obtained that permission. The old KOFY had the radio dial of 1050 AM in Spanish format. The studios were located in Burlingame, near the San Francisco Airport. It took them many years to increase their wattage from 1000 watts to what it is today. Also, they originally had permission to broadcast from sunrise to sunset. It seems that it took them forever to become a 24/7 station.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Cubs’ Garcia and Schwarber start game with 2 big flies; Twins get rare triple play against Angels; plus more

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On That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:

#1 The Chicago Cubs got a splash hit and a home run at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Monday night. Robel Garcia hit a tremendous drive into McCovey Cove and Kyle Schwarber hit his 22nd home run of the season.

#2 The Minnesota Twins got a 5-4-3 triple play in the first inning on Monday night when the Los Angeles Angels’ Edwin Encarnacion hit a grounder to Twins third baseman Luis Arraez, who tagged third and relayed the throw to second with the Twins’ Jonathan Schoop covering and Schoop threw to first baseman Miguel Sano for the triple play.

#3 The Houston Astros pitcher Gerritt Cole is the second fastest pitcher to reach 200 strikeouts in baseball history and he did it against the Oakland A’s in a 11-1 rout. For the A’s, it was their second straight loss, and for Cole, he was in total command and showed why he reached 200 strikeouts so quickly.

#4 As the trade deadline gets closer, the San Francisco Giants; key pitchers Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith are up for grabs. There also has been talk that Giants manager Bruce Bochy has talked with team president Farhan Zaidi about possibly keeping Bumgarner and Smith. It’s possible the Giants might not move them the later it gets.

#5 Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow says with the roster, the Astros have they could win the whole thing. Luhnow said that with the four starters they have, they can win on good pitching and get deep into the postseason.

Amaury Pi-González is a pioneer in establishing Spanish baseball radio play-by-play in the Bay Area that dates back to 1970s. The Spanish broadcast for 72 games are heard on KIQI 1010AM/990AM with studios in San Francisco, serving also the Sacramento/Stockton market and does That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com