Steve Hamilton, had he not succumbed to colon cancer in 1997, would have turned 76 on Nov. 30. I remember the former Yankee, especially for one sequence of pitches he threw in a summer game against the Cleveland Indians.

As a New York Yankees fan, these are fond memories from a time when the club was in the midst of a long drought.

Hamilton was an exceptional athlete, having played for the Minneapolis Lakers during the 1958 through 1960 seasons. Hamilton, who stood 6 foot 7 inches tall, averaged 4.5 points over that span, but then turned his attention to baseball. Drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 1958, Hamilton made his major league debut in 1961 for the Tribe. Cleveland traded him away at season’s end to Washington, where he labored for one campaign before the Yankees sent pitcher Jim Coates to the Senators for him in April of 1963.

Steve was a combined 12-3 with eight saves over the next two years, both ending in New York American League pennants, but World Series defeats. He was mainly a reliever; Hamilton started just 17 games out of the 421 he appeared in over his 12-year career. Hamilton started just seven times with the Yankees, throwing a pair of complete games and one shutout. In 1965, as the team trended into a downward spiral as their stars grew old, Hamilton had an exemplary season, pitching to a 1.39 earned run average in 46 games. He ended his stint with the Yankees in 1970, going on to hurl for the White Sox and Cubs in Chicago, sandwiched around a turn with the Giants.

However, Hamilton did not leave the Bronx without being part of one of the strangest scenes ever witnessed on a professional ball field. On June 24, 1970, Hamilton was mopping up in the second game of a doubleheader versus Cleveland, with the Indians ahead 7-1. In the previous season, he had developed a blooper pitch, throwing it high in the air to the batter after hesitating at the top of his delivery. Tony Horton, the Cleveland first baseman, led off the frame. Hamilton threw his pitch—he nicknamed it the “Folly Floater”—to Horton, who fouled it off behind the plate.

Horton motioned to Hamilton to throw the Floater one more time. The vast majority of fans that think they recall this game will relate how Horton proceeded to strike out. In reality, Horton popped the ball up foul, high enough for Thurman Munson to make a good, running grab in back of home. Horton threw his bat into the air in disgust and put his hands over his head as he turned back to the dugout as if to motion to the roaring fans that he was giving up. Before he got to the Cleveland dugout, Horton got on his hands and knees and crawled the last few feet as the crowd went wild.

Sources:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hamilst01.html

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hamilst01.shtml

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/04/sports/steve-hamilton-62-floater-pitcher-for-yankees.html

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MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The Indians have named Edwin Rodriguez manager at Class A Carolina. Rodriguez managed the Marlins to a 78-85 record over parts of two seasons from June 23, 2010 through June 18, 2011.

The Carolina Mudcats, located in Zebulon, N.C., are the Indians new Class A affiliate in the Carolina League after purchasing the Kinston franchise prior to the 2011 season.
 
Rodriguez, 51, is the first Puerto Rican to manage a big-league team. Before managing the Marlins, he worked in their player development system from 2006 to 2010. Rodriguez, an infielder, spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues with the Yankees and Padres from 1982 to 1985.

Aaron Holbert managed Kinston this year to a 76-62 record. They made the postseason, but lost in the championship round.

Holbert, who managed four years in the Indians system, will manage Atlanta’s Class AA Mississippi Braves.

New job: Joel Skinner, former Indians catcher, coach and manager, will manage Class AAA Charlotte for the White Sox next year.

Skinner was Oakland’s bench coach last season. At the end of the season he was fired because manager Bob Melvin, who replaced Bob Geren on June 9, wanted his own coaching staff.

I’d love to land Cuddyer….problem is he’s on the wrong side of 30, coming off a great year, made $10.5M last year, and will have numerous suitors, including potentially the Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies (among others).

He’s really the best free agent OFer, plus can play 3B, 1B, and 2B. IMO he’s a perfect fit here…but you can say that about a lot of places and he’ll be very hard to land.

Justin Masterson took some pressure off new teammate Ubaldo Jimenez at Fenway Park on Thursday night.

With Jimenez set to make his Indians debut Friday night at Texas, Masterson struck out nine in six innings against his old team, leading the Indians to a 7-3 win over the Red Sox that stopped Cleveland’s two-game losing streak

The win also kept the Indians from falling below .500 for the first time since the third game of the season.

Another loss would have put more on Jimenez’s shoulders Friday night.

“I’m sure he has a lot of other things on his mind as he’s going to go out there, being a part of a new team, but hopefully that may ease a little bit for him,” Masterson said after helping the Indians split the four-game series and win only their fourth in 15 games. “I know he’s going to go out and pitch his game and I think we’ll like what we’re going to see tomorrow.”

Jimenez, acquired in trade with the Rockies, has the ability to be a stopper — but manager Manny Acta says the team now has two starters who can be counted on.

“Right now, our main guy has been Justin Masterson,” the manager said. “He’s a guy who from now on, and for awhile now, we have tried to keep him on the five days routine because he’s the guy that we want to see out there every five days. It’s good that Ubaldo doesn’t have to feel like he’s a guy who’s going to stop it every time.”

Carlos Santana, who struck out four times Wednesday night, snapped a 3-3 tie with a two-run homer in the sixth inning and drove in three runs with three hits, while Travis Hafner and Kosuke Fukodome also collected three hits.

The loss dropped the Red Sox into a tie with the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East. The Yankees, winners of seven straight, come to Fenway for a three-game series starting Friday night. Boston, 8-1 against New York this season, has been in first place since July 7.

Masterson (9-7), traded by Boston to Cleveland in the Victor Martinez deal in 2009, raised his Fenway record to 10-2. He is 15-33 everywhere else. He is also 3-0 against the Red Sox.

“He’s good … we see his best,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “I am sure that he enjoys pitching against us. He’s impressive.”

Masterson tied a major league record with four strikeouts in the second inning, thanks to a wild pitch on a third strike. He is the sixth Indians pitcher — the first since Chuck Finley in 2000 — to fan four in an inning.

He gave up two first-inning runs and a solo homer to Josh Reddick in the fourth. Three relievers finished up, with Chris Perez working the ninth in a non-save situation.

Erik Bedard, making his Red Sox debut after being acquired from Seattle, gave up three runs and seven hits in five innings. In his second start since coming off the disabled list, he was on a pitch count and came out after 70 with the score tied 3-all.

Hafner greeted reliever Franklin Morales (0-1) with a long double and, on the next pitch, Santana, already 2 for 2 with an RBI, hit his 16th homer to dead center field. It was only his second home run of the season right-handed.

Hafner’s RBI double off Andrew Miller in the seventh and Fukudome’s RBI double closed the scoring in the ninth.

The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by Adrian Gonzalez and run-scoring single by David Ortiz. Gonzalez extended his season-best hitting streak to 14 games with his major league-leading 91st RBI.

The Indians tied the game on Matt LaPorta’s infield hit (Bedard failed to cover first) and an RBI grounder by Austin Kearns in the second, and Santana’s RBI single made it 3-2 in the third. Reddick tied the game again with his fifth homer of the year.

NOTES: The game drew 38,477 a post-World War II record at Fenway. … Recently acquired Ubaldo Jimenez makes his Indians debut when he faces 10-game winner Derek Holland, who shut the Indians out June 4, in the opener of Clevelands three-game series in Texas Friday night. … Jon Lester, 8-1 lifetime against the Yankees and 2-0 this season, faces the Yankees Bartolo Colon, 0-2 against Boston this year, on Friday night. … Indians LF Michael Brantley missed his second straight game with a sore right wrist. He will take batting practice Friday. Meanwhile, RF Shin-Soo Choo, on the disabled list with a broken left thumb, is hitting and appears to be ahead of the projected return of the last week of August or first week of September. … Indians OF Travis Buck accepted his assignment to Triple-A Columbus. … Cleveland RHP Carlos Carrasco, who started Wednesday night, dropped his appeal and began serving a six-game suspension for throwing high to Kansas Citys Billy Butler. … Indians 2B Jason Kipnis saw his home run streak end at four straight games. He is the first player in major league history to homer in four straight within two weeks of the start of his career. Graig Nettles, then of the Twins, was the last player to homer in four straight in the first 10 games of his career, doing it in 1968. Kipnis is the first Indians 2B ever to accomplish the feat. … Miller, in his first Red Sox relief outing, threw 71 pitches in 2 2-3 innings.

This spring, we asked readers to tell us their best memory at an Indians game. More than 600 responded. All season, The Plain Dealer will publish fan memories — one each day the Indians are scheduled to play. Here is Monday’s essay by Nicholas Brack of Strongsville:

I will keep this short and simple. I have been a baseball lifer since birth and will forever be a Cleveland Indians fan. I have been to so many games and have seen amazing things, but the most unforgettable night at the “Jake” was when I attended Game 2 of the ALDS on Oct. 5, 2007.

This game will never be forgotten by me, since it was the last Indians game I attended with my sister, and it was the infamous “bug game.” My sister died in August 2008 of a heroin overdose. I still remember her taking me to the game and sitting with her and with the other 40,000 fans, screaming when the Lake Erie midges showed up and the Indians rallied to win, 2-1, in 11 innings.

We both lost our voices that night and talked about it for days after, about how close we were to the field and how loud the stadium became in the late innings.

My sister and I went to many games, but to know the last one was the best game of my life was crazy. That night was everything a baseball fan could ask for and gave my sister and I hope that this was finally the year to win it all.

The funny part about the midges was we were in the sixth row, and we were never bothered by them. It seemed only as if the bugs were out on the field when the Yankees were out. I still have the ticket stub from the game and the newspaper from the morning after.

Thank you for reading my dearest memory.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Cleveland Indians outfielder Travis Buck(notes) left Tuesday
night’s game against Minnesota after being hit in the head by a 91-mph fastball
from Francisco Liriano(notes) during the fifth inning.

The ball hit Buck in the batter’s helmet, just above the ear flap. The ball
caromed into the stands and a dazed Buck sat down in the dirt as trainers rushed
to his side. After a few moments, Buck got up and walked off under his own
power.

The Indians announced Buck had a head contusion. The team said there were no
immediate signs or symptoms of a concussion.

He was replaced by pinch-runner Luis Valbuena(notes).

After the pitch got away from him, Liriano watched intently as Buck was
tended to by team trainers.

In June, Buck and his wife were in a traffic accident while the Indians were
playing the Yankees in New York. He was shaken up and taken to the hospital, but
not seriously hurt.

Indians infielder Lonnie Chisenhall(notes) recently missed some time after being
struck on the cheekbone with a pitch.