March Madness wrapped up with a great game.
Baseball season begins.
The Masters golf tourney begins this week.
Except for October when football is going full bore, along with MLB playoff action every night, this is my favorite sports time of the year.
Let's go with some trivia for this time of year....
How many players have played in both the final 4 and the World Series?
Go ahead and think about it...
You've heard of the players, if being a baseball fan over the last 20 years.
Ok, time is up.
The answer is 2.
And the funny thing is that they both went to the same high school.
Tim Stoddard and Kenny Lofton went to Washington High School in Chicago.
Stoddard went to North Carolina State and along with teammate David Thompson, the Wolfpack ended UCLA's golden run of seven NCAA Championships.
UCLA had beaten NC State earlier that same year.
Stoddard's baseball career was off and on.
He pitched all of his games in relief, finishing fourth one year in Saves.
He did play for the 1983 World Series Champions Baltimore Orioles, giving the legacy of participating and winning both large events.
Stoddard would also play the Dodger pitcher in the film, 'Rookie of the Year'.
Lofton's Arizona team made the NCAA fINAL four in 1988.
He didn't play for Arizona's baseball team till his junior year. He received only five at bats that year.
Lofton's career was more successful than Stoddard's, although Stoddard's teams actually won both events.
Lofton led the league in stolen bases three times and Hits, once.
He played for the great Indian teams of the late nineties, playing in a World Series with them once.
After the Indians, he played one year or less for different teams for the next seven years.
Four of those teams would go to the playoffs.
Going to the World Series with the Giants in 2002 (imagine that, an even numbered year for the Giants)
He retired in 2008, refusing a 'piddly' million dollar offer to play.
Lofton is still the all time leader of stolen bases for the Indians and 15th in baseball history in the category.
We hear about how well John Smoltz and others play the game of golf.
Has there ever been somebody who has played in both the World Series and Masters?
As a matter of fact, one person has.
You have probably not heard of him.
His name is Sammy Byrd.
Byrd played in the Major Leagues from 1929-36.
That's a long time for somebody nicknamed 'Babe Ruth's legs'.
Byrd was known more for pinch running for the Babe late in Yankee games.
Doing it so much that he obtained that nickname.
I guess we could have called Jarod Dyson, 'Billy Butler's legs', but that probably wouldn't be politically correct in todays times
Byrd made one apperance in the World Series.
In 1932, the year of Ruth's 'called shot', Byrd went in as a defensive replacement for the Babe.
Byrd quit baseball in 1936, a year after the Babe.
He quit to pursue golf.
In golf, the Babe would have been carrying Byrd's bag of clubs.
Byrd won a few tourneys, joined the PGA and would win six tourneys on the circuit.
He finished third and fourth in the Masters in 1941 and '42.
Golfers were limited in tourney play during this time because of World War II
The Masters would not be held for three years after Byrd's finish.
He made the most news as a golfer in 1945.
Playing in the PGA Championship, he lost in a playoff to Byron Nelson.
Oh, and one more bit of trivia that Byrd would probably not want publicly known....
If watching the Masters and in particular the second hole this week, Sammy Byrd holds the record for the highest score ever made on the second hole...10
That may seem outlandish to some, but I've done the same on a putt-putt course.
Anyway, in a great week of sports, here is to you Mr's Stoddard, Lofton, and Byrd.
