Baseball: VWL Robbery, Jason Werth, Larry Doby, Monte Irvin

While Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos’ kidnapping made the headlines, he was not the only player to come across some harrowing moments off the field in Venezuela. Twins prospect Joe Benson was robbed at gunpoint after the cab he was riding in crashed. Both Benson and the driver of the cab had most of their belongings and cash taken from them. In the story link below, Benson talks about how scary the incident was, not being able to communicate with gunman, continuing to play winter ball following the robbery, and how security around him beefed up following Ramos’ kidnapping. It’s a very interesting and highly recommended read http://topprospectalert.com/

Jayson Werth, Washington Nationals: six years, $115.4 million - Signing a 31-year-old with just one standout year under his belt to a seven-year, $126 million deal seemed ludicrous at the time. Werth's contract looks that much worse after he debuted in Washington in 2011 with a 58-RBI season during which he slugged a meager .389. The Nationals will be paying Werth $21.57 million in 2017 when he is 38. Enough said. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-m-campbell/worst-baseball-contracts_b_1238625.html

He’s a Hall of Famer, a 7x All Star, a World Series champion, and was the second African American player in baseball, and the first in the American League. Now Larry Doby will be honored with a postage stamp as part of a 2012 series featuring “Major League Baseball All Stars”. In the story you can see the stamp, and learn more about Doby through the words of Charleston RiverDogs president Mike Veeck, whose father Bill Veeck brough Doby to the Cleveland Indians in 1947. http://topprospectalert.com/2011/08/20/former-cleveland-indians-great-larry-doby-honored-on-u-s-postage-stamp/

Monte Irvin has had an extraordinary life and I had the privilege to talk to him about his long career in the game recently. He is 92—he will turn 93 on February 25th—and can look back over a remarkable period in our history, as he recalled,  ”It was a time when baseball was really king.” (Monte is our guest on “Outta the Parkway, February 3) Monte started as an 18-year-old kid, signing with Abe Manley to play with the Newark Eagles. By the time he was 22, he was one of the best players in the Negro Leagues, leading the Negro National League in batting in 1941. He was one of the pioneers in breaking the color barrier of Major League Baseball with the New York Giants.  So much history for one man to see. http://seamheads.com/2012/01/30/touring-the-bases-with-hall-of-famer-monte-irvin/