Today’s entrant had a successful, if brief, career in the late-’70s. Bill Atkinson, a diminutive (5′7″) right-hander out of Chatham, Ontario (hometown of Hall-of-Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins), worked in 98 games for the Montreal Expos from 1976 to 1979.

Atkinson made four appearances for Montreal toward the end of the ‘76 season at age 21. The following year, he went 7-2, with 7 saves and a 3.35 ERA (113 ERA+) over 83 1/3 innings. He destroyed right-handers that season (.221/.270/.373) and pitched extremely well at home (45 IP, 2.00 ERA).

In 1978, Atkinson got into just 29 games, going 2-2, with 3 saves and a 4.37 ERA (80 ERA+). He made a few more appearances the next year and then disappeared. His career line: 11-4, with 11 saves and a 3.42 ERA (108 ERA+) over 147 1/3 innings.

Among other things, Atkinson retired Hall-of-Famer Johnny Bench all three times he faced Bench — including a strikeout and a double play.

This Bill Atkinson is not to be confused with the engineer of the same name.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Doucet on preparing for a game:

My work always began when I woke up, with the newspapers. Before the laptops, everything was done by hands (notes and research), but the information was also hard to get and most of the times restricted to the town in which the team was playing. I bought every magazine I could get my hands on, in order to build a good database on all players. Most people like strategies and stats, but for other listeners, you have to keep their attention with varied information.

On the local media’s role in possibly helping to accelerate the franchise’s departure from Montreal:

In 2000, when Selig announced the possible contraction of the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos, the media completely surrendered, while everybody was up in arms in Minnesota. From that day forward, the newspapers in our city, except The Gazette (only English daily in city), diminished their coverage; they didn’t cover all of Spring Training and didn’t go to every games on the road. They should have done the complete opposite.

On former owner Jeffrey Loria:

I find it absurd that Loria chose to sell the team for $120 million to MLB, that we could have bought the club for $100 million a year later, but was finally sold to Washington, DC ownership group for $350 million.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The entire interview is fantastic and well worth the time…

Post from: Knuckle Curve