Fringe Players We All Loved to Watch

A lot of guys on teams are nothing but scrubs who wait for their chance to contribute to the team. Over the years, many of these guys were favorites of mime simply because when they did get in a game, they played their hardest. I will attempt to give some examples here, starting with a guy who drove Lasorda bananas.

Derrell Thomas

On November 14th, 1978, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed utility man Derrell Thomas as a free agent. Thomas was a versatile player. Over the years, he played the outfield, 2b, 3b, SS, 1b, and even caught six games. He was a bit of a showboat, and when he the outfield, he loved to make basket catches, which absolutely drove Tommy Lasorda up a wall. He was the kind of guy who would do things that made you want to hate him. That was said by his teammate, Reggie Smith. But he also had a good friend on the team in Dusty Baker. Thomas was a local boy playing his high school ball at Dorsey High in Los Angeles. Several MLB players played there, including Sparky Anderson, Don Buford, and Chili Davis.

He was drafted first overall in the January 1969 draft by the Astros. By 1971 he was in the majors. On the 3rd of December, he was traded to the Padres along with two other players for OF Dave Roberts. He spent three years with the Padres and then was traded in the winter of 1974 to the Giants for Tito Fuentes and Butch Metzger. In February of 1978, he was traded back to the Padres for Mike Ivie. After the 1978 season, he signed with the Dodgers as a free agent. For the next five seasons, he would play in LA and post a .257/12/100 line playing all over the field. He played in 4 playoff series for the Dodgers in 1981 and 1983. After he was unable to hook up with any team after the 1985 season, he coached briefly at Los Angeles City College and was the first manager of the Boise Hawks of the Class-A short-season Northwest League. After he was fired from that job. he managed a bar and coached baseball at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale. Before a game in1989, several players showed up late for the bus, and although they drove their cars to the game, he would not play them. Several quit the team in protest, and he resigned. He was then hired by Dorsey High to coach their team in 1991. In March of 1992, a Dorsey player shot himself to death playing Russian Roulette on the team bus. Thomas was arrested the following month for attempting to purchase 22 pounds of cocaine. He was placed on probation which was extended after a 1997 drug possession arrest. As of 2009, he was working for the Dodgers as a representative of the Dodger Legend Bureau.

Jay Johnstone

Jay Johnstone was an undrafted free agent when he was signed by the Angels in 1963. Jay was born in Connecticut, and when he was a young child, his family moved to Southern California. Jay went to high school in West Covina, Edgewood High, and excelled in football, baseball, and basketball. He made his Angels debut in 1966. Over the next four season’s he was a versatile player for the Angels. He made a game-saving catch against Reggie Jackson to help preserve Clyde Wright’s no-hitter.

After a .238/11/39 campaign, he was traded along with Tom Egan and Tom Bradley to the White Sox for Ken Berry, Syd O’Brien, and Billy Wynne. He spent two years in Chicago, doing well the first season but hitting under .200 the second. He then signed with Oakland and had a terrible year, and was released. He signed with the Phillies in 1974 and had four very good seasons hitting over .285 in all of them. The Phillies traded him in 1978 at the deadline to the Yankees for Rawley Eastwick. He played against the Dodgers in the 1978 World Series but only got two at-bats.

Jay was known to play pranks and generally was the clubhouse clown. He loved keeping players on their toes. In 1981, he came to LA and played numerous pranks on his teammates and his manager. He cut the crotch out of Rick Sutcliffe’s underwear; he put a soggy brownie in Steve Garvey’s glove. He gave many of his teammates hot feet. In a game against the Pirates, he and Jerry Reuss dressed up as groundskeepers and drug the infield in the 5th inning. Lasorda yelled at them, and as punishment, he sent Johnstone up to pinch hit. He promptly hit a home run. He once climbed on top of the Dodger dugout, went up the aisle, and bought a hot dog at the concession stand…..during the game. He also went out to the mound to talk to a pitcher dressed as Lasorda while carrying Lasorda’s book and a can of Slim Fast.

Perhaps one of his more memorable pranks was in spring training in 1982 when he tied a rope to Lasorda’s door and anchored it to a tree so he could not open his door. He also once covered a microphone with the scent of stale eggs and proceeded to interview Hatcher, Dave Stewart, and several other teammates. And he one time faked pausing for a commercial while interviewing Yankees Deion Sanders and Mel Hall, tricking them into uncovering a restaurant breadbasket containing a snake. Both players leaped from their seats, provoking a great deal of laughter.

But usually, when he was in the game, he was all business on the field. The biggest hit of his career came in the 1981 World Series. In game 4, he hit a 2-run pinch-hit homer to spark the Dodgers to an 8-7 win after being down 6-3. Jay hosted a sports blooper show after he retired and also appeared in The Naked Gun as a Seattle Mariner. Jay died of complications of Covid-19 in September of 2020. He wrote three books, and if you are a fan, they are a must-read.

Mickey Hatcher

As much as I loved Johnstone, I have always had a soft spot for players who have been traded away by the Dodgers and then return many years later. Mickey Hatcher was one of those guys. His fun-loving nature hid the ballplayer underneath, and when they needed him the most, Hatch delivered on the field.

Hatch was born in Cleveland, Ohio. But later on, his family moved to Mesa, Arizona, and that is where he went to high school. He then went to Mesa Community college, where he was named All-American twice in both baseball and football. He then went to college at the University of Oklahoma, where he also played baseball and football. He played wide receiver in the 1976 Fiesta Bowl. He was drafted twice,19 74, 12th round by the Astros, and 1876, in the 2nd round by the Mets. He signed with the Dodgers after being drafted in the 6th round of the June draft.

Hatcher moved steadily up the chain, and after a solid AAA season, he was brought up for a cup of coffee in 1980. Hatch, in parts of 5 minor league seasons, hit .339/43/287. In March of 1981, with a need for a solid center fielder, the Dodgers sent Hatcher and two minor leaguers to the Twins for Kenny Landreaux. Hatch would play for six seasons with the Twins. His line was .284/26/260. He then resigned with the Dodgers as a free agent in 1987. Mainly he was a bench player, but he would sprint to first base when he walked.

His 1988 season was solid for a bench player. He hit .293. He only had one homer, but he and some of the other scrubs became the Stunt Men. So-called because they came in when the stars were out. Hatcher kept things loose on the bench, and he would do different routines to the tune of The Mickey Mouse Club. The Dodgers made it to the series, and with Kirk Gibson out, Hatcher was forced into a more prominent role. He delivered. Game one is mostly remembered for Gibson’s dramatic walk-off homer off of Eckersley. But Hatcher hit a 2-run bomb in the bottom of the first that started the scoring. Hatch, when he hit the homer, sprinted around the bases like he thought they might take it away from him. He hit .389 with two homers and 5 RBIs for the series. Hershiser won the Series MVP award, but in my eyes, Hatcher was the MVP.

Kike Hernandez

Enrique Javier Hernandez Gonzalez was born in Puerto Rico on August 24, 1991. His father, Enrique senior, is a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates. His mother is Cuban and owns a boutique in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. He attended high school at the American Military Academy in Puerto Rico. He was drafted by the Houston Astros in 2009 in the sixth round. In 2014 he was called up to the Stros. He got his first MLB hit, a ground-rule double off of Domenic Leone on July 1st. The next day he hit his first homer off Chris Young — the same Chris Young who is now the GM of the Texas Rangers. On deadline day in 2014, he was traded to the Marlins in a 6-player trade. He would only play in 18 games for the Marlins, getting seven hits. But one of those was a 9th inning grand slam off of Craig Stammen of the Nationals.

On December 10th, 2014, for the second time that year, he was again traded. This time part of a seven-player blockbuster between the Marlins and the Dodgers. He was assigned to AAA Oklahoma City. Called up in April, he played all over the field. In August, he replaced slumping Joc Pederson as the primary center fielder. Playing in 76 games, he slashed .307/396/490 with seven homers and 22 batted in. He played in 4 games in the NLDS against the Mets and hit .308. Kike was known for his energy and his versatility in the field. He was a solid defender who sometimes made some spectacular plays. He also became known as the banana man. He had a banana suit he sometimes donned in the dugout. He was, in my eyes, a bundle of energy.

He followed up his solid 2015 year with a real down year in 2016, batting only .190. His value to the team was on defense. He improved some in 2017. He hit HRs in double figures for the first time with 11. But his shining moment in the playoffs came in the NLCS against the Cubs. In game 5, he had the game of his life, hitting three home runs and drove in 7, helping propel the Dodgers to the infamous 2017 World Series. He did not have the same kind of World Series, hitting .231 against the Stros.

Kike was handed the starting second base job a couple of times and just did not do the job. He got homer-happy in my eyes after he crushed 21 in 2018. His BA was around .240 most of the time. His K rate was high, about 25% for a player of his type, and he even admitted that sometimes he came up looking to slug one out instead of just meeting the ball. When the Dodgers made it back to the NLCS in 2020, Kike had a solid series against the Braves. He was their super sub, along with Chris Taylor. He hit .306 with two homers and two ribbies. The second of those was huge. It tied game seven at 3-3. Bellinger would then hit the winner off of Chris Martin, and the Dodgers were on their way to the 2020 title. He did dislocate Bellinger’s shoulder with a misguided high forearm smash. After the 2020 season, Kike left LA as a free agent and signed with the Red Sox. Many called for the Dodgers to retain the Banana Man, but he was redundant at that point with Chris Taylor in the fold and Gavin Lux about to break in.

Hanser Alberto

When Alberto signed as a free agent last winter, my first reaction was, “WHO???”. Alberto was born in the Dominican Republic in 1992. He signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent in 2009. He played in the Dominican Summer League and won the batting title. He played his first baseball in the US at Frisco in the Texas League in 2014 and won the Rawlings Gold Glove as the best defensive SS in the minors.

He got a cup of coffee with the Rangers in 2015 and his first major league hit was an RBI triple. Alberto bounced around, and in 2018 he was claimed off of waivers at various times by the Yankees, the Orioles, and then the Giants. But after a week, he was returned to Baltimore. In April of 2019, he was pressed into service as a pitcher in a game the Yankees were winning 13-3. He hit a batter, gave up a 2-run homer, walked two more hitters, then got a force out and two fly outs. In August, he became the third Oriole in a three-week span to achieve his first career five-hit game against the Royals. It was the first time three players on a team had done that since 1936. He finished that year .305/12/51. He had a solid 2020, but he was non-tendered since the Orioles did not want to go to arbitration with him.

In 2021 he signed with the Royals and played in 103 games, again showing a lot of versatility. He hit .270 with two homers. He elected free agency and signed with the Dodgers on March 22 for a whopping 1.6 million. Being a little sarcastic there. Since joining the Dodgers, he has played all of the infield positions and right field. He has also pitched in 8 games, setting a record for a position player. He is the life of the party on the bench, and he leads the reception committee when a player hits a homer and returns to the dugout for his post-homer water bath. He is fun to watch simply because he plays with such joy and energy, and no one on the bench cheers louder than Alberto. Yeah, I know who he is now.

Current Dodger News – MT

• 17-7; 2.27 ERA; 0.95 WHIP – Thems some Cy Young numbers, people! He is officially the Dodgers Ace!
• Tommy Kahnle is a little rusty, but give him a couple more innings, and he is a closer. He has a ton of swing-and-miss. Kimbrel has a ton of swing-and-hit!
• It doesn’t sound like Gonsolin will be built up as a starter, so if he makes the playoff roster, it will be as a reliever.
• Price, Almonte, Treinen, and the Bazooka are all much closer.
• Mike Busch went 3-6 with 4 RBI yesterday (.281 BA/.887 OPS/29 HR/102 RBI – not too shabby)
• Jacob Amaya went 3-6 and is now hitting .263 with a .370 OB% for the year.
• Emmet Sheehan went 3 Innings at Tulsa, allowing 1 Hit and 0 Runs – he struck out 4.
• Stock Dropping:
  • Kody Hoese – .227
  • Jeren Kendall – .163
• Heaney & Cobb Tonight
• 100 and Counting…