Jul 26, 2018
3 votes and 28 comments so far on Reddit
There are 28 comments on this thread and zero mentions of Ruben Rivera. How is that possible? Ruben Rivera is the only acceptable answer.
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3 votes and 28 comments so far on Reddit
There are 28 comments on this thread and zero mentions of Ruben Rivera. How is that possible? Ruben Rivera is the only acceptable answer.
Ruben Rivera and Russell Branyan
While looking for I forget what, I found this box score from May 27, 2014. The Toros de Tijuana beat the Rieleros de Aguascalientes, 8-5. It was a dramatic comeback victory for the home team, which scored six runs in the eighth, but that’s not what makes this interesting.
What makes this interesting is that two megaprospects of yesteryear homered in the game. Ruben Rivera launched his 12th bomb of the season for the visitors, while Russell Branyan knocked his first for Tijuana.
Rivera made Baseball America’s top 100 five times, reaching top-10 status three times, peaking at number 2 before the 1995 season. He hit just .216/.307/.393 over parts of nine seasons and was last seen running the bases badly for the San Francisco Giants in 2003. Since then, however, he has become a Mexican League star who is still going strong into his forties.
Branyan was never as highly regarded as Rivera, but did make BA’s top 100 four times, peaking at number 26 before the 1998 campaign. He also enjoyed considerably more big-league success, hitting .232/.329/.485 over parts of 14 seasons. Like Rivera, he has enjoyed a revival south of the border, hitting .296/.425/.610 last year at age 38.
Fun fact: Both Rivera and Branyan now have more than 400 professional home runs to their credit. Not bad, eh?
11 Years Ago Today ... Ruben Rivera Became A TOOTBLAN Legend
That's why he's a Hall of Famer.
Introducing the TOOTBLAN Hall of Fame
The TOOTBLAN Hall of Fame opened today as an annex to this page. You can find it under the cleverly named "TOOTBLAN Hall of Fame" to the right.
The inaugural class is made up of four players: Ryan Theriot, Fred Merkle, Ruben Rivera and Jean Segura.
Please let us know if you have suggestions for future nominees.
Enjoy!
TOOTBLAN Time Capsule: Ruben Rivera
Baseball Prospectus is taking a look at some of its favorite baserunning memories this morning - some good, some bad and some downright atrocious.
Falling into the latter category is this gem from Ruben Rivera, which is the basis for our newest feature - TOOTBLAN Time Capsule:
This undoubtedly will be included in our upcoming TOOTBLAN Hall of Fame.
Go visit Baseball Prospectus for the full story. There are some good ones in there.
"... And that was the worst base running in the history of the game!" I think it's necessary that we bring this back
