Bill Chuck is the creator of Billy-Ball.com (www.Billy-Ball.com) and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales,” with a Foreword by Jon Miller, published by ACTA Sports, and available worldwide.Bill Chuck is available for radio appearances, and writing for print or the web. Please contact me at Bill@billy-ball.com or by calling 617-566-2784.

1) Omar Moreno and Jackie Robinson each played 1,382 games.

2) Larry Herndon and Jackie Robinson each had 4,877 at bats.

3) Duffy Lewis and Jackie Robinson each collected 1,518 hits.

4) Lee Mazzilli and Jackie Robinson each stole 197 bases.

5) Claude Osteen and Jackie Robinson each struck out 291 times.

6) Eric Davis and Jackie Robinson each walked 740 times.

7 – 8 ) Placido Polanco, Ray Durham and Jackie Robinson each were hit by 72 pitches.

10 – 15) Troy Glaus, Richie Hebner, Terry Steinbach, Lonnie Smith, Lloyd Moseby and Jackie Robinson each hit 273 doubles.

15 – 17) Brian Giles, Kirk Gibson, Julio Franco and Jackie Robinson each hit 54 triples.

18 – 22) Trot Nixon, Darren Daulton, Ramon Hernandez, Alex Gonzalez, Steve Buechele and Jackie Robinson each hit 137 homers.

23 – 25) Lymon Bostock, Bing Miller, Freddie Lindstrom and Jackie Robinson each had career .311 batting averages.

26 – 27) Robin Yount, Jimmy Piersall and Jackie Robinson each had 174 sac hits.

28 – 31) Bob Nieman, Bo Jackson, Kiki Cuyler, Terry Forster and Jackie Robinson each had a .474 slugging average.

32 – 35) Mickey Mantle, Geoff Jenkins, Matt Lawton, Jason Thompson, and Jackie Robinson each grounded into 113 DPs.

35 – 42) On April 15, 1997, Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson’s uniform #42. Seven players wearing number 42 at the time were “grandfathered in” and allowed to continue wearing it:

Butch Huskey – Mets

Mike Jackson – Indians

Scott Karl - Brewers

Jose Lima – Astros

Mo Vaughn – Red Sox

Lenny Webster – Orioles

And, the last active player to wear #42 is Mariano Rivera.

Bill Chuck is the creator of Billy-Ball.com (www.Billy-Ball.com) and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of the book, “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales,” with a Foreword by Jon Miller, published by ACTA Sports, and available worldwide.

Bill Chuck is available for radio appearances, and writing for print or the web. Please contact me at Bill@billy-ball.com or by calling 617-566-2784.

1. Milwaukee’s Mark Attanasio and Houston’s Drayton McLane Jr. are calling for a salary cap in response to the Yankees off-season spending. During the next interleague period, the Brewers host Twins and the Astros host the Royals, you think that has anything to do with their comments? You don’t hear the Marlins and Braves owners complaining, they will host Hank & Hal’s Traveling All-Stars.
2. Richard Justice, columnist for the Houston Chronicle, points out that a salary cap probably would be around 57 percent of revenues. Therefore, McLane would have to raise his payroll to, $114 million compared to $89 million last opening day. Using these numbers 20 teams would need to significantly increase their spending under the cap, improving their on-field performance, but reducing their personal profits.
3. Scott Proctor who just signed with the Marlins, defines “middle-reliever.” In 262 big league appearances Proctor has made only one start and earned just one save.
4. The Orioles made a big free-agent signing, adding 6 feet 9 inch pitcher Mark Hendrickson. Of all the pitchers 80 inches or taller, Hendrickson ranks fifth all-time with 50 wins; Randy Johnson leads with 295 wins coming in at 82 inches.
5. January 3 marked the 36th anniversary of George Steinbrenner’s purchase of the Yankees from CBS for a mere $10 million.
6. Mike Maroth hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2007 and Matt Clement hasn’t pitched since 2006, both have signed with Toronto. Is this how the Blue Jays plan to compete in the AL East?
7. Mariano Rivera will be 40 in November, but he had the best WHIP of his career, 0.665, in 2008.
8. IMHO, Jacoby Ellsbury and Clay Buchholtz are probably at their high-water mark in terms of trade value.
9. We hear all the time about getting to good pitchers early, Greg Maddux gave up 381 runs in the 1st inning, 103 more than he gave up any other inning. Curt Schilling in his career surrendered 196 runs in the 1st, more than any other inning; Johan Santana has given up 96 1st inning runs, his worst inning as well.
10. Nobody has asked me, but if I had a vote for the Hall, I would have voted for Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice, Bert Blyleven and Andre Dawson.
11. Carl Pohlad, who passed away at 93, owned the Minnesota Twins since 1984. During that time his managers have been: Billy Gardner, 1981–1985; Ray Miller, 1985–1986; Tom Kelly, 1986–2001; Ron Gardenhire, 2002–present. During that time the Yankees have had 11 managers.
12. Baseball America is out with their listing of each team’s prospects; for the Padres, my top two prospects are “Slim” and “None.”
13. New BoSox catcher Josh Bard has a .320 lifetime batting average with Runners In Scoring Position, and yet RISP w/2 outs he has hit only.228.
14. In his career, Jason Giambi has hit 187 homers as a member of the A’s and 209 with the Yankees, he plans on evening that up this season.
15. Nice guy Tony Clark, who just re-signed with the D-Backs, has attempted just one steal since May 1999; he has appeared in 846 games since he was caught stealing on May 11, 2001.
16. Five pitchers in 2008 allowed over 300 baserunners led by new Nationals pitcher Daniel Cabrera (307 in 180 innings), followed by new Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett (306 in 221.1 innings), Jon Garland (304 in 196.2 innings), Matt Cain (304 in 217.2 innings), Livan Hernandez (302 in 180 innings)
17. Randy Johnson starts at 295 for his new team, the SF Giants in 2009. It took Early Wynn 19 appearances to go from win 295 to 300, Gaylord Perry went to the mound 16 times, Tom Glavine needed 14 appearances, Roger Cl*mens took 12 appearances, Tom Seaver needed just 10 appearances.
18. Casey Daigle signed a minor league deal to pitch for the Rangers. They should’ve offered his wife, Jennie Finch, star U.S. Olympics softball pitcher and SI swimsuit model, a contract instead.
19. While Sammy S*sa wistfully hopes for a comeback, he remains the only player who retired in the season following his 600th homer; Ken Griffey Jr. hopes he is not forced to join S*sa’s club.
20. Pitching for Arizona in 2007 and Houston in 2008, Jose Valverde is the first NL closer to lead his league in saves in consecutive seasons since Lee Smith in 1991 and ’92 for the Cardinals.
21. Of the players with at least 200 at bats last season, there were only four who hit under .200, the worst being Andruw Jones who “hit” .158.
22. Of the players with at least 200 at bats last season, there were seven who hit no homers, led by Joey Gathright’s 279 at bats.
23. Corky Simpson, self described “retired sports scribbler and lifetime honorary member of the Baseball Writers Association of America,” did not vote for Rickey Henderson for the Hall of Fame this year keeping alive the streak of no one ever being unanimously chosen for Cooperstown.
24. CC Sabathia faced 1,023 batters last season (the most in the bigs) and 296 reached base via hit, walk or error.
25. J.C. Romero’s 50-game suspension for use of a banned substance may turn out to be a big story. He tested positive on Aug. 26 but, because of his right to appeal, Romero kept pitching compiling a 0.00 ERA in October, adding two victories in the Series, including the clincher.