Ranger Baseball Cards (Part 30)

Chris “River” Rivera was a super-utility player for the Rangers. The only position he did not play was pitcher, and possibly Center Field, but the Rangers details on items like that are fuzzy at best. River joined the Rangers after his freshman season of Loyola Club Baseball in 2003 after playing High School baseball for the Shamcocks of St. Pats on the North Side. River had a natural opposite field swing, driving the ball into right field on a consistent basis. River even volunteered to catch despite having limited experience behind the plate. During a heated game against the Cubs at Riis Park in 2006, Curtis Brown of the Cubs attempted to barrel over River at the Plate on a long sac-fly to right. Lucas Luecke fired a strike from deep right (and shredded his shoulder in the process) and River stood his ground. Brown was ejected for making contact (he did not know there was a no slide rule) and River showed the team how much of a bad-ass he really was. His competitiveness came out again when he was ejected at Riis for joining a fracas when a Red Sox Player got in the face of mild mannered teammate Matt Brooks. Ever a fiery competitor, the Rangers miss River and his love of Jack Daniels and cooking pots. He retired after the 2009 season with chronic shoulder problems. The sight of him swinging and his arm sliding out of its socket became too painful to watch. Perhaps the slowest skinny guy to ever run the bases, Rivera retired with a career .286 Batting Average and 109 Career hits. His presence is missed, although we know he is making the streets of Chicago safer in the law enforcement industry.

Amphibious Dan still at work

Ambidextrous pitcher proves nearly unhittable with either hand

By Cameron Smith

The first time a batter saw Westminster (Ill.) Christian High pitcher Ryan Perez stop warming up right-handed, pick up another glove and start warming up left-handed, the hitter's jaw dropped with a wide-eyed reaction. The man outside the batter's box had good reason for the reaction, too: Perez is a top flight pitcher with either hand, one of the few -- if not the only -- legitimate ambidextrous pitching prospects in the United States.

Perez, who is one of the top pitchers in the Chicagoland area, is no simple novelty act. His right-handed fastball has been clocked at 91 mph, and his lefty heater hit 86 mph on the gun before the season. He continues to build strength in both arms in a personal quest to reach more than 90 mph with either hand.

If that speed wasn't impressive enough, Perez also throws three other pitches with both arms, with his cut fastball, curveball and change-up making his fastball even more effective by keeping batters off balance ... as if the ability to pitch with either arm didn't do that already.

In his second year as a starting pitcher, Perez continues to turn heads. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Perez's big breakthrough came in 2010, when he went 9-0 with a 1.15 ERA (weighing in both right- and left-handed performances) while leading Westminster Christian to the Illinois Class 1A state title. In 2011, the junior has been even better. On April 5, Perez threw a no-hitter against Rockford (Ill.) East High while pitching left-handed, then came back and threw four innings of relief in a victory against Aurora Christian, pitching right-handed and allowing just two hits and no runs.

While his teammates have become accustomed to Perez's unique dual-handed warmup, and the unique, six-fingered ambidextrous glove he uses, their coach said that other teams are still left in awe watching the dual-threat fireballer.

"The whole other team was in the dugout, going, 'Did you see that?'" Westminster coach Jeff Moeller told the Sun-Times of his team's 2010 sectional playoff opponent Eastland. "It was like they were getting psyched out before the game started."

Perez's father, Juan Perez, is Westminster's pitching coach and the impetus behind his son's ambidexterity. A left-handed pitcher himself, the elder Perez taught his youngest son to throw with both hands by having him skip stones with alternating hands. While he was open to ending Ryan Perez's quest to pitch with both hands at any point in his development, Juan Perez said that -- aside from some minor issues with confusing which foot to stride forward with on some deliveries as an 8-year-old -- there have been few hiccups in Ryan Perez's rapid rise up the ranks of pitching prospects, regardless of which hand father and son focus on developing at any given time.

Now father and son are trying to maintain Ryan Perez's impressively consistent defense, all while continuing to build more strength and accuracy in both pitching arms. Whenever he isn't on the mound, Perez serves as either a right-handed infielder or left-handed first baseman, avoiding errors with aplomb despite he and his father's struggles to find him more practice time during the hectic baseball season.

"You start thinking about it, 'How does he deal with that? How does he deal with this?'" Juan Perez said. "At the same time, you've got to keep him healthy. He works out during the offseason; during the season, you want to keep your strength. We're trying to figure out a way to get into the gym and work out and just maintain his strength. You get five or six games a week, it's hard."

When he does get time, the younger Perez has begun communicating with Yankees pitching prospect Pat Venditte, the only ambidextrous pitcher affiliated with any major league club. Venditte encouraged Perez to throw more long toss with his left arm, a trick which the younger prospect said has improved his arm strength.

All that extra work is made worthwhile whenever Perez steps on the mound, warms up and leaves onlooking opponents shaking their heads trying to deciper how they can handle batting against him.

"I just kind of smile and try to get focused," Perez told the Chicago Sun-Times. "That's an advantage to me. They're thinking about that up at the plate."

Ranger Baseball Card (Part 29)

Brad “9.8” Wiegand had a short one-year and one game Ranger career spanning the 2009 and 2010 seasons. A graduate of Occidental College, Brad was primarily an emergency pitcher during his Ranger tenure. Brad claimed to possess a variety of pitches, but to opposing hitters, they all looked the same, slow enough to not break the speed limit. To be honest, his pitches did have movement, they all dropped due to the effects of gravity, explaining the “9.8” moniker. For those of you who are not science minded individuals, gravity exerts a force of 9.8 meters/second on a free falling object. In two Ranger at bats, both in 2009, Brad had one walk and one strikeout. His time on the mound was limited, the few starts he had he could not command his pitches and had a tough time finding the strike zone. In 7 2/3 innings, Brad was 0-1 with a 10.05 ERA, surrendering 15 Walks and 12 Hits, but did manage to strikeout 6. After the 2010 season, Brad moved to Scottsdale, Arizona where he and his pooch Tillman now reside.

Chicago Rangers Baseball Cards (Part 28)

Ed Arambula came to the Rangers from East Chicago, Illinois. Previously coached by Jon Kohn, Ed came in at the end of the 2010 season to help the Rangers out with a pitching shortage and played a stellar infield as well. Ed appeared in 5 Regular season games, hitting .625 with 10 Hits and scoring 10 runs. His presence was needed on the mound, pitching 3 1/3 innings, giving up 1 hit, 1 walk and striking out 6. Ed used the Rangers as a rehab assignment coming back from Tommy John Surgery and he threw straight gas, making a mockery of CMBA hitters. Ed appeared in one Playoff game against The Hounds, throwing two innings before he had to leave to return to college. He is currently enrolled at Southeastern Community College in Iowa where he is a member of their Baseball Team, the Blackhawks. The Rangers hope to have Ed back in 2011 to help him along on his rehab and to study his domination of CMBA hitters.

Ranger Baseball Cards (Part 27)

Rob Winn, a self described poor hitting, mediocre fielding outfielder, was nonetheless an excellent addition to the Rangers. Not so much for his on the field prowess, but mainly for one incident that happened after a rare Friday night tryout/practice at Gio’s. The team had been looking to replace the since departed Jason Thorn, Ranger Drinking All-Star, and Rob, with his uncanny Thorn look-alikeness, was just the ticket. This specific Friday night was one the Rangers will never forget, involving acts of chivalry, a late night encounter with angry drunks, and a breakfast date/sleepover between two Rangers. Rob was a key contributor to the shenanigans. After drinking his fair share of beer, Rob just disappeared. Longtime bartender Jason comes out from behind the bar and tells eMo “Your friend is outside and he does not look good.” A quick Ranger headcount is tallied and it is determined that Rob is the missing party that is not doing so hot. Emo, goes outside and Rob has once again disappeard. We find Rob’s terrific “Member’s Only” Jacket and hold it for ransom until the next time we see him, which is not for two weeks (must have been some hangover!). Later on, we get the rest of the story. Rob got in a cab to get safely home to his lady friend’s place. When he gets there, he could not figure out how to pay the cab driver. He described it as he “forgot how to work a wallet.” The doorman had to come out, pay the driver and escort Rob to the elevator. When Rob miraculously got to the correct apartment door, he could not get the key in the door, became frustrated, and just sat down outside the door, and passed out. At around 3 A.M., his lady-friend arrived home, found Rob passed out on the floor, woke him up and put him to bed. Rob’s on the field exploits pale in comparison to this night, a night he may not remember, but the rest of the team will never forget!