Happy Birthday Garth Iorg

Garth Iorg turns 66 today. He played with the Jays from 1978 to 1987.

Garth Iorg was born on October 12, 1954, in Arcata, California. He was drafted in the 8th round of the 1982 amateur draft by the New York Yankees. The Jays picked him in the 1976 expansion draft. He played for the Jays for 9 seasons, batting .258/.282/.347 with a big 20 home runs in 931 games.

Garth wasn’t a great player. He came to up to the Jays as a second baseman and hit like a 2B, with no power, few walks, and no speed (23 career stolen bases).

Garth is best known as the right-handed half of the “Mullinorg” platoon third base tandem. Mulliniks was the better player of that pair. Iorg only had one good season, 1985 batting .313/.358/.469, with 7 home runs in 288 at-bats. That was Toronto’s first season to make the playoffs, losing in 7 games in the ALCS to the Kansas City Royals. Garth wasn’t much help in that series hitting .133/.188/.133 in 15 at-bats. Other than that season, even though he was batting mostly against left-handers, he was never great.

The Jays used a platoon system at three positions 3B, C, and DH. In the last few years, one of the more significant baseball changes is that clubs carry more pitchers, making it harder to platoon at more than one position.

Garth came up to the Jays in the 1978 season and played 19 games, mostly at second base. The Jays were a terrible team then, finishing 59-102, and Garth wasn’t any better batting .163/.218./163. He stayed in the minors for all of 1979. In 1980 Iorg played 80 games as a utility player for a team that wasn’t much improved. He played 2B, 3B, LF, 1B, and SS and hit .248/.286/.329.

In the strike season of 1981, Iorg played 46 games at 2B, filling in for an injured Damaso Garcia and a handful of games at 3B and hit even worse .242/.269/.293. With the arrival of Bobby Cox, the 1982 season saw the start of the Mullinorg seasons. Playing 100 in games at 3B and 30 at 2B he had his best season to this point, batting .285/.307/.365, and the Jays as a team started getting better, finishing 78-84, with some of their future stars in place.

In 83, the Jays had their first above .500 finish, 89-73, finishing 4th in the AL East. Garth hit as empty a .275 you could imagine with a .298 on-base and .376 slugging. In 1984 we finished 2nd in the East but 15 games behind the Detroit Tigers who went on to win the World Series. Iorg had a terrible year at the plate .227/.244/.304, and Rance should have been the full-time 3B. In 1985 he had his good season, mentioned above.

In 86 we fell back to the middle of the pack in the AL East, and Iorg fell back as a batter as well, batting 260/.303/.352. Kelly Gruber was called up this season and started pushing Garth out of the 3B platoon. Jimy Williams starting using him at 2B, with Damaso Garcia wearing out his welcome in Toronto.

In 1987 Garth was our nominal regular second baseman. He was terrible, batting .210/.262/.284. The season was also awful. We were swept in Detroit in the final series of the year to allow them to pass us for first place. Toronto lost their last 7 games that season. Iorg was the final out of Detroit’s final game with the tying and winning runs in scoring position.

It was Garth’s last at bat with the Jays. He was a free agent after that and didn’t draw interest from any major league team. He played his entire major league career with the Jays.

Garth went into coaching after the end of his playing career; he managed at every minor league level in the Toronto Blue Jays system. He also worked for the Sosnick Cobb Sports Agency and was an agent for a handful of young players. He worked as a roving instructor for the Milwaukee Brewers. He has three sons, each of whom was drafted by major league teams. He is the brother of former major leaguer Dane Iorg.

We remember Garth for his strange batting stance, Wikipedia explains it as being on the toes of his front foot leaning back towards the catcher as the pitch was thrown. Rance’s two-word explanation is likely as good as anyone’s: “it’s unique.”

Happy Birthday, Garth. I hope it is a good one.

Nolan Reimold turns 37 today.

He played 22 games for the Blue Jays in 2014. We picked him up off waivers from the Orioles. He hit .212/.283/.404 with 2 homers in that time. Then we lost him off to the Diamondbacks at the end of August.

Nolan played 8 seasons in the MLB, 7 of them with the Orioles. He hit .246/.323/.422 with 56 home runs in 480 games.

Happy birthday, Nolan.

Tanyon Sturtze turns 50 today.

Tanyon, a RHP, signed as a free agent with the Blue Jays before the 2003 season and pitched in 40, games, 8 starts for us, going 7-6 with a 5.94 ERA. In 89.1 innings he allowed 107 hits, 14 homers, 43 walks, and 54 strikeouts.

He was in the middle of a 12 year MLB career (well, parts of 12 seasons. He came up with the Cubs, pitched 13 innings over 1995-1996. He went to the Rangers for another cup of coffee. He played in 1 game for the White Sox in 1999. Then was traded to the Rays in the middle of the 2000 season.

He had his best seasons with the Rays, playing 3 seasons there, with a 19-30 record and a 4.48 ERA in 91 games, 65 starts.

He spent 3 seasons in the Yankees’ bullpen, with a 5.26 ERA in 110 games. And he finished his career with 2.1 innings with the Dodgers in 2008.

In total, he had a 5.19 in 272 games, 84 starts, with a 40-44 record, with 7 teams. I don’t remember much about him.

Happy birthday, Tanyon.