Blaze Bros - The Green Brothers

Older brother Elijah ‘ Pumpsie’ Green is most known for being the first African American player in Boston Red Sox History. The last team to integrate. ‘ Pumpsie’ made his debut for Boston on July 21st, 1959 when he pinch ran for which Red Sox teammate?

Cornell ‘Sweet Lips’ Green never missed a game in 13 seasons playing for the Dallas Cowboys. Including 145 consecutive games while roaming in the Dallas secondary. Green ranks 6th in Cowboys history with 34 interceptions. Did you know that Cornell never played a down of College Football? He was an All-American Basketball star for Utah State instead.

Name That Hurricane ??

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This Miami Hurricane won the 1993 Big East Defensive Player of the Year Award as a Senior at The U.

He also earned First Team All-American honors that season.

He was an integral part in the Canes 1991 National Championship season, as well as the runner up campaign of 1992. He finished his career at Miami with 174 career tackles & 23 sacks, good for 5th all time.

He also happens to be from my hometown of Lake Worth, Florida. I have a memory of his younger step brother Kyle being on my pee wee football team.

Can you name that Cane??

No Hit Loser - The Andy Hawkins Story

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Yankees pitcher Andy Hawkins pitches a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox and somehow still loses. With two outs in the bottom of the 8th inning of a hitless beauty, Hawkins and the Yanks suddenly found themselves down 4-0 . An error by third baseman Mike Blowers allowed Sammy Sosa to beat out the throw to first. Hawkins followed that up with a pair of walks to Ozzie Guillen & Lance Johnson to load em up. A misplay of a Robin Ventura fly ball by left fielder Jim Leyritz allowed all three runs to score. Add another error and run, and it’s done. White Sox win! Andy lost his place in the No Hit club as well after MLB changed their definition of NO-NO, to say a pitcher must pitch a full 9 innings of hitless ball to get credit for it. Not 8. Bummer Dude.

June 23rd, 1988 NBA Expansion Draft

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June 23, 1988 - With the 1st selection in the NBA Expansion Draft the Miami Heat select F Arvid Kramer. Huh? Who? Kramer was originally selected out of tiny Augustana University all the way back in 1979 by the Utah Jazz. His last NBA Appearance was in 1980 when he barely broke a sweat in 8 games for the Denver Nuggets. So, why would the Heat spend the 1st selection on Arvid? Well they had a backroom deal in place with the Dallas Mavericks who hoped to hold onto three other unprotected players in the expansion draft. (Bill Wennington, Jim Farmer and Steve Alford) The Heat agreed to select Kramer # 1 in exchange for the Mavericks 1st round pick in 1988. (20th overall) He never played for the Heat.

With the 2nd selection the other newly hatched franchise, the Charlotte Hornets, selected shooting guard Dell Curry who had spent the previous season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Miami would finish 15-67 while the Hornets fared slightly better at 20-62.

What's In Common?

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Wally Moon & John Montefusco both won the NL Rookie of the Year awards in their respective first seasons. 1954 for Wally & 1975 for ‘The Count’

What we’re looking for here at The Amazing Blaze Zine is what else do these two players have in common?

(Hint: It also occurred during their rookie season.)