Milk Carton All-Stars of the Week.....7/22/2009

I felt so good about my initial pick for the Milk Carton All-Star of the Week, that I decided to double up and bring together two long-lost brothers. Boom Roasted Sports....where uniting families happens. Here goes:







Meet the Almontes.

The young boy on the left is former Bronx pitching phenom Danny Almonte. Back in 2001, Danny spun the sports world into a frenzy by leading his Bronx Little League team to third place in the Little League World Series. With his dominating 70 mph fastball(which would translate to a 92 mph in the pros) and his tall, lanky frame, Danny had scouts more excited than Kate Gosselin in a sweat shop. He became the first pitcher since 1957 to throw a perfect game in the Little League World Series and finished the tourney with 62 strikeouts(out of 72 batters faced). Of course, that's easy to do when you're two years older than the legal limit. The scandal inevitably killed all the momentum built up by the Baby Bombers and after 9/11 a few months after, citizens in New York had bigger concerns than a 14 year old's illegal dominance in a Little League tournament. All of Danny's buzz had evaporated and his name wouldn't pop back into the realm of relevance until 2006 when it was reported that he was married to a 30-year old woman. Current reports have Danny playing for the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska Baseball League, where he has appeared in all of one game.


The man opposite Danny is former Yankees phenom Erick Almonte. Erick was signed by the New York Yankees in 1996 as an undrafted ametuer and spent four years in the minors before making his debut in September of 2001(Oddly enough, a month after Danny Almonte's age scandal). He wouldn't become buzzworthy though until 2003 when he filled in for an injured Derek Jeter at shortstop. It would be the last time he would play in the majors. In 2004, Erick ended up in Colorado. Later that year, he signed a minor league deal with the Cleveland Indians where he was sold to the Japan Premier League. After a stint in the Atlanta League, Erick resurfaced in the majors with the Detroit Tigers. He then bounced to Chicago to play for the Cubs and inevitably ended up signing a minor league deal this year with the Milwaukee Brewers. He finished his career with an eye-popping .269 batting average to go along with his mind-boggling one home run and 11 RBIs. Despite these astounding power numbers, Erick surprisingly was not mentioned in The Mitchell Report.


So let's give it up for two guys whose failure to stay relevant forced The Bronx to adopt Jennifer Lopez as its native son.....Telemundo's Brady Bunch, The Almontes!!!