First, here’s the second edition of “Thursday Heat,” written by Jesus Millan, a teacher from Avon Park, Florida.

Tim Lincecum: Where will You go? Plus Caribe World Series Preview

According to MLB Network Insider Ken Rosenthal on Monday,  Former 2-time  NL Cy Young Award winner and 3-time  World Series Champ, now Free Agent Tim Lincecum will be doing a Showcase for Different Ballclubs Next Month to see if he still got it-how his mechanics are doing and what teams want him. Now that the 3 main Stories of the Offseason Justin Upton, Chris Davis and Yoenis Cespedes have singed their contracts and the Free Agent Market is half way Closing,  in the last week of the month the question now is what’s going to happen with the So Called “Under The Radar” Free Agents. Guys like Former League MVPs Justin Morneau and Jimmy Rollins among Position Players as well as David Freese,  A former Cardinals World Series Hero!!!! El Toro Pedro Alvarez,(formerly of the Pirates)  Frenchie Jeff Francoeur,(last seen with the Phillies,)  Jonny Gomes,(Last seen with the Royals)  Juan Uribe,(who the Mets should have re-signed long ago)  Dexter Fowler(Cubs)  and Pitchers like Joe Nathan, Alfredo Simon, Mat Latos,Tommy Hunter, Tyler Clippard(Mets)  and the big kicker former AL Cy Young Award Winner Cliff Lee. If I didn’t name a team it’s because I don’t remember where the player in question last hung his hat.  wow that’s a shocking list on a whole itself but the one that I’m mainly focus on today is Tim Lincecum. I have in mind 2 Teams which, to  me personally make a good fit for him and maybe just maybe can Rejuvenate their  Pitching Staff. First, as a Western Guy that was always  with San Francisco up to now, I think another Cali Team might use him-The San Diego Padres. With the best closer In the game in Craig Kimbrel gone now with Boston and one of their aces Ian Kennedy now with the World Champ Royals, The Rotation of The Padres leaves a huge gap but with Tim he could  help the staff rejuvenate itself with high hopes for Contention in the NL West. The Other Team… I may be bias but really just a question that I think everybody should think. What if Tim Lincecum was in Pinstripes? mmm well there’s a pitching staff that me personally think that will compete with The Red Sox and the rest of the AL East. With a Bullpen on the back end that will be very dangerous with Dellin Bentances, Andrew Miller and a Recently cleared of all Charges Chapman as the closer the Yankees with have some depth in the bullpen. What about the starting pitching you ask? Well questions concerned CC Sabathia’s Health and Tanaka’s health as well if healthy and with Tim they can be a very good staff to watch. Now with the Caribe. World Series Preview The Lions of Escondido won their Dominican Winter League Championship and will now advance to the Caribe World Series which will be in the Dominican Republic with Puerto Rico defending Champs Cuba and Mexico.  I  don’t know if Venezuela is gonna be there but yours truly will be covering it here each day so stay tuned.

Stay Active Fans!”

To supplement what Jesus said, I too will watch as many of those games as I can so we could end up with a “point, counterpoint” view of certain games at least, if not the entire series.

In Memoriam:

If you just told me a player named Walt Williams died, I might not know who you mean. But last night I was informed Walt “No Neck” Williams had died and right off I knew not only who he was but that I must write a few words in this forum. “No Neck” is right up there with Dizzy and Daffy, Pepper and Rabbit, Thor and the Dark Knight   in the pantheon of great baseball nicknames. No Neck passed away this past Saturday in Abilene, in his home state of Texas. He broke in with the Houston Colt .45’s at the end of 1964, a year before they became the Astros and abandoned Colt Stadium for the AstroDome. Williams had become a Cardinals’ minor leaguer by then and won a couple of batting titles in their minor league system before he was sent to the White Sox where he became a major leaguer for good. His best average was .304 in 1969-a year when only six men in his league hit over .300. He was well loved by the Comiskey faithful until his trade to Cleveland in 1973. After that he went to the Yankees in 1974 for the final two years of his career in this country. He spent two seasons in Japan, 1976 and 1977. He became a minor league manager and spent 1993 and 1994 managing the Charleston RiverDogs, a team I broadcast for starting in 2000.

The Mets’ South Atlantic League team the Columbia FireFlies will wear glow-in-the-dark uniforms-caps and all. The Mets have played in Columbia, South Carolina before-as the Columbia Mets and the Capital City Bombers.  I invite any resident of Columbia, South Carolina to inform me if the city has a new stadium for the FireFlies to play in.  It won’t matter what the uniforms look like if they’re still in the stadium they used when I was with the RiverDogs, and we would come in to play the Bombers.   The stadium I went to in that town was bad news from square 1. The steps up to the press box were brutally steep-totally noncompliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The food was inedible.  This was between 2000 and 2002. Without a different venue the FireFlies haven’t a glimmer of hope of drawing crowds to their games. And said games should be worth watching. The Mets have spent years building a successful farm system to send players to the bigs, and especially their pitching staff is a testament to what their minor league system has done. It’s a long road-from Columbia the next step is St. Lucy, Florida in the Florida State League. Then comes Binghamton in AA, and unless your name is Michael Conforto you go to AAA Las Vegas. The few who survive that hard education make it to Citi Field as Savannah pitcher Akeel Morris did for a cup of coffee last season.

There are two birthdays today, both of which mean a lot to me and to New Yorkers. First of all, Bill White is 82. If you heard him broadcast forr the Yankees between 1971 and 1988, you can hear his home run call in your head. “Hit dee-eeep to right, that ball is-ss-ss-ss GONE!!!!_ A single would be “Lined–base hit left field!” He and Rizzuto liked to joke on the air, with Phil calling him “You huckleberry.” On a personal note, one night my brother-in-law was pumping gas at a station on Route 22. A white Mercedes pulled up with Bill White inside. He and my brother-in-law joked about how Frank Messer-White’s other radio partner-preferred to drive old cars.

You might not know he began with the New York Giants, followed them to san Francisco, then played with the Cardinals, Phillies and Cardinals again. 1969 was his final year as a player. He could hit a ball into orbit, as Bob Murphy described one of his home runs.

William De Kova White was an All-Star 8 times and took home 7 gold gloves in as many years for his play at first base. Before joining the Yankees he called a few Philadelphia Flyers games in 1970.  Besides the Yankees he handled ALCS and World Series games once CBS radio got the rights for them. He and Winn Elliot broadcast parts of the 1976, 1977 and 1978 World Series featuring the Yankees. He handled some Monday night baseball games on ABC-TV.  White was President of the National League from 1989-1994.  5 years ago he released his autobiography, called “Uppity: My Untold Story about the Games People Play.” He now resides in Upper Black Eddy, PA.

Jack Coffey is today’s other birthday. He was born this day in 1887 and passed away in 1966. He played on the Tigers with Ty Cobb in 1918 and the Red Sox with Babe Ruth the same year, thus becoming the only man to be teammates with those two baseball titans. He was Fordham’s baseball coach from 1922-58 and their baseball field is named for him. One of his most famous pupils was Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash.  Michael Kay of the Yankees and Charlie Slowes of the Nationals are two major league broadcasters who learned their trade at Jack Coffey Field covering Fordham Rams baseball. At that time, (the late ’70’s and early ’80’s)  it had a very short leftfield porch, and the aluminum bats then in use combined with that porch made college games at Fordham high-scoring affairs on a regular basis.