Kevin Bass – The Sports Fan Project

^{This one’s a deep thinker. What say you?}

This week’s #FanTeaser was the feast of the seven, er, three fishes.

A few of you correctly figured out that those photographed above are Kevin Bass, Mike Trout, and Tim Salmon.

What does that trio have in common?

Well, apart from all spending time playing for California-based MLB teams, their surnames are all a bit, shall we say, fishy sounding.

So, if we wanted to make it a bona fide Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition and craft a Feast of the Seven Fishes edition of the#FanTeaser, who should be added?

For starters how about Baseball Hall of Famer Jim “Catfish” Hunter?

There’s also more trout to be served in the form of Dizzy and his son, Steve Trout.

And, yes, there are four other Salmons to have appeared in MLB (Roger, Harry, Chico, and Brad) and even a Crab (Roy).

My preference is to go back to the MLB bass hole for our seventh member. There are, in fact, eight more Basses beyond Kevin. There is Anthony, Brian, Dick, Doc, John, Leroy, Norm, and, my choice, Randy.

**^{Hanshin Tigers’ first baseman, Randy Bass, won the offensive triple crown twice during his six seasons in Japan. (Photo by Kyodo)}**

Why Randy, you ask?

Well, it certainly isn’t for his relatively pedestrian 6-year, 130-game MLB career with a .212 batting average and nine career homers.

However, Randy played his final six professional seasons in Japan for the Hanshin Tigers where he batted .337 and belted 202 homers, including a whopping 54 during the 1985 season when he led the Tigers to their only NPB championship. In 2023 he and Venezuelan, Alex Ramirez, were the first two foreign-born players inducted into Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame. (Check out this article about their complicated path to induction here.)

And, the real reason for selecting Randy – I suppose – is the Japanese culture’s affinity for – wait for it – fish.

Sushi — **^{A tray of Japanese sushi.}**

Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.