Droughts Along the Great Lakes

While sailing in the Great Lakes this past week, I had little access to streaming baseball games. Yeah, I missed them.  It’s not a good sign for me personally when baseball might be in a lock out next year with no baseball at all. I looked longingly ashore and imagined baseball being played at some of the ballparks along the lakes. When I took a closer look it hit me that the teams had something very much in common, a drought at some point along the way, some longer than others. Here’s what I found:

Toronto Blue Jays (Lake Ontario). The club was founded in 1977 and is owned by Rogers Communications, one of only two teams in MLB under corporate ownership (the other, Atlanta). Since 1989, the team has played at Rogers Centre in downtown Toronto. You will probably recall the heyday of the team, its two world championships in 1992 and 1993, featuring star players like Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter. What you might not know is that following those seasons, Toronto failed to qualify for the playoffs in 21 consecutive seasons. Finally, the Blue Jays won the AL East in 2015 and have sustained success for the last ten years. Last season, they battled the Dodgers in a seven game World Series only to fall short.

Travel Tip: Journey 128 km on the Queen Elizabeth Hwy to breathtaking Niagara Falls!

Cleveland Guardians (Lake Erie).  When the American League was founded in 1901, Cleveland landed one of the original franchises, the Cleveland Bluebirds. For a decade they were the Cleveland Naps (named after team manager Nap Lajoie). In 1914 they became the Cleveland Indians, and they won the World Series in 1920 and 1948. The ’48 team featured the greatest Indian of all time, fireballer Bob Feller. While the Indians, now Guardians, landed some AL titles since then (1954, 1995, 1997, and 2016), let’s just say Cleveland is in the “mist” of a huge World Series drought, the longest active one among all 30 MLB teams.

Travel Tip: Visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while you are there!

Detroit Tigers (Lake Erie).  Another AL charter member, the Tigers are the only founding American League team with their original name. They have captured four world titles, 1935, 1945, 1968, and in 1984 behind the leadership of manager Sparky Anderson. They have had some baseball names in Tiger uniforms, crossing the spectrum in terms of integrity – the controversial, ruffian Ty Cobb and the greatest baseball gentleman of all time, Al Kaline. It’s been a long 42 years since the last world title. Fans in downtown Comerica Park are hoping that two-time Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, might lead them to another one.

Travel Tip: Explore the Henry Ford Museum in nearby Dearborn.

Milwaukee Brewers (Lake Michigan).  Milwaukee has its baseball MLB heritage in the Braves, which left for Atlanta in 1966. This franchise began in 1969 as the AL Seattle Pilots, as part of the MLB expansion in 1969. After just one season, the team moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers. The Brewers only World Series appearance was in 1982 against the Cardinals, losing in seven games. In 1998, the team moved to the National League and it wasn’t until 2011 when it won its first NL division championship. While the Brewers have never won the World Series, the recent squads are highly competitive, winning the NL Central the last three seasons. American Family Field is Milwaukee’s home ballpark.

Travel Tip: Get on your bike and motor around the Harley-Davidson Museum.

Chicago Cubs (Lake Michigan). Chicago finds its NL roots in 1876, a founding franchise named the White Stockings. Over the next three decades the North Siders had several names, Colts, Orphans, before officially becoming the Cubs in 1903. While another name for the team has been the “Lovable Losers”, the Cubbies actually had much success in the first half of the 1900s, winning 10 NL pennants and two world championships, 1907 and 1908. The most known Cubs player is Ernie Banks, “Mr. Cub”. Of course, the long World Series winning drought spurred by the “Curse of the Billy Goat” lasted 108 years until the 2016 edition, led by Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant, ended it.

Travel Tip: In front of Wrigley Field snap a pic at the Marquee, Chicago’s second most popular photo.

Chicago White Stockings (Lake Michigan).  Also an AL founding member in 1901, the White Stockings won the first American League pennant that year. The South Siders had early success, winning the World Series in 1906 and 1917. Unfortunately they may be best known in the early years for the Black Sox Scandal in 1919, losing the Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds as gambling charges abounded. One of the greatest players ever, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and seven other players, were banned from baseball as a result. The 1959 team, known as the “Go-Go White Sox”, captured baseball fans’ attention, but lost to the Dodgers in the Series. The White Sox 88-year drought ended in 2005, when the team, led by Frank Thomas, swept the Astros for the world title.

Travel Tip: Venture into the Loop and visit the Bean, Chicago’s top photo.

The fortunes of these six teams have been quite treacherous, much like the waters of the Great Lakes that surround them.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Back on June 15!

The Baseball Bench Coach will be back on June 15.

Until then,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Cooperstown

Twenty years ago I visited for the first time the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York (HOF). I spent parts of three days in the Museum reading all of the plaques in the historic, first floor Plaque Gallery, and viewing, often twice, the exhibits on all three floors of HOF. This past week I made a second pilgrimage to baseball’s promised land. I was invited to participate in the 37th Annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture (Symposium). It was one eventful, action-packed day, a once in a lifetime type experience. Let me share it with you.

Where did American baseball find its beginnings?  In 1905 the president of the National League, Abraham Mills, chaired a group to answer the question. The Mills Commission Report, issued in late 1907, concluded that baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839.  Most baseball historians have depicted the Report’s conclusion as a myth.  Indeed, Doubleday, a Union general in the Civil War, never made the claim in his lifetime nor do his memoirs even mention baseball.  Most historians believe baseball is based on a game British children played called “rounders”, involving a pitcher, batter and four bases.  In “New York town ball”, just like in cricket, there were no actual foul lines such that every batted ball was in play. Outs could be made by simply fielding the ball on one hop.

The origin of American baseball can indeed be traced to New York state. I found an exhibit on the second floor of HOF explaining that the United States Congress on June 3, 1953, officially credited Alexander Joy Cartwright, a bookseller in Manhattan, with inventing the modern game of baseball. Cartwright founded in 1842 the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York, baseball’s first organized club. By 1857 there were sixteen area clubs, forming the National Association of Base Ball Players. Teams played the “Knickerbocker Rules” requiring fielders to tag or force the runner to record an out. To commemorate baseball’s beginnings, HOF was established in 1939 at Cooperstown by Stephen Carlton Clark, who was an heir to the popular Singer sewing machines. His idea was to make the town a tourist spot. While the town remains today quaint in every sense of the word, HOF is the home to thousands of visitors annually.

My day this past week at HOF began as a moderator for a panel discussion at the Symposium. One of my panelists presented a paper on the Bud Harrelson—Pete Rose fight during the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1973 NLCS. She was a lifelong Mets fan, and her favorite all-time player is Harrelson. We joked about how differently I, as a 14-year old Reds fan, saw that fight than she did. The teams split the first NLCS two games in Cincinnati with the Reds scoring just two runs due to New York’s dominant pitching. Harrelson remarked to the media that the Reds were hitting like him (.236 lifetime batting average). This fueled the tension between the teams in the fifth inning of Game 3 as Rose slid hard into second base to break up a double play, resulting in a bench clearing brawl. A second panelist shared the touching story of Reds third baseman Todd Frazier delivering on a promise to hit a home run for Reds batboy Teddy Kremer in 2014. Teddy and I went to the same high school in Cincinnati. It was a perfect panel for me to moderate.

After the Symposium panel, my wife and I had several hours to visit the Museum. We started in the Plaque Room on the first floor. The centerpiece, of course, are the plaques of the first class of inductees in 1936 -- Ty Cobb; Honus Wagner; Babe Ruth; Christy Mathewson; and Walter Johnson. What you might not know is that Cobb received the most votes and Wagner the second most that year. The plaques are placed around the room in the order of the induction year grouped in five-year periods. I spent most of the time reading about the players that I grew up idolizing – Mays; Aaron; Clemente; Banks; Koufax; Gibson; and Marichal, just to name a few. In one corner the plaques of Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan were placed side by side. I proudly took a photo there. This summer baseball will add three more players to the Plaque Room, Carlos Beltran, Andruw Jones, and Jeff Kent.

At the Museum entrance you could get a scorecard of your favorite teams and players and where they are referenced in the HOF. I chose the Cubs and Reds, of course, and marveled at how up to date the Museum was with exhibits mentioning Shota Imanaga and Elly de la Cruz. My favorite spot at the Museum was clearly the trip through baseball history on the second floor, called “The Game”.  I experienced the joy again of a journey through baseball’s early history and all of the decades since. I basically lost track of time exploring the Dodgers and Cardinals NL teams in the 1960s, Oakland and Cincinnati dominance in the 1970s, Whiteyball in the 1980s, and on and on. I relived my baseball life, and it brought tears of joy.

After the Museum closed at 5:00 p.m., it was time for the annual baseball game in the adjacent park. I was prepared for my first game in twenty years, wearing a 1914 Chicago Federals jersey, 1915 Chicago Whales baseball cap, and knickers. There were about 40 players participating, and we counted off by two’s to choose sides. Our umpire, Peter Young, wore a top hat as he explained that we would be playing “The Rules of the Massachusetts Game, Town Ball, as of May 13, 1858”.  At that time in New England, teams had not yet adopted the Knickerbocker Rules of New York. Every inning, called a hand, was marked by a single out. To get an out, a fielder had to catch the ball on a fly or throw the ball at and hit the baserunner before the runner reached one of the sticks (bases). A batter could not strike out. I pitched one inning with no “tallies” scored and had three hits in my three plate appearances. The game only ends when one side has 100 tallies! We called the game with my team leading 18-10. Everyone had a blast. One of my teammates saw me on Main Street the next day passing by and said “great game”.

That night we assembled for the annual dinner, a night of great food, laughter, and sharing of stories. The dinner was held in the Plaque Room which I found almost sacrilegious. We were gathering in the most sacred place in baseball. I had an overwhelming feeling of happiness knowing that I was with people who share the same passion and love as I do. My people! At the conclusion of dinner, we sang all five verses of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and were entertained by a longtime Symposium attendee with his version of “Casey at the Bat”.

Before I left for Cooperstown, I had friends tell me that “you are going to be like a kid in a candy store” and “this will be right in your wheelhouse”. It was all of that and more. I felt like a 14-year old boy again, if not just for a day. To steal a question from a famous baseball movie, “is this Heaven?” No, it’s Cooperstown!

I’ll be back in two weeks!

Until June 15,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Tools of Ignorance

Years ago, I coached fast pitch softball with a good friend who just loved the game of baseball. He was a former catcher and spent a lot of time working with our catchers, including my niece. I can still hear him say when there was a pop up behind home plate, “get that pot off your head”. The pot, or protective mask, is part of the equipment a catcher uses to play his position, along with shin guards, chest protector, and a mitt. In baseball terms, catching equipment is often affectionately referred to as the “tools of ignorance”. You need a lot of courage to crouch behind the plate with a high speed missile coming at you. Let’s take a look back at the art of catching, some great catchers in MLB history, and the evolution of the position.

In the early days of baseball (circa 1850), pitchers threw the baseball underhanded to home plate. Catchers stood about 20 to 25 feet behind the plate and did not have any protective equipment at all. In 1858 with the advent of the called strike, catchers were forced to move closer in since a strikeout could only happen if a catch were made. By 1870, when pitchers began to introduce curveballs to the game, catchers were forced to move even closer in to catch the pitch. Catchers began to use padded, fingerless gloves and protective masks. It wasn’t until the 1880s when padded chest protectors became popular. In 1907, shin guards were introduced and completed a catcher’s tools of ignorance.

Catching is much more than just receiving the pitch and throwing it back to the mound. Most agree that the catcher needs to have the best understanding of game strategy than any other position player. From his position he sees the entire field. Importantly, he sees firsthand the speed and spin of the pitches from a particular hurler. Calling the game used to be the biggest skill for a catcher, although input from the dugout and now PitchCom has chipped away at it. The art of framing pitches is a talent as well. The pitcher’s best friend is a batterymate who can make a pitch look better than it really might be. The toolset of a catcher is multifaceted – blocking pitches in the dirt; signaling the infield what play is on; throwing to the bases; tagging a runner at the plate; and oh, I forgot, contributing to the offensive side of the game, hitting!

We’ve seen some great catchers in MLB history, each exhibiting one or more of these special skills. On the top of many lists is Yogi Berra, who spent 19 seasons in the MLB (1946-1965), all but one of them with the Yankees. Those who saw Berra play credit him with having a great feel for calling the game and situational play. He holds the all-time record for shutouts caught with 173, among those Don Larsen’s perfect game and Whitey Ford’s remarkable 45 of them. Berra could also flat out hit with a lifetime batting average of .285 with 358 HRs. Yogi, most of all, was a winner, a 13-time World Series champion. Like many other catchers, Berra ended his career as a manager, serving on the top step of the dugout for both the Yankees and Mets.

On the top of my list is Cincinnati’s Johnny Bench who spent his entire career with the Reds (1967-1983). He received his NL Most Valuable Player awards in the two seasons he had monster home run and RBI seasons (1970 – 45 HRs and 148 RBIs; and 1972 – 40 HRs and 125 RBIs). Bench was so much more than that. His defensive prowess was remarkable – blocking pitches; catching foul balls at the screen; and throwing to the bases. My Dad used to take me to Reds games early so we could watch fielding practice and see Bench throw bullets right on the bags. To illustrate his arm, during Lou Brock’s record-breaking 118 steals in 1974, Brock made four attempts against Bench, only one successful one!  And in one of the highlights of my life, he hit a game-tying home run off Dave Giusti of the Pirates in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS into the green seats at Riverfront Stadium 12 rows in front of me. He was the best!

A little later in life I had the pleasure of also seeing in person Yadier Molina play numerous games for the Cardinals (19-year career spanning 2004 to 2022). While “Yadi” did bat over .300 in five seasons and was known as a clutch hitter, the bulk of his acclaim concerns his defensive skills. He won nine Gold Gloves, and in doing so, put up some amazing numbers. He ranks first all-time in putouts for catchers and second overall among catchers with 130 defensive runs saved. Remarkably, he threw out over 40% of runners on steal attempts during his career. Together with his longtime fellow Cardinal, pitcher Adam Wainwright, he has the record all-time for most games started and won as a battery. Molina absolutely mastered the skill of framing pitches, something that Wainwright and other St. Louis pitchers took great comfort in.

Many catchers have gone on to become great MLB managers – Bruce Bochy, Mike Scioscia, and Bob Melvin, in most recent history, to name a few. What you might not know is that one of the greatest managers in MLB history, Joe Torre, started off as a catcher for the Braves. Torre’s baseball talent though was clearly at the plate, not behind it, as he maintained a lifetime batting average of .297. In his NL MVP year In 1971 with the Cardinals as their third baseman, he led the league in hits, RBIs, and batting average. His first few stints as a manager (Mets, Braves, and Cardinals) ended with disappointing records, but as the Yankees skipper, he won four World Series titles and two Manager of the Year awards (1996, 1998). Torre went on to become a special assistant to the MLB Commissioner.

With the advent of ABS this season, there is another task for catchers – deciding whether to challenge a called ball. In addition to having an educated feel for the strike zone, a catcher needs to have a good understanding of game situations. Since you only get two wrong attempts, you need to challenge during the right spots. Some catchers are better at it than others. With a league wide average of 53% correct challenges, the Tigers are setting the standard at 83% correct challenges from their catchers and the Cubs are close behind at 71%.  Indeed, the Cubs Carson Kelly was correct in 18 of his first 20 challenges. Kelly has gotten eight strikeout calls so far with successful challenges. Shea Langeliers, catcher for the Athletics, ranks high on the list as well. Is it a new skill? Kelly’s skipper Craig Counsell and Cubs pitcher Jameson Taillon credit Kelly for having a good feel for it and adding this new dimension to the team.

I’ve always thought of the “tools of ignorance” to be a complete misnomer. Catchers add a layer of on-field strategy, direction, and steadiness under pressure like no other position player. We often joke about “Yogi-isms”, Berra’s fun expressions that had an element of contradiction. My favorite one has always been: “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.” With catchers in mind, that makes perfect sense.

Until next Monday,

Your Baseball Bench Coach

Small Ball

I’ve never been a fan of home run baseball. You know what I mean, batters/runners going from station to station, playing it safe, and waiting for a slugger to drive them home with the long ball. For me, the most exciting play in the game is when a hitter lines a ball down the right field corner or in an outfield gap, sprints for a triple, and arrives safely with a headfirst slide. I also just like manufacturing runs – hitting behind the runner, stolen bases, and gasp, even bunts! In today’s game with the low batting averages and flame throwers from the mound, a team needs to find ways to score somehow. After the first quarter of MLB play this season, we have seen that many managers are returning to small ball!

Whitey Herzog, the late manager of the Cardinals during the 1980s, revolutionized baseball with his focus on small ball. The star of “Whiteyball” was of course Ozzie Smith, the “Wizard of Oz”, who started his career as a weak hitter but soon matched his defensive play with a high on-base percentage, stolen bases, and runs scored. Outfielder Willie McGee used his speed to the max, hitting line drives into the outfield gaps for triples, and stealing bases. Speaking of base stealing, how about left fielder Vince Coleman, who came to the squad in 1985, and set an all-time record for stealing 100+ bases in each of his first three seasons. The line drives were plentiful, but the HRs, not so much. In 1982, “power hitting” cleanup guy, George Hendrik, led the team with just 19 HRs.

So far this season we’ve seen an emphasis on bunting for the first time in decades. The bunt rate is 40% higher than it was in 2023. There have been some great bunters in MLB history. Brett Butler, whose 17-year career spanned six different MLB teams from 1981 to 1997, is widely thought of as the best bunter in modern history. Butler led off for most of his career and played center field. He led the National League in triples and runs scored in two seasons, batted .290 overall, and garnered 2,375 hits. 188 of those hits were bunt hits.  Most notably, Butler reached base on a bunt hit in just less than 50% of his attempts.

Also on the modern day list of top bunters is my second favorite Dodger of all time, Maury Wills (my first is Sandy Koufax). In watching LA in the 1960s, you needed to be a fan of speed and defense. Wills embodied both. In his 14-year career, Maury stole 586 bases (setting the season stealing record at one point with 104 in 1962), batted .281 with 2,134 hits, and won two Gold Gloves at shortstop. Wills was known as a master craftsman of bunting. His 124 career bunt hits were gained with a success rate of 47% attempted bunts.

On the not so great bunter list is current Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts. In 2004, Roberts attempted to reach base via a bunt 33 times and was only successful in seven of them. In his 10-year playing career with five different MLB teams, he batted a modest .266 and stole 243 bases. Roberts’ MLB success, of course, is helming LA for the last eleven seasons. The Dodgers have won three World Series (2020, 2024, and 2025) with Roberts as manager. While his teams are known for hitting, pitching, and exceptional defense, they are in the bottom of the league in bunting. Of course, the Dodgers feature an expensive lineup of the top sluggers in the game (Ohtani, Freeman, Betts, Tucker, and Smith) and can score without small ball.

Which teams in 2026 top the MLB list in bunting? It’s mostly the lower payroll lineups. Brewers, Rays, White Sox, Athletics, and Diamondbacks lead baseball in sacrifice bunts. And don’t look now, but they are all near the top of the standings in their respective divisions. It makes sense in a lot of ways as the game continues to change. It’s certainly a lot easier to bunt a 100 mph + fastball than hit one. With what many believe to be a league-wide deficiency in defensive fundamentals, why not put more pressure on the defense by putting the ball in play. It’s hard to score when position players are now sporting batting averages at a rate lower than we’ve seen in the modern era (.243).  Use small ball to score some runs!

A couple, somewhat unknown players have stood out so far. Milwaukee’s second baseman David Hamilton is leading the way by putting down successful bunts (bunts for a hit and sacrifice bunts) in about half of the games he’s played in 2026. Hamilton attributes his success to hard work and team emphasis. In the last three years playing for the Red Sox, he attempted just 11 total bunts in 204 games. In his first 30 games with the Brewers, Hamilton had 14 bunt attempts, all successful. He saw honing his bunting skills as a way to keep him in the major leagues, and made great strides in the offseason and spring training to perfect them. He credits his manager, Pat Murphy, for encouraging him to contribute to the team in this way.

In the American League, White Sox outfielder Tristan Peters is quickly establishing himself as the next Brett Butler. Peters has an interesting background, coming up through the Milwaukee system and also spending time with the Savannah Bananas. He finds himself on a White Sox team that is doing everything possible to win some games and turn around their dismal win-loss records of the past few seasons. Despite having some big bats in the lineup with power, Murakami, Montgomery, and Vargas, Chicago has turned to small ball when the games are on the line. Peters’ contributions have included game winning RBI bunts.

Like everything in life, if you want to be good at something you need to practice it. The White Sox, Brewers, and the other low payroll teams have emphasized bunting and small ball this year to compete. Chicago manager Will Venable noted: “We’ve been talking about bunting as a weapon starting in Spring Training and how important that was going to be for guys in certain slots.” Milwaukee’s David Hamilton emphasized the point: “It was Murph (skipper Pat Murphy) in spring always telling me to bunt and use the speed and just practice it every day.” You never know, the renewed focus on small ball may lead to the same kind of success Whiteyball experienced 40 years ago!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Blame the Manager

I must be the last one who can complain about managerial firings. You see, in October 1969, as a ten-year-old, I wrote to the Reds then general manager, Bob Howsam, to state my dismay about the firing of manager Dave Bristol. Mr. Howsam replied three weeks later that while he appreciated my fan interest, his new hire, Sparky Anderson, would be a capable replacement in 1970. He was clearly right; I was clearly wrong. But late last month, two managers, the Phillies’ Rob Thomson and Red Sox’ Alex Cora, were both relieved of their duties less than 30 games into the season. Talk about a short leash!

The late April dismissals of Thomson and Cora were surprising. They were not, however, the earliest firings in recent history. In 2018, the Reds dismissed skipper Bryan Price after just eighteen games. Their 3-15 start was their worst one since 1931. The Tigers management in 2002 acted even more quickly.  Phil Garner, a major leaguer for 16 seasons, managed the Brewers for eight seasons prior to helming Detroit in 2000.  After an 0-6 start to the 2002 season, Phil was given the heave-ho. Last month’s cannings of Thomson and Cora were the third and fourth earliest in an MLB season.

We saw a similar story in Philadelphia in 2022. The Phillies fired manager Joe Girardi after the team’s 22-29 start. Girardi was in his third season as the Philadelphia skipper. Joe, a former major league catcher, started his managerial career in 2006 with the Florida Marlins, leading a team with the lowest payroll in baseball to playoff contention and his Manager of the Year award. Girardi also led the Yankees to the 2009 world championship. But below .500 was not good enough for the Phils’ GM Dave Dombrowski in 2022 and he gave Rob Thomson the early nod. Thomson then led Philadelphia to the World Series in 2022. Now, as Phillies president, Dombrowski hopes his lack of patience pays off again this year. He’s called on former Yankee great Don Mattingly, the 2020 Manager of the Year (also with the Marlins), to lead the team on an interim basis. Interestingly, Mattingly now reports to his son, GM Preston Mattingly.

Yes, some crazy goings on in Philadelphia, especially when Dombrowski admitted that his first choice, Alex Cora, had declined the position. Cora had been dismissed two days earlier by the Red Sox and already had made it to the top of the manager in waiting list. Why so? Many in the baseball world think of Cora as one of the top skippers in the game. After a 14-year playing career ended in 2011 with the Nationals, Alex turned to coaching. In 2017, he was the bench coach for the Astros when Houston won the World Series, and then managed the Red Sox to the World Series championship in his first season as a manager in 2018. His .534 winning percentage as a manager is top notch.

In Boston, in addition to losing Cora at the helm, most of the coaches were let go as well. Reportedly, Boston chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke to the players briefly about his spring cleaning in a clubhouse meeting before introducing new manager Chad Tracy. Unusually, the players reacted harshly and went to the media with their concerns. Star shortstop Trevor Story questioned the direction of the franchise. Pitcher Garrett Whitlock noted that “they made it very clear that we get paid to play baseball, and we need to just focus on playing baseball”.  Rising star Roman Anthony, just 21 years old, had this to say: “At the end of the day, when we take the field, it’s on us. It’s not AC’s (Cora’s) job to go out there and do the things that we’re expecting to do as players”.

From the front office perspective, blaming the manager is the name of the game. Both the Phillies and the Red Sox were pre-season favorites to contend for their respective division crowns and two of the top five highest paid teams in the game. A dreadful April needed some short of a shake-up. In a 2025 article written by Will Leitch called “Skipper Review: In Baseball, Blame the Manager”, Leitch takes a deep dive into the history of managerial firings in baseball. He notes that the very name of the position, “manager”, suggests the “inherent powerlessness” of the position. Baseball managers, in Leitch’s view, are essentially middle managers carrying out the whims of the owners and executives. If there are more losses than wins, show the middle managers the door.

Leitch makes another interesting point about the change in who now oversees managerial moves. The trend in baseball is to fill front offices with college-educated analytics, the so-called Ivy League GMs, instead of former players or those with scouting backgrounds. Gone are the days where managers answered directly to owners. One of the most controversial skippers in MLB history, Billy Martin, helmed six different MLB teams in his 20 years of managing, including five separate stints with the Yankees.  Billy’s Yankees had a winning record in all five of his stops with New York, but each time he was fired or resigned under fire due to a dispute with Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. Midway through the 1978 season he was forced to resign when he said this about Yankees star player, Reggie Jackson, and Steinbrenner:  “one’s a born liar, and the other’s convicted.”  Shortly thereafter, the Yankees announced that Martin would return as manager someday.  He managed the New Yorkers four times during the next four seasons, all for less than one year. 

It's also interesting how a manager gets to keep his job under the right circumstances. The two longest tenured managers in the AL today are Kevin Cash, Rays (since 2014), and Aaron Boone, Yankees (since 2017). Cash led Tampa to the 2020 World Series against the Dodgers, and by all accounts made a critical mistake by pulling his star pitcher, Blake Snell, after only 73 pitches in an elimination game. Cash withstood the clamor, and is noted today as a manager who gets the most out of a squad with payroll deficiencies. Boone got the nod to manage the Yankees in 2017 due to his astute commentary on Yankees broadcasts. He had no prior managerial experience. Boone’s Pinstripers have never won it all despite having one of baseball’s highest payrolls. It’s just impossible to know why and when the axe might fall.

The colorful, late Yankees and Mets manager, Casey Stengel, summed up managing the best: “If you don’t win, you’re going to be fired. If you do win, you’ve only put off the day you’re going to be fired.” Yes indeed, blame the manager!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Challenge Me!

I remember that evening well. I was 15 years old and reporting to the pre-season umpire meeting for my first paying job. After a talk by the lead supervisor, I received a face mask, t-shirt, indicator (to record balls, strikes, and outs by hand), and scorecards (an umpire’s version of time sheets). One of the more veteran kids told me something to the effect that “remember, you get paid by the game, not by the hour”. Good advice. From that day forward, I always made sure that when I served as a home plate umpire, I called, when possible, a fair amount of strikes. Some might call it a wide zone. I thought of it as my gift to those attending youth baseball games.

In the early days of  baseball, there was no such thing as a “ball”. Pitchers were instructed to make sure the batters hit the baseball. Since pitchers didn’t always comply, organized baseball soon began to penalize a pitcher for throwing three unhittable pitches and deemed it a ball. A pitcher was allowed only three “balls” per batter.  In effect, it would take nine errant pitches to advance the batter to first base. By 1880 eight unfair pitches became a base on balls, and in 1884 six were required. It wasn’t until 1887 when the National League and its companion league, the American Association, actually agreed to a strike zone. In 1889, baseball finally mandated that four balls outside the strike zone would constitute a walk.

For a pitcher, it’s so important to throw strikes. I still remember the words from my managers in the dugout when I walked a batter, “we can’t help you if you walk them”. Indeed, how many times do you find yourself grimacing when your favorite team’s pitcher walks a leadoff batter to begin an inning?! Statistics bear out the importance of it. A key metric in “The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball” authored by three baseball historians is “run expectancy”. The metric looks at the 24 possible baserunner/out scenarios, for example, bases empty with no outs. In that case, a team has a 46.1% chance of scoring a run in any given inning. When the leadoff batter walks, the run expectancy jumps to 83.1% and the anguish for the fielding team begins.

With the advent of the automatic balls strikes (ABS) system this year, we now have a new dynamic in calling balls and strikes. No longer is the pace of the game solely in the hands of whether a home plate umpire is a “pitcher’s ump” or a “hitter’s ump”, but technology is literally looking over our shoulders. MLB has had to rewrite the strike zone to accommodate ABS. The Official Rules of Baseball has long maintained that the strike zone is from the middle of a batter’s torso to just below his kneecap, leaving much discretion in how an umpire sees the zone in the batter’s stance. Now, it’s much more precise. The zone starts at 27% of a batter’s height and stretches to 53.5%, top to bottom. In width, the ABS zone is, of course, 17 inches wide, matching the width of home plate.

What’s the impact of the new ABS strike zone? In April batters took walks in historic numbers. Walk rates were around 10%, a 16% hike over 2025. The trend indicates that in 2026 we may see the highest walk rate in 75 years. Some teams are clearly taking advantage of the new zone, including the Yankees, Brewers, and Angels, which are averaging over 12% of the team at-bats. And the craziest numbers are the individual ones. These MLB stars are walking an unbelievable amount of times to the plate – Mike Trout, Angels (73.9%); Ben Rice, Yankees (62.2%); Munetaka Murakami, White Sox (59.8%); and Nick Kurtz, Athletics (57.8%). 

What is the player’s reaction to the new strike zone? It depends on whom you ask. James McCann, Arizona’s catcher, believes that the zone is “tighter than usual” because umpires are receiving much feedback on whether a pitch is a strike or a ball.  Pitcher Paul Sewald, also of the Diamondbacks, admitted that “it is a tough time to be a pitcher”, joking that there are “balls flying everywhere”. The hitters see it a little differently. The Yankees’ Cody Bellinger calls the April increase in walks a “short sample size”. The Cubs’ Nico Hoerner noted that hitters are benefitting short term by laying off pitches at the top of the zone but adjustments will soon be made.

Have we seen a rules change similarly impact the game before? Most definitely. Reacting to the dominance of pitchers in the 1960s era, most particularly Bob Gibson’s record 1.12 ERA in 1968, MLB lowered the mound for the 1969 season. The walk rate increased from 7.6% to 9.1%. We all remember the effect of the new pitch clock rule in 2023. Stolen bases skyrocketed in 2023 and remain high, even after teams have had three years to adjust.

What’s interesting about the new ABS zone is that it seems to run counter to the MLB objective that triggered the pitch clock rule – speed up the game!  The early numbers, based on April play, show that games are being played on an average of 2 hours, 42 minutes, about six minutes more than the 2024 and 2025 pace. Yes, it’s slight, but something to be mindful of, especially when baseball is doing all it can to spur fan interest.

I’ve seen most recently a couple videos of home plate umpires responding to dugouts disputing called balls and strikes with the words “challenge me”! Yes, if the team hasn’t run its course on the number of challenges it has that game, the batter, catcher, or pitcher could have certainly challenged the call. But, for me, it seems like umpires are thinking of the ABS system as overreaching and they are more brazen than usual.  Maybe the new advice to umpires is not that you aren’t paid by the hour, but rather call the game in a way that they won’t challenge you.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Upside Down

Yeah, I’m still one of those. I get the newspaper delivered to my driveway each morning. Every good day starts that way. Sometime during my second cup of coffee, I make it to the Sports section, and in particular, page 4. You see, that’s where I find the NL and AL Standings, the pitching lineups for the day, and many of the box scores from the night before. It’s not a casual glance, mind you, but 15-20 minutes of poring through the material, thinking about the what ifs, and finding my favorite teams in the standings. After the first month of MLB play, it seems to me in many ways those standings are upside down.

One of the fun stories at my happy place, Wrigley Field, is the history of the team flags flying on what looks to be a ship’s mast on top of the manual scoreboard. Those flags, or pennants, are placed in order based on the current standings. Prior to 1962, when there were only 8 National League teams, the four teams on the left side were in the “first division” (first four places) and the four teams on the right side in the “second division”.  Five flags on each side proudly flew when the NL expanded to ten teams in 1962. Then in 1969, division play began with six pennants on the left exhibiting the NL East standings, and six teams on the right, the NL West. Nowadays, with 15 teams in the league, there are five pennants on the left (NL West), five in the middle (NL Central), and five on the right (NL East), all trying to reach the top spots. This is how the term “pennant race” in baseball was coined.

With the Dodgers’ 15-4 start, it’s been no surprise which pennant has remained atop the left side for most of this season. It’s difficult to keep your pennant flying at the top for the entire season. Indeed, there have been only five teams in MLB history that have gone “wire to wire”.  The first such team was the 1927 Yankees, widely considered the best team ever with their “Murderer’s Row” lineup and a roster that included nine future Hall of Famers, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig among them. The ’84 Tigers are on this list as well, along with the 1995 Brooklyn Dodgers, 1990 Reds, and 2005 White Sox. I know that much of baseball is hoping that the Padres continue their hot streak of the past two weeks and replace LA at the top of the NL West.

Does a hot start mean a stand-out season and a championship awaits in October?  Sometimes, but certainly not always.  Of the ten hottest starts in MLB history, two were by American League teams that set regular season win records, first by New York in 1998 with 114, and then topped by Seattle three years later with 116. The ’98 Yanks won the World Series, but the ’01 Mariners fell short.  My favorite two hot starts had one thing in common.  Both the 1970 Reds (starting 22-6 with a 70-30 record at the All-Star Break) and the 1984 Tigers (starting with a blistering 35-5 record) were managed by Sparky Anderson.  While Detroit captured the crown in 1984, a very hot Orioles team dominated the Reds in the 1970 Series.

Positioning the pennants in the NL Central race so far this season is driving the Wrigley manual scoreboard operator crazy. All five teams have been over .500 for much of the season and essentially switching spots at the top (and bottom) of the standings daily. Before the season, most experts predicted the Cubs to win the division, but the Pirates and Reds were given some of the ink as well. One should never count out the Brewers. All four teams show much promise. And what about the Cardinals?! My St. Louis blog followers are basking in their early season surprise. No division race has ever ended in MLB history with all five teams above .500. Maybe this is the year!

The NL East? Clearly upside down. In March the question baseball analysts discussed was whether the Phillies or the Mets would win the division. Now the discussion turns to which team will finish in last place. New York, with baseball’s highest payroll at $364 million this season, just came off of a 12-game losing streak and Philadelphia almost matched it with ten straight. The Mets have clearly missed Juan Soto who just returned this past week, while the Phillies’ pitching staff has been decimated by injuries. At the top of the division with the only winning record sits Atlanta whose winning ways have featured clutch hitting, team defense and speed, and a solid bullpen. Their flag is faltering a little this week with the news that their closer, Raisel Iglesias, was placed on the Injured List.

Moving to the American League, it’s topsy turvy as well. How many of you would have thought that four weeks into the season the teams in last place in the division races would be Boston (AL East), Kansas City (AL Central), and Houston (AL West)? There is only one team in the American League that appears to be separating themselves from the others, and of course it’s the Yankees. The Pinstripers have the league’s best record, eight games over .500 at 18-10.

I heard a commentator say recently that you can’t win a division during the first month, but you certainly can lose one. In my mind, the outcome of each game, whether in April or September, has the same impact on the standings. It’s a long 162, and may the best pennants rise to the top. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Tommy John

I attended my grandson’s baseball game last week and overheard that his pitch count was 38 after two innings. What that means nowadays is that during the next inning he would need to be replaced since the 50-pitch limit would be enforced. The care and concern for youth pitchers today is on high alert. When I was about his age, there was no such thing as pitch counts or innings limits. If you were the team’s pitcher, you got the ball. The only care we received was through home remedies. I recall my Dad putting in a chin up bar in our basement so that I could stretch out after outings. I didn’t care for that bar very much. In addition, I would take salt pills to restore the weight I lost pitching in a game during hot summer days. One name changed the rules for all of us who have had the enjoyment of pitching – Tommy John.

In 1974, after years of study by Dodgers’ team physician and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Frank Jobe, Dodger pitcher Tommy John became the first patient of Jobe’s to undergo ulner collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction (now known appropriately as “Tommy John Surgery”).  Dr. Jobe took a tendon from John’s wrist, drilled holes into his ulna and humerus bones, and grafted the tendon in a figure-eight design held together by anchors. It was truly experimental surgery meant to counteract John’s persistent pain in his left, throwing elbow. It wasn’t until 1978 when the next Tommy John Surgery would be performed by Dr. Jobe.

The surgery was very meaningful in John’s pitching career. In 1961, at 18 years old, Tommy John was signed by the Indians because of his dynamic curveball. He debuted in the MLB with Cleveland in 1963, and then was traded to the White Sox. 1965 was his first year as a full-time starting pitcher. His career took off in 1968 when he was named an AL All-Star and posted a 1.98 ERA.  Traded to the Dodgers in 1972, John led the National League in winning percentage in 1973 (.696) and 1974 (.814) before his ’74 season abruptly ended when he tore his UCL. You might recall another Dodger pitcher with a terrific curveball a decade before whose career prematurely ended with elbow ailments, Sandy Koufax. Dr. Jobe often remarked that if the surgery had been developed years earlier, it would have been known as “Sandy Koufax Surgery”. In any event, the 1974 surgery prolonged Tommy John’s career for 15 more years, as he retired in 1989 with a career 288-231 win-loss record, 3.34 ERA, and four All-Star nods.

Tommy John Surgery has been a career saver for many MLB pitchers. Foremost among them is Hall of Famer John Smoltz. Smoltz played in 21 MLB seasons, all but the last one with the Braves. Smoltzie began his career in 1988 as a starter, one of Atlanta’s dominant three along with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. The threesome led the Braves to the 1995 World Series championship. The next year Smoltz won the NL Cy Young with a record of 24-8. In 2000, he underwent Tommy John Surgery. His mound comeback in 2001 saw him outside the Atlanta rotation and in a new role as the team’s closer. Close, he did, recording 55 saves in 2002, becoming only the second pitcher in MLB history to have both a 20-win season and a 50-save season. Dennis Eckersly is the other one.

Another HOF’er who had successful Tommy John Surgery was actually a position player, Paul Molitor. Molitor’s 21-year playing career (1978-1998) included fifteen years with the Brewers, but also three years with both the Blue Jays and Twins. Most of his acolades occurred after his Tommy John Surgery in 1984. Molitor was a 7-time All-Star and the World Series MVP in 1993. Throughout his career he was known for his hitting prowess (lifetime batting average of .306) and speed (504 stolen bases). The only other Hall of Famer who had Tommy John Surgery was relief pitcher Billy Wagner, who starred principally for the Houston Astros.

While rare, some players unfortunately never recovered from Tommy John Surgery. Jose Rijo of the Reds tops that list. From 1988 to 1993, Rijo was one of the supreme pitchers in baseball, on the leaders’ lists in ERA, strikeouts, and wins each year. He is most known for leading Cincinnati to an upset, four-game sweep of Oakland in the 1990 World Series, where Jose’s Games 1 and 4 dominance secured him the Series MVP award. Elbow injuries sidelined him in 1995 and he had the surgery in August that year. While Rijo came back to pitch in portions of 1997-2001, he was never the same.

Since the first Tommy John Surgery in 1974, almost 2,500 professional baseball players have undergone the procedure. Indeed, approximately 38% of active MLB pitchers today have had it. The percentage continues to grow; about 27% of MLB pitchers a decade ago had it. Those numbers don’t even including the individuals who have had more than one procedure. 30% of the patients need a second one along the way. While those are alarming statistics, the prevalence of the surgery on our youth is staggering. Around two-thirds of Tommy John Surgeries are performed on athletes between 16 and 20 years old. Some patients have even been in Little League.

The rise in these surgeries is the result of many things, but mostly due to the intensity of higher velocity pitching. Throwing a baseball, especially pitching one, is not a natural motion. In one of the leading medical articles, “What Doctors Wish Patients Knew about Tommy John Surgery”, Sara Berg in 2024 points to the prevailing research that the harder one throws a baseball, there is more torque and stress on the elbow. Yet, we keep upping the game and demanding that pitchers throw harder and harder. And the fix just can’t be to just have the surgery. Dr. Vasilios Moutzouros, an orthopedic surgeon at Henry Ford Health and a leading expert, says this in Berg’s report: “It’s not the easiest surgery because the elbow is a really difficult joint to operate on.” While the success rate is high (90% get back to throw), outcomes are worse with each additional procedure and the recovery time is lengthy (12-16 months).

How does baseball prevent the injury? For our youth, warming up properly, rest, limiting pitches and innings, and playing other sports are part of the recipe. At the professional level, the careful development of pitchers through the system is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Yet, the injuries continue to mount and seasons are lost. Most recently, the Cubs’ pitching phenom, Cade Horton, underwent his second Tommy John Surgery and is projected to be out of action until sometime late next summer. It’s a plight that many pitchers and teams at all levels continue to have.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Worst Feeling

Umpiring is a tough job, especially behind the plate. Keeping your concentration for 250-300 pitches a game is very difficult. As chronicled in prior blog pieces, I’ve been in those umpiring cleats. Sometimes, you just miss a pitch. And when you do, you know! You can see it in the reaction of the players and coaches. Believe me, you know. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world. For the first time in MLB history, umpires now have some added corrective lenses in the automatic balls strikes (ABS) system. Just a couple weeks into the season, it’s clear that ABS is here to stay.

MLB and the Major League Baseball Umpires Association have always seemed to resist video review of calls on the field. Indeed, the NFL, NBA, and NHL all had some sort of review system in place before MLB developed instant replay during the 2008 season. Beginning that season, only the umpire crew chief could initiate a review. The umpiring crew would huddle on the field, review a video feed, and then decide whether to uphold a call. Of course, it wasn’t just any call. Only home run calls could be reviewed.

It wasn’t until 2014 when the current replay system was instituted to include more than just home run calls. Managers are given one challenge a game (which you do maintain if you are correct) on a wide variety of plays (fair/foul calls, tag plays, catch/trap calls, etc.).  From the eighth inning on, the umpire crew chief can also initiate a review. With the expansion of the replay system, baseball fans and commentators began to offer criticism on which plays are reviewable and how much time it takes to make a review decision. In addition, in view of today’s HD television and the imaged strike zone, umpire performance has been scrutinized more and more each season.

TrackMan, a radar-based system to call balls and strikes, came onto the baseball scene less than ten years ago. In 2019 the Atlantic League tested the technology for its college player summer league. While the new system had some mixed reaction early in the season, it seemed to gain favor as the season wore on. Later that year, the Arizona Fall League adopted TrackMan with even greater success. ESPN baseball insider Buster Olney opined that technology would replace home plate umpires calling balls and strikes by 2023. 

Over the past few seasons minor league baseball has experimented with the ABS system. ABS does not utilize robot umpires, as Olney predicted and others feared, but rather technology to assist umpires in calling balls and strikes. TrackMan’s radar tracking has been replaced by camera-based tracking, called Hawk-Eye. Hawk-Eye has been found to be more accurate for determining the strike zone. High-resolution cameras are mounted in 12 different locations in each ballpark. During spring training play last year, MLB used the new technology at a handful of Cactus and Grapefruit League ballparks.

ABS will be in place for the entire MLB 2026 season. The system sets up a strike zone box for each player based on a natural batting stance. So if you crouch as a batter, it’s to your detriment. Each team gets two challenges that are triggered by a touch of the head by the batter, catcher, or pitcher. If your challenge is correct, you maintain it. What we see in the early days of ABS is that managers are allowing catchers and batters to use the system, but not often pitchers. We also see a trend developing that teams are saving their challenges for the later innings to make sure they are available when the game is on the line. One important feature stands out – the calls are made in a timely fashion.

So how have the teams been faring with the challenges? The early numbers suggest an overall MLB success rate of 55.9% (based on the 542 challenges made in the first two weeks of the season). Fielding teams are winning 59.7% of the challenges, while batters are winning 49.8%. There have been only 13 challenges by pitchers, six successful. If you are a fan of the Tigers, you have to be pleased with ABS since Detroit is winning challenges at the highest rate of any team (75%), followed by the Diamondbacks (71%) and the Orioles and Reds (both at 67%).

Home plate umpire accountability is at the heart of the matter going forward. Last season, without ABS, analysts determined a 94.2% accuracy rate on balls and strikes for MLB home plate umpires. With 100% accuracy seemingly now in play, some umpires are feeling the heat. Maybe ABS outcomes will influence fall playoff assignments for umpires. It’s hard to know at this point.

By an assortment of standards – fairness, accuracy, timeliness – ABS is a big success. MLB has to be especially pleased with fan reception. The reaction in the ballpark when the video board shows whether the pitch is in the zone or not has brought a new dimension to fan attendance. Unfortunately, home plate umpires have taken the brunt of the novelty of the new system. Since some umpires are getting more calls overturned than others, they indeed must be having the worst feeling of all.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Dark Cloud

The MLB season is ten games in, but I must say that I’m still feeling the euphoria of my spring training adventure in Arizona. Oh, how I yearn for those sun-drenched days without a cloud in the sky. That is especially true given the cold and rainy weather of the Midwest during baseball’s opening week, a story for another time. Looking ahead though, a dark cloud looms over spring training in 2027 and the regular season. You see, the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between MLB and the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) is scheduled to expire on December 1, 2026. Most everyone in baseball is counting on some sort of work stoppage in 2027, threatening once again the game we all love.

The history of baseball strikes and lockouts goes back to the first one in 1972, a thirteen day strike by the players in early April of the season. The strike concerned the players’ pension fund, and resulted in the cancellation of 86 games. None of the cancelled games were rescheduled. Crazily, since the Tigers were able to play one more game that season than the Red Sox, Detroit won the AL East over Boston by a ½ game. The 1970s saw two other work stoppages – a February, 1973 lockout and a March, 1976 lockout of the players, both of which were for eighteen days and during spring training. No regular season games were impacted. The major characters in these labor disputes, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and MLBPA union director Marvin Miller, would be at center stage for some difficult times ahead.

For many of us the 1981 MLB strike is the first one we remember. At issue was free agent compensation. The owners wanted some sort of compensation for losing a free agent to another team, while the players argued that any limit on free agency would affect its value. The strike began on June 12 and ended on July 31, resulting in the cancellation of one-third of the season. The compromise was that teams who lost a “premium” free agent could grab a player left unprotected from all MLB teams, not just the signing team. The strike though left a scar on the game. MLB decided to play two split seasons with the division winners of each split getting into the playoffs. Unfortunately, teams such as the Reds and Cardinals won the overall records in their respective divisions but neither one of the split seasons, and were left out of the postseason. More importantly, the strike hurt the game itself as fan discord was reflected in decreased attendance at MLB ballparks.

The 1990s was also a decade of labor turmoil and fan discontent. In 1990, MLB locked out the players for 32 days beginning in February, basically eliminating spring training. The season began a week later than scheduled, but this time MLB accommodated a 162-game schedule by ending the season three days late. The owners called for a revenue sharing plan where 48% of the players’ salaries would be paid from, and also for the first time proposed a salary cap on all teams. Ultimately, the parties agreed to form a committee to “study” revenue sharing. Just four years later, baseball experienced its longest work stoppage ever as a strike began on August 12, 1994, and was not suspended until April 2, 1995, 235 days later. 948 games were cancelled, including the 1994 World Series, and the 1995 season was reduced to a 144-game schedule. The core issue concerned the owners’ continuing desire to impose a salary cap, which was never resolved and remains at the center of the conflict between the owners and players today.

The most recent work stoppage is the 2021-2022 lockout. When the CBA ended at midnight on December 1, 2021, the owners immediately locked out the players after months of stalled negotiations. Interestingly, in the month prior to the lockout, owners scrambled to sign the premiere free agents at a record total of $1.9 billion. At the crux of the dispute were compensation for young players and the owners’ demand to narrow the disparity of each team’s combined salary with a minimum of $100 million per team and an incremental luxury tax beginning at $180 million. The lockout, which began on December 2, lasted over three months, shortening spring training and rescheduling the first two weeks of the season to later dates. In the settlement, league minimum salaries were increased by 23% but the ball was essentially pushed down the road on teams’ combined salary concerns. An incremental luxury tax was instituted at a higher level, topping off at $242 million this year. If you have kept track of free agent signings during the past offseason, you know that many teams seem unfazed about the luxury tax. Many say that the Dodgers signing of Kyle Tucker for four years at $240 million will be the contract that pushes MLB owners over the edge.

With that as background, a dark cloud at midnight, December 1, 2026, seems almost inevitable. Baseball will come to a standstill on the issue of a salary cap. In July 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred toured the clubhouses of many MLB teams and was confronted quite harshly by Phillies’ star Bryce Harper who in essence suggested that a salary cap is a non-starter and would be worth 162 games to fight off. While the MLBPA opposes a cap, the union seems to support a salary floor. A salary floor would force lower revenue teams to spend more. To put this all in perspective, other U.S. professional sports have caps in place. Both the NFL and NHL have a strict hard cap, an absolute maximum limit that teams cannot exceed.

Is there a possible solution to baseball’s dilemma? Maybe we explore a hard cap and floor at the same time. I’ve heard several experts propose that baseball institute, in today’s dollars, a maximum cap of $280 million and a floor of $140 million per team. Looking at the available numbers from 2025, this kind of cap would only impact the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, and Phillies, while the floor would push 12 teams, almost half the number of MLB teams, to spend more and hopefully be more competitive. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the Dodgers dominating the payroll and World Series landscapes.

In the past week or so, I think we are seeing some owners plan ahead for a work stoppage. Young, future stars are being signed by the lower revenue teams to long term contracts. The Brewers signed future star infielder Cooper Pratt to an eight-year deal through 2033. Seattle followed suit with an eight-year, $95 million deal for its top prospect, shortstop Colt Emerson. And just last Thursday, the rumor hit the market that the Pirates are close to signing MLB’s #1 prospect, Konnor Griffin, to a nine-year, $140 million deal. The owners are getting firm commitments from players before the possibility of a work stoppage. Maybe there are some partly sunny skies ahead.

If there is a prolonged, work stoppage in 2027, what am I going to do? What will be there to write about? In late June 1981, my wife and I honeymooned at a luxurious (smile) family resort in central Tennessee. We began our drive back home to St. Louis while the 1981 strike was just three weeks old. She knew then that baseball would always be a big part of my life when I persuaded her that we stop for a night in Peducah, Kentucky, to watch a low minor leagues game. I was already missing baseball and in need of a little fix. Ominous, storm clouds lifted that night right around first pitch. Hopefully, in 2027, the dark cloud won’t be there to stay.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Spring Training Observations

Your Baseball Bench Coach is back for the blog’s eighth season! Over the last several weeks I did another spring training jaunt to Arizona. This spring I did not attend all of the Cactus League sites like last year, but I did see a lot of baseball at Sloan Park and a handful of other ballparks. I thought I would concentrate on some topics I hope you will find of interest when you plan to visit. For fans the goal of the games is to relax and soak up the sun. It truly doesn’t matter whether your favorite team wins or loses. My guess is that while you are reading this, you probably have no idea which team “won” the Cactus League this year. For the players, especially those who know they will be on their team’s MLB roster, the idea simply is to get some work in prior to the long 162. Let’s reflect on Spring ’26 before we tackle the regular season that is upon us.

Early spring training games present a test for a fan’s loyalty. Don’t count on seeing your favorite players in the game for more than three to four innings, if at all. I saw the Athletics play the Guardians in the first week at Hohokam Park and two on field items stood out. The A’s starter, Luis Severino, pitched the first two innings and left the game after just 15 pitches. Amazingly, his first pitch was recorded at 99 mph. Pitchers do a lot of offseason work now and can easily fall into form. Their goal is to build up their innings as the spring moves forward. The term you often hear is “stretching” them out. On the hitter’s side, the Athletics power hitter, first baseman Nick Kurtz, led off so that he could quickly get 2 at bats before leaving the game in the third inning. Don’t miss the first part of the game in a concession stand line! You might be sorry.

It was unseasonably hot in Phoenix this spring, so finding the right seat is so important for your fan experience. I made the mistake in past years of not checking beforehand where the “shaded” seats are at the training sites. On this late February game at Hohokam it was 87 degrees at game time so I was glad I had done the quick research and found the perfect seat in the upper section behind home plate in the shade. For the most part, stay away from the lower sections in the Cactus League where your best friend needs to be sunscreen. There are parks, like Goodyear where the Reds and Guardians train, that it is almost impossible to get shaded seats. Of course, you can always sit in the outfield berms where ticket prices are more affordable. Bring a blanket to sit on and enjoy the afternoon in the sun.

The ballparks themselves you might find interesting. Some of them, such as Scottsdale Stadium (Giants), Tempe Diablo Stadium (Angels), and Hohokam Park (Athletics), are very old school. The two newest ones, Salt River Fields (home of the Diamondbacks and Rockies), and Sloan Park (Cubs), are modern in every way and draw better crowds than some MLB ballparks do. The dimensions of the parks (sometimes you will see 430 feet to dead center) are larger than MLB sites. The baseball carries better in the hot weather so the designers adjusted accordingly. And the best part of it all is that there is clearly less glitz in the Cactus League ballparks – smaller scoreboards; no constant feed of statistics; and less over the top promotions. Just sit back and enjoy the day!

That is not to say that the food offerings at Cactus League ballparks are disappointing. Quite the opposite. It seems like each park has its wonderful, feature foods. Sloan Park offers Chicago style hotdogs, making Mesa the Wrigleyville of the West. (Note: you can also find Lou Malnati’s and Portillo’s throughout the Phoenix area.) Hohokam Park features pretzels shaped like a mustache, clearly giving the fans a throwback moment to the Athletics of the 1970s and their facial hair. Goodyear features Skyline chili dogs for the many Reds fans who visit. My favorite though is lemonade at Scottsdale Stadium. The vendors love to say, “lemonade, lemonade, just like your Grandma made.” It just makes you feel good about being there.

The baseball topic this spring of course is the advent of the ABS (automated ball strike) system. It was tried at a couple Cactus League ballparks last spring and throughout the minor league systems over the last few years. ABS will be in place for the entire MLB 2026 season. The system sets up a strike zone box for each player based on a natural batting stance. Each team gets two challenges that are triggered by a touch of the head by the batter, catcher, or pitcher. If your challenge is correct, you maintain it. The word around the league is that only catchers and certain batters will have the license to challenge. I’ve heard a couple managers muse that “pitchers think every pitch is a strike”. So far, it has been a great success! Not only does it catch erroneous home plate umpire calls, but it is done in an expeditious way. ABS is here to stay.

About halfway through this spring’s games, the World Baseball Classic had its impact. MLB filled the rosters of the many international teams, including Venezuela, the eventual winner. While the WBC did create opportunities to play for those who weren’t invited, managers struggled with how much work pitchers should get before and after the competition. Inevitably, there were a handful of injuries at the WBC, including the one suffered by Cubs’ All-Star hitter, Seiya Suzuki, who starts the season on the Injured List.

When the spring games entered the final week, the focus shifted to the soon to be opening of MLB 2026. Starting pitchers had longer outings, positional players took more at bats, and some players fought for the last few spots on the roster. What I found very interesting is that there were many split squad games played in the last two weeks. That’s where half of your team plays a home game while the other half travels to a road site. This allows ample playing time for all. In addition, you find starting pitchers getting pitching assignments against the other league’s teams, not their own league or division opponents. You never want to show too much of your stuff if you don’t have to.

Spring training baseball can be summed up in a single word, “relax”.  If you haven’t gone on a spring break outing to the Cactus League or Grapefruit League, or it’s been too long between visits, put it on your list. You won’t regret it. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Playoffs 2025

The 2025 Wild Card playoff games begin tomorrow and start what baseball fans hope to be an October to remember. The final seedings were not decided until just yesterday. Let’s take a look at all 12 entrants this year sorted through their respective seedings:

Milwaukee Brewers (NL).  The Brew Crew won their 4th NL Central title in five years and had the most wins in the entire MLB. Every year I doubt this team, but they seem to find a way to win like no other team in baseball. Led by Christian Yelich and William Contreras, both the offense and defense are really solid. Their pitching strength is in the bullpen. If you are trailing them late in the game, Trevor McGill and Abner Uribe will shut the door. Their Achilles heal is starting pitching. With Brandon Woodruff and Jose Quintana on the IL, Freddy Peralta and Jacob MIsorowski need to come up big for Milwaukee to go deep into the playoffs.

Toronto Blue Jays (AL).  I’ve only seen Toronto play a handful of times all season, but they are truly fun to watch. They have a powerful lineup with the likes of George Springer, Dante Bichette, and Vladimir Guerrero in the 1-3 slots. Don’t get in a high scoring game with this bunch. Their starting four pitchers, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Chris Bassitt, and Max Scherzer, are formidable but a little unpredictable. Who knows, there could be a little “Max Magic” in the air just like the 2019 Nationals experienced.

Philadelphia Phillies (NL). The Phils’ starting lineup is packed with some big names – Harper, Realmuto, Bohm, and Castellanos, but how many teams can also boast the NL batting champion (Trea Turner) and NL HR and RBIs leader (Kyle Schwarber). Powerful is the word. It’s hard not to put their starting staff in the elite category when on any given day Christopher Sanchez, Ranger Suarez, Aaron Nola, or Jesus Luzardo will take the hill. Philadelphia’s bullpen was bolstered by the trade deadline acquisition of Jhoan Duran from the Twins. The Phillies are primed to make a serious run at the title.

Seattle Mariners (AL). The Mariners got hot at the right time, sweeping the Astros in Houston in a key 3-game series down the stretch. Their offense has excelled all year behind the power of Cal Raleigh and all around play of Julio Rodriguez.  Throw in the acquisitions of Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor at the trade deadline and this team thrived in August and September. You have to like their pitching too with Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, and George Kirby. Grab some Seattle coffee and enjoy them in the playoffs.

Los Angeles Dodgers (NL). Yes, the 2024 World Champions won the NL West this year again, but for whatever reason, I’m just not sold on them this year. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking. Their lineup too is full of stars headed by Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman. And maybe their starting staff is ranked at the top of list, featuring Yamamoto, Glasnow, Snell, and Kershaw. While it would be a good story if Kershaw turns his playoff performances around with a solid 2025, I just don’t see it happening. Ohtani on the mound in some fashion is certainly a wild card. Don’t count them out, but also don’t count them in.

Cleveland Guardians (AL). Cleveland has been the surprise team of the second half! On July 9, they were 15 ½ games behind Detroit. Going into September, they were still 9 ½ games back. While they needed a series win over the Tigers this past week and a Tigers collapse to win the division, they won the AL Central and go into the AL playoffs with tons of momentum. So who is on this upstart team? Two of my favorite players, the most consistent third baseman in the game, Jose Ramirez, and one of the top left fielders and leadoff hitters, Steven Kwan. Despite having no big names on the mound, consistent starts in the last four weeks have led them to the September promised land. Will that continue in October?

Chicago Cubs (NL). Full disclosure, I’ve seen this team play 90% of its games this season, and have truly enjoyed the ride. The first half of the season was remarkable with an offense matched by no other team. Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Carson Kelly and Seiya Suzuki led the way, but were certainly assisted by Michael Busch, Nico Hoerner (who finished 2nd in the NL in batting), and Dansby Swanson. Rookie third baseman Matt Shaw had a solid second half. The Cubs withstood injuries to its starting staff all season, and now look to them for some clutch October outings. Lefties Imanaga and Boyd have been stalwarts, and rookie Cade Horton has been sensational but is now on the IL. The bullpen has been good for most of the year, led by Brad Keller and closer Daniel Palencia. The bullpen and health of Kyle Tucker will be the keys to their October success story.

New York Yankees (AL). It’s difficult not to start with anyone other than Aaron Judge, the leader of the team and the best player in the AL. He is surrounded by a star-studded lineup, including Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice, and Jazz Chisholm. The trade deadline acquisition of Ryan McMahon from the Rockies clearly helped. The bullpen was bolstered mid-year with David Bednar.  The fortune of last year’s AL champs will rest upon the starting staff. While Max Fried and Carlos Rodon give the Pinstripers a one-two punch on the front end, looking for a quality 3rd and 4th starter will be the challenge. It’s difficult to see this team repeating as AL champs.

San Diego Padres (NL).  The Padres went all in at the trade deadline, landing a closer in Mason Miller and some help at first base (Ryan O’Hearn) and left field (Ramon Laureano). These additions supplemented the incredible core of Tatis, Arraez, and Machado! The Padres put on a late season surge but couldn’t catch up to the Dodgers. Their starting staff has some big names, Dylan Cease, Nick Pavetta, Michael King, and Yu Darvish, but only Pavetta and King starred this season. When San Diego visits Wrigley Field this week, they will provide a formidable test for the Cubs.

Boston Red Sox (AL).  This is another AL team that was pretty well counted out in the first half, but came to life in the second. It seemed like they were cashing in their chips when they traded Rafael Devers to the Giants, but in an odd way the trade seemed to ignite the club. They have some names in the everyday lineup you will know – Trevor Story; Alex Bregman; Nathaniel Lowe; and Wil Abreu. What makes them a threat in the postseason is that their ace pitcher, Garrett Crochet, is surrounded by some quality, veteran starters, Lucas Giolito and Dustin May.

Cincinnati Reds (NL). I watched a lot of Reds games too along the way this season, and not in my wildest dreams did I see their surge to the playoffs in the last two weeks coming. Their lineup lacked power until recently when Spencer Steer got hot. Their best player, shortstop Elly De La Cruz, had a tough year from the right side of the plate and certainly in the field. And yet, they kept afloat around .500 for most of the season, and their winning streak in the last two weeks got them the final playoff slot. What makes this group a team that other NL teams would just as soon not play is its deep starting staff, headed by Hunter Greene and his cohorts Singer, Abbott, and Lodolo.

Detroit Tigers (AL). I had the Tigers penciled (maybe, penned) in the number one overall AL slot for most of the year. Their September fall caused Detroit to fall back into the #6 slot on the AL side. They are still a formidable team, with a lineup of Gleyber Torres, Riley Greene, and Spencer Torkelson. Where they are really dangerous is on the mound with the 2024 AL Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, leading the way. Casey Mize is a quality #2 and veteran Jack Flaherty fills out the rotation. It will be interesting to see if this team rebounds in October.

Until next season,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Realignment

Note: Some of the history in this article comes from a prior blog piece “Balanced Schedule” published in April 2023.

While there are AL division races still to be settled and wild card spots in both leagues up for grabs, all eyes after this week will turn to October playoff baseball. The current NL and AL teams, scheduling, and playoff formats are understood by baseball fans, but times may be changing soon. In an interview on Sunday Night Baseball on August 17, 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred discussed the possibility of a revamped landscape in terms of league structure, scheduling, and playoff formats. The long tradition of storied franchises in the National and American Leagues playing in the World Series might even be in play.

Why is realignment an issue at all? Currently, MLB has 30 teams, 15 in the NL and 15 in the AL. MLB is looking at expansion by adding two more teams and making it a perfect rounding of 32. The possible expansion cities most talked about today include Nashville, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Montreal. What this would do is create for each league two divisions of eight teams or four divisions of four teams. Manfred has maintained that realignment should focus on grouping teams geographically to minimize travel distances. He has stated: “We could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel.” That’s a hard take for me given the chartered jets teams travel in nowadays. The pessimist says that Manfred is looking at ways to revive baseball if there is a work stoppage in 2026.

There’s a lot to sort out here, but let’s first look at the history. For me, the history of MLB scheduling starts with the early 1960s – two leagues (AL and NL) and no interleague games.  The World Series was just that, a time that the AL and NL pennant winners would face each other for the first time in the season.  In 1969 MLB introduced divisional play, two divisional winners playing in league championship series with the winners meeting up in the Series.  The first MLB regular season interleague games did not take place until 1997.  For the next fifteen years, interleague play consisted of one division in each league playing a division in the other league.

Up until 2012, baseball attempted to keep interleague play from deciding pennant races.  All interleague games were played prior to the All-Star Game.  What happened though is that interleague play reduced the number of games played by each team against non-divisional league opponents. Indeed, each team was playing between 16 to 20 games annually against each divisional opponent, making up nearly half of each team’s regular season calendar.  As the playoff format introduced additional wild card entrants in each league, the better teams in divisions that were top-heavy had a greater chance in making the playoffs since they could beat up on the also rans.  Something had to change.

Enter the 2023 balanced schedule. The schedule now in place reduces the number of games against division rivals to 13, totaling 52 games; adds more same league games, given that each team will play six games against six opponents and seven games against four opponents in the same league, a total of 64; and 46 interleague games.  It’s the same 162, except spread out more evenly.  The playoff impact, of course, is that strength of schedule within one team’s division becomes less of a factor.

The biggest change has been the number of interleague games, where teams have gone from 20 annually to 46.  The spirit of the balanced schedule was to make the game more fan-friendly, providing fans with the opportunity to see more opponent matchups. Natural interleague rivals, such as the Angels-Dodgers, Guardians-Reds, Yankees-Mets, and White Sox-Cubs, include home and away series, while the other interleague games are at the respective teams’ home ballparks on alternating seasons. Of course, the concern has been that the storied, long-time rivalries have been reduced from 19 games to 13, such as the Cubs vs. Cardinals NL rivalry.

All of this may take an abrupt right turn if Manfred’s vision of realignment becomes reality. In terms of geographic realignment. I’ve seen many proposals, most of which have the two teams in the three cities with crosstown rivlaries, NYC, Chicago, and LA, facing off in the same divisions. The crazy piece is that the city rivals will land in divisions in either the AL or NL, upending a longstanding tradition for one of the city rivals. Most of the proposals find the natural rivalries, Red Sox vs. Yankees and Cubs vs. Cardinals, maintained in the same division, but more than one proposal breaks up the Dodgers vs. Giants rivalry if there are eight, 4-team divisions. One proposal has the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies all in one division, kind of a top heavy, big spending grouping in today’s game. Even crazier is a proposed structure which lands both the Pirates and Reds, two of the longest tenured NL franchises, in the “AL South”.

Scheduling, including the length of the season, will be in play. If there is indeed an eight division format, a 156-game season might make most sense since each team might have 12 games against division rivals (36 games), six games against the other intraleague teams (72 games), and three games against teams in the other league (48 games). Sounds easy right, but nothing has ever been easy in MLB scheduling. It’s difficult to imagine the owners and MLB Players Association agreeing to a reduction in games.

As to playoff action, I would be a proponent of just four division winners in an eight team per division format or eight division winners in a four team per division format getting into October action. We could return to the days of having teams competing for the division titles on an in or out basis. Owners though are not going to let that happen with all of the revenue on the table in the playoffs. We will see at least 12 teams get in just like the MLB today and hope that 16 teams, like the NBA and NHL, do not. Maybe the landing spot will be 14 teams in the playoffs, and similar to the NFL, the NL and AL teams with best records getting a bye. Your head begins to spin just thinking about all of the possibilities.

So here’s to the 2030 World Series where the AL Reds face the NL White Sox!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Curveball

One of my fondest memories is attending a baseball fantasy camp in February 1999, a chance to spend an entire week in Florida playing a slate of games with my new-found 72 baseball friends and forming teams coached by former Reds players. My coach was Pat Zachary, a pitcher who helped Cincinnati win the World Series in 1976. Pat’s Texas drawl and sense of humor kept me laughing through a series of weekday doubleheaders in which I was the starting pitcher for the morning games. Late in the week I was clearly tired and couldn’t seem to get my fastball by a hitter who fouled off five consecutive pitches. From the dugout I heard Pat yell, “Hey Gieseke, give him the hook.” Knowing that the entire ballpark had heard his comment, I decided anyway to abide by his wishes and serve my curveball to the plate. About 300 feet later, I knew it was the wrong choice. Pat belly laughed from the dugout.

A curveball is a pitch designed to keep hitters off balance by creating downward spin as the ball approaches the plate. It can go by many names – hook; breaking ball; deuce; No.2 (the catcher signals the pitch by putting two fingers down); Uncle Charlie; and nowadays a slurve or sweeper. What you don’t want to throw is a “hanger” which I did back in 1999 that has little downward movement and seems to be served up to the batter on a silver platter. The physics of the pitch is called the Magnus effect with the goal of delivering it to the plate with topspin, creating a pressure zone on top of the ball that causes it to move downward in flight. The most common way to grip a curveball  is to position your middle finger along one of the seams and snap the ball downward on release. 

The history of the curveball is an interesting one. Many point to Candy Cummings, a pitcher in the 1860s and 1870s, as the inventor. John Thorn, who is the official historian of MLB, credits Joseph McElroy Mann of Princeton University as the first college pitcher who threw one. Crazily, when pitchers started to master the pitch, they were considered to be too deceptive. Harvard University actually banned the pitch for its team claiming that it was a dishonest practice unworthy of its players. Pitchers soon though adopted the pitch as part of their arsenal, since it created  lots of swings and misses, and of course strikeouts. As for me, I fell in love with it as a 12-year old pitcher. It was my out pitch, and little did I know or care how much stress it placed on my shoulder.

There are some all-time great pitchers who are famous for their curveballs. At the top of the list is Sandy Koufax, who pitched for the Dodgers from 1955 through 1966. What is often untold is that Koufax was just an average pitcher in his early years, described by sportswriters as one having a great but wild fastball. Until he perfected the curveball. From 1961 to 1966, Koufax had the best six seasons on the mound than anyone in baseball, ever! His achievements include – 3 Cy Youngs (1963, 1965, and 1966); five times NL ERA leader (1962-1966); four times NL strikeout leader (1961, 1963, 1965, and 1966); two times World Series MVP (1963 and 1965); four no-hitters and a perfect game. He was simply unhittable, mostly because he had a curveball that would move close to 20 inches as it arrived at the plate. Unfortunately, his career came to an untimely end after the 1966 season when he experienced chronic pain in his left elbow.

Around that same period another pitcher picked up the curveball gauntlet who experienced much more longevity, Nolan Ryan. Ryan began his career in 1996 with the Mets and ended it in 1993 with the Rangers, with two other stops along the way (Angels and Astros). Most think of Ryan as this dominating, 100+ mph fastball pitcher, which he was, setting the all-time strikeout record of 5,714 Ks. He was also known for perfecting the 12-6 curveball, dropping his curveballs straight down at the plate at a high velocity. He simply overpowered batters, setting the all-time batting average against record of .204. Ryan recorded seven no-hitters in his HOF career, yet never threw a perfect game and even more amazingly, never received the Cy Young. 

Today, another Dodger, Clayton Kershaw, is the one most known for having an unhittable curveball. Kershaw began in 2008 with LA, and has remained a Dodger for his entire career. Just this season, Clayton recorded his 3,000th strikeout. His career numbers are outstanding – first pitcher to lead MLB in ERA for four consecutive seasons; a 3-time NL wins and strikeouts leader; and a 2.52 career ERA, the second-lowest in baseball history. His win-loss record is an amazing 221-96!  Yet, many see him now as the pitcher who hasn’t fared well in post-season play (4.49 ERA) and now struggling to baffle hitters with an assortment of breaking balls thrown at different arm angles and speeds.

In baseball today, curveball usage has seen a steep decline. The statistics are overwhelming. The overall MLB rate dropped from 10.7% in 2019 to 8.1% last year. Indeed, there were 22,962 fewer curveballs in 2024 than five years ago. The Athletics, making it sort of a no-no mantra for its pitching staff, has seen their pitchers use curveballs at a rate of just 2.5% this season.

So why the huge drop off? In short, it’s all about velocity nowadays. Average four-seam fastballs (throwing the fastball across the seams for an upward motion) are clocked at 94.4 mph this season up from 91.9 mph just fifteen seasons ago. Indeed, they are now used 22.6% of the time, compared to 15.6% in 2008. And basically, almost every pitch in the repertoire of pitches today are thrown at high speeds to overpower the hitter. The new motto on the mound is throw hard for as long as you can until the next fireballer replaces you. Yankees star pitcher Gerrit Cole said it best: “As you’re an amateur going to the big leagues guys are looking at velo. Velo is important and it pays.” 

One of today’s only true curveball pitchers, Charlie Morton, received much attention at the trade deadline (traded on July 31 from the Orioles to the Tigers) because of his consistency in taking the ball every fifth day as a starter. He actually leads MLB in curveball usage at 39%. Morton often tells the story of learning the pitch at an early age from his dad, saying that “you basically throw it like you’re re-throwing a knife”. The knife image is way too vivid for me, since I’ve had the wonderful experience of having two replacement shoulder surgeries in the last fifteen years. Advice from your Coach to the children and grandchildren out there: don’t throw the pitch until you are at least 18 years old and do so only 2.5% of the time!

Until September 22,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Female Umps

• Note: Portions of the historical content of this piece are from a prior blog article, “You’re Out”.

My first managerial job was in 1993 when I led my oldest daughter’s fastpitch softball team. The team’s leadoff batter and one of our pitchers was a quiet, yet confident, girl named Kelly. She was the perfect leader – attended each practice and game, hustled on every play, and cheered with and encouraged her teammates. It was a joy to coach her. Years later I attended a game umpired by a young woman with a long ponytail who was definitely in charge and in the correct position on every play. It was Kelly! She had become an umpire to earn a few bucks on the side. We both smiled as we chatted after the game and caught up a little. Kelly, I’m sure, is smiling broadly today.

On August 9th Jen Pawol became the first woman ever to umpire an MLB game. She was the first base umpire in the first game of a doubleheader between the Marlins and Braves in Atlanta. With 50 family members and friends in full support in the stands, her first game by all accounts went smoothly. Braves manager Brian Snitker said simply: “You can tell she knows what she does.” The umpire cap she wore that day is on its way to the Hall of Fame. And on the next day, Pawol manned home plate in the series finale. In her words: “The dream actually came true today.” 

Jen’s path to the big leagues is an interesting one. In college she starred as a softball catcher for Hofstra University while umpiring softball games on the side at $15/game. As a player, she was a member of the gold medal winning U.S. team in the Women’s Baseball World Series. She continued to umpire softball games part time for 11 years.  In 2016, she attended formal umpire training in Vero Beach, FL, and her performance landed her an umpire spot in the Gulf Coast League the next year. She migrated her way through the minors, landing a job at the Triple-A level beginning in 2023. Jen became the first woman umpire at AAA in 34 years.

Pawol also has a right to smile in securing a spot in the MLB this season. An MLB umpire is one of the highest paid officials in professional sports.  A first-year umpire starts in the $100,000s while veteran umps often earn three times that annual salary. In the playoffs an MLB umpire can make around $20,000 per game, a little more than Jen’s $15 per game umpiring softball. Turnover is low, which is good for those who have made it to the big leagues and bad for those struggling in the minor leagues to get there.  For umpires toiling in the minor leagues the road is long, the pay is barely adequate, and most often there is a dead end sign ahead.

I wish I could say that I have followed the careers of MLB umpires.  Yes, some last names ring a bell, especially when they span across two generations and 50+ years of service, such as these father and son combinations – Ed and Paul Runge; Tom and Brian Gorman; and Shag and Jerry Crawford.  But just like everyone else, my memory of umpires concerns bad calls.  In Game 1 of the 1970 World Series between Cincinnati and Baltimore a controversial call made by home plate umpire Ken Burkhart is still painful to remember.  As the Reds Bernie Carbo ran home avoiding the tag of Orioles catcher Elrod Hendricks, Burkhardt raised his fist in the air signaling an out. Fifty years later I can still hear Reds manager Sparky Anderson screaming “there’s no way possible” at Burkhart.

And then there was “The Call” in the 1985 World Series that decided the Missouri interstate match-up between St. Louis and Kansas City.  The Cardinals led 3 games to 2 with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6.  Jorge Orta, the Royals leadoff batter, hit a bouncing ball toward Cardinals first baseman Jack Clark who tossed it to pitcher Todd Worrell, clearly beating Orta to the bag.  Yet, instead of raising his fist for an out, first base umpire Don Denkinger signaled safe.  The Royals won the game 2-1 and dominated Game 7 in 11-0 fashion, setting off a celebration on the wrong side of the state.

The 1970 and 1985 World Series calls would have been most probably overturned in today’s replay review.  When the system expanded in 2014 to include more than just disputed home run calls, baseball fans and commentators have offered endless criticism on what plays are reviewable and how much time it takes to make a review decision.  Since we have state of the art technology available now, I contend that we should be able to correct as many missed calls on the field as possible. The issue is putting in place a system that is fair, transparent, and timely. 

Over the past few seasons minor league baseball has experimented with an Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system with much success. ABS does not utilize robot umpires, as some feared, but rather technology to assist umpires in calling balls and strikes. During spring training play this year, MLB incorporated a challenge system. Challenges to calls can only be made on the field by the pitcher, catcher, or batter, and needs to be done so quickly. MLB is working toward implementing ABS next season. 

ABS doesn’t and shouldn’t replace umpires, especially the likes of Jen Pawol and other female umpires arriving someday soon in the big leagues. Let’s keep Jen and Kelly smiling.

Until next Monday, 

your Baseball Bench Coach

Winning the Trade Deadline

The July 31 Trade Deadline is kind of tricky. For teams in playoff contention, it’s time to add a key player or two for the stretch run. If you are out of contention, maybe you put up a “for sale” sign and try to land a player who will help in future years. And if you are on the fence, all you can do is take the temperature of the market and see what side the grass is greener. It’s difficult to judge winners/losers of the Trade Deadline until the October playoffs or maybe even years later. But let’s give it a shot three weeks after the deadline and find the eight “winners”.

Athletics. When your team is on the losing side of games more often not, maybe you don’t need one of the best closers in the game, Mason Miller. The Athletics swung for the fence and traded Miller to San Diego for one of the top prospects in baseball, shortstop Leo De Vries. When De Vries was just 13 years old, scouts raved at his potential. Now 22, he has the power, speed, and rocket arm to be a top five player someday soon. Watch for him in Vegas!

Phillies. Philadelphia has been riding high all year with elite starting pitching and an all-star studded lineup. Their big need was a closer, and they landed one, Jhoan Duran, of the Twins. It was simply a matter of the rich getting richer. Before acquiring Duran, the Phillies’ top closer, Jordan Romano, had only eight saves with a plus 6 ERA. Duran has been putting on a show out of the bullpen since the trade, but suffered a minor injury setback this past weekend.

Mariners. Seattle’s success this season has had a simple recipe – solid pitching, great defense, and a whole lot of Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez. They needed some more punch in the lineup to overtake the Astros in the AL West, and the Mariners’ GM Jerry Dipoto gave them just that! Acquiring two sluggers, Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor, from Arizona in two separate transactions may have provided an AL pennant in Seattle’s immediate future.

Padres. The aforementioned trade for Mason Miller gave the San Diego clubhouse a morale boost, but the club did more than just the headliner. Their three other needs, left field, DH, and catcher, were met in other transactions with the Orioles and the Royals. Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, and Freddy Fermin, not glamorous names but solid performers, are now Padres as well. San Diego has surged in the NL West during the past three weeks, and much of it is the result of the deadline moves.

Cardinals. St. Louis has had a teeter totter 2025. Not many experts gave them much of a chance before the year began, and their early season troubles showed why. The Cardinals though had a good May and June, and found themselves in playoff contention. They came back to earth in July, and probably it was a good thing since they became a deadline seller, the most prominent of which was sending their own closer, Ryan Helsley, to the Mets. They made the second biggest prospect pick up in so doing, landing third baseman, Jesus Baez. Baez has huge power, and Busch Stadium will soon be his launching pad.

Twins. Okay, I know you are questioning my analysis when most deadline lists you may have read suggest Minnesota was a big time July 31 “loser”. Sometimes though, especially when you are a mid-market team, you need to cash in on players you won’t be able to sign and land some future stars. The Twins acquired the top catching prospect on the market, Eduardo Tait, in the Duran deal from the Phillies. Another addition is Mick Abel, a starting pitcher, in that same deal. Look for the battery of Abel and Tait at Target Field very soon!

Reds. Cincinnati is another so called mid-market team, often unwilling to make a bold move to push them across the playoff line. Very quietly, the Reds landed three players at the deadline that may get them the #6 slot in the NL playoff field – Ke’Bryan Hayes, the top defensive third baseman in the game, from Pittsburgh; Miguel Andujar, a slugger from Oakland that gives the team some much needed pop; and Zach Littell, a solid starting pitcher from Tampa who adds to the team’s strength.

Yankees. I hesitate to place New York in a winner’s list, since the team has underperformed over the past three weeks. Their GM, Brian Cashman, has been getting a lot of heat in the New York media over the past five years for not making moves at the deadline. He certainly did this year, as the Yankees landed seven players to add to their big league roster. No huge names though, but solid ones, such as Ryan McMahon from the Rockies and David Bednar from the Pirates.

How did your favorite MLB team do at the deadline? 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Ryno

Cubs nation and the baseball world have been in mourning during the past few weeks with the news of the passing of baseball great Ryne Sandberg, affectionately known as “Ryno”. His battle with cancer over the last two years ended his life, but not the spirit he shared with his beloved Cubs family. Since his passing, the conversation at Wrigley and among all Cubs fans is how Ryno touched our lives. To a person, Ryno is remembered as gracious, always there to shake your hand with a warm smile, and often willing to talk a little baseball, the game he dearly loved.

Ryno’s baseball numbers are off the charts, earning him a spot in the Hall of Fame in 2005. He’s at the top of the list in all-time second basemen in terms of hitting for average, power, and fielding prowess – 1984 NL MVP; career .285 batting average; 282 HRs; ten consecutive All-Star appearances; nine consecutive Gold Gloves; and a .989 fielding percentage. The list of plaudits could go on and on.

Sandberg’s story though is much more than the numbers. He began his MLB career as a shortstop for the Phillies in 1981. Prior to the 1982 season, Chicago GM Dallas Green orchestrated one of the best trades in Cubs history, sending SS Ivan DeJesus to Philadelphia for Larry Bowa and Ryno. While Sandberg started slowly as a Cub in 1982, playing third base and weathering an early hitting slump, his career blossomed in 1983 when he became a stalwart at second base. His Cubs though finished in fifth place in the division and attendance at Wrigley Field remained sparse.

1984 was a whole different story. Sandberg in his NL MVP year lifted the team and the ballpark on his back. For the first time since 1945, the Cubs were in the playoffs, winning the NL East. Attendance soared at Wrigley, with over 2 million fans watching their Cubbies, breaking the all-time attendance record at the historic ballpark. And Ryno, well, he led the team with a .314 batting average; 200 hits; 114 runs scored; 19 HRs; and 84 RBIs! The number that really sticks out that year is 19 triples, quite a feat at the Friendly Confines.

1984 may be remembered most by the so-called “Sandberg Game”, a nationally televised game on June 23, featuring the Cubs against their bitter rivals, the Cardinals, at Wrigley. The game went back and forth, as the Cubs trailed 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth against former Cub and then Cardinals closer, Bruce Sutter.  Sandberg tied the game with a homer into the left field bleachers, and then unbelievably, tied it again in the bottom of the 10th, also against Sutter, with a two-run blast. Ryno remarked years later that the two swings were the only times in his career that he intentionally swung six inches under the pitch to match Sutter’s dropping, split finger fastball. As Bob Costas aptly said, not many players have a game named after him.

In Cubs lore, 1990 might have been a season named after Sandberg based on his play on the field. While batting second in the Chicago lineup, he led the NL with 40 HRs and knocked in 100 runs. Defensively, he played error free baseball for 123 consecutive games! At the All-Star Game that year hosted by the Cubs at Wrigley, he even won the home run derby, launching a handful of HRs onto Waveland Avenue. The early 1990s saw continued success, but in 1994 his numbers dropped and Ryno surprisingly decided to retire mid-season. He did come back for two more seasons, 1996 and 1997, his final two as a player.

I’ve watched many Hall of Fame speeches, but none was better Ryno’s address in 2005. He emphasized playing baseball the right way, which to him meant not only following proper fundamentals but respecting your teammates and the game itself. It came at a time when baseball was still reeling from the news of players abusing steroids and posting numbers the game had not seen before. Famously, in his remarks, Sandberg stated: “(L)earning how to bunt, hit and run and turning two is more important than knowing where to find the little red light on the dugout camera.” Those words remain so true today.

Sandberg’s baseball career did not end there, as he soon decided to take his “right way” approach to instructing young players. Unselfishly, he began managing at the lowest level in the Cubs organization in 2007, the Class A Peoria Chiefs. After two seasons there, he managed the Double A Tennessee Smokies. Then in 2010, he took the helm of AAA Iowa Cubs, where he was named Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year. Unfortunately, he never got the opportunity to manage the Cubs, but left in 2011 to return to his first team, the Phillies. He managed their AAA team before heading to Philadelphia as third base coach in 2012 and as manager (2013-2015).

Ryno returned home to Chicago in 2016, serving as a team ambassador and often appearing at spring training to assist young players. I recall fondly his visit to Sloan Park this past spring. Today’s Cubs adored Ryno. When his statue was unveiled outside the ballpark on June 23, 2024, the 40th anniversary of the Sandberg Game, the entire team watched the festivities from a ramp overlooking the ceremony. Indeed, the statue characterizes his approach to the game, as he sits in a defensive crouch ready for the next play. Of all the comments in the baseball world over the past two weeks memorializing Ryne’s passing, current Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner captured it best: “It was never about him, ever. It was just truly love of the game of baseball.” 

I, too, have a Ryno story. In January 2023 on the day before the Cubs would announce that Sandberg would receive a statue, I had the pleasure of being in the Cubs clubhouse in a group that included Ryno and another all-time Cub great, Andre Dawson. A Cubs official demonstrated the use of a batting cage where a pitcher’s type of pitch, speed, and release point coud be simulated. Dawson turned to Sandberg and simply remarked, “if we would have had this, we would have hit .350 every year”.

Somehow, Ryno has always hit 1.000 in everything he gave to the game he loved. What is your favorite Sandberg memory?

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Baseball Fans

I’ve been a baseball fan all my life. My earliest memory is the last day of the 1964 season when the Cardinals, Phillies, and Reds all had a chance to win the National League. My Dad drove our family to his work friend’s home so we could all watch the Reds game on their “big TV”. I remember how disappointed everyone was that the Reds season ended that afternoon. My fandom began that day though. I’m sure you’ve heard that “fan” is short for “fanatic”, someone who supports a team with an intense level of devotion. Being a baseball fan can be joyous or frustrating, sometimes during the same game or even the same inning. Once you become one, you are in it, for better or worse, for the good or the bad. 

Bad fan experiences start with the story of Steve Bartman.  Recently, I watched the ESPN documentary “Catching Hell” on the misfortunate incident 22 years ago. We all know the story. In the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS between Florida and Chicago at Wrigley, Cubs outfielder Moises Alou attempted to make a catch near a wall in foul territory. The ball was deflected by a Cubs fan, Bartman. The leftfield line umpire ruled no fan interference. The Cubs went on to lose the game and the NLCS. Bartman became the target of fan furor at the game and thereafter. In 2016 the Cubs extended a World Series ring to Bartman as an olive branch. Bartman graciously accepted with these words: “I humbly receive the ring not only as a symbol of one of the most historic achievements in sports, but as an important reminder for how we should treat each other in today’s society.” Bartman is a class act.

Not so classy acts involve fan interference in an intentional way. In 2005 at Fenway Park a Red Sox fan reached over the outfield wall and swung at Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield trying to make a catch. The fan struck Sheffield in the mouth and was ejected from the game. He was not arrested.  Just last October at Yankee Stadium in the World Series, the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts attempted to catch a foul ball when two Yankees fans interfered, one grabbing his glove and the other prying the ball out. The umpired ruled fan interference, the fans were ejected, and are now banned from MLB games. In both instances, fan intensity crossed the line. MLB has announced that it will take a strong stance against any fan interference going forward.

Historically, there are some fun stories.  Fans used to be allowed onto the field while the games were played.  In the early 1900s when the grandstands were packed at ballparks such as Wrigley, teams allowed fans to stand in the outfield and hold ropes to serve as outfield barriers instead of the walls we know today. Over the rope a home run, under the rope a double. Of course, the outfield fans enjoyed a little game of home field advantage, pushing the ropes forward or back depending upon which team was hitting.  Newer ballpark designs and fan safety concerns triggered the end of such practices in the 1920s.

Just about a week ago baseball was reminded of another crazy practice in Wrigley history. You see, in the 1960s fans, many of whom had one too many alcoholic beverages, often would jump over the outfield wall onto the field after Cubs wins, and sometimes during the games. Chicago constructed a basket at the top of its outfield wall in 1970 to counteract the practice. In a July 21, 2025, game between the Royals and Cubs, a Cubs fan tumbled into the basket to get a home run hit by KC’s Jac Caglianone. Unfortunately, the fan needed some assistance in getting out of the basket. The basket had served the purpose for which it was constructed 55 years ago.

Fan safety is a big part of the equation. On May 19, 2019, at Houston’s Minute Maid Park, in a game between the Cubs and the Astros, a 2-year old girl was struck in the head by a foul ball, suffering severe damage. While the Astros and her family reached a financial settlement two years later, the incident triggered fan safety analysis and the need for expanded protective netting in all MLB ballparks. Most recently, the expanded netting has been extended to minor league ballparks as well. The onus though is still on fans to be aware of foul balls hit into the seating area. If there ever was a good example for getting off your cellphone and watching the event you paid to see, attending a baseball game should be at the top of the list.

And then there’s the absolute worst kind of fan, the heckler. I recall going to a game years ago with business colleagues when one of them spent a great deal of time heckling opposing players. I couldn’t believe it. Heckling turned dark blue at Rate Field recently when a 22-year old White Sox fan continued to espouse derogatory comments at Diamondbacks’ star, Ketel Marte. The comments concerned Marte’s mother, and Marte was clearly shaken by the matter. He was tearing at the mound when Arizona manager Torey Luvullo hugged him in a show of support. Luvullo asked that the fan be ejected from the game, and White Sox personnel quickly did so. 

Baseball did all the right things in the aftermath of the incident. The fan has been indefinitely suspended from all MLB ballparks. The next night at Rate Field the White Sox displayed this message: “Baseball is family. The White Sox community supports Ketel Marte.” Luvollo himself was truly family to Marte, serving as a father-like figure at a time when Marte needed him the most. And Luvullo captured the moment in words we fans always need to keep in mind when we attend games: “We need better baseball fans. Baseball deserves better.”

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

HOF 2025 Inductees

About 20 years ago I spent three glorious days in Cooperstown, New York, visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame. I read every word of every exhibit on the three floors of the museum. Whether Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame was also a topic of discussion back then. The odd thing is that he truly was featured in the museum as there was a large Big Red Machine exhibit on the first floor. He just didn’t have a plaque in the exhibit hall downstairs. And crazily, he was also there on the streets of Cooperstown that week. I found him signing autographs at a souvenir store on the main street. Of course, with his passing last fall, Rose will never get to see the plaque that someday will honor his career. 

Yesterday another former Red, Dave Parker, was one of several new HOF inductees. Unfortunately, the Cobra was inducted posthumously as he died 29 days before Sunday’s ceremony. Parker grew up in Cincinnati near Crosley Field, not that far from the Western Hills area where Rose was raised. Parker was a tremendous athlete, starring in football but ultimately deciding to play baseball professionally. Pittsburgh was glad he did, since he starred in right field for the Pirates for 11 of his 19 MLB seasons. Dave was a powerful hitter (339 HRs and 2,712 hits), seven time All-Star, and the 1978 NL MVP.  He was also a truly great outfielder, throwing out 72 runners on the bases during a five year span (1975-1979). You might recall his incredible throws in the 1979 All-Star Game gunning down two AL players.

Parker was a selection of the HOF Classic Baseball Era Committee which gives star players another look after they are no longer eligible for the ballot process of the Baseball Writers. Another such inductee on Sunday was Dick Allen (known early in his career as Richie Allen), who starred on six teams during his 15-year career (1963-1977), most notably the Phillies and the White Sox. Allen was a seven time All-Star as well, the 1964 AL Rookie of the Year, and the 1972 AL MVP. Two images I have of Allen. He used to wear his batting helmet in the field while he played first base. Also, his bat was incredibly big, over 40 inches long and 40 ounces in weight, unheard of today. Allen died in 2020.

Parker and Allen are among several players in MLB history to enter HOF posthumously. I find it frustrating how selective baseball is in honoring the great ones. It seems like you either are or you aren’t a Hall of Famer. I never understood why Ron Santo was a late inductee. His numbers were HOF solid – nine time All-Star, winner of the Gold Glove as a third baseman for five consecutive seasons, and an exceptional hitter (342 HRs in his 15 seasons). Santo was also a wonderful broadcaster alongside Harry Caray in the Cubs’ booth. Yet, he passed in 2010 at the age of 70, still waiting to hear about his HOF election. He was selected for entry into the Hall in December 2021 by the Golden Era Committee. 

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America did elect three players for induction this season, Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner. Ichiro is the headliner for me. His story is quite unique. He starred for nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave in Japan before beginning his career as a Mariner in 2001. In his first year, Suzuki won the AL batting title, led the league in stolen bases, and was named Rookie of the Year and AL MVP! Over his MLB career he received 17 consecutive selections as an All-Star, collected 3,089 hits, had a batting average of .353, and won ten consecutive Gold Gloves. Suzuki was also my youngest daughter’s favorite player. Together, we attended a Seattle vs. Kansas City game at Kauffman Stadium in the prime of his career. We sat closely behind the Mariners dugout. Suzuki graciously flipped a baseball to her, a lasting memory and wonderful keepsake. 

CC Sabathia was a dominating, lefthanded pitcher from 2001 to 2019. His first eight seasons were with Cleveland where he led them to a 2007 division title. In 2009, he signed a $161 million contract with the Yankees, making him the highest paid pitcher in baseball. He delivered big time, leading MLB in wins in 2009 and 2010 and New York to a World Series championship in his first year there. CC is a member of the prestigious 3,000 K club, garnering 3,093 strikeouts and a 251-161 record in his career. One of my friends loves to tell the story of seeing Sabathia at Wrigley Field about nine years ago. Sabathia is a large man, but somehow went unnoticed as he walked by a crowd in street clothes in route to the Clubhouse.

The least represented position in HOF is certainly relief pitcher. The tide has begun to change over the past 15 years with the election of Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, and Bruce Sutter, among some others. Today’s game has clearly evolved on the mound with a huge focus on the relief corps. Billy Wagner’s entry into the Hall yesterday is significant. Wagner’s 15-year career spanned four teams, but for me he was an Astro. The numbers are remarkable – 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings (highest ever for an MLB pitcher with 900+ innings); a career 2.31 ERA; and one of just eight pitchers in baseball history with over 400 saves (422). Welcome to Cooperstown! 

There was another HOF entrant Sunday, Tom Hamilton, the 2025 recipient of the Ford Frick Award. The award is extended annually for excellence in broadcasting. Hamilton earned the highest point total ever for broadcasters by HOF’s Frick Award Committee. Hamilton is the longtime announcer of the Cleveland Guardians, joining the broadcasting booth in 1990. He has called over 100 postseason games. Tom is one of the finest gentlemen and easy listens in the game. He’s been in the broadcasting booth for three different Cleveland teams in the World Series, yet hasn’t captured a World Series ring yet. Here’s hoping he does someday soon. 

When Commissioner Manfred lifted the ban on Rose’s HOF eligibility a few months ago, word came that the earliest Pete might be granted Cooperstown plaque status is 2027.  What stands in the way is the voting members of the Hall. Rose, like Parker, Allen, Santo, and others, will never get to enjoy it. It’s kind of a shame. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach