You're Out

You’re Out!  These are words expressed by one with a stiff upper lip, fair-minded, baseball knowledgeable, rule enforcer, aka the Umpire!  Of course baseball managers, players, and fans don’t always use the same descriptive words for our men in blue.  Depending on whether your team won or lost, you either don’t know who called the game or believe he must have been a bum. The best compliment an umpire can ever receive is that he went unnoticed.  Let’s take a moment to indeed recognize umpires and their role in baseball.

My first job was as an umpire in District 18 Knothole (Cincinnati’s version of Little League).  I studied the rules, passed the exam, and was soon issued a t-shirt, face mask, and a handful of scorecards that would be my first time sheets as a 15-year old employee.  My pay would be five bucks a game; seemed fair enough.  There are so many fun stories to share about my years behind the plate and manning the bases, but the two that stand out involve brushes with fame.  I was once assigned a game where a very young Ken Griffey Jr. played.  I remember seeing Jr. batting for the first time and thinking that his swing was sweeter than that of his dad, Ken Griffey Sr., Reds right fielder.  25 years later I met Sr. at a Reds baseball camp and shared those thoughts with him.  Sr. laughed and agreed I was right about Jr., even then.

I’ll never forget a summer night in August, 1978.  Pete Rose was in the midst of his NL record setting 44-game hitting streak.  His streak stood at 39 and the Reds were in town but had an off day.  That evening I was the home plate umpire for a game that Pete Rose Jr. led off, just like his dad.  There were only about 50 people watching the game until the third inning when Pete Rose arrived.  When word got out Rose was there, it was reminiscent of “Rocky” running through the streets of Philly as literally hundreds of people were soon at the ballpark.  I remember calling Jr. out on a play at the plate and trying not to glance into his team’s dugout where Rose sat.  Interestingly, my umpiring career came to a screeching halt five years later also with an out call behind the plate.  I was umpiring in a Men’s Softball Beer League in St. Louis.  While my pay was now a whopping twenty bucks a game, I called it quits the night that two disgruntled players were pounding on my AMC Gremlin about the terrible call that I had made.  It was time to finally turn in the face mask.

An MLB umpire is one of the highest paid officials in professional sports.  A first-year umpire starts around $120,000, 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 my $5 per game in 1974.   Turnover is low, which is good for those who have made it to the big leagues and of course bad for those struggling in the minor leagues to get there.  Often, MLB only adds 1 or 2 umpires a year to its crew of 68 umpires for the season.  For umpires toiling in the minor leagues the road is long, the pay is barely adequate (just $3,900 per month at the highest level, Triple-A), 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.  With the game tied 3-3 in the sixth inning Reds pinch-hitter Ty Cline hit a high chopper right in front of the plate as Bernie Carbo ran from third trying to avoid Orioles catcher Elrod Hendricks’ tag.   Burkhart signaled “You’re Out”, failing to see that Hendricks had made the tag with his glove while he held the ball in his throwing hand.  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 “You’re 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 (and would hope MLB umpires support) that we should be able to correct as many missed calls on the field as possible.   Those who suggest that we are unduly replacing the human element with the replay system are on the wrong side of the issue.  The issue is putting in place a system that is fair, transparent, and timely.  With every game now on television and the scrutiny of umpire performance seemingly heightened more and more each season, let’s use our advanced technology to help the umpires and as a result, the game of baseball.

ESPN baseball insider Buster Olney opined last year that technology will replace home plate umpires calling balls and strikes by 2023.  I have previously discussed baseball’s use of TrackMan, a radar-based system to call balls and strikes being used in minor league play.  Some commentators have mused whether the MLB should experiment with TrackMan when baseball returns this season.  While today’s HD television and the imaged strike zone add fuel to the argument that umpires too often miss ball/strike calls, I maintain that a better use of the new strike-zone technology would be to effectively grade home plate umpire performance.  Maybe it would pave a clearer path to getting into the MLB for deserving umpires.

On-field use of the new strike-zone technology would have erased one of my favorite World Series moments.  I was always fond of the pitching savvy of Greg Maddux, and recall his starting Game 1 of the 1995 Series between Atlanta and Cleveland. Maddux was masterful that night, allowing only two hits in the Braves 3-2 win.  Harry Wendelstedt (father of today’s MLB umpire, Hunter) was the home plate umpire.  The camera crew captured how Wendelstedt was consistently calling strikes out of the zone.  As the game went on, Maddux knew exactly the location of the extended strike zone.  Maddux clearly was playing the game of “give me an inch, and I’ll take a mile”.  Unfortunately, my Cleveland buddies in the sports bar that I was watching the game weren’t quite as enamored with how it all turned out as I was.

With the pandemic all of us would like to hear the sweet sound of “Play Ball” from home plate umpires sometime soon.  Until then, all we can do is reminisce and celebrate the words “You’re Out” as the fly ball is caught by Reds CF Cesar Geronimo in 1975, the toss across the diamond from the Cubs Kris Bryant lands safely into the first baseman’s glove of Anthony Rizzo in 2016, and the third strike thuds into the mitt of Nationals catcher Yan Gomes, a very long six months ago.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Uncomfortable Truths

I began my research for this article on Wednesday, April 15, “Jackie Robinson Day”, celebrated in baseball since 2004.  Listening to the ESPN commentators and guest athletes pay tribute to the special contribution Jackie made served as a perfect background to writing my series of nostalgic baseball stories.  I remember going with my Dad to a game at Crosley Field in Cincinnati to see the Reds play against the San Francisco Giants and their ace pitcher, Juan Marichal.  We drove to the ballpark on a hot summer night in Dad’s Volkswagen with no A/C.  In checking the box scores for the summer of 1965, I believe the game was played the night of August 4, 1965.

I wish I could tell you that I remember the 4-3 Giants win in 10 innings that evening, featuring two hits apiece by Giants legends Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Jim Ray Hart, and similar multi-hit games by the Reds’ Pete Rose, Frank Robinson, and Vada Pinson.  What I do remember is the popcorn Dad would always get for me at the games, one that when finished I could use the box to yell “CHARGE” with the rest of the fans.  Dad and I loved to keep score together.  I might have received my first lesson that night watching him fill out the scorecard. I can still today hear him reminding me at games not to record a batter being walked as a “W”, but rather a “BB” (base on balls).

Dad did tell me something that night I clearly recall, and until my research this past week, I’ve never truly understood its significance.  Our seats were down the right field line not far from the Giants bullpen.  The Reds’ Frank Robinson was playing right field.  Dad pointed out to me that when the Reds were batting and it was not Robinson’s turn in the order, he would sit at the end of the Giants bullpen bench instead of returning to the Reds home dugout on the third base side.  Dad turned to me and said, “Robbie won’t be with the Reds next year.”  Indeed, in what was one of the worst trades in baseball history, Frank Robinson was traded to the Baltimore Orioles prior to the 1966 season for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson.  The trade is even scoffed at by Annie Savoy in the opening scene of “Bull Durham”.

The trade made no sense from a baseball standpoint.  Robinson was in the prime of his baseball life and would go on to win the Triple Crown in his first season as an Oriole.  His illustrious career included winning the MVP award in both leagues (NL, Cincinnati, 1961, and AL, Baltimore, 1966), two World Series championships (1966 and 1970), 30 HRs in each of 11 seasons, and a first-ballot Hall of Famer (sadly, entering as an Oriole).  Frank Robinson was named player-manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1975, becoming the first black manager in MLB.  He also managed the San Francisco Giants and Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, and served in various capacities in the MLB office after his managerial career.

So why exactly did the Reds make the trade?  What did Dad know about on that hot summer night in August, 1965, that a 6-year old wouldn’t understand?  My research uncovered stories of Robinson’s conflicts on the field with white players, including a fistfight with Braves HOF third baseman, Eddie Mathews, in 1960.  Off the field, after his NL MVP 1961 season Robinson had a run-in with a bully at a restaurant in Cincinnati, resulting in Robinson’s arrest.  In 1963, he threatened to quit baseball because he felt he was being treated unfairly.  I must say that this new knowledge made me uncomfortable.  Maybe it wasn’t a baseball trade at all, but rather the Reds rejecting Frank Robinson, the civil rights activist.  Frank Robinson was fighting back, and perhaps doing what Jackie Robinson couldn’t do a decade or so before.

The celebration of Jackie Robinson’s contribution to baseball is a special one.  We all know the story that in 1947 he broke the color barrier and became the first black player in the MLB in the modern era.  His accomplishments on the field during his 10-year career as a Brooklyn Dodger are remarkable – 1947 NL Rookie of the Year; 1949 NL MVP; 6-time NL All-Star; played in six World Series; and was part of the 1955 Dodgers World Championship team.  In 1997 MLB retired his uniform #42 in all of baseball.   Coincidentally, according to the Society for American Baseball Research, black participation in MLB hit its peak between 1981 and 1997 averaging around 18% per roster.

I kept hearing the word “endure” from the ESPN commentators this past Wednesday, something that truly was Jackie’s mantra during his 10-year career.  While Frank Robinson fought back, Jackie had to just endure.  Jackie Robinson’s nonviolent nature allowed him to withstand racial prejudice throughout baseball. In his 1947 debut in Cincinnati, fans were shouting racial slurs.   Fortunately, his Dodger teammate, shortstop Pee Wee Reese, hailed from nearby Kentucky and came to his defense to quiet the crowd.  The St. Louis Cardinals reportedly threatened to strike if Robinson played, but were rebuked by the Commissioner’s office.  Cardinals great Enos Slaughter spiked Jackie intentionally on the playing field. Robinson’s early death in 1972, at the age of 53, may partly be a result of what he had to “endure” from our baseball nation.

In our annual “celebration” of Jackie Robinson, perhaps we are also continuing to mask some uncomfortable truths.  The game of baseball has not exactly been welcoming to black players and fans over the past two decades.  On Opening Day 2019 only 7.7% of black players filled the MLB rosters.  Black viewership of games and black fans at the ballpark have declined as well.  Indeed, a Nielsen ratings 2017 release indicated that the average viewer for a baseball game was a 53-year old white male.  That really isn’t something to celebrate, but leaves an empty feeling, much like the ballparks on this past Wednesday.

My hope for Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, 2021, is not only that ballparks will be full again, but that we address these uncomfortable truths.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Row 13, Seat 13

I’ve heard the rumblings.  Where are you Coach?  In early March I thought about starting my second season writing this blog with comments about the Astros’ cheating scandal.  When COVID-19 hit hard in mid-March, the scandal just seemed unimportant.  I guess I could get out of the box with my own conjecture about when the season will start and what it will look like.  Let’s wait though until MLB has settled upon an approach. After watching past baseball highlights recently on MLB and ESPN, it struck me what I could offer you, some good old-fashioned nostalgia with a personal touch.  So let the season begin, maybe not on the field, but until “play ball” is called (and hopefully it will be), in your heart.  Let’s tackle our own favorite baseball memories, a little food for our souls.

My favorite baseball memory was on October 11, 1972.  It’s not even close.  On the night of October 10, my Dad walked into our living room in Cincinnati and surprised Mom and me with three tickets for Game 5 of the National League playoffs between the Reds and the Pirates.  You see, the Reds that day had just tied the 5-game series at two games apiece.  I have a strong image of those tickets in Dad’s hands – right field plaza in the green seats at Riverfront Stadium (the Reds now play at GABP, pictured), row 13, seats 11, 12, and 13, Game 5, 3:00 p.m.  I quickly asked for seat 13.  My parents smiled; 13 was and is my lucky number!

I remember waking up the next morning extremely excited about the game but then disappointed when I peered outside; it was raining!  Ugh, but the game wasn’t until late afternoon. I recall wearing my Reds baseball cap to school, White Oak Junior High, but not being able to wear it in class.  Shortly after lunch, the intercom sounded in my eighth grade classroom asking for me to be dismissed to the office.  It turns out that I was one of many leaving school early for the big game.  Upon arrival at Riverfront, it was still pouring.  We got to our seats, fortunately under cover, and waited out the rain delay.   With no cell phone to turn to, I am sure I bided my time reading the game program and perhaps trying to get enough courage to say something to the high school girl in Row 13, Seat 14.

By this time in 1972 the Reds and Pirates were fierce rivals, already established as the NL teams of the 1970s. The Reds had gone to the World Series in 1970; the Pirates had won it in 1971.  Both clubs had amazing offensive players.   Pittsburgh, led by Clemente, Stargell, Oliver, and Hebner, was known as the “Lumber Company”, while my Reds and its core players of Rose, Morgan, Bench, and Perez, were affectionately called the “Big Red Machine”.  Interestingly, when I checked the box scores of the series (you knew I would!), two of the first four games of the series had been played under two hours, something that is unheard of today.

The rains went away, and it was game on!  The Pirates jumped ahead early 2-0 and maintained a lead throughout the game.  As a 13-year old, I must have been yakking to my parents about the Reds inability to win the big game.  I do have a vivid image of seeing the game from behind both teams’ right fielders, the Reds #30 Ken Griffey Sr. (his son Jr. would really become famous!) and the Pirates #21 Roberto Clemente (the greatest Pirate of all time).    Tragically, this would be the last game Clemente ever played.  He died in a plane crash on a rescue mission to Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve later that year.

The Reds trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, facing the Pirates ace closer, Dave Giusti.  There was some hope as the Reds middle of the order was up, Bench, Perez, and third baseman Denis Menke.  Johnny Bench was coming off another NL MVP year, 40 HRs and 125 RBIs.  He had previously won the 1970 NL MVP with 45 HRs and 148 RBIs.  How about one more of each, Johnny?  We learned after the game that his own Mom said those exact words to him while seated alongside the Reds first base dugout.  This kid in Row 13, Seat 13, so desperately wanted to see a miracle.

And then it happened . . . on a 1-2 pitch from Giusti, Bench hit an opposite field shot right at me, over Clemente’s head, clearing the right field wall, and caroming off the facing just before the green seats, a game-tying HOME RUN!  It was bedlam at Riverfront, fans were hugging each other, and the high school girl in Seat 14 turned and kissed me on the cheek.  Every fan stood and cheered throughout the rest of the inning.  Five batters later, another Bucs reliever, Bob Moose, uncorked a wild pitch to pinch-hitter Hal McRae and pinch-runner George Foster (soon to be a slugger in his own right) scored the winning run.  The Reds win the pennant!

I’ve always been thankful to Johnny Bench for giving me that special moment.  In his career Bench had so many wonderful highlights for a kid growing up in Cincinnati like me to enjoy.  In addition to his MVP awards, he was a first ballot Hall of Famer, two-time World Series champion, 14-time NL All-Star, and 10-time Gold Glover, all as a catcher for the Reds.  Bench revolutionized the art of catching by using a hinged mitt so that he could catch one-handed and protect his throwing hand by placing it behind him.  And even though my favorite single memory was his 1972 NL playoffs home run, his throwing arm was the Reds’ best weapon.  In Lou Brock’s 1974 record-setting 118 stolen bases he stole only 1 in 4 attempts against Bench, and in the 10 playoff series the Reds played in the 1970s, Bench threw out 11 of 13 would be base stealers.  That was a game-changing catcher, the greatest ever.

After the pennant-clinching game in 1972, I remember standing in Row 13, shocked and kind of taking in the celebration on the field and in the stands.  For dinner that night we went to my family’s favorite restaurant, the Hitching Post, famous for fried chicken.  It was time to celebrate!  The manager of the restaurant, “Ron”, came over to our table that night and said, “You just attended the greatest baseball game ever played in Cincinnati!”   He was indeed correct.

It’s truly fun to look back.  Now it’s time for you to share your favorite baseball memory.  I look forward to hearing from you in the “Comments” section of my blog below.  Baseball is good for our souls!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Time Travel

In the 1989 movie, “Back to the Future Part II”, the vision of the future included a Chicago 2015 World Series sweep of the Miami “Gators” and the end of the Cubbies’ 107-year drought.   Although the Cubs world championship winless streak was actually broken in 2016 after 108 years, many joke that was only because the writers of the film failed to foresee the 1994 baseball strike!  Time is a great measuring stick in baseball, maybe not in the actual games where innings preside, but in so many other respects.  We love to book back to historical numbers and compare player and team statistics, but also enjoy looking ahead and predicting pennant winners, player signings, and managerial hirings.  So with Marty McFly and the 2019 World Series in our immediate rear view mirror, let’s do our own travel back and forth through time.

This past week itself was truly historical.  With the Nationals winning it all we witnessed something never seen before in professional sports, a 7-game series where not one game was won by the home team.  The hometown fans in D.C. were willing to forego a win at Nationals Park when it meant they could see their Nats become the first Washington team to win a World Series since 1924, certainly a welcomed end of a long drought in its own right.  The Nationals’ playoff run was most remarkable for its never say die comebacks, as the Nats won all five games when elimination was staring at them.  It was another sign in 2019 that unlikely teams can endure long seasons and become champions, the NBA’s Raptors and NHL’s Blues also demonstrating just that.   The Nats turnaround season (playing .667 ball after a 19-31 start) has now even become a rallying cry in NFL locker rooms, exemplified by the Bears head coach Matt Nagy starting practice this past Thursday with a presentation on the Nationals’ comeback championship!

The 2019 playoffs was full of clutch performances. There was none better than hitting star Anthony Rendon of the Nats. In the seventh inning or later in the five elimination games Washington faced, Rendon was 6 for 7, with 3 HRs, 3 doubles, and 6 RBIs. What stood out to me though in the World Series was the masterful starting pitching. Stephen Strasburg received the MVP Award for his overpowering performances in Games 2 and 6. In the playoffs Strasburg’s record was 5-0, the best mark in MLB history. We also witnessed some gutsy performances from Max Scherzer of the Nats. Scherzer’s contribution might have been greater off the mound with his inspiring leadership, such as coming back to pitch after suffering severe neck and back spasms. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more emotion from a player in the post-Series celebration than Max embracing his teammates. On the Astros side, Zach Greinke’s Game 7 outing made the disbelievers believe, and probably the best single game start was Gerrit Cole’s 3-hitter in Game 5. Cole’s win put his Astros in position to win it all, yet he looked hopelessly on from the bullpen in Game 7 when his number wasn’t called.

Looking ahead to the off-season, the standout playoff performances of Rendon, Strasburg, and Cole will certainly bode well for their bank accounts.  Strasburg announced on Saturday that he is opting out of the remaining $100 million and four years on his current contract to join Rendon and Cole in the free agent market.  It would behoove baseball owners to be a little more like the NBA and the NFL in signing free agents expeditiously and build off of the 2019 playoff excitement. The baseball free agent market can’t afford another lackluster one like year, when the signings of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper went into March.   I think there will be more urgency this year, given that baseball’s high profile teams (Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Cubs) have strong needs for these elite players.  The 2019 playoffs was certainly evidence of the baseball adage “good pitching beats good hitting”, so who wouldn’t want to have an ace like Strasburg or Cole headlining your pitching staff?!

Most of the managerial openings have now been filled, and it’s been an interesting mix of hiring old school managers with a win now approach vs. building for the future with a new age manager adept at analytics.  With the hiring of Joe Girardi by the Phillies and Joe Maddon by the Angels, both teams seem to want to come out of the box swinging next season for a championship.  Coupling experienced managers with baseball’s superstars (Harper and Trout), and opening the pocketbooks even more for a top free agent starting pitcher, might make the Phillies and Angels teams to watch.   The Padres hiring of 38-year old Jayce Tingler, a little known coach for the Rangers, is on the other end of the spectrum.  Tingler has no managerial experience but comes to San Diego with a keen eye for player development and a strong grasp of analytics.  The selection reminds me of the Reds hiring of another unknown 38-year old in 1970, San Diego third base coach Sparky Anderson; the Padres certainly wish they are on the receiving end of success this time!  Somewhere in the middle is the Cubs signing of David Ross who Chicago hopes will bring a fresh approach to a team looking for a way to return to the playoffs next year.

While “MLB The Show 20” has announced its play station cover Javier Baez of the Cubs, it’s also good to take an early look at which teams might be the cover boys on the ‘20 playing field. Are the windows closing a little on the Astros and Dodgers? The Astros are coming off three consecutive 100 + win regular seasons, while the Dodgers rule of the West included the top win mark of the NL during that time as well. The Astros will most probably see their ace Gerrit Cole in another uniform next season. And assuming they reach the AL playoffs in 2020, they certainly can’t be confident about Justin Verlander leading the staff given his now 0-6 record in World Series games. Houston, we might have a problem next year! Interestingly, the Dodgers continue to have that same nagging concern with their ace, Clayton Kershaw, who just can’t seem to get over his playoff performance woes. Will another team like the Nationals break through in 2020? I’ll save that one for a Baseball Bench Coach edition early next season.

So what will the game of baseball look like five, or maybe twenty-five, years from now?  Average attendance at ballparks was down again this year to 28,198 fans, the lowest attendance rate since 2003.  Despite the seven-game World Series, television viewership also lagged.  We have to do something about the pace of play.  This year the average time of a nine-inning game was 3 hours, 5 minutes, which tied the record set just two years ago.  As a benchmark, the average game time in 2005 was 2 hours, 46 minutes.  The World Series games drag along even more.   Yes, the between inning commercial breaks are extended during the Series, but here are the facts over the last three years:  the 2017 Series games averaged 3:16; in 2018 it was 3:30; and this year six of the games played ranked in the top 13 longest of all time.  In fact, the Astros 4-1 victory in Game 3 took 4 hours, 3 minutes!  Baseball fans just don’t have the patience anymore to stay engaged, especially since the games are being played late into the evening.  Maybe we go back in time and play a couple World Series games during weekend afternoons as a start.

This summer the Atlantic League did some testing of pace of game measures for MLB, the most controversial of which was introducing technology for calling balls and strikes.  While “TrackMan” had some mixed reaction early in the season, it seemed to gain favor as the season wore on.   Indeed, some of baseball’s top prospects have played in the Arizona Fall League this past month with TrackMan in place and even more success.  Will we see robotic umpires in baseball’s future?  Games 3 and 5 of the 2019 World Series had their fair share of strike zone disputes by players and managers alike.  And the unfairness of the calls as seen through the eyes of the average fan is certainly exacerbated by the Fox TV strike zone box that does not adjust to the size of batters and where the ball actually crosses the plate.  Of course, the dispute in Game 6 of the Series over the controversial runner interference call is not one to be addressed by technology, but really by common sense.  I’ve never been sure why we label umpire calls as “reviewable” or “non reviewable”.   Maybe in the future we will have in place a review system that has as its main purpose the ability to correct wrong calls. 

Baseball is about tradition, and sadly, perhaps that’s what is dragging it down nowadays. I’ve been a long-time advocate of playing the game the “right way”, yet who am I to say what future generations will love about the game. My “right way” mindset took a hit in Game 6 of the World Series. I couldn’t believe that Alex Bregman carried his bat all the way to first base after his early home run, and then watched with even more amazement when Juan Soto did the same with his tie-breaking homer later in the game. What struck me was the reaction of the players during the post-game interviews. Bregman was remorseful, stressing that was not how he was taught to play the game. Rising 21-year old star Soto laughed about it, saying that he thought it was “cool” what Bregman did and wanted to do it himself. Maybe we need a little more “cool” in our game.

Next year’s baseball schedule provides a little bit of old and new. The Yankees will play the White Sox at the Field of Dreams in Iowa, while the Cubs and Cardinals take their rivalry to London. The game needs continuing support from those who love the game rooted in their past, and newfound, broader support from others who might see it in their future. A lot more MLB players, minor leaguers, college athletes, high school players, Little Leaguers, and FANS need to think this time-tested game is cool again.

Until next Season,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Rooting Interest

I remember my Mom coming into the living room while we were watching sports on television and asking, “who are we rooting for?” It was not until I started writing this baseball blog that it hit me how powerful those words were. Sportswriters need to be as objective as possible, while fans need to be just that, fanatics. After my first year of writing this blog, I have found that being a fan is a lot easier than trying to cover both sides of a story. So if you are on the fence without a connection to either team and you want to make a choice, what goes into it? For me, it’s a combination of nostalgia, personal interests, and more often than not, rooting for the underdog. What did this mean to my fandom during this up and down 2019 World Series we are all now watching?

Before Game 1 of the Series, I was confident that the Astros, the most talented team in baseball and my pre-playoff pick, would secure its second title in three years.  Somehow I began to think about the Nationals’ origin back in 1969 when they entered the NL as an expansion team, the Montreal Expos.  I remember that as a little boy that summer I wore the colorful Expos cap to baseball practice, much to the amusement of my coaches.  I also remember that October the baseball world was surprised when the Mets took the ’69 Fall Classic against the Orioles.  The comparisons between the two Series, 50 years apart, were remarkable – both the Mets and Nationals were slow starters in the regular season only to come on strong at the end; were facing World Series opponents in the American League that had posted two of the best all-time regular season records (Orioles with 109 in 1969 and the Astros with 107 this year); and were looking for their first world titles in franchise history.  Yes, a little nostalgia, that history could repeat itself, and certainly, if I would cheer for Washington, I’d be rooting for the underdog!

I must admit that the embarrassing cloud hanging over the Houston franchise off the field also helped land me in the Nationals camp.  First, the Astros team staff after a mid-season game unfairly prevented a Detroit Free Press reporter from entering the post-game clubhouse due to a harmless feud with Astros ace Justin Verlander. After some clamor and a quick MLB look, the incident seemingly went away. Then, during the post-Series ALCS celebration, Houston’s Assistant General Manager Brandon Taubman directed inappropriate comments toward female sportswriters in the Astros clubhouse in support of reliever Roberto Osuna.  The Astros truly fumbled this latter incident with some lukewarm press statements, the end result being the firing of Taubman, a continuing MLB investigation, and the Astros management team perhaps unworthy of another title.

One last factor in support of that crazy “W” which reminds us all of our last visit to Walgreen’s; I’ve lived my entire life rooting for teams in National League cities! When in doubt, I go NL (except, of course, if it is the Dodgers). So there you have it, my Nationals fandom for the 2019 Series is exposed. How have the games played out? And what about those factors I asked you to keep a watchful eye for in my last blog; have they played a part?

The Nationals carried the momentum into Game One in Houston, having won 16 of their last 18 games played.  Home runs, a sign of the times, and a little nostalgia played a big part in Washington’s 5-4 win, the only nail-biter so far in the Series.  Brian Zimmerman, the first player ever drafted by the Nationals, hit the first World Series home run by a Nat. Later in the game, Juan Soto, three days short of his 21st birthday, became one of the youngest players in World Series history to hit a long ball as well.  A base running gaffe by veteran Astro George Springer also led to the outcome.  Giving his best impression of Ronald Acuna Jr., Springer watched his long hit carom off the outfield wall and failed to make it to third base as the tying run in the 8th inning.  We did see one chink in the Nationals armor though.  Since Nationals starter Max Scherzer was uncharacteristically wild, he only made it through five innings.  Washington had to turn to its bullpen early.  Pressed into relief action was 4th game starter Patrick Corbin, a sign of pitching problems to come.

Game Two on the scoreboard was a blowout, 12-3 Washington, but it really was a tight game until the Nationals 6-run seventh inning.  The story again was the failed efforts of an Astros ace.  The night before Gerrit Cole lost his first game since May, giving up 5 runs in 7 innings.  Game 2 saw Justin Verlander’s World Series reputation take another hit as he gave up 4 runs in 6 innings, and was saddled with the loss.  Verlander is an astounding 0-5 in six World Series starts in his career.  The key hit in the game was another Nat home run, this time a leadoff blast by veteran catcher Kurt Suzuki in the seventh inning.  It marked the first time all year that a team had beaten Cole and Verlander in consecutive starts.  My new found Nats were rolling!  It was time to head home and finish up the Series.

After a travel day, the Series moved to D.C. for Game Three before a raucous crowd ready to boost the Nationals and their winning ways.  Momentum plays a huge part in a seven-game series.  Big Mo may have shifted to the Astros due to the strike zone of home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom.  Nats starter Anibal Sanchez, who had pitched a masterful NLCS game against the Cardinals just a week before, is one of those pitchers who needs to work at the corners and off the plate.  The Astros have incredibly patient hitters, and with a tight strike zone, Sanchez worked behind in the count most of the evening.  He became increasingly frustrated in the fifth inning as the Astros took a 3-1 lead.  The Nationals hitting fortunes also changed since they failed time after time to get a key hit off Astros starter Zach Greinke.  Houston’s better bullpen prevailed and the Astros got a much needed win, 4-1.

Game Four presented a huge pitching dilemma for Astros manager AJ Hinch with his team down 2 games to 1.   In the ALCS against the Yankees he opted to skip his #4 starter and pitch Justin Verlander on short rest in Game 5 (the ALCS Game 4 rainout allowed Cole to pitch on regular rest), a loss by Verlander.  Early reports for Game Four of this Series had Hinch turning to Cole on short rest.  Fortunately for the Astros, Hinch showed confidence in his #4 guy this time and started Jose Urquidy, a 24-year old rookie making only his seventh big league start.  Kind of gutsy call by Hinch, but the confidence was well placed as Urquidy was masterful, giving up just two hits in five scoreless innings.  On the Nationals side, Dave Martinez turned to reliable starter, Patrick Corbin, who was coming off a Game One relief stint. Corbin gave up four runs in his six inning outing. Backed by a game deciding grand slam by Alex Bregman and the continued blazing hitting by Michael Brantley (he maintained a .471 batting average in four games), the Astros won a laugher, 8-1, tying the Series at two games apiece.

The baseball world was buzzing yesterday with the anticipation of a Game Five matchup between Max Scherzer and Gerrit Cole.  It promised to be a classic pitcher’s duel to decide the most important game of a seven-game series.  As noted in last week’s blog, the last team to win the World Series without winning Game Five was the Cardinals in 2011.  Then the news broke.  Scherzer was ruled out of the game with neck and back spasms, and the Nats’ Joe Ross was asked to take the mound.  Ross performed well in a five inning start, but was done in by two 2-run homers, long shots by Jordan Alvarez and Carlos Correa.  The Astros Cole did his part, and interestingly, changed his approach from Game One, relying this time on his curve ball as the out pitch.  It’s that kind of an adjustment the second time a pitcher sees a team in a short stretch that makes the difference in winning or losing.  Cole gave up only one run and three hits in seven innings. Astros win Game Five, 7-1.

The Series heads back to Houston tomorrow night for Game Six, and Game Seven, if necessary on Wednesday evening.  Certainly this Series shows firsthand that home field advantage is not critical.  Neither team has won so far at home.  As I write this, Scherzer has not been ruled out to pitch Game Seven.  With the Strasburg and Scherzer combination in Games Six and Seven, there’s still hope Washington could be the Miracle Nats, 50 years after the Miracle Mets laid claim to the nickname in ’69.   My newly found Nats fandom says yes; my objective blog writing says no.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

P.S. Next Monday will be my last blog piece until next spring. Your 2019 World Series Champions will have been crowned. I will provide some closing thoughts on 2019 and a look ahead to 2020.

Watchful Eye

Everyone loves the Fall – the cool, crisp air; leaves turning; and pumpkin spice lattes.  It’s my favorite time of the year as well, yet my focus remains on baseball and our Fall Classic.  The 2019 World Series opens on Tuesday evening.   I truly can’t wait, but I must say that I hope each evening throughout the Series I can remain alert enough to really enjoy it.  You see, the World Series used to mean afternoon baseball.   One of my fondest memories as a little boy was watching the games with my Dad.  He always would take the week off for vacation.  I would run home from the afternoon bus stop and get my seat next to him.  He would give me his insight on hot batters and pitchers, momentum swings, and managerial decisions.  What are the key things to watch for in this year’s matchup between the Nationals and the Astros?

During a short series often a single hitter can carry his team on his back.  Will Howie Kendrick (Nats) and Jose Altuve (Astros) continue their hot hitting? Or will someone else step up? Past World Series have had many hot stick stories.  One could write a separate article on the great Yankee batters in the Series – Reggie Jackson, Mr. October (his legendary 3 home run game in the ’77 Series); Derek Jeter (32 runs scored); Lou Gehrig (12 multi-hit and 4 multi-steal games); and the greatest ever, Babe Ruth (15 Series home runs).   Of course, there were others, often leading the way in upset wins.  How about Roberto Clemente in the Pirates triumph over heavily favored Baltimore in 1971, a .414 batting average and the decisive home run in Game 7?  Or lesser known Billy Hatcher of the 1990 Reds, who from the leadoff spot had an amazing .750 batting average in the sweep of the powerful Oakland A’s?  My Dad would tell me to look out for a multi-dimensional player who could win games in several ways.  For us in our 1960’s living room that was Lou Brock, who in 3 World Series for the Cardinals had these numbers -- .391 batting average; 16 runs; and 14 steals!

In Brock’s third World Series, 1968 against the Tigers, his base path exploits provided another key to look for, momentum swings.  The Cardinals were up 3 games to 1 and leading Game 5, when Detroit catcher Bill Freehan threw out the Cardinals’ speedster not once, but twice in the middle of the game.  My Dad turned to me and remarked, “it’s the Tigers Series now” (which they went on to win in 7 games).  Momentum can swing a Series at any time, even in Game 1.  In 1988 the Dodgers trailed Oakland 4 to 3 in the ninth inning of Game 1 with two outs and a runner on first, and facing one of the great all-time closers, Dennis Eckersley.  Kirk Gibson, injured at the time with a bad knee, limped to the plate as a pinch hitter and hit one of the most dramatic HRs ever in his only at-bat of the Series.  The Dodgers went on to dominate the A’s 4 games to 1.  Gibson had just 4 years earlier as a Detroit Tiger hit a 1984 Series turning home run in Game 5 against the Padres, a long home run off another HOF reliever, Goose Gossage.

As Yogi Berra might have said, 90% of October baseball is pitching, and the other half is mental.  When it comes to hot pitchers in World Series play, another Gibson comes to mind, Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals.  In the 1967 Series against the Red Sox, Gibby allowed only 3 earned runs in three complete game wins (Games 1, 4, and 7).  Coming into the Series hot is the story of Orel Hershiser in 1988.  Hershiser finished the regular season with a 59 inning scoreless streak.  In the World Series he threw a Game 2 shutout and allowed only 2 runs in the Game 5 clincher, capturing the World Series MVP.  More recently, we witnessed the dominant pitching performance of Madison Bumgarner in the 2014 Series.  MadBum allowed 1 run in SF’s opening win over the Royals, threw a complete game shutout in Game 5, and came back on just two days rest to throw five scoreless innings in relief as the Giants completed their even-numbered year magic (titles in 2010, 2012, and 2014).  This year we have some aces who could match these efforts in the likes of Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg (Nats) and Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole (Astros). Watch for them!

While one or more of these outstanding starters might throw gems in the upcoming Series, the way the game is played today a successful start means just a seven inning, 100 pitch performance. Managers Dave Martinez and AJ Hinch will most certainly need to turn to their respective relief staffs to close out games. Relievers have played a key role in past World Series play. Who can forget Tug McGraw of the Mets in 1973 with his trademark “Ya Gotta Believe”, appearing in 5 of the 7 games? Rollie Fingers of the A’s won the 1974 Series MVP award with several multi-inning games in relief. And of course there is the ultimate closer, Mariano Rivera, who spun 23 consecutive scoreless appearances in the Yankees’ 5 titles during his era, along with garnering an MVP Series award of his own (1999). Both teams in this Series have designated “closers”, Daniel Hudson (Washington) and Roberto Osuna (Houston). A key though will be the bridge from the starters to the closers, and which team’s overall relief corps has a better Series.

Another factor will be the role of the designated hitter. Although the AL adopted the DH rule in 1973, it was not a part of World Series play until 1976 when it applied to all World Series games but only in even numbered years. Through time we have adopted its current usage, both teams use a DH only in games played in the AL park. We have had only one designated hitter who has won the World Series MVP, Hideki Matsui in 2009 when he contributed to 6 of the 7 runs the Yankees recorded in their Game 6 decider over the Phillies. This week in Games 1 and 2 in Houston we will most probably see Howie Kendrick as the Nationals’ DH. This gives Washington a defensive boost since the Nats can get Kendrick’s errant glove off the field but keep his hot bat in the lineup. When the Series shifts to D.C. next weekend for Games 3, 4, and 5, watch for how AJ Hinch adjusts his lineup without a DH and how the Astros pitchers fare as hitters. Interestingly, two of the Astros top three starters, Gerrit Cole and Zach Greinke, are former National Leaguers who will settle into the batter’s box quite comfortably.

With today’s starting pitcher accustomed to taking the mound every fifth day, the most typical World Series rotation is for your top three pitchers to toe the rubber in Games 1 and 5, 2 and 6, and 3 and 7, respectively.  So what about Game 4; do you have a solid starter for that one as well?  The Nationals starting staff has answered that with a resounding YES during the playoffs.   A huge key to their success from Wild Card entrant to World Series contender is the strength of their top four – Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin, and Sanchez.  Houston does not have the benefit of a solid four.  In the ALDS against Tampa Bay, the Astros danced around it and threw Verlander in Game 4 with just three days rest, resulting in a loss.  Just this past weekend, we saw the Astros go to a “bullpen game” in Game 6 of the ALCS, this time coming away with a pennant win. And somewhat surprisingly, the Astros’ #3 guy Greinke has not been as solid as expected in the playoffs so far.  While the AL pennant winners will attempt to ride the backs of Cole and Verlander during the Series, the Nats may just may have the starting recipe to upset the favorites.

While Houston is coming off a tough 6-game ALCS with the Yankees, the Nationals have long secured their spot in the Series with a sweep of the Cardinals in the NLCS.  As you settle into your comfy chair on Tuesday night for Game 1, one other key to watch for is whether the one-week rest will impact Washington.  Often a long layoff detracts from your playoff-winning momentum.   Nine of the last ten world champions had less rest going into the Series than their opponent, the only exception being last year’s Red Sox.   Sometimes a longer layoff does allow a manager to gain an advantage by setting the pitching rotation the way he wants it.   That’s not a real advantage this year for the Nats since AJ Hinch, despite the 6-game ALCS, will be able to use Cole, Verlander, and Greinke on regular rest in Games 1, 2, and 3 against the more rested Nats starters.  Interestingly for the Washington starters, only Strasburg has seemed to be effected by getting too much rest in the past.   This year, Strasburg’s ERA with six or more days’ rest is 5.09.  The historical numbers suggest no long rest concern for Scherzer, Corbin, and Sanchez.

By next Monday morning, Game 5 of the 2019 World Series will be in the books.  Maybe that will be the deciding game.  The last team who lost Game 5 but won the World Series was the Cardinals in 2011.  So many trends; so much to think about!  Unfortunately, I am not able to discuss it with you anymore, Dad.  I guess that is why I am writing this blog.  Please know that I will be viewing the games this week with a watchful eye, looking for those moments that really matter. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Little Things

During the past two weeks I watched a lot of exciting playoff action.  My golden retriever can attest to that.  I don’t want to bore you with recaps and statistics offered by others reporting on the games.  So what could I add to your enjoyment of October baseball?  Maybe, the little things!  You know the expression, the “little things in life” matter more than anything.  In baseball, that is so true.  It’s those little things done by the players that sometimes go unnoticed but make the difference between winning and losing.

Yadier Molina, the 9-time Gold Glover and All-Star catcher of the St. Louis Cardinals, is all about doing the little things.  When Yadi came into the league in 2004 he had the reputation of being a standout catcher but a weak bat.  Over Molina’s career his batting stroke (and average!) did improve, but more importantly he became a clutch hitter.  In the Cardinals’ pivotal Game 4 come from behind win over Atlanta in the NLDS, Molina’s offensive contributions included hitting a ground ball in the infield to move a runner over to third base with one out, a game-tying fist hit just off the glove of Freddie Freeman, and a game-winning sacrifice fly.  Nothing glamorous, but it worked!  His defensive skills always stand out, much to the displeasure of opposing teams and their fans.  No catcher today is better at centering his body just off the outside corner and framing a pitch for a called strike; just ask any Braves batter walking back to the dugout with a K!

Matching up against the Cardinals in the NLCS is another surprise team, the Nationals, fresh off their NLDS upset of the Dodgers. (Editor’s Note: YAY!!!) Washington’s Mr. Clutch is most definitely MVP candidate, Anthony Rendon, often described as the most underrated player in the game. His offensive numbers were eye-popping this year, but leading the NL in RBIs with 126 is the most critical one. Rendon means run production! In the Game 4 win over LA, Rendon added two sacrifice flies for the Nats. Indeed, he led all NL batters in 2019 by making contact with the highest percentage of pitches he swung at, 88.3%! Game 5 was his coup de gras. With his team down 3-0 in the sixth inning, in his next three at-bats with the season on the line, he had three hits (double, home run, and single), scoring all three times. Also known for his steady defensive play at third base, he has to be on top of the free agent wish list for many teams this off-season.

On the AL side, the Yankees swept the Twins in the ALDS. New York has a roster full of big-name players, but the one who truly shines is DJ LeMahieu. DJ has one of the great nicknames in baseball, “Big Fundy”, because of his dedication to fundamentals in hitting and defense. He certainly bats for average (2016 NL batting championship and second in the AL this year), perhaps due to his having the lowest pull percentage of any batter in baseball (in other words, he hits the ball where it’s pitched!). Also, LeMahieu sees the highest percentage of fastballs than any batter in the MLB; pitchers know that it is difficult to get him off-stride at the plate. Defensively, DJ is a tremendous infielder, 3-time Gold-Glover as a second baseman, and now he excels at first base for the Yanks. LeMahieu is as solid as it gets, the best of the bunch in the Big Apple.

All year baseball fans have anticipated the Yankees matching up with the Astros in the ALCS; their wish has been granted. Houston too has a bevy of talent, but it all begins with Jose Altuve, easily my favorite player in the AL. Yes, Altuve has the stats and the accolades. Not only was he the 2017 AL MVP, but he won the Associated Press Athlete of the Year as well. Altuve is a 3-time AL batting champion; 2-time AL stolen base leader; and 6-time All-Star. But that does not tell the whole story. Watch him in the ALCS and see how hard he plays the game! There is no player in the AL who goes from first to third on an outfield base hit with more determination than Altuve. For me it’s reminiscent of Pete Rose, someone who may not have the athleticism of other star players but leads his team by hustle and a will to win. Altuve does the little things.

While the Astros best record in the AL and home field advantage helped them survive a 5-game series with Tampa Bay, the Dodgers in the very same circumstance in the NLDS were not as fortunate. The Dodgers all season seemed to be on a World Series return trip by posting the only 100 + win season in the NL. One of their less acclaimed players, Enrique Hernandez, was the catalyst early in Game 5 against the Nats with a second inning HR and leaping outfield grab. Hernandez is one of those players every roster needs, a no frills guy who has played every position but catcher. But manager Dave Roberts’ lack of trust in his bullpen led to his team’s downfall in the late innings of Game 5. By staying with Clayton Kershaw in the 8th inning and not summoning Kenley Jansen until after the game was decided in the 10th, Roberts saw that elusive Series title sneak away. He will be at home this week, left to ponder the little things that might have won Game 5.

The other NLDS team eliminated, Atlanta, has a player who does the little things now but perhaps some big things in years to come, shortstop Dansby Swanson. I saw Swanson play this year at Wrigley Field and marveled at his pre-game work ethic. Batting eighth in the Braves lineup, he was a big contributor to Atlanta’s Game 3 win over St. Louis with a game-tying RBI double late in the game. What stands out is Swanson’s steady play, dedication to mechanics, and hustle on the base paths. You didn’t see Swanson gazing at his hit caroming off the wall (sorry, Acuna, that just can’t happen in the playoffs!), but rather he is the one looking for an outfielder possibly bobbling the ball so that he might turn a double into three bases. Swanson plays the game the way it should be played, tough and hard-nosed.

Two lesser known AL players also caught my attention last week, even though their teams were eliminated.  If you are someone like me who tires of pitchers and hitters who go deep into counts in today’s era of strikeouts, walks and home runs, consider following outfielder Max Kepler of the Twins.  Kepler is old school; he puts the ball in play by swinging at an amazing 50% of the pitches he sees.  Another outfielder, the Rays’ Kevin Kiermaier, mans the 8th slot in Tampa Bay’s order, not often the centerfielder’s spot in a batting lineup.   While Kiermaier did hit an HR in the Rays’ Game 3 win, his much larger contribution is his glove.  He made catch after catch in the outfield alleys so easily that it probably went unnoticed by most. Kiermaier though was as big a reason as any the Rays made such a strong showing in the AL playoffs.

One of the great lines in the classic baseball movie, “A League of Their Own”, is when manager Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks, implores his team about the game:  “It’s supposed to be hard.  If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it.  The hard . . . is what makes it great.”   Yes, I agree, there is probably no more difficult athletic feat than to hit a baseball going 95 + mph with movement.  The game is indeed very difficult to play.  My Knothole (little league) baseball manager loved to tell my team when we were playing a tough opponent, “Hey guys, they put their pants on just like us, one leg at a time.  And we play smarter.”   At any level, winning baseball is all about hitting to the opposite field, running the bases with desire, moving a runner with sacrifice flies and bunts, framing the pitch, and oh yes, playing this hard game the right way by doing the little things.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Bench Coaches

MLB has given us an exciting first week of playoff baseball.   The ALCS and NLCS matchups will be decided early this week.  There are though 20 teams that missed the playoffs, and seven of those have announced managerial openings (Cubs, Giants, Mets, Padres, and Pirates in the NL; Angels and Royals in the AL), the most recent one created this past Thursday with the dismissal of the Mets’ second-year manager, Mickey Calloway.  The status of the Phillies’ manager, Gabe Kapler, another 2018 hire, remains unclear.  The quick changeovers in command are an alarming trend.  On opening day 2020, Craig Counsell of the Brewers will be the longest tenured NL manager, 5 years on the job!

Who is best qualified to fill a manager position?  Many baseball executives point to “experience” as a significant factor.  And how do you get that experience?  It’s not always being a former manager, but often bench coaches are on top of the interview list.  You know the ones; experienced baseball guys who have been the right hand and sounding board to successful managers on defensive alignments, lineup changes, and pitcher vs. batter matchups.  They are being groomed to be the next one up, but often that next open slot is not with their current team.  Some of baseball’s great managers today started as a bench coach.   Indeed, 2 of the last 3 World Series Champions were managed by former bench coaches.

In 2018 the Red Sox captured the World Series trophy behind their manager, Alex Cora. When Boston was looking to replace John Farrell at the end of the 2017 season, they turned to the 2017 champions, the Houston Astros, and their bench coach, Cora, who was under the tutelage of manager A.J. Hinch. Cora’s story is not a unique one for a bench coach. His 11-year playing career was solid but not spectacular, an infielder with six MLB teams. Cora’s study of the game and spirited personality landed him a post-playing gig as an ESPN analyst before his coaching career was launched under Hinch. In Boston Cora became the fifth manager in baseball history to win the World Series in his first year.

The Cubs ended their 108-year drought in 2016 behind the mastery of another former bench coach, Joe Maddon. In Maddon’s playing days he was a minor league catcher in the Angels organization, never advancing higher than Class A ball. He worked his way up the Angels chain for 31 years, serving as a scout, roving minor league hitting instructor, minor league manager, and bench coach for managers John McNamara, Terry Collins, and the talented skipper, Mike Scioscia. As bench coach for Scioscia (2000-2005), the duo led the Angels to the World Championship in 2002. Maddon soon became the main man in Tampa (2006-2014), leading the Rays in 2008 to their only AL pennant. In announcing Maddon’s recent departure from the Cubs after their best 5 years in franchise history, President Theo Epstein mused that there will be a “bidding war” for Maddon’s services. It would be fitting to see Joe Maddon land in the Angels dugout, this time #1 in command.

Terry Francona is another former bench coach with big-time accomplishments.  While his Indians fell short in the ’16 Series, Francona of course ended the Red Sox franchise misery in 2004 when he guided Boston to the World Championship.  He followed that with another Series win for the Red Sox in 2007.   Francona was a journeyman player, a 10-year career with 5 MLB teams (1981-1990), highlighted by his early playing days with the Expos. He quickly went into coaching, serving in the White Sox organization for five years before getting his big league shot as the third base coach for the Tigers in 1996.  Francona immediately jumped into the manager hot seat as he helmed the Phillies over the next four years, albeit unsuccessfully.   In 2002 and 2003, Francona served as the bench coach for the Rangers and A’s.  Since his return to the top of the dugout steps in 2004, he has been recognized as one of the best strategists in the game.

When Francona was matching wits with Maddon in the 2016 World Series, Maddon had a little help, his bench coach, Dave Martinez. Martinez was more than capable as an MLB outfielder and platoon player, a .276 lifetime batting average with 9 teams (Cubs twice) over 16 seasons. When his playing days were over, he nestled into the coaching arena and soon became one of baseball’s most trusted bench coaches. Martinez served Maddon in that capacity for ten seasons (2008-2014, Tampa; and 2015-2017, Chicago). Martinez got his break in 2018 when he was named the manager of the Nationals. His Washington team recovered from some first half duldrums this season to land the first NL Wild Card slot. In the Wild Card matchup with the Brewers, Martinez called on Stephen Strasburg in a game-changing relief role as the Nationals came back and won a thriller.

An AL pennant contender has a top managerial candidate as its current bench coach, Joe Espada of the Houston Astros.  Much like Maddon, Espada never made an MLB major league roster, struggling as a player in the minor leagues for ten seasons.  His entry to the majors was as a third base coach, first with the Marlins and most recently for the Yankees (2015-2017) under Joe Girardi.  After Cora left for Boston, A.J. Hinch pried Espada away from the Yanks.  Espada has been the Houston bench coach for the past two seasons.  As the playoffs continue through October, we might find some teams wishing for an early Astros exit so that they might chat with Espada about a managerial opening.  Rumors have been swirling in Chicago and New York that Espada might be high on the list for the Cubs and Mets jobs.

The Cubs have indicated that Mark Loretta, the Chicago bench coach this past season, interviewed for their top spot this past week. Loretta began his 16-year MLB playing career with the Brewers in 1995, and played on four other teams (Astros, Padres, Red Sox and Dodgers). He had his career best year in 2004 with the Padres -- .335 batting average, 16 HRs, 76 RBIs and 208 hits, along with a place on the NL All-Star team. Loretta returned to the All-Star Game in 2006, this time representing the Red Sox as the starting AL second baseman. Loretta’s post-playing days have taken a different twist than most. He served as a special assistant in the Padres organization from 2010 to 2018 before landing the Cubs bench coach job in 2019. Watch for Loretta’s name to also come up in the Padres’ managerial search in the next few weeks.

Interviews for the 2020 open manager slots will heat up this week.   The teams have a talented pool of interested candidates, including a couple not so ordinary Joe’s who have already reached the pinnacle of baseball success, Girardi and Maddon.  Watch for those unique ties to an organization or a city to play a part in the searches.  And maybe, just maybe, one or more of the 2020 managerial openings will go to a first-time manager, an experienced bench coach. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Playoff Rankings

Did somebody say Playoffs?  Yes, they are finally upon us.  With ten teams heading into the 2019 October scramble, many have described the upcoming playoffs as having a clear Final Four, the AL’s Astros and Yankees, and the NL’s Dodgers and Braves. Yet, in baseball, there are often big surprises in the post-season. Sometimes a team catches fire late in the season and takes that momentum all the way to the World Series.  Also, in contrast to the NFL and NBA playoffs, having “home field” advantage is not always a huge factor.  Will the best team in baseball’s regular season win it all this year? My hunch is yes, but let’s rank everyone’s chances to bring home the 2019 World Championship. It promises to be an exciting October.

Houston Astros. The Astros have won more games (107) than any team in baseball this year. There’s a reason for it; they are strong in every aspect of the game. The lineup is the headliner with veterans such as Carlos Correa (SS), Alex Bregman (112 RBIs), Michael Brantley (.311 batting average), George Springer (38 HRs), and my favorite, second baseman Jose Altuve. Mid-year saw the arrival of Jordan Alvarez, who was the AL Rookie of the month in June, July, and August. Their abundance of riches continues on the mound with starters Justin Verlander (21-6, 2.58 ERA and 300 Ks) and Gerrit Cole (20-5, 2.50 ERA and 324 Ks) competing for the AL Cy Young, bolstered by a mid-year acquisition of another ace, Zach Greinke (18-5 record). Roberto Osuna, second in the AL with 38 saves, is a top closer. Manager A.J. Hinch has the playoff experience to push the right buttons in what promises to be an Orange October. The Astros are my prohibitive favorites.

Atlanta Braves.  The Braves are primed for a World Series appearance.  They are led by first baseman Freddie Freeman, who has had a season worthy of MVP chatter (38 HRs, won the NL RBI crown with 121, and a .295 batting average).   The team overall is youthful and fast, evidenced by rising superstar Ronald Acuna, Jr., who led the NL with 127 runs scored and 37 stolen bases, and standout second baseman, Ozzie Albies.  The Braves too have a solid trio of starters, Max Fried (17-6), Mike Soroka (2.60 ERA) and newcomer to the team, veteran lefthander Dallas Keuchel, who will match up well with the Dodgers’ left-handed lineup in a likely NLCS matchup.  The Braves’ Brian Snitker is one of my favorite managers in the game, an old schooler who knows how to get the most out of his team. The 2019 NL pennant awaits the Braves.

Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers have lost in the World Series the last two seasons. Is this their redemption year? In 2019 LA has excelled, the second most wins in baseball (106). From day one the Dodgers have been setting all sorts of hitting records. Cody Bellinger’s 2019 statistics are amazing (47 HRs, 115 RBIs, and .305 BA), certainly the kind of year that will make him the favorite in the NL MVP race. Typical of Dodgers teams from the past they have excellent starting pitching with the likes of Clayton Kershaw (15-5 and a 3.15 ERA), Hyun-jin Ryu (led NL with 2.41 ERA), and Walker Buehler (14-4 and 3.15 ERA). The Dodgers also tout one of baseball’s top names as a closer, Kenley Jansen. Jansen though has had his troubles closing out games in 2019, and I see it as a possible achilles heel for LA. It’s a great team, hoping for their first world championship since 1988, but again they will fall just short this October.

New York Yankees. I’m sure that the television networks would love to see the Yanks return to the World Series. Unfortunately this NY team is not built for the playoffs. Yes, baseball today is all about the home run ball, a great Yankee strength (Aaron Judge, Giancolo Stanton, Clint Frazier, etc.). And yes, the Yankees have been a wonderful story this year, facing all sorts of injuries to these key players and many others. The team, led by second year manager Aaron Boone, has been incredibly resilient, and has actually been led by some lesser known stars, Glaybar Torres (38 HRs) and second baseman DJ LeMahieu (second in the AL with a .327 batting average). BUT there is a glaring weakness in starting pitching with the loss of top performer Domingo German (18-6 record). With Severino just back, Happ and Tanaka having solid seasons, and Chapman ready to close out games, there is hope enough to get them into the ALCS. The train stops there though.

Minnesota Twins.   The Yankees’ 2019 home run barrage (306) is actually matched by their ALDS opponents, the Twins (307), the only two teams in baseball history who have hit over 300 home runs in a season.  The Twins are led by Nelson Cruz (.311 BA, 45 HRs and 108 RBIs), an MVP candidate.  Amazingly, Minnesota has 4 other players with 30+ home runs, Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario, Mitch Garver, and Miguel Sano.  Jorge Polanco leads the team defensively with his flashy shortstop play.  The Twins’ starting pitching (headed by Jose Berrios) has been steady much of the season, allowing the team to be one of four major league teams with 100 wins this season.  Taylor Rogers (30 saves) is the closer for the relief core.   The ALDS matchup with the Yankees promises to be a dream come true for those who love offense.

St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards won the NL Central fittingly on the last day of the regular season. The entire season has been an uphill battle for St. Louis, spending much of April-July mired in third place. The Cardinals even survived the absence mid-season of their Gold Glove catcher and team leader, Yadier Molina. When you review MLB 2019 individual statistics leaders, not many Cardinal names are on the lists. Paul Kleinschmidt, their off-season All-Star acquisition from Arizona, had just a so-so year for him. What stands out is team play and speed, best in the NL in fielding and stolen bases. The Cardinal also received steady play and a dose of youth in the infield from Paul DeJong and Tommy Edman. Starting pitching was a real key, being able to rely on quality starts from Jack Flaherty, Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas, and Adam Wainwright. Will they have enough to get by Atlanta? The Cards can only hope a little 2011 magic comes their way.

Washington Nationals.  Washington is the top Wild Card team heading into the games this week.  Indeed, were it not for the one and done nature of the Wild Card slots, I would rank the Nats a lot higher than #7.  Life without Bryce Harper has been quite nice, thank you, especially in the second half of the season.  The Nationals have an MVP candidate of their own, Anthony Rendon (.319 BA, 34 HRs and 126 RBIs), together with some great young talent – Juan Soto; Trea Turner; and Victor Robles.  The main recipe for success comes from the formidable starting rotation, 3-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer (243 Ks and 2.92 ERA), Stephen Strasburg (18-6 record) and lefty Patrick Corbin (14-7).   No one in the NL wants a series matchup against this trio, including the Dodgers if the Nats get by round one.

Oakland Athletics.  This is not your A’s teams of the early 1970s or 1989- 1991 with big name stars in the field and on the starting staff.  So how does this A’s team match some of those great teams in the win column (the 2019 A’s have won 97 games!)?  They do have some offensive clout, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Khris Davis, and Marcus Semien, and a top starter, Mike Fiers (15-4 record).  The strength of the ballclub though is clearly in the bullpen, which ranks by far tops in the MLB in games pitched, Petit (79), Hendriks (75), and Soria (71).  That stat alone is the storyline of today’s baseball, and promises to be a key factor in the Wild Card game vs. Tampa Bay.  If Oakland wins this Wednesday, they start the ALDS against another team with colorful jerseys next weekend, the Astros.

Milwaukee Brewers. If managerial success is measured in your team’s September win-loss record, Craig Counsell heads the list the last two years. After their surprise first-place run to the finish last year, the Brewers again came roaring back in September in 2019 to nab a Wild Card slot. Incredibly, their September dominance came without the reigning NL MVP, Christian Yelich in the lineup, who put up MVP-type numbers (.329 BA, 44 HRs and 97 RBIs) prior to his season-ending knee injury three weeks ago. Everyone stepped up as the Brew Crew went on a 16-2 run! This past weekend Milwaukee had an opening to win the NL Central but was swept in the season-ending series in Colorado. With Josh Hader ready to close out the game against the Nats on Tuesday, anything can indeed happen. It’s difficult to see how Milwaukee might advance deep in the playoffs.

Tampa Bay Rays. Raise your hand if you have seen Tampa Bay play more than a handful of times this year. Indeed, despite the Rays 96-win season, their own fans can’t seem to find their way to Tropicana Field. But they can indeed play, and in certainly a unique way masterminded by manager Kevin Cash. The Rays went with a six-man starting rotation some of the year, and much like the A’s, relied on their bullpen strength. Last year’s Cy Young winner Blake Snell actually had an off year (just 6 wins), but others stepped up, including Tyler Glasnow and veteran Charlie Morton who will get the Wild Card start on Wednesday in Oakland.

Which two teams do you predict will be in the World Series?  Enjoy the games!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Finish Line

The 162-game baseball season is often described as a marathon, not a sprint. In horse racing terms, MLB 2019 is the Belmont, not the Preakness. The Seattle Mariners came running out of the gate in April, but soon stumbled into last place in the AL West for much of the season. The Washington Nationals, seen as a favorite by many pre-season analysts, had a disastrous first half but has played some of the best baseball in the National League down the stretch. The Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, and Braves have maintained their dominant run for the entire season and have already been crowned division champions. While those four thoroughbreds get ready for the playoffs, what about the other six playoff spots? Before I predict this year’s possible “wild” run to the finish line, let’s take a look back at some of the best ones in baseball history:

Phold of ’64. I was too little to closely follow the 1964 NL race but have a clear recollection of the final day of the season. My family and I were watching with friends as the Reds lost in their bid to win the 10-team NL race. The Phillies though were the big losers of the season, having led the league since opening day only to “phold” in September. Philadelphia maintained a comfortable 6 ½ game lead with 12 games to play, but lost its next ten games. The losing streak was triggered by a steal of home by a Reds utility infielder, often called the “Curse of Chico Ruiz”. The Cardinals took the NL pennant, the Reds and Phillies tied for second place one game out, and the Giants came in fourth just three games from the lead. It was a good pennant to capture as the Cardinals went on to win the ’64 Series over the Yankees 4 games to 3.

’69 Swoon.  The Cubs were the kings of the NL East for the first three-quarters of the season.  Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, and Billy Williams provided the offensive firepower, while Ferguson Jenkins and Ken Holtzman dominated from the mound.  The Cubs led the division by 9 games over the Mets on August 15.  The Cubs then went into a terrible swoon, most of it attributed to manager Leo Durocher’s using the same regular players without rest in those endless day games at Wrigley Field.  The Amazin’ Mets and its outstanding pitching staff led by Tom Seaver came roaring from behind and posted a 38-11 record down the stretch, winning the division by 8 games. It was a 17 game turnaround! Those Mets would soon be America’s darlings, taking the ’69 Series 4 games to 1 over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles.

Dent’s Homer. As we so painfully experience each year on national telecasts, MLB loves the Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry. A 1978 AL East tie-breaker game might just be the pinnacle of the matchup. The teams had combined to win the last three AL pennants (Red Sox in ’75; Yankees in “76 and ’77). The Red Sox, looking to break its World Series win drought of 60 years, had a 14-game lead in mid-July. The Yanks came storming back and the teams ended in a tie in the regular season with identical 99-63 records. It came down to one October afternoon at Fenway Park, the first tiebreaker game in the AL since 1948. The Red Sox led throughout the game, but we all know the ending. Yankees’ shortstop Bucky Dent hit a three-run homer, only his 5th of the season, to lead NY to a 5-4 win. And yes, those damn Yankees would soon capture another world title, winning the ’78 Series against their other rival, the Dodgers, in six games.

Wild Cards. On August 24 of the 2011 National League season, St. Louis was down 10 games in the NL Central standings to Milwaukee and 10 ½ games in the NL Wild Card race to Atlanta. The Cardinals’ chances of making the NL playoffs was 1.3%. While the Brewers would hang on to win the division in September, the Braves couldn’t withstand the Cardinals’ charge, losing the wild card bid on the final day of the regular season. The Cardinals had completed the largest comeback in baseball history after 130 games played. The Cardinals’ magic turned into a Red October as St. Louis downed Philadelphia (NLDS), Milwaukee (NLCS), and Texas (World Series) to win the world championship.

NL Scramble. The 162-game 2018 regular season did nothing to decide the NL pennant race. On the final day of the season, only the Atlanta Braves, winners of the NL East, had secured their seed in the playoffs. Tiebreaker games were played for the top spot in the NL Central and West with the Brewers and Dodgers coming out on top. The losers of the tiebreaker games, Chicago and Colorado, met at Wrigley Field in the wild card play-in game. And even then, nine innings couldn’t decide the wild card entrant into the NLDS as the teams went into extras tied 1-1. It took an RBI single by Rockies catcher Tony Wolters to decide the game in the 13th inning. It was indeed a “wild” way to begin the 2018 NL playoffs.

Are we ready for another wild ending to this regular season? With two weeks left in the season, that looked to be a strong possibility with four teams bunched up in both leagues vying for three playoff spots (Twins, Indians, Rays and A’s in the AL; Cards, Brewers, Nationals and Cubs in the NL). While the possibility remains, things have become a little more settled over the past week. The AL Central indeed appears to be over. Going into the final six games of the season, the Twins hold a 4-game lead over the Indians. It’s been an amazing year for Minnesota, setting all sorts of team offensive records, including breaking the MLB single-season record for team home runs set last year by the Yankees. The Twins will be popping some corks during the week in either Detroit or Kansas City.

The NL Central has come down to two clubs, St. Louis and Milwaukee.  The Cardinals are in command with a 3-game lead and six games left.  The Cardinals are coming off a huge weekend sweep over the Cubs in Chicago, featuring four consecutive one-run wins, the last two in ninth inning come from behind fashion.  The Cardinals head to Arizona for three games, hoping that they can clinch the division before coming back to Busch Stadium for a rematch next weekend with the Cubs.  The Brewers have had a big September again this year, climbing all the way back from being five games behind in the wild card race just two weeks ago.  When Christian Yelich was ruled out for the year with a broken knee cap, it was difficult to imagine the Brew Crew’s end of the season run to the finish line. Look though for the Cards to win the NL Central sometime this week.

Although the Brewers look to finish second in the division race, they appear headed to an NL wild card showdown with the Nationals early next week.  The teams go into the final week tied for the wild card lead and a four + game advantage over the rest of the remaining teams still alive (Cubs, Mets, Phillies, and Diamondbacks).  The battle this week will be whether Milwaukee or Washington obtains home field advantage in the one-game showdown.  The Brewers are on the road in Cincinnati and Colorado, while the Nationals are back in D.C. for a final homestand with the Phillies and the Indians. While both the Brewers and Nationals hope to play the wild card game at home, maybe the more important task is to line up their pitching staffs for the winner take all game.

The AL Wild Card race has three teams, the A’s, Rays, and Indians, fighting to win and place; show (3rd) won’t cut it.  Oakland has a 2-game lead over Tampa and Cleveland.  While Oakland finishes on the road, their opponents are struggling AL West foes Angels and Mariners.  Oakland should snag one of the two AL Wild Card slots.  The Rays are at home with the Yankees, who will be battling hard for the best overall record, and then close on the road in Toronto.  Cleveland takes to the road against the White Sox and Nationals, a tough finishing slate.  I like the hot Indians to get the second AL Wild Card post. 

Enjoy the race to the finish line this week!  Next week I’ll be reviewing the chances of all ten playoff teams.  Who knows, we may have a Secretariat among them!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

150 Years

Every baseball fan has that moment when the love of the game enters your life.  Sometimes it is seeing a game at the ballpark for the first time, maybe your first game you view on television, or for me as a little boy listening to a game late at night on the radio.  You soon become a passionate fan of your favorite team.  As we enter the final two weeks of the 2019 regular season, I thought it would be fun to look back not on the year just yet but rather to when this great game began and how it has touched us.

I met someone a few weeks ago who is British and the discussion quickly turned to baseball. He remarked in his first year in Chicago he kept hearing the question, are you a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan? Feeling forced to choose a team, he opted for the National League Cubs because in cricket, a player needs to play all the positions. You can’t be just a designated hitter like in the American League! While cricket certainly has some similar equipment, such as a bat, ball, batting gloves and even a cap, it’s difficult to tie baseball to this English sport that dates back to the 13th century.

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. While baseball’s origins can indeed be traced to New York state in the 1800s, the better conclusion is that it is based on a game British children played called “rounders”, involving a pitcher, batter, and four bases. By the time of the Civil War, there were about 50 baseball clubs in the National Association of Base Ball Players, an amateur league that specifically prohibited paying the players.

For me baseball began 150 years ago in my hometown, Cincinnati, with the Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team. The best player around at that time, Harry Wright, was asked by a group of civic leaders to put together a team and was given a bankroll to do so. The team traveled around the country and won 60 games without a loss. In 1871, the first professional baseball organization, the National Association of Professional Base Players, became the governing body of baseball. Then, in 1876, a Chicago businessman, William Hulbert, took his team, the White Stockings, and three other teams, out of the Association, and formed the National League.

There were many renegade leagues, including the Eastern, Pacific Coast, and International leagues in the late 1800s, challenging the National League. Indeed, another challenge to the NL’s existence was the play on the field, where players often engaged in fights. The Baltimore Orioles were the leaders of what writers described as “rowdyism”. Another threat to the NL was that several teams were owned in syndicates, more than one team was owned by the same owner. This allowed the owners to move talent among their teams, creating an imbalance in play. For example, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders finished 20-134! In 1901 a group of NL players, including Cy Young, was enticed to jump leagues, and the American League was founded. The NL welcomed the American League as an equal partner in 1903, and the first World Series was played in 1905. There were outlier leagues after that (Federal League in mid-1910s), but the NL and AL teams were the ones that thrived.

The Cincinnati Reds this season have celebrated their 150 years of existence in style. Throughout the year today’s 2019 Reds have worn the many uniforms of their past Red Stockings, Redlegs, and Reds teams, including the numerous baseball caps of those times. Baseball caps actually go as far back as 1860 when the Brooklyn Excelsiors wore what was the ancestor of the modern day cap. I, for one, love to collect caps and enjoy sporting a baseball cap of the home town team in MLB parks that I visit. While I must admit owning 4 or 5 caps of both the Cubs and the Reds, my baseball wardrobe also includes caps of the Royals, Cardinals, Rockies, Indians, and my most recent purchase, a White Sox cap.

One’s love of baseball and the hometown team is bolstered by the colorful play by play description of the local broadcast team.   The Reds are celebrating another special moment in their history this season, the retirement of Marty Brennaman, their radio voice for the last 46 years.  I grew up listening to “Marty and Joe” on the radio on WLW in Cincinnati.  Marty’s broadcast partner for much of his career was Joe Nuxhall, a former Reds pitcher.   Through their broadcasts I learned how the game was supposed to be played, reveled in the stories of baseball’s past, and experienced an easy enjoyment to life.  Marty’s trademark call “And this one belongs to the Reds!” immediately after a Reds victory was the perfect ending to my day.

Brennaman’s career also had some controversies worth noting. During the height of the inquiry into Pete Rose’s betting allegations, Brennaman steadfastly supported then player-manager Rose, in the face of growing evidence against him. If I could change one piece of baseball history, it would be an early admission by Rose of his misconduct, perhaps paving his path to the Hall of Fame. Brennaman’s adamant support of his Reds also led to a conflict with fans of the Chicago Cubs. When Adam Dunn of the Reds hit a home run into the right field bleachers at Wrigley in 2008, the bleacher bums threw multiple balls back onto the field, upping their tradition of throwing an opponent’s home run ball back onto the playing field. Brennaman responded angrily on the air, stating that it displayed another example of why it is “tough to root for the Cubs”, perhaps a little overstated for what was just a little fun.

The Cubs are in the final days of why it has been actually easy to root for the Cubs, as the 72 year television broadcasting of Cubs games on WGN-TV will soon come to an end.  WGN in Chicago and WTBS in Atlanta were the first cable television stations to broadcast baseball, and the nation responded by adopting the Cubs and Braves as “America’s Teams”.   WGN-TV has had some great broadcasters in its time, most notably Jack Brickhouse and his home run call “Hey Hey”, and of course the legendary Harry Caray.  The singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” by Caray (and now guest singers) during the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field is a great tradition in the game.  WGN broadcasts of the Cubs will be replaced next year by the Marquee Sports Network, which will include 24/7 coverage of the Cubs.

150 years, wow!  There’s a lot to look back on, so much to see in the next two weeks and in the playoffs, and so much more to experience in coming years.  Whether it’s at the park, on television, via radio, or streaming on my phone, you can take me out to the ballgame any day of the week!

Until next Monday, 

your Baseball Bench Coach

Record Books

Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander has had quite the 2019 season.  A week ago in Toronto he became just the fifth pitcher since 1900 to throw at least three no-hitters, placing him in the record books among the all-time greats.  The feat came with the help of a rookie teammate hailing from Canada, Abraham Toro, who slugged a 2-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to break a scoreless tie.  Verlander’s performance also came during a controversial season in which he has been in the news for his off the field comments and conduct.

Whenever your name is placed alongside HOF pitchers Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller, and Cy Young, you have found a comfortable spot in the record books.  Verlander’s no-hitter was his first since the 2011 season when he was the AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner as a Tiger.  His first no-hitter was in 2007 early in his career.  At age 36, Verlander still commands the mound with overpowering stuff.  With his major league leading 18 wins (18-5 record), AL leading ERA of 2.52 and MLB second best 264 strikeouts (just behind teammate Gerrit Cole), Verlander remains at the top of his game. 

Having overpowering stuff late in his career was certainly the trademark of Nolan Ryan, the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven. Ryan pitched over four decades for the Mets, Angels, Astros, and Rangers. In addition to the no-hitter mark, Ryan’s career highlights include being the MLB recordholder of 5,714 strikeouts and one of only five pitchers who had more Ks than innings pitched during his career. Yet, his lifetime win-loss record was only 324-292. Jacob deGrom’s 10-9 record last season (but yet a 1.70 ERA winning him the Cy Young) and Don Drysdale’s 14-12 record during the 1968 season, in which he dealt 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, are other examples of pitching dominance not always translating easily into wins.

Drysdale’s Dodger teammate, Sandy Koufax, is second on the no-hit list with four.  Koufax won the Cy Young three times, all by unanimous vote (’63, ’65, and ’66), in a much too short career.  Koufax was known for his knee-bending curveball and, like Verlander, also captured a league MVP award (1963 NL MVP).  Standing alongside with Verlander at three no-no’s are Bob Feller and Cy Young.  Amazingly, Feller also pitched 12 one-hitters with his lightening fastball, giving him the nickname “Bullet Bob”.   Cy Young holds most of the MLB pitching records, including most career innings pitched, games started, and complete games.  His 511 career wins will never be reached by another pitcher.

To date there have been 303 recorded no-hitters in MLB history.  That seems like a great number, but keep in mind the game has been played for 150 years.  In 2019 we have seen four of them, yet two of those were combined no-hitters (more than one pitcher), a sign of today’s game with deep bullpens and short pitch counts.  The Dodgers lead all MLB teams with 26 no-hitters.  Johnny Vander Meer of the Reds is the only one to pitch no-hitters in consecutive starts (1938 season).   

Max Scherzer in 2015 joined an exclusive group of four who have thrown no-hitters during the same season. Nolan Ryan of course did that himself in 1973. Jim Maloney of the Reds almost accomplished the feat in 1965 but lost a no-hit bid by giving up a home run in the 11th inning. Later that season he threw a 10-inning no-hitter, this time on the winning side. In both games Maloney would have loved to have been supported by 9th inning home run heroics from a teammate, much like Verlander received last week. When I met Maloney at a Reds camp in 1999, I asked him about his 1965 “no-hit” 9-inning games and joked that it was too bad he pitched before the Big Red Machine years.

One pitching record that won’t be achieved again is held by the 1971 Baltimore Orioles, the first team since the White Sox in 1920 to have four pitchers with 20-win seasons (Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Pat Dobson).  The role of a starting pitcher has indeed changed over the past 50 years from a managerial (or Bench Coach) standpoint.  What is alarming though is MLB’s own role in wanting more offense.  Justin Verlander was correct at the All-Star Break in pointing out the home run surge in 2019 and blaming MLB for juicing the baseballs.  It is time for Commissioner Manfred to address the topic head on.

Even with the juiced ball in play, there are some baseball records from the offensive side that will most certainly survive the test of time. How about Hack Wilson of the Cubs and his 191 runs batted in during the 1930 season? Wilson’s place in the record books was established in just a 154-game season, while last year, another Cub, Javier Baez, led the NL with 111 RBIs in a 162-game season. One fascinating note though from Wilson’s 1930 season is that there was a controversy even then about the baseball. MLB was apparently using a baseball that was wound tightly with Australian wool to increase power productivity!

When it comes to hitting, many baseball experts point to Ted Williams of the Red Sox as being the best pure hitter ever.  There are certainly statistics to support the claim.  Williams’ lifetime batting average was .344, and he had an incredible .482 on-base percentage, the highest OBP ever.  In 1941 Williams posted a .406 batting average, the last time any MLB player has batted over .400 for the season.  Interestingly, Williams came in second for the 1941 AL MVP award behind his Yankee nemesis, Joe DiMaggio.  Williams’ post-season award failure might have been due to his long-time feud with the media.

The media-unfriendly side of Verlander also came out recently.  After a 2-1 Astros loss to the Tigers in August, Detroit Free Press reporter Anthony Fenech was blocked from attending the Houston post-game press conference.  Apparently Verlander was upset with the reporter concerning a couple incidents from their past relationship.  The Detroit Free Press charged that this was a violation of the baseball collective bargaining agreement.

I had my brush with baseball history on July 27, 1978, while umpiring a baseball game in Cincinnati in which Pete Rose, Jr. played.   His Dad showed up that night for the game on an off day for the Reds and a 39-game hitting streak in hand.  Hundreds of fans heard the news that Pete Rose was in the ballpark and arrived shortly thereafter. It reminded me of the scene from “Rocky” when he ran through the streets of Philadelphia. That next week Rose’s streak would end at 44 games, falling short of DiMaggio’s MLB mark of 56, but setting a new NL standard to this day. You can find that in the record books.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

27 Outs

This past Friday afternoon I attended the Cubs game at Wrigley Field with my daughter.  We watched the fans pour into the gates two hours before game time.  Their goal was to snag a three-quarters length shirt, one of the many promotional items of 2019.  You gotta have all the new stuff, right?  Cubs hats, lunch bags, blankets, and oh those bobbleheads!  Last year, there was one promotional item at Wrigley I found to be curious, a replica of the clock atop the manual scoreboard.

What’s my problem with the promotional replica clock?  It was nice enough, even had the trademark dots instead of numerals on its face.  But clocks don’t belong in a baseball park!  Never!!  Indeed, the actual clock at Wrigley was not a Cubs idea, but rather added in 1941 by George Halas of the Chicago Bears, the NFL team that made Wrigley Field its home from 1921-1970.  The game of baseball is not measured by time.  It’s measured by innings, nine to be precise.  You need to get 27 outs to win a baseball game.  And sometimes getting that final out is the toughest one to get.

A recent example is the 2018 College World Series, a best of three between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Oregon State Beavers. Arkansas won the first game, and led 3-2 heading into the ninth inning of Game 2. With two outs a Beaver batter popped a fly in foul territory just beyond first base. Game over, correct? Indeed, ESPN was quick to declare Arkansas national champions on its website. Yet, something happened to embarrass ESPN in a Dewey-Truman moment. The Hogs right fielder, first baseman, and second baseman converged and each forgot to do one thing, catch the ball, as the ball dropped in foul territory. Given another chance, the batter knocked in the tying run and scored the winning run moments later on an OSU 2-run homer. The next night the Beavers won the NCAA baseball championship.

Has the MLB World Series had any 27th out failures? Oh yes. In the 2011 World Series Texas led the Series 3-2 heading back to St. Louis for Game 6. In both the ninth and tenth innings of Game 6, the Rangers were within one strike of winning its first world championship. Their closer, Neftali Feliz, faced David Freese, St. Louis third baseman, with a 7-6 lead and two outs in the ninth, when Freese lined a 1-2 pitch for a triple, knocking in the tying run. The Rangers tallied two runs in the top of the tenth, but again with two outs and a 2-2 count, Cards’ Lance Berkman tied the game with a 2-run single in the bottom of the inning. Freese finished the Game 6 drama in the 11th inning with a game-ending home run and the Cardinals went on to win the Series 4-3.

Baseball had earlier witnessed an historic comeback in the 2004 ALCS .  The Red Sox came into the matchup against their archrival Yankees with the hope of reaching the World Series and ending Boston’s championship drought of 86 years.  They had last won the Series in 1918 when they defeated the Cubs behind two wins by star pitcher Babe Ruth.  Yet, three games into the ALCS, the Red Sox were on the verge of being swept, down 3-0.   Miraculously, they won the next four and became the first team ever to win a best of seven series after losing the first three games.  We all know what happened next, the Red Sox defeated the Cardinals in four games to become world champs, finally!

About three months ago Red Sox great Bill Buckner died, at age 69, after a long battle with dementia. Baseball writers celebrated his playing career, one that featured a wondrous batting stroke culminating in the 1980 batting title when with the Cubs. Buckner came into the big leagues as an outfielder for the Dodgers, but played first base most of his career due to several chronic injuries. He was manning that position in the bottom of the 10th inning of the sixth game of the 1986 World Series. His Boston team led the game 5-3 and the Series 3-2. The baseball world gasped as a slow roller off Mookie Wilson’s bat found its way between the legs of Buckner and completed the Mets’ comeback victory. The Mets took the Series in Game 7. This year we mourned the loss of a great, gritty player, whose memory is much more than that one play in Game 6.

Just one year earlier in the 1985 Series we witnessed another amazing World Series comeback, the Royals winning it all after being down three games to one against the Cardinals.  The 1985 World Series featured a Missouri interstate affair between St. Louis and Kansas City. After failing to close out the Series in Game 5 at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals returned to KC ready to be crowned not only the Missouri champs but the world champions of baseball.  Many will say, like me, that the Cardinals were indeed railroaded in Game 6 with a missed call by first base umpire Don Denkinger.  The umpire’s mistake was pivotal as the Royals became the fifth team in history to come back from a 3-1 World Series game deficit, the others being the ’25 Pirates, ’58 Yankees, the ’68 Tigers, and the ’79 Pirates.

In 2016 the Cubs became the sixth such down 3-1 comeback team. Both Chicago and Cleveland entered the World Series with long suffering fans yearning for an end to droughts in world championships (Cubs, since 1908, and Indians, since 1948). The back and forth Game 7 will go down in history as one of the greatest games ever played (only matched perhaps by Game 6 of the 1975 Series when the Red Sox came back on Carlton Fisk’s homer to defeat the Reds after trailing 6-3 in the eighth inning). That same 6-3 score saw the Cubs on top in the bottom of the eighth with two out and no Indians on base. Cubs star reliever Aroldis Chapman could not hold onto the lead, and the teams went into extras tied 6-6 and momentum all Cleveland. The 17-minute rain delay before the tenth would turn the tide and result in a big celebration in Chicago!

This 2019 MLB season has been full of ninth inning comebacks, most particularly by a team out west in LA, the Dodgers.   Last Saturday night at Chavez Ravine the Blue Jays were one out away from defeating the Dodgers when LA won their 12th walk-off game of the year (winning as home team in their last at bat).  The even more crazy statistic is that the Dodgers have trailed 23 times going into the bottom of the ninth this season at Dodger Stadium and won 7 of those games, a .304 winning percentage.  A suggestion for the other MLB teams this year in matchups with the Dodgers might be to get the last out!  The Dodgers will be a tough 27th out in the October playoffs.

My favorite 27th out story I have shared previously, one that happened on June 1, 1967.  My Dad took me to an early season Reds vs. Cubs game at Crosley Field to celebrate the end of my second grade school year.  We left the ballpark early that night with the Cubs up 6-2 and heard the roar of the crowd in the parking lot as Vada Pinson tripled in two runs.  We listened on the car radio as the Reds won in the bottom of the ninth, 7-6.  I learned a lesson that night, always wait for the 27th out. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Best Skippers

In a pre-game ceremony this past Thursday the Cubs celebrated the career of Giants skipper Bruce Bochy (pictured above) as he managed his final game in Chicago.  Joe Maddon presented Bochy with a remembrance recognizing his contributions to baseball and displaying his uniform number 15, a tile from the historic Wrigley Field manual scoreboard. How does Bochy rank among the best?  Let’s check out the Coach’s top 10 Best Skippers in the last 50 years:

Sparky Anderson tops my list! The “Main Spark” guided the Reds through the Big Red Machine years and consecutive world championships in 1975 and 1976. In 1984 he became the first manager to win a World Series in both leagues as his Detroit Tigers won the title. I spent much of my boyhood listening to Sparky’s pre-game chats on my transistor radio, learning the game from this dynamic personality. He was the consummate gentleman and baseball ambassador. Sparky made me proud to be a Reds fan. In the clubhouse and dugout, he was known for having a great knack of knowing what was needed to get the most out of a ballplayer and his team. He was also nicknamed “Captain Hook” due to his frequent use of the Reds bullpen. Anderson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2000.

Joe Torre began his career in 1960 as a catcher for the Milwaukee Braves and is still today part of the game as MLB’s chief baseball officer. Along the way he won an NL MVP award in 1971 as a Cardinal in a stellar playing career that spanned 18 seasons. His managing career got off to a slow start in the win column with stints as the skipper of the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals. In 1996 he became the Yankees manager and started a run that is difficult to match, leading the Yankees to four World Series titles. His winning percentage as the Yankees manager was .605. In his 12 seasons the Yankees made the playoffs each year. Torre was elected to the HOF in 2014.

Bruce Bochy also started his MLB career as a catcher, debuting with the Astros in 1978.   Bochy served as a backup catcher when his San Diego Padres won their first NL title in 1984.   His managing career began with a 12-year tenure with the Padres as he led them to playoff appearances in four of those seasons.   Beginning in 2007, he took the helm of the Giants and led them to early dominance in the 2010s.  For three consecutive even-numbered years (2010, 2012 and 2014), his Giants were World Series champions, much of it due to his keen on-field maneuvering and off-field relationship with his players.  This season marks the end of a great career for the longest-tenured active manager in baseball.  Baseball will miss him; Cooperstown awaits him.

Whitey Herzog served in several capacities in baseball, player (beginning in 1956 with the Washington Senators), scout, farm system director, general manager, and as one of baseball’s best managers.  In the 1970s he led the Kansas City Royals to three consecutive AL championship series (1976-1978) but ran into a buzz saw each year in the Yankees.  Herzog came to the National League in 1980 where his Cardinals won it all in 1982, and added NL pennants in 1985 and 1987.  Herzog’s style of NL play was branded “Whiteyball” for aggressiveness, speed, exceptional defense, and an offense focused on run-creating opportunities, not hammering the ball over the fence.  I witnessed a lot of Cardinal baseball during his era and marveled at how he was always a step ahead of the opposing manager.  Whitey was inducted into the HOF in 2010.

Tony LaRussa is another example of a utility player with a non-descript career (debuting in 1963 with the Cubs but spending most of his playing career in the minor leagues) finding his own managing winning teams.  His first title as a manager was guiding the White Sox to the AL West championship in 1983.  He then moved on to Oakland where his A’s won three straight AL championships (1988-1990) and of course the 1989 World “Quake” Series.   Just like Anderson, LaRussa brought his craft to a new league in 1996, managing the Cardinals to three NL pennants in 16 seasons and two World Series titles (2006 and 2011).   Tony is also still in baseball, serving as special assistant to the Red Sox president, Dave Dumbrowski.  LaRussa was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2013.

Terry Francona is the best manager in the American League today, period. “Tito” had a mildly successful playing career, starting as an Expo in 1981 and ending his career early in the 1990 season with the Brewers. His first managerial gig was in Philadelphia, a 4-year run with no playoff appearances. In 2004 Theo Epstein brought him to Boston and the magic began. The Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, their first since 1918! The magic continued in 2007 with another world title. Francona is now in the Indians’ dugout, hired in 2013. The Indians were on the doorsteps of ending their own long drought of world championships in 2016 before a 17-minute rain delay and the Cubs got in the way. Watch a Francona-managed game; it’s mistake-free.

Frank Robinson is my choice for the seventh slot. He died earlier this year after decades in baseball, starting in 1956 with the Reds and culminating as AL honorary president. In contrast to most of the other managers on this list, Robinson was one of the all-time great players, the only one in fact to be named MVP of the NL (Cincinnati, 1961) and AL (Baltimore, 1966). He brought that playing career with him to the dugout in 1975, when he became the first black manager in MLB history as player-manager for the Indians. He then went on to manage the Giants, Orioles and Expos/Nationals. His winning percentage as a manager was under .500 but his contributions to the game were historic in nature. Robinson joined the Cooperstown elite as a player in 1982, his first year of eligibility.

Gene Mauch makes my top 10 list, in what may be a surprise to many. In his playing days, he was a utility infielder for the most part on six MLB teams (1944-1957). Mauch is better known for being a master strategist in a managing career that spanned from 1960 to 1987 (Phillies, Expos, Twins, and Angels). My Dad took me to Crosley Field in 1968 to see a Reds vs. Phillies game and explained to me why Mauch was his absolute favorite. Mauch’s teams played what some called “small ball”, focusing on defense, hitting to the opposite field, sacrifice bunts, and base running. Unfortunately he is the winningest manager ever not to have won an AL or NL pennant. Mauch’s teams played the game the way it should be played. The game needs more Mauch baseball in the future.

Earl Weaver, long-time manager of the Baltimore Orioles, was anti-Mauch, a real disbeliever in small ball. He ended his playing career never having played in the MLB. Weaver was the manager of the Orioles for 17 seasons beginning in 1968. Early in his career, he led the Orioles to three consecutive AL pennants from 1969 to 1971, winning the world championship in 1970. His lifetime winning percentage of .583 as a manager ranks among the best. Weaver would have fit right in today since his team’s offense played for the “three-run homer”; don’t waste any outs advancing runners and wait for the long ball. Weaver was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1996.

Brian Snitker, current manager of the Braves, completes my top 10, just edging out some great managers, each with a World Series title under their belt – Lou Piniella (Reds, 1990); Bobby Cox (Braves, 1995); and Joe Maddon (Cubs, 2016). Why Snitker? I love his story. Snitker has been a “Brave” for over 40 years. He played four years in their minor league system (1977-1980), and then coached and managed Braves minor league teams until 2016 when he finally got his shot as the big league manager. Snitker is definitely “old school.” Last Sunday he was tested by his star player, Ronald Acuna Jr., who failed to run out a batted ball in a game against the Dodgers. Snitker benched Acuna during the game, and afterward Acuna agreed it was the right thing to do. It was a wake-up call for the Braves, a much needed boost as the NL playoffs await in October.

So there’s my list!  Let the Coach know what you think!  And please comment on which manager is Number One on your Top Ten.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

South Side

I’ve heard the rumblings.  Hey Coach, how about focusing on the American League for once, and in particular, an up and coming team not that far from you, the Chicago White Sox?  With the class of the AL, the Houston Astros, in town for a rare doubleheader this past week, I took the Red Line “L” south to 35th and Sox to visit Guaranteed Rate Field.  It was time to explore GRF, AL baseball, and the team many of my friends support, the South Side Sox.  Do good guys really wear black? 

After almost a century of playing baseball at old Comiskey Park, the White Sox opened its new ballpark in 1991 and aptly named it new Comiskey Park.   In 2003 corporate sponsorship took hold and the ballpark was renamed US Cellular Field.  It became Guaranteed Rate Field prior to the 2017 season (yes, a woeful name for what I found to be a nice place to watch baseball).  GRF was the last ballpark built before all of the retro-classic ones, and it does lack in some of the old-time feel, especially the high upper deck seating too far from the playing field.   It retains though some very historic pieces, such as statues behind the lower level seating of the great Sox in the past, Minnie Minoso, Carlton Fisk, Luis Aparicio, Harold Baines, Nellie Fox, and Frank Thomas.  And did I mention the FOOD (some of baseball’s finest), where I opted of course for a Chicago grilled hot dog and a Goose Island draft beer to make me feel right at home!

The new ballpark has had some great baseball played there since its opening. Three seasons stand out. In 1993 Bo Jackson, one of the greatest athletes of our time, starred for the Sox. On opening day that year he homered in his first at bat, and then hit a home run late in the season to defeat the Mariners in the game the White Sox clinched the AL West. The 2005 season though was one for the ages. In the ALCS against the Angels, then Senator Barack Obama, a lifetime Sox fan, threw out the ceremonial first pitch in the second game of the series, and the White Sox went on to never lose in the playoffs again that year. The Sox captured the AL pennant 4 games to 1, the first time since 1959. And even the 88-year world championship drought would end later that month in the World Series sweep of the Houston Astros, then in the NL. The White Sox also won a division title in 2008, as they defeated the Twins in a one-game playoff in the famous “black out game”, where all the fans wore black clothing. Yes, good guys can wear black!

Prior to the game I always check the lineups, and of course at an American League park I wince. You see, both teams have a designated hitter! The DH rule was adopted in 1973 by the AL and allows one player to bat in place of the pitcher. It’s been kind of a sore spot for the MLB because its two leagues don’t play by the same rules; the National League has not adopted the DH rule. In 1980, the NL last took a vote on the rule and it failed; 4 yes, 5 no, and 3 abstentions. Since the advent of interleague play, the DH governs in AL home parks, while NL ballparks have the pitchers hit. We would need a separate blog piece to debate the issue, but suffice to say your Coach loves the late-inning strategy of NL games, not the offense-oriented mentality of the DH rule. It’s incredible though that we have had the two different rules for almost 50 years.

The men in orange, the Houston Astros, were the White Sox opponents last week at GRF.   Among today’s AL powerhouse teams, I am firmly in the Astros camp.  Part of it is the NL roots of the Astros (they changed leagues in 2013), but mainly it is their story.   Prior to Houston’s world championship in 2017, the Astros went through a major rebuild, suffering through three 100-loss seasons (2011-2013).   The Astros, helped by some early picks in the MLB draft, built its core around George Springer, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley, superstar Carlos Correa, and now this year’s sensation Yordan Alvarez (AL Rookie of the month for June and July).   This star-studded lineup, now coupled with a sensational starting staff of Justin Verlander, Zach Greinke, Gerrit Cole and Wade Miley, are poised to make a run at another AL title this season.

Will black be the new orange in the AL someday soon? The White Sox sure hope that is the case as the South Siders are clearly Astros wannabes. With every organization revamp, it begins at the top. For the Astros that means Jeff Luhnow, its general manager and president of baseball operations. He began his career in the scouting department of the Cardinals, and soon after his hiring in 2011 Luhnow became the architect of the rebuild. The White Sox hope they have that same kind of maestro in Rick Hahn, its vice president and general manager. Interestingly, Luhnow and Hahn have similar roots, both graduates of Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management here in Chicago. With some early draft choices and trades involving current talent for top prospects, Hahn hopes he has laid the same brick work in Chicago as Luhnow did in Houston.

The White Sox’s young stars include Eloy Jiminez and Yoan Moncado, both of whom reached the big leagues with great fanfare. Early play suggests that they are much more than the hype. And top prospect Luis Robert, skyrocketing through the Sox minor league system this year and now in AAA, will soon be in the Big Leagues. All three have the talent to be mainstays on the AL all-star roster for years to come. They are bolstered by vets like shortstop Tim Anderson, catcher James McCann, and stalwart first baseman Jose Abreu, each of whom was a 2019 AL All-Star. Every rebuild needs some phenoms on the mound, and the Sox have just that in Lucas Giolito ( a 2019 All-Star), Dylan Cease (now in the starting five), stud Michael Kopech (returning in 2020 from Tommy John), and Carlos Rodon (also on the comeback trail from Tommy John).

Expectations are high that the Sox will be AL contenders in the near term.  The first game of the doubleheader I attended last Tuesday showed that the Astros though are primed for this year, as they took advantage of Zach Greinke’s quality start and several Sox miscues in a 6-2 win.  In the night cap, Ivan Nova, the veteran Sox righthander who has rebounded from a dismal first half, threw a complete game 4-1 win over the Astros for the split.   It’s refreshing every once in a while to witness a complete game!  In the rubber game the next afternoon, the Sox outslugged the Astros 13-9, not only winning the 3-game series but the season series as well.  Maybe GRF will be hosting some more meaningful games (can you say AL playoffs) between the two teams in a future season.

It’s difficult to discuss the South Side Sox without mentioning the rivalry with their North Side counterparts, the Cubs.   That rivalry started in 1906, the only World Series played between the two teams, with the White Sox, buoyed by their exceptional pitching, upsetting the Cubs (who had a record of 116-38 in the NL) in six games.  Beginning in 1997, it’s now an annual interleague battle, the “Crosstown Classic”, which the Sox now lead 42-40.  The teams share a lot in common.   In Chicago you can get to Wrigley on that same “L” Red Line I took to GRF.  Currently, WGN and NBC Sports Chicago share television rights to the two teams. That of course changes next year when the Cubs go to the 24/7 Marquee Network.  And yes, both teams have broken the curses measuring decades of not winning world championships.

You often hear the question in Chicago, are you a Cubs or Sox fan?  While there is a definite, but sometimes murky, geographical distinction (North Side vs. South Side), often the explanation offered by Chicago baseball fans turns to how they were raised.  Is it ever possible to root for both teams?   There is always room for more baseball passion, especially when today’s teams could meet someday soon in another classic, not seen since 1906.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Baseball Experiments

It’s August and what many baseball enthusiasts have described as the “dog days of summer” for our national pastime.   Temperatures on the field and the pennant races themselves are really heating up.  Yet, if you listen to sports talk shows, the chatter is about the NFL training camps and the impact of NBA free agency.  Hey sports world, how about focusing on baseball where the only meaningful games are actually being played?  Is baseball not the national pastime anymore, but rather past its time?  With attendance at ballparks and viewership generally on a downward trend, MLB has cause for concern.

In its July 29 article (“How the Atlantic League Became MLB’s Laboratory for the Future of Baseball”), Sports Illustrated explains how MLB is using the Atlantic League, a top independent league, to address the topic.   Over the next three years the Atlantic League, which is not affiliated with any MLB franchise, will test some cutting edge technology and proposed new rules so that MLB can determine how it can make baseball more appealing to a larger audience.  Let’s take a look at how these changes are being implemented in the Atlantic League and determine what might make sense for the game we love.

The most controversial change is the use of “TrackMan”, a radar-based tracking system to call balls and strikes for home plate umpires. Yes, robo umps have arrived! On July 10 the new automated ball-strike system was introduced in the Atlantic League’s All-Star Game and now is featured in every Atlantic League ballpark. The umpires wear AirPods and hear “strike” whenever any portion of the pitch crosses home plate in the hitter’s strike zone. Early feedback by players and managers alike has not been good. It’s been estimated that the system fails every 1 of 6 pitches, especially with regard to high pitches being called strikes. The system continues to be adjusted.

While the technology will indeed improve, the question is whether it should be used in the game. I watch numerous MLB games with the imaged strike zone on the television screen. In my estimation home plate umpires overall do a respectable job in calling their games. And yes, the human element matters! I think the better use of strike-zone technology would be for the MLB to effectively grade home plate umpire performance. We all see the clear missed calls at the plate. But more often than not, it is a small number of the umpires. If one’s home plate performance grades out poorly, how about having that umpire not be part of the home plate rotation. Let’s perfect the strike zone technology and use it wisely.

In terms of rule changes, the Atlantic League began the season with a definitive no visits to the mound rule by any player or coach unless a pitching change is being made.  The obvious attempt is to speed up the game.  But sometimes a pitcher clearly needs information about a batter or situation.  And more often than not, an encouraging word or even a breather are welcomed on the mound.  I used to laugh when I heard parents from the sidelines in my early pitching days say “just throw strikes”.  Maybe that’s where we are headed with this change!  To be fair, the Atlantic League did tweak the rule recently to allow the pitcher and catcher to briefly discuss new signs with runners on base.  I, for one, say “No!” to this no mound visit change and let’s stay put with the current MLB rule of 5 mound visits per team in a game.

Another Atlantic League experiment is to prohibit defensive shifts. The initial rule provided that the third baseman and shortstop had to play on the left side of second base and the first and second basemen on the right side, while every infielder had to be on the dirt portion of the infield. I frankly don’t understand how you can tie the hands of managers in this way. Hitters, not managers, need to adjust to today’s defensive shifts. The very basics of hitting include how to hit to the opposite field, and oh my gosh, even learning how to bunt! The Atlantic League recently changed the rule by allowing infielders to play deep in the hole in the outfield grass but maintaining that two infielders have to be on each side of the infield. It’s still a crazy rule. Let’s not go down that baseline path!

An Atlantic League change this year, and one which will be adopted by MLB next year, is a 3-batter minimum for pitchers unless it is at the end of an inning.  Gone will be the day of the tedious pitching change batter after batter as a manager looks for the best matchup.  The big plus side to this change is not just to the speed of the game, but rather to the makeup of the major league rosters.    Instead of today’s 13 pitchers on a 25 player roster (which is expanding to 26 next year), a manager will be able to utilize a roster spot or two for uniquely skilled players, pinch hitters, speedsters, or defensive specialists.  Baseball strategy, away from the pitcher vs. hitter concern, will be boosted and the net gain will be greater interest.

Paul Sullivan, a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune, recently suggested  a couple tongue in cheek changes that cut to the heart of the “swing for the fences” mantra of today’s game.  How about raising the pitching mound?   Baseball played 50 years ago was pitching-dominated.  Bob Gibson’s 1968 season for the St. Louis Cardinals is a good example.  Gibby compiled an ERA of 1.12, the lowest in over 50 years, and threw 13 shutouts.  He wasn’t alone; indeed, 1968 was called the “Year of the Pitcher”.  As a result, the pitching mound was lowered the next year to give the pitchers less advantage.   And obviously, the pendulum has swung far too back as now hitting dominates baseball.

We’ve recently heard lots of talk around the ball being “juiced”, so much so that the Commissioner of Baseball, Rob Manfred, addressed the issue at the All-Star Break.  Houston Astros’ standout pitcher Justin Verlander was the first player to speak out about it.  When you watch the games or simply review the stats, there just has to be something about the makeup of the actual baseball today.  Paul Sullivan’s idea, somewhat sarcastically, is to “deaden” the ball.  While I’m not advocating going back to the “Dead Ball Era” where we only could use 6 or 8 baseballs a game out of necessity, it’s worth exploring how to manufacture baseballs to keep the ball in the ballpark more and create increased action on the field. Let’s at least have MLB take a real interest in what the baseball manufacturers are doing, something that Manfred dismissed in his remarks.

The bottom line of all of this is interest in the game.  Atlantic League attendance is up for the season, but most of that I would think is the novelty of the changes.  I tend to attack problems at the base.  Maybe instead of finding ways to dramatically change MLB, we should explore ways to speed up the game played in Little League parks across the country.  Let’s go back to getting our youth interested in playing our national pastime.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Trading Places

August 4, 1982.  Yes, that’s me on the couch, really under the weather, and fading in and out of a Cubs game that afternoon on WGN-TV.   I woke up much later, and about all I could remember was that the Mets’ Joel Youngblood had a key hit against Ferguson Jenkins in the Cubs’ loss.  The next morning, still groggy, I did my usual scouring of the MLB box scores and came across an interesting note.  Joel Youngblood of the Expos (what?) hit a pinch single off Steve Carlton of the Phillies in Philadelphia, the night before.  Were the meds too strong?  No, I wasn’t dreaming it.  The Mets had indeed traded Youngblood to the Expos during the Cubs game.  Youngblood had flown from Chicago to Philadelphia after the trade, appearing in two games with two different teams with a hit against two future Hall of Fame pitchers, all in the same day.  Crazy, but true!

Baseball trades can be a dream come true for the players and teams involved and the fans who follow them.   This past week we saw the July 31 trading deadline come and go, triggering much analysis about who were the winners and losers of the trades that were made and even the trades that weren’t.  And this year the July 31 deadline was just that, a firm deadline!  In prior years July 31 was only a non-waiver deadline, such that players could be traded in August if they first cleared revocable trade waivers.   A 2019 MLB rule change no longer allows for trades to be made after July 31. 

Let’s step back a moment and review the topic of trading players from an historical perspective. A key moment is in 1969 when 12-year veteran Curt Flood of the St. Louis Cardinals refused to accept a trade to the Phillies. Flood challenged the MLB’s reserve clause in player contracts, a clause which provided that the player was retained by the team at the contract’s expiration. In bringing a lawsuit against MLB (Flood vs. Bowie Kuhn, then baseball commissioner). Flood’s legal team argued that the reserve clause depressed wages and limited players to one team for life. While the Supreme Court in 1972 ultimately ruled against Flood, the challenge united the baseball players’ union and resulted in much negotiated change, including the “Curt Flood Rule”. This 10/5 rule provides that when a player has played for a team for five consecutive years and played in the MLB for a total of ten years, the player has to provide consent to any proposed trade. What also followed was today’s free agency landscape, complicating the strategies of baseball executives in positioning their teams for on-field success, short and long term.

So who won the battle last week at the trading deadline? Curiously, two of the bigger named pitchers traded actually landed on teams with losing records this year. The Mets added Toronto All-Star pitcher Marcus Stroman, as he returns to his home state to bolster a star-studded rotation, headlined by last year’s Cy Young winner, Jacob deGrom. By deciding not to trade Noah Syndergaard and/or Zach Wheeler, the Mets look formidable in 2020 with its starting staff. That same trade for next season philosophy was taken by the Reds in their acquisition of stud pitcher Trevor Bauer in a three-team trade with the Indians and Padres. The 2020 Reds will be able to roll out Bauer, 2019 NL All-Stars Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray, and Anthony DeSclafani, in their own version of a fearsome foursome of starters.

In terms of winning the July 31 Trading Deadline for 2019 success, most baseball experts have pegged the Astros as the clear winner, and I agree.   Houston is an example of the rich getting richer.  The Astros in the first four months of the season have survived numerous injuries to key starting players, yet found themselves with the second-best record in the AL at the deadline.  All they needed was a key acquisition to put them over the top, and that dream became reality in the Zach Greinke trade with Arizona.   Heading into the last two months of the season and the playoffs, the Astros have 4 of the top 14 starting pitchers in MLB ERA with Justin Verlander’s 2.73 (4th), Greinke’s 2.90 (9th), Gerrit Cole’s 2.94 (10th), and Wade Miley’s 3.06 (14th).

Another reason the Astros were winners is that the Yankees were perceived losers. NY failed to obtain a top starting pitcher at the deadline. New York’s offensive thunder has led them in a battle with Houston for the top spot in the AL, but they might not have the starting pitching to be a winner come playoff time. The Yankees are going to need to beat the adage “good pitching beats good hitting” in October. The Dodgers, who have all year been positioned to represent the National League in another classic NY vs. LA Series, also failed to address a significant need at the deadline, set up relievers to assist closer Kenley Jansen. The deep Dodger roster though still looks formidable down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Only two teams among the contenders in the AL and NL Central Divisions races took bold steps at the deadline.  The Indians, in the trade with the Reds and Padres, improved its outfield dramatically with the addition of Yasiel Puig (Reds) and Franmil Reyes (Padres).  The Twins sat back, and decided to continue to rely on a lineup that is at a record-setting home run pace.   In the three-team NL Central battle, only the Cubs stepped up by filling some real needs – right handed hitting outfielder (Nick Castellanos); speedster infielder (Tony Kemp); and bullpen help (David Phelps and Derek Holland).  It will be interesting to see if the stay put approach taken by the Cardinals and Brewers will decide the NL Central race this year.

There are other noteworthy trades and failed, rumored trades. The Atlanta Braves, who have led the NL East for much of the season, landed quality relievers for down the stretch, Shane Greene (Tigers), Chris Martin (Rangers), and Mark Melancon (Giants). The Braves hope to have enough to withstand the hard-charging Washington Nationals and their retooled bullpen with the likes of Hunter Strickland and Roenis Elias (Mariners) and Daniel Hudson (Blue Jays). Then there’s the San Francisco Giants, who have come from the back of the pack to second place in the NL West, resisting any trade overtures for their top guy, Madison Bumgarner, with the hope of securing a wild card spot in October.

One of my favorite sports slogans is “dance with the one who brought you”.   I’m not an advocate of that slogan at the baseball trading deadline.  You see, as a fan, I want my team to take some risks and find a dance partner to put my team in the best position to have a shot at a world championship.  I want my dreams to become reality.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

54 Games

Tommy Lasorda, former Dodgers manager, was once quoted:  “No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games.  No matter how bad you are, you’re going to win one-third of your games.  It’s the other third that makes the difference.”  In a 162-game season, it comes down to the critical 54 games that make or break your team’s season.  To break it down even more, a baseball season is a multitude of 3-game series with different opponents.  Each team might easily take a win in two games of the series, but how do you win the critical third game?  Let’s take a look at what might make the difference in winning or losing.

First, you need to win the tight games where you have a lead late in the game.  Last Sunday, two of the all-time great relievers were inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Mariano Rivera and Lee Smith.  Rivera is the greatest finisher in baseball’s history.   He was the Yankees’ closer for 17 seasons and amassed some incredible statistics – MLB career leader in saves (652) and games finished (952).  His Yankees won the World Series five times during his tenure and a lot of it was due to Rivera’s playoff dominance, lowest ERA (0.70) and most saves (42) in playoff history.  He was deemed the “Sandman” because the game was virtually over once he entered it.   Rivera’s personal accolades are many – 1999 World Series MVP, 2003 AL Championship MVP, 13-time All-Star, and finished in the top three for the AL Cy Young Award in four different seasons. Most notably, Rivera was the first-ever unanimous selection to the Hall of Fame.

Lee Smith was a remarkable closer in his own right. In his 18-year MLB career he pitched in 1,022 MLB games and finished 802 of them, mostly with the Cubs and Cardinals. Smith’s physical presence alone terrified hitters. His dominance on the mound included 47 saves as a Cardinal in 1991 (setting the NL record at the time), the same year he finished second in the NL Cy Young voting. He still holds the Cubs career record with 180 saves. Smith related an interesting story at his induction ceremony. In 1979, at the beginning of Smith’s career, he was so mythed about the Cubs making him a relief pitcher that he decided to quit and head back home to Louisiana. Billy Williams, Cubs HOF’er, sat him down and told him that the game’s use of relief pitching was changing and that Smith might make a good career out of it! Words of wisdom by the Sweet Swinger.

One last thought about the Rivera and Smith inductions; there are only six other relief pitchers in the Hall of Fame! The other six include Hoyt Wilhelm (1985), Rollie Fingers (1992), Dennis Eckersley (2004), Bruce Sutter (2006), Goose Gossage (2008) and Trevor Hoffman (2018). This lack of recognition until recently tracks the relief pitcher’s role in the game. The concept of a “save” (getting the last outs of a game when your team is leading by three or fewer runs) did not become an official MLB statistic until 1969. In the 1980s Whitey Herzog masterfully handled the St. Louis Cardinals bullpens that featured Bruce Sutter in the late innings. Many though credit Tony LaRussa as the inventor of the closer role with his heavy reliance on Dennis Eckersley in the ninth inning for the Oakland Athletics in the early 1990s.

The closer role is not always, and really shouldn’t be, just a ninth inning stopper.  Too often skippers turn to less reliable relievers in outcome determining moments in the seventh or eighth innings. There are a few examples of managers who know that they have an overpowering pitcher with the ability to take the game away from the other team at a crucial point.  Joe Maddon’s use of Aroldis Chapman as his ultimate weapon (not just 9th inning closer) during the second half of 2016 and in the playoffs is one example.  Today, Milwaukee Brewers’ manager Craig Counsell has a stud in hard-throwing Josh Hader and is always looking for the critical spot in the late innings for him to stymie a rally.

Getting the winning edge in those critical 54 games is more than just relief pitching. Many games come down to which team plays the better defense. While team fielding percentage is one measure (the percentage of time a defensive player handles a batted or thrown ball without making an error), it’s not always a good one if your defensive players don’t have much range. The better measure is “defensive efficiency”, or the rate of times batters reach base on balls put in play. The five teams with the best defensive efficiency marks in the last 50 years all had outstanding regular season records: Dodgers (’75); Athletics (’90); Reds (’99); Mariners (’01); and Cubs (’16) (courtesy of Baseball Prospectus).

Many baseball analysts point to run differential (the difference between a team’s total runs scored and allowed) as being the telling factor in the course of a season.   The top ten run differentials in MLB history belong to some of baseball’s greatest teams – the 1927 Yankees; 1954 Indians; 1969 Orioles; 1975 Reds; and the 1998 Yankees.  Sometimes though run differential can be an anomaly because of success or failure in winning the close games.  This year’s NL standings suggest just that.  The Braves currently stand in first place in the NL East (and are currently the #2 seed in the NL playoffs) with a run differential of + 58 and record of 62-44, while the Diamondbacks are in third place in the NL West with a run differential of + 66 and a record of 53-53.

Okay, your head is spinning now with all of the numbers, something I promised not to do. But baseball has changed with the top executives all deeply rooted in statistical analysis and sabermetrics. What makes a difference in those critical 54 games? Is it team ERA? Perhaps team batting average with runners in scoring position? Sometimes you need to look past the numbers and find a team with the right chemistry, the right makeup to win those 54 games. Maybe it’s the players, not the stats.

When I was sixteen years old, I felt like my world had been crushed when Carlton Fisk of the Red Sox hit the famous 12th inning home run to defeat the Reds in the sixth game of the 1975 World Series. Cincinnati had blown a 3-run lead in the eighth inning.   After waiting so many years for the Reds to win the World Series, would we have to wait another year?  Before the start of the seventh game, NBC sportscaster Curt Gowdy interviewed Pete Rose who called game 6 not a crushing defeat, but rather “the greatest game I’ve ever played in”.  It was Rose’s will to win that enabled him to tie the game with a hit and later score the winning run in the deciding seventh game.  And of course three years ago the 2016 Cubs (and Cubs fans of all ages) were saved in the seventh game of the Series by Jason Heyward’s will to win address in the clubhouse during the momentum changing 17-minute rain delay.

As the July 31 trading deadline looms mid-week, look for those teams who add a player or two to win those decisive games down the stretch.  You know the ones; the players with the will to win!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Too Early

October 11, 1972, the fifth and deciding game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds for the National League Championship.  As a 13-year old boy I am sitting next to my parents in Riverfront Stadium’s green seats beyond the right field wall, Row 13, Seat 13.  Pirates lead 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth.  The next half inning is my favorite moment in sports.  Johnny Bench of the Reds starts the frame with a home run that goes over the head of the Pirates’ Roberto Clemente and lands directly below my seat.   The crowd goes absolutely crazy.  In fact, the 18-year old girl sitting on the other side of me turns and kisses me on the cheek.  We stand and cheer throughout the rest of the inning, which ends with a wild pitch by Bob Moose of the Pirates as George Foster crosses the plate with the winning run.  The Reds win the Pennant! 

Yet, less than 3 months later, the baseball world would mourn as this favorite moment of mine was the last game the great Clemente ever played.  On New Year’s Eve in 1972, Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash in an attempt to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.   He was only 38 at the time, yes way too early!  His career as a player is one full of the highest achievements.   Clemente played in 18 MLB seasons and was an All-Star in 15 of them.  He was the National League MVP in 1966 and won the NL batting title in four seasons.  Clemente was the most elegant right fielder this game has ever seen.  He won a Gold Glove for 12 straight seasons between 1961 and 1972.   His Pirates were the World Champions in the early part of his career (1960) and near the end (1971, when he was named the World Series MVP).  On the last day of the regular season in 1972, he reached his 3,000th career hit.

It’s just not the numbers Clemente left, but the memories. Cubs fans talk about his long home run as a young Pirate in 1959 at Wrigley Field that just missed becoming the only batted ball to hit the manual scoreboard. During the 1971 World Series, we marveled at his fielding a base hit down the right field line, pirouetting, and cutting down Oriole base runner Merv Rettenmund as he attempted to reach third base. And how about those National League All-Star Game starting outfields in the 1960s: Clemente in right; Mays in center; and Aaron in left! I know all Pittsburgh sports fans will never forget Clemente. His jersey, #21, remains one of the best selling Pirates jerseys almost 50 years since he left us. In touring the Steelers’ home stadium, Heinz Field, about ten years ago, I saw that Clemente was memorialized at the 21-yard line marker in the concourse, and I smiled. My wife, whose favorite player to this day is Clemente, shed a tear. His memory lives on.

Roberto Clemente’s untimely death is one of the most tragic stories of an MLB player leaving us during his playing career, but certainly not the only one. A few weeks ago, on July 1, Tyler Skaggs, a pitcher for the L.A. Angels, was found dead in his hotel room in Texas. The Angels were there for a series against the Rangers. Skaggs’ story is similar to so many other pitchers who suffered setbacks before coming into his own. He had Tommy John surgery in 2014, and wasn’t able to return to pitching until 2016. He started 10 games for the Angels in ’16, 16 starts in ’17, and 16 starts in ’18. This season he was firmly planted in the Angels rotation, posting a 7-7 record with a 4.29 ERA in 15 starts.

Skaggs’ former and current teammates have grieved his death and paid homage to it.  On the day after the news his dear friend, pitcher Patrick Corbin, now with the Nationals, changed his jersey to Tyler’s #45 in his outing against the Marlins.   Mike Trout and Tommy LaStella, Angel teammates, wore #45 at the All-Star Game in his memory.  On July 12, the first Angels home game since Skaggs’ death, his mother threw out the ceremonial first pitch, all of the Angels wore his #45, and the team responded with a combined no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners in a 13-0 rout.  After the game the Angels (and maybe another angel) removed their jerseys and placed them on the pitching mound to remember and celebrate their departed teammate.

The list is too long to remember all of the others who passed during their MLB playing careers, so forgive me if I just mention a few. Thurman Munson, the Yankees’ catcher for 11 seasons (1969-1979), died during an off day in the 1979 season when he was practicing landing his airplane in Akron, Ohio. Munson’s achievements are outstanding, a career batting average of .292, 3 Gold Gloves, 1970 AL Rookie of the Year, and 1976 AL MVP, but his leadership meant even more to his beloved Yankees. He was the “Captain” during their three consecutive World Series appearances (1976-1978), the first Yankee honored with that title since Lou Gehrig. Yes, too early.

I recall being in St. Louis in June 2002 and hearing the news that Darryl Kile, the ace of the Cardinals pitching staff, had died of coronary disease in a hotel room in Chicago.  The Cards were in Chicago that weekend to play the rival Cubs, but that rivalry was quickly cast aside as the players and fans of both cities mourned Kile’s loss.  Darryl played for three teams during his twelve year career (Astros, Rockies, and Cardinals) but is most remembered by being the stalwart of the staff that led the Cards to three playoffs in the early 2000s.   He had a wicked “Uncle Charlie”, a big-time curve ball that would baffle opposing hitters. 

One player on the list of departed who brought a tear to my eye is Chico Ruiz, a utility infielder who played for the Reds and Angels. You might not even remember the name, but he was a player with a big personality my late brother and I used to talk and laugh about. Ruiz was one of those guys who just added enough to a team to stay on the roster. He was most known for stealing home in a Reds victory over the Phillies in September, 1964. At the time Philadelphia had a 6 ½ game lead in the NL with less than 2 weeks to play. The play, deemed the “Ruiz Curse”, triggered the Phillies’ late season demise, as they lost the NL pennant to the Cards on the last day of the season. In February 1972, Ruiz died in a car crash in San Diego. He was just about ready to go to spring training for his third team, the Kansas City Royals.

On July 16 of this past week 39 years ago, my brother passed away at age 27, way too early.   That day is always difficult for me, but somehow this year I felt comforted.   You see, about a week ago at Wrigley Field, I met “Jim”, the nephew of my brother’s all-time favorite Red, Wally Post.   Jim and I felt like old friends, and shared stories of the Reds through the years.   He told me that his Uncle Wally hit the first home run ever at Dodger Stadium, and used to joke that he hit a ball 500 miles (not 500 feet) since it landed in a coal car of a train outside of old Crosley Field headed to Kansas City.  I know my brother was laughing with us too. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Turning Points

During the 1960s the World Series games were all played in the afternoon.  My Dad would take a vacation week so that he and I could catch much of the action together.  I distinctly recall one of our discussions.  It was the fifth game of the 1968 Series between the Cardinals and the Tigers, and St. Louis was up 3 games to 1.   Cards’ speedster Lou Brock, who had stolen 7 bases in the first four games of the Series, was thrown out attempting to steal second base by catcher Bill Freehan of Detroit.  My Dad turned to me and said, “there’s the turning point of the Series”.  He was indeed right; after the play the Cardinals scored just two runs in the next 3 games and the Tigers won the Series 4-3.  From that point on, I’ve always looked for those turning points that changed the fortunes of ballclubs.  

Adding a new player of course is one example.  Probably the most important acquisition of a player in baseball’s history happened 100 years ago.  Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was in financial straits at the end of the 1919 season.  He decided to sell the rights to his great slugger, George Herman Ruth, the “Babe”.   Ruth was coming off a season where he had just set the all-time MLB season record for home runs (29). The Yankees purchased the rights to Babe Ruth on December 26, 1919, for the sum of $100,000.  This single transaction involving the greatest player in baseball’s history changed the direction of both the rival Yankees and Red Sox for decades to come, and is commonly referred to as the “Curse of the Bambino.”

The purchase of Ruth frustrated many teams, especially National League squads that were also interested in him. However, at the time there was no mechanism in place to regulate player acquisitions between leagues. Prior to 1920 the American and National Leagues were run independently. The first Commissioner to preside over both leagues was elected in 1920, Judge Kinesaw Mountain Landis. One of Landis’ first edicts to establish order in baseball was to put in place a deadline of June 15 for any trades during the season. The June 15 trade deadline governed MLB acquisitions for over 60 years.

A June 15, 1964 trade at the deadline impacted the direction of two other great rivals, the Cardinals and the Cubs.  The Cubs traded light-hitting outfielder Lou Brock (hitting .251 at the time) for Cardinals pitcher Ernie Broglio who was coming off some standout seasons.  Brock turned the Cardinals season around batting .348 the rest of the way and leading the Cardinals to its 1964 World Series championship and two other championships (’67 Series and ’68 NL pennant) on the way to his HOF career.  Broglio, on the other hand, went on the disabled list shortly after the trade and was never the same, leaving baseball after the 1966 season.

Today’s July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline has only been around since 1986.  There have indeed been some momentous July 31 trades, including the 2004 four-team trade involving the Red Sox that triggered their long-awaited 2004 World Series championship.  A lot of the big trades though have come at the end of August.  MLB, until this year, has allowed trades prior to August 31 if the players involved cleared waivers.  Among these, on August 31, 1992, Toronto received pitcher David Cone from the Mets en route to their first of two consecutive World Series titles.  With the July 31 trade deadline looming in just two weeks, many teams are hoping for a turning point trade to boost them into the 2019 playoffs and perhaps the title.

Another big rivalry, the Reds vs. Dodgers in the 1970s, saw a division race turn on its head on a single play. On July 1, 1973, the Reds began play 10 games behind the NL West division-leading Dodgers and in fourth place. With 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and his team down 3-1, third-string catcher Hal King of the Reds hit a walk off three run HR. The Reds 4-3 victory started a streak where they went 60-25 down the stretch and captured the NL West flag. The King home run swung the momentum to the Reds in one chapter of the heated rivalry between the teams.

We saw a humorous momentum swing in the 2011 National League Division Series between the Philies and the Cardinals.   The first two games of the five-series were split in Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park.  While the Philies were leading game three late in the game a squirrel appeared on the Busch Stadium playing surface that seemed to unnerve the Phillies.  While the Phillies held on for a game 3 victory, the squirrel appeared the next day on the field in the Cardinals series-tying game 4.  The Cardinals deemed their new live mascot the “Rally Squirrel”.  When the series returned to Philadelphia for the series-deciding 5th game, the Philadelphia fans mockingly threw a stuffed squirrel into the Cardinals bullpen.  The Cards kept the squirrel and got the last laugh, winning the NLDS, the 2011 NL pennant, and World Series behind its new mascot.

The fortunes of a team may also change in reaction to its manager’s fiery leadership.  On June 29, 2008, Lou Pinella, manager of the Cubs and known for his on-field tantrums, was kicked out for contesting a check swing call in a game against the rival White Sox.  Pinella’s nickname of “Sweet Lou” was based on his sweet swing as a hitter, but many jokingly referenced it in his managerial career for his less than sweet demeanor as a field manager.  After the ejection Pinella’s Cubs went onto win the NL Central title in 2008 and Pinella was named manager of the year.

Just before this year’s All-Star break, we might have seen another Cubs team turnaround triggered by the actions of their manager, current skipper Joe Maddon.  Although the Cubs have been in first place in the NL Central for much of the season, they finished the first half with a pedestrian 47-43 record.   On July 4th against the Pirates, Maddon stormed out of the dugout protesting a pitch thrown at one of his star players, Javi Baez.  Maddon though wasn’t charging at home plate umpire Joe West but rather Pirates manager Clint Hurdle.  West tossed Maddon for attempting to incite a conflict between the two teams.  The Cubs have won all 4 games against the Pirates since Maddon’s ejection and perhaps some second-half glory is to come.

What’s been your favorite baseball turning point?

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach