Cubs vs. Cards

There’s no better way to spend a summer afternoon in Chicago than to be at Wrigley Field.  This past Friday was especially wonderful since the Cardinals were in town, and more importantly, my 7-year old grandson was with me.  He is at the stage of life that he is playing the game, but also wanting to soak in all of the details.  I couldn’t ask for a better partner to share this afternoon.

We parked the car in one of the nearby neighborhoods.  I explained to him that Wrigley is a little different than most ballparks since it is nestled into an area of Chicago with little parking but a variety of restaurants and things to do pre-game.  You could feel the excitement as we entered into Gallagher Way where Cubs and Cardinals fans alike played games and shared stories.  We stopped at the Cubs Team Store to get him a Wrigleyville jersey.  It was Friday, City Connect Day, a day the Cubs and other home teams in the MLB celebrate their local heritage. Before getting to our seats, we grabbed some hamburgers, fries, and soda (and of course, Cracker Jack). 

Our seats today were between home plate and first base in the 300 level.  I told him we needed to be alert since it was prime foul ball area (the one that came closest landed in the row below us about five seats over).  Wrigley, built in 1914, is one of many ballparks constructed in the form of a “jewel box”, meaning straight up since steel structures in the lower bowl support the upper grandstand.  Fenway Park (Boston), Ebbets Field (Brooklyn), Comiskey Park (Chicago), and Crosley Field (Cincinnati) were some of the others.  Only Fenway and Wrigley remain, and for my money the best seats are in the lower levels of the upper grandstand.  Our seats were right on top of the action.

With the advent of balance scheduling this series between the Cubs and Cardinals is the second and final one at Wrigley this season. The rivalry goes all the way back to 1885 when the Cubs (then called the White Stockings) faced the Cardinals (known then as the Browns) in games played in Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati.  While the Cubs hold a 1,261 – 1,212 advantage all-time, the Cardinals own more World Series championships (11 to 3). 

One of the great memories of the rivalry is the June 23, 1984, Saturday afternoon game on an NBC national telecast.  It’s known as the “Sandberg Game”.  The Cubs trailed 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth inning and faced former Cub and future Hall of Famer, Bruce Sutter, on the mound.  Ryne Sandberg tied the game with a home run, the Cardinals put two more runs on the board in the 10th inning, and Sandberg tied it again with a two-run shot in the bottom of the tenth inning.  The Cubs won the game in the 11th as broadcaster Bob Costas exclaimed, “Do you believe it?”  Oh yes, anything can happen in this rivalry. 

Fourteen years later, in 1998, a home run race between a Cardinal, Mark McGwire, and a Cub, Sammy Sosa, is said to have revitalized baseball in the aftermath of the players’ strike in 1994.  Prior to the season Roger Maris held the all-time season home run record of 61.  Both McGwire (70 HRs) and Sosa (66 HRs) shattered the record in 1998. In August and September that year, ESPN followed both players’ every at-bats on national television.  One of the biggest moments was in early September before a sold-out Busch Stadium crowd in St. Louis.  McGwire broke the record with #62 off Cubs pitcher, Steve Trachsel.  With a great display of sportsmanship, Sosa hugged his rival after McGwire trotted around the bases.

The Cubs vs. Cards rivalry is one that MLB cherishes.  When the NL split into two divisions in 1969 and three divisions in 1994, the rivalry tradition continued as they remained in the same division.  Although the teams have played around 2,500 games against each other, they have met in the playoffs only once, the 2015 National League Division Series.  The Cubs won that series 3-1 before losing in the NLCS to the Mets.  In the clinching Game 4, Kyle Schwarber hit a majestic home run that most thought left the park. The next morning a helicopter spotted the ball on the right field Budweiser roof. The Cubs preserved the ball there until 2019 when it was returned to Schwarber as his new team, the Nationals, visited.

Both teams this year are under .500 as the August 1st Trade Deadline looms.  This coming week may determine whether each is a buyer or seller. Almost 60 years ago the two clubs engaged in a mid-season trade to remember. Lou Brock and Ernie Broglio were the principal players exchanged in a six player deal.  At the time many thought the Cubs got the best of the deal, landing a pitcher like Broglio, who had been a success in St. Louis, for a disappointing young outfielder in Brock. The results were quite the opposite. Brock led the Cardinals to the 1964 World Championship, as well as another title in 1967 and a World Series appearance in 1968. His storied career landed Brock in the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately for Chicago, Broglio pitched in only two seasons for the Cubs, a 4-7 record, 4.07 ERA, and was out of baseball in 1966.

The Cubs won the Friday encounter this weekend in thrilling fashion, 4-3, as my grandson and I watched the “W” flag being raised over the manual scoreboard and sang “Go Cubs Go” together.  The Cubs won the four game set with victories in the last three games.  Cubs vs. Cards games are always fun, and especially so when you watch them with a best buddy.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Shift

Today’s youth begin hitting by batting off a tee.  It’s safe, allows every child to put the ball in play, and importantly, teaches the kids to level their swings. You will also see some of the best MLB hitters in the game hitting from a tee in their pre-game work (Anthony Rizzo is a good example). For the best hitters in the game, it’s a way to get back to the fundamentals of batting. In hitting off a tee, MLB batters can focus on driving the ball up the middle or the other way. Indeed, hitting the ball to the opposite field has become a lost art.  To address the frequency of managers employing shifts, MLB adopted a rule this season that prohibits their use.

What is a shift?  It’s a defensive realignment from the usual positions of fielders to crowd one side of the infield.  Managers use shifts so that fielders are in a better position to handle hard ground balls hit by pull hitters.  Many baseball historians point to the 1940s as the genesis of shifts when Cleveland Indians manager, Lou Boudreau, employed a defensive shift to thwart Red Sox star Ted Williams.  Yet, others trace shifts to another great hitter named Williams, Ty Williams, who played for the Cubs and the Phillies from 1912 to 1930.

Ty Williams was one of the more feared lefthanded hitters of his era.  In fact, in the prime of Bath Ruth’s career, 1923-1928, Williams was only second to Ruth in home runs.  Williams led the National League in home runs in four seasons and totaled 251 in his career.  He was described as a dead pull hitter, so much so that opposing managers would move the entire defense to the right side of the field. 

The other ”Williams Shift”, or perhaps better known as the “Boudreau Shift”, was a brainchild of Cleveland Indians’ manager, Lou Boudreau, between games of a July 14, 1946, doubleheader when the Indians faced Ted Williams’ Red Sox. Boudreau himself played for 15 seasons in the American League and won the 1944 AL batting title.  As player manager, Boudreau would often try to get in the heads of star players in the league.  By using a shift against Ted Williams, he thought he could coax the great hitter into minimizing his power.  In his book, Player-Manager, Boudreau remarked:  “I have always regarded the Boudreau Shift as a psychological, rather than a tactical, victory”.

The most feared MLB left handed hitter in my boyhood was Willie McCovey, the Giants’ Hall of Fame first baseman.  In his 22-year career, McCovey was a three-time NL home run leader, six-time All-Star, and 1969 NL Most Valuable Player.  Known as “Stretch”, he was a line drive pull hitter. Pitching great Bob Gibson of the Cardinals deemed him “the scariest hitter in baseball”.  Managers, such as the Reds’ Sparky Anderson, consistently employed a shift against McCovey. Anderson said this about McCovey: “If you pitch to him, he’ll ruin baseball.  He’d hit 80 home runs.  There’s no comparison between McCovey and anybody else in the league.”

While managers often used shifts since then, it wasn’t until the last decade when they become extremely popular.  In 2016 the highest team shift rate rose to 34% of their opponent’s at bats and in 2022 it skyrocketed to 52.5% of the time. MLB began to address the increased use of shifts on the minor league level.  As part of an agreement with MLB, the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball in 2019 restricted the shift and required two infielders to be positioned on either side of second base.   In 2022, shift restrictions were used at the AA and A levels (four players required to be in the infield with two on each side of second).

Per the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement after the 2021 lockout, MLB was given the permission to restrict infield shifts beginning in 2023.  And it did just that!  A new rule was added that requires two infielders to be positioned on either side of second before a pitch is thrown.  If the defensive team violates the rule, the team at the plate can choose to have the pitch awarded as a “ball” or take the outcome of the play.  We have not as yet seen a violation of the switch restriction during the season.

Baseball traditionalists are for the most apart aghast at the restriction.  You often hear the grumblings of don’t help the hitters who can’t adjust their swings to go the other way.  My favorite take on the mindset of a batter facing a shift prior to the rule change is that of former manager Joe Maddon:  “You have three choices: You can try and hit it and beat the shift.  That’s going to give you a single, but now you’re doing something against what you’re best at, so the defense wins.  You can hit into the shift, and the defense wins. Or you can try not to let the infielders catch the batted ball.  No ground balls and no popups.  Try to stand on second base.  That’s Option C.”

I’ll take Option C any day of the week.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Batting .400

The All-Star Game festivities culminate tomorrow night with the “big game”.   I don’t know about you, but for me the game has lost its luster over the years.  It used to be a time to see the big name players and other stars who weren’t always in the national spotlight compete hard for the honor of their respective Leagues. Great hitters like Minnesota’s Rod Carew and San Diego’s Tony Gwynn come to mind.  Tomorrow night I must say that I’m excited to see one NL starter in particular who clearly doesn’t get his rightful attention, second baseman Luis Arraez of the Miami Marlins.

Why Arraez?  In case you haven’t checked the batting standings, Arraez, last year’s AL batting champion, is hitting .383 at the All-Star Break, around 50 points better than any player in either League.  He is one of the first players in years who is knocking on the door of the coveted .400 batting average season. Forty-two players in MLB history have reached the mark.  Five players have done it in three separate seasons. But here’s the kicker – Ted Williams in 1941 is the last MLB player to bat over .400! Many say that with the advent of specialized relief pitchers, .400 is an untouchable mark.  There have been a couple players in the last few decades who have come close.  And maybe, just maybe, the remarkable Arreaz can cross the line this season.

You can name almost any batting record and find Ty Cobb at the top or near the top of the list.  He is actually credited with setting 90 MLB records in his 24-year career (1905-1928).  Among them, he has the highest career batting average of .366, attained 4,189 hits, achieved a record 12 batting titles, and stole home for a record 54 times.  In 1999, the Sporting News ranked Cobb third on the list of “Baseball’s Greatest Players”. His three seasons of reaching the .400 mark (1911, 1912, and 1922) might be his most remarkable achievement.  His great baseball career though was tarnished with allegations of racism and violence.

A cloud also hangs over the career of another gifted hitter from that era, Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Jackson will forever be tied to the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, but you must admire his hitting prowess.  He maintained a .356 career batting average, the fourth highest in MLB history. No one has ever made a bigger splash into the Big Leagues as Shoeless Joe.  In 1911, considered his rookie season, he batted .408 for the Cleveland Naps.  Jackson was also named a member of “Baseball’s Greatest Players”.

Most often when I think of .400 hitters, Ted Williams, the last MLB player to do so, is top of mind.  While he too is a controversial figure in MLB history, his numerous records stand out – lifetime .344 batting average; two-time AL MVP award winner; 6-time AL batting champ; and a 19-time All-Star in his 22 year career with the Boston Red Sox.  My Dad would often tell me that Williams’ batting superiority was due to his being able to see the seams of the baseball as it came to the plate.  Willams’ two most prominent achievements include winning the AL Triple Crown in two seasons, and yes of course, his .406 average during the 1941 season.

Some notable, more recent players have flirted with .400 averages but not quite gotten over the top.  One of the best hitters in my lifetime, Tony Gwynn, stands out. In his 20-year career with the Padres (1982-2001), Gwynn won eight batting titles and maintained a career .338 batting average.  Incredibly, he never batted below .309 during a season. Tony came up as more of a spray hitter to the opposite field, but credits a meeting with Ted Williams as a turning point for pulling the ball more and exhibiting more power.  In the strike-shortened season of 1994, Gwynn flirted with .400 most of the campaign before ending the season at .394. So close.

George Brett is another. Brett played for 21 seasons with the Kansas City Royals (1973-1993).  He is the only player in MLB history to win a batting title in three separate decades, and is one of five players to garner 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and over a .300 career batting average (.305).  Brett might be best known for charging the home plate umpire after he was ruled out for a pine tar violation in a game against the Yankees. I like to think of him as that 1980 AL MVP who batted .390, the modern record for third basemen.  In the 1980 season he was above .400 as late as September 19th, before falling short of the mark.

When I was growing up, only when the Minnesota Twins appeared on the Saturday Afternoon Game of the Week did I get to see second baseman Rod Carew play in the regular season.  I loved every minute. Carew won seven AL batting titles in his 19-year career (1967-1985), second only to Ty Cobb.  He was what we lack in the game today, a pure contact hitter.  Carew put the ball in play, almost every at bat.  In 1977 he led the AL in hits, an eye-popping 239, and brought home the AL MVP award with an oh so close .388 batting average.  In 2016 the AL batting title was renamed the Rod Carew American League Batting Title.

Luis Arraez is the modern day Carew.  He is just 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and plays second base. Last year he too starred for the Twins, and crazily, was traded to the Marlins in the offseason after having won the AL batting championship.  Arraez plays his home games in a near empty Miami ballpark. For the first half of this season, he has gone over and under the .400 mark several times. In June he had three 5-hit games, tieing a mark set by Ty Cobb and two other MLB players.  Do what you can over the next three months to see a Marlins game and Arraez at the plate.  It is a real treat.

Enjoy the All-Star Game tomorrow night.  Let the stars shine, especially Luis Arraez!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Perfect!

We throw around the term “perfect” a lot.  I know I do – a “perfect” dinner, a “perfect” day, and of course “perfect” timing.  In baseball it means a perfect game.  9 innings, 27 batters faced, 27 outs, and no baserunners.  This past Wednesday night Yankees pitcher Domingo German in an 11-0 win over the Oakland A’s hurled the first perfect game in MLB since Seattle ace Felix Hernandez in 2012.  It’s quite a feat for German, especially since he had given up 15 runs in the last 5 and 1/3 innings that he pitched.  Let’s take a look at MLB’s perfect games.

German’s perfect game is the 24th in the history of the game.  Putting that in perspective, there have been over 235,000 MLB games played.  Two pitchers accomplished the feat during one week in 1880, Lee Richmond (Worcester Worcesters) and John Montgomery Ward (Providence Grays).  The rules were different then. Pitchers threw underhanded and the strike zone was left solely to the umpire’s discretion. Since the modern era of baseball began in 1900, there have now only been 22 perfect games.  Some of the names on the list of 22 are well known (Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, and Randy Johnson), while others are not (Addie Joss, Dallas Braden, and Phillip Humber).  It’s also notable who is not on the list – Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson, Bob Feller, and Walter Johnson, among others.

MLB pitching records begin and end with the greatest ever, Cy Young.  Young pitched the first perfect game in the modern era, a 3-0 Boston Americans win over the Philadelphia Athletics in 1904.  No pitch clock then, but the game ended in a prompt 1 hour and 25 minutes.  Young holds the MLB records for most wins (511), innings pitched, games started, and complete games.  He threw three other no-hitters in his Hall of Fame career.  He passed in 1955, and one year later the Cy Young Award was created to honor annually the best pitcher during the MLB season.  It is now given to a pitcher in both Leagues.

A three-time Cy Young Award winner in the NL, Sandy Koufax, tops my list of pitchers who threw a perfect game (his was in 1965).  The Dodger great pitched for six years (1955-1960) before he mastered the mound, but when he did, oh my.  During the six-year stretch between 1961 and 1966, there has been no one more dominant.  He led the NL in ERA for the last five of those years, in strikeouts four years (setting a then MLB record of 385 strikeouts in 1965), won three Cy Young awards, two World Series MVP awards, and led MLB in wins three of the years. Koufax was as close to perfection as anyone who has been on the mound.

Another dominant lefthanded pitcher of course is Randy Johnson, the “Big Unit”.  One of my favorite moments in All-Star Game history is the at-bat of the Phillies John Kruk facing Johnson.  Kruk basically threw in the white towel as he waved at three pitches.  Johnson stood at 6 feet, 10 inches, and was certainly an imposing pitcher on the mound. He led the League in stikeouts nine times, and in ERA, winning percentage, and complete games four times.  Johnson is a five-time winner of the Cy Young Award.  In May 2004, at 40 years old, he threw MLB’s 17th perfect game.  He is the oldest pitcher to have ever pitched a perfect game.

Perfect games sometimes come from unexpected sources.  In September 1988, Tom Browning of the Reds pitched baseball’s 12th perfect game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The game was played before just over 10,000 fans, many of whom had left before game’s end due to an extended rain delay. Browning was indeed a quality starting pitcher (winning 20 games as the NL Rookie of the Year in 1985 and sporting a record of 18-5 in 1988), but was more known for coaxing batters to put balls in play than overpowering them.  An interesting sidelight to Browning’s successful career as a Red is that he is probably more known for his escapades during a 1993 game against the Cubs in Chicago. He appeared in full Reds uniform at a Wrigley Field rooftop with a hot dog and beer in hand.

In postseason play, perfection means the Yankees Don Larsen and his performance in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.  It remains the only perfect game in World Series history.  Larsen won the World Series MVP Award for the historic outing, yet no one could have ever expected it.  Larsen was basically a pedestrian pitcher for the Yankees and six other teams during his 15-year MLB career, compiling a lifetime win-loss record of 81-91.  With German’s perfect game this past week, he joins Larsen and two other Yankee hurlers, David Wells and David Cone, as Pinstripers with perfect games.

German’s perfect game this past week was just as surprising as Larsen’s.  German made his MLB debut in 2017 with the Yankees and has had sort of a checkered career to date – in 2020 he was suspended from baseball for 60 games due to a domestic violence incident; last year he spent 60 days on the injured list due to right shoulder impingement; and on May 16 this year he was ejected for an illegal substance violation.  In German’s prior start before the perfect game last week, he was booed off the mound at Yankee Stadium.  You have to give him much credit for rebounding, considering that he pitched the perfect game two days after his uncle’s death and dedicated the game to him.

Some naysayers note that German’s gem this past week came against the Oakland A’s, who have maintained MLB’s worst record since the start of the season.  One of my blog followers this weekend passed along some fun facts to put it all in perspective.  The A’s on-base percentage this year is a woeful .298 (the median MLB OBP this year is .320).  An OPS of .298 means that there is a 70.2% chance for an A’s batter not to reach base.  .702 to the 27th power is .00007, which means 7 out of 100,000 times one would project 27 outs in 27 at-bats.  I call German’s outing absolutely Perfect!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Ballpark Music

Going to the ballpark has always been my getaway.  For me there’s a certain serenity about sitting in the stands and watching the games unfold. I guess my earliest memory of sounds at the ballpark is hearing the thundering “Charge” at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the fans yelled for a Reds rally.  I would make it a point to get popcorn early in the game so that I would have my own paper megaphone to join in the cheer.  Music has certainly evolved at ballparks.  Let’s take a look.

The “Star Spangled Banner”, our country’s National Anthem, first was played at a sporting event during the Civil War, in 1862, at a baseball game. The tradition of playing it took off during the 1918 World Series between the Cubs and the Red Sox.  The country was at war, World War I, and in the throes of a pandemic, the Spanish flu.  In a game in Chicago, a military band played the National Anthem during the seventh inning stretch.  Players quickly put their hands over their hearts and fans joined in and sang.  When the Series returned to Boston, the Red Sox owner, Harry Frazee, one-upped the Cubs by having the National Anthem played before the game.  The pregame tradition did not catch on immediately for regular season games since most ballparks didn’t have great sound systems and teams couldn’t afford a band.  It was not until the 1940s when the National Anthem was played before all MLB games.

On April 26, 1941, Wrigley Field became the first Major League ballpark to have organ music.  Arrangements of fun music were played by an organist as he sat behind the Lowrey Organ, now in its rightful place in Cooperstown.  The second Lowrey Organ (pictured) is the focal point of Wrigley music today.  The ballpark’s most famous organist, Gary Pressy, entertained the crowd from 1987 to his recent retirement in 2019, spanning 33 seasons and never missing a day.  In May 2019 Pressy reached his 2,633rd consecutive game, surpassing Cal Ripken Jr. as the “iron man” of baseball.  Pressy was an avid baseball fan, using clever tunes based on player numbers, names, and even hometowns.

His New York counterpart, Eddie Layton, who played the organ at Yankee Stadium for over 40 years, was not a baseball guy.  In fact, when Layton, a talented musician and organist, was hired by the Yankees for the 1967 season, he had never even been to a ballpark and knew nothing about the game.  He soon learned, regaling the New York crowd with a variety of fun jingles until his retirement in 2003.  On his retirement day, he played one final performance of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” with the fans chanting “Eddie, Eddie!”

“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” has certainly become the unofficial anthem of the MLB.  The song was played for the first time in 1934 at a high school baseball game in Los Angeles, and then during the fourth game of the World Series that year.  There are a couple tweaks to the original song at MLB ballparks, including replacing the words “home team” with the actual name of your home team.  I sometimes catch myself singing “and it’s root, root for the Redlegs”, in memory of my late parents. 

That doesn’t play well in Chicago, where fans have reveled in “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” since the days of Harry Caray singing to the crowd at Comiskey Park in the 1970s.  After 25 years of broadcasting Cardinals games in St. Louis and one season in Oakland, Caray was hired by the White Sox in 1971.  He became popular with the South Side crowd because of his wonderful personality and reputation for joviality.  When Bill Veeck became owner of the Sox in 1976, he placed a live microphone in Caray’s broadcasting booth one game as Harry sang the famous song during the seventh inning stretch.  Caray was embarrassed; the fans loved it.  They encouraged him to sing game after game, and the tradition began.  Caray brought the tradition to Wrigley Field in 1982 when he became a broadcaster for the Cubs.  He always led the song with “All right! Lemme hear ya! Ah-One! Ah-Two! Ah-Three”.  If his beloved Cubbies were tied or losing in the middle of the seventh inning, he would conclude with, “Let’s get some runs!”

Caray passed in 1998, but the tradition of someone leading the Wrigley crowd in “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” from the broadcasting booth lives on.  Sometimes now, a video of Caray leads the crowd, but often there are guest singers, ranging from local sports figures in the news and even celebrities.  My personal favorite is Bill Murray, actor/comedian, who just may be the #1 Cubs enthusiast in the country.  This seventh inning stretch tradition seems to always provide an interesting sidelight, such as race car driver Jeff Gordon welcoming the “Wrigley Stadium” crowd (ugh; it’s a ballpark) and Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster ending his rendition with “let’s get some cookies!’  Two of the more infamous renditions include Bears legend Mike Ditka literally yelling the song in record time in 1998 and musician Ozzy Osbourne forgetting the words in 2003.

Organs at baseball parks have now been mostly replaced by canned music – often, loud; let’s admit it, very loud. A newer tradition is that players come to the plate or enter the game with their own “walk-up” songs as background music.  Chipper Jones of the Braves allowed Ozzy Osbourne to save some face at the ballpark by selecting Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” as his walk-up song during the entirety of Chipper’s 19-season career.  Yankee greats Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera made famous “This is How We Do It” and “Enter Sandman” as their respective walk-up songs.  While fictional, I must admit that I loved Charlie Sheen’s character Ricky Vaughn in the baseball flick Major League entering the game to the tune of “Wild Thing”.

Yes, the serenity of the old ballpark and its gentle organ music may be things of the past, but I always enjoy going to the ballpark.  I still love hearing the crack of the bat, old ballpark sounds of vendors exhorting “Hot dogs here” or “Cold beer”, and singing “Take Me Out to the Ballpark” arm and arm with family or friends.  It remains my happy place.  Every sound is music to my ears.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Fathers and Sons

One of my favorite memories of my Dad is our spending summer evenings together in the backyard tossing a baseball.  We tossed and chatted, mostly about baseball, for a good thirty or forty five minutes until he would call it a night. When I was 15, I took my first job as an umpire – District 18 Knothole.  Dad loved hearing my stories about some of the crazy things that happened in little league baseball.  I met Ken Griffey, Sr., the Reds’ star right fielder, in person at one of my umpiring assignments.  It was a Saturday morning I’ll never forget.  I witnessed this future superstar, his son, Kenny Jr., and his sweet swing in a game featuring two 8-year old teams. Let’s explore some MLB fathers and sons:

The Griffeys.  Ken Sr. and Jr. are my personal favorites.  I grew up during the Big Red Machine years, and Ken Griffey Sr. was the table-setter for the greatest lineup that ever played the game.  Although he was a three-time NL All-star, a defensive standout, a fleet baserunner, and maintained a lifetime batting average of .296, he is one of the lesser known Reds during that era.  Let’s just say that his son more than made up for it in terms of fame.  Jr. came out of Cincinnati Moeller in 1987 as the U.S. high school player of the year. Drafted first overall by the Seattle Mariners, Ken Griffey Jr. hit the MLB stage in a big way – 22 seasons (played in four different decades); 630 HRs (7th most in history); ten Gold Gloves; 13-time All-Star; and a Hall of Fame first ballot (99.32% of vote).  Ken Sr. joined Jr. in Seattle for the 1990 and 1991 seasons, becoming the first father-son to be in the same batting lineup and even hit back-to-back HRs (September 14, 1990). After playing his first 11 years in Seattle, Jr. joined the Reds in 2000 for nine seasons.  On June 17, 2004, I was with my daughters on Father’s Day in St. Louis to see Jr. hit his 500th career HR.  And so was his Dad, Ken Sr., one of my favorite baseball moments (pictured above)!

Bonds.  This is another father-son duo where the son kind of outdid the dad. Bobby Bonds was a star outfielder for 14 seasons, mostly with the Giants, and set records for his combination of power hitting and speed. He was the first player in MLB history to have more than two seasons of 30 HRs and 30 stolen bases, doing it five times.  Bobby also was the second player in history to achieve 300 HRs and 300 SBs, joining the great Willie Mays. The Pirates drafted his son, Barry, as the sixth overall pick, in 1985.  Barry Bonds spent the first seven seasons in Pittsburgh, but made his fame in San Francisco for the next 15 years. Here are just some of the numbers:  seven NL MVP awards; most career HRs (762); most HRs in a single season (73 in 2000); 8 Gold Gloves; and a career 514 stolen bases (yes, that same combination of power and speed). It goes without saying that Barry’s career ended in a dark cloud.

Vlad.  Speaking of power, how about today’s AL superstar Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., and his dad, Vlad Sr.   Vladimir Guerrero Sr. played in sixteen seasons (1996-2011) for four teams, most notably with the Montreal Expos early in his career.  He is a nine-time All-star; 2004 AL MVP; feared hitter (.318 lifetime average with 2,590 hits and 449 HRs); and defensive standout.  He is also known as one of the great “bad ball” hitters in the game, once hitting a pitch that bounced before it reached the plate.  Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is just making his name in the game.  In 2021, he led the major leagues in HRs (48, tied), runs scored (123), and total bases (363).  That year in the All-Star Game Vlad Jr. became the youngest All-Star MVP in history.  The future is powerful.

The Alomars. Defense runs in this family.  Sandy Alomar Sr. played in 14 MLB seasons (1964-1978) as a defensive wizard.  In 1975 he led all major league second basemen in fielding percentage.  He also excelled in a dying art – the skill of bunting, one of the best ever in the game.  Sr. became an exceptional MLB coach for another 24 seasons. He coached the Padres in 1988 when both of his sons landed on the MLB scene.  Sandy Alomar Jr. starred in the MLB as a catcher for 20 seasons on 7 different teams (1988-2007), most notably as a Cleveland Indian where he was a 6-time All-Star and a member of two AL pennant winners.  Both Sandys though need to step aside for the youngest Alomar, Robbie.  Roberto Alomar, in sixteen MLB seasons, is regarded as one of the greatest second basemen ever – 12 time Gold Glover!  He ranks near the top in most offensive and defensive categories for all-time second basemen.  Robbie was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.

Bell.  One of my Dad’s favorite players was Gus Bell, whose MLB career spanned 15 seasons and four teams (1950-1964), mostly with the Reds. Gus was a versatile outfielder, playing all three positions and wielding a lifetime fielding percentage of .985.  A four-time NL All-Star, the left-handed hitter batted .281 lifetime.  He also left Cincinnati with a wonderful family lineage.  His son, Buddy Bell, starred as a six-time Gold Glove third baseman with the Indians, Rangers, and Reds, for 17 seasons.  He compiled a lifetime batting average of .279, very similar to his Dad. Buddy went onto manage three teams, the Tigers, Rockies, and Royals, for 12 seasons.  The baseball family tree doen’t stop there. Buddy’s two sons, Mike and David Bell, played in the MLB as well.  It’s one of just five families who have had three generations of players in professional baseball.  David Bell has served as the Reds’ manager for the past five seasons.

Boone.  And here’s another last name filled with generations of players.  Ray Boone, who played for 12 seasons with the Cleveland Indians, started the MLB family tree as he debuted in 1948.  He was a two-time All-Star and led the AL in RBIs with 116 in 1955.  His son, Bob Boone, an All-Star catcher for four seasons, played for the Phillies and Royals (1972-1990). He is also noted for his managerial expertise as he led the Royals and Reds for six seasons.  The third generation of Boone’s, Bret and Aaron, also starred on MLB diamonds.  Aaron Boone will always go down in Yankees vs. Red Sox history as hitting the walk-off HR for New York in the 11th inning of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS.  Most recently, Aaron has successfully managed the Pinstripers for six seasons.  He currently has a managerial winning percentage of .602.

Alou x 3.  One of my favorite baseball cards growing up had 3 panels with each of the Alou brothers – Felipe; Matty; Jesus.  Felipe Alou is the oldest and most famous of the three.  He played in 17 MLB seasons (1958-1974), leading the NL twice in hits and once in runs scored.  Felipe was the consummate leadoff batter.  In fact, he led off with an HR in 20 games.  After his playing career, Alou managed the Expos and Giants for fifteen seasons.  He is one of three persons to have 2,000 hits, 200 HRs, and 1,000 managerial wins. Felipe’s son, Moises Alou, starred for several NL teams in a 19-year career.  Moises was certainly his own person.  He refrained from using batting gloves at the plate, a practice not shared by many modern players.  While Moises compiled a .303 lifetime batting average, he is most noted for his involvement in the Bartman incident during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS.

Yaz.  Every Saturday afternoon in the 1960s NBC featured the “Game of the Week”.  It seemed like more often than not the game was played at Fenway Park and featured Yaz’ Red Sox.  Carl Yastrzemski played his entire MLB career with Boston, mostly manning left field in front of the Green Monster.  This left handed hitter could really stroke it, garnering 3,419 hits and a lifetime .285 batting average.  An 18-time All-Star, he also captured seven Gold Gloves. Yaz took the Red Sox to two AL pennants (1967 and 1975) but could never get them a World Series crown.  In 1967, he accomplished the Triple Crown (AL leader in HRs, RBIs, and average) and was easily named the AL MVP.  His talent skipped a generation, but certainly landed in the lap of his grandson, Mike Yastrzemski, an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants.  Mike made a big splash in 2020, hitting his 30th HR in just his 151st game, joining Giant greats Bobby Thomson and Dave Kingman.

Iron Men.  The Ripkens were “iron men” in different ways.  Cal Ripken, Sr. spent 36 years in the Baltimore Orioles system as a minor league player, coach, and manager.  His two sons, one in particular, were really good baseball players.  Sr. took great pride in that Cal Jr. and Billy played for the Orioles when Sr. coached and for one year managed the team.  Cal Ripken, Jr. set all kinds of records in his 21 MLB seasons, all with the Orioles.  The first ballot Hall of Famer produced 3,184 hits, was a 19-time All-Star, captured two Gold Gloves, and won the AL MVP award two years (1983, 1991).  Of course, he set one record that may never be broken, appearing in 2,632 consecutive MLB games.

Fielders.  The last name is a misnomer for this father-son duo.  They should have been named Power.  Cecil Fielder played 14 MLB seasons and crashed many American League ballpark fences with extra base hits.  In 1990, he became the first player to hit 50 HRs in a season since George Foster in 1977. Winning the world championship as a Yankee in 1996, he finished his career with 319 HRs.  His son, Prince Fielder, a six-time All-Star, playing 12 seasons for the Brewers and Rangers, remarkably ended his career with that same number of HRs, 319, and just 20 RBIs more than his Dad (1,028 to 1,008).  When he hit a season high of 50 HRs early in his career, he became the youngest player in MLB history to do so.  Power, indeed!

I met Ken Griffey Sr. a second time.  As my 40th birthday present, I attended the Reds baseball fantasy camp in Sarasota, Florida, then the spring training home of the Reds.  I felt like a giddy 15-year old that entire week, pitching and playing for and against fellow campers and former Reds players. On the first day of camp I ran into Griffey Sr. in the locker room and expressed my great joy in getting to see him.  He shrugged, and simply said, “Hey, I’m not Jr.” I often recall that thought in parenting – it’s not about me; it’s about them.  For those fathers and sons who have shared the MLB with us, thanks especially to the Dads.  Happy Father’s Day!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Don't Forget Your Phone!

You’ve probably heard this question on the way to the ballpark in the past:  “Did you remember the tickets?”  Hopefully, more often than not, the answer was yes! Nowadays, with every MLB ballpark requiring mobile ticketing, the better question is whether you remembered your phone.

Margaret Donahue, the first female executive in MLB history, is the pioneer of baseball tickets.  Donahue started in the Cubs’ front office as a stenographer in 1919.  Just seven years later, she was promoted by the Wrigley Co.’s board of directors to corporate secretary.  The news of her promotion was featured in The Sporting News, among other publications.  Prior to the 1929 baseball season, she introduced season tickets to Cubs fans.  It was a huge success with thousands sold prior to Opening Day.  Donahue had grown tired of saving the best seats for fans who were no shows at the box office, and thought that season tickets would create a better impetus for fans to actually attend the games.

Her ticketing ideas included other new practices as well.  Donahue introduced the purchase of single game tickets at places other than the ballpark box office. Cubs tickets became available at Western Union offices across Chicago.  (The actual ticket stubs became important to save on those rainy days when the game had to be postponed; hence, the term “rain checks”.)   She also looked around Wrigley Field and saw that families were needed in attendance.  Donahue pushed the Cubs to introduce reduced prices for children under 12. The ballpark soon became a family atmosphere, as years prior the club had started Ladies’ Day, free admission for women, for Friday home games.

Wrigley Field was also the site of a novel concept in food delivery – the concession stand! You see, in the early days of Wrigley, then called Weeghman Park, the Cubs owner, Charlie Weeghman, came from a food service background.  He owned several lunch-top counter restaurants around town.  He learned of his guests at the ballpark complaining that they couldn’t always see the game since the vendors were selling from large food carts in the fans’ sight lines.  While allowing some vendors to continue to circulate among the crowd, Weeghman positioned most of the food and drink behind the stands, popularizing the modern day concession stands.

So much has evolved in ticketing and food service.  Tickets soon became available for purchase in advance at many types of outlets throughout an MLB city (supermarkets, department stores, etc.).  With the advent of the Internet, you could purchase your game day tickets online through Ticketmaster.  Then, Stubhub and Seat Geek provided options in the resale market.  Food at the ballparks went from hot dogs, popcorn, beer, and soda (and of course “peanuts and Cracker Jack”) to a variety of menu items and spirits.  T-Mobile Park in Seattle is currently the number one ranked ballpark for food, featuring Pacific seafood gumbo and Dungeness crab sandwiches.  Crazy, but true!

How do you get tickets and food at ballgames in 2023?  Bring your phone, and make sure you download the MLB Ballpark app.  All 30 MLB ballparks now require that its patrons enter the ballpark with mobile tickets. The benefits are compelling. With the pandemic still on the minds of everyone, cashless systems reduce customer touch points. Mobile ticketing also helps to prevent lost or stolen tickets.  And it’s easy to use.  Once the app is on your phone and connected to your email address, all future ticket purchases go immediately to the app for ballgames and even ballpark tours!  While at the game you can also use your phone to order food to your seats or for quick and easy pickup at the concession stands.

Is there a downside to mobile ticketing?  For me, the number one concern is that I lose a little anticipation of going to a game and the memories from attending.  I recall as a young boy posting my future Reds tickets inside my bedroom door and counting the days to the game. More than that, I loved keeping the physical tickets after the game and looking back at the excitement.  I still have the green plaza reserved, row 13, seat 13 ticket stub from Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS (my favorite game ever).  Gary Piattoni of the “Antiques Roadshow” reflected: “Say you’re 10 and you go to a game with your dad; you give the ticket to the attendant, the attendant tears it and – boom – that stub is your memory.”

Further, many point out that cashless systems raise privacy issues, such that any digital point-of-sale system adds to your personal user information.  Bigger picture is that digital only access worsens economic equality.  Consumers who do not have access to a smartphone or a credit card are disadvantaged.  Interestingly, Philadelphia and San Francisco have now banned many forms of cashless-only retailing.  And digital only access to ballparks may increase the price of tickets in the resale market.  Ticketing Bots tend to buy large blocks of tickets when tickets first enter the market. It’s the modern-day version of scalping, and a digital practice that Congress and the FTC have attempted to regulate.

The introduction of the pitch clock in 2023 to MLB games is also an interesting factor.  The average game time in the first two months of the season is the lowest since 1984.  Shortened game times mean lesser windows for food sales. MLB teams are experiencing lower beer sales in particular. Fans don’t want to spend so much of the game waiting in concession lines.  One way to combat this is of course to use your phone by ordering food and beverages to your seats or for easier pickup at the concession stand.  Don’t forget your phone!

Willy Wonka’s golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory warned:  “Be certain to have this ticket with you, otherwise you will not be admitted.”  That certainly rings true today with your phone.  And just like the movie, it provides a better passage to your happy place.

Until Monday, June 19,

your Baseball Bench Coach

P.S.  Your Coach returns in two weeks.

Night Baseball

A great way to spend a summer evening is to tune into an MLB game (or games!).  With ESPN, MLB network, and regional and local affiliates, there are so many options available.  One could watch games from coast to coast each night.  Indeed, television contracts alone, mostly focusing on prime time broadcasting, guaranty over $100 million for each MLB team before selling a ticket.  We’ve come a long way from the crackling sound of a radio positioned in the right spot to get the play-by-play of our favorite team.  How did we get here?

The first reported baseball game under the lights was in 1880 between two department store teams.  In the next fifty years, there were just a handful of night exhibition games in organized baseball.  It wasn’t until April 28, 1930, in Independence, Kansas, that a Class C minor league team, the Independence Producers, played the first professional game at night.  The first “big league” night game was played later that summer by the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs. The concept spread overseas with games played in Canada, Japan, and Cuba, in the early 1930s.  By the end of the 1934 season there were 65 minor league ballparks with lights installed.

The first night game in MLB history was on May 24, 1935, at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt threw a ceremonial first “switch” at the White House.  The Reds were in financial straits at the time and saw night baseball as a way to boost attendance.  The Reds defeated the Phillies that evening, 2-1, before a crowd of 20,422, Crosley’s third largest of the season.  The average attendance for day games in Cincinnati that season was around 2,000.  Reds ballpark usher Ralph Ploews exclaimed: “People were in utter joy.”  The Reds played six other night games that season against the remaining NL teams all to big crowds.

Not everyone in baseball was overjoyed.  In fact, Hall of Famer Clark Griffith, owner of the AL’s Washington Senators, said at the time: “High class baseball cannot be played at night.”  He, along with fourteen other MLB owners, soon acquiesced. Over the next thirteen years MLB ballparks all had light structures in place for night baseball, the last one being Tiger Stadium in Detroit in 1948.  Except one, Wrigley Field.  But that’s not to say that Cubs’ owner P.K. Wrigley didn’t fall in line.  He ordered the steel for light towers after the 1941 season.  When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Wrigley donated the material to the War Department. The light towers were used by a Naval Air Station in a north Chicago suburb for training fighter pilots making night landings.

Mr. Wrigley was also not enamored with night baseball, at one point deeming it a “passing fad”.  In the early 1960s, William Shlensky, a shareholder of the Wrigley Co., filed an action against the company to force the installation of lights.  Shlensky argued that the team was losing money, and other teams in MLB, most particularly the cross town White Sox, were achieving higher attendance and revenue due to night baseball. Mr. Wrigley argued that night baseball would be detrimental to the surrounding neighborhood.  The judge ruled that Mr. Wrigley could run his ballclub as he sees fit, a win for the business judgement rule in corporate law and day baseball. The ballclub continued to suffer on the field.  The 1969 team got out to a big division lead but the daylight sun was said to cause its tumble to the Mets late in the season. 

Two key events in 1981 changed the ballclub’s tune. The Cubs were sold to the Tribune Company and Dallas Green rolled into town as general manager, both claiming that night baseball was important for the Cubs to be competitive.  They had opposition.  The Illinois Legislature passed an anti-noise law in 1982 that effectively barred the installation of lights at Wrigley Field.  A 1983 Chicago City Ordinance did the same, and both the statute and ordinance were upheld in court.  Citizens United for Baseball in Sunshine (CUBS), a neighborhood group near Wrigley Field, advocated for day baseball outside the ballpark gates.  The Cubs threatened to move to the Chicago suburbs.

What turned the fortunes is that the team became good! The 1984 Cubs led their division for most of the season, and MLB became concerned about what that might mean for the World Series in October.  Since it was an even-numbered year the National League winner would be the host team for games 1, 2, 6, and 7, which were scheduled to be weekday night games broadcasted nationally in prime time.  MLB determined that if Chicago would reach the Series, Wrigley Field would instead be the host site for just games 3, 4, and 5, weekend games that could fit into the television sports schedule.  The Padres defeated the Cubs in the NLCS that year, but the same issue appeared in 1985 when the Cubs led the division on Father’s Day.  MLB had a new ultimatum – if the Cubs would get into the Series they might be forced to host their games at Milwaukee County Stadium, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, or at Comiskey Park in Chicago.  Let’s get some lights! 

On August 8, 1988, Harry Grossman, a 91 year old season ticket holder, brought night baseball to the North Side.  Grossman lived near Wrigley Field his entire life, and saw over 4,000 games there since the 1906 championship season.  He walked onto the field before this summer game featuring the Cubs and Phillies, and led the fans in chanting, “one, two, three, let there be lights”. He turned on a ceremonial switch, and the  game began.  After three and a half innings of play, the rains came and the first night game was actually rained out. The Cubs played the Mets the next evening, August 9, and night baseball was here to stay. Grossman would take a hero’s tour on the late night talk circuit, including an appearance on the David Letterman Show.

Night baseball restrictions continue to handcuff the Cubs despite the lights.  By City Ordinance Wrigley Field is currently limited to 35 regular season night games plus up to eight more games added by the request of national TV networks.  In 2022 the average number of night games per MLB team was 54, which has been the case for a few decades. The most home night games are in Atlanta where Truist Park hosts 63 a year. Interestingly, since the lights were turned on in 1988, the Cubs night winning percentage at Wrigley is .542, compared to a .521 winning percentage during the day.  Another restriction is that night games can’t be played at all on Friday evenings, which has caused Cubs managers to ask the Chicago Board of Aldermen for waivers to play Friday night on at least two occasions. 

Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, is famous for his colorful expressions, including saying “Let’s Play Two!” on beautiful days at the ballpark and deeming Wrigley Field the “Friendly Confines”.  He had this to say about night baseball:  “I played all my home games under one light, God’s light”.  The Cubs only wish they could play under the same rules as other teams in baseball. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Can of Corn

Baseball terminology is full of history and fun stories.  To be a true baseball fan, you need to speak and understand the language.  Here are some of my and my blog followers’ favorite baseball terms:

BULLPEN.  The bullpen is the area where pitchers warm up before and during the game. In the late 1800s if you arrived late to an MLB game, ballpark personnel would put you into standing room areas in foul territory.  Since the fans were cordoned off and herded like cattle, the areas became known as “bullpens”.  Fans weren’t too pleased with this, so ballparks began to use the areas for pitchers to warm up.  Having bullpens in foul territory on the playing surface were commonplace well into the late 1900s. Due to safety considerations, today’s bullpens are located beyond the outfield fence.

SOUTHPAW.  A southpaw is a left-handed pitcher.  It wasn’t until 1935 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati that MLB introduced night games.  Before then, the layouts of the ballpark diamonds were such that the batters would be looking east to the pitching mound so they wouldn’t be looking directly into the afternoon sun.  Since pitchers were facing west when they looked into the plate, the arm of a left-handed pitcher would be to the south.  One of my all-time favorite players was a southpaw, Sandy Koufax.

TEXAS LEAGUER.  You might hear a radio or television broadcaster describe a bloop single between the infielders and outfielders as a “Texas Leaguer”.  In 1901, the Cleveland Blues (now the Guardians) called up a minor league player from the Texas League, Ollie Pickering.  Pickering led off for the Blues in the first American League game in history.  In his first seven at-bats, he hit bloop singles.  His teammates affectionately deemed the hits Texas Leaguers.

CHIN MUSIC.  A pitch that is thrown near the batter’s head is often referred to as “chin music”.  The intent of the pitch is most often to back a hitter away from crowding the plate.  In the late 1800s, the phrase “chin music” actually was used to describe how fans would heckle players and umpires.  Sometime in the 1940s the term became synonymous with a brushback pitch.  Bob Gibson, along with some other of the great MLB pitchers in the 1960s, are famous for their chin music.

K.  When starting pitchers known for recording strikeouts in today’s game go through the opponent’s lineup, you often see fans in the outfield seats posting “Ks”.  A K is a strikeout.  In the 1800s, a writer named Henry Chadwick was the first to keep score of a baseball game by using shorthand terms.  He identified position players by numbers 1-9 (for example, pitcher is 1, shortstop is 6, etc.).  Since he decided to use “S” for a sacrifice in the box score, he opted for K as a strikeout since K is the last letter in struck.  A backwards K is now used to show the batter was called out without swinging at the third strike.  Nolan Ryan holds the all-time record for Ks (5,714 in his career).

CAN OF CORN.  Broadcasters also like to describe an easily, catchable fly ball to an outfielder as a “can of corn”.  In the early 1900s, cans of corn were popular items in grocery stores since it was difficult to always have fresh vegetables on hand.  Grocers would stock the cans on higher shelves.  To retrieve them for customers, they would use sticks with hooks on the end and knock the cans off the shelf easily into their aprons.  Broadcasters should never though describe fly balls as cans of corn for some outfielders.  For example, Dave Kingman, known for his monster home runs, made every fly ball seem like an adventure.

FROZEN ROPE.  A “frozen rope” is a hard hit, line drive off the bat of a hitter.  It’s always been a great compliment – “you just hit a frozen rope” off the left-field wall.  Baseball Digest traces the origin of the term to a sportswriter, Leonard Schechter, who in 1963, described one as “you can almost see the icicles dripping of it”.  Perhaps Ted Williams, one of the game’s greatest hitters, hit the most frozen ropes.  Nowadays, the term extends to outfield throws when a runner is gunned down at a base.  Roberto Clemente’s throw to third base from the right field corner erasing an Orioles baserunner in the 1971 World Series is my favorite one of those.

HIT AND RUN.  Baseball over the past fifteen years has become a station to station game — too much reliance on home runs. In the first two months of this season, we’ve seen though a huge increase in stolen base attempts.  We’ve also witnessed the return of the “hit and run”, such that a baserunner attempts to steal second base and the hitter protects the runner by swinging at the pitch.  The hitter’s goal is to place the hit in the spot left open by the shortstop or second baseman who is covering the bag.  Some think that “hit and run” is a misnomer, for in fact the run happens first and the hit second.  However, there is a “run and hit” play where the hitter is not required to swing and the stolen base attempt is the focus.

TATER.  A “tater” is a home run.  While triples, sacrifice bunts, and well pitched games capture my attention, most fans point to home runs as the most exciting play in the game.  There is actually no consensus on when “tater” first became part of baseball’s lingo.  Some say that since the bases are often referred to as sacks, the taters are the potatoes that get the most sacks.  Boston sportswriters contend that former Red Sox slugger George Scott coined the phrase when he said: “I love my taters, my sweet potatoes and I Iove my home runs just like taters.”  Barry Bonds is the all-time leader in taters with 762.

OPS.  This is the new term describing a hitter’s performance.  Gone are the days that a batter’s “numbers” were simply his batting average, HRs, and RBIs.  OPS is a hitter’s on-base percentage (the percentage of time he reaches base for every at-bat) plus his slugging average (total bases reached for a hit as a percentage of at-bats).  The phrase was first seen in a popular 1984 book, “The Hidden Game of Baseball”.  OPS first appeared on the back of Topps baseball cards in 2004.  An OPS of .800 or above is reached only by the best hitters in the game.  The top ten career OPS leaders include Babe Ruth in the #1 slot (1.1636) and only one current player, Mike Trout, at #8 (1.0009).

Hey readers, what are your favorite baseball terms?

Until next week,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Thanks Mom!

Happy Mother’s Day!  When I was about ten years old, I recall taking a bad, infield hop right in the throat and going to the turf at my baseball game.  The next thing I know my Mom is kneeling beside me with a cool wash cloth.  All I said to her then was “get off the field”.  After seeing yesterday’s celebration of mothers in MLB games and reflecting on my late Mom as a baseball Mom, all I can say now is “THANK YOU”.  Thanks for everything – driving me to practice and games; taking care of my injuries; playing wiffle ball with me in the backyard when no one else wanted to; and going with me to Reds games.

In October 1972, I sat next to Mom at Riverfront Stadium in the final NL championship game. Our Reds entered the bottom of the ninth trailing the Pirates, 3-2.  My Mom’s favorite player, Johnny Bench, whom she affectionately called “JB”, led off for the Reds.  Bench’s Mom, Katy, took over from there.  As Bench strode to the plate from the on deck circle, he thought he heard his Mom say “hit a home run”.  He smiled to himself and thought “if only it were so easy”.  Bench made it easy though and hit a home run, tying the game. Bench jumped onto the dugout rail and kissed his Mom. Shortly after, the Reds won the NL pennant.

Probably the most famous Mom in MLB history is Christina Gehrig, Lou Gehrig’s mother.  Mrs. Gehrig regularly attended Yankees home games and witnessed her son’s stardom rise as part of the famous “Murderer’s Row”.  Christina and Lou were extremely close.  Babe Ruth and Lou, forming the best three-four sluggers a lineup has ever seen, often fought off the field and would not speak to each other for weeks. Christina would be the one to mend the fence between them. 

A reporter who covered the Yankees in this era, Fred Lieb, reflected on Lou: “There was no one else to compare with his Mom. He used to say that the thing that gave him the greatest joy about his success, and his bettered financial position, was that he was able to repay Mom and Pop for their early sacrifices”. Gehrig died at age 37 as a result of ALS.  All of his awards and trophies were given to Christina.  Upon her passing in 1955, her will provided that all of the awards and trophies would go the Hall of Fame. Cooperstown and all fans are forever grateful. 

A more modern day story of a close knit player-mother relationship is that of Andrew McCutcheon and his Mom.  Petrina McCutcheon was just 17 years old when Andrew was born. Her athletic prowess and background in education have been instrumental to Andrew’s success.  They are the best of friends, as Andrew relates: “It’s always very relaxed, laid-back, laughing about whatever, joking around.” 

Just like Mrs. Gehrig, you will find Petrina around the ballpark, but mostly with a microphone in her hand.  She is a tremendous vocalist.  In 2013, she sang the National Anthem at the Pirates’ first playoff game in 21 years.  In Andrew’s first stint with Pittsburgh, Christina sang at PNC Park numerous other times, most notably her renditions of “God Bless America”. With Andrew’s return to Pittsburgh this season, fans are hoping to see Petrina back at PNC Park in October.

I smiled this past week when reading a story in the Chicago Tribune about the Cubs calling up 25-year old first baseman Matt Mervis from their Iowa AAA team. After some injuries sidelined him in college and his first years of professional baseball, Mervis skyrocketed through the Cubs minor league system over the past year.  When Matt received the phone call promoting him to the big league team, his first call was to his mom, Ellen. Mervis told a reporter: “My mom’s been my go-to when things aren’t going great, so she definitely deserved the first call”. Ellen attended her son’s first game as a Cub last week at Wrigley Field, and witnessed Matt’s first hit and RBI. 

What is interesting about the 1972 Bench home run story is that Katy Bench claimed that she actually told her son “you know what to do”.  She wouldn’t have wanted to put the pressure on him of having to hit a home run.  I lost my own Mom way too early in life, just before her 69th birthday.  I don’t think my success or lack of success in baseball really mattered to her.  What mattered is that she believed in me and that I too would know what to do in most circumstances of life.  And for that reason, I say thanks Mom! I am who I am because of you.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Low Budget

I remember walking into my family’s kitchen sometime in late 1968 and seeing my Dad holding the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer with the headline: “Pete Rose Becomes Baseball’s First $100,000 Singles Hitter”.  When you are nine years old, it is difficult to know the value of money. My Dad most probably assured me that it was indeed a lot at the time. He would though often remark on the salaries of Cincinnati sports stars compared to those in the “big city markets”.

Most recently, I checked the MLB team payrolls for 2023.  Not surprisingly, the Mets and Yankees stood at the top of the list at $346 million and $279 million, respectively.  I also checked the bottom of the list.  There are nine teams under $100 million, including Miami (ranked #22), Cincinnati (#26), Pittsburgh (#27), Tampa Bay (#28), Baltimore (#29), and Oakland (#30). This piece is about those low budget teams, and how some of them find themselves near the top of the standings this year in over a month of regular season play.

Any narrative of baseball operations begins with the Oakland Athletics and its executive vice president of baseball operations, Billy Beane. Beane is of course the central character of Moneyball, Michael Lewis’ 2003 book on baseball economics which was also made into a film. Beane was the first to apply statistical analysis, called sabermetrics, to baseball.  Because of the low budget operations of the A’s through the last few decades, Beane has used his analytical approach to find diamonds in the rough as opposed to bigger name free agents.  While the Athletics have had some modest success since its early 1970s dominance, Oakland’s current record, 8-27, does reflect its bottom of the heap ranking in 2023 payroll.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been the surprise story of the National League this year.  Not one prognosticator could see their April record (20-8) coming.  The Bucs have done it with a mix of veterans (Andrew McCutchen, Brian Reynolds, Mitch Keller and Rich Hill) and outstanding youth (Jack Suwinski, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Roansy Contreras and Johan Oviedo).  Pittsburgh is 4th in the MLB in runs scored and 5th in the NL in ERA.  While they grew accustomed to “Raising the Jolly Roger” at PNC Park in April, the Pirates just completed a rough first week of May going 0-7.

Not only are the Tampa Bay Rays the talk of the American League so far, but they have put together one of the hottest MLB starts ever (28-7 at week’s end).  The franchise began MLB play in 1998.  After a decade of futility, Tampa surprised the baseball world in 2008 with its first playoff appearance and the AL pennant.  Over the last fifteen years, the Rays have been in the playoffs an additional seven seasons, including another AL championship in 2020.  Managed by Kevin Cash, one of the best, Tampa always seems to be in the mix in the very tough AL East. 

The Baltimore Orioles are also off to a great start (22-12) and will be knocking on Tampa’s door this season.  The Orioles’ championship history began in the late 60s- early 70s and continued when Cal Ripken Jr.’s Birds won it all in 1983.  Since then, it’s been quite a drought, until playoff baseball returned last season.  The Orioles’ roster includes young stars Cedric Mullins, Ryan Mountcastle, Kyle Bradish, and Yennier Cano, names you might not know now but will be very familiar with in October.

While the Miami Marlins experienced a rough past week similar to the Pirates, the Marlins have shown some early season sparkle too.  Miami’s fortunes in their 30-year history is best described as some big hits and woeful slumps.  The Marlins have been in the playoffs only three times, yet won the World Series in 1997 and 2003 as wild card entrants.  Through last season, they ranked dead last of all the current MLB teams in the franchise win-loss column at 2,157-2,531, a .460 winning percentage.

I smiled this past week when I read a story about Jonathan India, star second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds and the 2021 NL Rookie of the Year.  It’s difficult to find many other recognizable names on the Reds’ 2023 roster. In the story India remarked that an umpire told him that he really enjoys watching the Reds play this season.  As a fan, my first reaction to the comment was that wins would make it even more enjoyable.  For fans of all 30 MLB teams, it’s not where you rank in payroll, but rather in the standings.

Until next week,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Pocket

Sitting in an MLB dugout you might hear a bench coach turn to the manager this season in the sixth inning of a game and say: “We have the heart of their order coming up in the seventh.  Their three-hole hitter has hit a couple gappers in the first two games of the series.  Remember that two-bagger yesterday.  Let’s get our closer ready now.  It’s a good pocket for him.” Say what, Coach?!  I’m sure you know most of that baseball terminology, but what is a pocket?  It’s the new 2023 baseball term. A pocket is basically that part of the opponent’s batting order that is likely to be a run-producer if you don’t get one of your high-leverage relievers in the game now, such as your closer or top set-up guy.

The history of relief pitchers in the MLB is a fascinating one.  In the early days, teams could not substitute players except for illness or injury. The first known relief pitcher is Firpo Marberry, who had 364 relief appearances in his thirteen year career spanning 1923 to 1935.  The first baseball term for a reliever was a “fireman”, someone who put out fires. Some early firemen were Hoyt Wilhelm and Elroy Face in the 1950s, who were known for throwing funky pitches like a knuckleball and a forkball. After a decade of pitchers dominating hitters in the 1960s with long outings and complete games, MLB lowered the mound in 1969 to create more offense.  One other result was the advent of today’s relief pitcher.

In the 1970s MLB teams turned to closers.  Every team had one.  His job was to come into the game in the eighth or ninth inning (sometimes even the seventh) and shut down the other team. Bruce Sutter and Rollie Fingers are some of the best known in that era.  Mike Marshall set the all-time record in 1974 as a closer with 208 innings pitched in 106 games.  In the 1980s the number of saves outnumbered the number of complete games for the first time.  Indeed, in 1995 MLB recorded four saves for every complete game.  Relievers became prominent members of pitching staffs.

Relievers have historically garnered far less attention, and especially fewer awards and recognition, than starting pitchers. There are only eight relief pitchers in the Hall of Fame, with Goose Gossage, Dennis Eckersley, Lee Smith, Trevor Hoffman, and Mariano Rivera, joining the previously mentioned Wilhelm, Fingers, and Sutter.  All of them were closers.  There are three relief pitchers who won both the MVP and Cy Young Awards in a single season – Fingers in 1981, Willie Hernandez in 1984, and Eckersley in 1992.  Yet, other relievers, in particular the valuable set-up men, receive little recognition, not even slots during the MLB All-Star games where they could be used so effectively.

Over the last fifteen years pitching staffs on MLB teams have grown.  Gone are the days of 9-10 pitchers on your 25-player roster.  Now, 13-14 pitchers comprise a team’s 26 player roster.  As pitching staffs began to grow, so did specialty relievers.  Closers would only pitch the ninth.  The set-up guys would get the seventh and eighth, and others would fill in some innings after the starter left the game (often having just pitched five innings). Managers would look to a top end left-handed reliever to face the opponent’s left-handed hitting slugger late in the game.  In 2018, some managers even began to experiment with an “opener” – a reliever who started the game and could get through the lineup once

The 2020 season saw a major rule change for the use of relievers.  Pitchers now have to face a minimum of three batters or complete the half-inning.  Commissioner Manfred endorsed this rule as a boost for offense, since the game was full of 95 + mph hard-throwers dominating hitters late in the games. One downside is that managers are restricted in taking advantage of all their relievers and skill sets.  It also creates a dilemma for general managers in how to best construct a roster.  The left-handed reliever coming in to pitch to one batter becomes extinct. In fact, some MLB relief staffs don’t include specialty left-handers anymore.  You look for top relievers who can pitch to batters from both sides of the plate.

Enter the 2023 pocket.  The so-called closer of your staff is no longer saved for the ninth inning.  You may never to get to a high pressure ninth if you don’t get your best reliever to face the key batters earlier in the game.  Some pocket relievers in the first month of the season include the Cubs Michael Fulmer and the White Sox Reynaldo Lopez.  Sox general manager Rick Hahn had this to say recently: “You may close the eighth, you may close the seventh.  It depends on the game situation, but bring that same mentality every time you go out there.” The end result is that having a traditional closer isn’t so essential to the bench coach or manager in today’s game.

The best things about baseball are the little things, the nuances if you will.  I remember as a little boy sitting on the front porch with my Dad listening to the Reds games and learning something every night from him and the broadcasters.  Life was slower back then.  I always had that pocket of time to enjoy the game and appreciate it more.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Balanced Schedule

Every team at every level has a rival.  I fondly recall the first game managing my daughter’s softball team.  We lost 7-6 to a team that we would battle for first place for the next four years. We marked those games on our schedule every season (at least I did). As baseball navigates through the new rules in this first month of the 2023 MLB season, one change that has not garnered much attention is the new balanced schedule.  Gone are the days that each team will face divisional opponents 18-19 times a season while meeting some teams in the other league once every three years.  Under the new schedule, every MLB team will face off against all 29 other teams at some point in the season.  This change adds some needed novelty to the schedule and certainly a touch of fairness to which teams get into the playoffs.  One result though is that there aren’t as many rivalry games to be marked on the calendar. 

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

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

Enter the 2023 balanced schedule. The new schedule reduces the number of games against division rivals to 13, totaling 52 games; adds more same league games, given that each team will play six games against six opponents and seven games against four opponents in the same league, a total of 64; and 46 interleague games.  It’s the same 162, except spread out more evenly.  The playoff impact, of course, is that strength of schedule within one team’s division becomes less of a factor.  As MLB chief operations and strategy officer Chris Marinak noted:  “This new format creates more consistent opponent matchups as clubs compete for Postseason berths, particularly in the recently expanded wild card round.”

The biggest change is the number of interleague games, where teams go from 20 annually to 46.  And just like all of the other new rules in 2023, the spirit of the balanced schedule is to make the game more fan-friendly.  Marinak emphasized:  “This fan-friendly format provides fans with the opportunity to see more opponent matchups with a particular focus on dramatically expanding our most exciting Interleague matchups.” Natural interleague rivals, such as the Angels-Dodgers, Guardians-Reds, Yankees-Mets, and White Sox-Cubs, will include home and away two-game series, while the other interleague games (42) will be three-game series at the respective teams’ home ballparks on alternating seasons.

Is there any downside to the new schedule?  One concern is that the long-time rivalries will be reduced from 19 games to 13.  The Chicago vs. St. Louis NL rivalry is of course one of those.  The rivalry goes all the way back to 1885 when the Cubs (then called the White Stockings) faced the Cardinals (known then as the Browns) in games played in Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati.  While the Cubs hold a 1,259 – 1,209 advantage all-time, the Cardinals own more World Series championships (11 to 3).  Some of my fondest memories of the rivalry include the 1984 “Sandbergh Game” where Ryne Sandbergh tied a Saturday afternoon national televised game twice in the late innings with home runs at Wrigley Field and the 1998 home run race won by Mark McGwire (70) over Sammy Sosa (66).

Another NL heated rivalry is the Giants vs. Dodgers, dating back to the days when both teams played in New York alongside the Yankees.  When Walter O’Malley moved his Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, he was able to convince New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham to take his team to the West Coast as well.  The all-time series is divided by the two Coasts, the Giants winning 721-670 while the teams were in New York, and the Dodgers leading the series 592-552 since 1958.  One of the most historic plays in baseball history happened in 1951, when Bobby Thomson hit the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” with a ninth-inning homer in the third and deciding NL pennant playoff.

And then there’s the AL rivalry of the Yankees vs. Red Sox, games that we’ve witnessed ad nauseum on national television throughout the last few decades.  That rivalry began in 1919 when Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.  The Yankees went on to become the most storied team in MLB history, while Boston suffered through 86 years of failing to win the World Series due to the “Curse of the Bambino”.  The Red Sox rebounded most recently, especially in 2004, when they came back from an 0-3 deficit in the ALCS and defeated the New Yorkers.  I won’t miss the 19 games annually of this rivalry, but I’m sure the national networks will.

The balanced schedule is about seeing the star players of all of the 30 MLB teams.  How fun it will be to see Shohei Ohtani face the Cubs every year!  Ohtani’s last two seasons in particular are just remarkable.  In 2021, in an AL MVP performance, he became the first player in MLB history with 10+ home runs and 20+ stolen bases as a hitter, and 100+ strikeouts and 10+ pitching appearances in a season.  Last year he became the first player in the modern era to qualify for both the hitting and pitching leaderboards, an unbelievable 586 at-bats and 166 innings pitched.  What will 2023 bring? A balanced schedule and a lot more Ohtani for everyone in baseball to enjoy.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

April Baseball

April baseball in the Midwest often means playing in cold weather.  We have already seen some early season MLB games where chilly weather has played a role in low scoring affairs. You might know the old adage that pitchers are ahead of the hitters in April. Baseball analysts like to point to out that hitters take a longer time to get into their batting rhythm, do not particularly enjoy the sting of the bat in their hands, and often lament those long fly balls that die on the warning track.  You might have also seen the news flash a week ago about a recently released study on how climate change has impacted baseball. Your Coach decided to be a baseball meteorologist for this blog post, and explore the hot and cold, as well as the myths and realities, of April baseball. 

The Tampa Bay Rays have come out of the gate red hot!  In their first eight games, the Rays won all eight by 4-plus runs, the best streak since the 1939 Yankees.  The Rays didn’t stop there, winning their next five outings to go 13-0, which tied the all-time start of 13-0 by the 1982 Atlanta Braves. Toronto’s 6-3 win over the Rays this past Friday night broke the streak.  By week’s end, Tampa’s record stood at 14-2, just four games ahead of the Blue Jays and Yankees in the tough AL Eastern Division.

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

There have been only five teams in MLB history that have gone “wire to wire”, meaning they were in first place for the entire season.  The first such team was the 1927 Yankees, widely considered the best team ever with their “Murderer’s Row” lineup and a roster that included nine future Hall of Famers, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig among them. The previously mentioned ’84 Tigers is on this list as well, along with the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, 1990 Reds, and 2005 White Sox.  The ’05 Sox, famous for small ball (the last of its kind), ran through the playoffs with an 11-1 mark, the best playoff record since baseball included a divisional championship round.

At the top of the national and sports news last week was the release of a study by a group of researchers led by Justin Mankin, a professor at Dartmouth, on the impact of climate change on baseball.  The study, covering 60 MLB seasons (1960-2019), found that when the temperature of a game goes up by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, the number of home runs in the game increases by 1.9%.  To put it another way, for every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, there could be 95 more home runs across a season. The study painfully notes that if humans had not emitted greenhouse gases, there would have been 500 fewer home runs over the past ten years.

There were though some naysayers who quickly discounted the study. In an April 7 New York Post article, Natalie O’Neill pointed out that despite all of the headlines, the actual impact of the climate change effect was small.  Indeed, researchers in the past have noted other factors that come into play for an increase in home runs, including the size of the ball and its stitches.  Chris Callahan, a baseball fanatic and one of the authors of the Dartmouth study, concedes that factors include the height of the baseball seams and advances in analytics.  The bottom line is best expressed by Alan Nathan, a baseball physicist, who applauds the study since it supports the proposition that a baseball carries better in warm weather.

Dr. Lawrence Rocks of the Society for American Baseball Research has studied for over fifty years the impact of weather on baseball.  He sees a trend of increasing cloud cover and greenhouse gases as opposing forces, resulting in more windy weather as we move forward.  His view of baseball’s future includes all stadiums with enclosed roofs; player facilities no longer underground due to poor air quality, a return to the early days of the game; spring training sites being relocated to northern cities; long-stay scheduling where series would go from today’s 2-4 games to 5-7 games; and schedules favoring regional games, an abrupt turn from the 2023 balanced approach (featured in next week’s blog).

Is this all a bunch of hot air?  FanGraphs, which maintains a very reliable database of MLB statistics, did a thorough study about ten years ago on whether pitchers or hitters have an “April advantage”.  The study looked at every major pitching and hitting statistic in the months of April 2009-2013 compared to the same statistics over the course of those seasons.  Interestingly, hitters actually came in above their respective full-season average in Aprils of three of those five seasons, a surprising result.

My favorite adage during April baseball when my favorite teams lose close games or key players to injury is simply that “it’s a long season”.  Oh yes, it is.  Let the games continue and the weather get a little warmer in the months ahead.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Speed Up

Opening Day, March 30, 2023, Wrigley Field.  It was certainly a day of many firsts.  The Cubs and Brewers squared off that afternoon in chilly conditions, the first baseball game ever played at Wrigley in March.  The game matched the Cubs’ ace, Marcus Stroman, and one of Milwaukee’s finest, Corbin Burnes.  Stroman hurled six shutout innings in Chicago’s 4-0 win in a speedy 2 hours and 21 minutes.  Stroman also did something historical that day.  He became the first pitcher in MLB history to violate the pitch clock rules.  The new pitch clock, fast paced games, restrictions on infield shifts and the number of pickoff throws, and bases that look like pizza boxes are all part of the discussion as we opened play on the 2023 regular season.

There have been some alarming trends in baseball over the past several years. The average time of a nine-inning game rose from 2 hours, 30 minutes in the 1950s, to 2:46 in 1989, and to a record 3:10 in 2021.  Executive VP Morgan Sword of the MLB has cited research indicating that in this age of reduced attention span fans indeed prefer games around 2:30. Second, with the rise in infield shifts last year (totaling 70,853 for balls in play) and higher velocity pitches, the league-wide batting average dropped from .269 in 2006 to .243.  This is especially true for left-handed hitters who on average last year batted .236, down from .254 in 2016.  And third, speed on the base paths has basically come to a halt. MLB teams last year averaged just one stolen base every other game.

Before we explore the specifics of the 2023 MLB rule changes, let’s see how the change in rules have played out in MLB’s ultimate testing grounds, minor league baseball (MiLB).  Last year baseball instituted a pitch timer in all three levels of MiLB (AAA, AA, and A).  Times of games were reduced dramatically, from 3 hours, 3 minutes in 2021 to 2:38.  And importantly, statistics like runs per game and batting average remained the same.  Also, MiLB has experimented with a limit on pickoff attempts from the mound. Stolen base attempts went up from 2.23 per game in 2019 to 2.81 last year, with an improved success rate of 68% to 78%.  A shift limit was also tested at the AA level of MiLB, resulting in increased offense.  The stage was set for the rule changes to be implemented in 2023 by MLB’s 11-person competition committee. Curiously, the four MLB players on the committee each voted against the use of a pitch clock and the limit on defensive shifts.

Let’s first tackle the pitch timer, an innovation deemed by MLB executive Sword as “probably the biggest change that’s been made to baseball in most of our lifetimes.”  How does it work?  The basics are that a pitcher gets 15 seconds to deliver the ball to the plate with no runners on base and 20 seconds with runners on base, and if the time expires the umpire calls a ball.  The clock is positioned for all to see – the pitcher sees the clock behind the plate; the batter can view one in the outfield; and the television viewer even gets one on the screen. The days of a batter stepping out of the box after each pitch and adjusting his batting gloves are over.  When a hitter steps to the plate, he needs to be in the box with at least eight seconds on the clock or an automatic strike is called.  And importantly, a batter can call time once per plate appearance to stop the clock.

The early returns are so far, so good.  While the MiLB AAA experience in 2022 saw an average of 1.73 violations last April, MLB violations have averaged just around 1 per game so far this season.  As the MiLB players adjusted throughout the season last year to a violation of 0.43 per game, the hope is that violations might be even lower than that as the MLB season progresses this year.  A humorous sidelight  is that Shohei Ohtani committed another first this past week when he committed a violation as a pitcher and a hitter during the same game.  And most importantly, the time of MLB 2023 games has seen a dramatic decrease, around 30 minutes per game so far!

The restriction on infield shifts is also earth shattering. Two infielders are required to be on either side of second base and all infielders must be within the outer boundary of the infield when the pitcher is about to deliver the pitch.  Interestingly, MLB has also now mandated that the infield dirt have uniform dimensions – the outfield edge must be 95 from the front of the pitching rubber.  While infield shifts have increased substantially over the past ten years, batters have pretty much refused to adapt.  Gone will be the days of your team’s left-handed slugger hitting a line drive, one hopper to the second baseman stationed in short right field for an easy out.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said this recently on the shift restriction:  “I think that you’re going to look at the field and see players positioned the way that most of us grew up seeing them positioned.” While some teams have experimented a little with having their left fielder leave his position and create an outfield shift for left-handed hitters, more often we are seeing the positioning MLB is seeking.  What is clearly the trend is having more athletic and versatile second basemen.  In Chicago alone, both the Cubs and White Sox are starting two middle infielders with shortstop backgrounds, Swanson and Hoerner on the North Side and Anderson and Andrus on the South Side.

The new rule on “disengagement” might be the most intriguing one.  Pitchers can only attempt two pickoff throws to the bases during any at-bat.  If a third one is attempted and fails, the baserunner is awarded the next base.  This, coupled with the larger bases that were instituted to cut back on collisions near the base, may make 2023 the year that stealing returns to baseball.  It will become more important than ever for a pitcher to be quick to the plate with his delivery with runners on base.

I have really just touched the surface with this discussion of the new rules, and will review again during the season how they impact our game.  Your Coach is all in for now.  The game seems to be faster paced and well received by the fans.  Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said it best this past weekend: “We are in the entertainment business.  The fans are liking it more. The action, the pace.  It’s been good for the game.”

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Cactus League

Welcome back to the Baseball Bench Coach!  MLB’s regular season is here, but allow me to begin my fifth season as your Coach with a spring training story.  I remember the anticipation in early March 2020 when I was about to embark on my first Arizona trip to see Cactus League games. I had seen some training games in the Florida Grapefruit League on a few occasions in the past and loved the relaxed approach to the games.  I was so excited for that 2020 Phoenix trip . . . and then something happened.  As we too often say nowadays, three years later, let’s try again.  My wife and my trip a few weeks ago to Mesa and Goodyear, AZ, didn’t disappoint, as I saw my favorite teams in action.

In the early days of baseball players would get ready on their own prior to the season beginning. Most often that meant players maintaining another job before getting to their team’s home ballpark to practice for a couple weeks. Spring training by MLB teams in sites other than their home ballparks didn’t become popular until around 1910.  Hot Springs, Arkansas, is often called the “birthplace” of spring training.  The Tigers, Pirates, Brooklyn Dodgers, Red Sox, and Cleveland Spiders used three Hot Springs ballparks built for their use in the first official spring training games. 

Spring training in Florida started around the same time. In 1913 the Cubs maintained a site in Tampa, while the Indians located in Pensacola.  A handful of other teams soon joined them and the Grapefruit League was off and running. Interestingly, an incident in Ocala, Florida, in the early 1940s, triggered the start of spring training in Arizona.  Bill Veeck, then owner of a minor league team that was training in Ocala, sat in the black section of the segregated stands to chat with fans. He was told by local law enforcement to leave.  Aggravated by the racist incident, Veeck, once he purchased the Indians in 1946, moved them to Tucson to train and convinced the New York Giants to play in Phoenix.  The Cactus League was born!  Today, 15 MLB teams train in Arizona, while the other 15 teams find their spring training homes in Florida.

The first stop on our spring training journey this year was Sloan Park, the home of the Cubs in Mesa. The ballpark opened in 2014 and remains the newest one in the Cactus League.  Sloan Park has a capacity of 15,000 + fans, the highest capacity among Arizona and Florida ballparks. On our visit to Sloan it was the fifth sellout of the spring season with fans lining the general admission grass seating beyond the outfield fence. We had the good fortune of taking a guided tour around the ballpark prior to the game. Our guide (a great reader of this blog!) pointed out the numerous images of Wrigley Field as we walked around, including Sloan’s own marquee. Our keepsake photo from the visit is our names and “Go Cubs Go” displayed on the marquee.

I always find ballparks to be my ultimate place to relax, and in spring training maybe even more so.  Both the Cubs and White Sox rested many of their star players, so it felt like a minor league game in many respects.  Early in the game the scoreboard read “Mesa 76 degrees, Chicago 36 degrees”.  Many of the fans were there to just enjoy the warm weather and see a little baseball. On the mound the Cubs started Drew Smyly while the Sox countered with Lucas Giolito.  Both starters left around the fourth inning, which is typical midway through spring training.  We did see Cody Bellinger and Ian Happ each get two at-bats.  I’ll have to wait to see my new favorite Cub, Dansby Swanson, in person at Wrigley during the season.

Sometimes spring training is the start of a great career for a player who is a longshot to even make the team.  I recall fondly hearing about this unknown third baseman, Albert Pujols, tearing it up in 2001 Grapefruit League play. 22 years later, Pujols completed his HOF career last season. Of course, the ultimate a “star is born” story goes back to 1918 when the Red Sox had one of its pitchers, Babe Ruth, play first base in an emergency against the Pirates in a spring game in Hot Springs.  The Babe hit two HRs that day and soon found himself in the everyday lineup. Oscar Colas, the rookie rightfielder of the Sox, might be this year’s find. Last week Colas’ call to his mother with joy that he made the team went viral. When I saw Colas play a few weeks ago in Arizona, I remarked that he had such a sweet swing.  This rookie can hit!

After the game we ventured into the Cubs Team Store.  One can never have enough Cubs apparel for the wardrobe.  Spring training baseball is not only a huge revenue source for the teams, but clearly for all the hotels, restaurants, and other businesses in the area.  The Arizona Republic estimates that the Cactus League generates around $300 million each spring for the Phoenix metropolitan area.  In fact, Mesa and the surrounding area seems like Chicago West.  There are several Lou Malnati’s pizza and Portillo’s hotdog restaurants around for those to experience the finest in Chicago cuisine.

My Cincinnati food desires were satisfied as well on this trip.  Two days later we visited the Reds spring training site in Goodyear.  In the Reds Team Store I spotted Montgomery Inn barbecue sauce.  For lunch I had two coney cheese dogs courtesy of Skyline Chili.  It was close to the real thing, but the shredded cheese was not quite the same.  The Reds share the Goodyear Ballpark with the Guardians.  The ballpark has a capacity of 10,000, an average size for MLB spring ballparks.  Goodyear Park is in more of a suburban setting than Sloan Park, and even more chill. About two-thirds of the fans at this Reds vs. Dodgers game were wearing Dodger blue, and frankly it didn’t bother me.  It was just good to sit back and enjoy the game in the sun.

Both the Reds and Dodgers were playing their “B” lineups on this Sunday afternoon encounter.  It was though Joey Votto’s first game back since his injury late in the season last year.  He struggled in his three plate appearances.  Late in the game we were treated to an at-bat by the Reds top rated player in the minor leagues, Elly De La Cruz (remember that name!). Like the game in Mesa, the teams started pitchers in their rotation, the Reds’ Graham Ashcraft against the Dodgers’ Dustin May.  Both appeared to be in mid-season form.  One interesting moment was May’s  approach to a Reds hitter who left the batter’s box early in the count. Since you only get to step out once, May froze the batter the rest of the at-bat by holding the baseball until late in the pitch clock.  More on the pitch clock and the new MLB rules in next week’s edition.

Over the past week the MLB teams left their spring training homes for the start of the season.  It’s time to really PLAY BALL!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Coach

MLB's Elite Eight

There’s nothing better than baseball in October! Except for the series on the last weekend of the season when the Braves swept the Mets to capture the NL East, pennant races were mostly blah this season. This past weekend the new wild card format featured eight teams battling it out in the best of three. The baseball world was rocking as we witnessed a 15-inning scoreless game ending with a monumental home run (Guardians’ 1-0 victory over the Rays) and the only time in MLB history that a road team came back from a seven run deficit to win (Mariners’ 10-9 win over the Blue Jays). What we have now is an “Elite Eight” of teams, each with a shot at capturing the 2022 World Series. Let’s break the teams down in the order of their chances of winning it all but not necessarily reflecting your Coach’s predictions. (Hint: Read the entire article.)

HOUSTON ASTROS.  The old school baseball guy in me really likes the makeup of the ’22 Astros.  Some of the core position players from the tainted 2017 team have now left – Carlos Correa and George Springer.  Yet, this team set a team record for wins this season (106) with the help of an exceptional pitching staff.  When you can trot out starters Jose Urquidy, Lance McCullers, Jr., Framber Valdez, and two-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander in a playoff series, your chances are really good.  Manager Dusty Baker arrived on the scene three years ago to add stability to a team struggling with the 2017 cheating scandal.  He’s done just that, and maybe this year the long-time manager can get his first World Series championship at the helm.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS.  How do you put one of the best regular season teams ever in the second spot in this ranking?  LA’s run differential this season (+ 334) is third only to the ‘39 Yankees (+ 411) and the ‘27 Yankees (+ 376).  The Dodgers are the best hitting team in MLB (.258 batting average), have the best pitching rotation (2.74 ERA), and pound the ball like no other team (MLB’s best slugging percentage of .445).  Each game in the playoffs you will see the top of their lineup include these stars – Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith.  Yet, they are missing one huge component, a closer.  Craig Kimbrel failed in the role this season, so the Dodgers turn to closer by committee.  In tight games, and finally they will see a bunch of them, I just don’t see LA running the table.

ATLANTA BRAVES.  Just like last season, the ’22 Braves were the best team in baseball during the second half of the regular season.  Atlanta won 101 games, and may be better than the ’21 World Champion team.  They feature a star-studded lineup that boasts the return this season of All-Star centerfielder, Ronald Acuna, Jr. The Braves’ starting rotation is strong, headed by Max Fried, and the champs feature a great closer, Kenley Jansen.  The team is managed by one of the top veterans in the game, Brian Snitker.  So why won’t they repeat?  Freddie Freeman moved along to the Dodgers in free agency, and I believe took with him some of that team chemistry needed to pull it off again.  And the odds of a repeat are against them – the last team to win consecutive World Series was the New York Yankees (1998-2000).

CLEVELAND GUARDIANS.  The Guardians are my favorite team to watch.  They play the game the way it is supposed to be played – solid defense and pitching; exceptional baserunning; and getting timely hits after moving runners up on the basepaths. Cleveland is a TEAM.  In their Wild Card wins over the Rays, their key players all played a part.  Jose Ramirez got some big time hits, including an HR to win Game 1.  Shane Bieber excelled in his start in Game 1, and Emauneal Clase, the best closer in baseball, was flawless in the two-game series.  Throw in my favorite new player this season, outfielder Steven Kwan, who led the majors in the fewest swings without a miss, and it’s baseball at its best.  I also like that the Guardians are managed by the best skipper in the MLB, Terry Francona.  Maybe this is the year that gets them finally to the promised land, a place that has eluded Cleveland since 1948!

NEW YORK YANKEES.  The way the Yankees started out of the gate, it’s hard to imagine that there would be four 100 + win teams this season and they wouldn’t be one of them.  The Bronx Bombers fell just short at 99 wins, and frankly cruised too much during the second half allowing the Blue Jays to close the gap at 5 games in September.  New York though has the best hitter in baseball, Aaron Judge, whose remarkable regular season included an AL-record breaking 62 HRs, as well as an MLB leading 131 RBIs.  Judge fell percentage points short of winning the batting title and AL Triple Crown.  The Yankees can really score, especially at Yankee Stadium, but their pitching falls short. Stalwart starter, Gerritt Cole, and former closer, Aroldis Chapman (not even on the ALDS roster), limped to the 2022 finish line, as will unfortunately the team this year.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES.  I watched the Cubs sweep the Phillies in late September, and wondered if Philadelphia was indeed a playoff caliber team. They did nudge out Milwaukee and snuck into the #6 NL spot only to have to face one of baseball’s best second half teams, the Cardinals.  The Phils’ 6-run ninth inning in Game One set the tone for their two-game sweep over St. Louis.  Now it’s on to a divisional matchup with Atlanta.  Philadelphia brings to the series a formidable duo of starting pitchers, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, along with a solid starting lineup, headlined by Bryce Harper and also featuring Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, and Nick Castellanos.  There’s a certain chemistry around this team that might launch a longer playoff run.

SAN DIEGO PADRES.   The 2022 season has been one of highs and lows for the Padres.  San Diego was the clear Trade Deadline winner acquiring stars Juan Soto, Josh Bell, and Josh Hader, as well as Brandon Drury.  A few weeks later though came the announcement of the 80-game suspension of superstar, Fernando Tatis, Jr.  The heart of the Padres is Manny Machado, who has to be in the discussion for NL MVP with 32 HRs, 102 RBIs, and a .296 batting average.  On the hill for the Pads are starters Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, and Joe Musgrove.  I don’t think it is enough this year to get past their NL West rivals, the Dodgers, in the NLDS. Next year, watch out!

SEATTLE MARINERS.  Put your shoe on your head for this team!  Seattle’s huge come behind win in Game 2 of the Wild Card sweep of the Blue Jays was one of the best games in the MLB this year.  The Mariners are a solid ballclub, especially in the infield with Ty France (1B), Adam Frazier (2B) and Eugenio Saurez (3B).  At the Trade Deadline Seattle sent a lot of their minor league talent to the Reds in exchange for Luis Castillo, one of the top starters in the game.  Castillo filled his role in the Wild Card series by hurling 7 1/3 innings of shutout baseball. The key for a Mariners’ playoff run is getting more support from its starting staff.  While I would love for Seattle to make some further noise, the upcoming matchup with Houston in the ALDS may be too much to overcome.

So here is how the Coach predicts it will play out:

NLDS – Dodgers over the Padres (3 games to 1); Phillies surprise the Braves (3 games to 2).

ALDS – Astros topple the Mariners (3 games to 1); Guardians beat the Yankees (3 games to 2).

NLCS – Dodgers prevail over the Phillies (4 games to 3).

ALCS – Guardians stun the Astros (4 games to 3).

World Series – For the first time since 1948, Cleveland captures the World Series by beating LA 4 games to 2.

My only guaranty is that October will be fun!

Until next season,

your Baseball Bench Coach

A Bit Weird

About thirty years ago, I began my career as a manager.  After years of playing baseball and softball, it was time to hang up the cleats and shape the careers of some future players. You see, I was tabbed by another father to manage my eight year-old daughter’s softball team.  The girls named the team the “Grand Slammers” (although I don’t recall anyone on the team actually hitting one that summer).  I taught the Grand Slammers how to play the game, yet I probably learned more from them. They taught me that fastpitch softball can be a lot of fun.  The girls chanted songs when their teammates were batting, and even had a couple taunts when their opponents were at the plate.  I enjoyed every moment of my rookie year on the top step of that dugout (or should I say, at the end of the bench).

I thought of my Grand Slammers this past week when one of the feature stories in baseball news concerned the Savannah Bananas, a baseball team in the Coastal Plain League that has quite a lot of fun themselves. Unfortunately, one of their players, 75-year old former MLB pitcher Bill Lee, went into cardiac arrest while warming up in the bullpen.  Due to the fast action of first responders at the scene, Lee survived and is doing fine.  What’s interesting though is that many of those who were attending the sold out game first thought it was just another entertaining act put on by the Bananas. 

The Bananas are famous for showing their fans a good time at the old ballpark.  Among their antics is the “Banana Baby” where each home game begins by wrapping a baby in a banana outfit and raising the baby to the sky, ala Simba. There’s a long waitlist for moms (and prospective moms) to include their kid in the pre-game tradition.  The Bananas have sold out all of their home games since 2016, their first year in Savannah.  Their story has gone national, featured in separate pieces by ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and even the Wall Street Journal.

The Bananas’ founder, franchise owner Jesse Cole, prides the organization on reinventing the game of baseball.  The visiting teams to Grayson Stadium in Savannah have to play by the Bananas’ rules. A couple of the rules, that no new inning may start after 1 hour and fifty minutes, and that managers and catchers cannot visit the pitcher’s mound, go to the core of what’s wrong in baseball today. MLB games last well over three hours and drive away the younger fans from the sport.

Some of the other Banana rules are for entertainment purposes only, such as: (1) any foul ball caught by a fan is an out: (2) batters can steal first base on any passed ball or wild pitch; (3) and in extra innings the defense gets only a skeleton crew comprised of a pitcher, catcher, and one fielder.  Interestingly, you don’t win a game at the Savannah ballpark by total runs scored, but rather each team gets a point for each inning the team wins, kind of like match play in tennis.  Seems like the Banana rules are a bit weird, but everyone clearly has fun.

A couple former MLB pitchers come to mind who were also a bit weird and played by their own rules.  Mark Fidrych, nicknamed “The Bird”, pitched for the Tigers in his five-year career (1976-1980).  The Bird’s rookie season captured the attention of everyone in baseball.  Not only did he lead the major leagues with a 2.34 ERA, finish the year with a 19-9 record, and win the 1976 AL Rookie of the Year Award, but he had fun doing it.  Among other things, Fidrych talked to the baseball, carefully groomed (or patted down) the mound before each inning, and refused to let groundskeepers come near his mound during the game in fear they would be entering his sacred ground.  Detroit fans swarmed to the ballpark to see his act, averaging 33,649 fans during his starts in 1976 compared to only 13,843 when another Tigers pitcher got the start.  Due to a “dead arm” that he first experienced in 1977, his career was short-lived.

Bill Lee, a pitcher for the Red Sox (1969-1978) and Expos (1979-1982), displayed a lot of fun antics as well, so much so that he garnered the nickname “Spaceman”.  Off the field he was famous for his unfiltered comments to the press, such as advocating population control.  He once called out an umpire for missing a call during a World Series game, and asked the fans to write letters to the MLB Commissioner demanding that the game be replayed.  On the field Lee popularized the “Leephus pitch”, a variation of the “Euphus pitch”, an extremely slow pitched ball with an arcing trajectory.  After his MLB career, Lee continued to pitch in every league that would take him.  He actually pitched in a game for the Brockton Rox in the Canadian-American Association of Baseball at the age of 63, the oldest pitcher who ever appeared in a professional game.  Lee joined the Bananas earlier this year and hopes to play again next year.

Lee’s most notorious “Leephus” pitch happened to be the turning point of the seventh game of the 1975 World Series between the Reds and the Red Sox.  The Red Sox led 3-0 going into the sixth inning of Game 7 behind Lee’s masterful pitching.  With a runner on base, Tony Perez hit a “Leephus” far into the night and over the Green Monster at Fenway Park, sparking the Reds to a comeback 4-3 win and World Series Championship.  There weren’t many Boston fans amused by Lee’s weirdness that night.

One of my joys in parenting had to be taking my daughters to minor league baseball games.  We traveled through the Midwest not just to find good baseball, but to experience the between innings gimmicks and prizes.  I remember attending a game with my Grand Slammer in Peoria, IL, one summer night in 1996, and seeing her perform “YMCA” with a peanut sales vendor.  It’s always good to have fun at the old ballpark, even if sometimes it’s a bit weird.

Until October,

your Baseball Bench Coach

P.S. Your Coach will be away from the keyboard in September, returning in October for an MLB playoffs preview.

Just Throw Strikes

Every parent of a youth baseball or softball pitcher grimaces when these words are exclaimed by another parent or spectator at a game: “just throw strikes”.  While the words are often meant to be encouraging, the idea that a pitcher always has the physical ability to locate pitches in the strike zone is wrong.  Your body just doesn’t work that way.  Pitchers spend numerous hours of practice on delivery, yet not every game, inning, batter, or pitch goes the way they want. Pitchers at every level either don’t seem to have their usual control in a game, or regrettably, a single pitch goes awry and hits the batter. Pitching is not easy.

About a week ago, I read about one of the great feel good stories of 2022.  You see, Kaiden Shelton, a 13-year old pitcher for the Texas East Little League, threw a pitch that struck a 12-year old Oklahoma batter, Isaiah Jarvis, in the head, knocking off his helmet.  Isaiah fell to the ground, stunned by being struck by the pitch. Those attending the game grew very quiet. Isaiah recovered quickly and trotted to first base; the crowd applauded. Isaiah though saw that the opposing pitcher, Kaiden, was distraught on the mound, sobbing, with his head down.  In a touching display of sportsmanship, Isaiah walked to the mound, put his arms around Kaiden, and assured him that “it was okay”. It certainly was okay; okay to have a kind soul respond to an errant pitch with a compassionate hug of forgiveness.

Years ago, I was struck by the story of Steve Blass, a Pirates pitcher, who seemed to always get the best of my Reds.  During his ten-year career with Pittsburgh (1964-1973), Blass sported a 103-76 won-loss record and a 3.63 ERA.  He was by any measure a very good starting pitcher.  After the 1972 season, Blass just simply lost control of his pitches.  In 1973 he walked 84 batters in 88 innings, and his ERA ballooned to a woeful 9.85.  He retired from baseball shortly thereafter, unable to recover from a condition that has been deemed the “Steve Blass Disease”.  Its bottom line is that for no apparent reason, a talented pitcher sometimes loses his ability to throw a pitch accurately. 

Other pitchers have suffered through the “Steve Blass Disease”, including some big names like Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins and Mark Wohlers of the Braves. A Cardinals pitcher, Rick Ankiel, had the misfortune of being hit with the syndrome on the national stage, the 2000 MLB playoffs.  In Ankiel’s first season in the majors, he came in second to Randy Johnson as the 1999 Rookie of the Year.  In his sophomore season he compiled a 11-7 record and 3.50 ERA for St. Louis, earning him the nod to start the NLDS opener against Houston.  It was a disaster, as he inexplicably threw five wild pitches in the third inning of the game.  In the NLCS against the Mets, Ankiel threw five more wild pitches in the first inning of Game Two.  His pitching form never recovered from these incidents.  After a few years in the minor leagues, he returned to the Cardinals as an outfielder in 2006.  Ankiel became the first player since Babe Ruth to win at least 10 games as a pitcher and hit over 70 home runs.

When the inability to control the direction of thrown baseballs infects an infielder, the illness has another name, the “Steve Sax Syndrome”.  Sax played 14 MLB seasons (1981-1994), mostly as a second baseman for the Dodgers.  His standout season was 1986, when he placed second in the NL with a .332 batting average and won the Silver Slugger Award.  Sax is a five-time NL All-Star, and batted over .300 in three seasons.  Yet, his errant throws from the second base position grabbed the media headlines during his career.  In 1983, for example, he committed 30 errors, mostly on routine throws to first base. Crazily, in 1989, he recovered fully, when he led the AL in fielding percentage while with the Yankees. Another hard hitting second baseman, Chuck Knoblauch, who played for the Twins, Yankees, and Royals (1991-2002), was afflicted with the syndrome.  He recorded 26 throwing errors in 1998.  Knoblauch never fully recovered.

I think of these stories often when batters react to pitches which they believe were thrown at them intentionally. Yes, there are circumstances when it’s pretty clear that the intent of a pitch is to respond to a transgression by the opposing pitcher in that game, that season, or even years before.  But with that aside, how does a batter really know the difference between a brushback pitch and an errant one?  This type of confusion led to an awful scene in June in a series between the Mariners and Angels.  In a Saturday evening game, Seattle pitcher Erik Swanson threw an errant pitch that came close to hitting Angels star, Mike Trout.  It started a series of revenge pitches over the next two days, the end result being an 18 minute all out on-field fight where six players and two coaches were ejected from the Sunday game and suspended.

While I don’t expect an MLB batter struck by an inside pitch to go out and hug the opposing pitcher, I do expect a little more grace and dignity than was exhibited in that June MLB series.  We can all learn a little from Little League play.  Just throwing strikes isn’t that easy.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Baseball Flicks

I am one of those guys who can recall the score of a baseball game played thirty years ago, but forgets almost overnight the plot line of a movie.  While watching the second “Field of Dreams Game” played last Thursday night in Dyersville, Iowa, it occurred to me that there are indeed movies that I do remember well.  Yes, you guessed it, the ones I love all involve baseball.  Here are my top eight baseball movies (and a little added personal touch):

THE ROOKIE.  This 2002 film is the true story of Jim Morris (played by Dennis Quaid) who began his MLB career at age 35.  Morris is a high school science teacher and baseball coach, who is guilted into trying out for an MLB team, the Tampa Bay Rays, by his high school players. Morris turns the heads of the scouts by throwing 98 mph fastballs at the tryout.  Morris plays a little minor league baseball before getting called up one September night in a game in Arlington, Texas, against the Rangers.  His family and hometown friends celebrate his debut, and Morris goes on to pitch two years in the MLB.   When I was 39, I pitched at a Reds baseball fantasy camp in Sarasota, FL.  For a week, I had this image of regaining the juice of my youth. Every former pitcher wants to be a Jim Morris.

BULL DURHAM.  A 1988 movie that tells the story of life in the minor leagues is my second favorite flick.  Crash Davis (Kevin Costner), a veteran minor league catcher who is tasked with grooming an up and coming pitcher, Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins), is at the center of the story.  The movie depicts the life of a minor leaguer, such as long bus rides and less than adequate facilities and support.  There are so many touching moments in the film – Davis telling Nuke “not to think”; Davis tipping the opposing hitter with which pitch to expect; Davis calling his brief MLB call up “the 21 greatest days of my life”; and the climactic, yet sad, ending when Davis breaks the minor league record for home runs.  Almost 35 years later, the conditions of baseball in the minors are still in need of drastic improvement.

FIELD OF DREAMS.  Another film (released in 1989) starring Kevin Costner, and this time as a farmer, Ray Kinsella, who builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends.  Those who appear at the Field of Dreams include Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the best yet tragic players ever to play the game, Archie “Moonlight” Graham, who played in one MLB game in 1922 but never had the chance to bat, and of course Ray’s dad.  So many great lines are in this movie – “If you build it, they will come” and “Is this Heaven? No, it’s Iowa.”  My favorite scene is when Ray gets the chance to play catch with his Dad.  I fondly recall those evenings in my backyard tossing a baseball with my Dad.

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN.  This 1992 film stars Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, and Rosie O’Donnell in a story about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.  Chicago Cubs owner Phil Wrigley (called Walter Harvey in the movie) formed the League during World War II.  The movie tracks the fortunes of the Rockford Peaches, managed by Hanks’ colorful character, former Cub Jimmy Dugan, and their fun roster of players, including Davis as catcher Dottie Hinson.  Raising three daughters and seeing their successes on the softball diamonds, together with the emotions of playing the game, has always given me a real connection to this story line. 

TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE.  This 2012 movie starring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, and Justin Timberlake, might be a surprise entry for my top five.  Eastwood plays an aging baseball scout, Gus Lobel, who is tasked with one last search for a star player for his Braves’ number two overall pick in the draft.  While all of the statistical analysis points to top prospect Bo Gentry, Lobel’s feel for the game senses that Gentry has a weak spot as a hitter – the curveball.  I remember being in the high schools stands in St. Louis about twenty years ago when numerous scouts were there to see young Max Scherzer pitch.  Baseball stars are often found by scouts who have a feel for talent, not just numbers.

42. Chadwick Boseman provides a standout performance in one of baseball’s greatest stories, the life of Jackie Robinson, the MLB first black player in the modern era.  The movie is titled after Robinson’s uniform number, 42, which was retired in 1997 for all MLB teams.  It shows quite dramatically the pervasive racial attacks on Jackie as he sought to find his place in the game. One of those scenes shows how Robinson’s Dodger teammate, shortstop Pee Wee Reese, a Southerner, comes to Jackie’s defense in a game at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, by standing with his arm around Robinson’s shoulders.  While the number of black players on the MLB rosters has regrettably declined over the last twenty years, I read this weekend that this summer’s 2022 MLB draft is pointing in a more positive direction.

MONEYBALL. Brad Pitts stars in this 2011 movie based on the 2003 book by Michael Lewis of the same name. The story is a true portrayal of the Oakland Athletics’ 2002 season and the obstacles faced by their general manager, Billy Beane, played by Pitt.  Beane is saddled with his franchise’s limited budget for players, so he devises a sabermetric method to scouting and analyzing players.  His team of undervalued talent takes the big market teams, such as the Yankees and Dodgers, by surprise. The movie is so relevant to the realities of the game today, a constant struggle between small market teams and the big market organizations.  Trade Deadline deals over a week ago demonstrate the problem of the rich getting richer.

THE NATURAL. Robert Redford stars in this 1984 movie about the baseball career of his character, Roy Hobbs, a player with amazing natural baseball talent. My favorite scene features Hobbs in a huge batting slump visiting Wrigley Field and seeing a woman dressed in white, Iris (played by Glenn Close), standing up in the bleachers.  Hobbs unleashes an enormous home run, shattering the clock on the manual scoreboard.  We see today, more than ever, players reaching the MLB with tremendous tools to play the game – power, speed, batting skill, defensive range, etc. I’ve always thought that work ethic separates the good ones and the great ones.

So, how about relaxing a little, taking a seat on the couch, grabbing a bowl of popcorn, and catching one of these flicks, or perhaps one of your favorites?  You won’t be disappointed.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach