Monday, May 20, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraPhillies 3, Reds 2: Aroldis Chapman is usually automatic. But he surrendered back-to-back bombs to the murderers row that is Erik Kratz and Freddy Galvis as Philly walked off Cincinnati. Heck, the inning started with Chapman walking Delmon Young on four straight pitches, so you know he wasn't on it yesterday. And Cliff Lee probably needs to buy Galvis dinner: Lee pinch ran for Young and was caught stealing. If he hadn't, Kratz's homer wold have been enough. Galvis saved his bacon.
Cardinals 4, Brewers 2: The Cardinals beat old friend Kyle Lohse for the third straight time. After the game he said "Baseball is a stupid game. Baseball is weird, man." They should have sent a poet.
Rangers 11, Tigers 8: Three homers, five driven in and a 4-for-4 night for Miguel Cabrera are still not enough for the Tigers to beat Texas. The Rangers rapped 18 hits, scoring five runs of Doug Fister and six off the bullpen. Four driven in for David Murphy. I was back and forth into this game all evening as I did and watched other things. It seemed to last eleventeen hours.
Red Sox 5, Twins 1: This one featured a three-hour rain delay during which the fans who stayed got to see the movie "The Sandlot" in its entirety on the video board. Secondary game highlights included a nice start from John Lackey and homers from Dustin Pedroia and Will Middlebrooks.
Pirates 1, Astros 0: Jeff Locke shut out the Astros for seven innings. A solo shot from Pedro Alvarez in the fifth was all Pittsburgh needed. This one was the anti-Tigers-Rangers game, as it was done in a cool two hours and 24 minutes.
Rays 3, Orioles 1: I knew Matt Moore had pitched a great game the moment I learned that my girlfriend inadvertently left him on the bench on her fantasy team. There was much cursing and such. Moore's seven strong innings ups him to 8-0 on the year.
Indians 6, Mariners 0: Justin Masterson struck out 11 in seven shutout innings and Cleveland roughed up Felix Hernandez for six runs (five earned) in five innings. The Tribe has won 17 of 21 and now leads the AL Central by two games.
Marlins 2, Diamondbacks 1: Ricky Nolasco adds to the parade of nice starts yesterday, striking out 11 in eight innings and helping the Marlins end their seven-game losing streak.
Mets 4, Cubs 3: When I was writing the Rangers recap I accidentally wrote "Daniel Murphy" instead of "David Murphy." I would have likely left that mistake up there had I not looked at the box score of this one and been reminded that Daniel plays for the Mets and David for Texas. I think I've made that mistake a half dozen times in the past couple of years. Anyway, here Daniel batted leadoff and hit the tie-breaking homer in the eighth. The Mets won their first series at Wrigley in six years.
Rockies 5, Giants 0: Barry Zito being relatively good recently has probably made some forget how much of a disaster he was for several years. Putting him in Coors Field is a helpful reminder. Zito was touched for five runs on 11 hits in five and two-thirds. The Giants have lost five of six. Their rotation has gotten bombed lately and now has the third worst rotation ERA in the NL.
Padres 13, Nationals 4: Speaking of beat up starters, Dan Haren surrendered seven runs in five innings and overall the Padres did a Gashouse Gorillas conga line around the bases against Nats pitching, getting the series split.
Braves 5, Dodgers 2: This game featured two hours of rain delays and the Dodgers bullpen failing to hold a lead for Matt Magill, who allowed only one unearned run in five innings. Atlanta didn't hit a homer, which is kinda rare for the Braves in a win.
Athletics 4, Royals 3: The Royals' skid continues -- they've lost 10 of their last 13 games and have sunk back to .500 -- as Oakland sweeps 'em. Yoenis Cespedes singled and scored and hit a homer.
Angels 6, White Sox 2: Jake Peavy walked guys with the bases loaded twice. He walked five in all and allowed four runs on four hits. Which is weird because when you see a guy walk the bases loaded once, let along twice, it feels like he's giving up, like, a dozen runs no matter what. Or maybe that's just some weird hangup of mine about bases-loaded walks.
Blue Jays vs. Yankees: POSTPONED: All at sea again. And now my hurricanes have brought down this ocean rain. To bathe me again. My ship's a sail. Can you hear its tender frame? Screaming from beneath the waves. Screaming from beneath the waves. All hands on deck at dawn. Sailing to sadder shores. Your port in my heavy storms. Harbours the blackest thoughts. I'm at sea again. And now your hurricanes have brought down this ocean rain.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
5,000 days since Eric Milton’s no-hitter
Posted by Chris Jaffe5,000 days ago, one of baseball’s most impressive pitching achievements occurred, though for various reasons it was one of the least impressive examples of this most impressive achievement.
On Sept.11, 1999, Twins pitcher Eric Milton threw a no-hitter, defeating the Angels, 7-0.
Looking at Milton’s line, there seems to be no reason to minimize his achievement. Not only was it a no-hitter, but it was a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts. So it’s not like he relied very heavily on his defense. The outing wasn’t littered with line drives or anything. Also, Milton walked just two batters, so it’s not like he had terrible control but was lucky with balls in play.
Yet, it’s still one of the least impressive no-hitters of recent times. While Milton did dominate the Angels lineup that day, the issue is exactly who was in that lineup. It was September, and just like all teams, the Angels had several minor leaguers called up to the big league squad.
The best Angels hitters that season were first baseman Darin Erstad, DH Mo Vaughn, and outfielders Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon. None of them played on Sept. 11, 1999. In their place stood Jeff DaVanon, a 25-year-old who made his big league debut a few days earlier; Todd Greene, a journeyman backup with a career .286 on-base percentage; Steve Decker, a .221 career hitter who was one week away from the end of his unmemorable career; and Matt Luke, a backup playing in his third and final season.
So half of the day’s lineup consisted of scrubs standing in for stars.
As an added bonus, there were other starters missing the day, as well. Gary DiSarcina and Randy Velarde were never great-hitting middle infielders, but each was good enough to play in over 1,000 games.
In this game, Velarde sat while someone named Trent Durrington played second base. Durrington played in 140 major league games—and had 46 hits. DiSarcina’s replacement at short was Andy Sheets, who hit .216 in 356 games. Finally, the normal catcher, Matt Walbeck, had the day off while a man named Bret Hemphill worked the plate. Hemphill had the least impressive career of them all: just three hits.
So seven of the nine batting order spots consisted of fungible players. There are literally minor league lineups with more impressive talent on display.
There were two starters in the game, with one a name worth knowing: third baseman Troy Glaus. While he’d develop into a fine hitter and All-Star, in 1999 the young Glaus was a .240 hitter, albeit one with power. The most dangerous hitter facing Milton was outfielder Orlando Palmeiro. When Orlando Palmeiro is your most dangerous weapon, you’ve got a pretty weak lineup.
Still, Milton did dominate and no-hit them. He still deserves credit, and he did throw a gem. Saying it’s one of the least impressive no-hitters shouldn’t overlook the key point, that it was a no-hitter. And it was a no-hitter 5,000 days ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their “day-versary” or anniversary. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Houston wins a marathon 16-inning game over the Phillies, 4-2. Roy Oswalt plays left field in the last inning for his new Phillies team.
1,000 days since a U.S. army skydiver gets stuck on the flagpole during a pregame jump before a Rangers contest. Oops.
2,000 days since Tampa trades Delmon Young to the Twins for Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett.
4,000 days since Albert Pujols enjoys his first three-double game.
4,000 days since St. Paul Saints promo guru Mike Veeck gives away seat cushions for tonight’s game. On one side is the likeness of commissioner Bud Selig, and on the other side the likeness of union head Donald Fehr. Fans can decide which face to sit on.
4,000 days since Tampa Bay minor leaguer Nick Bierbrodt is shot three times while getting fast food at a drive in.
5,000 days since Barry Bonds bangs out his 2,000th hit.
7,000 days since US Sen. Howard Mezenbaum holds a 2.5-hour hearing on MLB’s anti-trust exemption.
8,000 days since the Tigers trade Dan Petry to Atlanta.
8,000 days since Houston releases Mark McLemore.
8,000 days since Ozzie Smith enjoys his greatest game according to WPA, going 3-for-5 with a stolen base, strikeout, and a run for a 0.572 WPA in a 10-9 Cardinals win against the Phillies.
9,000 days since Willie Upshaw plays in his last game.
9,000 days since Orel Hershiser sets a record with 59 straight scoreless innings when he hurls 10 scoreless frames in a 16-inning Padres-Dodgers contest. San Diego eventually wins, 2-1. There is a moment of controversy as a run apparently scored on an error with Hershiser just shy of the record, but the umpire ruled that the runner had violated the rules and so was out anyway.
10,000 days since Hall of Fame owner Bill Veeck dies.
15,000 days since Steve Carlton enjoys the best Game Score of his career: 98. He fans 14 in a complete-game shutout one-hitter. The hit is the first batter, Chris Speier. Carlton also walks a batter.
15,000 days since Don Sutton wins, pushing his career record over .500 (86-85). It always will be over .500 from here on out.
15,000 days since Garry Maddox, super glove in center field, makes his major league debut.
50,000 days since Davy Force gets six hits in one game. He’s the first person in the National League to do so.
Anniversaries
1871 As the National Association, the first major league, begins its inaugural season, several star players make their debut, including Levi Meyerle and Dick McBridge.
1878 Jim McCormick, pitcher who wins over 250 games, makes his big league debut.
1887 Larry Corcoran, once a star pitcher, appears in his final game.
1897 Bill Hutchison, tremendous ace pitcher workhorse from the early 1890s, appears in his final game.
1900 George Grantham, a very well-rounded player, is born.
1912 The Detroit Tigers currently are on strike to protest the suspension of Ty Cobb for attacking a fan. Today, American League honcho Ban Johnson threatens all the Tiger players with lifetime suspensions if they don’t return to play. In reply, Cobb asks his teammates to end their strike.
1912 Due to a court decision, Mrs. Schuyler F. Britton gains complete control over the St. Louis Cardinals franchise.
1914 Dolf Luque, terrific pitcher who wins over 200 games, makes his big league debut.
1916 John McGraw wins his 1,427th game, passing Connie Mack for second place all-time behind only Fred Clarke. Mack and McGraw have gone back-and-forth since late 1915 for the No. 2 spot, but now McGraw will stay on top of Mack for the next 20-plus years.
1919 Babe Ruth connects for the first of 16 career grand slams.
1921 Hal Newhouser, Hall of Fame pitcher, is born.
1922 Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel were suspended to start the year for engaging in an off-season barnstorming tour that violated league rules. Today, their suspensions finally end.
1922 The Yankees lose one in horrible fashion. One out from a 2-1 win over the Browns, a would-be final out is dropped for an error. Fans don’t notice the error, and they charge the field. Eventually it’s cleared, but the Yankees are completely thrown by the combination of error and mayhem, surrendering seven runs for an 8-2 defeat.
1922 It took long enough, but Tris Speaker finally hit his first grand slam. He’ll hit three more in his remaining seasons.
1925 It’s another tough Yankees loss, and another big moment for Tris Speaker. The Indians score six runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Yankees, 10-9. Speaker scores the winning run from first on a single.
1928 Yankees Hall of Famer Earle Combs hits an inside-the-park grand slam off Sam "Dolly" Gray of the Browns.
1929 Hall of Fame pitcher Jesse Haines posts his 14th straight win, his longest ever streak. His numbers in that time: 15 G, 14 GS, 120.2 IP, 100 H, 34 R, 28 ER, 36 BB, and 43 K for a 2.09 ERA.
1931 Star third baseman Ken Boyer is born.
1932 Paul Waner doubles four times in one game.
1938 Bucky Walters suffers his worst start: 3.2 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 5 BB, and 4 K for a Game Score of 4.
1940 For the second time in his career, Pinky Higgins belts three home runs in one game.
1941 Lefty Grove notches his 20th consecutive win at home. He’s the first pitcher to do that.
1945 Bucky Walters first made it to the majors as a position player, and today he hits like one, swatting two homers in one game.
1945 One-armed outfielder Pete Gray records four hits in eight at-bats for the Browns in a doubleheader and makes several outstanding catches.
1946 Outfielder Bobby Murcer is born.
1947 Today’s Pirates-Braves game features 22 hits, all singles. The Pirates win, 4-3.
1948 For the second time since 1920, a reliever walks 11 batters in one outing. It’s Mickey McDermott. This has happened just once since then. In all, McDermott’s Red Sox team walks 18 Indians batters in eight innings. That’s the most walks in a non-extra-inning game. The Indians win, 13-4.
1948 For the second and last time, Joe DiMaggio hits for the cycle. He hits two homers, just like he did in his first cycle.
1949 Don Newcombe, star Dodgers pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1951 Richie Ashburn has a great day, get four hits in each game of today’s Phillies’ doubleheader. Philadelphia sweeps the day versus the Pirates, 17-0 and 12-4.
1952 In their first season in Milwaukee, the Braves—in just their 13th home game of the season—top 1952’s attendance mark from their last season in Boston.
1953 It might be Red Schoendienst’s greatest game, as he goes 4-for-4 with two doubles, a home run, and six RBIs. He also draws a base on balls and scores three times.
1956 Frank Robinson receives the first of his 198 career hits-by-pitch.
1956 Chuck Stobbs uncorks the wildest pitch in history. It lands 17 rows up and 30 feet wide of home plate along the first-base side.
1958 It’s taken him the better part of a decade, but Mickey Mantle finally legs out his first inside-the-park home run. No. 2 will come barely over two weeks later. He’ll end his career with four of them.
1958 The Cardinals trade Alvin Dark to the Cubs for Jim Brosnan.
1959 The Yankees lose, falling into last place for the first time in 19 years. (Well, not including 0-1 records and really early things like that).
1960 St. Louis signs free agent Curt Simmons.
1962 Young Cubs infielder Ken Hubbs gets eight hits in a doubleheader versus the Phillies.
1962 In just the 34th game of his career, future Hall of Famer Lou Brock hits his first grand slam. He’ll play another 2,582 games, but never hit another.
1963 Long-lasting pitcher David Wells is born.
1964 Houston picks up Don Larsen from San Francisco.
1965 Todd Stottlemyre is born.
1967 Willie McCovey does something he’ll never do again, lay down a sacrifice hit. He has over 6,100 more plate appearances left.
1968 For the second time in his career, Jim Fregosi hits for the cycle.
1969 Baseball historian Lee Allen dies at age 54.
1970 Rod Carew hits for the cycle, giving him a personal-best 10 total bases in one game.
1971 At a baseball game, singer Peter Cetera (from the band Chicago) gets beaten up by a gang of hooligans. He’ll need five hours of emergency surgery as a result.
1971 According to WPA, it’s the best relief stint in the history of the Expos/Nationals franchise when Mike Marshall throws six scoreless innings for a 0.832 WPA.
1971 Just three days before his 65th birthday, future Negro Leagues Hall of Famer Martin Dihigo dies.
1973 Phil Niekro posts his 100th career win. He’s 34 years old but has over 200 more wins left in his arm.
1974 Kent Tekulve, the second pitcher to appear in 1,000 games, makes his big league debut.
1975 The Indians trade Jim Perry and Dick Bosman to the A’s for Blue Moon Odom and cash.
1976 Sparky Anderson helms his 1,000th game. His record is 602-397 so far. Not bad, not bad at all.
1976 One day after he homered three times in one game, Carl Yastrzemski goes deep twice in today’s contest.
1976 The same day Yaz is on a power surge, plenty of other players are doing their own hard hitting, as the Red Sox and Yankees get in a major fight. It begins at the plate when Lou Piniella gives a hard slide to Carlton Fisk, and Fisk responds by intentionally tagging Piniella hard. After the benches clear, Red Sox hurler "Spaceman" Bill Lee and Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles go at it, with Lee injuring his arm in the melee.
1976 Ramon Hernandez, catcher, is born.
1978 Boston signs amateur free agent Bob Ojeda.
1978 Willie Stargell rocks the longest bomb ever hit in Stade Olympique—and possibly all of Canada—when he smashes one 535 feet off Wayne Twitchell.
1979 Don Sutton wins his 210th game as a Dodger, passing up Don Drysdale as all-time franchise win leader. He still is all of these years later.
1980 Austin Kearns is born.
1980 Tommy John will throw over 2,500 innings after his famous surgery and only allow one grand slam in all that time, but it comes here. Richie Hebner of the Tigers swats it.
1983 Ricky Nelson hits a ball in Seattle that sticks in the speaker at the Kingdome. As per the stadium ground rules, it’s a strike.
1983 Steve Carlton passes up Walter Johnson with his 3,511th strikeout, second only to Nolan Ryan, who passed Johnson earlier this same season.
1984 The Cardinals retire No. 14 for Ken Boyer, who would be celebrating his 53rd birthday today, except he died over a year previously.
1984 Roger Clemens wins his first game.
1985 Major League Baseball has its first rainout of the year. It comes after 458 games, the latest ever for the year's first rainout.
1988 For the second time this year, Bob Welch is called for three balks in one game.
1988 Roger Clemens throws 10 innings in one game, his only time with more than nine.
1989 Sparky Anderson manages his 3,000th game, for a record of 1,714-1,284.
1989 Manny Trillo appears in his last game.
1990 Edgar Martinez has the first of 22 multi-home run games. He sets a personal best with a 0.723 WPA. He’s 4-for-5 with a triple and single alongside the pair of home runs. He leads Seattle to an 8-7 win over Cleveland.
1991 Jeff Reardon records his 300th save.
1991 California signs what’s left of former starting pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.
1991 Pete Runnels, a former two-time batting champion, dies at age 63.
1993 Rafael Palmeiro hits his 100th career home run.
1994 Robin Ventura plays shortstop for seven innings. It’s his only time ever there.
1995 Chipper Jones’ sixth career home run is a walk-off blast. He’ll hit another walk-off six weeks later; not a bad way to start a career.
1995 For the second time this year, Toronto’s all-time franchise record hits .500 (1,416-1,416). The Blue Jays fall back below that mark in their next game and have been under .500 ever since.
1999 That’s just Robin Ventura being Robin Ventura. He becomes the first player to smack a grand slam in both halves of a doubleheader. Ventura leads the Mets to an 11-10 and 10-1 sweep over the Brewers.
2000 Roberto Alomar receives the rare walk-off walk.
2001 Barry Bonds homers twice in one game, giving him five in two days.
2001 Jason Varitek hits three home runs in one game.
2002 Brady Anderson appears in his last game.
2006 Barry Bonds hits his 714th home run, tying Babe Ruth for second-most ever.
2006 An old Joe DiMaggio uniforms sells at an auction for $195,500 to someone with too much money.
2006 Josh Beckett has a great day for the Red Sox, as he not only pitches seven solid innings, but smacks a home run and an RBI single. He’s the first Boston pitcher to homer in a game since Marty Pattin in 1972.
2006 The lesser Alex Gonzalez appears in his last game.
2006 Ken Griffey Jr. smacks the last of his 15 career grand slams.
2007 The longest hitting streak Jorge Posada ever has peaks at 15 games.
2007 For the first time, but not last time, Andruw Jones goes 0-for-5 with five strikeouts. He isn’t aging that well at all.
2008 Mike Piazza announces his retirement.
2009 Astros manager Cecil Cooper makes a bonehead move, submitting the wrong lineup card. Michael Bourn is called out for batting out of turn as a result.
2009 Pitcher Scott Schoeneweis’ wife is found dead of a drug overdose in their home, leaving him in sole custody of four kids, all under the age of 16.
2010 The Reds take an 8-0 lead on the Braves but lose, 10-9, surrendering seven runs in the bottom of the ninth. Laynce Nix ends the game on a pinch-hit, walk-off grand slam with the team down by three. It’s just the second time someone has hit a pinch-hit homer like that. The other was on July 8, 1950.
2010 Rockies pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez flirts with his second no-hitter of the year, giving up just an infield single before leaving in the seventh due to leg cramps. Right now, he’s 8-1 with 0.99 ERA.
2012 Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer fans 15 batters, all in seven innings. He gets the win against the Pirates.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Friday, May 17, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraRangers 10, Tigers 4: So much for pitching porn. Darvish wasn't exactly sharp early but he ultimately settled down. Meanwhile, who put the benzedrine in Mr. Verlander's Ovaltine? He was a hot mess. And I do mean hot. He was lighting up the radar gun in the early innings but was overthrowing and seemed to have no idea where the ball was going. Just a mechanical disaster, really, unlike I've ever remembered seeing him. Darvish ended up going eight innings and improving to 7-1.
Mariners 3, Yankees 2: Andy Pettitte left with a muscle injury. Andy Pettitte is 40. So basically, this is his life now (warning: a bit of bad language, but if you're 40, you NEED to hear this because it's 100 percent true).
Mets 5, Cardinals 2: The Mets end a six-game skid behind five hits from Daniel Murphy and David Wright. From the AP gamer about Jon Niese:
Terry Collins thought it was no coincidence the lefty rediscovered his groove in shirt-sleeve weather and paved the way for the New York Mets' slump-buster.
That word he used: I do not think it means what he thinks it means.
Pirates 7, Brewers 1: Travis Snider hit a 458-foot homer that ended up in the Allegheny River. Snider went 3 for 5 with three RBI and the Pirates won their sixth of seven.
Red Sox 4, Rays 3: Down 3-1 in the ninth, the Red Sox loaded the bases off Fernando Rodney, and Will Middlebrooks cleared them with a double. Just bananas. Oh, sorry Fernando, not bananas at all. Rodney has already blown three saves this year. He blew only two last year.
Reds 5, Marlins 3: [Craig press three keys and his "The ____ sweep the Marlins" macro is activated]. This one was competitive at least, as Mat Latos ran out of gas in the ninth and Aroldis Chapman couldn't close the deal either, sending it to extras. Brandon Phillips, who had homered earlier, hit a sac fly for the go-ahead run in the 10th.
Giants 8, Rockies 6: Down 6-0 early, the Giants put up five in the fourth and three in the sixth. I didn't see the broadcast, but I'm gonna assume the announcers said "no lead is safe in Coors Field" approximately five times. San Francisco has beaten Colorado 10 straight times.
White Sox 5, Angels 4: Yet another rally on a night that seemed to have many of them. The Sox were down two in the eighth when they scored three. The go-ahead run came on a bases-loaded walk to Jeff Keppinger, who had not walked in over 140 plate appearances so far this year.
Nationals 6, Padres 2: Stephen Strasburg pitched eight innings allowing only one earned run. Bryce Harper shook off his ailments from the fence collision in L.A. and hit a 432 foot homer in the seventh.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
40th anniversary: Bobby Valentine breaks his leg
Posted by Chris JaffeForty years ago today, one of the most gruesome and unfortunate injuries of the 1970s occurred. It ruined a promising career just as it was beginning— though the kid had a long future in baseball ahead of him anyway.
It was May 17, 1973, when Angels player Bobby Valentine broke his leg.
Valentine had been a huge prospect. As an 18-year-old in the Pioneer League, he was named league MVP. The club thought enough of him to bring him up for a few games in 1969, when he was still a teen.
At age 20, Valentine starred for the Dodgers’ Spokane club in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Valentine hit .340 with 29 stolen bases, 39 doubles, 16 triples, and 14 homers.
Figuring he was done with the minors, he became a major leaguer for almost all of 1971-72. The results weren’t quite what the Dodgers hoped for, though. Valentine had versatility in the field, playing all over the infield and outfield, but at the plate he was lackluster. He had virtually no power, and had a mediocre batting average.
In the 1972-73 off-season, the Dodgers sent him to the nearby Angels as part of a blockbuster trade also featuring Frank Robinson, Bill Singer, Andy Messersmith and Ken McMullen. Though Valentine’s career hadn’t quite taken off, he was still very young—just 23, an age at which many stars-to-be were toiling in the minors.
The change of scenery seemed to do Valentine a world of good. California settled on shortstop for Valentine, with occasional games in the outfield. A fifth of the way through the year, and Valentine was hitting over .300. The future appeared bright.
Then came May 17, 1973. This would be another of those games with Valentine in center. In the top of the second, Valentine’s career came to a sudden, shocking halt. Oakland’s Dick Green hit one to deep center field. Valentine went to the wall hoping to leap and rob Green of a home run. It didn’t work out that way. It really, really didn’t work out that way.
Valentine leaped up all right, but the ball missed his glove by a hair, for a home run. More importantly, gravity made a disastrous appearance. Valentine began descending, and when he did, his leg got tangled in the wall. It went between a pair of supporting poles. The wall gave way a bit, just enough to trap his leg. Then it flipped him to the ground. The middle part of his shin was bent. That middle part of a shin is never supposed to bend, but bend it did. It was the closest baseball got to a Joe Thiesman-Lawrence Taylor moment.
Valentine had multiple fractures to his right leg. He spent the rest of the 1973 season in various casts, but when they were taken off more bad news was in store for him. His bones hadn’t healed properly. Another surgery could fix it, but would mean Valentine would miss all of 1974, at the very least. He decided to play on his messed-up leg. He would play more than 100 games in 1974, but was soon relegated to backup duties. No more star-to-be, Valentine became a hanger-on. He bounced from the Angels to the Padres to the Mets to the Mariners, where his career ended in 1979, when he was still not even 30 years old.
Maybe Valentine wouldn’t have lived up to his potential. Plenty of prospects don’t. But maybe he would’ve. It’s a shame we’ll never know—and we won’t know because of the terrible injury that happened 40 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Arizona signs free agent pitcher Mike Hampton.
1,000 days since Matt Stairs hits his 21st career pinch-hit home run.
4,000 days since the 2002 draft. Among the more memorable picks are these: Florida gets Josh Johnson and Scott Olsen; the Dodgers get Russell Martin; the Reds gets Joey Votto; Detroit gets Curtis Granderson; the Mets get Scott Kazmir; the Brewers get Prince Fielder; the Royals get Zack Greinke; the Rays get B.J. Upton, the Giants gets Matt Cain, and the Braves get Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann. Oh, this is also the famous Moneyball draft where the A’s pick up Nick Swisher, Joe Blanton, Mark Teahen, and the fat catcher Jeremy Brown.
5,000 days since Steve Finley hits three home runs in one game. It’s the third time he’s done that.
6,000 days since Florida signs free agent outfielder Moises Alou.
7,000 days since Atlanta releases Ron Gant, who broke his leg in a motorcycle accident, violating the terms of his contract.
8,000 days since Mickey Tettleton becomes the 17th person to hit a ball completely out of Tiger Stadium.
9,000 days since Jack Morris throws a one-hitter. The only hit is a single in the seventh inning by Mickey Tettleton. Boy, don’t mess with Tettleton in this interval of 1,000 days.
15,000 days since Buddy Bell mashes the first of eight career grand slam.
20,000 days since Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts resigns. Jimmie Dykes will take over as interim skipper.
20,000 days since Vic Power, rather amazingly, steals home twice in one game. The second one is the winning run in the 10th inning for a 10-9 Indians triumph over Detroit.
Anniversaries
1860 Frank Mountain is born. He’ll pitch in the 1880s American Association (a major league at the time) and lead it in losses in 1883, with a 26-33 record.
1865 Al Mays is born. He’ll lead the American Association in losses in 1887 with a 17-34 record. The year before he was 11-27. Those records are more reflective of his offensive support, though.
1882 Charlie Buffinton, a pitcher who would go on to win around 200 games, makes his big league debut.
1887 Pud Galvin, the first pitcher to win 300 games (and also the first to lose 300), gives up the only grand slam of his career.
1892 The Louisville Colonels (a major league team back then) sign Hughie Jennings. He’ll go on to a Hall of Fame career.
1892 Hal Carlson, NL pitcher, is born. He’ll play for the Cubs in the 1929 World Series and then shockingly die in the middle of the 1930 season, while still a member of the club.
1893 Mickey Welch, a 300-game winning pitcher, plays in his final game.
1903 Cool Papa Bell, Negro Leaguer and Hall of Famer, is born. Legend has it he was so fast he could turn the switch off and get into bed before the room was dark. There’s truth to that legend, of a sort. Staying at one motel, he realized there was a short in the wiring causing a delay from switch to lights. Taking advantage of that, he bet his roomie he could beat the speed of dark—and then he did. And that’s how one legendary story began.
1912 The Red Sox have the official dedication of Fenway Park. They could’ve done it earlier, but management figures if they have one day for its grand opening and another for the dedication, they can sell more tickets. It’s a good idea, but Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate. It doesn’t rain enough to cancel the game, but it does rain enough to dampen attendance.
1913 The grandstand section of Comiskey Park collapses. Oops.
1913 Washington purchases veteran pitcher workhorse George Mullin from Detroit.
1915 Zip Zabel of the Cubs pitches the longest relief stint ever: 18.1 innings. He gets the win in a 19-inning, 4-3 Chicago triumph over Brooklyn.
1920 The New York Times reports that at the end of the year the Giants will evict their Polo Ground tenants, the Yankees. This report will be rescinded a few days later, but the Yankees aren’t long for the Polo Grounds either way.
1921 Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes allows a personal-high 18 hits in one game. His line: 9 IP, 18 H, 7 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K.
1921 Iron man infielder Everett Scott plays in his 700th straight game. He’ll become the first person to play in 1,000 consecutive contests and will hold the iron man record until Lou Gehrig breaks it.
1927 Bob Smith of the Braves becomes the last pitcher to last over 21 innings in game. His line: 22 IP, 20 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 9 BB, 5 K. Unfortunately for him, it’s all for naught as the Cubs win, 4-3, and Smith gets pegged for the loss. The Cubs were just three days off an 18-inning game, too. In this game, the Cubs used three pitchers; most notably, Bob Osborn pitching 14 innings of shutout relief for the win.
1929 Pete Alexander loses his 200th game. He’s 366-200 at this point in his career, which is almost over.
1932 Tigers pitcher Billy Hoeft is born. He’ll represent them in the 1955 All-Star game and then win 20 for them in 1956.
1934 Rogers Hornsby hits his 300th career home run. He’s the first National Leaguer to do so, and third overall, behind Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
1934 Former Phillies great Chuck Klein returns to the Baker Bowl for the first time since becoming a Cub. He bangs out two home runs.
1939 It’s the first time a baseball game is televised: Princeton against Columbia in the Baker Bowl.
1940 Chuck Klein gets his 2,000th hit in only 1,576 games played. He is one of the fastest to get there.
1941 May 17, 1941 is a legal holiday in the state of Pennsylvania and city of Philadelphia to honor longtime A’s owner and manager Connie Mack.
1944 Boston’s Hall of Fame second baseman Bobby Doerr hits for the cycle.
1945 For the fourth straight day, rain causes the postponement of all AL games.
1947 Old Folks Ellis Kinder gets very lucky, or is almost extremely unlucky, depending on how you look at it. While he’s pitching at Fenway Park, a seagull flies by and poops on the mound, narrowly missing him.
1948 Carlos May is born. For much of his career, May will have the uniform number 17. He gets this number whenever he’s on a team that lists the player’s name on its back, so all the world can see “MAY 17”—his name, number—and also birthday. Pretty neat, eh? He’s also a two-time All-Star.
1957 Pascual Perez, Braves pitcher, is born.
1958 Stan Williams, a hard-throwing pitcher known for aiming at people’s heads, makes his big league debut.
1959 In the second game of a doubleheader, Harmon Killebrew has his fifth multi-home-run game of the month. Not bad, especially given it’s only midway through the month.
1959 Jim Perry, pitching in relief, surrenders the only walk-off walk of his career. And he can’t blame his fellow pitchers: he’s the guy who loaded the bases this inning, too.
1959 A Roberto Clemente home run ball juuuuuust misses hitting the Wrigley Field scoreboard. It flies a little to the left of it. To this day, no homer has ever hit it.
1960 The Dodgers release long-time right fielder Carl Furillo.
1961 Stan Williams out-duels Braves ace Warren Spahn and himself in 2-1 victory over 11 innings. He holds the Braves to only four hits but walks 12 batters while striking out 10. It’s one of only six times in the last 90 years a pitcher walks 12 and still gets the win.
1961 Roger Maris hits his first Yankee Stadium home run of the year and No. 4 overall. It’s a slow start, but he’ll pick up the pace as the year continues.
1961 Veteran hitter Walt Dropo appears in his last big league contest.
1961 Otto Knabe, second baseman, dies at age 76. He led the NL in sacrifice hits four times from 1907-13.
1963 Bob Allison becomes the first Twin to belt three home runs in one game.
1963 Don Nottebart hurls the first no-hitter in Astros history (or Colt .45s, as they were called back then): Houston 4, Philadelphia 1. He walks three while fanning eight in the game.
1965 Dodgers skipper Walter Alston wins his 1,000th game: His career record is 1,000-754.
1965 New York Mets release former Yankees legend Yogi Berra.
1966 Joe Torre enjoys his only four-walk game. He’s 0-for-1 in five PA. One of the walks is intentional.
1967 Tom Seaver surrenders the only walk-off home run of his career. Joe Torre hits it. It’s the third of four career walk-off blasts by Torre.
1968 After 41 straight scoreless innings, Indians ace Luis Tiant finally gives up a run. He ends up losing to Baltimore, 6-2.
1969 Pants Rowland, manager of the 1917 White Sox world champion club, dies at age 90.
1970 Hank Aaron laces his 3,000th career hit. It’s only taken him 2,460 games. He’s the ninth person to have 3,000 hits, and the first to combine 3,000 hits with 500 homers (though Willie Mays will join him in the 3,000 hit club later that year).
1971 Johnny Bench hits his 100th home run.
1971 Atlanta’s Ralph Garr homers twice in extra innings of one game, in the 10th and 12th frames.
1971 Jim Bunning helps his own cause. He hits a solo home run and drives in another run with a sacrifice fly and that’s the difference in a 3-2 Phillies win over the Reds.
1971 The Red Sox sign free agent pitcher Luis Tiant, whom the Braves cut two days previously. Tiant will go 1-7 for the Red Sox this year but then turn things around dramatically, going 96-58 over the next five seasons.
1971 As once noted here at THT, one of the most famous blooper plays in baseball history occurs on May 17, 1971. Washington infielder Tom McCraw hit a pop-up to shallow left-center, and three Cleveland defenders converged to catch it but instead ran into each other. John Lowenstein, Vada Pinson and Jack Heidemann ran into each other at full speed, and all had to leave the game after the play. McCraw got an unlikely inside-the-park home run out of it.
1971 Roberto Clemente hits a memorable clutch shot with the rare walk-off triple. There were two outs at the time, too.
1974 Hank Aaron gets his first sacrifice hit since July 27, 1961, when he bunts over Dusty Baker against Dodger reliever Mike Marshall in the eighth inning of tied game. Aaron went 7,863 consecutive plate appearances between sacrifices.
1975 Phillies reliever Gene Garber ties a modern record by recording his third win in three days.
1976 The Cubs trade Andre Thornton to the Expos for Larry Biitner and Steve Renko
1976 Jose Guillen is born. He’ll play 14 seasons as an outfielder.
1977 After reaching on a fielder’s choice in his 3,176th career plate appearances, Oakland A’s catcher Earl Williams steals second, his first ever stolen base. The embarrassed pitcher-catcher combination is Ron Guidry and Thurman Munson. Making this especially odd, Guidry’s a lefty, so you’d figure he could do a better job holding the runner. Then again, when the runner hasn’t stolen a base in over 3,000 trips to the plate, you probably aren’t thinking of him as a threat.
1977 In the very same game that Earl Williams steals his first base, his teammate Vida Blue pitches 13 innings, the longest outing of his career, but gets stuck with a no-decision as the game keeps going on. His line: 13 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K. The Yankees win in 15 frames, 5-2.
1977 It must be windy. The Cubs bash seven homer runs in a 23-6 rout of the Padres.
1978 Carlos Pena is born. In the internet era, he has transformed from hot prospect to disappointment to washout to comeback player to aging vet.
1978 The Dodgers trade Glenn Burke to the A’s for Billy North, reputedly because Burke was gay.
1978 Lee Lacy sets a record with his third straight pinch-hit home run.
1979 Games don’t come much wilder than this: Phillies 23, Cubs 22 (10). Philly led 7-0, and then the Cubs came back to make it 7-6. Then the second inning began—really, that’s how it started. The Phillies scored the game’s next 10 runs, but the Cubs came back behind a trio of Dave Kingman homers, but still lost. Why yes, it was windy in Wrigley that day.
1979 After 45 days, the major league umpires strike is settled.
1982 Dixie Walker, star outfielder from the 1940s, dies at age 71.
1985 On the 12th anniversary of the play that ruined his promising playing career, Bobby Valentine manages his first game in the majors.
1985 After 990 career at-bats, Jack Perconte hits his first home run.
1985 St. Louis trades outfielder Lonnie Smith to the Royals.
1986 Slugging first baseman Fred McGriff makes his big league debut.
1988 Greg Maddux has the longest outing of his career: 10.2 innings and 167 pitches. He gets the loss.
1992 Gary Carter joins Bob Boone and Carlton Fisk in the 2,000-games-caught club.
1992 Wade Boggs gets his 2,000th hit in only 1,515 games. That's even faster than Chuck Klein.
1993 Dave Winfield hits his 500th double. He’s the 29th member of the club.
1993 It’s a pretty good week to be Mike Blowers of the Seattle Mariners: He hits a grand slam in his second consecutive game.
1994 Veteran skipper Buck Rodgers manages in his last game.
1994 The Phillies top the Expos 6-5 with two runs scoring in the bottom of the ninth. It’s one of the rare occasions where a walk-off error lets the tying and winning runs both score. Expos third baseman Sean Berry, who had just entered the game as a pinch hitter in the eighth, threw the ball away trying to nail the lead runner at the plate.
1994 It takes 12 pitches, but it’s well worth it for Kenny Lofton. On the dozenth pitch of an at-bat against Cal Eldred, he smacks a home run. It’s the only time he took more than eight pitches to homer.
1996 Jermaine Dye, MVP of the 2005 World Series, makes his big league debut.
1996 In just the 92nd game of his career, Jason Giambi lays down his second, and last, career sacrifice hit. Giambi does advance the runner, but that just allows the opposition to intentionally walk Mark McGwire, which in turn sets up an inning ending GIDP. Giambi has had over 8,100 PA since then without any more sacrifice bunts.
1997 Kenny Lofton enjoys his only 5-for-5 game. He had four other five-hit games, but all with six at-bats.
1998 David Wells throws a perfect game in Yankee Stadium in a 4-0 win over the Twins.
1999 Larry Walker hits his only inside-the-park home run.
1999 Edgar Martinez scores five runs in a game for the only time in his career.
2000 Cal Ripken passes up Hank Aaron by grounding into his 329th double play, the new record. Ripken will retire with 350 GIDP, which is still the record.
2001 Steve Trachsel becomes the first pitcher in Mets history to surrender four home runs in one inning. It happens in the third inning against San Diego.
2002 Erubiel Durazo hits three homers for Arizona in one game.
2002 Jeremy Giambi hits a memorable grand slam—a walk-off slam in the bottom of the 14th to give his new Yankee teammates a 13-12 comeback win over the Twins.
2004 Buster Narum, former pitcher, dies at age 63. In 1963, he became just the second person ever to homer in his sole at bat of the season.
2005 Mike Hargrove manages his 2,000th game. He’s 1,011-987 for his career so far.
2007 Curt Schilling allows seven doubles in one game. For most pitchers that would be a personal high, but not Schilling. He once allowed nine doubles in one game.
2007 John Mabry plays in his last game.
2007 Bill Wight, post-World War II pitcher, dies at age 85. In 1948, he led the AL in walks with 135 while posting a 9-20 record for the White Sox.
2009 Ivan Rodriguez hits his 300th home run.
2009 Joe Maddon screws up filling out the lineup card, forcing Tampa to go without a designated hitter. As a result, pitcher Andy Sonnanstine gets an RBI double in a 7-5 win over the Indians. Go figure.
2009 Mike Pelfrey balks three times in one game, the first time any pitcher has done that in 15 years (when Al Leiter did it).
2010 Arizona releases veteran reliever Bob Howry.
2010 The Red Sox and Yankees have a titanic battle. The Yankees go up 5-0 only to see Boston storm back to a 9-7 lead. The Yankees get a pair of two-run homers in the bottom of the ninth to win it, though, 11-9.
2010 Forget walk-off homers. In the bottom of the 11th of the Rays-Indians game, Tampa shortstop Jason Bartlett does something much rarer. He lays down a walk-off sacrifice bunt to win the game, 4-3. Most walk-off sacrifices are actually defensive errors, but this is the genuine thing, a sac with runners on the corners in which the winning run scores. It’s not a physical error by Indians pitcher Jamey Wright, who has a brain fart and throws to first for the fielder’s choice despite the winning run scoring.
2011 Legendary Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew dies at the age of 74.
2012 San Diego release veteran infielder Orlando Hudson, who is done. The White Sox will pick him up, but he’ll be terrible for them.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Dear Jonathan Sanchez: Do you mind if we ‘Oliver Perez’ you?
Posted by Pat AndriolaIt seems way too easy to compare Jonathan Sanchez to Oliver Perez. They're both lanky left-handers with similar stuff and around the same age who had early success before the wheels came off. The comparison is so easy that it runs the risk of seeming lazy, something I've warned about in the past, but this is one of those situations where the fit is just really strong.
Sanchez, who was cut by the Pirates after posting an 11.85 ERA in five outings (including four starts), is about to sign a minor league deal with the Dodgers. Some are using the move to belittle the Dodgers as an example of how desperate they are, but like many minor league deals, this is a low-risk, high-reward transaction.
Perez and Sanchez both had their first big year in their third season in the majors. For Perez that was 2004, where he posted a 2.98 ERA in 30 starts thanks to a 3.45 FIP and 3.62 xFIP (good for 4.4 WAR overall). For Sanchez that was 2008, where he amassed 2.6 WAR thanks to a 3.85 FIP. His 5.01 ERA was obviously high, but a .317 BABIP (as compared to his .294 career mark) and a left-on-base percent of just 67.5 contributed mightily to that number.
After 2004 Perez imploded, tallying consecutive years of below-replacement level WAR and FIPs above five. Sanchez actually had a nice run after 2008, with ERAs of 4.24 and 3.07 the next two seasons.
After finding a home with the Mets in 2006 (and even starting and pitching decently in Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS), Perez had pretty good seasons in '07 and '08, posting solid ERA's that were significantly below his FIP and xFIP. In 2009, Sanchez hit a road bump when he started just nineteen games and walked 5.86 batters per nine innings, a career high. Still, he put up a 4.26 ERA and a nearly identical FIP, so it wasn't all that bad.
Then both pitchers simply became shells of their former selves in exactly the same way: they started walking everybody. For Perez it was the 2009 season, when he became a villain in Queens by posting a 6.82 ERA and walking 7.91 batters per nine innings. He was even worse the next year (if that's possible to believe), finishing at -1.1 WAR for the season. He was released by the Mets and could not make a major league roster for the 2011 season.
For Sanchez, the crash happened last year. Like Perez, he went from walking four to five batters per nine to walking over seven, and his strikeouts decreased as well, leading to a perfect storm of terrible pitching. In 15 starts he had a 8.07 ERA, a truly horrid number. But it was last season when Perez put himself together. After finding an opportunity in Seattle's bullpen, Perez had the lowest walk rate of his career (3.09/9) and finished with an astounding 2.12 ERA in 33 appearances, pitching primarily to left-handers.
This season has been even worse for Sanchez, who now finds himself, like Perez in 2011, off a major league roster. Although his ERA was 11.85, he did have a 5.03 xFIP (a HR/FB rate of 36.8 percent, as well as a .419 BABIP, really did him in). Perez is shining once again this year with a 1.17 ERA and 3.58 FIP.
What the Dodgers need to do is what the Mariners did with Perez: put him in the bullpen and make him a LOOGY. Here are the career splits for the two relievers:
Oliver Perez
vs. lefties: .223/.315/.364 (3.03 wOBA), 3.36 xFIP
vs. righties: .243/.355/.431 (.345 wOBA), 5.01 xFIP
Jonathan Sanchez
vs. lefties: .215/.313/.363 (3.04 wOBA), 3.75 xFIP
vs. righties: .245/.356/.416 (.342 wOBA), 4.58 xFIP
Those numbers are strikingly similar, and it shows that neither is good enough versus lefties to make up for how mediocre they are versus righties. The best bet is the bullpen, where they can be mixed and matched late in the game. That's what the Dodgers should do with Sanchez, and if they don't figure it out, somebody else will.
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraMariners 12, Yankees 2: This one was over almost before it started, with Phil Hughes getting knocked around for seven runs in the first inning, which he did not escape. Raul Ibanez hit two homers and drove in six off his old team. Which, I imagine, will cause some columnist who has been lauding Brian Cashman for putting together a chemistry-laden scappy bunch of no-names this past offseason to change gears and talk about how much of a mistake it was for him not to re-sign Ibanez.
Cardinals 4, Mets 2: Shelby Miller didn't get the decision and wasn't particularly sharp, but he did pitch five and two-thirds shutout innings and left with a lead. Rick Ankiel, like Ibanez, hit a homer against his former team. He said this after the game:
"It's unfortunate we didn't win but for me it's a positive, so I'm happy about it. For me it was just fun to do because it was against that team."
Yeah, you really want to stick it to that team if you're Ankiel. I mean, after all they did to him, sticking with him for years while he completely transformed himself in the minors and dealt with multiple career-threatening injuries when just about every other team would've released him. Yep, they really had it comin'.
Rangers 6, Athletics 2: Nelson Cruz hit a three-run homer and made this diving catch off Brandon Moss. Not too shabby. Also not shabby: The Rangers have a seven-game lead in the division despite the fact they've played 25 of their 40 games on the road.
Diamondbacks 5, Braves 3: Paul Goldschmidt hit three doubles and Eric Chavez drove in three as the Braves lose yet again. They probably need to win a few in a row sometime soon or else the thing I'm comforting myself with -- that this team is gonna be streaky -- is not going to be true. They're just gonna be kinda blah.
White Sox 9, Twins 4: Who woke up Adam Dunn? He hit two homers and drove in five. But now he's gonna be up all night and that's no good.
Indians 10, Phillies 4: Cole Hamels is now 1-6 with a 4.61 ERA after being beat up by Cleveland. But at least Carlos Zambrano will be around soon to help out the pitching staff.
Astros 7, Tigers 5: Carlos Corporan hit a tiebreaking double in the top of the ninth and Miguel Cabrera's would-be game-winning three-run home run fell just short of the wall in the bottom of the ninth to end the game. Houston finally wins one against a Tigers team which has abused the the Astros in two straight series.
Padres 8, Orioles 4: San Diego sweeps Baltimore in the two-game series behind a 17-hit attack. The Padres are now 13-6 in their last 19. A nice bounce-back after dropping all three against Tampa Bay.
Reds 4, Marlins 0: Shin-Soo Choo with two homers. He's hitting .322/.465/.589 with nine bombs on the season. Mercy.
Pirates 3, Brewers 1: Yovani Gallardo was 7-0 in his last eight starts against the Pirates, but Wandy Rodriguez outdueled him.
Cubs 6, Rockies 3: Jeff Samardzija pulls a Baseball Bugs, hitting a two-run homer and pitching eight strong innings.
Red Sox 9, Rays 2: A costly loss for the Rays as they drop not only the game but lose David Price to an injured triceps (or is it tricepts?). Meanwhile, Jon Lester improves to 6-0. Stephen Drew hit a grand slam.
Dodgers 3, Nationals 1: Zack Greinke was apparently ready to return. He allowed one run in five and a third and didn't walk anyone while striking out four. He added an RBI single to boot.
Blue Jays 11, Giants 3: Shh! Four in a row for the Jays. If they keep this up and climb back into contention a lot of early-season memes will be obsolete, eh? Ryan Vogelsong gets rocked again. He may lose his slot in the rotation.
Royals 9, Angels 5: The Angels seem less into meme-busting, as they drop two of three to the Royals. Billy Butler came into Anaheim in a slump. Then went 8-for-13 with a homer and nine RBI in the series. They must serve some good country breakfast in Orange County.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraPirates 4, Brewers 3: Andrew McCutchen with a walkoff bomb in the 12th. John Axford surrendered the lead in the eighth. He's got a nifty 9.20 ERA now.
Dodgers 2, Nationals 0: Clayton Kershaw stuck out 11 in eight and two-thirds shutout innings. He tossed 132 pitches, the most in his career and the most in baseball since Justin Verlander threw the same amount last August.
Padres 3, Orioles 2: Yesterday on a radio spot we talked about how automatic Jim Johnson has been, having converted 35 straight saves. Sorry for jinxing you, dude. The Padres rallied for two in the ninth giving Johnson his first blown save of the year. Johnson couldn't quite wriggle out of the jam he created for himself. Single, single, double play, HBP, single, single, blown save. Death by, well, four or five cuts.
Phillies 6, Indians 2: Jonathan Pettibone got to the bigs because of injuries but he's staying there because he's getting the job done. Two runs allowed in six and two thirds. A 3-for-4 night with three RBI for John Mayberry.
Yankees 4, Mariners 3: Felix Hernandez was cruising until he tweaked his back in the sixth and had to leave after allowing only one run. The Yankees capitalized, scoring three off Yoervis Medina and Charlie Furbush. CC Sabathia struck out 10. Allowed 10 hits too. But he kept New York close, which was good enough last night.
Reds 6, Marlins 2: Homer Bailey went the distance, striking out 10. Ricky Nolasco, in contrast, walked two dudes with the bases loaded and just had a miserable night. But hey, it's Miami.
Blue Jays 10, Giants 6: Melky Cabrera welcomed his former teammates with a 4-for-5, two RBI night. R.A. Dickey struck out 10 in six innings. The Jays put up a six-spot in the first inning off Barry Zito and that was almost all she wrote.
Rockies 9, Cubs 4: Carlos Gonzalez went 5-for-5 with two homers. And he was -- all together now -- a triple shy of the cycle.
Tigers 6, Astros 2: Miguel Cabrera had a homer, but it came after the game was effectively decided. The night before he didn't do much of anything as the Tigers routed Houston. Basically, the Tigers could be sending out a team full of Don Kellys and Andy Dirkseseseses and still be sweeping this series. Really, it's like watching an exhibition series between the big club and Triple-A or something.
Cardinals 10, Mets 4: The Mets are ... not good. Carlos Beltran is, though. He drove in four, reminding those in New York who still think he's a bum that in fact he's arguably a borderline Hall of Famer. John Gast pitched well for five innings before running into some trouble in the sixth. Still, impressive for the kid. Who, if he really takes off, we can start calling "The Great Gastby" or something. [dodges thrown fruit] or maybe not.
Rays 5, Red Sox 3: Matt Moore was smacked around for three runs in the first but then settled down and moved to 7-0 on the year. Six straight wins for the Rays.
Diamondbacks 2, Braves 0: This Patrick Corbin kid continues to impress, winning his sixth straight start to kick off the year despite walking five dudes. Double plays helped, as he had three turned behind him to get him out of jams. The Braves have lost four of five.
White Sox 4, Twins 2: Adam Dunn and Dayan Viciedo hit back to back homers. Jake Peavy was solid again. The Sox win despite two pretty clearly blown calls by umps, one at first base and one at home.
Angels 6, Royals 2: I guess Jeremy Guthrie is mortal after all. The Angels tagged him for five runs on 11 hits in seven innings. Homers from Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton. This is how it was supposed to go.
Rangers 6, Athletics 5: Two homers from Mitch Moreland, including one that helped ice it in the 10th inning. Adrian Beltre hit one in the 10th as well. Joe Nathan was shaky as all get-out in the bottom of the inning but finally nailed it down, needing 31 pitches to do so.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraBraves 10, Diamondbacks 1: Justin Upton went 4-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs. Chris Johnson went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs. Martin Prado had a couple of hits and I suppose he was gritty. Gonna say that the first visit to Arizona for the Braves post-trade falls to their advantage.
Twins 10, White Sox 3: Aaron Hicks hit two home runs and robbed one from Adam Dunn in center. If I remember by college accounting course, that's a +3 in the home run column.
Indians 1, Yankees 0; Yankees 7, Indians 0: An old-timey doubleheader with no multi-hour break in the middle and one ticket buying access to both games. Don't see that happen much anymore. Takes a couple of rainouts to make it happen I guess. Justin Masterson was outstanding in the first, shutting out the Yankees and striking out nine. Vidal Nuno, I'm guessing a hair stylist/cosmetics mogul, pitched five innings of shutout ball himself in the second game, backed by a couple of RBIs each from Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay. Those three names, if I had told you were important parts of a Yankees game before the season started, would have likely had you thinking the team was in last place. They're, instead, a game up in the AL East, tied for the best record in the American League.
Cardinals 6, Mets 3: Rick Ankiel's Mets debut: 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. And he made a diving stab at a catch in the seventh inning, but just missed it, which led to the Cardinals scoring three runs. He said after the game if he'd had his own glove -- which was still back in Houston -- he would have caught it. Instead he had to use a pitcher's glove. I'm actually inclined to believe him here. Outfielder gloves are gigantic.
Brewers 5, Pirates 1: Milwaukee stole six bases off Pirates backup catcher Michael McKenry. I haven't seen a defender so abused since Jerry Rice embarrassed Charles Dimry back in 1990. Maybe Jerry Glanville thought McKenry could handle throwing out Brewers base runners like he thought Dimry could cover Rice in man-to-man.
Cubs 9, Rockies 1: Travis Wood joins the increasingly long list of pitchers making the Rockies look lost at the plate lately, tossing seven shutout innings. The AP gamer said "He's the first Cubs pitcher since Hippo Vaughn in 1919 to start with eight quality starts." I'm guessing that Hippo Vaughn had no idea what a quality start was. And even if he did, it wouldn't fit the same definition of "quality start" we know today. In 1919 it probably included cigarettes, Spanish Flu masks and trips to a brothel.
Tigers 7, Astros 2: A grand slam for Andy Dirks and, ouch, a dislocated jaw for Jose Altuve. These losses are getting increasingly painful for the Astros.
Nationals 6, Dodgers 2: Bryce Harper needed 11 stitches on his chin and he jammed his shoulder hitting the outfield wall. This is the quintessential "guy who plays really freakin' hard" kind of injury, I suppose. He actually hit a chain link fence which sits in front of a scoreboard. Don Mattingly said after the game "That fencing we have is a little dangerous. If you hit that, you're going to feel it, especially face first." You know THAT's gonna be thrown back in Mattingly's face during his deposition. Man.
Royals 11, Angels 4: Five hits and five RBIs for Billy Butler, breaking a horrendous slump for Country Breakfast. Speaking of nicknames, Ned Yost called pitcher Luis Mendoza "Mendy" after the game, extending his streak of awful, unimaginative nicknames for his players to, like, 15. He and Eric Wedge probably have a little cheat sheet with every player's name on his team with a little "y" next to it in case they need to use a nickname in a postgame interview.
Athletics 5, Rangers 1: Eight Ks for A.J. Griffin. Back to back homers for Yoenis Cespedes and Brandon Moss. The A's needed this one after dropping six of their last seven.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
25th anniversary: The Jose Oquendo Game
Posted by Chris Jaffe25 years ago today, one of the wildest games of the 1980s took place. It’s a contest that will forever be known as The Jose Oquendo Game, after the Cardinals utility infielder who played such a key role in it.
On May 14, 1988, Oquendo and the Cardinals hosted the Atlanta Braves. It would prove to be a game that just wouldn’t die.
Early on it looked like it would be a good day for St. Louis. The Cardinals jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, but things wouldn’t keep going that way. Instead, in the top of the fourth the Braves rallied for four runs against Cardinals pitcher Cris Carpenter and took the lead. They wouldn’t get to keep it for long, as St. Louis pushed a pair of runs across in the bottom of the frame. In fact, the Cardinals chased Braves starting pitcher Zane Smith from the game with just four innings pitched.
This would prove to be a day you didn’t want to lose your starter early.
After four offense-fueled innings, the game’s pace shifted. The pitchers took over, and the game remained 5-4 Cardinals until the seventh, when the Braves pushed Carpenter out of the game and tied it, 5-5.
With a tie score in the late innings, both teams could safely assume the next run would win it. That would be correct—but no one could foresee how long it would take to get that next run across the plate.
St. Louis nearly put it away in the eighth when Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee belted back-to-back singles to lead the inning. Alas, they stranded Smith on third. In the ninth the Cardinals had a pair of one-out singles, but again couldn’t score the run.
One of those ninth inning singles came from Jose Oquendo. He had just entered the game to replace first baseman Bob Horner. Well, technically Oquendo replaced relief pitcher Ken Dayley, but that was just part of a double switch. No one would ever think to have Oquendo pitch, right? Sure position players sometimes pitch in games, but only in garbage time in blowouts, not late in a tie game. It would take some really bizarre circumstances to get Oquendo on the mound. …. Not that I’m foreshadowing anything. …
The game entered extra frames, but neither team could get someone home. In a sign of the year, the umpires called both teams for balks—one on St. Louis’ Todd Worrell in the 11th and another on Atlanta’s Rick Mahler in the 12th. This was the year of the balk—the league wanted a crackdown on that arcane rule. Neither balk led to a run scoring.
As the game churned on, a key question emerged: Who was going to pitch? At a certain point in time, the bullpen runs out of arms. Atlanta, whose starting pitcher left earlier, ran into this problem first. The Braves' solution was to bring in starting pitcher Mahler in the 12th and see how long he could hold up.
St. Louis should’ve had a deeper bullpen because its starter went longer, but the Cardinals had a problem. Whitey Herzog blew through two relievers in the seventh, when Atlanta tied the game. He had a third man last just one inning before pulling him in the double switch that brought Oquendo in the game.
Ace reliever Todd Worrell lasted three full innings, allowing just one hit and a walk, but Herzog pulled him for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 11th. On came veteran Bob Forsch, who could go a long time, but Herzog yanked him for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 14th.
This was the ninth straight game the Cardinals played a game. Just two days earlier, they’d been in a 13-12 contest that used up his bullpen. The day before that the Cardinals played in a 16-inning marathon, with the bullpen throwing 10 innings. His staff was fried. When Herzog pulled Forsch, he had no relievers left to use.
Okay, do the best you can. Herzog called on Randy O'Neal. He’d been the starting pitcher in that 16-inning game on May 11. He threw six innings that day, and couldn’t pitch much here—but he could pitch some, right? Herzog’s basic approach was to try to win the game in each inning. There’s no point worrying about the 17th inning when it’s the 10th—and how often do games go that long anyway?
O’Neal pitched one scoreless inning, and that’s all he could give. Herzog was out of relievers, and he was out of starting pitchers who could fill the gap. Time to get creative.
That’s when he called on Oquendo. No, he wasn’t a pitcher. Yes, he was an infielder. But he had the best stuff of any position player available, so to the mound went Oquendo. Oh-kay then.
Oh, and there was one other odd little wrinkle. Because Herzog had used so many players as pinch-hitters or in double switches or whatever, when Oquendo shifted from first base to the mound, Herzog had no one to put on first. He wasn’t just out of pitchers—he was also out of position players.
Time to stay creative. Herzog moved Duane Walker, who had been playing in left, to first. In left he put Jose DeLeon—a starting pitcher. Yes, that’s right—Herzog put a pitcher in left, and a utility player on the mound.
You see, DeLeon was the starting pitcher the day before. He threw 8.2 innings, and so was far too tired in the arm to take the hill today. So that’s why Oquendo was on the mound instead.
Of Herzog’s remaining starting pitchers, he figured DeLeon would be the best bet in the bat and in the field. Not that Herzog wanted to risk DeLeon doing anything in the field. He kept switching DeLeon with right fielder Tom Brunansky. If a lefty was at the plate, he put Brunansky in right and DeLeon in left. When a righty was up, flip them. By the end of the day, DeLeon’s defensive assignment would read like this: LF-RF-LF-RF-LF-RF-LF-RF-LF-RF-LF-RF.
Oquendo nearly lost the game right away, though. The first batter he faced, Ken Griffey Sr., doubled. After an intentional walk, a single by Ozzie Virgil threatened to end the game. Griffey pushed past third and on to home, but Brunansky threw him out at the plate. Given a new lease on life, Oquendo got the next two batters out to end the inning.
He allowed another single in the 17th, but survived without any real danger. He issued a pair of two-out walks in the 18th, but Ron Gant’s line drive was snared by third baseman Tom Lawless to end the inning.
Meanwhile, Mahler was having a hell of a game for himself. Heading into the 18th, he’d already pitched six innings in relief—and surrendered just two meager singles and a pair of walks, one of them intentional walk.
But in the 18th, St. Louis finally staged a rally against Mahler. First, Brunansky hit an infield single to third, and an error by third baseman Ken Oberkfell let him advance to second. Lawless tried to bunt Brunansky to third, but Mahler fumbled the bunt and everyone was safe on to the second error of the inning. Brunansky was just 90 feet from victory—and there were still no outs. Incredibly, Jose Oquendo was about to post a victory.
However, half the Cardinals players were weak hitting backups, and one was due up right now: catcher Steve Lake. He grounded weakly to third. Oberkfell made sure to check Brunansky and then threw to first for the first out, with Lawless advancing to second.
Next, Atlanta walked Luis Alicea. It’s not listed as an intentional walk, but it’s not a bad time to give out a base on balls, as the run is meaningless and now there is a force at every base.
Up next, Duane Walkermashed a hard hit liner—but a horribly placed one. Shortstop Andres Thomas caught it and before you could say “on to the 19th inning” he threw to third to double off Brunansky, who’d been running on contact. Mahler survived. But how much longer could Oquendo?
Turns out that a fourth inning was too much for St. Louis to ask of its utility man. Though he got two of the first three batters out, he issued two walks and a wild pitch. Up came Griffey, the man who nearly ended the game about an hour earlier. This time he didn’t hit a single, but bopped a double to bring home in both runners.
Mahler had an easy 1-2-3 inning to close it out. It was one of the best relief stints of the era: eight scoreless innings with just three hits and three walks (two intentional) for the win. Atlanta won, 7-5—but St. Louis had put up a brave effort in that game from a quarter century ago.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that occurred X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since the Cubs trade Derrek Lee to the Braves.
2,000 days since the Angels sign free agent center fielder Torii Hunter.
3,000 days since Kerry Konrad, who won a contest to name Boston’s Fleet Center Arena whatever he wants it to be for a day, says he wants to call it the Derek Jeter Center. Eventually he’ll be talked into a compromise: the Jimmy Fund Center.
4,000 days since Bobby Abreu belts his 100th home run.
6,000 days since the Red Sox sign free agent pitcher Bret Saberhagen, whose career is nearly over.
6,000 days since the Marlins sign free agent pitcher Alex Fernandez.
8,000 days since the Giants release pitcher Rick Reuschel.
8,000 days since Tom Glavine sets a personal best by fanning 12 in one outing.
15,000 days since the A’s sign what’s left of veteran pitcher Joe Horlen.
30,000 days since the Reds select Edd Roush off of waivers from the Giants. He’ll return to the team where he became a star.
Anniversaries
1878 James L. Wilkinson, Hall of Fame owner of Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs, is born.
1881 Ed Walsh, Hall of Fame iron man White Sox pitcher, is born.
1886 Savvy St. Louis first baseman Charlie Comiskey breaks up a double play by running full tilt into Cincinnati second baseman Bid McPhee. The Reds are furious, but the play stands.
1890 Hall of Fame Negro League scout Alex Pompez is born.
1896 Jake Stenzel becomes first Pirate ever to tally six hits in one game.
1896 Dave Foutz appears in his last game. He was a pitcher who was good enough at hitting to double as a position player.
1899 Earle Combs, Hall of Famer who played center field for the 1927 Murders Row Yankees, is born.
1911 The Cleveland Indians play their first0-ever Sunday home game.
1912 Major league debut: Herb Pennock, arguably the least-deserving Hall of Famer ever voted in by the BBWAA.
1913 Walter Johnson runs his scoreless-inning streak to a then-record 56 innings before a run in the fourth inning ends it.
1914 White Sox hurler Jim Scott throws a no-hitter through nine innings but allows two hits and a run in the 10th, losing the game 1-0 to Washington.
1916 Rogers Hornsby hits his first home run, an inside-the-park shot.
1918 Sunday baseball is legalized in Washington, D.C.
1920 Walter Johnson wins his 300th game. He’s the 10th member of the club, with a record of 300-194.
1920 Hall of Fame spitballer Burleigh Grimes has probably the best game of his career, setting personal bests in Game Score (102) and innings pitched. His line: 14 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K in a complete-game victory as Dodgers beat Cardinals, 5-1 (14). Opposing pitcher Marv Goodwin also goes the distance, though his line isn’t as good (though three of the runs allowed are unearned).
1922 The Phillies win, giving them an all-time cumulative franchise record of 2,827-2,827. It's the last time it's ever been at .500. They're now around 1,000 games under .500.
1924 It’s Babe Ruth day at Yankee Stadium. He gets the AL MVP Award, and the team’s first World Championship banner is unfurled. But the Browns win the game.
1927 It’s an all-time great pitchers’ duel as Cubs hurler Guy Bush and the Braves’ Charlie Robertson both go the distance in an 18-inning, 7-2 Cubs victory.
1927 An entire section of the Baker Bowl’s right field stands in Philadelphia collapses. Thankfully, only one person dies, but scores are injured. It could’ve been much worse, but it is still horrific.
1928 Jimmie Foxx hits the first of his 12 career walk-off home runs. It’s also his only pinch-hit walk-off home run. To this day, no one’s had 13 walk-offs in the regular season.
1928 John McGraw is hit by a car outside Wrigley Field while trying to hail a cab. He takes responsibility for it and doesn’t try to get the driver’s name.
1932 Earle Combs gives himself a nice birthday present. He celebrates his 33rd birthday by belting a lead off homer off veteran pitcher Sad Sam Jones. It’s the only leadoff homer Jones ever surrenders in 487 career starts.
1933 Al Simmons bangs out his 100th career triple.
1933 Hack Wilson lashes a walk-off grand slam, a pinch-hit one, too. Dodgers 8, Phillies 6.
1934 Lou Criger dies at age 62. He served as a big league catcher for 16 seasons.
1936 Dick Howser, the late Royals world champion manager, is born.
1936 Hall of Fame catcher Bill Dickey gets his 1,000th career hit.
1938 Enos Slaughter’s career is off to a nice start. Today he hits his second career home run, and it’s a walk-off homer.
1939 Charlie Gehringer hits his 500th double. He’s the 14th member of the club.
1939 On Mother’s Day, Mother and Father Feller come watch their son Bob pitch. They get more than they bargained for when a foul ball off the bat of Marv Owen catches Mother Feller flush in the face. She needs six stitches over her right eye.
1939 The Giants sign longtime Yankees star second baseman Tony Lazzeri.
1940 Jimmie Foxx hits arguably the longest home run in the history of Comiskey Park. It clears the left field roof.
1940 Brooklyn releases former star AL pitcher Wes Ferrell.
1941 Dizzy Dean retires. Technically, he pitches once more in 1947, but that’s just a gimmick. (As a broadcaster, he criticized the Browns, saying he could do better, so the team gave him a chance to prove it.)
1942 Cooperstown-bound first baseman Tony Perez is born.
1944 A Connie Ryan single ruins what was otherwise a perfect game for Bucky Walters in Cincinnati victory over the Braves.
1944 Stan Musial loses the ball in the sun, and it conks him on the head. Pepper Martin runs over to ask him if he’s okay and then asks if it’s okay that he laughs at Musial. Then he bursts out laughing. Can’t blame the guy, really.
1948 Dave LaRoche, a two-time All-Star reliever, is born.
1950 The Yankees farm out Billy Martin to the minors, but not before he argues with team boss George Weiss about it.
1950 Johnny Hopp gets six hits for the Pirates in one game, including two homers, as they top the Cubs, 16-9.
1952 Red Dooin dies at age 72. He served the Phillies first as catcher and then as manager.
1952 Bert Cunningham, 19th century pitcher, dies at age 86. He posted a pair of 20-win seasons, most notably a 28-15 mark with the 70-81 1898 Louisville Colonels.
1955 Long-lasting starting pitcher Dennis Martinez is born. He has a great nickname: El Presidente.
1958 The Kansas City A’s purchase Whitey Herzog from the Senators.
1959 Today is the worst known WPA game for Stan Musial: 0-for-3 with an RBI, two walks, a strikeout, a sacrifice hit, and a GIDP. WPA: -0.578 as Braves beat Cardinals, 8-7.
1961 The Indians win a great pitchers duel over the Orioles, 1-0 in 15 innings. The only run scores on a throwing error by Baltimore shortstop Jerry Adair. Ouch.
1963 Pat Borders, the eternal backup catcher, is born. He’ll play in a touch over 1,000 games in 17 seasons.
1964 Former batting champion Pete Runnels appears in his final game.
1965 Carl Yastrzemski hits for the cycle, going 5-for-5 with two home runs. He sets personal bests for total bases (14) and extra base hits (four). He also gets five RBIs.
1965 Joey Cora, infielder, is born.
1967 Mickey Mantle becomes only the sixth member of the 500-home run club. Two months later, Eddie Mathews joins him.
1967 Vic Saier dies at age 76. He replaced Frank Chance at first base for the Cubs and led the NL in triples in 1913.
1968 Don Drysdale begins his scoreless inning streak with the first of six consecutive complete-game shutouts.
1968 A young Nolan Ryan shows glimpses of his future as he fans 14 batters in a game, leading the Mets to a 3-2 win over the Reds.
1968 Veteran skipper Bill Rigney manages his 2,000th game. He’s 960-1,039 so far.
1972 Willie Mays first plays with the Mets.
1973 According to WPA, the best game for any player for the WAS/TEX franchise comes today when Toby Harrah goes 2-for-4 with two runs, a homer, three RBIs, and a walk for a 1.011 WPA. Texas 7, Twins 6.
1973 Yaz gets his first sacrifice hit in over six years and won’t have another for more than three seasons.
1975 Mets honcho M. Donald Grant fines player Cleon Jones $2,000 for “betraying the image of the club.” Jones had recently been arrested on an indecent exposure charge in Florida. (The charge was later dropped).
1977 Jim Colborn of the Royals throws a no-hitter versus the Rangers. He fans six and walks only one.
1977 Roy Halladay is born.
1978 Dave Kingman of the Cubs hits three home runs in one game and gets eight RBIs on the day. According to WPA, it’s the second greatest performance by anyone with three homers in a game. A three-run blast in the 15th is the highlight. Or rather, it’s the highlight of the game. After the game, the real highlight takes place when a reporter asks Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda what he thought of Kingman’s performance on the day. His response:
What's my opinion of Kingman's performance!? What the BLEEP do you think is my opinion of it? I think it was BLEEPING BLEEP. Put that in, I don't BLEEP. Opinion of his performance!!? BLEEP, he beat us with three BLEEPING home runs! What the BLEEP do you mean, "What is my opinion of his performance?" How could you ask me a question like that, "What is my opinion of his performance?" BLEEP, he hit three home runs! BLEEP. I'm BLEEPING pissed off to lose that BLEEPING game. And you ask me my opinion of his performance! BLEEP. That's a tough question to ask me, isn't it? "What is my opinion of his performance?
1980 It’s the best WPA game Alan Trammell ever had: 0.924 WPA. 4-for-5, one double, three runs, and two RBI. Tigers 6, A’s 5.
1980 Steve Carlton has his 10th consecutive Quality Start, his longest such streak ever. His line in that time: 8-2 W-L record, 78 IP, 46 H, 16 R, 15 ER, 26 BB, 68 K and a 1.73 ERA.
1981 George Brett injures his ankle in a game and whaps reporter on the head with a crutch afterwards. (He apologies the next day).
1983 Ben Oglivie hits three home runs in one game for the third time in his career as Brewers beat Red Sox 8-7 in 10 innings. His third homer tied it, 6-6, in the bottom of the ninth.
1983 The longest hitting streak of Darrell Evans' career peaks at 13 games. He’s 26-for-52 with six doubles, a triple, and seven homers in that span.
1984 Elmer Riddle, 1940s pitcher, dies at age 69. In 1941 he led the NL with a 2.24 ERA while posting a 19-4 record with the Reds. Two years later he led the NL in wins, with 21. Five years later he was an All-Star for the Pirates. Then he blew his arm out.
1986 Frank O’Rourke dies at age 92. The infielder hit .122 in over 60 games as an 18-year-old rookie, but managed to stay in the game until he was 37 years old.
1987 Former catcher Luke Sewell dies at age 86. He caught for the Indians and other AL teams for 20 seasons.
1988 Don Sutton records his 324th and final career win.
1989 Benny Distefano joins the exclusive club of left-handed catchers when he works the backstop for one inning. The last southpaw catcher was Mike Squires, nine years before.
1993 Wally Backman, second baseman, plays in his last game
1993 Woody Williams, one of the few pitchers to beat all 30 franchises, makes his big league debut.
1993 Jay Gainer of the Reds hits a homer run in his first at-bat—on his very first pitch.
1994 It’s the 30th/final multi-homer performance for Dave Winfield.
1994 In only his second major league appearance, relief pitcher Paul Shuey fans four in the ninth inning.
1994 The Royals retire No. 5 for George Brett.
1995 Sammy Sosa belts his 100th career home run.
1996 Dwight Gooden pitches a no-hitter: NYY 2, SEA 0. I looked it up once and figured it was against the fourth-best lineup ever no-hit.
1997 Jim Thome laces his 100th home run.
1998 Florida Marlins owner Wayne Huzienga has a hissy fit. The Marlins trade Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla, Charles Johnson, Jim Eisenreich, and another guy to the Dodgers for Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile. Huzienga is upset the city won’t finance a new stadium for him and is doing this in response.
1999 Starting pitcher Ted Lilly makes his big league debut.
2000 It’s one of the wildest games of the 2000s: Expos 16, Cubs 15. The Cubs lead 6-2 early but blow it. They rally to lead 11-9 in the middle of the eighth, but that’s when things get really ridiculous. First, Montreal scores four in the bottom of the eighth for a 13-11 lead. Then the Cubs came back for four immediately after for a 15-13 lead, but Montreal scores thrice more in the bottom of the ninth. It’s not too often you see 11 runs scored in the last inning and a half and neither team’s lead is ever more than two runs.
Sammy Sosa gets five hits, Eric Young steals five bases, and Henry Rodriguez tallies seven RBI, all for the Cubs—and the team still loses.
2000 Jim Fregosi manages his 2,000th game. He is 966-1,034 in his career.
2002 Jimmy Carter throws out the first pitch in a Cuban League All-Stars game. Fidel Castro coaches him as he warms up.
2006 A month after reaching .500 for the first time in 44 years, the Astros franchise record falls back to .500 (3,519-3,519) and it’s never been that high ever since.
2006 Jim Lemon dies at age 78. He led the AL in strikeouts three straight seasons and later managed Washington for one year, 1968.
2006 Andy Pettitte ties his personal-high Game Score: 87. His line: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K.
2008 The Cubs sign center fielder Jim Edmonds.
2010 Ron Gardenhire orders his team to issue an intentional walk to Mark Teixeira in order to face Alex Rodriquez with the bases loaded. This highly questionable strategy immediately backfires, as A-Rod launches his 19th career grand slam.
2012 Major League Baseball fires Shayn Das, the arbitrator in the Ryan Braun PED case.
2012 St. Louis releases reliever J.C. Romero.
2012 Young Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro messes up an attempted sacrifice bunt. Instead, he grounds into the rare 3-5-4 double play to wipe out both runners on.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Monday, May 13, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraWhite Sox 3, Angels 0: Chris Sale was fantastic. And not just because of that suh-weet 1983 throwback jersey. A perfect game into the seventh and then the hit that inning to Mike Trout was all the Angels could muster.
Indians 4, Tigers 3: Watched this one with the girlfriend's parents. Tigers fans. Let's just say that Jose Valverde will not be getting a Christmas card from them. Her dad called the implosion before it happened. I suppose one can do that when one watches Valverde enough. In other news, lots of praise for Asdrubal Cabrera's fancy footwork on a double play in the bottom of the ninth. And it was. But if Torii Hunter was actually running it out at full speed it wouldn't have been a double play. No word on this from the announcers. Found that odd.
Reds 5, Brewers 1: Nothing so fun in this one as some things I saw in Cincinnati when I went to the game on Saturday. Best thing there: Brewers pitcher struck out a Reds hitter, Jonathan Lucroy fires it off to third base to send it around the horn and Yuniesky Bentancourt ... drops it. Pretty epic. Here Donald Lutz drove in three. God, shut up, Lutz.
Cubs 2, Nationals 1: Storen and Soriano should film a buddy cop movie in which they take over cases from ace detectives and then totally lose the trail of the killer.
Pirates 3, Mets 2: I suppose Matt Harvey isn't going to be near perfect every time. And plays like this and like this don't happen every day either.
Blue Jays 12, Red Sox 4: Two homers for Jose Bautista. Three more from other Blue Jays. Two of three from the Sox. Maybe that's something to grow on.
Rockies 8, Cardinals 2: After being shut down on Friday AND Saturday night, the Rockies return the favor with a gem from Jorge De La Rosa and a three-run homer from Troy Tulowitzki.
Rays 4, Padres 2: The Rays are heating up. They've won five straight. Here a homer from James Loney -- where the hell is his heat coming from? -- and solid bullpen work brought it home.
Giants 5, Braves 1: Highlight of the game was Pablo Sandoval hitting a ball into McCovey Cove and the guy in the kayak totally eating it face first into the water when he tried to get the ball. I may or may not have wished for a great white shark to eat him when it happened, but I may or may not have been aggravated at my team playing like garbage too, so there was an excuse for my hostility.
Yankees 4, Royals 2: Homers from Vernon Wells and Robinson Cano. Umpire Laz Diaz also tried to goad Hiroki Kuroda into a fight, which was simply ridiculous.
Dodgers 5, Marlins 3: Nice bounceback start for Chris Capuano, who had one to forget last Monday against the Diamondbacks. Miami cures a lot of ills.
Orioles 6, Twins 0: Wei-Yin Chen was cruising along for five shutout innings before having to leave with an oblique strain, but the bullpen finished the shutout for him. Baltimore has won six of eight.
Phillies 4, Diamondbacks 2: Brandon McCarthy's best start of the year went for naught when Philly came back late, scoring two off Heath Bell in the ninth and then capped off by a two-run single by Ryan Howard in the 10th. Thank you, by-the-book managing from Kirk Gibson. McCarthy had 87 pitches through eight shutout innings. He has thrown over 100 pitches four times this year. You'd think he'd get a chance to pitch the ninth.
Rangers 12, Astros 7: "[Team] completes sweep of Astros" is Shift + CTRL + A on my machine. What is it on yours?
Mariners 6, Athletics 1: Kendrys Morales hit a three-run homer. Joe Saunders remains unbeatable at home. Jason Bay hit a homer and Jesus Montero had an RBI. No word what the other six or seven DHs they have did.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
30th anniversary: Reggie’s 2,000th K
Posted by Chris JaffeThirty years ago today, a new club began in baseball, the 2,000 strikeout club. Sure, many pitchers had achieved 2,000 Ks, but in 1983—for the first time ever—a batter struck out for the 2,000th time.
It was on May 13, 1983, that Reggie Jackson fanned for the 2,000th time.
Striking out that many times takes some doing. When Jackson began, the game’s all-time strikeout champion was Mickey Mantle, with over 1,500. That was huge back in those days, as only eight men had ever struck out 1,000 times prior to 1967.
But things were changing. No one had struck out 1,000 times until Babe Ruth, and the 1920s and '30s were very low strikeout times in general. World War II also hindered admittance to the club because many of the best players were serving overseas.
Strikeout rates went up in the 1950s and then further in the 1960s. By and large, they’ve been on an upward trend ever since. Thus, while there were only eight men who had fanned 1,000 times by Opening Day, 1967, by the time Jackson had reached that mark in 1975, he was one of 44 members.
And Jackson kept on whiffing. He fanned at least 100 times in 18 of his 21 seasons. The three times he didn’t were his abbreviated 35-game rookie season, the strike-shortened 1981 season, and his last year, when he fanned 97 times in 336 at-bats. Jackson swung for the fences and was willing to take the big miss to get the big blast.
By the late 1970s, Willie Stargell had overthrown Mantle to become the all-time whiff king. During 1982, Jackson passed up Stargell, and has been the strikeout leader ever since. Stargell retired just shy of 2,000 Ks, showing the way for Jackson to set the milestone.
Jackson did it in appropriate fashion, I suppose. May 13, 1983, began with Jackson sitting on 1,997 punchouts. Twins starter Frank Viola fanned him twice to put Jackson on the cusp of history. In the bottom of the 11th, Minnesota reliever Len Whitehouse got the historic strike three for Jackson’s 2,000th strikeout.
In the years since, despite the ever-increasing strikeout rates, Jackson remains No. 1 in batter strikeouts, and there are just five others over 2,000. Andres Galarraga was one of the first men to join Jackson over 2,000 Ks, but barely as Galarraga retired with 2,003 strikeouts.
For a while it looked like Sammy Sosa might pass him up, but Sosa aged poorly in the early 21st century, and he never got to Jackson’s 2,597 punchout total. Jim Thome likely would’ve passed Jackson up this year had any team signed him, since he’s just 49 back: 2,548 Ks to Jackson’s 2,597. But Thome went unsigned, preserving Jackson’s record.
Two active players are the others over 2,000. For a long time it looked like Adam Dunn might break the record, as he is the all-time king of the three true outcomes: home run, walk, or strikeout. But he’s having a horrible 2013, after a rotten second half in 2012, which came after a historically futile 2011. He still needs 500 more Ks and isn’t likely to get there.
That just leaves Alex Rodriguez. He is 37 years old and 564 whiffs behind Reggie. If A-Rod can recover from his hip injury and be productive enough at the plate to last several more years, he has a chance. That said, it’s not necessarily a good chance. Over his last five seasons, he fanned fewer than 564 times. He’s likely to play less as he gets older, and so he’d need to last until he’s 43 or older. That’s tough to do.
There’s no one else on the horizon that looks likely to catch Jackson. Miguel Cabrera would be the next person with any sort of shot, but he just completed his third straight year with under 100 punchouts.
Reggie Jackson is still the strikeout king, and he looks to remain so for quite some time. And the strikeout king fanned for the 2,000th time, 30 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happens X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since the mother of Sadaruh Oh dies at age 108. Normally I wouldn’t include a player’s mother’s death, but … 108 years old!
1,000 days since the Mets put closer Francisco Rodriguez on the disqualified list. He is facing criminal charges for punching his father-in-law, and he injured his thumb in the process, too.
1,000 days since Jim Thome ties a record with his 12th career walk-off home run. He’s since broken the record.
2,000 days since the Brewers sign intense veteran catcher Jason Kendall.
4,000 days since the Royals hit three straight home runs in the 11th inning.
4,000 days since the Phillies all-time record bottoms out 1,243 games under .500 (8,360-9,603). They’ll tie it five days later but never go lower.
4,000 days since Carlos Beltran has his greatest game according to WPA. He’s 3-for-5 with a pair of homers and a walk in a 10-7 Royals win over Texas for a 0.916 WPA.
5,000 days since Pedro Martinez fans 15 Seattle Mariners in eight scoreless innings.
8,000 days since former pitcher Dave Dravecky has his arm amputated.
8,000 days since Robin Ventura connects for the first of 18 career grand slams.
15,00 days since Dick Tidrow makes his big league debut.
20,000 days since Eddie Mathews gets his 1,000th hit.
20,000 days since Pirates center fielder Bill Virdon has two assists in the seventh inning of a game against the Reds.
60,000 days since the Knickerbockers become the first team to wear uniforms for a game: straw hats, white shirts, and blue trousers.
Anniversaries
1886 Larry Gardner is born. He’ll be a star infielder for the Red Sox and arguably the best third baseman of his day.
1896 Elton "Ice Box" Chamberlain pitches in his last game. Aside from having a memorable nickname, he won 157 games, including a 32-win season.
1899 Hall of Famer Ed Delahanty connects for four doubles in one game.
1901 300-game winner Gettysburg Eddie Plank makes his big league debut.
1902 Outfielder Davy Jones jumps from the Browns to the Cubs. He’ll later switch to the Tigers, where he’ll play for many years.
1911 Pete Alexander pitches eight inning of hitless relief in a 16-inning, 5-4 Phillies win over the Reds. It’s the longest game of the 1911 NL: three hours and 45 minutes.
1911 Ty Cobb belts his first grand slam. It gives Detroit a 10-1 lead, but they blow it, losing 13-11 to Boston.
1912 Bob Ewing pitches in his last game. Though he didn’t make it to the majors until he was nearly 30, he won 124 games, mostly with the Reds, including a 20-11 season for them in 1905.
1912 It’s a prank with a big future ahead of it. Western Union operator Lou Proctor jokingly inserts his own name in the box score of a Red Sox-Browns game, and that will allow him to make the original MacMillan Encyclopedia.
1915 Scott Perry makes his major league pitching debut. He’ll have some very nice seasons for Connie Mack during the A’s down years but blow his arm out.
1918 Connie Mack manages his 3,000th game. His record: 1,566-1,384.
1919 Charlie Robertson makes his big league debut. He’ll throw a perfect game in his short career.
1921 The Cardinals lose, dropping their all-time franchise record to its lowest point, 458 games under .500 (2,493-2,951).
1921 A jury acquits Bernie Kauff, who was accused of throwing games. He’ll be banned for life anyway.
1923 Joe Sewell, the hardest player to strike out in history, strikes out twice in a game. It’s the first of two times he does that.
1929 It’s the first time ever that both teams have all their players with uniform numbers on their backs. The Indians top the Yankees, 4-3.
1929 Bill Doak, veteran spitballer, appears in his last game.
1933 Johnny Roseboro, Dodgers catcher, is born.
1934 Lou Gehrig hits the 15th of his record 23 career grand slams. It’s just three days since No. 14.
1934 Chuck Klein belts his 200th home run. It’s just three years and two days since No. 100. He’s the eighth person ever to reach 200 homers.
1934 Hank Greenberg records two sacrifice hits in one game for the only time in his career.
1934 Leon Wagner, Daddy Wags, is born.
1937 Angry at a balk call, Dizzy Dean leaves the mound, only to return when the crowd chants his name. He isn’t cooled down when he comes back, though; he throws at the next batter.
1937 Carl Hubbell ties Rube Marquard’s record with his 21st straight win. He’ll get to 24 before losing, and that’s still the all-time record.
1939 The St. Louis Browns trade the well-traveled Bobo Newsom and three others to the Tigers for a half-dozen players.
1940 The Indians release veteran pitcher Willis Hudlin.
1940 Johnny Mize hits three home runs in a game. It’s the third time he’s done that.
1942 Joe DiMaggio gets his 1,000th hit.
1942 Braves pitcher Jim Tobin has a historical day, becoming the only pitcher to smack three home runs in one game. He needs them, as it gives him a 6-5 win over the Cubs.
1943 Cubs pitcher Pat Malone dies at the stunningly young age of 40.
1944 Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish, pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1946 The Yankees become the first team to start flying to their games on a regular basis. Some of the team, including veteran pitcher Red Ruffing, opt to take the train instead.
1947 For the second time in his career, Bobby Doerr hits for the cycle.
1949 Age be damned, 42 year old Luke Appling hits an inside-the-park home run. Hall of Famer Early Wynn surrenders it.
1950 Bobby Valentine is born.
1950 The Red Sox release Piper Davis, their first black minor leaguer. He was leading his Class A team in hitting at the time of his release.
1950 Longtime batter Juan Beniquez is born. He’ll play 17 years in the major leagues.
1952 Ron Necciai of the Briston Twins in the Appalachian League fans 27 batters in a 7-0, no-hit win. He hits one, walks one, and one batter reaches on error. Another hitter reaches on a passed ball on a swinging strike three, so one person was able to ground out.
1952 For the only time in his career, Mickey Mantle plays third base. He fields four balls and makes two errors.
1954 Robin Roberts surrenders a leadoff home run to Bobby Adams—and then retires the next 27 batters.
1955 For the first (but not last) time, Mickey Mantle homers from both sides of the plate in one game. He gets three homers in the day in all, the only time he ever does that. He’s 4-for-4 with a single.
1956 Duke Snider hits his fifth and final grand slam. He has about 170 or so homers left, but no other slams.
1956 Eddie Mathews plays both ends of a doubleheader despite having glass shards deeply lodged in his face. A woman threw something at him the night before while partying. Somehow, he goes 4-for-8 in a doubleheader.
1956 For the third time in his career, Warren Spahn belts a home run while throwing a complete-game shutout. The Braves destroy the Reds, 15-0.
1958 Stan Musial gets his 3,000th career. It takes him just 2,301 games.
1958 Willie Mays has a great day, going 5-for-5 with a pair of homers and a pair of triples. It’s also the second straight day he has two homers in a game.
1959 Warren Spahn wins his 250th game.
1959 The White Sox purchase veteran outfielder Larry Doby from the Tigers for $30,000.
1960 The Tigers top the A’s, 4-3, on a 14th-inning walk-off error.
1960 Dick Groat of the Pirates becomes the first NL player in seven years to get six hits in one game.
1962 Carl Yastrzemski legs out the first of his three career inside-the-park home runs.
1964 The Reds purchase hard-throwing Ryne Duren from the Phillies.
1965 Milt Pappas picks up his 100th win, for a 100-65 career record.
1965 25-year-old Angels reliever Dick Wantz dies following surgery from brain cancer.
1965 Hard-throwing pitcher Jose Rijo is born.
1965 Catfish Hunter makes his big league debut.
1965 Yankee infielder Horace Clarke plays in his first major league game.
1969 Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, drives in his 1,500 run during a 19-0 whumping of the Pirates.
1969 Rod Carew circles the bases for his sole career inside-the-park home run.
1970 After more than a decade in the big leagues, Bob Gibson gives up his first grand slam. Al Oliver does it, after Gibson had thrown 2,569.2 innings.
1972 The Brewers and Twins complete yesterday’s curfew-limited 22-inning game (21 innings played yesterday, one today), and then begin today’s regularly scheduled game, which goes 15 innings. The Twins win it, 5-4.
1972 Mets pitcher Buzz Capra throws a shutout and drives in the only run in a 1-0 victory.
1973 Willie Mays, in his final season, goes on the DL with a sore shoulder.
1973 Jerry Reuss has the best start of his career: a three-hit, complete-game shutout with a dozen whiffs. His Game Score is 91, his all-time best.
1976 An Indians ball girl named Debbie Brandt dresses in white to be a fairy godmother. She’s there to counteract the Red Sox using a witch to put a curse on Cleveland just prior to a Boston triumph over the Indians. Fairy godmother Brandt sprinkles fairy dust on the glove of Rick Manning, but it doesn’t work, as he makes two bad misplays in the field.
1976 For the sixth straight game, George Brett gets at least three hits.
1978 Giants pitcher Barry Zito is born.
1979 Mike Schmidt cranks out his 200th career home run.
1980 Boston star Fred Lynn hits for the cycle.
1980 Ray Knight smacks two home run in the fifth inning for the Reds.
1982 The Cubs record their 8,000th franchise win, a 5-0 shutout over Houston.
1985 Tony Perez’s eighth and final pinch-hit home run is his sole pinch-hit grand slam.
1986 The Phillies release reliever Larry Anderson, allowing Houston to pick him up three days later. They’ll later trade Anderson to the Red Sox for Jeff Bagwell. Nicely done, Houston, nicely done.
1986 Tim Raines' longest hitting streak maxes out at 17 games. He’s 29-for-70 during the run.
1988 The Royals sign free agent first baseman Bill Buckner.
1989 Kirby Puckett clubs four doubles in one game.
1990 The Dodgers trade aging second baseman Willie Randolph to the A’s for Stan Javier.
1990 Former All-Star catcher Jody Davis appears in his last game.
1991 For the only time in his career, Tom Glavine steals a base. Rather remarkably, it’s a steal of third. It comes right after he doubles off Shawn Boskie of the Cubs.
1993 George Brett hits his 300th home run in a Royals-Indians game marred by a bench-clearing brawl that began when Albert Belle charged the mound. Belle will be suspended for three games.
1993 Paul Molitor enjoys his best game according to WPA. He’s 2-for-5 with a double, homer and four RBIs in Toronto’s 6-5 win over Detroit. Molitor’s WPA is 1.000 even.
1994 Tim Salmon gets his 13th consecutive hit. Not bad.
1998 The Braves ties a record by getting a home run in their 25th consecutive game.
1999 The Mexico City Tigers crack three grand slams in a 16-5 win. Julio Franco has one of the slams.
2000 Mike Trombley surrenders three homers without recording a single out. It’s just the fourth time any hurler has done that.
2000 Todd Stottlemyre wins his 136th game, which gives him and father Mel Stottlemyre a combined 300 victories.
2000 The Mets release the aging Ricky Henderson.
2000 Ken Griffey Jr. has his best game ever according to WPA: 1.011 WPA. He’s 3-for-4 with a double, hit-by-pitch, stolen base, and two homers in the Reds' 8-7 win over Houston.
2001 Jeff Kent hits his 200th career home run.
2002 Jeff Kent draws a walk-off walk.
2007 Fred Lewis hits for the cycle.
2009 For the first time ever, a reviewed home run call is reversed. It’s an Adam LaRoche shot for the Pirates against St. Louis. It’s just the 14th reviewed call overall.
2009 Alfonso Soriano hits his 53rd leadoff homer, passing up Craig Biggio for second-most ever, still well behind Rickey Henderson’s 81 leadoff home runs.
2009 Nice start! Arizona’s Gerardo Parra becomes the 100th player to homer in his first plate appearance.
2009 Ken Griffey Jr. celebrates the ninth anniversary of his best WPA game with his worst WPA game. In a 6-5 Seattle loss to Texas, he’s 0-for-5 with a pair of strikeouts and a GIDP for a –0.460 WPA.
2009 Ryan Zimmerman’s 30-game hitting streak comes to an end.
2010 Mat Latos not only nearly throws a no-hitter but also drives in the only run in a 1-0 victory. In the sixth inning, he allows the only hit of the game, an infield single to third, where the batter was just ever so slightly ahead of the throw to first.
2010 The Royals hire manager Ned Yost.
2011 Harmon Killebrew issues a statement that he’s entering hospice care for his final days.
2012 There are only three walk-off grand slams in all of 2012, but two of them come on this day. Joey Votto hits one for a 9-6 Reds win over the Nationals, and Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton hits the other in an 8-4 victory over the Mets. The Marlins score six times in the bottom of the ninth in a stunning comeback.
2012 Long-lasting pitcher Jeff Suppan gives up a leadoff homer to Jimmy Rollins. It’s the 19th leadoff homer off Suppan, which ties Pedro Martinez for the most ever against one pitcher.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
60th anniversary: Whitey Ford’s near no-hitter
Posted by Chris JaffeSixty years ago, one of the most famous and successful pitchers of his generation threw the game of his life. On May 12, 1953, Whitey Ford dang near hurled a no-hitter. He didn’t quite pull it off, falling short the most frustrating way possible. The sole hit tallied against him came from the bat of the opposing pitcher. Oh, and it wasn’t just any hit; it was an infield single.
Sixty years ago, Ford was still a young arm looking to establish himself. He’d broken in with the 1950 Yankees, posting an impressive 9-1 record, but he then lost the next two years. The government called Ford into military service during the Korean War, and Ford didn’t pitch at all in 1951 or '52. Now it was 1953, time for Ford to prove he was more than a flash in the pan.
May 12 would be Ford’s fourth start of the year and so far, so good. He had a record of 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA. But today would be a much bigger test. Facing off against Ford was New York’s top rival, the Cleveland Indians. The Tribe had finished in second place each of the last two years and would do so again this year, coming in as runner-up to the Yankees each time. While the Indians had a notable pitching staff featuring Hall of Famers Bob Lemon, Early Wynn, and Bob Feller, they also had a solid core of hitters.
Only the Yankees would score more runs in the 1953 AL than the Indians. And all of Cleveland’s top bats—Larry Doby, Al Rosen, and Dale Mitchell—were in the lineup that game, so this would be a true challenge for Ford.
Ford started off on the wrong foot with a leadoff walk to Ray Boone, but then Boone was out trying to steal, and Ford retired the next two batters without a problem.
Ford walked Doby in the second frame but then nearly picked him off. But thanks to an error, Doby ended up on second base with one out. However, Ford forced a couple ground outs to strand Doby.
Ford walked another batter in the fourth and still another in the fifth, but since he was only letting one baserunner on an inning, nothing came of it. Meanwhile, the Yankee hitters had given Ford a commanding 5-0 lead. Heading into the sixth, the drama wasn’t if the Indians would come back, but if they would get a hit. They still hadn’t done so as the sixth began.
Leading off the sixth was Wynn, the veteran Indians pitcher. Sure he’d allowed five runs so far, but it was the 1950s. You let pitchers bat late in the game when down 5-0. Besides, he was one of the best-hitting pitchers in baseball. He would hit .275 on the year.
Sure, Wynn was a terrific hitter for a pitcher, but note that qualifier—for a pitcher. Yes, he’d hit. 275 in 91 at-bats in 1953, but that came in between seasons hitting .222 and .183. For his career, Wynn hit .214. That .275 number was a big of a fluke caused by the relatively small number of at-bats.
Regardless, Wynn hit one to the third baseman and managed to churn his 33-year-old legs fast enough to make it to first before the throw. Ford’s no-hitter was no more.
Ford didn’t surrender another hit, though. He retired 12 of the last 13, giving up just another base on balls. Most notably, in the eighth inning Ford faced three different pinch-hitters and fanned all three of them, recording the complete game for a 7-0 win.
But there was no no-hitter. And, though he’d star on the Yankees for another 14 seasons, Ford would never get to the promised land of a no-hitter. He’d throw two more one-hitters, which interestingly enough came in back-to-back starts in 1955, but this was as close as Ford would come to a no-hitter. You’d figure that if all that stood between a man and a no-hitter was preventing the opposing pitcher from getting an infield single, he’d get it 99 times out of 100. Well, this was time No. 100. And it was 60 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Bobby Thomson, hitter of the most famous home run in history, dies at age 86.
2,000 days since the White Sox release Scott Podsednik.
3,000 days since the Rangers signs free agent pitcher Pedro Astacio.
5,000 days since Angels manager Terry Collins resigns.
5,000 days since the federal courts uphold the resignations of 22 umpires in July, 1999.
9,000 days since Darrell Evans hits his 400th career home run.
9,000 days since Wade Boggs becomes the first 20th-century player to get 200 hits in a half-dozen seasons.
15,000 days since the Phillies host the first of three Kiteman promotions. It’s a bike with kites on it, and it crashes into the center field bleachers immediately after taking off the ramp.
Anniversaries
1862 Chicken Wolf, quality hitter for the 1880s Louisville Colonels, is born.
1866 Lave Cross, great-fielding third baseman who played forever, is born.
1890 Back in the day, there are two major league ballparks adjacent to each other in New York. Today, the New York Giants’ Mike Tiernan hit a homer out of the National League park and into the Players League park. Fans in both places cheer the shot.
1894 Nixey Callahan makes his big league debut. At different points in time, he’ll be a starting first baseman and a starting pitcher.
1897 Joe Dugan, starting infielder for the 1927 Yankees, is born.
1910 A’s star pitcher Albert Bender throws a no-hitter. (He's more famous as Chief Bender, but he preferred to be called his given name.) He walks just one in a 4-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
1915 Young White Sox pitcher Red Faber needs just 67 pitches in a complete-game win.
1916 Hank Borowy, pitcher, is born. He’ll be one of the few men to defeat all 16 teams in the pre-expansion era.
1919 For the second straight day, the Yankees and Senators have a marathon game. It ends in a tie, 4-4 after 15 innings.
1923 Babe Ruth hits his 200th home run, something no one else has ever done previously .
1925 Yogi Berra is born.
1926 Walter Johnson picks up a win, giving him a career record of 403-258, which is his most games ever over .500 (145).
1929 Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt endures his 100th loss. His record is 155-100.
1930 The Boston Braves pick up veteran pitcher Tom Zachary off waivers from the Yankees.
1930 Cleveland pitcher Milt Shoffner balks three times in the third inning against the A’s.
1932 Carey Selph of the White Sox fans for the ninth time on the year. There won’t be a No. 10. He’ll play 89 more games without striking out.
1933 The Red Sox pick up George Pipgras from the Yankees for the princely sum of $100,000.
1934 Joe Judge, veteran first baseman, plays in his last game.
1935 Felipe Alou is born.
1940 Gus Suhr, a fine player for the Pirates in the 1930s, plays in his last game.
1941 After five years being called the Bees, the Boston NL team decides to switch back to Braves.
1941 Lefty Grove, in the last year of his career, loses a game at Fenway. This ends his 20-game winning streak in the park.
1944 Hall of Fame second baseman Bobby Doerr connects for his 1,000th hit.
1948 Doc Cramer, outfielder, plays in his last game.
1951 Scratched from the lineup due to a bout of the flu, Stan Musial comes up as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning and promptly belts a three-run homer for an 8-6 Cardinals win.
1953 Ed Summers, Tigers pitcher, dies at age 68. As a rookie in 1908, he went 24-12 and a 1.64 ERA.
1955 It’s one of the most memorable ninth innings of any no-hitter. Toothpick Sam Jones of the Cubs hasn’t allowed a single hit through eight innings against the Pirates, but he then walks the bases loaded to begin the ninth. However, he immediately recovers by striking out Dick Groat, Roberto Clemente, and Frank Thomas to stop the rally and finish off the no-hitter. It’s the first no-hitter by a black big league pitcher and the first one in Wrigley Field since the 1917 double no-hitter. Only 2,918 are on hand to see it.
1956 Carl Erskine throws his second career no-hitter, walking two and fanning three in a 3-0 Dodgers win over the Giants.
1957 Lou Whitaker, fantastic second baseman, is born.
1958 Who hits the first ever grand slam for the San Francisco Giants? Willie Mays, of course.
1959 Mickey Mantle legs out the third of his four career inside-the-park home runs.
1959 One-time Astros All-Star outfielder Kevin Bass is born.
1959 With two out in the ninth, Earl Averill Jr. smacks a pinch-hit, walk-off grand slam against Lew Burdette for a 7-3 Cubs win over the Braves.
1961 It’s one of the best pitchers' duels of the decade. Boston beats Washington, 2-1, despite getting only two hits. Boston’s Bill Monbouquette gets the win by fanning 17 in a complete-game shutout.
1961 Rocky Colavito sees his dad in an altercation in the stands and jumps in to defend him. He’s ejected but defiant, telling reporters, “What would you do if you saw someone belting your 60-year-old father?” He has a point.
1962 The Mets will win just 40 games this year, but they claim both ends of a doubleheader. Even stranger, pitcher Craig Anderson picks up the win in both games—and never wins another. He’ll end the year with a 2-16 record and his career with a 2-19 mark.
1963 Tigers star Mickey Lolich makes his big league debut.
1964 Juan Marichal posts his 12th consecutive win, his longest ever streak. His line in that time: 14 G, 14 GS, 10 CG, 118 IP, 99 H, 35 R, 25 ER, 21 BB, 97 K, and a 1.91 ERA.
1964 Third baseman Don Hoak plays in his last game.
1964 The Braves release veteran Gus Bell.
1965 Houston signs free agent second baseman Nellie Fox.
1966 It’s a new day in St. Louis, as Busch Stadium debuts. It’s a great game, as they top the Braves, 4-3 in 12 innings. They use the same home plate from old Sportsman’s Park. In the bottom of the 12th, Orlando Cepeda lays down the first sacrifice hit in his career—in career plate apperance No. 4,539. At the time, it’s the record for most plate appearances with just one sacrifice hit.
1967 Jim Palmer throws the first of his five career one-hitters. Horace Clarke gets a seventh-inning single, but otherwise it’s a perfect game for Palmer. And Palmer faces just 27 batters because a double play wipes out Clarke.
1967 When aging Tiger Al Kaline tries to steal second, catcher Bob Tillman throws—but hits relief pitcher John Wyatt in the back of the head.
1968 Luis Tiant throws his fourth consecutive complete-game shutout. He’s allowed just 14 hits and seven walks while fanning 35 in 36 innings.
1969 Leo Durocher manages his 3,000th game. His record is 1,626-1,354.
1969 Bob Gibson strikes out the side on just nine pitches in the seventh inning against the Dodgers.
1969 It’s bullpen wars. The Royals and Orioles bullpens will duel all year long, and today Baltimore pitchers Pete Richert and Eddie Watt throw a firecracker at the KC bullpen.
1969 In today’s Yankee-Pilots game, New York announcers Phil Rizzuto and Jerry Coleman kill time trying to figure out the all-time Yankees team. They agree that Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle both belong in the outfield. For the third slot they disagree. Coleman prefers Maris while Rizzuto goes with Ruth. Yes, initially, they both forgot about Babe Ruth.
1970 Ernie Banks bashes his 500th career home run.
1971 Bert Blyleven throws the first of 15 career 1-0 complete-game shutout wins. That’s the most by any pitcher since Walter Johnson.
1971 Hall of Fame outfielder Heinie Manush dies.
1972 Today’s Twins-Brewers game just won’t end. After 21 innings, it’s all tied up at 3-3 when the contest hits the AL curfew. The Brewers will win in the 22nd inning when the game resumes on May 13. The losing pitcher is Bert Blyleven in one of his few relief appearances. Twins star Rod Carew reaches bases eight times but never scores. He walks three times and hits three singles and a pair of doubles.
1974 It’s one of the ugliest moments of fan misbehavior of the era. Bob Watson crashes into the wall at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati and hits it so hard that his sunglasses shatter and he gets glass in his eye. Staring down on him, Reds fans pour beer and debris on him.
1976 Someone actually thought this was a good idea. The Red Sox hire a witch to cast a spell for them prior to the day’s Indians game. It must be desperation, as Boston has lost 10 straight. Maybe it was a good idea, as Boston wins, 6-4, thanks in part due to some terrible fielding by John Lowenstein.
1976 Cubs pitcher Rick Reuschel enjoys the best Game Score of his career: 91. His line: 10 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, and 6 K, but he gets a no-decision as the Cubs don’t win until the 11th, 1-0 over the Giants.
1978 It’s a rare inside-the-park, walk-off home run hit by Famous Amos Otis off Yankees relief ace Rich Gossage. It’s actually a routine fly ball, but New York outfielders Reggie Jackson and Mickey Rivers collide trying to catch it.
1979 For the only time in his career, Keith Hernandez gets two triples in one game.
1979 Relief pitcher Bill Caudill is born.
1982 The Angels make a bad trade, sending young slugger Tom Brunansky and a second player and $400,000 to the Twins for pitcher Doug Corbett and infielder Rob Wilfong.
1982 The Twins are in a trading mood on May 12, 1982. Aside from the Brunansky trade, they also send catcher Butch Wynegar to the Yankees for Larry Milbourne, two others, and cash.
1982 Paul Molitor has the game of his life, going 4-for-5 with three home runs and four RBIs.
1984 One out from a no-hitter, Reds ace Mario Soto surrenders a game-tying home run to George Hendrick. The Reds win it in the bottom of the ninth, 2-1.
1984 Pirates skipper Chuck Tanner endures his 1,000th managerial defeat. He is 1,077-1,000 in his career so far.
1984 Jim Palmer appears in his final big league contest.
1986 Tony LaRussa manages his 1,000th game. His record is 506-491.
1989 Rick Reuschel wins his 200th game, giving him a record of 200-177.
1990 Davey Johnson manages his 1,000th game. His record is 591-409.
1990 Kirby Puckett hits his 100th career home run.
1993 Dave Winfield plays first base for the first time in 15 years.
1994 Milwaukee loses, leaving Phil Garner with a record of 178-179 for his career. It’ll stay under .500 from here on out.
1994 Former pitcher Si Johnson dies at age 87. He led the league in losses twice and ended his career with a 101-165 record.
1995 Kenny Lofton endures possibly his worst game. He’s 0-for-4 with a whiff and two GIDP. It’s one of just two career two-GIDP games.
1996 Rafael Palmeiro gets his 200th career home run.
1996 Alex Rodriguez enjoys his first career multi-home run game.
1997 The Royals release veteran reliever Mitch Williams.
1997 Chris Carpenter makes his major league debut.
1998 Tony LaRussa wins his 1,500th game. He’s the 15th man to get there.
1998 Jim Thome draws three intentional walks in one game.
1998 Mark McGwire crushes a 527-foot home run, his longest ever—until he hits one even further four days later.
1999 Angels pitcher Chuck Finley fans four Yankees in one inning in a 1-0 win.
1999 Pedro Martinez fans 15 Mariners in one game. It’s his second straight 15-K game.
2000 For the second year in a row, Pedro Martinez fans 15 on May 12. It’s a complete-game two-hitter against Baltimore for a Game Score of 98, which ties his high.
2000 Curt Schilling uncorks three wild pitches in one game, his worst showing.
2000 It’s one of the most famous home runs in Wrigley Field history. Glenallen Hill hits a ball onto the rooftop across Waveland Avenue in left. It’s estimated to travel around 500 feet.
2000 Star catcher Ivan Rodriguez legs out two triples in one game. It’s his only time doing that.
2001 Alex Rodriguez hits his 200th home run.
2001 A.J. Burnett throws a no-hitter, walking nine in a 3-0 Marlins win over the Padres.
2001 An arbitrator orders major league baseball to reinstate nine of the 22 umpires who resigned two years earlier. Also, baseball has to give them back pay.
2001 Carlos Delgado belts his 204th home run with Toronto, passing up Joe Carter as the all-time franchise leader in longballs.
2002 Joe Torre becomes the 17th manager in history with 1,500 wins.
2004 Edgar Martinez bashes his 300th home run.
2004 Alex Cora fouls off an incredible 14 consecutive pitches and then homers off Matt Clement to end an 18-pitch battle.
2005 For the fifth straight game, Bobby Abreu homers.
2006 Cole Hamels makes his big league debut.
2008 Asdrubal Cabrera pulls off the game’s rarest play: an unassisted triple play. At the game is Phillies scout Ron Hansen, who himself pulled off an unassisted triple play back in 1968.
2009 Carlos Beltran gets a walk-off walk from Jeff Bennett of the Braves for a 4-3 Mets win in 10 frames.
2011 Carlos Beltran belts three home runs in one game.
2012 Boston purchases what’s left of Scott Podsednik from the Phillies.
2012 Arizona has a new type of promotion: tattoo arms. They give slip-on sleeves to fans that will make their arms look like those of Diamondbacks third baseman Ryan Roberts.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Friday, May 10, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraRays 5, Blue Jays 4: A battle of reigning Cy Young winners decided by a bases loaded walk to an Obama birther. Good times. I watched most of this one. Price and Dickey were OK, but not great. It was, like, the third straight home Rays game I've watched where Dick Vitale was noted in the crowd and discussed by the announcers. Does that happen every time, Rays fans?
Indians 9, Athletics 2: Welcome back Scott Kazmir. This wasn't his first outing, but he certainly announced his return with authority against Oakland, striking out out 10 batters in six innings and showing a velocity we haven't seen in years.
Yankees 3, Rockies 1: Over two hours worth of rain delays meant that CC Sabathia couldn't get the win, but he was certainly pitching well enough for it when the game got delayed. Five relievers shut out the Rockies for the remaining five innings.
Nationals 5, Tigers 4: The Nats have won four in a row. Dan Haren dodged a lot of bullets with the Tigers hitting the ball hard early, but they just hit 'em at people. At least until Matt Tuiasosopo hit a pinch-hit three-run homer. After that the bullpen locked it down. Detroit swept Atlanta two weeks ago and now gets beat in both games of a two-game series to Washington. I'm going to assume this means the Tigers have money on the Nats to win the N.L. East.
Royals 6, Orioles 2: The Royals avoid the sweep behind Jeremy Guthrie. He's 5-0 with a 2.28 ERA. The Orioles probably wondered if this was the same Guthrie they traded away before last season.
Mets 3, Pirates 2: All Mike Baxter does is win games with late pinch hits. Well, he probably does other stuff, but he's won games with late pinch hits twice this week. On Tuesday in the 10th inning against the White Sox and again here with a walkoff RBI single. And check out this home run-robbing, or at the very least double-robbing, catch from Juan Lagares in the ninth.
Twins 5, Red Sox 3: Minnesota takes three of four from the team that had the majors' best record when the series began. John Lackey's throwing error on what should have been an inning-ending double play led to four unearned runs by the Twins in the sixth. If I was Lackey, after the game I would have said something like "well, my defense really let me down today. Those were unearned runs, man. Not MY fault." Then sat back in my locker and waited for questions, arms-crossed.
Diamondbacks 2, Phillies 1: Patrick Corbin, best starter most people haven't heard of yet. He's 5-0 with a 1.75 ERA and outdueled Cole Hamels here. Four straight wins for Arizona.
Braves 6, Giants 3: A homer and two other hits and three driven in for Brian McCann. Craig Kimbrel with his 100th career save. He's the second youngest to reach 100. K-Rod was the youngest. Here's hoping that's not some sort of omen for Kimbrel.
Angels 6, Astros 5: When a late game of lefty/righty matchups ensured, Bo Porter pulled one reliever for another without the first one ever facing a batter. Which is totally against the rules. Except the umpires didn't realize it. Mike Scioscia tried his best to inform them of their and Porter's error, but to no avail. He protested the game but the Angels won anyway. I sorta feel like the Astros should be allowed to do this given all the other problems they have but I suppose rules are rules.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
15,000 days since facial hair returns to baseball
Posted by Chris Jaffe15,000 days ago, a brand new era of personal style began in baseball. And it was star slugger Reggie Jackson who began it.
It was Opening Day, April 15, 1972. Normally Opening Day would’ve come a little earlier, but there had been the first players’ strike that year, delaying things by a little bit.
Reggie Jackson took his position in right field for the A’s sporting a new look, the likes of which baseball hadn’t seen in decades. Jackson had a mustache. Facial hair in baseball mirrored national trends. In the late 19th century, many had it—both in the game and in mainstream America.
Mustaches quickly fell out of favor in the early 20th century, and they disappeared in baseball. Catcher Wally Schang had one in 1914, but after that, no player was known to have one. In 1936, Brooklyn Dodger player French Bordagaray entered spring training with a mustache, but manager Casey Stengel forced him to shave it.
The game remained purely clean-shaven for another 35 years. Then came Reggie Jackson.
By the early 1970s, mustaches and beards were making a comeback, especially among the youth. That made facial hair controversial, as it was associated with the nation’s counter-culture. Thus facial hair was back, but not fully respected—it was associated with protest.
Maybe that was one reason why Reggie Jackson went without shaving. Under A’s owner Charles O. Finley, Jackson was in a constant state of discontent. Well, discontent was a natural part of Jackson’s makeup anyway. And Finley had the knack for annoying pretty much all of his employees. So Jackson entered the delayed spring training with a mustache.
Finley ordered Jackson to shave it off, but Jackson refused. And he was no Frenchy Bordagaray. Jackson was too important to a team with championship hopes to bench over something as ephemeral as this. So he became the first player in nearly 60 years to play with a mustache.
Finley decided to make it work for him. Okay so a player was going to have a mustache. Then he’d rally around it. Deciding to tap into the rise of the mustache, Finley had a Mustache Night in Oakland. He offered to pay all his players a bonus if they wore a mustache for the game—and then had the team photo taken that day to cement the A's reputation as “The Mustache Gang.”
Virtually the entire team grew a ‘stache for the bonus. Many shaved it right off after the game, but some of the biggest stars kept it. Catfish Hunter kept a mustache the rest of his days. So did manager Dick Williams. Rollie Fingers’ distinctive handlebar mustache became a key part of his image. And of course Jackson kept his mustache for many years. And then mustaches spread to other teams.
But the return of facial hair to baseball began with Reggie Jackson 15,000 days ago.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
2,000 days since the Braves sign Tom Glavine – he’ll return to the team he had his glory years with.
4,000 days since the Giants top the Braves 1-0 in 10 innings in one of the best pitching duels of the 21st century. Both Jason Schmidt and Miguel Batista throw nine shutout innings. Batista allows just one hit while Schmidt surrenders three.
4,000 days since former manager Wes Westrum dies.
5,000 days since Robin Ventura blasts his 200th home run.
6,000 days since the Twins sign free agent catcher Terry Steinbach.
8,000 days since Andy Ashby strikes out the side on nine pitches versus the Reds. He’s the first pitcher in Phillies history to do that.
8,000 days since former commissioner Happy Chandler dies.
8,000 days since Mike Remlinger makes his big league debut.
15,000 days since Juan Marichal wins, giving his career record an all-time best 113 games over .500 (222-109).
15,000 days since Buddy Bell and Jorge Orta make their big league debuts. That same day, Bill Virdon manages his first game.
15,000 days since the Cardinals trade Jerry Reuss to Houston for a pair of players.
20,000 days since the Pirates sign amateur free agent Willie Stargell. Good move.
50,000 days since George Hall of the NL’s initial Philadelphia squad becomes the first player to homer twice in once game.
Anniversaries
1868 Hall of Fame executive Ed Barrow is born in Springfield, Ill..
1880 Pud Galvin, the game’s first 300 game winner, wires to the Buffalo Bison that he’ll accept their salary terms, never mind the fact that he’s already under contract to play in the California League. This disregard for his already signed contract helps Galvin get 300 wins and thus his place in the Hall of Fame.
1893 Star outfielder Wee Willie Keeler breaks a bone while sliding. He’ll miss two months.
1894 It’s the first back-to-back-to-back series of home runs in history. Frank Shugart, Doggie Miller, and Heinie Peitz of St. Louis do it in the seventh inning of a game their team loses, 18-9. Frank Shugart ends the day with three home runs.
1897 It’s an odd home run. Baltimore’s Jack Doyle hits one that rolls to the fence, where there is a ladder. (Yes, a ladder. Welcome to 19th century baseball). The ball somehow goes up the ladder and disappears over the fence.
1898 Washington releases catcher Roger Bresnahan. This turns out to be a bad move and Bresnahan is still near the start of his Hall of Fame career.
1904 The St. Louis Cardinals have their way with Christy Mathewson, knocking him out in the first inning. He’ll get his revenge, winning his next 24 decisions against them.
1905 John Lower, hurler for the minor league Waco Tigers, gives up a hit in the first inning, but no more in a game that ends up going 15 frames.
1909 It’s the longest no-hitter in the history of organized ball. In the Blue Grass League, Fred Toney of Winchester throws 17 hitless innings for a 1-0 win at the end. The run scores on a suicide squeeze play at the end. Toney will later have one of the of the most famous no-hitters in major league history, when he defeats Hippo Vaughn in the 1917 double no-hitter.
1910 The Cubs sell backup catcher and future super manager Pat Moran to the Phillies.
1910 Chicago Cubs third baseman Heinie Zimmerman commits four errors in a game. Even for 1910, that sucks.
1912 Fred Clarke posts his 1,297th managerial win, which passes Cap Anson as the second winningest manager in baseball history. Only Hall of Famer Ned Hanlon has more.
1913 Despite making eight errors, the Yankees top the Tigers 10-9 in 10 innings.
1913 Walter Johnson’s scoreless inning streak is now at 52.2, thanks to a two-hitter over the White Sox.
1918 Pirates pitcher Earl Hamilton wins again, giving him a record of 6-0 with a 0.83 ERA. Instead of having a career season, though, he’ll soon enlist in the Navy to serve during World War I.
1920 Pirates pitcher Wilbur Cooper posts his 100th win, giving him a record of 100-85.
1926 Connie Mack notches his 2,000th managerial win. Only John McGraw has more wins—yet Mack still has a losing record so far: 2,000-2,011.
1928 Ed Stein, quality pitcher for a while for the 1890s Dodgers, dies at age 58.
1929 Reds center fielder Earl Clark gets 12 putouts and 13 chances in one game, both NL 20th century records.
1929 Hall of Fame center fielder Earl Averill legs out an inside the park grand slam. Not bad for a kid for just his third big league home run.
1931 Star pitcher Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons is also a pretty good hitter—and he’s never better than here, as he smacks the only grand slam of his career.
1932 Lefty Grove, arguably the best pitcher of all-time, posts his 150th career victory, putting him halfway to 300. It’s been less than four years since win No. 50. His record is 150-64 (.701).
1934 Lou Gehrig belts the 14th of his record 23 career grand slams.
1936 Exactly four years after his 150th win, Lefty Grove suffers his 100th loss. He’s 226-100 (.693) so far.
1936 One down, 360 to go: Joe DiMaggio connects for his first home run.
1936 Joe Sullivan throws 12 innings of scoreless relief for the Tigers, but then the Indians get to him, for a 9-7 win in 15 innings.
1937 Jim Hickman is born. He’ll be a rookie on the 1962 Mets and later have a sensational season for the 1970 Cubs, hitting .315 with 32 homers and 115 RBIs in an all-time great “where did that come from” season.
1937 Monte Pearson of the Yankees allows a first inning single to the White Sox’s Larry Rosenthal, but then nothing else all day. And Rosenthal is erased in a double play, too.
1939 Phillies catcher Dave Coble catches a ball thrown from the top of the 521-foot tall city hall in Philadelphia.
1940 The Reds release former star center fielder Wally Berger.
1941 Ken Berry is born. The outfielder will win two Gold Gloves and represent the 1967 White Sox in the All-Star game.
1942 For the only time in his career, Bucky Walters has a double-digit K game. He fans 10 in nine shutout innings, helping him to a personal best Game Score of 87.
1944 Longtime Indians stalwart Mel Harder becomes the 50th major league pitcher to win 200 games. His record is 200-161.
1946 64,183 fans become the largest weekday crowd in Yankee Stadium history—but have to go home disappointed when the Red Sox win, 5-4.
1947 Hall of Famer Early Wynn notches his 50th win. He’s a sixth of the way to 300.
1947 Fearsome fastball pitcher Ewell Blackwell begins a 16-game winning streak. He won’t lose until July 25.
1949 Former Cardinals owner Sam Beardon dies at age 72. He owned them from 1920-47 and under him a second division team became a perennial NL power.
1950 The Reds trade Walker Cooper to the Braves for Connie Ryan.
1951 The Indians sign the recently available veteran pitcher Johnny Vander Meer.
1952 Somehow, the Boston Red Sox get 10 assists in one inning, the fifth, in an 18-3 loss to the Yankees.
1953 Identical twins Eddie and Johnny O’Brien play together for the Pirates. It’s the first time twins have played on the same team together.
1955 Duke Snider smashes his 200th career home run.
1955 Don Newcombe needs to face only 27 batters in his complete game shutout of the Cubs. Gene Baker singles in the fourth for Chicago, but he’s immediately gunned down trying to steal. No one else reaches base that day for Chicago.
1956 Jimmy Slagle, outfielder for the Tinker-Evers-Chance Cubs, dies at age 82.
1957 San Francisco’s Mayor George Christopher meets with Giants owner Horace Stoneham about possibly moving his team out there.
1960 Orioles catcher Joe Ginsberg allows three passed balls in one inning, tying a record set just six days before by teammate Gus Triandos. Yes, both times the pitcher was Hoyt Wilhelm.
1961 Well that could’ve gone better: Three St. Louis Cardinals pinch hitters strike out in the ninth inning.
1962 Don Drysdale allows the only inside the park home run of his career. Roman Mejias legs it out.
1962 Jim Perry allows back-to-back home runs to start the game. Lenny Green and Vic Power do it. It’ll be nine more years until another AL game begins this way—but wouldn’t you know it, Jim Perry will be the pitcher then, too. .
1962 Giants second baseman Robby Thompson is born.
1964 Steve Blass makes his big league debut. He’ll be a fine pitcher until his career is completely derailed by a mysterious mental block.
1965 Carl Yastrzemski enjoys the first of his 25 career multi-home run games.
1966 Bob Gibson will set the record for homering in six different complete game shutouts. Here is No. 4, when he tops the Cubs 8-0 and lifts one over the fence along the way.
1967 Aging star third baseman Ken Boyer notches his 2,000th career hit.
1967 Speedy Cub player Adolfo Phillips steals home in a 5-4 win over the Giants.
1967 Hank Aaron’s 447th career home run is like none other—it’s his only inside the park homer. It comes off Jim Bunning, who never surrenders any other inside the park homers.
1968 The Dodgers sign third baseman Ken Boyer as a free agent.
1969 It’s the war of the bullpens. Former Orioles reliever Moe Drabowsky leads his Royals reliever teammates in a commando attack on the Baltimore bullpen at 9:30 p.m., throwing rocks and objects at the startled Baltimore pen. This begins a year-long war largely of pranks and farce. The Orioles get the last laugh in today’s game, though—Drawbosky gives up a walk-off homer.
1970 Hoyt Wilhelm becomes the first pitcher to appear in 1,000 games.
1972 Cincinnati runs wild, stealing six bases in six attempts against Chicago’s Milt Pappas.
1974 After 1,112 career innings pitched, Bert Blyleven walks in a run. He’s never done that before.
1975 Catfish Hunter makes his first start against his old team, the A’s—and it’s one of the best starts of his life. He retires the last 18 batters in a two-hit complete game shutout with seven Ks and no walks.
1975 Hank Aaron becomes baseball’s all-time RBI leader.
1978 Paul Molitor hits the first of 33 leadoff home runs.
1978 Eddie Murray belts the first of nine career walk-off homers.
1980 Gary Carter launches his 100th career home run.
1980 Larry Bowa becomes the only batter to leg out an inside the park home run against Tom Seaver.
1981 Young Expos pitcher Charlie Lea no-hits the San Francisco Giants. He walks four while fanning eight in his 4-0 masterpiece.
1981 The Brewers trade veteran backup catcher Buck Martinez to Toronto.
1982 Tony Phillips makes his big league debut. He’ll last forever. Hell, he was still playing in the independent minors a year or two ago.
1982 Willie McGee, 1985 NL MVP, makes his big league debut.
1984 Center fielder Chili Davis throws out two runners in one inning.
1985 Rickey Henderson, less than six years removed from his big league debut, steals his 500th base.
1986 Jim Rice gets his 2,000th hit. He’s had a nice prime, but he’s about to cool down considerably.
1986 Frank Tanana suffers the worst Game Score of his lengthy career: 7. His line: 3 IP, 9 H, 8 ER, 8 R, 2 BB, and 0 K.
1987 For the second time in three days, Mark McGwire belts two home runs in one game. They are the first and second multi-home run games of his career. He’ll end up with 67 of them.
1988 Veteran skipper Dick Williams manages his 3,000th game. He’s 1,563-1,436 on his career.
1988 Mariners fireballer Mark Langston fans 16 in a win over Toronto.
1989 There is something about May 10 that brings out the best in Mark Langston. He no-hits Toronto for eight innings. Then again, maybe May 10 doesn’t bring out the best in him—in the ninth Toronto rallies for three runs and a 3-2 triumph over Langston and Seattle.
1991 Roberto Alomar has the first of 13 multi-homer games. It’s also his best game ever according to WPA. He’s 3-for-4 with three walks and two clutch homers for a 1.037 WPA. One homer ties the game in the bottom of the ninth, and the other ties it in the 11th. Toronto loses anyway to the White Sox, 5-3.
1991 The press catches Jose Canseco leaving Madonna’s apartment at night. The tabloids love this.
1992 Jeff Bagwell achieves the first of 31 career multi-home run games.
1993 Montreal retires No. 10 for the most popular player in franchise history: Rusty Staub.
1994 The Braves score seven runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game 8-8 against the Phillies. Atlanta finishes the comeback with another run in the 15th for a 9-8 victory.
1996 David Cone has surgery on his pitching shoulder to repair an aneurysm. Yikes.
1996 Oakland’s Ernie Young hits three home runs in one game.
1996 Edgar Renteria makes his big league debut.
1997 Wild Thing Mitch Williams pitches in his last game.
1997 The Twins' streak of 19 consecutive successful stolen base attempts ends when Denny Hocking is thrown out.
1998 A Marlins loss drops Jim Leyland’s all-time career record under .500 (956-957). It will take him until late 2011 to get back over .500.
1999 Nomar Garciaparra has one of the greatest games by any player ever. He drives in 10 runs on three home runs, including two grand slams. It’s the only time since 1920 any shortstop has more than eight RBIs in a game.
1999 Pete Rose appears as a special instructor for the Sacramento Steelheads in a Western Baseball League game.
1999 Randy Johnson allows a career worst 13 hits in one game.
2000 Rickey Henderson has his 10,000th at-bat, an especially impressive achievement for someone who draws as many walks as he does.
2000 It’s the biggest comeback in Twins history as they overcome a 8-1 deficit to the Indians to win, 10-9.
2000 Uh, the heck? Rick Ankiel’s dad is arrested for throwing a loaded handgun from his car. He’s already about to serve six years for a coke/pot trafficking violation.
2000 No, it’s not the most heroic of injuries. The Florida Marlins have to scratch starting pitcher Ricky Bones from his start today because he injures his lower back while watching TV in the clubhouse recliner. No, I don’t know how he did that either.
2001 Milwaukee’s Jeromy Burnitz hits three homers in one game, just 12 days after teammate Geoff Jenkins did likewise.
2001 An MRI reveals that White Sox star Frank Thomas has a right triceps injury and will have to miss the entire season.
2001 St. Louis pitcher Rick Ankiel throws five wild pitches. His days as a hurler are rapidly and weirdly coming to a close.
2001 Tampa release former slugger Vinny Castilla.
2002 The Angels destroy the White Sox, 19-0, and will be only the fourth team since 1900 to beat two different teams by 19 or more runs. The 1923 Indians, 1939 Yankees, and 1950 Red Sox did it previously.
2003 Jeff Torborg manages his last game. The Marlins will fire him and replace him with Jack McKeon.
2004 For the second time in his career, Luis Gonzalez homers three times in one game.
2005 Royals manager Tony Pena resigns.
2007 The KIA Tigers sign former Cubs first baseman prospect Hee Seop Choi.
2007 Second baseman and sometime sabermetric darling Todd Walker plays in his last game.
2008 Greg Maddux wins his 350th game.
2009 Slugger Carlos Delgado appears in his last game.
2010 Detroit pays a tribute to the legendary Ernie Harwell, who died earlier this week.
2012 Derek Lowe becomes the 11th pitcher to notch a win against all 30 clubs. The other members of the club are: Al Leiter, Kevin Brown, Terry Mulholland, Curt Schilling, Woody Williams, Jamie Moyer, Randy Johnson, Barry Zito, Javier Vazquez, and Vicente Padilla. Yes, that’s right—Vicente Padilla.
2012 Toronto signs free agent outfielder Vladimir Guerrero. The Jays will release him a month later and he never plays for their big league club.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Oh Dusty
Posted by Pat AndriolaLast month I talked about managerial strategy when it comes to pinch hitting for starting pitchers relatively early in a game. In the game I look at, the Giants were down one run and had the bases loaded with one out in the fifth inning. I thought the decision to pinch hit was close but clear, especially given that the pitcher at the plate was both not a good hitter and had thrown more than 80 pitches already.
The Braves and Reds played a day game in Cincinnati yesterday. Atlanta led 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh when the Reds put men on first and second with two out. According to FanGraphs, this at-bat had the highest Leverage Index of the entire game (3.71). You don't need a run expectancy matrix to know that this was an important spot for the home team. And yet the pitcher, Mike Leake, came up to the plate.
This move is baffling. Leake had already thrown more than 90 pitches, so he was close to done. Yes, Leake did have a homer off of Mike Minor in his career, but that's a small sample size and charitable memory, to say the least. Leake isn't a bad hitter; in fact, he's one of the best hitting pitchers in baseball with a carer .293 wOBA, including a .295/.306/.443 slash line last year.
But he's a good hitter for a pitcher. He still has a career strikeout rate of 29.1 percent and career walk rate of 3.3 percent. He still has a career 77 wRC+. Baker had an entire bench to work with. Yes, they weren't the best options (and that means there are serious roster management issues), but they were options nonetheless. Jack Hannahan has a projected .294 wOBA, but he's a lefty. Derrick Robinson has a projected .251 wOBA, so his switch-hitting ability is of limited use. Cesar Izturis, another switch hitter, is also a very, very bad hitter (projected .254 wOBA). Corky Miller, a righty with a .289 projected wOBA, was the backup catcher.
So maybe you don't think it was that bad a choice; Dusty had few viable options and Leake was pitching well. But I can't stress the importance of that situation enough. You are down to your last seven outs. You have no idea what the next two innings will bring, and you know that you are facing one of the nastiest bullpens in baseball. This may be your last chance to put a run on the board.
We don't even need to consider the fact that Leake is not going to have his best stuff in the eighth inning and you have the ability to mix-and-match with your bullpen against the Braves' lineup. Mike Leake is not your best option to hit. Even if there isn't a huge difference between him and Hannahan or Miller, you need to do whatever you can to get a man on base in that situation. You need a position player there.
Leake flied out. The Braves scored five runs in the eighth inning. So it goes.
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraIndians 4, Athletics 3: Angel Hernandez said there was not enough evidence with which to overturn the original call of double on Adam Rosales' would-be game-tying home run. Of course, the replay clearly shows that it was a home run, with the ball hitting off the railing above the wall. This is pretty simple: If Hernandez had the same view of the play that the Comcast Bay Area viewers had and still couldn't reverse the call, he is incompetent. If he did not have that view available to him when reviewing the play, Major League Baseball's home run review system is incompetent. Which is it?
Mariners 2, Pirates 1: Felix Hernandez was Felix Hernandez. He allowed one run over eight innings before making way for Tom Wilhelmsen. This despite only throwing 97 pitches. Maybe Eric Wedge and Ned Yost studied under the same sensei.
Braves 7, Reds 2: Three Braves homers including two from Dan Uggla. And for reasons that still aren't clear to me, Dusty Baker had Mike Leake bat for himself with two men on and two men out in a one-run game in the bottom of the seventh. Guess that means Dusty figured Leake was going the distance or something. Nope: he allowed singles to his first two batters in the eighth, was pulled, and the game unraveled for Cincy. He shouldn't have been at bat and he shouldn't have been on the mound to begin that rally.
Orioles 5, Royals 3: The O's are rolling. This one broke open in the fifth when Alcides Escobar tried to get an out at third instead of taking the easy out at first and made a throwing error, hitting the runner and opening up the floodgates. Ned Yost after the game:
"The key to that inning was if Escy just takes the out at first, they only get one run," Yost said.
Yost was then fined $500 by the league office for calling a guy "Escy." Yost has been Escobar's manager for three frickin' years. If he can be around this guy day-in, day-out for three years and still can't come up with a better nickname than one of those lame name-shortening ones people use when they can't remember someone's full name, he's simply not a fully-formed and plugged-in human being.
White Sox 6, Mets 3: Alejandro De Aza hit a leadoff homer and finished with three hits. Jake Peavy returned after missing two starts with a bum back and looked just fine. For this White Sox team, six runs is an outburst.
Nationals 3, Tigers 1: Bryce Harper hit his 10th home run and had a sac fly and Jordan Zimmermann allowed one run, breaking his 17-inning scoreless streak -- but that's all he allowed over seven innings as he notched his sixth win.
Giants 4, Phillies 3: Andres Torres with a 10th inning RBI single to help the Giants avoid the sweep. And while Barry Zito didn't get the win, he pitched excellently. Zito in AT&T Park has become something of a lock for the Giants, who have won his last 11 starts at home.
Cardinals 5, Cubs 4: Jon Jay drove in two and finished the Cards' road trip 10 for 20 with a homer and eight RBI. I'm gonna assume it was a performance borne of relief due to being able to leave town and thus escape the gangsters he double-crossed and the man whose woman he has swept off her feet as the found themselves thrown together in danger. But now he's heading back with a new confidence and is ready for the final showdown with bad men and with his own conscience. [note: I'm currently writing a book blurb for someone and I'm having trouble, so forgive me for trying to work it all out here].
Padres 1, Marlins 0: "In a world ... where Jason Marquis can throw eight shutout innings ..." I'm not working on movie trailers, but if I did I figure the Marlins' season would be some sort of horror movie, so let's feature it that way.
Astros 3, Angels 1: Bud Norris didn't have to work too hard to pitch into the ninth inning. He threw only 84 pitches, in fact. Way to make 'em work, Anaheim. This is turning ugly fast for the Angels. They quittin' in May?
Rays 10, Blues Jays 4: Matt Moore won his sixth straight decision to start the season and the Rays decided to take a new approach and not blow a lead. Evan Longoria drove in three.
Twins 15, Red Sox: 8: A 20-hit outburst for Minnesota, including Pedro Florimon's homer and two-run double in the big second inning. Not liking that there is now a Pedro Floriman in baseball. That was the name I always used to check in anonymously at hotels.
Rangers 4, Brewers 1: Derek Holland gave up 10 hits in seven innings yet allowed only one run. Not walking guys -- and watching your opposition make multiple base running mistakes -- is pretty cool.
Yankees 3, Rockies 2: Vernon Wells played third base in this game. But sure, the Yankees are better off without A-Rod. He also hit a two-run homer, though, so it's not like the Yankees would be better off without him. Which is quite a statement.
Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 2: It seems like Paul Goldschmidt does something big every damn day. He homered twice and, for the third straight game, his homer broke a tie. He is absolutely destroying the Dodgers, hitting .458 with four homers and 11 RBIs in six games.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
40th anniversary: back-to-back first homers
Posted by Chris Jaffe40 years ago, Catfish Hunter made two people feel very good. I’m sure he didn’t want to, as they were opposing hitters, but that’s the way things happen. In a game against the Orioles, Hunter faced two batters who had never homered in the big leagues before, only to have them launch back-to-back balls over the fence against him.
There have been plenty of back-to-back homers hit. And tons of people have hit a first home run. But have you ever heard of back-to-back first home runs? Well, Catfish Hunter has.
On May 9, 1973, Hunter’s A’s played in Baltimore against Earl Weaver’s O’s. The two teams would win all six AL pennants from 1969-74, but in early 1973 they were both off to slow starts, hanging around .500.
Today looked to be Oakland’s day, though, as Hunter outpitched Baltimore’s Dave McNally. Heading into the bottom of the ninth, it was 3-1 Oakland.
This being the early 1970s, Hunter was still in the game to close out his own start. Leading off for Baltimore was Al Bumbry. Though he’d have a fine career for himself, on May 9, 1973, Bumbry was still a raw kid looking to prove himself. Playing in just his 23rd career game, Bumbry had yet to hit a homer.
Well, luckily for Bumbry he was about to prove himself right here. He launched one into the stands for his first home run. Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
Next up came center fielder Rich Coggins. He had a bit more experience for himself than Bumbry—this was his 25th game, two more than Bumbry. And like Bumbry, Coggins hadn’t homered before. Also like Bumbry, Coggins changed that right here, with a game-tying solo shot off of Hunter.
Catfish Hunter was a very good pitcher in his prime, with especially nice control. But he was always prone to giving up the long ball. In fact, he’d lead the AL this year with 39 homers allowed, which would be the fifth most ever allowed in a season by an American League pitcher at that point.
Hunter settled down and, because it was a different time, he even stayed in the game when it headed into extra frames. For that matter, so did Dave McNally.
Neither pitched that well in the 10th, though. McNally allowed a run. Hunter surrendered singles to two of the four batters he faced, at which point A’s skipper Dick Williams brought in Darold Knowles to preserve the win, which he did.
As for Bumbry and Coggins, neither ever showed that much power, but both had nice seasons. Coggins would bat .319 in 110 games in 1973, good enough to finish sixth in the Rookie of the Year Award voting. It was all downhill from there, and after three more dismal seasons he was out of the game.
Bumbry was more fortunate. He’d hit .337, while leading the league in triples despite missing a third of the games, to win Rookie of the Year honors. Bumbry became a Baltimore institution, playing for the team for over a decade.
Though their careers took different paths, Coggins and Bumbry are forever yoked together in baseball trivia as the teammates who hit their first homers together back-to-back—and they did it 40 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happens every X-thousand days). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since the Royals trade Jose Guillen to the Giants for cash.
1,000 days since Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey is denied a no-hitter in the most vexing manner possible. The only hit against him comes from opposing pitcher, Cole Hamels. Dickey and the Mets have the last laugh, a 1-0 win.
4,000 days since the Florida Marlins steal seven bases in one game.
4,000 days since Mike Piazza legs out his first triple in over four years.
5,000 days since Randy Johnson records his 14th straight Quality Start, his longest such streak. His line in that time: 113 IP, 80 H, 22 R, 19 ER, 28 BB, 158 K, and a 1.51 ERA. Oh, and a win-loss record of 5-6. Yes, a losing record despite all those Ks and those few runs allowed.
7,000 days since longtime umpire Jim Honochick dies at age 75.
8,000 days since the Dodgers sign amateur free agent Ismael Valdez.
8,000 days since the original Expos ownership group announces the sale of the team to a company headed by Cladue R. Brochu.
At some point today it’ll be 1,000,000,000 seconds since the Astros trade second baseman prospect Johnny Ray to the Pirates for Phil Garner. While Garner has the better career, he’s on the down slope, and Ray will have a few very nice seasons in Pittsburgh.
Anniversaries
1871 Cuban Esteban Enrique Bellan becomes the first Hispanic player in the National Association, the proto-major league.
1871 It’s the big league debuts for Lip Pike and Tom York, two of the best players of the 1870s.
1888 With a 12-run lead, right-handed pitcher Icebox Chamberlain decides to have some fun. He pitches lefty for the last two innings—and allows no runs.
1888 Roger Connor, the all-time home run king before Babe Ruth, knocks out three homers in one game.
1889 Amos Rusie, the greatest strikeout pitcher of his era, makes his big league debut. Random fact: Even though Rusie’s career is essentially over by 1898, he’s actually younger than Iron Man Joe McGinnity, a Hall of Famer whose MLB debut came in 1899. Really, two Hall of Fame pitchers—and not controversial selections, either—had careers that scarcely overlapped despite being born within two months of each other. Combined, they still won fewer games than Cy Young, a contemporary of both.
1892 Hall of Fame manager Ned Hanlon takes over as Baltimore Orioles skipper, and that’s the team largely responsible for his enshrinement in Cooperstown.
1896 Pink Hawley plunks five batters in one game, including three in one inning. Opposing pitcher Win Mercer hits three batsmen.
1896 Umpire Bob Emslie has to be escorted out of Reds ballpark by cops when a controversial non-call allows Baltimore to score a key run in a 6-5 triumph for the visitors.
1896 Shortstop Herman Long is normally known for his first-rate glove work, but today it’s his bat that impresses, as he hits for the cycle.
1901 Rookie Indians pitcher Earl Moore throws nine innings of no-hit ball (though he allows two unearned runs) but loses his no-hitter in the 10th inning.
1901 Ted Breitenstein, one of those pitchers who was far better than his offensive support, plays in his last game.
1905 Iron Man Joe McGinnity, still younger than Amos Rusie, allows two inside-the-park home runs in one game.
1908 Cubs infielder Billy Jurges is born.
1912 Texas League infielder Roy Akin pulls off an unassisted triple play. As it happens, the year before he hit into one.
1913 Wally Schang, a catcher that arguably belongs in Cooperstown, makes his big league debut.
1916 Can’t anyone here play this game? Apparently not the pitchers, as the A’s and Tigers pitchers combine to walk 30 batters in today’s game. The A’s walk 18 and the Tigers issue a dozen free passes.
1916 Tris Speaker first plays in Fenway Park as a visitor. The longtime Red Sox star is in his first season with the Indians. After the first inning, the new Indians centerfielder accidentally heads back to the Boston dugout. Fans predictably cheer him wildly all game long.
1916 New York Giants begin a 17-game winning streak. Not bad, especially since they began this day with a record of 2-13.
1919 Cyclone Joe Williams hurls no-hitter, defeating Negro Leagues rival ace Cannonball Dick Redding, 1-0.
1925 Dave Harris of Braves hits walk-off inside-the-park home run in the 11th inning against Chicago’s Wilbur Cooper. Boston 2, Chicago 1.
1930 Sam Rice hits his 21st inside the park home run. He only hit 34 homers of any sort in his lengthy career. In other words, in 10,251 plate appearances, he hit the ball out of the park just 13 times, once every 789 PA.
1930 The pitchers must’ve been ground ballers. Today’s Tigers-Yankees game sets an all-time AL record with just two outfield putouts all day.
1933 The Browns trade Hall of Fame catcher Rick Ferrell, alongside pitcher Lloyd Brown, to the Red Sox. (OK, so Ferrell’s induction is one of the worst in Cooperstown history, but he’s still a Hall of Famer).
1935 Charlie Gelbert of the Cardinals plays in his first game since a 1932 hunting accident nearly severed his leg.
1935 Rabbit Maranville lays down his 300th career sacrifice hit. He’s the 11th man to do so.
1936 Cub catcher Gabby Hartnett hits two triples in one game
1936 Floyd Robinson is born. As a White Sox outfielder he’ll lead the AL in doubles in 1962.
1936 Senators sign Firpo Marberry as free agent
1937 Reds 21, Phillies 10. Reds get 24 hits in all, including six by catcher Ernie Lombardi. Teammate Alex Kampouris hits three homers, including a grand slam, and ends the day with eight RBIs.
1940 Earl Averill collects his 2,000th career hit. I wonder how many he would’ve had if he’d been bought from the PCL earlier. (He made his debut a month before turning 27, after three seasons of destroying PCL pitching).
1944 After missing much of spring training due to illness, skipper Joe McCarthy returns to the Yankee dugout.
1946 In 12th inning of 2-2 tie, Johnny Hopp of the Braves steals home. The Braves beat the Cubs 5-2.
1947 The Dodgers make public the threatening letters Jackie Robinson has received.
1947 Hot prospect Clint Hartung makes his big league debut. He won’t pan out.
1948 For one day at least, Dodger shortstop Pee Wee Reese is a champion slugger. He drives in a personal best six RBIs on a double and homer in a 3-for-5 performance.
1950 Ralph Kiner hits his second grand slam in four days.
1953 Dom DiMaggio plays his last game. Though overshadowed by big brother Joe, Dom was a great player in his own right.
1953 Roy Campanella hits a walk-off home run against Robin Roberts.
1954 Warren Spahn loses his 100th game, for a career record of 154-100.
1955 The White Sox release aging first baseman Phil Cavarretta.
1958 In the bottom of the 12th inning, Robin Roberts allows walk-off home run to Ted Kluszewski. Roberts surrenders only four walk-off homers in his career, but two are on May 9.
1960 Tony Gwynn, greatest player in Padres history, is born.
1961 Carl Yastrzemski hits his first career home run.
1961 Orioles slugger Jim Gentile has one of the greatest games in history, belting two grand slams in one contest.
1962 The Orioles trade "Marvelous" Marv Thorneberry to the Mets.
1962 Brooks Robinson becomes the sixth person to hit grand slams in back-to-back games. As it happens, he was also on base for both of teammates Jim Gentile’s slams exactly one year before this one.
1962 Milt Pappas, Orioles, fans a career-high 13 men in one game.
1963 Dick Ellsworth posts a one-hit victory for the Cubs over the Pirates results in Ernie Banks registering a new NL record 22 putouts at first.
1963 Frank Robinson has one of his best games, going 5-for-5 with three runs, seven RBIs, a double, and two homers. He’ll have a better game a few years later, when he joins Gentile in the rare two-slams-in-one-game club.
1964 Wally Post, former star Reds outfielder, plays in his last game. He thrice led the league in strikeouts.
1965 Yogi Berra and Roy Sievers end their major league careers in the same doubleheader. It's rare you see two notable players end their career in one day in the same park like that.
1966 Tom Cheney pitches his last game. His moment of glory came when he fanned 21 batters in a 16-inning complete game.
1970 Brooks Robinson hits his 200th home run.
1971 Darrell Evans belts his first career home run. It comes off the legendary Cardinals pitcher, Bob Gibson.
1973 Johnny Bench homers three times in a game. It’s the second time in his career he’s done it, and as it happens, both times came against the same opposing pitcher: Steve Carlton.
1975 Jim Kaat notches a personal best 12th straight win. His numbers in that spell: 16 G, 14 GS, 7 CG, 2 SHO, 113 IP, 89 H, 25 H, 17 ER, 26 BB, 74 K, and a 1.35 ERA.
1976 In the bottom of the first inning, Gaylord Perry walk in a run—something he’d last done on June 19, 1971, some 1,531.1 innings previously.
1976 A line drive fractures the kneecap of White Sox workhorse Wilbur Wood. He’s done for the year.
1976 Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter makes his big league debut.
1977 Baseball’s two newest teams meet for the first time: Toronto and Seattle. The Blue Jays win, 12-4.
1978 Gary Carter’s best WPA game: 0.834 WPA. He was 2-for-2 with a home run, walk, and three RBIs in 7-6 Expos win over the Braves. His homer was a three-run shot with two outs in the top of the ninth with the Expos trailing 6-4.
1978 Aaron Harang, starting pitcher, is born.
1979 During an umpire’s strike, substitute umpire Dave Pallone ejects the entire St. Louis Cardinals bench after a player throws helmets and bats onto the field to protest a call.
1979 Speaking of umpire troubles during their strike, four bench-clearing brawls highlight Pittsburgh’s 17-9 win over the Braves. Five players and both managers are ejected. Today’s events help the strike end with a victory for the umpires.
1979 Brandon Webb, great pitcher until he blew his arm out, is born
1979 Carl Yastrzemski hits his first walk-off home run in 14 years.
1979 Its the only time a game ends with Robin Yount fanning with the bases loaded. Cleveland beats Brewers, 8-7.
1980 Jim Rice gets his 1,000th hit.
1981 Tom Paciorek hits a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth for the second straight game. Not bad.
1982 The Expos release Bill Lee, who walked off the team the day before.
1982 the Dodgers trade John Franco to Reds for Rafael Landestoy
1984 Harold Baines homers in the bottom of the 25th to end the longest game in AL history: CWS 8, MIL 7 (25).
1984 Umpire "Cowboy" Joe West ejects two cameramen from the dugout for showing replays to players of a controversial play.
1984 Prince Fielder, slugging first baseman, is born.
1985 After 24 straight innings without a run, the Giants finally push someone across the plate. It comes at a good time for a 1-0 win in 12 innings over the Cubs.
1986 The Mariners name Dick Williams their new manager. He resigned from the Padres in February.
1986 The Phillies release Dave Stewart, whose best years are still to come.
1987 Chris Speier hits his second grand slam of the year. Previously, he’d gone 15 years without one.
1987 Eddie Murray homers from both sides of the plate for the second straight day, something unprecedented in baseball history.
1988 A’s win their 14th straight game, a franchise record, and the longest winning streak by any team since 1977.
1988 Jerry Reuss wins his 200th game, becoming one of the few to do it without a 20-win season. At one point, Milt Pappas was the only one to lodge that many career wins without a 20-win season, but Reuss and Charlie Hough and others expand the club.
1988 The Angels release aging first baseman Bill Buckner.
1989 Jose Canseco undergoes operation to repair a stress fracture on his left hand and will miss half of the season.
1989 Longtime catcher Alan Ashby appears in his last game.
1990 Minor leaguer Bernard Gilkey gets three hits in an inning.
1990 Roger Clemens wins his 100th career game. He’s 100-47.
1990 Rickey Henderson receives his second and final career walk-off walk. The other one came when he was a rookie.
1993 Mark Grace hits for the cycle. I remember this one. That day, I decided to keep score while watching the game at home, something I never do. But it happened this day. From memory, every time Grace came up, there were two outs and none on.
1993 Rockies draw their 1,000,000th fan in 17 home games, a new record.
1994 Rockies minor leaguer Neifi Perez achieves an unassisted triple play.
1995 Ugueth U. Urbina makes his big league debut.
1995 Indians score eight runs before making their first out in a game.
1995 High school star Sean Gallagher from Wilmington, NC has his consecutive game his streak snapped at 51 games. He was intentionally walked his last time up.
1995 Rickey Henderson hits a pinch-hit, walk-off, three-run homer for 7-5 Oakland win over the Mariners. The homers’ WPA is 0.796, the best one-swing WPA Henderson ever had.
1997 Prior to the game, Pittsburgh Pirate players stand inside stadium gates to shake hands with fans and pose for pictures. Then they beat the Braves, 9-0.
1997 The Reds release veteran player Ruben Sierra.
1997 Confusing play: Jay Bell called out for passing his teammate in a rundown, but the call is reversed by the umpires because the other guy was already called out earlier in the play. Bell goes on to score. The opposing team protests to the league, but the league sides with the umpires.
1999 Florida State University slugger Marshall McDougall homers in six consecutive trips to the plate in 26-2 win over Maryland. He also homered to start the game. He had 16 RBIs on the day.
2000 Cal Ripken first plays DH.
2000 Damian Miller belts a walk-off grand slam off Orel Hershier for an 11-7 Arizona win over Los Angeles in 12 innings.
2003 Dontrelle Willis makes his big league debut. The charismatic young hurler will be a bright star for the game before arm trouble derails his career.
2006 Minor leaguer Delmon Young suspended 50 games for throwing his bat that hit a replacement umpire in the chest (during the minor league umpires’ strike).
2006 Relief pitcher Danny Graves appears in his last game.
2008 San Diego releases Jim Edmonds, in what turns out to be a premature move.
2008 Toronto signs free agent Brad Wilkerson, whose career hasn’t gone according to plan.
2009 A 1-0 loss raises Zack Greinke’s ERA up to 0.51. Yeah, he was that good in early 2009.
2010 Dallas Braden throws a perfect game in a 4-0 A’s win over the Rays.
2012 Mariano Rivera reveals that he’s got a blood clot in his leg. It’s unrelated to his knee injury but more serious to his overall health.
2012 Seattle uses catcher John Jaso as a leadoff hitter. It’s the first time the franchise has done that since 1978.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraMets 1, White Sox 0: For as good a pitcher as Matt Harvey is, something is clearly wrong with him given that he did not get the win in this game. The object of the game is to win it, Matt. You clearly lack The Will to Win, as I'm sure Hawk Harrelson mentioned during the broadcast of this game. Give me Bobby Parnell, who notched his third win of the season. He knows what's truly important. Harvey: nine innings, one hit, twelve strikeouts, no walks but -- again, I must stress -- no win. Tsk tsk.
Reds 5, Braves 4: Craig Kimbrel: no longer immortal. Ninth inning homers surrendered to Shin-Soo Choo -- who hit two -- and Devin Mesoraco rocked and shocked the Braves, who entered the ninth with a one run lead. Closers, man. Closers.
Indians 1, Athletics 0: Zack McAllister threw a shutout into the eighth. AND GOT THE WIN, MATT HARVEY.
Twins 6, Red Sox 1: Scott Diamond threw seven shutout innings. AND GOT THE WIN, MATT HARVEY.
Orioles 4, Royals 3: Matt Wieters drove in three, including the tie-breaking run in the eighth after Baltimore had blown a three-run lead. The O's turned three double plays, too.
Pirates 4, Mariners 1: Jeanmar Gomez threw five shutout innings even though he was given only a couple hours notice that he was gonna start. His comment right before the game, I assume.
Blue Jays 6, Rays 4: Everything in this game pales compared to the condition of J.A. Happ after he took a line drive off the side of his head. As I write this all that is known is that he is scheduled for a CT scan and is in stable condition. Here's hoping the visuals of it are far worse than the damage.
Cubs 2, Cardinals 1: The Cardinals' six-game winning streak comes to an end. Travis Wood has been pitching really well and throws another nice one (6.2 IP. 5 H, 1 ER, 8K).
Astros 7, Angels 6: Gonna laugh my butt off when the Astros pass the Angels for fourth in the AL West. Houston snaps a six-game skid.
Brewers 6, Rangers 3: Yuniesky Betancourt hit his eighth homer because baseball is random and fun and the Baseball Gods want us to try to figure out how in the hell things like Yuniesky Betancourt becoming an offensive force ever happen. His explanation for all the home runs he's hitting:
"Leave the ball on home plate and I swing"
"I swing wherever it is," he did not add, "but when it's on home plate I actually hit it."
Rockies 2, Yankees 0: A two-run homer for Carlos Gonzalez was Hiroki Kuroda's only real mistake, but given that Jorge De La Rosa made no such mistakes to the Yankees it was enough. The Yankees don't play in Coors Field much, but when they do they tend to lose.
Diamondbacks 5, Dodgers 3: Paul Goldschmidt with a two-run homer off Brandon League in the ninth to break the tie and, ultimately, win the game. It was an 11-pitch at bat, with Goldschmidt fouling off five full count pitches.
Padres 5, Marlins 1: The Padres stay hot. Easy to do against Miami, but still. Will Venable's two-run homer per the AP game story made me laugh:
In the second, Venable hit a fly that Marlins right fielder Ozuna treated as if it was a routine ball. That threw off Venable, who hesitated out of the box before jogging down the first base line. Ozuna threw up his hands and shook his head looking for the ball -- it landed seven rows up in the right field porch.
Phillies 6, Giants 2: Chase Utley had three hits, including a homer. Ryan Howard homered too, as the Giants knocked in five runs off Tim Lincecum. Maybe they just needed a trip to the west coast to clear their heads. Works for me sometimes.
Tigers vs. Nationals: POSTPONED: I fly a starship across the Universe divide. And when I reach the other side. I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can. Perhaps I may become a highwayman again. Or I may simply be a single drop of rain. But I will remain. And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
What nobody is talking about
Posted by Greg SimonsThere are plenty of hot topics in baseball today, a sampling of which includes:
- Justin Upton is killing the ball while his brother, B.J., is getting killed.
- The Red Sox and Yankees are 1-2 in the American League East, just as God—or at least ESPN—intended it, while the Blue Jays absorbed the Marlins' big payroll obligations yet continue to absorb loss after loss.
- Those same Yankees have compiled one of baseball's better records while nearly $100 million in payroll sits on the disabled list.
- Roy Halladay has looked, at best, mortal, at worst, mostly dead, and now he's on the DL.
- Los Angeles' two franchises are scuffling along with sub-.500 records despite adding making major salary outlays over the winter.
- Strikeouts, strikeouts, strikeouts! Oh, the humanity, strikeouts everywhere!!!
While all of these stories and many others are quite deserving of the coverage they've received, there's one story that seems to have all but evaporated in terms of the attention it's getting now compared to before the season started.
Remember when the 2013 campaign began just a few weeks ago? It was a Sunday night, and the baseball world was awash with coverage of the Houston Astros' first-ever game as an American League franchise. As a bonus, they were playing their in-state rivals, the Texas Rangers, which amped up the hype up that much more.
The next day, the Cincinnati Reds, baseball's original professional franchise, hosted an interleague matchup against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It marked the first time in the long tradition of the parades, festivities, and overall jubilation that is Opening Day in the Queen City that the opponent was from the junior circuit.
These events were big deals, the subject of much debate and analysis. How would the baseball world adjust to having interleague series being played on an ongoing basis? Would interleague still have that "special event" feeling that it once did (if it ever did)?
How would American League teams adjust their rosters to accommodate these schedule changes, ones that meant benching players such as David Ortiz and Billy Butler for multiple three-game stretches during the year? How would National League teams staff their rosters in anticipation of games that use the designated hitter?
These all seemed like big issues during spring training and in the early days of the regular season. Now, though, they seem to be much ado about nothing. The games are being played, one team or another has to adjust for a few games, and then it's back to normal.
One of the biggest differences I've noticed is that web sites no longer list scores with the NL in the left column and the AL in the right (or vice versa). Instead, they're listed by home park, game time, or some other factor, which makes finding a particular game a bit of a pain.
It will be quite interesting to see how interleague games do at the gate. Without the hype and scheduling benefits of playing interleague series exclusively in the summer and mostly on weekends, will the numbers show higher fan attendance than for intraleague matchups?
My guess is that we'll discover interleague showdowns aren't the attendance panacea they're made out to be. And won't it be fun to pop Bud Selig's bubble on that one?
Greg Simons finally, sadly has conceded that he won't have an MLB playing career. However, in his dreams, he's still the second coming of Ozzie Smith. Please don't wake him up, though you can e-mail him at gregbsimons AT yahoo DOT com.
40th anniversary: Stargell hits one out of Dodger Stadium
Posted by Chris JaffeForty years ago today, Willie Stargell did something that no one else had ever done before and no one else had ever done since. He smacked a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium. Not just out of the playing field, but out into the parking lot itself.
On May 8, 1973, the Dodgers hosted Stargell’s Pirates in a night game at Chavez Ravine. In the top of the fourth inning, Stargell came up with a runner on against Dodger hurler Andy Messersmith when he hit his historic moonshot.
Some places are easy to hit the ball out of. Wrigley Field is famous for having balls leave its park, for instance. In some places, it happens rarely, but at least it still happens. Over a dozen players knocked one out of Tiger Stadium, for example.
But Dodger Stadium is big. It’s one of the biggest parks the game has ever had. That’s why only Stargell has done it in over a half-century of games there.
Oh, I should note that today isn’t the 40th anniversary of the first time a ball left Dodger Stadium. Wait, what? Yeah, you see, while Stargell is the only person to do it, that doesn't mean he did it only once. Stargell first accomplished the feat in 1969, and today is the 40th anniversary of his second parking-lot shot. We’re still waiting for a third occasion.
Yeah, Stargell had some pretty damn impressive power. I’ve always had a theory about him. On a few occasions, I’ve heard people wonder how different our impressions would be of baseball if no one ever took stats. It’s an odd counterfactual, but typically the arguments I’ve seen about it are that we’d still have the same all-time greats.
Babe Ruth was such a force that people would’ve noted it no matter what. Willie Mays would’ve captured everyone’s attention even if we didn’t have the numbers. Barry Bonds—more of the same. Generally speaking, the most awesome talents don’t need numbers to inspire awe.
But if there’s one guy who’s reputation just might rise up a notch or two in a world without stats, it’s Stargell.
Don’t get me wrong. I realize how nice his reputation already is. He made the Hall of Fame, and on the first ballot, no less. But without batting average and career counting numbers, we’d have to rely on the impressions he left in games themselves, and those could be rather powerful things.
Let’s think it through. Without numbers, here’s what would still be true of Stargell. He’s still the guy who hit the ball out of Dodger Stadium, something no one else ever had before or has since. What’s more, that wasn’t a fluke. He smashed the longest homer in Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. It landed so far from the plate that the Phillies painted the seat it hit to honor Stargell. He also hit the longest homer in the history of Stade Olympic in Montreal. Oh, and unsurprisingly, he seemingly monopolized the longest homer memories in Pittsburgh. At one point, Stargell had on his resume the longest homer hit in nearly half of the NL parks.
Imagine what his reputation would be if that’s all we had to go on. As nice as his reputation is now, it would be quite a bit more impressive. That’s because when Stargell was impressive, he was incredibly impressive. And he was rarely as impressive as he was 40 years ago today, when he crushed the ball entirely out of Dodger Stadium.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since the Dodgers blow a seven-run lead in the eighth inning to the Phillies. Philadelphia triumphs, 10-9.
1,000 days since baseball owners unanimously approve the sale of the Rangers to Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan’s group.
4,000 days since Royals reliever Cory Bailey picks up two wins in one day with a "W" in both ends of a doubleheader. He’s the first pitcher to do that since a young David Wells did it in 1989.
5,000 days since Jorge Posada endures his worst game according to WPA: 0-for-4 with a whiff and a walk and a –0.393 WPA.
5,000 days since Barry Bonds hits the fifth of 10 career walk-off home runs.
5,000 days since Edgar Alfonzo of the Mets has a day for the ages: 6-for-6 with three home runs.
5,000 days since Billy Bean (not to be confused with A's GM Billy Beane) comes out of the closet as gay.
5,000 days since Vernon Wells makes his big league debut.
7,000 days since former infielder Elbie Fletcher dies.
7,000 days since former broadcaster John Kruk is diagnosed with testicular cancer.
9,000 days since Kirby Puckett gets his 1,000th hit.
9,000 days since owners unanimously elect A. Bartlett Giamatti commissioner to replace Peter Ueberroth, who declined to serve a second term.
9,000 days since Reds pitcher Tom Browning throws a perfect game. It’s the first NL perfecto in 23 years. It’s also a rain-delayed game.
15,000 days since the players vote to end their first strike. The season will start belatedly two days later.
40,000 days since Hall of Fame shortstop Travis Jackson is born. He’s an ill-deserving Hall of Famer, but a Hall of Famer nonetheless.
Anniversaries
1850 Ross Barnes, great hitter in 1870s, is born.
1858 Dan Brouthers, one of the best hitters in the 19th century, is born.
1871 George Zettlein, one of the hardest throwing pitchers of his day, makes his National Association debut.
1878 Paul Hines starts a triple play, a pretty neat fact given that he plays center field. He catches the ball, runs to third base for the second out and tosses it to second base for the last out. It was a very different game back then.
1890 Kid McGill makes his big league debut at age 16. He’ll post 71 career wins before retiring at age 22. Yeah, it was a different time.
1893 Edd Roush, Hall of Famer interviewed in The Glory of Their Times, is born.
1896 While Billy Nash of the Phillies argues with an umpire over a called strike, savvy Cubs pitcher Clark Griffith takes advantage of the fact that Nash is still standing in the batter’s box to throw the ball at Nash’s bat. The ball doinks off it for a double play.
1899 Harry Wolverton hits a walk-off grand slam: Cubs 8, Spiders 7.
1901 Turkey Stearnes, Hall of Fame Negro Leaguer, is born.
1901 Amos Rusie, star 1890s fastball pitcher, makes his first big league start in over two years, and it’s immediately clear why he hadn’t pitched in so long. The Cardinals destroy him, 14-3.
1902 Here’s a weird one: the Cubs beat the Giants, 10-5, but afterward it’s discovered that the plate is 15 inches closer to the mound that it’s supposed to be. The Giants protest, and the game (and the previous day’s game) is replayed.
1906 Chief Bender would hit only six home runs in his Hall of Fame pitching career, but two come in this game off Jesse Tannehill. Bonus: both are inside-the-park home runs. Extra bonus: Bender wasn’t pitching in this game. Due to injuries, A’s manager Connie Mack put Bender in left field in the sixth inning, and he hit both dingers as a position player.
1907 Big Jeff Pfeffer throws a no-hitter, as the Braves beat the Reds, 6-0.
1911 Pete Alexander hurls the first of his 90 complete-game shutouts.
1912 Yikes! Umpire Brick Owens is hit in the head by an infield throw, knocking him out. His wife is in the stands, sees him get plunked, and passes out. It’s okay, though, as Brick is back to work the next day.
1914 Walter Johnson unleashes reportedly the only bean ball of his career—aimed at star A’s third baseman Frank "Home Run" Baker.
1921 Ty Cobb hits a home run, a triple, and two doubles but no single, so no cycle.
1922 Sam Beardon buys controlling interest in the St. Louis Cardinals.
1922 Philadelphia A’s pitcher Bob Hasty apparently isn’t very good. In one inning of work, he surrenders four triples against the Indians.
1926 A three-alarm blaze at Fenway Park burns down the grandstand roof and left-field bleachers. There won’t be any more left-field seat until the 21st century.
1929 Frankie Frisch legs out his 100th career triple
1929 Carl Hubbell throws no-hitter versus a very tough Pittsburgh Pirate offense. (I once determined it was the third-most impressive lineup ever no-hit. The Giants win, 11-0. He walks one, but two reach on error (both errors are in the ninth). In the game, Hubbell’s teammate Mel Ott hits an inside-the-park homer. It’s his second career insider-the-park homer and 24th homer overall. He’ll never have another inside-the-park one, though.
1930 Freddie Lindstrom hits for the cycle. Even by cycle standards it’s a really cool performance, as his homer was an inside-the-park one.
1934 The White Sox hire Jimmie Dykes as their manager. He’ll last a dozen years on the job.
1935 Ernie Lombardi clubs four doubles in one game, all in consecutive plate appearances.
1936 37-year-old Kiki Cuyler hits his 19th and last inside-the-park home run.
1936 Hall of Fame first baseman Johnny Mize enjoys the first of 30 career multi-home run games.
1937 Bobo Newsom, 200-game winner with a losing career record (211-222), hits his only career home run.
1937 Mike Cuellar, pitcher, is born.
1939 Cards top Dodgers 1-0 as Pepper Martin steals home in the sixth inning.
1939 Chicago Cubs first baseman Phil Cavarretta breaks his leg sliding into second base.
1940 Reds get 27 hits in 23-2 demolition of Dodgers. In the game, Cincinnati’s Harry Craft hits for the cycle.
1940 Chick Fraser dies at age 66. He had a pair of 20-win seasons—but also a pair of 20-loss seasons, and an overall career record of 175-212.
1941 The Boston Braves release former AL star pitcher Wes Ferrell.
1941 Red Ruffing goes 3-for-3 with a home run in a 5-4 Yankees win over the Indians. He may have done more damage at the plate, but was taken out in the sixth, as he allowed 12 base runners while getting only 17 outs.
1941 Bill Joyce, star 1890s third baseman, dies at age 73. he twice led the league in base on balls, and once in home runs.
1942 In a Navy Relief Fund exhibition game between the Dodgers and Giants, everyone—even the players and umpires—pays their way into the stadium, as all proceeds go to the war effort.
1946 Tigers pull off an odd triple play when a line drive bounces off pitcher Hal Newhouser and into the hands of Eddie Mayo. This surprises the base runners enough for the next two outs.
1946 Johnny Pesky becomes the first player in AL history to score six runs in one game.
1947 AP breaks the story that the St. Louis Cardinals reportedly are talking of boycotting a Dodgers game because of Jackie Robinson. This likely amounted to little more than some guys muttering in the clubhouse, and was never a real plan, let alone one involving the entire team.
1948 Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser loses his 100th decision (132-100).
1948 Steve Braun, long lasting batter, is born.
1948 Larry Doby hits reportedly the longest home run at Griffith Stadium in Washington since Babe Ruth in 1922. Doby’s blast hits a loudspeaker 35 feet over the center field wall.
1948 Harry Brecheen nearly pitches a perfect game. He retires all but one of the 28 batters he faces, allowing just a seventh inning single by Johnny Blatnik of the Phillies.
1950 Star Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese gets his 1,000th hit. It took him nearly exactly 1,000 games—1,004, to be precise.
1953 Charlie Grimm wins his 1,000th game as manager (1,000-845).
1953 After losing 13 straight games to the Yankees, the Red Sox top them 2-1 in 11 innings in Boston.
1955 Longtime star first baseman Phil Cavarretta appears in his last game.
1957 Kansas City A’s lose, putting Lou Boudreau’s managerial record under .500 (1,083-1,084). It will stay under from here on out.
1957 Old Folks Ellis Kinder is finally too old—today is his last game.
1957 Ted Williams hits three homers in a game for the second time. He did it 11 years ago.
1958 Never count your chickens before they're hatched—especially if you’re the Cubs. The Cubs allow eight runs in the top of the ninth to the Reds, turning a seemingly impregnable 8-2 lead into a 10-8 defeat at the hands of Cincinnati.
1960 A fourth inning single gives Willie Mays his highest career batting average: .318970 (1,325/4,154).
1961 It’s announced that the New York City NL expansion franchise will be called the Mets.
1963 Bob Buhl, pitcher, singles. It’s his first hit since 1961—and yes, he played all of 1962.
1963 Willie Stargell mashes his first big league home run.
1963 Stan Musial sets a record by hitting his 1,357th extra base hit. Babe Ruth had “only” 1,356.
1964 Willie Mays homers off Phil Ortega, the only hit Mays ever managed off Ortega in 19 plate appearances.
1965 Record longest game in organized baseball is viewed by a paid attendance of 386: Elmira Pioneers 2, Springfield Giants 1 (27). It was 0-0 for 25 innings, but incredibly they both scored in the 26th.
1966 It’s the last game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The Giants win, 10-5.
1966 Barely a month after joining the Orioles, Frank Robinson hits the only ball ever to completely leave Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. He’ll win the Triple Crown in his first year in the AL.
1966 Big trade: Giants send first baseman Orlando Cepeda to St. Louis for pitcher Ray Sadecki. Advantage: St. Louis.
1968 Catfish Hunter throws a perfect game and fans 11 in the process. The losing team was the Minnesota Twins, whose lineup featured Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and Tony Oliva. It’s also Hunter’s 11th straight Quality Start, his longest streak ever. His record in those games: 5-5 W-L, 89 IP, 55 H, 22 R, 20 ER, 19 BB, 66 K, 2.02 ERA. 5-5 with a 2.02 ERA? Welcome to the 1968 American League.
1970 It’s a good thing that White Sox third baseman Beltin’ Bill Melton can hit, because he sure can’t field. Today he makes two errors—his 11th and 12th on the season—but it’s the last one that’s a doozy. He misplays a pop up and it hits him in the face, breaking his nose. He’ll be out for over a week.
1971 The Senators trade Mike Epstein and Darold Knowles to the A’s for Don Mincher, cash, and two others.
1973 A race line is broken—for a few innings anyway. Cubs coach Ernie Banks fills in as manager for a few innings after Whitey Lockman is ejected.
1973 Ralph Miller, one of the last living 19th century players, dies at age 100.
1976 Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant allows nine runs in one outing against the Rangers—but none are earned. In the second inning, the first three batters strike out, reach on error, and then ground out. The next 10 straight batters reach base.
1977 Rod Carew gets two triples in one game. He’ll do it only one other time in his career—and that will come 26 days later.
1978 Royals manager Whitey Herzog tries something different. To try to stop Red Sox star Jim Rice (who enters the day batting .364 with a slugging percentage over .700), Herzog puts more men in the outfield. He goes without a second baseman. Rice goes 2-for-3 with a double and an intentional walk.
1979 It’s an infamous game in Kansas City, as Texas starting pitcher Ed Farmer beans Frank White and Al Cowens in the same game. White has to leave with a broken right hand bone and Cowens with a broken jaw. Cowens in particular clearly thinks this was intentional, as the next time he faces Farmer, he charges the mound. On a ground out. In extra innings. Despite the fact that Cowens is now a Tiger and Farmer now a White Sox.
1981 It’s all Tom Seaver for the Reds. He throws a complete game shutout and belts a home run off Don Sutton.
1981 They call it Billyball. Dave McKay steals home for Billy Martin’s A’s in a 2-0 win.
1981 John Maine, pitcher, is born.
1982 Adrian Gonzalez is born.
1982 Expos release Rodney Scott, causing Bill Lee to walk off the team in protest, which will end his career.
1984 Kirby Puckett has a heckuva big league debut, going 4-for-5. He’s only the 12th person to debut with a four-hit game.
1984 The longest game in AL history begins: White Sox 8, Brewers 7 (25). Due to curfew rules, it will finish the next day. Robin Yount grounds into three double plays in it, his personal worst.
1987 It’s the first of 67 multi-home run games for Mark McGwire.
1988 Chris Chambliss plays in his last game.
1990 Andre Dawson hits his only walk-off home run as a Cub, giving him at least one walk-off home run in three different decades. It’s also his best WPA game: 0.813 WPA. 3-for-5, two homers, two runs, three RBIs, an intentional walk, and a K as Cubs beat Braves, 10-8.
1991 Howard Spira found guilty of trying to extort money from George Steinbrenner.
1992 Jim Leyland manages his 1,000th game. His record is 516-482.
1992 Astros pitcher Butch Henry has a memorable first major league hit: a three-run inside the park homer. But Houston loses, 6-3.
1993 Terry Mulholland pitches 10 innings for the Phillies. It will be nearly 20 years until another Phillies pitcher does that (Cliff Lee in April 2012).
1994 Andy Van Slyke has a fantastic day, going 8-for-9 in doubleheader versus the Cubs.
1995 Jason Giambi plays in his first big league game.
1994 Former star second baseman Steve Sax plays in his last game.
1997 Randy Johnson loses, ending a 16-game winning streak.
1997 Cory Lidle, pitcher, makes his major league debut.
1998 Mark McGwire hits his 400th home run.
1998 Tony Gwynn's home run off Tom Glavine in the first inning raises his career batting average to its all-time peak: .340356 (2,827/8,306).
2000 For the second straight game Craig Biggio is twice hit by a pitch.
2000 Marlins lose to Braves on walk-off balk by John Rocker. It’s 2-2 entering the bottom of the ninth when this happens: single, error on botched pick off, out, out, intentional walk, runner advances to second on defensive indifference, balk. What an ugly inning.
2001 Randy Johnson fans 20 batters in nine innings—but then the game goes 10 innings. Records are normally different for nine- and extra-inning games, so Johnson doesn’t tie the Kerry Wood-Roger Clemens record, but Tom Cheney once fanned 21 in 16 innings, so Johnson isn’t there either.
2001 Here’s a weird milestone: Fred McGriff homers off his 300th different pitcher. Previously, only Mark McGwire, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Eddie Murray, and Reggie Jackson had ever done this.
2003 Giants sign amateur free agent Pablo Sandoval. Good move.
2003 Aaron Boone hits three homers in one game for the second time in his career.
2004 Sammy Sosa strikes out for the 2,000th time. He’s the second guy to do that. Andres Galarraga will become the third later this year. (Reggie Jackson was the first).
2004 Texas Ranger Alfonso Soriano gets six hits in a game—the first time that happened to any batter in that franchise’s history.
2004 For the only time in his career, Greg Maddux lets the opposing pitcher homer off him. It’s Rockies hurler Jason Jennings in Wrigley Field. Pitchers are 162-for-1,250 with 19 doubles and a homer and a .130/.151/.147 AVG/OBP/SLG against Maddux during his full career.
2005 The Pirates release aging catcher Benito Santiago.
2008 That must be one embarrassed catcher: Jim Thome steals his first base since Sept. 25, 2002.
2009 Dom DiMaggio, star center fielder and brother of a Hall of Famer center fielder, dies at the ripe old age of 92. Though overshadowed by big brother Joe, Dom was a great player in his own right, with seven All-Star game selections.
2009 Alex Rodriguez returns to baseball following hip surgery. He homers on the first pitch he sees.
2009 Tampa trades Adam Kennedy to the A’s.
2010 Milwaukee’s Jody Gerut hits for the cycle. It’s an unlikely one as not only is Gerut having a terrible season, but before the game Brewers manager Ken Macha flipped a coin to determine if Gerut or Corey Hart should start in right field. The coin does the job right and Gerut gets the start.
2010 Mark Teixeira hits three homers in a game. It’s the third time he's done that—with three different teams.
2011 Mike Scioscia posts his 1,000 win as manager: 1,000-817 for his career.
2012 You can tell he knows his career is about over. Failing Cubs reliever Kerry Wood flings his glove and hat into the stands after a rotten outing against the Braves. He'll soon announce his retirement.
2012 Josh Hamilton makes history by bashing four home runs in one game. All are two-run shots, and they came off three Baltimore pitchers in a 10-3 Rangers win.
2012 Brandon Inge, of all people, smacks a walk-off grand slam for a 7-3 Oakland triumph over Toronto. Inge just joined Oakland a few days ago, having been recently cut by the Tigers, where he’d spent his entire career.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraBraves 7, Reds 4: The Braves weren't going to be able to maintain any sort of momentum if the offense was all Justin Upton -- who can't do it alone -- and Evan Gattis -- who is, after all, a rookie. Last night they had help from Andrelton Simmons who hit two bombs and drove in four.
White Sox 2, Royals 1: James Shields was brilliant for eight innings. Ned Yost didn't let him come out for the ninth, though, going with his closer with a 1-0 lead. His closer blew it and eventually the Royals lost the game. Yost's explanation for why he didn't send Shields out to finish his shutout:
"Everybody has their job to do and Shields had done his," Yost said. "He threw eight shutout innings. It was a one-run game. The runs make all the difference. If it was a two-run or a three-run lead, yeah. But in a one-run game, (if) you send him out he's either going to win it or lose it. You let the closer go out and try to do his job."
It'd be one thing to simply sit back and second guess Yost. If it had worked, great. But that explanation would be brain dead even if Greg Holland had struck out the side and gotten the save. Yost is clearly saying here that he's letting bullpen roles dictate his moves. He has a closer, dadgummit, and he's going to let him close. It'd be one thing if Shields was tired. Or if the guys coming up had historic success against Shields and he didn't want to press his luck. But no, Yost's thinking is "you use this guy in the ninth inning and it is the ninth inning, so ..." Which is just enraging.
Cubs 9, Rangers 2: Scott Feldman threw seven scoreless against his old teammates. He came out though due to a cramp in his hand. Not because Ned Yost called Dale Sveum and told him he should go with this eighth inning guy.
Indians 7, Athletics 3: Man, Mark Reynolds hit that one a long, long way. It was his 10th homer. He's now hitting .296/.363/.622.
Diamondbacks 9, Dodgers 2: I wonder if, on a mutual off day, Don Mattingly and Mike Scioscia go boat shopping together. Trevor Cahill allowed two runs and six hits in six innings. Also had a two-run triple.
Red Sox 6, Twins 5: Minnesota had a 3-0 lead at one point but the Sox chipped away, scoring one run in every inning between the fourth and the eighth. Then Stephen Drew, who had four hits on the night, hit a walkoff double with two outs in the 11th. Clay Buchholz gave up four runs on seven hits in four innings and his forearm wasn't glistening nearly as much in this game. Hurm.
Padres 5, Marlins 0: I guess the 14 runs the Marlins scored on Sunday were meant to last them for the week. Andrew Cashner shut 'em out into the eighth inning for his longest start of his career.
Blue Jays 8, Rays 7: Toronto was down 7-0 after three and had pulled to within two by the ninth. Then came a two-run, two-out homer from J.P. Arencibia off Fernando Rodney, who was trying for a five-out save. Maybe someone should have called Ned Yost and talked about what the closer's job description was. Colby Rasmus and Mark DeRosa also hit two-run homers.
Phillies 6, Giants 2: Cliff Lee was solid for eight innings, Michael Young had three hits and drove in two and this, dadgummit, is how it was supposed to look for Philly. The Giants' win streak ends at six.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Josh Donaldson and the myth of the ‘New Moneyball’
Posted by Pat AndriolaThe 2012 Josh Donaldson seems like Billy Beane's offseason hopes coming true: a player the organization had high hopes for helping out during a playoff run. A former first-round pick and catching prospect with the Cubs who came to Oakland in the Rich Harden trade way back in 2008, Donaldson displayed skills that made it understandable why he'd fit into the Bay Area. He walked a good amount, struck out a good amount, hit for decent power, and was defensively strong and versatile. Despite just a .241/.289/.398 slash line (good for a 90 wRC+), Donaldson played a stellar third base (5.5 runs added in just 75 games) and totaled 1.5 WAR, a solid contribution from a low-salary player on the fringes of the 25-man roster.
The 2013 Josh Donaldson is Billy Beane's wildest dreams coming true: a player the organization had high hopes for really figuring it out. At a time when Josh Reddick (.241 wOBA), Chris Young (.289 wOBA), and Eric Sogard (.268 wOBA) are all struggling at the plate, Donaldson is one of a handful of surprising Oakland hitters stepping up in a big way. The right-handed hitter is hitting .303/.387/.487, good for a 143 wRC+. His .380 wOBA is fourth among all third basemen in the major leagues, ahead of the likes of Pablo Sandoval, Adrian Beltre, Will Middlebrooks, and Manny Machado.
His defense isn't as great as it was last year (according to UZR), but he's still in the top third of all third basemen. This from a guy who hit .238 at 24 years old in the immensely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Driving Donaldson's success is his high walk rate, which jumped from 4.8 percent last season to 12.4 thus far this year. It isn't too much a surprise, given he had rates of 18.3 percent in Low-A ball, 14.8 in Double-A, and 12.9 in Triple-A; still, that puts him ahead of Miguel Cabrera among all third basemen (trailing only David Wright). Donaldson is a perfect microcosm of the A's as a whole. No real superstars, but solid hitters up and down the lineup. Their shortstop has a .386 wOBA. Their center fielder is at .402. Both their catchers are above average hitters.
There's a subtle but discernible meme out there that the Athletics have reworked their earlier Moneyball philosophy by focusing on defense, speed, and other supposed market inefficiencies, jettisoning their early 2000s approach of Three True Outcomes in favor of a nimble outfield and a higher batting average. That couldn't be further from the truth.
In fact, the current installment has higher strikeout and walk rates than the 2002 version, as well as just as poor defense (a team total of -12.8 UZR so far this year, the worst in baseball). The A's team walk rate is first in baseball, and the difference between them and the second team (Boston) is the same as the difference between Boston and the ninth overall team (Colorado).
Some people think the Moneyball strategy was idiosyncratic, a formula that would not work today. But homers and walks are still valuable, and there's no indication of their decline. In fact, in lower run scoring environments, they're as important as ever. Josh Donaldson is the new Scott Hatteberg.
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
90th anniversary: Casey Stengel goes bonkers
Posted by Chris JaffeNinety years ago today, Casey Stengel completely lost his composure on the ball field.
Everyone has heard of Stengel, but the popular image of him is entirely that of a manager. That makes sense, as he won ten pennants in 12 seasons helming the Yankees, including the unprecedented trick of five straight world titles from 1949 to 1953.
Besides, he had this great folksy, artfully incoherent manner about him that made him colorful and quotable. When I say “artfully incoherent,” I mean that literally. Sportswriter Leonard Koppett once noted that Stengel’s habit of doubletalk was largely an act. It forced the listener to pay closer attention and could get Stengel out of situations through sheer “huh?”-ness.
For example, when he spoke before the US Senate about baseball’s anti-trust exemption, his thoughts were so impossible to follow that Mickey Mantle brought the house down by following up Stengel’s testimony with the great deadpan one-liner, “My views are about the same as Casey’s on this manner.”
Anyhow, when we think of Stengel, we think of the manager. But, of course, before then he’d been a player. Like many managers, he’d been a feisty son of a gun as a player. That makes sense because, if you’re not going to be passionate about wins and losses when you’re in the game, how can you keep that level of interest up as you age and your blood cools? Similarly, a young Tommy Lasorda was always a fighter, and the lovable persona he developed only came later.
But never was Stengel as ornery or as feisty as he was on May 7, 1923, 90 years ago today. Hell, ornery and feisty are far too mild words. Ballistic is more like it.
Stengel was a 32-year-old outfielder nearing the end of his career playing for John McGraw’s Giants against the typically sad-sack Phillies in Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl.
Early on, it looked like a wonderful day for Stengel and his teammates. In the top of the first, they pulverized starting Phillies pitcher, Lee Meadows. They chased him from the game before he recorded a single out. Six up and six in, including Stengel, who singled in teammate Frankie Frisch and then scored himself moments later on Ross Youngs’ double.
So far, so good.
But a few innings later, Stengel came up again, and things went completely off the rails. By this time a southpaw, Lefty Weinert, was on the mound for Philly. When Stengel came up, Weinert threw one right at him, decking him.
Clearly, Stengel thought it was intentional, because he went after Weinert. Stengel didn’t just go after him, though. First he threw his bat at the pitcher, and then went for the mound. Benches clear and all hell broke loose, but Stengel couldn’t be calmed down. Eventually, two of Philadelphia’s finest came on the field and arrested Stengel, walking him off in handcuffs.
Stengel soon would be released, but he did earn a suspension. My source says it was a 10-game suspension, but he didn’t play until June 2. Then again, maybe McGraw was upset with Stengel. Because even when Stengel returned, he didn’t actually start a game until July 12 after serving for nearly six weeks as a pinch hitter.
Oh, Weinert was thumbed for the fight, as well. There was no suspension for him, though. He played again four days later.
What happened? Was Weinert doing some payback for the first-inning rally? Then why choose Stengel? There were at least three extra-base hits that inning, and Stengel just singled?
Was there some bad blood between them? Stengel had been a teammate of Weinert’s on the Phillies in 1920-21. If this incident tells us anything, it’s that they weren’t best buddies. (Or they were, and Stengel was therefore that much more irate at the beaning).
Looking it up, this was the sixth time that Weinert had pitched against the Giants since Stengel had been traded there from the Phillies. Stengel had appeared in two of those games but never matched up against Weinert. In on case he pinch-hit for a pitcher in the bottom of the sixth, and Weinert pitched in the eighth. The other time, Weinert faced just one batter—the last Giants batter in a 13-inning game—and Stengel should’ve been the man up immediately prior to that.
So this was the first time Weinert ever faced Stengel since they had ceased to be teammates—and he threw a fastball right at him. No, it doesn’t sound like they got along as teammates, and it looks like this was Weinert’s first chance to nail Stengel, and Stengel knew it and went crazy.
That’s as near as I can tell just by looking at the gamelogs. Whatever the rationale behind it, Stengel was as upset as he’s even been on the baseball field, and it was 90 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Dave Bush allows four straight Arizona Diamondbacks home runs in the fourth inning.
1,000 days since Mets reliever Francisco Rodriguez is arrested at Citi Field for allegedly assaulting his father-in-law after a loss to the Rockies (a loss Rodriguez hadn’t pitched in).
2,000 days since Joe Nuxhall dies.
3,000 days since the mother of Ugueth U. Urbina is rescued after five months in the jungles of Venezuela after being kidnapped. She’d been surrounded by explosives to prevent her escape.
4,000 days since Aaron Harang makes his big league debut.
7,000 days since the Reds sign free agent shortstop Tony Fernandez. This is during one of his occasional non-Toronto stops.
9,000 days since Davey Concepcion appears in his last game.
9,000 days since Randy Johnson makes his big league debut.
15,000 days since Paul Lo Duca is born.
20,000 days since Duke Snider has perhaps his worst game ever, going 0-for-4 with 4 strikeouts.
25,000 days since commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis dies.
Anniversaries
1874 Case Patten, pitcher, is born. He’ll post three successive 20-loss seasons with the Washington Senators from 1903 to 1905.
1880 George Gore, star outfielder for the Cubs, gets six hits in one game.
1880 Mickey Doolan, infielder, is born. He’ll be a lousy hitter (.230 career average, 72 OPS+) but be good enough with the glove to last 11 years as a starter.
1887 Star hitter Tip O’Neill hits for the cycle for the second time in his career.
1896 Tom Zachary, pitcher, is born. He’ll last nearly 20 years but be famous primarily as the man who surrendered No. 60 to Babe Ruth in 1927.
1903 It’s the first Yankees-Red Sox game. Boston wins, 6-2.
1903 Hall of Fame outfielder Fred Clarke hits for his second cycle.
1904 Hall of Fame pitcher Ed Walsh makes his big league debut for the White Sox.
1907 Wild Bill Donovan of the Tigers steals second, third, and home in the fifth inning against Cleveland. No wonder they call him wild. Added bonus: this wild baserunner is actually a star pitcher.
1911 A young Shoeless Joe Jackson hits an inside-the-park grand slam in the top of the 12th for Cleveland.
1915 7,000 Cleveland fans endure freezing weather to celebrate Nap Lajoie Day. Nap is now with the A’s, and this is his first trek to Cleveland this season.
1917 Babe Ruth beats Walter Johnson, 1-0. Not only does Ruth pitch a shutout, he also drives in Boston’s only run.
1921 Babe Ruth hits what is supposed to be the longest home run ever hit in Washington, D.C. It’s off Walter Johnson. Man, Ruth had Johnson’s number on May 7. In the same game, Ruth’s teammate Bob Meusel hits for the cycle.
1922 Ty Cobb laces out his 500th career double.
1922 Giants hurler Jesse Barnes throws a no-hitter. He walks just one in a 6-0 win over the Phillies.
1922 Eppa Rixey loses, dropping his all-time career record to 19 games under .500 (107-126). He’ll rally and make the Hall of Fame.
1925 George J. Burns gets his 2,000th career hit.
1925 Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright achieves the rarest play in baseball, the unassisted triple play.
1925 For the eight straight day, the Phillies’ game is postponed due to rain.
1927 Lou Gehrig becomes the first person to hit a ball onto the new right field pavilion at Comiskey Park. It’s a grand slam off Ted Lyons, the second of Gehrig’s record 23 career grand slams.
1929 Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams is born.
1933 Goose Goslin gets his 2,000th career hit.
1933 Carl Hubbell achieves his 12th straight Quality Start, his all-time longest such streak. His line in that time: 7-2 W-L, 107.2 IP, 82 H, 23 R, 17 ER, 15 BB, 64 K, and a 1.42 ERA.
1933 The Cardinals and Reds have a six-player trade the sends shortstop Leo Durocher to St. Louis and infielder Sparky Adams and starting pitcher Paul Derringer to Cincinnati.
1936 Cleveland Indians fixture Mel Harder wins his 100th game. His career record is 100-81 and counting.
1940 The Brooklyn Dodgers become the first club to travel by commercial airliner. It won’t really catch on for a while more.
1940 The Cardinals tie an NL record with seven homers in one game, and they get another half-dozen extra-base hits in their 18-2 demolition of the Dodgers.
1941 The Pirates trade Hall of Fame outfielder Lloyd Waner to the Braves.
1949 Mort Cooper appears in his last game.
1950 Jackie Robinson belts his 100th major league home run.
1950 Old Aches and Pains Luke Appling legs out his 100th triple.
1951 Johnny Vander Meer, of back-to-back no-hit fame, pitches in his last game.
1957 OUCH! Young stud pitcher Herb Score gets drilled in the right eye socket by a Gil McDougald line drive come-backer. Score hemorrhages blood as the ball caroms to third baseman Al Smith. He has to leave the game right away, and Hall of Famer Bob Lemon comes on to pitch 8.1 innings in relief, his longest relief outing, for a 2-1 Cleveland win over New York. Score will never be the same.
1959 It’s Roy Campanella Night for the Dodgers. 93,103 are on hand at the Los Angeles Coliseum, even though Campanella never actually played in LA.
1959 Stan Musial belts his 400th career home run.
1960 The Dodgers trade Sandy Amoros, defensive hero of their 1955 world title team, to the Tigers.
1960 Carl Furillo, one of the Boys of Summer Brooklyn Dodgers, appears in his last game.
1960 It’s brotherly love when Dodgers backup catcher Norm Sherry hits a walk-off homer in the 11th to give his brother, relief pitcher Larry Sherry, a win.
1961 Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones, a star on the 1950 Whiz Kids Phillies pennant winner, plays in his last game.
1962 Houston trades former star pitcher Bobby Shantz to the Cardinals.
1962 The Mets trade Don Zimmer to the Reds.
1966 Bing Miller, outfielder for Connie Mack’s second dynasty, dies at age 71.
1966 With their team off to a 4-16 start and coming off their first losing season in 40 years, the Yankees fire skipper Johnny Keane.
1969 Expos manager Gene Mauch, furious that his pitcher has been called for a balk, kicks a rosin bag 10 feet. Then he kicks it 20 feet. Then he punts the ball in the air. Naturally, this earns him an ejection.
1970 Frank Robinson hits the home run with the highest value, according to WPA at any rate. It’s a two-out, three-run walk-off blast that turns a 6-5 Orioles deficit versus Kansas City into an 8-6 win. It’s worth 0.914 WPA.
1970 Dodgers first baseman Wes Parker finishes off his cycle in style, with a 10th-inning triple.
1970 Brook Fordyce, catcher, is born.
1972 The Mets lose, 1-0 in 13 innings, to the Expos in heartbreaking manner on a walk-off error.
1974 It’s just the eighth homer of Dave Winfield’s career, but he’ll never have another quite like it. It comes in the top of the 13th, the latest he ever goes deep in a game.
1974 Texas trades pitcher Larry Gura to the Yankees.
1975 Sal Bando whallops the seventh and last grand slam of his career.
1975 Dick Allen is holding out from the Braves, so they trade him along with future AL manager Johnny Oates to the Phillies for Barry Bonnell, Jim Essian, and $150,000. Allen is willing to return to the Phillies, a team he hated playing for in the 1960s, when he finds out the fans want him back.
1978 The Pirates steal eight bases off Tommy John in eight attempts. That’s easily the worst job John ever does holding runners.
1980 Pascual Perez, a colorful 1980s pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1981 Six days after his first career home run (which was a walk-off blast), Tim Raines gets No. 2, which is an inside-the-park shot. He never legs out another one.
1982 Veteran flaky southpaw Bill Lee appears in his last game.
1982 Nolan Ryan gets blitzed, tying his personal-worst Game Score ever: 7. His line: 2.2 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 1 BB, and 4 K.
1983 Steve Garvey gets his 2,000th career hit.
1983 For the first time in nearly five years, aging Reds catcher Johnny Bench gets a triple.
1984 The Giants lose, dropping manager Frank Robinson’s career record under .500 (419-420). He’ll be under .500 for the rest of his career.
1984 First baseman James Loney is born.
1985 San Francisco is no longer a DiSaster area as the club trades longtime whipping boy Johnnie LeMaster (nicknamed DiSaster) to the Indians. Though never a fan favorite, the fans' disdain for LeMaster had grown so bad that earlier this year he took the field with a uniform that said “BOO” on back instead of his name.
1986 Longtime superlative fielding center fielder Garry Maddox announces his retirement.
1988 The Yankees sign free agent Chris Chambliss, returning him to the club with which he had his most famous moments.
1989 It begins! Groundbreaking for New Comiskey Park, a.k.a. U.S. Cellular Field, occurs in Chicago.
1991 Harold Baines belts three home runs in one game. It’s the third time he’s done that.
1992 White Sox pitcher Charlie Hough’s knuckler isn’t knuckling in any of the right directions. In the first inning, he walks in three runs. He walks the last five batters he faces, and then the reliever walks the first batter he faces. Yeesh. And the fun keeps going from there. Boston’s Jack Clark walks to drive in a run in two straight innings.
1992 Kenny Lofton hits his first career home run.
1993 The Dodgers release former star catcher Lance Parrish, whom Cleveland immediately signs.
1995 Larry Walker connects for his 100th home run.
1995 Braves manager Bobby Cox is arrested on domestic battery. Charges will be dropped on Sept. 1 after Cox undergoes counseling.
1995 Exactly one week after laying down his first sacrifice bunt, Manny Ramirez lays down his second and last one. He’ll have 9,337 more plate appearances without doing that again. (Then again, why would a manager want him to do it? If there’s every a time you want Manny to be Manny, it’s at the plate).
1995 Former right fielder Gus Bell dies at age 66. He made four All-Star teams with the Reds in the 1950s.
1996 Mike Piazza gets his 100th home run.
1996 Damn shame to hear: Brett Butler is diagnosed with throat cancer.
1998 Preston Wilson makes his big league debut.
1999 It’s the first duel between Japanese pitchers. Well, the first duel in America, anyway. Hideki Irabu of the Yankees faces off against Seattle’s Mac Suzuki.
1999 Bruce Aven swats the first pinch-hit grand slam in Florida Marlins history.
1999 The Rockies tie an NL record by scoring in 14 straight innings. The 1894 Pirates and 1949 Giants also did it. The AL record is 17, held by the 1903 Red Sox.
1999 Tampa’s Fred McGriff sets a new record by homering in his 34th ballpark, Cleveland’s Jacobs Field. Unfortunately for McGriff and his teammates, they blow a 9-1 lead in a 20-11 loss. The Indians score 18 runs in the final three frames.
1999 For the only time in his lengthy career, Kenny Lofton reaches base via catcher’s interference.
1999 Carlos Lee makes his big league debut for the White Sox and homers in his first at-bat. No previous White Sox player ever had done that.
1999 Pedro Martinez fans 15 Angels in eight scoreless innings. It’s his first time with that many Ks, but it won’t be the last.
1999 WPA thinks this is Barry Larkin’s greatest performance ever. He’s 3-for-4 with a double and a walk in Cincinnati’s 3-2 win over the Cubs for a 0.833 WPA.
2001 Pete Harnisch appears in his last game.
2002 Manager Bobby Valentine endures his 1,000 dugout loss. His record is 1,060-1,000.
2003 Mike Mussina enjoys a career-high ninth straight win. His line in that time: 10 G, 10 GS, 67 IP, 45 H, 12 R, 10 ER, 10 BB, 79 K, and a 1.34 ERA.
2003 Wayne Terwillinger, at age 79, becomes the oldest manager in minor league history. Connie Mack managed at an even older age in the majors, and a decade later Jack McKeon will do likewise.
2004 Edgar Martinez belts his 500th career double.
2005 The highly paid Barry Zito becomes the first Giants pitcher since Bill Clarkson in 1927 to start the year 0-7.
2008 Carlos Gomez of the Twins hits for the cycle.
2008 Joey Votto belts three home runs in one game.
2009 Arizona fires manager Bob Melvin.
2009 Major League Baseball bans Manny Ramirez for 50 games for violating the game’s performance-enhancing-drug policy. Civilization is doomed.
2010 Age ain’t nothing but a number. In this case, that number is 47. Despite his advancing years, Jamie Moyer posts the best Game Score of his career: 88. With his two-hitter, he becomes the oldest person ever to throw a complete-game shutout.
2010 For the first time since 1980, the Twins suffer their first home rainout. Welcome to the great outdoors at Target Field.
2010 At age 20, Starlin Castro makes his big league debut as Cubs shortstop. He hits a three-run homer in his first at-bat and follows that up with a bases-loaded triple. Six RBIs are a modern record for a debut game.
2011 Justin Verlander no-hits the Toronto Blue Jays. It’s his second no-hitter. It’s nearly a perfect game, as he walks just one batter, and that man is erased in a double play.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Monday, May 06, 2013
The National League Graph, 2013
Posted by Dave StudemanYesterday, I published the American League version of a Team Runs graph—so today is National League Graph day. Every graph deserves its own day, right?
Anyway, to mostly repeat what I said yesterday, here is a simple runs scored/allowed graph for the National League this year, through Sunday's games. Runs scored are on the X axis, and runs allowed are on the Y axis. I changed the Y axis so that teams that allow fewer runs are at the top of the graph—this way, the best teams are in the upper right-hand corner, which is how most people naturally interpret graphs.
I also added dotted lines that represent an expected winning percentage based on runs scored and allowed; the number next to the team's name indicates how far its actual record varies from its expected record. (Recall that teams tend to regress to their expected winning percentage, particularly in one-month samples)
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So what does the graph tell us? Here are some of the things I see:
- The best teams in the league—the Cardinals, Braves and Reds—are also the best pitching and fielding teams.
- The Cardinals have also been very strong offensively, outclassed only by the park-enhanced Rockies.
- Yet one of the biggest surprises is the Mets' offense, which is about equal to the Cards'.
- The Nationals have been a bit of a disappointment so far but they've been even worse according to their basic runs scored and allowed. Their actual record is two games better than their projected record.
- Other teams outperforming theirruns record are the Pirates, Phillies and Giants. The Phillies are a particular surprise, because they are 5-10 in games decided by two runs or less. Perhaps that 14-run loss to the Marlins Sunday is a big factor.
- Speaking of which, the Marlins' offense looked really bad until Sunday's 14-run outburst. It's still the worst in the league.
- The Cubs have won two games fewer than expected. According to Win Probability Added, their bullpen has been the worst in the majors.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraCardinals 10, Brewers 1: The four-game sweep of the Brewers. Four RBI for Allen Craig. That's six straight wins for the Cards, who are in their customary first place position in rather quiet fashion. The six first place teams right now: Boston, Detroit, Texas, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Francisco. Not many surprises there. I guess the Red Sox would be the biggest one, and it's not like they're some Cinderella story. Viva Big Team Hegemony.
Braves 9, Mets 4: A double, a homer and three RBI for Freddie Freeman. Reed Johnson drove in three two. Meanwhile Brian McCann is likely coming back today, and will take at bats away from Evan Gattis. Reed Johnson will continue to come off the bench. B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla, however, will continue to play every single day to no apparently effective purpose.
Twins 4, Indians 2: Mike Pelfrey: stopper. Or something. He pitched well and the Indians' six-game winning streak comes to an end. Brutal stretch here for the Twins as they came off Detroit to play the hot Indians and now on to Boston. Had to win one in there somewhere lest this become the road trip from Hell which effectively ends the competitive portion of Minnesota's season.
Nationals 6, Pirates 2: Clint Hurdle intentionally walked Adam LaRoche to get to Tyler Moore. Moore then hit a three run homer. Didn't watch the game but I'm guessing there was a nice iso camera shot on Hurdle right after that. And that Hurdle knew it and just chewed his gum and stared straight ahead for a few seconds. Man's a pro. He knows how to handle those situations. Oh, and Bryce Harper's day ended early because of an Ump Show.
Athletics 5, Yankees 4: Not a great day for Andy Pettitte, giving up a couple of homers and walking four. The Yankees clawed back, however, only to see Josh Donaldson take Boone Logan into the upper deck in the eighth inning. Grant Balfour got into trouble late but held on.
Blue Jays 10, Mariners 2: I guess Toronto is going to win some games. And winning one in a blowout will help that embarrassingly poor run differential get better faster. Mark DeRosa hit a three-run homer. Melky hit a solo shot. Brandon Morrow was on point for eight innings.
Reds 7, Cubs 4: Was at a restaurant last night. In the bar there was some greatest highlights of the year kind of show. They showed Ben Revere's amazing catch in center at Great American Ballpark against the Reds from earlier this year. I didn't recognize the show as a past highlights show at first because I wasn't really paying attention. Thought it was SportsCenter or something. My brain: "wait, the Phillies aren't in Cincy, whaaaaa ....?" It took me far longer to reconcile all of that than it should have. In other news, the restaurant I was in last night makes great, great martinis. Maybe that should be "in related news ..."
Royals 6, White Sox 5: Late heroics in Kansas City. Billy Butler with a two-out, two-run double in the ninth to tie it on a pitch which, had he missed it, would have ended the game. Alex Gordon hit a bases-loaded single in the 10th to win it. The Royals have come from behind in 11 of their 17 wins this season. Also: the Royals have 17 wins this season. And a lot of people laughed when I picked them to finish ahead of the White Sox back in March.
Marlins 14, Phillies 2: Is this the end for Roy Halladay? Adeiny Hechavarria hit a grand slam and a bases-loaded triple off of him, and now he's heading to the DL. This is the stuff of long absences and, in some cases, the end of a pitcher's career. Let's hope this isn't a Brandon Webb or Johan Santana situation.
Rangers 4, Red Sox 3: I watched this one until it was 3-0 Red Sox and thought "well, Darvish has some good stuff, but he's leaving things up, so this probably won't end well." It ended well, as the Davids Ortiz and Ross homers were all the damage the Sox would do, while Darvish struck out 14. He's doing a lot of that striking out hitters thing lately.
Padres 5, Diamondbacks 1: Back to back homers by Jedd Gyorko and Will Venable and a solid outing from Edinson Volquez, as the camo-clad Padres win. The once-struggling Padres have won eight of 11. Arizona is on a mini-skid.
Orioles 8, Angels 4: I feel like the O's have been on the west coast for three years. OK, just checked: it was 11 games. And they won seven of them. Not too shabby. The Angels, meanwhile, continue their worst start in franchise history and have dropped seven of nine. Not that Seven of Nine is a bad thing at all.
Tigers 9, Astros 0: This was more of a snuff film than a baseball series. I kept wanting to throw a towel into the ring. The Tigers outscored the Astros 39-8 in the four-game series.
Rays 8, Rockies 3: If you give up three runs in Coors Field you can win as long as there aren't runners on base. That's what Alex Cobb did anyway. [Craig randomly looks at the box score, notices James Loney is hitting .398/.444/.532, spits coffee out all over the screen].
Giants 4, Dodgers 3: I have a houseguest from Los Angeles at the moment. We got home and watched some of the Dodgers game last night. It's a month into the season and this Dodgers fan already has a feeling of inevitable blah, predicting the bad things like first-pitch-swing outs for Juan Uribe and stuff. The Dodgers have a new feel about them, but they also have an old feel about them.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Sunday, May 05, 2013
The American League Graph, 2013
Posted by Dave StudemanI've been creating these graphs for about 20 years or so. For a while, I mostly created them for myself, because I'm kind of a visual person. When the Internet came along, I posted them on a website of my own (http://www.baseballgraphs.com) and then I moved them here to the Hardball Times nearly ten years ago. They've stood my own subjective test of time, so I'm going to force one of them on you today.
Here is a simple runs scored/allowed graph for the American League this year, through Saturday's games. Runs scored are on the X axis, and runs allowed are on the Y axis. I changed the Y axis so that teams that allow fewer runs are at the top of the graph—this way, the best teams are in the upper right-hand corner, which is how most people naturally interpret graphs.
I also added dotted lines that represent an expected winning percentage based on runs scored and allowed; the number next to the team's name indicates how far their actual record varies from their expected record. (Recall that teams tend to regress to their expected winning percentage, particularly in one-month samples.
So what does the graph say? A few fundamental, probably unsurprising, things:
- The Rangers are the best team in the league so far (highest above the .600 line) and they're doing it with the best pitching and fielding in the league. Their offense has been average to date.
- The Red Sox and Tigers are nearly as good as the Rangers; not-quite-as-good-but-still-excellent pitching and fielding, yet stronger offenses.
- The Indians are better positioned than the Yankees, but their actual records are reversed because of differences between their runs scored/allowed and their actual wins and losses. The Yankees are 11-2 in games decided by two runs or fewer.
- The surprising Royals are about as good as the Red Sox and Tigers on defense and as good as the Rangers on offense.
- On the other hand, the disappointing Blue Jays have the worst offense—just behind the White Sox and Mariners—and the second-worst defense.
- The Astros have the worst defense (that is, pitching and fielding) by far.
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
Saturday, May 04, 2013
50th anniversary: Braves balk-a-thon
Posted by Chris JaffeFifty years ago today, the Braves made the history books—but not in a good way. It wasn’t a terrible day they had, but it sure was a terribly frustrating day for their pitchers, especially starter Bob Shaw. He committed a record five balks and the club ended the day with the all-time high, six.
On May 4, 1963, the Milwaukee Braves hosted the Chicago Cubs, and it didn’t take long for Shaw to start bulking up on balks.
With two outs in the first, Shaw allowed a single to Billy Williams. That was the first Cubs base runner. A few minutes later Williams stood on second, thanks to the first balk of the day.
In the second inning, Shaw allowed three base runners, but managed to get out of the inning without issuing a balk.
Sure enough, in the third, Williams led off with another single. He must’ve been dancing around off the back something fierce, because soon enough Shaw had once again balked him to second. And things weren’t done yet. Before you knew it, Williams induced another Shaw balk. That was three, all of which advanced Williams.
And the inning still wasn’t over.
After two outs failed to advance Williams, leaving him seemingly stranded on third, Shaw walked shortstop Andre Rodgers. And wouldn’t you know it—Shaw balked yet again. That finished off balking Williams around the bases. Three balks in one inning, and four on the day.
In the fourth inning Shaw managed to avoid another balk despite putting base stealing threat Lou Brock on base, but that was his last hurrah. In the fifth, he allowed singles to Williams (of course!) and Ernie Banks. And that’s when Shaw unleashed balk No. 5. No one else has ever balked five times in one outing, and Shaw did it in five innings. Rather interestingly, Williams was the lead runner for all five balks. Did Williams have the whammy or him or was it just a coincidence? Who knows?
Anyhow, after the fifth balk Shaw walked two straight batters and then had to take a walk to the showers. The bullpen generally avoided balks, but in the eighth Denny Lemaster issued their sixth balk of the game. The runner? Would you believe it was yet again Williams. Whatever Williams did on the bases that day sure was working.
Oh, and the Cubs issued a balk of their own, one that scored a run when umpires called Paul Toth for it in the seventh. Truly the umpires were looking for the balk that day. The Cubs won, 7-5, but more memorable than the score were all those pesky balks.
Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that occurred X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Brandon Morrow has one of the greatest starts in Blue Jays history, fanning 17 in a complete game one-hit 1-0 win over Tampa. The hit is by Evan Longoria and comes with two outs in the ninth.
1,000 days since Jody Davis, manager of the Boise Hawks, gets a six-game suspension for pulling his team off the field. Davis contends that rain made the field unsafe, but umpires disagree, so it’s a forfeit for the team and a suspension for Davis.
2,000 days since the Cubs trade outfielder Jacque Jones to Detroit for Omar Infante.
4,000 days since Rickey Henderson plays in his 3,000th game.
4,000 days since Tigers pitcher Jeff Weaver nearly no-hits the Indians. An eighth-inning double by Chris Magruder gives him a one-hitter instead.
4,000 days since Minnesota’s Gov. Jesse Ventura approves of a $330 million framework agreement to finance building an open air stadium in Minnesota. The deal requires a $120 million down payment by the Twins.
4,000 days since the A’s shock the sabermetric world by trading Jeremy Giambi to the Phillies for John Mabry.
4,000 days since highly touted pitching prospect Mark Prior makes his big league debut.
5,000 days since Jeff Kent gets his 1,000th hit.
5,000 days since Vladimir Guerrero’s best career hit streak peaks at 31 games. He’s 49-for-121 with 12 doubles, a triple, and 11 home runs in this span.
8,000 days since Orel Hershiser records his 100th career win. He’s 100-66 in his career so far.
9,000 days since Eddie Murray laces his 2,000th hit.
20,000 days since Robin Roberts wins game No. 200. He’s 200-151 on his career so far. He’ll be under .500 (86-94) for the rest of his time, though.
Anniversaries
1869 The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team, play their first game. It’s a 45-9 romp over the Great Westerns of Cincinnati.
1871 The National Association, the primordial major league, plays its first game. Bobby Mathews is a starting pitcher and Ezra Sutton and Hall of Famer Deacon White also play that day.
1875 Charley Jones, one of the best sluggers of his generation, makes his major league debut. So do George Bradley (a fine pitcher for several years), and Silver Flint (a durable catcher).
1889 Jerry Denny, player for the NL’s Indianapolis club, gets six hits in one game.
1892 Jack Tobin is born. He’ll be a fine outfielder for the 1920s Browns, leading the 1921 AL in triples and at bats.
1902 George Mullin, a good Tigers pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1906 The Braves trade veteran pitcher Chick Fraser to the Reds for a player to be named later.
1910 President William Howard Taft attends two games in one day in St. Louis. He is our first president who is a big baseball fan.
1910 Today’s Reds-Cardinals game features a record 23 walks. The Cards receive 16 of them.
1911 For the only time in his career, Honus Wagner hits a ball over the fence for a grand slam. He has four other slams, but they are all inside the park ones.
1916 Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson allows an opposing pitcher to belt a homer over the fence against him. Lefty Tyler is the pitcher. Mathewson allowed another homer from a pitcher back in 1901, but that bounced over the fence (and back then those could be homers).
1922 Hall of Fame Tigers outfielder Harry Heilmann smacks his only career walk-off homer. It’s a doozy, too. With the Tigers trailing the Browns 5-3 and two on, he hits a three-run shot off Elam Vangilder.
1923 Hall of Famer Edd Roush legs out his 100th career triple. It takes him just 1,044 games to get there. It was a very different time.
1928 Ty Cobb becomes the second member of the 700-double club, joining Tris Speaker. All these years later only two have joined them: Stan Musial and Pete Rose.
1928 Hall of Fame starting pitcher Herb Pennock notches his ninth straight win, his longest streak. He has a 1.96 ERA in that span, pretty good for the 1920s.
1929 Lou Gehrig hits three homers in one game. It’s his second time doing that. Only Babe Ruth and George Kelly had done it multiple times before—and Ruth's came in the World Series.
1931 Cubs infielder Billy Jurges makes his big league debut.
1931 Due to Babe Ruth’s bad leg, he swaps positions with Lou Gehrig. Ruth does all right at first, but Gehrig makes a costly error in right.
1933 Tony Lazzeri smashes his 100th career home run.
1939 Ted Williams, just a month into his major league career, enjoys the first of 39 multiple home run games. In fact, one of his blasts completely clears the right field seats in Briggs Stadium in Detroit, something no one has done before.
1943 NL president Ford Frick attempts to demonstrate to reporters that this year’s balata ball is livelier by bouncing it on the carpet of his office.
1944 St. Louis’ Sportsman’s Park, home to the last segregated stands in the major leagues, announces a new ticket policy that lets blacks watch from the grandstand.
1947 Hall of Fame shortstop Luke Appling has a personal best nine total bases by going 4-for-5 with two doubles and a homer. Not normally much of a slugger, that Luke Appling.
1949 Phil Rizzuto, he of 38 career home runs, goes deep for the second straight game today.
1956 Ken Oberkfell, longtime utility player, is born.
1957 Juan Pizarro, pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1957 Roberto Clemente suffers his 77th straight game without a homer, his longest ever drought.
1958 Pirates player Roman Mejias homers three times in one game.
1960 In one inning, Baltimore catcher Gus Triandos allows three passed balls. As any fan of The Wire TV show knows, the pitcher was Hoyt Wilhelm. Six days later Trianaos’ record will be tied by his teammate, Joe Ginsberg. Of course, Wilhelm is on the mound.
1960 Charlie Grimm manages his last game. In an odd move, the Cubs will move him into the broadcast booth and make broadcaster Lou Boudreau the skipper.
1961 Reds pitcher Joey Jay nearly has a no-hitter. He allows a one out single from Johnny Callison in the first, but that’s it. One hit in nine innings for a 4-0 win over the Phillies.
1962 Former wunderkind Herb Score pitches in his last game.
1963 Clean Sox pitcher Dickie Kerr dies at age 69.
1964 The Mets and Braves get in a brawl, with manager Casey Stengel tangling with Denis Menke, who is a half-century younger than him. That doesn’t sound like a good idea at all.
1964 For the first time in nearly seven years, Sandy Koufax picks off a runner. Despite being a lefty, he’ll end his career with five pickoffs. Maybe some weren’t counted as pickoffs.
1966 Bob Elliott dies at age 49. He had over 2,000 hits in his career as an NL outfielder.
1966 Willie Mays passes Mel Ott as all-time Giants home run leader with dinger No. 512. Nearly 50 years later, Mays is still the club’s home run champ.
1968 Beltin’ Bill Melton makes his big league debut with the White Sox.
1969 Bob Oliver of the Royals becomes the first AL batter in seven years to get six hits in one game.
1969 The Giants hit into a major league record seven GIDPs in one game.
1972 Vic Sorrell, a decent Tigers pitcher around 1930, dies at age 71.
1973 The Phillies top the Braves 5-4 in a 20-inning game that takes five hours and 16 minutes.
1974 Rick Burleson makes his big league debut.
1974 The Twins retire No. 3 for Harmon Killebrew. That’s an especially nice honor given that he still plays for the Twins.
1974 Feared Pirates slugger Willie Stargell receives four base on balls in one game, though none intentional.
1975 Bob Watson scores the millionth run in baseball history, just a second before Dave Concepcion does it.
1975 The Phillies trade Willie Montanez to the Giants for Garry Maddox.
1975 The Cardinals sign amateur free agent Ken Oberkfell. It’s the best birthday present he’s ever received.
1976 Gene Mauch, king of the sacrifice bunt, ties a personal most by having his team lay down five in one game.
1976 The Illinois state legislature declares it Rick Monday Day because he saved a U.S. flag from would-be flag burners on April 25.
1977 Pirates skipper Chuck Tanner manages his 1,000th big league game. He’s 502-495 so far.
1978 For the only time in his career, Jim Rice hits two triples in one game.
1979 Andre Dawson hits his only leadoff home run.
1979 Texas trades veteran shortstop Bert Campaneris to the Angels.
1980 Dave Winfield gets his 1,000th career hit.
1980 Mike Squires becomes one of the few southpaw catchers ever when he catches the final inning of an 11-1 loss for the White Sox.
1980 Otto Velez becomes the first Blue Jay to leg out three triples in one game.
1980 Slugging first baseman Jack Clark lays down a sacrifice bunt. In his remaining 6,285 career PA, he’ll never do that again.
1981 Relief pitcher Ron Davis fans eight straight A’s.
1983 Johnny Bench gets his 2,000th career hit.
1984 Well, that’s a new one. Dave Kingman hits a ball through a drainage hole in the roof of Minnesota’s Metrodome. It’s a ground rule double.
1985 Longtime platoon player John Lowenstein appears in his final game.
1986 The highly regarded former manager Paul Richards—"the Wizard of Waxahachie"—dies at age 77.
1986 The Phillies sign amateur free agent Andy Ashby.
1987 Montreal’s Tim Wallach hits three home runs.
1988 For the first time in a half-dozen seasons, George Brett hits an inside-the-park home run. Not bad for a man just nine days before his 35th birthday.
1988 The Twins release Joe Niekro, ending his long career.
1989 Bad knees be damned: For the first time since 1980, Andre Dawson hits two triples in one game.
1989 Junior Felix hits a home run in his first career at-bat.
1989 Jack Clark has one of the worst games of his career: 0-for-4 with two Ks and two GIDPs. Yeesh.
1991 Chris James sets an Indians franchise record by driving in nine runs in one game as the Indians destroy the A’s, 20-6.
1991 Larry Walker lays down a sacrifice bunt for the seventh and final time in his career. He has 7,431 more PA, but no more of that.
1991 Longtime reliever Jeff Fassero makes his big league debut.
1994 Lou Whitaker drives home a personal best seven runs in one game. It’s his ninth and last multi-home run game.
1994 Jeff Reardon, briefly baseball’s all-time saves king, has his last outing.
1996 Edgar Martinez hits his 100th career home run.
1996 The Texas Rangers become the first club in 79 years to pitch consecutive one-hitters. Ken Hill did it yesterday and Roger Pavlik today.
1996 For the only time in his career, Jason Giambi plays right field.
1999 Greg Maddux has one of his worst outings ever in Atlanta. His line: 4.1 IP, 12 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 1 BB, and 2 K. His Game Score of 8 ties his worst mark with the Braves.
2000 The Phillies hit four consecutive doubles in the first inning of a 14-1 rout of the Reds.
2001 Craig Biggio gets his 2,000th career hit.
2002 Shea Hillenbrand hits a two-out pinch-hit grand slam to give Boston a 7-5 road win over Tampa.
2004 Miguel Tejada raps out his 1,000th career hit.
2004 The Twins lose 4-3 to the Mariners in 16 innings in heartbreaking fashion, with the winning run scoring on a walk-off error.
2006 Terry Francona manages his 1,000th game, with a record of 494-506.
2006 The Houston Astros' cumulative all-time franchise record peaks at four games over .500 (3,516-3,512). They are one of the very few expansion clubs to top .500 ever (not including the first week or two of existence, that is). It's been all downhill since then for Houston.
2007 Jim Tracy manages his 1,000th game. His record: 507-493.
2008 Jerry Manuel manages his 1,000th game. His record: 516-484.
2009 Zack Greinke’s shutout win gives him a league-leading six victories—and an amazing ERA of 0.40.
2010 Ozzie Guillen manages his 1,000th game, and has a record of 523-477.
2010 Legendary Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell dies at age 92.
2010 Bobby Abreu has his worst game ever, according to WPA. He’s 0-for-4 with two Ks and a GIDP.
2011 The Royals lose in embarrassing fashion, a walk-off balk by Aaron Crowe for a 5-4 loss to the White Sox.
2012 The Dodgers sign aging hitter Bobby Abreu.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Friday, May 03, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraCardinals 6, Brewers 5: Jake Westbrook with career win 100. And get this: dude allowed only one run in six innings and his ERA increased. Which, yes, will happen when you come in at 0.98. It's now an unsightly 1.10. He talked after the game how 100 was a goal for him. And while, no, it isn't 300, it represented him being a grinder and sticking around and stuff. I think there's all kinds of underrated glory in that: 300-game winners are spectacular, but they're on that far right side of the bell curve with which most folks don't have a frame of reference. Hundred-game winners have been around the block and seen a good deal of bad to go with the good and all of that.
Orioles 5, Angels 1: Chris Tillman with eight shutout innings. He's from Orange County, so maybe it was the home cooking. Unless maybe his mom can't cook and it was really just like, "hey, awesome, we get to eat at Del Taco!" or something.
Tigers 7, Astros 3: Fourteen innings in Houston, decided when Houston intentionally walked Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder to get to Don Kelly. Kelly was up to the challenge and singled in the go-ahead run. Matt Tuiasosopo then doubled in two more followed by a Jhonny Peralta sac fly. Get this: seven shutout innings from the Tiger bullpen. You don't expect that very often.
Nationals 3, Braves 1: Washington earns the split behind a nice outing from Dan Haren, who was really in need of a nice outing. It was the first time he'd gone past the sixth inning this season. First time he reached the eighth in nearly a year.
White Sox 3, Rangers 1: You know what the real tragedy about all this is? Hector Santiago was not even supposed to be here today! But he was and pitched well (5.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 6K). Then he closed the store to play hockey, went to a wake and tried to win back his ex-girlfriend without even discussing how he felt about his present one.
Phillies 7, Marlins 2: Kyle Kendrick: Phillies ace. He picks up his third win after allowing only two runs over seven innings. Domonic Brown was 3 for 4 with a homer. Ryan Howard had a solo shot. Juan Pierre notched his 600th career steal.
Red Sox 3, Blue Jays 1: The Blue Jays waked a lot of Red Sox. How many times did they walk the Red Sox?
This many times!
Haha, no, actually it was 10. And David Ortiz even took the day off. Man.
Padres 4, Cubs 2: Travis Wood deserved better, but bad defense and bad bullpen work did him in.
Rays vs. Royals: POSTPONED: Last time I was here, it was rainin, doesn't rain here anymore. The streets were drowned, and the water's waining, all the runes washed to shore. Now I'm here lookin' through the rubble, tryin' to find out who we were. Last time I was here, it was rainin, ain't rainin' anymore.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
50th anniversary: player homers in only PA of season
Posted by Chris JaffeFifty years ago today, something very strange happened, something that had happened only once before in baseball history.
Well, on the face of it, things weren’t that strange—a man hit a home run. Yawn. That happens every day, right? Aye, but there was something special about this home run, something the set it apart.
It came in the man’s only plate appearance of the year.
Yup, a batter hit a home run in his first trip to the plate of the season and his reward was never to be allowed to grab a bat again all year. You've got to admit, that is different.
As you might guess, there is a catch to this story that explains it, and odds are some of you out there in reader-land have guessed it: The slugger was actually a pitcher.
On May 3, 1963, the Baltimore Orioles played in Detroit against the Tigers, and soon fell badly behind. The Tigers scored once in the first, twice in the second, and added another pair in the third for a quick 5-2 lead.
That was enough to chase starting pitcher Chuck Estrada from the scene and bring on the hero of our story, young Buster Narum. At age 22, Narum was a rookie making just his fifth career appearance. After entering two games in mid-April, he sat on the shelf for two weeks, but this was his third straight day of work.
Narum put out the fire in the bottom of the third with a double play grounder, and was due up for his first ever major league at bat a few moments later. He made it count with a two-run homer that trimmed the Tigers' lead to 5-4. The Tigers were so mortified they immediately pulled starting pitcher Don Mossi for reliever, Paul Foytack. The good news was that Foytack didn’t let any pitcher hit homers. The bad news for Detroit was that he did allow three homers, with the go-ahead run coming from the bat of the decidedly power-deprived shortstop Luis Aparicio. Baltimore won the game, 8-5.
But the memorable moment was Narum’s blast. He made two more pitching appearances before getting sent down to the minors. He actually pitched well in his time up—a 3.00 ERA—but the Orioles were stocked to the rafters with young pitchers and they clearly felt he needed more seasoning.
Instead of being part of Baltimore’s youth movement, Narron was traded Narum in the offseason to Washington for a young prospect named Lou Piniella. Yeah, that Lou Piniella.
Prior to Narum, only one person had a homer in his only at-bat on the season, and it was also a pitcher: Bill LeFebvre with the 1938 Red Sox. Since then, it’s happened thrice more. Twice it’s been pitchers – Montreal’s Guillermo Mota did it in 1999, and Gustavo Chacin did it for Houston in 2010. In between, Baltimore’s Eddie Rogersbecame the only non-pitcher to do it. Normally a pinch runner in 2005, he homered in his only time up. He ended his career with 30 PA in 30 games—but only the one homer.
It’s a small club, and Buster Narum joined it 50 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim through them.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Boston signs former star slugger Carlos Delgado to a minor league contract.
1,000 days since J.P. Arencibia has a big league debut for the ages. The newest Brewer goes 4-for-5 with two homers—including one in his first at bat.
1,000 days since Toronto smashes eight home runs in a 17-11 win over Tampa.
1,000 days since Arizona retires No. 20 for Luis Gonzalez.
2,000 days since the Phillies sign veteran middle reliever J.C. Romero as a free agent.
4,000 days since Randy Johnson records his 3,500th career strikeout.
4,000 days since Joe Kennedy throws a complete game for Tampa, ending a franchise streak of 194 games without a CG.
5,000 days since Jeff Montgomery of the Royals records his 300th career save.
5,000 days since Manny Ramirez has one of the greatest games of his career, with three homers and one double. It’s his only day with four extra base hits.
7,000 days since White Sox minor leaguer Michael Jordan first bats. It’s against Texas’ Darren Oliver in a spring training game.
8,000 days since Roberto Alomar steals four bases in one game.
9,000 days since Buddy Bell hits his 200th home run.
10,000 days since the Cubs trade young outfielder Billy Hatcher to Houston for Jerry Mumphrey.
Anniversaries
1857 George Gore, Hall of Merit member, is born.
1890 It’s the first time the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants ever meet.
1891 Eppa Rixey, Hall of Famer, is born.
1895 Hall of Fame slugger Sam Thompson hits his only walk-off home run, a three-run shot giving the Phillies an 8-5 win over Giants.
1896 An overflow crowd at a Cubs-Cards game causes fans to stand in roped off section in the outfield. Balls hit into them are considered triples, giving this game nine triples in all, including three by Bill Dahlen.
1899 It’s a bizarre walk-off home run hit in Pittsburgh. Jack McCarthy hits a ball that goes through a door in the outfield. A fan shuts it before a defender can reach it. The NL will order a replay of this game as a result.
1905 Red Ruffing, great-hitting pitcher and Hall of Famer, is born.
1909 Chick Fraser, a pitcher with over 200 losses but not 200 wins, appears in his last game.
1911 The longest lasting nine-inning game of the season takes place in 1911, NYG 3, BRK 0, takes three hours to finish. It was a very different game back then.
1912 Yankees get too little too late: they score 10 runs in the ninth inning in a furious rally, but lose 18-15 to the A’s.
1915 Almost three years after his big league debut, Wilbur Cooper allows his first outside-the-park home run. His five previous home runs allowed were all insiders.
1920 Braves 2, Dodgers 1 (19). Just two days earlier these same two teams tangled for 26 innings. As in that May 1 game, both starters here went the distance: Dana Fillingim (19 IP) for Boston and Sherry Smith (18.1 IP) for Brooklyn.
1920 Dan Bankhead, pitcher and the second black NL player of the 20th century, is born.
1921 Today’s Yankees lineup features everyone who has led the AL in home runs over the last decade: Frank Baker, Braggo Roth, Wally Pipp and—oh yeah—Babe Ruth.
1924 Hall of Famer Zack Wheat swats his 100th home run. They’ve all come with Brooklyn, and today the Dodgers become the seventh franchise with a person who hit 100 home runs for them.
1927 It’s brother versus brother in the NL as Jesse Barnes out-duels his brother and fellow pitcher, Virgil Barnes: Dodger 7, Giants 6.
1928 Pirates hurler Ray Kremer loses at Forbes Field, after 22 consecutive victories there. Now that’s what I call home field advantage.
1930 Charlie Root, the winningest pitcher in Cubs history (201 wins with the franchise) steals the only base of his career.
1932 Young Cubs third baseman Stan Hack has a memorable first career home run—an inside the park one. He’ll never leg out another home run.
1934 Chuck Hinton, All-Star outfielder for the 1964 Senators, is born.
1935 Ted Breitenstein, high quality 1890s pitcher, dies at age 65.
1936 Joe DiMaggio makes his big league debut.
1938 Lefty Grove begins a 20-game winning streak at Fenway Park.
1938 Lou Gehrig, six weeks or so shy of his 35th birthday and suffering from ALS, hits his 10th and final inside-the-park home run.
1941 Hank Gornicki makes a nice big league debut with the Cardinals, throwing a one-hitter in 6-0 victory over the Phillies. Not bad, but he never does amount to much as a pitcher.
1945 Davey Lopes, star Dodgers second baseman, is born.
1946 Lou Boudreau records his 1,000th hit.
1946 Red Sox announce that Fenway will have lights in 1947.
1947 Pirates trade Al Gionfriddo and $100,000 to Dodgers for Kirby Higbe, Cal McLish, Gene Mauch, Hank Behrman and Dixie Howell. Gionfriddo has one of the most famous moments in Dodgers history in the 1947 World Series. He makes a sensational catch of a Joe DiMaggioblast near the 415-foot mark, robbing him of at least extra bases and possibly a home run. It’s also indirectly responsible for a Chris Berman-ism. Announcer Red Barber said, while watching Gionfriddo race toward the wall, that he’s going “back back back back back” which Berman later decided to use as his home run call.
1950 Yankee star pitcher Vic Raschi balks four times in one game.
1950 Johnny Klippstein makes his big league debut. He’ll turn into an effective reliever after an unspectacular career as a starter.
1951 Gil McDougald of the Yankees records six RBIs in an inning: a grand slam and a two-run triple. This record lasts until Fernando Tatis hits two slams in one inning in 1999. NYY 17, STB 3.
1952 The first all-black battery in major league history takes the field for the Indians: pitcher Toothpick Sam Jones and catcher Quincy Trouppe.
1952 The Yankees and Senators make a six-player trade that sends Jackie Jensen to Washington.
1953 It’s a nice day to be Early Wynn. He hurls a complete game shutout on the mound and homers at the plate, as the Indians beat the Senators 7-0. It’s Wynn’s 10th straight win, his best. His numbers in that stretch: 11 GS, 9 CG, 93.2 IP, 61 H, 23 R, 18 ER, 40 BB, 52 K. 1.73 ERA.
1955 Hall of Famer Hal Newhouser pitches his last game.
1956 For the only time in his career, Roberto Clemente tries to steal three bases in one game. He’s successful twice, but caught once.
1957 Walter O’Malley agrees to move the Dodgers to LA.
1958 Al Maul dies at age 92. He was the last surviving player from the Union Association, a rival major league in 1884.
1959 Charlie Maxwell of the Tigers has a career day: he homers three times in one game and four times in a row in a doubleheader.
1959 Pirates catcher Hank Foiles makes an unassisted double play. That’s tough to do for a catcher.
1959 Star Braves pitcher Lew Burdette posts his ninth straight win, his longest winning streak ever. His line in that time: 10 G, 10 GS, 9 CG, 2 SHO, 80.2 IP, 73 H, 21 R, 21 ER, 10 BB, 41 K, and a 2.34 ERA.
1961 Switch-hitting minor leaguer Ellis Burton homers from both sides of the plate in one inning. That had never happened before in organized baseball
1961 Ken Boyer laces his 1,000th hit.
1961 Wild comeback that wasn’t: A’s lead Red Sox 8-0 after six innings, but Red Sox come back to tie it, largely thanks to six runs in the top of the ninth. That sends the game into extra innings, but that’s all Boston can do; A’s win 9-8 in 10 innings.
1961 That same day, the Angels stage a more successful comeback. The Orioles lead 6-1 at the seventh-inning stretch, but the expansion club gets one run in the seventh, two in the eighth, and three in the ninth for a 7-6 victory.
1962 Hank Aaron hits a double, a triple, and two home runs but never gets the single and thus misses the cycle. His 13 total bases on the day are his career high. Despite his efforts, the Phillies top the Braves, 9-8.
1963 Pete Rose hits his first home run.
1963 Former Brooklyn Dodgers star Duke Snider enjoys the last of 34 career multi-home run games. No. 33 was nearly three full years ago.
1964 Harmon Killebrew experiences maybe his worst day at the plate: 0-for-5 with four strikeouts and a GIDP.
1964 Jim Kaat allows the only inside-the-park home run of his career. Nelson Mathews of the A’s hits it. It must have been something in the air, because on the same day, Juan Marichal does likewise. This one is hit by Willie Davis.
1964 Sadaharu Oh hits four homers in a game in Japan.
1964 Carl Yastrzemski gets a career high six RBIs in a game: 3-for-4, one home run, one run and one walk. The homer is Yaz’s first career grand slam.
1965 Indians select Joe Rudi off waivers from the A’s as a first-year waiver pick.
1966 Luis Tiant throws his third straight complete game shutout. For most pitchers that would be a career highlight, but it’s not the longest streak of complete game shutouts for Tiant. That said, here are his numbers in this streak: 27 IP, 14 H, 8 BB, 25 K, and of course zero runs for a 0.00 ERA.
1969 For health reasons, White Sox manager Al Lopez has to step down. The Hall of Famer will never manage again, but he’ll live nearly 35 more years.
1971 A timeout saves the Mets. In the top of the ninth of a 2-2 game against the Cubs, the third base umpire calls a bases-loaded balk on New York reliever Tug McGraw. However, the home plate umpire says he’d just called time, so the balk is negated. The Mets go on to win in extra innings.
1972 Al Kaline laces two triples in one game. Not bad for a 37-year-old.
1972 Bert Blyleven wins his 10th straight game, a personal best he’ll tie 17 years later. His numbers in this run: 13 GS, 9 CG, 108 IP, 93 H, 25 R, 23 ER, 23 BB, 78 K, for a 1.92 ERA. Despite the streak, he’ll end the year 17-17, and that was after going 16-15 the year before.
1974 WPA’s favorite Pete Rose homer: 0.671 WPA: he hits a three-run shot with one out in the top of the ninth and the Cubs beating the Reds 4-2.
1975 Sparky Anderson moves Pete Rose from left field to third base to make room for George Foster. A great lineup just got even greater.
1975 The Brewers lay down six sacrifice hits for manager Del Crandall. That’s the most ever in a designated hitter league. Brewers 4, Yankees 3. In that same game, Robin Yount intentionally walks twice, which is odd because he’s not yet a good hitter.
1977 Dan Meyer gets on base via catcher’s interference twice in one game. That’s happened only six times in the last 90 years.
1977 It’s the last game for Mike Cuellar, a 20-game winner for the Orioles.
1977 Phil Niekro faces 48 batters in one game, his career high. 11 IP, 12 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 5 BB, 9 K in the game. He loses 8-7 to Pittsburgh.
1977 Ryan Dempster, pitcher, is born.
1978 Gary Carter hits the first of his 11 career grand slams.
1979 Bobby Bonds smacks his 300th home run.
1980 Ferguson Jenkins becomes the fourth player to win 100 games in each league. Cy Young, Jim Bunning, and Gaylord Perry are the first three.
1980 Willie McCovey hits his last home run. The opposing pitcher is Scott Sanderson, whose career will end in 1996, 37 years after McCovey’s began. Early his career McCovey homered off Warren Spahn, who debuted in 1942. So that’s a 54-year split between McCovey gopher ball victims. I don’t know how that rates in history, but it sure is impressive.
1981 Fernando-mania: The scoreless inning streak for Dodger phenom Fernando Valenzuela ends at 36.
1984 It’s the best one-game WPA for any Brewers batter ever: Mark Brouhard scores a 1.027 WPA by going 3-for-4 with two runs, a homer, three RBIs, and a walk in Milwaukee’s 6-5 win over the Royals.
1985 Lenny Dykstra makes his big league debut.
1986 Homer Bailey, Reds pitcher, is born.
1986 Kirby Puckett, who homered a total four times in his previous two major league seasons, launches his 11th home run of 1986 on this date.
1987 Eric Davis homers three times in a game for the second time.
1988 Mets slugger Darryl Strawberry passes Dave Kingman as all-time franchise leader in homers with No. 155. He still is the club leader.
1990 34-year-old Robin Yount hits his sixth and final inside-the-park homer, giving him at least one in three different decades. I wonder how many post-World War II players can say that.
1992 Eddie Murray hits his 400th home run.
1992 Edgar Martinez legs out two triples in one game.
1992 The only time Craig Biggio is caught stealing twice in a game. Astros beat the Pirates anyway, 1-0.
1995 The Bells become baseball’s second three-generation family when David Bell, son of Buddy Bell, who was the son of Gus Bell, debuts. The Boones are the first three-generation bunch.
1996 Ken Hill of the Rangers retires the last 26 batters he faces in a one-hitter.
1996 Alex Kellner, pitcher, dies at age 71. He twice led the AL in losses while pitching for the A’s.
1998 Tom Glavine endures his 100th career loss. He’s 157-100 and counting.
1998 Dan Wilson hits the first inside-the-park grand slam in Mariners history.
1999 Davey Johnson wins his 1,000th game: 1,000-740.
1999 Jeff Kent hits for the cycle.
1999 The Cuban national team beats Orioles, 12-6.
1999 Creighton Gubanich of the Red Sox gets a grand slam for his first hit, something not done since 1982.
1999 Joe Adcock, star slugger for the 1950s Braves, dies at age 71.
2000 Red Sox and White Sox each get four homers in one inning. It’s not in the same game, but an odd coincidence anyway.
2001 Veteran Rangers skipper Johnny Oates manages his last game. He resigns after the game. There was speculation he’d soon be fired anyway.
2001 New White Sox pitcher David Wells takes to the radio to blast star teammate Frank Thomas. Wells says Thomas doesn't have any guts because he isn't coming back from an injury quickly enough, and it's costing Thomas the respect of his teammates. A week later, Wells and everyone else will learn that Thomas' injury is severe enough to shut him down for the season, as per doctor's orders. Oops.
2004 Darrell Johnson, manager of the pennant-winning 1975 Red Sox, dies at age 75.
2005 White Sox set a new record as they become the first team to lead in each of their first 28 games. They don’t win them all, but they had the lead at one point in all of them.
2006 Mike Scioscia manages his 1,000th career game: he’s 532-468 so far.
2006 Washington, D.C. real estate magnate Theodore Lerner wins a bid to purchase the Nationals.
2006 Hector Luna hits the 10,000th home run in St. Louis Cardinals history. This includes their time in the AA in the 1880s. Luna will hit eight homers in his tenure with St. Louis.
2007 The A’s purchase sabermetric darling Jack Cust from the Padres.
2008 Ron Gardenhire manages the 1,000th game of his career.
2009 Cubs retire No. 31 in honor of both Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux.
2009 Carl Crawford steals six bases in one game against the Red Sox. It’s what he does best: torture Red Sox fans.
2009 Tom Gordon appears in the last game of his career.
2012 In an oddity, both starting pitchers in today’s Reds-Cubs game celebrate their birthday today: Homer Bailey and Ryan Dempster. Neither factors in the decision as the Reds win 4-3 in 10 innings. Cincinnati ties the game in the bottom of the ninth on a hit, an error, and many, many base on balls.
2012 At the time, it looked like the end of an era. Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera injures his knee while shagging fly balls during batting practice. When he’s carted off the field many fear he’ll never pitch again, but of course he’s back this year.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Thursday, May 02, 2013
Yankees acquire Chris Nelson
Posted by Pat AndriolaCiting injuries and a need for a right-handed bat, the Yankees sent either cash or a player to be named later to Colorado for middle infielder Chris Nelson. With the success of Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay, maybe the Yankees are thinking they can take any below-average hitter and turn him into a star.
Nelson is an interesting player. He was called up in 2010 for 17 games and was awful; despite a .280 batting average, he finished with a wRC+ of just 57. In 2011 he found himself more playing time with 189 plate appearances, but although his power increased (.383 slugging average), he struck out almost 20 percent of the time and still had a poor wRC+ of 65.
Things turned around last year pretty dramatically for Nelson; he played in more than two-thirds of the Rockies' games and hit .301/.352/.458, good for an above-average wRC+ of 105. However, his defense was apparently awful according to UZR, which pegged him at -18.4 runs for the season, a strikingly high number (DRS had almost the exact number and the Fans Scouting Report pegged him for below average). Still, a second baseman who can hit is always a welcome part of the lineup.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, it seems that much of Nelson's success was aided by the friendly confines of Coors Field. Nelson hit .347/.411/.500 at home last year, but just .257/.292/.417 on the road. His 2011 was no different, with a .276/.300/.419 line at home and .213/.253/.333 line on the road. So far this season he's off to a rough start with a career-low wRC+ of 50 (.242/.282/.318). ZiPS has projected him for a .314 wOBA for the rest of the season, although that may be assuming he's playing in Colorado.
There is some bright news for Yankees fans on Nelson. First, he's turning 28 this year, so he's at the standard peak of his age curve. Second, he can play both third and second (and if needed, shortstop). Finally, he won't be a starter for the Yankees, and he's a more than an adequate bench player. And since he's on the Yankees, he'll probably hit 50 homers anyway.
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraMets 7, Marlins 6: Jordany Valdespin hit a pinch-hit three run homer in the sixth to put the Mets up to stay, breaking their six-game losing streak. But Terry Collins is on the hot seat! No he isn't! Yes he is! She's my daughter! [slap] My sister! [slap!] My daughter ...
Nationals 2, Braves 0: The Nats finally break through against the Braves. Biggest reason: the best kept secret in baseball: Jordan Zimmermann's awesomeness. Why that's a secret I don't know, but ask 100 baseball fans to name the Nats rotation I bet his name is listed after Strasburg and Gonzalez by almost everyone, and I bet some folks even forget it. His numbers may be a tad inflated so far this season because four of his six outings have come against the Marlins-Marlins-Cubs-Mets, but he's a legit stud. Maybe the most underrated starter in the NL.
Twins 6, Tigers 2: Anibal Sanchez was coming off a 17-strikeout performance against the Braves but here he didn't really have it. "It" being either his best stuff or an opponent that would swing at it if the pitcher putted it up to home plate. Scott Diamond was sharp. The Twins showed when facing Bruce Rondon that you can throw it 100 miles per hour, but it don't mean nothin' if it doesn't have any movement.
Pirates 6, Brewers 4: Pittsburgh finally takes one at Miller Park. Four runs in the eighth thanks to Starling Marte's two-run homer and RBI singles from Brandon Inge and Pedro Alvarez. John Axford blew up here, giving the Brewers their first loss this season when leading after seven. Shades of 2012.
Angels 5, Athletics 4: Mark Trumbo has been a bright spot at least. Three homers in three days for the big guy. He also leads the league in mixed metaphors:
"It was probably more of a nail-biter than we would have liked. This team hangs around and they'll find a way to get back in it if you let them. You just have to keep your foot on the gas pedal and try to pound them into submission before they get their second wind."
I hate it when people hit me with gas pedals when I'm trying to breathe.
Indians 6, Phillies 0: Ryan Raburn went 4 for 5 and is hitting .364/.407/.655. Because that makes sense. The Indians have won four straight, outscoring their opponents 39-5. The Phillies send Halladay and Lee into a two-game series and get outscored 20-2. That's something that would have made no sense a year ago at this time. Heck, it still makes little sense.
Cardinals 4, Reds 2: Lance Lynn is 5-0 and has won 10 straight decisions. He also got a hit and laid down "a perfect bunt" which he said after the game was what he was most happy about. Pitchers batting is adorable.
Yankees 5, Astros 4: Over at IIATMS, Jason is keeping tabs of how big the Yankees' disabled list-only payroll is right now. It's up to $95 million. Yet the Yankees are still winning ballgames. Later this year some manager on the hot seat is gonna start whining about all the injuries he's had to deal with. He'll say it's "not an excuse," but he really will be offering it as an excuse. When he does, I hope Johnny Sportswriter asks him why his injuries have kept him out of contention while the Yankees are still in the thick of the AL East race.
Cubs 6, Padres 2: Scott Feldman goes the distance, striking out 12 and allowing only two runs. Andrew Cashner -- the Cubs' first round pick back in 2008 -- faces his old coworkers and doesn't make it into the fifth inning.
Red Sox 10, Blue Jays 1: Clay Buchholz throws seven shutout innings and improves to 6-0. Two homers for Mike Napoli, one of which travelled multiple parsecs.
White Sox 5, Rangers 2: Texas had its chances against Chris Sale in the first couple of innings but didn't take full advantage of all of its baserunners. Slenderman -- which if people aren't calling Sale that now, they really should be -- settled down and didn't allow anything after that. Conor Gillaspie and Alejandro De Axa homered in the seventh.
Giants 9, Diamondbacks 6: The comeback kids: the Giants rally against the Arizona bullpen for the third straight game to sweep the Gritties. Brandon Belt had a three-run homer. I haven't watched many Giants games this year, but it feel like Belt has had a lot of big late hits for a guy whose batting line is rather blah overall.
Rockies 7, Dodgers 3: I suppose it's possible the Rockies can keep winning despite getting meh performances from their starting pitchers, but I just don't feel like it's likely. Juan Nicasio only went four innings, but the bats -- and Dexter Fowler's glove, robbing Adrian Gonzalez of a dinger -- picked him up. This game lasted nearly four hours. You won't be surprised to learn that Josh Beckett was starting for the Dodgers.
Royals 9, Rays 8: The Rays led 6-1 after three and a half, but Kansas City scored one in the fourth, two in the fifth and five in the sixth. After the game, Jeff Francoeur explained why the Royals feel like they can always come back from deficits:
"Our goal is to get the first one or two guys on every inning and then let whatever is going to happen, happen," Francoeur said. "Tonight, we were able to do that."
Jeff Francoeur: on base percentage guru.
Mariners 8, Orioles 3: Seattle has taken five of seven. Michael Morse hit his third homer in four games. After the game Eric Wedge provided his bosses with a baseline which can help them better decide if he needs to be fired later:
"I feel like our guys have taken significant steps and what you are seeing now is more the norm in regard to what our guys are capable of."
Awfully courteous of him.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Ryan Howard’s odd decline continues
Posted by Pat AndriolaBack in the summer of 2010, I noticed that Ryan Howard was not aging as gracefully as other players. As a big, power-reliant first baseman who loved to walk (he was seventh in all of baseball in 2007 at 16.5 percent), Howard was not taking the traditional "less power, same patience" approach that most hitters with comparable builds had used to slow their aging curve (e.g., David Justice). Instead I wrote:
[W]e find ourselves looking at a player who is seemingly attempting to change his game midway through a fantastic career... With the decrease in power/walks/strikeouts and increase in contact, Howard is looking more like Shane Victorino than his usual self. If Howard is making a conscious adjustment, he may want to revert to his old ways. While the strikeouts and lack of power are a scary thought for an aging slugger, they are typically inevitable (ignoring those aided by illegal substances), and can be mitigated by a solid walk rate.
In retrospect, this comparison is a slight to Victorino, who at this point is a far more valuable asset; 2013 Howard is much more similar to Miguel Olivo. Howard seemed to be making strides in 2011, increasing his walk percentage from 9.5 percent to 11.6 percent, mitigating an unsurprising decrease in power (although his ISO increased, leaving him with a nearly identical wRC+). An injury-ridden 2012, however, proved to be a nightmare; in 292 plate appearances, Howard's slugging percentage plummeted to .423 and his walk rate dropped to a career worst 8.6 percent. With a .303 wOBA, poor defense and poor base running, Howard was undoubtedly a below average baseball player.
This season, the tides have changed but the water is just as deep:
2012
BB%: 8.6%
K%: 33.9%
BA: .219
OBP: .295
Swing%: 49%
2013
BB%: 3.0%
K%: 23.8%
BA: .284
OBP: .297
Swing%: 53.6%
A radical metamorphosis. Howard is simply no longer walking, his rate now the 13th worst in all of baseball (a historically dramatic drop from 2007). He's striking out less and has a higher batting average, but the OBP is pretty much the same. His approach at the plate is just completely different: he's taking fewer pitches and trying to make more contact. To his credit, it has helped his batting average, and his SLG is up 40 points from last year, but who knows if the new approach is causally related to his re-found power. If it's not, a potential power regression could cause his wOBA to plummet (although at .318 he is above league average at the moment and 15 points up from last season).
It's not that Howard's approach is all that awful; a repeat of 2012 would definitely be worse for him and the Phillies. But his transformation is incredibly confusing and unconventional, making his 2010 season seem perfectly normal in comparison. Obviously the sample size isn't huge in just 101 plate appearances, but BB percentage and Swing percentage regress much more quickly than other stats. It looks like we will never see the Ryan Howard of old again, and who knows what this new version will bring.
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraBraves 8, Nationals 1: That's nine straight wins by the Braves over the Nats dating back to last season. Someone should ask Danny Espinosa if he's impressed by the Braves yet. Tim Hudson notched his 200th career win. In pretty grand style, too: he homered and doubled in addition to pitching seven strong innings.
Indians 14, Phillies 2: Ryan Raburn hit two of the Indians' seven homers as Cleveland obliterated Roy Halladay and three Philly relievers. Delmon Young came back for the Phillies and homered.
Marlins 2, Mets 1: A two-run rally in the bottom of the ninth with the winning run scoring on a wild pitch for the Marlins. The run before that came in the form of Chris Coghlan, who may very well have been out just before that when he overslid the third base bag. Viva The Human Element. The Mets have dropped six straight. The Marlins have won three in a row, two via walkoff.
Yankees 7, Astros 4: Three RBI singles from Travis Hafner and a bunch of small ball supported Hiroki Kuroda. Phil Humber uncorked four wild pitches. Note: the word "uncorked" is only used in reference to wild pitches, just a "ensuing" is used only in reference to kickoffs. I think that's in the Chicago style guide.
Padres 13, Cubs 7: Quentin was 3 for 4 with a home run, two doubles and three driven in. The Padres have won five of six. Seven homers were hit in all.
Blue Jays 9, Red Sox 7: Man, that first Encarnacion shot was impressive. His second homer put the Jays ahead. Jon Lester, who had been so good so far, had a Number of the Beast line: six runs on six hits in six innings.
Brewers 12, Pirates 8: Rickie Weeks had a three-run homer and five RBI. The Brewers have beaten the Pirates nine straight times and are 46-7 against them in Miller Park. Milwaukee so thoroughly owns Pittsburgh at home that the Pirates are gonna have to ask permission to leave after today's game.
Tigers 6, Twins 1: Cabrera and Fielder homered, Verlander was Verlander and the Tigers have won five straight. I have this feeling that they're not gonna play that derp-around-until-September-before-taking-control-of-the-division game this year like they did last year.
Cardinals 2, Reds 1: The Redbirds snap their three-game losing streak. Jaime Garcia tossed eight strong, Matt Holliday had a two-run jack.
Rangers 10, White Sox 6: Last time out Yu Darvish got a lot of offense behind him and I called him the recipient of the Run Support Award. That was somewhat misleading because he pitched extremely well that night and didn't really need that support. Last night he sorta needed it, as he gave up four runs and was in a close one until the Rangers broke out for six in the sixth.
Giants 2, Diamondbacks 1: Pablo Sandoval with a two run homer in the ninth. Those two runs were the only ones San Francisco needed as Madison Bumgarner pitched seven shutout innings, besting Trevor Cahill on a pitchery night.
Royals 8, Rays 2: James Shields faces the Rays and scatters two runs and five hits over seven innings. Well, the runs weren't scattered -- they both came on a homer in the first -- but that was about all the damage the Rays could do against him. The Royals were stymied by Alex Cobb until the sixth, when they broke through for four runs. By the way: anyone remember Stymie? Whatever happened to him anyway? Totally underrated.
Dodgers 6, Rockies 2: Hanley Ramirez comes back and homers. Hyun-Jin Ryu stuck out 12. Also: Psy was at Dodger Stadium for some reason. Which I liken to M.C. Hammer showing up at your dorm party in 1994. "Sure, we totally remember you, dude. Just ... why?" Ryu gave his game-worn jersey to Psy after the game. You'll probably be able to buy it from Psy in a year or two.
Athletics 10, Angels 6: Yikes, the Angels stink. Yoenis Cespedes drove in four. After the game he said:
"The reason I was so good was because when I got here, I drank (an energy drink)," said Cespedes, who doubled and tripled to pace Oakland's 10-hit outburst. "I was ready for the game."
But don't listen to him. Stimulants players use to wake them up for a game are in no way performance-enhancers. When Mickey Mantle swallowed a handful of greenies after a long night, he was just allowing himself to play at his native ability.
Orioles 7, Mariners 2: Brandon Maurer surrendered four runs in the first and the rest was mere detail. Nate McLouth led off the game with a homer. He's hitting close to .500 over his past 10 games and has scored 14 runs. Manny Machado has hit in nine straight.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
40th anniversary: incredible Giants comeback
Posted by Chris JaffeForty years ago today was one of the wildest, most incredible, and unlikely comebacks in baseball history. It was one of the greatest bottoms of the ninth ever, when the Giants came back from the bring of death to smite the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 1, 1973.
As is typically the case in the game with an impossibly amazing bottom of the ninth, the first eight and a half innings were something of a snooze-fest. The Pirates took a lead and appeared to have the game completely in hand. They scored thrice in the first, and then kept adding to it as the day went on.
Heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates had a seemingly insurmountable 7-1 lead. The 7,972 paying customers must have dwindled down a handful of genuine diehards on that Bay Area night.
Surely the way the inning began gave people no hope for anything memorable. Oh sure, Bobby Bonds led off the inning with a walk, but the next two batters both grounded into force outs. Now the score was still 7-1, San Francisco was just one out from defeat, and all the Giants had was shortstop Chris Speier on first base. You have to admit, coming back to win in this situation sure qualifies as an incredible rally.
According to WPA, the Giants had zero percent chance to win. But they had veteran slugger Willie McCovey at the plate. Hey—you take your good news where you can when down to your last out trailing by a half-dozen. McCovey drew a walk, raising the Giants’ chance of winning up to one percent. Well, it’s an improvement.
Up next came third baseman Ed Goodson, who also walked. Hmmm, that’s three walks to the last five batters – and Pirates pitcher Bob Moose hadn’t walked anyone prior to this inning. Time to get him out of there.
Manager Bill Virdon went to his bullpen for Ramon Hernandez. Ordinarily, Hernandez was a terrific pitcher. The year before, he had posted an ERA of 1.67, and if you exclude what he did in this game his 1973 ERA would be 2.01. But it actually was 2.45 because this game did happen, and he was dreadful.
With the bags packed, the first batter Hernandez faced was pinch-hitter Chris Arnold, who promptly made a game of things with a grand slam home run. Arnold wouldn’t hit another homer all year, and had just four in 483 career plate appearances, but this was one of those four. The few fans cheered heartily. At least someone had rewarded their willingness to stick it out to the bitter end.
As impressive as Arnold’s blast was, Pittsburgh still held all the cards. The Pirates still led by two runs, 7-5, there were still two outs, and the Giants had no one on base. WPA figured that San Francisco’s chance of winning the game was still just one percent.
True, but rookie left fielder Gary Matthews belted a double, and then future manager Doug Rader drew a walk. Now the tying run was on base. With the pitcher’s slot due up, the Giants went to their bench for pinch hitter Jim Howarth. He drew yet another walk—the fifth of the inning.
Now things had gotten interesting. A single could tie the game, and an extra base hit could win it. WPA now gave the Giants a 17 percent chance to win the game, still low, but a lot higher than anyone expected when the inning began.
Oh, and coming up was the ever-dangerous leadoff hitter, Bobby Bonds. A sensational talent, the 27-year-old Bonds already had several notable achievements to his credit. He’d had a 200-hit season, and typically stole about 40 bases while blasting 30 homers a season. This year, he’d hit 39 and collect a league-leading 341 total bases. He’s the last man the Pirates wanted to face at a time like this.
Look, Hernandez didn’t have it. Time to go with the team’s fireman, Dave Giusti. This season, 1973, would be his fourth straight season with 20 saves, an impressive figure for the day. He’d average 90 innings a season from 1970-73 with a 2.61 ERA. He was a genuine bullpen ace. A great reliever versus a great hitter to settle a great comeback. What would happen?
Well, if Giusti got him out, I probably wouldn’t tell this story, right?
Bonds blasted a bases-clearing double. All runners came around to score and that was it—a three-run, walk-off double gave the Giants a 8-7 win. I bet none of the happy few fans in attendance ever left a game early again. How could they, after seeing such a brilliant comeback? And that comeback was 40 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other events today celebrate either their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something occurring X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim through things.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since the Braves retire No. 47 for Tom Glavine, and then go on to lose a heartbreaker to the Giants, 3-2 in 11 innings. The Giants tie it in the ninth despite not getting a hit in the inning—and also get the winning run two frames later on no hits.
3,000 days since former pitcher Nelson Briles dies.
4,000 days since Brady Anderson appears in his last game.
5,000 days since Pedro Martinez fans 15 Twins in eight scoreless innings.
7,000 days since Darryl Strawberry comes under IRS investigation.
9,000 days since Orel Hershiser’s scoreless inning streak reaches 22 innings, thanks to a 5-0 complete game shutout over the Reds.
9,000 days since Roger Clemens throws his only career complete game one-hitter. Dave Clark singles with one out in the eighth for Cleveland. Clemens never manages a no-hitter.
20,000 days since the birth of infielder Scott Fletcher.
Anniversaries
1863 Frank Foreman, pitcher, is born. He’s one of the few people to play in four major leagues – UA, AA, NL, and AL. When he dies in 1957 at age 94, he’s one of the last (and maybe the last) surviving pitcher from the UA.
1878 Way back in the day, May 1 was Opening Day, so a ton of 19th-century players make their big league debut on May 1. In 1878, the following stars debuted: Hall of Famer King Kelly, third baseman Ned Williamson (who will swat 27 homers in a single season in 1884), Charlie Bennett (the best catcher of the 1880s), and slugger Abner Dalrymple.
1879 Today the following guys debut: Star middle infielder Jack Glasscock; hitting star George Gore, and versatile player Hardy Richardson. All will be among the best players of the 1880s.
1880 Several more stars make their debut: Roger Connor, who will be the all-time home run king prior to Babe Ruth; Mickey Welch, a 300-game winner; Larry Corcoran, a star pitcher; Fred Dunlap, maybe the best second baseman of the 1880s, Ned Hanlon, a good player who becomes a Hall of Fame manager, and Tom Burns, a solid infielder.
1882 Fred Pfeffer, infielder, makes his debut.
1883 The New York Giants play their first ever-game. They beat Boston, 7-5. Among the 12,000 in attendance is former president U. S. Grant. Also debuting, the Philadelphia Phillies play their first game. They lose 4-3 to Providence.
1884 Gus Schmelz, one of the game’s great innovators, manages his first game. He’ll be at the cutting edge of creating spring training, some coaching drills, and developing the sacrifice bunt.
1884 Several more players make their big league debut: Pitcher Ed Morris, the all-time complete game king; Adonis Terry, a long-lasting pitcher; Curt Welch, the best defensive outfielder of his day; and Charlie Ferguson, a great pitcher who will die young.
1884 Also debuting today but deserving his own entry is Moses "Fleetwood" Walker. He’s the first black player in the majors.
1885 George McQuillan is born. He’ll win 23 games for the 1908 Phillies with a 1.53 ERA (which isn’t nearly as impressive as it sounds, but is still a mighty nice year).
1886 The NL plays its first game under “sudden death” rules in the ninth. It used to be that both teams batted in the ninth, no matter the score. Now a team won’t bat in the bottom half if it already has won the game. In the first such game, Chicago tops Cincinnati, 4-3.
1886 Al Atkinson throws his second no-hitter, and wins 3-2.
1891 300-game winner John Clarkson surrenders an inside-the-park grand slam to Oyster Burns.
1901 Chicago White Sox Herm McFarland hits the first grand slam in AL history as Chicago tops Detroit, 19-9. The Tigers commit an even 12 errors in that loss, the AL record.
1906 The Red Sox release Hall of Fame outfielder Jesse Burkett.
1906 Phillies pitcher Johnny Lush throws a no-hitter, beating the Dodgers, 6-0, fanning 11 in the process.
1912 University of Michigan freshman George Sisler fans 20 in seven innings.
1919 Al Zarilla, All-Star for the 1948 Browns, is born.
1920 Babe Ruth hits his first home run as a Yankee. It’s career long ball No. 50.
1920 It’s the longest game in history, as the Braves and Dodgers play 26 innings and end tied 1-1. Both starting pitchers go the distance: Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger.
1922 Pop Schriver becomes the first NL pitcher of the 20th century to throw a shutout in his debut.
1924 Hall of Fame center fielder Max Carey gets hit No. 2,000.
1924 White Sox base runner Bill Barrett steals home twice in one game versus Cleveland.
1925 17-year-old Jimmie Foxx makes his big league debut as a catcher for the A’s.
1926 19-year-old Satchel Paige debuts in the Negro Southern League, leading Chattanooga to a 5-4 win over Birmingham.
1928 Babe Ruth legs out his 100th career triple.
1929 Jimmie Foxx enjoys the first of 55 multi-home run games. In that same game, his teammate Al Simmons has the first of his eight career five-hit games.
1930 After playing 1,103 consecutive games, Hall of Fame infielder Joe Sewell misses a contest. He’s only the third man to top 1,000 consecutive games played.
1933 Pittsburgh shortstop Arky Vaughan hits the first of two career inside-the-park grand slams.
1934 Burleigh Grimes, the last legal spitball pitcher, wins his 270th and final game.
1936 Dizzy Dean posts his 100th career victory. He’s 100-53 in his career at this point. He also ties his career high Game Score: 87. His line: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, and 7 K.
1936 The White Sox claim outfielder Dixie Walker off waivers from the Yankees.
1939 Monty Stratton, a pitcher who lost a leg in an offseason accident, plays in an exhibition game.
1940 For the only time in his 457 career starts, Lefty Grove allows a leadoff home run.
1941 It’s the first night game at Griffith Stadium. The Yankees spoil Washington’s big night by winning, 6-5.
1942 Stan Musial has the first of 37 career games with more than one home run.
1943 Rubber-armed Bobo Newsom has one of his five career one-hitters. He never does get that no-hitter. Babe Barna gets the sole safety against him. Barna will end the year with 42 hits and a .187 batting average.
1944 Washington’s George Myatt gets six hits in one game. It’s the first time in franchise history anyone has done that.
1946 Brooklyn releases veteran pitcher Curt Davis. He arguably has the best career by any pitcher who debuted after his 30th birthday.
1946 Before today’s Cubs-Dodgers game, Chicago’sLennie Merulloand Brooklyn’s Dixie Walker have a big fight on the field. The players form a circle so no one can break it up.
1947 Kitty Bransfield, Pirates first baseman during the Honus Wagner era, dies at age 72.
1948 The White Sox lose, putting their all-time franchise record at .500 (3,547-3,547). They’ll stay under it for the next eight years.
1949 Ted Williams smashes the ninth of his career 17 grand slams.
1949 Elmer Valo of the A’s become the first AL player to hit two bases-loaded triples in one game.
1949 Bobby Shantz makes his big league debut.
1951 Minnie Minoso integrates the Chicago White Sox. In that same game, Mickey Mantle hits career home run No. 1. It’s a 450-foot shot.
1952 Bob Lemon has the longest outing of his career: 12.1 innings. He loses as Washington tops the Indians, 2-1.
1955 It’s a great doubleheader for the Indians—and a terrible one for Boston. In game one, veteran strikeout artist Bob Feller has his 12th and final career one-hitter. It’s an odd one for him, as there are only two strikeouts and one walk. Sammy West of the Red Sox gets a seventh-inning single. In the nightcap, young strikeout artist Herb Score fans 16, including nine in a row at one point. The Indians predictably win both contests.
1955 Cardinals third baseman Ken Boyer draws four walks in four PA.
1959 Early Wynn has maybe the most dominant game of his career. He throws a one-hitter, and the hit came with one out in the first inning by Pete Runnels. Wynn fans 14 and walks seven. Oh, and Wynn also belts a home run. Chicago wins 1-0.
1959 Dick Stuart hits a nearly 500-foot home run for the Pirates.
1959 The Reds trade Del Ennis to the White Sox.
1960 It begins! For the first time, the exploding scoreboard at Comiskey Park goes off. Al Smith hits a homer to launch it for the first time.
1960 Charlie O’Brien, longtime backup catcher, is born.
1964 Jose Lind, Pirates second baseman, is born.
1965 Tommy Davis breaks his ankle sliding into second base for the Dodgers.
1965 Hy Myers dies at age 76. As a Dodgers outfielder, he twice led the league in triples and once in RBIs.
1966 Sudden Sam McDowell throws his second straight one-hitter. Don Buford gets a third-inning single off him.
1967 Jimmy Piersall plays in his final game.
1968 For only the second time ever, a pitcher is ejected for throwing the spitball. This one is especially interesting, because it isn’t during the game. John Boozer of the Phillies is throwing spitters while warming up against the Mets in Shea Stadium when umpire Ed Vargo rings him up.
1968 It’s one of the greatest pitchers’ duels of the year as Oakland’s Blue Moon Odom and Cleveland’s Sam McDowell square off. Odom retires the first 15 batters he faces but loses 3-0 to McDowell, who fans 16 batters.
1969 Hall of Fame skipper Al Lopez manages his last game.
1969 Houston’s Don Wilson no-hits the Reds. The day before, Cincinnati’s Jim Maloney had no-hit the Astros. Just nine days ago, Wilson faced the Reds and got killed, 14-0. Today, he fans 15 in a 4-0 win.
1971 For the first time in nine years, an American League game begins with back-to-back homers. Incredibly, the same pitcher who surrendered them in 1962 is on the mound here again, Jim Perry. Boston’s Luis Aparicio and Reggie Smith go deep against the Minnesota star pitcher.
1973 Jim Colborn becomes the last Brewers hurler to throw nine innings in relief.
1974 Pittsburgh pitcher Dock Ellis is looking to send a message to shake things up against the Reds. Boy, does he ever want to send a message. He beans the first three batters of the game and then walks the fourth guy on four would-be bean balls. After two more attempts, he’s yanked from the game.
1974 Tom Seaver has his all-time highest Game Score of 106. His line: 12 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 16 Ks. As a bonus, he does it against the Dodgers, who begin the day with a record of 17-6 and will win 102 games all year. Aside from a Steve Garvey homer in the fifth, Seaver doesn’t allow anyone to make it past first base against him until the 12th inning. Alas, Seaver gets a no-decision as the Mets lose in 14 innings, 2-1.
1975 Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s RBI record, as he ends the day with 2,211 RBIs to Ruth’s 2,209. Next year, the Records Committee will revise Ruth’s RBI total to 2,204, so officially the record was set on April 18, but no one knew that on May 1, 1975.
1977 Tony Perez, who steals only 49 bases in 2,777 career games, has two swipes in today’s contest. He’s nearly 35 years old, too.
1977 According to WPA, this is Carlton Fisk’s best game: 0.790 WPA. He’s 3-for-4 with two homers and five RBIs in a 6-4 Red Sox win over the A’s.
1978 Jim Bouton begins his unlikely comeback pitching with the Savannah Braves of the Southern League.
1979 Phil Niekro wins his 200th game. He’s 200-175. Though he’s already 40 years old, he’ll still notch 100-plus more wins.
1979 Frank Taveras of the Mets fans five times in one game.
1979 Roger Freed hits a walk-off grand slam for the Cardinals against Houston. Even by walk-off grand slam standards, it’s unusually dramatic. It’s in the bottom of the 11th with St. Louis trialing, 6-3.
1980 Bill Madlock receives a 15-game suspension and $5,000 fine for hitting umpire Jerry Crawford in the face with a glove in a recent game.
1981 Tim Raines hits his first home run, a walk-off shot in the bottom of the 13th inning. He’ll never homer that late in a game again, and have just one more walk-off homer in his career.
1983 Robin Yount hits his 100th home run.
1984 Dwight Gooden becomes the first teenager to record double-digit strikeouts in a game since Bert Blyleven back in 1970.
1985 Jimmy Key becomes the first southpaw starting pitcher to win a game for the Blue Jays in 614 contests.
1985 Pitcher (and pretty good hockey player) Kirk McCaskill makes his big league debut.
1986 Dick Ruthven pitches in his final big league game.
1987 Tim Raines finally signs with the Montreal Expos. He tried to sign with another team in the offseason free agent market, but collusion slammed the door in his face, so he missed the first month of the year. For that matter, Bob Boone, Ron Guidry and Bill Campbell all also sign for the first time on this day.
1988 Andre Dawson has the last sacrifice hit of his career. It’s the only one he’ll ever have with the Cubs.
1991 The Brewers and White Sox have a 19-inning contest. It’s the longest AL game in seven years—since the same two teams went a league-record 25 innings. Milwaukee wins today’s game, 10-9. Paul Molitor receives three intentional walks along the way.
1991 Nolan Ryan throws his seventh career no-hitter. He walks two and fans 16 along the way for a Game Score of 101.
1991 He is the greatest. Rickey Henderson steals his 939th career base, passing Lou Brock for No. 1 on the list.
1992 The Dodgers postpone their three-game home series against the Expos due to rioting going on after the jury in the Rodney King beating trial acquits the police. They’ll make the contests up with a series of doubleheaders, among the few doubleheaders ever hosted in LA.
1992 Randy Johnson walks 10 batters, his most. Since then, five other pitchers have walked 10 in a game, and none have walked more than that in one outing.
1992 He's the greatest: Rickey Henderson steals his 1,000th base.
1995 MLB and the umpires reach an agreement, ending the ongoing lockout of the umps. They’ll be back on the field on May 3.
1996 Gerald Williams of the Yankees gets six hits in a 15-inning contest.
1998 The Orioles release veteran infielder Ozzie Guillen.
2000 For the first time, a home run ball lands in McCovey’s Cove in San Francisco. Naturally, Barry Bonds blasts it there.
2000 Texas purchases the ancient Ruben Sierra from the Mexican League’s Cancun team.
2000 Todd Helton hits three homers in one game.
2001 Ramon Martinez appears in his last game.
2001 Jeff Kent enjoys perhaps the best game of his career. He’s 3-for-4 with a double, homer, walk, and seven RBIs as the Giants top the Pirates, 11-6.
2002 Rafael Palmeiro bops his 500th career double.
2003 Baltimore’s B.J. Ryan records a win despite not throwing a single pitch. He enters the game and picks off Omar Infante in the bottom of the seventh to end the inning. The Orioles rally to take the lead in the eighth and pull Ryan for a new pitcher in the eighth. Baltimore wins, 5-4 over Detroit.
2004 Barry Bonds gets four intentional walks in a nine-inning game, setting a record for a nine-inning contest. (Andre Dawson had five in a 16-inning game in 1990).
2004 Frank Catalanotto of the Blue Jays gets six hits in one game, a first in franchise history.
2005 It’s the end of Johan Santana’s 17-game winning streak as the Angels top Santana and the Twins, 2-1. He allows just two hits in eight innings, but those hits are solo homers by Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Molina.
2006 Joel Pineiro becomes the first hurler in a dozen years to pitch nine innings and neither walk nor fan any batters.
2010 The Mets’ Mike Pelfrey has a scoreless-inning streak end at 27 as the Phillies clobber New York, 10-0. For the Phillies, today is Roy Halladay’s second complete-game shutout in his last three starts.
2012 Buck Showalter records his 1,000th victory as manager. His record is 1,000-958.
2012 White Sox outfielder Alejandro De Aza hits the rare infield double. He pops one up—but it gets lost in the smoke from the fireworks released at U.S. Cellular celebrating the just-hit homer by Gordon Beckham. Bizarre.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraAthletics 10, Angels 8: Nineteen innings. Six and a half hours. Sixteen pitchers. Ended on a Brandon Moss two-run homer, his second of the night/morning. Albert Pujols had two homers as well. It ended less than an hour and a half before my alarm clock went off this morning. It was the longest game in Angels history and the longest game ever played in Oakland. At least they follow it up with a night game rather than a day tilt.
Braves 3, Nationals 2: Atlanta beats Washington for the eighth straight time dating back to last season. The kicker: the Braves did it without any home runs.
Astros 9, Yankees 1: Hey, even the worst teams win several dozen times a year. You just don't expect them to beat the tar out of Andy Pettitte, that's all. Catcher Carlos Corporan went 4 for 5 with a homer, double and four RBI. Lucas Harrell allowed only one run in six and a third.
Tigers 4, Twins 3: Prince Fielder's three-run homer helps the Tigers to their fourth straight win.
Marlins 4, Mets 3: The Marlins won in 15 innings, but they lost their best player—Giancarlo Stanton—to a strained hamstring and he may miss more time than that after saying he felt a "pop" in his leg. Five straight losses for the Mets. No one is leaving this game happy.
Indians 9, Royals 0: Ryan Raburn hit two homers and drove in four and Ubaldo Jimenez tossed seven shutout innings to notch his first win in 12 starts. Wade Davis was shelled.
Cubs 5, Padres 3: Darwin Barney went 2 for 3 with two doubles and Cody Ransom went 2 for 4 with a home run. Chicago, you may not have noticed, has won five of seven.
Brewers 10, Pirates 4: Milwaukee hit five home runs, including one from Yovani Gallardo of all people, in the rout. They hit three triples too. Gallardo likewise allowed only one earned run in seven innings. Miller Park continues to be a house of horrors for the Pirates.
Mariners 6, Orioles 2: Joe Saunders with a complete game, allowing only two runs against his old mates. At least I assume they were his mates. I dunno. Maybe everyone hated Saunders in Baltimore. Called him "jerkface" and stuff. We never can really know these things.
Reds 2, Cardinals 1: Mat Latos outdueled Adam Wainwright, extending his scoreless innings streak to 17. The Cards have dropped three in a row.
Giants 6, Diamondbacks 4: San Francisco halts its losing skid, coming from behind after Matt Cain allowed three home runs in the fourth inning. Brandon Belt drove in three.
Rockies 12, Dodgers 2: Colorado rattled off 19 hits. Including three from pitcher Tyler Chatwood who drove in two to [all together now] help his own cause. His six shutout innings helped that quite a bit too.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Monday, April 29, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraPirates 9, Cardinals 0: Two homers for Russell Martin and a strong start from Jeff Locke. The Pirates -- the Pittsburgh Pirates -- are in first place in the National League Central. This goes with the Royals being in first place in the AL Central. I predicted each of these teams would be better this year. Maybe even surprisingly good compared to usual expectations. But I figured that meant the Pirates finishing a smidge above .500 and the Royals making third place. Second if absolutely everything went right maybe. That may be where each of them end up, but for now they gotta be enjoying the ride. This was the Pirates' 15th win. They last won 15 in the month of April in 1992.
Marlins 6, Cubs 4: Giancarlo Stanton hadn't hit a homer all year until Saturday, then he launched two homers yesterday. He was just giving everyone a head start I guess.
Yankees 3, Blue Jays 2: For years Blue Jays fans -- and often Blue Jays employees -- whined how it was so darn hard for them to break through in the AL East given the expensive star power the Yankees were able to assemble. Yesterday the star-laden Blue Jays got swept behind homers from Brennan Boesch and Lyle Overbay. What's the excuse now?
Reds 5, Nationals 2: Once my daughter found some random baseball trivia/facts website for kids and learned about the drop-the-third-strike rule which enables a struck out batter to go to first base. She thought this was quite rare and esoteric and asked me how a pitcher could strike out four batters in one inning, thinking she'd stump me. I gave her a bunch of dumb answers like "the batter distracts the umpire" or "the umpire is cheating" or "gamblers fixed the game." I pretended to be all exasperated with her and INSISTED that there can't POSSIBLY be a way for a pitcher to strike out four batters in an inning because EVERYONE knows that there are only three outs in an inning and a strikeout is an out. Later I admitted that I knew the rule and that I was just having fun with her. To this day she thinks I was lying and that I really didn't know the rule and she's the one who taught me. Guess I'll let her have that one. Anyway, Tony Cingrani struck out 11, including four in one inning. Because he was cheating, I assume.
Red Sox 6, Astros 1: John Lackey had one more tuneup against minor leaguers yesterday. Looks like he'll be set for his return from the disabled list Thursday versus the Twins. He's really gotta be looking forward to that.
Phillies 5, Mets 1: Carlos Ruiz came back, Ryan Howard -- who has driven in ten runs in his past five games -- came off the bench to deliver an RBI double and Cole Hamels got his first win of the season as the Phillies sweep the Mets. Hamels walked six dudes and the Mets didn't really make him pay for it. Man.
Rays 8, White Sox 3: David Price finally gets his first win of the year. And got into a big bunch of controversy with umpire Tom Hallion, too. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that, even if Hallion was 100% in the wrong here, MLB will do nothing to him publicly because, as history has shown us, umps can pretty much get away with murder. In other news, White Sox hitters struck out 12 times in all and Alex Rios allowed two runs to score when a catchable ball doinked off his mitt. Not a great day on the south side.
Dodgers 2, Brewers 0: Clayton Kershaw is a ridiculously good pitcher (8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 12K). Carl Crawford joins Russell Martin and Giancarlo Stanton in the two homers on Sunday club.
Padres 6, Giants 4: The reigning world champs are swept by San Diego. It's the first time the Pads did that in about three years. Chase Headley had three hits including a dinger.
Twins 5, Rangers 0: Kevin Correia shut out the Rangers for eight innings. Just junked 'em to death. It's the first time Texas has lost two games in a row all year.
Royals 9, Indians 0; Indians 10 Royals 3: According to the AP gamer, this was the first day-night doubleheader in the history of Kauffman Stadium. That's pretty surprising. Anyway, without looking at the box score for the first game, I'm gonna assume that it was a forfeit. [looks]. OK, wasn't a forfeit. But I do love how forfeits go in the books as a 9-0 win. I'm sure someone like Neyer or Mark Armour or Bill James or whoever knows why that is, but I don't. Jeremy Guthrie got the win. He hasn't had a loss in 16 starts. That's something. In the nightcap Mike Aviles had five RBI. Good for him.
Diamondbacks 4, Rockies 2: The loss of the game was bad, but the loss of Troy Tulowitzki to a strained shoulder was worse for the Rockies. The Dbacks take three of four and have won five of six overall.
Athletics 9, Orioles 8: Yoenis Cespedes gets activated and then hits a two-run homer to tie it in the ninth inning. In the tenth, Manny Machado -- who had four hits on the day, by the way -- threw the ball away on a sacrifice attempt, allowing the winning run to score. Welp.
Mariners 2, Angels 1: Jason Bay and Michael Morse homer. And the Angels keep pace with the Blue Jays in the Most Disappointing Team in All of Baseball race.
Tigers 8, Braves 3: What a blah of a series for the Braves. Wait -- I think they just struck out again. And ... again. God.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
30th anniversary: Lee Elia’s rant
Posted by Chris JaffeLast Friday was the 20th anniversary of one of the most memorable managerial tirades of all-time, when Hal McRae lost his mind after a Royals defeat. Today is the anniversary of a managerial meltdown that puts that one to shame. It’s the mother of all terrific tirades.
It was 30 years ago today on April 29, 1983, that Cubs manager Lee Elia completely lost his composure.
Odds are that more than a few of you out there in readerland are familiar with this one. It’s actually the most famous moment of Elia’s long baseball career, a fact that mortifies the one-time Cub skipper. Long story short, Elia did something managers rarely do: he completely tore into his team’s fans. And boy, oh boy, was it ever classic.
The Cubs had just suffered a tough loss, blowing an early lead to the Dodgers only to fall, 4-3. The loss dropped them 5-14 on the year, the worst record in baseball. This was all too familiar territory for the Cubs in recent times. Since Opening Day of 1980, they’d played 180-266 ball, a .403 winning clip.
The fans gave the club some grief that day, and Elia thought it went too far. In fact, some of the fans were so belligerent, Cub shortstop Larry Bowa and outfielder Keith Moreland nearly went into the stands to deal with some especially obnoxious louts.
Angry at the season, upset at the game, and irate at the fans, Elia had the 200 seconds that earned his place in the game’s folklore. Standing before a quartet of Chicago reporters, he unleashed this following profanity-laden bit of poetry. Here is the best part:
I'll tell you one f***in' thing: I hope we get f***in' hotter than s*** just to stuff it up them three thousand f***in' people that show up every f***in' day. Because if they're the real Chicago f***in' fans, they can kiss my f***in' a** right downtown—and print it!
They're really, really behind you around here. My f***in' a**! What...what the f*** am I supposed to do? Go out there and get destroyed, and be quiet about it? For the f***in' nickel/dime people that show up? The motherf***ers don't even work! That's why they're out at the f***in' game! They ought to get a f***in' job and find out what it's like to go out and earn a f***in' living. Eighty-five percent of the f***in' world is working. The other fifteen come out here.
A f***in' playground for the c***s***ers. Rip them motherf***ers! Rip those country c***s***ers, like the f***in' players! We've got guys bustin' their f***in' a**es and those f***in' people boo...and that's the Cubs? My f***in' ass! They talk about the great f***in' support that the players get around here, I haven't seen it this f***in' year.
One of the reporters, Les Grobstein from WLS, had a microphone turned on. Thus, Elia's tirade became forever preserved. He immediately apologized once he heard the tape and ever since then has regretted it. But it’s always there.
Oddly enough, a lot of the Cub fans I know don’t mind it that much. First, it was so long ago that it predates the rooting interest for many. Heck, the whole Cubs popularity phenomenon didn’t really get going until 1984, just after Elia. Besides, while some of the tirade is just profane, parts of it are just fantastic. 85 percent of the world works and the other 15 percent come here? Frankly, that’s a hilarious putdown of the fans of what was then the only park without lights.
Oh, and Elia didn’t last the season. That shouldn’t be too surprising. The club was losing, and the manger had a tirade like that. He made it several more months, though, lasting until late August. He even succeeded in finding another big league dugout gig, piloting the 1987-88 Phillies.
But there is only one moment people think of when they hear the name Lee Elia, and it was the tirade he had 30 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events celebrate their anniversary today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since the Milwaukee Brewers, just one day after topping the Cubs, 18-1, clobber the Cardinals, 18-4.
2,000 days since Houston trades Brad Lidge and a second player to the Phillies for Michael Bourn and two others.
3,000 days since Curt Schilling donates his bloody sock from the 2004 ALCS to Cooperstown.
3,000 days since Jason Giambi makes his first public appearance since PED allegations against him surfaced. He apologies to his teammates, Yankee fans, and all fans.
4,000 days since Erubiel Durazo belts three home runs in one game.
4,000 days since Jason Giambi hits a massively clutch home run, a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 14th with the Yankees trailing Minnesota by three for a 13-12 win.
5,000 days since Baltimore’s Brady Anderson belts a home run to lead off both ends of a doubleheader against the White Sox.
5,000 days since the Dodgers use pitchers born in four different countries from three separate continents. None of the hurlers is from America.
5,000 days since Adam Kennedy makes his big league debut.
5,000 days since Sammy Sosa homers twice in one game for the second straight contest.
9,000 days since Curt Schilling makes his big league debut.
10,000 days since the Indians sign free agent Tom Candiotti.
25,000 days since Tom Seaver is born.
Anniversaries
1876 The National League has its first extra-inning game. The Braves top Hartford in 10 innings.
1879 Noodles Hahn, pitcher with Hall of Fame talent but not much durability, is born.
1885 Will White, a 200-game-winner, allows two-inside-the-park homers in one game. Charles Comiskey and Curt Welch hit them.
1888 Charlie Ferguson, highly talented young Phillies pitcher, dies at age 25 years and 12 days old. He’s the first prominent major league player to die.
1891 Hall of Fame pitcher Amos Rusie, the greatest fastball hurler of his generation, surrenders a leadoff, inside-the-park home run to Hub Collins.
1897 Roger Connor, the all-time home run king before Babe Ruth, hits his 138th and final home run.
1898 Frank Chance, part of poetry’s most famous infield, makes his big league debut.
1902 John McGraw is hit by pitches five times, but the umpire refuses to let him take first. McGraw sits in the batter's box in protest, for which he'll be suspended five games. I don't really know what went on here, but I assume the ump was a stickler for the rule saying the batter must make an effort to get out of the way of the pitch. It probably didn't help McGraw that umpires hated him.
1905 Speaking of stories I'd love to hear the background for, on this day Christy Mathewson punches a kid selling lemonade in the stands. The kid had been heckling Mathewson. Ohhhh-kay. This incident doesn't really jibe with Mathewson's gentlemanly reputation.
1913 The Reds travel to Chicago to play the Cub,s but there's a problem: they left their uniforms in Cincinnati, so they wear White Sox road uniforms.
1918 Tris Speaker pulls off his sixth career unassisted double play. It's his second in less than two weeks.
1919 Lefty O'Doul makes his big league debut. He's a pitcher but later will convert to batting, where he'll do well.
1922 In Braves Field, the New York Giants leg out four inside-the-park homers. Two were by George "Highpockets" Kelly and one each by Ross Youngs and Dave Bancroft. All are now in Cooperstown. Kelly and Bancroft both hit one off another Hall of Famer, Rube Marquard. Kelly may have had the most homers, but Youngs had the best day: 5-for-5 with five runs and two RBI. He hit for the cycle with two doubles. Giants beat the Braves, 15-4.
1922 The longest outing in the career of Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt: 14 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K.
1923 Major league debut: Rube Walberg, a quality pitcher on Connie Mack’s second dynasty.
1923 Yankees sign Lou Gehrig to a contract for $2,000 plus a $1,500 signing bonus.
1924 Bump Hadley, playing for Mercersburg Academy, not only tosses a perfect game against Hadley-Lynn of Massachusetts but also fans 26 of the 27 batters he faces. Hadley will become a productive major league pitcher for many years.
1925 Brooklyn Dodgers president Ed McKeever dies from an illness that he initially contracted while standing in the cold rain during the funeral of former team honcho Charles Ebbets.
1926 Major league debut: Hall of Fame pitcherJoe Cronin.
1930 Major league debut: Lefty Gomez.
1931 Jimmy McAleer, former major league manager and all-time winningest St. Louis Browns skipper, commits suicide at age 66.
1931 Wes Ferrell has a game for the ages. He throws a no-hitter, hits a home run and a double, and drives in four runs. Rick Wise may not be impressed, but anyone else ought to be. With 26 outs, his brother Rick Ferrell comes to the plate and gets on board with what's ruled an infield error.
1932 Hall of Fame White Sox pitcher Red Faber loses his 200th game. He's 249-200 on his career now.
1932 Greenelee Field, Negro League park, opens in Pittsburgh.
1933 Dodgers release Jack Quinn, who, until Jamie Moyer came along, was the oldest pitcher ever to win a game.
1933 One of the most bizarre plays in baseball history: Yankee teammates Lou Gehrig and Dixie Walker both are tagged out at the plate—bang-bang—one right after the other in one play against the Senators. The same thing happened to the Yanks about a half-century later against the White Sox.
1934 Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio is born.
1934 Two quality players of the era make their big league debuts today, Augie Galan and Bill Lee.
1934 The Phillies play their first legal Sunday home game. So does Pittsburgh. Sunday ball finally has come to all of major league baseball.
1935 Hugh Casey makes his big league debut. He’ll become one of the game’s first notable relievers.
1936 It's the first pro baseball game in the Japanese Baseball League.
1936 Epic pitchers' duel as the Cardinals defeat the Giants, 2-1 in 17 innings. St. Louis' Roy Parmelee and New York's Carl Hubbell both go the distance. Parmelee: 17 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K. Hubbell: 16.1 IP, 11 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K.
1937 For the third time in his career, Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons pitches a complete-game shutout and hits a home run in the same game. NYG 9, BRK 0.
1939 Joe DiMaggio tears a muscle in his leg and will be out five weeks
1940 Ted Williams hits two triples in a game. He'll do it once more in his career.
1940 200-game winner Paul Derringer is having one heck of a season. He tosses his 14th straight Quality Start, a career high he'll tie three months later. In this stretch, he's 12-1 in 126 innings with 131 H, 35 R, 30 ER, 18 BB, and 52 K for a 2.14 ERA.
1944 The St. Louis Browns, of all teams, set an AL record by winning their first nine decisions.
1947 Yankees release Joe Medwick, who in his prime had won a Triple Crown in the NL.
1948 200 homers: Ted Williams.
1948 After 77 straight appearances dating back to 1945 without picking up a loss, Ted Wilks of the Cardinals loses a game.
1951 Hall of Fame second baseman Bobby Doerr enjoys the 14th and final multi-home run game of his career. In the same contest, teammate Ted Williams smacks a homer in the top of the 13th, the latest he ever goes deep.
1952 Al Rosen, Cleveland, homers three times in one game.
1952 Bob Feller sets personal record with most hits allowed, 18. He wins the complete game anyway: Indians 21, A's 9. Feller’s teammate Jim Fridley smacks six hits in that game.
1953 Joe Adcock becomes first person to homer into Polo Grounds' center field bleachers, 475 feet from the plate.
1956 Richie Ashburn hits an inside-the-park home run in the first game of a double-header. He also hit two homers in a game the day before. Those are his only homers on the year. Think about it: he gets only three home runs in 719 plates appearances, and they all come within five plate appearances.
1958 Ted Williams becomes the 10th person to get 1,000 career extra-base hits.
1962 New York Mets outfielder Frank Thomas suffers from two hits-by-pitch in one inning.
1962 Star Cardinals third baseman Ken Boyer legs out two triples in one game.
1963 Willie Mays hits his 100th career triple.
1966 Hank Aaron homers in his fifth consecutive game, his longest streak.
1967 Whitey Ford notches his 236th and final career win.
1969 Bobby Bonds has his best game according to WPA: 1.126, which is incredibly high. In a 13-inning game against the Reds, he’s 4-for-7 with a homer, two runs, three RBI and a reached on error. The Giants win, 4-3.
1970 Paul Blair hits three home runs in one game.
1971 Sterling Hitchcock, pitcher, is born.
1973 Astros pitcher Tom Walker suffers one of the worst indignities: he’s called for a walk-off balk to end the game against Montreal.
1975 The Yankees turn six double plays in one game against Cleveland.
1977 Young Yankees reliever Ron Guidry is called into service as an emergency starting pitcher for Billy Martin’s depleted rotation. Guidry pitches eight shutout innings for the win. His days in the bullpen are now over.
1978 Pete Rose hits three homers in one game. It's his first multi-homer game in eight years and the last one of his career.
1979 Gary Carter hits an inside-the-park home run. It's the first of two in his career. He gets two homers in this game, the second time in three games he's done that.
1980 The Phillies sign amateur free agent Juan Samuel.
1980 Rangers owner Bradford G. Corbett (nicknamed “Chuckles the Clown” by unhappy Texas fans) sells majority interest in the club to Eddie Chiles.
1980 Sal Bando has his 16th and final multi-home run game.
1980 The Harvey's Wallbanger Brewers lineup smash seven homers in a 14-1 demolition of the Indians.
1981 Steve Carlton fans his 3,000th batter.
1982 Orioles pitcher Storm Davis makes his big league debut.
1983 Steve Carlton picks off three baserunners in a game vs. Houston.
1984 Dave Stewart becomes the first pitcher to go 0-6 in April. In his partial defense, there weren’t enough April ballgames for a pitcher to go 0-6 until not long before this.
1985 Larry Parrish hits three homers in a game for the fourth time. Larry Parrish did it four times? Larry Parrish? He was a good hitter, but Hank Aaron did it only once.
1986 Roger Clemens has one of the greatest starts in history, setting a record by fanning 20 men in a nine-inning game.
1986 The Expos hit four homers in the fourth inning: Andre Dawson, Hubie Brooks, Tim Wallach and Mike Fitzgerald.
1986 A battle of the two most recent world champions—the Tigers and Royals—is a true pitchers' duel, with each team mustering just a pair of hits. Despite that, the Tigers win, 2-1.
1986 It’s a nightmare ending for Cubs. They enter bottom of the ninth leading the Padres, 4-1. Then: single, force out, single, single, homer by Terry Kennedy off Ray Fontenot.
1987 Andre Dawson has the greatest game of his life. Not only does he go 5-for-5 at the plate; not only does he hit for the cycle, but he throws a runner out at first for an assist in the rare 9-3 groundout.
1987 Jack Clark slugs his 200th career home run.
1988 Joe Niekro pitches in his last game.
1988 Orioles FINALLY win a game, now 1-21 on the season. BAL 9, CWS 0.
1989 According to WPA, this is the worst game Andre Dawson ever had: 1-for-5, one run, GIDP. WPA: -0.400. He makes three inning-ending outs, most notably a GIDP with the bases loaded to end the seventh inning.
1990 Dan Quisenberry retires. When I was a kid, he was the ultimate relief ace. What the BBWAA thinks of Bruce Sutter is what I thought of Quiz.
1990 Royals pitcher Jeff Montgomery fans the side on nine pitches in the eighth inning against Texas.
1992 Yankee farmhand Jeff Hoffman dies in his hotel room of a previously undetected heart problem.
1993 John Olerud enjoys his only five-hit game. He’s 5-for-5 with a pair of doubles.
1994 Montreal Expo Kirk Rueter becomes the first pitcher since Fernando Valenzuela to start his career at 10 wins and no losses.
1995 Major league debuts: Brad Radke, LaTroy Hawkins (both for Minnesota Twins), Andy Pettitte and Esteban Loaiza.
1996 Tom Kelly offers a memorable quote about Mariano Rivera: "He needs to pitch in a higher league, if there is one. Ban him from baseball. He should be illegal." I half-wonder if I have the right year for this one, but looking it up, Rivera had thrown three innings of hitless middle relief against the Twins the day before. Two days before that he had another three-inning relief stint against the Twins without surrendering a hit. So it was this early in Rivera's career Kelly said that.
1997 Chili Davis hits his 300th career home run.
1999 An A's loss puts manager Art Howe 83 games under .500, his worst (618-701) record ever. He'll tie that mark two games later, but it will rise up from there.
1999 Roy Halladay suffers his worst start: 2.1 IP, 9 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 3 BB, and 1 K. He even surrenders his first grand slam as the Angels maul Toronto, 17-1. Halladay’s Game Score on the day is –7.
1999 The Brewers sign Hideo Nomo.
2000 After losing their first half-dozen contests in their new stadium, the Giants finally win one at Pac Bell Park.
2001 Shawn Chacon, pitcher, makes his big league debut.
2001 Geoff Jenkins homers twice in one game, giving him five in two games.
2005 The first match-up between two 300-game winners in 18 years as Greg Maddux outduels Roger Clemens, 3-2, in Houston.
2006 The 200th career homer for Magglio Ordonez helps the Tigers beat the Twins, 18-1.
2007 Jamie Moyer slugs his first double in 19 years.
2007 Troy Tulowitzki achieves the most boring of baseball's noteworthy plays: the unassisted triple play. It's the 13th ever. In that same game, Tulowitzki’s Colorado teammate Todd Helton draws five walks (none intentional). Helton is also 1-for-1 on the day.
2008 Despite being no-hit, the Potomac Nationals top the Winston-Salem Warthogs, 3-2. In the sixth inning, they scored a trio of runs on an error, two walks, a passed ball, two more walks, and a fielder’s choice.
2009 Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo has quite a nice day: He hits a homer while winning 1-0.
2009 Zack Greinke’s scoreless-inning streak ends at 43, but he tops Toronto, 11-3.
2010 It’s a good day to be Magglio Ordonez, as he raps out his 2,000th hit, and he also gets his 300th career home run.
2010 John Buck, Toronto, hits three homers in one game, all off different pitchers.
2012 It’s a memorable way to end the day. The Cardinals fall, 3-2, to the Brewers, with the last out coming on a failed steal of home. It comes with runners on first and third, and when the trailing runner broke for second, the catcher threw the ball, and the lead runner bolted for the plate. It didn’t work out.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Some suggestions to improve the Mets bullpen
Posted by Pat AndriolaSaying that the Mets bullpen is not very good is an understatement. The bullpen season ERA was at 5.57 at one point during Saturday's game (in which a 3-2 deficit became 8-2 immediately upon starting pitcher Shaun Marcum exiting). Mets fans hope it can only get better from here. I have some humble suggestions:
-Promote sidewinder Greg Burke. Burke started with the big league team out of spring training, but got demoted after a 7.36 ERA in just over seven innings. The problem? Burke was actually pitching well in the limited time (2.31 FIP). He's dominated since getting sent to Triple-A Las Vegas and Steamer thinks he's good for a 4.04 FIP the rest of the way.
-Promote Collin McHugh. McHugh got some starts for the Mets last year and did pretty well; in 21 innings he had a 4.77 xFIP. His ERA skyrocketed because of a HR/FB rate of 18.5 percent that will most likely regress a fair amount. So far in Las Vegas he's pitching extremely well with a 2.34 FIP and 1.93 ERA, and Steamer thinks he's good for a 4.06 FIP the rest of the way. Importantly, he's a natural starting pitcher and can eat innings.
-Promote Gonzalez Germen. The underrated Mets right-handed prospect has dominated Triple-A this year with a 10.93 K/9 and 1.93 BB/9 in 14 innings. His career minor league numbers are solid, and Steamer likes him for a 3.77 ERA and 3.80 FIP in the big leagues. That's much better than what's currently on the roster.
-Demote Robert Carson. The kid just doesn't have it yet. After a poor outing today he has an ERA of 45.00, and both ZiPS and Steamer think he's a below-average big league reliever at the moment.
-Demote Jeurys Familia. Another kid who just isn't ready for the majors just yet. His control is supremely poor and he doesn't have the overpowering stuff to make up for it. At just 23 years old, there's time for him in the minors.
None of these are panaceas. Barring something surprising, the Mets will continue to have one of (if not the) worst bullpens in the majors. But marginal differences matter, and at this point changes have to be made.
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Friday, April 26, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraRoyals 8, Tigers 3: You can try to make Phil Coke a multi-inning reliever all you want, but he's still going to be a lefty specialist. And when he comes in and has trouble even getting the lefties out, you can't stick with him. He's not the one who gave up the grand slam to Alex Gordon, but he set the stage. Well, that and Jim Leyland intentionally walking Jeff Francouer, but the outcome was all but set when that happened. We were just waiting for it to finish playing out.
Pirates 6, Phillies 4: Hey, did you realize that Pittsburgh was 13-9? It's true. The Pirates are winners of 10 of 13. Gaby Sanchez homered and drove in three. The Phillies dropped their first home series against the Pirates in over a decade.
Red Sox 7, Astros 2: Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL David Ortiz! The Sox' DH was 3 for 4 with a homer and an RBI single. He's 11 for 20 since coming off the DL. Clay Buchholz struck out 10 while pitching into the eighth. Daniel Bard made his 2013 debut, striking out one in a scoreless inning. Oh, and alert the media and/or relevant first responders: Rick Ankiel drew a walk. His first of the year.
Dodgers 3, Mets 2: Hyun-Jin Ryu had a nice performance, holding the Mets to one run on three hits in seven innings while striking out eight. Andre Ethier broke a 1-1 tie in the ninth with an RBI single, followed up by Juan Uribe putting the Dodgers ahead with a single of his own.
Yankees 5, Blue Jays 3: Robinson Cano, Vernon Wells and Frankie Cervelli went deep. The Yankees were down 3-0 early, but Hiroki Kuroda settled down after that and waited for the bats to boom. A record low crowd for Yankee Stadium. Which is kind of a shame, actually. This Yankees team isn't what people are accustomed to, but it's kinda cool seeing contributions from different faces and names in pinstripes. If nothing else, people should be bearing witness to a resurrection: Vernon Wells is hitting .293/.361/.587 with six homers on the year.
Nationals 8, Reds 1: If the bats are gonna sleep, it's up to the pitchers. That's what Gio Gonzalez must've figured, as he allowed only one hit -- a Joey Votto solo shot -- in eight innings. Except the bats did show up, actually, with the Nats rattling off a dozen hits, including a Danny Espinosa two-run homer and RBI double. Denard Span drove in three as well.
White Sox 5, Rays 2: Chris Sale walked four dudes, but allowed only two runs and four hits in seven innings. Adam Dunn homered. Life is more fun when Adam Dunn homers. He's now hitting a crisp .108 on the year.
Cubs 4, Marlins 3: It's 2013. Terrorism, war and ecological destruction ravage the planet. Still, I'm gonna offer that a Cubs-Marlins series is the worst thing affecting humankind at the moment. Luis Valbuena hit the go-ahead homer in the ninth. Afterwards he said "Ninth inning, two outs, I tried to hit a home run. I didn't want to play extra innings." I don't think any of us wanted to see it either, Luis. Give that man a humanitarian award.
Rangers 2, Twins 1: Nick Tepesch allowed five hits in six and two-thirds, with a solo homer to Josh Willingham the only blight on the box score. The Twins' best chance to get even or better ended, however, when Willingham hit into a bases-loaded double play in the eighth. Selah.
Diamondbacks 3, Rockies 2: Paul Goldschmidt with a two-run homer helped a not-great but good enough Trevor Cahill, who notched his first W of the year.
Orioles 10, Athletics 2: Nate McLouth singled, doubled, walked and drove in two. Chris Davis homered. Adam Jones had three hits. All nine starters got a hit and six different O's drove in a run. The A's have dropped six of seven.
Mariners 6, Angels 0: The Mariners' sleepy bats woke up. Including Carlos Peguero's, whose bat hit a 450+ foot homer, adjudged the third longest in Safeco Field history. Kyle Seager has a 14 game hitting streak. As for Anaheim, I'm not wishing any ill-happenings for anyone, but I'm still liking my "Mike Scioscia is the first manager fired this year" prediction.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
20th anniversary: Hal McRae loses his mind
Posted by Chris JaffeToday marks the 20th anniversary of one of the all-time great managerial meltdowns. It’s so good,that you just have to say the name and most baseball fans old enough to remember can fill in the blanks on their own.
That manager was Hal McRae.
Does this one sound familiar to anyone out there in reader-land yet?
McRae was in the midst of what now sounds like one of the most thankless jobs in baseball: managing the Royals.
However dismal a chore that might sound like to readers in 2013, it must have sounded different to McRae when he landed the position during the 1992 season. After all, it was a place where McRae had played and starred for many years. Now he’d manage before the fans who had cheered for him.
And his memory of the team was of a beautifully run, model franchise. After all, in the 1970s 1980s Kansas City typically contended and seemingly always had a winning record. Please note this wasn’t ancient history, either. They had won 92 games in 1989 and posted a winning record in 1991. In fact, that very season, McRae took over after a slow start and helped them rally to a 82-80 end record. They flopped badly in 1992, 72-90, but hoped to bounce back in 1993.
At any rate, on April 26, 1993, the Royals lost a game 5-3 to the Tigers, dropping their record to 7-12. This wasn’t the Royals record McRae expected.
Then came the post-game conference. It started off fairly generically, with McRae holding court in his office. Then a reporter asked a question McRae didn’t like. And history was made.
The question was whether he’d considered using the aging George Brett as a pinch hitter in the seventh with two outs and the bases loaded. Something inside McRae snapped.
First he called it a “stupid a** f***ing question.” Well, that’s a nice little quote. But before anyone could go on, he got up, and started throwing things. Just whatever was in front of him on the desk. He screamed some more at the reporter, threw some more objects—most notably his phone, which caught a reporter in the face, drawing blood.
McRae chased everyone out of his office, followed them out, and screamed at them some more before concluding, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”
It was over—but as it happened, McRae’s managing career wasn’t. He survived the incident and actually led the Royals to a winning record in 1993, and then again in 1994. The club let him go after those back-to-back winning records—and the Royals have had just one winning season since.
McRae even found work managing another team, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He lasted two years, but after a horrible 106-loss season in 2002, the club let McRae go. He hasn’t managed since, and isn’t likely to ever again.
But he had one moment people won’t forget—and it happened 20 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that occurred X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since a three-team trade sends Ryan Ludwick to the Padres, Jake Westbrook to the Cardinals, and a minor league to St. Louis.
1,000 days since Arizona trades Chad Qualls to Tampa.
1,000 days since the Cubs trade Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot to the Dodgers.
1,000 days since the Indians trade Kerry Wood to the Yankees.
1,000 days since Houston trades Lance Berkman to the Yankees.
1,000 days since the Royals send Kyle Farnsworth and Rick Ankiel to the Braves.
1,000 days since Pirates trade Octavio Dotel to the Dodgers.
1,000 days since Carlos Gonzalez has a great day. Not only does he hit for the cycle, but he caps it off with a walk-off home run.
1,000 days since Dan Uggla hits his 144th home run for the Marlins, passing Mike Lowell as all-time franchise leader.
3,000 days since Detroit signs free agent Magglio Ordonez.
3,000 days since the Brewers sign their old star third baseman, Jeff Cirillo.
4,000 days since Jimmy Carter throws out the first pitch in the Cuban League All-Stars game. Fidel Castro coaches him as he warms up.
5,000 days since Lou Piniella records his 1,000th managerial victory. His record is 1,000-926.
5,000 days since Pirates player Dale Sveum homers from both sides of the plate during a 12-6 win over the Reds.
50,000 days since the first pair of brother big-leaguers make their debut, Art Allison and Doug Allison. (Well, it happened before in the National Association, but that was only sort of a major league at best).
Anniversaries
1872 Jim O'Rourke, Hall of Famer, makes his National Association debut.
1884 Joe Quinn, member of 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134) makes his big league debut. He actually had a good career, but I only know of him from his final, sad season on the saddest of all teams.
18887 Denny Lyons gets six hits in a game for Philadelphia in the American Association.
1888 It’s the last game for leading slugger of the 1880s, Charley Jones. He's the best player whose death date is completely unknown to us.
1892 Brickyard Kennedy, a pretty good pitcher for Brooklyn in the 1890s, makes his big league debut. He's still among the team's career leaders in wins.
1898 Hall of Famer Elmer Flick makes his major league debut. The Tigers once offered to trade Ty Cobb for Flick straight up, only to have Flick's team refuse. That's the story I heard, anyway.
1900 Hack Wilson, Hall of Famer who had a mighty nice age-30 season, is born.
1902 One day after blowing a 13-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth against Detroit, Milwaukee blows another one. Milwaukee led 6-2 in the middle of the eighth but lost 6-5 in regulation.
1902 In his big league debut, future Hall of Famer Addie Joss throws a complete game one-hit shutout over the Browns. Jesse Burkett's single ruins it for him.
1904 Ty Cobb makes his pro ball debut. He plays for the Augusta, Ga., team at age 17.
1905 Cubs outfielder Jack McCarthy throws out three guys at the plate in one game, each completing a double play as Cubs triumph over Pirates 2-1.
1906 Hall of Fame manager Ned Hanlon loses his 1,000th game. His record is 1,184-1,000.
1909 Doc Powers, still an active player, dies at age 38 of stomach illness—more specifically, the gangrene caused by a botched surgery on it. Yikes!
1912 Hugh Bradley becomes the first player to homer over Fenway's Green Monster (which isn't yet all-green yet, but never mind that).
1917 Sal Maglie, star Giants pitcher, is born.
1917 Virgil Trucks, great Tigers pitcher, is born.
1925 Ill-deserving Hall of Famer Rube Marquard wins his 200th game. He’s 200-169 so far.
1927 Jimmie Dykes gets his 1,000th hit in his 1,004 game. In exactly 1,004 more games, he'll get No. 2,000. Seriously.
1927 Woody English, a very good- hitting shortstop who peaks early, makes his big league debut.
1929 Hall of Famer Jesse Haines sets personal bests with his 10th straight Quality Start and 10th consecutive complete game. He has a 1.40 ERA in 90 innings.
1931 Lou Gehrig loses a home run in odd fashion. He hits the ball out of the park, it bounces back to outfielder Sam Rice, and the Yankee runner on base thinks it's caught. So he goes to the dugout instead of scoring. Ultimately, Gehrig is credited with an outside-the-park triple.
1932 Babe Herman, never known for his wits in the stadium, outdoes himself. He takes his seven-year-old son to the park and forgets to bring him home. The team secretary saw the urchin and brought him home for Herman.
1934 Al Simmons gets his 2,000th hit in only his 1,393th game. No one else has done it in less than 1,400 games.
1935 Dolf Luque, terrific pitcher for the Reds in his prime, appears in his last game.
1940 The Senators purchase Zeke Bonura from Giants for $20,000.
1941 Wrigley Field becomes first ballpark with an organ. Typically, the Cubs lose, 6-2.
1944 Bucky Walters enjoys his best Game Score: 94. His line: 13 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K in complete game 1-0 win over Cardinals. I'm not sure which is less likely these days: a pitcher throwing 13 innings or a team fanning only three times in 13 innings.
1945 Paul Waner appears in his last game.
1946 Giants pitchers Ace Adams and Harry Feldman defect to the outlaw Mexican League.
1947 Famous Amos Otis is born.
1948 The Indians and White Sox engage in a wild slugfest, won 12-11 by Cleveland in 14 innings. Lou Boudreau is the star that day, going 5-for-6 with a pair of doubles and a pair of homers. He scores two runs and drove in four. He also has two walks—but is caught stealing once.
1951 The Yankee franchise record hits 1,000 games over .500: 4,275-3,275. This includes the 1901-02 years in Baltimore. They've been over 1,000 games over .500 ever since.
1953 Bob Lemon, age 32, steals his first career base. He'll get his second, and last, stolen base four months later.
1955 Al Kaline hits the first of six walkoff homers.
1955 Bob Turley ties the record for most walks in a regular season complete game one-hitter: 9 IP, 1 H, 0 R/ER, 9 BB, 10 K. And yes, I have to say "regular season" as a qualifier because Bill Bevens walked 10 in his 1947 World Series one-hitter.
1955 The A's sign pitcher Vic Raschi as a free agent.
1955 Mike Scott, pitcher, is born.
1959 It’s probably Billy Pierce's best day at the plate: 3-for-4 with a double and triple (and this from a man who only had 17 extra-base hits in his career). He also had a GIDP.
1959 Legendary Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh belts his first home run.
1959 Willard Schmidt, Reds pitcher, is hit by a pitch at the plate twice in one inning, a first. Reds beat Braves 11-10.
1961 The first of Roger Maris' 61 home runs on the year highlights a bizarre Yankees-Tigers game. Yanks lead 6-0, but Detroit then storms to a 11-8 lead, only to falter and allow the Bronx Bombers to win 13-11 in 10 innings. Among other things, it's Mickey Mantle's favorite WPA game: 0.737 WPA. He goes 2-for-6 with three runs, two homers, four RBIs, and a reached on error. Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford isn't so fortunate. He sets his personal high in runs allowed: 10, though only six are earned, in his 6.1 IP.
1964 Sonny Siebert pitches in his first big league game.
1969 The Baseball Record Committee, which had earlier decided to up Babe Ruth's home run total to 715 because of a shot listed as a triple, decides to flip back to 714 homers. And it's been 714 ever since. The back story is that he never should’ve been credited with 715 in the first place, as a rules committee falsely thought it had the authority to retroactively change a playing rule. The hit in question went over the fence to score a base runner with the winning run, at which point the game ended, according to the rules then, so Ruth could not score an additional run.
1970. Star pitcher Bob Gibson fans 15, which is impressive but not his most: 9 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 15 K.
1971 Tom Seaver throws his 19th straight quality start, the first of two times he did that in his career. His numbers in the stretch: 13-4 W-L, 163.1 IP, 99 H, 21 R, 18 ER, 31 BB, 164 K and a 0.99 ERA. A 0.99 ERA. Yeah, yeah, it's selective endpoints, but it's a zero freaking nine-nine ERA over enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. Tom sure was terrific.
1972 Bobby Bonds bashes the first of seven career walk-off home runs. It’s in the 10th inning of an 8-6 Giants win over Philadelphia.
1974 Indians trade Chris Chambliss and Dick Tidrow and a third guy to Yankees for Fritz Peterson and three other guys. Advantage: Yankees.
1974 Legendary bad hitter Mario Mendoza makes his big league debut, to the delight of AL pitchers..
1974 Hank Aaron hits his 15th grand slam, passing Willie McCovey and Gil Hodges for a NL record. (McCovey will later pass Aaron, though).
1978 Joe Crede, third baseman, is born.
1980 Steve Carlton sets the 20th century NL record by pitching his sixth one-hitter.
1980 This is the only time Willie Randolph triples twice in a game.
1981 Carlton Fisk plays third base for the last time.
1985 Tony Gwynn ruins Orel Hershiser's perfect game. Gwynn walks in the first inning and singles in the fourth—and that's it for San Diego: 9 IP, 1 H, 0 R/ER, 1 BB, 5 K for Hershiser.
1985 Buddy Bell belts his 2,000thi hit.
1986 Ball Night in Arlington Stadium: fans throw them on the field in the top of the ninth when the home team pitchers do this: BB, WP, PB, 1B, 1B, and HR. Yoikes.
1986 Speaking of bizarre tops of the ninth in the AL West: On April 26, 1986, the Twins enter the top of the ninth leading the Angels 6-1, but leave it down 7-6, which is the final. Not only that, but the wind tore a hole in the Metrodome roof earlier, delaying the game for nine minutes. Given how things worked out, I'm sure the Twins wish the problem with the roof had been worse.
1987 Rick Reuschel, one of the most underrated pitchers in history, allows his first grand slam in 12 years. It's the third grand slam Reuschel's ever allowed and the first NOT hit by Mike Jorgensen. Lance Parrish blasted it. (Yes, Jorgensen hit both of the other two).
1987 It’s WPA's least favorite Jim Rice game; 0-for-6, 1 GIDP for a -0.485 WPA in Boston 5-3 loss to Texas in 13 innings.
1990 Nolan Ryan has one of his best games: a complete game shutout one-hitter with 16 strikeouts. The only hit was a second-inning single by Ron Kittle, of all people. It's Ryan's 12th one-hitter, tying Bob Feller for the all-time record. Ryan also walked two batters.
1991 It’s the last game for crazy man Tony Bernazard.
1992 Ozzie Smith, at age 37, steals three bases in one game.
1993 Milwaukee purchases former ace pitcher Mike Boddicker from the Royals.
1995 Red Sox signs free agent Tim Wakefield. This works out.
1995 Bruce Bochy manages his first game. He's been calling the shots in either the San Diego or San Francisco dugout ever since.
1995 Several players make their big league debuts, most notably: Bobby Higginson, Edgardo Alfonzo, Ray Durham and Troy Percival.
1995 The first Pirates game after the strike is held up for 17 minutes as fans toss wooden sticks onto the field to protest the lack of a 1994 World Series. (It’s flag day, which is where the sticks come from).
1996 Milt Gaston dies at age 100. The former pitcher went 97-164 in his career.
1997 Andruw Jones' first walkoff home run. He had seven, as of the end of 2010.
1997 Derek Lowe makes his big league debut.
1997 Pete Schourek becomes the only pitcher to ever club a homer off Curt Schilling.
1997 Roberto Alomar thrice homers in one game. In all, he's 4-for-4 with six RBIs and a sac fly.
1997 Mark McGwire walks five times in one game, three times intentionally. He also gets a pair of hits.
1997 Ryne Sandberg's 267th homer while playing second base allows him to pass Joe Morgan for most ever at that position.
2000 Vladimir Guerrero belts his 100th home run.
2001 Hideo Nomo just misses his second no-hitter of the year—not bad, especially given that it's still only April. A bloop single by Torii Hunter in the seventh is the only one he allows in 2-0 Boston win over Minnesota.
2001 Dodgers general manager Kevin Malone resigns.
2002 The Rockies fire Buddy Bell. Clint Hurdle makes his managerial debut.
2002 Brad Lidge first appears in a big league game.
2002 Odalis Perez faces 27 batters in a one-hit complete game. Corey Patterson's bad-hop infield single is all the Cubs can muster against him in a 2-0 LA victory.
2003 Jeff Bagwell gets his 2,000th hit.
2005 Alex Rodriguez hits three home runs in one game and gets 10 RBIs. That's the most RBIs in a game by a third baseman since at least 1920, probably ever. He's 4-for-5 on the day.
2006 Mike Piazza smashes his 400th homer.
2006 Tampa walks 14 batters, but still wins 4-2 over Yankees.
2007 Boston win puts Terry Francona's career managerial record over .500 (578-577). It's been over .500 ever since.
2008 2,000 hits: Vladimir Guerrero.
2008 Matt Morris plays in his last game.
2008 Mark Redman, Colorado, allows 10 runs in the first but keeps on pitching, something that hasn't happened in over a century. He allows no more runs over the next five innings.
2009 Omar Vizquel becomes the third 42-year-old to play shortstop: Luke Appling, Honus Wagner, and Vizquel.
2010 Josh Johnson fans 12 in a three-hitter while getting three hits with three RBIs at the plate in 10-1 over Padres.
2010 Brewers win their 22nd straight game over the Pirates. Today's final: MIL 17, PIT 3
2010 Phillies sign Ryan Howard for way too much money: five years for at least $125 million.
2011 White Sox super-sub Brent Lillibridge has the game of his life. With the Sox leading the Yankees 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, and two Yankees on base, Lillibridge makes back-to-back outstanding defensive plays in outfield to snuff out a Yankees rally and end the game.
2012 The Tigers release longtime franchise stalwart Brandon Inge.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
The art - not the science - of failure
Posted by Derek AmbrosinoI worked from home today, which meant a consistent stream of sports news outlets streaming in the background for many hours. As such, I was subject to incessant chatter about the back-end bullpen situation for the Detroit Tigers. Normally when we think about the detrimental effects of the 24-hour cable news cycle, we apply it to much more serious matters than sports, but today I really began thinking about some of the outside the lines impacts of Detroit’s closer landscape in light of the modern media environment.
First, let me put my cards on the table. I hold the standard sabermetric-oriented beliefs regarding the closer role. Here are a few things I believe.
- There is no closer gene; nearly all middle relievers who are highly effective and capable of getting out both right- and left-handed hitters can be successful closers.
- High-end closers are certainly valuable players, but they are largely luxuries and usually not worth the salaries they command.
- The ninth inning is neither always the most difficult to pitch, nor most important. The set-up man’s job is often tougher.
With all that said, here’s something else I consider relevant—a media circus is not good for a team; when your team is making the a-block of sports highlight shows for the wrong reasons, that is not a good situation. Players are professionals and it is their job to block out distractions and just play, but incessant questioning by the media and a team’s own fanbase can wear at a team and allow minor issues to snowball. It is through this lens that I question the way the Detroit Tigers have handled their bullpen situation in 2013.
So far the Detroit Tigers have either failed to or decided against bringing in an established closer to replace Jose Valverde in the offseason. They then led most to believe that Bruce Rondon was in line to open the season as their closer. Shortly before Opening Day, they optioned Rondon to the minors. They then announced they’d be using a closer by committee, though it appeared Joaquin Benoit was going to emerge as the closer. During this time, Valverde was pitching in the minors. Earlier this week, they called up both Rondon and Valverde. Valverde converted his first chance. Rondon failed to hold a lead today, allowing the tying run to score in the eighth, while the Tigers ultimately lost in ten.
If part of your job is to evaluate and question the moves across the league, or to find angles to second-guess the Detroit Tigers, you’ve stumbled upon a treasure chest. In terms of giving the media the rope to hang your organization, Detroit has basically done as much wrong as possible, even if the actual impact on winning games is less profound than portrayed.
Instead of essentially institutionalizing uncertainty and indecision and well as bringing back a player they lacked confidence in a mere few months ago, there were a number of other defensible avenues the team could have pursued.
For one, Detroit could have simply brought in a closer from outside over the offseason. Perhaps, there are strict financial and player value arguments against this idea, but it would have changed the discussion regardless of outcome. Detroit is a contender and a spender, so they are certainly in a position where spending a premium for an established closer is defensible. Additionally, had they added a Rafael Soriano type, the organization would largely shield itself even in the case of failure. One of the rubs between pure analytics and real-life team management is that among a fanbase and the media, not all failure is treated equally.
Hypothetically, had the Tigers brought in Soriano only to see him not get the job done, the majority of the blame would be placed on the player, not the Tigers organization. The fact would have been they brought in a player who had done a specific job before and he was asked to do it again, and was unable to do so. For the reputation of the organization itself, that’s a common and acceptable way to fail.
Another less messy way of going about assigning the job of closer would have been to pick a guy – Benoit was probably a decent enough choice – and run with it. Let him pitch himself out of the job or lock it in. This is not necessarily the ideal situation for a team with the expectations of the Tigers, but it’s certainly a common enough situation for teams around the league.
Finally, they could have simply brought a shaky Valverde back and looked for upgrades while letting him prove or disprove himself.
Instead, what they’ve done is open up every possible line of questioning, while relying on a highly questionable option, who has the pressure of essentially being a savior. He’s also fresh off a string of disappointing his team’s fans in the previous postseason.
Again, it’s not just if you lose, but how you lose that drives perception in the pro sports fishbowl and 24-hour cable sports news cycle. There will be a lot of teams whose bullpens will blow many games. There will even be teams who might be playoff teams but for horrible bullpen performances. But that won’t be big news and it won’t be tremendous fodder for everybody to question the wisdom of entire organizations. Last year, the Brewers likely could have made the postseason, if not for an absolutely horrible bullpen, and a seemingly endless string of blown saves by John Axford. The narrative there was that Axford was not performing, not that the Brewers were inept.
If the Detroit bullpen keeps blowing games, it will keep making news in ways that other teams’ bullpen failures won’t. If they were consciously attempting to implement a strategy that was unconventional, but in line with analytic-based understanding, I’d defend them all the way. But, frankly, it looks like they don’t really have a vision at all, and that’s a recipe to turn a molehill into a mountain in short order. The dominant narrative of Detroit’s 2013 season may depend on Jose Valverde taking this opportunity and really running with it.
Derek Ambrosino aspires to one day, like Dan Quisenberry, find a delivery in his flaw, you can send him questions, comments, or suggestions at digglahhh AT yahoo DOT com.
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraMets 7, Dodgers 3: Jordany Valdespin with a walkoff grand slam. See, good things happen when he doesn't try to bunt.
Reds 1, Cubs 0: Mat Latos tossed seven shutout innings and Broxton and Chapman finished it off. Tough luck for Jeff Samardzija, who struck out eight in six innings, but he's gonna have to get used to tough luck pitching for these Cubs.
Blue Jays 6, Orioles 5: The first extra innings loss for Baltimore in over a year. That covered 17 instances of free baseball. Oh well, luck comes and goes. Well, maybe it wasn't luck: the winning run came when Jim Johnson walked Maicer Izturis with the bases loaded, but still.
Cardinals 4, Nationals 2: The sweep. Stephen Strasburg had a rough first inning, but then he settled down and kept his team in the game, only to watch as Washington whiffed and ran its way out of a couple of would-be rallies. Strasburg's record now stands at 1-4.
White Sox 3, Indians 2: Alex Rios hit a two-run homer to help the Chisox earn a split. I'm not sure who let Zach McAllister leave the Columbus, Ohio he and I are so accustomed to, but he walked five and allowed five hits in five and two-thirds innings. Come back home, Zach. We'll go get some paella at Barcelona and then some Jeni's ice cream, maybe, and we'll never make you lave Franklin County again.
Rockies 6, Braves 5: I left for an early dinner reservation just as Fredi Gonzalez sent Jordan Schafer home on a botched squeeze play while up 5-3 and one out in the ninth. I figure that Gonzalez was tired of seeing the Braves hit the ball all over the ballpark without any of his own input and felt like he had to justify his existence by managing the hell out of that little situation. If he had let Coors Field's nature take its course I'm guessing one of the next two batters could have or would have hit the ball in the air to score Schafer anyway, the game wouldn't have been tied after nine and the Rockies would not have been able to mount this comeback win. And yes, if you think this is just some long distraction enabling me to overlook the fact that Craig Kimbrel coughed up two runs in the ninth, well, you're right.
Astros 10, Mariners 3: Baseball has 162 games and rarely does any one game matter or even mean anything all that much. But dudes, you just got scorched by the Astros. Three homers for Houston, which has four wins against Seattle in six meetings this year. The Astros have won only seven overall.
Diamondbacks 3, Giants 2: Brandon Crawford his a homer in the ninth to tie it, but Arizona won it on a sac fly and is now 5-0 in extra innings games this year. The new Orioles or something.
Red Sox 6, Athletics 5: David Ortiz had two hits and an RBI. Stephen Drew hit an RBI triple. Boston has won nine of 12. Oh, and the Red Sox sent Alfredo Aceves down to Pawtucket after this one, so it's like a total exorcism of that 13-0 loss the other night.
Tigers 7, Royals 5: Jose Valverde comes back and gets a save on his first try out. Victor Martinez drove in two. Welcome to 2011.
Rays 3, Yankees 0: Alex Cobb was dominant (8.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 7K), allowing only three singles. Not sure what beat writers do in games like this when there's really only one thing to talk about. I only have to write, like, three or four sentences. They have a whole story to fill. Maybe they can just CTRL-V "Alex Cobb" over and over again like the restaurant scene in "Being John Malkovich" or something.
Pirates 5, Phillies 3: Roy Halladay allowed only one hit and struck out eight in six innings and Ryan Howard and Chase Utley hit big booming homers. That used to mean an easy Philly win, but we're a long way from 2010. Brandon Inge came and hit a pinch hit RBI single to tie it in the eighth because of course he did. Then Starling Marte tripled in a run in the ninth as part of a four-run Philly bullpen failure.
Rangers 11, Angels 3: Texas with a nine-run fourth inning put this one away pretty early. Nelson Cruz with a three-run homer. Lance Berkman drove in four. Yu Darvish wins the Run Support Award for the night. The pitchers in the Angels part of the box score look like a list of names from the witness protection program.
Padres 2, Brewers 1: I suppose Milwaukee had to lose eventually. I didn't think Edinson Volquez would go seven innings without walking anyone eventually, but I'll be damned if he didn't.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
20,000 days since Frank Robinson’s big clutch day
Posted by Chris JaffeIt was 20,000 days ago that baseball great Frank Robinson had the greatest game of his career. At any rate, that’s what WPA says.
WPA is the “story stat” that tells us what the game felt like. A clutch homer in the bottom of the ninth to win the game scores far better than a generic fourth-inning shot because WPA is all about how each at-bat affects the win probability of the overall game. And what Robinson did 20,000 days ago had the biggest impact he ever had to help his club win the game.
It was July 23, 1958, and Robinson, a strapping young outfielder still a month shy of his 23rd birthday, led the Reds against the visiting Chicago Cubs. For whatever reason, Reds skipper Birdie Tebbetts had dropped Robinson to seventh in the batting order. That’s an odd placement, but given the damage he did from that slot, you can’t really argue with it, not on this day at any rate.
Early on, Robinson didn’t do much, flying out in each of his first two trips to the plate. But then again, these early at-bats rarely do much for WPA anyway. Robinson’s first clutch situation came in the fifth inning, as he came up with two outs and runners on first and second in a game tied, 2-2. Robinson made the most of it, belting a two-run double to give the Reds the first lead of the day. The club’s likelihood of winning rose from 56 percent up to 80.
Robinson flew out in his next trip up. Worse news awaited the Reds when the Cubs tied it in the top of the ninth, sending the game into extra innings. That gave Robinson his chance at real glory.
In the top of the 10th, former Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson hit a clutch solo home run to give the Cubs a 5-4 lead. Now the odds for a victory shifted dramatically in their favor. Obviously, the odds didn’t count on Robinson.
He was due up third for the Reds in the 10th. The leadoff man flew out, and then the next batter walked. You can figure out what happened next, right? Yeah, standing at the plate representing the winning run, Robinson smashed an offering from Chicago’s Don Elston into the left field seats for a walk-off, game-winning home run. The Reds' likelihood of winnings skyrocketed from a meager 22 percent up to a 100 percent lock.
Robinson only had two hits on the day, but those were two massive clutch hits that helped decide the game. In his two big moments, he drove in four runs in the Reds' 6-5 win. His three outs came in entirely inconsequential situations.
As a result, Robinson ended the day with a WPA of .969, nearly a full win all by his lonesome. That’s not a truly historic achievement, but it was impressive. It was the third-highest one-game total by a hitter in all 1958. And it was the best total Robinson ever had in a game, and that game was 20,000 days ago.
Aside from that, many other events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary.” Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Arizona trades the well-traveled Edwin Jackson to the White Sox.
1,000 days since Cleveland trades Austin Kearns to the Yankees.
1,000 days since the Rockies get 11 straight hits in the bottom of the eighth against the Cubs. Chicago finally breaks up the streak by walking two batters. (That’ll show ‘em!) All this happens with two outs. Colorado gets 12 runs in the inning for a 17-2 triumph.
4,000 days since the second of two career walk-off walks for Jeff Kent.
5,000 days since Jesse Orosco passes up Dennis Eckersley for No. 1 on the all-time games pitched list with 1,072.
5,000 days since Jose Jimenez, who threw a no-hitter less than two months ago, is sent to the minors by St. Louis.
5,000 days since A.J. Burnett makes his big league debut.
6,000 days since Seattle signs free agent Jamie Moyer. They traded for him earlier this year, but this ensures a nice, lengthy, (and productive) stay for him in Seattle.
9,000 days since Gary Sheffield makes his big league debut.
10,000 days since Bill Wambsganss, famous for turning an unassisted triple play during the 1920 World Series, dies.
15,000 days since Indians owner Nick Mileti drops plans to make them a two-city team, splitting time between New Orleans and Cleveland.
15,000 days since owners and players agree on an increase of $500,000 to the players’ pension fund. But the 1972 strike isn’t quite over as they are still at odds over the question of payment for games lost so far due to the strike.
20,000 days since pitcher Herm Wehmeier appears in his final game.
20,000 days since Red Sox star Ted Williams spits at A’s fans. He apologies two days later but will be fined anyway.
Anniversaries
1876 It’s the first shutout in NL history. It's by the Cubs, in their league debut.
1883 Russ Ford, godfather of the emery ball, is born.
1896 Fred Haney, who mismanaged the late 1950s Milwaukee Braves, is born. (Bill James once said Haney did the worst job by any manager with a good team in those years.)
1899 Honus Wagner hits his only walk-off home run. It's a solo shot off Jesse Tannehill for a 2-1 Louisville win over Pittsburgh. Next year he'll join Tannehill as a Pirate.
1901 Wild Opening Day. The Tigers win their first game, 14-13, despite entering the bottom of the ninth trailing by 10 runs. Really. Still one of the all-time greatest comebacks.
1904 Cy Young pitches two hitless innings at the end of a 2-0 win over the A's, beginning what turns into a still-record streak for most consecutive hitless innings.
1911 Jack Rowe, star 1880s player, dies at age 54. He led the NL in triples in 1881.
1911 Connie Marrero is born. He’s currently the oldest living ex-ballplayer, 102 years old today. I believe he’s the oldest ballplayer of all time. I suppose that’s appropriate given that the Cuban-born Marrero didn’t reach the majors until he was 39 years old. At age 40, he represented the Washington Senators in the All-Star game.
1912 George Cutshaw, long-lasting second baseman, makes his big league debut.
1913 Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem nullifies an apparent game-winning Giants single because Klem was turned around announcing the pinch-hitter when the pitch was thrown. Oops.
1919 Dickie Kerr, White Sox pitcher who will win two World Series games as a Clean Sox player later this year, makes his big league debut.
1924 Al Simmons hits his first homer. As an added bonus, it comes off Walter Johnson.
1928 The Browns trade shortstop Wally Gerber to the Red Sox.
1930 Jack Quinn, the eternal spitballer, lodges his 200th career loss: 231-200. Until Jamie Moyer, Quinn was the oldest pitcher to win a game.
1933 Russ Van Atta didn't have a great career, but he sure had a heck of an opening act. In his debut, he goes 4-for-4 while shutting out Washington as the Yanks win 16-0. There is also a nasty brawl in this game. It's so bad a police riot squad is called out, and some attack the Yanks. Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth don’t get involved themselves, staying in the dugout during the melee.
1933 Lu Blue, veteran AL first baseman, plays in his final game.
1936 Luke Appling suffers through what might have been his worst day at the plate ever: 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. The last is especially impressive, as he fanned only 528 times in 10,242 career plate appearances. In 1936, aside from this game, he whiffed 22 times in 613 plate appearances.
1937 Cliff Melton makes his big league debut by fanning 13 for the Giants. He still loses, 3-1 to Boston, but will win 20 times on the season with 142 strikeouts, fourth in the league.
1939 Dizzy Trout, star pitcher for the World War II Tigers, makes his debut in the major leagues. Also debuting that day are fellow 1940s pitchers Ken Raffensberger and Jack Kramer.
1941 Hall of Fame center fielder Earl Averill plays his last game.
1943 Lew Krausse, A’s hurler, is born. He’ll pitch for them in their late KC and early Oakland years.
1944 Tony Mullane, 1880s star pitcher, dies at age 85. Ladies Day supposedly began because of him, as his team wanted to cash in on the handsome Mullane's appeal to female fans.
1948 Larry Doby ties the record by fanning five times in one day.
1953 Richie Ashburn gets three sacrifice hits in one game. In all, he's 0-for-4 with one walk in a 7-6, extra inning win for the Phillies.
1954 First of three times Hank Aaron gets five hits in a game. Not bad for the kid enjoying his first month in the big leagues.
1954 Here’s a new one: umpires eject a player for praying. Orioles catcher Ray Murray is the man run out of the game. He's upset at an umpire's call and prays that the Lord gives the ump better eyesight.
1957 Baseball adopts a new rule stating that baserunners can’t intentionally interfere with batted balls on the field. The Reds did it twice earlier this week to help the batter advance on the bases.
1959 Tony Phillips, late-blooming baseball player, is born. In the All-Star era (1933-onward), he played in more games than anyone else who never made an All-Star team.
1961 The A’s sign Bert Campaneris, the first piece of their Mustache Gang puzzle.
1961 The A’s do something they hadn’t done since their days in Philadelphia and wouldn’t do again until they were in Oakland: score 20 runs in a game. The Kansas City A’s destroy the Twins, 20-2.
1965 Willie Mays hits his 18th and final homer off Warren Spahn, the most he nailed off any one pitcher.
1968 Jim Perry's 100th win: 100-83 on his career.
1969 It’s the second straight day with Reggie Jackson homering twice in a game.
1969 Jack Hiatt hits well over his head. The catcher, who will end the year hitting .196 with 34 RBI, bangs two homers and seven RBI, including a 13th-inning grand slam in 12-8 Giants win over Houston.
1970 Earl Wilson of the Tigers does something rare: he reaches third base on a dropped third strike. After he whiffs, the Twins entire team pulls a Josh Paul and starts trotting off the field, so Detroit's third base coach tells Wilson to run.
1970 Veteran pitcher Pedro Ramos appears in his final game.
1970 For the second time this week and seventh time in his career, Willie Stargell launches a homer over the right-field roof in Forbes Field.
1971 It’s Juan Marichal's 100th loss. His career record is 206-100. He's one of only four live-ball pitchers to win 200 before losing 100. The others are Lefty Grove, Whitey Ford and Pedro Martinez.
1971 Don Sutton wins, pushing his career record to 86-85. It'll be over .500 forever more.
1971 Curt Flood plays his last game, as he abruptly jumps the Senators team and goes to Europe, telegramming his retirement.
1972 Super fielding center fielder Garry Maddox makes his big league debut.
1972 Steve Carlton has arguably the greatest performance of his illustrious career. In a complete-game shutout, he fans 14 while allowing just one hit and one walk. Oh, and he also had an RBI single off Juan Marichal during the Phillies' 3-0 win over San Francisco. The sole safety was a first-inning leadoff single by Chris Speier.
1973 It’s the only time Harmon Killebrew fans with the bases loaded to end a game. Boston 4, Minnesota 3.
1975 Jacque Jones, longtime Twins outfielder, is born.
1976 Rick Monday's most famous moment. He rescues a U.S. flag from would-be flag burners at Dodger Stadium. The crowd cheers and spontaneously breaks into a rendition of “God Bless America.”
1977 Baltimore fans hang Reggie Jackson in effigy after he beats them in a game with two doubles and a game-winning homer for the Yankees. Making the loss that much harder, Jackson had been an Oriole just last year.
1977 The Reds tie an NL record by scoring 12 runs in the fifth inning en route to a 23-9 stomping of the Braves. George Foster ends the day with seven RBIs.
1980 Montreal’s Larry Parrish hits three homers in a game for the third time in his career.
1981 It’s a moment that dramatizes how savvy a manager Billy Martin was—and how clueless Maury Wills was. Before today’s A’s-Mariners game, Martin notices that the batter’s box in the Kingdome is seven feet long when it should be six feet long. Wills had it changed to take advantage of Oakland curveballs, but instead he’ll earn a suspension for his trickery.
1982 George Steinbrenner fires Yankees manager Bob Lemon. This ends Lemon’s days as a big league manager.
1986 Padres relief pitcher Craig Lefferts hits a walk-off homer. He’s the last pitcher to do that. He hits it off Greg Minton, who is known for rarely allowing homers to anyone. It’s the only walk-off homer by a pitcher since the 1960s.
1987 Whitey Herzog's 1,000th managerial win: 1,000-856.
1987 One day after fanning four times in one game, Eric Davis fans five times in five at-bats. It’s a record nine consecutive whiffs for a position player.
1987 Yankees star Dave Winfield fans with the bases loaded, ending the game. The Indians win, 2-1.
1987 Bill Bean, who will come out of the closet after retiring, makes his big league debut by getting four hits in one game.
1990 Bill Buckner hits an inside-the-park homer. He's 41 years old, it's his only homer of the season, and the last of his career. Someone misplayed a ball but good out there.
1993 Frank Thomas plays his 31st straight game without a homer, his all-time worst drought.
1994 Paul Molitor, age 37 years, eight months, and three days, hits his first career inside-the-park homer. He gets No. 2 the next year. Late bloomer, that Molitor.
1994 Ryne Sandberg, 34 years and seven months old, legs out two triples in a game.
1995 The baseball strike ends as the Dodgers beat Marlins, 8-7.
1997 Ken Griffey Jr. hits three homers in a game for the second time.
1997 Matt Williams hits three homers in a game.
2000 Sammy Sosa plays center field for the last time. He had some speed when he was young.
2000 Several players take today off to protest the feds' taking of Elian Gonzalez in a pre-dawn raid a few days earlier. On the Marlins: Mike Lowell, Vladimir Nunez, Alex Fernandez, Michael Tejera. On Tampa Bay: Jose Canseco. On the Mets: Cookie Rojas (coach) and Rey Ordonez.
2000 It’s WPA's favorite Tom Glavine game: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, in 1-0 win. WPA: 0.783.
2001 Rickey Henderson draws his 2,063rd career walk, passing Babe Ruth for most ever.
2003 Todd Helton gets his 1,000th hit. It took him 844 games.
2003 Richie Sexson bangs out three homers in a game for the second time.
2006 Toronto minor leaguer Edward Rodriguez is suspended for 50 games due to testing positive for performance enhancing substances.
2007 Jake Peavy fans 16 D-backs, including nine in a row at one point, but San Diego loses, 3-2.
2008 Royals release Hideo Nomo, ending his major league career.
2009 Albert Pujols reaches 1,000 career RBI in style with his eighth career grand slam and second of the year.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
How did Josh Stinson get to the big leagues?
Posted by Pat AndriolaDo you ever look at a major league roster and wonder how so-and-so got there? For me this is usually accompanied by angrily mumbling the names of 10 Triple-A players who deserve the spot more than so-and-so, and today that so-and-so is Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Josh Stinson, who will start today against Toronto.
Just how Stinson became a major leaguer, let alone a starting pitcher, is sort of baffling. Stinson was drafted by the New York Mets in the 37th round of the 2006 draft out of high school in Louisiana. A righty with a big frame (6-foot-4, 210 pounds), Stinson worked his way up the minor league ladder, dabbling in the bullpen and as a starter and maintaining mediocre to solid numbers. When I did a list of the best Mets prospects back in 2009, Stinson couldn't crack the Top 40 (or the honorable mentions).
Stinson eventually hit Double-A Binghamton in 2010, still splitting time starting and relieving, and found success: a 4.24 ERA and 9-3 record overshadowed a poor 68:50 K:BB ratio in ~110 innings. This earned him a brief trip to Triple-A Buffalo, where he had some of his best outings yet, finishing with a 2.57 ERA (despite a 4.88 FIP) in just 28 innings. This earned him a trip back to Buffalo for 2011, and there his poor K:BB finally haunted him: he posted a 7.44 ERA and walked more batters than he struck out in ~61 innings before he got sent back down to Binghamton.
He improved significantly at Double-A, lowering his FIP to 3.09 by striking out 39 in ~47 innings. When the rosters expanded in September, the Mets rewarded Stinson with a call-up to the big leagues, willing to take a shot given their poor record and even worse bullpen. Stinston started out hot, not giving up an earned run in his first five appearances. Eventually he got hit hard, and in 13 innings finished with a 6.92 ERA, despite a respectable 4.41 FIP (4.57 xFIP). Here was one big league scouting report on him:
And while he didn’t quite put up the prettiest numbers in Queens—or in Buffalo for that matter—the 6’4" righty did showcase the kind of stuff that gives him every chance to stick in the Met ‘pen long-term. Namely, Stinson features an excellent hard-sinking fastball which he can regularly dial up to the mid-90’s when he pitches in short spurts. While his secondary offerings—namely a slider/curve mix—are rather pedestrian, his fastball alone has driven superb ground ball rates at virtually every level.
As the 2012 season was set to begin, Stinson was placed on waivers by the Mets and claimed by Milwaukee, who sent him to Double-A Huntsville. Stinson primarily started (24 times in 29 appearances), but a 3.16 ERA in ~145 innings looked prettier than his underlying stats reveal; he still was walking too many (4.40/9) and striking out too few (5.64/9). Still, the Brewers called him up for some coffee at the end of the year, and in 9.1 innings he held a 0.96 ERA despite terrible 5.79 xFIP.
This past March, Stinson was claimed off waivers by the A's, who quickly put him on waivers again. He got snagged by Baltimore. After two starts in Triple-A (where he had a 0.77 ERA and 7.71:3.09 K:BB ration in 11.2 innings), Stinson got his first early season call to the majors. He'll pitch for Baltimore this afternoon.
The book is still completely out on Stinson, but at 25 and with plenty of high-level playing experience, the numbers just don't look good. Despite decent stuff, Stinson does not miss bats and walks far too many. Steamer currently has him projected for a 5.04 ERA and 4.84 FIP, which are both below replacement level. We'll see how his first outing goes today.
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraAngels 5, Rangers 4: Howie Kendrick with two homers, including the walkoff in the 11th. Kendrick after the game:
"It's a great feeling to know that you can leave the other team on the field"
I hope someone brings the Rangers some food overnight. Maybe go back to their hotel, get guys a change of clothes or something.
Cardinals 2, Nationals 0: Adam Wainwright threw eight and a third scoreless innings striking out nine, and improved to 4-1 with a 1.93 ERA on the season. The Nats have lost eight of 11.
Pirates 2, Phillies 0: Jeff Locke and four relievers combine to shut out the Phillies. Michael Young kept his hitting streak alive—it's now at four games—but an otherwise forgettable offensive night.
Twins 4, Marlins 3; Marlins 8, Twins 5: Oswaldo Arcia hit a massive homer in the first game. Right before he did it. Bert Blyleven speculated on-air as to whether Ron Gardenhire would have him bunt. Methinks that with that guy's power that, no, Gardenhire is not gonna have him bunt. The Marlins take the nightcap with 16 hits. Which is probably their month's supply of hits. Royals lead the division by a game with the Twins right on their tail. This is kinda fun while it's lasting.
Athletics 13, Red Sox 0: Rain-shortened game or mercy rule invoked? NO MAN CAN SAY. Everyone will talk about how putrid Alfredo Aceves was—and after the game he had the nerve to ask why his teammates didn't hit—but how about seven, three-hit shutout innings from Bartolo Colon?
Orioles 4, Blue Jays 3: It's kinda early in the morning so my critical thinking skills aren't totally sharp yet today, but when I see this in the game story:
It was the 100th consecutive game the Orioles have won when leading after seven innings
My b.s. detector starts to go off. Not because it's not true—it is, in fact, a fact—but because it sounds too superficially impressive a feat for a team that, while good last year, hasn't been dominant or anything. Someone can check it and tell me I'm wrong, but this smells like "a triple short of the cycle!" Meaning: a fact that sounds kind of impressive but actually describes something that happens quite a lot.
Yankees 4, Rays 3: Ichiro had a two-run, RBI single in the ninth and, though he did not get the win, I think it's fair to say that Phil Hughes out-dueled David Price. Has a lower ERA on the season than Price does, too, if you care about such things (5.14 vs. 5.52).
Braves 4, Rockies 3; Braves 10, Rockies 2 : Atlanta takes the first chilly one thanks to homers from Justin Upton, Evan Gattis and Dan Uggla. The Braves take the second one thanks to homers from Justin Upton, B.J. Upton and Juan Francisco. It's almost like this team hits a lot of homers or something.
Cubs 4, Reds 2: Carlos Marmol blew the save but got the win. He now leads the Cubs in wins. That's fun. I'm sure no one else on the team thinks that's fun but him, but it is fun.
Dodgers 7, Mets 2: Two homers for Mark Ellis. Clayton Kershaw was no great shakes, but after Jon Niese left in the third with a leg contusion, it was too much to ask for five Mets relievers to hold on.
Brewers 6, Padres 3: Nine in a row. Clayton Richard was a disaster in the first two innings and after that it was academic.
Astros 3, Mariners 2: Astros and Marlins win on the same day. Bet that doesn't happen a lot this summer. Sadly, what proved to be the winning run came at the expense of Justin Maxwell's broken hand on a HBP in the third.
Diamondbacks 6, Giants 4: J.J. Putz blew a two-run lead in the ninth—and a four-run lead overall—but the D-backs gritted this one out and won in 11, thanks to some heads-up base running by Didi Gregorius. He took second base on what should have only been a single after Andres Torres lollygagged his way to the ball, then scored the tying run on a wild pitch. And if you think I'm beating this grit thing into the ground, well, I'll stop when Diamondbacks players stop saying stuff like this after the game:
"That's the spirit of this team," [Brad] Ziegler said. "We'd prefer to jump out to a big lead early and kind of coast to the victory, but when that doesn't happen, we know we have a lot of guys on this team that are going to fight to the last out."
Indians vs. White Sox: POSTPONED: April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.
Royals vs. Tigers: POSTPONED: For the seven lakes, and by no man these verses. Rain; empty river; a voyage. Fire from frozen cloud, heavy rain in the twilight. Under the cabin roof was one lantern. The reeds are heavy; bent; and the bamboos speak as if weeping.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraRed Sox 9, Athletics 6: Just yesterday Mike Napoli was named player of the week for last week. He's making a bid for a repeat now, hitting a grand slam and driving in five runs here. Overall he has 25 RBI in 19 games.
Orioles 2, Blue Jays 1: Chris Tillman had a one hitter into the seventh. Nick Markakis walked it off with an RBI single which was made possible by Aaron Loup hitting a guy and then Munenori Kawasaki throwing the ball away on what should have been out number three.
Cardinals 3, Nationals 2: Practically the whole AP game story for this one was recapping Game Five 5 of last year's NLDS. Which, sure, I suppose provides a nice story and everything, but isn't exactly insightful about today. For today know that Shelby Miller struck out eight in six and two-thirds and that while Drew Storen handled the ninth inning again, he didn't contribute to the loss.
Rays 5, Yankees 1: Matt Moore is now 4-0 after giving up one run on two hits and fanning nine in eight innings. Two homers for Ryan Roberts.
Phillies 3, Pirates 2: Johnathan Pettibone made his major league debut and it was a good one: two runs on six hits and striking out six in five and a third. He also reached on a walk and came around to score.
Mariners 7, Astros 1: It's almost unfair to make Houston face King Felix. Hernandez struck out nine in six shutout innings and, for once, got some run support in the form of homers from Kyle Seager, Justin Smoak and Jesus Montero. It was Hernandez's 100th career win. If he got seven runs to work with more often he'd have, like, [does calculations on the back of an envelope] 3,394 wins.
Reds 5, Cubs 4: This one went 13 innings and lasted four and a half hours. I'm pretty sure there are committees within the United Nations who are working diligently to eliminate 13-inning Cubs games from the world on a human rights basis, but so far their work has been stymied by Real Politik concerns and obstructionism in the Security Council. The Cubs actually had a 4-2 lead in the 13th. Unfortunately the rules of baseball required them to try to close out the win in the bottom of the inning, where Michael Bowden coughed up three runs on four hits including a Jay Bruce RBI double.
Indians 3, White Sox 2: The White Sox are reeling, losers of 10 of 13. Justin Masterson walked a few too many guys but picked up his fourth win. Two of them have come against the Pale Hose.
Brewers 7, Padres 1: Not exactly thrilled with my pick of the Padres as the surprising team in the NL West this year. Ryan Braun and Yuniesky Betancourt hit homers and the Brewers won their eighth in a row. Kyle Lohse pitched well but injured his pinkie finger while batting. Commence your DH/anti-DH arguing ... now.
Giants 5, Diamondbacks 4: Brandon Belt after the game: "I'm pretty lightheaded and my kidneys hurt right now." Uh oh! [looks at game story]. Oh, OK, it's just because his teammates mobbed him during the walkoff celebration. Now if he'd only hit when he started.
Rangers 7, Angels 6: A.J. Pierzynski with a homer in the ninth which proved to be the winning run. Adrian Beltre hit a drive that fell just short of the wall before that. Safe to say that Ernesto Frieri wasn't fooling anyone.
Braves vs. Rockies: POSTPONED: My eyes are blind but I can see. The snowflakes glisten on the trees. The sun no longer sets me free. I feel the snowflakes freezing me. Let the winter sun shine on. Let me feel the frost of dawn. Fill my dreams of flakes of snow. Soon I'll feel the chilling glow.
Marlins vs. Twins: POSTPONED: There is no end to what we can do together. There is no end. The willow turns his back on inclement weather. We can do it, just me and you.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Monday, April 22, 2013
FCC failure
Posted by Greg SimonsI imagine everyone has seen the video already. If not, here it is.
In it, David Ortiz expressed his thanks to the mayor of Boston, the governor of Massachusetts and the city police department for their efforts in the wake of the April 15 bombing. All well said, and I—and everyone else around the country—agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment.
However, it seems somebody somewhere ought to point out that Ortiz's dropping of the F-bomb a few seconds later to a stadium full of people and to a television audience of millions was in error, even if it was heartfelt. (To his credit, Ortiz did apologize afterward, saying, "It just came out. If I offended anyone, I apologize.")
Instead, the Federal Communications Commission implictly endorsed Ortiz's choice of words with the following Tweet:
David Ortiz spoke from the heart at today's Red Sox game. I stand with Big Papi and the people of Boston - JuliusThe Julius credited with this message is Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the FCC. As a Harvard grad—and, again, as an American—his personal feelings on this issue are completely understandable.
However, as the head of the organization charged with preventing indecency on the airwaves, Genachowski should have tempered his approval of Ortiz's language. I don't know if he has a personal Twitter account, but that would have been a better platform for such a statement. Sure, rules are made to be broken, but the rule-makers shouldn't be supporting their breaking.
Greg Simons finally, sadly has conceded that he won't have an MLB playing career. However, in his dreams, he's still the second coming of Ozzie Smith. Please don't wake him up, though you can e-mail him at gregbsimons AT yahoo DOT com.
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraAngels 4, Tigers 3: Watched most of this one as I painted a couple of rooms in my house. Two highlights of the game for me were (1) overhearing my girlfriend use some really bad language the second or third time the Tigers left the bases loaded; and (2) Tigers color commentator Rod Allen, when describing Prince Fielder's swing on his homer, say "he lifts, and separates." So I guess Prince Fielder is now a bra. As for that first part, it happened so often that when Mark Trumbo finally hit the walkoff homer in the 13th it had been three hours since she had written the game off.
Rays 8, Athletics 1: Roberto Hernandez -- who, if he had any style, should call himself "Fauxsto Carmona" -- got his first win since coming out as Roberto Hernandez. The A's, like the Braves, were once hot and now are not. From the AP Gamer:
One day after having a DJ play music in the clubhouse to help relax his team, Maddon had a magician doing card tricks Sunday.
"It's about just keeping the guys ready, keeping the guys loose," Maddon said. "I want them to be prepared mentally, and not be exhausted mentally whenever they go out on the field. Things like that, I do things to break it up."
Maddon is like the CEO at a 1999 dotcom startup. "Look, guys! We have a foosball table! And a free soda! It's not work if it's fun!
Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 4: Colorado's eight game winning streak comes to an end. Didi Gregorius hit a home run and singled to start a two-run rally in the ninth inning. And he still has a name that sounds more like a character from "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" than a ballplayer, but that's OK.
Rangers 11, Mariners 3: Leonys Martin, Mitch Moreland and Adrian Beltre each hit homes. Nelson Cruz did too, but his was a grand slam. The sweep.
Indians 5, Astros 4: Drew Stubbs made a slick over-the-shoulder catch in the first inning which turned into a double play, halting any further damage in a rocky start for Ubaldo Jimenez. He later homered. Thinking about creating a marco that writes" ____ take two of three from Houston" with one keystroke.
Twins 5, White Sox 3: Everyone had the Twins at 8-7 through 15 games, right? The White Sox are losers of 9 of 12.
Giants 5, Padres 0: Seven shutout innings for Barry Zito who has apparently chosen to alternate good and bad starts as opposed to go on extended hot and cold streaks. Always keeping us guessing. He won't be pigeonholed. Buster Posey hit his first homer of the year. And he was still out at second in the 2010 NLDS.
Brewers 4, Cubs 2: Seven wins in a row for the Brewers, who started so poorly. Ryan Braun hit a home run. He was later ejected for tossing his bat. And because Major League Baseball has it in for him, man.
Pirates 4, Braves 2: The Buccos take three of four from the previously-hot Braves, powered by two RBI from the previously-ice cold Clint Barmes because baseball. And because of those yellow caps and pullover jerseys, but I went over that last week.
Royals 4, Red Sox 2; Royals 5, Red Sox 4: The Royals sweep the doubleheader, winning the second game on a bases loaded walk in the 10th. Have a day Greg Holland: saves in both games with five total strikeouts.
Mets 2, Nationals 0: Dillion Gee gets his first win with a nice start and the Mets take two of three from the Nats. They were aided by Jayson Werth not really thinking.
Dodgers 7, Orioles 4: L.A. snaps a six-game skid. Mark Ellis drove in three. Jake Arrieta walked the ballpark and hit a batter.
Reds 10, Marlins 6: Joey Votto started the year slow but he had three hits and a homer on Saturday and did it again on Sunday. Don't hate the Marlins. They're performing a fantasy team assistance service here.
Blue Jays 8, Yankees 4: J.P. Arencibia hit his seventh homer of the year, helping the Jays avoid the sweep. Brett Lawrie and Melky Cabrera had good games too. All three of those have been mentioned in HardballTalk posts for either being in trouble or angering people for some reason over the past few years than for baseball stuff. Viva Evil.
Phillies 7, Cardinals 3: Erik Kratz scored the tying run in the seventh and hit a three-run homer to break things open in the eighth. Michael Young has a 12 game hitting streak. He was also called "a professional hitter" by Dan Shulman once. Now that he's actually hitting well he'll probably lose that moniker soon.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Allen Webster impresses, disappoints?
Posted by Noah WoodwardI was excited to see Allen Webster take the mound in a Boston Red Sox uniform Sunday night. Yes, I am a Red Sox fan, but I also am a PITCHf/x fan. To my knowledge, tonight was the first time that Webster has thrown in front of PITCHf/x cameras in a major league ballpark. Scouts rave about Webster’s fastball, and about how much it moves. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Red Sox director of player development Ben Crockett had this to say about Webster:
His fastball moves so much that he doesn’t necessarily have to be really fine with it, throwing it to the black at all times. Because of the late action and the velocity that he has on that pitch, he has the luxury of probably pitching a little bit more to the halves of the plate or the thirds of the plate than the corners, like some guys need to.
Webster appeared confident in his fastball in the early going, as he challenged Kansas City’s best hitters with it. His fastball touched 97 mph in the first inning, though it didn’t really return to that level afterward. He threw two change-ups in the first inning, and he was able to generate great arm side movement on them even though his arm action seemed a bit tentative.
The right-hander was able to better spot his fastball in the second and third innings, and he also started to work his change-up in more often. I couldn’t tell if he was throwing one or two breaking balls, but he does throw both a curveball and a slider. He used breaking balls often to get a called strike, and none looked particularly impressive.
After allowing a solo home run to George Kattaras in the fifth, Webster came back with a breaking ball and two change-ups to strike out Elliot Johnson. He began to rely heavily on his off-speed stuff after allowing his second solo home fun in the fifth; it looked like Kansas City hitters were keying in on his fastball, which was no longer looking like a plus pitch.
After a long half inning on the bench, Webster struggled to control his fastball a bit in the sixth. In an effort to be more accurate with the pitch, it looked like he took a little off. His average fastball velocity in the sixth was 1-2 mph lower than in the first. It did look like he threw more two-seam fastballs as the game progressed, but he also was fighting control issues.
Now that we’ve seen Webster throw in front of the cameras, we can evaluate Crockett’s claim quantitatively. PITCHf/x results from the early innings revealed that his four-seamer moved around three inches horizontally and around 10 inches vertically (before accounting for the effects of gravity). His two-seamer had an additional three inches of arm side movement, and less “vertical” movement. According to Texas Leaguer’s league chart, average horizontal movement for four-seamers and two-seamers is about five inches and eight inches, respectively. Webster wasn’t far from the league average in terms of vertical movement, either.
Exceptional Movement? Live fastball? Not exactly.
Note: I heard that classifications on PITCHf/x data (made available a few hours ago) are rough right now , and I might not have been to able clearly differentiate between two-seam and four-seam fastballs. I defined fastballs as pitches that hit 90 mph or higher, and found that Webster might actually have more vertical fastball movement than I came up with originally.
Noah can be reached via email at nowoodward15 AT gmail.com. You can check out his other articles here.
20th anniversary: Chris Bosio’s no-hitter
Posted by Chris JaffeTwenty years ago today, Chris Bosio had the game of his life. Though it didn’t look like that would be the case when things began, he ended up having easily the greatest day of his career.
When April 22, 1993, began, Bosio was a pitcher trying to help improve the Mariners pitching staff. Seattle had one of the worst staffs in the major leagues the year before, and they wanted some arms alongside their young core of starting players: Ken Griffey Jr., Omar Vizquel, Jay Buhner, and Tino Martinez.
To that end, Seattle had offered a huge $15 million contract to Bosio. With the Milwaukee Brewers, Bosio had posted a series of solid seasons. Just the year before he went 16-6 on a Milwaukee team making a surprise run at the postseason. The Mariners hoped the same thing would happen with them.
The early returns were a tad disappointing. Though Bosio pitched well in his first outing, he’d been roughed up since then. Today would be his fourth start, and he still was searching for his first victory as a Mariner.
Opposing him today would be a middling Red Sox team. Their lineup had plenty of notable names in it, but they were mostly either well past their prime (Tony Pena, Andre Dawson) or still hadn’t yet made their mark (Mo Vaughn, John Valentin). The most dangerous hitter may have been Mike Greenwell, and though he was a decent player, if he’s the most fearsome man in a lineup, the team has problems.
Still, at first it looked like Boston wouldn’t need much of a lineup to whump Bosio. Leadoff man Ernie Riles drew a base on balls from Bosio. A few moments later, Bosio issued another free pass, this time to outfielder Carlos Quintana.
You can just hear the sparse Kingdome crowd of 13,604 begin muttering. Their hot-shot free agent was flopping again, and it looked like another long season for the sad-sack Seattle squad.
However, Bosio soon righted his ship. Greenwell swung at the first pitch and promptly grounded into a double play, then Bosio fanned future Hall of Famer Dawson on three pitches. Well, maybe Bosio could get the win today anyway.
Sure enough, Bosio was on a roll. In the second inning, the heart of Boston’s order went down meekly, without anyone hitting the ball past the first baseman. They went down 1-2-3 in the third, as well, and again no one could get the ball out of the infield.
Meanwhile, Seattle went up 2-0 in the second and added another pair of runs in the third on the fifth career home run by a kid named Bret Boone. Seattle looked like it was going to win this game handily. The only drama was how well Bosio would do.
Well, he kept getting the job done. Boston’s big achievement in the fourth was finally hitting the ball out of the infield, but it was a line out to center by Greenwell. After another 1-2-3 inning in the fifth, people couldn’t help by notice that, you know, this Bosio fellow hasn’t allowed a single hit all game long.
In the sixth and seventh innings, Bosio not only kept his no-hitter going, but he retired all six batters on a series of ground outs. A Vaughn fly out to lead off the eighth ended that particular streak, but between that, an Ivan Calderon grounder, and a strikeout of Scott Cooper, Bosio was just one inning from a no-hitter.
Up came the bottom of Boston’s order. A young Valentin grounded out to short on a 1-0 pitch to lead things off. A well-past-his-prime Pena then grounded one to third. Bosio was just one out away now.
Up came Riles, the man Bosio walked to begin the day. This day ended the only appropriate way it could, a ground out, the 16th grounder of the day. Normally, at least one of 16 ground balls will seep through the infield for a hit, but not on this day. The young infield of Martinez, Boone, Vizquel, and Mike Blowers gobbled them all up.
And like that, Bosio had his no-hitter. Even more amazingly, he retired every batter he faced after that opening pair of walks. After that horrible start, he’d been perfect. Though it took Bosio 12 pitches to get the first out, he ended the day with just 97 pitches thrown. It was a great day for Bosio, and it was 20 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something occurring X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Jason Kendall catches his 2,000th game.
1,000 days since young rookie sensation pitcher Stephen Strasburg is a last-minute scratch from a start against the Braves due to shoulder tightness.
4,000 days since the Angels destroy the White Sox, 19-0. In doing so, the 2002 Angels become the fourth team since 1900 to score 19 or more runs twice in one season, joining the 1923 Indians, 1939 Yankees, and 1950 Red Sox.
5,000 days since the Expos and Rockies combine for 10 homers in one game.
5,000 days since Casey Blake makes his big league debut.
5,000 days since Pee Wee Reese dies.
8,000 days since Dale Murphy gets his 2,000th hit.
8,000 days since weak-armed Canadian outfielder Terry Puhl appears in his last game.
9,000 days since for the second year in a row, arbitrator George Nicolau finds baseball owners guilty of collusion with regard to free agent players.
9,000 days since the Tigers made a last-minute deal for Fred Lynn that’s a minute too late. While the Tigers get him in time from Baltimore to join their team, because he’s unable to join the team by midnight, he’s ineligible to play in the postseason for Detroit. I believe Lynn’s flight suffered a slight delay; it was pretty close.
15,000 days since Donie Bush, infielder turned manager, dies.
20,000 days since Indians catcher Jay Porter uses a first baseman’s mitt to try catching Hoyt Wilhelm’s knuckler. Four passed balls later, the experiment is deemed a failure.
20,000 days since Jim Bunning throws a no-hitter. He fans 12 while walking a pair in a 3-0 Tigers win over the Red Sox.
40,000 days since Cubs star shortstop Joe Tinker tells reports that it’s impossible to fix a baseball game. Boy, is he ever wrong.
Anniversaries
1872 Candy Cummings, Hall of Famer and reputed inventor of the curveball, makes his major league debut (well, if you consider the National Association a major league).
1876 In the first ever National League game, Boston beats Philadelphia, 6-5. Philly isn’t the Phillies; they don’t begin until 1883. Boston is now the Atlanta Braves.
1884 Jack Clements, one of the best-hitting catchers of his generation, makes his big league debut.
1890 Hall of Fame outfielder Jesse Burkett makes his major league debut, as does Billy Rhines, who is a good pitcher when healthy.
1891 Shortstop Bill Dahlen, arguably the best player eligible for the Hall who has been overlooked by Cooperstown, makes his major league debut.
1896 Cy Seymour, an outfielder/pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1898 Jay Hughes throws a no-hitter.
1898 Ted Breitenstein throws his second career no-hitter.
1898 Several decent players make their major league debuts on this day: pitchers Bill Dineen and Wild Bill Donovan, and hitter Harry Steinfeldt.
1901 Doc White makes his big league debut. He’ll be a very solid and effective starting pitcher for the next dozen seasons.
1906 A new rule puts the umpire in charge of all game balls.
1912 Jim Bagby makes his major league debut. He’ll win 30 games in 1920 for the world championship Indians.
1914 Babe Ruth debuts with the minor league Baltimore Orioles. He throws a shutout, beating Buffalo, 6-0. The second batter he faces is Joe McCarthy, his future Yankee manager.
1915 It’s a great moment in major league fashion as the Yankees debut their pinstripes.
1916 A’s pitcher Jack Nabors beats the Red Sox, 6-2, to give him a record of 1-1 on the year. He’ll never win another game, ending the season with a 1-20 record after 19 straight losses.
1918 Mickey Vernon, long-time first baseman, is born.
1918 Burleigh Grimes loses, giving him a career record 16 games under .500, his all-time low. It’s even worse when you figure he has just 26 career decisions, a 5-21 record, yet somehow he’ll recover to make Cooperstown.
1922 Ken Williams becomes the first player in 25 years to hit three home runs in one game.
1925 The Pirates hit seven triples in one game, a 6-1 win over the Cubs. They have just 11 hits in all; the other four are singles. Cub pitcher Tony Kaufmann allows all the triples, and no pitcher has surrendered that many in one outing since.
1928 Vic Sorrell, a decent pitcher for a spell, makes his major league debut.
1930 Howard Ehmke, a great pitcher in his prime who set a World Series record in 1929 for most strikeouts in one game, plays in his last game. The World Series truly was his last hurrah.
1930 Red Ruffing has only seven balks in his entire career but two happen today. He won’t balk again until June, 1935.
1931 Babe Ruth is taken to a hospital after colliding with Red Sox catcher Charlie Berry when the Bambino attempted to score on a sacrifice fly.
1932 Not normally a power hitter, Bill Terry somehow homers in his fourth straight game today.
1934 Star pitcher Lon Warneke throws his second straight one-hitter. Not bad.
1937 Eighteen Negro League stars, most notably Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, jump to the Dominican Republic’s league.
1937 Johnny Vander Meer, famous for throwing back-to-back no-hitters, makes his big league debut.
1939 Fred Haney manages his first game. He’s most famous for managing the 1950s Braves.
1939 Charlie Keller, great Yankees slugger, makes his big league debut.
1940 Harry Brecheen, star Cardinals pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1942 Joe DiMaggio smacks his 200th home run.
1946 Red Sox batter Eddie Pellagrini homers in his first at-bat.
1947 In one of the most infamous moment of 1947, Phillies manager Ben Chapman leads his team in taunting Dodgers rookie Jackie Robinson.
1947 Bob Feller throws his ninth career one-hitter. He fans 10 while walking one for a 94 Game Score, his second-highest ever. Al Zarilla gets a seventh-inning single.
1952 Vinegar Bend Mizell makes his big league debut.
1952 Roy Campanella lays down his first sacrifice bunt in nearly three seasons.
1953 Eddie Mathews has the first of 49 career multi-home run games.
1955 Today’s Washington Senators triumph gives manager Charlie Dressen a career record 65 games over .500 (516-451). It’s all downhill from here for Dressen.
1956 Brewers pitcher Moose Haas is born.
1957 Former White Sox pitcher Joe Benz dies.
1957 The Phillies become the last National League team to integrate, with John Kennedy taking the field for them. Two AL squads remain all-white: Boston and Detroit.
1959 A’s pitcher Tom Gorman, Mark Freeman, and George Brunet combine for 10 walks in one inning against the White Sox. Chicago scores 11 runs on just one hit, a single, in a 20-6 thumping. Nellie Fox ends the day with five RBIs, his personal high. He’s 4-for-5 with a double and two walks.
1959 Moose Skowron bangs a home run in the 14th for the only run in a 1-0 win. It’s the latest in AL history a homer ever has finished a 1-0 win. Whitey Ford picks up the win after throwing 14 innings for a remarkable shutout. His Game Score is 106. Ford also has a great day at the plate with three walks and a double.
1961 Former Toronto star pitcher Jimmy Key is born.
1961 New York’s Governor Rockefeller signs a bill permitting New York City to build a 55,000 seat stadium at Flushing Meadows in Queens.
1961 Pumpsie Green hits a walk-off homer in the 11th to end a 13-game losing streak for the Red Sox.
1962 The Pirates win, becoming the first team to start the year 10-0. They beat the Mets, who are now 0-9.
1962 Jim Bouton, pitcher/author, makes his big league debut with the Yankees.
1964 Whitey Ford notches his 200th win. His record is 200-79.
1964 For the second time in his career, Willie McCovey hits three homers in one game.
1964 Joe Torre has the first of 16 multi-home run games in his career.
1966 Second baseman Mickey Morandini is born.
1967 Former Yankee pitcher Ralph Terry appears in his last game.
1967 Willie McCovey has what WPA considers to be his greatest game ever. He’s 2-for-5 with a home run, four RBIs and a reached-on-error for a 1.002 WPA.
1968 For the last time in his career, Willie Stargell lays down a sacrifice bunt. He has over 6,500 more plate appearances left, but it never happens again.
1969 Al Lopez loses his 1,000 game as manager. His record: 1,408-1,000.
1969 Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers throws a complete-game shutout in his first start.
1970 Tom Seaver has one of the greatest outings in baseball history, fanning 19, including 10 in a row at one point.
1972 Buddy Bell’s first career homer is a grand slam. It’s one of eight slams in his career.
1973 Mike Schmidt belts a walk-off home run against Bob Gibson for just the second home run of his career.
1975 Fergie Jenkins has control problems, hitting a personal-high three batters in one game.
1975 Longtime starting pitcher Jim Kaat has his 10th straight Quality Start. He’s unstoppable in this span: 9-0 W-L, 82.1 IP, 59 H, 16 R, 8 ER, 18 BB, 54 K, and a 0.87 ERA.
1976 Tim Foli hits for the cycle.
1977 In just their 16th game in franchise history, the Mariners pull off their first triple play. It’s one of the few highlights from their early existence.
1978 Andre Thornton hits for the cycle.
1978 Paul Molitor smacks his only extra-inning home run. It’s in the top of the 10th off Sparky Lyle. In fact, it’s just his second homer ever.
1979 Bobby Grich endures his worst game, according to WPA: -0.425. He’s 0-for-3 with a walk, and sacrifice hit as the A’s top Grich and the Angels, 7-6.
1980 Ivan DeJesus hits for the cycle.
1981 Buddy Bell hits his 100th home run.
1981 At a rain delay in Comiskey Park, Orioles pitcher Dennis Martinez is hit in the eye with a beer bottle. He needs four stitches to close the wound.
1981 Fernando-mania! Fernando Valenzuela throws his third complete-game shutout in his fourth big league start. Oh, he also drives home the only RBI in 1-0 Dodgers win over Houston.
1981 Steve "Bye Bye" Balboni says hi; it's his big league debut.
1981 Paul Molitor hits the first of two grand slams in his career.
1982 After starting out the year 13-0, the Atlanta Braves finally lose.
1985 Kirby Puckett finally hits his first home run. It comes in his second season, and he was a starter as a rookie, too.
1985 The St. Louis Cardinals release veteran infielder Art Howe, ending his playing career.
1988 Tony Gywnn notches his 1,000th hit. It takes him 783 games to get there.
1988 The Twins trade slugger Tom Brunansky to the Cardinals for infielder Tom Herr.
1988 Roberto Alomar makes his big league debut.
1991 It’s the first White Sox homer in their new park (then called New Comiskey, now U.S. Cellular Field). Naturally, Frank Thomas hits it.
1991 Big Daddy Rick Reuschel appears in his last game.
1991 Giants second baseman Robby Thompson hits for the cycle.
1993 Mark Koenig, infielder for the 1927 Yankees, dies.
1994 Bob Ojeda appears in his last game.
1996 John Franco records his 300th save.
1998 White Sox infielder Ray Durham reaches on error three times in one game, tying a record.
2000 It’s one of the wildest brawls in recent decades, as the White Sox and Tigers combine for 11 ejections. Many of the players, including some not ejected, will receive suspensions from Minister of Punishment Frank Robinson. Jeff Weaver plunked a White Sox player, the Sox got revenge, and the on-field fights were real fights.
2000 The Orioles win, putting Mike Hargrove 136 games over .500, his all-time peak.
2001 For the first time, Albert Pujols hits two home runs in one game.
2003 Brandon Webb makes his major league debut.
2004 Omar Vizquel gets his 2,000th hit. It takes him 2,006 games.
2004 Jim Edmonds has his worst game ever according to WPA. He’s 0-for-5 with a GIDP and two Ks for a –0.406 WPA.
2005 Ivan Rodriguez swats his only extra-inning homer, a 10th-inning walk-off shot against Terry Mulholland.
2006 Kenny Lofton legs out his 100th triple.
2007 Yankee pitcher Chase Wright surrenders four straight homers to Boston. Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek get them. This puts the exclamation point on the first Red Sox sweep of the Yankees in Fenway Park in 17 years.
2007 Scott Rolen has maybe the greatest game of his career, 5-for-6 with a triple, homer, three runs, and three RBIs as the Cardinals top the Cubs, 12-9.
2008 In a 12-inning game, Albert Pujols plays second base. It’s his only time there. The Cardinals lose, though, 9-8 to Milwaukee.
2008 John Smoltz gets his 3,000th strikeout.
2010 The Yankees pull off their first triple play since 1968 but lose to Oakland anyway, 4-2.
2010 The Pirates suffer their most lopsided loss since their days in the AA in the 1880s: 20-0 to the Brewers. In the completed three-game series, the Brewers swept the Bucs while outscoring them, 36-1.
2011 A would-be no-hitter for Florida Marlin Anibal Sanchez is broken up by a lead-off ninth-inning hit by Dexter Fowler.
2011 Jason Bay scores on the rare four-base error by Houston’s Hunter Pence.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Friday, April 19, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraOrioles 10, Rays 6: Time to re-bookmark Matt Wieters Facts. The Chosen One's grand slam in the 10th gives the O's their 17th straight extra innings win.
Diamondbacks 6, Yankees 2: Frankie Cervelli hit a homer to tie it in the ninth. He also had two -- not one, but two -- catcher's interference calls. Don't see that every day. Oh, and the AP game story spends a lot of time talking about how a guy named Zack Hample caught two homers in the game. It's the same Zack Hample who has written a book and filmed videos about snagging baseballs at ballparks. He's a professional ball hound or whatever. Which makes this passage funny:
Even though he lives in Manhattan, Hample was wearing a Diamondbacks cap because he's been a fan of Bell's since 2004.
"Zack's crazy. I know Zack from when I was a rookie with the Mets," Bell said. "He probably was a Padres fan when I was a Padre, a Marlins fan when I was a Marlin."
If you've seen his videos and things you actually know that he wears the cap of whatever team he happens to be visiting because he believes players on the field and in bullpens are more likely to give him a ball if he's a local fan. But whatever.
Mariners 2, Tigers 0: Of course a Mariners offense that is struggling to score runs gets two off Justin Verlander, who otherwise struck out 12. Meanwhile, Hisashi Iwakuma and two Mariners relievers handcuffed the Tigers on getaway day.
Brewers 7, Giants 2: Yovani Gallardo hit a homer and gave up only one run over six innings. I'm guessing some Brewers blog somewhere will call this "redemption" or something. If they do, I highly suggest you not read that Brewers blog anymore.
Cubs 6, Rangers 2: Everyone I know who lives in Chicago said it was biblical-level rain there yesterday so I have no idea how they got this one in. Anthony Rizzo hit one 475 feet. Alfonso Soriano notched his first homer and RBI of the year.
Red Sox 6, Indians 3: Six in a row for Boston. More great pitching too: John Lester gave up two runs on four hits in seven.
Rockies 11, Mets 3: The Mets finally get the hell out of Colorado, and not a moment too soon. It was 28 degrees in Denver yesterday. Snow outs in Minnesota then a couple snow outs in Denver along with cold games. I don't think anyone has ever been as happy to see Queens as the Mets likely were when they got home last night.
Cardinals 4, Phillies 3: Carlos Beltran with the go-ahead homer in the eighth. Yadier Molina was 3 for 4 with two RBI. Adam Wainwright has now pitched 29 innings without walking a batter. Cole Hamels, meanwhile, hasn't won a game yet this year. I guess you want him to emulate Cliff Lee in some ways, but maybe not in this way.
Blue Jays 3, White Sox 1: R.A. Dickey had to leave early with neck and back tightness but he pitched well while he was in and got the win anyway. Dickey is around my age and I get neck and back tightness for no reason sometimes. I wonder if he makes big, exaggerated noises when he stands up and sits down and if he gets unexplained ear hair and stuff like I do too.
Braves 6, Pirates 4: Evan Gattis had a two-run pinch hit homer in the eighth. Both Uptons and Chris Johnson homered too. If the Braves were in New York columnists would be wringing their hands and wondering if the Braves hit too many homers as if that were actually a thing someone should ever worry about. For my part, I get blacked out of Pirates games here in Ohio so I couldn't watch it. Thankfully, though, there's a useful Twitter feed to follow in such situations.
Reds 11, Marlins 1: Shin-Soo Choo singled, doubled and scored twice, helping Tony Cingrani win his first big league start. Here's hoping he keeps up the momentum for next time so he can get his first win over a big league opponent.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Competing religions of baseball
Posted by Pat AndriolaThere are two seemingly unrelated stories that I'd like to take a moment to compare in order to make a point.
In the world of economics, public policy, and how not to format a spreadsheet, word has come out that a seminal paper arguing that high debt-to-GDP rates are bad for economic growth was based on bad data after the two professors who ran the study made an error in Excel.
Meanwhile, in the world of amusing-but-not-important baseball news, MLB Network's Brian Kenny ripped into White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson for blaspheming sabermetrics.
The way in which we interpret data is important. For years prior to the Moneyball revolution (which has definitely been related to the success of Nate Silver and Big Data's popularity), people within the sports stats community were begging for somebody to pay attention to their numbers, and they had a darn good point. Good hypotheses based on solid evidence were ignored for traditional theory in a way that seemed fraternal and anti-scientific.
Since then, statistical analysis certainly has gained ground in front offices and with the greater fan base, but too often it's presented, much like a lot of modern economic theory, as science.
A lot of blame here is on the media, which like to create false dichotomies to masquerade conversation as conflict. No example of this is better than MLB Network's over-the-top commercial featuring Kenny and Harold Reynolds, with the former serving as the God of Logic and the latter as the God of Wisdom in an eternal battle to decide who should bat fifth for the Mariners.
The commercial begins with Kenny doing his best Will Hunting impression. (And if we're gonna get all super nerdy, the best he can mutter is something about OPS? C'mon.) He then looks squarely into the camera and states resolutely, "Stats tell the truth," which befuddles me. The truth ... about what? Reynolds plays opposite as the old-timey baseball coach who learned the game on the diamond, not from a textbook.
This all really started with Michael Lewis' over-dramatization of the front office divide between scouts and stats guys in Oakland, but it's been taken to a whole other, dare I say, religious level. On one side is Sabermetrics, represented as a branch of science grounded in Enlightenment values and unyielding objectivity. On the other side is Scouting/Feeling/Traditionalism, represented as dealing with strategy, keen observation, and insightful instinct as a result of experience.
I talked to a random guy about baseball before this season started, and when I attempted to rebut his argument that the Mets would have the worst outfield in the history of baseball, he shook his head, looked at me solemnly and said, "Sabermetrics says so." I guess I had two options: I could agree with him and trust the numbers or reject the numbers and trust faith. Sabermetrics said so, so I really had no other choice.
In the big data revolution, it's always important to remember that there are no panaceas. Statistical analysis is a social science, not a physical one. The best anyone can do with a spreadsheet is test some thoughts and get results that mean the thoughts may be true after all. Nerdy 20s-something-looking kids with glasses are not the modern oracles. They're just using a different tool.
*Note: for another good take that overlaps with this topic, check out Jack Moore's article
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
25th anniversary: Joe Niekro’s inning full of balk
Posted by Chris JaffeTwenty-five years ago today, one of baseball’s oldest players had one of his ugliest outings ever. April 19, 1988 was a day Joe Niekro probably wanted to forget about as soon as it was over.
It wasn’t just that he pitched poorly and allowed a slew of runs. It’s that he also kept getting called for balks. He had nearly as many balks as outs. He had nearly as many balks in one day as in the previous decade combined.
Though overshadowed by his Hall of Fame big brother Phil Niekro, Joe had a nice career for himself. Using the same pitch as Phil – the knuckleball – Joe Niekro won over 200 games in 22 seasons.
However, 1988 was the last of those 22 seasons. Joe Niekro was on fumes. In fact, his last outing was less than two weeks away – and today’s game helped hasten it.
Getting the start for the defending world champion Minnesota Twins, Joe Niekro had to face off against a dangerous Yankees lineup. The most dangerous part was its leadoff hitter, the all-time great base stealer Rickey Henderson. The future 3,000 hit club member greeted Niekro by lacing a single to center.
All pitchers had to keep a close eye on Henderson at first. He was just five years removed from his 130 stolen base season and would swipe 93 this year. But few pitchers had such a need to monitor Henderson as Niekro. After all, thought the knuckler is tough to hit, it travels slower than just about any other pitch – and every millisecond counted with Henderson at first.
So Niekro paid at least as much attention to first base as he did to the lowly reputed Bobby Meacham at the plate. Niekro wanted that son of a gun off first base. And, on a 2-1 count to Meacham, Nierko moved a little too swiftly to first.
Balk!
Yeah, the umps called Niekro on it. They’d call plenty of balks that year. The major league front office decreed that umpires should crack down on balks that year, and so this shouldn’t be too unexpected. It wasn’t Niekro’s first balk. He’d had one a year from 1983-86, but before that just one in his first 16 season.
Now Niekro had career balk No. 6. Eh, these things, they happen. But hey – maybe there’s an upside to this. Maybe Henderson will think Niekro will lay off now that an umpire nailed Niekro for a balk. Well, Niekro will show him. He ain’t going to back down.
But neither were the umpires. Balk!
Just one pitch after the first balk call, Niekro had another. Not only was it the first time he gave up two balks in one inning, it was the first time he’d balked twice in one season. A few minutes later Don Mattingly doubled Henderson home, so it was all moot. Henderson would likely score from first on a double, after all.
But in the second inning, Niekro ran into trouble, allowing Henderson to come to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. Wouldn’t you know it – he singled to score tw runs. Well, at least second base was occupied by shortstop Rafael Santana, the No. 9 hitter for the Yankees.
Still, better keep on eye on things. Niekro went back to his pickoff move once more.
Balk!
Niekro couldn’t have been a happy camper. He had just committed his third balk of the game – after just five previous balks in 3,500-plus innings. Sure it was the year of the balk, but maybe the umpires were being a little to quick on the call today. Surely Niekro had to be thinking that.
The rest of Niekro’s game was off that day as well. A few batters later and the Yankees had scored seven runs. Niekro didn’t get out of the seventh, with one of the worst Game Scores of his life: 12. Minnesota put him in the bullpen after this. He made one more start at the end of the month, but when that was a disaster, they pulled the plug on his big league career.
As bad as his last season was, nothing quite compared with the utter frustration of committing nearly half of his lifetime balks in under two innings – and that happened to him 25 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Magglio Ordonez plays in his final contest.
4,000 days since Bobby Valentine endures his 1,000th loss as manager. His record: 1,060-1,000.
8,000 days since Sammy Sosa hits his only career pinch hit home run.
9,000 days since Tommy John ties his worst Game Score: 4. His line: 4.1 IP, 12 H, 9 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, and 0 K.
25,000 days since Joe Niekro is born.
40,000 days since Pirates pitcher Ed Doheny is institutionalized for attacking a doctor and nurse. He never pitches again—in fact, I don’t think he ever leaves the hospital again.
Anniversaries
1886 Future Hall of Fame manager Wilbert Robinson makes his debut as catcher.
1890 Hall of Fame skipper Frank Selee manages his first game.
1890 Several players make their big league debuts today, including Hall of Famer George Davis, star infielder Bobby Lowe, fine hitting Bill Joyce, terrific fielding (but poor hitting) shortstop Tommy Corcoran, and long-lasting catcher Malachi Kittridge.
1890 The Players League debuts with all eight teams seeing action.
1895 Jimmy Collins, the greatest third baseman of his generation, makes his major league debut.
1896 Cap Anson manages his 2,000th game. He’s just the second man to do it, after Harry Wright. (And Wright only did it if you count the National Association).
1896 Chick Fraser, one of the only pitchers to have 200 losses but less than 200 wins, first appears in a major league game.
1897 George Stallings manages his first major league game. He’ll gain his greatest fame piloting the 1914 Miracle Braves to their unexpected world title.
1897 Chick Stahl, outfielder, makes his big league debut with the Boston Braves. It’s on the same day and in the same town that the first Boston Marathon happens. Stahl will later become the only baseball manager to commit suicide.
1900 It’s the wildest Opening Day game ever, as the Phillies top the Braves 19-17 in 10 innings. Boston scored nine runs in the ninth to send the sucker into overtime.
1902 Pitcher Bob Ewing has one of the wildest debuts ever, walking 10 – including five in one inning.
1903 Hall of Fame pitcher Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown plays in his first game.
1909 Bucky Walter, a pitcher who arguably deserves to be in Cooperstown, is born.
1909 The former team doctor for the New York Giants is banned for life from all major league parks for trying to bribe umpires Bill Klem and Jimmy Johnston just before the makeup game over the Fred Merkle incident in 1908.
1915 Lee Meadows, the first prominent pitcher to wear glasses, debuts.
1918 Whitey Kurowski, four-time All-Star for the 1940 Cardinals, is born.
1920 Two pitchers make their debuts for the A”s today—Eddie Rommel and Slim Harriss. Rommel will have a far better career, but Harris has his moments.
1923 Red Lucas, decent 1920s/30s pitcher, makes his big league debut. Also debuting is Sloppy Thurston, who will lead the 1924 AL in complete games while winning 20 games for the White Sox.
1927 John McGraw manages his 4,000th game. His record is 2,329-1,616.
1927 The Tigers begin broadcasting their home games on WWJ with Ty Tyson as announcer.
1929 Hall of Fame catcher Rick Ferrell makes his big league debut. It’s an ill-deserving Hall of Famer, but in Cooperstown nevertheless.
1930 Al Simmons homers for the fifth straight game.
1920 Babe Ruth gets credited for two sacrifice hits in one game for the fourth and final time in his career. I believe sacrifice flies were listed as sacrifice hits then, so it wasn’t that he was necessarily laying down to bunt all the time.
1930 Waite Hoyt only balks five times in his career, but two happen today.
1932 Bill Terry ties the game for the Giants in spectacular fashion, with a three-run inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the ninth. They lose anyway, 8-7 in 13 innings to Boston.
1932 Johnny Allen, a fiery pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1934 "Piano Legs" Charlie Hickman, a decent turn of the century hitter, dies at age 57. He led the 1902 AL in total bases and hits.
1937 Detroit purchases aging slugger Babe Herman from the Reds.
1937 Vince DiMaggio, eldest of the DiMaggios, makes his big league debut. Little brother Joe beat him to the bigs by a year.
1938 For the first time ever, two players homer in their first at bat in the same game. Heinie Mueller of the Phillies and Ernie Koy of the Dodgers do it.
1942 Warren Spahn, one of the most successful pitchers in major league history, makes his debut.
1944 Joe Page, who will become ones of the game’s first star relievers in 1947, makes his big league debut.
1945 Joe Cronin plays in his last game. He breaks his leg while rounding second base as his spikes catch in the dirt.
1946 The Yankees switch their dugout from the third base side to first base side at Yankee Stadium.
1947 Kindly Old Burt Shotton takes over as Dodgers manager, as the baseball commissioner has just suspended Leo Durocher for the entire season.
1948 Star Yankees pitcher Allie Reynolds hits his only home run. He has to be coaxed to run the bases because he refuses to believe he homered.
1948 Early Wynn ties a personal worst by allowing 16 hits in a game. He also allows a personal worst 12 runs and 10 earned runs.
1948 On Opening Day, three Red Sox hit consecutive homers—Stan Spence, Vern Stephens, and Bobby Doerr. The opposing A’s have the last laugh, winning 5-4 in 11 innings.
1949 Slugger Gus Zernial makes his big league debut.
1949 The White Sox become the sixth team to integrate as Minnie Minoso takes the field for them. No more clubs will integrate until after Labor Day in 1953.
1949 Star catcher Smoky Burgess makes his big league debut. So does solid hitting Red Sox first baseman Walt Dropo.
1949 The Yankees unveil a granite monument to Babe Ruth, and plaques for Lou Gehrig and Miller Huggins. Ruth died in the off-season and Gehrig and Huggins have both been dead for a while.
1952 Eddie Mathews belts his first home run.
1953 Mickey Mantles reaches base for the 37th straight game, his persona best streak.
1953 Pee Wee Reese draws four walks in one game.
1954 Yogi Berra raps out his 1,000th hit. In that same game, Mickey Mantle strikes out with the bases loaded to end the contest. That’s the only time it happens. The Yankees lose 2-1 to the Red Sox. Ellis Kinder gets the K. This also becomes Mantle’s worst WPA game: -0.292 as he’s 0-for-4 with four Ks. At least he has one walk.
1955 The Cardinals release former star Yankees pitcher Vic Raschi.
1956 Dodger catcher Roy Campanella gets his 1,000th hit.
1956 The Dodgers play the first of seven scheduled home games in New Jesey’s Roosevelt Stadium. Owner Walter O’Malley thinks Ebbets is too small.
1959 Pitcher Chris Short makes his big league debut.
1960 The Tigers and Indians set a record for longest Opening Day ever—15 innings, with Detroit triumphing, 4-2.
1960 Minnie Minoso returns! The White Sox traded for the star outfielder in the off-season, allowing him to return, and today he makes it look like a great idea, as he hits a walk-off home run for a 10-9 win over the A’s. The Sox led 5-0 early, but the A’s rallied to tie it in the top of the ninth. My dad was at this game. It’s the only time in his life he ever hitchhiked anywhere.
1960 Frank Viola, Cy Young Award winning pitcher, is born.
1963 Hank Aaron hits his 300th home run. He’s just the 21st member of the club.
1964 One day after Dodger stud Sandy Koufax strikes out the side on the bare minimum of nine pitches, Astros pitcher Bob Bruce does likewise. Its’ against the Cardinals in the eighth inning.
1964 Dick Allen has the first of 32 career multi-home run games.
1964 Wes Parker makes his big league debut.
1965 Nelson Briles makes his big league debut.
1965 The original Astrodome ceiling is painted, as players complained about the sun’s rays shooting through the glass ceiling above. This painting causes the grass to die.
1966 It’s the first game for Anaheim Stadium. Rich Reichardt of the home town Angels hits the first homer there, but that’s all the Angels do, as the visiting White Sox triumph, 3-1.
1968 Legendary strikeout artist Nolan Ryan strikes out the side on the minimum nine pitches in the third inning against LA.
1968 Former great Tigers pitcher Thomas Jefferson Davis Bridges (AKA Tommy Bridges), dies at age 61.
1969 For the second time already in this young season, Rod Carew steals home. He beats a slow-moving Hoyt Wilhelm knuckler in today’s Twins-Angels game. The Twins win, giving rookie manager Billy Martin a career record of 5-4. It’ll be over .500 for the rest of his days.
1969 Boston trades Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, Juan Pizarro, and Dick Ellsworth to Cleveland for Sonny Siebert, Vicente Romo, and Joe Azcue.
1971 Russ Hodges, famous for screaming “THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNAT!”, dies.
1972 The A’s sign free agent pitcher Joe Horlen.
1975 Don Sutton posts his 12th straight victory, his longest winning streak. His line: 15 GS, 12-0, 5 CG, 115.2 IP, 81 H, 24 R, 22 ER, 27 BB, 96 K, and a 1.71 ERA. Not too shabby.
1977 Brooks Robinson smashes the only pinch-hit home run of his career – and it’s also his eighth and final walk-off home run.
1977 Hard throwing pitcher Floyd Bannister makes his big league debut.
1978 Dave McKay lays down what’s still the only walk-off sacrifice bunt in Blue Jays history. He tries to advance the runner in the bottom of the ninth against the Yankees, but pitcher Rich Gossage throws the ball away, allowing the winning run to score. Officially it’s a walk-off error, but it’s the only Jays win to end on a walk-off sacrifice hit effort.
1979 Yankee pitcher Rich Gossage gets in a fistfight with teammate Cliff Johnson in the showers. Gossage tears thumb ligaments and has to go on the DL.
1979 Vida Blue picks up the win despite allowing 10 runs in a start (nine earned). Not until the 21st century will another pitcher allow 10 runs and get the win.
1981 The A’s set a record by beginning the season 11-0.
1983 Twins catcher Joe Mauer is born.
1983 Zach Duke, Pirates pitcher, is born.
1984 The Tigers lose, falling to 9-1. Losing doesn’t take, as they’ll eventually be 35-5.
1985 Art Howe plays in his final contest.
1986 The Cardinals and Expos play in one of the wildest games of the year. St. Louis wins 9-6 in 17 innings, after both teams scored a run in the 13th and 14th frames.
1986 For the only time in his career, George Brett gets hit by a pitch twice in one game.
1986 The A’s and Mariners combine for a then-record 30 Ks in a game. Jose Rijo fans 16, setting a new A’s team record.
1986 Big Daddy Rick Reuschel enjoys his 13th straight Quality Start, his longest streak ever – though he’ll tie it with another streak later this season. He’s 8-4 with a 1.65 ERA over 103.1 IP here.
1987 Reggie Jackson, just a month shy of his 41st birthday, triples. It’s his last one.
1991 Andre Dawson smashes what WPA considers to be his most valuable home run. It’s a pinch-hit grand slam for the Cubs in the top of the ninth while trailing the Pirates 0-3. The Pirates comeback and win anyway.
1994 Kevin Brown endures the worst outing of his career: 3.1 IP, 12 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 1 BB, and 1 K for a Game Score of –4.
1996 Lunatic and baseball fan Charlie Sheen purchases every single seat in a section of leftfield at an Angels game in hopes of catching a home run ball. None are hit his way, though.
1996 The Rangers score 26 runs, the most by an AL team in 41 years, in a 26-7 massacre of the Orioles. Jesse Orosco’s season ERA rises from 9.82 to 27.00.
1997 It’s the first official major league game in Hawaii, as the Padres and Cardinals play a doubleheader while San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium undergoes renovations. St. Louis sweeps, 1-0 and 2-1.
1998 Larry Walker runs wild, stealing three bases in one game – and one caught steal. He never runs this much in any other game.
1998 Orioles pitcher Sir Sidney Ponson makes his debut.
1998 Tampa Bay’s all-time cumulative franchise record peaks at four games over .500 (10-6). They’ll have to stay good for many years to get back to .500 after their wretched first decade.
200 For the first time in nearly 16 years, Cal Ripken hits a walk-off homer. He’ll smash another one next month.
2000 Orel Hershiser hits four batters in one game. Oops. He does it despite throwing just 1.1 IP. Apparently, his control was off.
2003 Andy Pettitte ties a personal record with his eighth straight win.
2005 The Mets set a team record with seven home runs in one game.
2006 Tom Glavine posts his 14th consecutive Quality Start, his longest streak. He’ sjust 7-5 in the period despite a 1.69 ERA.
2007 Jim Thome draws five base on balls in one game.
2009 Randy Johnson joins Al Leiter, Kevin Brown, Terry Mulholland, Woody Williams, and Jaime Moyer as the only men to notch victories against all 30 teams. He does it in style, too, taking a no-hitter into the seventh before it’s broken up. It’s his first win for the Giants, a 2-0 triumph over Arizona.
2012 Yankee outfielder Curtis Granderson hits three homers in one game—with all the longballs coming in the first four innings. He ends the day with five hits in an easy Yankee victory over the Twins.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraReds 1, Phillies 0: CONTINUED FROM TUESDAY NIGHT: Nine minutes, a quick score and then the whole thing was over. About as good a night as you coulda hoped for when you were 17, but for the Phillies this had to be disappointing.
Reds 11, Phillies 2: Well, maybe not as disappointing as this. The Reds complete their first sweep of Philly in 17 years. John Lannan was pummeled. So too were the rest of the Phillies pitchers. Heck, Mike Leake had three hits, including a triple. The Phillies scored only four runs in the series.
Royals 1, Braves 0: I was tempted to say that Doug Eddings and Wade Davis combined on a shutout, but that's just petty I suppose. There were A LOT of bad ball and strike calls, sure. But watching Dan Uggla swing at everything from the dirt to the bill of his cap in the ninth inning made me think, well, some days it's just not your day. Game's lone RBI goes to Jeff Francouer. Which I presume will lead to some Francouer fans down in Georgia to start up that "we never shoulda gotten rid of him" chatter they're prone to down there. Doesn't matter who's in the Braves' outfield. There's always a group of dead-enders who pine for Jeffy.
Pirates 5, Cardinals 0: A.J. Burnett allowed one hit, taking the no-no into the seventh. He also notched his 2,000th career strikeout. Not a bad night for Shelby Miller either, but tough luck is part of the game, yo.
Nationals 6, Marlins 1: Bryce Harper went 4 for 5 and Ross Detwiler allowed only one run in seven innings. And the Marlins went back to remembering that they are, in fact, the Marlins.
White Sox 7, Blue Jays 0: Jose Quintana tamed the Jays. Tyler Flowers hit a three-run homer. Old friend Alex Rios hit one too.
Rays 6, Orioles 2: Tampa Bay snaps its four-game losing streak. Matt Moore got the win. He has three on the season. The entire Rays team has five.
Red Sox 6, Indians 3: Five straight wins for the Bosox. Alfredo Aceves, pressed into service as a starter, took a shutout into the sixth, but then he hit a wall. After three solid starts Justin Masterson hit a wall of his own, surrendering 11 hits.
Yankees 4, Diamondbacks 3: Down 3-0 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Yankees tied it up and then Travis Hafner hit a pinch-hit homer in the eighth to cap off a four-run rally. New York has won seven of eight, which is really messing with a lot of predictions of doom out there. Pretty inconsiderate, you guys.
Athletics 7, Astros 5: Six runs in the first was a less than gracious homecoming for Marin County's Bud Norris, but such is life for the Astros. Meanwhile, the A's have played approximately 193 games against Houston so far this year. I think it's time they move up a level.
Padres 7, Dodgers 2: Clayton Kershaw gave up three homers in three innings. Because baseball. Even the best ones get rocked on random Wednesday nights.
Tigers 2, Mariners 1: 14 innings. Batters combined for 40 strikeouts. Prince Fielder led the pack with five. The only runs in the game scored on a couple of fielder's choices and an RBI single. But there was some goodness here in the starting pitching. Indeed, it's a shame neither starter could win this one, with Max Scherzer striking out 12 while allowing only one run in eight innings and Felix Hernandez striking out 12 while allowing only an unearned run in his eight.
Brewers 4, Giants 3: Pinch hitter Blake Lalli -- who has a name that I'd sooner place on some actress in her early '20s who stars in some new show that is decidedly not aimed at my demographic -- hit the first pitch he saw for the game-winning single in the ninth. Runners hit second and third just before that thanks to a Brandon Crawford throwing error.
Angels vs. Twins: POSTPONED: Three, four: Hey mr. rain. Ain't you follow me down. Hey mr. rain. Ain't you follow me down. I've been working baby oh! so hard. Stayin up in the sky. Hey mr. rain. Ain't you follow me down
Rangers vs. Cubs: POSTPONED: See the sky about to rain, broken clouds and rain. Locomotive, pull the train, whistle blowing through my brain. Signals curling on an open plain, rolling down the track again. See the sky about to rain.
Mets vs. Rockies: POSTPONED: Dreamed I was an eskimo. Frozen wind began to blow. Under my boots and around my toes. The frost that bit the ground below. It was a hundred degrees below zero...
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
25th anniversary: Mike Schmidt scores from first on wild pitch
Posted by Chris JaffeTwenty-five years ago today, Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt engaged in an impressive bit of heads-up baserunning, scoring all the way from first base on a wild pitch.
On April 18, 1988, Schmidt and his Phillies compadres took on the New York Mets. In the top of the eighth, the Phillies held a comfortable 9-6 lead but were looking for an extra insurance run.
Schmidt led off the inning against a young David Cone. Cone, at the beginning of his big league career, was still a reliever, though he’d earn his slot in the starting rotation in a few weeks. Today, however, he didn’t quite have his command, and he promptly walked Schmidt.
Then Cone's command got quite a bit worse. With Von Hayes at the plate, Cone threw an offering that was off the mark—well off the mark. Mets catcher Gary Carter couldn’t get to it, and the offering sailed to the backstop. Schmidt naturally enough moved into second.
However, the ball kept ricocheting around and bounced all the way to near the Phillies dugout. Seeing this, Schmidt didn’t let up and galloped over to third. Carter kept having trouble corralling the ball, and that’s when Schmidt made his move.
Schmidt looked to the plate and saw a wonderful sight—there was no one covering home. That should be Cone’s responsibility, but he forgot. After all, how often do you hear of a playing trying to score from first on a wild pitch? But when Schmidt moved into third, he should’ve stayed one base ahead.
At any rate, showing heads up baserunning, Schmidt took off for home. By now Carter finally had managed to corral the runaway ball, but he had no one to throw it to. He ran a few steps toward home, but that was a fruitless effort. Mike Schmidt had done it—running 270 feet on a wild pitch.
Though best remembered as a slugger, and beyond that as a great fielding third baseman, Schmidt had his moments on the bases as well. Perhaps none of those moments was as oddly impressive as his extended dash on Cone’s wild pitch, 25 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happened X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Alex Rodriguez has his 10,000th career plate appearance.
1,000 days since Arizona’s Kelly Johnson hits for the cycle.
5,000 days since aging veteran Wade Boggs takes to the mound for the second time in his career. Boggs always had a knuckler he liked to fiddle with. H eallows one run in an inning and a third off thee hits, but he does strike out a victim. It’s a humbled Delino DeShields of the Orioles. Baltimore has the real laugh, though, winning 17-1 over Boggs’ Tampa team.
6,000 days since the Indians make a bad trade, sending young second baseman Jeff Kent to the Giants for Matt Williams and some other parts.
15,000 days since the Reds trade Tony Cloninger to the Cardinals for Julian Javier.
15,000 days since reliever Steve Karsay is born.
20,000 days since the best known WPA game by a Senators/Twins hitter. Roy Sievers goes 2-for-5 with two homers and four RBIs in a 7-6 Senators win over the Indians.
20,000 days since Baltimore pitcher Jack Harshman belts two homers in a 6-5 win over the White Sox.
30,000 days since Ban Johnson dies at age 67.
40,000 days since the Boston Red Sox become champions in the first ever World Series. Their 3-0 win over the Pirates in Game Eight gives them their fifth win in the best-of-nine series.
At some point today, it’ll be 1,000,000,000 seconds since Cal Ripken Jr. first took the field in his debut big league game.
Anniversaries
1880 Sam Crawford, the game’s all-time triples king, is born.
1888 American Association umpire John Gaffney has a new idea. He’ll stay behind the plate whenever no one is on base and otherwise place himself behind the pitcher. This new technique takes off in the old days of the one-man umpiring crew.
1888 Duffy Lewis, star left fielder, is born.
1896 Fielder Jones, terrific glove man whose birth name really was Fielder, plays in his first game.
1899 Hall of Fame workhorse pitcher Iron Man Joe McGinnity plays in his first game. So does Noodles Hahn, a phenom with Cooperstown talent whose arm didn’t last long enough.
1901 Jimmy Sheckard connects for three triples on Opening Day for Brooklyn.
1906 Babe Adams, pitcher with terrific control, makes his big league debut.
1908 Gavvy Cravath, maybe the best slugger of the last decade of the Deadball Era, makes his big league debut.
1918 Center fielder Tris Speaker pulls off his fifth career unassisted double play. This one is extra special because he tags both runners. It was a very different time.
1923 A crowd of 74,200 attends the first regular-season game at Yankee Stadium, and another 25,000 are turned away. Ruth homers and the Yankees win, 4-1 over Boston.
1923 Columbia University southpaw Lou Gehrig—yes, that Lou Gehrig—fans 17 batters from Williams College.
1923 Charley Root, the winningest pitcher in Cubs history, makes his big league debut. Also debuting is Willie Kamm, who will have a nice career as a third baseman.
1924 Ray Kremer, age 31, makes his big league debut. He turns out to be one of the greatest late bloomers in baseball history. He’ll lead the league in ERA twice, wins twice, and winning percentage twice.
1925 Charles Ebbets, the man for whom the Brooklyn Dodgers' stadium is named, dies at age 65.
1925 Rogers Hornsby scores five runs in one game for the only time as the Cardinals maul the Cubs, 20-5.
1927 Goose Goslin steals three bases in one game for the second and last time in his career.
1929 Larry French, high-quality pitcher who joined the Navy during WWII, makes his big league debut. He stayed in the Navy after the war, retiring at the rank of captain in 1969.
1930 Jack Stivetts, terrific-hitting pitcher who won over 200 games in the 1890s, dies at age 62.
1930 Lon Warneke, one of the best NL pitchers of the 1930s, makes his big league debut.
1934 Paul Dean, Dizzy’s talented brother in pitching, makes his big league debut.
1938 Joe Gordon, Hall of Fame second baseman, makes his big league debut.
1939 Leo Durocher manages his first big league game. It’s also the first regular-season Dodgers game broadcast on the radio. Red Barber is on the microphone.
1942 Hank Borowy, pitcher, makes his big league debut.
1942 Steve Blass, pitcher with control problems, is born.
1942 The U.S. military asks the Pacific Coast League to limit crowds to 3,000 due to fear of Japanese attacks.
1945 Leo Durocher plays in his final big league game. The player-manager is just a manager from here on out.
1946 Cincinnati trades Jim Konstanty to the Braves. Four years later as a Phillie, he’ll win the MVP as a relief pitcher.
1946 Jackie Robinson debuts with the Montreal Royals. He grounds out in his first at-bat and then hits a three-run homer the next time up.
1946 A press conference is held to announce the formation of the American Baseball Guild, a players’ union.
1946 Ralph Kiner hits his first home run.
1947 Jackie Robinson knocks out his first home run.
1947 Ted Kluszewski, one of the most muscular sluggers of his day, debuts.
1949 The Yankees release Bill Bevens, who nearly threw a no-hitter for them in the 1947 World Series.
1950 Cleveland releases longtime third baseman Ken Keltner, whom the Red Sox sign that same day.
1950 The Braves become the fifth team to integrate when Sam Jethroe takes the field for them. Previously, the Dodgers, Indians, Browns and Giants integrated.
1950 Billy Martin makes his debut and gets two hits. Also debuting on this day are Chico Carrasquel, Jackie Jensen and Clem Labine.
1951 Doug Flynn, poor-hitting infielder, is born.
1952 Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm makes his big league debut.
1952 The Yankees retire No. 3 for Joe DiMaggio.
1953 Don Larsen makes his big league debut.
1955 Ewell Blackwell, one of the most feared fastball pitchers of his day, plays in his last game.
1955 Roberto Clemente connects for his first home run.
1957 It’s the ultimate insult to a hitter. The Pirates put second baseman Bill Mazeroski ninth in the batting order, behind pitcher Luis Arroyo, who hits eighth.
1957 Roger Maris hits his first homer, and it’s a doozy: An 11th-inning grand slam.
1958 The Giants and Dodgers play their first game in LA, and 78,672 see them in the Coliseum.
1959 Frank Robinson hits his 100th home run.
1959 Jim Eisenreich, 15-year major leaguer, is born.
1959 Mike Cuellar, big winner for Earl Weaver’s early 1970s Orioles, debuts.
1960 Cleveland trades Herb Score to the White Sox.
1960 In his first at-bat of the season, Ted Williams hits a 500-foot home run.
1960 Don Mincher makes his big league debut.
1962 Ernie Banks hits his 300th home run.
1962 Young Orioles pitcher Milt Pappas hits a home run for the only offense in a 1-0 win over the dreaded New York Yankees.
1962 Bo Belinsky makes his big league debut.
1964 Rick Wise, a mere 18 years old, makes his big league debut.
1964 In the third inning versus Cincinnati, Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax fans the side on nine pitches. It’s the second time Koufax has done that, making him the first NL pitcher to do so more than once in the 20th century. However, the Reds win the game, 3-0.
1965 Ray Oyler, one of the game’s worst-hitting regulars ever, plays in his first game.
1965 Tug McGraw, long-lasting reliever, makes his big league debut.
1966 In Houston, it’s the first game ever played on an Astroturf infield. The outfield will be added in later. The game is noteworthy for another reason, as young Dodgers starting pitcher Don Sutton records his first big league win as he outduels fellow future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts.
1967 Reggie Smith, in the 12th game of his career, plays second base for the sixth and final time.
1969 Houston’s Joe Morgan starts the game in center field. Today and tomorrow are the only times he ever does that.
1969 Luis Tiant allows 11 hits, but only one single. The other ten hits are evenly divided up as doubles and homers.
1969 The fourth win in Padres history is also the only game that ever ends with Willie Mays fanning for the last out with the bases loaded. San Diego edges San Francisco, 3-1.
1970 Nolan Ryan records his first shutout in style, fanning 15 in a one-hitter. Denny Doyle gets a leadoff single for the Phillies in the first inning, and that’s it. The Mets win, 7-0.
1972 Reliever Dick Tidrow makes his big league debut.
1973 Tommy John walks in a run for the only time between July 7, 1966 and April 11, 1977. There are more than 2,000 innings in that stretch.
1973 After 177 games without one, Rod Carew finally connects for a home run.
1977 Eddie Murray goes deep for the first time in his career.
1977 Mexican League pitcher Ricardo Sandate hurls 19 innings in one game, only to lose, 2-0.
1979 Mike Scott, stud pitcher with the 1986 Astros, makes his big league debut as a Met.
1980 Bill Madlock gets his 1,000th career hit.
1981 Pawtucket and Rochester begin an International League game that will go 32 innings and take eight hours and 25 minutes of playing time. It runs into a curfew today and will be completed in June.
1981 Tom Seaver strikes out his 3,000th batter, who happens to be Keith Hernandez.
1983 Miguel Cabrera, Triple Crown hitter, is born.
1984 Dave Stieb wins his 67th game with Toronto, passing Jim Clancy as all-time franchise leader. He still is. (Actually, Clancy will tie Stieb with 67 wins the next day, but Stieb will never fall behind Clancy again).
1985 Super-speedster Vince Coleman debuts in the major leagues.
1986 Tom Seaver suffers his 200th loss.
1986 Oakland’s Alfredo Griffin scores from second base on a bases-loaded walk as Seattle catcher Steve Yeager and pitcher Mike Moore are caught completely off guard by his baserunning daring.
1986 Bobby Witt has a no-hitter going after five innings but is yanked anyway, as he’s allowed eight walks and thrown wild pitches (though he’s also fanned 10). He doesn’t even get the win, though Texas defeats the Brewers, 7-5.
1986 Steve Carlton sets a personal worst with his seventh straight loss.
1987 Mike Schmidt joins the 500-home run club in style by belting one with two out in the ninth as the Phillies rally to top the Pirates, 8-6.
1990 Robin Ventura hits his first home run. The pitcher? Roger Clemens.
1991 Robin Yount gets his 500th double.
1991 New Comiskey Park (now called U.S. Cellular Field) opens with a dud, as the White Sox lose, 16-0, to the Tigers. The first standing ovation comes when the Sox record a routine out in the midst of a 10-run Detroit inning.
1992 Will Clark bops his 1,000th career hit.
1992 Jeff Bagwell gets his first ever walk-off home run. He’ll hit another one this year but only one more in the rest of his career.
1992 John Smoltz becomes the first pitcher to homer off Orel Hershiser. Tom Browning will do it next year, but that’s it.
1993 Barry Bonds joins the 1,000-hit club in style, going 4-for-5 on the day.
1994 Mickey Mantle discusses his problems with booze in Sports Illustrated.
1994 The White Sox’s Tim Raines gets three homers in one game. He’s 4-for-5 with a walk and a career-high-tying five runs scored. Even his non-hit isn’t an out, as he reaches on an error.
1995 California signs free agent pitcher Scott Sanderson.
1995 Jack Morris, the winningest pitcher of the 1980s, announces his retirement.
1996 Alex Rodriguez connects for the first of his 23 (and counting) grand slams.
1996 Bill Mueller makes his big league debut.
1998 In the 10th inning, John Olerud lays down a sacrifice bunt for the first time since June, 1992, a streak of 3,247 plate appearances without one.
2000 Adam Kennedy becomes the first second baseman in 50 years to get eight RBIs in one game. The last second baseman to do that was Red Sox Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr, who did it in June 1950. Kennedy also sets an Angels franchise record for most RBIs by one player in a game.
2000 Mark Mulder makes his big league debut with the A’s. He’ll be fantastic for a brief while.
2003 Craig Biggio hits his 200th home run.
2004 Adrian Gonzalez makes his big league debut.
2004 Sammy Sosa hits his 513th home run as a Cub, passing Ernie Banks as the franchise leader.
2005 For the second time in his career, Alex Rodriguez scores five runs in one game. He’s 5-for-6 with two doubles, two homers, and six RBIs. It’s the only time he gets four extra-base hits in one game.
2005 Tim Hudson and Roger Clemens trade goose eggs, and the bullpens for Houston and Atlanta have to decide it. Atlanta wins, 1-0 in 12 innings, when Ryan Langerhans hits an inside-the-park home run.
2005 Manny Ramirez has two homers in a game for the second time in three days.
2006 Luis Gonzalez joins the 500-double club.
2006 For the first time since April of 1962, the Houston Astros' cumulative franchise record is at .500 (3,507-3,507).
2006 Hanley Ramirez hits his first career home run.
2007 For the first time in nearly seven years and over 1,000 innings, David Wells walks in a run.
2007 Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle throws his first no-hitter.
2009 Cleveland scores 14 runs in the first inning for a 22-5 romp over the Yankees.
2009 Manny Ramirez hits two home runs in a game. It’s his 54th and last multi-home run game.
2010 In Japan, Tomoaki Kanemoto asks to be left out of the lineup for the Hanshin Tigers. He’s hitting .167. He’d not only played in 1,492 consecutive games, but he had been in every inning along the way. He makes a pinch-hit appearance today to keep the games streak alive.
2011 Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mike Leake is arrested for shoplifting. He’s accused of cutting tags off shirts and trying to leave Macy’s with them. His salary is $425,000.
2012 It’s one of the best pitching duels of the 21st century, as the two starting pitchers’ Game Scores add up to 171. Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee throws 10 shutout inning, but the club loses, 1-0 in 11 innings, to the Giants. Matt Cain throws nine shutout innings for San Francisco. Cain’s 86 Game Score is one ahead of Lee’s 85.
2012 Bartolo Colon of the A’s sets a record when 38 straight pitches of his are strikes. This has only been tracked since 1988, but the old record was 30, so Colon destroys it. (Tim Wakefield, of all people, was the previous record holder.)
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Billy and Jackie: a re-tracer
Posted by Shane TourtellotteOn April 18, 1950, in the New York Yankees' season opener at Boston, Billy Martin made his major-league debut. He entered in the sixth inning to play second, replacing pinch-hitter Dick Wakefield, who had struck out to help snuff out a New York rally that still left them trailing the Red Sox, 9-4. Martin did better. He doubled and singled in the eighth, driving home three runs during a nine-run onslaught that put his Yankees ahead to stay, eventually winning 15-10.
That was the beginning of Martin's career, 63 years ago today. Martin would become well known as one of the most fiery competitors in the history of a game that has had an ample share of such men. (How's that for understatement?) In a baseball lifetime covered with glories and shames, Martin took some of his greatest pride in how he measured up against another notably fierce, if better controlled, player: Jackie Robinson.
In his biography, Number 1, Martin recalled a lawyer back in his hometown of Berkeley, California, who worked with both his family and Robinson's. Always eager to find a challenge, Martin took his four World Series appearances against Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers as the opportunity to show this mutual acquaintance who was the better player. "And always I outhit, and always I outplayed [Robinson]," Martin (and Peter Golenbock) wrote. "Every Series we played in."
Rob Neyer put this story under his magnifying glass for the book Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends. Neyer looked over the batting averages and some other components of play, and concluded, "Martin undoubtedly was right: he did outplay Robinson every time they met."
I've been busy of late delving into the career of Robinson and decided a little more research wouldn't hurt me. Using the comprehensive statistical resources of Baseball-Reference, I compared the performances of Martin and Robinson in the World Series of 1952, '53, '55, and '56.
I used Win Percentage Added as my guide and made sure to count base running, as well as defense, as much as that was possible. (I can't give out points for great defense, not from standard play-by-plays, but I can debit for errors. Or sometimes not, as you'll see.)
The bald historical fact is, Robinson didn't do all that well in the Fall Classic. He posted an uninspiring .234/.335/.343 line in 38 games. Martin, for his part, had a spectacular 1953 Series that would have won him World Series MVP honors if the award had yet existed. Looking pretty good for Martin so far, but let's look at this the way Martin posed it. Did he outplay Robinson in every World Series they played in?
1952 World Series
Martin: -0.387 WPA Robinson: -0.102 WPA
Ouch. Both men batted poorly (save for a Martin home run), but Robinson drew seven walks to Martin's two. Jackie had two stolen bases and advanced on a wild pickoff throw against Martin getting caught stealing in Game Three. Martin also had an error in Game Four.
Martin's most memorable play that year was his last-second dashing catch of a Robinson infield pop-up that, had it dropped, would have tied Game Seven in the seventh. It was an exciting moment but not really spectacular defense. Someone should have caught that high pop. Nobody would remember it if Martin of Joe Collins or Bob Kuzava had settled under it, as all of them could have. I can't give Martin special credit for what should have been an ordinary play, especially since Robinson already gets the debit for hitting the pop fly.
1953 World Series
Martin: +0.689 WPA Robinson: -0.028 WPA
This one's almost a walkover. Martin went .500/.520/.958, including two homers, two triples, and the Series-winning RBI. Going one-for-three in steal attempts dings the record, but not by much. Robinson batted .320, but with one walk and slight power.
1955 World Series
Martin: +0.056 WPA Robinson: -0.060 WPA
A fact not often remembered about Robinson's fabled steal of home in Game One is that it came an inning and a half after Martin tried stealing home himself. Martin was out, his second caught-stealing of the day. It's almost as though Jackie was answering Billy, that he was the one gauging himself against the other. Who knows: if he had heard about Martin's chosen mission, his own competitive will might have concentrated on the task.
However, it didn't sustain him. Robinson's batting lagged behind Martin's, who also had timeliness on his side in Games Two and Four. Robinson's fielding also let him down. He made two errors at third base, both times allowing Martin to reach base. I don't count those errors against Robinson's total, since they already count for Martin's. If I did it the other way, their WPA numbers would be different, but the margin would stay the same.
1956 World Series
Martin: -0.062 WPA Robinson: +0.083 WPA
Robinson stole this one on timely hitting. It was his two-out single in the 10th inning of Game Six that drove home the only run of the contest. He racked up 0.39 WPA on that hit alone, more than making up for a -0.15 in the rest of the game. Martin had a better WPA in five of the seven games—and better overall batting and slugging averages—but didn't exploit a huge opportunity the way Robinson did.
So, in two Series Martin came out ahead, and in two others Robinson did. Is this a disproof of Martin's claim? Perhaps not entirely. Martin's definition of "outhitting" may not have included drawing walks, where Robinson had the advantage. One can also argue whether WPA is a fair assessment of an individual's play, contingent as it often is on whether one gets high-leverage situations to magnify a single success or failure.
But there's no saying that Martin was "undoubtedly" right. Not now.
P.S. This item marks the end of my latest Jackie Robinson kick, and also the start of a brief absence from THT. I won't have my regular article next week, but the week after that I should be making up for it, with interest. Hopefully yours.
Shane Tourtellotte is a long-time, occasionally-nominated science fiction writer, currently living in Asheville, North Carolina. He will tell you all about the baseball novel he’s shopping if you give him an inch.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraBraves 6, Royals 3: I suppose the Braves will lose again at some point. I just don't know when that point is. The team has 25 homers in 13 games.
Yankees 4, Diamondbacks 2: I wasn't watching this, but as I was going to bed people on Twitter were noting that Mariano Rivera was coming into the game and saying stuff about the 2001 World Series. Which, sure, I guess I understand. But holy mother of heck, that was nearly 12 years ago. Think about your life 12 years ago and ask yourself how relevant anything that was happening to you then is now. Then ask yourself whether you honestly think someone like Rivera is really affected by the 2001 World Series in April 2013.
Rangers 4, Cubs 2: Craig Gentry made a diving catch with two outs in the ninth inning and the bases loaded on a Darwin Barney shot to left that would have at least tied it if it weren't caught and would have likely won it if Gentry had dived and totally missed. Craigs are pretty clutch, though, so he had it the whole way.
Orioles 5, Rays 4: It wasn't pretty but Jake Arrieta got his first win since last June. Tampa Bay has lost four in a row and seven of eight.
Rockies 8, Mets 4; Rockies 9, Mets 8: A freezing, snowy doubleheader? Mmm, sounds like a total blast. David Wright had two blasts in the opener in a losing cause. Jordan Pacheco had the game-winning hit in the 10th in the night cap. I'm going to guess that this is the most miserable pair of games the Mets have endured in ages, simply because of weather and crap.
Red Sox 7, Indians 2: Ubaldo Jimenez was, like, 15-1 to start the season a couple of years ago. It's true. I remember it. If the Indians were smart he'd end this year 0-2, having never thrown another pitch. Because something ain't right with this guy (1.2 IP, 2 H, 7 ER, 5 BB).
White Sox 4, Blue Jays 3: The White Sox rallied for two in the ninth then held off as the Jays tried to claw back in the bottom of the inning. After the game Paul Konerko said "It was a gritty win." After which he was sued for copyright infringement by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Marlins 8, Nationals 2: Ryan Zimmerman's defensive problems continue, as his throwing error in the fourth led to four unearned Marlins runs. Those four runs were more than the Marlins had scored in all but one of their previous 13 games. Zimmerman has had four errors in the past five games.
Twins 8, Angels 6: Joe Mauer is 8 for 10 in this series so far after going 4 for 5 with three RBI in this one. Talk to some random Twins fans, though, and they'll still say he's a problem for some reason that eludes me entirely.
Brewers 10, Giants 8: Just when we finally get the Barry Zito bandwagon all booked up with passengers, gassed up and onto the on-ramp, it throws an engine rod. Two and two-thirds inning, eight hits, nine runs for Barry, including a grand slam to Yunieskey Betancourt for cryin' out loud.
Athletics 4, Astros 3: Remember that stuff about how the NL Central teams are gonna miss having the Astros to kick around this season? The A's here are the other side of that coin, as they've beaten Houston five times already. Meanwhile, AL East and AL Central teams have to face real baseball teams as they compete with AL West teams for the wild card. Because the unbalanced schedule is so fair.
Tigers 6, Mariners 2: Miguel Cabrera drove in four and Doug Fister gave the Mariners another reminder that, welp, maybe they shouldn't have traded him away (7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER).
Padres 9, Dodger 2: Alexi Amarista drove in four and Jason Marquis tied the Dodgers up. Look, when you face that kind of star power, you're just not gonna win often, Dodgers fans. On the bright side I suppose there's a decent chance that Vin Scully got to fill time with more legends and tales from the ancient and classical canon, so there's that.
Phillies 0, Reds 0: SUSPENDED: This game will be picked up where it left off, scoreless in the ninth inning. They should make all the players stay in uniform on the field in the exact positions they were sitting/standing when the game was called. That would be bitchin'.
Cardinals vs. Pirates: POSTPONED: Nothing that happened in the two innings they got in will actually count. It's like it never happened. For example, if Andrew McCutchen had murdered Yadier Molina in the first inning, he would do no jail time for it and Molina would have been resurrected. THAT'S how this rule works.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
20th anniversary: Baltimore base running fiasco
Posted by Chris JaffeTwenty years ago today, the Orioles hit into an utterly preposterous double play. It was something so bizarre, it’s hard to believe it had ever happened before, though something close to it once had.
On April 17, 1993, the Orioles battled the Angels in Baltimore. It was a close game, with California nursing a narrow 6-5 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. In that frame, the Orioles threatened to rally for the victory, and by all rights they should have—but tripped themselves up in a memorable display of dumb baseball.
First, the good news. Baltimore loaded the bases with one out thanks to two hits, an intentional walk, and a fielder’s choice. The tying run was just 90 feet from scoring and a cleanly hit single could give Baltimore the lead.
At the plate stood veteran outfielder Mike Devereaux. Though not a feared hitter, Deveraux was solid, and sure enough he stroked the ball into shallow center field. Would this fall for a hit?
Angels outfielder Chad Curtis charged in to try to catch it. The runners dared not advance too far for fear of being doubled off the bag. Curtis dove and—the ball ended up in his glove. Was that a trap or a catch? Actually, it was a trap, so there was no chance to double anyone up. One run should come around and there should be only one out.
Only it didn’t end up with a tie score, bases loaded and one out. The inning would end on a double play.
The first problem was lead runner Jeff Tackett. He had no idea if Curtis caught it, but assumed it had been caught and went back to third. This is confounding because he could be forced at the plate for not advancing. Though it was a trap, it’s tough to really excuse Tackett here. After all, the other runners figured out what was going on. Baltimore star Brady Anderson knew, and advanced from second to third—just in time to greet the out of place Tackett.
But maybe the strangest base running came from Chito Martinez on first base. He recognized the ball had been trapped and so advanced, but he completely forgot there were runners ahead of him. Martinez went to second and, seeing a chance to gain an extra base, went on his way to third. This is just plain bad baseball. Really—couldn’t he have noticed not one, but two runners at third in front of him? Guess not.
So the Angels relayed the ball to the plate, where catcher John Orton had it. Instead of stepping on the plate, he advanced to third where he played it safe and tagged everyone.
Umpire Terry Craft had a fun situation to figure out: Three guys on one bag. Clearly two were out, but who? As a general rule, the lead runner has position, but in this case that wasn’t true. With the bases loaded and a live ball, Tackett needed to advance, but didn’t, so he was out.
As for the others, Anderson was safe and Martinez out. Anderson advanced to his base ashe was supposed to, but Martinez advanced to someone else’s base. Anderson was the guy who didn’t screw up. But it didn’t matter—the double play ended the inning. Baltimore would lose, 7-5. There’s no way that play should happen, but it did.
It harkened back to the 1930s Daffiness Boys Dodgers, when Babe Herman once doubled into a double play. He doubled with the bases loaded, and while the lead runner scored, the second runner pulled up at third, the trailing runner advanced to third, and Herman himself—not paying attention—slid into third. That bizarre play seemed impossible to duplicate, but danged if the bird-brained Birds hadn’t just done it.
It was baseball at its strangest in Baltimore—and it was 20 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that happens X-thousand days ago). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d prefer to just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Derek Jeter hits an inside the park home run. It’s the second of his career.
5,000 days since five grand slams are hit in one day, a record. The slammers are: Jay Buhner of Seattle, Bernie Williams with the Yankees, Mike Lowell on the Marlins, Jose Vidro of the Expos, and Fernando Tatis with the Cardinals.
5,000 days since the Angels release Jack McDowell, ending his career.
5,000 days since Colorado trades Brian McRae to Toronto.
5,000 days since umpire union chief Richie Phillips says he’s considering an injunction from the NLRB to stop the Sept. 2 firing of 22 umpires. (Never mind that the umpires resigned, acting on the advice of Phillips).
8,000 days since Kirby Puckett gets six hits in a game for the second time in his career. He’s the first since Doc Cramer in the 1930s to do this twice.
8,000 days since Johnny Oates manages his first big league game.
9,000 days since California releases reliever Donnie Moore.
50,000 days since the first tie in the NL: Philadelphia and Louisville end due to darkness after 14 innings with a 2-2 score.
Anniversaries
1820 Alexander Cartwright, in Cooperstown as the inventor of baseball, is born.
1863 Charlie Ferguson, a terrific pitcher who dies far too young, is born.
1864 Jersey Bakely, 19th century pitcher with horrible run support, is born.
1869 It’s the first openly professional baseball game in history. The Cincinnati Redlegs beat the Cincinnati Amateurs (that’s really their name), 24-15. As the team name of the loser implies, only one team consisted of professionals.
1884 Jake Daubert, first baseman, is born. He’ll win back-to-back batting titles with Brooklyn in 1913-14.
1886 Two notable players make their debut today: Lou Bierbauer, a second baseman from whom the Pittsburgh Pirates got their nickname (they pirated Bierbauer from another team), and Matt Kilroy, a pitcher who still technically owns the record for most strikeouts in a year. He fanned 513 in 583 innings in 1886, before the four-ball, three-strike count had been set up.
1889 Herman Long, one of the best-fielding shortstops of his generation, plays in his first game.
1892 The National League hosts its first-ever Sunday games. They've violated the Sabbath ever since.
1897 Baltimore releases former ace pitcher Sadie McMahon.
1898 Bobby Mathews, pitcher who won 297 games (including in the sorta big league National Association), dies.
1902 Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Tinker makes his big league debut.
1904 The Brooklyn Dodgers find a loophole in local Sunday laws. They let fans in for free but make them buy a program to enter the grandstand or box seats. This loophole soon will be closed.
1909 The Cubs sell center fielder Jimmy Slagle to the Braves.
1913 Seattle Seattle Bill James, later a star pitcher for the 1914 Miracle Braves, makes his big league debut.
1913 The Yankees play their first game at the Polo Grounds and lose 9-3 to the Washington Senators.
1914 Hall of Fame pitcher Red Faber makes his debut. So does another pitcher of considerably less renown, Dave Davenport.
1923 The Cardinals wear uniform numbers for the first time in a regular-season game. They lose, 3-2 to Cincinnati.
1923 The Phillies tie the Dodgers, 5-5, in a 14-inning contest that sets a record as the longest Opening Day game in NL history.
1923 Jimmie Wilson, catcher, makes his big league debut. He’ll become a baseball lifer, playing in the 1920s/30s and managing in the 1930s/40s, before dying rather young.
1924 Senators star outfielder Baby Doll Jacobson hits for the cycle.
1925 Babe Ruth undergoes surgery for intestinal abscess in St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City for the “belly ache heard around the world.”
1926 Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt has his worst ever day at the plate, going 0-for-4 with three whiffs.
1927 Hall of Fame outfielder Al Simmons legs out his only inside-the-park home run.
1929 Babe Ruth marries actress/model Claire Merritt Hodgson.
1932 Giants first baseman Bill Terry sets an NL record with 21 putouts as they beat the Braves, 5-0, behind pitcher Hal Schumacher.
1932 Hall of Famer Heinie Manush strikes out four times in a game for the only time in his career. He fans only 345 times in 8,416 plate appearances, but today he has four in five hitless at-bats.
1932 Arky Vaughan, Hall of Fame shortstop and one of the most underrated players in history, makes his big league debut. Also making their debuts today are pitcher Tex Carleton, and Paul Richards, a catcher who will later be a great manager.
1934 Casey Stengel manages his first big league game. So does Jimmie Wilson, but his career won’t have the success of Stengel's.
1934 Lon Warneke carries an Opening Day no-hitter into the ninth versus the Reds. Adam Comorosky singles with one out, earning the boos of the 30,427 fans in attendance.
1934 Hard-hitting third baseman Harlond Clift debuts today. So do poor-fielding first baseman Zeke Bonura, outfielder Cookie Lavagetto and Frenchy Bordagaray.
1934 A rebuilt Fenway Park opens. The Red Sox lose, 6-5 in 11 innings, to Washington.
1936 Brooklyn releases long-lasting starting pitcher Tom Zachary.
1939 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visits the grave of supposed baseball founder Gen. Abner Doubleday in Washington, D.C. Roosevelt is supposed to throw out the first pitch in the season’s opener for Washington, but it’s rained out. Vice President John Nance Garner will do it four days later.
1945 Future Hall of Fame second baseman Red Schoendienst makes his debut. That’s not the debut that gets people’s attention at the time, though. That honor goes to one-armed outfielder Pete Gray, who plays his first game for the Browns.
1945 The Pirates lose their Opening Day game weirdly. A three-run homer is nullified because Frankie Zak, their runner on first, called time to tie his shoes just before the gopher ball pitch.
1946 Jack Quinn, 200-game winner who pitched until he was nearly 50 years old, dies at age 62.
1947 Jackie Robinson gets his first big league hit, a bunt single. In that same game, Hall of Fame center fielder Duke Snider makes his big league debut.
1951 One of the game’s most storied players makes his debut on this day: Mickey Mantle. Also debuting: Johnny Logan and Roy McMillan.
1951 It’s a first in major league baseball, an Opening Day night game. The Senators top the A’s, 6-1.
1951 Al Lopez manages his first big league game. In it, Lopez’s starting pitcher, Hall of Famer Bob Lemon, has his worst day at the plate. Normally one of the game’s best hitting pitchers, Lemon today is 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. It’s his only four-K game. Lopez is not the only prominent manager debuting today; so does Paul Richards with the White Sox.
1951 Just before the home opener at Wrigley Field, golfer Sam Snead tees off from home plate and hits the center field scoreboard, something no batter has ever done.
1953 The Cubs top the Cardinals, 23-13, setting a record for the longest nine-inning game then played: three hours and 43 minutes. Yeah, that’s been broken a ton over the years.
1953 Mickey Mantle hits maybe his most famous home run, a towering shot off Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium estimated to have traveled 565 feet. The Yankees win that game, pushing Casey Stengel’s career record to 972-971. It will always be over .500 from here on out.
1953 Former Negro Leaguer Connie Johnson makes his debut. So does Bob Buhl, who will be one of the worst-hitting pitchers of all time. In one double header, pitchers Johnny Podres and Ruben Gomez also debut.
1954 Don Mossi, maybe the ugliest pitcher in baseball history, debuts.
1954 Charlie Grimm manages his 2,000th game. His record: 1,085-901.
1954 The Reds finally integrate, as first Nino Escalera and then Chuck Harmon play for them in one game. They are either the ninth or 10th team to integrate (the A’s also integrate around this time).
1955 Roberto Clemente, iconic right fielder, makes his big league debut. Also debuting is terrific pitcher Larry Jackson.
1956 Bill Rigney manages his first game. He’ll last more than 2,500 games.
1956 Billy Pierce walks the first batter of the game, something he last did 112 starts ago.
1956 Eddie Rommel becomes the first umpire to wear glasses on the field when he works today’s Senators-Yankees game. In that game, Mickey Mantle hits a pair of homers that are each estimated over 500 feet long.
1956 Four Hall of Famers debut in one day, a record. They are: Frank Robinson, Don Drysdale, Luis Aparicio, and Whitey Herzog. Okay, so Herzog is in as a manager, but April 17, 1956, is still the greatest one-day debut haul in baseball history. (Not that it matters too much, but Tito Francona and Jerry Lumpe also debut on this day.)
1958 Eddie Mathews is off to a terrific start. He’d already homered twice on Opening Day and today, in the second game on the season, he does it again.
1958 Mudcat Grant, future 20-game winner, makes his big league debut.
1959 Al Kaline belts his 100th home run.
1960 Eddie Mathews gets his 300th home run.
1960 It’s one of the most famous trades in history, as Detroit sends defending batting champion Harvey Kuenn to Cleveland for defending home run champion Rocky Colavito. Detroit gets the better of this one.
1962 Lou Brock hits an inside-the-park home run leading off the game for the Cubs against the Pirates.
1964 Dick Allen connects for his first career home run.
1964 Willie Stargell hits the first home run at Shea Stadium.
1965 Jim Palmer makes his big league debut.
1967 Marquis Grissom is born.
1968 Johnny Bench will end his career with only 11 sacrifice hits, but two of them come in this game.
1968 Here’s a weird one: The steel shell of a pitcher’s mound at Oakland’s Alameda County Stadium is exposed and has to be covered between innings. Why make a pitcher’s mound out of steel?
1968 Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda suffers through his worst game, according to WPA. He’s 0-for-5 with a walk and grounds into a double play for a –0.413 WPA as the Reds top his Cardinals, 4-3.
1968 Carl Yastrzemski, fresh off a Triple Crown MVP season in 1967, receives three intentional walks in one game for the only time in his career. Aside from them, he’s 1-for-1 with a solo homer on the day. That’s all Boston needs in it’s 2-0 win over the White Sox.
1969 Bill Stoneman pitches the first no-hitter in Montreal history, defeating the Phillies, 7-0, in Connie Mack Stadium. Just think—the other 1969 NL expansion team, the Padres, still haven’t thrown a no-hitter, but the Expos did it in their first month.
1970 Bud Harrelson belts his only home run at Shea Stadium. The longtime Met will hit six homers elsewhere in his 16-year career.
1970 California purchases weak-hitting infielder Ray Oyler from the A’s.
1970 Ron Santo receives his only career walk-off walk, allowing the Cubs to top the Expos, 8-7.
1973 Vic Aldridge, decent pitcher for the Cubs and Pirates in the 1920s, dies at age 79.
1974 Badly hung over Cubs backup catcher George Mitterwald has the game of his life, hitting three homers and a double while driving in eight.
1974 Cleveland’s Gaylord Perry becomes the last pitcher to throw 15 innings in a game. Unfortunately for him, he gets a no-decision as the Indian bullpen loses it in the 16th, 5-4, to Milwaukee. Perry’s line: 15 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 14 K for a Game Score of 95.
1974 Troubled pitcher Steve Blass plays in his last game. He was a good pitcher, but then he suddenly developed a weird mental block and couldn’t find the plate.
1976 It’s one of the wildest games in the history of Wrigley Field, or any field. The Cubs blow an 11-run lead, and the Phillies come back to win, 18-16, in 10 innings. Mike Schmidt is Philadelphia’s engine, hitting four homers and a single while driving in eight runs.
1976 The Yankees name Thurman Munson their first team captain since Lou Gehrig.
1977 When the Diamondvision at Atlanta shows a close play at the plate that indicates the umpires blew the call, the officials leave the field in protest of the scoreboard. They return only after Atlanta agrees not to show replays on close plays on the scoreboard again.
1981 Texas signs free agent Bobby Bonds.
1982 Keith Hernandez gets his 1,000th hit.
1982 Rickey Henderson steals his 200th base. He’s been in the majors fewer than three seasons (and one of those was strike-shortened).
1982 Eddie Murray enjoys his only five-hit game. All are singles.
1983 Former knuckleballer Dutch Leonard dies at age 74.
1983 Nolan Ryan fans his 3,500th batter.
1984 Dennis Eckersley records his 100th loss. His record: 120-100.
1984 The Yankees sign free agent Oscar Gamble, who in his prime had the game’s greatest afro.
1986 Jerry Reuss suffers through his worst start ever: 4 IP, 13 H (including three doubles and three homers), 11 R, 9 ER, 1 BB, and 2 K for a Game Score of –3. As it happens, his previous record for worst Game Score (-2) came exactly 12 years earlier, in 1974.
1986 Ryne Sandberg legs out his only inside-the-park home run.
1988 Atlanta finally wins a game, after starting the year 0-10.
1988 Barry Larkin hits the only inside-the-park home run that Nolan Ryan ever surrenders.
1988 Tony Gwynn is ejected—after asking for it. Sort of. After a call at the plate he disagrees with, he says, “It’s not a strike, and if you don’t like it, you can throw me out.” Yeah, that’s not a smart statement to make.
1993 For the second time this week, Detroit scores 20 runs in a game. In that game, Alan Trammell plays third base. It’s his first time on defense not at short.
1993 Mike Hampton makes his big league debut.
1994 Cory Snyder belts three homers in a game. It’s the second time he’s done that.
1995 Cincinnati signs free agent Benito Santiago.
1996 Kirby Puckett goes to the hospital for an eye problem he suddenly developed on March 28. It turns out his career is suddenly over.
1998 Chuck Finley wins his 14th straight game. His line in that span: 124 IP, 98 H, 30 R, 30 ER, 48 BB, and 116 K for a 2.18 ERA.
2000 Baseball team owners approve the sale of the Royals to David Glass for $96 million.
2001 22 days before his 40th birthday, Tony Gwynn gets his last triple. It’s his first one since 1997.
2001 Barry Bonds belts his 500th career home run.
2001 Ichiro Suzuki, still in his first month in North America, is caught stealing twice in one game. It hasn’t happened to him since then.
2002 Orioles starting pitcher Erik Bedard makes his debut. So does Cincinnati batter Austin Kearns.
2003 Toronto outfielder Reed Johnson makes his major league debut.
2004 After Cleveland’s starting pitcher is rocked—he allows all six batters he faces to reach base—the team brings in Jake Westbrook in relief. He retires all 21 batters he faces, tying for the longest perfect relief outing since 1920.
2006 Pedro Martinez becomes only the fourth pitcher since 1920 to record 200 wins before losing 100 games when he earns the victory today. Lefty Grove, Whitey Ford and Juan Marichal also did it. Martinez’s record at the moment: 200-84.
2007 Jorge Posada hits his 200th home run.
2008 Colorado tops the Padres, 2-1, in 22 innings in what’s the only known game where both teams throw more than 320 pitches (337 for San Diego, 321 for Colorado).
2008 Florida’s Ricky Nolasco allows nine hits, all for extra bases. It’s the most hits allowed without surrendering a single any pitcher has had since at least 1920, and probably ever. He allows four doubles, a triple, and four homers.
2009 Gary Sheffield has an interesting way to join the 500-home run club—he belts a pinch-hit homer. It’s the second pinch-hit shot of his career; the first was 15 years previous.
2009 Jason Kubel hits for the cycle, the third baseball has witnessed in the last five days.
2009 Catcher Michael Barrett plays in his last game.
2010 Albert Pujols sets a personal best by reaching base six times in one game. He’s 2-for-5 with four walks as the Cardinals lose, 2-1, in 20 innings to the Mets. The score was 0-0 after 18.
2010 Ubaldo Jimenez pitches the first no-hitter in Rockies history.
2012 The Indians sign veteran outfielder Johnny Damon as a free agent.
2012 Jamie Moyer, at age 49 years and 150 days, becomes the oldest pitcher to ever record a win when he get the decision for Colorado over San Diego.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraRed Sox 3, Rays 2: Mike Napoli's RBI double in the ninth sent everyone home happy. The happiness would last less than an hour after game time, sadly. The Red Sox are now in Cleveland, which all things considered is probably a good thing.
Padres 6, Dodgers 3: No one threw at anyone, so that's something. Part of this surely had to do with it being Jackie Robinson Day. Indeed, Joe Torre called both managers before the game to remind them that, hey, you're gonna look pretty petty and lame if you start plunking guys while Rachel Robinson is there to commemorate someone rising above. Tonight, though? No such limitations.
Reds 4, Phillies 2: Oh my God that Ben Revere catch. The Reds broke a five game losing streak, however, when Robinson scored the winning run. No, that's not some joke about how everyone was wearing 42. The player who scored is actually named Derrick Robinson.
Nationals 10, Marlins 3: Zimmerman + Zimmermann = win. The Nats get up off the mat after being swept, helped by Jordan complete game and Ryan's four RBI.
Twins 8, Angels 2: Joe Mauer hit a homer, had three other hits and drove in three. The Angels are 4-9 through 13. Which is exactly where they were through 13 last season.
Cardinals 10, Pirates 6: Seven runs in the second chased James McDonald. Staked to a 10-1 lead, Lance Lynn had to struggle just to make it through five to qualify for the win. Just by reading the box score, this looks like it was kind of miserable game to watch.
Blue Jays 4, White Sox 3: Mark Buehrle beats his old mates. Well, I assume they're his old mates. Maybe he shot the Sox clubhouse the double middle freedom rockets when he left a couple of years ago and they all think he's kind of a jerk now. WE DON'T KNOW.
Athletics 11, Astros 2: Jed Lowrie drove in four. Tommy Milone improves to 3-0 behind a lot of run support.
Mets vs. Rockies: POSTPONED: Across the River Styx, out of the lamplight. His nemesis is waiting at the gate. The Snow Dog, ermine glowing in the damp night. Coal-black eyes shimmering with hate. By-Tor and the Snow Dog Square for battle, let the fray begin.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
Monday, April 15, 2013
“Starting” pitcher
Posted by Pat AndriolaIt was the top of the fifth inning and the Giants were down by one run to the Cubs last Thursday. The bases were loaded and there was one man away. Hisanori Takahashi, a soft-tossing lefty, was in for Chicago, and the ninth spot in the order was up for San Francisco. This meant Ryan Vogelsong, who had already thrown 81 pitches in the game and had given up five runs, came up to the plate.
Vogelsong battled and worked a walk to erase the last of what was a five-run deficit and tie the game. The Giants scored two more in the inning, eventually holding on to a narrow 7-6 win.
I was confused when Vogelsong came up to hit. Results aside, the Giants were down by one run and had the bases loaded with one out, which should produce, on average, around 1.55 runs. According to win expectancy, the game was completely even, 50-50, when Vogelsong hit. So the question is, should Bruce Bochy have pinch-hit?
I think it’s unquestionably yes. Vogelsong wound up going two more innings, throwing 26 more pitches, after the top half of the fifth. Last year Vogelsong threw 3,056 pitches in 31 starts for an average of 98.6 pitches per game, so based on last year’s numbers, Bochy was looking at around 18 more pitches.
Ryan Vogelsong is a pretty bad hitter. He has six career extra base hits in 209 plate appearances, good overall for a .198 wOBA (17 wRC+). Meanwhile, Andres Torres and Marco Scutaro, switch-hitter and right-handed hitter respectively, toiled on the bench. Torres had a .342 wOBA against lefties last year and is at .324 (102 wRC+) for his career. Scutaro had a .315 wOBA against lefties last year and is at .325 (96 wRC+) for his career. Simply put, both players would have been immense upgrades over Vogelsong.
So, in essence, Bochy had this calculus:
(Value of ~18 pitches of Ryan Vogelsong – Value of ~18 pitches of substitute pitcher) > (Value of ~.325 wOBA – Value of ~.198 wOBA in situation with leverage index of 3.80)
I’m sure there are ways to rationalize the decision. There was only one out and the top of the order was coming up, the Giants wanted to save their bullpen, Vogelsong was settling down and it was good for his confidence, Bochy saw an arrangement of sunflower seeds on the ground that spelled out “RYAN” and thought it was a sign from God. But whatever, managers make mistakes like this all the time; it’s not the biggest deal in the world.
But it did get me thinking about the role of the starting pitcher and the ninth spot in the batting order. As long as the National League shuns the designated hitter, this is going to be an issue. It’s long been theorized that the way in which starting pitching has traditionally worked is suboptimal, and that’s probably right.
Interestingly, the game may be reacting to the realization of this fact. Starting pitchers averaged 6.66 innings per game in 1972, 5.98 in 2010, 6.03 in 2011, 5.89 in 2012, and 5.71 thus far this season (sample size warning, of course). Maybe managers are starting to realize that the word “starting” in starting pitcher is the most important part of the title: They start the game, but that doesn’t mean they need to be around forever. Dave Cameron talked last year about some of the play-in teams starting the game with a closer, which definitely would’ve been neat.
Interestingly, the shorter the average starting pitcher goes, the more important the ninth spot in the lineup becomes. The data behind pitchers hitting eighth have already demonstrated some possible underlying importance out of the ninth spot (probably because it immediately precedes players who typically have high OBPs). So maybe one benefit of being flexible with who's on the mound is that you can take advantage of high leverage index situations early in games. You also will probably have fewer pitchers reach the plate on average, which will unquestionably help the offense.
Bochy’s error is easy to pick out because of how crazy the situation was: a huge leverage index spot pretty early in the game, a starting pitcher who already had a high pitch count, and pretty good pinch-hitting candidates. But what if we tweak the formula above? Instead of 18 pitches of Vogelsong, make it 30, and instead of a 5-5 game with the bases loaded and one out, have the Giants up 5-4 with a man on third and one out. It gets trickier, and the sooner managers start experimenting with shorter stints from their starters, the sooner we’ll see some interesting managerial maneuvers.
Pat Andriola is a JD/MBA student at NYU. He likes the Mets a lot. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraTigers 10, Athletics 1: Austin Jackson was 4 for 6 with three RBI. Prince Fielder is now hitting .429/.527/.833. Once this team gets its bullpen figured out, man, watch out.
Diamondbacks 1, Dodgers 0: When Nick Swisher hit a walkoff homer in a 1-0 game the other day I thought to myself, "man, you don't see that happen all that often." Then it happened again, this time with Paul Goldschmidt hitting a game-winning single to win a 1-0 game. If it happens one more time in the next week I'm going to take it as a sign of something important and meaningful and will use the experience to examine everything I thought I knew.
Braves 9, Nationals 0: Impressed yet, Danny Espinosa and Gio Gonzalez? No? What do you need to see, then?
Mariners 4, Rangers 3: Rookie Brandon Maurer was shellacked by the Astros in his last start but tamed the Rangers in this one. Mildly unexpected stuff like this, multiplied by the thousands upon thousands of times they occur during a baseball season, is why I spend most of my energy reacting to things rather than predicting things or acting like I have some key to understanding this game that no one else has. Stuff happens. In a couple thousand games a year. Anyone who ever claims that they know what's gonna happen in any one, or really, any small handful of games is a liar or a fool.
Red Sox 5, Rays 0: Clay Buchholz took a no-hitter into the eighth. Pity the Rays broke it up, as it puts them behind their usual schedule of getting no-hit. They're really gonna have to work to get back on pace.
Rockies 2, Padres 1: Todd Helton's two-run, pinch-hit homer in the seventh would've fallen about 10 feet in front of the wall a year ago. Hope you like the new dimensions at Petco Park, Padres. You asked for 'em.
Giants 10, Cubs 7: The Cubs threw five wild pitches while giving up four runs in the sixth. Then Shawn Camp balked in what would be the winning run in the 10th. Strong effort, fellas.
Angels 4, Astros 1: Josh Hamilton singled, tripled and homered. That and taking two out of three from Houston is a nice way to make up for Friday night's embarrassing effort. Perchance that was the low point and now the ship is righted. Or perhaps anyone can take two of three from the Astros.
Brewers 4, Cardinals 3: This guy was probably happy after Jonathan Lucroy hit a homer in the 10th. All Brewers fans were probably happy to see Milwaukee's 32-inning scoreless streak end in the eighth when Ryan Braun went deep.
Royals 3, Blue Jays 2: Kansas City avoids being swept with Alex Gordon's walkoff RBI single. Ervin Santana pitched eight strong innings. Jays manager John Gibbons said this after the game: "They're scrappy. They battle you." If the Royals meet the Diamondbacks in the World Series the narrative-construction is going to be so thick and insufferable I'm probably just gonna give the whole thing a miss and take a vacation someplace instead.
Pirates 10, Reds 7: Michael McKenry hit two homers. The Pirates were down by five heading into the seventh and then scored ten runs in the seventh and eighth. I credit the sweet, sweet pullover jerseys and yellow caps they were wearing.
White Sox 3, Indians 1: Jake Peavy struck out 11 and gave up a lone run helping the Pale Hose break their five-game losing streak. In other news, I think after a couple years worth of using "Chisox" as this team's third reference (following "the White Sox" and "Chicago,") I'm now gonna try hard to use Pale Hose more often.
Phillies 2, Marlins 1: Roy Halladay gets his 200th career win. Assuming you count wins against minor league teams like Miami, too.
Yankees 3, Orioles 0: Hiroki Kuroda shut 'em out on five hits without walking a soul. The Yankees continue not to be doomed somehow.
Mets vs. Twins: POSTPONED: The wind it was howling and the snow was outrageous. We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn. When he died I was hoping that it wasn't contagious. But I made up my mind that I had to go on.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com
10th anniversary: Fan attacks umpire at U.S. Cellular
Posted by Chris JaffeTen years ago today, lightening struck for a second time on the South Side of Chicago. It was a case of déjà vu all over again that absolutely no one wanted—not players, not coaches, and certainly not umpires.
Tuesday night April 15, 2003, was the first in a three-game series between the hometown Chicago White Sox and visiting Kansas City Royals.
The last time these teams met at this park, something terrible happened. A shirtless moron and his shirtless moron son ran onto the field and began an unprovoked assault on Royals first base coach Tony Gamboa, causing permanent hearing damage in one of his ears. Now, seven months later, these teams were playing again when the unthinkable happened again.
In the bottom of the eighth, as Carlos Lee flew out to right to end the inning, things seemed perfectly normal. First-base umpire Laz Diaz watched the arc of the ball in the sky, perfectly routine work. There was no sign that anything out of the ordinary was about to occur.
Then, Diaz felt someone grab him by the waist. Okay, that’s not good. This time it was just one fan, and he was wearing a shirt. This time it was an umpire and not a first-base coach under assault. But in most all other particulars it was pretty much the same. Along the first-base line, some alcohol-fueled jerk decided to get his 15 minutes of infamy by assaulting someone for no reason.
And boy, if you’re going to be an alcohol-fueled jerk assaulting someone by first base for no reason, this was the worst time possible to do it. You see, on the field were a bunch of Kansas City Royals. They’d talked to each other before the game about how they were in the same place where Gamboa suffered a senseless assault, and now here was another one in the exact same place.
If you’re going to attack an umpire, Diaz isn’t the one to go after. He was only 40 years old and a former marine. He was able to push the drunken moron off him.
Then came the Kansas City cavalry. If any team ever was willing to beat the ever-loving tar out of some idiot fan, it was the April 15, 2003, edition of the Kansas City Royals. Right fielder Brandon Berger screamed in from his position after catching the third out, and his fellow teammates soon joined him. Kansas City began administering a real Royal beating, kicking and stomping the idiot.
Soon it was over, and it turned out to be an aberration. Fired up, the Royals scored four times in the top of the ninth to come from behind for a nice 8-5 victory.
After two straight KC series marred on the South Side, no one else has attacked anyone like that again at 35th and Shields. But it happened, 10 years ago today.
Aside from that, many other baseball events today celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that occurred X-thousands days ago today). Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.
Day-versaries
1,000 days since Aramis Ramirez belts three home runs in one game.
1,000 days since Cubs manage Lou Piniella announces he’ll retire by the end of the year.
1,000 days since Dodger manager Don Mattingly (well, Joe Torre is still manager, but he’d been ejected earlier in tonight’s game) makes a bonehead mistake: losing track of mound visits. He visits the mound for the second time in an inning, forcing him to bring in an unprepared reliever.
3,000 days since Tampa signs aging pitcher Hideo Nomo.
5,000 days since Wade Boggs gets his 3,000th hit. It’s a home run, his last career home run. He kisses home plate when he’s done rounding the bases.
5,000 days since Frank Thomas smacks his 300th career home run.
9,000 days since Dennis Eckersley’s worst relief stint, allowing five runs on seven hits in one inning during a 7-6 A’s loss to the Yankees.
Anniversaries
1899 John McGraw makes his debut as a manager. He turned 26 years old just eight days earlier.
1904 Miller Huggins, diminutive second baseman, makes his big league debut.
1907 Nap Rucker pitches in his first major league contest. The hard-throwing fastballer will be a terrific pitcher snake-bit by terrible offensive support.
1909 Spitballing pitcher Jack Quinn makes his big league debut. He’ll last until 1933, when he’s 49 years ago.
1909 On Opening Day, Red Ames throws a no-hitter through nine innings, but the game goes into extra frames, and he allows seven hits in the 10th.
1910 Eddie Mayo is born. As a wartime player, he’ll be runner up in AL MVP voting in 1945.
1911 Fred Toney, winner of the future double no-hitter against Hippo Vaughn, makes his major league debut.
1911 Pete Alexander, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, makes his big league debut.
1911 Walter Johnson fans four batters in the fifth inning against Boston.
1913 The Yankees select Bill McKechnie off waivers from the Boston Braves.
1915 Carl Mays, controversial pitcher who will kill shortstop Ray Chapman with an errant fastball in 1920, makes his big league debut.
1915 Rube Marquard throws a no-hitter. (The loser is hard-luck pitcher Nap Rucker).
1920 Jack Quinn gets to 100 wins. His record is 100-88. He has over 140 more victories to go.
1922 Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt fans 10 batters in a game, a personal best.
1924 Boy wonder Bucky Harris manages his first game. He’ll manage virtually nonstop in the big leagues through 1956. Today’s game pits Harris’ Senators against Connie Mack’s A’s. It’ll be the first of their record 456 matchups.
1924 Hall of Fame outfielder Al Simmons makes his big league debut. So does fellow Hall of Famer Freddie Lindstrom, fellow A’s starter Max Bishop, and strong-armed Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright.
1927 Howard Ehmke surrenders the first of Babe Ruth’s 60 homers on the season.
1930 Star Braves center fielder Wally Burger makes his big league debut. So does Gus Suhr, a quality Pirates hitter. Also debuting: Ben Chapman, and Tony Cuccinello.
1931 Slow-footed by strong-hitting catcher Ernie Lombardi makes his debut. So does Giants pitcher Hal Schumacher.
1931 Ed Bailey, six-time All Star catcher, is born.
1933 Schoolboy Rowe, standout pitcher for the Tigers, makes his big league debut.
1935 The Reds return Johnny Mize to the Cardinals following a previous purchase. Mistake.
1940 Willie Davis, Dodgers star, is born.
1940 Woodie Fryman, long-lasting pitcher, is born.
1941 Jocko Conlan becomes a full-time big league umpire.
1944 The A’s sign aging free agent Al Simmons.
1945 Ted Sizemore is born. He’ll have a nice run as an NL second baseman.
1946 Mel Ott smashes his 511th and final home run.
1947 The color line is history as Jackie Robinson makes his big league debut. Also debuting today: Earl Torgeson, Ferris Fain, Vic Wertz, and Sam Mele.
1952 Tough guy and tough hitter Eddie Mathews makes his major league debut. Ditto Jungle Jim Rivera, and second baseman Johnny Temple.
1953 Willie Mays’ mom, Annie, dies at age 37 while giving birth to her 11th child.
1954 Star Senators/Twins pitcher Camilo Pascual makes his big league debut. So does pitcher/author Jim Brosnan.
1954 For the first time in over a half-century, big league baseball returns to Baltimore.
1955 Phenom pitcher Herb Score makes his big league debut.
1957 Former A’s star pitcher Jack Coombs dies at age 74. He won 31 games in 1910 and 28 in 1911.
1958 Herb Score returns to the mound after nearly being blinded by a line drive 11 months and eight days before. He allows three runs on four walks and four hits in just three innings. He does fan six but gets the loss.
1958 The longest NL opener in 23 years takes three hours and 40 minutes. It’s a Braves-Pirates game that goes 14 innings.
1958 Major league baseball now stretches from coast to coast, as the Giants trample the Dodgers, 8-0.
1958 Many notable big league players make their debuts today, including Hall of Fame first baseman Orlando Cepeda (in that first West Coast game), center fielder Vada Pinson, Tony Taylor, and Jim Davenport.
1959 Tough Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson makes his big league debut.
1960 The Mets name Southern Association president Charles Hurth as their first general manager.
1961 Cy Falkenberg dies at age 81. He won 23 games for the 1913 Indians, and the next year won 25 in the Federal League.
1964 Atlanta breaks ground on Fulton County Stadium even though they don’t yet have a team.
1964 Phil Niekro makes his big league debut with the Milwaukee Braves.
1966 Fritz Peterson, wife-swapping pitcher and one-time 20-game winner, makes his big league debut.
1966 Harmon Killebrew gets his 1,000th hit. It takes him 1,112 games.
1966 For the first time, Pete Rose plays third base. He won’t play there again for nearly a decade.
1967 Young stud Reds prospect Gary Nolan makes his big league debut.
1968 The Astros beat the Mets, 1-0, in 24 innings. Here’s how the run scores: single, balk, intentional walk, productive groundout, another intentional walk, and then an error by the shortstop brings in the winning run. It’s the longest shutout of the 20th century.
1969 Gaylord Perry issues a career-high four intentional walks in one game.
1969 Jeromy Burnitz is born.
1970 Ripper Collins dies at age 66. He was a star first baseman with the 1930s Cardinals.
1971 Mickey Harris dies at age 54. The reliever led the 1950 AL in games, games finished, and saves. In an earlier incarnation as a starting pitcher, he made the 1946 All-Star team.
1972 Juan Marichal wins, giving him a career record 113 games over .500 (222-109). It’s all downhill from here.
1972 Bill Virdon makes his managerial debut.
1972 Star infielder Buddy Bell makes his big league debut. So does long-lasting hitter Jorge Orta.
1972 Reggie Jackson becomes the first player since Frenchy Bordagaray in 1936 to play while sporting a mustache
1972 The Cardinals trade Jerry Reuss to Houston for a pair of players.
1975 Darrell Evans hits his 100th home run.
1976 The newly renovated Yankee Stadium hosts its first game, an 11-4 triumph over the Twins.
1977 The Expos lose the first game in Olympic Stadium, 7-2 to Philadelphia.
1977 Atlanta retires No. 44 for Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.
1978 Andre Dawson belts the first of his five career walk-off home runs.
1978 Milton Bradley, talented-but-troubled outfielder (that's probably a too-nice way of putting it), is born.
1979 The Mets sign amateur free agent Jose Oquendo, who will become a Cardinals organizational fixture.
1983 Milt Wilcox retires the first 26 batters against the White Sox, only to have Jerry Hairston ruin his bid at perfection with a pinch-hit single.
1985 White Sox starting pitcher John Danks is born.
1986 Don Sutton ties his personal-worst Game Score: 6. His line: 0.2 IP, 6 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, and 0 K.
1987 Juan Nieves throws the first no-hitter in Brewers history. He walks five and fans seven in a 7-0 win over the Orioles.
1989 A ninth-inning single by Wade Boggs lifts his career average to its all-time peak: .356421 (1,410 hits in 3,956 at bats).
1991 Willie Randolph gets his 2,000th hit. It’s taken him almost exactly 2,000 games (1,992).
1991 Jeff Bagwell launches his first home run.
1993 Sparky Anderson wins his 2,000th game.
1993 Andre Dawson hits his 400th home run.
1993 A Pirates victory pushes Jim Leyland 57 games over .500, his all-time peak (599-542).
1996 This might be Sammy Sosa’s worst game ever. He’s 0-for-5 with five strikeouts.
1997 On the 50th anniversary of his breaking the color barrier, Jackie Robinson’s number 42 is retired for all teams.
1998 It’s the first interleague doubleheader: the Yankees and Mets at Shea Stadium.
1998 Greg Maddux posts his 21st straight Quality Start, his longest such streak. He’s 11-2 with a 1.55 ERA in 157 innings.
1998 Kevin Brown has his 15th consecutive Quality Start, his longest streak. Today’s game is also his best one-day WPA performance: a complete-game shutout in a 1-0 win for the Padres over the Giants for a 0.827 WPA.
2000 Edgar Martinez launches his 200th home run.
2000 Jim Thome blasts his 200th home run.
2000 Cal Ripken joins the 3,000-hit club.
2001 Todd Hollandsworth hits three homers in one game.
2004 Houston’s Brandon Backe strikes out the side against the Brewers on the bare minimum nine pitches.
2004 Major league baseball begins its tradition of Jackie Robinson days, in which everyone who wants to can wear No. 42.
2006 The Yankees sign free agent Carlos Pena. It's still a few years until his career takes off, though.
2009 In a first, every single baseball player wears No. 42 today. It’s to honor Jackie Robinson, of course.
2009 Ian Kinsler hits for the cycle and gets six hits in a game for Texas.
2011 Jim Leyland posts his 1,500th win, giving him a record of 1,500-1,525.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Movie Review: “42”
Posted by Shane TourtellotteA Very Good Movie Could Be Made About: The end of the color line. Actually the movie—The Jackie Robinson Story, with Jackie playing himself—was made in 1950. Someone should try again.
—The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, 2001
It took 63 years, but someone tried again. The movie, 42, debuted in theaters this weekend, the work of writer-director Brian Helgeland. Readers here at THT are an obvious audience for the film and probably would be going regardless of what any one reviewer wrote here, as long as the film wasn't a strikeout. It certainly isn't, but whether you find the movie very good or merely good could depend on how well you know the story—and ignorance might not be bliss.
42 starts with Branch Rickey's original broaching of his Great Experiment and carries us through Robinson's rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It hits almost every point we would expect along that route, some of them plenty uncomfortable, surprisingly few overly forced. Hollywood can be as subtle as the Chelyabinsk meteorite sometimes, but Helgeland shows a generally steady hand in the portrayals of racial opposition, and outright hatred, toward Robinson.
(I'd note one moment in particular, but I'll let that kick you in the gut the way it did me. When you hear the name "Honus Wagner", be ready.)
The acting is solid all the way through. Chadwick Boseman's Robinson may not be a breakout performance, but he grounds the man in self-respect while showing glints of the harder-edged man that the screenplay does soft-pedal. He and Nicole Beharie as Rachel Robinson make a good screen couple, portraying a deep, mellowed, sincere love rather than sparking passion.
If there's a standout, it's Harrison Ford, who really got into the role of Rickey. His voice all gravel and cigar smoke, wild eyebrows arching across his forehead, he puts his all into making you forget he was ever Han Solo—and if you close your eyes, you can just about do it. (I fear, though, that watching him in Star Wars: Episode VII in two years will have a similar effect.)
Special mention goes to two other actors. John C. McGinley gives us a delightfully idiosyncratic Red Barber, his commentary providing some of the humor that Helgeland sprinkles in to break the tension. For you fans of Firefly, there's Alan Tudyk, whose performance as the race-baiting manager Ben Chapman may make you forget how much you loved Wash.
(Chapman was as bad as he's portrayed. Lou Gehrig once offered Birdie Tebbetts a new suit if he could bust Chapman two good ones in a fight. And this was when Gehrig was Chapman's teammate.)
The era is portrayed convincingly. You're going to love seeing Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Forbes Field, and other bygone ballparks in living color and pretty good CGI. Rickwood Field in Birmingham does multiple duty, including as itself in a Monarchs game. The only anachronism I noticed was an "African-American" four decades out of date, but maybe someone else has sharper ears or eyes.
Now, the trouble with a story that offers you such an easy, by-the-numbers arc is that you may take that easy route. Helgeland does that sometimes. Giving Robinson rough spots as a person might endanger him as an icon, even though it strengthened him as a character.
Robinson is shown struggling with Rickey's injunction against fighting back by the sheer vituperation of the abuse he takes and not by the power of his own combativeness. He's fighting them, not himself, and fighting yourself is usually more interesting. We get tastes of his combativeness in early scenes with the Kansas City Monarchs and Montreal Royals, but it's not really enough.
And there is one scene that really misses the mark, the scene that could have made the movie. Robinson finally drags out of Rickey the personal motivation he had for bringing Robinson into the major leagues. Many of you know this one: another black player, whom Rickey was coaching in college ball when he was much younger, had endured his first full introduction to the segregationist mindset. Rickey finds the young man later, crying, plucking at his hands, wishing he could tear the black skin off and be like everybody else.
It's shocking. It's affecting. And it's watered down to, "I didn't help a black fellow enough when I should have, and this is how I redeem my failure." This is a dreadful misstep, and it's hard to believe anyone who knew the story well enough to edit it down to this wet pop could have done so. I feel for Ford: this was pure, shining Oscar bait, and he had it snatched away.
The causal viewer won't feel the loss as keenly, though the scene is still vague enough on its own to be unsatisfying. There are other divergences that could discomfort the experts, among which I'm told I must now count myself, having done two THT articles on Robinson. You can skip if you like, though we are supposed to revel in the details. Maybe one has to expect such stuff when Hollywood puts up on screen the words it has made ominous: "based on a true story."
Helgeland did do some homework on Robinson's games in 1947, and he generally tried to be accurate. Right on the money are Jackie's first homer and first stolen base, including the wild throw that lets him take third. He specifically sought out Fritz Ostermueller, a Pirates pitcher who brained Robinson with a pitch early in the season then got his comeuppance surrendering a home run to Robinson in September that clinched the pennant for Brooklyn.
At least, it did in the movies. In real life, Robinson's tater off Fritz made it 1-0 Bums in the fourth inning, not exactly justifying Red's call that "barring a miracle comeback," Brooklyn had the pennant, especially since Brooklyn didn't clinch that day, either. But it's "based on" them clinching five days later.
Helgeland used that diptych with Ostermueller to provide something of a climax for the movie, both in baseball terms and in triumphing over the racists. Maybe he should have gone with something else for Jackie's rematch with Fritz. Maybe like June 24. 1947.
Ostermueller was throwing at Jackie's head again that day, missing this time. With the score tied in the fifth, Robinson was on third, and Dixie Walker, one of Robinson's antagonists on his own team, was at the plate, perhaps contemplating being unhelpful toward scoring the interloper. Carl Furillo stole second behind Jackie. Jackie then did Carl one better. He stole home on Ostermueller, the first plate theft of his major league career.
Stealing home to score the go-ahead run against the pitcher who effectively tried to kill you, at the feet of a teammate who wishes you had never put on the uniform? Not Hollywood enough? Too bad. I almost have the thing storyboarded in my own head.
The one real statistical howler is when Red Barber is shown saying, in September, that Robinson has "yet to be thrown out attempting" a steal. I see what happened here. Helgeland took the zeroed-out caught-stealing column in the incomplete stats for 1947 and actually thought Robinson hadn't been caught. (He was, 11 times.) I give Helgeland points for trying for accuracy, but next time maybe he could consult a little more closely with one of us sabermetricians. We come cheap!
In all, 42 is a worthwhile if not fully satisfying effort. Maybe it can be done better, but unless you're willing to wait another 63 years, take what they're giving us. Three baseballs (out of four).
Shane Tourtellotte is a long-time, occasionally-nominated science fiction writer, currently living in Asheville, North Carolina. He will tell you all about the baseball novel he’s shopping if you give him an inch.
Bert Blyleven tracer
Posted by Chris JaffeIn a recent broadcast, Twins color man Bert Blyleven commented on the recent dust-up between Zack Greinkeand Carlos Quentin. (Grienke hit Quentin with a pitch, Quentin ignored that fact that it was likely an accidental HBP, charged the mound and in the melee the highly paid pitcher broke his collarbone).
Anyhow, Blyleven noted that in his ba-zillion years pitching, no one ever charged the mound on him. He did, however, once charge the mound himself after getting hit by a pitch.
Let’s look this up.
Blyleven was hit by a pitch just twice in his career, so this is fairly easy to check up. As it happens, he was ejected in neither game, which is unexpected. However, the wonder and glory that is Retrosheet helps fill us in on the details. Its recaps don’t simply record what the plays were, but what incidental drama also happened.
It was May 26, 1980 and Blyleven’s defending world champion Pirates were playing the Phillies.
The fun began in the bottom of the first. With two out and none on, Blyleven threw a brush-back pitch to Phillies star Mike Schmidt. He didn’t hit Schmidt, but ended up walking him. Then up came Greg Luzinski, who also walked after surviving a brush-back. Blyleven escaped his self-created jam without allowing any runs, and the game went on.
Schmidt came back to the plate to lead off the third. Again, Blyleven brushed him back. Schmidt had had enough of this, and took a few steps to the mound. He didn’t go much further, but both benches cleared. Things cooled down, and no punches were thrown. Blyleven ended up walking Schmidt (again) and Schmidt scored on a homer by teammate Garry Maddox.
Shortly after, Blyleven came up to bat to lead off the fourth for Pittsburgh. Nothing happened though; he just grounded out. But the game wasn’t over.
In the fifth, the Phillies had a new pitcher in, reliever Kevin Saucier. He got some payback for the club, hitting Pirates star slugger