TODAY'S
CATEGORIES:
*1.HOYT WILHELM
AND THE KNUCKLEBALL PEDIGREE
*2.THE ALL-STAR
KERFUFFLE
*3.RANDOM NOTES
FROM MLB
*4.FUNNY STORY
FROM BASEBALL PAST
*5.NEW STUMPER
Scan through for areas of interest!
*1.HOYT WILHELM
There he is....good
old Hoyt Wilhelm. (His nickname was “Ol' Sarge”), the
correct answer to last issue's brain teaser...”Who hit a homer in
his first at bat in the majors and never hit one again in a twenty
year career?” Several people got it right and for that you deserve
hearty congratulations and free beer if you care to join me in my
garage in Austin Texas anytime.
Hoyt is a Hall of
Famer who is considered to be the greatest relief pitcher of all
time...only challenged perhaps by Mariano Rivera and one or
two others for that title. Hoyt was the first reliever to get into
the Hall.
He made a rare spot
start in 1958 and threw a no-hitter
against the
Yankees. It was a 1-0 gem over the eventual pennant winners.
(Strangely enough, the player who had maybe the second best knuckler
in baseball at that time was Yankee outfielder Mickey Mantle.
Mick used to baffle his own teammates in batting practice)
Hoyt came back in
1959 and threw 8 innings of no hit ball over the Yankees and also in
'59 pitched 8 and 2/3 innings of no hit relief in an 18 inning game.
He was known as the
Grandfather of the knuckleball because he taught it to a few other
players who passed on the secret down the line so that this weird
pitch remained alive in baseball.
Wilhelm himself
learned the knuckler as a young man when he saw a photo of Dutch
Leonard, a knuckleball pitcher from 1933 to 1953, demonstrating
his grip. Hoyt taught himself the pitch, figuring it was the only way
he would make the majors. He did make it, but like most knuckle ball
specialists, it took a while to master the pitch. Wilhelm made his
debut at 28...but he lasted til he was almost 50 and pitched in more
than 1000 games! Ted Williams said his was the best
knuckleball he ever saw.
One of the pitchers
Hoyt taught the pitch to was Phil Niekro. Phil taught it to
his brother Joe who pitched for the Astros in the
'80s...giving the Houston team one of the strangest pitching
rotations in history. (I'm obviously off on a tangent here!)
In 1981 the Astros
had Nolan Ryan (who struck out over 300 batters 6 times) and
J.R.Richard (struck out over 300 twice) sandwiched around Joe
Niekro and his knuckleball. I wonder what that knuckler looked like
coming into hitters who had faced Ryan the previous day and would
face Richards the next. Must have been disorienting.
Richards got the
blood clot and was finished after the next season. In 1983 the Astros
got Mike Scott (struck out over 300 once), who perfected his
split finger to go with a blazing fastball and was a big winner for
Houston for years.
What kind of
rotation would that have been if Richards hadn't gotten hurt? Three
300 K pitchers and a knuckler!
*2.THE ALL-STAR
KERFUFFLE
In
1957 some Cincinnati
radio station started promoting a get out the vote campaign on behalf
of the Baseball Redlegs and elected the whole starting eight to the
starting squad. (Except for first baseman George Crowe, who couldn't
beat out Stan Musial no matter how many votes got stuffed.)
Commissioner Ford Frick (remember him from my last post?) removed
Wally Post (Hey! It's serendipity!) and Gus Bell from the starting
outfield in favor of Willie Mays and Hank Aaron (gee I wonder why?)
But that still left travesties like Roy McMillan at short over Ernie
Banks (43 homers that year).
Frick changed the rules next year and removed the vote from the fans
and gave it to the players, managers and coaches who did a great job
picking the deserving All Stars of the leagues. But in 1970 they gave
the vote back to the fans.
This
year the Kansas City Royals
have 7 regulars leading the voting,including Omar Infante
at second base who,
at .548, owns the third lowest OPS for regulars IN ALL OF BASEBALL!
Omar's a good fielder but he ain't THAT good!
Everybody is wringing their hands and fluttering about...all terribly
upset but incapable of doing anything to keep the All Star game from
turning into a popularity contest and a farce.
Well
sorry, Lords of Baseball,
but when you let the internet become the only place you could vote
and let everybody have up to 35 votes, this kind of thing was bound
to happen.
Shame
on the fans for ignoring the whole point and not having the best
interests of the game at heart when they voted. If you really think
Omar Infante deserves to start in the All Star game over,say,Jason
Kipnis... then go ahead and
vote for Omar 35 times. You, Sir or Madam, are an idiot.
Shame on the Lords for making the game determine who gets home field
advantage in the Series.
Hooray for Me because I am about to fix everything.
The starters
should be voted in by the players, managers and coaches.
The fans still get to vote but their picks determine the reserves
(this is just opposite of the current system). After a full team is
picked, the manager picks the starting pitchers and then ADDS ONTO
THE ROSTER extra players to fulfill the “at least one player from
each team” rule. This can help alleviate any injustices from
over-eager fan support. And the manager chooses who to put in and
keep out of the game.
They've already expanded the rosters to 33 guys, so there is nothing
sacrosanct about adding a few more. Also, limit online voting to 5
votes per household computer (some kind of average family size
compromise).
The Lords won't do this because they want as many people going to the
website to vote as possible so they can get them to read the stupid
pop up ads. Just saying.
*3.RANDOM NOTES
FROM MLB
AL EAST:
TORONTO got
the bats warmed up but don't have the pitching to sustain their
winning streak. They need a relief pitcher and another starter.
BOSTON
chum-in-the-water-Sox
have buried themselves. They are 9 games behind in a division where
everybody else is above .500. Too bad. They've finally started
hitting a little. Now injuries to Pedroia and
Swihart are a
concern.
They
sent Rusney Castillo
back to Pawtucket. Brock Holt, Pedroia, Betts and Bogaerts
are keeping them in games with occasional homers from Hanley
Ramirez. Of course Hanley gives
up a run a game with bad fielding. (I never thought I'd miss Manny
Ramirez' defensive prowess!)
I
predicted that if two of their three hot rookies had decent years
they could win. Well, Castillo is a no show but Bogaerts and Betts
are producing and the Sox still suck. Ortiz and Napoli
just haven't done enough in the middle of the order. And the pitching
is so inconsistent.
Losing
their starting catcher Vasquez
to Tommy John made them lean on rookie Swihart too fast and he wasn't
ready to handle a major league staff. He'll be good someday but they
need defensive help behind the plate. For their pitchers' sake.
This division was winnable...why didn't they trade for a pitcher or
two when they saw it going south?
AL CENTRAL:
DETROIT
finally got Victor Martinez
back. They really needed that left-handed bat to break up the line-up
of Kinsler, Cabrera, Cespedes and J.D. Martinez
who all hit from the right side. They were seeing nothing but
right-handed starters.
Warm weather= Latin Players Hit Better.
But can they pitch enough to win some close ones when they can't
bludgeon people? Or will they wilt like I expect Toronto to?
I don't think Detroit can catch the...
KANSAS CITY
ROYALS. Even if they aren't
really all All Stars, they are good and fast and playing good defense
and their bullpen is on a roll.
AL WEST:
The
other night, HOUSTON
had 13 hits, 2 walks and 17 strike outs. They scored 8 runs to win.
How many teams have struck out 17 times in a nine inning game and
won? I betcha not many.
This
is a team full of Dave Kingmans*,
some of whom can run. Altuve
is the happy exception and I hope they keep winning. Their new
shortstop Carlos Correa
looks like the real deal. They are scary at Minute Maid.
*Dave Kingman (nicknames “Kong” and “Sky King”) played for 7
teams from 1971 to 1986. In about 12 full years his batting average
was .236, his on base percentage was .302 and he averaged 37 homers
and 150 strikeouts per year. One of his fellow players once said that
having Kingman on your team was like “having a toothache that makes
your whole mouth hurt”.
TEXAS! SECOND
PLACE! GO RANGERS!
Rumours are that they will make a trade for Hamels
from the Phillies. An ace could get them into the playoffs since the
rest of the AL West looks so feeble. Rookie call-up Joey
Gallo hits 500 foot homers and
Ks 4 times a game. They should trade him to Houston where he'd fit
right in.
I
think Kazmir from the
A's would be a better
trade since he already knows the league and is pitching great this
year but I doubt that Billy Beane
would trade him to a division rival. Oakland
is kind of waking up and playing better. They should move out of the
cellar soon and let Seattle
ease on in. God what a disappointment Seattle is!
CALIFORNIA
ANGELS...Albert
Pujols has 25 homers to lead
the league. It's either “what's he on?” or a resurrection.
Pujols, Trout and Calhoun...if
only they had a little more help.
NL EAST:
NY METS. I
thought you guys were from New York? You're in second place in a weak
division and have your best chance since 2006 to make the playoffs.
You need bullpen help and a shortstop and one more bat. What are you
waiting for? You've got oodles of good young players you can afford
to trade. Make a run why don't you? Bernie Madoff didn't
take all your money, did he? The Mets would be dangerous in a short
playoff series with those starters they have.
It
is now my happy task to mention some good news for worst
team-in-baseball PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES. Mikael Franco looks
like Adrian Beltre
crossed with Albert Pujols.
He swings like Albert and goes down low with his knees like Adrian.
His defense looks good with a cannon arm. Hitting .292 with better
plate discipline than he once showed.
Reason to live, Phillie fans!
WASHINGTON
NATIONALS. With all the
players they've lost to injuries, Harper
carries them. If something happens to him (and it has every year so
far in his career) they could be in trouble. Only Scherzer
has pitched to expectations.
I'm
so glad that Giancarlo Stanton
of the FLORIDA MARLINS
has come back so well from that scary beanball last year. He leads
the league in homers and ribbies. Wonder if he wants out of his
contract yet?
NL CENTRAL:
CHICAGO CUBS.
Can it be? Are the cubs actually interesting again? Rizzo
on first, Bryant on
third, Addison Russell
at second, Soler(currently
DL) in right and this new guy Schwartzkopf...(actually Schwarber)
looks good as a future catcher/outfielder. He can hit a ton. That's
relatively exciting. They just brought him up to DH for 6 games while
they played the American League.
Can Theo Epstein do some genius work and get them another pitcher or
two and maybe that cagey inspirational veteran bat that will lead
them to the playoffs? Or is this merely foreplay?
I
would love to see a good three-way race with the CARDINALS
and PIRATES. I
really, really want a down-to-the wire pennant race like days of
yore.
The PIRATES are doing their part, keeping the heat on St.
Louis...even at a semi-distant 6 games back.
NL WEST:
Why can't SAN FRANCISCO win at home? They have a losing record
there. Injuries piling up on them. I expect them to make the playoffs
though.
LOS ANGELES seems
to be able to sleepwalk through the season and still remain in first
place in that division.
If
SAN DIEGO continues
to suck expect a bloodbath. They already fired Bud Black as
manager and it did no good at all. They'll probably trade all those
expensive stars they just got in the off season. Sometimes it works
and sometimes it doesn't. Don't try to build your team around hitting
in a pitcher's park.
Goldschmidt
of ARIZONA is in the
top five in most hitting categories and is even about top fifteen in
steals with 12! MVP!
FUNNY STORY:
When
Mel Ott was managing the Giants he had an iron clad rule for his
pitchers: if they went to 0-2 on any batter, they absolutely MUST
throw a waste pitch. Any pitcher who threw a strike on 0-2 was fined.
He nailed one poor sap for $500.
Well
one game this rookie pitcher goes 0-2 on a hitter and tries to throw
one off the plate. But mistakes happen and he clips the corner. The
ump goes
“Strike
three....Yer Out!”
and
here comes the rookie pitcher off the mound, screaming at the ump:
“That
was a ball! What are you tryin' to do? Ruin me?”
BRAIN
TEASER:
“What
baseball brothers (any number) have hit the most combined major
league home runs?”
Play fair and don't get out your google machine.
You can email your answers or any comments to:
Until next time I remain your faithful scribe:
Marco
