MARCO’S
BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE JUNE 2020:
“NELLA FANTASIA”*
*song
by Ennio Morricone/lyrics by Chiara Ferrau
(Nella
Fantasia means “In my Fantasy” in Italian…)
“In
my fantasy I see a fair world
where
everybody lives in peace and honesty…
In
my fantasy there is a hot wind
that
blows across the cities like a friend...”
BASEBALL
2020...The Plague Year:
First
they got rid of the umpires.
The
whole image of some middle-aged, heart-vulnerable, lung- defective
fatty arbiter leaning over and breathing in the catchers face was
just the kind of COVID-sensitive image that the Lords of Baseball
would not and should not and could not promote.
So
they decided to go for Robbie the Robot and his Magic Virtual Strike
Zone. Of course some smarty pants from the Houston Astros hacked the
thing in the first week of the shortened season while all parties
were still distracted after the blood-letting at the bargaining table
between the owners and players. Almost from Day 1 of the 58 game 2020
“season” the Astros’ busy elves were trimming two inches off
the strike zone for the home team and adding two for the visitors.
Pedro
Martinez was color man on an early telecast of a Dodgers/Astros
contest at Minute Maid and called the hack when the ‘Stros won it
12-2 with 10 walks compared to 0 for the Dodgers. The teenager who
was responsible for the Astro’s tech was suspended and banned and
fined and excoriated and the Astros continued to play the season.
Nobody booed them because nobody was allowed at the games on the road
and the home Houston fans who were allowed to attend under the lax
Texas social distancing laws were quite lenient as long as they got
victories.
When
the owners got used to the subtraction of a home plate ump they went
ahead and got rid of the base umps as well and outlawed stealing as
being “too intimate” with sliding into the second baseman and
getting tagged in the mouth and such. Base runners were given a line
in the base path dirt passed which they could not take a lead.
Cameras shot all the base action and the out/safe calls were made
from the booth. Every play at every base took 2-3 minutes to call
with all the replay delay. The owners and TV execs didn’t mind
though; more time for commercials.
The
coaches were next to go and we said goodbye to the friendly old
Uncle- Third- Base- Coach patting the newly arriving runners on the
butt and leaning in to tell them to keep an eye out for the bunt
sign. All signs were now relayed from the dugouts without benefit of
the middleman base coaches. Health first!
The
owners took some of the money they were saving on umps and coaches
and started a fund for the ballpark vendors who had nobody left to
sell hot dogs to except the fans in Texas who were the only ones in
the country allowed to attend games.
There
was a big fight between the Cubs and the Cardinals when Javy Baez hit
a homer at Wrigley and came out of the dugout afterwards and tipped
his cap to the empty stands in a mocking gesture that was not
appreciated by the Cardinals and especially by catcher Yadier Molina,
who called for inside fastballs to Javier’s ass the next two times
he came up. Javier took offense after the second such pitch and the
dugouts emptied and caused a huge broohaha on social media when all
the players writhed around in big pile of pushing, sweating, shoving
and spitting bodies. It was the opposite of social distancing.
The
owners and commissioner expressed righteous indignation at this
unsafe spectacle in the Age of Viruses and armed the ballpark guards
in each city with tasers to use on any rhubarbians participating in
future melees.
So
the next fight...this one started by the Phillies’ Bryce Harper and
pitcher Marcus Stroman of the Mets...turned from a traditional
“let’s take turns holding each other back” type major league
rhubarb into a police brutality case when the white New York cops at
Citi Field just tased the black players.
The
games themselves were wildly successful ratings-wise as a
sports-starved public tuned in by the quarantined millions to see the
new mixed divisions battle it out. The Yankees especially were a huge
draw as East Coasters watched them punish National League East teams
like Philly and Washington and Miami while continuing to dominate
their familiar patsies like Baltimore and Boston. The New Yorkers had
an 8 game lead in the 10 team Eastern division by August 10.
The
style of play was really more like extended Spring Training rather
than a traditional mid-season pennant pursuit. The veteran players
whined a lot about not having had enough time to get used to the
grind and so were rested after 4 or 5 innings if they were a position
player and after 2 or 3 innings for pitchers. The expanded rosters
(30) allowed managers to pitch the staff almost every game. Rotations
were a quaint memory. Hitters had to get used to seeing a new arm
pretty much every at bat. Teams would use 7 or 8 pitchers today and a
new set of 7 or 8 tomorrow. Fewer pitchers were coming up sore armed
with this limited work, but fewer pitchers were finding their groove,
either. Relievers did the best, being used to this kind of schedule,
and with almost all ball games becoming Bullpen Shuttle Fests.
In
the East, the limited work didn’t help the Mets, who had their
whole starting staff of DeGrom, Syndergaard, Metz, Porcello and
Stroman on the injured list by mid-August and had to re-hire Bartolo
Colon to eat up some innings. Bartolo struck a blow for old-time
baseball when he went ten innings in a 17-16 Mets victory over the
Atlanta Braves, throwing 213 pitches...all fast balls. He gave up 6
homers and 8 doubles but struck out 10 with no walks and was a much
adored guest on both Colbert’s Late Show and Governor Andrew
Cuomo’s midday COVID report.
The
lethargy of the veteran players who were leisurely ramping up their
playing time created a vacuum for the rookies. Young players were all
over the majors...hungry and productive. With expanded rosters and
more playing time while older stars nursed their sore hammies, young
hitters like Guerrero, Biggio and Bichette with Toronto and Soto and
Robles of Washington raked early and often.
Ronald
Acuna Jr. of the Braves had 24 home runs in 58 games for the
mini-season, even though the Braves finished in the middle of the
pack when their young pitching couldn’t adjust to the new pitching
paradigm.
The
number one prospect, switch-hitting Dominican shortstop Wander Franco
of Tampa Bay, hit close to .750 in the first week, causing all sorts
of quasi-rapturous hyper hysteria. Then Gerrit Cole of the Yankees
struck him out three times in a row and Aroldis Chapman struck him
out a fourth time in the first meeting between the teams. The dreaded
Golden Sombrero. Wander’s fielding left something to be desired
at shortstop, so they tried him at second, then third, then left
field and finally DH. By this time his swing was screwed up and poor
Wander was benched. The Rays banned reporters from the clubhouse.
Wander made a speech through his translator that he was “taking it
one day at a time”. By September he was a steady, productive player
and future star.
Every
young player brought up by the Yankees turned into Gleyber Torres.
Even when another ten Yankees went down with injuries, the rookies
taking their place were prime talents. And the Yankees’ deep, deep
bullpen was custom-ordered to dominate the league. They ran away from
the Eastern Division. Highly touted teams like the Nationals with
their 3 Ace starters finished way back. (Yes, they missed Anthony
Rendon).
The
Yanks only real competition was from within their own AL
East...Toronto and Tampa. Tampa had lots of pitching, but Blake Snell
refused to play the season and was permanently suspended from
baseball. Last I heard he was pitching in the Korean League.
The
finish?
1/New
York Yankees
2/Tampa
Bay Rays
3/Toronto
Blue Jays
4/Philadelphia
Phillies
5/Boston
Red Sox
6/Atlanta
Braves
7/Washington
Nationals
8/New
York Mets
9/Miami
Marlins
10/Baltimore
Orioles
The
Central Division race was extraordinary. Every team was flawed. Every
team could beat each other on any given day. The lead changed 16
times in the abbreviated season! Only the Tigers never tasted a day
in first place.
The
AL Centralians hit but couldn’t pitch. The White Sox came out
smoking with a lineup that had 7 hitters with double- digit homers
after the first six weeks. Their young Latin stars Yoan Moncada,
Eloy Jiminez and Luis Robert led the way. The Sox pitching came
crashing down in September, though.
The
Twins, who set a home run team record in 2019, also blasted their way
through the early going. Their pitching never came up to the mark
either.
Likewise
the Indians. Francisco Lindor and company entertained but ultimately
didn’t have the depth to compete passed mid-August.
The
Royals were punished by the elimination of the running game, which
neutralized speedsters like Whit Merrifield and Adaberto Mondesi. But
KC wouldn’t have won anyway...not with that retread pitching staff.
They traded closer Ian Kennedy to the Athletics in September to
signal their surrender.
After
the AL teams faded midway through the summer, it was left for the
Cardinals, Cubs and Reds to take the stage in the best pennant race
of the year.
The
Cardinals were the steadiest of the three and had superior depth on
the mound.
The
Cubs played happy under new manager David Ross, but their starting
staff got old all at once and they faded in the last week with not
enough fire power in the pen to get them through.
It
was the Cincinnati Reds who shocked them all. They won 3 classic
extra inning games against a tough Pittsburgh Pirate team late in the
year with Joey Votto summoning up his best hitting since days of
yore. Backed by Mike Moustakis and Eugenio Suarez, and with pitcher
of the year Luis Castillo dominating with his A+ change up and
leading a good not great rotation that included Sonny Gray and Trevor
Bauer, the Reds overtook the Cards in the last game of the season to
take the division.
1/Cincinnati
Reds
2/St.
Louis Cardinals
3/
Chicago Cubs
4/Chicago
White Sox
5/Minnesota
Twins
6/Cleveland
Indians
7/Pittsburgh
Pirates
8/Milwaukee
Brewers
9/Kansas
City Royals
10/Detroit
Tigers
The
Western Division had a nickname bestowed upon them by a tart-tongued
sports reporter early in the summer: The Dodgers and their Doormats.
It
had been hoped that somebody...anybody...would give the Dodgers a run
for the flag just to provide a little juice for the late night TV
watchers in the later time zones. But with Mookie Betts becoming a
.410 hitting phenomenon for 58 games and Gavin Lux hitting .350 and
all of the Dodgers hitting the long ball it was obvious that the rest
of the Division was playing for the Wild Card at best. L.A. employed
a 6 man starting rotation led by Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw.
Nobody got over 80 pitches in any one game. And with 5 days to rest
between appearances, the vet pitchers mixed in with the big-armed
rookie core to flat out shut down the opposition offenses.
Pennant
race? What pennant race? Unfortunately, the 58 game season was an
exercise in competitive futility as the rest of the league drowned in
the Dodgers wake. Only the Astros could stay with the Angelinos even
a little bit and the games between the two rivals were the only
interesting thing happening in the Western Division. These games were
murderous affairs featuring hard slides, hard tags, brushbacks and
backtalk.
Bellinger
and Max Muncy each admired a home run off of Verlander and both of
them got fastballs in the back next at bat. Verlander was thrown out
of the game, but since these offenses occurred in the fourth inning,
he was going to be leaving anyway. MLB was discovering that the game
couldn’t really police itself vis a vis beanball wars with pitchers
leaving so soon, and the DH being in universal employ.
MLB
kept hoping that the California Angels, with their stars Trout and
Rendon, would catch fire and compete with the Dodgers, but the Angels
were nascent at best and finished near the bottom with truly awful
pitching. Shohei Ohtani was a bright spot with 10 starts as a pitcher
for a 2.45 ERA and 20 home runs as a hitter. He had one game of 10
strike outs and 3 extra base hits.
Oakland
wasn’t entirely a surprise since they had been steadily improving
in recent years, and were due for a peak before Billy Beane
dismantled his latest creation. Still, the A’s... as usual...
started slow and then got hot late. By September they were knocking
on the Wild Card door, though still many miles back of the Dodgers.
In a lineup with power threats like Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Marcus
Semien, Mark Canha, Ramon Laureano, Stephen Piscotty and Khris Davis
somebody was always hot. Their defense was good enough to help out
their thin pitching staff, and Beane made some strategic bullpen
pickups that won some late games for the Greenies. Basically the A’s
lived by the home run and great D.
1/Los
Angeles Dodgers
2/Houston
Astros
3/Oakland
Athletics
4/Arizona
Diamondbacks
5/San
Diego Padres
6/Seattle
Mariners
7/Texas
Rangers
8/Colorado
Rockies
9/Los
Angeles Angels
10/San
Francisco Giants
So
the Playoff set up was New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles
Dodgers (with the best record) and two Wild Card teams… Houston and
Oakland. (The A’s snuck in just ahead of the Cardinals and Tampa
Bay and just behind the Astros.)
It
had been decided that the 2 wild cards Play-In game system would be
retained , mainly to insure that the Wild Card winner would use up
their best pitchers before facing the next Division winner opponent.
But with Bullpen games now the norm and extended rosters, one game
wasn’t punishment enough to really hurt a pitching staff.
Las
Vegas had big odds that the Dodgers and the Yankees would face each
other in a Plague Year World Series. But first the preliminaries.
The
Oakland Greenies travel to Minute Maid park for the only game of the
Playoffs witnessed by live fans actually present in the ballpark.
The Houston fans yell cacophonously through their COVID masks as the
‘Stros take an early lead with homers by Altuve and Correa.
Verlander pitches three strong and gives way to Zach Greinke, who
shuts out the A’s for another three. Lance McCullers throws
curveballs to continue Houston’s stroll to the promised land as the
Astros pad their lead with a double into the Crawford corner by
Bregman, a single by Gurriel and a home run by Yordan Alvarez for a
solid 5-0 lead going into the eighth.
Enter
fireballing right hander Josh James, who has terrified hitters with
overpowering stuff all year.
But
Josh is playing young tonight. The A’s wait him out for 2 walks
and then Ramon Laureano catches up to a fastball for a huge home run
up onto the train tracks above the Crawford boxes. With nobody out,
in comes closer Roberto Osuna. Single, walk, single, single and the
score is 5-4 with the bases loaded. Still no outs. New pitcher Ryan
Pressley gets a force at home. An intentional walk loads them up
again and another force at home makes it two outs and things in the
balance.
The
Astros decide to put another man on base to create the force
everywhere. Trouble is, it means Ramon Laureano is coming up for the
second time in the inning with all bases populated. Pressley wants to
induce another grounder but he tries to be too fine and the robot
calls ball four to walk in the lead run. The Oakland bullpen holds
them for two innings to win 6-5 in a shocking El Foldo for the
Houstonians, who leave cursing all robot umpires..
The
next round has the Reds playing best of seven against the Yankees and
the Dodgers hosting the high flying Oakland A’s.
Cincinnati
changes up the drama when they shut out the Yankees for eight innings
in the Bronx behind a no hit bid by Luis Castillo. Leading 2-0,
Castillo walks DJ LeMahieu to lead off the ninth...only the third
Yankees base runner. Now manager David Bell has a decision. He takes
a long walk out to the mound and then gestures to the bullpen to
bring in closer Rasiel Iglesias to pitch to Aaron Judge. Iglesias
throws 96 mph but loses control of his fastball when he gets excited.
In this game, he gets excited. A fastball tits high and Judge puts it
into Yonkers. Stanton hits the next pitch 500 feet to left field. SEE
YA! YANKEES WIN!
A
tragic night for Luis Castillo, Iglesias and manager David Bell. All
three face the reporters and take the punishment. David Bell wins the
respect of the media by staying to answer for his actions, but the
Reds are finished. The next three wins by the Yanks seem like a mere
formality as the Bombers sweep.
Over
in La La the Dodgers seem set to accomplish the same, winning the
first two games in Chavez Ravine by identical 7-3 scores. Mookie
Betts runs wild on the bases. He’s one of the few players who
chooses to wear a mask (Dodger blue of course!) on the playing field
and he looks like a bandit running the bases. His new nickname is
Mookie Betts: “The Blue Bandit” in an MVP season. Even if he
can’t steal ‘em, he takes extra bases on a single to make it a
double and a turns a double into a triple before scoring again on a
wild pitch. Betts scores 4 runs in the first game and 3 in the second
and gets under the A’s skin.
The
A‘s seem tired and are constantly late on fastballs, hitting pop
fouls for easy outs in the spacious foul territory at Dodger Stadium.
The
third game in Oakland is disrupted by a huge protest march through
the Bay area streets as the game is pre-empted by violence, looting,
and an epic traffic jam on the Bay Bridge. Instead of the game being
on TV, Oakland stars Semien, Khris Davis, Ramon Laureano and pitcher
A.J. Puk go out in the streets and appeal to the protesters for calm.
They lead a prayer session and still the waters. The next night,
Game 3 begins in a whole new atmosphere.
With
a strange symmetry, the four players who led the appeal for peace in
their city each star in the game. Starting pitcher A.J. Puk shuts the
Dodgers down for four innings. Semien makes a beautiful stab on a
liner up the middle to rob Bellinger and save two runs. Then Laureano
makes one of his patented cannon throws from centerfield to cut down
Mookie Betts on a double to the gap that Mook unwisely tries to turn
into another triple. Khris Davis wins it in the ninth with a solo
homer to left off of Kenley Jansen.
The
lost game day allows Oakland Ace Sean Manaea to start Game 4 at home
and he is sharp, cutting up the Bluebloods for a businesslike five
innings before turning the game over to some of the A’s young gun
relievers. The A’s win it 6-3 to tie the series.
Game
5 becomes critical...and the Dodgers bring on Walker Buehler, who
totally overmatches the Oakland hitters in a six inning start using
only 78 pitches! BOOM... there it is! Four Dodger relievers finish
the job and L.A. is up 3 games to 2 and going back home.
The
Oakland team is universally given up for dead and the Dodgers
management makes a stupid mistake. Trying to get the jump on the
souvenir market, somebody makes up a truckload of tee shirts
emblazoned with the image of Kirk Gibson running around the bases
doing his arm pump after hitting his famous home run off Dennis
Eckersley in the 1988 World Series against the A’s. Printed above
the pic it says “Welcome A’s, Gibby says Hi!” Gibson, who was
supposed to throw out the first ball for Game 6, hits the roof and
refuses to appear. This makes headlines in all the papers and on all
the sports shows in America. By game time the Dodgers have issued
apologies, blamed everybody they can find and have truly got their
noses out of whack. So too does their defense. They make 5 errors and
walk 6 to lose handily to the Athletics 6-2.
Game
7. But now the A’s are out of pitchers. They’ve used everybody up
twice except 23 year old leftie Jesus Luzardo, a September call-up
who had been expected to compete for a starter job but had continuing
shoulder problems after surgery in 2019. He wound up with only twelve
innings pitched in the bigs this year. But in those twelve innings he
struck out...17! Bob Melvin is not the longest tenured manager in
the majors for nuthin’. He announces Luzardo as the starter and
gets a full night’s undisturbed sleep.
So
Game 7 features Clayton Kershaw pitching against a rookie with no
track record at all as far as the major leagues go. The commentators
speculate that if the A’s get one good inning out of Jesus Luzardo
it’ll be a miracle.
After
Clayton dispatches the A’s in the first, Luzardo takes the mound
and promptly walks Betts. Then he walks Lux, then he walks Muncy.
Just so things don’t get too monotonous he then hits Cody Bellinger
with a 98 mph fastball to the ribs. Bellinger goes down in a heap and
takes five minutes to get to first base.
Luzardo
can use five minutes. He wanders around the mound looking as if he’d
rather be anywhere else while manager Melvin trudges out. No signal
to the bullpen yet. But who is that running into the infield? It’s
Ramon Laureano from center field. What is this? There’s nobody in
the stands to make noise so you can hear what is being said. Laureano
comes up to Melvin and asks permission to speak to Luzardo. Melvin
stands by as his centerfielder looks his pitcher in the eyes and
says...nothing! He just stares at him, then pats his cheek and runs
back to the outfield. Just a little love. Melvin pats the kid on the
back and goes back to the dugout. Strike one to Justin Turner. Strike
two. Strike three. Corey Seager repeats the K event. Then Chris
Taylor hits a lazy pop fly to Laureano in center and the defense
sprints in, down only one run. It could have been so much worse.
Luzardo
strikes out 7 hitters in the next three innings. The score remains
1-0 as Kershaw has his curveball going, but the buzz is Jesus
Luzardo. He’s completely turned it around and is dominating with a
sizzling fastball and goodnight-slider. Back at the top of the
Dodger’s lineup in the fifth, he faces Betts for the third time and
ties him up with fastballs inside. Mookie winds up dribbling a
grounder to third.
In
the top of the sixth Kershaw leaves in favor of Pedro Baez. Baez
stiffs the first two hitters but comes inside with a pitch that Matt
Chapman times. The score is now 1-1. Luzardo take them into the
sixth, the seventh and the eighth. Melvin makes no move. He knows all
of his other arms are down to the nubbin, so he just sits in the
dugout watching his young pitcher burn it down. Luzardo has not
allowed a base runner since the first. Those three walks and one hit
batter are the total offense for the Dodgers. Since then Jesus has
been perfect. He’s struck out 15 going into the eighth. He has
thrown 118 pitches though. And the A’s go in order in the top of
the eighth.
Luzardo
gets two quick outs and then faces Betts again. On a full count
Mookie unloads a deep fly to right center. Laureano makes a leaping
grab at the wall...a tremendous catch. Mookie tips his cap to Ramon
and the A’s greet Luzardo at the dugout with high fives. Jesus
Luzardo has shut the Dodgers out on no hits since the first
inning...but the score is still tied.
Kenley
Jansen goes out to face the Athletics lineup in the top of the ninth.
He gets two quick outs but gives up a bloop hit to Olson. The next
hitter is Laureano. Jansen uncorks a wild pitch that bounces to the
backstop. Olson to second. Now Ramon Laureano is the man of destiny,
and destiny speaks Spanish this day. Base hit up the middle and Olson
scores the lead run to make it 2-1.
Will
Luzardo come out for the ninth? Melvin ponders, but he can’t bring
himself to remove lightning from his jar. Here’s Jesus again.
Everybody
on both teams is up on their feet in the strangely empty, silent ball
yard. Gavin Lux takes two strikes and then watches two fastballs in
the dirt. Luzardo is obviously struggling. He tries a slider and Lux
foul tips into the catcher’s mitt. One away. Muncy looks dangerous
digging in but swings wildly at the first pitch. Third baseman
Chapman chases a towering foul ball all the way to the stands and
leaps into the empty seats to haul it in for a truly outstanding
defensive gem. If there’d been fans in the stands...no play! One
more out between Oakland and the Plague Year World Series. The Dodger
fans are in torment, but Luzardo has the magic today. He fans
Bellinger on three straight dipping sliders to complete his no-hitter
and is carried off the field in total social distancing
disintegration.
The
first call he gets after the game is from the Cincinnati hard luck
near no hit pitcher Luis Castillo. Billy Beane, Bob Melvin and Jesus
watch Rob Manfred present the MVP trophy to Ramon Laureano.
*******************************************************
After
that mighty, mighty game maybe it’s just as well that the World
Series was postponed after two Yankees tested positive for Corona the
day before Game 1. It was a bitter pill for the players and for the
whole Yankees organization, and a let down for the fans of both
clubs. Only the headline a few months later that a vaccine had been
found, tested and approved for use seemed to help, and the Yankee
players both recovered nicely.
The
World Series of 2020 was never played. We all went on to 2021
gratefully. By all means, let’s move on from 2020...the Plague
Year.
Except
in Nella Fantasia, where baseball, like it often does... helped us
forget.
--Marco
Perella
6/2020
