The Baseball Zealot

Kershaw Can’t Survive Wild Stretch

Cardinals Dodgers Baseball To say the opening game between the Dodgers and Phillies last night was exciting, would be a stretch, it was a close game, ending at 8-6 Philadelphia, but it was over four hours long. LA hurlers walked seven batters, coincidentally they were the only Dodger pitchers that were scored upon.

James Loney took Cole Hamels deep to give the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead. Surprisingly Clayton Kershaw was rolling along, pitching almost exclusively from the windup. Shane Victorino picked up a first inning single, Chase Utley lined out hard to CF, but then Kershaw picked off Victorino with Ryan Howard at the plate, SHANE, where were you going? With one out in the 3rd Carlos Ruiz walks, then is bunted to 2nd by Hamels, allowing Clayton to return to the windup, from which he got the third out of the inning. In the 4th the young Dodger lefty walks Howard after retiring the first two hitters on popups, Jayson Werth hits the ball on the nose, but it’s hauled in by Manny Ramirez. A sign of things to come.

Then comes the 5th inning, Raul Ibanez (or as Craig Segar would call him E-BEENEZ) rips a line drive single to left, Kershaw can’t find the strike zone with his curve out of the stretch, bounces a wild pitch, and ends up walking Pedro Feliz. Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt comes out to talk to Kershaw, I don’t know what he told Clayton, but almost before Rick was back in the dugout after delivering his sage advice, Carlos Ruiz sat on a fastball and rode it over the leftfield wall for a three run jack. But the inning wasn’t over, in fact nobody was out. Still the announcers babbled on about how this was a tough decision for Joe Torre because Kershaw was due to bat 2nd in the bottom of the inning, I didn’t get it, did he have to get tattooed a little more before being lifted from the game? The pitcher Cole Hamels walks, this kid was done with a capital D, but then he induced Jimmy Rollins to hit into a fielder’s choice, struckout Victorino on a wild pitch sending JRoll to 2nd, threw his 3rd wild pitch of the inning (all on breaking balls) sending Rollins to 3rd, and walking Utley.

Here is where it gets REALLY crazy! The announcers say, this is a growing up moment, as Joe Torre is leaves Kershaw in the game to face Howard. He was done after he walked Hamels! After Ryan lines a two run double into the corner, Ramon Troncoso is brought in to get Werth. The Dodgers were down 5-1 heading into the home half of the fifth and it looked like the game might be over.

LA had runners at the corners with one out when Andre Ethier hit a tailor made double play grounder to short, Utley threw the relay throw away after Rollins gave him a late feed when he couldn’t get the ball out of his glove. So instead of an inning ending DP, with Manny leading off for the Dodgers in the 6th, Ramirez would bat in the 5th with 2 outs, a run in, and a runner on secondbase. Pitcher Cole Hamels was visibly upset, the Phillies sent a coach to the mound to settle him down. I don’t know what the coaches tell their pitchers, but you guessed it, MANNY BEING MANNY turned on one, putting LA back into the game.

Dodger relievers Ronald Bellisario & Hong-Chih Kuo held the Phillies in check in the 6th & 7th, while Chad Durbin & J.A. Happ (a rookie of the year candidate, but not quite ready as a prime time pitcher) each worked one third of an inning to close out a very shaky 6th, Durbin came on to get the Russell Martin for the 2nd out of the inning, after Loney & Ronnie Belliard had singled off Hamels, to send Cole to the showers. Happ lost pinch hitter Jim Thome on ball four to fill the bases, it’s a good thing a pitching coach didn’t go out there to talk with J.A. Then a bizarre incident occurred in which Joe Torre wanted to send in a pinch runner for Thome, however we all had to wait while Randy Wolf got on his shoes, thus freezing Happ. Rafael Furcal grounded out to Utley to end the threat.

In the bottom of the 7th Antanio Bastardo (what a Bastard-Oh) allows a leadoff double to Andre Ethier (what was Antonio even doing in the game, on the roster?) and is replaced by veteran Chan Ho Park. Chan Ho gets Ramirez, Matt Kemp, & Casey Blake to earn a well deserved hold.

Former closer, lefthander, George Sherrill was brought on to face the Phils in the top of the 8th in a one run game, sometimes closers do better in save situations. Rick Honeycutt again comes out to talk with his pitcher after Sherrill walks the first two batters he’s faced, you guessed it, on the very first pitch to Raul Ibanez, he launches a three run blast, again seemingly putting this game on ice.

Ryan Madson, alot of the talking heads thought he should be the team’s closer, was brought on to throw a little batting practice in the 8th inning, and make the game a little interesting. There was a coaching visit to the mound after Loney & Belliard opened with base knocks, but Martin only produced a run scoring single, rather than a three run dinger, what a bum! Pinch hitter Juan Pierre hits a comebacker, which Madson fires to Utley to get the first out of the inning, leaving runners at 1st & 3rd. After Furcal’s sac fly to Werth in right, Ethier kept the inning alive with a single to right, Ryan got Manny on a grounder to third to end the inning. Phillies fans let out a huge sigh of relief.

But before Philadelphia fans could relax too much, it was the 9th inning, and Brad Lidge time. I remember Lidge fondly from the 2005 World Series, where the White Sox beat him twice, no saves, with a 4.91 ERA, he was even worse for the Astros in the LCS versus the Cardinals, although he did save three games, he had a loss, and a 7.20 ERA. Last season was magical for Brad & the Phillies, as he was a perfect 41 for 41 in saves during the regular season, with a 1.95 ERA, earning 7 more postseason saves in 2008. What a difference a year makes, as he struggled all season long, a 7.21 ERA to go along with an 0-8 record, while converting only 31 of 42 save opportunities. The ship seemed to have been righted in the LDS against the Rockies as he converted his only two save chances.

Kemp greeted Lidge with a hard basehit to left, then Blake tore the cover off the ball, but hit it right at Utley on the ground for an easy (once Chase fielded the hardhit ball) DP. Loney walks, but Brad gets Belliard to pop to short to end the game with Loney on 2nd.

The Dodgers outhit the Phillies 14 to 8, but lost the game mainly because of wildness, maybe if they had started somebody else. Everybody seems to be talking about Chad Billingsley, but he may be hurt, as he has not been throwing well. Still what about Hiroki Kuroda or Vicente Padilla, or why was Jon Garland left off the playoff roster, out of the mix? Veteran righthander Garland was 3-2 with a very nice 2.72 ERA for LA this season in six starts and was 1-0 in two starts for the White Sox in postseason play in 2005 with a 2.25 ERA over 16 innings pitched. You might call it hindsight, but you are not going to win very many ballgames walking seven, Jon has walked under two batters per start for his career.

Dunno which was worse, this long drawn out game or listening to the three jackasses in the booth, headed by Chip Caray, fill airtime, talking nonsense. Never thought I would say this, but were Tim McCarver & Hawk Harrelson busy? Just kidding, but these guys are brutal, no insight at all!

Ron Gardenhire, the umpires and a red flag

I’ve never been a proponent of instant replay in baseball. I’ve always felt that deep down, we should stick with the human element. Like umpire Bill Klem once said, “It ain’t nothin’ till I call it”.

But dang, some calls the umps are making recently are making it difficult to maintain my case. There was the incident last Tuesday with Randy Marsh making a questionable call of Bobby Keppel’s pitch. Did it hit Brandon Inge’s uni or not? Marsh said no.

Now, Minnesota Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire is floating the idea of a “red flag” now in response to an incorrect call of a Joe Mauer ground rule double on Friday night (it’s not the first time he’s brought this idea up. He suggested it after a bad call in July).

Gardenhire’s summary of the red flag proposal:

"I’ve said all along that I want a red flag," Gardenhire said in the Star-Tribune after the Cuddyer play. "If you use it and you’re wrong, you don’t get to use it the rest of the game. If you use it and you’re right, you get your red flag back and that would save a lot of money (for ejections)."

The red flag? Bad idea. But worse, it’s a only a natural extension of the current implementation of instant replay and one of the reasons I was against it in the first place. We’re just headed down that road now and there’s not a lot to stop us.

I don’t blame Gardenhire. He’s gotta be pretty pissed. But there’s one tenet I’ve always held to. Whether it’s baseball, business, politcs or whatever, you never make policy decisions based on one particular incident. It might look good now in the heat of the postseason and with the emotionally charged atmosphere of an admitted bad call but it needs to hold up to the test of time.

To his credit, Gardenhire did leave himself an out:

“(the) great thing about baseball is the human element, and we always want to keep it that way. We made enough mistakes ourselves and we missed opportunities to win the game. It just goes that way."

Maybe this red flag idea will just go away.

TSN names Pittsburgh as top sports city

The Sporting News named Pittsburgh as "The Best Sports City”. TSN has a pretty good case:

The world champion Steelers were kicking off their title defense against the Titans. The world champion Penguins were down in D.C., Stanley Cup in tow, to meet the president. Native son Dave Wannstedt was at practice on the South Side, preparing his unbeaten Pitt football team for the weekend’s win at Buffalo.

…oh yeah, the Pirates, too

Looking at the local scene, Chicago (who was lumped in with Evanston) came in fourth. My locale, Champaign-Urbana, ended up #84 solely on the basis of University of Illinois sports (we don’t have much else after that),

Here is TSN’s full list of 399 cities.

Howard HR ball back in hands of owner

After being bribed with cotton candy, the kid finally gets her due.

That’s how the story goes. Jennifer Valdivia, a 12 year-old girl who caught Ryan Howard’s historic 200th homerun ball was ushered to the Phillies’ clubhouse to exchange it for another autographed one, given some cotton candy then sent on her way.

With help of attorney Norm Kent, she’s got the ball back now.

"The Philadelphia Phillies’ team representative, knowing not only the historic value of that baseball, but its financial value, sent a team representative to Marlin security to retrieve young Jennifer from the stands," Kent said. "And she was there, 12-year-old Jennifer, with her 15-year-old brother, neither of the age of majority, offered her some cotton candy and a baseball worth 100 bucks in exchange for one that was worth thousands."

Kent knows marketing too. He put this You Tube video up surreptitiously to talk about the resolution of the case of the 12 year old girl. But let’s face it, it’s good PR for his law firm too.

But good on the girl, though. She’s got her ball back.

Geremi Gonzalez’ body to be exhumed

A very odd story is coming out of Venezuela in which former MLB pitcher Geremi Gonzalez’ body will be exhumed as part of an investigation. Prosecutors are trying to determine if he was struck by lightning as originally thought or if he was a victim of a fatal robbery.

Authorities determined that Gonzalez, 33, died instantly when he was hit by lightning at a beach in May 2008. Investigators ruled out homicide after an autopsy blamed "an electric shock produced by natural causes."

Doubts surfaced, however, after a friend notified the family that some of Gonzalez’s belongings were being offered for sale, including a gold chain he was wearing when he died, federal police commissioner Cesar Gomez told Diario Panorama.

Nice detective work by the family friend.

Gonzalez debuted with the Cubs in 1997 with a 11-9 record. He came in ninth in the Rookie of the Year voting that year. For his career, he was 30-35 with a 4.93 ERA.

Unlikely Postseason Heroes: The baseball players you didn’t expect to make the headlines

In baseball, the postseason is the time for players to shine, to give everything they got. More than likely, it’s the big stars who make the headlines but every so often we see the unlikely hero who steps up and gets the job done during the most important games of the season.

Here are 10 unlikely heroes of the baseball postseason because they are perhaps a little light with the stick, unknown players, or in one case, have no business getting on the field because of injuries.

Ozzie Smith (St Louis Cardinals, 1985 NLCS)

No doubt Ozzie Smith, the defensive whiz and speedster, has had his moments offensively but what happened in the 1985 NLCS must have surprised even the most die-hard Cardinal fan. With 13 career homeruns to name, Ozzie made himself a St Louis folk hero with one swing of the bat.

In Game 5 winner-take-all, the Cards and the Dodgers were locked up in a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the ninth. With one out and righty Tom Niedenfuer on the mound, Ozzie batted left. Not having hit a homerun in his previous 3,009 left-handed at-bats, he did the impossible. He hit a homerun. His four-bagger to right won the game for the Cardinals 3-2 and the series 3-2.

Bucky Dent (New York Yankees, 1978 one-game playoff)

This light hitting but slick fielding shortstop Dent was never known for his bat. His highest batting average was .274 in 1974 and for his career he hit .247. As for power, well, there wasn’t much. In his 12 year career, he hit forty homeruns with a career high of eight in 1977.

But Bucky Dent will always have a special spot in every Yankee fan’s heart for what he did in one-game AL East playoff against the hated Boston Red Sox in 1978. Down 2-0 in the seventh with two runners on, Dent hit a Mike Torrez pitch over the Green Monster to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead and sudden life. The Yankees went on defeat the Red Sox 5-4.

Dent wasn’t done. He batted .417 in the World Series against the Dodgers garnering the World Series MVP award.

Al Weis (New York Mets, 1969 World Series)

Among everyone on this list, Al Weis provides the widest disparity between his performance in the regular season and in the postseason. In his 10 year career, Al Weis was a .219 hitter with only seven homeruns. For the 1969 Amazin’ Mets, his average was even worse at .215.

But man, something change in him when it was time to face the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. For the Series, Weis not only hit .455 (5 for 11) but also hit a key homerun in the final game. His at-bat total may seem a bit low for 5 games but that’s because he also led the Mets in walks with four.

Donn Clendenon won Series MVP rightfully so (he hit .357 with three homeruns) but no one can dispute Weis’ contribution in the ‘69 series.

Kirk Gibson (Los Angeles Dodgers, 1988 World Series)

Rather odd that an regular season MVP would be chosen as an “unlikely” hero. But it fits. Gibson won the 1988 MVP award on the measure of his leadership of the Dodgers plus his good (but maybe not great) stats (.290, 25 HR). But by the postseason came around, the full season had taken its toll on Gibby’s knees and he was in no shape to play.

The Dodger’s opponents were the feared Oakland A’s who had among others, Dennis Eckersley who had one of best seasons a reliever ever had.

Do I need to go on? We’ve all seen it. Bottom of the 12th. Gibson vs. Eckersley. Gibby practically limping to the plate on two hobbled knees. And the look of pure victory on his face and the fist pumping as he rounds the bases. And the ecstatic Tommy Lasorda jumping up and down.

The Dodgers won that game, of course. That was the only at-bat Gibson would have all series. I’ve talked to Dodger fans who tell me that even though it was only Game One, they knew the Series was won by LA right then and there.

Jim Sundberg (Kansas City Royals, 1985 ALCS)

This defensive stalwart behind the plate wasn’t known for his offense prowess. Sundberg was a mainstay behind the plate for the Rangers for 12 years (and one season for Milwaukee) but he never hit the postseason for them. Once he got to KC in 1985, he got his Championship ring. And in the 1985 ALCS when the Royals took on the Toronto Blue Jays, he made a difference.

In the seventh and deciding game, Sunny practically won the game on his own. He went 2 for 4 with a triple and four rbis to clinch the Series and take the Royals to the World Series.

Jim Lindeman (St Louis Cardinals, 1987 NLCS)

Probably the least known player on this list, Jim Lindeman was a highly touted St Louis Cardinal prospect who came up in 1986. He managed to stick around for nine seasons but only accumulated 736 at-bats and 21 homers in his entire career. That doesn’t matter to Cardinals fans though. He had his moment in the sun in the NLCS in 1987 against the San Francisco Giants.

In Game 3 of the series, Lindeman came up to bat in the seventh inning down 4-3 with runners on second and third. Lindy hit a homerun to right-center and drove in three runs to make it 6-4. The Cards ending up beating the Giants 6-5 and defeated the Giants in the NLCS 4-3.

Billl Mazeroski (Pittsburgh Pirates, 1960 World Series)

Bill Mazeroski falls into same category as Bucky Dent. Light-hitting, good fielding middle infielder. Ok, maybe that’s not fair. For his time, Maz may have provided more offense than first glance might suggest. He hit .260 for his career in a pitching-rich era. Also, Maz did manage to hit 138 homers in his career.

The 1960 World Series pitted the big bully, the empire, the dynasty, the New York Yankees against the upstart, underdog Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s only appropriate that it end the way it did.

Any baseball buff knows about and has seen photos of Maz’ homerun off Yankee Bob Turley to win the the 1960 World Series. After all these years, it’s still the only walk-off homerun that has won a World Series.

It’s been rated as one of the most exciting moments in baseball history.

Billy Hatcher (Cincinnati Reds, 1990 World Series)

Billy Hatcher was one of those outfielders from the 80s and 90s that produced just enough to stick around for 12 seasons. He batted .264 for his career with 54 homeruns.

But boy, the Reds were sure happy to have him around for the 1990 World Series against the Oakland Athletics. Hatcher just caught fire. So much so that he broke many offensive records for a four game World Series. Batting second in the lineup, Hatcher hit four doubles, four doubles and a triple in 12 at-bats. Nine for Twelve!!

With Hatcher’s bat, Cincinnati went on to sweep the A’s,

Jim Beattie (New York Yankees, 1978 World Series)

I remember when Jim Beattie came up. Oh how he was going to be the next Ron Guidry! George Steinbrenner pinned his hopes on him and when he went 9-15 his first two years with the Yanks, he was little “disappointed”.

But Beattie came to the 1978 postseason prepared. He won his game against KC, pitching 5 1/3 innings. And in the World Series against the Dodgers, he really showed his stuff. In the fifth game, he pitched a complete game win allowing just two runs to give the Yankees a 3-2 series edge.

I’m sure the Boss’ private opinion didn’t change but outwardly he was glad of Beattie performance.

David Eckstein (Anaheim Angels, 2002 World Series and St Louis Cardinals, 2006 World Series)

At 5’6”, shortstop David Eckstein has had the adjective “scrappy” placed before his name on scouting reports more than anyone. And it’s probably deserved. With his ability, comes some ability to win.

This postseason look comes in two parts. In 2002, David Eckstein was part of the Anaheim Angels World Championship team. Eck batted .310 in the World Series with six runs scored. All told he compiled 20 hits in the postseason in 2002.

But it was in 2006 when Eckstein was recognized for his postseason work. Then playing for the St Cardinals who were taking on the Detroit Tigers, Eckstein actually started out 1 for 11 in the first couple of games.

Then he caught fire. In the final three games, he went 7 for 11 and in Game 4 went 4 for 5 with 3 doubles. For his performance, Eck was named World Series MVP for the Cardinals who defeated the Tigers 4 games to 1.

Honorable Mention: Scott Brosius (1998 WS), Jose Vizcaino (2000 WS), Wayne Garrett (1969 NLCS and 1973 WS)

Who am I missing?

Dodgers beat the Yankees!… in attendance

2009 can be known as the year that the Dodgers toppled the Yankees… at least in attendance figures.

For the first time in six years, the Yankees didn’t lead the majors in total yearly attendance. They came in second. The top honor goes to the Los Angeles Dodgers who had 3,761,661 go through the turnstiles at Dodger Stadium.

Number 3 shouldn’t be a big surprise. Given their World Championship status and relatively large market, the Philadelphia Phillies grabbed that spot.

As for Chicago teams. the Cubs ranked sixth and the White Sox came in sixteenth in 2009.

Overall, Major League Baseball had a slight downturn in attendance from 2008 (6.6% less according to MLB.com) but with an attendance of 73,418,479, MLB is spinning it that this year is the fifth most attended year all time. Yay, Baseball.

For those attendance stat geeks, The Biz of Baseball does a good job of breaking it all down for us. Their pdf looking back at this past decade of MLB attendance team-by-team is quite detailed.

Surprise! Belle rings in with some opinions

What happened to the Cleveland Indians this year??

Former Indian slugger Albert Belle has an opinion… or three.

"Tell Larry Dolan I won’t be interviewing for the manager’s job," said one of the most feared and ill-tempered hitters in Indians history. "How can you manage when you’ve got no players?"

Manager Eric Wedge and his coaching staff were fired Wednesday by General Manager Mark Shapiro.

"This season isn’t the manager’s fault," Belle said. "They traded away all his players. You can’t win when you trade two Cy Young winners in CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee.”

I was going to make a joke about Belle not being any worse a manager than Ozzie Guillen but I figured that was too easy.

He might be more entertaining (though.it would be close).

Cricket match on the U of I campus

On my way back from Illini baseball’s Orange and Blue game on Saturday, I was treated to a cricket match on the University of Illinois campus. Seeing as I already had my camera with me, I snapped some photos.

In the past, I’ve watched these guys practice on my way home from work on Fridays. THIS, I gather, is what they’re practicing for.

I know next to nothing about the game of cricket but I do enjoy watching the bowler in action as he bowls the ball toward the batsman. Unlike baseball, HE gets a running start.

A cricket player rests a rest as the teams took a break to let two elderly walk through the sidewalk the players were playing on.

Bus Leagues contest

Here’s quick plug for a contest at one of my favorite minor league blogs, Bus Leagues Baseball. They’re giving away a copy of Joe Posanski’s “The Machine”.

The rules of the contest are stated simple enough in the post so saunter on over there and take a stab at winning a copy.