The Art of Pitching
Posted: May 31st, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball | 19 Comments »
There are people outside my house right now shooting off fireworks. I don’t believe they are doing this because the Royals finally won on Saturday, finally broke their 12-game losing streak with a victory over Cleveland, but … then again, why the heck else would they be shooting off fireworks? Are they end of May fireworks? Are they in honor of the DNC’s rules and bylaws committee? This happens all the time in my neighborhood — people shoot off fireworks for imaginary holidays.
“What are the fireworks for Bob?”
“Haven’t you heard? It’s Ooobly Goobly Day! We paint all the kids blue, shave the dog and shoot off fireworks. And tomorrow we celebrate Arte Johnson’s birthday by shooting off fireworks and falling off benches.”
Hey, I don’t mind. Really. Shoot off fireworks. It has been a good day. For one thing, the Royals did finally win 4-2, though the game ended rather strangely, with manager Trey Hillman deciding to use Joakim Soria for a two-inning save. I didn’t like that move much, but perhaps not for the reasons you might think. I don’t mind a manager — especially a Royals manager — breaking away from convention. And I really don’t mind the two-inning save. You know, Bill James always says that if the rule had demanded TWO innings for a save instead of just one (which, if you think about it, makes about as much sense) then you can bet that closers would be pitching two innings instead of one. So, no, I don’t mind sending your closer out for two innings, especially someone like Soria who grew up as a starter and who I think is a pretty low stress guy. If Hillman decides that from now on Soria will an eighth and ninth inning guy, hey, I’ll applaud the risk and innovation and be eager to see how it works out.
But that’s now what we have here. No, the Royals (as far as I know) have no special plans to make Soria a two-inning guy. This was a break-glass moment. And that’s what I did not really like — I think it was pure panic and desperation. True, the Royals had lost 12 in a row — there was good reason for panic and desperation. But you know, it is only May 31, and I’m not sure that’s the message you want to send out. This wasn’t Game 3 of the World Series. There are 100-plus games left in the season, and this move seems to tell your bullpen, your hitters, your fans and opponents: “Holy cow, our bullpen sucks, our team sucks, and I don’t trust ANYBODY except Soria to close out the last two innings with a 3-run lead against a brutal hitting Indians team at home.” Sure, I expect Trey doesn’t really care about those impressions right now — he needed to break the losing streak, and he was going to do whatever he had to do to get the victory. If I’m in his seat, maybe I do the exact same thing. I’m glad it worked out.
So, the Royals won. My good man Jason gave me the day off by going out to the yard — he will be getting something real good for Christmas. Good day. Also, I started my first Facebook Group today — The Duane Kuiper Fan Club. I have absolutely no idea what you do in a Facebook Group, or how you create secret handshakes, or if we can build a treehouse or what. I’m just proud of my technological breakthrough there. Next thing, I’m going to figure out what that Digg thing is.
Also, the terrific Richard Sandomir of the New York Times* wrote a story about the statue that the Hall off Fame is dedicating to Buck O’Neil. So that’s great.
*Richard kindly quoted me in the story and mentioned my book, which is a special moment for me because, um, the Times did not actually review my book. This is sort of an inside gag for authors … you LIVE for a New York Times review (that and a call from Oprah — how in the world did I not get that call from Oprah??). Even if the Times absolutely kills your book, as much as it would hurt, it’s still about a thousand times better than not getting mentioned at all. Really. Book selling — you would not even believe the goofy things involved. It’s all explained brilliantly in this YouTube masterpiece by author Dennis Cass.
Most of all though, I got to be moderator of a very cool discussion this morning at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. For some reason, the folks at the Museum keep asking me to moderate their baseball discussions, probably because of my asking price, and so through the years I’ve moderated discussions with Hank Aaron, Dave Winfield, Luis Tiant, Lou Brock, Ernie Banks, Bill James, George Brett, Frank White, Willie Wilson, Joe Carter and many others. Maybe I could be the baseball Charlie Rose. I just want the black background.
This time, the discussion revolved around The Art of Pitching, and the guests were Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins and World Series MVP and four-time 20-game winner Dave Stewart. I thought it was a really cool discussion, one of the best I’ve been involved in, because it was just two old pitchers talking about pitch counts and intimidation and batters who owned them. I can’t get enough of that stuff.
Here’s one story from the discussion: Stewart talked about the day he got his no-hitter. It was June, 1990, and he said he went out to the bullpen to warm up, and he couldn’t do anything right. His pitches were all over the place. The catcher would set up inside, and he’d throw outside. Catcher would want the ball down, he’d throw up*.
*Wording in honor of the great announcer Jerry Coleman, who (of course) once said: “Rich Folkers is throwing up in the bullpen.” He also offered my second-favorite baseball call ever, the famous “Winfield goes back to the wall … he hits his head on the wall … and it rolls off! It’s rolling all the way back to second base! This is a terrible thing for the Padres.” … My favorite ever call is not Coleman’s, I’m not 100 percent sure where I heard it, but it was quite simple: “Here’s the windup and the pitch … WAY outside … no, they’re going to say it hit him.” Of course, there’s also Ralph Kiner’s, “It’s Father’s Day, so to all you father’s out there, happy birthday.” **
**And there’s also this amazing Pete Rose exchange from his old radio show. I heard this driving down to Jacksonville with a friend for the Georgia-Florida football game some 16 or 17 years ago. Pete had Dick Vitale on as a guest, and the conversation went precisely how you might expect a Pete Rose-Dickie V interview to go. It was Pete saying, “I just love your energy, Dick,” and Vitale saying, ‘You’re the greatest Pete! You’re the greatest! You should be in the Hall of Fame! The Hall of Fame, baby, it’s worthless without you!“ … For the record, I’m a fan of Dick’s because he’s real. That’s no act up there. He’s like that when you go to dinner with him, when you see him in a hallway, when it’s 2 a.m. and he’s exhausted and just trying to get back to his hotel.
Anyway, the conversation ended, Vitale hung up, and Pete started taking calls, and it went something like this (obviously this is all from memory so the wording will be way off — but I hope this captures the basic energy of the moment):
CALLER 1: ”Pete, I really enjoyed the interview you had with Dickie V.“
PETE: ”Wow, isn’t he the best? You know he does all this stuff for charity too. He’s just an amazing guy. I love his energy … that’s how I played the game too, you know? With energy. I mean, I love to see someone with passion for his job like Dick Vitale. That gets me excited, you know? OK, let’s go to the next caller.
CALLER 2: “Pete, that was some interview with Vitale.”
PETE: “I know! Wasn’t it great. What a great guy. I mean, he’s just the best. He makes the game fun, you know? Terrific guy, the best guy, I don’t know that I’ve ever had more fun interviewing anyone in my whole life. Just a wonderful, fabulous guy. OK, we have time for one more call.”
CALLER 3: “Hi Pete, I’m just so glad you had that interview with Dick.”
PETE: “Me too! What a great guy. The best guy. I mean, I know I’m going overboard here, but he even energizes me, you know? What a great guy.”
CALLER 3: “Yeah, well, I’m up here in Detroit, and I’m friends with Dick, and that’s who he is.”
PETE: “Wait, you know Dick?”
CALLER 3: “Sure do.”
PETE: “Well, let me ask you something.”
CALLER 3: “Absolutely.”
PETE: “Is that a glass eye or what?”
We almost drove off the road we were laughing so hard.
ANYWAY, back to Dave Stewart. He was pitching in the bullpen, and he was all over the place. But as bad as he felt, he could not tell how hard he was throwing or how much movement he was getting on his pitches. So he still felt like he might be OK. He finished his warm-ups and started walking back to the dugout with pitching coach Dave Duncan. And at that point, Duncan turned to him and said: “You really gonna go out there with that (bleep)?”
“Confidence builder, right?” David said.
Sure enough, Stewart walked the first two batters he faced in the game. The fourth batter in the inning, George Bell crushed a long fly ball to left-center that Rickey Henderson tracked down. Stew went to the dugout thinking, “Damn, this is going to be a very, very long night.” And in the second inning … he struck out the side. In the third, he got a weak, broken bat grounder to third and two more strikeouts. Suddenly, inexplicably, improbably, it was all working, everything, fastball, forkball, staredown, and the best breaking ball Stewart would ever have. He went back to the dugout and looked at Duncan and said, “Yeah, I think I’ll be fine with this bleep.”
“By the sixth inning, I told everybody, ‘They’re not getting a hit today,’” Stew said. “There was no jinx or anything like that. I knew they couldn’t hit me that day.”
You know, I’m not one to casually quote “The Natural.” But … God, I love baseball.
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Aight, somebody here’s got to have some pull with Oprah.* Get it done, people.
*Or hell, Uma. Or even Keanu.
An amazing footnote to that Stewart no-hitter is that it was one-half of an ESPN doubleheader. In the other game, Fernando Valenzuela threw his no-hitter. Nice little broadcast day.
That was some funny bleep Joe. I especially liked the Rose – Vitale memory of yours.
I think, perhaps, my favorite little broadcasting nugget came from a Phillies game a couple of years ago. Todd Pratt is catching for the Phils that particular night, and they’re playing someone with a big lefty–the Reds, maybe–and, naturally, are employing a crazy shift, with David Bell playing almost up the middle as a shortstop.
Well, Adam Dunn or whoever strikes out, and Pratt goes to throw it around the horn, sees where Bell is, and gets confused, leading to Harry Kalas deadpanning:
“Pratt fakes the throw to third, and fires it into centerfield.”
I think I spittaked my iced tea at the time.
That was a walk-off post, Joe. Hilarious.
Jon Lester said that before his no-hitter, his bullpen session was the worst he could remember. Funny how that works.
“Last night, I neglected to mention something that bears repeating.” – Ron Fairly, announcer.
I immediately thought of a previous post about your disdain for intentional walks when I was watching the Twins game last night. With 2 outs and a man on third in the bottom of the 10th of a tie game, the Yankees intentionally walked Nick Punto to get to Carlos Gomez. If they didn’t think their pitcher could get Nick Punto out, they should probably send him back to AA. Unfortunately it actually worked out, which will probably lead plenty to think Girardi hasn’t lost his mind. I respectfully disagree.
Another great Kiner quote: “Half of Jeff King’s extra base hits last year went for extra bases.”
It pains me to disagree on the Soria matter. I immediately instructed my secretary (she’s imaginary. Name is Mimi) to send the Hillman family a bouquet of flowers when Trey made that move. Another blown lead in the late innings would have been disastrous. The Royals and their fans could not take another such undoing. I know, because I was personally prepared to switch my interests to the NBA (not really. Hate basketball.)
God bless Hillman and God bless the Royals. And God bless you, Joe Posnanski. I know how tough it is to market books. I’ve learned from you that it’s okay to be flagrant about promoting your titles as long as there is acknowledgment that you’re doing so. You do it with class and wit and I’ve learned from you. I plan to adopt your style when it’s time for me to plug “Dirt: An American Campaign,” which will be available this summer and which can be discovered at my website.
For instance.
Alright, Joe, I bought your book. I wasnt going to at first, but then I read a couple of excerpts and decided, it would be worth it. Unfortunately, I will probably read it in a day, as I did with Rob Neyers big book of baseball blunders. But, hopefully it has the same re read value as Rob Neyers book (which I have no doubt that it will).
Speaking of Vince Coleman, is he a neighbor of yours?
Bought your book. Opened the package and immediately dropped it, so it’s shopworn w/o ever having been read. (Hope this won’t affect the resale value when I put it on eBay…)
I’d like to add some Mike Shannon-isms but I’m not sure there’s enough space in the blogosphere to harness his witticisms. Mike’s an acquired taste.
I voted for Vince Coleman. His skills in throwing firecrackers at little kids and getting run over by the Busch Stadium tarp machine are super hero like. It is also rumored that he joined fellow Met super hero Bret Saberhagen in spraying bleach from squirt guns at reporters.
Things not to say when you’ve just finished blogging about being a panelist at the Negro League Baseball Museum:
“I just want the black background.”
A rare, actual, LOL moment… Thanks Joe!
Favorite play-by-play moment: I was driving in Brooklyn a few years ago and listening to the Yankees-Tampa Bay game called by Pa Yankee himself, John Sterling. I think Pettitte was pitching, and (Steve?) Cox was batting. Pettitte struck him out looking with a curveball. Pa’s call: “He froze Cox like a popsicle!”
!
I had to pull over for a few minutes until I could see again.
Joe, congrats on getting the nod in the NYT. That was a nice story and I was glad to see you included. Sandomir is the best.
My favorite announcing moment was Bill Walton in the 1995 NBA Finals — Houston Rockets with Hakeem Olajuwan vs the Orlando Magic and Shaq. Bill Walton says:
“This is no mistake that the two teams in this finals is made up of the teams with the two best centers. Basketball is a game that has always been dominated by the teams with the best centers….well, eh, except for the past 20 years or so with Jordon, Stockton, Magic, Larry, and Isaiah…but other than that…”
Agree on Soria. In fact, this desperation likely added two games to the streak. After Tehan hit his game-tying inside the park homer to tie the game the other night, Hillman pitched Soria for two innings in the desperate hope that the Royals would somehow score a run in extra innings. The Royals of course didn’t, so they ended up losing in 12 innings.
The next night, the Royals blew an 8-3 lead in the 9th inning and Soria wasn’t available to salvage the lead…prolonging the streak for another 2 games.
Most of the best broadcasting ‘moments’ I can remember were from Murray Walker covering Formula 1. Google him and you’ll find some classic Murrayisms, the best of which (IMHO) is:
“Unless I am very much mistaken, I am very much mistaken.”