Jamie Moyer’s America
Posted: October 26th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball | 53 Comments »
The following is the completion of an aborted Jamie Moyer column written sometime after midnight on Saturday night. One of the fun parts of being a newspaper columnist is, because of the absurdity of deadlines, we often get to start columns on spec. With a drop-dead 1:30 a.m. deadline for a game that, very clearly, would not be over at 1:30 a.m., the key is to guess who might be the hero and start writing that as if he IS the hero. Then, when he becomes somewhat irrelevant — as Philadelphia starter Jamie Moyer became after Tampa scored four runs to tie the score — you throw out the column and begin again.
Now, because of the magic of blogs, we can (at least) recycle those lost columns. Here you go:
* * *
PHILADELPHIA – Jamie Moyer is wily. No, wait, that’s not the right word. I was thinking of some other word, one that, what is that word. You ever had that, where the word your thinking doesn’t come right to, um, you know, um, mind? Jamie Moyer is not wily, no, he’s tricky. No, he’s canny. No, that’s not it. Where’s the computer thesaurus. Here we go. Right, he’s cunning or sly or shrewd. No, none of those are quite the right word to describe a 45-year-old lefty (almost 46) who throws an 82-mph fastball and made the Tampa Bay Rays melt away like an ice cream cone on a sidewalk in the World Series.
There should be a word for it, you know, a word for slow-throwing left-handed pitchers who get batters out and make them bang the bat like Bam-Bam in frustration — a word, you know, a simple word to describe Jamie Moyer.
“Crafty,” Florida Marlins right fielder Cody Ross said.
“Crafty,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre said.
“Very crafty,” Milwaukee manager Dale Sevum said.
“Moyer is so crafty,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel says.
Right. He’s savvy. No, wait, um, what was that word again?
“Crafty,” catcher Paul Lo Duca said.
“Crafty veteran,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
“Crafty lefty,” briefly crafty lefty Terry Mulholland said.
“The best definition of a crafty lefty,” former Royals star Mike Sweeney said.
“He’s crafty,” former teammate Jay Buhner said.
“Crafty,“ Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.
”Classic crafty lefty,“ former slugger Rafael Palmeiro said.
Oh, right. The first person to call Jamie Moyer crafty in print, best I can tell, was Buck Rodgers back in the 20th Century. He was manager of the Montreal Expos then. The historic date was July 2, 1986. That was, as it turned out, the very day that Lindsey Lohan was born. Let’s face it: If I had any idea how to run a blog, this obviously would be a very good place for an utterly gratuitous photograph. Let’s give it a try:
You could argue, pretty persuasively, that I have no idea what I’m doing.
Anyway, that day, a 23-year-old version of Jamie Moyer threw 6 2/3 innings and allowed four runs. He struck out eight, which seemed rather un-crafty of him, but Buck Rodgers always could see into the future. ”He had a good motion,“ Buck said.* ”He is a crafty left-hander.“
*So, you now ask: If you name your son Buck, what are the odds that he (or she, if you are so inclined) will become a big league manager or a country singer? This is why we have statisticians working around the clock, 17 to 22 hours a day depending on how much homework they have. The correct answer.
Chance that your won will become a manager: 74.3%
You have Buck Martinez, Buck Showalter, Buck Rodgers, Buck Ewing, Buck Herzog and also the Buckies — Bucky Walters, Bucky Harris and Bucky Dent. John Buck, though his name does not fit precisely, could become a manager someday, and Al Buckenberger did manage at the turn of the last century.
Chance that your son will become a country singer: 12.5%
Back to Moyer. Players and managers appreciate his craftiness, but not nearly as much as us sportswriters. Over the years, in newspapers across our great land, Moyer has been called a crafty veteran, a crafty lefty, a crafty Southpaw, a crafty left-hander, the definition of a crafty left-hander and, my favorite, the stereotypical crafty left-hander. Wonder who stereotyped him. At some point he became so much of a craftsman that he created his very own category, the ”Jamie Moyer type,“ which is fairly odd because, to be honest about it, there has never been anything quite like him. This year, at age 45, he won 16 games. Everyone here knows how I feel about pitchers victories, but for the point of simplicity lets go with those:
Lefties who have won 15 games (or more) at age 45 (or older)
1. Jamie Moyer.
2. Nobody.
or:
Lefties who have won 12 games (or more) at age 45 (or older)
1. Jamie Moyer
2. Nobody.
or:
Lefties who have won 10 games (or more) at age 45 (or older)
1. Jamie Moyer
2. Nobody.
So it goes. Tommy John, who no doubt unleashed some craftiness on the masses in his own bionic way, won nine games when he was 45. Also … Jesse Orosco won two games when he was 45.
Anyway, a quick scan of the Internet gives me 14 players who, recently, have been called Jamie Moyer types — some young, some retroactively, some I’ve never even heard of, and that means it’s time for:
The Ballad of the Crafty Lefty (using players on the Internet who were called ”Jamie Moyer types“):
Jamie Moyer’s no destroyer
Clear his craftiness is more than hype
But every season, none dare call it treason
There’s a brand new harvest called ”Moyer type.“
Jeff Fassero, wing and prayer-o
Kenny Rogers, Jimmy Kaat
Glendon Rusch throws liver and mush
Doug Davis throws all that he’s got
Andy Pettitte doesn’t sweat it
Kenny Rogers speaks with his fist
Barry Zito’s incomplete-o
Jon Lester doesn’t belong on this list
Matt Maloney waits by the phone-y
Who is Adam Pettyjohn?*
Gabbard Kason is a slop basin
Yes his name is upside down.
Also Lenny Dinardo
*As brilliant reader Andy points out: “You should read up on Adam Pettyjohn. He was devastated by ulcerative colitis and missed three years right after he broke through to the bigs and finally got another shot this year. A great story.” I have no doubt. I really just needed a rhyme, and to be honest, Pettyjohn and upside down really is not all that great a rhyme.
The question, mirror, mirror: Is Jamie Moyer the craftiest of them all, y’all? Well, of course, it is time to get those statisticians away from this week’s spelling words and have them work out an utterly incomprehensible formula to figure it out. The formula, I can tell you, uses victories, strikeouts, ERA+, WHIP and various other mathematical atrocities in an effort to bring clarity to this foggy question and, more importantly, bring an end to this column that should have died long ago:
10. Rube Walberg, 80.7 on the Craftiness Scale
Comment: Star for the Philadelphia Athletics for a while — won 20 games in 1931 — there are two good bits of trivia about him. One, he was traded to Boston in 1933 along with Hall of Famer Lefty Grove. And two, according to Baseball Reference, he gave up more than 10 percent of his home runs to Babe Ruth. That lefty-lefty matchup didn’t work out so well. Walberg gets bonus points for being named ”Rube.“
9. Clarence Mitchell, 84.7 on Craftiness Scale.
Comment: Lefty from Nebraska crafted his away around the big leagues for 18 years and six different teams despite striking out a rather stunning 2.2 batters per nine innings.
8. Larry French, 95.6
Comment: Won 10 or more games for 11 straight seasons from 1930 to 1940, and then was excellent on the sitcom
”Family Affair.“*
*Of course that was really Sebastian Cabot as Mr. French on ”Family Affair,“ which allows me to mention that Sebastian Cabot was also the narrator’s voice for the Winnie the Pooh movies.
7. Kenny Rogers, 107.5
Comment: Should have been the craftsman of his time, but instead is often called a ”Jamie Moyer type“ even though he’s just two years younger than Moyer and probably achieved craftiness at about the same time. Moyer’s first true crafty season was probably 1993. Rogers had his first crafty season that same year. It’s all very confusing. Maybe you can’t be crafty and throw and perfect game and shove cameramen and share names with the guy who sang ”Lady.“
6. Curt Simmons, 111.5
Comment: Had a classic crafty-lefty year when the Cardinals won it all in ‘64 — went 18-9 with 3.43 ERA and 104 strikeouts in 244 innings. Unlike Moyer he could not maintain that craftiness.
5. Jerry Reuss, 118.6
Comment: Crafty AND underrated lefty, which is tough to do, he won 14 games when he was 22, he won 13 games when he was 39, and he won double digits 10 times between. Reuss wasn’t really crafty as a young pitcher — he threw pretty hard and he was very wild. The craftiness came later, as it so often does.
4. Tom Zachary, 124.8
Comment: Pitched just after Deadball, my favorite thing about him is that on his Baseball Reference page they list his name and follow it with ”a.k.a. Zach Walton in 1918.“ What the heck happened there? That was his first year in the big leagues. So that means he showed up, a kid from North Carolina, and said, ”Call me Zach Walton. I like that name. Zach Walton. Sounds tough.“ And then the next year, he goes, ”Um, my real name is Tom Zachary, let’s go with that from now on.“
Zachary is also the answer to two trivia questions: 1. Who gave up Babe Ruth’s 60th homer in 1927? 2. Who had the most victories in a season (12) without a loss? If you guessed Tom Zachary on both of those, congratulations, you’re a winner.
3. Earl Whitehill, 124.9
Comment: They called him ”The Earl“ because, you know, it was like a play off his first name. Wikipedia, which is always right, has a classic crafty story about Earl getting mad at Ty Cobb because Cobb rans in from center field to tell the The Earl to throw curveballs. Whitehill also knocked out Lou Gehrig with a pitch, which would seem to take away from his crafty credentials. But a guy who wins 218 games has a 4.36 ERA and walks more than he strikes out has to be pretty crafty.
2. Jamie Moyer, 126.2
Comment: Not the craftiest?
1. Herb Pennock, 163.8
Comment: Nope. Pennock wins by landslide. He’s in the Hall of Fame on sheer craft (his 9.83 hits per nine innings is, I believe, the highest for any pitcher in the Hall of Fame) and his ability to tell some good Babe Ruth stories. He won 240 games and only struck out 1,227 batters. He was, as you know, a Jamie Moyer type.
Loading ...
You should read up on Adam Pettyjohn. He was devastated by ulcerative colitis and missed three years right after he broke through to the bigs and finally got another shot this year. A great story.
I caught one of the commentators on FOX (either Joe Buck or Tim McCarver, I guess) saying that one of the Rays hitters, when asked about Jamie Moyer before Game 3, mentioned that he was more or less similar to Mark Buehrle. (I only heard it in passing, so I apologize for sounding so vague.) How does Buehrle fare on your scientific-looking-but-not-actually-grounded-in-objective-analysis Craftiness Scale?
To beat ulcerative colitis, you’ve got to be courageous.
Also crafty.
It takes incredible determination to nibble the corners and go 3 and 2 on everybody when you have ulcerative colitis.
…”Nope. Pennock wins by landslide. He’s in the Hall of Fame on sheer craft”
Actually, his election probably had more to do with him being on his death bed from a cerebral hemorrhage at the time the voting took place in 1948. Though I’m sure the craftiness helped him, too.
[...] Moyer’s America That was, as it turned out, the very day that Lindsey Lohan was born. Let’s face it: If I had any idea how to run a blog, this obviously would be a very good place for an utterly gratuitous photograph. Let’s give it a try: … [...]
[...] Moyer’s America One of the fun parts of being a newspaper columnist is, because of the absurdity of deadlines, we often get to start columns on spec. With a drop-dead 1:30 am deadline for a game that, very clearly, would not be over at 1:30 am, … [...]
Ricky, the fact that he’s playing professional baseball despite having to undergo surgery because of the disease is pretty incredible. Your comment about his performance in light of that is inappropriate, in my opinion. Take that over to Deadspin where they’ll appreciate it.
I wonder how far Joe got in this column before he realized that he needed to throw it out…
…Tom Zachary, maybe?
If you name your child Buck, there is also a chance he becomes a lead sled dog. Is that the other 13.2%?
How did Bit-O-Honey and Sugar Daddy fail to make your list of the worst Halloween treat? The only things worse than those were those nameless small hard candies wrapped in celophane that were white and brown striped.
Tommy John is part of a baseball-reference Oracle link between Jamie Moyer and Herb Pennock.
It goes Pennock to Bucky Walters to Tricky Dick Donovan (he was right-handed so craftiness was verboten) to Tommy John to Jay “Why Did You Trade Him?!” Buhner to Jamie Moyer.
Ricky, you know what it takes to throw that backdoor slider on a 3-2 count with runners in scoring position with two outs in the late innings when you’re suffering from ulcerative colitis?
Guts.
Bruce Hurst?
John Tudor?
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/73449-tonight-im-a-jamie-moyer-fan
Baseball guy.
Bob Shirley. Except he was really bad
I don’t know how Showalter became a “Buck”, but it wasn’t his parents. How do I know this, you ask?
The scene: Birmingham airport, Christmas 1980. I’m waiting on a flight to Fort Walton Beach, FL with my mother and sister. I had with me a few handfuls of baseball cards from my collection, to guard against having to communicate with my travel companions.
A middle-aged gentleman noticed what I was doing and called me over to where he sat. He said he had a son in the Yankees farm system, who tore it up at AA that season and would surely soon be the starting 1B for the big club. Then he asked if he could see the best Yankee card I had. I sifted through my cards and showed him a 1974 Roy White.
Before I could protest, he took the card, whipped out a pen, WROTE ON MY ROY WHITE CARD, and handed it back to me. Said something like, “Here, now it will be more valuable when my son becomes famous.” I looked at the card, and across the bottom he had scrawled “Nat Showalter’s Father”.
I hid my indignation, and the following season began following the exploits of Nat Showalter in the pages of the Sporting News. He never did make the show as a player, and when he resurfaced (or, to most, surfaced) as manager Buck Showalter, I wasn’t sure it was the same guy until I saw his hometown was DeFuniak Springs, FL, just up the road from FWB. Yep, that was ol’ Nat, sure enough.
I still have the Roy White card. Looks like you can get one on eBay for a buck (hey!) — not mine, though.
I love Jamie Moyer, we made a drinking game after him.
One Saturday, several years ago, Moyer was throwing a televised game and we realized that the radar gun on TV was reading both the Pitchers reading and also the catcher as he threw it back, well several times the catchers throw came back with a faster reading than Moyer’s. So, us being college kids at the time, we decided to drink everytime that happened. He lasted 6 or 7 innings and we managed to get pretty damn drunk. The greatest was when a pitch was fouled off and the umpire threw the new ball to Moyer and his throw read faster than Moyer’s previous, this, of course, called for finishing our beers. Good Times!!
Oh, by the way, I had to do some checking and it looks like Tom Zachary used the assumed name Zach Walton in an attempt to protect his college eligibility for the next year.
Any “worst Halloween candy” poll without the black and orange wrapped peanut butter candies just isn’t science.
I loved Jamie Moyer’s taped interview on the Game 3 pre-game show in which he became rather emotional talking about pitching for his hometown team in the World Series. Moving stuff.
Moyer seems to me like someone who would be a fascinating subject for an extended interview about the craft (sorry) of pitching.
I was at Game 3 last night. The third baseball game I’ve been to in the last year that ended after 1:30am. That’s kinda ridiculous.
And Howard goes bye-bye as I type this. Series over?
Not sure why Tom Glavine didn’t show up on your list. Maybe it’s my Braves background, but I think of him as the classic ‘crafty lefty,’ and it’s certainly true that every lefthanded starting prospect from 1995-present who didn’t walk many and didn’t throw hard got compared to him.
You know, Buck Weaver might have been a good manager if they hadn’t kicked him out of baseball.
Of all the times I have had seats pretty close behind home plate, the two most memorable games were by Steve Busby, at his peak, dominating the Yankees, and Jamie Moyer, in his 40’s (I guess that could be his peak as much as anytime) befuddling the Royals. Oh, yeah, Randy Johnson, terrifying the Royals, but I was down the first base line, terrified myself at getting conked by the late swinging Royals.
Moyer threw two speeds the entire game. 82 and 78. I don’t recall the ball EVER being over the middle of the plate, or anything close to the plate being more than an inch or two above the knees. Generally he threw everything at the knees, either on the corners to about 3 inches off the corners. (he had zero fear of pitching down and in as well as down and away). Again, everything was 82 or 78. It was the most exciting lack of pitching excitement I have ever seen.
I’ll save the busby/yankee game story (prominently featuring Lou Piniella) for another day.
I give you Internet-bestowed Moyer type #15: Lindsay Gulin. He’s in the Brewers organization, and I’m pretty sure the comp is because he’s in his early thirties and pitches v.v.v.v.v. slowly. Oh, and he’s left-handed. (Is there such a thing as “crafty righty,” btw?)
To be fair and, sadly, also a bit of a buzzkill, Buck Rodgers parents didn’t name him Buck. As we can clearly see, on the pictured baseball card, they named him Bob*. He got tagged as “Buck” because his last name is Rodgers, just like Tom Gordon got called “Flash”, guys named Eddie are very often “fast” and guys named Pete seem to be inordinately “Sneaky”. Really, the “crafty lefty” thing is, I think, closely related to repeating nicknames thing. And also the lazy association thing.
Is that poem meant to be read or recited to the tune of the Kinks’ “Destroyer”? Because the first line scans perfectly with the chorus of the song.
*Speaking as a guy named Bob, who has a father named Bob, a grandfather named Bob and a son named Bob**, I applaud their excellent taste in names
**We are, of course, actually all named Robert and merely called Bob, except for my son, who is named Robert but called Andy because after Bob, little Bob and Bobby we couldn’t think of a variation that the boy’s mother would accept.
Minor point, but the Marlins’ Cody Ross should be listed as center fielder not right fielder. Although Ross did play some right field, he was Florida’s primary starting CF. Jeremy Hermida was the starting RF.
People with colitis aren’t “crafty”… they’re drafty.
A list of famous managers named Buck without mention of Buck O’Neil?
very first communication of any sort (on my part) via the internet so I am at onetime excited and certain i’ll totally foul this up and not only send this to Karachi but worse …be irrelevant, my apology’s now. I could just tell (being mystical of course) that Mr. Moyer would petty much “handle” Longoria and Co. Saturday past…been teaching location and changing speeds to hundreds of 10, 11 and 12 yr. olds …well for a little while now. But thios ain’t about my clairevoyance and teaching abilities (or mighty lack thereof).. it’smy hope that someone will tyr really hard to get Brian Bannister to change his style to something more like Mr. Moyer and become the missing?:?? part in the Royals rotation before we have to give up on him entirely. You guy’s, i’m sure remember the important part that Mr’s Liebrandt and Gura played in our guy’s success in the past ..and if my memory serves any at all (and gosh I hope it does) the senior Mr. Bannister also changed speeds very effeetively during his career. Anyway thank you for letting me pop-off….again many thanks. OZ
Ok, so a question for everyone: say two or three more seasons of Moyer being a freak, with a bit of luck getting good run support for a strong team or two. Call it 35-40 victories, putting him at 280+ career. Any Hall of Fame recognition?
No room on that list for Warren Spahn?
Yeah, second the vote for Tommy Glavine. Has there been anybody who lived more nibbling on the outside of the plate?
Scott McGregor was one of the craftiest lefthanders of the 1970’s-80’s. He had 138 wins in 10+ seasons, an era under 4.00, and pitched a shutout to clinch the 1983 World Series. He also owned Reggie Jackson and struck him out 4 times in a game.
Bravo, Joe. Anybody named “Rube” deserves at least 1,200 cool points automatically.
I love Jamie Moyer, so I loved your blog, one of the craftiest I have ever read. And great responses, gang. Very few boring, negative or nitpicking.
My trivia contribution–Jamie Moyer is, as far as I know, the only Pennsylvania Dutch player currently in the majors. And no, PA Dutch is not the same as Amish, and no, he does not make his own furniture.
The last one I know of was Dave Schneck, a Luzinski-like sluger for the Mets who had lots of promise but never made it happen.
Dave Schneck was “Luzinski-like” if Greg Luzinski walked up to home plate on his knees. Schneck was generously listed at 5-10, and hit 8 homers in three seasons.
If you put out a list of “sparkplugs,” instead of “crafty,” Schneck would be on that list. Far, far down the list. Luzinski would never make the sparkplug list. As a Mets fan, I only wish Schneck had flashes of Luzinski-like ability.
It occurs to me that baseball is the only sport where crafty isn’t (usually) a euphemism for being a dirty player. In basketball, John Stockton was crafty which meant he elbowed a lot of people in the groin and tripped them. Offensive linesmen are called crafty when they know the can get away with holding. In soccer, being called crafty means you’re a diminutive midfielder from South America or the Mediterranean who dives a lot, but you’re too skillful to just be called a cheat.
I appreciate the fact that baseball uses the term crafty more to mean “we’re not really sure why this guy is good” rather than “he cheats and gets away with it.”
Dave Schneck was Brian Dayett-like. I can’t believe I would have reason to ever recall either one of those guys. One of the many reasons I love this blog.
According to Ken Rosenthal, Jamie Moyer could identify acutely with colitis sufferers, dealing with “a severe stomach virus” on the night before his Game 3 performance that left him suffering from “diarrhea.”
Moyer’s oldest son, Hutton, had a quote in Rosenthal’s article that should be immortalized:
“Know how the bloody sock went to the Hall of Fame? Our toilet seat should go to the Hall of Fame.”
Now, that’s crafty.
You beat me to it, Jimmy. Gotta mention Buck O’Neil.
Coincidentally, I just finished reading “Soul of Baseball,” which just unseated “Moneyball” as my favorite baseball book of all-time.
What, no Beastie Boys references?
Royals have a minor leaguer attempting to make it with Moyeresque stuff – Rowdy Hardy. (That also qualifies him as the most inaptly named pitching prospect ever. Guys named “Rowdy” should certainly be fireballers, wouldn’t ya think?)
re: the Halloween Treat…
I voted for “Any Kind of Fruit” because something sounds really gross and ‘tamperable’ about that.
Still, the worst treat I ever received was Money, because there was one house, where the people let each child take one penny. I was around 11 years old and was not very thankful, at the time. Now, I want to be nice about it… maybe the family was struggling financially… but the whole thing seemed really strange. Isn’t it easier, and cheaper, to go out, or just keep the lights off and not answer the door?
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this but I thought I might. Just ask yourself who is Baseballs greatest lefty power pitcher? Randy Johnson. He and Jamie Moyer were once on the same team. What would it bee like to face 100 mph fastballs and 87-92 mph sliders one day and then walk up to see 82-78 mph the next. Or vice versa.
“A list of famous managers named Buck without mention of Buck O’Neil?”
Notice that Joe said “big league manager.” I had to go back and check, myself, because I’m sure that O’Neil is Joe’s favorite Buck. I think Joe even mentioned writing a book about him…
I was also about to question Joe’s failure to mention Buck O’Neill but I see that I was beaten to it. As an aside, I was in KC earlier this month and was able to visit the Negro League Baseball Museum. I would encourage everyone to visit if given the opportunity.
Also, I have a relatively new co-worker who mentioned that her uncle (or second-cousin or something) was Larry Gura when she found out I was a baseball fan. Since then, maybe six months, I have seen Gura mentioned in a web-article or blog comment maybe four or five times after not seeing his name in years. Thanks OZ.
Frank Tanana defined crafy lefty for me growing up. As I remember it he started out a fireballer and then crafted his way around the majors for quite awhile post-some kind of injury.
If Joe is there, or anyone … why on earth was this game played tonight?
Forecast was for light rain throughout the night. I think everybody was caught off guard by the severity of the rain.
What an absolutely fascinating scenario. Who will start the bottom of the sixth tomorrow night? TB has Shields on regular rest if they want him. Can they really pass that up in a World Series elimination game?
They could also hand it to Price and try to save Shields for a home start. Boy would that be ballsy.
Buck Showalter picked up his nickname in the minors when his manager noticed he was always hanging around the ballpark. The quote was, “Showalter, you’re buck naked at your locker when I get here in the morning and buck naked at night when I leave.”
I was going to mention Frank Tanana, but both he and to a lesser extent Tommy John sort of deserve crafty with an asterisk. Tanana was an awesome strikeout pitcher, arguably with Nolan Ryan part of the best 1-2 KO punch a team ever had (I said arguably, if you want to pick Ryan Seaver, or Koufax Drysdale, or any other combo, be my guest; but Tanana Ryan was awfully good at striking folks out for a short while), until he blew out his arm. Then he came back without the same heat, learned crafty, and was pretty good (but not great). Tommy John wasn’t as powerful before his eponymous surgery, and had a much longer career after he became crafty, but was fairly crafty: I think Bill James used that word to describe John in one of his abstracts.
But if you want the peak of craftiness, at least for a single season if not a career, I believe Randy Jones was quite the crafty lefty the season he won the Cy Young award. In fact, in 1975-76, when he finished second and then first in CYA voting, he averaged in aggregate less than a K every three innings while still being considered about the best pitcher in the NL. Now that’s crafty!*
Read it at http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/jonesra01.shtml and weep. He threw 600 innings those two years and was never close to the same pitcher again. WHIP’s both years under 1.05. W:IP ratio just under 6. Tom Verducci should put Jones up as his poster boy for not overusing a young arm. Since you’re now at SI, you might want to earn some Verducci brownie points by suggesting it to him. You never know when he might be able to score you some Springsteen tix!
I really hate nitpicking after such an entertaining post, but I can’t stand this any longer! Sportswriters and announcers from around the country continue to refer to the Rays as “Tampa.” This is like writing about the Dallas Rangers or Milwaukee Packers (or the LA Angels, but that’s for another day). Is the additional 1-syllable, 3-letter word “Bay” too much effort? During the ALDS, TBS frequently said things like “Tropicana Field in Tampa.” So again, I apologize for taking this out on you, Joe, and your highly insightful readers, but once and for all: The Rays play in St. Petersburg which is NOT Tampa and in fact has a bit of a jealous rivalry with its larger, more famous sister city.
I believe Tommy Herr was also Pennsylvania Dutch. By the way my mother’s maiden name is Moyer (no relation… I think).