Dempstered!

Ryan, in better trim.

Ryan Dempster does a pretty good impression of the late comedian, Chris Farley.  If you've never seen it, google it, and check it out.

Ryan Dempster used to do a pretty good impression of a MLB pitcher too, but this season has gone from bad to horrific after tonight's performance.

Dempster had a miserable night in Arizona, but at least it was short.  In the bottom of the first inning, Diamondback hitters did the following:

C. Young doubled to left

K. Johnson walked

J. Upton hit by pitch, C. Young to third, K. Johnson to second

S. Drew homered to deep right center, C. Young, K. Johnson and J. Upton scored (4-0)

M. Montero grounded out to first (this was the outlier)

M. Mora walked

R. Branyan walked, M. Mora to second

G. Parra walked, M. Mora to third, R. Branyan to second

B. Enright singled to right center, M. Mora scored, R. Branyan to third, G. Parra to second (5-0)

C. Young singled to left, R. Branyan and G. Parra scored, B. Enright to second (7-0)

J. Berg relieved R. Dempster (and in Chicago, there was great rejoicing!) For those of you keeping score at home, Dempster turned in an ERA of 189.00, with 7 earned runs in one-third of an inning, throwing 40 pitches.  It's not often we see a pitching line this bad, and for the rest of the season, I will be calling this type of performanace by a pitcher being "dempstered."

Burn Baby Burn! Closer Inferno!

Has anyone else gotten tired of the yearly meltdown and corresponding reporting on the various ‘closers’ in MLB, and when they may lose the job to some other candidate to be a dumpster fire in the last inning of a game near you? 

Throw a Benitez on the fire

This season we’ve already seen four pitchers (Thornton – White Sox; Rodney – Angels; Nathan – Twins; Franklin – Cardinals) lose their closer gigs by fanning the flames, instead of putting them out. There are others that have lost and (kind of) regained their jobs (Storen – Nationals; Fuentes – A’s), and a couple (Lidge – Phillies; Aardsma – Mariners) that are injured. It’s been volatile, but the reality is it’s always volatile, with an average of 12 closers in any given year losing their jobs for one reason or another since 2004.

Fan’s who know the history of the game know having a "closer" is a very recent innovation for baseball, relatively speaking. The idea of having one special guy pitch the final inning of a close game in which his team has the lead has really only been around for about the last 30 years. It was probably Bruce Sutter that started it, not that it was his idea, or his ‘fault.’

"Goose" Gossage, like Sutter, had morphed from being a 2 or even 3-inning guy in the 1970’s to a one-inning pitcher by the early 1980’s. John Franco, Dan Quisenberry and Lee Smith followed, and then Dennis Eckersley set the new standard that only Mariano Rivera has since matched.

Lefty led in wins AND saves in 1930

Back in 1930, Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove led the American League in saves with 9. The fact that Grove was 28-5 that season, and threw 291 innings may have cut down on his save opportunities? Do you think the cranks in Philly back then were clamoring for his removal as closer? 

Not sure, but next year Lefty only had 5 saves. Maybe his excuse was that he started 30 games, and finished 5 others? The fact that he went 31-4 in 1931 with a 2.06 ERA in 288 innings may have been a lot better reason to leave the man alone?

In 1930, and really, for the better part of every season of Major League baseball from the early 1900's until about 1980, teams basically used 4 to 6 pitchers for about 75% of their innings in a given year, and often a higher percentage than that. The idea was that a manager wanted one of his best pitchers to finish off a game in which he had the lead, and the best pitchers were always starting 35-45 games a year at minimum, and pitching well over 200 innings, and often over 300 innings. There were many more complete games in any year than there were saves.

In 1971, the Baltimore Orioles had 4 starting pitchers that all won at least 20 games, pitch a combined 123 games, and throw 1080 innings. That figure was well over 70% of the innings for the team. The O’s also had 4 other very important pitchers on that team, that all pitched in relief, depending on the situation, and the whim of Earl Weaver, the Oriole manager. Combined, those four pitched in 125 games, but only threw 157 innings. It was really Weaver as much as anyone else that came up with the idea of ‘specialist’ relief pitcher. He refined the strategy of having a pitcher come in to get one important hitter out late in a game, but also in earlier innings, when the game was (and is) just as often won or lost.

Certainly Casey Stengel used pitchers in a similar way, but no one ever knew what Casey would do, or who he might bring in any situation, and he seldom used 3-4 pitchers in 1-3 inning stretches they way Weaver would. (Weaver was no one’s fool as a manager, and immediately saw his bullpen idea mimicked. He countered with ‘specialist’ pinch hitters and role players he could sub in at critical "game changing" times when the oppostition brought in their relief specialists.)

With Baltimore’s enormous success in the 1970’s, we saw a ramping up in the evolution of the closer.

Mike Marshall went 15-12 in 208 innings (all in relief) for the Dodgers in 1974. His ERA was 2.42, and he saved 21 games, and won a Cy Young award. Marshall evoked the memory of Jim Konstanty for the Phillies in 1950, who was not the Cy Young Award winner (there was only one Cy Young Award back then for all MLB), but he did win the National League MVP. Konstanty won 16 games and saved a MLB leading 22 games over 152 innings. He was fifth on the Phillies staff in innings pitched, and combined with the top four threw 71% of the innings for the Phils that season.

Sparky Lyle won the Cy Young award pitching in relief in 1977. He only had 26 saves, but won 13. He also pitched 137 innings that season, which is more than twice what almost any closer does now.

Thurm and Sparky win another

The following year, Sparky lost his job to a guy named Rich "Goose" Gossage, and Lyle gave us "The Bronx Zoo," one of the best baseball season journals ever written.

Lyle didn’t lose the Yankee "closer" job, it was just handed to Gossage because he’d been signed to a contract paying him $3,000,000 over 5-years. Lyle was ‘only’ making about $175,000 for the season, and even though he’d won the damn Cy Young award, couldn’t keep the job once George Steinbrenner decided Goose was his guy. As Lyle himself said, "If I had the choice between a guy like me throwing 83 MPH sliders, and a guy like Goose throwing 100 MPH gas, I'd take the gas too."

One of my favorite all time baseball lines was Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles to his friend Sparky, when it was apparent that Gossage was the new man in New York:

"Sparky, you just went from Cy Young to Sayonara."

Growing up I heard all the old relief pitcher names like Wilcy Moore and Firpo Marberry – the latter being one of the truly great baseball names of all time. Firpo? He was the man in the late teens and early 1920’s, and was a big part of the Washington Senators only World Series win in 1924, saving two games. I doubt Firpo knew what a baseball "save" was. There was no need for a stat that no one really wanted to have. Pitchers starting a game were expected to finish the game, and many MLB teams routinely had 70+ complete games in a season. Generally, if a guy like Firpo came along, he was called a "fireman" there to smother the dumpster fire and save the day.

Any true baseball historian can tell you that no one kept track of "saves" back then. They didn’t become an official MLB statistic until 1969, and when Rolaids started bestowing the Fireman of the Year Award on the pitcher in each league with the most saves in a season.  From that time forward, the save statistic slowly insinuated itself into the game of baseball. (Since that time too, stat geeks have gone over and over every MLB box score for well over 100 years, and added up everything and given us save totals, retroactively...multiple times, that's one more reason why they are geeks.)

There have been some great pitchers that have led their league in saves, and gone into the Hall of Fame, and none of them would have known a save from a salve, the latter of which they probably preferred getting for their sore and over-used arms?

Along with "Lefty" Grove, I give you "Dizzy" Dean, "Chief" Bender, Ed Walsh, "Iron" Joe McGinnty, Carl Hubbell, Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, Eddie Plank, Christy Mathewson, and some guy named Cy Young. Yeah, Cy, I wonder where he found the freakin time in between 511 wins? All right, it’s true that Young only tied for the American League lead, with 2 (count ‘em) saves, but it did lead the league in 1903. It wasn’t a fluke either, because in 1896 he led the National League…with 3.

The Yankees had a series of guys that were well-known ‘firemen’ starting in the 1930’s with Johnny "The Fireman" Murphy. "Milkman" Jim Turner was next, with the nickname given to him because he was coming into games so late, that the milkmen were beginning their daily routes. Then we had the indomitable Joe Page, who drove Casey Stengel crazy starting back in 1949 when Joe was great, and 1950, when he was awful. Stengel used to say he had his "Good Joe" (DiMaggio) and "Bad Joe." Page had party personality and a severe drinking problem, but then again, so did Stengel. Casey may have been brilliant in many ways, but he brought in one last drunkard named Ryne Duren in 1958, so maybe he wasn’t that smart. It really did help Duren’s reputation that he was wild as a pitcher, and a known drunk otherwise. He also wore glasses that had lenses that looked like they were taken from the bottom of Coke bottles, and would often fire a warm up pitch into the screen behind the plate at 100 MPH, just to get folks attention.

The Yankees had a number of other hard drinking players back then, when Casey was manager. Don Larsen was a huge lush. Of course there was the Mickey, Whitey and Billy trio, and Hank Bauer wasn’t afraid to take a drink, or punch you out just like Billy would. Later on, Clete Boyer could drink with the best, and still play a Gold Glove third base. Hey, I am digressing.

Some classic "closers" from the 1960’s were Elroy Face, Ron Perranoski, Hoyt Wilhelm, and Phil "The Vulture" Regan. Regan got the "Vulture" nickname because he won 14 games in 1966, while saving 21. Some writer said he was "like a vulture, picking up easy wins just laying out there for anyone to grab." He also pitched 116 innings that year, which is about twice what any current closer will log.

In 1959, the year before the Pirates beat the Yankees in the World Series on Mazeroski’s homer, Roy Face went 18-1 for Pittsburgh, and saved 10 more games. Face was 5’8", and weighed about 150 pounds, and was one of the first effective forkballers (split-fingered fast ballers) used strictly in relief.

Somewhat similarly, Ron Perranoski went 16-3 with the Dodgers in 1963, and saved 21 games. The Dodgers swept the Yankees in the World Series that season, but Sandy Koufax was a bigger reason, even though Sandy only saved one game that year in 311 innings pitched.

Hoyt's Hall of Fame Knuckler

One of my favorite closers of all time was Hoyt Wilhelm, a great knuckleballer who pitched until he was 49 years old, and was generally unhittable after he was converted to being a relief pitcher for most of the last 13 years of his career. Wilhelm actually led the American League is ERA as a starting pitcher for the Orioles back in 1959, but never led either league in saves in his career. (I was a big Hoyt fan because my mom swore to me that Wilhelm lived in my hometown of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY at some point around in the mid-1950’s when he pitched for the NY Giants.) 

Wilhelm was a 29-year old rookie in 1952, and in his first at bat in MLB, he hit a home run. In 20 more years of playing baseball, he never hit another. When he retired after the 1972 season, at age 49, he had appeared in more games (1070) than any other pitcher in MLB history, and thus became the best baseball trivia question I ever came up with. Hoyt has since been passed by 4 other pitchers, with NY Met immortal Jesse Orosco leading with 1246. Hoyt had to settle for a plaque in the Hall of Fame.

You can with this, but this one's really phat

Another part of why I was a big Wilhelm fan was Hoyt’s knuckler? My dad threw a nasty knuckler that was also uncatchable, so it had to be awful to try and hit the ball. Does anyone remember the huge gloves catchers used back then to ‘block’ the knucklers that Wilhelm threw? I wish I'd found a better photo of the enormous flaps of leather that broadcasters and baseball pundits often called "elephant ears," that served as catcher's mits back then.

Brewer announcer, actor, comedian, and former last string catcher Bob Uecker used to say he never had a problem with the knuckle ball:

"I just wait for it to stop rolling then I pick it up."

So, really, what’s the fuss about all these closers anyway?

Bill James and his progeny have trashed so many baseball myths over the years that I have lost count. They have taken baseball statistics into the modern era, and given all of us a much better way to look at the numbers that are the lifeblood of the game.

For many years now, James has been stating over and over again that a team’s best relief pitcher should often be brought into the game earlier, and if need be, let him pitch 2 or 3 innings. Gee, maybe one of the old ways was better after all? I mean, why let some lesser pitcher blow the game in the 8^th inning, or earlier, when you have a stud in the bullpen?

When Joe Torre was managing the Yankees, he’d often use Mariano Rivera in the 8^th and 9^th innings, and then make sure to rest him for an extra day.

Baseball has become trapped into thinking that one pitcher has to be the guy in the 9^th inning, and it’s just stupid. Why would anyone want some random scrub pitching in the 7^th inning of a game in which you’re winning by 2, with the bases loaded, and no one out? Give me my best guy right then, and maybe I get out of the jam with the lead? Let him finish the game if need be. Give him an extra day off to rest.

Better still, lets see more of the top starters in both leagues like CC, Tiny Tim, Doc, or even Dopey, Sleepy, or Grumpy coming into games on days when they’re scheduled to throw anyway, and blowing some gas by Pujols, Miggy, or CarGo? Let them throw 10-20 of those bullpen pitches in a game once in a while, when it’s really important to get an out.

Let’s see Phillie fans boo Roy Halladay off the mound after a blown save!

Okay, extremely bad example, but you get the idea.

So, as we await the next closer bearing a five-gallon jerry can filled with high octane who is ready to pour it on those smoldering cigarettes in the dumpster near you, I leave with the immortal words of   The Trammps:

"The folks was flaming
out of control
it was so entertaining
when the boogie
started to explode
Burn Baby Burn!"

Next time --
How to get your boogie down.

Bonds, Hamilton, Dykstra, Rose and…… Schwartzel!

There are probably some people that think Barry Bonds was the victim of an outrageously expensive (some estimates as high as $75-million) ‘witch hunt’ in his recent trial for perjury and obstruction of justice? To me, if an extremely wealthy person can lie to a Federal Grand Jury and get away without being prosecuted, that’d be more expensive.

Reiser was superb

Does anyone wonder if Josh Hamilton actually hurt his shoulder on the head first slide into third base, prior to his mad dash for home? Regardless, isn’t Hamilton one of those doomed ball players, as far as injuries are concerned? NY Daily News columnist Mike Lupica compared him to Mickey Mantle this morning on ESPN’s The Sport Reporters.


To me, the first name I thought of was Pete Reiser, perhaps the most talented player in Dodger history, and a man that could never seem to stop crashing into walls.

Shoot 'em all, Archie.

In an excerpt from All in the Family, we had the brothers Giambi testifying at the Bonds trial about steroids, and the brothers Canseco somewhere out in the Arizona desert making believe they are playing professional baseball. Did any of you catch the fact that Jose is being sued by a promoter because he alleges Ozzie Canseco subbed for Jose at some event?

And you want to be my latex salesman

Lenny "Nails" Dykstra, a favorite of Met and Phillie fans throughout his career was recently arrested and jailed for attempting to buy a stolen car. This came shortly after he was charged with a felony for selling assets out of his (stated) $50,000 estate. Lenny claims debts of $31 million. Did you know that Lenny used to give stock tips? Seriously, Lenny Dykstra. Let’s go back and check out some of those 1986 Mets Lenny teamed with that have had problems as well. We have Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and Wally Backman. That’s a lot of crash and burn, but Lenny has them all beat right now.

18 days into the MLB season, and things look remarkably as one might expect, with a few interesting exceptions:

-- Two of them are the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians, who are both 10-4, and sitting tied a top the AL Central. I don’t think the Indians will stick around, but the Royals could be pretenders for a stretch. If they can get some quality starts from their rotation and let what looks to be a talented bullpen take over, they will continue to win as much as they lose. At some point, they will start to feed some of their emerging and superb minor league talent into the mix, and just might be a fun story this season?

-- Meanwhile, Minnesota looks terrible, and Joe Mauer will be out for at least 2 weeks. A bigger worry might be Joe Nathan looking like half the closer he used to be, but Matt Capps is there just in case, and the Twins seem to find a way to get in the chase every year. Francisco Liriano needs to become a dominant starter, and a couple of other guys on that staff need to step up too. The Twins starters are mostly pitch-to-contact guys, so Michael Cuddyer at second base isn’t helping either.

-- Of course thousands of Red Sox fans have already jumped off the Mass Ave Bridge over the Sox 3-10 start. Most of them tried to drag Carl Crawford and Clay Buchholz with them. Luckily, it’s a short drop to the Charles River, and there are plenty of crews in sculls gliding by to snag them out of the water. Does anyone really think that Boston won’t go on a tear and win something like 18 out of 23? I have a suggestion for Terry Francona. Put Jed Lowrie in the line up every day until he proves he doesn’t belong, and ask Theo Epstein to find you a better catcher. The Yankees aren’t thriving right now either, though they are hitting, but is anyone willing to bet on Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon, and Ivan Nova over the long haul? A-Rod is achy already, and Jeter looks worse than last year.

Ozzie, Master of the F Bomb!

Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen was in mid-season form when he had his first big blow up this season at an April 13 post game press conference after his bullpen blew yet another game. The four-letter words flew, and I quote:

"I see the same shit you guys see. Exactly same fucking shit. When we play good, they send those guys to this fucking table and talk to them like heroes. When we fuck it up, I’m the one who has to … sit here and talk to you guys."

In other stories we had Charl Schwartzel winning the Masters, stunning everyone by making 4 straight birdies to finish. I heard that with some of the prize money, he’ll be buying a vowel, spinning the wheel, and guessing "S." Tiger livened up the crowd and the TV numbers swelled, but Woods just doesn’t seem to have the magic anymore. Young Rory McIlroy spun out of control, but he is a very resilient and talented kid who has weathered much tougher things in life than what happened to him on April 10 in Augusta, Georgia.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs have begun, and I know I will watch a number of games if only because they will last into June. Hmm, ice hockey in June.

In the NBA Playoffs, we have all been told how wonderful Derrick Rose is, and it’s all true. Somehow I don’t see them getting to the finals though, as pro ball isn’t college, where one young man (Kemba Walker) can carry a team that far. I’d love to see Oklahoma City play the Chicago Bulls though – it’d be a lot more fun for me than a Laker versus Heat finals, which is what I think we’ll get. Enjoy the ballin’ now, because next year is in serious doubt.

Oh yeah, the Orlando Magic didn’t play last night – Dwight Howard had 46 points and 19 rebounds.

For the record, it snowed here yesterday afternoon – nothing stuck, but it snowed.

Jes sayin…

Jack was Back, and the Fat Lady Sang

"Young man, you play a game with which I am unfamiliar."

Bobby Jones, after the first time Jones had seen Jack Nicklaus play golf at Augusta National.

One for all ages

If you’re not a fan of golf, that’s all right, you can still love the story of what Jack Nicklaus did 25 years ago at Augusta National. Hollywood does stuff like that all the time, and we love most of it, even though we know it’s all a crock…right?

You don’t need to buy into the Masters Golf Tournament being the high holy day of the golf world. You needn’t worry that the gentlemen running the show in Augusta might evict you as a commentator on the CBS telecast because you said the "greens were so slick, it’s like they’ve been bikini-waxed." That actually happened to Gary McCord a few years back.

What any true fan of sports and game competition knows is that what Jack Nicklaus did at Augusta National in the 1986 Masters was one of the greatest performances of all time anyone had ever seen in any sporting event, and it was there for anyone to see, and now we can watch it again, or maybe for the first time?

Jack at 19 years of age

I saw Bill Mazeroski hit the homer off Terry in 1960, Joe Namath beat the Colts, the 1969 and 1986 Mets, and the Giants beat the Patriots. Never been to a barn-rasing or a square dance, but I have watched almost every major sporting event for about 50 years and Nicklaus winning the 1986 Masters is still the best sporting event I have ever seen.

Jack was the best golfer the world had ever seen, but he was 46 years old, and hadn’t won a major golf tournament since the 1980 US Open. He hadn’t won at all in 2 years, and knew he was about at the end of being a true contender in most tournaments he played. He couldn’t even see the flight of the ball after he hit it sometimes, and was beginning to suffer from a number of other aches and pains a lot of guys in their late-40’s get.

No one gave him a chance to win.



'75 was the last Masters win

 Being well back in the pack even at –2 under par, when Jack teed off that Sunday he set a goal of shooting a 65 if he was to have good shot at winning. 65! It had only been the previous day when Nick Price shot a 63 to break the tournament record, and here was Jack aiming for a 65 on the final day.

The details of how it all happened that afternoon have been better told than I could perhaps ever hope to do, but I can tell you that watching the last 3 hours of the telecast that day was surreal. Even a bogie at number 12 was just a small hiccup after he played the last 6 holes at 5-under par.

The increasing crowd roars and cheers must have frightened some of the other golfers, or at least given them plenty of pause? I can truly say that what happened that afternoon sent more chills down my body than anything I have ever seen in a sporting event in my life. And again, this was not a ‘moment’ in time – it was three hours of drama that would be laughed at, if written in a script.

The men that run the tournament won’t allow anyone on the telecast to refer to the folks attending the tournament to call them a crowd or a mob. They must be referred to as "patrons," or the "gallery," and the number of patrons is limited to 20,000 per day. Getting a ticket to see the tournament is one of the most prized tickets in all of sports. One must get on a waiting list to have a chance to get a ticket to a practice round. That day, that afternoon, all 20,000 patrons and 99.9% of the millions watching on TV were riveted to the most stunning display they’ll probably ever see, and all of us were cheering for him.



Arnie and Jack

 Jack smiled back.

He hit his tee shot on 16, the par 3 over the pond that extends from tee to green, and without checking the flight of the ball, leaned over to retrieve his tee. His son Jackie was caddying for him, and Jackie said "Be right!" It’s a classic golf phrase.

Jack said "It is."



It truly was surreal


It missed by inches of going in the hole for an ace, but the birdie was a given by then. Another birdie at 17 became the signature photograph of the tournament, when Jack rolled it in. He finished with a (then) record 30 on the back nine and left up to others to fall short, and the best golfers in the world complied.


Jack was back, and still phat.　
　
　

Butler Redux

The Butler Bulldogs have an opportunity tonight to win the 2011 NCAA Men’s Championship as a #8 seed. If they do so, they will match the Villanova Wildcat’s victory in 1985 (as an #8 seed) over John Thompson’s and Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown Hoya’s as the highest seeded (and to date the only 8-seed) to win the tournament.

I believe right now, that if Butler wins the game tonight, it will be the greatest achievement in the history of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The reason why is that Butler barely lost last year to Duke as a #5 seed, then lost their best player (Gordon Heyward) to the NBA, yet managed to come all the way back to be on the stage again tonight.

The Wildcats won that game 26 years ago by two points, and shot 78.6% from the field for the game, including 90% in the second half. Yeah, that’s right, they made 9 of 10 from the field as an 8-seed versus a #1. It was an incredible game, and the very last NCAA Men’s basketball game without a 35-second shot clock.

I’ve been following college basketball since the early 1960’s, and can remember Bill Bradley taking Princeton Tigers to the Final Four in 1965. At that time, it wasn’t nearly as enormous an achievement as it would be even 10 years later, but it was still an incredible story, even with Princeton losing their semi-final game to Michigan. Back then the teams losing in the semi-finals would play a preliminary game before the championship. Bradley scored 58 in that one, against Wichita State, then went to England for two years. I think we all know how the rest of his life has gone.

Jim Valvano imbedded himself into the National consciousness initially by winning as a #6 seed with North Carolina State over the #1 Houston Cougars in 1983. There are few college hoops fans that haven’t seen the clip of Jimmy V running around looking to hug someone once the game was over. How could it be that Derek Wittenburg could jimmer up a desperation 30 footer and have his teammate, Lorenzo Charles catch and dunk it for the win?

1983 was also the last time a player (Hakeem Olajuwon) from a losing team won the "Outstanding Player Award," and the final time the championship game was held on a college campus ("The Pit" in Albuquerque, New Mexico).

The Arizona Wildcats became the only #4 seed to win the tournament in 1997, and the only one to have beaten all three #3 seeds they faced. No #5, #7, or any other seeded team has generally ever won except a series of #1’s and #2’s.

Only four #3 seeds have won, since all the seeds were first made public in 1979. The Connecticut Huskies have a chance to join that group tonight, but not as an underdog.

I think the difference in picking winners in these games is often finding the team with the most players likely to play in the NBA, and going with them. That should mean UConn, as Kemba Walker is an obvious NBA player, and there is not an obvious counter on Butler.

All that, and I keep thinking Butler will do this year what they couldn’t quite get done last year, but I’ll promise you this -- what ever does happen, enjoy the ride once again, because it’ll be one of those memories you’ll carry for a long time, and if Butler does win, it will be the best story in NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament history.

I’d really like to see that.

Butler redux.