Kuzul

Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. I hope the Cincinnati Reds have not left their confidence there.

Regardless of today’s outcome, the San Francisco Giants have shown some serious flaws in the Cincinnati Reds pitching staff.

In two games they have been outscored by the Giants 27-7 and have given up 35 hits in the 16 innings the Giants have batted.

In the first game of the series, Edinson Volquez did not get out of the first inning. He was pasted for five hits, five runs, and issued three free passes in only 2/3 of an inning.

Last night, one of the best pitchers on the staff was given a similar inhospitable greeting, as he allowed the Giants to put up a three spot in the first frame. Rookie southpaw Travis Wood managed to stay around for four innings after giving up seven runs and seven hits.

Two of the Reds’ starters who have been relegated to the bullpen didn’t do any better.

Mike Leake pitched one inning and gave up six runs, six hits and and two home runs, looking nothing like the ROY candidate he had been earlier in the season. It was his second terrible outing from the bullpen, making me wonder if he is going to work out in that role.

Fellow rookie Sam LeCure—who was just brought up from Louisville to fill the spot vacated by Jordan Smith’s departure—pitched the final three innings giving up five hits, three runs, including a homer.

Of the seven hurlers trotted out by the Reds in two games, only left-hander Bill Bray pitched scoreless ball.

If anyone wondered about the Giants being dead after losing a series to the St. Louis Cardinals, rest assured they are alive and well.

Brandon Phillips was 3-5 with two dingers as one of the few silver linings to the black cloud over their collective heads. Drew Stubbs added two hits and Scott Rolen hit his 19^th HR in the losing cause.

Rookie infielder Chris Valaika singled in his first MLB at bat after being called up from Louisville the same day.

The health of the Reds also took a hit as outfielder Laynce Nix twisted an ankle while running the bases, and Jim Edmonds had to go on the DL due to a strained oblique.

The Cardinals and ace Adam Wainwright were beaten by the forlorn Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3, leaving a 2.5 game gap between them and the division leading Reds.

Homer Bailey (3-2), impressive in his two starts since returning from the DL, will pitch in the final game of the series Wednesday afternoon. He will be facing southpaw Madison Bumgarner (5-4).

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For anyone who doesn’t think the Cincinnati Reds are for real, this article is for you.

They have just exorcised a demon that has tormented their souls since July 28, 2005. That was the last time the Reds won a game in Chavez Ravine, aka Dodger Stadium. Coincidentally, it was their second win in a row during that four game set.

The Reds used two Jason LaRue home runs and seven strong innings by Brandon Claussen to crush the Dodgers 6-1.

Winning that game and splitting the series, the Reds brought their record up to 13 games below .500 at Dodger Stadium.

You have to go all the way back to May of 2004 to find a Reds series win at the Ravine.

My, how things have changed.

You see, the Reds weren’t getting beat, they were getting outscored 2-1. In those 12 losses the Reds scored only 39 runs while allowing the Bums to score 78.

On Friday night, Homer Bailey tamed the demon with a four-hit outing in seven strong innings. The Reds used eight singles—three by Brandon Phillips—to whip the Dodgers 3-1. Phillips also drove in all three runs.

Yes, the joy was short lived as the Dodgers came back and launched four bombs in route to an 8-5 pasting.

In the rubber match on Sunday, war horse Bronson Arroyo pitched seven strong innings, allowing seven hits and only two runs while raising his record to 14-7. He is now tied for third with Chris Carpenter for wins in the National League.

Phillips continued his hot hitting with a 4-5 outing, scoring the Reds first run.

Joey Votto knocked in all three runs, ruining a very good outing by Clayton Kershaw by lofting an opposite field solo shot in the sixth inning. Votto is batting .350 with a HR and seven RBI on the current road trip.

Kershaw struck out 11 men in his seven innings of work, which was marred with five free passes.

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants 9-0 to remain 3.5 games behind Cincinnati.

The Reds begin a three game series with the Giants Monday night, with Edinson Volquez facing Matt Cain. The Reds will be seeking vengeance against Cain who tossed a two hit shutout against them in June at the Great American Ball Park.

The Reds won their 29^th series of the season and third consecutive after being swept by the Cardinals.

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The true test is here. The time to find out if the Cincinnati Reds are playoff material has arrived in the form of a nine-game West Coast pow-wow.
 
Recent history suggests the Reds are screwed. Over the last five seasons, the Reds have a 16-35 (.314) record on the Left Coast.
 
In ’06 they were tied for first before embarking on a 10-game stretch in the West Coast. A 2-8 trip later, they were six games behind and the season was essentially finished.
 
The time change will always screw up anybody flying from the East to the West—whether you’re playing a sport or filing TPS reports. But it’s not like every team struggles so mightily in the Pacific Time zone.
 
The good news is that only three players have endured this embarrassing slide. Brandon Phillips, Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang have been through it all.
 
Maybe the young guys have no idea about the poor West Coast play. There is also a greater veteran presence with players like Scott Rolen, Arthur Rhodes, and Orlando Cabrera who have been there before. This is also a team that hasn’t lost more than five straight all season and that was in April.
 
The trip will start in Arizona to play the lowly Diamondbacks. They swept them at Chase Field last season, so that shouldn’t be an issue. Key word is shouldn’t. I’ll predict a series victory, as the Reds win two of three.
 
Then it’s off to L.A. Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine has treated the Reds like a punching bag. The Reds are an embarrassing 0-12 in the past four years in L.A.
 
Why is that? Are the Reds distracted by the tasty Dodger Dog? Does the late-arriving crowd divert them?

Sure, the Dodgers have been a superior team over the past four years, but it is absurd to say that Brandon Claussen is the last pitcher from the Reds to beat the Dodgers in L.A. It’s a quirky streak that needs to end in ’10.
 
So I will go out on the limb and predict that the Reds will take a game against the fading Dodgers.
 
The trip finishes with a visit to San Francisco. The final game is a 12:35 local start and the ninth game in nine days for the Redlegs. Needless to say I don’t expect a win in get-away day. So let’s say the Reds take one of the three against the Giants.
 
Add it all up and I see a 4-5 trip. Low expectations, eh? Considering the recent history of this team on the road, most fans would be satisfied with that mark. Tread water on the infamous West Coast swing and go home and continue to beat up on the N.L. Central dregs.
 
It’s a major hump the Reds need to leap over, and getting past this stretch, while keeping up the pace with the Cards, will go a long way in the Reds playoff aspirations.

It’s gut check time in Cincinnati as the dog days of summer roll on.

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It wasn’t a typical skirmish in the Reds-Cards showdown, and it symbolized the wildest brawl in the history of sports, as each team was unable to stay above the fray when a verbal altercation initiated a physical altercation.

It was utterly amazing that Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips, an agitator who caused tempers to flare and blatantly singled out the St. Louis Cardinals with verbal trash talk, merely was handed a fine for escalating and instigating an ugly war between two teams with bad blood.

In truth, the animosity triggered a benches-clearing brawl that was so untypical at a time peace is spreading unity in the game. Besides, a brawl very seldom materializes unless it’s Yankees-Red Sox in UFC melees, which are mundane and viewed as traditional tussles.

This week, the most controversial issue happened, as usual, when Major League Baseball issued suspensions for players’ involvement in a repulsive and unorthodox brawl, but mishandled imposing a befitting penalty for the instigator who was the cause of the ugly incident.

How utterly compelling that we continue to ignore the causes and effects in life and deny the visible evidence, finding someone else liable for wrongdoings in a tawdry and uncontrollable rumble.

But this is the era we live in currently, a sport blinded by the truth in regards of steroid scandals, awful no-calls or calls or even an asinine brawl, as the majors are showing nepotism and remains unsuccessful in inflicting a valid punishment.

Whether he wants to admit it or not, Phillips should be dropping his head in shame, and blaming himself for prompting the dispute and adding to the hostility.

When he publicly lashed out on the Cardinals the other day, the abhorrent remarks backfired and cost his teammate and starting pitcher Johnny Cueto a seven-game suspension for his actions during Tuesday night’s game.

Few believe, however, that Phillips broke baseball’s unwritten rule and suggested that he should have served a suspension. All of his talk led to absolute nonsense, as Phillips became famous for publicly calling out the Cardinals unpleasantly and starting a fight, similar to the heated, back and forth feuds that explode at nightclubs or even in sports, such as this deranged fracas.

The theory is, of course, play nice boys and perform the task with strong persona and good sportsmanship. Have they ever heard of playing nice?

Sometimes I wonder and gush over the significance of sportsmanship and respect for peers and teammates, whereas sharing the wealth and spreading reconciliation harmonizes the atmosphere at a friendly, relaxing night at the ballpark. Point is, it was a hilarity scene with no purpose, endearing what could have been a harsher punishment.

And since Phillips said he despises the Cardinals on Monday, it had the fuming antagonist emotionally livid during a matchup that has turned out to be appealing, capturing baseball devotees who are now anxious to witness a rematch of the Reds-Cards in the NLCS.

It’s suddenly the dream matchup? From contamination to physical knockouts, baseball has suddenly turned into a Wrestlemania or Ultimate Fighting spectacle?

If there is any excitement or buzzing noise in the majors come October, it would be a hostile meeting between two heated, ill-tempered rivals, and would be the equivalent of all the outrageous Jerry Springer brawls, or fights that take place on the playground during recess.

When the news first surfaced, it strictly revolved around Phillips and no other player or manager. As of recently, he was overly talkative in his public rant that obviously broke the hearts of the Cardinals, but had the initiative and stronger minds without responding to Phillips’ fighting words. Yes, words that were foolish, words that were an explanation of antipathy.

“I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is [beep] and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little [same bleep, plural], all of ‘em. I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.”

Oh, he clearly elaborated and stated how he felt about the divisional rivals. The harsh words probably made the Cubs speechless. The spiteful words probably opened many eyes. The insulting words probably awakened the Cardinals and have inspired the team to come out with much fortitude, strength, and firepower.

It’s very interesting to see whether the Cardinals ride the emotional surge from Phillips’ latest bickering, and maybe this was a momentum push to increasingly expose the unbeatable, invincible, unstoppable mindset.

But if anything, the recent incident was mishandled and managed wrongly, failing to acknowledge the core of the problem and issue standards to fairly suspend Phillips, who impelled the much-anticipated altercation.

It’s very surprising to some degree that only three players were suspended in the brawl, when there were evidently more than three players involved in the tragicomic hysteria.

This is unfortunate in a way, as Cueto is hit with seven games, and we all know why. But I have a problem with the Reds starter forced to sit out seven games, as the enforcers were harsh and denied any convenient excuses.

In some way, Cueto could have gotten away with kicking as if he was a whiny baby stuck in a stroller, in a brawl that drifted towards the fence behind homeplate. At that point, players were pinned against the backstop netting, including Cueto, who showed off some of his Kung Fu motions. From a sensible viewpoint, he used self-defense.

In perspective, this is one martial arts expert who is being used as an example, and he’s fortunately projected to miss one start and will appeal the suspension, subsequently for landing several kicks to the back of Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter and the ribs of catcher Jason LaRue, who suffered a mild concussion and sore ribs, according to manager Tony La Russa.

So now, the insults of Phillips isn’t the vital problem and has receded as the storyline. And now, we are focused on Cueto’s actions. The peeving nonsense is why the majors are so corrupted and battered in a crisis, very rampant to whereas it’s gradually turning millions away. How Phillips receives a fine, and not a suspension? This is another nightmare in baseball, but perhaps only this time it involves a brawl.

While La Russa and Dusty Baker were suspended two games a piece, Phillips, Carpenter, Yadier Molina and Russ Springer were all fined. What? That’s all? They were all in the brawl and just as liable as Cueto.

There’s a clear understanding that Phillips is being labeled as the victim even when he prompted a face-to-face shouting dispute with Molina and taunted him with his bat. Wow! Really, you forgot that fast. How could you, it just happened a few days ago.

In my mind, it is insanity when Phillips is not accused of any wrongdoing.

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“I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em.  I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals,” Reds 2B Brandon Phillips.

Phillips’ comments eventually escalated into a full-fledged brouhaha last night.

When Phillips came to the plate to lead off the bottom of the first inning, he tapped Yadier Molina’s shin guard with his bat.  This is something that Phillips does on a regular basis to the catcher and umpire as a way of saying hello.  Molina appeared to be expecting the tap and kicked Phillips’ bat.  Phillips then tapped him again and stepped away to take a practice swing.  Molina got in Phillips’ face, prompting both benches and bullpens to empty.

Paul Janish, who was on deck, immediately came to the scene and tried to restrain Phillips. Jonny Gomes and Scott Rolen ran out of the Reds’ dugout to hold back Molina.  At first, it seemed like a normal baseball fight with a little pushing and shoving. 

Dusty Baker and Tony LaRussa, who aren’t exactly best friends, began having a rather heated discussion.  The umpires separated the two managers and things appeared to be calming down until it appeared that Chris Carpenter had some words for Baker.

Then all hell broke loose.

When you watch the video, it is hard to tell if Rolen was going after Carpenter or if he was trying to keep the peace.  Regardless, it certainly appears that Carpenter instigated that stage of the fight.

The fracas moved to the backstop behind home plate with Rolen and Carpenter in the middle of it.  Several people appeared to go down to the ground, including Rolen.  That was when I got worried.  In a baseball fight, nothing good can happen if you are on the ground and everyone else is piled around or on top of you.

After the fighting stopped, the umpires decided to only eject both managers.  I give the umpires a lot of credit for making that decision.  Something had to be done.  It would have been a shame to see players get ejected during such an important series, especially since both sides were clearly at fault.

That brings me to my take on the melee. 

I agree with what Phillips said about the Cardinals.  Most of the Reds probably do.  They cry and complain all the time about the opposition allegedly cheating when they have one of the biggest cheaters in the history of the game in their dugout.  Carpenter reminds me of the spoiled kid with a sense of entitlement and thinks the entire world revolves around him.

However, I would not have publicly expressed my feelings the way Phillips did.  Why add to your opponent’s motivation during a tight pennant race?

I don’t think Molina was wrong in the way he reacted to Phillips tapping his shin guard.  I would have done the same thing.  Phillips was just asking for trouble.  I would prefer him make a statement by playing hard and helping his team win the game.  I suspect that a lot of his teammates feel the same way.

However, when it comes to the Reds, Phillips is family.  You protect your family and stand behind them, even if you don’t agree with their actions.

It would be highly recommended that the Reds win the series finale this afternoon.

Read more at Reds Country.

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For Brandon Phillips, firing up your team should probably not involve getting teams into fights.

Phillips, easily one of the best players and leaders for the Cincinnati Reds, may be the reason why the St. Louis Cardinals swept their recent series, ending today with the Cards winning 6-1.

Yesterday’s scrum proved to be a major boost for both teams. For Cincy, it showed that they have a fire, which will keep them in the NL Central race with perennial contenders from the Gateway to the West. For the Redbirds, it showed that firing up a proven team can backfire, especially when given the chance to send a message on the road.

What Phillips said was not wrong, albeit strongly opinionated. The problem lies within the person he started it with, catcher Yadier Molina.

Molina is arguably the best defensive catcher of the last decade, and has been a force while taking his place behind home plate. On top of that, Molina is the receiver for one of the best trios of starting pitchers in the 2010 season. That trio includes Adam Wainwright, Chis Carpenter, and the budding Jaime Garcia.

Molina is a leader in his respective clubhouse, just like Phillips, but Phillips can only do so much after getting the fire started. Molina is a part of every pitch in any game that he is catching. If he wants to make sure you never hit a pitch, he can do that with the talent he has throwing to him. If he wants you hit, he has the power that will make sure you get hit.

Molina can occasionally hit the ball, too. His fired up solo shot in yesterday’s victory is proof that Phillips got someone fired up.

The race in the NL Central will be one of the best in baseball as the season reaches its stretch run. The brawl on Tuesday and the sweep of the Reds by the Cards will also have an effect on the next few days and series. The players for both clubs will not forget what happened during the past three games, and it appears the Cardinals have responded in a more positive fashion than the Reds have.

Do not be surprised if Reds starting pitcher Johnny Cueto misses a start in the next coming days, as Cardinals catcher Jason LaRue has been put on the disabled list with concussion-like symptoms and bruised ribs, courtesy of Cueto’s best attempt to kick like a swimmer in the air.

Both teams have Thursday off before big series. The Cardinals return home for a visit with the rival Chicago Cubs, and Cincy welcomes Josh Johnson and the Florida Marlins to the Queen City.

Hopefully for the Reds, Brandon Phillips likes the Flying Fish more than the Redbirds, who flew out of Cincinnati with the sweep, and sole possession of first place in the NL Central.

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“I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em.

“I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.”—Reds 2B Brandon Phillips prior to three-game set against the Cardinals this week.

First off, let me say that the comments uttered by Phillips are spot-on. The Cardinals complain about stupid little things like balls being rubbed differently and Bronson Arroyo’s hat. Manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan are whiners. The real problem is that they are whiners who are also winners.

Nobody likes the team that beats everyone in a game of basketball yet still complains that the opponents were fouling like crazy. Herein lies the problem Phillips has with the organization—they are complaining about things that don’t even affect the win and loss totals for the Cards. They are the divisional powerhouse and are still not satisfied.

So in that regard, Phillips is indeed correct. Many other players around baseball nodded their heads in agreement when they read his comments.

The part of all this I disagree with is the timing of it all. The veteran Cardinals have been on cruise control for most of the 2010 campaign. Why light a 20-foot fire the day you go in the forest? Why give them the motivation needed to beat the crap out of you? Baseball is all about being steady, not getting too up or too down.

That was not the case on Tuesday.

The brawl between the two clubs was a joy to watch—by far the best one of the season, as even the two managers were jawing at each other!

Former Cardinal turned Reds third baseman Scott Rolen was playing peacemaker until the uncalled-for comments of pitcher Chris Carpenter—directed towards Reds manager Dusty Baker—enraged Rolen. Next thing you knew, starting pitcher Johnny Cueto was pinned to the backstop kicking Cardinal players away just to avoid being trampled.

Cardinals catcher Jason LaRue was the only player to get hurt, but plenty of punches and pushes were thrown. I’d say the fight was a draw. And yes, Cardinal fans, you would start kicking people away too if you were pinned against a wall with 50 professional athletes getting shoved in your direction.

The problem is that now it looks as if Rolen and Cueto will be suspended. Carpenter might be the only one on the Cardinals’ side to be punished (and I’m sure they will complain about it). All of this stemmed from Phillips’ comments.

Now let’s talk about actual play on the field.

In a nutshell, the Cards have crushed the Reds over the past three days. A two-game lead for the Reds has turned into a one-game lead for St. Louis. The Cardinals have been playing extremely angrily, and the Redlegs weren’t ready for the boost in intensity.

There is no way to judge how much of an impact Phillips’ comments had on the Cardinals’ performance. ESPN analyst Al Leiter places all the blame on Phillips for the brawl. So is this whole disaster of a series his fault?

No, not at all. Is it his fault that the Reds’ pitching has been horrendous? Is it his fault the outfield has looked like there were three Adam Dunns out there? Sure, he only collected two hits in the series, but there were plenty of other problems that could be blamed for this debacle.

But this is not a “ship has sailed” moment either. It’s only three of 162 games. There are 50-plus games to go. The two teams play each other one more time in St. Louis in early September. The Reds have the easiest remaining schedule in all of baseball. The NL Central dregs are all still on the slate.

Don’t take this series as anything more than what it was. The Reds have shown they aren’t ready to take down the older brother just yet—but let’s see if they can a month down the road.

Chalk this up as a learning experience for the young Reds. Pennant fever is getting hotter and hotter.

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The Cincinnati Reds have been one of the biggest surprise contenders of this baseball season, having last made the playoffs 15 years ago, in 1995. Before this season, the Reds had finished below .500 nine straight seasons, never finishing better than third in the NL Central since the year 2000. This year’s success, therefore, much like the success of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, has come as quite a shock to many baseball fans. Winning with a combination of solid hitting, led by MVP candidate and triple crown threat Joey Votto, and with an incredible array of good young starting pitchers, including rookie sensation Mike Leak, the Reds have begun to get their fans excited for the first time in years. And the fans aren’t the only ones in Cincinnati feeling the heat of an upcoming pennant race, the players are as well.

Brandon Phillips, the Reds’ second baseman, said leading into this week’s series against the St. Louis Cardinals: “I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is b**** and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little b******, all of ‘em. I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.” This verbal provocation, combined with a tap on the shinguard of Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, was all that was needed to begin a bench clearing brawl in the first inning last night in Cincinnati. Although the scrum was the bigger headline after the game, the Cardinals victory was far more important. With that win the Cards pulled into a tie for first place with the Reds, and are poised to take sole possession of first with a win over the Reds today. With all this drama, are fans in Cincy paying a premium for tickets to see their Reds? The answer is yes, and no. Certain indicators point towards higher prices, while others show less of an upward trend.

Over the past week, the Reds are ranked 14th in average ticket price on SeatGeek’s new ticket price leaderboard. This hardly constitutes a premium considering the Reds have the 9th best record in the majors, and are tied for the 4th best record in the NL. When we take a closer look at the season long data for the Reds, it becomes more clear that any change in price is minimal. The two graphs below outline the average price of Reds tickets over time, both by date of transaction, and by date of the event for which the transaction took place.

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Emotions got the best of both the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.

Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips made comments a few days earlier about the Cards that didn’t sit well with St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina.

Before the bottom of the first inning, the pair got into a heated argument and the benches cleared.

Managers Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker got involved. So did starting pitchers and former allies.

With a playoff chase on the line and bad blood, this rivalry won’t be going away anytime soon.

Here are five reasons why St. Louis and Cincinnati just made the race atop the NL Central division that much more interesting.

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The doctors call it a UCLR (ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction). Baseball players and fans call it Tommy John surgery—named after the pitcher who was the first to have the surgery in 1974. Fans of the Cardinals call it the surgery that saved former left-handed reliever Ken Dayley’s career, and also gave him spotlight from the way he recovered from it. Dayley recovered in an astonishing seven months where most pitchers take up to 14 months recovering from the operation. 

Ken Dayley was a left-handed reliever who used a snappy curve and fastball to become the Cardinals’ top left-handed reliever during his tenure with the team. He recovered from Tommy John surgery in 1986 to win a personal-best nine games in ’87.

In 1989, he set career highs with 71 appearances and 12 saves. He was particularly effective in the postseason, tossing 10 scoreless innings in two League Championship Series and allowing just one run in 10 2/3 World Series innings, including a relief win in Game 2 of the 1985 Fall Classic.

In short, Dayley was key cog in the Cardinals’ bullpen during his stint with the team.

Dayley is also the only known player to recover so quickly from the operation, but he shares the secret to his success in this article. 

As Dayley puts it in a New York Times article from 1989, “Dr. Frank Jobe told me to do what my arm would allow me to do, and I was proceeding at that pace (in reference to a 12-month recovery).

“But then on Dec. 19, 1986, the Cardinals told me they weren’t going to offer me a contract. Probably out of personal pride, which I shouldn’t have let get in the way, I said I’m going to do what I have to do.

“Without a contract, I was free to do what I wanted to do. I had been playing racquetball right-handed and I started playing left-handed. I started throwing before I was supposed to. If I was going to get a contract from somebody, I had to show I could pitch again.”

Former Cardinals reliever Rick Horton stated in a recent Cardinals telecast, “He was incredible. He came back in seven months and threw harder with more control, which is almost unheard of after seven months. Usually pitchers take close to two years to regain solid control of their pitches, but Dayley had better break and control after a short time, which is almost unheard of.”

Dayley’s speedy recovery has provoked major league ball players to question if they can return in such a short time, but doctors have advised not to rush the process. 

Rick Horton added, “The doctors made him sound as if he were a medical miracle.”

It would be something to marvel at if players such as Chris Carpenter, Billy Wagner, A.J. Burnett, Brian Wilson, and others to had comeback from their injuries in such a short time like Daly, but due to their situations they did not.

Perhaps Dayley is the medical miracle that he was made out to be, and he is an interesting story to revisit during a new era of products of the Tommy John surgery.

Maybe in the future a player will recover quickly like Dayley out of the same necessity, but until then, Ken Dayley is still the only Tommy John-produced medical miracle.  

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