Kuzul

Playing Rough

Something you hear a lot about from fans is the lack of an “old-school” mentality in the modern game of baseball.

While many of the proponents of the so-called “old-school” are too young to know anything about it, there is some truth to the idea that the game was more hard-nosed in days gone by. Whether this is a good or bad thing is open to debate (that’s what we’re here for, after all). With injury concerns and millions of dollars at stake, with careers and long-term health on the line, we have seen less and less of the violent action that, in our sepia-toned memories, once punctuated the game with much greater frequency.

Collisions at Home Plate

Recently, the focal point of these debates has been collisions at home plate.

Talented young catcher Buster Posey broke his leg blocking the plate and missed all but a few weeks of the 2011 season after a Rookie-of-the-Year season in 2010. Perhaps more famously, in the 1970 All-Star game, Pete Rose ran over catcher Ray Fosse, causing Fosse to suffer a separated shoulder, which many fans attribute to the decline of Fosse’s career. In fairness, Fosse played 42 more games that season and hit .297, and the collision with Rose was just one of many injuries Fosse suffered through the years.

The question here is was it worth it?

Fosse has been quoted many times saying it’s “part of the game”, and Rose maintains he was just trying to win. The problem here is that this was an exhibition game, with nothing on the line. In general, the catcher can possibly try for a sweep tag or even attempt to catch the runner further up the line. The runner isn’t always forced to hit the catcher; he can opt instead to slide around him or go for the plate with his hands.

While I don’t believe collisions are a thing of the past, I do think players on either side will be less likely to hit each other going forward because of the possibility of injury. Nobody will tell them explicitly not to do it, but the unwritten rules of baseball are legion.

My view: sometimes the team needs that run, or needs to prevent that run, more than anything. If it is going to give them the best chance at the result they want, then a collision is going to happen. These decisions are made in split seconds. So unless it’s unnecessarily aggressive, then it’s just part of the game.

Charging the Mound

Here’s something you rarely see, and likely with good reason.

While a pitcher can easily enrage a batter by hitting him or brushing him back one time too many, it’s probably not a great idea to rush at him from the batter’s box. If the batter is holding onto the bat and threatens the pitcher, he is looking at a suspension or even the possibility of criminal charges.

If the batter is a little bit smarter than that and drops the bat first, he just made the mistake of approaching a guy standing on raised ground who is, in all likelihood, quite a large man. Pitchers are big, often bigger than many sluggers. They have eight other guys on the field ready to back them up, including one wearing protective gear located right behind the batter.

Still, this is such a rarity that I only included it in this article so I could show the picture of Nolan Ryan beating up Robin Ventura. Ryan, already an old man and not long from retirement, famously got the upper hand when a young Robin Ventura came steaming towards the mount. Ryan was ready for him, and he grabbed Ventura in a headlock (a side headlock for you wrestling fans) and pounded his fist into his head until other players intervened. Do a Google Image Search for Robin Ventura, and you will see this in the first five pictures.

My view: if you’re stupid enough to do it, then go ahead. Fun for everybody!

Playing Dirty

There are countless examples or ‘dirty’ plays in every major sport that are nevertheless a part of the game. Then there are some things that just don’t jive well with most fans or players. I think the two most extreme examples of these types of behaviors are throwing at a batter and spiking the baseman.

Firstly, spiking the baseman.

You’re going from first to second on a sharp grounder off the bat of your teammate, and you see the second baseman running to cover the bag. The game is tied with one out in the seventh and the pitcher is tiring; you need to break up this double play. So you slide right at the second baseman, hoping to cause him to throw wide.

Breaking up the double play is always the right choice, but the line is drawn when you decide to stick your front foot up a bit and aim for the legs.

This is a dangerous and mean-spirited play and if obvious enough would result in an ejection. This wasn’t always the case, though.Ty Cobb, one of the greatest of his time – all-time leader in batting average, second all-time in hits, and all-time leader in being a psychotic bastard – was infamous for sharpening his spikes and aiming them at the defenders’ vulnerable legs. Cobb, being the demon in human form that he was, did this even on the most routine plays. While this was met with scorn and criticism even in his day, in Cobb’s mind every play was the most important one of the game.

Throwing at a batter; this is what prompted this whole article.

More specifically, Cole Hamels hitting Bryce Harper is what prompted this article.

Pitchers have hit batters for over a hundred years, and they’ll keep on doing it. While it’s dangerous and often a prelude to run-scoring retribution, I can’t say it doesn’t have its place in the game. It’s the situation it takes place in that makes all the difference.

Hall of Famer Don Drysdale was infamous for hitting batters, and quite hated for it, but it was a part of his strategy (which he put down to not wanting to waste four pitches on an intentional walk when he could throw one and plunk him).

On the flip side, you have the recent plunking of super-prospect and media magnet Bryce Harper by popular-only-in-Philadelphia Cole Hamels, who claims he hit Harper to “teach him a lesson”. While most pitchers will agree that sometimes throwing at a guy is acceptable, this is an example where it’s just a scummy thing to do.

Nowadays hitting a batter is taken pretty seriously by umpires, and hitting a guy who had never faced him before in the first inning of a scoreless game is a stupid move for a pitcher. Since it was both unprovoked and obviously on purpose, Hamels could have easily been ejected.

Where would that leave his team?

Now you’re asking another starter to pitch on the wrong day. Or you’re asking the bullpen, which hadn’t even begun to think about warming up, to patch together nine innings and screw up the next few games because all your relievers’ arms are tired.

For that matter, what lesson was Hamels teaching Harper, except one about Hamels’ obvious jealousy of Harper’s new-found fame?

Being a rookie isn’t a punishable offense, nor should it be (although Harper got the last laugh, stealing home on a pickoff attempt after Hamels put him on base by hitting him). One further point on Hamels and Harper; Bryce Harper is a National League pitcher, and one thing that is rarely tolerated in baseball is unprovoked throwing at a pitcher. Pitchers don’t throw at each other sometimes out of respect, but generally because it’s considered a high crime in the baseball world to do it. So when Cole Hamels was a rookie in Philly, who threw at him?

My view: Situational. Pitchers shouldn’t throw at a guy for nothing, or because they can’t get a guy out, or any other cowardly, selfish reason. However, there are times it’s justified. I cheered when Shaun Estes threw at Roger Clemens (although he didn’t hit him). I crossed my fingers during his every at-bat that Barry Bonds would take one in the head. Even though this isn’t something that should be common, in retaliation for an unjust plunking or as part of a rough game between rival teams, it has its place. That will never change.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Tigers came out of spring training in Lakeland confident of their hitting. Their lineup was rich with veteran bats and some young ones. The offense didn’t figure to be a problem.

But oh, what about that pitching!

The pitching caused some of the so-called experts to make a face that was consistent with biting into a lemon. There were a couple reliable arms but after that, you might have wanted to pray for rain, a la the old Boston Braves of Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain.

Then a funny thing happened. The offense was slow out of the gate, and the pitching—surprise, surprise—actually became the team’s saving grace.

Chalk another one up against the supposed wise baseball minds.

Sound familiar?

It should—if you’re over 45 years old.

If you thought I was speaking of this year’s Tigers, you’re forgiven. You should also be heartened.

This is the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Tigers—who often are nothing more to people’s recollection than the team that came four years after the heroic 1968 Tigers.

But the ’72 Tigers came within a whisker—pun intended—of making the World Series. And the formula they used was the opposite of what was forecast for them.

The Tigers of 1971 were a power-laden team, filled with those same heroes from 1968.

Norm Cash, still raising the right field roof at age 36.

Jim Northrup, another dangerous left-handed bat.

Bill Freehan, still the league’s best catcher.

Willie Horton, always a big bopper.

Al Kaline, another 36-year-old veteran who made the All-Star team in 1971, as did Cash and Freehan.

Off the bench was Gates Brown, who, if he had been born five years later, might have been the greatest designated hitter in history, let alone just for the Tigers.

Then you had the role players, like Mickey Stanley, Aurelio Rodriguez, Tony Taylor and Dick McAuliffe, all of whom could reach the seats more than occasionally.

So it was understandable that the Tigers felt comfortable with their offense coming out of spring training in 1972; the 1971 team had won 91 games and finished a strong second to Baltimore.

On the mound, the Tigers rotation was anchored by veterans Mickey Lolich (lefty) and Joe Coleman (righty), but after that it was a crapshoot. Lolich and Coleman each won 20-plus games. Then you did a rain dance.

The offense bulled its way to the 91 wins—that and the magic of manager Billy Martin.

Martin was, in a way, the perfect manager at the perfect time for the Tigers in those days.

It’s the tenet of hiring and firing coaches and managers in sports that you replace the fired guy with his polar opposite.

If the fired guy is too nice and too much a “player’s manager (or coach),” then you get a tough guy to take his place.

If the fired guy is too strict, you bring in an old softy who the players can “relate to.”

If the fired guy is quiet, go get a loudmouth. If the fired guy has loose lips, hire a clam with lockjaw.

And so on.

The 1970 Tigers played uninspired baseball for manager Mayo Smith, a hands-off skipper whose laissez-faire ways worked in 1968, to the tune of a World Series championship.

But by 1970, the Tigers were cranky and filled with the distraction of Denny McLain, whose escapades often went unchecked by the passive Smith.

As the ’70 season closed, it was terribly apparent that the Tigers needed a swift kick between the back pockets.

Enter Martin, one of the most celebrated butt kickers of all time.

Martin was still a raw manager in 1970, having guided the Minnesota Twins to the 1969 AL East pennant as a rookie skipper. Martin fought the umpires and his own players on his way to glory. A celebrated incident with pitcher Dave Boswell occurred in the alley behind the Lindell AC in Detroit. Martin gave the term “giving the pitcher the hook” a whole new meaning, as he KO’d Boswell after a night of drinking.

Minnesota fired Martin after one winning but notorious season in what would become a career trend for him.

After the 1970 season, the Tigers dismissed Smith, who on his way out of town claimed the baseball fans of Detroit couldn’t tell the difference between a ballplayer and a Japanese aviator. Smith’s words.

GM Jim Campbell brought in Martin, a manager Campbell admired from afar, and a former Tigers player (1958).

Campbell figured—rightly, really—that Martin was just what the coddled Tigers needed in order to awaken their talented roster.

Martin barged in and ruffled some feathers, but also coaxed 12 more wins out of the team in 1971, challenging the Orioles for much of the year.

All this was the back story as the Tigers opened the 1972 season, 40 years ago.

Well, you know what happened—the hitting went south (.237 team BA) and the pitching outperformed the expectations. And Martin’s veteran team managed to stay in the race all summer.

Campbell brought in some graybeards like lefty Woodie Fryman, who was the 1972 version of Doug Fister (2011) and Doyle Alexander (1987); catcher Duke Sims; and slugger Frank Howard.

The season’s final weekend pitted the Tigers against the Boston Red Sox in a three-game series in Detroit. Thanks to a spring training players strike that cut into the regular season, the Red Sox would end up playing one fewer game than the Tigers.

The Tigers took the first two games of the series, and thus clinched the division pennant. The Red Sox finished one-half game back—thanks in part to playing one fewer game.

The offensively-challenged Tigers, who drastically underperformed with the bats, used surprisingly good pitching and their two veteran starters (Lolich and Coleman—1972’s Justin Verlander and Fister), along with Fryman and some unexpectedly strong bullpen arms, to nip the pack at the finish line.

In the ALCS, Oakland beat the Tigers, 3-2 in a heartbreaking series.

A year later, Martin became too much for the Tigers to handle, so he was canned and replaced by his opposite—the more easygoing Ralph Houk.

The 1972 Tigers were the last Detroit playoff baseball team until the 1984 heroes.

Forty years ago. It hardly seems it—if you can remember it to begin with.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Last week, I dove deep into the annals of Baseball-Reference.com and came up with a list of the top 10 all-time pitching performances by position players.

It was a fun list, but I got the feeling afterwards that there was more to say about position-player pitching performances. They’re few and far between and they’re rarely pretty, but they’re also quite awesome in their own way.

So I went back to the records. This time, my goal was to uncover the most memorable position-player pitching performances of all time.

I’m going with a pretty loose definition of the word “memorable” here. Some of the performances I came up with are memorable because of the player who was doing the pitching. A few others are memorable because they were so incredibly bad. 

It’s a mixed bag, but definitely a fun one as well. Let’s take a look.

Note: Baseball-Reference.com has a complete list of pitching stats for non-pitchers. I highly recommend checking it out, and then quitting your job so you can spend more time with it.

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The Mets reached a dubious milestone on Friday night against the Miami Marlins. A first-inning triple by Jose Reyes thwarted the possibility of a no-hitter for the 8,000th time in Mets history.

The no no-no’s streak is surprising not just for its 50-year span. The Mets have had any number of pitchers capable of blanking an opponent for nine innings.

In fact, seven pitchers have thrown no-hitters after leaving the Mets, according to NoNoHitters.com, a website that keeps a running update of the Mets’ futility. Another 10 came to the Mets with no-hitters under their belts.

Nolan Ryan, of course, posted seven no-hitters in his post-Mets career. Tom Seaver threw one for the Cincinnati Reds in 1978, the season following his departure from New York. Dwight Gooden and David Cone added further insult by pitching no-hitters for the Yankees.

Hideo Nomo and Mike Scott also chalked up no-hitters after leaving the Mets. The most recent Mets alum on the list is Philip Humber, who pitched the 21st perfect game in major league history for the Chicago White Sox last month.

The Mets have come close to breaking into the no-hit club. There have been 35 one-hitters in team history. In some of them, an early inning hit was followed by pitching perfection.

Many others were denied in the late innings. Here are six that were stopped in the eighth and ninth innings.

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Getting that first hit in the major leagues is a big moment in the career of any player. There are some players who’ve had the hits mean even more because they came in a big spot.

Jordany Vladespin is the latest player whose first hit had some extra meaning, because he was able to help the New York Mets to a victory.

A number of players have came up to the plate and immediately had success. There is a fairly lengthy list of players who have hit home runs in their first at-bat. For some of them, though, it would also be the last home run that they ever hit.

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On a night that saw Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg run onto the same major league field for the first time, it was Matt Kemp that once again put his stamp on the moniker of  “best player in the game.”

Strasburg was his normal dominant self over the course of seven innings, giving up a lone run while striking out nine Dodgers and walking none.

Harper, who earlier doubled during what was his MLB debut, hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning to put the Washington Nationals up 3-2.

After adding another run to make it 4-2, the Strasburg/Harper hype machine was warming up in the visitors’ locker room until the Dodgers opened the ninth inning with three consecutive hits, eventually tying the game when a wild pitch plated Dee Gordon.

Leading off the bottom of the 10th inning, Kemp promptly deposited the game-winning home run 420 feet over the center-field wall.

As he rounded the bases to the sound of Dodger Stadium chanting “MVP…MVP…MVP,” Kemp threw his helmet towards the sky in celebration before being mobbed at home plate by his teammates.

That home run not only sealed the fate of the Nationals on Saturday night, but it was also the continuation of Kemp staking claim to what is arguably one of the best starts to a season in MLB history.

Kemp is only one of three players to have ever hit .400 with 10-plus HR and 25-plus RBI in the month of April.

• 1970 Tony Perez (CIN): .455/10 HR/26 RBI
• 1997 Larry Walker (COL): .456/11 HR/29 RBI
• 2012 Matt Kemp (LAD): .417/12 HR/25 RBI

To begin this discussion, let’s work solely with those three historic April performances.

Extending Walker’s 1997 numbers further, he also produced more extra-base hits (18) and runs (29) than either Kemp or Perez. Based on the numbers, it would appear Walker had the best start to the season of this group.

Attempting to be some kind of voice of reason, we are eliminating Walker from the discussion based on the fact he played 11 of his first 23 games in hitter friendly Coors Field, also pre-humidor.

Left with a Perez vs. Kemp debate and including the runs and extra-base hit totals to the mix, Kemp clearly gets the edge, as his 16 extra-base hits and 24 runs scored are both more than the total Perez (12 XBH, 21 runs) accumulated in 1970.

Others could argue Perez’s higher on-base plus slugging (OPS) of 1.428 compared to Kemp’s 1.383 is more impressive than Kemp’s edge in the counting numbers.

The “greatest month of April” discussion begins and ends with the 2004 version of Barry Bonds.

He amassed what amounts to historic numbers to begin a season, hitting .472 with an OPS of 1.828.

Even though Bonds’ counting numbers of 10 home runs, 15 extra-base hits, 22 RBI and 21 runs are all slightly less than Kemp’s 2012 totals, it has to be taken in consideration that Bonds put up his totals while being intentionally walked an incredible 18 times.

Unfortunately, if Walker playing his home games in Coors Field is cause for elimination from this discussion, so has to be Bonds’ admittance of having taken steroids, albeit “unintentionally.”

All that circles us back around to the Perez vs. Kemp debate.

Personally speaking, my vote goes to Kemp. Maybe that’s because I was unable to watch Perez play on a daily basis, or maybe it’s because I perceive the pre-humidor days of Coors Field and the Bonds steroid scandal to hold too much negative weight.

Regardless of which April each of us thinks is the best—including the performances of Walker and Bonds—what we as baseball fans have witnessed over the past month has to be considered among the greatest starts to a season in major league history.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Once upon a time, before CNN was born, Larry King hosted an all-night radio talk show. The show originated in Washington, D.C., and was syndicated across the USA. As far as over-night radio on the AM dial, Larry was the king of the airwaves.

The Larry King back then was not the kind and gentle, heart-healthy Larry King who we see on television today. The radio version of Larry was a curmudgeonly, sarcastic man who ate lots of pastrami and corned beef at Duke’s Deli (a D.C. legend) daily, while seemingly divorcing wives annually. 

Larry did not hesitate to blow off a caller who tried to get cute on the air. For that matter, he would diss callers whose agenda was too slow-paced for his liking. King was also known to take an occasional catnap on the air. This was not the show for lonely people with who loved kittens.

One early morn, I was searching for the light switch while my alarm radio was broadcasting the Larry King show. A caller announced that he had the greatest baseball trivia question of all time. Larry grunted and told the called to let it rip.

One area that Larry did not trifle was his appreciation of America’s pastime. Larry is a true-blue Dodger fan. 

I heard the question and not trusting my foggy head, I scrambled to find a pencil so I could record this when the rest of the world was up and about.

NOTE: This question to follow was posed in 1991. Three players have accomplished this feat since this question was broadcast. For the sake of this story, I will acknowledge the three newest members of this story on the next slide.  The trivia question is …

Nine baseball players have won consecutive MVP awards in Major League Baseball. Consequently, each of these ballplayers played a different defensive position. Name these players.

(Your hint is that each consecutive MVP’er played one of the nine infield/outfield positions in their award winning seasons.)

1)  Pitcher:  ____________________

2)  Catcher:  _____________________

3)  1st base:  _____________________

4)  2nd base:  ____________________

5)  3rd base:  ____________________

6)  Shortstop:  ______________________

7)  OF:  ____________________

8)  OF:  ____________________

9)  OF:  ____________________

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Milwaukee Brewer Ryan Braun did something pretty remarkable at Petco Park on Monday night. The left fielder blasted three home runs and hit a triple, resulting in six RBI and 15 total bases.

We’ve seen players hit three home runs in a game before. Heck, Curtis Granderson did it less than two weeks before Braun.

What makes Braun’s big night on Monday slightly more remarkable is the triple he tacked on in his final at-bat. According to the Elias Sports Bureau (via the Associated Press), Braun is the first hitter since Fred Lynn in 1975 to hit three homers and a triple in the same game.

Pretty mind-blowing, am I right?

Here’s a list of 10 single-game feats that are even more mind-blowing than what Braun did in San Diego on Monday night.

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Marty Appel, in his latest book. Pinstripe Empire, explains why the New York Yankees fell on hard times following the 1964 season.

The Yankees won five consecutive pennants from 1960-64, but unlike the well-remembered first streak of five when they also won the World Series after each pennant (1949-53), this time the Yankees won only two world championships.

Appel explains that a major reason was that elite athletes were no longer choosing baseball as they had in the past. Other sports, especially football, were attracting them.

Despite the fact that some “experts” later concluded that owners Dan Topping and Del Webb knew that they were about to sell the team and decided to let the heralded farm system deteriorate, the Yankees did sign young players.

In 1960, the Yankees signed pitcher Howie Kitt, who had gone 18-0 at Columbia, for $100,000. Kitt was born in Brooklyn, was left-handed and was Jewish. He was sent to Class A Binghamton, but had control problems, which resulted in his demotion to Class C Modesto.

Vern Rapp, the Modesto manager was not impressed with his new pitcher.

“He throws hard,” said Rapp. “He’s coming down here to get experience and we’ll correct that wildness.”

It never happened. Kitt spent five seasons trying to develop control. In 607 innings, he walked 501 batters.

Appel thinks that the Yankees might not have been aggressive enough after Kitt because they had been burned many times before signing him.

Paul Hinrichs ($40,000 in 1948), Ed Cereghino ($80,000 in 1950) and Bob Riesener, who was 20-0 in the minors, never became major leaguers.

In addition, the Yankees gave infielder Tommy Carroll and first baseman Frank Leja large bonuses. The two were forced onto to the team by the bonus rule in effect at the time.

By the middle to late 1960s, Appel posits that the only superstars to select baseball were Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench and, of course, Reggie Jackson. Yankees’ scouting direction Johnny Johnson supported Appel’s contention.

“We don’t have the quality of player we used to have, but neither does anyone else, because it just isn’t there anymore.”

The amateur draft, started in 1965, hurt the Yankees more than most team because it temporarily negated the Yankees willingness to spend.

The Kansas City Athletics drafted Rick Monday with the first choice. The Yankees, forced to select 19th, took right-hander Bill Burbach. Monday became a fine player while Burbach didn’t have much of a career.

The Yankees no longer had an edge in signing players and it would take years before Mr. George Steinbrenner helped them regain some of their former glory.

Reference:

Appel, Marty. Pinstripe Empire. New York: Bloomsbury USA. May, 2012. pp. 358-59.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners play two games at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on Wednesday to open the 2012 Major League Baseball season.

The trip to Tokyo comes nine years after the 2003 trip between Oakland and Seattle was cancelled due to complications involving the conflict in Iraq.

Since then, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now “Rays”) faced off in Japan in 2004, and Oakland “hosted” the Boston Red Sox on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in ’08.

But those weren’t the first time that the MLB has played games outside of the U.S. and Canada.

And it’s not the only sport to do so.

This is a look back at the best regular-season games played in other countries by the major sports leagues.

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