By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave wondering if the New Yorks Mets realize what awaits them in their series against the Cincinnati Reds. Or not.
—PAL JOEY: The first couple of years Joey Votto was with the Reds, he was a complete introvert. Interviewing him was like yanking teeth from a Sabre-Toothed Tiger.
After he won the MVP in 2010, he approached me and said, “Hal, you’ve been around this game a long time. If I ever change, please let me know.”
He changed. Dramatically. But I never said a word because the change was for the good. He became an extrovert, easy to interview and always with direct and incisive answers.
An exhibit was an interview he did this week with Chris Russo, The Mad Dog, on MLB-TV’s ‘High Heat.” He talked about his last days as a baseball player, his days at Class A Dunedin and Class AAA Buffalo in an attempt to make it back to the majors with his hometown Toronto Blue Jays and what led to his sudden retirement.
“I signed with the Blue Jays and hit a home run in my first at bat (at Dunedin) and then dinged my ankle. I stayed in Dunedein for 4 1/2 months and joined Buffalo and I played terrible,” he said.
“I played terrible. . .0 for 4, 0 for 5, two or three strikeouts, making errors at first base.
“I’ve got teammates looking at me and thinking, ‘This guy’s a major-league player, an All-Star?’ I got my poor manager penciling me into the lineup and he is looking at me thinking, ‘This guy doesn’t even belong in my lineup.’
“And you are on minor-league buses and you are in minor-league hotels and I’m looking at the ceiling thinking to myself, ‘What’s next? I can’t do this any more. I’m no good.’”
So he went on social media and announced his retirement, a wise decison. He needed to leave his legacy when he walked out the clubhouse door in Cincinnat for the last time.
And his next stop, a few years from now, is the Baseball Hall of Fame. I believe that.
—A MAGIC NUBER: Elly De La Cruz wears uniform number 44 for the Cincinnati Reds, but on Wednesday against the Houston Astros he should have worn ’61.’
How incredible is this? He began the game hitting .261 with 61 stolen bases, 61 RBI, 61 walks and 61 extra base hits.
And he can probably do all that when he is 61 years old.
—SOME DEBUT: Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux made his major league debut on September 3, 1986.
He had just been called up from Class AAA Wichita, where he was 10-1 with five complete games.
But if you think he made his debut as a pitcher, well, turn in your rosin bag. It was the 17th inning and his Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros were tied, 3-3.
He was sent to second base as a pinch-runner. Yes, a pinch-runner. He didn’t score and then he made his pitching debut in the 18th inning.
There was no hint of a trip to Cooperstown. He gave up a one-out home run to Billy Hatcher and the Cubs lost, 4-3.
Did that get him traded to Atlanta? And would the Reds have won the 1990 World Series without Hatcher’s seven straight hits in the first three games? Hatcher didn’t make the Hall of Fame, but that bat that whacked those seven hits did.
—TEDDY TERRIFIC: It is no shocker that a cerebral player like former Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto carried a tattered paperback copy of Ted Williams’ book, ‘The Science of Hitting.”
When I was a kid I despised Ted Williams because he was always beating my Cleveland Indians, lining base hits right through the Lou Boudreau shift that is now outlawed.
Votto, though, had the right man. Votto was an on-base guy and Williams still holds the career on-base percentage record of .482. To go with that, he had a career .344 batting average, 521 home runs, 2021 walks and only 709 strikeouts;
And in the prime of his playing days he spent four years during World War II flying 50 missions as a fighter pilot in the South Pacific.
That made facing American League pitchers a rather easy mission.
—YOU COMPLETE ME: Baseball has changed so much over the years and years and seasons and season, so there are many, many records that won’t ever be broken.
The safest, by far, is the 749 complete games pitched by Cy Young.
Do you have any idea who has the most career complete games still pitching? That would be Houston’s Justin Verlander with 26. And at age 41 he’ll probably retire with 26.
—AS THE CRO’ FLILES: I am reading one of the best baseball books I’ve ever read. It’s called ‘Sluggiing It Out In Japan,’ a tome about American Warren Cromartie’s seasons of playing baseball in Japan.
It is so enlightening about Japanese-style baseball and Cromartie’s many ordeals with the Japanese way of life, on and off the field. It was published in 1991, so might be hard to find. But it’s a fabulous read for any baseball fan.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 89: With these first two I dedicate to my dearly departed canine constant companion, Paige: ‘All Dogs Go To Heaven (Chris Young) and ‘Good Ol’ Dog And God (Pryor & Lee).’ And we all know what dog spelled backward is.
And these tunes are for all us senior/senior citizens, my favorite songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Don’t (Elvin Presley), This Magic Moment (The Drifters), Suspicion (Terry Stafford), The Twist (Chubby Checker), 16 Candles (The Crests), Good Golly Miss Molly (Little Richard), Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Elvis Presley).
The Book of Love (The Monotones), I Walk The Line (Johnny Cash), In The Still Of The Night (The Five Satins), Searchin’ (The Coasters), Earth Angel (The Penquins), At The Hop (Danny & The Juniors), Come Go With Me (The Del Vikings),