By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave and now what do I do with the Cincinnati Reds season thankfully over? Well, it is just a few days before Nadine and I and some friends will visit Greece and the Italian Amalfi Coast.
—PETE AND REPEAT: If you thought the 1,000-word piece I wrote, with tears in my eyes, on the night Pete Rose died, was all I had. . .well, I could write Pete Rose until the center fielder comes home.
The most famous quote, among a book full, that Pete ever uttered I believe he may have said to me. Rose loved to throw out quotes in Cincinnati and the ones that got the biggest laughs or used the most he would use again in big market towns like New York and Los Angeles.
The one he first said to me and my mentor, Earl Lawson of the Cincinnati Post, was: “I’d run through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.”
I told him that might be the best baseball quote I ever heard. Sure enough, I heard him repeat it in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta. . .all major league points.”
One of his more recent ones was: “I’m just like everybody else. I have two arms, two legs and 4,256 hits.” I checked my resume and I’m 4,256 hits short of being just like Pete.
And I remember this one just before he passed Ty Cobb for the most all-time hits. While Pete had a massive ego, usually shrouded in humor, he could be self-depreacting.
“When I get the record, all it will get me is the player with the most hits,” he said. “I’m also the player with the most at bats and the most outs. I never said I was a better player than Ty Cobb.”
This one was dispatched to me by my prolific contributer Jeff Singleton and I never heard Henry Aaron say this about Rose’s all-out hustle on every pitch of every game.
“Does Pete Rose hustle? Before the All-Star game he came into the clubhouse and took off his shoes,” said Aaron. “They ran another mile without him.”
That was a perfect description of Peter Edward Rose.
—JUST 23 DAYS?: When the Arizona Diamondbacks released former Cincinnati Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart, the Reds signed him to a minor league contract and sent him to Triple-A Louisville.
Nice gesture, right? Well, not so fast, my friends.
Barnhart needs 23 days of major league service to qualify for a full MLB pension. Did the Reds call him up for those 23 days. No, they didn’t.
So if he doesn’t hook on with a team next year and retires, his pension will be $137,500 a year. With those 23 days, it would be $275,000.
Hopefully, the Reds were not aware of that. But we all know better.
—QUICKLY DONE: When the Cubs beat the Reds, 1-0, Friday afternoon, it was a Beat The Clock game. They played it in 1:48 as both teams played as if they had early dinner reservations on Rush Street.
It tied for seventh as the quickest game this century. Amazingly, the game tied with another Reds-Cubs game played in 1:48. It was a 3-0 Cubs win on May 21, 2001.
The fastest game this century was 1:39, White Sox 2, Marlins 1 on April 16, 2001.
And the fasted nine-inninng game ever? It was a New York Giants-Philadelphia Phillies game played on September 29, 1919. Even though the Giants scored six runs and the Phillies scored three, the game was played in 51 minutes.
Of course, there were no beer or car commercials because there was no TV.
—CATCHING UP: Much was made of the fact that Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson caught 1,000 innings this season.
And it should be because catchers take a beating, like a carvial kewpie doll taking baseballs thrown at them. An MLB catcher is like an NFL middle linebacker.
But remember this. Johnny Bench caught more than 1,000 innings 11 times. He, indeed, was a glutton for supreme punishment.
—HOMERS A TO Z: Took this quiz on social media and didn’t fare well. Name the career home run leader for each letter in the alphabet, A to Z. Ready?
Hank Aaron (755), Barry Bonds (762), Miguel Cabrera (511), Carlos Delgado (473), Juan Encarnacion (424), Jimmy Foxx (534), Ken Griffey Jr. (630), Frank Howard and Ryan Howrd tied (382), Raul Ibanez (305), Reggie Jackson (563), Harmon Killebrew (573), Carlos Lee (358).
Willie Mays (660) Graig Nettles (390), David Ortiz (548), Albert Pujols (703), Carlos Quintana (154), Babe Ruth (714), Sammy Sosa (609), Jim Thome (612), Justin Upton (325), Greg Vaughn (325), Ted Williams (521), No ‘X’ players, Carl Yastrzemski (452), Ryan Zimmerman (280).
—A LONG, LONG ROAD: Will there every be another true knuckleball pitcher like Phil Niekro, Wilbur Wood, Tim Wakefield or Hoyt Wilhelm?
Wilhelm’s route to the Hall of Fame was a long and twisting road.
Before he ever threw his first knuckleball, he was in World War II’s Battle of Bulge and was wounded by German artilliery. A piece of shrapnel lodged in his back and it stayed there throughout his career.
After the war, he spent seven years in the minors before the New York Giants called him up in 1952 as a 29-year-old rookie. Manager Leo Durocher stuck him in the bullpen and he went 15-3 with a league-best 2.43 earned run average for 71 appearances.
In 1959, Baltimore put him in the rotation and he pitched a no-hitter against the New York Yankees in his third start. He finished 15-11 and again had the league’s best ERA at 2.19.
He was back in the bullpen in 1963 with the Chicago White Sox for six years, never started another game.
He pitched in the majors for 21 years, until he was 49, still confusing hitters with his knuckleball. He finished with 143 wins and 228 saves.
You might say he was a guy who really had to ‘knuckle’ under and ‘knucle’ down..
—SEEING IS BELIEVING: At one point, New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez was told he needed glasses, so he bought prescription glasses and put them on. He didn’t like them.
“The first time I wore them on the mound, I looked at the guy in the batter’s box and it was Jimmy Foxx. It scared me to death. I took ‘em off and never wore them in a game again.”
—QUOTE MACHINE: Some stuff from the mouths of baseball people:
—From former manager Casey Stengel on pitcher Sandy Koufax: “I can understand Koufax winning 25 games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five games.”
—Former mean-guy pitcher Bob Gibson on Stan Musial: “He is the nicest man I ever met in baseball and to be honest I can’t relate to that. I never knew that nice and baeball went together.”
—From acrtess Tallulah Bankhead: “There have been only two authentic geniuses in the world, Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare.”
—From Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz: “Beethoven can’ts really be great because his picture is not on a bubblegum card.”
—From Reggie Jackson, who seldom uttered a sentence without ‘I’ in it: “After Jackie Robinson, the most important black player in history is Reggie Jackson.”
—From Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle: “You don’t realize how easy baseball is until you get up in a broadcast booth.”
—LIKE THE WICHITA LINEMEN: After all the power outages caused by Hurricane Helene, it is clear that the most valuable linemen in America are not in the NFL.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 99: I’m fast running out. . .finally.
Your Man (Josh Turner), Sh Boom, Sh Boom (The Crew Cuts), Reminiscing (Little River Band), She Believes In Me (Kenny Rogers), Jessie’s Girl (Rick Springfield), Photograph (Ringo Starr), Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot).
Big Love (Fleetwood Mac), All Down The Line (Rolling Stones), Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys), 9 To 5 (Dolly Parton), Live Like You Were Dying (Tim McGraw), I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston), Shut Up And Dance With Me (Walk The Moon).