By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, working on a piece about Johnny Bench for my ‘Great Eight’ series for the Dayton Daily News, trying to whittle it down because the greatest catcher ever to walk a ball field is worth more than a thousand words.
—MAD MAN MADDUX: Nobody disputes that Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver and Randy Johnson were great, great pitchers.
For my paltry money, Greg Maddux was the best pitcher since the 1950s. It would take a two-volume book to list all his accomplishments and I never get tired of looking up his amazing statistics.
My latest finds: He once threw a 78-pitch complete game and not one pitch reached 90 miles an hour.
He is the only pitcher in MLB history to win 15 or more games for 17 straight seasons. He holds the record for most Gold Gloves with 18. And he won four straight Cy Young awards. Four straight! And of his 355 wins, 100 were complete games.
—QUOTE: From Greg Maddux: “I barely got through high school but if you make good pitches it makes you smart. If you don’t make good pitches, you’re stupid.”
—NINE IS DEVINE: Before the miserable advent of the designated hitter, the No. 9 spot in MLB batting orders was mostly a vast wasteland because that’s where pitchers hit.
Now some managers put their weakest hitter there but some wise ones put a good hitter there, if they have one.
Texas manager Bruce Bochy, a baseball genius, bats Kyle Higashioka ninth and last week he drove in five runs in one game.
The season isn’t half gone, but No. 9 hitters have driven in five runs in a game eight times. That ties the all-time record this early in the season.
And Chicago Cubs catcher Carson Kelly, batting ninth, hit for the cycle this year.
–PINCH ME: Put this one under the category of, “Where there is a Will there is a way.”
On Wednesday, LA’s Will Smith hit a pinch-hit walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to beat San Diego, 4-3.
Smith has four walk-off home runs during his career and three have come as a pinch-hitter.
—ZERO, ZERO, ZERO: When the New York Yankees ended their 30 straighgt scoreless innings plunge Wednesday, an absolutely stunning and incredible feat surfaced.
In 1909, Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators pitched three straight games in four days against the New York Highlanders (nee: Yankees).
He shut them out three straight times on Sept. 4, 5 and 7. And he got better each time — a four-hitter, a three-hitter and a two-hitter.
Even more staggering, Johnson won only 13 games that year and was 13-25. Washington (“First in war, first in peace and last in the American League”) finished last with a 42-110 record, 56 games out of first place.
—THE MANTO MANTRA: When Jeff Manto played, instead of ‘Manto’ on the back of his jersey, he should have had ‘Journeyman.’
In nine seasons, he played for eight teams — Cleveland (three different times), Baltimore, Boston, Seattle, Detroit, Philadelphia, Colorado and the New York Yankees.
His uniform numbers were 45, 44, 30, 12, 2, 48, 10, 26, 20 and 16. He was a career utility player, played every position, and carried 13 different gloves.
But he once did something astonishing. Over the course of two days, he hit home runs in four consecutive at bats.
And a month ago, 40 years after he left Temple University to play baseball, he completed his college classes and earned his degree from Temple.
—THEY’RE A-PEEL-ING: The Savannah Bananas are baseball’s burlesque, the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.
They do bizarre things. They have a rule that if a fan in the stands catches a foul ball on the fly, the batter is out. During their stop in
Great American Ball Park over the weekend, fans set a Banana Ball record by catching five foul balls.
The Bananas like to use local celebrities to play in the game so former Reds Sean Casey, Danny Graves, Todd Frazier and Bronson Arroyo played in the game.
Casey, believing he was still 25, ran to first base, tore a hamstring, and undersent surgery. Graves tried to use the baseball spikes he wore as a pitcher and they disintegrated on the field, fell completely apart.
—GUNNING FOR HIM: Pitcher Larry Luebbers was called up from the minors in mid-season of 1993 and was schedule to make his starting debut for the Cincinnati Reds.
Before the game, Luebbers walked past the dressing cubicle of left fielder Kevin Mitchell.
“Hey, kid,” said Mitchell. “What’s your name, Larry Luger? If you have me running around chasing balls in left field today you’re gonna see the business end of a Luger.”
Mitchell was kidding. . .I think.
—STADIUM ISSUES: There are 30 venues where MLB teams play games. Only five, though, are called stadiums. Four are easy:
Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Busch
—STADIUM ISSUES: There are 30 venues where MLB teams play games. Only five, though, are called stadiums. Four are easy: Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Busch Stadium and Kauffman Stadium.
What’s the fifth one? Once upon a time it was called The Big A and then it was Edison Field and now its is Angel Stadium, home to the Los Angeles Angels.
Remember when? Riverfront Stadium, Cleveland Municipal Stadiuom, Three Rivers Stadium, Olympic Stadium, Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium, Shea Stadium, Jack Murphy-San Diego Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Stadium and Kauffman Stadium.
What’s the fifth one? Once upon a time it was called The Big A and Edison Field. Now it’s Angel Stadium, home to the Los Angeles Angels.
Remember when? Riverfront Stadium, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Olympic Stadium, Connie Mack Stadium, Milwaukee County Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Jack Murphy-San Diego Stadium, Shea Stadium, Metropolitan Stadium.
Mile High Stadium, Briggs Stadium, RFK Stadium, Exhibition Stadium, Colt Stadium, Joe Robbie Stadium, Baltimore Memorial Stadium, Arlington Stadium.
—ICE CAPADES: Hockey is the national sport of Canada, right?
There are 32 franchises in the National Hockey League. Seven are located in Canada — Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Calgary.
So when did a Canadian team last win the Stanley Cup? Way back in 1993, the Montreal Candiens.
Making it more embarrassing, the last two Stanley Cups were won by the Florida Panthers where one wonders how they keep the ice from melting.
The Panthers, located in Sunrise, near Miami, averaged 19,181 fans, 99.6% capacity. MLB’s Miami Marlins averaged 13,435 last season, about 33% capacity.
—QUOTE MACHINE: Personalities say the darndest thing:
—From former Baltimore manager Earl Weaver: “I was never buddy-buddy with the players. If they want a buddy, buy a dog.”
—From Dayton-born pitcher Roger Clemens after he struck out 20 Seattle Mariners and the Dayton Daily News sent me to Boston to interview him: “The best thing about Dayton was seeing it in the rear view mirror.”
—From former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Ducky Medwick during an audience at the Vatican with Pope Pius XIX: “Your Holiness, I’m Joseph Medwick and I, too, used to be a Cardinal.”
—From former San Diego infielder Tim Flannery: “Every night after I got a hit, I ate Chinese food and drank tequila. I had to stop hitting or die.”
—From comedian Rodney Dangerfield about Las Vegas, where the Athletics will move: “In Las Vegas, they have slot machines everywhere. I went into a convenience store to buy a loaf of bread and it cost me $279.”
—From comedian Steven Wright about Phoenix, home to th Arizona Diamondbacks: “They say it’s a dry heat in Phoenix. So is the electric chair.”
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 182: As English composer Andrew Lloyd Webber put it: “Softly, deftly, music shall caress you. Hear it, feel it secretly possess you.”
—Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics), It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me (Billy Joel), Coward Of The County (Kenny Rogers), Nothing Lasts Forever )(Maroon 5), Desperado (Eagles), One Of A Kind (The Spinners), Tiny Dancer (Elton John).
—With Or Without You (U2), Every Time I Think Of You (The Babys), Put Your Head On My Shoulder (Paul Anka), Almost Over You (Sheena Easton), Semi-Charmed Life (Third Eye Blind).