By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave and while it’s only for the last spot in the National League playoffs (the sixth spot), the last-week battle between the Mets, Reds and Diamondbacks is nerve-wracking and invigorating.
—ABS (A BAD SYSTEM): Forever and ever I have been adamantly opposed to the Automated Balls & Strikes (ABS) contraption.
After watching home plate umpire Ramon DeJesus call balls and strikes with his eyes closed during Tuesday’s Reds-Pirates game I’ve almost changed my mind.
Almost. But I despise technology taking over the game.
MLB announced this week that ABS, the robo-ump, will be used in all games next season. Fortunately (for now) it only will be used as a challenge system.
Human flesh umpires still will call balls and strikes, but each team gets two challenges a game and ABS will make the call.
Only the pitcher, catcher or batter can issue a challenge and if the challenger is correct his team maintains the challenge.
DeJesus is Exhibit A why it is needed. He may have just had a bad game or he may be a bad balls and strikes guy. All I know is that he was awful Tuesday, that he seemed to be guessing.
Another thing that jolted me. In recent years they have used techology to track every pitch. A report said umpires missed 34,924 balls and strikes calls in 2018. In 2023, they only missed a little more than 20,000, their best year since pitches have been tracked.
Seems a lot, right? Actually, the 34,924 missed calls is only 14 a game. Fourteen a game out of 300 pitches a game isn’t that many.
But one or two missed calls could determine the outcome of a game.
Still, I am anti-ABS. To me, ABS stands for A Bad System. But it is commissioner Rob Manfraud imposing his ill will on the game again.
—BUCK-ING THE CALLS: And speaking of ‘suspect’ umpires, C.B. Bucknor had me laughing Wednesday afternoon in the ninth inning of the Atlanta-Washington game.
With two outs in the ninth, there was a close play at first base. Bucknor called him out. Replay/review revealed he was safe.
On the next play, another close one at first base. Bucknor called the runner safe. Replay/review revealed he was out.
And Bucknor still gets paid.
—NUMBERS GAME: Baseball is full of coincidences and this one is amazing.
Francisco Lindor hit his 276th home run Sunday. He hit 138 for the Cleveland Indians and it was his 138th the New York Mets.
And…he has hit 138 at home and 138 on the road.
Ah, baseball, ya gotta love it.
The Angels Mike Trout hit his 400th career home run last week, 200 at home and 200 on the road.
—KNOWING NOLAN: Everybody knows Nolan Ryan was born with his right arm already in the Hall of Fame and that he could penetrate an M1 Abrams tank with his fastball.
Nevertheless, Ryan’s feats of superhuman performances always stagger my mind. And here is another.
When September rolls around, aren’t pitchers’ worn out? Aren’t their arms dead?
On September 2, 1989, Ryan threw 146 pitches. Five days lataer, on September 7, 1989, Ryan threw 150 pitches. Five days later, on September 12, 1989, Ryan threw 164 pitches.
He was 42 years old.
And here is one more mind-boggling and totally Nolanesque. On September 22, 1993, at age 46, he was making his final career start for the Texas Rangers.
Sometime during the game he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. Come out of the game? Be serious. He continued pitching and his last pitch was clocked at 98 miles an hour.
Then he left the game, his career over. What did he have to say?
“One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you have to reach down and prove something,” he said.
What was the guy trying to prove by throwing a 98 miles an hour fastball with a shattered ligament in his elbow? That he was Nolan Ryan, that’s what.
—EXPOS-ING THE EXPOS: One of my favorite cities to visit was Montreal when the Expos existed. Before they played in Stade Olympique, man’s monument to concrete, they played in quaint Jarry Park while Stade Olympique was being poured into existence.
Jonah Keri has a great book about the Expos, ‘Up, Up and Away.’ In it he writes that the night before the first Opening Day, the permanent seats were not yet bolted down, so the staff spent all night putting 6,000 folding chairs in place.
And they had to clear six inches of snow off the field and it was piled behind the right fence.
During the game, the Expos, a bunch of castaways and over-the-hill guys, made five errors. Not for the game, five errors in one inning. They led the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-0, but made five errors in the fourth inning and the Cardinals tied it, 6-6.
Amazingly, the Expos won, 8-7, on a single by relief pitcher Dan McGinn, a Reds draftee the Expos claimed in the expansion draft. And why was a relief pitcher batting late in the game? Because manager Gene Mauch had no pinch-hitters he trusted and McGinn had hit a game-winning home run off Tom Seaver in the Expos first-ever game in New York.
Ah, baseball. Ya gotta love it.
—BAGGING THE LOOT: Speaking of Montreal, the Cincinnati Reds issued bright red suitcases to the traveling party and each suitcase had the player’s uniform number on it.
Players didn’t have to deal with their luggage. They packed it and left it in the hotel lobby and it showed up in their rooms at the next stop.
But in Montreal, players had to take their suitcases off a carousel and carry it through customs. So the players came up with a game. Every player and coach tossed in $20 and whomever’s suitcase landed first on the carousel won the pool — about $600.
Who won that first pool I witnessed is lost to memory. But the second time we hit Montreal, the same player won. Fishy? You bet.
An investigation revealed that the player found a way to locate the baggage handler and gave him $100 to put his suitcase first on the conveyor belt.
—BUDDY, BUDDY: Teaammates who hit home runs in the same game is not something rare, but what two teammates hit home runs in the same game the most times?
My guess was Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Close, but I still have to buy my own cigars. Ruth and Gehrig did it 75 times, one shy of the teammates who did it the most.
It was Henry Aaron and Eddie Mathews. They him homers in the same game 76 times. Then it was the two Willies, Mays and McCovey with 68, then Duke Snider and Gil Hodges with 66.
But keep an eye on Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. They have 57. . .and counting.
—LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: It’s all in the genes. . .and that’s not Guess or Levi’s. That’s jeans. There are so many fathers followed by sons in MLB these days.
Any guess what father-son combination has the most combined career hits?
Number One is Bobby & Barry Bonds with 4,835. Next is the two Ken Griffeys with 4,720.
The official list has Felipe and Moises Alou third with 4,024. But they forgot somebody. That would be Pete Rose and Pete Rose Jr. with 4,258 hits. Junior had two hits in 14 MLB appearances.
The other Reds connection is Tony and Eduardo Perez, sixth with 3,531.
But they forgot something else. How about a father and two sons? Bob Boone and his two sons, Bret and Aaron, combined for 4,630 hits which would put them third on the list.
—TRIVIA TIME: Sports stuff that interests me and hopefully you, too.
—One could win another person’s entire bank account with this wager: Who had the highest career on-base percentage, Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki or former Reds first baseman Adam Dunn?
It is Dunn, .364 to Ichiro’s .355.
—Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field was huge, known as a pitcher’s park. It existed from 1909 to 1970, hosted more than 4,700 MLB games. . .but there was never a no-hitter pitched in the park.
Roberto Clemente hit the only bases-loaded inside the park walk-off home run in MLB history in Forbes and Babe Ruth, playing for the Boston Braves, hit his final three home runs in one game in Forbes.
—On August 29, 2001, Serena Williams wins at the U.S. Open, Albert Pujols hits a homer and Vlad Guerrero Sr., Craig Biggio and Dante Bichette all record a hit.
On August 29, 2022, Serena Williams wins at the U.S. Open, Albert Pujola hits a home run and Vlad Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette all record a hit.
You can’t make this stuff up, can you? And who figures them out?
—A major reason why the Cleveland Browns couldn’t find their way into a Super Bowl if a bus dropped them off at the stadium gate:
Since they became an expansion franchise in 1999, 40 different quarterbacks have started games for the Browns. The Green Bay Packers since 1999? Nine quarterbacks.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 111: As singer Freddie Mercury put it, “I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear.”
—Second Hand News (Fleetwood Mac), Can’t Help Myself (Four Tops), I Can’t Tell You Why (Eagles), Hello Again (Neil Diamond), Island Girl (Elton John), This One’s For You (Barry Manilow), And I Love You So (Don McLean), What’s Forever For (Michael Martin Murphy).
—Both Sides Now (Judy Collins), Sweet Baby James (James Taylor), I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight? (Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart). Where The Boys Are (Connie Francis), Midnight Confession (The Grass Roots), Don’t Cry Jonie (Conway Twitty & Joni Lee), This Ain’t My First Rodeo (Vern Gosdin), That’s The Way Love Goes (Lefty Frissell).