By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave and have I mentioned lately that the Cincinnati Reds’ ineptitude is as transparent as lingerie hanging in a Victoria’s Secret store window?
—OK, HIT ME: Nobody talked about his inner thoughts about baseball better than Pete Rose. When I interviewed him, I opened my notebook and asked one question and he’d fill nearly every page.
For example, Rose loved to yell at opposing pitchers when he was in the batter’s box, with some notable exceptions.
“If Bob Gibson threw a pitcher high and tight to me, I’d smile at him and tip my cap. I’m not going to yell at him because he’d whip my ass,” said Rose.
“I’m not going to yell at Don Drysdale because he was 6-foot-5 and mean,” he said. “I wouldn’t mess with Steve Carlton if I had a Smith & Wesson in my back pocket.”
So who did he yell at?
“You pick on the little guys who don’t want to fight,” he said. “My philosophy was if I couldn’t hit a pitcher, I’m gonna yell at him. I’m trying to get him to hit me with a pitch. I can’t get on base swinging my bat because he’s got my number, so if he hits me I get to go to first base.”
—NO THIEVERY: Just wondering out loud. Why isn’t Elly De La Cruz stealing bases these days? It appears he is totally recovered from the hamstring strain that put him on the injured list.
But the man who has swiped 149 bases during his short career gets on first base and wears an anchor.
And it hurts the Reds. He was on first base with no outs in the ninth inning Saturday with the Reds down a run. He didn’t run. Sal Stewart hit into a double play.
He was on first base leading off the game Sunday. He didn’t run. JJ Bleday hit into a double play.
My thinking? Run Elly, run.
And while we’re on the subject of the Reds, manager Tito Francona seems to be platooning second base with Matt McLain and Edwin Arroyo.
Why? The numbers: McClain is 4 for 33 with 15 strikeouts. Over the same number of at bats, Arroyo is 11 for 33 with seven runs scored.
So who should play second base regularly and who would look good in a Louisville Bats uniform?
—NO REDS, NO SHOCK: There are no shock waves vibrating through Reds Country when the finalists for the National League All-Star ballot was determined.
No Elly De La Cruz. No Sal Stewart. No anybody.
But since every team has to have a least one player on the team, look for pitcher Chase Burns to be named to represent the Reds.
—ANOTHER ‘FAVORITE’: It seems as if every time I write about a former player, I call him, “One of my all-time favorites.”
How can a guy have what seems like hundreds of favorite players? It is what happens when you have covered baseball for 53 years.
Former Reds pitcher Kent Mercker is in my all-time favorites category, him because of his fantastic humor.
The Reds had a pitcher named Chris Hammond, a religious man who sat in front of his locker every day reading the Bible.
One day Mercker paused in front of Hammond as he read his Bible and Mercker asked, “Haven’t you finished that book?”
Mercker was close friends with pitcher Joey Hamilton, a gruff guy. He was struggling at one point when we were all stuffed into the small, cramped Wrigley Field visitors clubhouse. I was standing as close to a pillar in the middle of the room as I could get to stay out of the way when Hamilton walked by and said, “We’d have a lot more room in here if they kept the writers out.”
Mercker, sitting at his locker, heard Hamilton and said loudly for all to hear, “Hal is always welcome in our clubhouses. In fact, he can have my chair if he wants it.”
Thank you, Kent.
Mercker tells the story of when he was a relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves and manager Bobby Cox.
“He called me ‘Top Step,’” said Mercker. “I asked him why and he said, “When you pitch, I always stand on the top step of the dugout, ready to come and get you.’”
Mercker said there was a day he failed to cover first base on a play. Cox called him into his office after the game and told him, “You didn’t cover first base. The Atlanta Braves pitchers always cover first base.”
Said Mercker, “After that, I always covered first base. I covered first base on fly balls to left field. I covered first base on strikeouts. I covered first base during batting practice.”
—THE TONY AWARD: As the woman who posted this said, “It was like solving a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded and under water.”
She was describing how difficult it was to strike out Tony Gwynn three times in a game. It only happened once during Gwynn’s career 9,288 career plate appearances.
On July 29, 1986, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Bob Welch struck out Gwynn three times.
And consider this: Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez — all Hall of Fame pitchers — struck out Gwynn only three times total while facing him 323 times.
—WHO DUNNIT?: Former Cincinnati Reds utility infielder Darrel Chaney says he has a trivia question that nobody ever gets. Ever.
“Who was the player who hit a walk-off home run to give Atlanta manager Bobby Cox his first major league win?” Chaney asks
“They’ll guess Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Jeff Burroughs, Gary Matthews and even pitcher Phil Niekro,” said Chaney. “But they never get it. It was me.”
Chaney entered the game against San Diego, the fourth game of the season, as defensive replacement, but hit a ninth-inning walk-off home, giving Cox his first managerial win in old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
And, yes, Darrel Chaney is another of my all-time favorites.
—DA-DO-RON-RON: And here is another brain-beater involving the Atlanta Braves that nobody knows except the guy who is the answer.
Who was the Braves starting pitcher when Henry Aaron hit his 500th homer, his 600th, his 700th and his 715th. My guess was Phil Niekro.
Wrong.
It was Ron Reed and he was the winning pitcher for the 500th, 600th and 715th Aaron homers. He did not win the game Henry hit his 700th.
Reed was a two-sport star. He also played in the NBA and is the only man in history to face both Willie Stargell and Wilt Champerlain.
—HE’S NO ANGEL: An example of why former umpire Angel Hernandez had the respect of a garter snake from managers, coaches and players, as told by former Atlanta Braves pitching guru Leo Mazzone.
“We were in Arizona and Tom Glavine’s first pitch of the game is a strike on the outside corner,” said Mazzone. “Angel calls it a ball and Glavine glares at him.
“Hernandez whips off his mask and yells at Glavine, ‘There are no corners today.’ Well, (manager) Bobby Cox hears that and goes nuts and he is gone (ejected) on the first pitch of the game.”
—BEST OF THE BEST: Somebody asked me to name my five all-time great center fielders, so here goes.
The best I covered was Eric Davis and if not for injuries he would be on my list. But he isn’t.
My choices: 1.Willie Mays, 2.Mickey Mantle, 3. Joe DiMaggio, 4. Ken Griffey Jr., 5. Mike Trout.
How could I not pick Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker? So shoot me.
—STRASBURG’S STRESS: There has never been a pitcher to live up to the hype like the hyperbole heaped on Stephen Strasburg.
He was the No. 1 overall picked by the Washington Nationals in 2009. Less than a year later, at age 21, Strasburg made his major league debut in Nationals Park against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The press box overflowed with national media and 40,315 fans stuffed the park.
Was the kid nervous? Hardly. Over seven innings, he struck out 14 and walked nobody, a record for a pitcher making his debut. He threw 94 pitchers, 71 for strikes, and several fastballs touched 100 miles an hour. The Nationals won, 5-2.
Did the Nationals rush him. He did pitch 13 seasons for the Nats and was 113-62 with a 3.24 earned run average. But he was constantly injured and made only 247 starts, an average of 19 per season.
Of his career, Strasburg said, “It’s kinda like when you get married. You kinda go into it wanting to remember everything. But once it’s done, you can’t remember a single thing.”
—TRIVIA TIME: Stuff that makes me think baseball, but then I always think baseball:
—In these times when player strikes out 15 times in a week and think nothing of it, Rod Carew won seven batting titles and never struck out more than 71 times. In 1975, he hit .359 and struck out 40 times.
—Nolan Ryan was a rancher when he wasn’t on the mound and should have stuck a horseshoe in his back pocket when he pitched. He lost 42 games when he pitched at least seven innings and gave up two or fewer runs. And he had 49 games with no decisions in that same situation.
—QUOTE MACHINE: Baseball people say the darndest and most sage things:
—FROM Pete Rose during a TV interview: “I have a Rolls Royce, two Porches, a $600,000 house in Cincinnati and a house in Plant City with a tennis court and a swimming pool. I didn’t eat breakfast this morning. I couldn’t afford it.”
—FROM legendary manager John McGraw: “One percent of ballplayers are leaders of men and the other 99% are followers of women.”
—FROM Babe Ruth and his feelings about Chicago’s Wrigley Field: “I’d play for half my salary if I could hit in this dump all the time.”
—FROM former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda: “There are three types of ballplayers: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happened.”
—JUST A THOUGHT: Country singer Tom T. Hall wrote the song ‘Old Dogs, Children & Watermelon Wine’ on the back of a sickness bag while on an airplane flight.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 186: As actor Kelsey Grammer put it, “Prayer is when you talk to God, meditation is when you’re listening, playing the piano allows you to do both at the same time.”
—Last Kiss (J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers), Oh What A Night (Dells), How Great Thou Art (Elvis Presley), One More Night (Phil Collins), America (Neil Diamond), Sincerely (Moonglows), Morning Train (Sheena Easton), Watching The Wheels (John Lennon), Take It On The Run (REO Speedwagon).
—Just The Two Of Us (Grover Washington), How ‘Bout Us (Champaign), Running Scared (Roy Orbison), You Spin Me ‘Round (Dead Or Alive) Oh, Sherrie (Steve Perry), Wrapped Around Your Fingers (Police), Cover Me (Bruce Springsteen), Tell It To My Heart (Taylor Dayne), Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper).