By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave wondering if I should call Noah Syndergaard to build me an ark because I can’t build one when I can’t hammer a nail or turn a screw driver.
—THIRD MAN THEME: After a bolt out of the gate following the All-Star break, the Cincinnati Reds are back to playing as if afflicted by the Andromeda Strain. Their play is as messy as an unkempt bed.
It will come as no surprise that the Reds are the worst in MLB at scoring runners from third base with less than two outs.
They score that runner only 42% of the time. The Reds found a way not to leave runners on third base Wednesday during a 5-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
They never put a runner on third all night. In fact, theyo never got a runner to second base.
And what was manager Tito Francona thinking Sunday? The Reds trailed the Washington Nationals, 4-1, in the eighth inning and Matt McLain led off with a single.
Francona sent TJ Friedl and his .164 batting average up to pinch-hit for Ke’Bryan Hayes. As quickly as you can say Tinkers-to-Evers-to Chance, Friedl hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
Why Friedl? Well, he was batting 26 points higher than Ke’Bryan Hayes, the man for whom he pinch-hit.
There are 327 players on the 30 MLB teams with more than 150 plate appearances. Hayes and his .425 OPS is deade last, 327th. Guess who is next to last? Yep. Friedl is 326th..
That’s the state of affairs with the Reds when they regularly gave three players in the lineup batting below the Mendoza Line (.200) and another one or two barely above it.
—YOU DON’T COMPLETE ME: Everybody knows the seasons of Robin Roberts pitching 33 complete games or Bob Lemon pitching 31 complete games or Warren Spahn pitcing 30 complete game is Paleolithic history in baseball years.
Hoow times have changed and not for the better. Complete games? Few starting pitchers these days even pitch into the eighth inning.
The Cincinnati Reds have had a starting pitcher throw at least one pitch in the eighth inning only once.
The Reds though, aren’t the Lone Rangers. Atlanta, Houston, St. Louis and Washington also have had only one game in which the starting pitcher threw a pitch in the eighth inning.
And, get this — Both Chicago teams, the New York Mets and San Diego have not had a starter throw a pitch in the eighth inning.
The most? Cleveland starters have reached the eighth inning 10 times, while the Dodgers and Giants have done it eight times.
And yet injuries to pitchers are more rampant than ever. Makes no sense.
Talking about starting pitchers lasting into the eighth inning, Tampa Bay’s Nick Martinez (remember him, Reds fans?) pitched a complete game this week and is 12-3 with a 2.74 earned run average over 23 starts. His was only the 14th complete game by an MLB pitcher this season.
The Reds didn’t seem to know what to do with Martinez last year. He made 24 starts and 16 relief appearances.
—CASEY AT THE MIKE: Former Reds first baseman Sean Casey, ‘The Mayor,’ was talking about the 2004 Cincinnati Reds and the importance of pitching, pitching, pitching.
“We had a really good hitting team, some guys who could really hit like Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Larkin and me,” he said.
“But we didn’t have any pitching, no pitching at all,” he added.
The rotation was Paul Wilson (11-6), Aaron Harang (10-9), Jose Acevedo (5-12), Cory Lidle (7-10) and Brandon Claussen (2-8), with swing man Todd Van Poppel (4-6).
The two best starters each started nine games, Josh Hancock (5-1) and Luke Hudson (4-2). They used 22 pitchers that season.
The staff earned run average was 5.02 and the team, managed by Dave Miley, was 76-86 and finished fourth, 29 games behind the division-winning St. Louis Cardinals, winners of 105 games.
As former Baltimore manager Earl Weaver once said, “Nobody likes to hear it, because it’s dull, but the reason you or lose is damn near always the same — pitching.”
—TRIPLING UP: Former Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer recalls a time during a game in late innings when third baseman Davey Johnson hlt a ball that was an obvious triple. But he stopped at second base.
When he reached the dugout, he was asked why he stopped at second and he said, “Because I have a doubles incentiv clause in my contract.”
Said Palmer, after that Johnson’s nickname was ‘Dum Dum.’
Speaking of triples, a rare occurence in baseball, Willie McCovey hit two triples in his first major league game, then only 42 more during his remaining 2,587 games.
When New York Yankees outfielder Tommy Henrich was 37, he told teammates, “I think I can play the whole season as long as I don’t hit too many triples. Too hard on my legs.”
And tripling up, the most triples hit in a season by one player was 36, hit by some guy named Owen Wilson of the 1912 Pittsburgh Pirates.
—SPELLING BEE: Shoeless Joe Jackson was illiterate and during one game when he came to bat an obese lady sitting close to third base yelled, “Hey, Joe, can you spell Mississippi?”
Jackson lashed a triple, slid into third base, dusted off his pants and yelled at the woman, “Hey fat lady, can you spell triple?”
—WHAT IT IS: To me, baseball isn’t analytics. It is Elly De La Cruz rounding second, it is Dane Myers chasing down a fly ball and crashing full speed into the wall, it is Aroldis Chapman scowling at a hitter after striking him out with a 100 miles an hour fastball.
—AH, MEMORIES: In 1967 I worked for a year at the Detroit Free Press and was fortunate to cover some games in old Tiger Stadium at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.
And I’ll never forget something that always made me laugh when I went to the visiting team’s clubhouse.
On the door it read: VISITORS CLUBHOUSE. NO VISITORS.
In the winter of 1977 the press box caught fire and was destroyed. Tigers general manager Jim Campbell said, “I wish it had happened five months ago.”
Why?
“Because all the writers would have been in it.”
—TRIVA TIME: Stuff I didn’t know and, like Casey Stengel always said, “You could look it up.”
—Any idea who these teams were: Baltimore Terrapins, Brooklyn Tip-Tops, Buffalo Blues, Chicago Whales, Newark Pepper, Kansas City Packers, Pittsburgh Rebels and St. Louis Terriers.
They were the franchises in the rebel Federal League in 1914 and 1915. . .and, no, I didn’t cover any of their games.
—The longest any two players were teammates was 19 years. . .Derek Jeter and Mariano Duncan with the New York Yankees (1995-2013).
More amazing is that Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker were Detroit’s shortstop/second base combination for 18 straight seasons (1977-1995.).
—Speaking of double play combinations, shortstop Joe Tinker and second baseman Johnny Evers of the famous Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance lore, did not speak to each other.
A feud unfolded in 1905 when Evers took a taxi to the ball park and left Tinker in the hotel lobby. They didn’t speak off the field until 1933.
—QUOTE MACHINE: Baseball people say the darndest things:
—From Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver: “There are only two places in this league. . .first place and no place.” (Yes, Seaver pitched for the Reds.)
—From former Red Sox infielder Johnny Pesky: “Baseball can build you up to the sky one day and the next day you need a stepladder to look up to a snake.” (OK, so where are they hiding the stepladder in Great American Ball Park?)
—From Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson: “I played a coule hundred games of tick-tack-toe with my little daughter and she hasn’t beaten me yet. I’ve always had to win. I’ve got to win.” (Not even a single Cat’s Game,Gibby?)
—DOUBLING UP: Was studying my program near the finish line at Scioto Down when a guy with a porkpie hat, binoculars, a Newport Menthol tucked between his lips and a fist full of betting tickets looked up at me and said, “Do you want to double your money?”
Believing he was definitely a punter/railbird, I said that I would appreciate the tip.
He said, “If you want to double your money, fold it in half and stick it back into your wallet.”
Advice to me not well-taken.
—A WHITE-OUT: A Cleveland Browns practice was disrupted this week when a white substance was found on the field.
Nobody on the Browns knew what it was.
To be safe, the FBI was summoned to investigate and the substance was quickly identified.
It was the goal-line.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 198: As American instrumentalist Edgar Winter put it, “Music is very spiritual, it has the power to bring people together.”
—I Can See For Miles (The Who), You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (Leo Sayer), Chain Gang (Sam Cooke), Oh, Denise (Randy & The Rainbows), Look It Up (Vince Gill), Only You (The Platters), Never Be Anybody Else But You (Rick Nelson), Thunder (Imagine Dragons).
—Stuck On You (Lionel Richie), Can’t You See (Marshall Tucker Band), Sloop John B (Beach Boys), Addicted To Love (Robert Palmer), Love Is Alive (Gary Wright), You Got What It Takes (Dave Clark Five), Homeward Bound (Simon & Garfunkel.