Observations: Elly, McLain Could Re-Write The Record Book

By Hal McCoy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, wondering if the Cincinnati Reds are going to continue their current patterson of lose, win, lose, win, lose. That would mean an 81-81 record.

—THE YOUNGEST LEGEND: Can a baseball player become a legend at age 24? Absolutely, when your name is Elly De La Cruz and you do something legendary about once a week.

The latest? On Monday, EDLC did something never done in the modern era, since 1900.

He had three extra base hits (two homers and a double) and a stolen bases for the second time in his young career. No player under 24 years old had ever done it.

There is no doubt that De La Cruz will turn the record book into ‘The Elly De La Cruz Diary.’

And how about Matt McLain? How about him? After he hit home runs in three consecutive games, MLB-TV’s Brian Kenny said, “Matt McLain is the best baseball player nobody is talking about.”

That’s because Elly is the word when the talking heads talk about the Reds. That won’t last long. They’ll still talk about Elly, but McLain will be in the same sentence.

And that’s as long as they don’t have to face too many Nathan Eovaldi-type pitchers.

When Joey Votto first saw Elly in action, he said, “Some of the balls he hits break the laws of physics.”

—SWING AND A MISS: It is difficult to determine who is making a bigger swing and miss, the Boston Red Sox for giving Rafael Devers a 10-year $313.5 million contract or what Devers is doing at the plate.

In his first 19 at bats for the Bosox, Devers struck out 15 times.

Incredibly, in 1995 San Diego’s Tony Gwynn struck out 15 times all season, 585 at bats.

—BIRD-WATCHER: Former MLB pitcher Randy Johnson routinely threw fastballs above 100 miles an hour and once killed a bird with a 101 miles an hour fastball during a game.

And he neveer hears the end of it.

“People see me and the first thing they say is, ‘Aren’t you the pitcher who hit a bird?’ And I tell them, ‘I pitched 22 years and I did more than kill a bird.’”

Indeed he did. I witnessed him striking out 20 Cincinnati Reds in a 2001 game in Arizona. And he struck out 372 that season.

For his career, he struck out 4,875 batters, but he only killed one bird. . .and without a stone.

—A PLAN BLOWN UP: In 1985, brothers Phil and Joe Niekro both pitched for the New York Yankees.

Phil already had announced his retirement and was scheduled to pitch the last game of the season against Toronto, looking for his 300th career victory.

On the night before, the 46-year-old Phil said to Joe, “I want you to pitch in this game so we’ll both be part of my 300th win. How cool would that be.” Joe agreed.

So during the game Phil is pitching a shutout through eight innings. Before the ninth, Joe comes to the mound and Phil says, “Are you ready? We agreed you’d pitch in this game.”

Said Joe, “Do you realize if you pitch this shutoout you’ll be the oldest pitcher ever to pitch a shutout?”

And Phil said, “Well, get the hell out of here and let me get this job done.” And he did.

His record stood until 2010 when 47-year-old Jamie Moyer, pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies, pitched a shutout against the Atlanta Braves.

—QUOTE: From pitcher Phil Niekro, who threw knuckleballs about 95 per cent of the time: “It took me a few years to realize throwing harder wasns’t always better.”

And it was Niekro who catcher Bob Uecker was talking about when he said, “The best way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and pick it up.”

—TRIVIA TIME: Can you answer this minutiae?

***Who is the only play in MLB history to play in All-Star games for both the National League and American League, but played for the same team?

That would be Houston’s Jose Altuve. How can that be? Well, he played in the 2012 All-Star game representing Houston in the National League. Houston was switched to the American League in 2013 and Altuve made the AL All-Star team in 2014.

***Who are six players from Springfield, OH to play on World Series chamions?

The first two were brothers — Jiggs Donohue for the 1906 Chicago White Sox and Pat Donohue for the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics. Then there was Harvey Haddix for the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, Will McEnaney for the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds, Dustin Hermanson for the 2005 Chicago White Sox and Adam Eaton for the 2010 Washington Nationals.

Former Reds/Indians pitchers Dave Burba and Rick White never made it, Amazingly, Hermanson, Burba and White all pitched for Kenton Ridge High School, near Springfield.

—ANOTHER UECKER-ISM: From catcher/broadcaster/comedian Bob Uecker:

“Every time I went to the plate in a crucial situation I felt I had to go to the bathroom. And when I played they had a rule that you couldnt touch yourself.”

And this story needs to be told about what kind of guy Uecker really was.

A policeman in Milwaukee was in a bar near the ball park, a policeman’s bar. It was packed with cops.

Uecker came in and signed autographs while eating his lunch. Then he left. The bar owner then announced, “All of your meals have been paid for.”

Now that’s what I call a power lunch by one powerful guy.

—PLAYLIST NUMBER 158: As British musician Alex Gaskarth put it, “Music is the soundtrack to every good and bad time we will ever have.”

—I Gotta Be Me (Sammy Davis Jr.), These Eyes (Guess Who), Hurts So Bad (Lettermen), Jean (Oliver), Get Together (Youngbloods), One (Three Dog Night), It’s The Same Old Song (Four Tops), This Girl Is A Woman Now (Gary Puckett & The Union Gap).

—Games People Play (Joe South), Everybody’s Talkin’ About It (Harry Nilsson), Hawaii Five-O (Ventures), Atlantis (Donovan), Do That To Me One More Time (Captain & Tenille), Thunder Island (Jay Fergusn), I Go Crazy (Paul Davis), I Wonder Why (Dion & The Belmonts), Here I Go Again (Whitesnake), Crazy (Kenny Rogers).