By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, suffering a swollen left ear from doing so many cellphone interviews on the Pete Rose situation. And I know the checks are in the mail.
—PRAISE FOR DAVE: Dave Bristol managed the Cincinnati Reds in the late 1960s and does not receive enough credit for being in on the groundwork of The Big Red Machine.
Bristol had as much to do with The Big Red Machine as his successor, Sparky Anderson, mostly because Bristol managed most of them in the minors at Macon, Ga. and Geneva, N.Y.
Bristol is 92 years old right now and still as sharp as Ty Cobb’s spikes.
“When I had Pete Rose in Macon, one game he went 0-for-2 in the first inning against Greenville and finished the game 5-for-7,” he said.
“And one year Tommy Helms hit .340 and Pete hit .330 and Tommy never let Pete forget it. And Pete was really mad about it. He would do anything for a base hit.”
Bristol also came up with the best quote on Tony Perez, The Big Red Machine’s clutch hitter. Said Bristol, “If the game goes long enough, Tony Perez will find a way to win it for you.”
They don’t make managers like Dave Bristol any more and that’s a shame, even though the first time I covered a Reds game in 1969 he scared the notebook right out of my hands.
Pitcher Gary Nolan was on the disabled list and was scheduled that night to throw a bullpen session. My sports editor instructed me, “Be sure to ask Bristol how Nolan did.”
The Reds beat the Pirates that night, 2-1. As soon as we hit the manager’s office, wanting to show what a great journalist I was, I asked Bristol, “How did Gary Nolan’s bullpen session go.”
Bristol gave me a hard stare and said, “We just played a great damn game and beat the Pirates and you want to know how Gary Nolan did?”
I never asked him another question. When I related the story to him 20 years later, he smiled and said, “I loved to intimidate young writers.”
Mission accomplished.
—JUST ONE SIGNATURE: Johnny Bench had a take on the Pete Rose situation during an interview on the Mark Patrick Show.
“We should make him Commissioner of Baseball Gambling,’” said Bench. “He had a chance the first day when (then) commissioner Pete Ueberroth called him in. Ueberroth gave him the option of signing a paper. He said, ‘If you don’t sign this, Bart Giamatti is going to nail you.’ Pete didn’t sign and that’s the way it happened.”
It is unfortunate that Rose, who has signed his name 150,000 times, didn’t sign that paper. As the story goes, there can’t be too many baseballs in this world without Pete Rose’s signature.
And I have one of them.
—MEN IN LOW PLACES: In Denver, they are thinking about changing the title of John Denver’s song, ‘Rocky Mountain High,’ to ‘Rocky Mountain Low.’
That would be to dishonor the Colorado Rockpiles. Back in 1988, the Baltimore Orioles started the season 0-21. Yet, after 43 games they still had a better record than Colorado’s this season.
After 43 games, Baltimore was 9-34. Colorado is 7-36, the worst record in modern MLB history for a team after 43 games.
Even the Cincinnati Reds swept three games at Mile High Stadium, 8-7, 6-4 and 8-1. . .back when the Reds knew how to score runs.
—USING BOTH HANDS: The Cincinnati Reds once had an ambidextrous pitcher named Greg Harris. He started a late-season game in Montreal and pitched with both hands — pitching lefthanded against lefthanders and righthanded against righthanders.
There is another one on the horizon in the Seattle Mariners system, Jurrangelo Cijntje from Curacao. He pitches with both hands, or as Yogi Berra once said, “He’s amphibious.”
He pitched with both hands in the 2016 Little League World Series.
He pitched at Mississippi State University and was 8-1 his senior year. He throws 99 miles an hour righthanded and 95 miles an hour lefthanded, even though he is a natural lefthander.
Now, using a six-fingered glove that he can wear on either hand, he is pitching for Everett in the High-A Northwest League, where he is 2-2 with a 5.27 ERA.
In 27 1/2 innings he has given up six home runs, walked 19 and struck out 30.
Obviously, he is a work in progress, but unlike every other pitcher, he has two hands to work with. And don’t ask me how to pronounce Cijntje.
And I can’t even rip off a square of toilet paper with my right hand.
—THREE’S COMPANY: In 1942, Boston Braves pitcher Jim Tobin hit three home runs in one game, the only pitcher ever to do it.
And in his other at bat in that game, Tobin hit one that was caught against the center field wall in his bid to hit four that day.
Also, the day before he hit three, he pinch-hit. . .and hit a home run.
And consider this: David Ortiz, Gary Sheffield and Rafael Palmeiro all hit more than 500 home runs during their careers. But none of the three ever hit three homers in one game.
What a bunch of pikers.
—ALL CHAINED UP: St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn wears not one, but two, very thick silver chains around his neck while he plays.
They look as if they should be on the back tires of his car during a snowstorm.
—SULTAN OF SLIDERS: Of what do you think Babe Ruth is proudest of from his career? 59 homers? 60 homers? 714 career homers? Most hot dogs and beer consumed in one sitting?
It has nothing to do with his 36-inch, 40-ounce bats. Before Ruth became the Sultan of Swat as an outfielder for the Yankees, he pitched for the Boston Red Sox.
In 1916 he won 23 games with a 1.75 earned run average and nine shutouts. In the 1916 World Series against Brooklyn and the 1918 World Series against the Chicago Cubs, he pitched 29 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
And those World Series shutout innings are what made Ruth the proudest.
“As soon as I got out there, I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher’s mound,” said Ruth. “It was as if I’d been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.”
—QUOTABLE QUOTES: From Pete Rose Jr., known as Petey, about being the son of The Hit King: “He was like any other dad except my dad had more hits than anybody else’s dad.”
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 171: As Ludwig Van Beethoven put it: “I would rather write 10,000 musical notes than one letter of the alphabet.” (And that he did.)
—Put Your Head On My Shoulder (Paul Anka), There Goes My Baby (Drifters), Iris (Go Go Dolls),
—If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot), You Make Lovin’ Fun (Fleetwood Mac), Dancin’ In The Moonlight (King Harvest), I Just Fall In Love Again (Anne Murray), The Weight (The Band), Back Home Again (John Denver), Rag Doll (Four Seasons).
It Hurts To Be In Love (Gene Pitney), Bits & Pieces (Dave Clark Five), Come A Little Bit Closer (Jay & The Americans), Bread & Butter (Newbeats), Texas (Blake Shelton), Ramblin’ Man (Allman Brothers).