By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave and former commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti wasn’t writing about the Cincinnati Reds when he penned: “Baseball breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.” But it sure sounds like it. Reds fans have more broken hearts than a country singer.
—BASEBALL’S MONTY HALL: With the trade deadline creeping up and the Cincinnati Reds not certain what to do. . .well, probably nothing of note. . .let’s flip it back to when a vastly underappreciated general manager did some really good things.
During Wayne Krivsky’s short stay as Reds general manager, before he was undermined by Walt Jocketty, Krivsky made two of the most one-sided trades in Reds history.
And both favored the Reds, by a whopper of a margin. And both trades came within days of each other, in the last days of spring training in 2006.
First, on March 26, he traded minor-league relief pitcher Jeff Stevens to Cleveland for second baseman Brandon Phillips. Stevens made 33 relief appearances in three years for the Chicago Cubs and was done. And everybody knows what Phillips did.
Then on April 7, Krivsky traded highly touted outfielder Wily Mo Pena for pitcher Bronson Arroyo and was burned to a crisp without benefit of a charcoal grille by fans and media.
So how did that work out? Pena hit 16 home runs for Boston over parts of three seasons and by 2010 was playing independent ball for the Bridgeport Bluefish.
Arroyo? For the next seven seasons, Arroyo made 320 consecutive starts without missing a start. And could Wily Mo Pena play the guitar and sing? Nope. Arroyo could. And did. And still does.
Through all that, Krivsky is a forgotten man and that’s a shame.
—BIG NUMBERS (REAL BIG): When a long-time friend and fellow baseball beat writer Brad Schmaltz sent this, I though he was not only pulling my leg, but both legs and both arms.
But it’s true. I looked it up.
The Atlanta Braves have a 19-year-old named Francisco Vicioso pitching for their Dominican Summer League team.
He has pitched three innings and given up only two hits and struck out six. But. . .and this is a huge but. . .
Those three innings have come in 10 games during which he has issued 28 walks, thrown 35 wild pitches, given up 21 runs and his earned run average is 60.00.
The kid must throw 120 miles an hour. Why else would they keep him? His dad is not the general manager nor the field manager.
—DO AS I DO: Former Baltimore Orioles pitcher and underwear salesman Jim Palmer had a theory about giving up home runs.
“The pitcher who gives up runs one at a time wins,” he said. “The pitcher who gives ‘em up two, three and four at a time loses. I gave up long home runs that I turned around and admired like a fan. But the ones I admired were all solos.”
So did he put it into practice? You bet. Palmer pitched 3,948 innings and never gave up a grand slam home run. Not once.
—PITCHING, PITCHING, PITCHING: Scores of Reds fans were disturbed when the team drafted pitcher Chase Burns instead of power-hitting outfielder Charlie Condon.
Maybe they should have, but pitching is so important in baseball, number one in importance.
Somebody once asked former manager Whitey Herzog what his team needed to win. Said Herzog, “We need three things. Right-handed pitching, left-handed pitching and relief pitching.”
—HISTORY LESSON: From great buddy Andy Furman via the Wall Street Journal:
When the live ball was ushered into baseball in 1920, Babe Ruth astounded the baseball world with 54 home runs.
What folks don’t know is who held the professional record that Ruth broke.
It was a guy named Perry Werden. In 1895, playing for the Minneapolis Millers in the Western League, Werden hit 45 homers in what was described as a real bandbox, Athletic Field.
Werden played six years in the majors for the St. Louis Brown Stockings and the Washington Nationals and hit only 16 homers. But he twice led the league in triples.
He played 1,539 minor league games and stole 350 bases and hit 174 triples. And the year he hit 45 homers, he put together a 40-game hitting streak. For some reason he bounced around and during one five-year span he played for six different teams.
And, no, I didn’t cover him. Just missed him.
—WITH REGULARITY: The 2004 Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight in the World Series to end the 86-year Curse of The Bambino.
During the ALCS, when Boston became the first pro team in any sport to come from 3-0 down to win four straight against the New York Yankees, manager Terry Francona subsisted on Metamucil to quell an always grumbling stomach.
After the World Series, Francona signed a contract with Metamucil and appeared in a full-page newspaper ad with a headline: “Congratulations Boston on your World Championship. Let’s hope it becomes a ‘regular’ thing.”
Metamucil. Regular. Get it? OK, as my great friend and author Scott Russell always puts it, “Carry on.”
—NON-ADMIRATION SOCIETY: One of my favorite quotes was uttered by umpire Doug Harvey, who was so authoritative the players called him God.
It was about players standing at home plate admiring their home runs. Said Harvey, “Barry Bonds? If he stood and admired a home run against Bob Gibson or Don Drysdale, the next time he came up they’d knock that earring right out of his ear.”
—FIRST DH MVP?: Did you know that no designated hitter has ever won an MLB MVP award? Say hello to LA DH Shohei Ohtani, the odds-on pick to win the National League MVP.
On Sunday night in Dodger Stadium, he hit a 473-foot home run that was last seen en route to Cucamonga while passing over El Segundo.
—AGAINST ALL ODDS: The U.S. Olympic basketball team was a 43 1/2-point favorite to beat South Sudan in an exhibition game. But it took a drive to the hoop by LeBron James with eight seconds left for the U.S. to avoid wretched embarrassment and win, 101-100.
Question: How can one of the world’s poorest countries field an Olympic basketball team? South Sudan is ravaged by floods and droughts. There is civil war in Suda to the north and more than 500,000 refuges have fled Sudan to South Sudan and malnutrition is rampant.
But the basketball team must eat well.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 76: Music, music, music. . .nothing goes better while you write than music.
Rumours (Fleetwood Mac), Got My Mind Set On You (George Michael), I Can See Clearly Now (Johnny Nash), Angel (Aerosmith), Elvira (Oakridge Boys), I’d Just Love To Lay You Down (Conway Twitty), If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot).
Up Around The Bend (Credence Clearwater Revival), I Can Help (Billy Swan), Islands In The Stream (Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers), World Bee Gees), Last Date (Floyd Cramer), Time Of The Season (The Zombies), Wish You Were (Pink Floyd). I Can’t Help My Self (Four Tops).