By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, so honored to have JD Old-Fashioned Cusard in Englewood to name a flavor of the ‘dae’ after me. It was Hal McCoy Cookies n’ Creme. . .my absolute favorite.
—DIAL DIAZ: If you are a Cincinnati Reds fan and Alexis Diaz comes in to close a game, you cross your fingers, hold your breath and dangle garlic around your neck.
Right? Right.
It really isn’t necessary, I’ve discovered, thanks to a reader. Diaz is pretty much lightys out, with maybe a small bulb blinking at times.
His brother, Edwin, is a closer for the New York Mets and is acknowledged as one of the best. But over the past two seasons Alexis Diaz converts saves at a 90% rate. Edwin? 85%.
Want more? Some of the game’s acknowledged best closers are Josh Hader, Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel. All three are at 88%.
So there you have it. Rest easy when Alexis arrives, even if he walks the first batter in a one-run game. Doesn’t he always?
—‘MARK’ HIS WORDS: This past Saturday was the 31st anniversary of the day Mark Whiten of the St. Louis Cardinals hit four home runs and drove in 12 runs against the Cincinnati Reds.
It sticks in my mind not only for its awesomeness, but for something that was said in the bullpen, something one of the Reds relief pitchers told me. He requested anonymisty for fear of reprisals.
Said the relief pitcher, “When Whiten hit his third home run, Rob Dibble said to me, ‘He’d never hit one off me.’’’
Dibble entered the game and you know what happened. Home run number four on the day for Hittin’ Whiten, high into the right field upper deck, and some snickers in the Reds’ bullpen.
—50/50 = MVP: Whenever Francisco Lindor came to bat over the weekend against the Cincinnati Reds, even though he was 1 for 11 with a walk, the Citi Field fans chanted, “MVP, MVP.”
Apparently they haven’t paid their cable bills or paid their newspaper subscriptions or they’d know that LA’s Shohei Ohtani is on his way to a 50/50 season — 50 homers and 50 stolen bases, something no player has come close to doing.
As Pete Rose once said about Sandy Koufax, “He belongs in a higher league but there ain’t one.”
—PITCH, PITCH AND MORE PITCH: Why can’t they do this now? Because they don’t try.
Back in 1974, Nolan Ryan, while pitching for California, threw 235 pitches in a 13-inning complete game against the Boston Red Sox. That’s no typo — not 135, it was 235.
More incredibly, three days later he threw six shutout innings on three hits against the New York Yankees.
—QUOTE: From Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan: “It helps if hitters think you’re a little crazy.” (My question always was…why did Ryan bounce so much from team to team. . .from the New York Mets to the California Angels to the Houston Astros to the Texas Rangers?)
—TRIPLE DIGITS: Back in the day, it was rare in MLB to see a uniform number higher than the 50s. Nowadays, it is not unusual to see players wearing 80s and 90s on their back.
But how about this one? On the jacket cover of the excellent book about American player Warren Cromartie, ‘Slugging It Out In Japan,’ the cover photo is of Cromartie being tossed in the air by his teammates.
The Yomiuri Tokyo Giants came from three games to none down to the Kintetsu Buffaloes to win four straight to capture the 1989 Japan World Series;
There is a player on the cover with the name ‘Takeshita’ on his jersey. His uniform number? 118.
Cromartie, known as ‘Cro,’ played for the Montreal Expos and became a free agent. Two teams named Giants bid for him, San Francisco and Tokyo. Tokyo won with a $2.5 million deal.
—HOW MANY MISTAKES?: Hardly a game goes by that an umpire’s call is reversed by replay/review two or three times.
Makes me wonder about close calls before replay/review. Just how many games were determined wrongfully by an umpire’s wrong decision? There had to be more than a few.
—TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN: Western Michigan took its 56-0 beating at Ohio State and happily took its $1.3 million appearance money back to Kalamazoo. It was worth the aches, pains, cuts and bruises.
For Northern Illinois, it was even a happier trip back to DeKalb. Not only did the Huskies take home $1.2 million, they took back a shocking/stunning/stupendous 16-14 upset victory over No. 5 Notre Dame. And they felt no aches, no pains, no cuts, no bruises.
—QUOTE: From fromer New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath: “When you win, notning hurts. When you lose, everythng hurts.”
—THE ‘PLANE’ TRUTH: University of Dayton women’s basketball coach Tamika Williams, a Chaminade-Julienne product, took her talents to women’s basketball empire UConn and set an NCAA record that still stands.
She shot 70.3 per cent. That is not her free throw percentage, it’s her field goal percentage. When she missed a shot they stopped the game and checked her pulse.
She was heavily recruited out of high school and Ohio State flew her in a private jet even though it is only 70 miles from Dayton to Columbus.
When she told UConn coach Gene Auriemma about it, he mailed her a wooden model airplane with a note, “Sorry, this is all we can afford.”
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 90: Clearly, I was in a bit of a melancholy mood when I chose these:
Take My Breath Away (Berlin), How Do You Talk To An Angel? (The Heights), Keep On Lovin’ You (REO Speedwagon), Goodbye, My Friend (Karla Bonoff), I’d Love You To Want Me (Lobo), If You Don’t Know Me By Now (Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes).
Make Me Lose Control (Eric Carmen), Let Your Love Flow (The Bellamy Brothers), Caught Up In You (.38 Special), Missing You (John Waite), Man In Motion (John Parr), To Love Somebody (Michael Bolton), Just One Look (Doris lTroy). Still In Love With You (Chris Norman).