By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, just six days before I’ll be climbing the steps of the Acropolis, if I can make it.
—GENE EQUALS GENES: Why didn’t my mom name me Gene? If she had, I might have made it to the major leagues with the New York Yankees. (Oh, what a dreamer I am.)
The only graduates of my high school, Akron East, to make it to the majors both were named Gene — Gene Woodling and Gene Michael.
Woodling, an outfielder, played in the majors 17 years and won World Series rings five straight years with the Yankees from 1949 to 1953.
I actually played baseball and basketball with Michael at East. I played first base and he was our shortstop and 66 years later I’m still waiting for him to make a bad throw. And on the basketball court, it was my job to get the ball to Michael and get out of the way.
He was so good at both sports that he actually played both baseball and basketball at Kent State.
His nickname was ‘Stick’ because he was skinny and he played 10 years in the majors, seven with the Yankees. Then he managed the Yankees and the Chicago Cubs before becoming general manager of the Yankees.
When I was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame, he surprised me by showing up and said, “Who ever thought that you would make it to the Hall of Fame and I wouldn’t?”
He was so right.
—PETE’S TIMING: This one has to be beyond coincidence because to me Pete Rose was Mr. Baseball.
He was born on Opening Day, 1941, and he died on the last day of the 2024 season. Is that apropos, or what?
Pete was born on Apiril 14 and as he loved to point out, “It was also the day Abe Lincoln was shot and the same day the Titanic hit the iceberg.”
The Reds lost their first four games in 1941, then won seven of eight en route to an 88-66 season to finish third in the National League.
—ON THE DEFENSIVE: Pete Rose was once asked to reveal something about his game people don’t know about. And his answer was nothing about hitting.
“I have the highest fielding average for an outfielder in the history of the game,” he said.
Never doubt Pete because he knows numbers better than a numerologist. Perhaps he said it before Darryl Hamilton finished his career in 2001 with the all-time career best .995.
I couldn’t find Pete’s career outfield stats, but I did find that in 1970 he played 159 games in the outfield and made one error, he played 158 gamae in the outfield in 1971 and made two errors, he played 154 game in the outfield in 1972 and made two errors and he played 163 games in the outfield in 1974 and made one error.
Yep, pretty darn good defensively, too.
And how about consistency? He was consistently good, but he took consistency to a new level.
He batted 9,001 times at night and hit .303. He batted 5,052 times during the day and hit .303. He batted 7,043 times on AstroTurf and hit .303.
His total career batting average? What else? .303.
—ANOTHER QUIZ: Who owns the career record for most home runs in post-season games for the New York Yankees?
Babe Ruth? No. Lou Gehrig? No. Mickey Mantle? No. Joe DiMaggio? No. Roger Maris? No.
The leader is a trick question. It is Bernie Williams with 22. But none of the above Yankee legends played in any playoff games. There were none. They only played in World Series games.
Williams played in 121 post-season games. Babe Ruth hit 15 post-season home runs in only 65 games, all World Series games.
While playing for Clevelande and Boston, Manny Ramirez hit the most post-season home runs with 29, done in 111 post-season games.
Didn’t get that one? So tell us why there is no ‘d’ in refrigerator but there is a ‘d’ in fridge.
—YA GOTTA START FAST: When the Baltimore Orioles scored first this past season, they were 67-19.
The O’s didn’t score first in Game One of the Wild Card Series. They scored ‘O’ and got beat, 1-0, by the Kansas City Royals.
They are 0-9 in games in which they didn’t score. Yeah, I know. Very funny. You can’t win when you don’t score and as Pete Rose said, “One of the great things about baseball is there are no ties.”
The O’s scored one the next day and were eliminated by the Royals, 2-1, a team making its first post-season in more than a decade and a team that lost 106 games in 2023.
And the O’s are a big 0 in the post-season. They are on a 10-game post-season losing streak.
Then there is the Detroit Tigers. On August 11 they were 55-63. With a 33-13 run they eliminated the Houston Astros, the American League West champions, in two straight.
And how must Detroit manager A.J. Hinch feel after he was run out of Houston as manager of the cheating tub-thumping sign stealers?
If you haven’t put your money on the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series yet, do it post haste.
Why? Becasue Will Smith pitches for the Royals. So what’s the significance? Smith pitched for Atlanta in 2021. The Brraves won the World Series. Smith pitched for Houston in 2022 and the Astros won the World Series. Smith pitched for Texs in 2023 and the Rangers won the World Series.
You are most welcome.
As Jerry Reed sang it, “When you’re hot, you’re hot.” And in the cases of Baltimore and Houston, “When you’re not, you’re not.”
—HAVE FOOTBALL, WILL TRAVEL: How absurd was it for the Big Ten to expand so that the league is coat-to-coast from Maryland and New Jersey (Rutgers) to Los Angeles (UCLA, Southern California)?
UCLA plays six Big Ten road games this season and jet lag will be more imortant to the Bruins than punts and first downs.
They will travel 22,050 miles to and from those six games and cross 26 time zones. The 22,050 miles is 90% of the circumference of Mother Earth.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 100: And probably the last. I’m not all out of love, but I’m all out of songs.
Livin’ Thing (Electric Light Orchestra), Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers), Spirit In The Sky (Norman Greenbaum), Dizzy (Tommy Roe), Cherish (The Association), Paperback Writer (The Beatles), Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf).
Angie (Rolling Stones), Georgy Girl (The Seekers), Time In A Bottle (Jim Croce), I Get Around (The Beach Boys), What A Wonderful World (Louie Armstrong), Proud Mary (Credence Clearwater Revival), Please Mr. Postman (Marvelettes).