By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, just five days away from a Caribbean cruise and 12 days until pitchers catchers and writers report to spring training. . .and I’m not sure whch excites me more.
—NOT ONE AND DONE: The mystery of the one miscreant who didn’t include Ichiro on his Hall of Fame ballot remains unsolved, protected because he/she did not want their ballot made public.
But consider this affrontery. Joe DiMaggio did not make it the first three years he was on the ballot. He made it the fourth year and only received 88.8% of the votes.
Robin Roberts, Harmon Killebrew and Mike Piazza didn’t make it until their fourth year and none received more than 87% of the votes.
Hey, I know how Ichiro feels. The first year I was on the ballot (2001) I lost by one vote. It was to Joe Falls of the Detroit Free Press, for whom I worked one year.
The method for writers, though, is different than that for the players. There are 30 names on the players’ ballot and writers can vote for up to 10. A player needs 75% of the votes.
For the writers, there are only three names on the ballot and the voters select one. The writer with the most votes wins.
After I lost by one vote in 2001, I won in 2002 and was shocked because legendary Boston Globe writer Peter Gammons was on the ballot with me. He won two years later.
—QUOTE: From former New York sportswriter Ring Lardner: “Nothing on Earth is more depressing than an old baseball writer.” (And some young ones, too, Ring.)
—OH MY, BABE: Do you think Shohei Ohtani knows who Babe Ruth was. For sure he knows all about Sadaharu Oh.
Don’t laugh. Former New York Yankees star Don Mattingly admited that when he started out with the Yankees, “I really thought Babe Ruth was a cartoon character, a mythic character.
Ohtani should know about Babe Ruth because he and The Bambino are Statistical Twins.
The similiarities in numbers are incredible.
As pitchers: Babe Ruth was 35-18 in his first 455 innings. Ohtani was 35-19 in his first 455 innings.
As hitters; Babe Ruth hit 159 home runs in his firstr 674 games. Ohtani hit 160 home runs in his first 674 games.
It isn’t known if Ruth owned a talented Dog to match Ohtani’s Dutch dog, Decoy.
—‘THE BENDER:’ The curveball, or in baseball venacular, was invented in 1867, first thrown in a game by 18-year-old Candy Cummings of the Brooklyn Excelsiors.
He said he learned it throwing clam shells across the Gowanus Canal. Oh, by the way, he lost that game, 18-6.
Of the curveball, Bob Uecker said, “Ah, the curveball, the bender. I couldn’t hit the curveball but I knew a lot about benders.”
—WHERE’S RONNIE?: Legendary Mississippi State University baseball coach Ron Polk said an umpire ejected him for arguing balls and strikes against Arkansas.
“Once I was tossed, the umpire told me to go somewhere where he couldn’t see me. So naturally I went and strood on home plate.”
That’s called the perfect squelch.
—VINTAGE VINNY: Whe Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully said something, it was baseball Gospel. And here is what he once said about Sandy Koufax.
“Perhaps the only pitcher I ever saw, or broadcast about, when after one batter, I would think he might throw a no-hitter. When
Sandy Koufax walking to the mound, he was like a conductor walking on stage.”
And Scully was right four times. Koufax pitched four no-hitters, including a perfect game.
—THE WHIFF FACTOR: Another awesome tidbit concerning strikeouts by hitters, er, batters, who are not embarrassed by striking out by the bushel.
Last season, Kyle Schwarber led the National League with 200 strikeouts and Eugenio Suarez led the American League with 196.
During the entire decade of the 1990s, Tony Gwynn struck out a total of 188 times.
—A HIGH, HARD ONE: A BIG HEAVE-HO: Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel couldn’t penetrate Ohio State’s defensive wall, but he might be able to penetrate a brick wall with his passes.
Gabriel threw a pass at a Senior Bowl workout clocked at 74.9 miles an hour. That’s 12 miles an hour faster than any previously clocked pass, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen’s 62 miles an hour fling at the Pro Combine.
The Cincinnati Reds have a question. How hard can he throw a baseball?
—MEET MISS BLAKES: Is there another Caitlin Clark bursting on to the scene? Looks like it.
It’s Vanderbilt freshman Mikayla Blakes. In a game this week, she scored 53 points against Florida, an NCAA record for a freshman. Yes, she’s only a freshman.
Against Florida she was 16 for 24 from the field and scored every way but standingo on her head. She was 5 for 9 from three, she hit mid-range jumpers, floaters, step-backs and slashed to the hoop as if carrying a Samurai sword. And best not foul her. She was 16 for 18.
Florida couldn’t stop her on this night with a court injunction.
—SAY IT, JOE: Former catcher/broacaster Joe Garagiola grew up in the same St. Louis neighborhood as Yogi Berra and was almost as funny as Yogi. Almost. And he was almost as funny as Bob Uecker. Almost.
Appearing on the David Letterman Show with Ted Williams, Garagiola said to Teddy Ballgame, “You did in one homestand what it took me nine years to do.”
And a Uecker-like quote: “I was batting in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game with the bases loaded. I had a 3-and-2 count and looked at the third base coach. He was giving me the take sign.”
—HEY, MR. BASEBALL: More from Bob Uecker. . .and fortunately they never end:
—“When I played, they didn’t use fancy words like emotionally distressed. They just said I couldn’t hit.”
“When I asked writers why they hadn’t voted me into the Hall of Fame as a player, they said they thought I was still playing.”
“My first year in the majors, they told me, ‘Most of us wear our jock straps on the inside of the uniform.’”
“They said I was such a great prospect that they wre sending me to a winter league to sharpen u8p. When I stepped off the plan I was in Greenland.”
“After my first interview with Johnny Carson ended, I heard him ask Ed McMahon, ‘Did that guy really play baseball?’”
And when he heard that Juan Marichal was voted into the Hall of Fame as a player and not him: “That aggravated me. Hell, I had a hit off Juan Marichal.”
—TRUE OR FALSE: Some rumors that I consider questionable:
**A source informed me that the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense will wear surgical masks so they won’t gel penalized for breathing on Kansas City quarrterback Patrick Mahomes.
**UD and Wright State will play a basketball game against each other this year. Oops. Take out the ‘k’ and the ’t’ from basketball and you have it. They’ll play a baseball game April 29 at Day Air Ballpark.
—SAME DIFFERENCE: There is a word in sports that means to quit and to re-up. Same word. The difference is a hyphen — resign and re-sign. And that’s my English lesson for the day.
—HURRY UP!: Can’t wait for the Super Bowl and I mean I can’t wait for it to be over because then it’s time for baseball.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 144: As author/poet Victor Hugo put it, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
—Poor Side Of Town (Johnny Rivers), Only The Lonely (Rob Orbison), Just A Song Before I Go (Crosby, Stills & Nash), There’s Kind Of A Hush (Herman’s Hermits), Try To Remember (Ed Ames), Ruby Tuesday (Rolling Stones).
—Brandy (Looking Glass), You Make Lovin’ Fun (Fleetwood Mac), Spooky (Atlanta Rhythm Section), For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield), Paradise City (Guns N’ Roses), Handyman (Jimmy Jones), If I Can’t Dream (Elvis Presley), Get Together (Youngbloods).