By Hal McCoy
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, getting fired up for my 52nd year of covering MLB by watching spring training exhibitions every day on TV (Who are these guys?).
—OLIVER’S TWIST: One of the nicest, classiest MLB player, make that the nicest, classiest human being, I ever met is Al Oliver.
At the risk of beating an expired thoroughbred, why in the name of Roberto Clemente, Dave Parker and Bill Mazeroski (all Pittsburgh Hall of Famers) does Al Oliver not have a plaque in Cooperstown?
Do numbers lie? He hit over .300 11 times, owns a .303 career batting average, owns three Silver Slugger awards, struck out in only 8% of his plate appearances and was an All-Star seven times.
He was the first play in MLB history to have seasons of batting .300 with 200 hits and 100 RBI in both leagues (Pittsburgh, Texas).
Bill Mazeroski does not own one single number better than Oliver’s, but his plaque hangs prominently in Cooperstown.
—A REAL CORKER: To this day, Chris Sabo denies using illegal corked bats, even though in 1996 he was suspended for seven games and the Cincinnati Reds were fined $25,000. . .because Sabo used a corked bat.
How did it go down? This way.
On a 3-and-2 pitch from Houston’s Mike Hampton, Sabo fouled off a pitch and broke his bat. The batboy brought him another bat. He fouled off the next pitch, too, and cracked that bat.
But he continued to use it and on Hampton’s eighth pitch Sabo connected and the bat completely shattered, spraying enough cork over the infield to plug four bottles of vintage wine.
Umpire Tom Hallion picked up the barrel and discovered a groove stuffed with cork. Sabo vociferously denied using cork and said, “I’m hitting .262 so that wouldn’t be a great endorsement for the cork industry.”
So whose bat was it? Sabo still won’t finger the culprit, but I was told it belonged to teammate and Sabo’s former University of Michigan teammate Hal Morris. Or was it the batboy’s?
—SIGN THE BRUISE?: Mickey Mantle’s take on the nastiness of pitcher Don Drysdale:
“I hated to bat against Drysdale. After he hit you with a pitch, he’d come around, point to the bruise on your arm and say, ‘Do you want me to autograph that?’”
For a fantastic read on the life of Drysdale pick up a copy of Mark Whicker’s book, ‘Up and In.’
—QUOTE: From MLB-TV commentator and former MLB player Mark DeRosa: “I know everybody says it’s Shohei Ohtani’s to lose (the MVP), but I’m going to say he loses it to Elly De La Cruz.”
—TV TIME: What year was the first baseball game televised? I was stunned to learn that it was 1939 and it was a college game between Columbia and Princeton, a game won by Princeton, 2-1, in 10 innings.
There were 10 million people in the telecast area, but only 400 primitive TV sets. There was one camera behind bome plate and the baseball was not visible and the players were fuzzy images.
Quite the contrast to today’s telecasts, where you can see vividly the pimple on Hunter Greene’s chin.
—ANOTHER UECKER-ISM: Catcher/broadcaster/comedian Bob Uecker said he received no respect, not even from his kids, who always said that when they went to Uecker’s games they always wanted to go home with a different player.
“As I left for the ball park, one of my boy would be in the driveway and he’d say, ‘Another day, another dollar, four at bats and another collar.’”
—QUOTE: From former Yankees/Reds manager Lou Piniella when asked what player he managed most reminded him of his own competitive spirit: “Paul O’Neill. He had more talent than me, but he was the player who most reminded me of myself.”
—MONEY TALKS LOUDLY: A little more than a week ago, Myles Garrett, arguably the best defensive end in pro football, told the Cleveland Browns he wanted traded.
Now remember, this is a guy who was once quoted as saying, “You play because you love it, not because you can make money from it.”
He signed a four-year contract extension this week that averages $40 million a season, making him the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL.
That money he doesn’t play for certainly changed his mind about a trade, right quick.
—SAINTS GO MARCHING OUT: St Mary’s was 28-4 on the season and 17-1 in the WCC. Pretty good, huh?
St. Mary’s defeated Gonzago twice during the regular college basketball season. Pretty good, huh?
Then the Gaels played Gonzaga in the WCC tournament finals and lost, 58-51.
And they did it by doing something, or not doing something, that I’ve never witnessed. They didn’t make a single three-point shot. . .0 for 16.
Pretty lousy, huh. One would think at least one would fall in by accident.
—THESE SAINTS GO MARCHING: This is what March Madness is all about.
Last November, in its season opener, the University of Dayton basketball team squashed Saint Francis (PA), 87-57.
Big deal, huh? Saint Francis, with 2,500 student, is one of the smallest DI schools in the country and is located in Loretto, PA., population 1,168, if you count the cows.
The Red Flash finished 11-17 in the lowly Northeast Conference. What does one expect from a school with $0 in NIL money?
Then the shocker. Saint Francis won the NEC tournament to qualify for the NCAA tournament after beating No. 1 seed Central Connecticut, 46-43. CCSU was 22-6 and had won 14 straight.
And Saint Francis did it despite shooting only 31.7% and was 5 for 26 from three.
The Red Flash was 8-22 last season. . .anothere so what. It is most likely Saint Francis will get another appearance in UD Arena in the First Four.
What a great story.
—TECH WAS A WREK: Ah, statistics. Ya gotta love ‘em, even if they don’t mean squat.
When it comes to playing Virginia, the Ramblin’ Wreck from George Tech hasn’t done much rambling. In fact, they’ve been a wreck.
In their last 22 meetings, not once has Georgia Tech scored more than 68 points against Virginia. During the regular season this year Tech lost, 76-61.
And Tech scored only 66 this week in the ACC tournament against Virginia. But there is a twist. The Wreck won this one, 66-60, after losing 13 straight to the Cavaliers.
Their previous win came in 2016, 68-64, the only time in the past 22 games against Virginia that they scored more than 66.
***For sheer craziness, Arkansas led No. 16 seed South Carolina by 20 points early in the second half of their SEC tournament game.
Then the ‘Hogs played like pigs — 12 minutes without a field goal and South Carolina crept to within 62-60. Finally, Arkansas scored and clung to the lead for a 72-68 win over the Gamecocks, 2-16 in SEC regular season play.
***And in one A10 game, the Rams had to win and it was the underdog Rams who prevailed. Archie Miller’s Rhode Island Rams made a quick exit from the A10 tournament. It wasn’t just by a whisker. The Rams had their beards extracted by Fordham’s Rams, the last place team (3-15), 88-71. The Rhodies beat Fordham just a couple of weeks ago, 84-67.
***The craziness continues. The cliche is that it is difficult to beat a team three times in a season. Well, UMass believes it.
After beating LaSalle twice during the season, the Minutemen lost to LaSalle in the A10’s first round, 78-71. And it is the last game for UMass in the A10. It is moving to the MAC next season.
Ah, the conference tournaments. Ya gotta love ‘em.
—IT WASN’T FUNNY: Former New York Yankees pitcher Art Schallock was the oldest surviving MLB player when he passed away last week at 100.
As the story goes, he was a roommate with catcher Yogi Berra and Berra briefed him on the strengths and weaknesses of every opposing batter.
As a gesture of thanks, every day Schallock would make a trip to a newstand to buy Yogi comic books.
—QUOTE: This one goes down as ‘Quote Of The Year’ and it comes from former Yankees/Mets manager Casey Stengel: “The trouble is not that players have sex the night before a game, it’s that they stay out all night looking for it.”
—JUST HANG ON: After the fifth inning at Ohio State basebsll home games, they play ‘Hang On Sloopy.’ But it loses something because it is played on an organ instead of the 228-member Ohio State Marching Band.
And if the band attended games, it would double the attendance.
—GATOR AID: This is true. The population of Louisiana is 7.3 million. But. . .2.7 million are alligators.
And when the Florida Gators are in Baton Rouge to play LSU, the ‘gator’ population increases even more.
—PLAYLIST NUMBER 152: From Albert Einstein, not known for music: “I see my life in terms of music.” (OK, I stand corrected.)I
—Baby Come Back (Player), Kiss And Say Goodbye (Manhattans), Babe (Styx), The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel), Into The Night (Benny Mardones), Town Without Pity (Gene Pitney), Running Scared (Roy Orbison), Lonesme Loser (Little River Band).
Don’t Bring Me Down (ELO), Keep On Lovin’ You (REO Speedwagon), How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? (BeeGees), Just My Imagination (Temptations), So Far Away (Carole King), Working My Way Back To You Babe (Spinners).