Thursday, October 16, 2003
World Series - seriously
The Saturday silliness at Fenway Park dominated the discourses of our office lunch sports fan club. When some younger members insisted that Pedro Martinez should have hung his head in shame for trying to bean Karim Garcia in the 4th inning, then pushing down the 72-year old coach Don Zimmer, as he came at the pitcher, fists swinging, some of the grizzled heads noted that no pitcher has ever, in the recorded history of mankind, admitted to deliberately aiming the killer ball at a hitter. It has always been "brushing back the hitter who’s encroaching on my territory," as though the inside of the home plate were the pitchers’ homeland. Apologies from the pitchers? That would be an admission of guilt, and invite fines for the players and clubs.
Closest to an admission of wrongdoing was the story of the roommates Bill White and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals, the latter a Hall of Famer who started in nine games in three World Series and won seven. When White was traded and the pitcher Gibson hit him with a ball and, after the game, invited his old friend for dinner, White refused. Whereupon Gibson offered the following ethic: "We are pals outside the park. Whatever happens inside, during the course of doing business, should not interfere with our friendship." Which White bought. Does that remind us of Life in the Big City?
Memorable headhunters and chin-music experts were brought to the group’s attention. The six-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, who, during his years at Boston and Toronto, was seen as the bitter enemy by the Bombers’ fans, at most has hit 14 batters per season (lifetime HBP of 140, or one every 30 innings).That’s low, compared with Kerry Wood of the Cubs, who hit 21 this year, matching the Angels’ Tom Murphy in 1969, and below the Reds’ "Tornado" Jake Weimer’s 23 in 1907. Clemens’s notoriety may be due to the incident in the 2000Yankee-Mets Subway Series Game Two, when the Rocket threw Mike Piazza’s broken bat into the runner’s path – this after having beaned the Mets' catcher in an inter-league game, early that July. Jeter who once hated the then Blue Jays’ pitcher with a passion, showed the greatest composure in standing squarely athwart the way of Manny Ramirez, the Boston hitter who came to bat after the Karim Garcia incident fearing Clemens’s counter-attack, and overreacted to a perceived revenge pitch, thus initiating the main melee.
The notorious Sal "The Barber" Maglie, for whom the term of "chin music" was invented, playing with the 1950s Giants had a 44 HBP (one in 39 innings), never more than 10 a season. On the other hand, Don Drysdale of the Dodgers , a Hall of Famer of beanball repute, had 154 HBP (one in 22 innings), 20 in his deadliest season. As for any MLB players ever admitting to the breaking of rules, spitball pitchers were mentioned. The greatest of them, Gaylord Perry, was caught a few times, and only admitted to it after the end of his career, when he wrote a book of his tricks. One asks why such a big deal about a common occurrence? Why does MLB permit the benches to flood the ball field for any mishap, when football, basketball and hockey umpires throw out, penalize and suspend any player who leaves the bench, steps out, or joins a fight.
The answer may be that MLB is such a placid game that any excitement is welcomed. After all, the most grisly fight in MLB known to mankind was during the 1965 pennant race between the Dodgers and the Giants, whose Juan Marichal’s pitches had knocked down Sandy Wills and Ron Fairly. When Marichal came to hit in the 3rd inning (this is NL), the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax refused to retaliate, and his catcher John Roseboro, a karate expert, decided to pay back via ball returns to the mound, brushing Marichal’s physiognomy twice. He expected to provoke fisticuffs, but Marichal grabbed a bat and brained the catcher, opening a 14-stitch gash and and a full-press fracas that emptied both benches.
But don’t get me wrong, I’m for ML baseball, warts, overpaid players and all. It is a lot cleaner than ML Wall Street. Some stories are courtesy of Dan Daly of
Closest to an admission of wrongdoing was the story of the roommates Bill White and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals, the latter a Hall of Famer who started in nine games in three World Series and won seven. When White was traded and the pitcher Gibson hit him with a ball and, after the game, invited his old friend for dinner, White refused. Whereupon Gibson offered the following ethic: "We are pals outside the park. Whatever happens inside, during the course of doing business, should not interfere with our friendship." Which White bought. Does that remind us of Life in the Big City?
Memorable headhunters and chin-music experts were brought to the group’s attention. The six-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, who, during his years at Boston and Toronto, was seen as the bitter enemy by the Bombers’ fans, at most has hit 14 batters per season (lifetime HBP of 140, or one every 30 innings).That’s low, compared with Kerry Wood of the Cubs, who hit 21 this year, matching the Angels’ Tom Murphy in 1969, and below the Reds’ "Tornado" Jake Weimer’s 23 in 1907. Clemens’s notoriety may be due to the incident in the 2000Yankee-Mets Subway Series Game Two, when the Rocket threw Mike Piazza’s broken bat into the runner’s path – this after having beaned the Mets' catcher in an inter-league game, early that July. Jeter who once hated the then Blue Jays’ pitcher with a passion, showed the greatest composure in standing squarely athwart the way of Manny Ramirez, the Boston hitter who came to bat after the Karim Garcia incident fearing Clemens’s counter-attack, and overreacted to a perceived revenge pitch, thus initiating the main melee.
The notorious Sal "The Barber" Maglie, for whom the term of "chin music" was invented, playing with the 1950s Giants had a 44 HBP (one in 39 innings), never more than 10 a season. On the other hand, Don Drysdale of the Dodgers , a Hall of Famer of beanball repute, had 154 HBP (one in 22 innings), 20 in his deadliest season. As for any MLB players ever admitting to the breaking of rules, spitball pitchers were mentioned. The greatest of them, Gaylord Perry, was caught a few times, and only admitted to it after the end of his career, when he wrote a book of his tricks. One asks why such a big deal about a common occurrence? Why does MLB permit the benches to flood the ball field for any mishap, when football, basketball and hockey umpires throw out, penalize and suspend any player who leaves the bench, steps out, or joins a fight.
The answer may be that MLB is such a placid game that any excitement is welcomed. After all, the most grisly fight in MLB known to mankind was during the 1965 pennant race between the Dodgers and the Giants, whose Juan Marichal’s pitches had knocked down Sandy Wills and Ron Fairly. When Marichal came to hit in the 3rd inning (this is NL), the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax refused to retaliate, and his catcher John Roseboro, a karate expert, decided to pay back via ball returns to the mound, brushing Marichal’s physiognomy twice. He expected to provoke fisticuffs, but Marichal grabbed a bat and brained the catcher, opening a 14-stitch gash and and a full-press fracas that emptied both benches.
But don’t get me wrong, I’m for ML baseball, warts, overpaid players and all. It is a lot cleaner than ML Wall Street. Some stories are courtesy of Dan Daly of
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:03 PM 
