Monday
I told the story of my first concrete baseball memory in Monday’s newsletter. Not the very first baseball memory I have, but the first one with a time and date that I can place. The memory is far more about where I was and who I shared it with than about baseball. But the baseball was pretty awesome.
Speaking of baseball memories, Monday was the anniversary of Joe Carter’s famous home run to win the 1993 World Series. As you may know, Carter is from the Kansas City area, and he returned here after his playing days. Probably fifteen years after he retired, I was coming out of a local Best Buy when I noticed a really nice car pulling in next to mine. Sorry, I don’t recall the type of car because I was too focused on who got out of it…Joe Carter.
I’m not the sort of person to stop a celebrity in the wild to ask for a photo or autograph, but I did decide to say something to him as we passed each other. Since the first thing I think of when I think of Joe Carter is that home run, I cleverly said, “Hey, Joe Carter. Nice home run.”
He just grinned, said “Thanks,” and walked out of my life and into Best Buy.
Tuesday
Another former Cleveland Indian, Albert Belle, is someone I would not care to run into in a Best Buy parking lot. He was a helluva hitter, though, so when I saw someone on Twitter claim that Belle belongs in the Hall of Fame, I decided to take a look at his career again. Tuesday’s newsletter covers whether or not his Hall of Fame case is any better than his personality.
Speaking of the Cleveland Indians, for a while they tried to claim that their nickname was selected to honor a former player of theirs, Louis Sockalexis who was a Penobscot and sometimes is referred to as the first Native American to play in the major leagues. Tuesday would have been his 152nd birthday.
During his brief, brilliant time with Cleveland before alcoholism ruined his career, the club was called the Spiders officially but sometimes was referred to as the Indians due to Sockalexis’ presence on the team. It was not said as a compliment. Racist opponents and their fans hurled insults at him, did war whoops, and various other stereotypical negative behaviors, including calling the team the Indians.
Sockalexis left the team after parts of three seasons, and the club soon became known as the Naps when Napoleon Lajoie was their best player. But they went looking for a new name when Lajoie left the team in 1915, and the owners settled on Indians since it had been one of their unofficial names for a time, racist origins be damned. That stuck for over 100 years, and you’d often see claims by Cleveland’s management that the name honored Sockalexis despite the truth being far more unpleasant. Anyway, it’s good that story can now be retired.
Wednesday
Since I blasted Albert Belle pretty heavily on Tuesday, I thought it was fair to look into the 1995 American League MVP race in Wednesday’s newsletter. That race has often been viewed as one that Belle should have won, and I agree that he’d have been a better choice than Mo Vaughn, who actually got the award. Where I differ from Belle and his supporters is in who should have received it instead.
Wednesday was the anniversary of the Cubs trading away Fergie Jenkins to the Rangers. A few weeks later, they traded Ron Santo, too. The next year, they traded Billy Williams. With Ernie Banks having retired a couple of years before, in the span of three years the Cubs went from having four Hall of Famers anchoring their team to having none. Every one of those guys is viewed as a lifelong Cub, and they all should have been. But only Banks actually was, and that’s a damn shame.
Thursday
Sometimes as sports fans, we indulge ourselves by playing the “what if” game. Sometimes it’s done hopefully, like “What if the Royals decide to spend money someday?” But often it’s with a sense of sadness or loss. “What if the Royals trade Bobby Witt instead of signing him to a longterm deal?”
On Thursday, I wrote about a “what if” that was a little bit of both. J.R. Richard was a great pitcher whose career ended too soon, and then had enormous off-field struggles. So that “what ifs” about his career, which are many, can bring us happy memories of his greatness while also making us realize how terrible it was that it ended so quickly.
This was also the anniversary of Game Six of the 1985 World Series, known forever in St. Louis as the infamous Don Denkinger Game. Let’s reconstruct that crazy ninth inning just so we’re all clear on the fact that the Cardinals blew that game even without the bad call at first base.
Pinch-hitter Jorge Orta was the first batter, and yes, his little dribbler to first base is the play Cardinals fans have complained about for the last 38 years. It was inarguably a bad call by Denkinger. Orta should have been out, so let’s play out the rest of the inning as if he was properly called out.
Steve Balboni hits a single to left field. One on, one out. Onix Concepcion pinch-runs for Balboni.
Jim Sundberg bunts. Now, we have no idea if Sundberg would have been told to sacrifice in this situation if he’d been facing a runner on first and one out instead of runners on first and second with no one out. I suspect there’s no way Dick Howser would have purposely put his team down to their final out, and likely would have pinch-hit for Sundberg. Let’s play it out both ways.
First, Sundberg bunts, as he did in real life. With no runner on second for Todd Worrell to throw out at third, he likely throws to first and gets Sundberg, giving us two outs and Concepcion on second base.
Hal McRae pinch-hits for Buddy Biancalana. Worrell throws a passed ball, so now Concepcion is on third. At that point, Whitey Herzog orders McRae intentionally walked, just as he did in real life, because McRae was the best run-producer left on the Royals bench. John Wathan runs for McRae.
Dane Iorg pinch-hits for the pitcher’s spot in the lineup and bloops his famous little single to right field, scoring Concepcion from third base and putting runners on first and second with two outs and the top of the Royals’ lineup coming up. The lead is already blown, the game is tied, and all of the momentum is now on the side of Kansas City.
That’s the charitable way to view it. Now let’s assume Sundberg doesn’t bunt and McRae pinch-hits for him. The passed ball puts Concepcion at second. With first base open and needing a double play to end the game, Herzog almost certainly decides to still intentionally walk McRae in that situation, taking the bat out of his hands and setting up the potential double play. We now have runners on first and second with one out, and Biancalana’s spot coming up.
Needing that run to tie the game, there’s little chance Howser orders a bunt here, so he likely sends up Iorg to pinch-hit, and we know what happens. Since Jim Sundberg scored from second base on that blooper in real life, there’s no way a better runner, Concepcion, wouldn’t have also scored. So again we have a tied game with runners on first and second, only one out, and the pitcher’s spot coming up. Howser’s three options on the bench were Lynn Jones, Greg Pryor and Jamie Quirk, and I’m guessing he would have gone with Quirk for the lefty-righty matchup. We’ll never know.
Regardless of what would have happened next, the Cardinals blew the lead in that ninth inning with or without the Denkinger call on Orta. Then the Cardinals fell apart in Game Seven and were blown out, 11-0, to lose the Series.
So quit your crying Cards fans. Denkinger’s call didn’t help, but your team blew that World Series all on their own.
Friday
This is a Twins-heavy day by coincidence. It’s Brad Radke’s 51st birthday, as well as the anniversary of the death of Clark Griffith, owner of the original Senators that his nephew moved to Minnesota a few years later, ad the death of Joe Niekro, member of the Twins’ 1987 World Championship team.
Speaking of that team, today is also the anniversary of Game Seven of that World Series, the famous Jack Morris Game. That was a remarkable game for Morris, and it was heavily used by his supporters to make that case that he was a big game pitcher and therefore was worthy of the Hall of Fame. That eventually worked, so kudos to him and them. I would, however, like to point out one thing…
Without that game, Morris’ record in his other 12 postseason starts was 6-4, with an ERA of 4.26.
Does that scream Big Game Pitcher to you?
Thanks again Paul for triggering memories from my distant past. I recall seeing the end of that Denkinger game, celebrating a softball game victory with my buddies, trying to convince my future ex wife that I was the one for her. Definitely a case of if I knew then what I know now🙂. Anyway one of my buddies was a huge George Brett fan and he proceeded to rub it in to some Cards fan at the bar who took exception. Things went downhill fast from there......... good times🙂❤️⚾️