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Posted on 09/29/2015 10:16:41 AM PDT by BluesDuke
From your ancient baseball history, 1949 to be specific, a little story: In his third major league season, a still very young Yogi Berra has been the target of much veteran needling. Part of it has been due to his squat, homely appearance. But sometimes it has nothing to do with his appearance and everything to do with continuing the young man’s baseball education.
Berra has impressed his manager, coaches, and teammates alike with his willingness to listen, learn, listen more, and learn more, but never mind. One fine day he lofts a short pop to center field that falls in for a base hit. The next Yankee hitter, alas, forces him out at second, followed by two fly outs to end the inning.
Veteran Charlie Keller, who didn’t get the nickname King Kong because he was anything resembling movie-star handsome, but who was a respected Yankee veteran, approaches Berra to talk about the inning sequence before Yogi straps on his catcher’s gear to re-take the field.
“You feeling alright?” Keller asks.
“Yeah, why?” Berra replies, with no disrespect implied.
“You didn’t run on that ball you hit,” Keller continues, gently but firmly. “If you did, you could have made it to second, and the ground ball and the [first] fly ball would have scored you.”
The story was told by Yankee pitcher Eddie Lopat to Casey Stengel’s biographer Robert Creamer. His point was that much of the ribbing Berra took from the Yankee veterans was indeed a way of teaching him. About the worst Yogi received after that pop single was a chilly stare from Joe DiMaggio.
Not one of those Yankees thought it would have been appropriate to try teaching him about hustle by way of putting him through the dugout wall in a choke hold.
Remember that whenever you read any of the nonsense about the old schoolers who think Jonathan Papelbon was perfectly in the right to go for the throat in a bid to remind Bryce Harper about hustle. But add to that the commentary from Mark DeRosa, a sixteen-year major league veteran who now works as an MLB Network commentator:
Here’s my problem with Jonathan Papelbon. You’ve played 63 innings this year. You’ve been in the clubhouse probably— every closer I’ve ever been with— through the fifth inning getting a rubdown, eatin’ a sandwich, doing your Jobe exercises, takin’ your time. You’ve earned that right. His pedigree—he’s earned the right to do that. That’s the way [John Smoltz] went about it. All the great closers I played with, they’re not gonna get down there in the first inning. You’re top-stepping a guy who’s played in 1,262 innings, who’s hitting .336 with 41 homers, is gonna be the National League MVP and you’re questioning whether or not he goes to the post every day. That’s tired, OK? No reliever should tell a position player anything about hustle. Go stand out there in the rain, sleet, and snow while you guys are giving up gap shots. That bothered me.
Apparently, there turned out to be someone in the Washington Nationals’ hierarchy who does have eyes and a spine, who doesn’t think it’s proper for one player to try choking a teammate, never mind the franchise player, regardless of the actual or alleged crime in question.
Papelbon’s season is over. The Nats suspended him for four games without pay, to be served after he serves a three-game suspension without pay courtesy of baseball government. The latter—incurred after Papelbon threw twice at the head of Orioles’ Manny Machado last week—began Monday, after Papelbon elected not to continue his appeal. Which was probably the most, if not the only intelligent decision he’s made since becoming a Nat in the first place.
With apologies to the late Bob Murphy, back with the unhappy recap:
Bryce Harper popped out to shallow left leading off the Nationals’ eighth Sunday afternoon. He fumed in disgust for a moment before dropping his bat and trotting to first base anyway. Then he turned to return to the dugout. As he arrived, Papelbon on the top step snapped at him, apparently to run it [the expletive] out. Harper snapped back as he descended the steps and reached the dugout floor.
Maybe he did or didn’t say words to the effect of “bring it on,” but from the dugout steps Papelbon lunged at Harper, slamming him to the dugout wall with his hands on the outfielder’s throat. It took several Nats including coach Rick Schu to pry Harper away.
Nothing out of Harper’s mouth can justify Papelbon putting him into a choke hold. Or, for that matter, docking Harper a game, which is what inept Nats manager Matt Williams turns out to have called Harper’s pre-scheduled off day Monday against the Reds. (Harper at least had one of the best seats in the house while Max Scherzer got to within five outs of no-hitting the Reds.)
“He was involved in it,” Williams told reporters. “He said something to Jonathan and he played a part in the incident.” That’s from the man who didn’t even see the damn fight until he saw video postgame.
Papelbon opened his mouth first, Harper replied, Papelbon apparently continued, and Harper snapped back. Then came the choke hold and slam. A relief pitcher who thinks it’s kosher to throw twice at the head of a guy who took another pitcher over the fence a couple of innings earlier is in no position to be playing field or dugout sheriff.
After Harper disappeared into the Nats’ clubhouse following the scrum, Papelbon could be seen leaning against the dugout rail with a pronounced smirk on his face. The sad sack Phillies, the team that dealt him to the Nats in the first place in July, were only too happy to wipe that smirk off his face, which is exactly what they did when, inexplicably, he was allowed to start the ninth and surrendered a tie-breaking two-run homer. To a no-name named Andres Blanco.
(And is it more than just a little coincidental that Papelbon decided to teach Harper a dubious lesson just a couple of days after Harper publicly described as “tired” Papelbon’s throwing twice at the head of Machado, whose heinous crime was to hit a two-run homer off Scherzer that turned a 3-2 Nats lead into a 4-3 Nats deficit?)
Williams just looks more clueless by the hour, which is a shame to say about a man who was a fine player and has been an accommodating sort publicly since he became the Nats’ manager. Unfortunately he’s also a man who’s likely to go to the guillotine at just about the moment the Nats’ sad season finally ends.
Let’s be straight up: Nobody is arguing against hustle. Harper’s been lectured in the past about hustle—by his coaches and his managers. But have we lost count of how many times players become so disgusted with popping out that they, too, have fumed, dropped the bat, and trotted to first base instead of going supersonic?
Bet on it. If Harper had gone Road Runner up the line in that instance only to turn up with a pulled hamstring (he’s had issues with the hammies in the past, folks), the same fools hammering him for not “hustling” the Sunday pop would be hammering him for overdoing himself into an injury on a measly popup.
The way a lot of the old-schoolers (mostly anonymous, and you can look that up) weighed in in supporting Papelbon, you’d think Harper was practically the only player in baseball who ever trotted up the line on a leadoff pop out even Marv Throneberry wouldn’t drop.
Why wouldn’t you ask a player with known, on-the-record leg and knee issues to save the jets for something that might mean something substantial—like maybe a chance to turn a single into a double, a double into a triple, or beating out a grounder deep in the hole for a base hit?
I’ve seen Harper do such things. Including missing a third of 2014 after fracturing his thumb sliding into third base while turning a double into a three-run triple. Come to think of it, I’ve seen him get hurt crashing into outfield walls making plays. And, since when can you lead the league in runs scored, on-base percentage, OPS, OPS+, and wins above a replacement-level player, which are exactly where Harper leads the National League at this writing, if you’re dogging it?
(In case you were wondering, Bryce Harper this season is the Nats' leader in taking the extra base with a 57.1 percent rate, sixteenth among National League position players with 400+ plate appearances. You still want to accuse him of a lack of hustle?)
Papelbon could easily have done nothing more than ask Harper why he didn’t bust it up the line, and if Harper chose to bark back a little more vociferously, you’d think an eleven-year veteran would be mature enough not to think the appropriate response should be two hands around the throat.
Especially not on a team whom the same know-nothings supporting Papelbon for upholding the old school—which surely wasn’t the old school of Charlie Keller, Yogi Berra, and the Stengel-dynastic Yankees—might otherwise accuse of a big pennant race choke in the year the experts, actual or alleged, predicted they would go all the way to the World Series.
A good show to see the class acts in baseball is Intentional Talk on MLB network. For the most part they interview the funny and classier players. Making fun of Millar is always a plus too.
I’m glad to see that Miggy hasn’t become a repeat offender since his DUI bust in Florida back in 2011.
“He blew them to trinkets, bric-a-brac ...”
I haven’t heard that usage in 45 years. I remember a long-forgotten 1930s thoroughbred sire, Blow Me, showing up infrequently in pedigrees when I started in the early 1970s.
Sam McCracken, the great turf writer from the Boston Globe, explained that was a common way of saying that you were “treating” someone, for free, to lunch, ball game tickets, a $2 daily double bet, etc.
The sexual connection eclipsed the treat meaning in the years after World War II. I’ve never heard it in use and I’m almost 70 years old.
I'm sure the details of the story got misreported. But the article said a 'short pop to center field'. Things that make you say, "Huh?"
The line "One fine day he lofts a short pop to center field that falls in for a base hit" could surely mean the center fielder was playing him deep and got caught unawares and a little hustle by Yogi could have made it a close play at second. It just reads odd...because an alert CF would be charging that ball and would come up throwing.
This is a medium volume ping list during the baseball season and a low volume ping list when all life stops in late October.
If you would like to be on the ping list please FReepmail me.
Yeah Miggy said he took a long hard look at his life and decided that he needed to get closer to God.
And that makes me feel better about the Tigers’ W-L record this year! /s
I agree with the article overall, but I take exception to this/ Harper was on first when the ball was caught. The chance os that ball being caught were 100% but Bryce still ran it out and got to first before the ball was caught.
I never want to see Papelbon in a Nats unform again. It's not his fault that Rizzo brought him in and destroyed Drew Storen's outstanding season, but he's still that guy. I can't believe that with all that...without ever having swung a bat in his MLB career...he thought he HAD to take it upon his shoulders to teach the 'kid' how baseball should be played. The 'kid', who happens to be a four year verteran and who is most likely the league's MVP and who has played nearly every damn game this season on a team that has only fielded it's Opening Day lineup, twice, all season.
Even an alert center fielder might not catch that ball if he was playing back just far enough.
I wasn’t questioning Harper at all. I know he reached first. And what you said about Papelbon not being a hitter but telling a hitter how to play knits to what Mark DeRosa says.
It also really frosts me that, even though yesterday was a scheduled day off for Bryce, Williams and Rizzo had to make a point of saying he was sitting out because he played a part in the incident. That's a crock.
I got news for them. I drive to about a dozen games a season from VA Beach. This year the only reason I was willing to make the trip was to see Harper play...and there were plenty in the stands with me who felt the same way...atleast during the second half of the season.
It also really frosts me that, even though yesterday was a scheduled day off for Bryce, Williams and Rizzo had to make a point of saying he was sitting out because he played a part in the incident. That's a crock.Matt Williams has been to the Washington Nationals what a case of hiccups is to a glass blower.
But I think GM Mike Rizzo needs to own a big part of this. Where on earth did he get the midseason idea that a Nats club that needed a little offensive help and some experienced middle relief help could solve both those problems by bringing in . . . a closer they didn't need when their incumbent was as close to lights out as possible before the Papelbon deal was made?
And just how far up his rear end did Rizzo have his head when he continued praising Williams's "brilliance" after just about ever in-game hiccup Williams suffered?
How "brilliant" can a manager be who:
* Doesn't re-align his rotation so that Max Scherzer faces the pesky oncoming Mets? (In the two key series with the Mets in August that helped turn the race around, the Mets never faced Scherzer. Not even once.)If that's brilliance, I'm the Venus de Milo.* During the second key set with the Mets, neither Papelbon nor Drew Storen---demoted to setup with Papelbon's arrival---threw a single pitch in those games, all of which ended up close and two of which the Mets won by a single run.
* Refuses to use Papelbon in a non-save situation---while the Nats blow two late-inning leads against the Cardinals as a result.
* Lifts Stephen Strasburg on a night he's dominating the Mets, bringing in Storen---who was struggling by then in his new role, and who promptly got taken over the fence by Yoenis Cespedes who'd hit Storen for a bases-clearing double the day before.
* Orders Anthony Rendon, maybe his hottest hitter not named Harper at the time, to bunt against Mets closer Jeurys Familia with Jayson Werth on, nobody out, and Harper on deck---when everyone in the ballpark knew a) that Rendon is a terrible bunter; and, b) the Mets would put Harper on on the house if Rendon somehow did pull off the sacrifice.
Sure enough, Rendon failed to execute the sacrifice. And it took the bat out of Harper's hands, anyway: the Mets got nervy and put him on regardless. And, sure enough, got the game ending double play ball. How brilliant could Williams have been thinking he could leave the clutch hitting to lesser men? If Williams let Rendon hit away and Rendon got aboard, there's no way the Mets would have walked the bases loaded with nobody out and you'd have the probable National League MVP up to do your clutch hitting which is what you should want no questions asked.
And that was the game in which the Nats jumped all over Matt Harvey and took a 7-1 lead into the seventh inning, before the Nats' weaker bullpen coughed it up to 8-7, Mets.
Papelbon is a blowhard loudmouth always complaining about how nobody but himself wants to win or play hard - he’s going to b*tch himself out of the rest of his career....
Sure enough, Rendon failed to execute the sacrifice.
= = = = = = = = = = =
Did it again tonight.
Had DESMOND (of all people) trying to bunt top of 9th, 2-1 Braves, runners 1-2, no out.
Desmond dropped one down IN FRONT OF THE PLATE, so close he had to wait for the Catcher to field the ball before he could run - Catcher tosses to third - force out - Third to First double play now 2 out, runner on 2nd.....
Every point is spot on. This one killed me. Terry Collins made sure the Nats faced his horses every game. And that last series adjusted his lineup so that every other hitter was a lefty. We did nothing to compensate...just acted like it was any other series. In fact, Williams is on record saying that he manages every game the same....regular season or post season. what kind of nonsense is that?
I think Mike Rizzo has some very loud music to face in the off season. Letting Clippard go was bad enough but then destroying Drew Storen's psyche, again, by demoting him when he was the only bright spot in that dark hole of a bullpen is the last straw for me. Storen was 29 for 31 in save situations! You perform like that and then get demoted?
“Mike Rizzo thought the solution to the team’s actual mid-season needs-—namely, a little offensive fortification and some bullpen help for the middle innings-—was to deal for a disgruntled Phillies closer who put a gun to the heads of any team that might deal for him, saying he wouldn’t go unless he was named the closer”
Don’t forget that Storen - the incumbent closer - went into the tank when Papelbon was brought in until - in a fit of frustration - he punched a wall and broke his hand. This Nats team was supposed to demolish the NL East. Rizzo and Williams both need to go.
David Price hasn’t shown any slow down since leaving.
He doesn't count :-) since he was traded against his own wishes, and didn't leave for the money; the same thing happened to other pitchers over the years like James Shields, Wade Davis, and Jeremy Hellickson.
Interestingly enough, the one pitcher of recent vintage who left on his own, Fernando Rodney, has never matched his year at TB, and has bounced around a few teams until, most recently, finding a home at, of all places, the Cubs, with his former TB manager Joe Maddon and second-in-command Dave Martinez.
P.S. Last weekend Price pitched against the Rays' Chris Archer, his protégé, two of the best pitchers in baseball today. The result? The Jays won, 10-8; not much of a pitcher's duel going on there.
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