Replies

A no-hitter is exciting only in the last two innings? My, my, such unappreciation for the craftsmanship of pitching! I've seen a video of the complete Sandy Koufax perfect game. The beauty of it was that, had it not been for Lou Johnson, Chicago Cub pitcher Bob Hendley would have piggybacked a no-hitter on Koufax's gem. Johnson got the only hit of the game and was stranded on base; the Dodgers scored the only run of the game on a walk, a sacrifice, a steal and an error. A master craftsman going against an otherwise journeyman who was having a career day. A real baseball fan loved it.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if a baseball game lasted five hours. But I do think the balance needs to come back. As it is, the umpires play Big Nanny when a pitcher does nothing more warmongering than moving a batter back off the plate (I mean, have you seen the way some of these clowns are choking off the inside strike zone?), and aside from the incredible shrinking strike zone, I think the nannygoating of the pitchers has been another key factor in the hitting explosion. I love a few good belts into the seats as much as the next fan, but the pitchers have got to take the balance back. And if the spitter is one way to do it, I'm all for it.

Besides, one of the real pleasures of baseball has always been watching for who might be loading one and who might be driven to the rye bottle over it in the opposing dugout.

Then there was Gaylord Perry. The K-Y Kid was stunned one fine day when an umpire who had been frisking him rather liberally (but never arraigning him) hailed him one morning and asked him to come see his son play Little League. Perry obliged. After the game, when the ump's son pitched and got shelled, the ump asked Perry, "Gaylord, would you do me a favour and show him how you do it?" Perry chortled - and then showed the kid how to throw the spitter!

Classic pressbox comment when two reputed spitballers, Tommy John (then with the Yankees) and Don Sutton (then with the Brewers, who were then in the American League), faced each other in a start. "Tommy John and Don Sutton? If there's one clean ball from that game, they ought to send it to Cooperstown." (During the same game, George Steinbrenner was harassing then-Yankee manager Lou Piniella to "do something" about Sutton. Retorted Piniella, "Come on, George. TJ's doing the same thing Sutton's doing, only TJ's doing it better.")

Whitey Ford has admitted that, after he retired, he got so fed up with getting rapped around in Old Timer's Games that he reverted to his latter-career habit of doctoring balls.