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Missing Among The Memorables?
The Diamond District....A Baseball Review ^
| 12 July 2002
| Jeff Kallman
Posted on 07/12/2002 8:42:08 PM PDT by BluesDuke
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To: Dawgsquat; All
One correction: Howard Ehmke delivered his surprise World Series performance in the 1929, not 1931 World Series, meaning his strikeout record lasted 24 years until Carl Erskine broke it.
To: BluesDuke
No need to shoot you for posting your own blog -- it's always a pleasure to read your stuff!
Speaking of great moments, I like ESPN.com's idea of recognizing the wacky moments in baseball, like Nolan Ryan putting Robin Ventura in a headlock, and Jose Canseco pitching and throwing his arm out.
To: NYCVirago
Oho, you want to recognise the whacky memorables? You got it!
Marvelous Marv' Throneberry - Pinch hits in the ninth, game two of a doubleheader against the Pirates. Hits a walkoff three-run homer to win the game. Takes a curtain call from the top steps of the Polo Grounds clubhouse - with nothing on but his underwear and his uniform stirrups.
Jimmy Piersall - Hits his 100th career homer as a 1963 Met...and shuffles around the bases backwards. (This actually prompted a rule change making it official that you can only run forward to any base.)
Chuck Stobbs - The same hapless Senator who gave up Mickey Mantle's across-the-street bomb in 1954 also threw the wildest pitch in baseball history: it went past the hitter, past the catcher, past the ump, and up into the stands until it slammed into a concession stand. They still don't know which had more mustard on it - the pitch, or the fan who got spattered when the ball hit a mustard dispenser.
Byung-Hyun Kim - Playing the Yankees (who'd abused him so infamously in the previous World Series) in New York in an interleague game, Kim broke the cloud of Yankee power that hung over him like his slider hung to Scott Brosius, nailing a save with a snappy job in the ninth inning. Handed the ball from the game-ending play while still at the mound, Kim couldn't resist winging it away in triumph - and it flew all the way into the net behind the left field fence. (Hey, if he ever gets tired of pitching, maybe he's got a second life as an outfielder in his future, with an arm like that...)
Ray Oyler - Normally a shortstop, he did a Seattle Pilots catcher a favour and went out to warm up a pitcher before an inning...and took a fast ball right in the cup, falling in a heap to the ground.
Bill Robinson - The Mets' first base coach walked out to the coaching line in a nationally-televised game...almost oblivious to his right heel that was on fire thanks to flaky relief pitcher Roger McDowell having nailed him with a hotfoot.
Rodney McCray - Who can ever forget the then-Met prospect plowing through the outfield fence, a la Bump Baily in The Natural, while catching a flyout. The difference: McCray survived, only to prove a mediocre major leaguer.
Mark (The Bird) Fidrych - You could name his entire 1976 season to this list.
Billy Hatcher - After he had instigated the accusations of bat-corking that dogged New York Met breakout slugger Howard hit. He whacks a homer as hit bat breaks on the swing...and his bat turned up with a load of cork!
To: BluesDuke
That should have been Howard Johnson - bloody program hiccup!
To: BluesDuke
1968: Gibby Dominates. Record 1.12 ERA in the regular season, a record 17 strikeouts in a World Series game against the Tigers, Cardinal ace Bob Gibson is the pitcher in the Year of the Pitcher.
To: BluesDuke
Whacky memorables? Maybe the funniest I've seen: Orioles' catcher Rick Dempsey entertaining the crowd during a rain delay--imitating the Babe by stuffing something inside his shirt, running the bases and doing a belly-flop sliiiiide on the wet tarp. Hilarious!
To: BluesDuke
Game Five: Ray Fosse, Joe Rudi, Athletics.Wasn't Joe Rudi's homer off of relief pitcher Mike Marshall after Marshall insisted he didn't need any warm-up pitches after he enterd the game?
To: Charles Henrickson
Dempsey kept that routine in the act for a couple of years. Thought of a couple of more...
1977: Who Turned On The Lights? - The Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets were playing at Shea Stadium (on today's date, as a matter of fact) when the second major power blackout in twelve years hit New York and parts of the surrounding area. The game was suspended but the Mets got an inspired idea - several Met players drove their cars onto the field, flipped on their bright lights, and put on a baseball mime to entertain fans until it was deemed safe to try driving home from the park.
Arlie Latham - A notorious clown with the ancient St. Louis Browns (the franchise which eventually became the Caridnals, not the future American League sad sacks), Latham got steamed when darkness looked like it would fall soon (this was way before night ball) and decided to force the issue - lining up a number of thick candles atop the dugout and lighting them. The ump blew out the candles; Latham re-lit them; they repeated the routine until the ump finally threw Latham out of the game and awarded a forfeit against the Browns.
To: socal_parrot
That was indeed the setup for Rudi's blast.
To: Charles Henrickson
Bob Gibson's 1968 season would rate consideration if it hadn't been for his 1967 season - leg shattered by that line drive, Gibson still finished the inning and then came out, missed a couple of months, and came back to win three in the World Series against the Boston Red Sox. That's a far more impressive achievement than even his 1.12 1968 was (and, without it, Juan Marichal's season would be considered far superior to Gibson's - in fact, aligning them properly together, up and down the board, the case exists that Juan Marichal and not Bob Gibson was the outstanding righthanded pitcher in baseball in the 1960s). Gibson in 1967 proved that his 1964 manager Johnny Keane wasn't just mouthing a platitude when - explaining why he left Gibson in in Game Seven of the 1964 Series when Gibson was obviously gassed and the Yankees obviously making serious inroads against him late in the game - he said, "I never thought about taking him out. I had a commitment to his heart."
To: Charles Henrickson
There's a whacky moment said to be going up for auction on foxsports.com: Diamondback pitcher Curt Schilling, a nut with a camcorder, is auctioning a tape he calls SchillingCam, featuring some goofiness in the Snakes' clubhouse - including a shot of Byung-Hyun Kim catching a nap on a clubhouse couch (Kim has a reputation for being able to sleep through any racket man can make - his teammates have nicknamed him the Lion, as in "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," though I don't know if the BOB public address people have yet worked up the nerve to play the song when he comes into a game), with wisecracks from Schilling and others in the background, and Kim awakening long enough to flash a mock "flip off" look, move his cap over the right side of his face, and turn onto his left to doze on. The tape is said to have a few other gems on it, too - the Diamondbacks are said to be one of the most loosey-goose teams in the clubhouse in the league.
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