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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Land of the rising dud...

                   A few days before Matt Harvey went down for the season,  the Mets acquired Daisuke Matsuzaka off waivers.  He had been released from the Indians AAA farm team before he ever played a game for Cleveland. His first game for New York was against the Tigers, with predictable results.  He's obviously not in the Mets future plans, but at least he's hanging in there.  At 32,  he may have something left in the tank, but it's a rather anti climactic way for his career to be petering out after such a promising beginning.

          He started out playing in Japan, winning the rookie of the year for the Seibu Lions in 1999, on his way to becoming one of the better pitchers in Japan. 
when the World Baseball Classic debuted in 2007, "Dice -K" led his country to the first of it's back to back WBC wins. That tournament almost served as an audition, as many MLB teams vied for his services.  The highest bidder was of course, the Red Sox, who signed him to a (fairly ridiculous, considering he never pitched in the Majors before) 6 year, $51 dollar contract.

           His first season with Boston was decent, winning 15 games in the regular season, and performing well in the postseason, helping the Sox win it all in '07.  His next season was his best, going 18-3, and again, pitching well in the post season.  Despite his record, though, he rarely made it past the 6th inning, as his pitch count was very high, due to the large amount of walk he gave up.  Big Papi had a quote about Dice K's ability to get out of bases loaded jams to get wins, "I don't know how he do it, but he do it."

      He then spent the next four years battling injuries, helped in no small part by injuring himself in the 2009 WBC. By 2012, he had pretty much worn out his welcome, going 1-7 with an ERA over 8.00...Cleveland was seen as his last chance in the Majors 'til the Mets signed him a few days ago... who knows what will happen. Lost in all of this was the player that was picked up from Japan (for relatively little money)from the Sox with Matsuzaka; Hidecki Okijima.  Working strictly out of the bullpen, Oki went on to a great rookie season in 2007, making the All Star team (a rare feat for a set up man), and had an impressive outing in the World series, pitching 2/2/3 innings in relief of Curt Schilling for a win over Colorado.  Manager Terry Francona called the combination of Okajima and close John Papelbon "Oki-Pap"...Oki's appearance in the World series made him the first Japanese player to do so...

                     Hidecki pitched a few more years for Boston, finally taking his act to Japan for a year, before he returned this year as a reliever for the Oakland A's.  His trademark "look away" motion still intact...oh, and he has long hair now, in keeping with a longstanding Oakland A's tradition, going back to when they moved from Kansas city...Joe Rudi would be proud.


     

  

             

Monday, August 12, 2013

Jack be not-so-quick...

                                Last week, former MLB player Jack Clark and his co-host Kevin Slaton were fired from their St. Louis sports talk show for accusing players like Albert Pujols and Justin Verlander of juicing.  The show only lasted seven days and Pujols is going to sue Clark for slander;  talk about former Cardinal first baseman on former Cardinal First baseman hate.  This isn't the first time "Jack the ripper" has gotten himself in trouble though, as he's had a long history of stirring things up.

                      Clark made it to the majors in 1975 with the Giants as the youngest player in the league at age 19.  By '78 he was an All Star outfielder, but had a reputation as a fragile ballplayer, taking too long to recover from injuries and often complained about the cold of San Fransisco's Candlestick park.  He wouldn't have to complain for too long, as the St. Louis Cardinals traded for him to be their first baseman and provide power for an otherwise wise slap-hitting offense.  He only played three years for St. Louis, but helped them win pennants in '85 and '87, providing clutch hits in the postseason, while struggling somewhat defensively (he was involved in that play in game 6 of the '85 series where Todd Worrel covered first and the Royal's Jorge Orta was called safe, though he was clearly out.  Clark also dropped a foul ball in the Royals rally in the same game game.)

             Clark left St Louis after the '87 season, due in part with clashes with Ozzie Smith (!) He was then signed  to a two year deal to play for the Yankees, but only played one year because he didn't get along with manager Lou Pinella, who had replaced Billy Martin at the end of the '88 season. (side note, he DID get along with Billy Martin (again,(!)
He then spent two years with the Padres and ended his career with the Red Sox in the early '90s, continuing the tradition of Boston signing over-the-hill sluggers, (something they stopped doing in recent years, thankfully). My memory of Clark playing for the Sox was during a game on the road against a team whose name eludes me (I'm thinking KC, or Cleveland or such). Basically, Jack slammed a home run to left field, but in doing so, injured himself greatly, as he limped around the bases in a manner so slow and crippling, it made Kirk Gibson's '88 WS trot look like a Jesse Owens sprint... 

       After retirement, Clark continued a hobby he started during his playing days; collecting luxury cars.  At one point, he had 17 of these things, some of them costing up to 700,000 dollars...needless to say, he eventually filed for bankruptcy, selling his 2.4 million dollar home, among other things.  In time, he dug himself out of the financial hole, only to have this PED accusation mess happen...oh well, I'm sure he can a job in public relations somewhere...oh, wait...
 

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Whose batting title is it anyway?...

                      In 1980, the St. Louis Cardinals hired Whitey Herzog to be their manager.  Whitey had had success with the Kansas City Royals, bringing them three consecutive AL West titles in '76, '77 and '78.  Now he was hired to manage a team that hadn't made the postseason in over a decade.  With the spacious Busch Stadium as his home, he decided to manage a little differently, taking advantage of the Astroturf and deep alleys with "Whiteyball", which relied on on pitching, defense and speed (as opposed to Earl Weaver's pitching, defense and the three run homer).

        
Other than George Hendrick, Darrell Porter, Keith Hernandez and (later) Jack Clark, the '80s Cardinals were basically slap ball hitters who would get on base and cause havoc for pitchers with their speed. With players like Ozzie Smith, David Green, Lonnie Smith,  Tommy Herr and (later), Vince Coleman, St. Louis ran at will, consistently leading the league in stolen bases.  In Fact, Vince Coleman became the first player to steal 100 bases three years in a row, from '85 to '87.

       Perhaps the player that best personified the Cardinals of the '80s was Willie McGee; he was called up to the team late in the '82 season, and helped them win it all with his solid defense and surprising power in the World series, hitting two homers in a win against Milwaukee.  After his rookie stint, he became the Cardinals best player, regularly in the top ten in hits, runs, average, steals, triples and so forth.  His best year was 1985, when he won the NL MVP, won a Gold Glove, and led the league in hit and triples, on top of winning  the first of two batting titles in his career (his .353 average that year remains the highest ever for an NL switch hitter). St. Louis would win the pennant that year and also in '87, losing in the World series to the Royals and Twins respectively.

               On July 6th, 1990, Whitey Herzog shocked everyone by announcing his retirement.  The team decided to start rebuilding and traded some of their best players, McGee being one of them.  At the time of the trade, McGee was leading the NL in batting at .335 and he had enough at bats to qualify for the title even though he was now a member of the Oakland A's in the AL.  At season's end, he won the NL batting title, finishing 5 points ahead of the Dodger's Eddie Murray.  However, McGee's total average with both the NL and AL was .324, and the Royals George Brett won the AL title at .329, which means neither of the league's batting leaders actually led the majors in hitting that year.  That feat would belong to Eddie Murray at .330...the first time neither league's batting champion had the highest average overall.  Another note about the '90 batting race, was Brett becoming the first player to win a title in 3 different decades, the other years being '76 and '80.

         McGee would go on to have some more solid seasons, mostly with the San Fransisco Giants and also helped the Red Sox win the AL East crown in '95.  He was mostly a part time player by then, so it makes it even more bittersweet to know that the Sox could have had him during the 1990 season when he eventually went to Oakland instead.  Apparently, when offered his services, Sox GM Lou Gorman was quoted as saying "What would we do with Willie McGee"...what indeed...oh, and in case you forgot, the A's swept the Red Sox in the ALCS that year.  Not saying Willie was the reason, but still...