Good morning, all. I hope your week is off to a terrific start.
I was lamenting the other day on the air and to a scout how we do not see pitchers duels anymore. Baseball fans, especially those born within the last 20 years, are missing out on what was of the most enjoyable aspects of the game, two headline pitchers facing each other, pitching late into a game.
The days of Tom Seaver vs. Bob Gibson or Sandy Koufax vs. Jim Bunning are long gone. This once beautiful element of the game started to diminish around the turn of the century, when managers were hesitant to pit their best pitcher against the other club’s best pitcher. The thought process was, “Why should I waste my ace, when I know someone is going to lose?”
Analytics then put the kibosh on starting pitchers hurling deep into games. Thus was born the quality start, defined as a starting pitcher who hurls six innings and allows three or fewer runs. Joe Torre may have contributed to the new approach, thanks to his deep bullpen on those champion Yankees clubs he managed. He started using two set-up men in order to get to Mariano Riviera in the ninth. Other clubs followed suit. Today it is not uncommon to pull a starter, working on a no-hitter in the seventh inning. This would have been unheard of years ago.
This mindset, of course, has extended to the minor leagues, where even as we near the midway point of the season, it is not uncommon for a manager to use five or six pitchers in a game. This is a far cry from when I first started broadcasting minor league games and starting pitchers would routinely pitch into the eighth and ninth innings.
Talking to one scout about this the other day, he told me do not give up hope. He said some organizations are beginning to put more emphasis on starting pitchers, working on them to pitch deep into games instead of yanking them after five or fewer innings of work. We might not see the return of a Seaver vs. Gibson matchup, but just maybe we won’t have to be doing cartwheels just because a starting pitcher turns in six innings of work.
I hope that scout is right, but I would sure love to see a regular season game involving a club’s two best pitchers locking horns.
Lou Gehrig really was amazing
This past Sunday was Lou Gehrig Day throughout professional baseball. Before Cal Ripken Jr. broke the record, Gehrig held the mark for consecutive games played at 2,130. The Yankee legendary first baseman died at the age of 37 on June 2, 1941, 25 months to the day after asking out of the Yankees starting lineup in Detroit, because his skills had quickly diminished. Later in that 1939 season Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS.
There are numerous stories of how Gehrig played through broken fingers, pulled muscles and even concussions, to keep his streak alive, but one of the most amazing involved the Iron Horse in 1934.
In those days, even during the regular season, teams would break away from their schedule to play an exhibition game. So it was that in June of 1934 the Yankees played an exhibition game against their farm club in Norfolk, Va. Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak stood at 1400-plus and was receiving a lot of notice. After taking pitcher Ray White deep for a home run in the first inning, Gehrig was knocked out on a pitch to the head by White in his second plate appearance.
In those days, remember, batters did not wear helmets. Gehrig collapsed, motionless on the ground for five minutes as the big Norfolk crowd gasped. Finally he stood up, wobbling off the field. Doctors determined no bones were broken but that Gehrig had suffered a concussion.
The next day, wearing one of Babe Ruth’s caps that was cut to make room for a lump on his head, Gehrig was in the starting lineup for the Yankees against the Washington Senators. He tripled in each of his first three at bats. Unfortunately the game was washed out by rain in the bottom of the fifth inning, so the result and the triples never made it into the record book. There is, however, more to the story.
According to Ray Robinson, one of Gehrig’s biographers, there was a history between Gehrig and White. Writing in the Aug. 10, 2010 edition of the New York Times, Robinson noted that like Gehrig, White attended Columbia University. On occasion Gehrig would visit the Columbia baseball coach and the team, but White claimed Gehrig seemed to ignore him. Another incident involving Gehrig and White added more fuel to the fire. Before opening the regular season in 1939, the Yankees played an exhibition game against another one of their farm clubs in Newark, NJ. In that game, Gehrig hit two home runs off of White. Robinson also quoted Gehrig as not being too complimentary of White, after that contest.
White ended up managing in the Yankees farm system and later became a successful businessman, including a stint as president of Royal Crown Cola. He always maintained, however, that he never intentionally threw at Gehrig in that fateful exhibition game in Norfolk, VA.
That is going to do it for this week’s newsletter. As always, thank you for your support and have a terrific week.
DAN LOVALLO
Jim Kaplan even wrote a book about that game: “The Greatest Game Ever Pitched.” I also remember reading about the game in the magazine “Boys Life.” They sure “don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” but I wish they did.
July 2, 1963. Warren Spahn vs. Juan Marichal. 16 innings. 428 pitches thrown. NO relief pitchers used!!! They don't make 'em like that anymore!