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Have All Baseball Fans Fully Embraced Shohei Ohtani?

 

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani waves to fans after becoming MLB's first 50/50 man in a historic game against the Miami Marlins, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Miami.

Photo Credit: AP/Wilfredo Lee

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With nine games left in the season, Shohei Ohtani has ascended to the top of the mountain, having gone where no one has ever gone before in becoming MLB’s first player to crack 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season.

In Thursday’s game against the Miami Marlins, Ohtani surpassed 50 home runs for the season.

Quite an accomplishment.

Shohei seems to do everything in a big, grand fashion, starting before the season even began, when he signed a monster contract, a whopping 10-year $700 million contract to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yesterday was no exception. Shohei went large again.

The Dodgers leadoff hitter went to the plate six times, and came away with six hits, including three home runs and two steals with 10 RBIs. In doing so, he became the first player with three home runs and two stolen bases in a game since at least 1900 and the first player since RBIs became official in 1920 with 10 RBIs and five extra-base hits in a game.

The reaction to yesterday’s fireworks was, deservingly so, simply overwhelming.

If you spent any time on social media on Thursday, the feeds on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), among others, was filled with short videos of Ohtani’s majestic blasts.

And to sweeten the pot even more, not only was history made, but the Dodgers clinched a playoff spot, becoming the fourth team to clinch a spot for the 2024 postseason, following a 20-4 pounding of the Marlins at LoanDepot Park in Miami, Fla.

2024 will be the 12th consecutive year the Dodgers have advanced to the playoffs; but it will be Ohtani’s first trip to the playoffs, after seven full seasons in MLB.

Ever since belting his first career home run against Josh Tomlin of the Cleveland Indians on April 3, 2018, as a member of the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani has lived up to his grand billing since arriving from Japan.

He now, age 30, has accumulated 222 home runs, 857 hits, and 557 RBI’s since entering the league in 2018.

Not only was history made in Miami on Thursday, but the Japan native additionally became the all-time Dodger single-season record holder in home runs, passing Shawn Green’s club record of 49, set in 2001.

Previously in 2024, Ohtani became only the 6th player in MLB history to have a 40/40 year.

The others are: José Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998), Alfonso Soriano (2006) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (2023).

What’s interesting about the list, is that three of those six players have been accused of using performance enhancing drugs. The tainted list of players doesn’t include Shohei Ohtani.

When you stop and ponder the accomplishment of hitting 50 home runs and stealing 50 bases in the same season, it's no wonder that former Dodgers player, Justin Turner, once described Shohei as a “once in a lifetime player.”

Given his unique ability to both pitch and hit so superbly, many describe Ohtani as the "Japanese Babe Ruth;" a Reuters article once described him as, a "Nito-ryu," or two-sword samurai

Over in Japan, the celebration for Ohtani becoming a 50/50 man has been deafening.

According to journalist and infographics designer, Satoshi Toyoshima, “Ohtani’s hometown of Oshu City in Iwate Prefecture hung a banner celebrating 50/50 at its city hall. “

In addition, Japan’s national newspapers issued special editions and handed them out on the streets to ecstatic bystanders.

In 2021, Stephen A. Smith, an ESPN host, apologized after saying that Los Angeles Angels pitching and hitting sensation Shohei Ohtani's use of translators negatively impacts Major League Baseball's popularity.

***

As euphoric as the reaction has been to Ohtani standing alone as the sole member of the 50/50 club, I detect, at times, some animosity here in the United States to his many clouts this year as a member of the Dodgers.

So, I wondered if the whiff of animosity I’m detecting toward him is because he’s from a big market team or because he’s Japanese?

Ohtani was involved with a scandal early in the season when Ippei Mizuhara, his longtime friend and interpreter was found to have made $4.5 million in wire transfers from the slugger’s account to cover mounting gambling debts.

After a thorough investigation, it was determined, the Japanese superstar didn’t have any prior knowledge of the wire transfers to bookmakers and was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Still, I strongly contend many baseball fans are using the scandal Ohtani was involved with as a convenient excuse not to join in the celebration of his accomplishments, like they would the Derek Jeter’s or Cal Ripken Jr’s of baseball.

Hiroshi Kitamura, Director of International Relations at William & Mary disagrees with me.

“I believe that Shohei Ohtani’s quest for 50/50 was embraced widely,” Kitamura said. “If,” Kitamura continued, “there is less enthusiasm towards him than to Cal Ripken or Derek Jeter, that, I think, is because the bases have become bigger and the pitch clock rule has made it easier to steal bases than in the past.”

Kitamura additionally isn’t detecting an anti-Asian animosity.

“In particular,” Kitamura thinks quite the contrary, “the physical strength he displays, day in and day out, is breaking stereotypes of Asian men and is inspiring new groups of fans.”

Leslie Heaphy, professor of sports history at Kent State at Stark, thinks Ohtani is still suffering from the gambling scandal. “For many,” Heaphy thinks, “just the association is enough to view the player with suspicion. I also think people like homerun records more than stolen bases so that may impact some of the lack of attention as well.”

Whether there are pro-Ohtani or anti-Ohtani forces afoot, Steven Wisensale, professor (emeritus) of public policy at the University of Connecticut (UCONN), thinks we should celebrate and appreciate this unique and unprecedented moment in baseball history.

Wisensale believes this is “a huge milestone and one that no one ever dreamed about previously. I will put it up there with Ripken’s streak, Williams’ .406 and DiMaggio’s 56. If he hits the 50/50 mark, I see no one breaking that unless his name is Shohei Ohtani.”

“For people who know baseball and understand the skills that are needed to succeed, such as reaching the 50/50 milestone”, Wisensale argued, “they will honor that player, regardless of his race or ethnicity.”

Despite the gambling incident now in the rear-view mirror, the scandal appears to have left some scar tissue, at least with some fans.

“I believe his gambling scandal that started the year has taken some charm off of Ohtani with fans; I don't think it matters with him not being from the United States,” Andy Billman, professor of film and media studies at the University of New Haven told me. “Ichiro Suzuki,” Billman pointed out, “is proof when he went off years ago in Seattle and was very popular. Also, in today's viewing capacity for sports, I believe the Dodgers being on the West Coast hurts him more.”

But there are some, albeit a minority, who detect whiffs of hostility to foreigners as a reason for not fully embracing Ohtani’s historic milestone.

Rob Ruck, professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh agrees with me that “some of the animosity is because he's from a foreign country at a time when MAGA ("Make America Great Again") has ramped up nativism to an outrageous level.”

Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, thinks Ohtani “wants to be the best player that’s ever played this game.”

It sure will be fun for all baseball fans, fun for the United States, fun for Japan, and fun for the youth of both countries over the next few years to see if the Ōshū, Iwate, Japan native lives up to such top billing.

--Bill Lucey
[email protected] 
September 20, 2024

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Ohtani: Feats, Facts, & Historic Firsts

• Ohtani was the first Japanese player to hit for the cycle in the major leagues, something he never accomplished in five years in Japan.

• He's been clocked as fast as 3.80 seconds from home to first.

• On July 13, 2021, became the first player elected to the all-star game as both a player and pitcher.

• Closed out the 2023 World Baseball Classic by striking out Mike Trout. He won the tournament MVP.

• July 13, 2024, became the first Japanese player to hit 200 home runs.

• With an all-star HR in 2024, became the first player to hit a HR and get the win in an all-star game.

• Only two other players in MLB history (Barry Bonds and Brady Anderson) hit both 50 home runs and stolen 50 bases in any season of their careers. Ohtani accomplished both in the same season.

• When Shohei was 17-years old in Japan, he threw a remarkable 99 miles per hour.

• Ohtani was courted by all 30 MLB teams before reaching agreement with the Los Angeles Angels in December, 2017.

• Ohtani is 6-foot-4, and weighs 215 pounds.

When Baseball was King of New York City

***

Now that we’re in the dog days of August and the pennant races in MLB are heating up, one book I recently devoured might whet your appetite for the postseason.

Novelist, journalist, and historian, Kevin Baker, wrote an entertaining, well researched book about America’s national pastime: “The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of New York City.”

Baker describes how baseball with its origins as a simple country game, first played in cow pastures and rural patches of farm land, eventually migrated to the major metropolises and in particular New York City.

NYC has been the most populated city in the United States since 1790, when it

exceeded Philadelphia.

It continued to grow by leaps and bounds in large part through immigration. The population of NYC was 3. 4 million in 1900; and doubled over the next 50 years, leaping to 7.89 million residents in 1959.

Before the big ballparks were erected, historians tell us early baseball in New York were played in Central Park, the Parade Ground near Prospect Park, Carroll Park in Brooklyn, and open lots and public parklands in New Jersey.

The decade between 1947 and 1957, of course, was christened the golden age of baseball in New York City.

And for good reason.

During that span, the Yankees won nine pennants and seven World Series-five of them in a row. The Dodgers won six pennants and one world championship. Three times they finished second. The Giants won two NL championships and one World Series.

Taken together, from 1947 through 1957, New York teams came away with 13 MVP awards, eight Rookie of the year honors, seven home run titles, five no-hitters, and four batting championships.

The New York Yankees, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the New York Giants—advanced to the World Series every year (between 1947-1957) except 1948, the last year Cleveland won a World Series.

And speaking of Cleveland, Baker’s book has plenty of material that would interest Cleveland baseball fans.

He touches on the 1920 World Series, when the Cleveland Indians beat the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers) in seven games in a best of nine series, a Series which was especially noted for the first unassisted triple play executed in World Series history by the Indians second-sacker, Bill Wambsganss, who made a leaping catch of a line drive, scorched off the bat of Clarence Mitchell in the 5th inning for the first out; he stepped on second base to retire Brooklyn’s Pete Kilduff for the second out, and then tagged a surprised looking Otto Miller (caught between first and second), squashing a Brooklyn rally and completing the historic feat.

Game 5 of the 1920 Series was additionally noted for featuring the first home run hit by a pitcher in a World Series, Cleveland native, Jim Bagby, of the Indians, who cracked a three-run blast off of Brooklyn pitcher Burleigh Grimes in the 4th inning.

History was previously made in the first inning of Game 5 of the 1920 World Series when Elmer Smith of the Indians smacked the first grand slam in World Series history.

The Dodgers wouldn’t be in another World Series for more than 20 years; Cleveland would have to wait almost 30 years.

Baker devotes a significant amount of space to the Polo Grounds, located between 155th and 157th streets at Eighth Avenue, nestled on the Harlem River in Upper Manhattan, home of the New York Giants of the National League from 1891 through 1957.

The Polo Grounds was additionally the home of the New York Yankees from 1913 to 1922 and New York Mets in their first two seasons (1962, 1963).

Source:  The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

***

In addition to the Giants winning five World Series titles in the Polo Grounds, the stadium is best remembered, sadly, for the place where Cleveland Indians’ shortstop, Ray Chapman, was struck in the head by a pitch thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays on August 16, 1920 and died within hours.

He was only 29 and was the only MLB player killed by a pitch.

Baker provides readers with some fascinating details of Chapman and the submarine pitcher for the Yankees. Mays had a sordid reputation for being erratic with his pitches, some even went so far as to label him, a “headhunter.” In 1917, he led the league in hit batters.

Ty Cobb, in particular, was constantly getting plunked by Mays offerings. Fed up with his wild pitches, Baker wrote that Cobb once laid down a bunt on the first base line and intentionally spiked the back of May's leg, splitting it open and vowing, "The next time you cover the bag, I'll take the skin off your other leg."

Prior to his ill-fated at bat against Mays, Chapman never hit the Yankees submarine pitcher very well; so, the theory goes, the Indians’ shortstop crouched down in the batter’s box, hoping to give himself a competitive advantage in picking up Mays low pitches.  When he was first hit, Chapman stood motionless before quickly collapsing to the ground. The ball hit Chapman’s head with such a force, the ball rolled forward to the pitcher’s mound.

Mays initially thought the ball hit Chapman’s bat, so he rifled the ball to first base, before chaos ensued. When he was carried to the clubhouse, one of the last words heard from Chapman’s mouth was the request that his wedding ring be placed on his finger.

Medical records determined Mays pitch cut a three-and-a-half fissure along the base of Chapman's skull, which drove a piece of bone down against his brain.

Despite being demonized for throwing the pitch that killed and greeted with a cascade of boos on road games, Mays maintained his innocence throughout his career. “My conscience is absolutely clear,” the sulky pitcher once said. He also told the press, “I merely wish to say that I am not a murderer, nor do I take unfair advantage of anyone."

At least 5 other A.L. teams, according to Baker, threatened to boycott games if Mays pitched.

Mays was 26-11 in 1920 and sported a league-leading six shoutouts.

Despite winning over 200 games in his bumpy career, allegations first reported by New York journalist, Fred Lieb, that he threw the 1921 World Series, put the kibosh on any thoughts of Mays being considered for the Hall of Fame when his career ended.

Beginning in 1921, owners of the New York clubs began to see the size of the gate receipts swell. In 1923, the Giants had drawn the largest National League crowd ever, 41,000 for a regular season game; and the 1921 World Series between the Yankees and Giants drew the very first million-dollar gate for the Fall Classic.

1921 would mark the first of 13-Subway Series’ (1921-1956) the Yankees would play against either the Giants or the Dodgers in World Series matchups, driving home the universal impression that New York was, indeed, the undisputed baseball capital of the nation.

After a 44-year hiatus, the New York Subway Series was resurrected when the Yankees defeated in the New York Mets in 5 games during the 2000 World Series.

Baker does a superb job in batting down some myths that have been floating through the annals of baseball history. One is that the New York Yankees adopted pinstripes on their uniforms to cover up Babe Ruth’s bulging waistline. Not true. The Chicago Cubs were actually the first team to wear pinstripes in 1907; then the Giants began wearing them in 1911. The Yankees first adopted the pinstripes in 1912, well before the Babe came on board. They stopped wearing them in 1913 and 1914, then began wearing them permanently, beginning in 1915.

Baker also clarifies the term, “Murderers' Row” used to describe the first six hitters of the 1927 Yankees (Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri) was actually first used to describe the 1919 New York Yankees, though that team paled in comparison to the 1927 Yankees who sported an astounding 110–44 record (.714), captured the A.L. pennant by 19 games, and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.

For those long-entrenched New York Yankee haters, long stretches of Baker’s book might be awfully hard to swallow, such as this poisonous line: “In a 30-year run from 1923 to 1953, the Yankees met and defeated every NL team but the Braves, they won 16 of 18 World Series and compiling a record of 68-26 in the Fall Classic, for a .723 winning percentage. The only World Series they lost at all in this period were the Cardinals, in 1926 and 1942.”

It gets worse Yankee bashers.

“In the 1930's,’’ Baker reminds us, “the Yankees reeled off consecutive seasons of 102, 102, 99 and 106 victories and lost a combined total of three games in four World Series triumphs. The streak culminated in a 1939 team than many would rank as the best major-league team of all time, ahead of the 1927 Yankees.”

Those kind of nauseating statistics would turn anyone’s stomach, including the Brooklyn Dodgers, who only managed one World Series championship (1955) over their cross-town rivals after losing in 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953. The Yankees beat the “Dem Bums” again in 1956, the Dodgers final season in Brooklyn, before packing up and dashing off for the West Coast.

Still, those baseball fans who take a dim view of New York baseball teams can at least take heart, that all these feats and gargantuan triumphs Baker writes so eloquently about, are in the past, which took place during a bygone era and have softly faded into the night.

The Yankees, after all, haven’t been in a World Series for 15 years, the Mets for almost 10 years.

I’m sure 28 other teams and their fans in MLB hope it stays that way for another 15 years.

--Bill Lucey

[email protected]  

 August 10, 2024

Hall of Fame Athletes Who Stumbled Coming out of the Gate

Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever’s no. 1 pick in the draft is experiencing some rough spots with her transition to women’s professional basketball.

Photo Credit: Wendell Cruz/Reuters

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Caitlin Clark, the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball superstar and no. 1 draft pick by the Indiana Fever of the WNBA knew it wouldn’t be easy.

Despite displaying flashes of brilliance, her stats and prowess, so far, shows she’s struggling with her transition to the WNBA.

After 12 games, Clark is averaging 16.8 points, with 6.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds. Her three-point bombs, such a big part of her repertoire, have been hit or miss. Her field goal percentage is a pedestrian 32.7.

In her last game against the Washington Mystics, Clark exhibited more of the play many are coming to expect from the West Des Moines, Iowa native. Clark put up 30 points, including seven three-points (tying a rookie record) in an 85-83 win before a sellout crowd (20,333) at the Capital One Arena in Washington. She also had four steals, though her turnovers (8) were again alarmingly high.

Prior to her performance Friday night in Washington, Clark hasn’t connected on more than four field goals all season.

As widely reported, the thin, pony-tailed point guard (fresh from her SNL cameo) entered professional basketball with exceedingly lofty expectations; so, the bar was set pretty high for her before the season even began.

At Iowa, the Indiana Fever’s rookie point-guard ascended to the top of the mountain.  With the Hawkeyes, she compiled 3,951 points over four years — the most ever in NCAA men’s or women’s Division I history. She was the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I play along with setting a single season three-point record.

Prior to the regular season, Clark inked a lucrative ($28 million) endorsement deal with Nike, which raised the bar even more for her in being tasked to live up to everyone’s high expectations.

WNBA arenas are selling out for the first time in a long time all because of Caitlin Clark’s popularity. Journalists are beginning to cover the WNBA for the first time, hoping to catch glimpses of “Caitlin Fever” and report on her every move, both on and off the court.

So far, Clark has hit some speed bumps transitioning to the fast pace of the WNBA, including navigating through sophisticated double coverage defensive schemes, blocking screens, and the mammoth physicality of the game compared with college basketball. She additionally has to adjust to the size of her opponents. With Clark at 6 feet, so many in the WNBA tower over her, making it difficult to make the most of her opportunities and pick her shots.

Most of all, many point to the physical play of the WNBA, which Clark is finding her biggest challenge.

Clark absorbed a hard, flagrant foul by Chicago Sky’s by Chennedy Carter recently, which sparked a great deal of controversy.

Photo Credit: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

***

In particular, Clark has voiced her concern over the questionable officiating (or non-calls) while she gets slapped around like a ping pong ball. “I feel like I’m getting hammered …everybody is physical with me and opponents get away with things that other people don’t get away with” Clark told reporters in a post-game press conference.

The Fever’s beleaguered rookie being targeted as if she were public enemy number 1 hit a boiling point recently in a game against the Chicago Sky’s shooting guard Chennedy Carter who body checked Clark to the ground before the ball was even in play. The referees called it an away-from-the ball foul, later upgrading it to a flagrant foul. Many liken the flagrant foul committed by Carter to a physical assault, since the ball wasn’t even in play.

Others complain Clark is getting preferential treatment by the media because she is white and argue other WNBA players are subjected to the same hard physical play as Clark has been enduring, but no one bats an eye.

Chennedy Carter refused to discuss the aggressive foul on Caitlin Clark during the postgame presser, telling reporters, “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions.”

Whether Clark is getting preferential treatment or is indeed being too aggressively hammered, one thing is for certain: many WNBA players aren’t taking kindly for the way she is absorbing so much media attention and ignoring their talents. Many especially don’t like how she has profited so handsomely from lucrative endorsement deals, such as Nike, while leaving others in the dust.

With Clark being left off the U.S. Olympic basketball team heading to Paris, it’s clearly a direct snub or poke in the eye to someone who (in many people’s minds) has been given too much media attention and would likely attract around the clock coverage if she were on the Olympic team. The argument that she wasn’t talented enough falls flat when you compare her stats to other members of the Olympic team.

Undoubtedly, Caitlin Clark is trying to stay professional and composed as she continues to absorb the wrath of jealous and wounded WNBA players who feel they’re being ignored.

Will Caitlin ever become a superstar in the WNBA?

In evaluating Clark’s rookie season so far, I recently heard one ESPN analyst say, “she just doesn’t have it.”

I think Caitlin Clark has a lot of basketball ahead of her before making such a reckless comment as “she just doesn’t have it.”

In all professional sports, there are examples, by the truckload, of athletes who had spectacular college careers, but turned in average or less than average rookie seasons before rising to stardom and even becoming hall of famers.

Dirk Nowitzki, drafted ninth overall in 1998 NBA Draft (by the Milwaukee Bucks) and then traded to the Dallas Mavericks had a rocky start to his career.

In his first professional game in the NBA, Feb. 5, 1999, Nowitzki had only two points, no rebounds and four assists, and was 0 of 5 from the field.

The German born 7-foot guard struggled, mightily, in his first season, shooting 40.5 % from the floor and 20.6% from beyond the arc, while averaging just 8.2 points.

Nowitzki later commented that he tussled mostly with the size and the striking physicality of the NBA during his rookie season.

As is well documented, Dirk Nowitzki had a spectacular NBA career, which included an NBA championship and 14 All-Star appearances with the Dallas Mavericks.

In 2023, he was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.

NBA guard James Harden is another multi-talented all-star who got off to a bumpy start in the NBA.

Harden caught the eye of many as a college player at Arizona State, making him the third overall pick (by the OKC Thunder) in the 2009 NBA Draft.

But his initial ride into the NBA met with some turbulence. He averaged 9.9 points in his rookie year, averaging only 22.9 minutes on the floor, 1.8 assists, 3.2 rebounds, while shooting just 40.3 percent from the field.

When he landed in Houston in 2012, Harden’s career propelled to great heights.  Beginning in his fourth season in the NBA, he averaged more than 20 points for 15 consecutive seasons; and from 2017 through 2019, he averaged more than 30 points per game.

Harden is especially celebrated for scoring 40 points against Phoenix on April 18, 2012, becoming the first reserve NBA player to score 40 points since Dallas guard Rodrigue Beaubois in March 2010.

Harden was a big reason the Thunder advanced to the 2012 NBA Finals, before being defeated by the Miami Heat in five games.

The Los Angeles native was selected as the NBA’s MVP in 2018.

Terry Bradshaw completed just 83 passes in his rookie campaign (1970) for a dismal completion percentage of 38.1 percent.

Photo Credit: Harry Cabluck/AP

***

If ever there was a case of a Hall of Famer who turned in a dreadful rookie season, look no further than quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who was drafted as the number 1 pick overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1970.

Though the Steelers managed to win five games in 1970, a big improvement from their 1-13 season the previous year, their new field general out of Louisiana Tech had a tough time adjusting to the NFL.

Bradshaw completed just 83 passes in his rookie campaign for a dismal completion percentage of 38.1 percent. Worse still, the Steelers rookie quarterback threw just 6 touchdown passes with an atrociously high 24 interceptions.

Bradshaw, in fact, had 46 interceptions and only 19 touchdown passes in his first two years as a professional football player.

Today, Terry Bradshaw is hailed as one of the greatest quarterbacks to have ever played the game. He led the Steelers to four Super Bowls over six years (1974, 1975, 1978, and 1979), throwing for 932 yards and nine TD’s.

Bradshaw was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989, his first year of eligibility.

In 1989, Troy Aikman was drafted No. 1 by the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Draft.

His first game as a professional football player was a 28-0 drubbing to the New Orleans Saints, a game in which he was intercepted twice, with no touchdowns, two sacks, and a passing rating of 40.2.

Aikman finished the season (interrupted by a broken finger, which sidelined him for five games) with nine touchdowns, 18 pics, while averaging just 5.9 yards per pass.

The Cowboys finished the season with a how low can you go, 1-15 record.

In week three of the season, the Cowboys were crushed by Washington Redskins (30-7), a game coach Jimmy Johnson called “just awful” and replaced his franchise QB with Steve Walsh, both finishing with two interceptions.

Aikman, like many other rookie quarterbacks, discovered how complex the NFL really is compared to college and he struggled with the talent level of opponents and their ability to disguise certain coverages.

When he retired after 12 seasons, Aikman was lionized as one of the most prolific NFL QB’s, leading the Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins, along with being named to the Pro Bowl six times and setting 45 Dallas Cowboys passing records, including the club’s career record for completions (2,898), passing yards (32,942), touchdowns (165) and completion percentage (61.3).

The Oklahoma native was inducted into the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

Peyton Manning didn’t have the easiest of rookie seasons either with the Indianapolis Colts. He was drafted No. 1 overall by the Indianapolis Colts in 1998. The Colts went 3-13 in Manning’s maiden voyage into the NFL.

After a mediocre passing performance in week 5 of his rookie season, many were questioning whether the Colts would have been better served if they had drafted Ryan Leaf who was drafted by the San Diego Chargers.

As columnists began placing Manning’s rookie season under closer scrutiny, Baltimore Colts legend Johnny Unitas told Conrad Brunner of the Indianapolis Star, "I think people demand an awful lot of these kids, principally because they're talking about tremendous amounts of dollars.” "If I invested $25 or $30 million” Unitas remarked, “I'd want immediate results, and I think that's the biggest problem."

As is well known, Peyton Manning’s diligent work ethic paid off handsomely and he went on to have a remarkable NFL career, which included two Super Bowl wins with two different teams (Colts and Denver Broncos).

Over 18 seasons, Manning passed for 539 touchdowns, 71,940 passing yards, and went to 14 Pro Bowls. He was additionally the Associated Press’s NFL MVP five times along with being selected to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s.

The “Sherriff” was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021.

Baseball, to be sure, has had a few late bloomers as well.

Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson who debuted in 1955 at age 18 struggled in his first few seasons in Major League Baseball.

In his first 60 MLB games from 1955-1957, Robinson hit .178 with a .487 OPS in 161 plate appearances.

He made his first appearance with the Orioles on September 17, 1955, at Memorial Stadium, batting sixth in the lineup against the Washington Senators. He slapped two hits in four at bats. After that game, however, he went into an 0-18 slump at the plate before being replaced in the lineup.

It wasn’t until 1960 when Robinson caught fire, climbing to third in the lineup with a .333 BA and was selected to his first All-Star Game, which would be the first of 18 straight All-Star games for the Little Rock, Arkansas native.

By the time his 23-year career was over, the “Human Vacuum Cleaner” won 16 consecutive Gold Glove Awards, (the most by a position player) and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, one of 16 players to have been honored on the first ballot since the inaugural class of 1936.

Sandy Koufax was largely limited to the bullpen in his first few years with the Dodgers due to persistent control problems. He considered quitting after the 1960 season.

Photo Credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame.

***

Some might be surprised to discover Los Angeles Dodgers flame-thrower Sandy Koufax struggled in his first few seasons in MLB and even considered calling it quits.

During his first three years (1955-57), he was mainly confined to the bullpen, pitching only 204 innings, winning 9 and losing 10. He logged more innings from 1958-1960 in which he displayed nothing but mediocrity with 24 wins, 21 losses. And though his fastball showed its blazing potential, he was prone to endless control problems.

1960 was definitely Koufax’s low point, winning 8 and losing 13 games.

In one game during the 1960 season, April 22, 1960, the St Louis Cardinals banged him around for 5 runs in the first inning. He never registered an out, before he was lifted by Walter Alston.

Koufax told New York Times Columnist Joseph Durso (published in 1980) after the 1960 season, "I threw all my baseball stuff away, left the clubhouse and didn't think I'd ever come back. I even went into business, but wasn't crazy about it. Then I decided maybe I hadn't worked hard enough, so I the next spring reported to Vero Beach. Our clubhouse man, Kobe Kawano handed me the gear and said, "I took all your stuff out of the garbage.”

Many were thankful Koufax came back in 1961.

The Brooklyn, NY native led the National League in strikeouts (269 in 1961), and his walks and earned run average shrank appreciably. Between 1963 and 1966, Koufax’s seasonal W-L record during that period was 25-5, 19-5, 26-8, and 27-9. His ERAs were off the charts: 1.88, 1.74, 2.04 and 1.73. Similarly, his strikeouts were out of this world: 306, 223, 382 and 31 during those years. He pitched four no-hitters and one perfect game.

Koufax additionally became the first pitcher (at the time) to reach four career no-hitters on Sept. 9, 1965, surpassing Larry Corcoran, Cy Young, and Bob Feller.

Sandy Koufax, "the Left Arm of God" as he was nicknamed, was officially voted into the Hall of Fame, alongside Yogi Berra and Early Wynn in 1972.

Roberto Clemente had a ho-hum rookie season with a .255 BA, 5 HR's and 47 runs batted in. He walked only 18 times in 124 games when he debuted for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1957.

Clemente’s batting average didn’t rise above .300 until 1960 when he sported a .314 BA, 16 HR’s and 94 RBI’s and was selected to his first All-Star Game, one of 14 All-Star appearances before his life ended tragically. The Carolina, Puerto Rico native improved his stats in 1961 even further when he won the first of his four batting championships with a .351 average and 23 home runs.

He captured back-to-back batting titles in 1964 and 1965, hitting .339 and .329 respectively; and in 1967, Clemente had the best year of his career .367 BA and earned yet another batting title.

Clemente was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in March, 1973, just months after his tragic accident in a plane crash, which was traveling to deliver supplies to Nicaragua.

So, with Caitlin Clark being only 22 years-old and having played only 12 WNBA games (with 28 more to play), I think the “Mad Bomber” is entitled to experience some rookie growing pains and learning curves from college before we pass judgement on her caliber of play and what kind of future she’s capable of in professional women’s basketball.

I think it’s a bit premature for an ESPN analyst to say, “She [Caitlin Clark] just doesn’t have it.”

--Bill Lucey

[email protected]  

June 9, 2024

Caitlin Clark Has Rearranged the Media Landscape

Caitlin Clark helped advance the Iowa Hawkeyes to the national championship game in back-to-back seasons.

Photo Credit: Matthew Holst/Getty Images

***

Caitlin Clark Fever, it seems, has taken the country by storm.

We’re in the first round of the NBA playoffs, first month of the MLB season, and it’s NFL draft week, and yet the water cooler talk continues to center on the West Des Moines native who seems to be popping up everywhere, whether making a cameo on “SNL,” on Instagram posts, showing her launching bombs from beyond the arc, signing a lucrative Nike deal (worth $28 million), and even whipping the crowd into a frenzy at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where she saw the Indiana Pacers take a 2-1 lead on the Milwaukee Bucks in a thrilling overtime win Friday night.

The six-foot, dribble happy, elusive guard from Iowa smashed so many records in college that it takes work to keep up with her crown of laurels.

Some of her many milestones include:

• Compiling 3,951 points over four years — the most ever in NCAA men’s or women’s Division I history;
• Recording 1,144 assists and 990 rebounds;
• Breaking the record for 3-pointers in a single season,;
• Advancing to the National Championship game twice; and
• Being named National Player of the Year.

In just 40 games, she became the fastest player in Big Ten history to reach the 1,000-point milestone.

If that wasn’t enough, the “Mad Bomber” joined just two other Iowa women’s players who had their numbers retired— Michelle Edwards, whose No. 30 was retired in 1990, and Megan Gustafson, whose No. 10 was retired in 2020.

Clark’s amazing rise to rock-star status came quickly for the Iowa guard.

Imagine, in her first nine games with the Iowa Hawkeyes, games were only available on streaming services, and some games, believe it or not, were played on weekday afternoons.

Three years later, in her senior year, Clark's 137th, 138th and 139th college games became the three most-watched women's basketball games ever: 12.3 million for Iowa's win over LSU (Elite Eight); 14.4 million for Iowa's win over UConn (Final Four); and 18.9 million viewers on ABC against South Carolina (national championship).

Caitlin Clark speaks with reporters after being introduced as the newest member of the Indiana Fever, Wednesday, April 17, in Indianapolis.

Photo Credit: WTHR

***

As is widely known, Clark was the No. 1 draft pick of the Indiana Fever in the WNBA.

Normally, WNBA drafts receive scant attention in the media. This year was different. The draft featured some mighty big stars: Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink, to mention just a few of some highly gifted athletes. The draft, covered live from Brooklyn by ESPN, averaged a record 2.45 million viewers, a whopping 307 % increase in viewership over last year.

And it was also the first WNBA draft broadcast in Spanish. Reaching a larger global audience is one of the many challenges facing the WNBA if they hope to be on par with the NBA.

So, it appears the WNBA, founded on April 24, 1996, 28 years ago, has begun a new chapter in its proud history.

Given the way Clark has rocketed to stardom in such a brief time and with so much interest turning toward the WNBA, many argue that the media landscape of the league has been turned upside down.

With Clark and Brazilian center Kamilla Cardoso, of the South Carolina Gamecocks, taking center stage, the women’s national championship game drew a staggering 18.9 million viewers, the most viewers for any basketball game, college or pro, since 2019, according to ESPN. The women’s championship game drew more viewers than the men’s national championship game, which logged 14.8 million viewers.

Many make the point that UConn's Paige Bueckers and Clark have done for women's college basketball what Magic Johnson and Larry Bird did for men's college basketball decades ago. There was suddenly heightened interest in college basketball and March Madness, which spilled over into the NBA.

With basketball stars like Hannah Jump, Cameron Brink and Dyaisha Fair joining Clark in the WNBA on their respective teams, along with veterans Breanna Stewart (New York Liberty), Alyssa Thomas (Connecticut Sun), and Kelsey Plum (Las Vegas Aces), already entrenched in the WNBA, once-dormant coverage of the league may reach towering heights this season.

It’s interesting to note that before Caitlin Clark was drafted, the Fever averaged 4,067 fans at their home games, the second lowest in the league. This year, ticket prices have doubled and a ticket to their home games is hard to come by, though the Fever hasn’t announced ticket sales and which games have sold out. It’s widely believed the Fever’s home opener against the New York Liberty on May 16 will be a 19,000-seat sellout.

A number of major media outlets have responded to the seismic shift toward women’s basketball.

Because of the frenzied popularity of Clark, it’s been announced that 36 of the Indiana Fever’s 40 regular season games will be on national television this year, one more than the defending champion Las Vegas Aces.

Shortly after announcing a multiyear agreement with the WNBA, CBS Sports doubled its coverage for the upcoming season by broadcasting eight regular-season games, up from four last year, and for the remainder of its deal, CBS Sports will televise 12 games.

The WNBA previously announced that eight Fever games this year will be broadcast nationally.

ESPN will significantly increase its WNBA coverage.

The WNBA and ESPN announced that there will be 25 national broadcasts during the regular season across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s Spanish-language network.

During the season, the WNBA will collaborate with ESPN to present up to 52 games, beginning with the WNBA regular season presented by Google and extending through the WNBA Playoffs presented by Google, which will feature up to 27 games, including the WNBA Finals presented by YouTube TV.

Next month, a new four-part series from Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and Words & Pictures in partnership with ESPN+ will feature exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes access documenting elite collegiate women’s basketball stars from this year’s record-breaking season, including Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso and Kiki Rice.

It will premiere on May 11-12 on ABC and ESPN +

For the second straight year, the AT&T WNBA All-Star Game will air in primetime on ABC from Phoenix (8:30 p.m. ET) on July 20th.

Additionally, the Las Vegas Aces, New York Liberty, and Indiana Fever each will be featured on an ESPN platform for eight games.

According to Front Office Sports, the Fever recently struck a deal with Tegna (a digital media and marketing services company) to broadcast 17 of the team’s games on the media company’s over-the-air stations in Indianapolis. The Fever’s home opener against the New York Liberty will be shown on either WTHR, the NBC affiliate, or WALV, the MeTV affiliate.

The Indianapolis Star, a Gannett daily newspaper, is placing itself front and center to cover the Indiana Fever along with Caitlin Clark Fever.

Articles by Fever beat reporter Chloe Peterson have been coming thick and fast from the IndyStar.

Prior to Peterson coming on board last May, the Star devoted limited space to the WNBA, usually assigning an intern to cover the Fever with lots of turnover from year to year and with practically no offseason coverage.

The IndyStar is now devoting additional time and space to the WNBA and sent Peterson, its star Fever reporter, to Brooklyn to report on the draft. Peterson covered the entire 2023 season for the IndyStar.

A spokesperson from The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism website, and the sports department of The New York Times, said the Athletic doesn't like to comment on its upcoming coverage. It does, however, have a page devoted to the WNBA ; and in 2022, the Athletic and Google launched a new Multiplatform program to double The Athletic's coverage of professional women's sports, with an emphasis on basketball and soccer.

The Associated Press is already well-positioned to cover the anticipated increased popularity of the WNBA. A spokesperson for AP said it will provide coverage of every WNBA game, along with features and enterprise stories. Nicole Meir, media relations manager for AP, tells me that "AP’s basketball writer will continue to produce a weekly fixture on the league, ‘Around The WNBA,’ which will include updates on Clark’s season on merit." Much like the Athletic, AP has an entire section devoted to the WNBA. 

Despite all the buoyancy over the media’s newfound interest in women’s athletics, Cheryl Cooky, professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies at Purdue University, interjects with a word of caution.

As positive as increased coverage of the WNBA appears on the surface, Cooky said “some of the impact on broadcast coverage, at least at this point, is quite contained to Clark and the Fever.”

Outside of the niche media platforms, Cooky hasn’t seen much coverage on the upcoming WNBA season and what to expect or look for. “In fact,” Cooky observed, “many sports news media outlets returned to ‘business as usual.’ This aligns with the patterns we identified in our last study (which we are currently updating), where the media employ a ‘one and done’ strategy in women’s sports coverage.”

Other WNBA teams having to move to larger venues (Las Vegas, Washington) when Indiana comes to town, may help to move the needle Cooky thinks, “but again, that remains to be seen.”

Photo: Caitlin Clark going through some preseason practice drills with the Indiana Fever.

Photo Credit: Associated Press/Michael Conroy

***

Timing is everything.

It appears Clark is entering the WNBA at an ideal time. The league will add a team in Golden State (San Francisco) in 2025, bringing the league to 13 teams; and the word is the WNBA wants to expand to 16 teams in the near future. Charlotte, Toronto, and Denver are reportedly among the front-runners. Suitors from Nashville, Philadelphia, Portland, and South Florida have also expressed interest.

Clark coming to the Hoosier State is just what the doctor ordered.

Since the Fever won the WNBA championship in 2012, their 13th season in the WNBA, they have been the worst major professional team in Indy and one of the worst major professional teams in all of North American sports. The franchise is 127-241 with just one winning season during that time and haven’t reached the playoffs since 2016. They only mustered five wins in 2022, a franchise low. The last time they had a winning record was in 2015, nearly 10 years ago. In 2016, they were a .500 team. Since then, they only managed to win more than 10 games twice, finishing well under .500 each year.

In Indiana, Clark will join forces with reigning Rookie of the Year center Aliyah Boston, third-year forward NaLyssa Smith, veteran forward Katie Lou Samuelson, and 2023 All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell.

Clark fills an immediate need for the Fever: a legitimate three-point shooter. Clark shot 37% from three-point land with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Her signature behind-the-back and no-look passes she perfected with Iowa center Monika Czinano will be an additional boon to a Fever team trying to rebuild.

Mitchell, the Fever's guard, was the only player to shoot over 100 3-pointers last season.

The ball is now in the Fever’s court. Let’s hope the West Des Moines native and the rest of her blossoming team rise to the occasion.

--Bill Lucey
[email protected]
April 28, 2024

***
The “Caitlin Clark Effect”: Google Searches

• Searches for Caitlin Clark jersey sales spiked 2,550% in the U.S. over the past week.

• It was reported that Clark sold more jerseys following the WNBA Draft than the Dallas Cowboys did all last season.

• Searches for Caitlin Clark Nike shoes spiked 1,500% in the U.S. over the past week.

• Caitlin Clark is the top trending basketball player in the U.S. in 2024.

• Searches for Caitlin Clark spiked more than any other basketball player regardless of gender or league in 2024 in the U.S.

• Searches for Caitlin Clark's first WNBA game spiked 550% in the U.S. over the past week.

• The top three trending sports matchups in the U.S. over the past month all featured Caitlin Clark (Iowa vs LSU, Iowa vs UConn, South Carolina vs Iowa).

Source: Google Press Office

***

Additional Resources

• Caitlin Clark Stats: ESPN

• Caitlin Clark Bio/Stats/Overview: Hawkeye Sports

• Caitlin Clark: Career Highlights: Hawkeye Sports 

• Caitlin Clark: College Stats (Sports-Reference)

• Caitlin Clark: WNBA Stats (Basketball Reference)

• Everything You Need to Know About Caitlin Clark (The Cut-New York Magazine).

Have the New York Yankees Retired Too Many Numbers?

Plaques of numbers retired by the New York Yankees in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

***

As of 2023, the New York Yankees have won 27 championships; so, it’s probably not much of a surprise that they’ve also retired 22 player numbers, the most in baseball. The only team that is close to retiring that many numbers are the St Louis Cardinals, with 14.

The last Yankee to have his number retired was Paul O’Neill in 2022, who patrolled the outfield for the Bronx Bombers for nine seasons, compiling a lifetime batting average of .288, 281 home runs, and 1,269 runs batted in.

In fact, the Yankees have retired so many numbers that they are now running short of jersey numbers to issue to its current roster. Derek Jeter’s no. 2, which was retired in 2017, was the last single digit number to be retired.

To make up for the scarcity of numbers, the Yankees have petitioned Major League Baseball to ask whether their coaching staff can suit up without numbers. MLB is reportedly reviewing the request.

With 22 numbers retired by the Yankees, many question whether all of these players really deserve such a distinction.

Imagine, Steve Garvey, with a lifetime batting average of .301, an MVP winner in 1974, who won four Gold Gloves, over 16 seasons, has yet to have his # 6 retired by the Dodgers.

Ditto for Detroit Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich, a three time All-Star, who won three complete games in the 1968 World Series, including a critical win over the St Louis Cardinals future hall of famer, Bob Gibson. At the time of his retirement in 1979, Lolich held the Major League Baseball record for career strikeouts by a left-handed pitcher, even surpassing Warren Spahn. Yet, his number 29 has never been retired by the Tigers.

No wonder some joke that “it’s easier to get into the Hall of Fame than to have your number retired.”

When asked whether all 22 Yankee players numbers deserved to be retired, Washington Post columnist, political commentator, and lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, George F. Will, responded that he “would delete #1 – Billy Martin, who was neither a great player or manager.”

Dan Shaughnessy, sports columnist and associate editor for the Boston Globe, thought that retiring the number of “[Paul] O'Neill (# 21) was ridiculous.” “I guess,” Shaughnessy explained, “because he's on television with them now. So many more worthy than him.”

Others question the retiring of Reggie Jackson’s number 44 in 1993. Conceding he was most definitely Mr. October in the playoffs, Jackson averaged a ho hum .279 batting average with 29 home runs and 92 RBIs in his five years in pinstripes, which really dwarfs what he produced for the Oakland A’s, compiling 1,151 hits, 254 home runs and 733 RBI in nine seasons. Though he caused mountains of dissension in New York when it was called the “Bronx Zoo” and infamously clashed with manager Billy Martin, owner George Steinbrenner liked him, which is most likely the reason why his number was retired in the Bronx.

Interestingly, the A’s didn’t retire Jackson’s #9 until 2004.

Still others wonder whether former Yankee first baseman and team captain, Don Mattingly (no. 23) really deserved to have his number retired. In 14 seasons with the Yankees, Mattingly only won one MVP and only appeared in one round of the postseason, in 1995, his final season in pinstripes, in a wild card round against the Seattle Mariners.

It may be surprising to some that the retiring of jersey numbers wasn’t that common until the 1970s, when on June 4, 1972, the L.A. Dodgers retired three numbers simultaneously: Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, and Roy Campanella.

Interestingly, for 31 years, from 1939 through 1970, only 19 MLB numbers were retired.  There are now more than 200 retired numbers in Major League Baseball, which now includes executives, broadcasters, and “fans” (as in the case of the Cleveland Indians/Guardians).

Uniform numbers were first introduced by the New York Yankees in 1929. Not until 1932 did all MLB teams adopt numbers. And when the Yankees began wearing them, it was used to designate the number of the hitter in the batting order. In 1929, for example, Earl Combs, the Yankees leadoff hitter, wore no. 1. Third sacker, Mark Koeing, wearing no. 2, was second in the lineup followed by Ruth, Gehrig, and Bob Meusel, who wore jersey numbers 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

Lou Gehrig had his number 4 retired on July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium, soon after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), later referred to as the Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Photo Credit: BETTMANN ARCHIVE

***

Lou Gehrig was the first Yankee to have his #4 retired by the Yankees on July 4, 1939 during his moving “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The “Iron Horse” compiled some monster numbers for the Yankees: a .340 batting average with 493 home runs, two AL MVP Awards and the 1934 Triple Crown. Gehrig additionally played in 2,130 consecutive games; never missing a game from June 1, 1923, until he voluntarily retired during a game on May 2, 1939. A record that remained until Baltimore Orioles’ shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. broke it on September 6, 1995.

Babe Ruth had his number retired by the Yankees in 1948 and Joe DiMaggio in 1952.

One historic note: the first number officially retired by a team in professional sports was that of hockey player, Ace Bailey, whose number 6 was retired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1934.

The benchmarks for retiring numbers, it seems, have relaxed over the years. It used to be common practice that a player’s number wasn’t retired until other players had worn them. At least nine Yankee players, for example, wore no. 3 after Ruth left the team.

Other standards adopted by teams was that a player had to distinguish himself with other teams or until he’s been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown before their number would be retired.

Eight players have had their numbers retired by more than one team, six by two teams, while Nolan Ryan had his retired by three teams. Nolan Ryan, along with Carlton Fisk have two different numbers retired. No. 20 is the jersey number which has been retired the most by 11 players, including Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, and Don Sutton.

Some players have been ignored entirely because their careers came before the adoption of numbers.

Andrew Zimbalist, an American economist and author of 24 books, including “Baseball and Billions” and “May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy” thinks the Yankees retire too many numbers, to the point of diluting the honor. “One example that should not have been retired is Paul O'Neill (no. 21),” Zimbalist said.

To put the excess of retired New York Yankees numbers in proper perspective, I checked in with retired New York Times’ sports columnist George Vecsey, who explained to me that teams like the Dodgers have a more demanding policy than the Yankees. “They held off retiring Brooklyn deities like Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges until after they were voted into the Hall of Fame.” “I would have voted those two into the Hall much earlier,” Vecsey said, “but appreciate the strict standards.”

Vecsey additionally attributes the glut of retired numbers to George Steinbrenner, the first real Boss, long before Bruce Springsteen assumed the title. “Part of it is the ego,” Vecsey recalls, “that says he can do whatever he darn wants. But the longer he has been gone, the more I think about his sentimentality.”

If it were up to Vecsey, are there any player numbers he would not have retired?

“Definitely not Jorge Posada or Bernie Williams or Paul O'Neill, Andy Pettitte or Ron Guidry; Mattingly was hurt early.” Vecsey would also place big question marks over the retiring of Billy Martin, Roger Maris, and Phil Rizzuto’s numbers.

“If I were being strict”, Vecsey explained, “I'd have retired numbers: #3 (Ruth), #4 (Gehrig), #5, (DiMaggio) #6 (Joe Torre), #7 (Mickey Mantle), #8 (Yogi Berra & Bill Dickey), #16 (Whitey Ford), #37 (Casey Stengel), #42 (Mariano Rivera), and Jeter (# 2) -- sure—as the leader of the dynasty.”

Clearly, George Vescey is right on the money. Steinbrenner was proud of his Yankees, and admittedly, contributed to a number of its world championships. The Boss treated the Yankees like they were a Broadway show, he wasn’t interested in raw, untested talent, or solid position players--much like a Broadway show—he wanted the BIG stars who would bring fans to the Bronx, mega superstars like Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Wade Boggs, and Catfish Hunter, to name just a few. Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, in Steinbrenner’s eyes, was an extension of his Broadway show mentality—when fans came to Yankee Stadium, they would feast their eyes on the vast collection of plaques and retired Yankee numbers (whether deserved or not), drumming in the impression that the Yankees are arguably the greatest sports franchise in the world.

--Bill Lucey

April 14, 2023

[email protected]

 ***

Additional Resources

List of New York Yankee Retired Numbers (MLB)

Baseball Reference: Retired Numbers in MLB

Keith Olbermann’s biting commentary (in 2017) over whether Derek Jeter was the greatest Yankee

***

NOTE: To the Sports Editor:

Publication Date: Sept. 30, 2001, New York Times

“I am a longtime Yankees fan who remembers viewing his first Yankees game and first night game in 1954. The retired numbers - 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 16, 32, 37, etc., are sitting as symbols on a fence when they would be better utilized on the backs of active players.

The numbers can still hang on the wall as a tribute to past stars. They could also be used to the Yankees' advantage by giving them to their present players.”

RUSSELL A. ROMAGIA

Woodbridge, Va.

 

Early Prognosis: Baker Mayfield Likely Done for the Season

Cleveland Browns quarterback, Baker Mayfield, absorbs a punishing sack from Arizona Cardinals defensive end, J.J. Watt

Photo Credit:  Brownswire.USAToday.com

***

Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield is as tough and resilient as they come. There’s simply no quit in this unconquerable Texas native who’s in his fourth year as the Browns field general.

Typically, any setback he faces, only means he roars back the following week like a Category 4 hurricane, usually silencing his critics in a blink of an eye. If you remember, Mayfield was met with boos and hollers last year when he overthrew some easy targets early in the season. His confidence was never shaken and bounced back with some star-studded performances, leaving his critics speechless.

That’s the charm of this blue-collar quarterback playing in a blue-collar town: both were made for each other, a marriage made in heaven. Mayfield won’t be confused with Tom Brady or Joe Montana, but his work ethic, raw talent, and unabashed confidence is well suited to this Rust Belt city.

Unfortunately, as tough as he is, multiple shoulder injuries he sustained in the first few weeks of the young season--left him sidelined in week seven against the Denver Broncos who visited the shores of Lake Erie on Thursday night.

Not only were the Browns without Baker Mayfield, hamstring injuries sidelined their two workhorses in the backfield: Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt.

Thanks to the serviceable job turned in by backup quarterback, Case Keenum, (now on his 8^th NFL team since 2012) and the spectacular running performance of D’Ernest Johnson (rushing for 146 yards and 1 TD), the Browns broke their two-game losing streak with a 17-14 win to put them at 4-3 for the season.

The Browns now face three formidable opponents in the coming weeks: they’ll be in Pittsburgh on October 31 followed by two home games against Cincinnati (November 7) and New England (November 14^th). Two of those three opponents, of course, are division rivals.

The question now becomes will Mayfield be healthy enough to battle through his injuries and return as the Browns starting quarterback?

That’s been a mighty big question mark all week.

Mayfield suffered a fully torn labrum (cartilage that is attached to the shoulder socket rim) in week two of the season. He mentioned to reporters, he was experiencing some “fraying in the shoulder.” If that wasn’t alarming enough, the Browns quarterback recently admitted to reporters that he fractured the humerus bone at the top of the non-throwing shoulder when the Browns played the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 5 of the season, compliments of a J.J. Watt strip sack.

So, now Baker Mayfield is dealing with multiple fractures. Early indications are is that he’s determined to play though the injuries and schedule surgery after the season is over. Head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters in his post-game press conference after the Denver game that he hasn’t made any decision on whether Mayfield will start on October 31 and will rely, heavily, on the advice of his medical team.

Curious about the severity of Mayfield’s injuries, I consulted with a few sports medicine specialists who deal with elbow and shoulder surgeries.

Not knowing all the minute specifics of Mayfield’s injuries, their prognosis, nonetheless, was not encouraging.

Josef K. Eichinger, an M.D. in sports medicine, shoulder and elbow surgery, and Professor of Orthopaedics at the Medical University of South Carolina, said that Mayfield should strongly consider surgery. “My money,” Eichinger told me, “would be on him being out for the remainder of the season.  The multiple dislocations are a real concern.  Cumulative dislocations can result in additional bone loss and can change the nature of surgery. “

Eichinger went on to explain that, typically, you can play through a torn labrum, but the fracture Mayfield suffered will require a minimum of 6-8 weeks (or longer to heal).

Amit Momaya, M.D. in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham, thinks players with greater tuberosity fractures can return as early as a few weeks.  “The danger,” Dr. Amit warns, “is that repeated dislocations can result in glenoid (socket) bone loss in terms of long-term damage, which can make surgery more involved. In addition, a repeat injury to a healing fracture may result in displacement, thus requiring surgery."

My guess is that Baker Mayfield will follow the sound advice of his medical team and opt for surgery immediately, meaning he’ll miss the rest of the season. With 10 bruising opponents still to come, I don’t see the sense of jeopardizing his long-term health so early into his promising career.

He’s still a young athlete, only 26, whose long-term contract still hangs in the balance. Why risk playing through the rest of the year with the chance he’ll never be the same again?

It’s a crying shame that Mayfield’s season is most likely over. He recently took to social media (as did his wife, Emily) to answer critics who made some vicious comments about his mediocre play in week four and five of the season.  It was during those weeks that Mayfield was suffering from a torn labrum (in his non-throwing arm) but never made it an excuse. He still faced toxic comments on Twitter after the Los Angeles Chargers loss in week five despite throwing for over 300 yards, two touchdown passes, and no interceptions.

What’s so ridiculous about all this back and forth about Mayfield and whether he’s a franchise quarterback is that we wouldn’t even be having this conversation if the Browns defense hadn’t played so poorly over the last few weeks.

Over the last three games, the Browns defense has surrendered 98 points. How’s a team supposed to be successful with those kinds of numbers, regardless of who’s the quarterback.  During the Browns lopsided loss (37-14) to the Arizona Cardinals in week six, the Cardinals offense scored on every possession in the first half. That’s just plain disgraceful, which raises serious questions whether this team is playoff bound with such a broken-down, disheveled defense.

Over the last few weeks, including the Denver win on Thursday, opposing quarterbacks just seem to be able to slice and dice their way through the Browns secondary without much effort, like a knife through butter. It’s simply painful to watch.

And yet, all the idle chatter among Cleveland fans is whether Baker Mayfield is a franchise quarterback.

The Kansas City Chiefs have dropped four out of their last six games. I don’t hear Chief fans calling for Pat Mahomes head--even though he’s thrown eight interceptions, five more than Baker Mayfield. Mahomes completion percentage (69.00), moreover, is just a tick above Mayfield’s (67.1).

The same goes for Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback.  Rodger’s completion percentage stands at 66.7, just below Mayfield’s. And while Mayfield might not have as many touchdown passes as his equals, few teams have the firepower in the backfield like the Browns have with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt who have a combined nine rushing touchdowns this year. In baseball lingo, these two freight trains represent the Ruth and Gehrig of the NFL. Not many teams have the luxury that Mayfield does in having such a strong backfield to punch the ball into the endzone.

While Browns fans are railing against Baker Mayfield, they should be reminded that this team absorbed 12 consecutive losing seasons before last year. The last time they had a winning season, prior to 2000, was in 2007. In addition, the Browns, last year, with Baker Mayfield as their quarterback, advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 2002.  They upset the Pittsburgh Steelers, 48-37, in the NFL Wild Card game before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs (22-17) in the NFL Divisional round.

Browns fans should also remind themselves that before Baker came on the scene, there was a habitual defeatist attitude cascading through Northeast Ohio, so convinced that the Browns would never taste success. Mayfield changed the whole narrative in Cleveland. For the first time in quite some time, fans expect the Browns to win and win often. Mayfield is a no excuses type of guy, the first in the office in the morning, and the last to leave at night (as head coach Kevin Stefanski once explained), working his tail off to make Cleveland proud of the Browns again, much like it was during the glory days of Otto Graham and Jim Brown.

I’ll keep praying, that by some miracle, Baker Mayfield does return to lead the Browns this year. But if he doesn’t, the Browns can expect brighter days ahead if he’s signed to a long-term contract and made our franchise quarterback for many years to come.

Do we really have to count how many quarterbacks the Browns went through before Mayfield was drafted in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft?

If you insist on knowing, 28 different starting quarterbacks suited up for the Browns since 1999, the year they re-entered the NFL.

Given all that Mayfield has accomplished over the last few seasons in helping propel the Browns into a winning team, with a winning attitude, together with a tinge of swagger, I think he deserves a great deal more respect than what he’s been shown (by some belligerent so-called fans) over the last few weeks.

--Bill Lucey

[email protected]

October 24, 2021

 

***

Baker Mayfield and his wife, Emily (Wilkinson) Mayfield took to social media to answer critics

 

Remembering 1948: Progress in Civil Rights and the World Champion Cleveland Indians

Larry Doby, left, with Satchel Paige, was the American League's first Black player.

Photo Credit: Sporting News, via Getty Images

***

"Our Team: The Epic Story Of Four Men And The World Series That Changed Baseball," by Luke Epplin is more than a book about the 1948 World Series, the last time the Cleveland Indians won a World Series.

It’s actually a splendidly written, meticulously researched, and upbeat social history about the expansion of Black American baseball players into Major League Baseball.

Heaps of attention has historically been paid to Jackie Robinson in becoming the first African-American baseball player in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, while Larry Doby, a 23-year-old outfielder for the Newark Eagles, (the first American League African-American player to smash the color barrier 11 weeks later), often receives little attention or becomes a mere footnote by baseball historians.

Epplin, a New York City writer, centers this American social saga on four individuals: two Black, and two white, all of whom changed the face of baseball forever. Biographical sketches presented of Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, Bill Veeck, and Bob Feller become, knowingly or not, the unsung heroes of the integration of baseball.

Had it not been for Doby and Satchel Paige breaking the color line, many argue, the Indians might not have won the 1948 World Series.

Luckily for baseball, the integration of Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, and others, wouldn’t have been possible without two color-blind owners: Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers and of course, Veeck of the Cleveland Indians, who bought the Indians in June, 1946.

The progressive thinking Rickey reportedly said: “the greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of the game is the Black race.” “The Negro,” Ricky observed, “will make us winners for years to come.”

Bill Veeck, meanwhile, not only wasn’t afraid of welcoming Black players into the big leagues, he enthusiastically widened his net with the hiring of Black security guards, vendors, janitors, groundskeepers, ushers and musicians, along with offering a front office job to Olympic gold medalist, Harrison Dillard.

Despite the overabundance of promising talent in the Negro Leagues, it would take years before the rest of baseball would sign Black players, including the New York Yankees who didn’t sign a Black player until 1955, the Detroit Tigers not until 1958, and the Boston Red Sox were the last to the party, by not signing a Black player until 1959, more than ten years after the game was officially integrated.

Alabama born, Satchel Paige, 42-years-old, came on board in July, 1948 during the Indians stretch run of the pennant race. Epplin underscores how Satch during his first month with the Indians, only surrendered seven runs over 38 and a third innings, while generating rock star status. His first three starts in MLB, attracted more than 200,000 fans, inspiring sports columnist for the Cleveland News, Ed McAuley, to write that Paige was “the greatest drawing card in the history of baseball”

Overall, Paige pitched 21 games in the 1948 regular season, including seven starts with two complete game shutouts. His ERA that year was an impressive 2.48.

Larry Doby became the first Black player to belt a home run in a World Series in Game 4 of the Boston Braves and Indians Series. The Indians disposed of the Boston Braves in six games. Doby additionally led the Indians with a .318 batting average in the 1948 Series.

Not many people associate Iowa native Bob Feller with progressive thinking in race relations, especially in 1948. Rapid Robert, in fact, told reporters during his barnstorming tours that he didn’t think many Black players had the right stuff to make it in MLB, including Jackie Robinson.

Cleveland owner Bill Veeck witnesses the signing of ace pitcher Bob Feller to a contract for the 1948 season. Despite the high hopes for the staff ace, the right-hander won 19 games and led the AL for the seventh and last time, while the velocity on his blazing fastball began to wane. 

Photo Credit: The Rucker Archive

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But if not for Feller’s widely reported barnstorming tours in the offseason, many in America wouldn’t be aware of the explosive talent of many Black players.

During the barnstorming tours, Joe DiMaggio, the “Yankee Clipper,” would say that Paige was the “best and fastest pitcher he ever faced.” Of course, many mainstream newspapers never published DiMaggio’s comments for fear it would imply Black players were better than whites.

For three consecutive barnstorming tours, Satchel Paige and Bob Feller met head-to-head.

Because of Feller’s major contribution with showcasing marquee Black ball players of the era through different sections of the country, Negro League players invited him to their Negro Baseball League Reunion in Kentucky.

Most fascinating about Epplin’s book of the 1948 World Series is that many of the progressive elements of the 1948 Cleveland Indians was mirroring many events and individuals outside of the diamond during the same year.

In 1948, for example, Atlanta, Georgia hired its first Black police officers at a time when a quarter of the Atlanta police department were reportedly members of the Ku Klux Klan. But much like Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, Black Atlanta police officers in 1948 had to tolerate racial taunts and abuse, they couldn’t lose their temper, they couldn’t ride police squad cars, and they couldn’t arrest white suspects. They had to call for assistance.

Additionally, in 1948, Alice Coachman Davis won the high jump at the Olympics in London, England, becoming the first Black woman to win an Olympic Gold medal.

In 1948, Johnny Ritchey became the first African-American baseball player to play in the Pacific League as a member of the San Diego Padres.

Most importantly, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which directed the armed forces to provide “equality of treatment and opportunity for all personnel without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.”

Epplin chronicles how Larry Doby had to endure the humiliation of segregation in the military while serving his country. Robert H. Meyer, Professor Emeritus at Moravian College, observed that “Black vets, having just fought against Hitler and vicious bigotry, returned to the country to find themselves treated with a similar bigotry.”

Victoria W. Wolcott, Professor of History at the University of Buffalo, tells me, “1948 was an important milestone in the civil rights movement. It was a period of what historians refer to as “racial liberalism” following World War II.” “Because of migration,” Wolcott said, “during the war years large numbers of African Americans migrated to northern cities, where they could vote. The NAACP also grew significantly during the 1940s and even had some successful voter registration drives in southern cities like Atlanta—as well as legal victories that lead up to Brown v. Board of Education.

In his State of the Union address in 1948, President Truman made a major push for civil rights. Such progressive thinking lost him support in different sections of the country, but as it turned out, it was the Black vote he received which decisively helped him win the 1948 presidential election over Republican governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey.

Gregg Ivers, Professor of Government in the School of Public Affairs at American University, depicts the 1940s as a “period underappreciated by the general public and even by educators, journalists, and others, who believe that the civil rights movement began with Brown and Rosa Parks.” “Nothing just happens,” Ivers stressed.

Ivers additionally pointed out that 1948 was the last year of the Negro Leagues, which opened up a fresh pool of Black players who were no longer bound to their teams and their domineering owners. Willie Mays played his last game in the Negro Leagues in 1948 as a member of the Birmingham Black Barons.

Progress with civil rights, however, ran into a major roadblock in the 1950s.

Jim Ralph, Professor of American History and Culture at Middlebury College, said so much of the progress with race relations in the mid and late 1940s, came to a screeching halt with the emergence of the Cold War and McCarthyism, which narrowed the activist tendencies of the country. “Left-leaning CIO unions,” Ralph observed, “which had often been pioneers in fighting against racist practices, were on the defensive.  A powerful voice for civil and workers’ rights like Paul Robeson found himself under attack for his sympathetic disposition toward the Soviet Union. “

As fascinating as Epplin’s book about the four central pillars in the integration of baseball is, the book, from this observer, is more a valentine to the City of Cleveland in 1948 during a time when industry was thriving, the city was prospering economically; a time when downtown Cleveland was bustling with restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, and when civic pride was at an all-time high. It was the last time the Cleveland Indians were world champs, the toast of the town.

The years after 1948 in Cleveland, would usher in crushing heartbreak and disappointment.

As Epplin points out, “the year after Veeck departed, attendance dipped to below two million. Six seasons later, the Indians drew fewer than a million fans, second worst in the American League.”

Satchel Paige, moreover, would never taste another World Series appearance again. Ol’ Satch  was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971 as the first electee of the Committee on Negro Baseball Leagues. He passed away on June 8, 1982.

Despite being the first African-American player in the American League, Larry Doby’s number wasn’t retired by the Indians until 1994, four years before he was elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Many argue that Doby, for one reason or another, never lived up to his full potential.

Bob Feller would appear in only one All-Star game after 1948; 1951 would be the last year the Indians one-time staff ace would win more than twenty games (the same year he threw his third and final no-hitter) and would start in only 15 games in his final two seasons with the Tribe before retiring in 1956 with 266 wins, ranking him 28^th in history. Feller never won a World Series game.

Due to an impending divorce and wanting to set up his children with a trust fund, Veeck sold the Indians after the 1949 season. He would later emerge as owner of the St Louis Browns and the Chicago White Sox.

John A. Kirk, Professor of History at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, summed up the year 1948 best, when he told me: “1948 was certainly a year of hope, in terms of the direction of race relations, and of liberal and progressive movements more generally.”

--Bill Lucey

June 27, 2021

[email protected]

MLB Suffers Black Eye But Not Another Black Sox Scandal

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch (right) during happier times.

Photo Credit: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

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The dust hasn’t settled yet over the sign-stealing scandal impacting Major League Baseball.

More sign stealing machinations, this time by the Red Sox might be disclosed by MLB in the coming weeks. The Houston Astros, to be sure, are still smarting from the punishment handed down by Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Astros skipper A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow, after being suspended for a year, were swiftly fired by Astros owner Jim Crane and sent on their way.

Alex Cora, bench coach for the Astros in 2017 and implicated in the sign-stealing investigation was also cut loose as manager of the Boston Red Sox.

Newly appointed Mets manager Carlos Beltran, a member of the 2017 Astros team and identified as one of the players who pushed for decoding signals was sent to the Tower as well by Mets COO Fred Wilpon.

The sign-stealing scandal clearly was a player directed initiative; the managers, namely, A.J. Hinch was let go because he didn’t put a stop to it.

The Astros players who went unpunished by the MLB hardly leave this nefarious affair unscathed. They’re going to have to prepare themselves for an uncomfortable season of loud boos from fans, and embarrassment when facing their peers. Buzzer or no buzzer, Jose Altuve is more than likely to get drilled by a few pitchers for the suspicious manner in which he refused to take off his jersey after a dramatic walk-off home run in the ALCS against New York Yankees closer, Alrodis Chapman. Many believe the Astros second baseman was wired with a buzzer. Those charges were never proven.

If fans were left to their own devices, I’m sure they would love their stadiums to blast Hank Williams monster hit, “Your Cheatin Heart’’ anytime Houston swings into town.

When the findings of Manfred’s investigation blew up on the Internet, Twitter feeds, and smart phones from coast-to-coast, the reaction was a state of utter shock. Shock quickly turned into anger. Anger by the fans that Astros stole a world championship, beating the Dodgers in seven games during the 2017 World Series by cheating.

I was certainly enraged that this could happen. Channeling my inner-Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks in “A League of their Own”), “There’s No Spying in Baseball!”

The city of Los Angeles who came up on the short end of the stick during the 2017 World Series was so upset of the injustice that the L.A. City Council unanimously passed a resolution to ask Major League Baseball to strip the Astros and Red Sox of the 2017 and 2018 World Series titles and award them to the Dodgers.

As the days passed by and the more I thought about this, however, the more I wondered how different this was from other sign-stealing discoveries.?

For decades, people held deep dark suspicions that New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson was tipped off on what offering was coming from Brooklyn Dodger pitcher, Ralph Branca, before clobbering one deep into the night that clinched the NL pennant for the Giants, a dramatic walk-off home run known as the “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”

In 2001, those suspicions turned into reality, thanks to Wall Street Journal reporter, Joshua Prager, who published an article which confirmed that Giants coach Herman Franks used a telescope to pilfer signs from the Giants’ clubhouse behind the center field fence from Dodgers catcher Rube Walker.

The Giants sign-stealing scheme was enhanced, greatly, through an electrician they hired, Abe Chadwick, who installed a bell and buzzer system in the clubhouse and wired it to the phones in the bullpen and dugout. Pressing the buzzer once or twice would signal either a fastball or off-speed pitch. This story was chronicled by Chadwick’s niece, Ina Chadwick, with a headline that read: “My Family Fixed the 1951 Pennant." According to this testimonial, “when Bobby Thomson stepped up to the plate to face Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca-it was Abe’s signal that told Herman Franks-who then signaled to a plant in the bullpen, who signaled to Thomson-when Branca’s fastball was coming.”

And the sign-stealing engineered by the Giants and Leo Durocher as its ringleader wasn’t isolated to the deciding playoff game against the Dodgers. According to published reports, the Giants hired Chadwick, the electrician, on July 19^th of the season. They soon were good to go with the buzzers in right field. The Dodgers held a commanding 13.5 lead over the Giants on August 11. Miraculously, the Giants orchestrated a monstrous comeback to force a three-game playoff against their cross-town rivals.

How influential was the electrician is this heroic comeback is anyone’s guess?

So, in 2001, why wasn’t there any outrage over the revelations of Joshua Prager’s WSJ article? Why weren’t there calls for the Giants to be stripped of the 1951 pennant?

We are well into the 21^st Century and Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round the World is still being lionized. The bat from the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" is in the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.  The U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp. Sports Illustrated ranked it as the second greatest moment of the 20^th century.

When Prager’s article was published, I never recalled any apologies to Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca who endured years and years of public scorn and humiliation for coughing up Thomson’s historic home run.

Branca died in 2016, five years after Prager’s article was published. As he once said at an old-timer’s game, “A guy commits murder and gets pardoned after 20 years. I didn’t get pardoned.”

The Dodger right-hander, for the most part, kept quiet about his real feelings of Prager’s convincing indictment of Thomson being tipped off.  Weeks before Thomson’s death in 2010, however, Branca told the New York Times, “When you took signs all year, and when you had a chance to hit a bloop or hit a home run, would you ignore that sign?” He [Thomson] knew it was coming, Absolutely,’’ Branca said.

Cleveland Indians flame-thrower, Bob Feller

Photo Credit: AP

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For those interested in reviewing a kaleidoscope of baseball’s sign-stealing conspiracies over the years, the go to book is author Paul Dickson’s “The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of Our National Pastime.”  The book was just recently revised.

In this timely book, Dickson chronicles the sign-stealing concocted by Cleveland Indians ace, Bob Feller during the 1948 season in which “Rapid Robert’’ would pick up signs from opposing catchers using a telescope that Feller used as a gunnery officer on the USS Alabama during World War II. “The telescope,” according to Dickson, “was mounted on a tripod, placed in the Cleveland scoreboard and operated alternately by Feller or [Bob] Lemon, who remembered that he could see the dirt under the catcher’s fingernails. They would call out the next pitch to a groundskeeper-brothers Marshall and Harold Brossard or their father, Emil, who would then use another opening in the scorecard to relay the signs to Tribe hitters, by a variety of changing signals, from a space otherwise used to post number four out-of-towners.”

“Hey, it’s all fair in love and war,” Feller was quoted as saying, “when you’re trying to win a pennant.”

Many claim Feller’s spy ring didn’t carry over into the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves, which the Indians won in six games. Braves pitcher Johnny Sain wasn’t so sure, so convinced was he that Indians outfielder Larry Doby was tipped off on a pitch in Game four of the WS, in which he hit for a home run. When questioned, Doby vehemently denied he was tipped off.

“Stolen signs win a lot of ball games,” said Dodgers VP Fresco Thompson in 1952.

Regarded as one of the hardest throwing pitchers of his era, we’ve come to know a great deal about Feller--he was the first major leaguer to enlist in the armed forces after Japan dropped a bomb on Pearl Harbor. We also know he led the American League in strikeouts seven times, was a 20-game winner six times; and is the only pitcher to throw an Opening Day no-hitter (April 16, 1940).

But what is rarely (if ever) mentioned in his biography, is that he pilfered signs with his telescope during the 1948 season, at least enough times to secure an AL Pennant.

Where is the outrage?

Dickson additionally writes that Ty Cobb entered baseball in 1905, when the “spyglass era was in full swing.”

The Georgia Peach wrote an article for Life Magazine in 1952, titled: “Tricks That Won Me Ballgames.”  In the article, he wrote, “Near me was an advertisement on the fence that read: THE DETROIT NEWS: BEST NEWSPAPER IN THE WEST,” Cobb wrote, “If you watched the B in the advertisement closely you would watch little slots opening and closing, If the slot was open in the top half of the B, our spotter had picked off the signal for the fastball. If the slot in the bottom of the B opened, we knew a curve was coming. I don’t know whether the ad sold any newspapers, but it was a great thing for Tiger batting averages.”

Another glaring example of duplicity came in the 19^th century (1898) in a game between the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies. Reds third base coach Tommy Corcoran while coaching at third, got his cleats tangled up in the ground. At first glance, Corcoran thought it was a vine only to discover it was a telegraph wire that ran to the Phillies clubhouse in center field, where a backup catcher sat with binoculars picking up signals and communicating them to the third-base coach, presumably, through vibrations from the wire.

Again, where was the outrage?

MLB always appears late to the dance.

They were late clamping down on steroids during the 1990s, which obviously gave players a competitive advantage. That was the culture then. If Jose Canseco was being injected with steroids and amphetamines, why shouldn’t Alex Rodriquez, to keep up with the Joneses?

When new advanced technology came in the 21^st century with live feeds from the center field camera and cameras in the dugouts, some teams, certainly not all, started gaming the system and figured out ways to decode signs coming from these live feeds.

When this new technology was installed, MLB should have been proactive enough to know boys will be boys and taken measures to prevent the decoding. From all the reports in the last few days, there seemed to be a culture that developed that if this team is decoding, why not us.

Interestingly, discussing the new technology in baseball, A.J. Hinch told the Associated Press during the 2018 AL Championship Series, “there’s some unintended consequences that come with the advancement of technology. It’s a league wide conversation that needs to happen in time,”Hinch said.  “It’s happening right now during a really important series, and I just think it’s bigger than us. It’s bigger than any team. It’s bigger than any series. It needs to be corralled because of the state of the concern over it.”

Cleveland Indians fans can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing their beloved Tribe under the leadership of Terry Francona didn’t succumb to sign stealing. But they may have come close.

Speaking to local networks, the Indians manager said “I can tell you there are a lot of nights when I go home where I know I need to have a conversation with a player -- especially like a veteran player -- where he may view it differently than I do. And I lose a lot of sleep over stuff like that because obviously I feel a lot of obligation to get it straightened out. But you don't just want to beat somebody over the head and lose them.”

Despite the embarrassment they must be feeling right now, Francona said he still has plenty of respect for the managers fired. “They’re good people,” he told reporters. “They’re really good baseball people. They’re paying a penalty for making a mistake. That doesn’t make them bad people. They made some errors in judgment. The penalty came down, they’ll serve it and then I think they’ll be back.”

And contrary to some commentaries, the sign-stealing scandal of 2017 and 2018 doesn’t rise to the level of the 1919 Black Sox scandal in which the Chicago White Sox intentionally threw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

Jacob Pomrenke, Director of editorial content for SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) and editor of “Scandal on the South Side: the 1919 White Sox”, told me, “the White Sox scandal was about taking bribes to lose games on purpose, which is an existential threat to the sport's integrity,” Pomrenke said. “This was about breaking the rules,” Pomrenke argues, “to gain a competitive edge — which has happened many, many times in sports and will undoubtedly happen again. The methods and details evolve, but as long as the rewards are high enough, some human beings will always feel compelled to use nefarious means to gain an edge.”

To MLB's credit, though they were late in putting a screeching halt to the sign-stealing--they sent a clear message of the hard consequences, and humiliation, that comes with trying to game the system.

I think players and most certainly the managers received Rob Manfred’s message loud and clear.

Though this scandal delivered a mighty black eye to baseball; the damage is certainly reparable as long as fans, players, and the media can move on and chalk these unfortunate episodes up to a hard lesson learned underscored by horribly bad judgement.

Speaking at a fan convention for the Chicago White Sox, newly acquired pitcher Dallas Keuchel said he felt what happened was “blown out of proportion,” but he was sorry.

“It’s just what the state of baseball was at that point and time,” the former Astros pitcher said. “Was it against the rules? Yes, it was, and I personally am sorry for what’s come about, the whole situation.”

Keuchel, however, said he isn’t buying the “Oh my gosh, this has never happened before,” mantra that other teams are accusing Houston and Boston of. “I’m not going into specific detail,” the former AL Cy Young Award winner said.

 

--Bill Lucey

[email protected]

January 26, 2020

MLB All-Star Game Preview: How Much Has Cleveland Changed Since 1997?

Skyline of Downtown Cleveland.

Photo Credit: Marriot.com

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We thought it would never return.

But lo and behold, after 22 years long years, the MLB All-Star game has returned to Progressive Field in a city stripped of its Chief Wahoo logo, replaced by the more diplomatic Block C

First pitch is set for July 9^th at 7:30 p.m. EST.

 

The last time there was an MLB All-Star Game in Cleveland, Cleveland Indians catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. was the toast of the town and the game’s MVP, (the first Puerto Rican named MVP in an All-Star game), when he cracked a two-run home run in the bottom of the 7th to break a tie and propel the American League to a 3-1 win. The win broke a three-year losing streak for the AL. The crowd of 44,916 that night, was the largest in Jacobs Field history.

Interestingly, Alomar, 22 years later, is still in an Indians uniform as a first base coach. In 1997, when he was named to the All-Star team, the older brother of Hall-of-Famer Roberto Alomar, was having a monster year going into the break with a 30-game hitting streak and leading the AL with a .375 batting average.

Since 1997, the makeup of MLB players has grown more diverse. In 1997, for example, foreign born players (born outside of the 50 United States) made up 18.9 percent of MLB’s rosters. In 2019, that has leaped to 28.5 percent. 

22 years was a long time ago, much has changed in Cleveland since 1997, the same year Michael R. White was mayor, fighting for a new NFL team (the Browns left Cleveland for Baltimore after the 1995 season); and Bill Clinton, the 42^nd U.S. President, was in the White House riding a 55 percent approval rating at a time when few ever heard of a 24-year old female employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

So, assuming someone has been away from Cleveland for 22 years, what exactly has changed in downtown Cleveland since 1997?

Quite a lot, at least according to Curtis Danburg, Senior Director of Communications at the Cleveland Indians.

“In 1997, we [The Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field] were in the midst of the sellout streak averaging over 42, 997 thousand per night compared with just under 19 thousand per game in 2019.” “The Cleveland Browns,” Danburg additionally pointed out, “weren’t around and the Cleveland Cavaliers were in a down cycle. 

Business activity in Cleveland isn't as robust as it was 22 years ago. There are currently three Fortune 500 companies in Cleveland, down from seven in 1997, according to Fortune Magazine.

There were also more active duty Cleveland Police officers in 1997 than there is today. According to Cleveland Police records, there were 1795 officers in 1997. In 2019, there are 1593 officers, 202 less than in 1997.

Since 1997, Progressive Field has sliced about 7,000 seats from its facility (capacity is now roughly 35,225) as it went through a number of renovations, beginning in 2014, which included a two-story bar area that is partially enclosed and an expanded section for children (Kids Clubhouse). A pedestrian bridge and other structures beyond right field were also installed to allow people outside the park to get a glimpse of the field. And in 2016, the Indians unveiled a 59-by-221-foot scoreboard, (the largest in baseball), a season-ticket holder club behind home plate, a beer garden, new concession stands, and a revamped left-field district, among other additions.

In 1997, at the All-Star break, the Indians led the AL Central with a 44-36 record (.550 winning percentage) winning seven out of their last ten and three games ahead of the Chicago White Sox. In 2019, the Indians carry an almost identical record, 45-38 (.542 winning percentage) but in stark contrast to 22 years ago, they are eight-and-a-half games out of first place; though, with still plenty of baseball left, particularly against their division rival, the Minnesota Twins.

What the second half of the season holds for the Tribe in 2019 is anyone’s guess.

We all know what happened in 1997. The Tribe advanced to the World Series for the second time in three years only to have their hearts slashed in Miami Gardens when the Florida Marlins beat the heavily favored Tribe in seven games on a walk-off single slapped by Édgar Rentería in extra innings.

Other changes in Cleveland since 1997?

For starters, the population has shrunk.

The population of Cleveland in 1997 was 498,246; in 2019 it stands at 383,793, a drop of 114, 453 residents, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But with the addition of the Jack Cleveland Casino (which opened in 2012), along with an explosion of bars (219), breweries (13), clubs (57) and two music venues, including the House of Blues, downtown Cleveland has simply been buzzing with an appreciable increase in hotel rooms.

In 1997, according to the Newmark Knight Frank Valuation & Advisory's Hospitality, Gaming & Leisure Group, the last time there was an MLB All-Star game in Cleveland, there were nine hotels. Since 1997, there have been 16 hotels added. As of June 2019, there are a total of 25 hotels ready to be booked in downtown Cleveland, midtown, and University Circle.

Along with more hotels, obviously, comes more rooms. For the 1997 All-Star game there were 2,722 rooms available in Cleveland spanning 9 hotels. Since 1997, there were 3,325 rooms added over 16 hotels. As of today, there are 6,047 rooms available spanning 25 hotels.

Photo Credit: Rockhall.com

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The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, downtown’s Cleveland’s signature museum, on the shore of Lake Erie, has gone through a significant transformation since 1997.

In 1997, the Rock Hall was only in its second year, the same year they unveiled their first major exhibit: “I Want to Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Era, 1965 – 1969,” a stunning display which included artifacts from John Lennon, Eric Clapton, John Sebastian, the Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and a number of others.

Greg Harris, CEO of the Rock Hall, said that after the initial excitement at the Rock Hall, attendance dipped, albeit remained at steady levels for two decades.

In 2016, according to Harris, “we began a significant transformation to leverage visitor feedback, create new and immersive experiences, and welcome visitors to a space that is true to the power of rock & roll.”

The museum's transformation includes the spectacular Connor Theater, featuring arena-quality sound and larger-than-life screens, an All Access Café with a menu designed by Cleveland celebrity chefs, and a soon to be unveiled highly interactive exhibit, The Garage – a space where visitors can host jam sessions using real instruments and even design their own band merchandise.

Harris additionally points out that  "our attendance levels have steadily increased along with these important changes, and now in 2019, our experience is better than ever.”

Another significant transformation in Cleveland since 1997 surrounds the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra and Severance Hall, a concert hall in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, located on the campus of Case Western Reserve, about four miles east of Downtown Cleveland, at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Boulevard.

Severance Hall underwent a full renovation from 1997-2000, a massive renovation, in fact, which changed Severance Hall significantly, including restoring and relocating the 6,025 pipe E.M. Skinner organ, allowing it to be used again during concerts.

The renovation also involved removing the “Szell Shell” (a stage that created a shell in the Danish Modern style, aesthetically at odds with the building’s Art Deco style) and installing a stage shell that better matched the architecture style of the Concert Hall — with improved acoustics, along with restoring the murals in Reinberger Chamber Hall. A full-service restaurant was also added.

Since 1997, there’s has been a change of conductor.

Beginning in 2002, Franz Welser-Möst, an Austrian conductor, replaced Christoph von Dohnány as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

For those who question whether Cleveland can still support a major orchestra with the explosion of audio streaming platforms, such as iTunes and Spotify, you can take comfort in knowing that the financial health of the orchestra has improved markedly since 1997, despite running into challenges stemming from the financial crisis of the late 2000s.

According to Rebecca Calkin, media relations manager at The Cleveland Orchestra, in 1997, there were a small number of households, mostly subscribers, who attended. “Now, we have a much larger number of households visiting us each year,” Culkin says. “This is fueled by our work developing a younger audience (20 percent of our audience is under 25 years old — around 40,000 people).”

"At the close of the 2017-18 year," Calkin continued, "our deficit has been reduced, ticket sales and touring fees are at an all-time high, and our endowment continues to see solid gains and contributions."

Photo Credit: PlayhouseSquare.org

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For theater-goers, there's also been major expansions at Playhouse Square, the theater district in downtown Cleveland, the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York.

According to Cindi Szymanski, Assistant Director of Brand Marketing and Communications at Playhouse Square, in 1997, only three of their five historic theaters had been restored (they had a total of six performance spaces).  In 2019, by comparison, all five historic theaters have been restored (with a total of 11 performance spaces).

In 1996, the year before the last MLB All-Star game in Cleveland, Playhouse Square welcomed more than a million guests; a number that is still maintained today.

Yet another transformation in Cleveland has been the curriculum of Cleveland State University, a public research university in downtown Cleveland, which was first established in 1964. Many might be stunned if they browsed through the curriculum in the liberal arts department of CSU to see how much it has changed since well into the 20^th century.

So many of the standard courses traditionally taught in history, political science, and English departments, to name a few, have been dropped to address the growing demographics and multicultural interests of students, along with the many global challenges of the 21^st century.

The drastic transformation of a liberal arts education at CSU has rankled a number of educators.

Roger B. Manning, emeritus professor from the History Department at CSU, says that in his opinion, "it is not a change for the better. British history has disappeared entirely, and there are fewer courses in European history. " "Courses that I used to teach on history of technology, the Industrial Revolution and War and Western Society," Manning explained, “were not thought worth preserving.”  “Throughout my career at Cleveland State, I argued for appointing someone in the history of science without success."

Professor Manning went on to argue that "these courses have been replaced with multiple courses on women's history, black history and queer history.” “While these courses might have a place in the offerings of a large department,” he explains, “and may be worthwhile subjects for research, they should not dominate the offerings of a small department.”

Frederick J Karem, Professor and Chair from the Department of English at CSU, takes a different tack when considering the evolution of a liberal arts education.

"From my standpoint, there's a lot that has remained consistent, but there have been exciting expansions--it's a great time to write and to study literature, at CSU and beyond.   We still teach Chaucer, Shakespeare, and lots of classic English writers alongside a diversity of American writers, past and present," Karem says. "I taught one of the first seminars at CSU on Toni Morrison, our Lorain-raised Nobel laureate, and I'm sure they've been 100's more throughout the country since then. "

Karem went on to explain that “CSU has always had a multicultural emphasis because of our city's diversity.  In the past two decades we've become more global in our focus, exploring literatures and authors that are in increasing contact in our interconnected world, the area of greatest expansion is what we study in the classroom. "

Karem additionally pointed out that besides hard copy books, they now study stories and narratives in many forms, including films, television shows, graphic novels, and digital media, all of which, according to Karem, "have complexity worth exploring."

In 1997, 22 years ago, it’s amazing how much of the future stared us right in the face; but we just didn’t fully comprehend that we were entering a new age, the digital age.

It was 1997, after all, in which Bill Gates, business magnate and principal founder of Microsoft Corporation, became the world’s richest businessman. The same year Yahoo! Introduced Yahoo Mail, while the domain Facebook.com came online on March 28, 1997, the domain Craigslist.com came online on September 24, 1997, and the domain Netflix.com came online on November 10, 1997.

All powerful forces in our lives in 2019.

In May, 1997, 40 million Americans and thousands in Northeast Ohio used the worldwide communications system, the Internet.  A month later, in June, 1997, more than one million job openings were advertised on 5,000 Internet sites, estimated John Sumser, editor of Electronic Recruiting News, an on-line newsletter.

1997 was also the year comedian Ellen DeGeneres (starring on the hit ABC sitcom “Ellen”) courageously came out as a lesbian on the cover of Time Magazine (April 14), paving the way for other performers to pursue gay roles on TV without fear of retribution.

It was 22 years ago, too, when Bedford Heights Mayor Jimmy Dimora, a member of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, gave serious thought to running for Cuyahoga County Commissioner. NOTE: In 2012, Dimora was convicted of 32 charges, including racketeering, bribery, conspiracy, and tax charges and sentenced to 28 years in federal prison in one of the largest criminal corruption cases in Ohio history.

Finally, in 1997, Tony Grossi of The Cleveland Plain Dealer splashed with page one news (April 21) that Bernie Kosar, 33, hometown hero, after playing 12 NFL seasons, 8 1/2 with the Browns, was retiring from football. His last tour of duty was with the Miami Dolphins. A decision he made so he could "devote his time to business interests and pursue his goal of owning the Cleveland Browns."

The Browns returned to Cleveland (and the NFL) in 1999; but Kosar’s dream of owning the team never came to fruition.

In 1997, nearly 45,000 baseball fans attended the All-Star Game, and another 95,000 participated in Fan Fest activities throughout the weekend, leaving behind an estimated $38 million with hotels, restaurants, taxicabs and shopping centers.

According to Destination Cleveland, the convention and visitor bureau for the Greater Cleveland area, the estimated economic impact for this year’s MLB All-Star week is $65 million and the estimated attendance is over 100,000 guests between Progressive Field and Fan Fest.

So, as visitor’s come streaming into Cleveland in the coming days for the 90^th MLB All-Star Game, they’ll be setting their sights on a city with a more vibrant downtown life than was true 22 years ago, more hotels, a bustling casino, an enhanced theater district, more restaurants, breweries, and clubs, to satisfy young and old ready for a good time and watch some baseball in the rock 'n' roll capital of the world.

—Bill Lucey

[email protected]

June 30, 2019

 

 

Baseball Returns in Cleveland for the 1981 All-Star Game

Vice president George H.W. Bush is accompanied by Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller before baseball's 1981 All-Star Game Aug. 9, 1981, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

***

If IBM swept away competitors when it introduced its first personal computer, the 5150 for $1,565 (equivalent to $4,313 in 2018), a ticket to a Bruce Springsteen concert was $12, the cost of a postage stamp was 20 cents, a McDonald's hamburger was 50 cents, the price of a movie ticket was $2.78, and "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes was the no. 1 song, then it must be 1981.

Cleveland, it seems, has the worst luck.

In 1981, not only were they without a World Series championship for 33 long years, but they were hosting an All-Star Game for the first time in nearly 20 years, the same year, of all years, of a players’ strike.

The strike lasted 50 days. It began on June 12th and ended on July 31, forcing the cancellation of 706 regular-season games, or 38 percent of the season.

According to the New York Times, the strike cost the players $28 million in salaries.

When the strike was finally settled there was a mighty big question mark over whether there would be an All-Star game at all.

After all, with a 50-day layoff, many players were embarrassingly out of shape.

Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, in concert with city officials, wanted the All-Star Game called off and rescheduled back in Cleveland in 1982.

There was even a lawsuit in the books to get the game postponed.

Cleveland lawyer Arthur F. Clark reportedly filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of his wife, Colleen, to have the game postponed until 1982. Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and League presidents Lee MacPhail and Chub Feeney were named as defendants. The suit was subsequently dismissed.

Despite the grumblings, the All-Star was scheduled for a Sunday evening, August 9. It was already postponed twice, once on July 14 and again on the first alternate date of July 30.

So upset that the mid-season classic was still being played, Plain Dealer Sports editor Hal Lebovitz was moved to write: "I'm ashamed of Major League Baseball for scheduling the All-Star here a week from tomorrow. What an utter farce,” Lebovitz wrote. “To charge top prices for what has to be a charade, a workout, a non-contest is sinful."

When the regular season came to a screeching halt on June 12, the Indians were in 6th place (second to last) with 26-24 record (.520 winning percentage) but only 5 games out of first place. The Toronto Blue Jays were dead last, 16-24 (.276 winning percentage) 19 games out of first place.

The fact that the competitively challenged Indians were still within striking distance of first place, brought some timely sarcasm out of Cleveland Press columnist Bob Sudyk, who wrote: "the Indians just five games out of first place in the month of August? And playing over 500?” “I hate to bring this up,” Sudyk continued, “but the 50-day baseball strike has made the Indians contenders in the heat of the pennant race. The couldn't have done it alone. Or perhaps they needed to be alone, well away from the diamond. There was no place to fold this time."

Like it or not, the All-Star game was in Cleveland for the 4th time in Major League Baseball History.

Cleveland Press columnist Doug Clarke tried to put a positive spin on the game. “Right place, wrong time,” Clarke wrote. “This is the game nobody really wants and yet, as it approaches, people are succumbing to the spectacle--a chance to see people like Mike Schmidt, Dave Winfield, Steve Carlton, Fernando Valenzuela, George Brett, et al, in the flesh."

The Indians as the host city had only two representatives in the All-Star game: starting pitcher Len Barker and catcher Bo Diaz. Neither of them started the game. Indians manager Dave Garcia was selected as a coach.

But Barker pitched a perfect game against the Toronto Blue Jays earlier in the season, May 15, only the 10th perfect game in MLB history.

When the regular season was halted, Barker was 5-3 with a historic perfect game under his belt. Many felt “Large Lenny” should have started the All-Star game in front of his home town crowd.

But American League skipper, Jim Frey of the Kansas City Royals, opted for Detroit Tigers ace, Jack Morris to start the game, who was sporting a 9-3 record with a 2.56 ERA.

Vice President of Public Relations for the Cleveland Indians, Bob DiBiassio, remembers vividly having an argument with his mentor, Bob Fishel, a native Clevelander who did PR work for the Indians, and later became vice president of the New York Yankees in the 1950s, a special assistant to American League President Lee MacPhail and eventually an executive vice president. According to DiBiassio, "we argued because they had decided the A.L.’s starting pitcher should be Jack Morris of the Tigers and not Lenny Barker who was having a great season to that point; pitched a perfect game on May 15 and was the “hometown hero.” The A.L. decided Morris was best choice. Still burns me,'' DiBiassio fumed.

Cleveland Indians beat writer for the Plain Dealer, Terry Pluto, made a strong case that Indians pitcher Bert Blyleven (7-4, 2.84 ERA) should have been added to the All-Star roster, who, after all, was tied for third in complete games and wins and second to teammate Len Barker in strikeouts.

To compound Cleveland’s problems of having to hurry to get the city in shape for the All-Star game, came a host of challenges, including an airline traffic controllers strike. Just four days before the All-Star game, President Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work, causing some flights to be cancelled.

In addition, the city of Cleveland, including the grounds crew at Cleveland Municipal Stadium were preparing for a Browns-Pittsburgh Steelers preseason game on Saturday evening, just a day before the All-Star game. The stadium grounds crew, in fact, worked feverishly until 4:30 a.m. replacing outfield divots kicked up by Browns and Steelers players the night before. The grounds crew was then back at 9 a.m. to paint the football stripes with water soluble latex green paint.

A mighty tall order, indeed.

Former Plain Dealer sports reporter Tony Grossi, now with ESPN in Cleveland distinctly remembers that Plain Dealer sports columnist, “Danny Coughlin came up with the great idea of delivering beer to the grounds crew." "So," Grossi explained, " we lugged a couple cases down there at night and they were greatly enjoyed. I recall me and Dennis Lustig joining Danny that night. Possibly Joe Maxse and others."

If the Browns-Steelers game and the All-Star game weren’t enough, just a few hours before baseball was about to played on a national stage, Roberto Duran was returning to the boxing ring to face Mike Nino Gonzalez in a 10-round junior middleweight bought at the Public Auditorium with 7,000 expected to attend. The 30-year-old Panamanian won a unanimous decision over Gonzalez.

Mayor Voinovich remarked, "this will be one of the most memorable sports weekends in the city's history."

One major downside of squeezing in the All-Star game in a shortened season meant that the All-Star festivities had to take place in one day instead of the traditional three-day carnival.

But the city nonetheless put on its best face.

There were a number of parties in town, the most prominent being at Stouffers restaurant, where approximately 1,000 guests attended, including the Baseball Commissioner who sponsored the event, along with the Cleveland Indians.

The Sporting News reported that the night before the All-Star game, L.A. Dodger first baseman, Steve Garvey and his friends went out for dinner only to find two of their cars in their entourage were stolen when they exited the restaurant.

 

The night of the All-Star game was a typical muggy August night, about 80 degrees, but the sky was clear and 72,086 fans in attendance were ready for baseball again in Cleveland once Rocco Scotti, the opera-trained singer (and local favorite) brought the house down with his signature rendition of the national anthem.

Just eight days before the All-Star game, the first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) launched and aired its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.

Video may have killed the radio star; but it didn’t kill the TV stars. Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek provided the play-by-play for NBC-TV.

George H.W. Bush, the U.S. Vice President flew in to throw out the first pitch; he was accompanied by Bob Hope and Baseball Commission Bowie Kuhn, where they sat in a specially protected box to the right of home plate. Future Hall of Famer, Carl Yastrzemski, who didn't make the All-Star game, was invited to attend the game with the vice president. They both flew together on Air Force II.

Also in the house was Bob Feller, 62, and Warren Spahn, 60, honorary captains, who last met in the 1948 World Series when the Indians beat the Boston Braves in six games to win their first World Weries since 1920.

The 52nd annual MLB All-Star game didn’t bode well for the Junior Circuit.

Going into the All-Star game, the NL won nine straight, 17 out of the last 18 games, and 28 out of the last 34, leading the series 32 to 18 with one tie.

The last time the AL won an All-Star game was in 1971, the same year Reggie Jackson walloped a 500 foot drive off the light tower in the center field roof at Tiger Stadium.

So sure the AL was in for yet another mid-season classic loss that Tony Grossi of the Plain Dealer wrote that “the three safest bets in the history of sports: Ali over Wepner, Secretariat in the Belmont and the National League in the All-Star Game."

Two young pitchers were ready for battle.

For the NL, Fernando Valenzuela, the L.A. Dodgers rookie sensation, carried a 9-4 record with a 2.25 ERA, while The Detroit Tigers staff ace, Jack Morris, took to the hill for the AL with 9-3 record and a 2.56 ERA.

Baltimore Orioles outfielder Ken Singleton got things going for the AL in the second frame, belting a solo shot off of Tom Seaver (CIN) over the right field fence.

 

Len Barker took over for Morris in the third, drawing a thunderous round of applause from the home town crowd.

But before firing his first pitch, the Indians staff ace had a secret admirer who was dying to meet him. Morgana Roberts (The notorious Kissing Bandit) ran onto the field and planted a kiss on the Indians pitcher.

Unruffled, Barker set down six straight hitters, leaving to a standing ovation.

The AL held on to a 1-0 lead until the top of the 5th, when Gary Carter bashed Ken Forsch’s (CAL) first offering over the fence in left to tie the score at one.

The NL tacked on another run in the 6th when Dave Parker (PIT) drove a towering ball over the fence in right center off of Mike Norris (OAK), to put the NL on top, 2-1.

In the bottom of the 6th, there was a glimmer of hope that the AL might turn the tide, when they exploded for three runs and five hits to put the AL up, 4-2. After Singleton slapped a single to center, Dwight Evans (BOS) followed with another single to right, moving Singleton to second. Carlton Fisk (CHW) then loaded the bases after slashing a sharp single to right. Fred Lynn (CAL) batted for Bucky Dent (NYY) and beat out an infield single, scoring Singleton. Former Cleveland Indians star and hometown favorite, Buddy Bell (TEX) hit a sac fly to left, scoring Evans.

The AL’s final run in the frame came when Ted Simmons (MIL) batted for Willie Randolph (NYY) and singled to right, scoring Fisk and putting the AL up, 4-2.

Gary Carter’s bat never cooled off in the 7th when he smacked yet another first pitch offering, this time from Ron Davis (NYY) clearing the center field fence, to slice the AL lead to 4-3.

Mike Schmidt's 2-run homer in the 8th puts NL on top for good to secure the Senior Circuit's 10th straight All-Star game win.
Photo Credit: MLB

***

In the top of the 8th, the Cleveland crowd watched as Mike Easler (PIT), age 30, a native Clevelander and Benedictine High School graduate drew a walk from Rollie Fingers (MIL). Easler was taken in the 14th round of the amateur draft by the Houston Astros in 1969. His bonus was $500. The Pirates brought him to the majors in 1979 as a pinch hitter. In 1981, the Benedictine alum was hitting .317 with 6 home runs and 28 RBI's.

Back to the 8th.

With Easler planted on first, Mike Schmidt (PHI) must have come to the plate with his Roy Hobbs “Wonderboy” bat. The Dayton, Ohio native blasted a towering drive deep into the night in center field, putting the NL on top, 5-4 for good, and in doing so-sliced another dagger straight through the hearts of the AL.

The normally reliable Rollie Fingers who came into the All-Star Game with more saves than any other reliever in baseball, absorbed the crushing 5-4 loss.

Vida Blue (SF) was the winning pitcher, becoming the first to win All-Star games both in the National and American Leagues.

NL had sealed their 10th straight mid-season classic win or 18 of the last 19.

Gary Carter's two home runs (both on first pitches) earned him the Commissioner's Trophy as the game's MVP.

The game was far from perfect, the players were still a little rusty and working out the kinks. As The Washington Post’s Jane Leavy wrote: “Errors were charitably called hits and some plays belied the term, midseason classic.”

Undoubtedly, the 1981 MLB All-Star game wasn’t the most memorable (except, that is, for the kissing bandit), but it had just enough theatrics, long balls, and stars galore in a city hungry for baseball to make it enjoyable for fans thankful baseball was back in business.

As baseball prepared to continue the regular season (beginning August 10), there was plenty to look forward to. “Charlie Hustle,” Pete Rose was in pursuit of cracking Stan Musial's 3,660-hit record, which he tied just before the work stoppage. Ferguson Jenkins was 54 strikeouts from 3,000, Gaylord Perry needed just six wins for 300 and the Toronto Blue Jays were in hot pursuit of breaking their 11-game losing streak.

As for Cleveland, it would have to wait 16 years before another MLB All-Star game would roll into town with a President in the White House dubbed: “Slick Willie” and the “Comeback Kid,’’ appropriately enough, since the Indians in 1997 were most definitely, a comeback team in a comeback city.

 

–Bill Lucey

[email protected]

April 26, 2019