Who says there’s no excitement in Pittsburgh and Kansas City? Take a look at this morning’s baseball headlines and you'll see two of the more interesting stories coming from the teams residing in last place in each league’s Central Division. Chances are, you’re familiar with the characters in the following second-division drama.
Let’s start with the Pirates and the suddenly extinguished euphoria over the Bucs’ signing of their top draft choice. Pedro Alvarez, a slugging third baseman out of Vanderbilt, reportedly agreed to a minor league contract with a club-record $6 million signing bonus on August 16. Word out of the Steel City now, however, is that Alvarez has refused to sign the contract. Apparently at the urging of his agent--care to guess?--Scott Boras, who claims that the deal was struck after the midnight deadline on August 15. Now Boras wants to renegotiate the contract. Not surprised? Neither are we.
Wait, it gets uglier. That’s because it appears that the Royals’ contract with the third overall pick in the draft, Eric Hosmer, was submitted for approval by the commissioner's office after Alvarez’s. So, by raising the issue, Boras is putting Hosmer’s contract in play as well. Don't bother asking: Hosmer, too, is a Boras client.
And speaking of the Royals, GM Dayton Moore has enough on his plate dealing with hot-headed Jose Guillen without having to worry about which contracts are duly signed, sealed, and delivered. For the fourth time this season, the Royals are cleaning up after a public outburst by the temperamental outfielder. This time, Guillen’s in trouble for confronting a heckler on Tuesday night. By now, you know the drill: Guillen's teammates had to restrain him, manager Trey Hillman refused to comment, etc., ad nauseam.
The bottom line? Though he’s hitting just .249, Guillen is still something to watch on the field. No confirmation yet of that report that the Royals' slugging outfielder has been offered a pro contract to fight in a new mixed-martial arts winter league.
This right-hander broke in with the Boston Braves in 1942, going 4-7 with six saves. Because of World War II, he did not appear again until 1946 when, at 28, he became a regular starting pitcher.
The Rays and Jays squared off in a good, old-fashioned pitchers duel Wednesday night in St. Pete as Tampa Bay edged Toronto, 1-0. Matt Garza and two relievers ganged up on the Jays, allowing just six hits. Carlos Pena provided the entire game’s offense with his 27th homer. Toronto’s David Purcey was the tough-luck loser, collecting the first complete game of his career while notching 11 strikeouts in the loss.
At Citizen’s Bank Park, the Mets raised their record to 10-5 in the season series against the Phillies. More importantly, the visitors edged back into first place by a half-game with a 6-3 win. New York left fielder Daniel Murphy broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth with a double after Carlos Delgado's second solo homer, which had tied the game earlier that inning. Johan Santana started for the Mets, allowing three runs on five hits, three walks, and six strikeouts over six innings. Brian Stokes pitched a scoreless frame to record his first win as a member of the Mets.
The big question of the day is: Does anyone want to win the National League West? Entering play Wednesday night, the D-backs could have gone up six games up on LA, or the Dodgers could have snapped a five-game slide, or the Rockies could have climbed to a mere five games out. Instead, the Padres edged the Diamondbacks 5-4 to sweep that three-game series; the Dodgers lost their sixth straight, 5-4, to the lowly Nationals; and the Rockies were dominated by Tim Lincecum and fell 4-1 to the Giants. The three-legged West race could shake out this weekend when LA travels to Phoenix and Colorado visits San Diego.
CHC 2, PIT 0 Marquis (9-7) Duke (4-13)
SD 5, ARI 4 Adams (2-3) Qualls (2-8)
MIN 6, SEA 5 Perkins (12-3) Green (3-4)
FLA 4, ATL 1 Johnson (4-0) Hampton (2-2)
BOS 11, NYY 3 Byrd (9-11) Ponson (7-5)
BAL 11, CWS 3 Liz (5-3) Danks (10-7)
CLE 9, DET 7 Carmona (7-5) Verlander (10-14)
NYM 6, PHI 3 Stokes (1-0) Seanez (5-4)
WSH 5, LAD 4 Redding (9-8) Maddux (6-11)
TB 1, TOR 0 Garza (11-7) Purcey (2-5)
HOU 4, CIN 1 Oswalt (12-9) Fogg (2-7)
TEX 3, KC 2 Harrison (6-3) Bannister (7-14)
STL 5, MIL 3 Franklin (5-5) Riske (1-2)
OAK 6, LAA 5 Street (4-5) Saunders (14-7)
SF 4, COL 1 Lincecum (15-3) Hernandez (11-11)
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White Sox 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 5 0
Orioles 1 2 0 1 2 1 1 3 X 11 16 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
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Indians 1 2 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 9 13 1
Tigers 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 7 10 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
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Rangers 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 3 9 0
Royals 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 7 2
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Athletics 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 14 1
Angels 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 5 9 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
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Red Sox 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 7 0 11 13 0
Yankees 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 8 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
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Twins 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 6 14 0
Mariners 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 1 0 5 11 0
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Blue Jays 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0
Rays 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 X 1 5 0
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Marlins 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 4 9 1
Braves 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 4 0
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Reds 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 1
Astros 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 X 4 9 0
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Mets 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 0 6 13 0
Phillies 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 6 0
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Cubs 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 7 1
Pirates 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0
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Diamondbacks 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 9 0
Padres 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 X 5 8 0
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Rockies 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 1
Giants 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 X 4 7 0
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Brewers 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 10 1
Cardinals 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 X 5 12 2
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Dodgers 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 4 12 2
Nationals 0 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 X 5 9 1
Upon his return to the game, he won more than 20 games in three straight seasons. He was twice named to the National League All-Star team, finishing in the top three in the NL in ERA and leading the league in victories one season. The Sporting News named him Pitcher of the Year for leading his club to a World Series berth.
Diamondbacks veteran
Randy Johnson needs all the stars to align between now and the end of the season to have a chance of celebrating his 300th career victory this year but, unfortunately, his team appears star-crossed these days. The D-backs were swept by the cellar-dwelling Padres, who came back to beat Johnson 5-4 in the finale on Wednesday, blowing three opportunities to pad their lead over the reeling Dodgers.
Johnson will finish August with a 2-4 record and is stuck on 294 career wins. In three of those losses he allowed a total of eight runs: two runs twice, three runs once. With a little luck and a smidge more offense from his teammates, The Big Unit could’ve sealed number 300 in the middle of a pennant race. As it stands, it's much more likely that he'll hit the milestone in early in 2009 if he comes back for a 21st season at age 45.
He was traded near the end of the season in 1951 to the Yankees, where he spent most of his final big-league seasons. In 1954 he became a full-time reliever, posting a league-leading 22 saves.
On this date in 1969, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announced the publication of most comprehensive sports reference work ever, Macmillan's
The Baseball Encyclopedia. Historians, stat heads, and seropis fans alike rejoiced. The research and effort put into the Big Mac made it a landmark, and
all subsequent baseball reference works--including the
Sports Encyclopedia Baseball and
Total Baseball (both now defunct)--owed a huge debt to the uncounted thousands of corrections and additions to baseball's historical record that were an integral part of assembling the ground-breaking book.
Ten hardcover editions of
The Baseball Encyclopedia were published by Macmillan from 1969-96. In some intervening years, paperback annual updates were also published by Macmillan/Collier. Ultimately, declining sales due to the loss of MLB's official imprimatur and competition from the newer, more comprehensive, and far superior
Total Baseball killed off the cherished tome. For decades, every decent bar in America kept a well-thumbed copy of the Big Mac within easy reach to resolve arguments and prevent fistfights between passionate fans.
Note that the current
ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, edited by
Early Bird publisher Gary Gillette and by Pete Palmer (co-editor of
Total Baseball), is not related to the Macmillan encylopedia. You can pick up a copy at
Barnes and Noble or any major bookseller.
As good as Cleveland’s southpaw
Cliff Lee has been this year-–and he’s been dazzling at 19-2, 2.43–-30 years ago, Yankees portsider
Ron Guidry put together a season for the ages.
In 1978, the 27-year-old Guidry posted a 27-3 record with a microscopic 1.74 ERA, was named to the All Star team for the first of four times in his career, won the AL Cy Young Award, finished second in AL MVP voting and, ho-hum, led his team to a world championship.
Wait, there’s more! The "Louisiana Lightning" led the league in ERA and in shutouts (nine), finished second with 248 strikeouts (a dozen behind Nolan Ryan), and allowed the fewest hits per nine innings at 6.15.
Let’s start the story at the beginning. Guidry had the Opening Day assignment against the Rangers at the minor league ballpark in Arlington, pitching seven solid innings and allowing just one run, though he got a no-decision. In his next start, at "The Stadium" on April 13, the Yanks' ace defeated the White Sox 4-2 in his first of 16 complete games. Guidry would start the season with a 13-0 streak and would not lose until after the Fourth of July, when the Brew Crew hung a 6-0 loss on the dominant southpaw at County Stadium.
Consider for a moment these tidbits from Guidry’s storybook season.
• In his three losses, the Yankees scored just two runs.
• Eight times, Guidry fanned 10 or more in a game.
• Seventeen times, the lefty fireballer fanned eight or more hitters in a game.
• Only four times during the season would "Gator's" ERA nudge over 2.00
In a season where his team was 14.5 games behind the Boston as late as July, Guidry’s most important win came in an extra game: Game No. 163 on Monday, Octobter 2, 1978, at Fenway Park. On that bright New England day, Guidry pitched 6.1 innings, allowing six hits, two earned runs (including a solo homer to Carl Yastrzemski), and struck out five. A home run by Bucky Dent in the seventh inning off Mike Torrez (who celebrates his birthday today, too, as does ’78 Yankees right fielder Lou Piniella) clinched the division for the Yankees and sent them on to the ALCS.
In the postseason, the Lafayette, La., native continued his brilliance, winning a game each in the LCS against the Royals and in the World Series against the Dodgers. He allowed just two earned runs in 17 innings pitched during the postsseason.
Guidry didn’t experience much of a drop-off in 1979, posting an 18-8 record and a 2.78 ERA and finishing third in the Cy Young voting. All told, Ron Guidry finished his 14-year career with a 170-91 record, a 3.29 ERA, four top-five finishes in Cy Young voting, four All-Star appearances, and two World Series rings. His final major league appearance was on September 27, 1988, in a 5-1 win over the Orioles in Baltimore. The opposing rookie making just his third big-league start for the Birds was Curt Schilling.
Guidry spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons as the Yankees' pitching coach under manager Joe Torre.
J
ohn Franklin “Johnny” Sain was born on September 25, 1917 in Havana, Ark.
In 1936 season he signed his first professional contract with the Tigers. He remained in the Detroit organization until spring 1940, when he signed with Nashville of the Southern Association. Two years later his contract was purchased by the Braves, where he became the right-handed complement to Boston's future Hall of Fame lefty Warren Spahn. In 1948, when the Braves won the pennant, the team’s famous rallying cry was “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.” And why not? In that championship season, the strong-armed duo combined for 39 wins, 43 percent of the team’s victories. Sain won 24 in 1948 and pitched 314 innings.
On August 29, 1951, the Braves traded him to the Yankees for Lew Burdette and $50,000. In his five partial seasons with New York,Sain won three world championships (1951-53). In 1955, the Yankees sent Sain and outfielder Enos Slaughter to the Kansas City Athletics for Sonny Dixon and cash.
Sain's final line: 139-116 in 412 big-league games with a 3.49 ERA. After his retirement in 1956, Sain embarked on a second career as a pitching coach with the Athletics, Yankees, Twins, Tigers, White Sox, and Braves.
In his classic baseball book
Ball Four, Jim Bouton wrote: "Sain is not only the greatest pitching coach who ever lived, he's a man who tells the truth.” Sain died on Nov. 7, 2006 in Downers Grove, Ill.
The
Baseball Early Bird is a new, free daily newsletter published jointly by the two leaders in the field of baseball reference: Sports Reference Inc.--which produces Baseball-Reference.com--and 24-7 Baseball, L.L.C.--which produces
The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia.
Gary Gillette, son of lifelong Tigers' fan Charles Gillette, is The Early Bird's Executive Editor and Co-Publisher. He also edited and contributed to this issue.
Sean Forman, son of Yankees' fan Floyd Forman, is The Early Bird's technical guru and Co-Publisher.
Mike McClary, son of lifelong Tigers fan Tom McClary, editor of The Daily Fungo and host of the Detroit Tigers Podcast, was today’s lead writer.
Rod Nelson, son of KC Monarchs' fan F.S. "Toke" Nelson, contributed to today’s Early Bird.
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