Around The Horn

There was the sad news today out of Downers Grove, Illinois that three time All Star hurler Johnny Sain passed away. He had paired with Warren Spahn to create one of the top one-two pitching punches in baseball history

A poem in The Boston Post in 1948 by sports editor Gerald Hern led to the famous phrase about the Braves’ two terrific pitchers and had commentary in it about the rest of the staff:

“First we’ll use Spahn, then we’ll use Sain, Then an off day, followed by rain. Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain, And followed, we hope, by two days of rain.”.

A four-time 20-game winner, later a top reliever, John Franklin Sain was a successful pitching coach for the Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota, Detroit and Atlanta.

The battle cry of the 1948 Boston Braves “SPAHN AND SAIN AND PRAY FOR RAIN” is one of the more famous language gems in a sports that has had many. For your edification and reading pleasure, some more follow:

“Danish Viking” - George Pipgras, for his size and roots.

“Daddy Longlegs” - Dave Winfield, for his size and long legs.

“Death Valley” - The old deep centerfield in Yankee Stadium - a home run here was a mighty poke.

“Dial-a-Deal - Gabe Paul earned this one for his telephone trading habits.

“Donnie Baseball” - Don Mattingly was the only player in any sport to have a nickname with the actual name of his or her sport in it. Some say it was coined by Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay; others say it came from Kirby Puckett. Kay takes the credit; Mattingly gives the credit to Puckett.

“Ellie” - Affectionate abbreviation of Elston Howard’s first name.

“Father of the Emory Ball” - Rookie right-hander Russ Ford posted a 26-6 record with 8 shutouts, 1910.

“Fireman” - The first to have this nick-name was Johnny Murphy, the first great relief pitcher who put out fires. Joe Page picked up this nick-name for his top relief work later on.

“Five O’clock Lightning” - At five o’clock the blowing of a whistle at a factory near Yankee Stadium signaled the end of the work day in the 1930s and also what the Yankees were doing to the opposition on the field.

“Flash” - Joe Gordon earned this nick-name because of his fast, slick fielding and hot line drives.

“Four hour manager” - Bucky Harris, who put his time in at the game and was finished.

“Fordham Johnny” - For the college Johnny Murphy attended.

“Friday Night Massacre” - April 26, 1974, Yankees Fritz Peterson, Steve Kline, Fred Beene, Tom Buskey, and half the pitching staff were traded to Cleveland for Chris Chambliss, Dick Tidrow, and Cecil Upshaw.

“Gator” - Ron Guidry, who came from Louisiana alligator country.

“Gay Caballero” - Lefty Gomez, for his Mexican roots and fun loving ways.

“Gay Reliever” - Joe Page, for his night owl activity.

“Gehrigville” - Bleachers in right-center at Yankee Stadium.

=====================================================================================
Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd consecutive year of writing sports books. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer).

He is now at work on the definitive book on the 1927 Yankees to be published in 2007.

Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of 950,000 and remains on Internet search engines for indefinitely. . .

George Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman must be celebrating today. The Yankees just made $4.6 million for 2007 and by the time this agreement is up in 2011, the Yankees will have saved a total of $53.8 million, just because MLB and the union raised the threshold of the luxury tax. All of the other 31 teams stayed under the budget, but since George and company flaunt the system, they are the real winners in this new deal between MLB and the Player’s Association. The NY Times reported on October 25, that the union wanted the Yankees to go back to the 22.5% starting point for the luxury tax, but MLB would not let that happen.

www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/sports/baseball/25chass.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The NY Yankees are currently more that $60 million over the tax threshold. The 2006 luxury tax number was $136.5 million. In 2007 it rises to $148 million. Since the Yankees are the only team guaranteed to be over that in 2007, they get to save 40% of the $11.5 million difference. By the end of the agreement the Bronx Bombers will save $16.6 in the last year of this agreement, just in luxury tax. The Red Sox are the next closet team, and they get to spend an additional $21 million in 2007, and still remain under the guideline. The Marlins can now spend an extra $133 million and still stay under the cap.

There are currently 31 teams that could live by the constraints of the luxury tax threshold, but only one team does not abide by these rules. Sure there should be a minimum that a team could spend, like $75 million, and then teams would have a level playing field, but George Steinbrenner and his front office believe it is their right, to buy any player they want.

Look at the Sheffield situation. NY does not want him, but they are going to pick up a $13 million option, just so they can prevent another team from signing him, and then they could use him as a commodity in obtaining more overpriced talent. If you just take the top 11 players under contract with NY, the total is over $154 million. That does not even include the $20 million more for Pavano, Wright, and Farnsworth. Take the great 8 position players, and add in Mussina, Johnson, and Rivera, and NY is over the luxury limit all through 2011.

Baseball should not ratify this agreement. The only change should be one phrase. Change luxury tax to salary cap, and make the Yankees play by the same rules that everyone else can live by.

I am

The Fan’s Commish
Rick Swanson

In 2002 I wrote to an executive of a MLB team and told him that baseball needed a device that measured if an umpire called each pitch correctly. I said they should have a statistic for each game that told the percent of incorrect calls that were made. That was before Questec, which has been a secret number for the past 6 seasons.

Now FOX has introduced the baseball world to Fox Trax, the screen in the lower right corner, that tells you if a pitch crosses the plate or not. If FOX and MLB used this for every pitch, then that statistic I wanted 4 years ago, could finally come to fruition.

Right now in the LCS playoffs, Fox teases you with some pitches, but not enough to make an umpire look bad. When Tommy Glavine pitched the first game of the NLCS, there were at least 8 pitches that were called strikes, but appeared to be outside, and Fox never questioned the call by showing where each pitch actually was. Why not leave Fox Trax on the screen for every pitch of the World Series? Let America see how good these umpires really are. Give them a number that we could see at the end of every game. In 2007 this technology will be used to rid the game of one of it’s biggest eyesores, Questec. Since that will start next season, why not use it now in the 2006 World Series?

I am

The Fan’s Commish
Rick Swanson

It was Sunday baseball at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn before 33,813, standing room only. Yankees against Dodgers, Game Four, 1941 World Series, the first for Brooklyn in 21 years.

The first ball was thrown out by New York Mayor LaGuardia. Everyone settled in on that summer-like day to watch the match-up of Brooklyn’s Kirby Higbe and New York’s Atley Donald in the first Subway Series between the two teams.

The game moved to the ninth inning with the Brooks clinging to a 4-3 lead. Higbe and Donald were long gone. In their place were Brooklyn’s Hugh Casey and Yankee reliever Johnny Murphy.

The burly Casey got Johnny Sturm and Red Rolfe on ground balls. That made it seven in a row for him. Tommy Henrich was next. The count ran full.

“Casey goes into the windup,” Mel Allen described it. “Around comes the right arm, in comes the pitch. A swing by Henrich . . . he swings and misses, strike three! But the ball gets away from Mickey Owen. It’s rolling back to the screen. Tommy Henrich races down toward first base. He makes it safely. And the Yankees are still alive with Joe DiMaggio coming up to bat.”

That fabled call by Allen succinctly and dramatically described what happened. Tommy Henrich recalled: “That ball broke like no curve I’d ever seen Casey throw. As I start to swing, I think, ‘No good. Hold up.’ That thing broke so sharp, though, that as I tried to hold up, my mind said, ‘He might have trouble with it.’”

Owen, who ironically, that season, set the National League record for 476 consecutive errorless chances accepted by a catcher while setting a Dodger season record by fielding .995, was the goat.

There were those who thought the game was over when Henrich swung and apparently struck out on the Casey 3-2 pitch. A few Yankee players were headed down the runway to their locker room. Police, positioned in the Dodger dugout, were out on the field prepared to handle crowd control. The police, it was later claimed,were an issue for Owen trying to come up with the passed ball.

A shaken Casey was roughed up for four runs. The Yankees wound up beating the stunned Dodgers,7-4. The next day a four hitter by Tiny Bonham gave the Yankees a 3-1 victory and the world championship again.

For the Dodgers, it was “Wait ’til Next Year” again.

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd consecutive year of writing sports books. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). His newest efforts are OLD TIME BASEBALL and WHERE HAVE ALL THE RED SOX GONE? He is now at work on the definitive book on the 1927 Yankees to be published in 2007.

Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of 750,000 and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

The words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year - generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the language. All have a history, a story. And since so many of you asked for another installment - here it is.

OLD ACHES AND PAINS Luke Appling performed for two decades with the Chicago White Sox. A .310 lifetime batting average was just one of the reasons he was admitted to the Hall of Fame in 1964. His nickname stemmed from the numerous real and imagined illnesses he picked up playing in 2,422 games, while averaging better than a hit a game. Appling was born April 2, 1907, and in 1950 was still playing major league baseball, aches, pains, and all.

OLD RELIABLE Tommy Henrich played for the New York Yankees from 1937 to 1950. His lifetime batting average was only .282, but the value of Henrich to the Yankees was in his clutch hitting. Time after time he would come up in a key situation and deliver. His nickname had its roots in his ability to function under pressure and to perform reliably with distinction.

OLE PERFESSOR Hall of Famer Charles Dillon Stengel was an original. Born on July 30, 1890, in Kansas City, Missouri, he played in the majors for 14 years and managed for 25 more-with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Boston Braves, the New York Yankees (10 pennants), and the New York Mets (four tenth-place finishes). He had seen it all, and in one of his more coherent statements, he said, “This here team won’t win anything until we spread enough of our players around the league and make the others [teams] horseshit, too.” The statement underscored the ineptitude of the early Mets. Loquacious, dynamic, vital, Casey could lecture on baseball and life for hours and hours, and that was just part of the reason for his nickname. Actually, in 1914 Stengel held the title of professor at the University of Mississippi, for he spent that year’s spring-training coaching baseball at that institution. That’s how he really came by his nickname.

$100,000 INFIELD That was the price tag and the nickname given to Eddie Collins, “Home Run” Baker, Stuffy McInnis, and Jack Barry, the players who composed the infield for Connie Mack’s 1914 Philadelphia Athletics.

“WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR” A plantive refrain echoed annually by the fans of the old Brooklyn Dodgers, this phrase was an expression of eternal optimism and faith in the ability of their beloved Bums to make up for all the failures and inadequacies of years gone by. It especially applied to the World Series. In 1941, for example, the Dodgers won the pennant but lost the World Series in five games to the New York Yankees. In 1947 the Dodgers won the pennant and lost again in the World Series, this time in seven games, to the New York Yankees. They lost in the 1949 World Series to the Yankees; they bowed in the 1952 World Series to the Yankees; they were defeated in the 1953 World Series by the Yankees-but 1955 was “next year.” The series went seven games, and the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees and became World Champions at long last.

WALKING MAN, THE Eddie Yost played nearly two decades in the major leagues. His lifetime batting average was only .254, but that didn’t keep him off the bases. Yost coaxed pitchers into yielding I,614 walks to him-almost a walk a game through his long career.

WEE WILLIE He was born March 3, 1872, in Brooklyn, New York. He died on January 1, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York. His name was William Henry Keeler. A lefty all the way, he weighed only 140 pounds and was a shade over 5′4″. His tiny physical stature earned him his nickname, but pound for pound he was one of the greatest hitters baseball ever produced. Keeler played for 19 years and recorded a lifetime batting average of .345, fifth on the all-time list. He collected 2,962 hits in 2,124 games, spraying the ball to all fields. Wee Willie’s greatest year was 1897, a season in which he batted .432, recorded 243 hits and 64 stolen bases, and scored 145 runs. He swung a bat that weighed only 30 ounces, but as he said, he “hit ‘em where they ain’t” -and that was more than good enough to gain Keeler entry into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1939.

Harvey Frommer is now in his 32nd consecutive year of writing sports books. He is the author of 38 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson,” “A Yankee Century,” and Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). His newest efforts are OLD TIME BASEBALL and WHERE HAVE ALL THE RED SOX GONE? He is now at work on the definitive book on the 1927 Yankees to be published in 2007.

Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.

FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of 750,000 and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

It was Dennis Eckersley that first coined the baseball terminology “walk-off.” He said it after giving up one of the most famous home runs in World Series history. According to legend, after Kirk Gibson limped around the bases, as the Dodgers beat the Athletics in game one of the 1988 October Classic, the Eck said: “that was a real walk-off piece of **** I just served up.”

Here is my list of 11 walk-off victories by the Red Sox that I have attended, as well as the 6 defeats, I have witnessed. If you can recall them like me, send me your list of “Greatest walk-off games you ever attended.”  If you use this site www.retrosheet.org, you can find the play by play of all MLB games for the last 50 years.

1. July 19, 1959. Boston trailed Cleveland 5-3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and had the bases loaded. The count was full to Frank Malzone. I can still tell you the spot I was standing in section 25 that day. Malzone hit a high towering fly, that just scraped the wall and all 3 runs scored and Boston won. I was only 8 at the time, but remember the joy, and jubilation on my father’s face and it was a moment I knew I would never forget.

2. June 4, 1966 Jim Gosner hit a 3 run home run off Dooley Womack of the Yankees in the 15th with 6 minutes left in a  game that lasted 4 hours and 17 minutes.  There was a midnight curfew, and the clock was coming into play that long night.

3.* April 16, 1967 Yankee Stadium 18 innings. I threw my hot dog on the field from the upper deck, when Don McMahon made his first error in 168 games. Then in the last of the 18th I screamed to Conigliaro to move toward the line, but he didn’t and Joe Pepitone hit a  ground rule double to win the game, after Jake Gibbs stole second base.

4. June 21,1969 day night doubleheader with NY. In the first game NY scores 3 in the 12th, but Boston scores 4 to win.

5. August 1, 1973 Yankees and Red Sox tied 2-2 in the ninth, Michael misses a suicide squeeze and Fisk and Munson fight on home plate. when Fisk was ejected, I was standing on top of the Red Sox dugout. Mario Guerrero scored Bob Montgomery, who replaced the ejected Fisk with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth.

6. October 21, 1975, Carlton Fisk game 6, need I say more.

7. * May 22, 1976 The new Stadium. Catfish pitches 11 innings and NY wins 1-0, with Willie Randolph scoring the winning run  

8. * July 25, 1976 NY. Chris Chambliss hits a 3 run home run with 2 outs in the last of the ninth to beat Boston 6-5.

9. * April 30, 1985, Anaheim. Dick Schofield walked for a walk-off in the 15th inning forcing in a run and the Angels beat the Red Sox.

10. *October 25 1986. I guess you can say that Mookie hit the ball, and Buckner walked off the field.

11. July 16, 1988 Morgan Magic. Kevin Romaine hits a walk off home run to lead off the last of the ninth and beat KC 7-6. Bo Jackson hit the hardest home run I ever saw, that is until Wily Mo Pena hit one on August 2, 2006

12. July 30, 1997 Boston scores 3 runs in the ninth after ARod makes a throwing error with 2 outs. Nomar wins it in the tenth with a bases loaded hit off the wall, 8-7.

13 April 17, 1998. Darren Bragg singled in Steve Avery, who was running for Mo Vaughn with the winning run in the 10th inning, of the first game I ever saw Pedro pitch.

14. * October 16, 2003. I was there as Aaron Boone took Wakefield deep in the 11th of game 7.

15. October 17, 2004 David Ortiz begins the comeback to win game 4 with a dramatic 12 inning home run.

16. June 1, 2006. David Ortiz acts out “Casey at the bat” as Boston trails Texas 4-2 “with what one more inning left to play.” Casey failed, but Big Papi delivers.

17. Mark Loretta hits the wall with the bases against loaded against Cleveland  just like 1959.

There they all are. 11 victories by Boston and 5 defeats. 7 pure walk-off home runs. Jim Gosner, Chris Chambliss, Kevin Romanine, and David Ortiz in regular season games. Aaron Boone and Ortiz in the ALCS, and Carlton Fisk in the World Series. If you are a true baseball fan, then you could probably remember the games you witnessed, that ended up as walk-offs. Let me know the ones you were at.

“No one in the Yankee organization made me conscious of my color.” - Elston Howard

Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball’s color line on April 15, 1947. It was not until April 14, 1955 that Elston Howard had his moment with the Yankees of New York and became the first African-American to play for the team in the Bronx.

A marker date for Howard was July 19, 1950 when the Yankees purchased his contract and that of pitcher Frank Barnes from the Kansas City Monarchs. Both were assigned to Muskegon in the Central League.

Elston Howard was the International League’s Most Valuable Player in 1954 and could have been the regular catcher for most major league teams in 1955 but not the Yankees. Lawrence Peter Berra was in his prime.

“So Howard bided his time,” Irvin said. He also had to suffer through the indignity in spring training of not being able to stay with the rest of the team at their hotel in segregated St. Petersburg; he had to be put up by a family in the black section of town. He bore up under this, too.

“Elston was quiet, efficient, good quick and accurate arm,” Monte Irvin continued. “He paved the way for the first blacks on the Yankees.”