The Pete Dilemma.. my point of view

I broke my baseball teeth cheering for The Big Red Machine in the 1970’s. Pete Rose, aka Charlie Hustle, defined his era of baseball. He always put 250% of himself into the game. I was thrilled for him and the Reds when he became manager. Pete was a first round HOF pick (that was a no-brainer.) Being a manager just added icing to the already incredible cake.

Then he was caught betting on baseball. The whole ordeal was a nightmare for all of baseball. No one wanted to see the man that defined baseball in the 1970’s and already had a place holder in Cooperstown, go down for something so fundamentally wrong.

The final result: Pete Rose had indeed wagered on baseball. My heart was broken. It was like we were suddenly in Chicago in 1919. The only penalty the Commissioner could give was a lifetime ban, including no Cooperstown. Charlie Hustle had just joined Shoeless Joe in the infamous baseball ban.

Pete broke the Cardinal Rule of Baseball. He could have altered the outcome of any game his team played with what could’ve been seen as just a managerial decision that didn’t work out. There is no proof nor accusation that he purposely threw a single game, but he could have. That is the big IF that will keep him from Cooperstown.

I totally agree that Pete Rose should never be inducted into the Hall of Fame, either in his lifetime or posthumously.

This week Sports Illustrated came out with an article explaining their version of the Pete Dilemma. I have to say this made me rethink a bit my baseball purism.

We have a new breed of men that have broken rules. They blatantly cheated in an effort to become super baseball players. Rose, as a player never cheated. The option of PED’s were not yet available for his generation.

The penalty for using performance enhancing drugs varies. It always involves suspended games, but has never resulted in a lifetime ban. The damage this generation of baseball players have done to the game goes much farther than a bookies phone. These men inspired young children to use drugs that harmed them physically and mentally. All the while glorifying cheating because the end result was that you would make millions of dollars and possibly break a few batting records.

I don’t thing Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, and Alex Rodriguez should be in the Hall of Fame. However, the first four names have already made to the ballots.

The line that made me stop and say “OH”:

“At times, even as recently as last year, Rose has referred to Alex Rodriguez as his favorite player (he has also had A-Rod programmed as a “favorite” contact in his phone), and he has suggested that players such as Bonds and Clemens are indeed Hall worthy. But Rose has also cast sharp aspersions, saying he could only imagine what men such as Babe Ruth and Roger Maris would think to know that “guys came along and cheated their way past those records.”

Here is where I have changed my mind about Pete Rose. Place his name on the ballot. Do it now while the people voting are the people that were affected by what he did. See what they think. Let baseball’s elite be the jury and hand down the final verdict.

Tams Nugget: We can discuss Shoeless Joe another day... I'm always open to baseball talk, especially if a beer is involved! 

Welcome to Spring 2014!

There are 30 baseball teams. Fifteen teams in each league, five per division. They will each play 162 games regular play in 2014. The rules are changing for the first time in decades. This year we will see the use of instant replay. It is still being debated among the talking heads whether this will slow the game down too much. I will withhold my opinion until the all star break. (maybe) This is also a year that a major rule change involving home plate plays and catchers goes into effect. 

Home plate collisions will no longer be allowed in major league baseball. I am for this decision. No, I am not a person that thinks this will adversely affect the outcome of a game. This new rule will allow catchers to play a couple seasons longer due to the decrease in concussions caused by overly aggressive base runners. The most outspoken person against this rule change has been Pete Rose; one of the most vocal persons for the change has been Johnny Bench. Oh the irony there. Pete Rose made the home plate collision a mainstay in baseball in the 1970's when he played for the Cincinnati Red's Big Red Machine. They were the team to beat. Fortunately, Johnny Bench was the catcher for the Big Red Machine and did not have Rose plowing into him. Unfortunately for Bench, he was the catcher for the Big Red Machine, the dominant national league team in the 1970's. This meant that Bench had more than his fair share of collisions. 

The collision happens when there is a close play at the plate. The catcher is geared up to protect against the run, no matter what. The runner wants to get the run, no matter what. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Runners will still be aggressive. Catchers will still be protective. How far will managers argue the collision remains to be seen.

What does Spring Training look like...

The St Louis Cardinals are entering the season defending their NL Pennant. The Boston Red Sox enter the season defending the World Championship. Let’s breakdown what that all means…

Generally coming into spring training you don’t see the same team that you had been cheering for the previous season. Men retire, men get traded, men go through free agency and sign a crazy huge contract with the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, or Dodgers. You very rarely get even 75% of your team back.

The 2014 St. Louis Cardinals suffered only one loss that is notable to their lineup. Carlos Beltran gave St. Louis the strong bat that they need when Albert Pujols left. Beltran became a free agent after the 2013 season ended and signed with the NY Yankees. The Cardinals have added a few key players with a track record of strong bats to their roster. Mike Matheny has the difficult task of placing players in the spots they best fit on the field. This team has a track record of re-creating players. The middle in-field was the weak spot for the Cardinals in 2013, much attention has been focused there. This is where the real battle of spring training will take place for St. Louis.

The key component for the Cardinals is their pitching staff. For a third season in a row, St. Louis has basically the same squad. With Adam Wainwright leading the way once again as the ACE and Yadi Molina behind the plate, the Cardinals are once again looking like the team to beat in the National League. It still remains to be seen where Chris Carpenter, the heart of the Cardinals pitching staff for the last decade, will find his place moving forward.

Bottom line: the Cardinals haven’t changed much. They have traded a couple of fan favorites, but gained better players. They look very strong going into the 2014 season.

The defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox?

I have no idea what they have done in the off season. It’s Boston, don’t care.

However, the Texas Rangers have added a true Prince to their roster. They are a team to really watch in the 2014 season. Prince Fielder looks and acts like a true Texas Ranger already. Ron Washington has signed on to skipper the Rangers again. This is shaping up to be a good year for Texas. The possibility of a St. Louis / Texas world series is very possible!

Finally, I have to give a shout out to the KC Royals. (I may have family following this blog) I hear they could win the world series this year. That's good for a belly roll...

Tam’s Baseball Nugget: The war between King Albert and the Prince may be back on this season. The AL West may be wild this season.

When a catcher begins managing

My favorite baseball position has always been the catcher. The catcher is the one man that sees everything on the field. He sets the tempo for the whole game. He is the only one that sees every pitcher on the team, starters and relievers. He also knows every batter on the opposing team. When a hall-of-fame bound catcher becomes a manager within five years of retiring from the game, the odds for and against him are huge.

Mike Matheny is the prodigal son for the Cardinals. Once he retired from baseball, he knocked around St. Louis hanging out with the front office people. He spent every spring training in Florida helping the staff out with the pitchers. He scouted players for the Cardinals. Basically, he never really left the organization. So when LaRussa announced his retirement, no one was surprised when Matheny's name was thrown into the mix as his replacement. His age and lack of managing experience did not concern the fan base nor the front office.

2012 was Matheny's inaugural year as a MLB manager. He is cutting his teeth in the Big Show in one of the toughest baseball towns. He managed the Cardinals to the postseason in his first year. Some gave him that because he basically still had the team that LaRussa had put together. Minus one notable Albert Pujols.

2013 Matheny has made the St Louis Cardinals his team. The only coach remaining from LaRussa's days in Oquendo at 3rd. Mark McGuire and Dave Duncan are both gone. McGuire, the batting coach replace by Bengie Molina (former Ranger) another hall-of-fame bound catcher. The beginning of the season was a difficult one for the Cardinals bullpen. They couldn't seem to catch a break and the veteran pitchers began imploding in every game, forcing the starters to pitch very deep into the games, including pitching full games. While this is awesome for individual accomplishments, it is not good for the long haul.

This is where we began to see the mastery of the young catcher-turned-manager. He has utilized the farm teams in Memphis and Springfield unlike any other manager I have seen in the last decade. The starting pitching crew suffered a setback when Garcia suddenly required surgery, ending his season. Westbrook has been on the Disabled List (DL) due to a strained elbow. Matheny began maneuvering the pitching staff from the farms to St. Louis on a day-to-day basis. This team has the most number of rookies starting their first MLB game this season and we are only in the third month.

The chess game of baseball is more fun to watch, not knowing who will be pitching or when.

Baseball, Beer, and Whiskey

We have hit the fifty game mark. This is where the teams begin to separate. As of this writing, the St. Louis Cardinals sit at the top of baseball with the overall best record – with an astonishing 33 wins and only 17 losses (most of which came early as the bullpen was being adjusted) and a baseball leading (National and American) .660 PCT! In tribute to the boys in St. Louis, let’s go down memory lane and learn a bit about one of the oldest baseball teams…

The summer of 1883 seems to be the year modern baseball was born. 

The game was organized and they had professional teams that toured the country. The rules were similar to what we have today. There were 9 men on the team. There was a nationally organized association called the National League. Games lasted 9 innings. That is basically where the similarity ends.

No one wore gloves. The uniforms weren’t uniform. There were generally only two or three pitchers on each team. It was not uncommon for them to pitch several games in a row. The only player that had a glove would have been the catcher, and the glove was basically a modified farm glove.

The games cost the spectators 50 cents each for the game that would last an hour to an hour and a half. No alcohol sales were allowed at the game. Games were banned on Sundays.

The summer of 1882 was a horrible year for the St Louis Browns. They came in last place and were on the verge of extinction. A few businessmen convinced a Prussian born immigrant named Chris von der Ahe to purchase the Browns. He only agreed for two reasons: he loved the completely American sport, and he saw an opportunity to increase his beer sales. So, the marriage of baseball and beer was born in the summer of 1883 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Von der Ahe lowered the price of the ticket by 50%, while introducing beer sales at the ballpark. His hope was that with the lower price more people would be able to attend and afford to buy beer. The addition of  ladies night, and Sunday baseball were also to spur beer sales. Free admission for women on Thursdays brought out even larger crowds. Sunday baseball gave the immigrants something to do on their one day off. The result was the largest attendance in baseball history of any city in America. The love for their team, baseball, and beer continues to this day.

Nugget:  The term fan (from fanatic) is sometimes attributed to von der Ahe.

Shannonism: "Things are not always as they appear to be as." 

I thought I voted for the Rangers!

National League versus American League

The All Star Game is the  midway point of the baseball season. By this point each league pretty well knows the teams that will most likely see action in October.

Since 1933 baseball fans have been able to vote for their favorite players. This is our opportunity to see our dream team each season. The ballot has pre-selected players divided up by their league. Each league is made up of fifteen teams, divided into three divisions: East, Central, West. Each division has five teams.

Beginning with the 2003 season, the All Star game became important for home field advantage. The reason for this is that in 2002 All Star Game for the first time ever the game ended in a tie. The game went into the 11th inning. Managers for both teams were out of options for pitchers. They agreed to end the game in a tie in lieu of working someone longer than he was intended to be used. The backlash by the fans was overwhelming.

So, beginning in 2003, the team that won the All Star Game received home field advantage during the world series. This rule has changed the way the All Star Game is now played. Each player and manager now have a stake in it. This is no longer just a wasted game for the fans only.

Fans no longer simply vote for their favorite players, they now look at who they think will actually make a difference in the game. Players no longer treat it as a little league game and put out little effort, they play as if they are playing the 7th game of the world series. Managers no longer simply try to get every man in the game, they manage the game as though it is the most important game of the season.

"The only bad thing about winning the pennant is that you have to manage the All-Star Game the next year. I'd rather go fishing for three days" - Whitey Herzog

It's a lot of numbers...

True, baseball is about numbers. Baseball fans are all about the numbers. While watching a Driller's game with a couple of girl friends, I had to laugh when one of the friends exclaimed "Oh you're looking at the numbers on the scoreboard! I was wondering how you knew how much each guy weighed."

"Ten million years from now, when the sun burns out and the Earth is just a frozen iceball hurtling through space, nobody's going to care whether or not I got this guy out." - Tug McGraw.

Tug was correct on that matter. However, we are living here and now. Whether or not he gets the guy out really does matter. It matters for his record as a closer, it matters for the record of the guy he just replaced on the mound, and it matters for the team as a whole. But most importantly, it matters to the fans.

The Texas Rangers have one of the most deadly pitching staffs in baseball so far this season. The top three pitchers are Derek Holland with a 2.54 ERA; Yu Darvish with a 2.73 ERA; Alexi Ogando with a 3.09 ERA.

Derek Holland has won 3 games so far, and struck out 43 batters. Yu Darvish, in only his second season in the major leagues, has won an astonishing six games and has struck out 80 of the batters that he has faced. That is just two of the pitchers on their staff. The bullpen is able to keep the pressure when they take over. Every batter in the American League has a true respect bordering on fear when they face the Rangers.

So what are the catch phrases you need to know? Here are the most important numbers for pitchers. We will tackle the batters in another blog. That is a completely different beast.

ERA - Earned Run Average
How this is calculated is not as important as how the pitcher earns it. Each pitch matters for the ERA. The more strikes he pitches the lower his ERA. If a batter hits the ball and gets out before making it to first, this also lowers the ERA. The more batters that reach base raise this number. Runs are the deadliest of all to the pitchers ERA. Starting pitchers have the longest time on the mound per game. They are at the mercy of the person relieving them if they leave a game in the middle of an inning. He is still responsible for whatever happens to those two men. If they score, the starting pitcher's ERA is hit.  "The two most important things in life, good friends and a strong bullpen." - Bob Gibson.


W - Wins
The second most important number for a starting pitcher. The ability for him to become his teams "Ace" depends on a low ERA and the most number of wins on his team.

SO - Strikeouts.
In the modern era of baseball, strikeouts are far more important than they were in the 19th and 20th century baseball. If a pitcher could get someone to hit the ball on one or two pitches and get out, that keeps his pitch count low enabling him to stay in the game longer. The catch 22 is that now strikeouts are factored into, well, everything. So, he is now trying to throw the ball harder and use more pitches, raising the pitch count and taking him out of the game sooner.

SV - Saves (bullpen)
This is pretty self explanitory. A closer that comes in with a lead, gets the guys out that he faces and the team wins the game. The closer that is not able to do this 99% of the time is in major jeopardy of losing his job.

Shannonism - "Everyone’s on a pitch count now, you people down on the farms don’t let major league baseball on your place or they will have the cows on a pitch count."

April Games...

April showers bring May flowers, translated into baseball-ese - April games create May teams. In April the teams are looking at a season that stretches 162 games through the hottest months of the year. The boys of summer thrive in the heat. April is the month that the cobwebs are dusted off and teams begin to gel.

May isn't necessarily the month that the baseball fan looks at and says oh my it's almost over, however, it is the beginning of the first full month of baseball. We have now played more than 20 games. Bullpens and starting pitchers are beginning to feel their groove, or not.

Cobwebs of note are in the pitching staff. The St Louis Cardinals have the best starting pitching record in all of baseball, and the worst bullpen record. How does this happen, and why is the bullpen so important?

The game has evolved to the point that the pitching position is highly specialized. A starting pitcher is the most versatile. He is expected to pitch deep into the game. He doesn't receive credit for the win unless he pitches a solid six innings and allows no more than three runs. The well stocked team will have a five man starting pitching rotation. A starting pitcher is generally pulled out of the game once he hits 100 pitches. The number of innings he pitches is directly related to his ability to get the batters out in three or fewer pitches. Pitch count has become so important that it is now shown on the score board along with the speed of the pitch.

In an ideal situation, the starting pitcher will leave the game after pitching in the 7th. At this point the bullpen steps in and tries to either save or win a game. The bullpen is filled with specialty pitchers. Each man with a different role. Some will only face one batter a game, others are there to work in the event that an extended innings pitcher is needed. The most important man in the bullpen is the closer.

The closer is equally as important as the starting pitcher. The difference is that he may have to play the majority of the games. He is used exclusively in the 9th inning of a close game. He will generally have one incredible pitch and one that he uses as a decoy. One of the best ever closers was Tug McGraw. The Philadelphia Phillies pitching staff knew that if they were within one run of winning going into the ninth inning, McGraw would save the game. Or if they were at home, he would get them into the bottom of the ninth with a chance for the offense to win it. They were almost unbeatable with McGraw on the mound.

In the case of the St Louis Cardinals this season, in April, their closer suffered a season ending injury during the first week of April. The man that replaced him, was unable to get the job done. Every time the Cardinals went to the bullpen in a close game, they lost. Almost losing a couple of games where they had a five run or more lead with the bullpen took over.

If your bullpen cannot be trusted to save a game, the result is working the starting pitcher more innings. This is not a good idea for the long run. You may win the game, but remember, their are 162 games in the regular season or 30 plus games per starter. If your starters have to pitch nine innings the majority of the time, by the All Star break they will be worn out. This could result in a disastrous second half. Tired arms are more susceptible to injuries. Losing the starting pitchers, even one of them, could cost the team a shot at the play-offs.

In the case of the Cardinals. Two of the pitchers from the bullpen were optioned to the AAA Memphis team and replaced by two rookies. This message was heard in the bullpen and the response was a six game winning streak and St Louis in first place in the NL Central.