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| Sunday, July 16 | ||||||||||||
| A crazy, zany first half it was ESPN.com | ||||||||||||
It's been a great year to be a 6-foot-10 left-hander from Arizona. It's been a great year to root for that other baseball team in Chicago. It's been a great year to bring your glove to the bleachers in Busch Stadium. And once again, it's been a really great year to work on your home-run trots.
Yes, another stupendous baseball season has reached the midpoint. So here's Week in Review's tilted look back at the half-year that was:
It's time now for a look back at another wild and crazy half-season of baseball at the ultimate palace of offensive inflation, Coors Field. Yes, in just half a season, the Rockies and their lucky opposing lineups scored 10 runs or more 25 times -- in 37 games. The average game at Coors featured 18.8 runs. And there was one stretch at Coors this season in which the Rockies scored 10 runs or more in eight straight home games and at least one team scored in double figures in 11 straight games. "It reminds me of that little machine we used to play at the arcade," said Rockies coach Rich Donnelly. "You know that baseball game where you'd hit the ball and it would go ding and the little runners kept going round and round and round? That's Coors Field." Trifecta of the half-year In an April 21 game at always-innovative Tropicana Field, three Angels hitters -- Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon and Troy Glaus -- homered in the same inning twice. And for extra degree-of-difficulty points, Glaus managed to hit one home run that never came down (because it got stuck in one of those ever-present Trop catwalks). "I've heard the saying that a guy hit the ball so hard, it never came down," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia. "Well, I guess we saw it tonight." Name droppers of the half-year Once again, it's been a season that gave a whole new meaning to that old expression, "the name of the game." The name-game highlights:
For one strange insect-laden week in June, Busch Stadium in St. Louis looked more like an Alfred Hitchcock set than the local ball yard of the greatest baseball town in America. There might have been more moths in the air than oxygen. And while the Cardinals and their guests played through it, they couldn't help but speculate about where all this bugginess emanated from. "Maybe it was some kind of promotion: The first 50,000 fans get 10 moths," said the Dodgers' F.P. Santangelo. "Hey, you never know how many moth fans there are in St. Louis. It could have been Discovery Channel Fan Club Night." Pilot error of the half-year In another season of tremendous Turn Back the Clock Night promotions, one trip back through the time tunnel topped them all: The Seattle Pilots finally breaking their 30-year losing streak. Yes, the Pilots hadn't won a game since Oct. 1, 1969 until a Turn Back the Clock Night in Minnesota last month gave the 2000 Milwaukee Brewers a chance to wear the uniforms of their long-lost ancestors again -- and they beat the Twins, 5-3. It had been so long since the Pilots won a game that Rollie Fingers actually started against them the last time. But when Week in Review tracked down the ultimate Seattle Pilot, pitcher-author Jim Bouton, for his reaction to the Pilots' first win in 30 years and eight months, Bouton wasn't even particularly shocked. "Considering how we were playing," Bouton said, "that's not surprising. If somebody had told me back then it would be 30 years before we won another game, I'd have said, 'Uh-huh. OK. Who's pitching?' " Crime botchers of the half-year We're still not sure how this happened. But in a May 15 game against San Diego, the Marlins stole 10 bases -- and lost. "It's not the worst loss of the year," said Marlins manager John Boles. "It's one of the worst losses ever. ... I feel like my head is going to explode. I feel like my skin is on fire." Homestand of the half-year It wasn't baseball. It was the CBA with bats.
Thanks to the Marquis de Sade memorial schedule committee -- plus one weather front from hell -- the Houston Astros had to make three road trips to Milwaukee this year in a span of 22 days (April 30 to May 22). And it wasn't as if they just showed up, ate some bratwursts, got some swings in and left, either. In those three epic visits, they managed to play one game that included 23 walks, another game that went more than 5½ hours and third game in which they blew a seven-run lead in the ninth inning. Then they got to enjoy back-to-back flood-outs and a makeup doubleheader on an off day -- in which they got swept. How's that for entertainment? These guys spent so much time in Milwaukee that Astros broadcast-humorist Jim Deshaies said: "I'm curious to see my tax bill, to see if I'm taxed as a resident or a visitor." Commuters of the half-year Many people in this great land commute to New York to work from all kinds of places. But only the Baltimore Orioles commuted from Baltimore to play baseball. The Orioles were in the middle of playing a June series in New York against the Mets when a rainout pushed the series back an extra day. After their hotel told them there were no rooms and a quick check turned up no other hotel vacancies in the Big Apple, the Orioles decided to just fly back to Baltimore between games. But in one phone call, our little-used Week in Review travel bureau found them 53 rooms right in midtown Manhattan with no problem -- uh, at the YMCA. "We have 40,000 international and domestic tourists stay at our Y every year," said Rowena Daly, communications and community-relations director at New York's West Side Y. "It's a hot, happening place. ... If that ever happens again, tell them to just give our reservations department a ring. And we'll welcome them with open arms -- even Albert Belle." Financier of the half-year Many people in baseball say they don't understand how John Rocker could get so many standing ovations this year. Well, we've figured it out. Those folks doing the cheering are all just eternally grateful he didn't go to work for their brokerage houses. Yes, you might recall that in that 72-hour period in June when Rocker was threatening not to report to Richmond after the Braves sent him to the minors, he said he might retire and become a stock broker. Needless to say, the financial community didn't see him as prime stock-broker material. "If he had to try to survive one of those 500-point sell-offs," said Gruntal & Co. senior vice-president Craig Langweiler, "I don't think he'd have so much trouble deciding whether to report to the Triple-A. One day as a stock broker, and he'd report to Single-A." Jeffrey Maier imitation of the half-year Usually, it's a good thing for the Giants when an opposing hitter hits a rocket to left field and it's caught by a guy wearing a Barry Bonds uniform. The Giants' problem, in a memorable April 15 game with Arizona, was that the guy who made that catch wasn't Barry. No, this shot by Kelly Stinnett was caught by 15-year-old Giants fan Rickie Navarette, sitting in the first row behind the left-field fence. As the real Barry Bonds leaped in pursuit of it at the wall, Navarette reached out and grabbed the baseball, turning Stinnett's ball into a three-run homer. Naturally, the Giants went on to lose by three runs (7-4). "If we win the division by a game," said Diamondbacks pitcher Dan Plesac of Navarette, "he may get a quarter-share." Black Sunday of the half-year It was the pitching populace's least-favorite day of the year: Sunday, June 18. It was a day when the crooked numbers on the scoreboards of North America included these real-life scores of real-life major-league baseball games: Oakland 21, Kansas City 3. Colorado 19, Arizona 2. And Chicago 17, New York 4. In some ways, those were perfect scores for a Sunday afternoon. Except that on this particular Sunday, Elvis Grbac didn't throw a single touchdown pass. "It looked like that U-2 song," said Yankees pitcher Jason Grimsley. "You know -- 'Sunday Bloody Sunday.' " Series of the half-year If ever two back-to-back games summed up baseball in the year 2000, it was two played in Texas between the A's and Rangers on May 5 and 6. Score of the first: Rangers 17, A's 16. Score of the second, Rangers 11, A's 10. In the first game, the Rangers blew a five-run lead (5-0) and the A's blew an eight-run lead (15-7) -- in the same game. In the second game, the Rangers won a game in which they gave up a home run in five straight innings and in which one of their relievers (Matt Perisho) gave up 10 runs. Hard to do. So all told, the Rangers miraculously won two straight games in which they allowed 26 runs, 30 hits and seven home runs -- and let their opponents hit .366 (30 for 82). "I think all the guys in the 'pen had velcro attached to their rear ends," said Texas reliever Mike Venafro, "so we wouldn't have to go in there." Midnight special of the half-year If you've ever wondered how many people would attend a baseball game between midnight and 2 a.m., the Phillies and Marlins finally answered that question June 12. Thanks to 3 hours and 34 minutes worth of rain delays, they found themselves resuming play just after midnight -- then playing until the scenic hour of 2:06 a.m. "There were four people in the stands, and we were getting booed by people that work for us," Phillies shortstop Desi Relaford reported afterward. "That's not good." We asked Phillies center fielder Doug Glanville if there was one word that described the atmosphere in the ballpark at 2 a.m. "I'm between two words -- 'delirium' and 'comatose,' " he said "I know. It was comatose delirium." Cooler heads of the half-year It was one of those Coors Field events that was just waiting to happen. On back-to-back days during a Mets-Rockies series, April 28 and 29, starting pitchers from both teams waged war -- on the dugout Gatorade cooler. Mike Hampton kicked off the undercard with a TKO of the cooler in the visitors' dugout. The next day, Rockies starter Masato Yoshii unleashed a stunning three-punch wipeout of the home cooler. "Yoshii had really good form, I thought," said Rockies coach-humorist Rich Donnelly. "He kept his elbows in. He had a nice, short jab. He could be the Roy Jones of the coolerweight division." Ex-zero heroes of the half-year We don't know how this happens in baseball. But until June 10, that noted speedster, Mark McGwire, had gone 22 months without stealing a base and that famed slugger, Luis Castillo, had gone 22 months without a home run. Then they both got off their fabled schneids on the same day. Gotta love it. Castillo had swiped 79 bases since McGwire's last steal. And Big Mac had pounded 110 homers since Castillo's last homer. Asked by Week in Review if he thought he could catch McGwire in the home-run race, Castillo replied: "No one can catch him." So we asked if he thought McGwire could catch him in steals. "What," he said, "do you think?" Rundown of the half-year It isn't every game you see a 2-6-5-2-5-3-7 out at home plate. But it happened to the Twins and Royals April 19, after Twins catcher Marcus Jensen trapped a Hector Carrasco pitch in the dirt. That inspired Jermaine Dye to try to go from first to second. And what unfurled next was a crazed chase scene featuring rundowns between between first and second and third and the plate. And it all ultimately ended with the left fielder (Jacque Jones) tagging out the runner on third (Carlos Beltran) with a mad dive. "Jacque Jones made a heck of a play," said Twins manager Tom Kelly, "on one of the worst rundowns of the century." Walkout of the half-year If there was an uglier game in baseball all season, details of it have been suppressed by the CIA. It was the ridiculous April 29 game between the Astros and Brewers -- a game that only Bob Walk and BB King could have loved. The two pitching staffs combined to issue 23 walks. And that was just the half of it. The losing team (the Brewers) gave up 10 runs -- on five hits. The winning team (the Astros) threw more balls (70) than strikes (69). Brewers starter Everett Stull gave up seven runs on one hit. The Astros had more runs (three) than fair balls (two) in the first inning. The Astros also batted around in the fourth inning -- on one hit. The two starting pitchers -- Stull and Scott Elarton combined for 17 walks (most by any two starters in 25 years). Craig Biggio, incredibly, reached base five times without putting a ball in play (three walks, two HBPs). And the two teams combined for 630 yards worth of walks. "I've got one question," said Astros broadcast philanthropist Jim Deshaies. "If this was a walkathon, how much money would we have raised?" Marketing idea of the half-year Finally, it was a season in which not even Junior Griffey made more news than baseball's official disciplinarian, Frank Robinson. After the big April 22 brawl between the Tigers and White Sox that gave Robinson the chance to hand down 72 games worth of suspensions, Tigers closer Todd Jones had the perfect marketing incentive for the teams' rematch in Detroit the following weekend: "How about: If we get in a fight, get in free the next game?" Jones said. "That would be a good promotion." Wild pitches Box score line of the week Is there anything good that can come from throwing a 15-hitter? Sure. You can win the box-score-line-of-the-week award. And Oakland's Mark Mulder did, for this eye-popping escapade on July 5: 6 2/3 IP, 15 H, 9 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 19 baserunners and (thanks to those seven unearned runs, on his own error) one quality start -- for a 15-hitter. It was the most hits allowed by any pitcher in baseball since another Athletic, Mike Oquist, gave up 16 to the Yankees on Aug. 3, 1998. Emergency All-Star of the week Some people make the All-Star team because they get 4 million votes. Other people make the All-Star team because their numbers are so staggering, the managers have to select them. Then there's Joe Girardi. He made the All-Star team this week because, essentially, he happened to be sitting by his phone. "Hey," said the Cubs' catcher Tuesday, "Fifty years from now, no one's going to know how I got here." So how did he get there? Well, Mike Piazza was hurt. Javier Lopez and Todd Hundley were unavailable. Other catchers couldn't be located over the break. So at 2:30 Monday afternoon, about 28 hours before game time, the search for a third National League catcher led to Girardi's house. The only reason he was even home was because his 10-month-old daughter, Serena, had a cold. "We'd just put the baby down for a nap," the Cubs catcher said, "and taken the dog for a walk. I was on the computer, playing Free Cell, when the phone rang." On the line was Katy Feeney, of the commissioner's office. She asked if Girardi had interest in coming to Atlanta "You mean, as a player?" Girardi replied, skeptically. That's what she meant, all right. So one night later, there was Girardi, waving to the crowd on national TV. When he was a kid, Girardi said, he used to watch the All-Star Game faithfully, "but I could never stay awake for the end of it." So we asked him before this game if his goal was to get in before all those kids out there fell asleep. "No," he said. "Just to stay up the whole night." Stogie lover of the week Meanwhile, Tigers closer Todd Jones used his Sunday column in the Birmingham News to report how he learned he'd made the All-Star team. Suffice it to say that Red Auerbach, he isn't. Jones said Tigers manager Phil Garner called him into his office to deliver the news. "Phil gave me a Cuban cigar," Jones said. "He patted me on the back and lit up my cigar. I didn't have the heart to tell him I don't smoke. As I started to turn green, he figured it out." Then Jones got into the game itself and saw his boyhood hero, Dale Murphy, coaching first base. "I tipped my cap to him," Jones reported. "He tipped his cap back. I proceeded to throw the next ball to the backstop. That was pretty special ... uh, not throwing the ball to the backstop." Jones then was asked what he would write about in this week's column. "I pitched in the All-Star Game," he said, "and I didn't have a heart attack." Sausage man of the week When the Tigers visited Milwaukee last weekend, that zany Hideo Nomo sneaked into Sunday's famed sausage race at County Stadium -- and won it. Nomo wore the Italian sausage costume -- and beat a field that included Tigers clubhouse manager Jim Schmakel, who ran as the Polish sausage entry. Schmakel's alibi: "I'm not a sprinter. I'm a long-distance runner. Two laps, I would have gotten him." Nomo, as is his style, played it straight. But he told Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler that wasn't his original plan. "I wanted to make some funny movement," he said. "But the head was too heavy." Phil Garner's reaction: "Nomo had to get his running in somehow." Pierogi of the week Ah, but not all the meat-race stories are as happy as Nomo's. In Pittsburgh, it was another tough week on the stadium pierogi-race circuit for the increasingly legendary Sauerkraut Saul, whose first-half record in this race has fallen to a Lima-esque 0-45. The Pirates actually bought ads in the local papers last weekend in which Saul guaranteed he would win. Then they even prepared a fireworks barrage to celebrate. And sure enough, on Saturday night, Saul burst into the lead. But just as he neared the finish line, a guy with his face covered and wearing a Pirates jacket burst from behind the fence and tackled Saul, sending him to his 44th straight loss. Reliever Jeff Wallace, a former all-Ohio defensive end in high school, is suspected. But Wallace's fellow reliever, Jason Christiansen, told the Beaver County Times' John Perrotto: "We stretch in the sixth inning. So it couldn't have been anyone in the bullpen." So now Saul has just 36 games left to break this streak. But imagine the drama if his first win came in the last game ever at Three Rivers Stadium. Pirates promotions director Rick Orienza told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Jim Caple that the club is preparing now for just that possibility. "We're already thinking security issues," Orienza said. "I just hope it isn't like the Staples Center situation, where people are setting fire to cars." Catch of the week If we give saves to relief pitchers, what should we give to infielders who go into the game as late-inning defensive replacements in the outfield -- and then make a running, flying, game-saving catch with two outs in the ninth? Damian Jackson did exactly that last Sunday -- taking off like a 737, hauling in what looked like a sure gapper by Chad Curtis and then descending without landing gear to save the Padres' 4-3 win over Texas in the last game before the All-Star break. "I didn't want to go into the break getting swept," Jackson said. "And I didn't want to go to extra innings. So I was going to catch that ball or fall and break something." "The way he flew," teammate Al Martin told the San Diego Union Tribune's Bill Center, "that was a catch Superman would have been proud to make." Chili lover of the week Omar Vizquel had two home runs all year before last weekend. Then he exploded for three in two days in Cincinnati. So Vizquel now has 39 career homers -- and five of them have been hit against the Reds. "I don't know where the power is coming from," Vizquel said. "It must be the food in Cincinnati." Honorary Texan of the week When Tyler Houston hit three homers in one game for the Brewers in the last game before the All-Star break Sunday, it was a major metropolitan event. The Sultan of Swat Stats, David Vincent, reports that Houston's trifecta was the first three-homer game by a guy whose last name is also the name of a major metropolis since Claudell Washington hit a trey on June 22, 1980. Afterward, Houston told manager Davey Lopes: "I don't think I need those three days off." Trivia answer Ivan Rodriguez holds the longest current streak, with eight starts in a row. And the last player to start instead of Ripken was Robin Yount in 1983. Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com. | ALSO SEE Jayson Stark archive | |||||||||||
