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 C O N T E N T S
MADISON
BUMGARNER
In the National League,
May/June 2016 Volume 75, No. 3 the battle of California
goes through
San Francisco and
Los Angeles, pg. 14
F E A T U R E S

11 Warmup Tosses by Bob Kuenster

Historical Rivalries Are the Best in MLB

MLBs TOP RIVALRIES

14 Giants vs. Dodgers by Chris Haft
Ancient feud continues to create turmoil

18 Yankees vs. Red Sox by Brian MacPherson

The battle has simmered, but fans carry the grudge

22 Cardinals vs. Cubs by Bruce Levine/Joel Bierig

Chicago looks to change the tide in historic rivalry

26 The Battle for Texas by T.R. Sullivan

Astros, Rangers are developing a hateful relationship

30 Consistency Breeds Performance

by Evan Drellich
Houston ace Dallas Keuchel is armed for an encore

34 Carlos Pena Preaches

Patience and Timing by Thom Henninger
Former slugger discusses key ingredients
for successful hitting

40 The Art of Relief Pitching by Mike Berardino

Role of reliever has changed over the years

44 Player Profile by Bruce Levine

White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton

46 The Game Ill Never Forget

by John Lackey as told to Barry Rozner
Pitcher recalls World Series Game 7 start in 2002
Photos by SportPics
50 Sabermetrics 101 by David Laurila
Explaining the meaning of some new-era statistics

D E P A R T M E N T S ADRIAN GONZALEZ

4 Baseball Stat Corner

6 The Fans Speak Out
53 Baseball Quick Quiz
COMING IN
54 Baseball Rules Corner by Rich Marazzi BASEBALL DIGEST:
Teams With Best
56 Baseball Crossword Puzzle by Larry Humber
Starting Rotations
58 7th Inning Stretch
Special baseball statistics Cover Photo Credits
Photos by SportPics May/June 2016 3
 BASEBALL STAT CORNER

Fewest RBI for Players with

150 or More Strikeouts

L
ast season, Dexter Fowler of the Cubs
became the seventh player in major-league
history to strike out 150 or more times
while driving in 50 or fewer runs. He finished
with 46 RBI and 154 whiffs.
YEAR PLAYER, TEAM RBI SO
2013 Melvin Upton, Braves 26 151
2014 Melvin Upton, Braves 35 173
2012 Drew Stubbs, Reds 40 166
DREW 2010 Austin Jackson, Tigers 41 170
STUBBS 2011 Adam Dunn, White Sox 42 177
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2011 Drew Stubbs, Reds 44 205
2011 Austin Jackson, Tigers 45 181
2015 Dexter Fowler, Cubs 46 154
2014 Alex Avila, Tigers 47 151
2014 Tyler Flowers, White Sox 50 159

PEDRO BERT
ALVAREZ CAMPANERIS
SportPics
SportPics

Lowest Batting Average for

Players with 100 RBI

S Low Extra-Base Hit Totals

eventeen times a player has driven in
100 or more runs in a season while
maintaining a batting average of .240 or with 500 or More At-Bats
lower. Fifteen players have done this, and

S
ince the live-ball era began in 1920, 17 players
Jose Canseco and Joe Carter are the only have totaled 500 or more at-bats while registering
hitters to do it twice. 16 or fewer extra-base hits.
YEAR PLAYER, TEAM RBI BA YEAR PLAYER, TEAM AB EXB 2B 3B HR
1983 Tony Armas, Red Sox 107 .218 1968 Horace Clarke, Yankees 579 9 6 1 2 DON
2009 Carlos Pena, Rays 100 .227 1966 Don Kessinger, Cubs 533 11 8 2 1 KESSINGER
1954 Roy Sievers, Senators 102 .232 1971 Enzo Hernandez, Padres 549 12 9 3 0
2012 Curtis Granderson, Yankees 106 .232 1954 Spook Jacobs, As 508 12 11 1 0
1990 Joe Carter, Padres 115 .232 1920 Morrie Rath, Reds 506 13 7 4 2
2013 Pedro Alvarez, Pirates 100 .233 1966 Sonny Jackson, Astros 596 14 6 5 3
1993 Ruben Sierra, As 101 .233 1976 Frank Taveras, Pirates 519 14 8 6 0
2013 Mark Trumbo, Angels 100 .234 1969 Sandy Alomar Sr., CWS/Angels 617 15 12 2 1
1997 Joe Carter, Blue Jays 102 .234 1943 Whitey Wietelmann, Braves 534 15 14 1 0
1990 Mark McGwire, As 108 .235 1945 Dick Culler, Braves 527 15 12 1 2
2008 Adam Dunn, Reds/Dbacks 100 .236 1990 Eric Yelding, Astros 511 15 9 5 1
1998 Jose Canseco, Blue Jays 107 .237 1978 Julio Cruz, Mariners 550 16 14 1 1
1985 Carlton Fisk, White Sox 107 .238 1972 Tim Foli, Expos 540 16 12 2 2
1997 Jeff King, Royals 112 .238 1976 Bert Campaneris, As 536 16 14 1 1
1980 Gorman Thomas, Brewers 105 .239 1933 Jim Levey, Browns 529 16 10 4 2
SportPics

1993 Phil Plantier, Padres 100 .240 1943 Eddie Stanky, Cubs 510 16 15 1 0
1986 Jose Canseco, As 117 .240 1968 Roberto Pena, Phillies 500 16 13 2 1
4 May/June 2016
 Closers with 30 Saves and 10 Wins

S
ince the save became an official stat in 1969, 12 relievers
Norman Jacobs
have finished a season with 30 or more saves and 10 or more Publisher
victories. Mike Marshall is the only closer to do it twice.
David Fagley
YEAR PITCHER, TEAM SVS W-L Associate Publisher
2002 Billy Koch, As 44 11-4
1973 John Hiller, Tigers 38 10-5 Bob Kuenster
1992 Doug Jones, Astros 36 11-8 Editor
1980 Dan Quisenberry, Royals 33 12-7
1979 Mike Marshall, Twins 32 10-15 Thom Henninger
1997 Roberto Hernandez, CWS/Giants 31 10-3 Associate Editor
1984 Jesse Orosco, Mets 31 10-6
1979 Kent Tekulve, Pirates 31 10-8 Rob Wyszkowski
1977 Bill Campbell, Red Sox 31 13-9 Art Director
1973 Mike Marshall, Expos 31 14-11
2000 Danny Graves, Reds 30 10-5 Dale Jacobs

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1991 Mitch Williams, Phillies 30 12-5 Production Manager
1982 Greg Minton, Giants 30 10-4
KENT TEKULVE David Durochik
Contributing Photographer

DEXTER TREVOR Richard Kent

Circulation Manager
FOWLER HOFFMAN
SportPics
Murray Jacobs
Customer Service

Chris Bernacchi/SportPics
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990 Grove St. Evanston, IL 60201-6510
(847) 491-6440
Customer service: cs@baseballdigest.com
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ifroehlich@baseballdigest.com

A
relief pitcher saving 30 or more games
in a season without earning a win has
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May/June 2016 5
 list arent the easiest to place. It took me a long time to
find any info on Ray Hamil, who only umpired two MLB
games in 1979. It was easier to find info on longtime minor
league umpire Vic Travis.
Umpire Bill Valentine (1963-1968 and the youngest
umpire ever in MLB) and his fight with the American
League over A.L. umpire salaries would have made an
interesting paragraph in the larger Necrology
PITCH COUNT Not to be overly picky, but Im pretty sure the gentle-
As a die-hard, longtime man you listed as Wendell Kim is actually Kim Wendell,
Mets fan, we had a wonder- the former Chicago Cubs coach.
ful ride last season to the As a subscriber almost every year since 1961, Im pleased
World Series and hopefully that Baseball Digest continues. Keep up the good work.
all our young arms will get us Jim Bahler
back in 2016 and years to Janesville, WI
come.
In the Nov./Dec. issue, I
was intrigued by the pitchers
who walked and struck out
10 or more batters in a
gameparticularly the two
LEON games lost by Sudden Sam
CADORE McDowell and the extra-
inning, complete games.
Most interesting was Nolan Ryans performance on June
14, 1974, when he struck out 19 batters, walked 10 and gave
up eight hits in 13 innings!
In the age of pitch counts, that appears to be more
important than the scoreespecially with the Mets pre-

cious Tommy John repaired arms.
Can you tell us the number of pitches thrown in these
games and/or the most pitches by one pitcher and the
details?
Thanks for being the glue between the World Series and
when pitchers and catchers report. John Lapsley
Boynton Beach, FL
Pitch counts were not accurately recorded until recent
years, so its unknown which pitcher holds the record for
most pitches in one game.
On May 1, 1920, the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves
played a 1-1 tie that went 26 innings with both starting
pitchers going the distance. Joe Oeschger of the Braves
allowed nine hits and four walks, and struck out seven while
facing 90 batters in the game. Leon Cadore of the Dodgers
surrendered 15 hits and five walks, and fanned seven
of the 96 batters he faced in 26 innings. Historians
estimate that Cadore threw 345 pitches and
Oeschger totaled 319.
Regarding Nolan Ryans outing on June 14,
1974, when he pitched 13 innings with 10 walks
and 19 strikeouts while surrendering eight hits,
it has been notedwithout 100-percent cer-
taintythat he finished the game with
235 pitches thrown.
DAVID
UMPIRE BILL VALENTINE
Id like to thank you for the year-
ORTIZ
ly Necrology report in the
March/April issues of Baseball
Digest. I really appreciate the com-
plete list, which youve been pub-
lishing this year and last. Some of
those folks on the Others Who Died
6 May/June 2016
SportPics
WENDELL KIM
Wendell Kim is the correct name for the former major-
league coach for the Cubs, Giants, Red Sox, Brewers and
Expos. As a third-base coach, he was nicknamed Wavin
Wendell for his reputation of aggressively waving runners
home. He was diagnosed with onset Alzheimers after he fin-
ished coaching. No cause of death was given on his passing
on February 15, 2015, in Phoenix, Ariz.
Regarding umpire Bill Valentine, he worked as an
American League umpire from 1963 to 1968 and was the
left-field ump during the 1965 All-Star Game. He began his
career in the Class-D Ohio-Indians League at the age of 18.
Valentine worked 947 major-league games until he and Al
Salerno were fired on Sept. 16, 1968, by A.L. president
Joe Cronin, who stated they were dismissed for being
poor umpires.
It is believed, however, that Valentine and
Salerno were fired due to their involvement in try-
ing to form a union of A.L. umpires, who were
being paid less than the unionized N.L. umps.
DH RULE
Recently I read a book called
Swinging 73, about the 1973 baseball
season, the year the designated hitter
rule was introduced in the Amer-
ican League.
Author Matthew Silverman
tried to project the future of the
DH rule in his writing. He indi-
cates that the rule has a better
chance of being implemented
SportPics
 in the National League than it has at being banned in the
American League.
Bowie Kuhn was the commissioner when the DH was
started, and over the years he was criticized for not acting
more decisively on the matter of the DH. His critics said
that it did not make sense for different leagues to have dif-
ferent rules.
However, Kuhn said that he did not see a problem with
one league having different rules than the other. He said
that it gave fans a choice and gave them something to dis-
cuss.
What question I used to hear about the DH was, when
will the American League get rid of it? Recently, the ques-
tion has become, when will it be in both leagues?
The rule will probably stay the way it isin one league
and not the other. Norman Burr
Humble, TX
There are ongoing discussions by Major League Baseball
of the designated hitter being adopted by the National
League as soon as 2017.
GAMES CAUGHT
I read in one of your previous issues that Salvador Perez
of the Kansas City Royals has caught in 430 games over the
past three seasons. That leads me to wonder, which catch-
er has caught the most games in a certain amount of sea-
sons? Blake Seely,
San Francisco, CA
Randy Hundley holds the single-season mark for most
games caught with 160 in 1968. He also is the record-holder
for most games caught over a two-year span (312, 1967-1968),
three-year span (463, 1967-1969) and four-year span (612,
1966-1969).
Jim Sundberg caught the most games over a five-year time
frame (743, 1975-1979), six-year span (893, 1975-1980) and
seven-year stretch (1,025, 1974-1980).
Hall of Famer Gary Carter is the leader in games caught
for an eight-year span (1,123, 1977-1984), nine-year stretch
(1,289, 1977-1985) and 10-year span (1,390, 1977-1986).
Ivan Rodriguez holds the lifetime record for games caught
with 2,427.
SportPics

TED TED SIMMONS RBI TOTAL

In the March/April issue article on Ken Griffey
SIMMONS Jr. and Mike Piazzas Hall of Fame inductions,
there was an error in the mention of players with
over 1,300 RBI whose primary position was
catcher.
The glaring error was that Ted Simmons fin-
ished with 1,389, which is more than all catchers
in history except the great Yogi Berra, who only
beat him by a scarce 41. As a follower of the game
since 1971, I always recognized Ted as an elite
player. Having to be compared to the great
Johnny Bench from his era has caused him to be
overlooked as the great run producer that he was.
The eight-time All-Star had 95 or more RBI in
seven seasons. To be able to produce like that,
while enduring 10 years on the Busch Stadium
turf with 120-degree temps in the middle of
summer, is a testament to his durability. Since
seeing him catch Bob Gibsons 200th win as a
nine-year-old, I have always been a fan and
hopefully he will finally get the due attention he
deserves with a plaque in the Hall of Fame in
Cooperstown.
In a recent broadcast, HOF broadcaster and
former catcher Tim McCarver agreed that
TED SIMMONS RANKED AMONG Simmons should be in the Hall, and that
comes from a pretty savvy baseball
ELITE CATCHERS AT RETIREMENT (Through 1988) expert. Could you please show a graphic of
how he rates in career totals against other
GAMES CAUGHT HOME RUNS RBI HITS catchers in games played, total bases, RBI,
Bob Boone 2,056 Johnny Bench 389 Yogi Berra 1,430 Ted Simmons 2,472 doubles and hits? Mark Mays
Al Lopez 1,950 Yogi Berra 358 Ted Simmons 1,389 Yogi Berra 2,150 Wingo, KY
Jim Sundberg 1,854 Carlton Fisk 323 Johnny Bench 1,376 Johnny Bench 2,048
Gary Carter 302 Bill Dickey 1,209 Bill Dickey 1,969
Yes, Simmons should have been included as he
Carlton Fisk 1,835
Rick Ferrell 1,806 Ted Simmons 248 Gabby Hartnett 1,179 Carlton Fisk 1,953 finished his career with 2,456 games played (1,733
Gabby Hartnett 1,793 as a catcher) and recorded 1,389 RBI. He collected
Gary Carter 1,776 DOUBLES TOTAL BASES RUNS 1,062 RBI while in the lineup as a backstop.
Ted Simmons 1,771 Ted Simmons 483 Ted Simmons 3,793 Yogi Berra 1,175 At the time of his retirement following the 1988
Johnny Bench 1,742 Gabby Hartnett 396 Johnny Bench 3,644 Carlton Fisk 1,108
Ray Schalk 1,727 Johnny Bench 381 Yogi Berra 3,560 Johnny Bench 1,091 season, among catchers who caught 1,000 or more
Bill Dickey 1,708 Carlton Fisk 346 Carlton Fisk 3,356 Ted Simmons 1,074 games, Simmons ranked in the top five in home
Yogi Berra 1,699 Bill Dickey 343 Gary Carter 3,166 Mickey Cochrane 1,041 runs, doubles, RBI, hits, runs and total bases.
May/June 2016 7
 STOLEN-BASE LEADERS SATURDAY EVENING POST
Rickey Henderson and Lou Brock are the top two career Frank Sullivan (Red Sox pitcher in the 1950s) passed away
basestealers of all time. Something Ive never been able to last January 19. He led the American League in wins with 18
find is a breakdown of what bases they stole. in 1955, and I believe he once pitched an 11-hit, complete-
Can you provide a breakdown of the top 10 career stolen- game shutout. He was also featured in one of Norman
base leaders and how many of their steals were of second, Rockwells famous baseball covers for The Saturday Evening
third and home? Also can you list the top 10 in career Post in 1957. He, along
steals of home? Dennis Cler with Ted Williams,
Bloomington, IL who appears in the
center of the paint-
ing, and four other
players, are staring at
a rookie, no doubt,
who has just wan-
dered into the locker
room.
Im pretty sure
one of the other play-
ers is Jackie Jensen
(who is tying his
cleats as Sullivan
RICKEY
leans on his shoul-
HENDERSON der). Jensen was the
American League
MVP in 1958. The
image covering his March 2, 1957 issue of The Saturday
Evening Post. The cover was the artwork
mouth with his right of famed painter Norman Rockwell.
hand while standing
to the right of Williams is Billy Goodman, an outstanding
utility player who once won a batting title in 1950 with an
average of .354.
Can Baseball Digest verify my assumptions regarding
SportPics

the identity of these players? And also, does anyone know

who the two other playersone standing up on the left of
Williams with his shirt off and a towel draped over his
STOLEN-BASE BREAKDOWN FOR SB LEADERS shoulder, and another sitting on a bench on the left of the
painting in front of Sullivan and Jensenare? Finally, is
PLAYER 2ND 3RD HOME TOTAL the rookie a known Red Sox player or someone Mr.
Rickey Henderson ....1,080 ....322 ..........4 ....1,406 LOU Rockwell created from his rich imagination?
Lou Brock ...................856 ......79 ..........3 .......938 BROCK Owen M. ODonnell
Ty Cobb Unavailable 54 .......897
Portland, ME
Tim Raines..................735 ......71 ..........2 .......808
Vince Coleman............559 ....189 ..........4 .......752
You are correct with those players you have identified on
Eddie Collins Unavailable 17 .......741 the cover of the March 2, 1957 issue of The Saturday Evening
Max Carey Unavailable 33 .......738 Post, known as Red Sox Locker Room or the alternative
Honus Wagner Unavailable 27 .......723 title, The Rookie.
Joe Morgan.................645 ......41 ..........3 .......689 Billy Goodman is the player to the right of the rookie
Willie Wilson ..............603 ......65 ..........0 .......668 with his hand over his mouth. Ted Williams, with a stern
Bert Campaneris .........519 ....130 ..........0 .......649 look on his face, is standing to the left of the young new-
SportPics

Kenny Lofton...............505 ....115 ..........2 .......622 comer. Jackie Jensen is the player tying his spike and
Otis Nixon...................495 ....123 ..........2 .......620 Frank Sullivan is the player sitting next to Jensen with his
arm resting on his teammates shoulder. The player seat-
MOST CAREER STEALS OF HOME ed at the bottom left of the painting is catcher Sammy
White.
PLAYER TOTAL
TY COBB It is said that the model for the player in the left margin
Ty Cobb...................54
Max Carey ...............33
is a figure Rockwell named John J. Anonymous, an aspir-
George Burns ..........28 ing ballplayer who finally made the team. The rookie
Honus Wagner.........27 dressed in the light-colored suit with bat, glove and suit-
Sherry Magee..........23 case in hand was a local high school athlete from Pittsfield,
Frank Schulte ..........23 Mass., Sherman Safford, who was asked to model for
Johnny Evers...........21 Rockwell.
George Sisler ..........20 For this painting, Williams was the only player who was
SportPics

Frankie Frisch .........19 not present in person to model and pose for the cover.
Jackie Robinson ......19 Rockwell painted Williams likeness from baseball cards.

8 May/June 2016
MORE HBP THAN RBI
In the 1971 season, Ron Hunt of the Montreal Expos had
more hit-by-pitches (50) than RBI (38) and strikeouts (41).
Has this been accomplished by another player in the mod-
ern era? Franois Perron
Sherbrooke, Qubec
As a member of the Expos, Ron Hunt set the major-league
record in 1971 by being hit by a pitch 50 times, and in the
process only totaled 38 RBI and fanned 41 times. Among
major leaguers with a minimum of 10 HBP, only three other
players have had more HBP than RBI in a season.
Hunt recorded that statistical anomaly two other times
(1972, 1973), while Mike Kinkade of the Dodgers matched it in
2003, Fernando Vina of the Mets did it in 1994, and Jon Jay
of the Cardinals followed suit in 2015. Among those batters,
only Hunt and Vina fanned fewer times than being hit by a
pitch.
See the accompanying chart of players with more HBP than
RBI in a season, along with their strikeout totals.
MORE HBP THAN RBI
YEAR PLAYER, TEAM HBP RBI SO
1971 Ron Hunt, Expos 50 38 41
1972 Ron Hunt, Expos 26 18 29
1973 Ron Hunt, Expos 24 18 19
2003 Mike Kinkade, Dodgers 16 14 38
1994 Fernando Vina, Mets 12 6 11
2015 Jon Jay, Cardinals 11 10 36
RON HUNT
HITLESS GAMES
According to the box scores
during the 2015 Major League
Baseball regular season, batters
went 0-for-6 on 49 occasions,
starting with Brandon Belt of the
Giants on April 16 and ending
with Kyle Seager of the Mariners
on Oct. 3. Yoenis Cespedes, Pete
Kozma, Chris Davis and Melky
Cabrera did it twice and Todd
Frazier of the Reds did it
three times!
The 0-for-7 club
was reached
eight times
Josh Harrison
and Gregory
Polanco (Pirates),
Elian Herrera (Brewers),
Ivan DeJesus (Reds), Lucas
LUIS Duda (Mets), Jacoby Ellsbury
APARICIO (Yankees), Giovanny Urshela
(Indians) and Carlos Gonzalez
(Rockies).
One player had the distinc-
tion of being the only 0-for-8
SportPics
batter of the seasonMike
Napoli of the Red Sox.
Charles Berger
Bethel, CT
Your research is accurate
regarding last season. Dating
back to 1913 and through 2015, a batter going hitless in six or
more at-bats in a game has been very common in Major League
Baseball. Its been done 6,052 times. Among those occurrences,
a player went 0-for-6 on 5,133 occasions, 751 times a player pro-
duced an 0-for-7, 137 times a batter went 0-for-8, 23 times a
player went 0-for-9, eight times a batter went 0-for-10, and the
only player to go 0-for-11 in a game was Charlie Pick of the
Braves on May 1, 1920, in a contest that lasted 26 innings.
The most 0-for-9 games by a single player are two by Don
Mincher. Luis Aparicio, Mike Davis, Sandy Alomar Jr. and
Tommie Agee all had two 0-for-8 games, while Graig Nettles
and Hall of Famers Lloyd Waner and Billy Williams had the
most 0-for-7 games with four.
The player with the most career 0-for-6 games was Luis
Aparicio with 13, followed by Pete Rose and Willie Davis
with 12.
COMPLETE GAMES
In the 1970s, Sparky Anderson was called Captain Hook
because he was quick to pull his starting pitcher and go to
his bullpen. However, those teams managed by Sparky
would probably lead the major leagues in complete games
in todays game.
I am curious, what is the major-league record for a team to
not have a complete game? Also, what team has the record
for most consecutive complete games by its starting staff ?
Tom Plock
Ellerslie, GA
Due to the change in pitching philosophy and the emer-
gence of strong relief pitching, hurling a complete game is a
lost art in the major leagues. In 2015, starting pitchers com-
pleted only 104 games and three clubs failed to register a sin-
gle complete gamethe Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles
and Miami Marlins.
Only six other teams in major-league history have gone an
entire season without a complete gamethe Texas Rangers,
Washington Nationals and Marlins in 2007, the San Diego
Padres in 2011, and the Colorado Rockies and Milwaukee
Brewers in 2012.
In the early part of the 20th century, complete games
were very common among starting pitchers, and teams
routinely finished a season with 70 or more complete
games. If we date back 60 years, the most consecutive com-
plete games thrown by a single team are 12 by the World
Series-winning 1968 Detroit Tigers.
During those 12 complete-game perfor-
mances (Sept. 6 Sept. 19), the Tigers
went 10-2 with three shutouts.
The record by a pitcher for most
consecutive complete games in a
season was set in 1904 by St. Louis
Cardinals right-hander Jack
Taylor, who went 39 successive
starts (April 15 through Oct. 6)
without being relieved. Taylor also
holds the lifetime mark for most
complete games in a row with 187
June 20, 1901 through Aug. 13, 1906.
His skein includes 15 relief appear-
ances, giving him 202 games
in succession in which he
was not relieved or SPARKY
pulled from a game. ANDERSON
May/June 2016 9
3,000TH HIT
Roberto Clemente finished the 1972 season with
exactly 3,000 hits and a batting average of .317. What
were the career batting averages of each member of ROBERTO
CLEMENTE
the 3,000-hit club at the time of their 3,000th hit?
Michael Bergman
Plattsburgh, NY
Listed below for players with 3,000 career hits are the
dates of the historic milestone, the players hit and
opposing pitcher, his age at the time, the number of
career at-bats needed to collect 3,000 hits, and the play-
ers career batting average when he recorded his
momentous hit. Players are listed from youngest to old-
est at the time of their 3,000th hit. SportPics

CAREER CAREER
PLAYER DATE AGE AB HIT OPPOSING PITCHER, TEAM BA
Ty Cobb, Tigers Aug. 19, 1921 34 yrs., 243 days 8,100 Single Elmer Myers, Red Sox .370
Hank Aaron, Braves May 17, 1970 36 yrs., 101 days 9,566 Single Wayne Simpson, Reds .314
Robin Yount, Brewers Sept. 9, 1992 36 yrs., 348 days 10,471 Single Jose Mesa, Indians .287
Derek Jeter, Yankees July 9, 2011 37 yrs., 13 days 9,604 Homer David Price, Rays .312
Pete Rose, Reds May 5, 1978 37 yrs., 21 days 9,645 Single Steve Rogers, Expos .311

David Durochik/SportPics
Tris Speaker, Indians May 18, 1925 37 yrs., 33 days 8,612 Single George Mogridge, Senators .348
Stan Musial, Cardinals May 13, 1958 37 yrs., 173 days 8,774 Double Moe Drabowsky, Cubs .342
Eddie Collins, White Sox June 3, 1925 38 yrs., 31 days 9,027 Single Rip Collins, Tigers .332
Roberto Clemente, Pirates Sept. 30, 1972 38 yrs., 43 days 9,454 Double Jon Matlack, Mets .317 ROBIN
Paul Waner, Braves June 19, 1942 39 yrs., 64 days 8,926 Single Rip Sewell, Pirates .336 YOUNT
Willie Mays, Giants July 18, 1970 39 yrs., 72 days 9,802 Single Mike Wegener, Expos .306
Tony Gwynn, Padres Aug. 6, 1999 39 yrs., 89 days 8,874 Single Dan Smith, Expos .338
Eddie Murray, Indians June 30, 1995 39 yrs., 126 days 10,392 Single Mike Trombley, Twins .289
George Brett, Royals Sept. 30, 1992 39 yrs., 138 days 9,778 Single Tim Fortugno, Angels .307
Cal Ripken Jr., Orioles April 15, 2000 39 yrs., 234 days 10,803 Single Hector Carasco, Twins .278 PETE ROSE
Al Kaline, Tigers Sept. 24, 1974 39 yrs., 279 days 10,089 Double Dave McNally, Orioles .297
Rod Carew, Angels Aug. 4, 1985 39 yrs., 309 days 9,138 Single Frank Viola, Twins .328 SportPics

Alex Rodriguez, Yankees June 19, 2015 39 yrs., 327 days 10,035 Homer Justin Verlander, Tigers .299
Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox Sept. 12, 1979 40 yrs., 21 days 10,418 Single Jim Beattie, Yankees .288
Nap Lajoie, Indians Sept. 27, 1914 40 yrs., 22 days 8,671 Double Marty McHale, Yankees .346
Paul Molitor, Twins Sept. 16, 1996 40 yrs., 25 days 9,750 Triple Jose Rosado, Royals .308
Lou Brock, Cardinals Aug. 13, 1979 40 yrs., 56 days 10,234 Single Dennis Lamp, Cubs .293
Honus Wagner, Pirates June 28, 1914 40 yrs., 104 days 8,871 Single Pete Schneider, Reds .338
Rafael Palmeiro, Orioles July 15, 2005 40 yrs., 295 days 10,391 Double Joel Pineiro, Mariners .289
Wade Boggs, Devil Rays Aug. 7, 1999 41 yrs., 53 days 9,151 Homer Chris Haney, Indians .328
Craig Biggio, Astros June 28, 2007 41 yrs., 196 days 10,645 Single Aaron Cook, Rockies .282
Rickey Henderson, Padres Oct. 7, 2001 41 yrs., 286 days 10,710 Double John Thomson, Rockies .280
Dave Winfield, Twins Sept. 16, 1993 41 yrs., 348 days 10,558 Single Dennis Eckersley, As .284
David Durochik/SportPics
Cap Anson, Cubs Numbers unknown CARL YASTRZEMSKI

BILL MONBOUQUETTE Michael is a sophomore at Norwich U, the military col-

I took note in your March/April lege of Vermont. My youngest, Andre is a senior in H.S.
issue of the passing of Bill I have been working for the Toronto organization for
Monbouquette. I started follow- two years as a minor league pitching coach. I appreciate
ing the Red Sox in 1962 and hearing from you and thanks for being a fan of mine.
latched onto Monbo at an early They were lean years in Boston, but you do your best.
age. His work ethic was impecca- Thanks for writing.
ble as he toiled for the Sox during All the best,
tough years. Bill Monbouquette
One of the highlights of his I never met him, but he helped nurture a love for base-
career was when he pitched a no- ball that I still enjoy today. Stat-wise he was not a great
hitter on August 1, 1962, against ballplayer, but I submit he was a good one.
the White Sox. He got $1,000 Jim MacLeod
BILL MONBOUQUETTE
bonus as I recall. Baseball Digest Cameron Park, CA
helped me contact him in 1989 and I wrote him a letter In his seven full seasons with the Red Sox (1959-1965),
along with a couple of his baseball cards. I didnt expect a Monbouquette was a solid performer on the mound. During
response, but he sent a letter on Toronto Blue Jays letter- that span, Boston never finished with a winning record and
head that was dated April 6, 1989, and read: averaged 89 losses per season. Monbouquette went 93-87
Hi Jim, with a 3.70 ERA, 69 complete games and 16 shutouts in that
Received your letter a couple of weeks ago. I dont live time frame. His best year was 1963, when he went 20-10 with
at home in New Hampshire anymore. I havent lived at 174 strikeouts in 266.2 innings and a 3.81 ERA.
home for four years and I am currently going thru a BASEBALL DIGEST WELCOMES LETTERS FROM READERS.
divorce. I have three boys, Marc, my oldest, graduated Full name, city and state or province must be included. Mail to:
from the U of New Hampshire in Civil Engineering. The Fans Speak Out, Baseball Digest, 990 Grove Street, Evanston, IL
60201-4370 or email to: letters@baseballdigest.com
10 May/June 2016
 WARMUP TOSSES
New Team Rivalries Grow,
But Historical Feuds Are
The Best In MLB
R
ivalries are nothing new to Major League Baseball.
Whether confrontations involve teams, players or
fans, these conflicts and smoldering dislikes between
different sides have always been a part of the game.
There have been recent battles between fans at ballgames
that have turned nasty, and in some instances involved
criminal assault. Heated exchanges between teammates or
opposing players also continue to make headlines over the
course of a long season.
Last September the verbal exchange that turned into a
physical dispute in the Washington Nationals dugout
between teammates Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon
was a skirmish that arose out of frustration. Its the human
nature side of the game when a roster of top athletes with
varying backgrounds and beliefs are mixed together for
eight months. During the time these men spend together,
especially when losing is frequent, arguments ariseoften
followed by pushing, shoving or flying fists.
When the hostility two teams feel toward one another is
settled on the field through the skills players show in hit-
ting, pitching and fielding, it helps create a strong following
by fans and develops a lasting rivalry that is passed on from
one generation to the next.
One combative feud involved the Battle of Pennsylvania
the Pirates in one corner and the Phillies in the other. The
two teams had a deep hatred for each other that reached its
height during the 1970s, when the clubs were rivals in the
National League East Division. During an 11-year stretch
(1970-1980), the Pirates and Phillies captured 10 division
crowns and three World Series titles.
It was war, said former Phillies shortstop Larry Bowa.
We battled almost every year for the division title, and to
win it, both teams knew we had to go through each other.
Back then there were only 12 teams in the N.L. and there
was no interleague play. We played teams in our division 18
By Bob Kuenster, Editor
times, so it was common to have rivalries and dislike for
your opponent, especially the Pirates.
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have not been division foes
since 1993. Today they play only seven games a year, thus
the rivalry that began more than 125 years ago has sim-
mered over the last 20 years.
I know the history of the rivalry, Pirates broadcaster
Bob Walk told MLB.com in 2005. Because I was on the
other side of it, too. I was riding in the bus from the airport
and hearing all the talk when I pitched for the Phillies, and
Ive heard guys like Larry Bowa talk about the Pirates and
how they had respect for the Pirates.
There was respect, but they didnt like the Pirates, and
when I became a Pirate, it was the same feeling for the
Philliesyou didn't like the Pirates. Now that's totally gone.
Thats a shame, because baseball needs rivalries.
Photos by SportPics
The enmity between many teams has subsided because
free agency keeps players moving to different teams, dimin-
ishing the build-up of bad blood. Plus, interleague play has
cut down the number of games each club plays against divi-
sion foes.
But make no mistake about it: there are still heated rival-
ries that exist in the majorsmost notably between the
Giants and Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox and Cardinals
and Cubs.
The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers are on the verge
of becoming ruthless rivals, while the Milwaukee Brewers
and Minnesota Twins have had some antagonism since
they were American League foes and now annually face
each other in interleague match-ups.
Games played between leagues have created hostility
between the Mets and Yankees, Cubs and White Sox, Angels
and Dodgers, As and Giants, and Rays and Marlins, among
othersbut they are not quite at the historic level of the Big
Three.
May/June 2016 11
 WARMUP TOSSES

The games, however competitive when manager Charlie Fox told me to

they are for the players, are still more JOHN go down to the bullpen and get loose.
DACQUISTO
memorable for the fans, said former Charlie, I believe, wanted to prove a
pitcher Steve Trout, who was involved point to the Dodgers.
in the heated battles between the Cubs I went to the pen to warm up, and
and Cardinals during the 1980s. I when I was ready, Charlie went out to
think from the players perspective, we the mound and pulled Jim Willoughby
as the Cubs always said, I hope we can and handed me the ball. It was the third
be as good as them. And now from an inning and we were down, 8-0, and I

San Diego Padres

organizational point of view, the Cubs
are as good as St. Louis.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny
agreed. Chicago proved last season that
they are a young, talented team, he
said. But we won 100 games last year
and won the division. . . and we did that
while battling injuries to key players.
I think when you have a division race
like we had last year between us, the
Cubs and the Pirates, it creates excite-
ment as well as a battle among the play-
ers and teams for bragging rights in the
division. In a sense, all opponents are
rivals, but when we play the Cubs, the
gameswith the involvement of the
fansare a little more intense.
Fans do create much of the tension
that exists between players and teams
when they face off against each other.
Cardinals and Cubs fans dont appear
to have violent outbursts during games,
but with the ballparks and cities being
so close in proximity, fans often travel
I was a Dodger stopper for the most
part of my career, even when I went to
San Diego. It carried over and beating
the Dodgers was always a pleasure.
There was never any love lost between
the Giants and Dodgers . . . believe
me, we hated each other.
John DAcquisto
TOMMY
LASORDA
Ed Mailliard
had the best stuff that I can recollect at
any given time during my career. I got
out of the first jam with no problem and
preceded to strike out eight of the 12
Dodgers I faced while allowing one hit.
We lost the game, 9-5, but that was one
of my more memorable performances I
ever had against the Dodgers
I always remembered warming up in
the L.A. bullpen before games,
DAcquisto said. I would get so many
things thrown at me, like beer, soda,
peanuts, popcorn and even Cracker
Jack. What a trip I would have back to
the clubhouse to change my uniform
because I was soaked with everything.
I was a Dodger stopper for the
most part of my career, even when I
went to San Diego. It carried over and
beating the Dodgers was always a
pleasure. I remember when we got
into a fight at Candlestick Park and
Tommy Lasorda and Charlie Fox
went at it before the game even start-

to the opponents park to watch con-
tests. Both sides show respect, but dont
hide the hatred they have for opposing
teams and their fans.
After the 2009 All-Star Game in St. Louis, two elderly
women were appalled that President Barack Obama threw
out the first pitch while donning a White Sox jacket. They
cursed his actions openly when departing the stadium after
the game. When a reporter leaned over and said to them, At
least he wasnt wearing a Cubs cap or jacket, the two life-
long Cardinals fans became infuriated. Their faces began to
turn red with anger as one shook her fist saying, I hate the
_ _ _ damn Cubs!
Another fan recalls his first visit to Fenway Park for a
game between the Red Sox and Royals. When Chuck
Knoblauch came to bat for Kansas City, the fan vividly
remembered Boston fans going wild with boos and cat calls
as Knoblauch stepped into the batters box. Unaware of why
such an uproar was taking place, the fan asked the guy next
to him why Knoblauch was receiving such an unwelcome
greeting. The Red Sox rooter replied, He used to play for
the Yankees!
Players and managers, as well as fans, keep the dislike of
rival teams alive and well during games.
I remember one game very well, said Giants pitcher
John DAcquisto about facing the Dodgers. We were getting
our butts handed to us by the Dodgers in San Francisco
ed. There was never any love lost
between the Giants and Dodgers. . .
believe me, we hated each other.
One other situation I remember was when I was with San
Diego, added DAcquisto. I started a game at the end of the
season against Burt Hooton. I went 7.2 innings and gave up
one run. Hooton entered the game with 19 wins and was try-
ing to become a 20-game winner. He pitched well, going
eight innings, but allowed three runs. I picked up the win as
the Padres defeated the Dodgers, 3-1. Hooton did no get his
20th win and it cost him.
Later, I was partnered with Burt for 18 holes at a celebri-
ty golf tourney in Oceanside Pala Mesa and he didnt talk to
me for 18 holes. One former Giant and one Dodger playing
golf against one another and nothing being said. Thats
pretty darn hilarious in my book.
Mike LaCoss pitched 14 years in the majors with the Reds
(1978-81), Astros (1982-84) and Royals (1985) before spend-
ing his final six seasons with the Giants (1986-91).
The rivalry between the Giants and Dodgers was big,
LaCoss said. It was tough to come to Candlestick Park and
play because our fans would really give it to the Dodgers.
They would wait for Tommy Lasorda to come out and make
his walk from the outfield to the clubhouse, and he was
always ready to stir it up with the fans.
He would come out onto the field with an escort of players
and coaches and put on a show. Fans would yell and boo the

12 May/June 2016
hell out of him and throw stuff at him, was in the big leagues, that sentiment
and he would entice them by waving and FRITZ stayed with me. I hardly even knew any
PETERSON
bowing to them. The fans would really of the Red Sox players. There was a
get on him, but he loved to antagonize built-in dislike of the Red Sox uniform
them as he marched to the dugout. wherever it was seen on a baseball field.
It wasnt like that in L.A., but in Since I was a left-handed pitcher, I
Candlestick, the fans would act like seldom pitched in Fenway Park because
idiots at times, and when Dodgers fans of the Green Monster. When it came to
would visit and sit in the bleachers, we the last game in 1970, neither of our
would call it the bong section. And teams had a chance of moving up or
before the games in the bullpen, we down in the standings and Ralph Houk
would take bets on when the first fight was kind enough to move me up in the
would break out. We would put money rotation in order to have a chance to win
in a hat and guess, One out in the third 20 games.
For some reason their players hardly
inning a fight is going to break out. And We were winning 4-3 in the bottom
ever interacted with us. When I was in
sure enough, every Dodger series some- of the ninth. I got the first batter out
the big leagues, that sentiment stayed
thing would erupt in the standsa before allowing two singles to put run-
with me. I hardly even knew any of the
knock-down, drag-out brawl. ners on first and second. Houk came
Red Sox players. There was a built-in
Now among the players, it was a out and asked me what I wanted to do:
dislike of the Red Sox uniform wher-
whole different ballgame, noted come out or stay in the game. I asked
ever it was seen on a baseball field.
LaCoss. When youre on the field, you Ralph what he would do in the seventh
dont hear much of whats going on or Fritz Peterson game of a World Series. He said, I'd
being said in the dugout. There was one bring Lindy McDaniel in. With that, I
time when Dodgers outfielder Mike CARL handed Ralph the ball and headed to
YASTRZEMSKI
Marshall missed or was removed from a the dugout. When I got in there, I
game with an unknown ingrown toe- looked for a seat but had second
nail injury, and word got around that thoughts. There was no way I could
we were bad mouthing him. watch the ending of that game.
So in a game at Candlestick, he I went into our clubhouse and
comes up to bat in the top of the 10th could still hear fans cheering for
with the scored tied, 8-8, and hits a pinch-hitter Reggie Smith to get a hit.
three-run homer. When he circles the I could still hear the fans in the club-
bases, hes pointing at the pitcher and house, so I went into Houks private
the Giants bench, and after he crosses office but still heard fans screaming.
SportPics

home plate, he again pointed at our
dugout and waved his arms. That
caused a lot of anger.
The next Dodgers batter was the recipient of a brush-
back pitch, leading to a bench-clearing brawl. Even some
fans got into it with some of the Dodgers players. It was
crazy, but those are the things that happen when a rivalry is
as heated as the L.A.-San Francisco rivalry has been.
The Yankees and Red Sox arguably have the most noted
rivalry due to the success both clubs have had over the years.
There may not be the dislike between opposing players that
there once was, but the fans continue to carry the dirty laun-
dry list that runs long on each sidethe sale of Babe Ruth by
the Red Sox to the Yankees, Ted Williams vs. Joe DiMaggio,
New York stealing the A.L. pennant from Boston in the final
two games of the 1949 season, Bucky Dents home run in the
1978 playoff (or as Don Zimmer would say, Bucky ____ing
Dent!), Aaron Boones pennant-clinching home run in 2003,
and the Red Sox miraculous come-from-behind ALCS victo-
ry in 2004.
The hatred runs deep.
My 20th victory on the last day of the season at Fenway
Park in 1970 was a great memory within the team rivalry,
said former Yankees pitcher Fritz Peterson. The Red Sox
were always different, even in the minor leagues. For some
reason their players hardly ever interacted with us. When I
As a last resort, I grabbed three tow-
els and crawled under Houks desk and
wrapped the towels around my head. Silence! It seemed like
I was under that desk for an hour, but it was actually only
about five minutes.
Our clubhouse man looked in the room but didn't see me
the first time since I was under the desk. But the second
time he came in, I peeked over the top of the desk and saw a
sad look on his face. He then broke into a big smile and said,
Congratulations, you're a 20-game winner!
I never wanted to leave the clubhouse that night.
Yastrzemski needed two hits to win the A.L. batting title. I
held him to one and he lost the title to Alex Johnson. To get
my 20th win on the final day of the season at Fenway Park
against the Red Sox was special.
While old rivalries have diminished, new feuds often
arise in the heat of battle for a playoff position. In 2015, who
knew the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals would
develop a seething dislike for each other? But when clubs
are battling for a division title or wild-card berth, new ene-
mies are created.
As the playoff format continues to include five teams in
each league and many others in the running during the final
months of the season, fresh grudges will develop. But its the
historical rivalries that continue to be the best in Major
League Baseball. BD
May/June 2016 13
 s E S
M IVA LB LR I BY CHRIS HAFT

et purists claim that the Giants-Dodgers rivalry isnt what it used to be. It

R
L remains great theater nonetheless. Leo Durocher is no longer around to
hurl verbal insults at Dodgers players. But, for years, Durochers latter-
day managerial counterpart, Los Angeles Tommy Lasorda, perpetuated the rivalry

O P by serving as the lightning rod for the wrath of San Francisco fans.
More than a half-century has passed since Giants right-hander Sal

T Maglie stood on the mound glowering at Dodgers greats such as Jackie

Robinson, Duke Snider and Roy Campanella, ready to brush back or
even hit any batter without provocation.
Yet Maglies spirit survives in the hulking form of Giants left-han-
der Madison Bumgarner, whose every confrontation with
Dodgers right-hander Yasiel Puig has become combative.
Since divisional play began in 1969, the teams havent met in
a series that matches the drama of the playoff showdowns of
1951 and 1962. Still, nine times since 1971 (including the strike-
shortened season of 1994), the Dodgers and Giants have finished
first and second in the National League West in either order.
To some degree, the division today revolves around the likes of
Bumgarner, Puig, Clayton Kershaw and Buster Posey, just as Willie
Mays, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Willie McCovey once tow-
ered over the league.
If anybody can address the state of the rivalry, its Joe
Amalfitano, whose vast experience spans both coasts, both
clubs and multiple roles. Amalfitano entered the big leagues
as a bonus baby infielder with the Giants in 1954. Having
signed a contract that included a bonus exceeding $4,000,
he had to report directly to the majors under baseballs
rules at the time.
So, Amalfitano rarely played during his first two profes-
sional seasons, but he saw a lot while chained to the
bench at New Yorks Polo Grounds. After the teams
moved west in 1958, he saw more during two stints as
a Giants utilityman, as a Giants coach from 1972-75,
and as Los Angeles third-base coach from 1983-98.
Amalfitano, who has worked for the Giants as a
player development assistant since 2005, keenly
recalled the heightened emotions that spurred
the protagonists when the Dodgers belonged
to Brooklyn and the Giants inhabited New
BUSTER SportPics
POSEY

After countless on-field

battles on both coasts as combatants
in New York and California, the
hatred between clubs and their fans
still percolates in todays match-ups

Chris Bernacchi/SportPics
14 May/June 2016
Yorks Coogans Bluff. tradition or the fans passion increase the volume of the
The rivalry there was very intense, Amalfitano said. I Giants-Dodgers buzz, Duffy replied, I think its all of it.
think there was a lot of respect from each side of the field. The historyI think its really cool that they both went
But there also was probablyI dont want to use the word from New York to the West Coast at the same time and
dislike, buthigh competitive stuff. stayed in close proximity.
There was fierce competition going on. Fierce. And Credit Lasorda for preserving the rivalry. Before manag-
they brought that to the West Coast. ing Los Angeles from 1976-96, Lasorda piloted various
The rivalry reached its zenith on the East Coast, where
the Giants and Dodgers, their respective ballparks sepa-
rated by a subway ride, met 22 times per season during
the 1950s.
Going back to those days of Campanella, Robinson,
During the long feud
Mays, Monte Irvinthose were highly competitive between the Dodgers
games, Amalfitano said. They were like wars, people and Giants, each
franchise has enjoyed
knocking people down and sliding hard. great success. The
And Leo would kind of irritate certain people on the Giants have captured 20
N.L. pennants and eight
other side of the field with his remarks or his actions. He World Series titles while
tried to get to Carl Furillo ... I saw (Alvin) Dark slide in real the Dodgers have won
18 pennants and six Fall
hard to Jackie Robinson because Robinson was trying to Classic championships
get Maglie on a push bunt, because Maglie kept throwing since 1903.
at him. Was it a war? Well, maybe sometimes it was.
The fury receded somewhat after the Dodgers and
Giants relocated to Los Angeles and San Francisco,
respectively, in 1958. Being separated by nearly 400 miles
will do that to a rivalry. But the passion has remained
intact.
Ask Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson, a native of
Palo Alto, Calif., some 30 miles south of San
Francisco.
Growing up, I understood the importance of
Giants-Dodgers, Pederson said. Im just
honored to be able to put on the jersey every
day and compete. Especially when we play
the Giants. The fans get into it and theres
just a little bit more adrenaline.
Or talk to Giants third baseman
Matt Duffy, who was raised in
Long Beach, Calif., in the shadow
of Dodger Stadium.
Asked whether factors such as
SportPics

CLAYTON
KERSHAW

May/June 2016 15
 B s RIES
M IVA L L minor-league affiliates for the
Dodgers from 1966-72. A left-handed
RP
pitcher, he made eight appearances for
Brooklyn in 1954-55, which gave him enough
TO opportunity to build a healthy enmity for the
Giants. Former third baseman Ron Cey played in the
minors and majors for Lasorda, who he said schooled us
to believe that these were more important games than just
another game on the schedule.
In a 1999 interview for a television special commemorat-
ing the Giants departure from Candlestick Park, Lasorda
reminisced about inciting crowds at the windy ballyard as
he took the long stroll from the visitors clubhouse in right
field: Id take my hat off, Id start bowing and Id blow them
kisses, and that irritated them even all the more.
Its often said that the more things change, the more they
stay the same. After the 1956 season, the Dodgers traded
JOHN
ROSEBORO
BARRY
BONDS
SportPics
Robinson to the Giants for left-hander Dick Littlefield and
$35,000. But Robinson preferred to join a coffee company
as an executive rather than become a Giant.
Now fast-forward to 2011, when right-hander Ryan
Vogelsong accepted a contract offer from the Giants, the
team that originally drafted him in 1998, and spurned a
more lucrative bid from the Dodgers. Vogelsong turned
down not just more money, but also a better opportunity,
since the Dodgers had openings in their starting rotation
and the Giants didnt.
The right-hander, who remained with San Francisco
through 2015 before signing with Pittsburgh over the win-
ter, left no doubt about where his ultimate loyalties lie. I
will always, always be a Giant, he roared on AT&T Parks
public-address system after last years season finale, offer-
ing fans a heartfelt farewell.
Bumgarner and Puig may always, always, loathe each
16 May/June 2016
other, as a pair of 2014 incidents demonstrated. Puig
flipped his bat after homering off Bumgarner in a May
game, prompting them to exchange heated words. In a
September rematch, Bumgarner challenged Puig to a fight
after hitting him in the foot with a pitch.
After that game, a reporter playfully suggested to
Bumgarner, 26, that he and Puig, 25, should become
friends since theyll likely face each other so frequently in
the future. Bumgarner said, I dont think thats in the
cards for us.
Serving as each others utmost opponent has linked the
Giants and Dodgers as much as it divides them. You cant
have one without the other.
On July 14, 2005, when the Giants became the first
North American professional sports franchise to win
10,000 games, they achieved their milestone victory at
where else?Dodger Stadium. Vin Scully, the marvelous
SANDY
KOUFAX
BOBBY
JUAN THOMSON
MARICHAL
Rich Pilling
Dodgers broadcaster, remarked at the time that a higher
power than all of us arranged for this set of circum-
stances. After all, a Giant-Dodger game? It has to happen,
Scully added. I remember someone once said, There are
no coincidences.
The rivalrys defining moment remains an epic event
that occurred in a New York minute: Bobby Thomsons
three-run, ninth-inning homer that won the 1951 N.L.
playoff finale for the Giants, 5-4, and sent them to the
World Series. Russ Hodges captured the thrill of the deed
for his radio audience with a call (The Giants win the pen-
nant!) that probably hastened his induction into the
broadcasters wing of baseballs Hall of Fame.
Some 50 years later, several ex-players confirmed
rumors of the Giants using a telescope in center field at
the Polo Grounds to steal the catchers signs and relay
them to Thomson. Controversial as this revelation could
 have been, it hasnt seemed to diminish the significance of
the Shot Heard Round the World in the sports history. baseman Joe Morgan, approaching the end of a Hall of
For better or worse, the other event that people associate
most closely with the rivalry dates to Aug. 22, 1965, when
Giants ace Juan Marichal swung his bat at catcher John
Roseboros head, opening a bloody gash that required 14
stitches to close. Many fans have seen photos or black-
and-white film of Marichal, provoked by having his ear
grazed by Roseboros toss back to Koufax, flailing his bat
as his temper skyrocketed and both benches cleared.
Sadly, few people are aware that Mays emerged as a true
hero from that emotionally charged incident, as he urged
teammates and opponents alike to calm down. (He also
happened to hit a two-run homer off Koufax that helped win
the game for the Giants). Even fewer know that Roseboro
forgave Marichal and the pair became close friends.
That example of sportsmanship is one to cherish. Its
RALPH
BRANCA
SportPics
complemented by highlights from the rivalry that any-
body can relish.
After the teams cross-country move to California, the
Dodgers fortunes soared. They won eight pennants and
four World Series from 1959 through 1981, while setting
numerous attendance records at Dodger Stadium. By con-
trast, the Giants won just one pennant during that span
and nearly moved to Toronto in 1976 after years of plum-
meting attendance at Candlestick Park.
Yet, the Giants claimed success on multiple occasions.
Their 1962 pennant came directly at the expense of the
Dodgers, who led, 4-2, entering the top of ninth inning of
the third and deciding playoff game, 11 years earlier to the
day of Thomsons historic blast. This time the Giants
scored four runsbehind two singles, four walks, one
error, one wild pitch and one sacrifice flybefore a
stunned Dodger Stadium crowd and won, 6-4.
On yet another Oct. 3, this one in 1982, Giants second
Fame career, lined a three-run, seventh-inning homer in
the regular-season finale at Candlestick. It propelled San
Francisco to a 5-3 victory over the Dodgers that knocked
them out of the N.L. West race. Los Angeles had won the
series previous two games to eliminate San Francisco
from contention.
The Dodgers proved they could trade punches. In 1993
of course, on Oct. 3the Giants needed to win the regular-
season finale at Los Angeles to force a one-game playoff
against Atlanta for the division title. For once, there was
no dramatic finish as the Dodgers put a 12-1 whipping on
the Giants, whose fabulous 103-59 record went to waste in
the pre-wild-card era.
That game sent the Giants into a tailspin that lasted
until 1997, when they found themselves trailing the
OREL
HERSHISER
RON CEY
SportPics
Dodgers by two games in the division standings with 11 to
play.
The teams met for a two-game series at Candlestick that
began on Sept. 17, when the Giants captured a 2-1 thriller.
That actually paled alongside the next contest, which
Brian Johnson ended with a 12th-inning home run that
lifted the Giants to a 6-5 triumph and forged a tie for first
place. Including that series, the Giants finished 8-3 down
the stretch to win the West.
However, a fair share of Dodgers success has been
accompanied by a San Francisco dateline. They clinched
division titles at Candlestick in 1977 and at AT&T Park last
year, besides wrapping up a wild-card postseason berth on
the next-to-last day of the 2006 campaign in San
Francisco.
I always enjoyed the Dodger-Giant rivalry, Cey said.
Its alive and well today. BD
May/June 2016 17
 s E S
M IVA LB LR I BY BRIAN MACPHERSON

D
wight Evans still is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Evans played
more than 100 games as a visitor at Yankee Stadium in his 20-year

R
career in the major leagues, all but one of those seasons with the rival
Boston Red Sox. He played the vast majority of those games in right field, placing

O P himself squarely in front of the raucous predecessors of todays Bleacher

Creatures.

T He remembers dodging triangular fish weights sharpened to a point.

He remembers dodging Jack Daniels bottles thrown from the third
deck. He remembers having a beer thrown in his face as he leapt to
catch a flyball along the foul line, an incident for which George
Steinbrenner apologized in person that same night.
Most of all, though, he remembers when a particularly creative
Yankees fan threw down a size-12 luxury Bally shoe.
I was waiting for him to throw the other one down, Evans said,
because it was a nice shoe.
More than 10 years have passed since Jason Varitek shoved his
mitt into the face of Alex Rodriguez in front of home plate at
Fenway Park. Almost exactly 40 years have passed since Graig
Nettles dropped Bill Lee on his left shoulder at Yankee
Stadium and then, after Lee came back to confront him,
flattened him with a right hand to the jawa sequence
that began when Evans threw Lou Piniella out at the
plate.
On the field, at least, mutual respect has replaced
animosity when the Red Sox and Yankees meet. Over
the last 20 years in the hotly contested American
League East, the two teams have combined to win
seven World Series titles while featuring icons like
Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Pedro Martinez and
David Ortiz.
Surrounding the field, however, in the arenas of
battle, emotions run as high as ever. Never is that
more apparent than when pitchers warm up in
bullpens in front of the most boisterous of the fans in
both ballparks.
Youre right there next to the fans, veteran Boston
pitcher Clay Buchholz said. Theyre able to say
whatever they want to say to youand you dont
want to get into a shouting match with any of the
ALEX Chris Bernacchi/SportPics

RODRIGUEZ

During their longtime,

heated battles on the field, the
powerhouse American League clubs
have had some memorable games and
playoff series, but its the fans who
maintain the animosity
Chris Bernacchi/SportPics
18 May/June 2016
fans because thats what theyre trying to do, and if they to Boston and the defection of Roger Clemens to New York.
succeed, then they really wear you out. Theres no speech I could make that would make our
Going into Fenway last year as a Yankee was a little players more excited than to know theyre going to Fenway
weird, New York relief pitcher Andrew Miller said. They Park or the Red Sox are coming (to Yankee Stadium),
were all over me, the people out in the bleachers. As soon then-Yankees manager Joe Torre said in 2000. Its a rival-
as you turn the coat over and wear a Yankee uniform, ry thats been strong before me, before them.
theyre going to give it to you. Before 1994, the Yankees and Red Sox had no way to
For the fans, at least those out in the bleachers,
Yankees-Red Sox rivalry games still feel different.
Theyre diehard fans, and probably everybody sitting
out there, close to us in the bullpens, are people who
were born into that organization as a fan, Miller said.
Their parents and grandparents were fans of those
teams.
For decades, the Yankees considered themselves rivals
with the Red Sox in the way a hammer considers itself a
rival with a nail. Bostons sale of Babe Ruth and a parade
of other stars to New York, starting after the 1918 World
Series, set in motion a half-century that saw the Yankees
dominate the American League and the Red Sox finish
frequently in the cellar. The Red Sox made a mere two
trips to the World Series in the 50 years after the sale of
Ruth. The Yankees made 29 such trips, and they won 20
championships.
Boston began to catch up in the 1970s behind the best
wave of homegrown players it has ever producedEvans,
Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice. The Red Sox won
the American League pennant in 1975, and the Yankees
did so in 1976 and 1977. The rivalry reached its first cli-
max in 1978, two years after the Lee-Nettles brawl,
when Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent lofted a home run
into the net that then overhung the Green Monster at
Fenway Park.
We want to win, and they want to win, Evans
said. Theyve won more than us. They had so many
world championships. They were winners.
The suspension of Steinbrenner and the fade of
the Yankees put the rivalry on something of a hia-
tus through the 1980s, but it ramped up again in
the late 1990s with the arrival of Pedro Martinez
SportPics

DAVID
ORTIZ

From 1901 through 2015,

the Yankees and Red Sox
played 2,175 regular-season
games with New York
winning 1,175, Boston
winning 986, and 14 ties.

May/June 2016 19
 B s RIES
M IVA L L meet in the postseason. Since the
addition of an extra round of playoff
RP
games, theyve met three timesin 1999,
which turned out to be something of an appe-
TO tizer, and then in 2003 and 2004.
Aaron Boone thwarted Boston with a walk-off
home run in Game 7 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium to
send New York to the World Series in 2003. Ortiz and the
Red Sox returned the favor in spades a year later, storming
back from a three-game deficit to topple their longtime
rivals in unforgettable fashion.
Like a scrawny nerd standing up for himself in the face
of the neighborhood bully, something fundamental
changed about the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry in 2004.
Fans at Yankee Stadium no longer chant 1918 at every
opportunity. Fans at Fenway Park no longer chant
Yankees suck! during games against the Blue Jays. Both
REGGIE
JACKSON
DEREK
JETER
SportPics
Its the Duke-Carolina of baseball.
The games still have extra buzz.
It still means something. The
teams are loaded with stars, who
knows how many Hall of Famers or
perennial All-Stars. Andrew Miller
teams have won titles sinceNew York in 2009, Boston in
2007 and 2013. Both teams have become financial heavy-
weights. Both teams have missed the playoffs. ESPN and
other national broadcasters cant help but televise
Yankees-Red Sox games at every opportunity.
20 May/June 2016
Its the Duke-Carolina of baseball, said Miller, who
played his college baseball at the University of North
Carolina. The games still have extra buzz. It still means
something. The teams are loaded with stars, who knows
how many Hall of Famers or perennial All-Stars.
At the same time, with the Red Sox having exorcised
their longtime demon, the days of Lee fighting Nettles or
Varitek fighting Rodriguez couldnt feel more distant.
Theres not a whole lot of hatred between the players,
Buchholz said. Its more the fans and how everybody
looks at it. When we go there, they dont like us too much.
Whenever they come to Boston, our fans dont like them
too much.
In perhaps the starkest reminder of the contemporary
civility of the rivalry, the out-of-contention Red Sox all but
gave over Fenway Park to Jeter and the Yankees for the leg-
endary shortstops final game in 2014. Far more visiting
THURMAN
MUNSON
David Durochik/SportPics
fans jammed the same ballpark where Varitek hit
Rodriguez than did home fans. The Red Sox had sent
Rivera off with an awkward roast the previous year, a trib-
ute thinly disguised as a celebration of their 2004 topping
over the Yankees. Jeter was feted with a still awkward but
more respectful ceremony before his final game.
Buchholz drew the assignment of pitching to Jeter in his
final at-bat, with shadows creeping across the infield. Like
so many active players, Buchholz had idolized Jeter as a
teenager.
The right-hander didnt give his hero anything easy
fastball down and away, fastball down and away, cutter
down and away, fastball off the outer edge. Jeter beat the
pitch into the dirt in front of home plate and reached on an
infield single, a quintessential Jeter hit. The shortstop
made a detour to the man on his way off the mound to
shake the hand of his final adversary, to thank him for his
 participation in the moment.
Its your day, man, Buchholz said.
The Yankees will have a chance to
return the favor this season when Ortiz
makes his final trip to the Bronx. Jeter
is a better bet for enshrinement in
Cooperstown than is Ortiz, but both
players mean something similar to
their respective franchises, their
respective arrivals signaling the dawn
of an age of glory. Ortiz hit 16 home
runs in the old Yankee Stadium, all but
one with the Red Sox, and he has hit 12
home runs in the new Yankee Stadium.
I would love it if the fans at Yankee
Stadium gave me a standing ovation,
Ortiz told a New York-based reporter TED JOE
WILLIAMS DiMAGGIO

PEDRO
MARTINEZ

CARLTON
FISK
David Durochik/SportPics

David Durochik/SportPics

early in spring training.

Barring a playoff meeting between
the two teams, the last time Ortiz will
suit up at Yankee Stadium will be
Sept. 29with all but three games left
in the regular season.
Odds are overwhelming that mutual
respect once again will win out over
animosity.
Theyre all baseball fans, Buchholz
said. Everybody understands whats
going on. Its a rivalry game, but its
one of the greatest designated hitters
of all time. Im not saying they have to
get on their knees and (genuflect), but CARL
people know when respect should be YASTRZEMSKI
SportPics

given, and David deserves it. BD

May/June 2016 21
 s E S
M IVA LB LR I BY BRUCE LEVINE & JOEL BIERIG

o heck with Hamilton and Burr, the

R
T Hatfields and McCoys, the Union and the
The slow one now
Confederacy. Dismiss, at least until Will later be fast
November, the Democrats and Republicans. Put aside As the present now

O P Pepsi and Coke. Damn the Yankees and Red Sox, not to
mention the Giants and Dodgers.
Will later be past
T Speaking in the present tense, no rivalry The order is
offers more ever-present tension than the St. Rapidly fadin'.
Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs.
Their ballparks separated by 303 miles, And the first one now
these Midwestern adversaries have been Will later be last
going at it hammer and tongue, on For the times they
the field and in the media, since
1892. This season, however, a year are a-changin'.
after the teams clashed in the post-
season for the first time ever, the fer- Bob Dylan
vor has reached a fever pitch.
First, a band of upstart, wild-card champion Cubs van-
quished the Cardinals, winners of 100 regular-season games,
three games to one in the 2015 National League Division
Series. The exclamation point was a Ruthian home run by
Cubs rookie Kyle Schwarber that landed atop the new
right-field video board at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs made their next statement on the free-agent
marketsending a winter chill up St. Louis spines by
grabbing the Cardinals Gold Glove right fielder, Jason
Heyward, and their innings and ERA leader, John Lackey.
I dont think its going to ring too well with our club,
St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said after Heyward
accepted $184 million$16 million less than the
Cardinals reportedly offeredto sign with the Cubs.
Heyward, 26, decided the Cubs younger nucleus
would be more beneficial over the length of his eight-
year contract.
Matheny could understand the reasoning. But I
dont like it, he quickly added, with a sneer reminis-
cent of two crusty Hall of Famers, Tony La Russa and
Whitey Herzog, who preceded him at the St. Louis
helm.
YADIER SportPics

MOLINA

They have been

adversaries 123 years with the
Cardinals having the decided edge,
but the Cubs victory in last seasons
playoff confrontation added fuel
to the longtime rivalry
Chris Bernacchi/SportPics
22 May/June 2016
 Adam Wainwright scowled as well. The 34-year-old an all-time perspective, the Cardinals have won 11 World
pitcheralong with catcher Yadier Molina, 33, and out- Series titles, second only to the Yankees 27. The Cubs have
fielder Matt Holliday, 36comprised the aging veteran captured two1907 and 1908.
core to which Heyward had referred in explaining his Since the Cubs last World Series appearance in 1945, the
decision to leave St. Louis. Cardinals have won 11 N.L. titles and six World Series.
Wainwright questioned why Heyward didnt choose to Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak echoed his
be a torch carrier: the person, who after we leave, carries players when he told USA Today: Just because people
on the tradition.
He wants to be part of a system that he knows is going
to be there for years and years, Wainwright said. And
there is nothing wrong with that. But, Wainwright said,
It really comes down to a personality trait, to me.
Suffice it to say, from the standpoint of St. Louis fans,
this kind of stuff isnt supposed to happen. Indeed, mod-
ern scripts have had the Cubs absorbing all the pies and
seltzer water.
Cardinals Nation still chortles about the 1964 trade in
which the Cubs squandered future Hall of Famer Lou
Brock for forgettable pitcher Ernie Broglio. Brock led the
Cards to three N.L. pennants and two World Series titles.
Redbird rooters also delight in the 1980 deal that brought
them future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter. The erstwhile
Cubs closer earned two saves and recorded the final six
outs in the Cardinals 1982 World Series conquest of
Milwaukee.
The Cubs solace was in watching Ryne Sandberg hit
two tying home runs off Sutter, then baseballs most dom-
inant closer, in a nationally televised game on June 23,
1984. Sandberg finished 5-for-6 with seven RBI as the
Cubs rallied from a 7-0 deficit to win 12-11 in 11 innings.
With that performance, the second baseman was bound
for league MVP honors and eventually the Hall of Fame.
The Cubs made it to the best-of-five NLCS in 84, but fell
apart against the San Diego Padres after taking the first
two games. Another pie in the eye.
Its true the Cubs entered this season leading the all-
time series against St. Louis 1,197 victories to 1,147. But
since 2000, the Cardinals, widely considered baseballs
model franchise, have endured just one season below
.500. The Cubs have suffered nine. And, of course, from
SportPics

ANTHONY
RIZZO

After advancing to the

NLCS in 2015 and having a
productive offseason, the
Cubs are predicted by many
to be World Series contenders
for several years.
May/June 2016 23
 B s RIES
M IVAL L dont expect us to be good, we expect
ourselves to be good. Really, our expec-
RP
tations are high as ever.
Nevertheless, dont tell Cubs President of
TO Baseball Operations Theo Epstein the balance of
power cant be shifted. Consider what he accom-
plished in Boston. In 2004, the Red Sox won their first
World Series in 86 years and since have captured two more,
while the storied Yankees have taken just one since 2000.
Im a Cub, so I have to hate the Cardinals, Epstein Its good to have them on our side now.
said. But I also have to admire the way theyve run their
baseball shop for the better part of a century. In some
respectsand I hate to say this on the recordwe have to
do a lot of the things they do to be successful.
On the other hand, I think were building something
that has a chance to surpass them. I think we have a
chance to win this division on a consistent basis, and were
OZZIE
SMITH
Ron Vesely SportPics
going to need to in order to win the World Series.
The dollars spent on Heyward and Lackey the latter
received $32 million over two yearsmade perfect sense
to the Cubs.
Since Epstein and his management team arrived in the
fall of 2011, the Cubs had been building carefully from the
bottom up. In 2015, the process culminated with 97 victo-
ries by a team whose lineup often included four rookies
and six players 26 or younger. Now the goal was to add the
finishing touches, to strengthen themselves into N.L.
Central champs. Realistically, that involved also weaken-
ing the Cardinals.
Epstein estimates St. Louis would have won 15 more
games last season115if not for injuries. The prospect of
surviving another one-game wild-card playoffas the
Cubs did in 2015 by blanking Pittsburgh 4-0 behind Cy
Young winner Jake Arrietawas precarious. Going for-
24 May/June 2016
ward, the Cubs didnt want to be the Pirates, sent packing
after 98 regular-season victories.
Enter reinforcements Heyward, Lackey and fellow free
agent Ben Zobrist, fresh off a World Series title with the
Royals.
(Heyward) can do so much for you on the bases, in the
outfield, with the bat, said Cubs third baseman Kris
Bryant, the 2015 N.L. Rookie of the Year. He kind of made
their lineup run. And Lackey was just a bull on the mound.
In truth, the Cubs chose Heyward and Lackey mostly
because they fit the teams blueprint. Epstein and general
manager Jed Hoyer frown on giving long-term contracts to
players 30 or older. Heyward was perfect, a rare 26-year-old
free agent. Lackey, 37, was a serviceable, shorter-term option
for a rotation that needed help behind Arrieta and Jon Lester.
Meanwhile, the fun the Cubs had in 2015 under first-
ADAM
WAINWRIGHT
BOB
GIBSON
SportPics
year manager Joe Maddon didnt escape Lackey and
Heyward. And LesterLackeys best friend from their Red
Sox dayshad signed with the Cubs the previous winter.
The main reason I came here (Chicago) is to make his-
tory, said Lackey, who pitched the Cardinals to their lone
victory in the 2015 NLDS. A chance to win a world cham-
pionship in this cityat this stage of my careeris biggest
to me. If this is my last couple years in the big leagues, to
go out like that would be pretty dang cool.
Heyward admitted to only a passing familiarity with the
Cubs-Cardinals rivalry. He met Cardinals greats Brock and
Bob Gibson only recently and regrets never having met the
late Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks. However, he said, You know
the history there, and to be involved in the first time these
teams met in the playoffs will forever be unique and very
cool to me.
Despite the rancor over their departures, Lackey was a
 Cardinal for only a season and a half and Heyward for only
one season. St. Louis had acquired Heyward from Atlanta
in December 2014, less than a month after star right-field
prospect Oscar Taveras died in a tragic auto accident.
Matheny graciously relinquished his uniform No. 22 to
Heyward, who had worn that number since his rookie year
to honor a high school teammate killed in a car crash.
Lackeys departure was less of a bombshell. (The Cubs)
are my fourth team, so Ive been through this change in a
few difference places, he said. Whoever is the opponent,
Ill get after it. It doesnt matter if its St. Louis or another
team. Im here to win.
The former Boston pitcher said the Cubs-Cardinals
rivalry is probably a little more friendly than the Red
Sox-Yankees. This one has more of a Midwest, nicer-peo-
ple vibe to it, he said. The Boston-New York thing can
get pretty hostile.
ERNIE
BANKS
RON
SANTO
SportPics SportPics
Tell that to former Cubs manager Dusty Baker. His team
battled La Russas Cardinals in a five-game series at
Wrigley Field in September 2003. It featured four ejec-
tions, a four-hour, 17-minute rain delay and a marathon 15-
inning victory capped by a Sammy Sosa walk-off home
run. Not to mention a tension-filled stareoff between
Baker and La Russa in a game in which the Cubs overcame
a 6-0 deficit to win 8-7.
Baker called it the greatest five-game series Ive ever
been involved in. Maybe so, but in an infamous collapse,
the Cubs fell five outs short of the World Series. Theyre
still wiping pie from their eyes.
Maddon grew up a Cardinals fan after falling in love
with their logo and learning he could pick up their games
on KMOX-AM in his hometown of Hazleton, Pa. By last
September, however, he was bleeding Cubby blue.
Profusely. He wondered angrily if Tony Soprano were run-
ning the St. Louis dugout after his first baseman, Anthony
Rizzo, was hit with a seemingly retaliatory pitch. He
refused to let his team back down.
Reputation in one thing, tradition is one thing, Maddon
said. At the end of the day, its about todayour group
against their group. You have to believe you can do something
to do something. Theyre a fine organizationtheyve been as
good as they are for many years because they know how to do
this. But you cant cower to tradition and reputation.
Former Cub Ryan Theriot, who played on a World Series
winner in 2011 for La Russas Cardinals, said this spring,
The nastiness makes it fun and interesting. It gives you a
little extra push. Tony used to call it your edge whatev-
er makes it is what motivates you. As long as the Cardinals
stay relevant and the Cubs continue to be good, the rivalry
is going to be awesome.
Theriot, meanwhile, is still trying to live down the com-
RYNE
SANDBERG
KYLE
SCHWARBER
George Robarge
ment he made after being traded to St. Louis: Now Im on
the right side of the rivalry.
Another ex-Cub, Mark DeRosa, who went to the postsea-
son with St. Louis in 2009, maintained the Cardinals cul-
ture has been worth an extra five victories a year. But he
sees a similar aura developing in Chicago. Before the 2015
season, a then 25-year-old Rizzo felt strongly enough to
project a Cubs division championship. While that didnt
happen, Rizzo still wound up looking good.
Im sure the message in their clubhouse is, This is our
time, and its going to be our time for a while, DeRosa
said. What makes the Cubs different is theyre so talent-
ed, and these key players are in their early, mid-20s. But
they also have guys with World Series rings who can man-
age personalities: Lester, David Ross, Zobrist, Lackey,
right down the line.
Dont look now, but the times may be a-changin. BD
May/June 2016 25
 The Battle
BY T.R. SULLIVAN/MLB.COM

T
he Rangers were leading, 5-4, when second baseman Rougned
Odor led off the top of the ninth inning against Astros pitcher
Josh Fields. It was the second game after the All-Star break last
year, with the Astros a half game behind the Angels in the American
League West and the third-place Rangers seven back.
The explosion came almost from nowhere. Odor was taking his
time getting into the batters box between pitches and Astros
catcher Hank Conger wasnt happy about it. Conger said some-
thing to Odor, the conversation grew heated and both teams
came onto the field.
In the middle of it all, Rangers manager Jeff Banister and
Astros counterpart A.J. Hinch started yelling and pointing
fingers at each other, and had to be separated.
Everybody was shoved, Hinch said. I think the whole pile
moved a couple of different times. Its a lot of defending your
own turf, defending your own people. There was high-end
emotion. People want to win this game, we want to compete a
little bit. Theres a lot of yelling, a lot of pushing, a lot of
until order is restored and then you play.
The Rangers won the game, 7-6, and a long-simmering
rivalry with the Astros was only then beginning to bubble.
The two teams met again for a four-game series in
Arlington on Sept. 14-17. The Astros went into the series
with a game-and-a-half lead on the Rangers and the
Angels four-and-a-half back. The Rangers won all
four games, including a dramatic 6-5 walk-off victo-
CARLOS ry in Game 2, to move into first place.
The Astros would take two of three from the
CORREA Rangers a week later in Houston. But the Rangers
hung on to win the division on the last day of the
season while the Astros settled for a wild-card
SportPics

Last year a new rivalry

took shape between Houston
and Texas when the two teams
battled for the A.L. West Division
title and supremacy in
the Lone Star State
Chris Bernacchi/SportPics
26 May/June 2016
for Texas
Northeast rivalries, the
West Coast has its own
set of rivalries now.
Thats neat for our
sport. Im glad that
we were a part of it.
We want to sustain
that moving for-
playoff berth. ward.
The heart-wrenching playoff race between the two Most of the great
teams, beginning with the dustup in Houston in July, was athletic rivalries in
an indication of what many thought was possible for Texas are collegiate,
many years. most notably Texas and
The Rangers and the Astros have the potential Texas A&M. An NFL
to forge a serious rivalry that could match the rivalry between
Red Sox-Yankees, Dodgers-Giants and Cubs- the Houston
Cardinals in intensity. Oilers and
Last year, everything being so competi-
tive, that was a fun one, Rangers first
baseman Mitch Moreland said. That
added to the rivalry and it has definitely
amped up over the years. It seems like
before the stands were half full. Now
wherever you go, you see either orange
or red. Its fun going against a team like
that and having an intrastate rivalry.
Specifically in the state of Texas,
you have two that clearly define great
parts of our state, Hinch said, The
Rangers-Astros is already and can be
a terrific rivalry. Both teams are good.
We duked it out the entire season. We
were ahead most of the season. They
had such a terrific second half, and
they ended up coming out on top.
What it means for baseball is you
have two really good teams who have
built their teams in somewhat different
ways but arrive on the scene prepared to
win. The same can be said for some of the
SportPics

ADRIAN
BELTRE

With both teams contending

for postseason berths, the
Astros and Rangers have
developed a more heated feud
in the battle for Texas.
May/June 2016 27
The Battle for Texas
the Dallas Cowboys never really took off. They were in sep-
arate leagues and conferences, and the Cowboys were usu-
ally the more dominant and more popular team.
The Oilers, who moved to Tennessee in 1996, were even-
tually replaced by the expansion Texans in 2002. The
Texans did shock the Cowboys in their first-ever regular-
season matchup, but the two NFL franchises are still in
separate conferences and neither team has been particu-
larly successful over the past 15 years.
The NBA has the Houston Rockets and the Dallas
Mavericks. Both franchises have won NBA titles, but are
still overshadowed by the more dominant San Antonio
Spurs.
The Rangers and the Astros have long struggled to create
a serious rivalry despite artificial attempts to make it hap-
pen. But the rivalry is becoming real now that both teams
are in the same division and competing head-to-head for
PRINCE
FIELDER
ELVIS
ANDRUS
postseason spots.
If you are a baseball fan, or just a sports fan, the state of
Texas, to have the two top teams that love to mix it up and
play against each otherand also to be considered at the
top part of the divisionis fun, said Banister, who grew
up in Houston sneaking into Astros games at the
Astrodome.
To fight it out like we did last year, it creates a buzz with-
in the entire state, Banister said. It creates a buzz within
the baseball family, its fun for everybody. You get that love-
hate relationship on Interstate 45, it becomes real.
A.J. and I talked about that, and what a lot of fun that
was really. For a Texas guy, yeah, I hope that that's a rival-
ry that lasts the length of baseball. At any given time, to
have the eyes of the baseball world on the two teams in the
state of Texas is pretty special for me.
It is a rivalry over a half-century in the making, dating to
28 May/June 2016
1962, when Judge Roy Hofheinz was a driving force in
Houston being awarded an expansion team first known as
the Colt 45s and then the Astros.
While Hofheinz was shaking up the sports world by
building the Astrodomethe Eighth Wonder of the
WorldArlington mayor Tom Vandergriff was trying to
lure a Major League Baseball team to the growing suburb
between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Vandergriff was having a tough time doing it. He tried to
convince Charlie Finley to move the Kansas City Athletics
there in 1967, but they went to Oakland instead. A year
later, Major League Baseball was considering a four-team
expansiontwo in each leaguefor the 1969 season, and
Vandergriff thought he had one of the National League
teams coming to Arlington.
But Hofheinz blocked it despite the obvious potential of
a serious rivalry. He was adamant about having Texas all to
JOSE
ALTUVE
DALLAS
KEUCHEL
Photos by SportPics
himself and instead that franchise became the San Diego
Padres.
Vandergriff finally achieved his dream in 1971, when he
convinced Bob Short to move the struggling Washington
Senators to Texas, despite the strenuous objections of
Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Hofheinz didnt have the
clout needed in the American League to stop it and the
Texas Rangers were born.
But with interleague play still years in the future, there
was no chance for a rivalry other than the odd spring train-
ing exhibition game.
The Rangers still pulled off one major coup over the
Astros in 1988. Nolan Ryan, after nine years with the
Astros and in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career, was a
free agent.
I was only planning to play one more year and had
every intention of returning to the Astros, Ryan said. But
the Astros wanted to cut my salary.
When that happened, I told my agent
Dick Moss to look around.
The Rangers were interested and
signed Ryan. He pitched five more
seasons, winning his 300th game,
recording his 5,000th strikeout and
pitching two more no-hitters while
wearing a Rangers uniform. Astros
fans seethed and blamed owner John
McMullen.
It wasnt until 1994 that the
Rangers and the Astros finally got on
the road to having a real rivalry. That
was the year Major League Baseball,
with 14 teams in each league,
announced the two-team expansion
of the Arizona Diamondbacks to the
National League and the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays to the American League.
Not wanting two 15-team leagues, the
plan was to move the Milwaukee
Brewers into the National League.
The Rangers objected and tried to
block the new alignment. The
Rangers werent happy about being
stuck in the American League West
with three teams from the West
Coast: Seattle, Oakland and the
California Angels. The late-night
division games on the road werent
going to help the Rangers television
revenues.
The Rangers finally backed down
when Commissioner Bud Selig
promised them he would eventually
find a way to move them into the
Central time zone. In the meantime,
interleague play was adopted for the
1997 season.
The Rangers kept waiting for Selig
to fulfill his promise, but it never
happened. The problem was no other
team was willing to be moved around
to accommodate the Rangers. Many
radical division realignments were
proposed, but nothing ever came
close to getting approved by major-
league owners.
Finally, in 2001, Rangers owner
Tom Hicks solved everybodys prob-
lem. He said the Rangers would be
willing to stay in the A.L. West as long
as they were promised a home-and-
home interleague series with the
Astros every year. Major League
Baseball readily agreed and talk of
realignment ceased immediately.
That started the Silver Boot series,
named after the trophy awarded to
the team that came out ahead in the
six games. In case of a 3-3 tie, run dif-
ferential decided the winner of the
Silver Boot.
The series, usually scheduled
before the All-Star break, became
popular with the fans, almost always
drawing larger-than-average crowds.
But the players, more concerned with
their own division races, never really
got caught up in the rivalry.
It would take one more alignment
tweak. Up until 2013, there were 16
teams in the National League and 14
in the American League. That meant
four five-team divisions, four clubs
including the Rangersin the A.L.
West, and six teams in N.L. Central.
The inequity was obvious and a
solution finally presented itself when
Jim Crane bought the Astros from
Drayton McLane in 2011. As a condi-
tion of approval, Crane was forced to
move the Astros into the American
League West.
A true rivalry was born, although it
took a couple of years. In 2013, the
Rangers won 17 of 19 from the Astros.
The following year the Astros won 11
of 19, but both teams finished with
losing records and the intensity was-
nt there.
All of that seemed to change on the
night of July 18, when Odor took his
time getting into the batters box.
Last year those games were amaz-
ing, Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus
said. It was good baseball and great
for Texas. We havent been through
something like that in awhile. Its
going to be a tough rivalry.
It could have been even better.
Both teams played postseason base-
ball last year, but the Rangers lost
their American League Division
Series in five games to the Blue Jays
and the Astros did the same to the
Royals. Both teams held at 2-1 advan-
tage in the best-of-five series.
Both clubs were one victory away
from an all-Texas American League
Championship Series. That would
really make it a rivalry.
I think it would represent a time
and place in the game that we havent
seen before obviously, Ryan said
When they started interleague play,
what I had hoped for was a rivalry for
the state. Now that were in the same
division, the possibility of that hap-
pening is really exciting because
weve seen how the fans have been
supportive. I just think it would be
real special. BD
May/June 2016 29
CONSISTENCY BY EVAN DRELLICH

BREEDS D
allas Keuchel and Collin McHugh both had
their fill of the questions in 2014, when they
first gained national attentiona year
before they won a combined 39 games and Keuchel
won the American League Cy Young Award.
What did you change? How are you different?
There was an eye roll or two after a while, when
the pitchers heard the same inquiries in different
cities.
Im not even really fascinating, so I have no idea
why, Keuchel said this spring when asked about
the public interest in him.
Keuchel, a 28-year-old from Tulsa, Okla., is
remarkably sarcastic, but he was matter-of-fact on
this topic. The bearded ace understands why so
much attention has been paid to him, someone
whose primary pitch, a sinker, sits at 90 mph
someone who was the No. 5 starter at the start of
2014 for a team coming off 111 losses.
I think just in any type of business, or sports,
everybody wants to know how the feel-good story
starts, Keuchel said. And usually it starts with a
lot of hard work and determination.

PERFORMANCE
After continued
work to master
pitching at the
major-league level,
Astros left-hander
Dallas Keuchel has
become the ace
of a young club
expected to win

Last season, Keuchel became the

eighth 20-game winner in Astros history,
joining Larry Dierker (1969), J.R. Richard
(1976), Joe Niekro (1979-80), Mike Scott
(1989), Jose Lima (1999), Mike Hampton
(1999) and Roy Oswalt (2004-05).
30 May/June 2016
 In baseball, and probably anything you
care to examine, its rare to have some
sort of eureka moment that precedes
greatness or surprising success. Even if
there is such a turning point, its folded
into years of workone step along a
broad path.
Keuchels father, Dennis, doesnt like
one theory behind his sons success: that
Keuchel re-discovered his slider.
It is true that Keuchel threw a slider at
the University of Arkansas, which he then
scrapped for a curveball in the minor
leagues. Keuchel returned to the slider in
the big leagues, and to marvelous effect
when thrown to the back foot of right-
handed batters.
The pitch requires tip-top execution,
because a hanging slider from a lefty
breaking in on a rightys hands can be
turned on and sent a long, long way.

Photos by SportPics
The objection of Keuchels father is that
the slider Keuchel throws today is not the
same slider he was throwing in college. The
pitch, as well as the pitcher, have grown.

I think just in any type of

business, or sports,
everybody wants to know
how the feel-good story
starts. And usually it
starts with a lot of hard
work and determination.

DALLAS
KEUCHEL

May/June 2016 31
 CONSISTENCY BREEDS
PERFORMANCE
And it is reductionist, ultimately, to point to a singular
moment where the clouds parted for Keuchel. Maybe we
can come close.
Its like in golf, when you figure that one swing out, that
one true strokeit makes all the other bad swings disap-
pear, Keuchel said. And once you figure out yourself body-
wise, like myself in pitching, its kind of like that
one pitch, or that couple, three pitches in a row.
You just try to stay with that feel and take that
with you, and I think Ive done a great job of con-
tinuing that feel and consistency.
Since he was a child, Keuchel has possessed a competi-
tiveness that stands out even within the realm of profes-
sional athletes. His work ethichis want, if you willhas a
next level that his fastball does not, and it manifested itself
early in life. He would curse at the TV screen while playing
video games as a kid, something his mother didnt like.
Likely, his language is even more colorful now. Sneakily,
hes probably the funniest person in the Astros clubhouse.
A little self-awareness helps one to laugh.
You have the superstars, who go and do their thing; there
are superstars that are anointed all
the way up, Keuchel explained.
WILBUR
Then you get the guys who get
WOOD
better, and then you got the guys

COMPETITIVE NATURE
On March 18, 2014, Keuchel allowed seven runs
and 13 hits in four innings against the Marlins in
a spring training appearance. Such a terrible
game, at age 26 in the midst of a rotation compe-
tition, pushed Keuchel to the kind of worry any
professional feels when stalled, or worse, failing.
I was getting to the point where kind of my
joyride in sports was kind of on the downslide,
and I had to figure out if I was going to make a
change and get better or stay the same, Keuchel said.
My arm was kind of barking just because I wasnt get-
ting my lower half involved as much. And the next bullpen
session, I really did a full adjustment to my mechanics

Its like in golf, when you figure that

one swing out, that one true strokeit makes
all the other bad swings disappear. And once
you figure out yourself body-wise, like myself in
pitching, its kind of like that one pitch, or that
couple, three pitches in a row. You just try
to stay with that feel and take that with you,
and I think Ive done a great job of continuing
that feel and consistency.

got more into my legs, and then all of a sudden my arm

was catching up and I was in sync and took off from there.
Took off is a relative statement. Keuchel allowed four
runs in both of his next two Grapefruit League outings, his
last before camp ended. But he did, all of a sudden, start
racking up strikeouts: first seven in four innings, then five
in 4.1 innings.
That side session was under the supervision of Astros
pitching coach Brent Strom. The finishing touches, then,
Keuchel owes to himself and Strom.
Yet, there were others who molded him along the way.
They include Doug Brocail, the former Astros pitching
coach whos now with the Rangers, and Dave Jorn, the
pitching coach at the University of Arkansas.
What Keuchel forged is a superbly repeatable delivery.
Every throw he makes, even when playing catch, comes
with a purpose, he says. One need not be a scout to see the
drive in his legs and how low he stays as he breaks from the
rubber, his power loading in his seat before he finishes in
an ideal fielding position.
He hasnt won two straight Gold Gloves by accident.
Before 2015, Keuchel had a career record
of 11-13 with a 3.90 ERA at home. He went
15-0 there in 15, improving his home
mark to 26-13 with a 2.93 ERA.
who are fit pieces. They fit into teams and wouldnt always
be as good as they are if they werent in the environment
they are in. And then you have the scrapers, the guys who do
everything they possibly can to get by.
I was that scraper, and figured, Hey, I need to figure
out something to push myself to be in a position to where
I dont always have to worry about whats next It ulti-
mately was personal. Because I wanted to afford my fami-
ly the luxury that I had growing up.
FAMILY BOND
With a seven-figure salary for the time this season$7.25
million as a first-year arbitration-eligible playerluxury is
something Keuchel is about to appreciate in a new way.

32 May/June 2016
 He had no silver spoon in Tulsa, but he did have a loving
family. His support group then and to this day includes his
father Dennis, his mother Teresa, and his older sister Krista.
To earn some extra cash, Keuchel used to work at
HoneyBaked Ham and mow his grandfathers lawn. He
studied fashion in college, and that interest was clear from
a young age. He spent his extra dough in his youth on ten-
nis shoes: kicks, sneakers, what have you.
Joseph, Keuchels paternal grandfather, was demanding
when Keuchel would work on the yard, and they devel-
oped a close bond.
Joseph passed away just as his grandsons 2014 season
endedabout two days after Keuchels final pitch that
year. Keuchels last toss closed out his 200th inning, a
DALLAS
KEUCHEL
SportPics
milestone made more meaningful because of his grandfa-
thers condition after a long battle with Alzheimers.
Extremely integral part of my life, Keuchel said of his
family. Just because if it wasnt such a support group
growing up, I dont think Id be in the position Id be in
right nowor at least be as humble or be as fortunate, or
be as appreciative of everything thats happened.
UNDER THE RADAR
Keuchel faces an annoying but ultimately enviable
predicament. Going into the 2015 season, everyone want-
ed to know if he was a flash in the pan or if he could repeat
his breakout 2014.
Winning the Cy Young Award last season only means
those questions intensify: can you do that again?
This spring the Astros started Keuchel slowly in camp,
because his 246 innings, including the postseason, were third
most in the majors behind Clayton Kershaw and Jake Arrieta.
It takes a toll on you at the end of the season, said
McHugh, whose 213.2 innings were 18th most in the
majors. I didnt even throw as many Dallas.
Keuchel was a seventh-round pick in 2009. He was
scouted by Jim Stevenson, who, while working for the
Brewers in 2005, also recommended a 26th-round pick for
that club: Arrieta, who went unsigned.
Thats right. One scout can say he had both 2015 Cy
Young winners drafted.

No one projected Keuchel would become quite this good,

however, Stevenson included.

FACING EXPECTATIONS
Like George Springer, Jose Altuve and
Jason Castro, Keuchel is notably a holdover
from the previous Astros administration. He
lived through a lot of losing to get to a point
where the Astros are expected to win, with
him leading the way.
It just seems like yesterday we were out-
siders and everybody was like, Well, theyre the
team of the future, Keuchel said. Now every-
bodys on the bandwagon, (saying) were going
SportPics

to win it. You get that a lot, but its no different

STEVE

15
from day one last year to day one this year.
CARLTON It may be no different for Keuchel in rou-
HOME WINS tine, but hes taken a place in baseball as a
hairy wonder.
S ince 1950, 11 pitchers have totaled 15 or more wins at home in
a single season. Fergie Jenkins (2) is the only hurler to do it
multiple times. Last season Dallas Keuchel became the first pitcher
On a team where a tiny second baseman, Altuve, has
some of the games best bat control and contact ability, a
pitcher who does anything but light up the radar gun was
to have 15 home wins since 2001.
the best in the American League in 2015. Thats a lot of
HOME ROAD OVERALL inspiration for regular folk wrapped in one team.
YEAR PITCHER, TEAM W-L (ERA) W-L (ERA) W-L (ERA)
1977 Steve Carlton, Phillies 17-3 (2.14) 6-7 (3.37) 23-10 (2.64) A plush-toy manufacturer created a stuffed doll of
1972 Wilbur Wood, White Sox 16-6 (2.11) 8-11 (2.96) 24-17 (2.51) Keuchel over the winter, and when theyre making toys in
1978 Dennis Leonard, Royals 16-5 (2.53) 5-12 (4.33) 21-17 (3.33) your likeness, youve made it big.
1971 Mickey Lolich, Tigers 16-7 (2.90) 9-7 (2.94) 25-14 (2.92) One change that will easily be identifiable someday:
2001 Matt Morris, Cardinals 15-2 (1.62) 7-6 (5.15) 22- 8 (3.16) when Keuchel finally shaves that grizzly beard. He expects
1974 Fergie Jenkins, Rangers 15-5 (2.69) 10-7 (2.99) 25-12 (2.82) it will come off for charity in a future season, but for 2016,
1983 LaMarr Hoyt, White Sox 15-5 (3.22) 9-5 (4.21) 24-10 (3.66)
its here to stay.
1970 Dave McNally, Orioles 15-4 (2.73) 9-5 (3.91) 24- 9 (3.22)
1967 Fergie Jenkins, Cubs 15-5 (2.54) 5-8 (3.20) 20-13 (2.80) This season, they might stop asking what got Keuchel
1960 Sam Jones, Giants 15-4 (2.06) 3-10 (4.88) 18-14 (3.19) here. A Grapefruit League start in 2014 may grow a little
SportPics

1951 Vic Raschi, Yankees 15-5 (2.46) 6-5 (5.00) 21-10 (3.38) less interesting with time, but they wont stop asking if
2015 Dallas Keuchel, Astros 15-0 (1.46) 5-8 (3.77) 20- 8 (2.48) hell be able to keep it up. BD
May/June 2016 33
CARLOS PENA
During his 14-year career in the
majors, Pena clubbed 286 homers.
In a five-year stretch, 2007-2011,
he averaged 34 home runs, 97 RBI
and 95 walks per season.

34 May/June 2016
 I
n his interview for the January-

Patience
February feature on ever-climb-
ing strikeout totals, Carlos Pena
provided a revealing glimpse into
the hitting approach of a modern-day
slugger. The former Rays star, who
popped 286 homers in 14 seasons
before retiring in 2014, was at his best

and Timing
during a three-year stretch in which he
powered a career-high 46 homers in
2007 and led the American League
with 39 in 2009. In the course of the
interview with Baseball Digest, Pena
weighed in on his patient approach at
the plate, the importance of a hitters
timing, and the challenge of hitting the

Key Factors for cut fastball, which he calls an equaliz-

er for many of todays hurlers.
BD: You were an extremely patient
hitter who worked deep counts,

Successful Hitting
facing more than a typical share of
two-strike and 3-2 counts. Tell me
about your approach.
CP: Its an approach that relies on
the pitcher cooperating and throwing
into your zone. You play the odds that
Former eventually you will get a pitch in that
zone. If the pitcher falls into your trap

big leaguer 100 times, Im hoping that out of that

100, Im able to capitalize on 60 of
them, hitting the ball hard. Thats

and current where I make my production out of.

BD: While pitching coaches are
emphasizing first-pitch strikes,
MLB Network hitters are often taking first-pitch
strikes. Players from other eras
often criticize such a patient
analyst offers approach, suggesting it leads to
more strikeouts than walks.

his take on CP: I think that guys go out there

with a mentality of: Let me take a look
at one and kind of get acquainted to

succeeding the at-bat. Sometimes you may need

to do that to slow things down. But I do
agree that a lot of first pitches are get-
at the plate in ting taken for strikes. Not only does it
give the pitcher an advantage immedi-

todays game ately, but it increases your chances of

striking out, and it decreases your
chances of actually being able to get a
By THOM HENNINGER pitch that you can flush.
So how do you walk? The way you
walk is by crushing. If you crush
pitches and you make pitchers pay
early in the count, pitchers are not
going to throw you strikes. Youll find
yourself walking because pitchers are
David Durochik/SportPics

afraid to pitch to you. So the ideal

approach is that Im hunting the
pitcher, and the pitcher is so afraid of
getting hit that hes going to start nib-
bling to me, and I'll never get a pitch
May/June 2016 35
to hit. And I go to first base. I didn't strike out and I walked.
But when you came into the strike zone, I was waiting for
you, because I know what your strengths are. There's so
much information that I know what your strengths are. I
know what your speed is, what your tricks are, so I don't
fall for them.
BD: Do most hitters have to find a balance between
making contact and hitting for power? Is this some-
thing that you had to address as a young hitter?
CP: I thought it was counter-productive when you go
about it that way, where you're like, Okay, Im going to
give up some home runs so I can hit for average. Because
as I have learned over the years, by trial and error, is that
the ability to be on time is what makes you a good hitter.
The swing path helps you, basically buying you more mar-
gin for error. So, the better your swing is, your margin for
error is bigger. The less effective your swing is, the more
perfect timing-wise you have to be. You maximize your
power by being on time more often than not.
BD: So, while the ideal is an exceptional swing and
timing that go hand-in-hand, most hitters have to
find a balance between the two?
CP: You want to have the best timing and the best swing
you can possibly have. The more perfect you are with your
timing, the less perfect your swing has to be. However, when
you have a very effective swing, a swing that stays in line
with the pitch for a long time, you can be late and still hit a
line drive. Maybe not as hard, but it still goes over the infield-
ers. If you hit the ball at the right trajectory, you get base hits.
If you're early, you still are able to hit some balls on the right
trajectory. Its not always how hard you hit the ball that deter-
mines the outcome. The better your swing, the more effec-
tive your just-misses will be.
BD: Then trajectory and

EFFECTIVE VELOCITY timing go hand-in-hand

for a power hitter?
CP: Yeah. Trajectory is dic-
Pitch location determines whether a hitter hits the ball out in
front of the plate or deeper in the zone, which shortens or tated by how good your
lengthens his reaction time. (See Point of Contact graphic.)
swing is, but timing is key.
The difference in reaction time, based on pitch location,
determines whether a 90-mph pitch plays like its You have power hitters with
closer to 85 or 95 miles per hour. incredible timing. They seem
to time out pitches very well,
Graphics courtesy of HittingisaGuess.com
even though their swings
may not be that effective. It
doesn't buy them a lot of
margin for error, yet they're
still hitting 40 home runs.

THE HITTING ZONE

EFFECTS OF PITCH LOCATION POINT OF CONTACT

SportPics
36 May/June 2016
 BD: Did someone influence your take on hitting?
CP: I was introduced to something called effective
velocity later in my career. (Hitting instructor) Perry
Husband and I got together the year that I won the home-
run title (in 2009). It opened my eyes to see this entire new
way of looking at things. Now I can see why a hitter has a
high batting average. I can see a guy that has the body or
the whip of the bat to hit for power. When you match those
two together, you have a guy like Bryce Harper, who hit
.330 and hit 42 home runs.
Once I understood the effect of timing on my swing, it
was huge. Why did I swing and miss at fastballs up in the
zone? Why did I pop up some balls? Why did I top some
balls? It's just my timing. It has to be absolutely perfect or
Im not going to hit the ball in the right trajectory. And I'm
not going to hit the ball on the barrel.
BD: How does it affect hitters that so many pitchers
are throwing in the high 90s?
CP: The truth of the matter is that most hitters actually
hit their home runs with a reaction time that would match
an 89-mph pitch. If you were to translate it into seconds, it
would take around .41 seconds for a hitter to flush a pitch at
89 in the middle of the zone. But if its 89 away, I have more
time to hit it than if its 89 inside. If the pitcher throws that
pitch inside, I have to make contact with it more out front
to maximize my swing. Now I may have only .37 seconds to
hit that ball with my best, fluid swing. So, now my reaction
time, in effective velocity terms, would be closer to the
time it would take to hit a 94-mph pitch in the middle of
the zone. The speed of the pitch itself is still 89, but with a
different location I have less time to hit it.
So, what hitters do is they just wait, whether they do it
consciously or just by what theyve learned over the years,
theyll wait until a pitcher cooperates with them and
throws them something around that 89-mph reaction
time. If you capitalize on those pitches, those are your
hard-hit balls, your home runs. Because thats when youre
able to put your most comfortable, fluid swing on a ball
around that reaction time.
BD: How did you become a patient hitter?
CP: I knew what my strength was. I knew the zone where
I was the strongest. And I knew the zone that I wanted to
focus upon that was going to yield my most fluent swing,
the swing that I had groomed since I was a kid. So I found
out what that zone was for me, which was middle and
away, knee high, thigh highsomewhere around there.
The idea was to wait for a pitcher to give me that pitch
right there.
Sometimes some of the pitchesmaybe a curveball or
slider that was breaking in to mewas just about the same
timing as that fastball away. So I would actually hit those
sliders that matched my timing. If they were in that middle-
away zone. Id focus on trying to take it to left-center field.
And then I worked off of that. Sometimes I got there a little
early, so I pulled it for a home run. Sometimes I got there just
on time, hit it to center field. Maybe a little late, I hit it to left-
center. That was my plan. So eventually when it started hap-
pening, I got so good at that, that if out of the pitchers hand
I saw that that ball was not heading towards that spotand
not matching my timingit was an automatic take.
BD: You worked deep into counts, which often put
you in two-strike situations.
May/June 2016 37

Chris Bernacchi/SportPics
CP: Because of that patient approach, it would also lead
to many strikeouts. Not necessarily because Im swinging
and missing a lot. Its because I take a lot of strikes. So I
would find myself in two-strike counts way more often
than someone who is not as patient at I am. They would be
swinging early and putting the ball in play early, not giving
themselves a chance to get to two strikes.
BD: Tell me about your two-strike approach.
CP: The problem when you get to two strikes, if you get
too defensive, that low-and-away focus would make me, or
any hitter that employs the same approach, susceptible to
a lot of pressure pitchespitches that look like what
youre looking for but end up being a ball. Im a left-hand-
ed hitter looking middle away, right around knee high,
thigh high. Changeups from right-handers that start there,
it's actually a great two-strike pitch. They look exactly like
the fastball I want. All thats different is the ball is spin-
ning maybe two revolutions slower than a sinker, and its
almost impossible to tell as a hitter. So I'm going to swing
at it like it was a fastball and it was a changeup, and theres
a strikeout right there. So its a very dangerous spot to
focus upon. So I tried to just rely on my eyes and be as
focused as I could to lay off the pressure pitches, which is
extremely difficult to do.
With two strikes, what you see is a lot of waste pitches. If
anything, you have to get more selective. Its kind of
counter-intuitive, of course. Very easy to say and harder to
38 May/June 2016
Timing is key. You have power
hitters with incredible timing. They
seem to time out pitches very well,
even though their swings may not
be effective. It doesnt buy them a
lot of margin for error, yet theyre
still hitting 40 home runs
do. Instead of going more defensive, go more on a hunting
mentality, where youre hunting a certain spot in the strike
zone. Youre not successful with two strikes; not many peo-
ple are in the whole history of the major leagues. People hit
around .100 with two strikes. Everybody is failing at this.
Why not zero in on a spot? If I dont get it, Ill try to work
myself to a good count and maybe Ill get a pitch.
Later in my career, I would tell myself Im waiting for a
pitch right in my wheelhouse. If its not in my wheelhouse,
I'm taking. My physical approach would be choking up on
the bat, and my mental approach as the years went by was
becoming more selective.
BD: The cut fastball has become a big strikeout
pitch in the last decade. What makes it difficult to hit?
CP: The cutter is an equalizer. From a right-hander, it
breaks in on the lefty and theres absolutely nothing that
tells you what that pitch is except spin, but it's so tight. If
you as a pitcher have been able to make a pitch look exactly
like another pitchso you have two pitches that look exact-
ly the samethe only clue that tells the hitter what pitch it
is, is spin. As a pitcher, youve won, because as humans, our
eyes are not fast enough to pick up a spin and register in our
mind that you should swing a certain way because of what
the spin told you. Its almost impossible for a human.
BD: Are there other ways to identify pitch type with-
out reading spin?
CP: You see a fastball and you see a plane. If youre a
catcher and you say fastballand the pitcher throws you a
fastball, boom, right down the middleyou can draw a
line from the pitchers hand directly into your glove. You
drew a trajectory line. Now throw me a curveball. What
youll see is that the curveball will pop out of the pitchers
hand up above the previous fastball line. It curves up and
then it comes down. Thats what hitters are reacting to.
Theyre reacting to a change of plane, not spin.
Thats the problem with a cutter. The cutter will be on
the same line as the fastball, all the way to almost three-
fourths of the way to the platemaybe even four-fifths.
Then on the last fifth, itll dart inside on a hitter. So theres
nothing telling the hitter what it is. He hits the ball with
the handle or swings and misses. Its the nastiest pitch in
baseball. The only way to hit it is you gotta know that the
guy has it, and you have to swing at a spot that my eyes
cant confirm. Im going to swing at a spot, even though
my eyes are telling me to swing somewhere else. BD
 Because the role
of bullpen pitcher
has drastically
evolved over the
last three decades,
the men who hold
this responsibility
seldom receive the
credit they deserve
for refining the
role of relievers

WADE DAVIS
Over the course of his career,
Davis has transformed from a
starter to a setup reliever and finally
to a closer for the Royals.
SportPics

40 May/June 2016
The Art of
Relief Pitching
BY MIKE BERARDINO

F
reshly retired after 21 seasons in the major leagues
with the 10th-most career appearances all time, all
of them in relief once the new millennium dawned,
LaTroy Hawkins knows what it takes to survive.
Ask him to consider the physical and mental traits it
takes to pitch in a modern-day bullpen, and Hawkins fer-
tile mind begins to whir.
Theres a thought process and a certain type of mental-
ity that you have to have, Hawkins says. Its not just mod-
ern. Its always been that way. The way relievers are used
may be different, but the mentality has to stay the same.
Maybe so, but never has so much been asked of so many
when it comes to the back end of games.
A decade and a half ago, the Arizona
Diamondbacks won their only
World Series title by riding
the dominant arms of
co-aces Randy Johnson
and Curt Schilling. Johnson was inducted at Cooperstown
in the summer of 2014, and Schilling figures to join him
there one day.
Ask the Los Angeles Dodgers how that model works
these days. Despite riding Clayton Kershaw and Zack
Greinke into the postseason the past three Octobers, the
Dodgers are still looking for their first National League
pennant since Kirk Gibson hobbled around the bases
nearly three decades ago (1988).
Madison Bumgarner was unbelievable for the San
Francisco Giants in the 2014 postseason, but the Kansas
City Royals have sparked an industry-wide homage by
using a deep inventory of hard-throwing relievers to mask
a mostly pedestrian starting rotation.
The Boston Red Sox traded for Craig Kimbrel this win-
ter to lengthen their bullpen. The New York Yankees
responded by acquiring Aroldis Chapman to go with
Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances.

Theres a thought DELLIN

process and a certain BETANCES
type of mentality that
you have to have. Its
not just modern. Its
always been that way.
The way relievers are
used may be different,
but the mentality has
to stay the same.
LaTroy Hawkins

LaTROY
Steve Moore

HAWKINS
SportPics

In 2014-2015 with the Yankees, Betances combined for a 11-4 record with 10 saves and a 1.45 ERA in 144 games.

May/June 2016 41
 AROLDIS
CHAPMAN
The Art of
Relief Pitching
So, what does it take to thrive in this environment of the
modern-day relief pitcher? Several key traits keep turning
up in conversations with contemporary pitchers, coaches,
managers and executives:

SHORT MEMORY
If youre a reliever, no matter how good you are, youre
going to cost your team some games along the way.
How quickly you learn to turn the page and get back on
the horse the very next night will determine how long
youre able to stay in this game.
You get beat one day, youve got to be able to go out
there the next day, says right-hander Kevin Jepsen of the
Minnesota Twins.
Coming up with the Los Angeles Angels, Jepsen learned
firsthand from the likes of Francisco Rodriguez, Scot
Shields and Justin Speier. Things move too fast in a 162-
game season to give anybody a couple of days to recover
from a rocky outing.
Is that something that is innate or can it be learned?
Im sure it can be developed because if you dont devel-
op it, baseball will consume you in a negative way,
Hawkins says. You wont be able to function because all
youre going to do is harp on whats negative about it.
Baseballs already a negative game because being success-
ful three out of 10 times (as a hitter), thats seven times
youre not successful. Its a game of failure.

MENTAL TOUGHNESS
It takes a special breed of athlete to enter a
one-run game on the road in the seventh or says. Youve got to protect it in that one
eighth inning and ignore everything going on inning or that one batter. Is that extra pressure
around him. than the guy that has to pitch, lets say, six or
Doesnt matter what the mascot is doing seven innings?
on the dugout or how brightly the ribbon He pauses to consider the question.
board is flashing with crowd reminders to No, Avila says. Its just two different
The ability to throw
make NOISE! jobs, and youve got to be mentally tough
Doesnt matter how many All-Star offspeed for strikes, to be a reliever. There are no easy outs.
games that hitter has played in or how I think, is key. You
many games your team leads by in the dont always go in RESILIENT ARM
divisional race. with first-pitch fast- It wasnt necessarily the travel that
When that manager hands you the ball. First pitch of the finally pushed Hawkins out of a game
ball, you have one job and one job only: he entered as a seventh-round draft
Get people out.
inning, you might have pick out of a Gary, Ind., high school in
Youve got to be mentally tough, says to start off with a 1991.
Al Avila, general manager of the Detroit breaking ball. Oh, sure, at 43 he wanted to be home
Tigers. A lot of times the game could be won KEVIN JEPSEN more often for his family. But on the field, he
in the seventh, eighth or ninth. Those guys that was still getting people out, pitching in his fifth
come in late in the game, theyve got to be mentally postseason last October for the Toronto Blue Jays.
tough in that they know they might face one batter or just Instead, it was the bounce-back requirement all reliev-
have to pitch one inning, and that could determine win- ers must face that finally convinced Hawkins his career
ning or losing the game. had run its course.
As Hawkins says: You have to be comfortable being Pitch great on a Friday night? Great. Can you come back
uncomfortable. and do it again on Saturday and, maybe with a series sweep
So much goes into just getting the game to that moment, on the line, do it one more time on Sunday afternoon?
it can be vertigo-inducing for all but the strongest of mind. Thats three outings in a span of roughly 42 hours, and
Your starting pitcher pitched a heck of a game, your thats not even counting all the false alarmswarming up
offense gave you enough runs to give you the lead, Avila without getting into the gamethat occur in the course of

42 May/June 2016
 CRAIG
KIMBREL
the season.
That was the deciding factor for me for sure; I wasnt as
durable as I had been, says Hawkins, who made more
than 90 percent of his 1,042 career outings in relief. I
mean, it comes with age. Could I pitch? Yeah. But I want to
be reliable where I can go out there two or three days in a
row. Last year I didnt know how I was going to feel the
next day after I pitched one day.
VELOCITY AND COMMAND
For decades the average fastball in the majors was right
around 90 mph. No longer.
Thanks to a seemingly endless conveyor belt delivering
power arms from the minor leagues and overseas, its
almost expected for a back-end bullpen arm to have the
ability to run it up there at 95 mphat a minimum.
Triple-digit fastballs are no longer just a Chapman
thing. He has company, and these guys can all obliterate a
gnat with their heater from 60 feet, six inches.
Thats probably the biggest thing that has evolved over
time is the number of mid- to upper-90 (mph) arms in one
bullpen, says Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell. It
used to be one, maybe two. Now youve got four and five.
The matching up has gone earlier in the game to the sixth
and seventh innings.
Theres less required of the starters, and yet youre
looking for a bullpen that is filled with power arms. The
Land of Failed Startersits not that place anymore.
WIPEOUT PITCH
Whats more, it goes without saying, back-end arms
need a second pitch to get hitters off those big fastballs.
You have to have a put-away pitch, says Jepsen, who has
made 390 appearances over his eight big-league seasons.
Doesnt matter if its a slider, a curve, a changeup, a
splitter or a cutter. Relievers need to find something to
keep hitters off balance.
And your command of that pitch had better be good
enough to throw it as soon as you get in the game.
The ability to throw offspeed for strikes, I think, is key,
Jepsen says. You dont always go in with first-pitch fast-
ball. First pitch of the inning, you might have to start off
with a breaking ball, especially if there are runners on
base. Starters can kind of build up to their offspeed.
Relievers have to be ready to hit the ground running.
And dont even think about picking around the edges of
the strike zone.
A leadoff walk? Thats the worst thing you can possibly
do, Jepsen says. You give up that leadoff homer, thats
better than a leadoff walk. I feel like a leadoff walk starts
big innings. Leadoff homers, solo shot, a lot of times it just
ends up being that. The ability to attack the zone is huge.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Much like offensive linemen, relievers are rarely inter-
viewed unless they make a costly mistake.
The ones that stick around the longest, the ones that
earn respect from their teammates and fan bases alike, are
the ones that stand in front of the bright lights and accept
responsibility.
You cant be an excuse-maker and last long,
Hawkins says. I was taught by Tom Kelly. TKs whole
motto was, You (messed) up, say you (messed) up and
well turn the page. But if youre going to make excuses,
then Im going to get mad. Hed always tell us, When I
(mess) up, Im going to come out and tell you. We turn
the page. If you dont, then it starts to fester and then
its out of control.
Trevor Hoffman fell short last winter in his first year of
eligibility for the Hall of Fame, but the all-time saves
leader gave perhaps his most epic performance by his
locker after blowing the save in Game 3 of the 1998 World
Series.
Rather than bristle as he was bombarded with ques-
tions, Hoffman stood there and recounted the three-run
homer he allowed to Scott Brosius. That single blow sent
the New York Yankees on to a four-game sweep of the San
Diego Padres the following night, but all these years later
the image of Hoffman patiently accommodating wave
after wave of media inquisitors remains vivid.
Theres one answer that you can say to (the media), and
theres nothing else you guys can say, Hawkins says. I
always said it: Ive got to be better. Ive got to make a bet-
ter pitch. Its the big leagues. When I make pitches like
that, Im supposed to get hit.
Hawkins smiles.
You cant ask me a question after that, he says.
Nothing. Theres nowhere you guys can go after that.
Youre like, Damn, LaTroy. Really? BD
Mike Berardino covers the Minnesota Twins for the St.
Paul Pioneer Press.
May/June 2016 43
THE GAME ILL
NEVER FORGET
BY
JOHN
LACKEY
As Told To
Barry Rozner
Veteran right-hander
recalls starting Game 7
of the 2002 World
Series as a rookie with
the Anaheim Angels
I
n 2001, during one of the greatest World Series
of all time, John Lackey was where he always
was during the Fall Classic.
I was sitting on my couch in Texas, watching
Arizona and New York, Lackey laughed. I was
thinking the same thing I always did. You wonder
if youre going to get the chance someday, what it
would feel like to be on the mound for Game 7,
how you would react to that situation. I dont
think theres a kid in America who doesnt think
that at some point.
By the fall of 2001, Lackey was a 23-year-old
starter from Abilene, a second-round pick by the
Angels in 1999. He had progressed to Triple-A
Salt Lake, going 3-4 with a 6.71 ERA. When the
2002 season began, Lackey went back to Salt
Lake and caught fire, jumping out to an 8-2 start
with a 2.57 ERA in 16 outings. That earned him a
promotion to the big leagues and he made his
debut on June 24.
That also means Lackey wasnt around when
the Angels got off to the worst start in team histo-
ry, 6-14, but they had climbed to 22 games over
.500 and were five games out of first in the A.L.
West by the time Lackey made his first major-
league start. Lackey went 9-4 in 18 starts and
posted a 3.66 ERA, good enough to place fourth in
Rookie of the Year voting. Anaheim finished 99-
63, four games behind Oakland in the West, but
won the wild-card playoff berth.
Facing the Yankees in the ALDS, the Angels lost
Game 1 in New York when they blew a late lead,
but evened the series when they rallied late in
Game 2. Lackey got his feet wet in Game 3, when
he relieved starter Ramon Ortiz in the top of the
46 May/June 2016
BARRY
BONDS
SportPics
third with the Angels trailing, and pitched three
scoreless innings. Anaheim rallied late again for
the win and then put away the Yanks in Game 4.
In the ALCS against Minnesota, Anaheim again
lost Game 1 on the road before coming back to win
the next two. Then Lackey got the Game 4 start.
Hardly resembling a rookie, Lackey battled vet-
eran Brad Radke to a scoreless tie, getting
through seven innings, allowing just three hits
and no walks, and striking out seven. No runner
advanced past first base. The Angels got to Radke
in the bottom of the seventh for two runs and the
Anaheim bullpen took over, netting the Angels
and Lackey the victory. They closed out the ALCS
in Game 5, advancing to the World Series to face
Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants.
Radke threw an incredible game. He was just
lights out, Lackey said of his Game 4 win. It was
really a lot of fun because I was really dialed in,
thinking about matching him out-for-out and
inning-for-inning. I had to because he wasnt
allowing anything.
But I also knew if I could keep us in it, our guys
would get it done. Its what we did all year; the
guys were so good in the late innings. We were
never out of a game and its something that was
really alive on our bench every night. We always
had a chance no matter what the score was, so as
a pitcher you knew you just had to give them a
chance.
Lackey, who began the season as an uncertain
Rob Holt/SportPics
candidate for the Angels rotation, was the No. 4
guy going into the postseason. He had wondered
if hed get a playoff start, but after his brilliant
performance against Minnesota, Lackey was as
 much an ace as anyone in the rotation.
Thats just the nature of baseball, Lackey said. You really
dont get it until you get to the big leagues and see how fast
things happen, but you can become really important or really
irrelevant really fast in this game.
I wasnt caught up in any of that, noted Lackey. I just
wanted a chance to pitch and contribute, but winning is the
main thing and you do whatever it takes to win. That has to be
first on everyones mind or youre not going to win anything.
But I was a rookie and we had a team dominated by veter-
ans. Our bullpen was outstanding, so I knew what my job was.
Keep us in the game, dont screw up, get through five or six
innings and let those guys down in the bullpen do their jobs.
It was a good formula.

JOHN
LACKEY
Game 1 of the 2002 World Series went to the
Giants, a 4-3 victory in Anaheim. The opener,
featuring Bonds first home run of the Fall
Classic, was tame in comparison to Game 2, which
saw the Angels jump out to a 5-0 first-inning lead
at home. It was 7-5 Anaheim when Lackey replaced
Kevin Appier in the top of the third with no outs and
one on.
Lackey, the anticipated Game 4 starter, got out of the
third, pitched a scoreless fourth, and was lifted in the
top of the fifth with one out and two on after 2.1 innings
and 32 pitches. Bonds hit a monstrous two-out solo shot
in the ninth off closer Troy Percival, but Percival got
Benito Santiago to pop out to complete an 11-10 Anaheim
victory that tied the Series at a game apiece.
Bonds homered for a third straight game in Game 3,
John Lackey (2002) of the Angels but the Anaheim offense continued its assault on
and Babe Adams (1909) of the Giants pitching in San Francisco, pounding out 16 hits
Pirates are the only two rookies
to be credited with a victory in
in a 10-4 victory. Ortiz went just five innings, allowing
Game 7 of a World Series. four runs on five hits, four walks and two home runs.
His performance would take on added significance
later in the Series.
Then it was Lackey time again in Game 4. The rook-
ie, making his first World Series start on two days
rest, pitched four scoreless innings and the Angels
May/June 2016 47
 THE GAME ILL NEVER FORGET
WORLD SERIES
GAME 7 WINNERS
Only Fall Classic matches played in
the best-of-seven format are included
YEAR TEAMS
1909 Pirates vs. Tigers
1912 Red Sox vs. Giants
1924 Senators vs. Giants
1925 Pirates vs. Senators
1926 Cardinals vs. Yankees
1931 Cardinals vs. As
1934 Cardinals vs. Tigers
1940 Reds vs. Tigers
1945 Tigers vs. Cubs
1946 Cardinals vs. Red Sox
1947 Yankees vs. Dodgers
1952 Yankees vs. Dodgers
1955 Dodgers vs. Yankees
1956 Yankees vs. Dodgers
1957 Braves vs. Yankees
1958 Yankees vs. Braves
1960 Pirates vs. Yankees
1964 Cardinals vs. Yankees
1965 Dodgers vs. Twins
1967 Cardinals vs. Red Sox
1968 Tigers vs. Cardinals
1971 Pirates vs. Orioles
1972 As vs. Reds
1973 As vs. Mets
1975 Reds vs. Red Sox
1979 Pirates vs. Orioles
1982 Cardinals vs. Brewers
1985 Royals vs. Cardinals
1986 Mets vs. Red Sox
1987 Twins vs. Cardinals
JOHN 1991 Twins vs. Braves
1997 Marlins vs. Indians
LACKEY 2001 Dbacks vs. Yankees
2002 Angels vs. Giants
2011 Cardinals vs. Rangers
2014 Giants vs. Royals
MICKEY
LOLICH
were up 3-0 going to the bot-
tom of the fifth.
The Giants began the
inning with two infield hits
that traveled about 50 feet
combined. They tied the game
on four hits and an intention-
al walk to Bonds, and that was
SportPics
it for Lackey, who threw 95
pitches and allowed three
runs on nine hits and three walks over five innings. The
score remained 3-3 until the Giants scratched out a run in
the eighth. They held on for a 4-3 victory, tying the World
Series at 2-2.
San Francisco fired up the bats in Game 5 and crushed
the Angels, 16-4, taking a 3-2 Series lead. In Game 6, with a
chance to clinch the World Series in Anaheim, the Giants
took a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh, but the
Angels were hardly letting go of the rope.
Its funny, because from the outside its probably hard
to believe, but we knew we had nine outs left and that was
a lot for that team, Lackey said. We just had great belief
in our offense and in our bullpen, and we just never felt
48 May/June 2016
like there was a game we couldnt
win late. Really, five runs were not
a big deal for that club.
Indeed, Anaheim rallied for
three in the seventh and three
more in the eighth before Percival
pitched a perfect ninth. The
WINNING PITCHER
Babe Adams, Pirates World Series was tied at 3-3, forc-
Smoky Joe Wood, Red Sox ing a Game 7. That would have
Walter Johnson, Senators been Ortiz start on normal rest,
Ray Kremer, Pirates but he had a sore wrist, so manag-
Jesse Haines, Cardinals
Burleigh Grimes, Cardinals er Mike Scioscia had to choose
Dizzy Dean, Cardinals between an achy veteran or a 24-
Paul Derringer, Reds year-old rookie who had only
Hal Newhouser, Tigers been in the big leagues for three
Harry Brecheen, Cardinals
Joe Page, Yankees
months.
Allie Reynolds, Yankees Of course, youre nervous, but I
Johnny Podres, Dodgers wasnt scared. I wasnt intimidat-
Johnny Kucks, Yankees ed. It was fun, Lackey said. Its
Lew Burdette, Braves
where you want to be at that
Bob Turley, Yankees
Harvey Haddix, Pirates moment, in Game 7 of the World
Bob Gibson, Cardinals Series. You just have to execute
Sandy Koufax, Dodgers like you always do, and not let the
Bob Gibson, Cardinals moment become bigger than the
Mickey Lolich, Tigers
Steve Blass, Pirates pitch.
Catfish Hunter, As The highest-scoring World
Ken Holtzman, As Series to that date became all
Clay Carroll, Reds about pitching in Game 7, with
Grant Jackson, Pirates
Joaquin Andujar, Cardinals the most important game in
Bret Saberhagen, Royals Angels franchise history resting
Roger McDowell, Mets on the arm of a rookie starting on
Frank Viola, Twins three days rest.
Jack Morris, Twins
Jay Powell, Marlins Lackey pitched a perfect first
Randy Johnson, Dbacks inning before allowing David Durochik/SportPics
a run in
Rob Holt/SportPics
John Lackey, Angels the second, but the Angels tied it
Chris Carpenter, Cardinals in the bottom of the inning
Jeremy Affeldt, Giants
against Livan Hernandez. After
Lackey needed only seven pitches
I figured I had one more inning, so I
was really concentrating on every pitch.
I put everything I had into those pitches
and just made sure to execute.
JOHN LACKEY
to set down the Giants 1-2-3 in the third, the Angels loaded
the bases with nobody out and Garret Anderson emptied
them with a double down the line into the right-field cor-
ner. The Angels were up 4-1.
When (Anderson) got that hit, that was really the first
time I felt the butterflies and I had to sort of get control of
myself again. Thats when you have to be careful not to get
ahead of yourself, Lackey said. I just calmed myself
down and reminded myself to make pitches. Thats all, just
make pitches. One at a time.
I was locating my fastball really good early, throwing in
and setting up pitches away. When you can get that going
right away, it helps with confidence a lot. Then, you just let
it fly.
 Lackey got into trouble in the fourth when he gave up
one-out singles to Bonds and Santiago, but he induced
both J.T. Snow and Reggie Sanders to fly out to end the
inning.
I figured I had one more inning, so I was really concen-
trating on every pitch, Lackey said. I put everything I
had into those pitches and just made sure
to execute.
The Giants top three hitters in the bat-
ting orderKenny Lofton, Rich Aurilia
and Jeff Kentwent 0-7 against Lackey,
so he was able to pitch to Bonds with
nobody on base. In the fifth, Lackey went
to 3-2 on the first three hitters, but walked
only Lofton with two outs and got Aurilia
to fly out to end the fifth.
On three days rest, the rookie went five
innings and gave up just a run on four
hits and a walk, and struck out four. He
had staked the Angels to a 4-1 lead and
now it was up to the bullpen.
Brendan Donnelly pitched two score-
less, Francisco Rodriguez pitched the
eighth, and then it was up to Percival to
collect his third save of the Series and
second in as many days.
You try not to sit there counting outs,
Lackey said. But thats exactly what you
After 13 years in the majors with the Angels,
do. Red Sox and Cardinals, Lackey signed a two-year
The outs in the ninth did not come deal with the Cubs following the 2015 season. ever forget that?BD
easy. Snow singled and David Bell drew a one-out walk.
Percival fanned Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Lofton became the
Giants last hope. If Lofton reached, there was trouble
ahead with Aurilia, Kent and Bonds. Lofton swung at the
first pitch and hit a fly to center field.
The ball is in the air forever, Lackey said. You cant
believe how long it takes to come down.
Your heart is pounding. You dont hear
anything. You hold your breath.
The ball came down safely into the
glove of Darin Erstad and the Angels
were world champions. The players ran
onto the field and mobbed Percival.
Lackey was somewhere in the middle of
that pile. He had become the first rookie
to win the seventh game of the World
Series in 93 years, since Pittsburghs
Babe Adams beat Detroit in 1909.
It was a long way from Abilene and a
long way from Salt Lake, Lackey said. It
was really a dream come true.
It was Oct. 27, 2002. Eleven years and
three days later he would win Game 6 for
Boston against St. Louis to clinch anoth-
er World Series title.
Those are games you never forget,
Lackey said. You dream about it your
whole life and then youre there doing it
in front of the whole world. How can you
May/June 2016 49
BY DAVID LAURILA

A
dvanced stats are here to stay. More
than a decade since Moneyballthe With a growing
book that brought the sabermetric rev-
olution to a much larger audience interest in grading
acronyms like WAR, BABiP and FIP are
now part of baseballs everyday vernacular. players from the
Despite their ubiquity, these statistics remain a
mystery to many fans. Its understandable. Much perspective of
like people of a certain age will go to the younger
generation for computer helpthe kids grew up in how they perform,
front of one, they didntnot all of us were weaned
on new-age numbers. If you were born prior to the new stats have been
1990s, theres a decent chance you cut your teeth on
batting average, home runs and RBI. created to help gauge
Its never too late for a dog to learn new tricks. If
youre an old-school fan with limited knowledge of those rankings

advanced stats, this article is intended for you. It wont neces-

sarily change the way you look at the gamethats not the
MIKE
intentbut it should give you a better idea of how modern-day TROUT
number-crunching works.
Given the growth of sabermetricsa field that continues
to grow, particularly in terms of measuring defensethere
are far too many metrics to describe in these pages. Here is
a snapshot look at six you should probably know.

WAR (Wins Above Replacement)

WAR is both an imperfect stat and the perfect stat.
Meant to encapsulate a players total value to his team,
it wraps offensive, defensive and baserunning contri-
butions into one number. The overall
concept is simple: If the player in
question had to be replaced by a
Triple-A call-up or by someone off
the benchtypically a non-starter-
quality performerhow much value
would his team lose?
Working from that baseline, WAR is BABE RUTH
expressed in a wins format. Last season, the
Angels Mike Trout, who is generally acknowl-
edged as the best all-around player in the
game, was worth 9.0 more wins than a replace-
ment-level player. Baltimores Chris Davis, who
led both leagues with 47 home runs, was worth 5.6.
Lets go back six decades for another example.
In his 1954 National League MVP season, Giants
legend Willie Mays hit .345 with 41 home runs and
110 RBI. Cincinnatis Ted Kluszewski, who finished
second in the balloting, hit .326 with 49 home runs
and 141 RBI. Despite the latters edge in a pair of
meaningful statistics, the voters got it right.
Mays was worth 10.3 WAR in 1954, while
Kluszewski was worth 7.4 WAR. If you know
your baseball history, this should make sense.
Big Klu was a lead-footed first baseman,

50 May/June 2016
 while The Say Hey Kid could beat you with his bat, his legs, and his glove. Then and
now, its easier to replace a slugger than a player who does everything well.
That said, the stat doesnt short-change offense. Despite not possessing the well-
rounded skills of a Trout or a Mays, Babe Ruth is the all-time leader in WAR.
Any limitations The Sultan of Swat had in the field and on the bases
were outweighed by his prolific production with the bat.
How is WAR calculated? Its complicated, but not as much as you
might imagine.
First, you have to take into account the existence of other statis-
tical markers. Sabermetriciansa.k.a. people with better mathe-
matical chops than the rest of ushave come up with formulas
for Batting Runs, Baserunning Runs and Fielding Runs above
average. Those are combined, then adjusted for position and
WILLIE MAYS league. The formula is as follows:
SportPics

WAR = (Batting Runs + Baserunning Runs +Fielding Runs +

Positional Adjustment + League Adjustment +Replacement Runs) /
(Runs Per Win)

Calculating WAR for pitchers is similar. In short, it uses FIP (explained

below) and adjusts for park factors and innings pitched. From there, it is
translated to runs, and then wins.
As noted in the first sentence, WAR is imperfect. FanGraphs.com and
Baseball-Reference.com calculate the stat in much the same way, but
with subtle differences in the assigned value of each component.
BaseballProspectus.com has its own version, also within the same
framework, but not exactly the same.
Like all statistics, WAR is only part of the picture. While meant to be
all-encompassing, it shouldnt be considered the be-all, end-all for
every who-is-better argument. That saidand its widespread accep-
tance in todays game backs this upit does a pretty good job.

BABiP (Batting Average on Balls In Play)

BABiP is the simplest of new age stats, but that doesnt make it
any less important. What it measures is how often a ball put into
play results in a base hit. BABiP excludes home runs (as a fielder
has little or no opportunity to catch it) and sacrifice bunts (the bat-
ter wasnt attempting to reach safely). On average, roughly 30 per-
cent of balls in play (a .300 batting average for hitters, a .300 batting
SportPics

average against for pitchers)) go for hits.

As a rule, hitters have somewhat more control over their BABiP than
pitchers. While pitchers have essentially no control
over what happens after the ball leaves their hand, good
hitters are able to follow the flight of the ball and make solid contact.
As you might expect, the harder a ball is struck, the better chance it
has to be a base hit. A hitter who consistently posts a BAPiP signifi-
cantly higher than .300 is probably making hard contact consistently.
For a pitcher who has a career BABiP near .300, a mark that is
much higher or lower than .300 is often viewed as a byproduct of
Among position players, Mike Trouts luckgood or bador a reflection of his teams defense.
SportPics

9.0 WAR was the highest in the

American League in 2015, second in
The formula is as follows: NELSON
the majors to Washingtons Bryce BABIP = (H HR)/(AB K HR + SF) CRUZ
Harper, who had a 9.5 mark.
May/June 2016 51
FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) KEVIN
In a nutshell, FIP is ERA with defense taken out of the KIERMAIER
equation. Based on the premise that a pitcher has little or
no control over what happens once the ball is put into play,
it is an amalgamation of strikeouts, walks, hit-by-pitches
and home runs allowed.
Why disregard defense? Think of it this way: If youre a
pitcher for the 1970s-era Baltimore Orioles, most balls put
into play are going to be turned into outs. Regardless of
how hard its hit, a Mark Belanger, a Paul Blair or a Brooks
Robinson is probably going to flag it down. Conversely, if
youre pitching with seven statues behind you, balls are
going to find holes at a head-spinning clip.
Luck is a factor. While Batting Average on Ball in Play
(BABiP) tends to regress to the mean over time, bleeders
and bloops can bedevil a pitcher in a given year. (He may
also benefit from a preponderance of at-em balls.) As a
result, the same pitcher, with the same defense behind
him, will sometimes see his ERA vary for reasons beyond
his control.
The formula is as follows:
FIP = ((13*HR)+(3*(BB+HBP))-(2*K))/IP + constant

The constantnormally around 3.10 is used to bring

FIP onto an ERA scale.
A flaw of FIP is that it doesnt account for a pitchers
ability to consistently induce weak contact. A handful of
pitchersChris Young of the Royals is the poster child
are able to do so, despite a low strikeout rate. An anomaly,
Young routinely has a far higher FIP than ERA.
A few notables from last season: Chris Sale, a strikeout
pitcher who had a porous White Sox defense behind him,
had a 3.41 ERA and a 2.73 FIP. Zack Greinke of the Dodgers
(now with the Diamondbacks) led both leagues with a 1.66
ERA, but had a 2.76 FIP. Clayton Kershaw, whose 1.99 FIP
led all pitchers, had a 2.13 ERA.
wOBA (Weighted On-Base Average)
Weighted On-Base Average is based on the premise that
(unlike batting average) not all hits are created equal.
Combining all aspects of hitting into one metric, wOBA
weighs successful plate appearances in proportion to their
actual run value.
On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS) is a similar statistic, but it
lacks wOBAs nuance. OPS weighs each percentage point
of OBP and SLG the same, however studies show that OBP
has more value.
The formula is as follows:
wOBA = (0.690uBB + 0.722HBP + 0.8881B + 1.2712B
+ 1.6163B +2.101HR) / (AB + BB IBB + SF + HBP)
Last seasons wOBA leader was Washingtons Bryce
Harper, at .461. Cincinnatis Joey Votto was second with a
.427 mark.
WPA (Win Probability Added)
Win Probability Added is arguably the most-underuti-
lized statistic when determining who should win the Most
Valuable Player Award. WPA assesses the change in a
teams win expectancy based on what a player does in an
individual plate appearance. For instance, a walk-off
SportPics
Kiermaier won the Gold Glove Award in 2015 as the Rays center fielder.
He set a single-season mark for most Defensive Runs Saved with 42,
according to Baseball Info Solutions.
home run increases win expectancy to 100 percent, while
a home run that brings your team within 10 runs has min-
imal impact. Striking out in a key situation would obvi-
ously decrease win probability.
An important thing to keep in mind when looking at
WPA totals is that opportunities are part of the equation.
You cant produce a large number of clutch hits without
hitting in a number of clutch situations. That said,
Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs led all players last year with a
7.57 WPA.
DRS: Defensive Runs Saved
Created by Baseball Info Solutions (the organization
that produces The Fielding Bible), DRS rates a players
defensive contributions on a positive-negative scale, with
zero being average. The formula is too complicated to be
spelled out in detailnumerous metrics are involvedbut
DRS has become a highly trusted statistic for measuring
defense.
Judging by DRS, Tampa Bay center fielder Kevin
Kiermaier was far and away the best defender in either
league last year. His 42 Defensive Runs Saved is the most
ever recorded in a single season by Baseball Info Solutions.
Atlanta shortstop Andrelton Simmons (now with the
Angels) had 25, which was second most.
Its safe to say weve come a long way from the days
where a fielder was graded almost solely on his error
totals, or even on his fielding percentage. Thanks to statis-
tics like Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR)a component of
DRSwe now have a far better idea of which players save
the most runs with their gloves. And were learning more
all the time. BD

52 May/June 2016
 BASEBALL QUICK QUIZ ANSWERS ON PAGE 62

Collect 10 points for each question answered correctly.

(If you score 80 or better, youre a Hall of Famer; 70 or better,
MVP; between 60 and 70, All-Star; and 40 to 60, a minor leaguer.)

1 Eight players have hit 40 or more homers in a season for

the New York or San Francisco Giants. Collect 10 points if
you can identify six of these eight sluggers.

2 Twenty-seven major-league players have clubbed 50 or more

home runs in a single season. Collect 10 points if you can
name 13 of these power hitters.

3 Since 1969, 11 players have won a league home-

run title and been elected to the Hall of Fame.
HARMON
KILLEBREW
Harmon Killebrew is one of those sluggers. He won the A.L. homer
championship in 1969 and was enshrined in Cooperstown in 1984.
Collect one point for each of the other 10 you can identify.

David Durochik/SportPics
David Durochik/SportPics

4 Thirty-eight major leaguers

have turned in a 30-homer/
30-stolen base season on 60
different occasions. Who are the only
two players to accomplish the feat
WILLIE five times? Collect five points for
MAYS each correct answer.

WILLIE
5 Who holds the record for fewest runs scored
in a season (74) by a player with 40 or more
home runs: Matt Williams, Cecil Fielder, Davey
SportPics
McCOVEY
Johnson or Adam Dunn?

6 It is well known that Braves sluggers Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews combined
for the most career home runs as teammates with 863, followed by Babe Ruth and
Lou Gehrig, who totaled 846 with the Yankees. Which duo
ranks third: Duke Snider/Gil Hodges of the Dodgers, Jim
Rice/Dwight Evans of the Red Sox, Willie Mays/Willie
McCovey of the Giants, or Mickey Mantle/Yogi Berra of
MIKE
the Yankees? SCHMIDT

7 Among the 27 players with 500 or more career home

runs, only six hit a home run to lead off a game.
Barry Bonds hit 20 leadoff homers during his
career. Which of the following 500-home-run
hitters never hit a leadoff homer: Harmon
Killebrew, Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Eddie
Mathews or Gary Sheffield?
SportPics

8 Who was the first player in major-league

history to have a 30-homer season with different teams:
Bob Meusel, Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson or Jimmie Foxx?

9 Seven players with the last name of Williams have had a 30-
homer season in the major leagues. Collect 10 points
if you can identify five of these seven sluggers.

10 Who are the five players with 500 or

more lifetime homers to hit at least
one home run as a member of the Chicago
White Sox? Collect two points for each correct
answer. May/June 2016 53
 1 In a game between the Blue Jays and Red Sox, the Sox
have Jackie Bradley Jr. on second base with one out
when Mookie Betts hits a groundball to shortstop Ryan
Goins. The Jays shortstop throws to first baseman Justin
Smoak for the putout. Bradley Jr. rounds third and heads
home. Smoak attempts to throw home but the ball hits
Betts, who is returning to his dugout in fair territory, adja-
cent to the runners 45-foot-long, three-foot-wide running
By Rich Marazzi
box, allowing Bradley Jr. to score. Because Betts was run-
ning out of the runners box when hit by Smoaks throw, he
Annual Trivia Quiz should be called out for interference and Bradley Jr. should

To Test Your be returned to second base. True or False?

Umpiring Skills 2 The Angels Kole Calhoun hits a slow roller down the
third-base line in foul territory. The ball is about two

I
ts time to cruise the waters of the Official Baseball
Rules by taking this 10-question true-or-false rules
quiz. If you get 9-10 correct answers, consider yourself
major league-ready. You will be assigned a balcony-and-
suite room with the best amenities.
Answering 7-8 questions correctly places you at the
mid-ship Triple-A level while a score of 5-6 puts you in
the low minors lower deck, next to the boiler room. Any
score of less than 5 correct answers prohibits you from
boarding.
Number your paper from 1-10 and answer true or false
for each question. The answers are at the end of the quiz.
Good luck!
inches off the line and appears to have a chance of rolling
fair. Angels third-base coach Gary DiSarcina picks up the
ball and flips it back to Braves pitcher Julio Teheran. The
umpires properly call Calhoun out because DiSarcina inter-
fered with the play, even though the ball was in foul territo-
ry. True or False?
3 The Indians have Jason Kipnis on third and Michael
Brantley at bat with one out when Kipnis dashes for
the plate in an attempt to steal home. Kipnis is safe, but
Brantley interferes with Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco.
The umps should call Brantley out and send Kipnis back
to third base. True or False?

LORENZO
CAIN

JAMES
McCANN
Photos by SportPics

54 May/June 2016
4 The Diamondbacks Chris Owings, the No. 8 hitter in
the batting order, erroneously bats in Jake Lambs
No. 7 spot in the bottom of the second inning. Owings has
a 1-1 count facing Madison Bumgarner when San
Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy brings Owings
batting out of order to the attention of the umpire. The
umpire should call Owings out for batting out of turn.
True or False?
5 In question No. 4, the Arizona Diamondbacks bat
out of order the first time around with Owings
improperly batting in the No. 7 spot. The Diamondbacks
must now bat in that order the rest of the game. True or
False?
6 The Nationals have Anthony Rendon on first base with
one out. With a 2-1 count on Bryce Harper, Rendon
steals second base. Harper subsequently flies out and its
discovered that he is using an illegal, corked bat. Harper
should be suspended and Rendon should be returned to first
base. True or False?
7 The Chicago Cubs Anthony Rizzo is facing the
Mariners Felix Hernandez with a 1-2 count when
Hernandez fires a pitch that hits the dirt. Rizzo swings
and tips the ball into the glove of Mariners catcher Mike
Zunino. This is a legal catch and Rizzo should be called
out on strikes. True or False?
ANTHONY
RIZZO
MATT
HARVEY
8 With two outs in the ninth inning, the Yanks have
Jacoby Ellsbury on first base and Brett Gardner at
the plate with a 3-2 count. Mets first baseman Lucas
Duda is playing no doubles defense, hugging the line
about 15 feet behind the base. Mets pitcher Matt
Harvey, in an apparent attempt to pick off Ellsbury,
fires the ball to the uncovered base, not aware that
Duda was a good distance behind the bag. The ball car-
oms off the stands, where it is recovered by Duda as
Ellsbury reaches third base. Because Duda could not
make a legitimate play on Harveys throw, Harvey
should be charged with a balk and Ellsbury should be
returned to second base. True or False?
9 With the Padres Wil Myers at bat, Alexei Ramirez,
who is on first base, is off with the pitch. Myers
swings and misses and makes contact with Phillies
catcher Carlos Ruiz on his follow-through. Despite the
backswing interference, Ruiz fires the ball errantly to
second base and the throw ends up in center field.
Ramirez sprints to third base, where he is thrown out by
Phils center fielder Odubel Herrera. Ramirez out should
stand and the backswing interference should be ignored
because the Phillies recorded a putout on the play.
True or False?
10 The Royals are trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the
ninth when Lorenzo Cain hits a walk-off grand
slam. But before Cain hits the ball, his bat comes in con-
tact with the mitt of Tigers catcher James McCann. The
Tigers argue that the home run should be nullified
because of the catchers interference, and all runners
should be awarded one base, making the score 4-2. But
the umpires correctly allow the home run, giving the
Royals a 5-4 win. True or False?
May/June 2016 55
ACROSS
1 Slugger named A.L. MVP in 2014
6 The film Moneyball earned six
____ nominations, one of them
going to star Brad Pitt
9 Make contact with
10 The A in BA By Larry Humber
11 Former Mets moundsmen Seaver
and Glavine
12 Runners on base, _____ __ ___
pond
14 Hawaiian city that was home of the
Triple-A Islanders
15 First game
18 Anthony Perkins was best known
for playing ____ Bates, but he also
portrayed the ballplayer referred to in
20 Across
20 Jimmy ____ was the subject of the
1957 film Fear Strikes Out
23 Pitcher who throws beanballs
24 Sore
26 All-Star Game creator Arch Ward
was editor of this Chicago newspaper
27 Hank Aaron hailed from Mobile,
___
28 Cardinals OF Willie ____ was
named N.L. MVP in 1985
29 Beats badly
Answers
1. FalseThe runners lane is designed to protect the
fielder taking the throw at first base. It does not protect the
fielder making a throw. Bradley Jr.s run counts as long as
Betts interference was not intentional.
2. TrueAs long as a batted ball has a chance of rolling
into fair territory, a coach is not allowed to touch it. If he
does, interference should be called and the batter is out.
3. FalseKipnis is called out and Brantley remains at bat
because there were less than two outs. If the interference
resulted in the third out, Brantley would be called out. In
either case, no run would score.
4. FalseBecause Bochy brought the batting-out-of-
order gaffe to the attention of the umpire in the middle of
the improper batters at-bat, Lamb goes to bat in his proper
No. 7 spot and inherits the 1-1 count. There is no penalty.
5. FalseDbacks manager Chip Hale can correct the
order at any time during the game. Batting out of order does
not change the order.
56 May/June 2016
DOWN
1 Andrew ____ was N.L. MVP in 2013
2 King Kong was a much-travelled
slugger who finished his career with 442
home runs
3 Pounds an opposing hurler, ____ off
on
4 Pitches better than ones opponent
5 Pursues and catches a flyball, ____ it
down
6 ___ - ___ are grounders that take a
single bounce
7 Dodgers hurler ____ Kershaw
8 Pee Wee
13 Totally revamp ones roster, as an
incoming GM might do: 2 words
16 Players sport them when trailing late in
games: 2 words
17 A team looking to dispose of a number
of pricey veterans is said to be having a
____ ____
19 Home of the Fightin Phils (its also a
school subject)
21 Old-fashioned
22 1 Across team
23 Willie Keeler advised, ____ ____
where they aint
25 The H in HOF
SOLUTION ON PAGE 62
6. FalseHarper should be suspended, but Rendon is
allowed to remain at second base because the illegal bat
was not a factor in the stolen base.
7. TrueA pitch in the dirt can be legally hit like any
other pitch and, accordingly, it is treated like any pitch that
is foul-tipped.
8. False If Harvey had thrown the ball to Duda, who was
in no position to make a play on Ellsbury, a balk should have
been called because the throw would not have been a legiti-
mate attempt to retire the runner. But because the umpires
judged that the throw was intended to be a direct throw to
the base, no balk should be called.
9. FalseAs soon as Ruiz throw did not retire Ramirez,
the ball becomes dead immediately. Ramirez is returned to
first base and Myers continues his at-bat. Backswing inter-
ference is interference without penalty. The batter is not out
and the runner being played on returns to his original base
if he is not retired.
10. TrueWhen catchers interference occurs, the ball is
not dead. If all runners, including the batter-runner,
advance at least one base on the play, the interference is nul-
lified. Credit Cain with a home run. BD
Rich Marazzi is a rules consultant for the Yankees, Red Sox,
Blue Jays, Royals, Mariners and Reds. If you would like to
contact Rich, you can email him at Rtmarazzi@aol.com or
write him at: 105 Pulaski Highway, Ansonia, CT 06401
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ance) $55; (6) BB Mag Oct 48 (Ruth Memory Article & Large Photo) $55; (7) HOF B&W Photo (10x7 in 41x11 mat) Hitting $25; (8) Wheaties mini-box,
60 Years of Sports Heritage NM-M $20

Williams, T: (1) True BB Yrbk 1950 (1st year!) Scratch on Ted cover so G only $70; (2) HOF B&W Photo (10x7 in 41x11 mat) Hitting $25; (3) Famous
Slugger Yrbk 1955 (How to be a Better Hitter by T Williams; Joe D HOF) $35; (4) BB Mag Oct 53 Large Williams Photo inside front cover $35; (5)
Sport Mag Feb 66 (11 pg Williams Tribute) $30; (6) Sporting News Aug 53 Williams cover $40; (7) Autographed Williams cachet: Sept 28, 1981
(Philadelphia) 40th Anniversary of .406 average, going 6 for 8 on 9-28-1941 $425

Dodgers: Dodger Family booklets 1961 (7x5) (1) Alston (2) T Davis (3) F Howard (4) N Larker (5) W Moon (6) Roseboro EX each $15; (7) Duke
Snider EX $35

Football - Unitas: (1) Complete Sports Pro Football Illus 61-62 Vol. 1 #4 Unitas cover (Jim Brown, Giants) $75; (2) Pro Football Stars 1960 Unitas
cover (7 pgs Unitas action photo album) $65; (3) Sports All-Stars Pro Football (Maco) 1960 Unitas cover $65; (4) Sports All-Stars Pro Football
1961 (Magic of Unitas) $35; (5) True Football Yrbk 1968 Unitas (Tarkenton, Starr) taped spine VG $40.

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 7TH INNING STRETCH

A
mong the 27 players with 500 or more career homers, only
five members hit all their HR with one franchise Mel Ott,
Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks and Mike Schmidt.
Here is a breakdown of clubs each member hit homers for. Totals
through 2015 for active players.

PLAYER TEAM HR PLAYER TEAM HR

Barry Bonds Pirates 176 Albert Pujols Cardinals 445
S.F. Giants 586 Angels 115
FRANK Total 762 Total 560
THOMAS Hank Aaron Mil. Braves 398 Manny Ramirez Indians 236
Atl. Braves 335 Red Sox 274
Brewers 22 L.A. Dodgers 44
Total 755 White Sox 1
Total 555
Babe Ruth Red Sox 49
Yankees 659 Mike Schmidt Phillies 548
Bos. Braves 6
Total 714
Mickey
Alex Rodriguez Mariners 189 Mantle
Rangers 156
Yankees 342
Total 687
Willie Mays N.Y. Giants 188
S.F. Giants 458
Mets 14
Total 660
Ken Griffey, Jr. Mariners 417
Reds 210 Mickey Mantle Yankees 536
White Sox 3
Jimmie Foxx Phil. As 302
Total 630
Red Sox 222
Jim Thome Indians 337 Cubs 3
Phillies 101 Phillies 7
White Sox 134 Total 534
Twins 37
Ted Williams Red Sox 521
Orioles 3
Total 612 Willie McCovey S.F. Giants 469
Padres 52
Sammy Sosa Rangers 22
Total 521
White Sox 28
Cubs 545 Frank Thomas White Sox 448
Orioles 14 Blue Jays 29
Frank Total 609 Oak. As 44
Robinson Total 521
Frank Robinson Reds 324
Orioles 179 Eddie Mathews Bos.Braves 25
L.A. Dodgers 19 Mil. Braves 452
Angels 50 Atl. Braves 16
Indians 14 Astros 10
Total 586 Tigers 9
SportPics

Total 512
Mark McGwire Oak. As 363
Cardinals 220 Ernie Banks Cubs 512
Total 583
Mel Ott N.Y. Giants 511

Breakdown Harmon Killebrew Senators

Twins
Royals
84
475
14
Gary Sheffield Brewers
Padres
Marlins
21
43
122

of Homers Total
Rafael Palmeiro Cubs
Rangers
573
25
321
L.A. Dodgers 129
Atl. Braves
Yankees
64
76

by Club Orioles
Total
Reggie Jackson K.C. As
223
569
1
Tigers
Mets
Total
44
10
509

for Players Oak. As

Orioles
Yankees
268
27
144
Eddie Murray Orioles 343
L.A. Dodgers 65
Mets 43

With 500 Angels

Total
123
563
Indians
Angels
Total
50
3
504
David Ortiz Twins 58
Red Sox 445
SportPics

Total 503
58 May/June 2016
 E
ntering the 2016 season, there were 29 players with 3,000
or more career hits and among those batters, 10 members
collected all of their major leauge hits with one club
Stan Musial, Derek Jeter, Carl Yastrzemski, Cal Ripken, George
Brett, Robin Yount, Tony Gwynn, Craig Biggio, Al Kaline and
Roberto Clemente. Here is a breakdown of clubs each member
collected hits for. Totals through 2015 for active players. At the
start of this season, Ichiro Suzuki was 65 hits away from 3,000
with totals of 2,533 with the Mariners, 311 with the Yankees and
DEREK 91 with the Marlins.
JETER
PLAYER TEAM H PLAYER TEAM H
Pete Rose Reds 3,358 Nap Lajoie Phillies 721
Phillies 826 Phi. As 475
Expos 72 Indians 2,047
Total 4,256 Total 3,243
Ty Cobb Tigers 3,900 Cal Ripken Orioles 3,184
Phi. As 289
George Brett Royals 3,154
Total 4,189
Paul Waner Pirates 2,868
Hank Aaron Mil. Braves 2,266
Bkn. Dodgers 115
Atl. Braves 1,334
Bos. Braves 168
Brewers 171
Yankees 1
Total 3,771
Total 3,152
Stan Musial Cardinals 3,630
Robin Yount Brewers 3,142
Tris Speaker Red Sox 1,327
Tony Gwynn Padres 3,141
Indians 1,965
Senators 171 Dave Winfield Padres 1,134
Phi. As 51 Yankees 1,300
Total 3,514 Angels 263
Blue Jays 169
Derek Jeter Yankees 3,465
Twins 222
Cap Anson Rockford 39 Indians 22
Phi. As 384 Total 3,110
Cubs 3,012
Alex Rodriguez Mariners 966
Total 3,435
Rangers 569
Honus Wagner Louisville 453 Yankees 1,535
Pirates 2,967 Total 3,070
Total 3,420
Craig Biggio Astros 3,060
Carl Yastrzemski Red Sox 3,419
Rickey Henderson Oak. As 1,768
Paul Molitor Brewers 2,281 Yankees 663
Willie Blue Jays 508 Blue Jays 35
Mays Twins 530 Padres 277
Total 3,319 Angels 21
Mets 159
David Durochik/SportPics

Mariners 77
Paul Red Sox 40
Molitor L.A. Dodgers 15
Total 3,055
Rod Carew Twins 2,085
David Durochik/SportPics

Angels 968
Total 3,053

Breakdown Lou Brock Cubs

Cardinals
Total
310
2,713
3,023

of Hits Eddie Collins Phi. As

White Sox
1,308
2,007
Rafael Palmeiro Cubs
Rangers
257
1,692

by Club Willie Mays

Total
N.Y. Giants
3,315
903
S.F. Giants 2,284 Wade Boggs
Orioles
Total
Red Sox
1,071
3,020
2,098

for Players Eddie Murray

Mets
Total
Orioles
96
3,283
2,080
Yankees
Rays
Total
702
210
3,010

With 3,000 Dodgers

Mets
Indians
Angels
483
318
339
35
Al Kaline Tigers
Roberto Clemente Pirates
3,007
3,000

Total 3,255
SportPics

May/June 2016 59
 7TH INNING STRETCH

W
alter Johnson is the only pitcher with 300 or more career
victories who collected all of his wins with one team. Here
is a breakdown of the 24 pitchers with 300 or more wins
and the teams each member won at least one game for.

PITCHER TEAM W PITCHER TEAM W

Cy Young Cle. Spiders 241 Nolan Ryan Mets 29
Cardinals 45 Angels 138
Red Sox 192 Astros 106
GREG Indians 29 Rangers 51
Bos. Braves 4 Total 324
MADDUX Total 511
Don Sutton L.A. Dodgers 233
Walter Johnson Senators 417 Astros 24
Grover Alexander Phillies 190 Brewers 26
Cubs 128 Oak. As 13
Cardinals 55 Angels 28
Total 373 Total 324

Christy Mathewson N.Y. Giants 372

Phil
Reds 1 Niekro

David Durochik/SportPics
Total 373
Pud Galvin St. Louis 4
Buffalo 218
Pitt. Pirates 126
Pitt. Burghers 12
St.L. Browns 5 Phil Niekro Mil. Braves 2
Total 365 Atl. Braves 266
Yankees 32
Warren Spahn Bos. Braves 122
Indians 18
Mil. Braves 234
Total 318
Mets 4
S.F. Giants 3 Gaylord Perry S.F. Giants 134
Total 363 Indians 70
Rangers 48
Kid Nichols Bos. Beaneaters 329
Padres 33
Cardinals 22
Yankees 4
Phillies 10
Atl. Braves 8
Total 361
Mariners 13
Greg Maddux Cubs 133 Royals 4
Atl. Braves 194 Total 314
L.A. Dodgers 8
Tom Seaver Mets 198
Padres 20
Reds 75
Total 355
White Sox 33
Roger Clemens Red Sox 192 Red Sox 5
Blue Jays 41 Total 311
Steve Yankees 83
Carlton Old Hoss Radbourn Providence 193
Astros 38
Bos. Beaneaters 78
Total 354
Bos. Reds 27
Tim Keefe Trojans 41 Reds 11
Metropolitans 78 Total 309
N.Y. Giants 174
Mickey Welch Tojans 69
N.Y. Giants (PL) 17
SportPics

N.Y. Giants 238

Phillies 32
Total 307
Total 342
Tom Glavine Atl. Braves 244
Steve Carlton Cardinals 77

Breakdown Phillies
S.F. Giants
White Sox
241
1
4 Randy Johnson
Mets
Total
Expos
61
305
3

of Wins Indians
Twins
Total
5
1
329
Mariners
Astros
Dbacks
130
10
118

by Club John Clarkson Worcester

Cubs
1
137
Bos. Beaneaters 149
Yankees
S.F. Giants
Total
34
8
303

for Pitchers Eddie Plank

Cle. Spiders
Total
Phi. As
41
328
284
Lefty Grove Phi. As
Red Sox
Total
195
105
300

With 300
Chris Bernacchi/SportPics

Browns 21 Early Wynn Senators 72

St.L. Terriors (FL) 21 Indians 164
Total 326 White Sox 64
Total 300
60 May/June 2016
 QUICK QUIZ ANSWERS
1 The eight players to have a 40-
homer season for the Giants are Mel
Ott, Johnny Mize, Willie Mays, Orlando
Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Kevin Mitchell,
Matt Williams and Barry Bonds.
2 The 27 players who have had a
50-homer campaign in the majors
are Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy
Sosa, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, Jimmie
Foxx, Hank Greenberg, Ryan Howard,
Luis Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez, Ken
Griffey Jr., Hack Wilson, Jose Bautista,
Ralph Kiner, Mickey Mantle, David
Ortiz, Chris Davis, George Foster,
Willie Mays, Jim Thome, Cecil
Fielder, Prince Fielder,
Andruw Jones, Johnny
Mize, Brady Anderson,
Albert Belle and Greg
Vaughn.
SportPics
3 Besides Harmon
Killebrew, the 10 other
players to win a league home-
run title and be elected to the
Hall of Fame since 1969 are
Willie McCovey, Johnny
Bench, Willie Stargell, Mike
Schmidt, Andre Dawson and
Ryne Sandberg in the National
League. The A.L. players are
Reggie Jackson, Jim Rice, Eddie
Murray and Ken Griffey Jr.
4 The two players to record five
seasons of 30 homers and 30 stolen
bases are Bobby Bonds and his son
Barry. Bobby had 30-30 seasons in 1969,
1973, 1975, 1977 and 1978. Barry did it in
1990, 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1997.
62 May/June 2016
FROM PAGE 53
5 During the strike-interrupted 1994
season, Matt Williams of the Giants
led the majors with 43 home runs and
9 The seven players with the last
name of Williams who had a 30-
homer season are Ken (1922), Cy (1923,
scored only 74 runsthe lowest total for 1927), Ted (1939, 1941-42, 1946-47, 1949,
a player with 40 or more homers. 1951, 1957), Billy (1964-65, 1968, 1970,
1972), Earl (1971), Matt (1990-91, 1993-94,
6 Willie Mays (413) and Willie
McCovey (371) combined to hit 784
1997, 1999) and Bernie (2000).
home runs as teammates with the San
Francisco Giantsthird most by two
teammates in major-league history.
10 The five 500-home-run hitters
to connect for at least one as a
member of the Chicago White Sox are
Snider and Hodges finished with 745, Sammy Sosa (28), Jim Thome (134),
Rice and Evans with 737, and Mantle Frank Thomas
and Berra teamed for 702. (448), Manny
Ramirez (1)
7 Gary Sheffield never hit
a home run to lead off a
game. The six players with
and Ken
Griffey
Jr. (3).
500 lifetime home runs who
did connect for a leadoff
homer are Barry Bonds (20),
Sammy Sosa (8), and
Harmon Killebrew, Mike
Schmidt, Mickey
Mantle and Eddie
Mathews, with
one each.
REGGIE
JACKSON
8 In 1929, Rogers Hornsby became
the first big-league batter to hit 30 or
more homers in a season with different Reggie Jackson led
the American League
teams. He clubbed 42 homers in 1922 and in home runs four
39 in 1925 with the Cardinals before belting times1973 and 1975
39 again in 1929 as a member of the Cubs. with the As, 1980 with
the Yankees, and 1982
with the Angels.