The Charm

Alex Omar Hinshaw, born on Halloween (October 31) in the year 1982 of our lord. A former Aztec (from San Diego State) he stands 6'4" and wears the number 52. Bats and throws left-handed.

There's something magical about this guy who could pass as Tim Lincecum's big brother.

On May 30, 2008 he was unable to locate the five-sided slab of whitened rubber set at ground level at the front corner of the diamond. And not because the home plate umpire was devoid of interpreting what a strike was on this particular evening. You don't translate orally to people unable to hear, you use signs. And in this game, with overcast during twilight time, Alex Hinshaw could not find the zone. When he had to come in to the batter the batter obliged by slapping the pitch into left field for a hit.

Out came Manager Bruce Bochy and in came reliever Keiichi Yabu. With no outs and runners on first and second base Yabu induced the batter to hit a ground ball. Only this was a perfectly struck ball that made it into the glove of third-baseman Jose Castillo who stepped on the bag and threw to Ray Durham at second base for the force and then Durham fired the hot potato to John Bowker (at first) for Bowker to put the final squeeze on it and just like that the inning was over. One pitch equals three outs. The Giants defense turned a triple play!

On Alex Hinshaw's worst performance- at the big league level- he somehow came out of it like a charm.

**************************************************

Brian Horwitz, called up for injured Dan Ortmeier, was batting .294, with 5-HR and 18-RBI in 44 games with Fresno. And oh by the way, Outfielder Nate Schierholtz has been tearing it up lately. He hit for the cycle on Monday. Hit a 3-run homer on Wednesday. Was 1-for-3, with 2-RBI on Thursday and went 3-for-3, with a 3-run homer on Friday.


(thanks to the Fresno Bee and Giants Web site)

Kevin Marquez

Aaron "Wile E." Rowland

He fouls balls off his feet, gets hit by pitches, crashes into fences on the fly, is in need of x-rays almost on a daily basis and yet he rarely misses his turn at-bat.

He's reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote in the way he's always around destruction. Although Canis latrans, (the animated version) seems to bring most of his undoings on himself by miscalculating the use of ACME products in his futile attempts at catching a roadrunner, I like the way he always shows up in the next sequence with more madness on slate. Rowand, like Wile E., just never goes away. That's where the similarity begins and ends. Wile E. never lets any type of mishap, (say): explosion, destruction or demolition, get in his way.

Nor does our man Aaron. Besides, Wile E. needs some love.

**********************************************************
Randy Winn hit a homer as a left-handed and a right-handed batter. That's Eddie Murray, or better yet, Mickey Mantle type stuff. Think about it, all the home runs hit in the steroid-infested major leagues, how many players can say they hit one from both sides of the plate? In the same game?

**********************************************************
It may be time to change my attachment to Brian Wilson's name. In his last two save opportunities, in which he GOT the save, he was not Brian "Wouldn't It Be Nice" Wilson but rather, Brian "Don't Worry Baby" Wilson.

This is the level of performance Dave Righetti, Mark Gardner, Bruce Bochy (and every Giant's fan) had always hoped Brian Wilson would attain.


Kevin Marquez

For Some Pitchers It's All About Slowing the Game Down

In last night's game at the BOB (Bank One Ballpark) fans got to see a pitcher (Arizona lefty-Doug Davis) really slow down the pace of the game. It was like watching a pitcher play softball with a hardball.

Batter's had to adjust their focus to the tempo Doug Davis (former City College in San Francisco player) was delivering his pitches. And the Giants were very successful at making the adjustment as they went on to an 11-3 victory.

Currently there are a few other pitches who use the same approach to their game. Lefties Mark Redman (Colorado) and Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia) are the antithesis of Jim Kaat, who when he was at the end of his career was as close to quick-pitching as could be allowed (an illegal pitch where the ball is thrown before the batter is set in the batter's box. Rule 8.05(e). If there is no one on base, the pitch is called a ball. But if there are any number of runners on base, it is ruled a balk. The ruling of a quick pitch is always up to the umpire.) without getting called for the overly zealous rapid pace. He must have had what the home plate umpire (for his game) liked in exchange for being allowed to pitch in the manner he was pitching.

The other extremely slow-paced pitcher, is knuckleballer Tim Wakefield of the Red Sox. (Wakefield is the only pitcher not a left-hander of those mentioned.) But the general feeling with a knuckleball pitcher is you expect the pace to be altered and in order to grasp what is happening you, as a player, probably welcome the deliberate pace.

Watching Doug Davis reminded me of former Giant and Astro lefty, Bob Knepper. When he first broke in with the Giants (1976-1980) and later with the Astros (1981-89) I don't remember him being any different from any other lefty. But when he returned for the remainder of 1989 and throughout the entire 1990 season, with the Giants, I recall him being very deliberate in his motion and in-between pitches. The guy had a pretty decent career even though his career record was W-146 L-155.

(His best season was in 1978 with the Giants. He posted a W-17 L-11 record with a 2.63 ERA. In Houston, from 1984 thru 1986 inclusive he won 15, 15 and 17 games. His last double-digit winning season was 1988 when he won 14.)
*************************************************

I guess the pitching style of Doug Davis piqued my objet d'art last night since I picked up on something else during the game. It wasn't really last night's game in particular but an accumulation of games throughout the season.

Having listened to Giants' color-analyst Mike Krukow, over the past several seasons, and his baseball jargons or Krukowisms he comes up with, I was wondering why he hasn't once made a comment about Jose Castillo's elephant ears (when the lining of a player's pockets are sticking out of the pockets) since it was he who initially went to the well- for this particular jargon-in the first place.

It's just that with Castillo, the "ears" seem to be a part of his wardrobe ensemble. The Jose Castillo design, if you will.


Kevin Marquez

(4) Josh, Biz and Roy of the Negro Leagues

Josh Gibson was born on December 21, 1911 and left us on January 20, 1947 at the very young age of 35.

He played for the Homestead Grays (1930-31; 1937-39; 1942-46) and the Pittsburgh Crawfords (1932-36).

Known as the "black Babe Ruth."

Walter "Big Train" Johnson, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Washington Senators, considered the top righthander in the white game by most, said it all:

"There is a catcher that any big league club would like to buy for $200,000. His name is Gibson. He can do everything. He hits the ball a mile, he catches so easily he might as well be in a rocking chair, throws like a bullet. Bill Dickey isn't as good a catcher. Too bad this Gibson is a colored fellow."

He had a terrible time with pop flies but Josh's bat was so powerful the Grays had to make room for him in the lineup. He became the home run threat the fans loved to watch. That he was no Biz Mackey as a catcher or a Bruce Petway, either, no one ever argued.

Cool Papa Bell rates Gibson as a "good" catcher, with a strong arm, and a good handler of pitchers, but said he was poor on pop-ups. Teammate Buck Leonard had an unwritten rule that he'd take every pop up, fair to foul, he could reach. But it was wood , not leather, that put Gibson in the Hall of Fame (in 1972).

In 1942, he suffered severe headaches and had blacked out a few times. Medical examinations determined the presence of a brain tumor, but Gibson was afraid of the results of such an operation and refused to submit to the knife. After banging up his knees as a result of so many plate collisions, when runners came high and hard with spikes flashing, he slowed down as a runner. From one of the team's fastest base runners, he became a lumbering giant the last few seasons. On the evening of January 20, 1947, Josh came home and predicted his own demise, telling his mother that he was going to have a stroke. One version, by Robert W. Peterson in Only the Ball was White, tells of a fun and laughing night as Gibson lay in his bed. He asked for all his trophies to be assembled at his bedside. Once this was accomplished, he laughed, sat up in his bed, then fell over dead.

James Raleigh "Biz" Mackey............Born 7/27/1897 Died 9/22/1965
Regarded as black baseball's premier catcher in the 1920s and early 1930s. His superior defense and outstanding throwing arm were complimented by a batting skill which placed him among the Negro Leagues all-time leaders in total bases, RBIs and slugging percentage while posting a lifetime batting average of .322.

During his career he played for: Indianapolis ABCs (1920-22); New York Lincoln Giants (1920); Hilldale Daisies (1923-31); Philadelphia Royal giants (1925); Philadelphia Stars (1933-35); Washington & Baltimore Elite Giants (1936-39); and Newark Dodgers/Eagles (1935, 1939-41, 1945-47, 1950).

Biz mentored a youthful Roy Campanella. Campanella recalled:
In my opinion he was the master of defense of all catchers. When I was a kid in Philadelphia, I saw both Mackey and Mickey Cochrane in their primes. For real catching skills I don't think Cochrane was the master of defense Mackey was. When I went under Mackey's direction, in Baltimore, I was 15. I gathered quite a bit watching how he did things. The way he blocked low pitches, how he shifted his feet for an outside pitch, how he threw with a short, quick and was accurate without drawing back. I got all of this from watching Mackey at a young age.

Biz is the grandfather of -former Denver Bronco tight end, and 4-time pro bowl player, #88,- Riley Odoms.

Both Gibson and Mackey never played in the major leagues because under the unwritten "gentleman's agreement" policy, they excluded non-whites during these two players' lifetime.

The baseball color line, sometimes called the "Gentleman's agreement," which excluded African-Americans from organized baseball in the United States before 1946. As a result, various Negro Leagues were formed.

Prominent players such as Hall of Famer, Adrian Constantine "Cap" Anson, steadfastly refused to take the field with or against teams with African Americans on the roster. (Anson was researched by Dennis Yuhasz, and seen as a man of high moral standing, a very religious man and yet he was also a bigot.)

During his term in office as the first baseball commissioner, Keneshaw Mountain Landis, has been alleged to have been particularly determined to maintain the segregation, of keeping
African-Americans out of baseball. It was why he was voted in as baseball's commissioner by the majority of the owners during that time. Some of the owners were just as much to blame as they too didn't want some of their players to lose their jobs to African-Americans.

He used the then-existing constitutional doctrine of separate but equal institution.
Seperate but equal is a set phrase denoting the system of segregation that justifies giving different groups of people separate facilities or services with the declaration that the quality of each group's public facilities remain equal.

Although Landis was acredited with serving an important role in helping to restore the integrity of the game, after the 1919 World Series/Black Sox scandal, his unyielding stance on the subject of baseball's color line was a barrier that separated Landis from those owners who wanted to improve their ballclubs and knew the signing of African-Americans would be their best way of achieving such a feat.

Proof of this was that Landis died late in 1944 and Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, with new commissioner, Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler not being so narrow-mindedly focused on keeping the color line in tact.

(thanks to Wikipedia, Baseball-Almanac and The Sporting News Hall of Fame Fact Book)

Kevin Marquez

(3) Gordon Stanley "Mickey" Cochrane

Born April 6, 1903 in Bridgewater, MA. Died June 28, 1962 in Lake Forest, IL.

Career Stats: G-1482 R-1041 H-1652 2B-333 3B-64 HR-119 RBI-832 SB-64 AVG-.320

Player: Philadelphia Athletics (1925-1933)
Detroit Tigers (1934-1937)
Manager: Detroit Tigers (1934-midway thru 1938)

World Series Champ in 1929 (Phila)....AB-15 R-5 H-6 2B-1 AVG. .400
1930 (Phila) AB-18 R-5 H-4 HR-2 RBI-4 AVG. .222
1935 (Det) AB-24 R-3 H-7 2B-1 RBI-1 AVG. .292

Lost World Series in 1931(Phila) AB-25 R-2 H-4 2B-1 RBI-1 AVG. .160
1934(Det) AB-28 R-2 H-6 2B-1 RBI-1 AVG. .214
**************************************

After breaking in with the Philadelphia A's in 1925, he quickly established himself as one of the best offensive players ever at the catcher position. A left-handed batter, Cochrane ran well enough that manager Connie Mack (a catcher during his playing days) would occasionally insert Mickey into the leadoff spot in hopes he could get on base for Al Simmons or Jimmie Foxx.

In the 1931 World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals , Cochrane became the scapegoat of the press for the A's losing the series. Not only did he bat a paltry .160 but the Cardinals stole 8 bases in the Series (5 by Pepper Martin).

In 1934, Connie Mack started to disassemble his dynasty for financial reasons and sold Cochrane to the Detroit Tigers for Johnny Pasek and $100,000. Pasek was then traded with George Earnshaw (a 3-time 20-game winner) to the White Sox for Charlie Berry and $20,000.

Mickey Cochrane's playing career came to a sudden end on May 25, 1937 when he was hit in the head by a pitch from New York Yankee pitcher, Bump Hadley. No kidding! Cochrane was hospitalized for seven days as this injury nearly killed him. When Cochrane returned to the dugout he had lost his competitive fire. He was replaced midway through the 1938 season. His managerial record was an impressive W-348 L-250, a .582 winning percentage.

Mickey was a close friend of Ty Cobb. Cobb was good to Mickey, helping Cochrane out financially at the end of his life. Mickey, along with Ray Schalk and Nap Rucker were the only ballplayers to show up at Cobb's funeral on July 17, 1961.

In 1947, Mickey Cochrane was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Of all the information, I was able to gather, it appears that Mickey Cochrane was a serviceable backstop whose main asset was his offensive prowess. This might have been the exception to the rule of defense first for the catcher position. Proving throughout the history of baseball and life in general that there will always be room made for someone who can hit. Life has a tendency to make allowances for those who offer something most cannot.

There is one other thing of note on Gordon Stanley "Mickey" Cochrane. On October 20, 1931 in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, a proud father honored his newborn child when he named him after his favorite ballplayer, Mickey Cochrane. That baby was Mickey Charles Mantle.


(thanks to Wikipedia and Baseball-Reference)

Kevin Marquez

Bandits in Blue

With this recent horrific display of officiating in the big leagues I wonder if some of those bandits in blue are making calls based on the jersey rather than how the play was executed?

We always hear how some fans root for the jersey while others root for the player and it's understood that it's all a matter of preference. Hey, you pluck down the dollars for a ticket you can root how you choose. Wear whatever colors you want and root-root-root for whichever team you so desire. It doesn't have to be the home team.

I marvel at how it's always so coincidental that the popular teams (Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, Dodgers, to name more than a few) always seem to be the benefactors of fortuitous calls. Then you see the behavior of that particular bandit in blue -when questioned by the manager of the team on the short end of the call- and you are almost convinced that's the way it works. Such is life...

Then you see where all the concern is about speeding up the game. How about baseball's arbiters, a.k.a. bandits in blue, do what they were hired to do and call a consistent rulebook strike zone. Is that asking too much of today's bandits in blue?

Teams are so concerned with the pitch count and a lot of that has to do with the extra pitches that have to be thrown on account of the unaccountable bandit in blue -behind-the plate- who for some reason doesn't feel the need to call strikes according to the rulebook. How about that, the arbiter who was hired to see that the rules were adhered to and s/he shucks it all aside for his/her interpretation. I thought that was something only women did and-for the most part- were allowed to get away with? Woman's prerogative an all of that nonsense. Well, guess what sports fans, the way officiating is being handled by the powers-that-be it is as if each and every official gets a mulligan per game. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that little boys and girls grow up to be game officials?

Dear Mr. and Mrs./Ms. Fan: Get used to it! You pay your hard-earned dollars to go see a game, to get away from all the hustle and bustle and what you get instead is schtick. If only you could get away with those incidental blunders at your work place. But you cannot so GET USED TO IT.

And, oh yeah, Mister Numbers-Cruncher, Bill James, how about factoring in the success rate of batters who got more than 3 strikes (courtesy of the bandit in blue behind-the-plate) when they were batting. Probably pretty good, huh?

It's right about this time when the Elvis Presley song-Feel So Bad- plays in surround sound...of course, it's probably just me this happens to.

Feel so bad
like a ballgame on a rainy day
Feel so bad
like a ballgame on a rainy day

Yes I got my rain check
Shake my head and walk away

Oooooooh Ooooooh, people that's the way I feel
Oooooooh Ooooooh, people that's the way I feel.

(date recorded March 12, 1961.
chart debut: May 15, 1961
Peak chart position: #5)

1961 was the year the Los Angeles Angels broke onto the major league scene.
1961 was also the year the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins, playing their first season in the big leagues.
1961 was the year Willie Mays signed the richest contract to date...$85,000.
1961 was the year Roger Maris belted 61 home runs.

(Thanks to Baseball-Almanac)

Kevin Marquez

(2) Roger Bresnahan - Duke of Tralee

Roger Philip Bresnahan. Nicknamed: Duke of Tralee. Born June 11, 1879 in Toledo, OH. Died December 4, 1944, in Toledo, Ohio.

AB-4481, R-682, H-1252, HR-26, RBI-530, BA-.279, SB-212

Played for the Washington Senators (1897); Chicago Orphans/Cubs (1900; 1915-1915); New York Giants (1902-1908); St. Louis Cardinals (1909-1912).

Player-Manager: St. Louis Cardinals (1909-1912) and the Chicago Cubs (1915).

Played on the World Series Champion New York Giants under John "Mugsy" or "Little Napolean" McGraw in 1905. In that Series his batting statistics were: AB-16, R-3, H-5, 2B-1, RBI-1, AVG-.313

In 1907, Bresnahan introduced the use of a catcher's shin guard.

On July 11, 1911, while player-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, the team was involved in a train wreck while riding the Federal Express from Philadelphia,PA to Boston, MA. Fourteen (14) passengers were killed after the train derailed and plunged down an eighteen foot embankment outside Bridgeport, CT. None of the Cardinal players were seriously injured, due to a fortuitous pre-tip change in the location of their Pullman car that Bresnahan had requested. The Cardinals helped remove bodies and rescue the injured.

Bresnahan was mentioned in Ogden Nash's poem "Lineup for Yesterday."
B is for Bresnahan
Back of the plate;
The Cubs were his love
and McGraw his hate. (January 1949)

Inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1945. On his plaque reads:
Batterymate of Christy Mathewson with the New York Giants, he was one of the game's most natural players and might have starred at any position. The "Duke of Tralee" was one of the few major league catchers fast enough to be used as a leadoff man.

Sabermetrician, Bill James, said Bresnahan being elected into the Hall of Fame was an honor Roger did not deserve. In an article by Stephen J. Dubner on April 1, 2008, the question asked was Who are ten players in the Hall of Fame that do not deserve to be there? He lists Fred Lindstrom, Jesse Haines, Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner, Earle Combs, Chick Hafey, George Kelly, Ross Youngs, Tommy McCarthy, Jim Bottomley and Roger Bresnahan, in no particular order.

Many authorities of the game consider him to be the greatest catcher in the deadball era. This is why I am puzzled as to why writers have the utmost say as to who gets elected and who does not get elected into Baseball's Hall of Fame. These guys may have played stick ball or some summer league but it isn't the same as competing at the higher levels, say college, minor leagues or better still, the big leagues.

When a guy like Bill James spouts off that so-and-so doesn't deserve to be enshrined I say, "What have you done between the lines?"

(thanks to Wikipedia and Baseball Reference)

Kevin Marquez