Danny Boy

I think I’m beginning to understand what happened while I was on vacation…

When I saw that Danny was pitching tonight, I was happy. I think my exact words were, “Oh, goody!” He is such an enormous, imposing figure, ten feet of him towering over the mound. From the batter’s perspective, I like to imagine that facing Danny when he’s on his game is like staring down a black bear.

Tonight just wasn’t one of those nights. Tonight was more of a “face a kitten” sort of night. Danny played with the prey okay, he rolled over and purred a little, let them rub his belly, got in a few scratches, but he never got around to the ‘killing the prey” part. When he hits a batter and we’re playing the Red Sox or the Ys, I really don’t mind too much, and if I’m being honest, I even relish it a little. When we’re playing any other team, though, it’s just not helpful. Before tonight’s game, Cabrera was third in the league for hitting batters. Now, he is unsurpassed, he leads both leagues in HBP, at eight. Justin Verlander of Detroit and Tim Wakefield of Boston both have seven. Pretty soon, if he keeps it up, someone is going to model an XBOX game after him. You get points if you can get to base without being hit. In fact, I think baseball ought to invent a new stat, “Batters who got on base without 1) being walked or 2) being hit by Cabrera.

Oh well, hopefully he’ll be back on his game soon. As to the rest of the game, in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

This is a perfect segue for a post I was preparing earlier in the week. My friend R at work who has been a fan even longer than I, in my decrepit old age, is a veritable treasure trove of interesting baseball stories that he regales me with when we meet by chance in the breakroom. Sometimes, bumping into him is the best thing that happens to me at work all week. The other day he said, “You remember Don Baylor?” “Oh! Yes,” I replied somewhat hesitantly, by which I meant, yes I know him, I know I saw him play, but I can’t say I remember a lot else about him. R continued, “Of course you would, he’s an Oriole,” to which we both nodded and had a little chuckle, the unstated ending being, “You Orioles nut, you!”

R went on to tell me about one of Baylor’s most notable stats. These days, as you know, batters don’t particularly like being hit by pitches. In the best of circumstances, it’s the stuff that can make for bench clearing brawls. That wasn’t always so. Batters of a previous era sometimes used it as a strategy to get on base. Don Baylor, for example, would deliberately lean into the pitch and has one of the highest HBP numbers of anyone. Look at this (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see his numbers). I looked up other batters and couldn’t even find the stat for most.

Next R and I had a good discussion about the merits of the DH, which according to him are “none,” most especially because if you’re a pitcher and you know you’re coming up to bat soon, you won’t likely be inclined to intentionally throw at the opposing team. To wit, he gave this example that I found described on Askmen.com as one of the top 10 best sports brawls:

San Diego Padres vs. Atlanta Braves
August 12, 1984

This one started out ugly and just got worse. It began when Pascual Perez, pitcher for the Braves, threw at the Padres’ lead-off man, Alan Wiggins, on the opening pitch. San Diego responded by throwing at Perez every time he came to bat. The benches were destined to cleared, and they were — twice. When the dust settled, 19 players were ejected and five spectators were arrested for their unruly behavior. Tensions spread to the post-game interviews when the Braves’ manager, Joe Torre, likened the San Diego bench boss, Dick Williams, to a man named Hitler.

Aftermath: Five players and Perez were suspended for three games, while Dick Williams was suspended for 10 days and fined $10, 000.

Somehow, I see a moment like that in our future. It’s okay, tonight is a new night and we will start fresh.

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