Managers can do the strangest things
Posted: Thursday June 04, 1998 10:46 AM
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- There are few, if any, strategical ploys that a manager
can use that haven’t been used before. But Buck Showalter came close.
When the Arizona
Diamondbacks skipper ordered Barry Bonds to
be intentionally walked with the bases loaded, it was the first time in 54
years that a major league manager used that strategy. Both times it worked.
The intentional pass to Bonds cut the Diamondbacks’ lead over the Giants to
8-7. The next hitter, Brett Mayne, lined out to right to end the game.
In 1944, New York Giants manager Mel Ott called for a bases-loaded
intentional walk to Chicago Cubs slugger Bill
Nicholson, who already had hit four home runs in the doubleheader at the
Polo Grounds. After the seventh-inning walk, the Cubs led 12-10 and they
held on to win by that score.
Playing the numbers: Showalter (right) got the win after walking Bonds, who is batting .500 with 9 RBIs in six bases-loaded at-bats this season
(Brian Bahr/Allsport)
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Not all such radical strategies are as successful.
On May 24, in the ninth inning of a 1-1 tie, Cubs manager Jim Riggleman
made center fielder Brant Brown a
fifth infielder when Atlanta’s Michael
Tucker came to the plate with runners at first and third. Brown was
positioned just to the right side of second base. Tucker promptly nullified
that move, looping a soft line-drive single to left field to win the game.
The fifth infielder move is tried, with mixed results, a few times every
season. In 23 years of covering major league baseball, I’ve seen it work
only once. In the mid 1970s, Braves manager Dave Bristol brought in center
fielder Rowland Office as a fifth infielder against the San Francisco Giants
and proudly watched the next San Francisco hitter hit a ground ball right
to Office for the game-ending force play.
Former White Sox, Pirates and Braves manager Chuck Tanner had a pet play he
would try once or twice a season. The situation: Runners on first and
third, less than two outs and a weak hitter -- often a pitcher -- at the
plate.
Tanner would call for the hitter to bunt the ball toward third. The runner
at third would follow the third baseman toward the ball, staying a step or
two behind. If the third baseman tried to chase him back, the hitter would
reach and the bases would be loaded. If the third baseman threw to first,
the runner on third would break toward home as soon as the throw was
released -- and, says Tanner, “There is no way you can throw him out.”
The play took perfect timing and rarely worked. But Tanner always defended
it. “If it’s done right,” he’d say, “it will always work.”
Billy Martin used a unique method to snap a losing streak during one of his
stints as New York
Yankees manager. Frustrated by a lack of success his lineups were
having, Martin had his starters draw their spot in the batting order out of
a hat.
“I wound up hitting eighth,” says Chris Chambliss, normally the team’s
third-place hitter, “but we won that day, so Billy kept the name-in-the-hat
lineup going for a couple more days. It really loosened us up and got us
out of our slump.”
But the ultimate strategic ploy came from an owner. St. Louis Brown showman
Bill Veeck will be remembered forever as the man who signed 3-foot-7 Eddie
Gaedel and had him used as a pinch hitter in a 1951 game against Detroit.
Gaedel walked in his only pinch-hit appearance, after which his contract
was voided by the Commissioner’s Office. Looking for No. 1 |
Going, not gone
| Players still looking for first
homer
of '98 (through May 31): | | Player |
Team | At-bats | Bip Roberts
Walt Weiss
Ricky Gutierrez
Chris
Gomez
Darryl Hamilton
Rey Ordonez
Quilvio Veras
Omar
Vizquel
Tony Womack
| Detroit
Tigers
Atlanta Braves
Houston Astros
San Diego Padres
S.F.
Giants
N.Y. Mets
San Diego Padres
Cleveland Indians
Pittsburgh Pirates
| 108
145
148
153
165
168
170
194
224
|
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Mark McGwire, Alex
Rodriguez, Ken Griffey
Jr., Andres
Galarraga, Juan Gonzalez.
It’s been a great year for sluggers.
At the other end of the spectrum are nine players with more than 100
at-bats who had yet to hit their first home run through the games in May
(see chart).
Womack and Gomez finally ended their homerless streaks on the first day of
June. Womack connected against the Mets on Monday night, while Gomez yanked
two against the St.
Louis Cardinals to end his skid. Straight to the bigs
It’s unlikely that any of the picks in this week’s free-agent draft will
report directly to the majors. There hasn’t been one since 1989, when John Olerud went
straight from Washington State to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Since the draft began in 1965, only 17 players have gone straight to the
majors without playing in the minors, including such standouts as Dave
Winfield and Bob Horner.
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Burrell hit .432 this season, actually low by his standards -- he finished three hits short of batting .500 as a college freshman
(AP)
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According to scouts, the only two in this year’s draft who could make the
jump directly are Miami (Florida) third baseman Pat Burrell and former
Florida State star J.D. Drew, who is eligible again after a yearlong battle
with the Philadelphia
Phillies and baseball’s draft system.
One of the nation’s top players won’t be on anyone’s draft list this year.
Spring (Texas) High School pitcher Josh Beckett compiled an 11-1 record
this season with an 0.38 ERA. In 73 innings, the 6-foot-1 right-hander
allowed only 20 hits and struck out 151. But Beckett is only a junior.
He briefly considered skipping his senior year to enter the draft -- where,
according to many scouts, he would have been a Top 10 pick.
By this time next year, Beckett, whose fastball has been clocked at 97 mph,
will be a cinch No. 1 pick.
“At this stage of his career, he’s better than [Chicago Cubs rookie] Kerry
Wood,” says one Texas high school coach who has faced both young
phenoms.
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