Clutch 30-2016: Baseball Heroes (and Goats) don’t Wear Capes

In the Clutch (no pun intended) the big star players are supposed to deliver. That’s what and why they get paid an outrageous ridiculous amount of money. Getting a bunch of key hits or striking out the side at a bunch of important moments is where the team benefits from giving a star that long-term bloated contract. Of course these players are also supposed to deliver on getting a team to that moment in addition to pushing them over the top.

You see this with a fair amount of regularity with great players doing their usual thing in the playoffs and the crown jewel: the World Series. The booming power-hitter bashes a couple of homeruns, the Ace of the staff picks up a couple of wins and shuts down the opposition and on and on. Since this is typically expected it’s often overlooked among the games of the series. The feeling is that since a player is doing with he’s “Supposed” to do it doesn’t necessarily draw headlines or long-term memories.

It’s the anomalies that become back-page news, watercooler talk and things later on discussed over a beer. There are two types of these situations. The first, which is the positive, is when an unknown player comes out of the woodwork and delivers in one or many spots on the biggest stage such as the World Series. The other type is quite the opposite were that star player folds like a cheap suit or broken down valise. Both types probably get equal storage in the prefrontal cortex to be recalled later on during baseball chat sessions.

Let’s first take a look at a few success stories. The first comes from the Boone family. No, not Daniel Boone, but the baseball Boones. Forget about the fact that the Boone family lineage goes back multiple generations, and if you don’t want to forget about it see the blog from a month or so ago that focused on ancestry in the major leagues. For now, let’s look at the current generation of Boones which spit out two big leaguers. One you likely heard of as he had a pretty solid career in the game. That of course is Bret Boone who spent 13 years in the league, a handful of awards, and solid career stats.  

The lesser Boone whose name might not be top of mind is Aaron Boone, Bret’s brother. Aaron kicked around for almost the same number of years, but with way less stellar stats, awards of general player notoriety over his career. That said, Aaron Boone is a bit of a hero in New York.  He spent the back half of one season (2003) with the Yankees, where he was traded to from Cincinnati in one of those “Rent a player” deals. One at bat summed up his career in the Bronx which was game 7 of the ALCS versus the arch-rival Boston Red Sox where he hit a dramatic walk-off home run in the 11^th inning to win the game and the series for the Yanks and propelled them into the World Series. It’s fair to say that no Yankee fan will ever forget that moment or that player. Yankee brass, on the other hand, must have thought differently as Aaron was cut from the team the next spring during camp.

In the fall of 1986 there were a string of heroes across town with the Mets. They were the guys that created and maintained the most drama filled come-back and rally in World Series history, bar none. Unfortunately for the city of Boston, this scenario also ends with them losing. If you are not familiar with “Game 6” I advise you to google it to get the full details. The Clutch research team is confident that the entire famous inning is well documented anywhere on the Internet. The hero focus that will be looked at here is on William Hayward Wilson. Though the name sounds like that of a historical US President, he is more affectionately known in these parts as “Mookie”.

Mookie Wilson had a pretty decent baseball career. He played for around 10 years, with the lion’s share of that being with the Mets. As a matter of fact, kid Clutch was (and still is) infuriated when Wilson was traded to the Blue Jays in the twilight of his career. Mookie was never the same as a player and his playing career ended up in Canada just two years later. Luckily the Mets “fixed” that debacle by hiring Wilson into several positions in the organization after he hung him his spikes and batting gloves. As a side-note teenage Clutch kind of met the Met legend. After a game one Sunday afternoon while catching a ride home from Shea on the Grand Central parkway a glance to right presented Mookie driving home after a day’s work in a customized van.

The simple reason that Wilson could do no wrong since that famous day is that he singlehandedly saved the 86 Mets from a disastrous end of season. Long story short, and as noted it’s highly recommended to look this up and watch it, The Mets and Mookie down to their last strike and were a pitch away from losing a World Series that they were highly favored to win. What did Mookie do? He managed to foul off four (4) pitches before the sound heard around the world: “Little roller up along first, behind the bag it gets through Buckner”. Mookie became a hero in literally 2.5 seconds.

Staying focused on New York for another moment or two, there were a couple of opposite cases where someone expected to deliver and didn’t. It was the malaise of game one of the 2000 subway World Series with the Mets pitted against the cross-town rival Yankees. Ironically they were the two teams that caused all that angst in Boston. The Yankees were favored to win the series with the star-studded and expensive lineup while the scrappy Mets got there by piecing together a great season with a collection of very good players plus star Mike Piazza. Clutch fun-fact that Robin Ventura and Joe McEwing batted 5^th and 6^th in the lineup in game one of the series and a baker’s dozen years later would be coaching side-by-side for the White Sox.

That infamous, considered as such by Met fans, Game One was queued up for the Mets to win until two goat type moves. Timo Perez neglected to run out a Todd Zeile double, which would have delivered an all-important insurance run to the one-run lead being nursed by the Metropolitans. Then there was Armando Benitez, who was lights out all regular season, but just couldn’t get it down in the big situation. He blew the save in the 9^th inning causing overtime. Yup, the Mets lost it in 11^th inning – and there went the momentum of the series. To his credit Armando pitched OK the rest of the way, including a save in the only game the Mets would win in the series. That said – he will only be remembered for the game one performance!

On to 2016 where a young unknown named Kyle Schwarber is making some name for himself. The future star in his second season suffered a season ending injury after five (5) season at-bats. Schwarber made an “Ali like” return to the diamond in the World Series and was a key contributor in the Cubs “Must win” game two of the World Series. He even had a rare to find hit in game one where the Cubs bats were frozen. Fans spanning the country and possible the globe are all ears to see what he does the rest of the way.  The Clutch guess-o-meter says he puts on a performance that makes him an insta-hero in the Windy City.

Clutch 29-2016: Eve of the Eve of the Big Games

Mr. Clutch is coming to you live (well, live at the time of this writing) from somewhere between here and there. There is Philadelphia, PA and here is up in the air on a flight to Chicago. The guess is that the aircraft will be crossing over the Illinois border at some point soon. This normally wouldn’t mean much of anything except yesterday the Cubbies from the windy city reset the record books.  They are heading to the World Series for the first time since 1492.

OK, so it wasn’t 1492 – that’s when Columbus sailed the ocean blue and allegedly discovered America. The year was the early 1900s and in the paper today there was a fun article that listed all the things that didn’t exist the last time such an event occurred. It included most technology, color TV and probably most of the daily amenities that everyone takes for granted today. If time permits perhaps the exact list will make this post.

If the L.A. Dodgers, who by the way were on the list of things that didn’t exist last time the residents of Wrigley were in a world series, would have one won game six yesterday, then the Clutch team would be in route to watch game seven of the NLCS live between the two teams left from the National League. Those were the two teams that by the way the Mets motored through just a year ago in serious New York October baseball.  The coincidental trip to Chi-town could have been a bucket list knock off, and an elimination game no less.

Instead of witnessing some miniscule part of history, the 24 hours in the Windy city will likely not include a lot of baseball. That said, if time permits, which it certainly would of if a game was going to be played, a quick stop down at Wrigley field might be in order. The Clutch travel team believes that the excitement and aura of championship baseball will still be in air around the stadium despite the fact that the players will be on their way to Cleveland. The guess is that a fair amount of press, tourists and shocked locals will be wandering around the campus.

For anyone out there who is a baseball diehard seeing some places and possible games in being played in them are a must. On any list out there is Fenway park in Boston and Wrigley field in Chicago. They are two of the oldest old school stadiums that still exist and hold more history than any book or website. The best players of all time suited up and locked horns in these places. Records were set, classic games were played and of course these stadiums hold unbelievable historic significance.

As noted in a previous blog, Mr. Clutch and his gang from the old neighborhood visited Fenway a while back and was able to take in the full experience of a game, a tour and everything else that came along with visiting the great baseball town. Though during the off-season, and a time when the Cubs were playing poorly, Clutch, traveling solo like this trip, was in Chicago with time to kill.  The visit to the outside of Wrigley was relatively dull. It was cold, the tours were not running that day and not much was going on. The highlight was picking up some souvenirs to bring home. The hope is that this pilgrimage has better value.

Clutch is no stranger to being around World Series baseball.  Teenager Clutch was practically a resident of Shea Stadium back in October of 1986. Likely noted in previous blogs, ticket access was easy to come to that year and the Mets played home games in game one, two and six, seven (both if necessary). Four tickets to each game was obtained. These seats were right behind home plate and “Loge level”. For those not familiar with the seating chart of the old man, that was one level up and excellent seat.

What was the face value for these tickets? $1,000? $500? Keep going lower. The tickets were sold on the singular market for $30 each. It was hard to believe, and for those who don’t believe it there are many easy ways to validate it. Of course in this day and age the fastest way would be to “Google” the term “1986 Mets World Series ticket” and then click on images. That will bring up plenty of originals which you can select and zoom in on to see the price. Not that technically savvy? Then drive over to Clutch’s house, go down into his basement and look at the ticket from game six which is hanging in the LED lit glass shrine.

Having your team make it to a World Series is exciting. Having it happened when your team is coming off a pretty long losing streak like the Mets of 86 and now the Cubs of 16 is even more exciting. It brings people together and puts a smile on fans faces. The fact of the matter is that most fans of baseball are “Regular” folks with regular jobs and work to pay their bills and advance forward in life. Having a team that you cheer for get to or win a world title certainly brightens you day, week or year.

One final noteworthy item about the Cubs making it to the World Series comes from the same place the team they just beat does: Hollywood. Mr. Clutch is a fan of many things and after baseball is the great movie trilogy “Back to the Future”. In the sequel, BTTF 2, Marty played by the even greater Michael J. Fox, travels into the future from 1985ish to October 21, 2015 – which happens to be a year and two days ago today. While walking through the town square he sees a digital billboard with a joke which reads “Cubs win the World Series”. Like the self-tie laces and flat screens perhaps this fictional prediction was also right on – just a year late! 

Clutch 28-2016: Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Calm down everyone, this blog is not exactly about the song of the same name. Of course this is in reference to the Cyndi Lauper perennial hit from 1983. It’s amazing that Cyndi, the native New Yorker, is still going strong 33 years later. For those not keeping an eye on her career Lauper very recently compose the music for the Broadway smash hit “Kinky Boots”. To close out the bio info on Ms. Cyndi, she also was born and raised one town away from Mr. Clutch and the Mr. and Ms. spent a year (not at the same time) in the same high school.

Though a unsex sport for sure, Softball is typically thought of us as the girls or women version of baseball. In high schools like Adams, girls softball is offered. It’s also a non-popular, but scholarship level sport in college. There is not much along the way of professional softball leagues – though the sport was and will once again be a Summer Olympic event. The sports Olympic life started in Atlanta in 1996. It ended in 2008 in Beijing. The good old USA took gold In 96,00 and 04. They lost to the Japan team in 08 before the sport was removed from Olympic play. Rumor has it that it returns in 2020!

There are not many famous female softball players out there. Can you name one? The Clutch guess-o-meter says that your average person can name none and that a real all-sports fanatic can probably name one. That one would be Jennie Finch. The good looking right hander is legendary in the world of softball and of course was responsible for one of those USA Olympic gold medals. She shattered several records in college and had a phenomenal pro career, though as noted professional softball is an unknown sport. Jennie was also an accomplished power hitter and is married to Casey Daigle, a baseball player and also as pitcher, who had a cup of coffee with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Houston Astros. They have three kids, and the world waits to see their fastball.

Before digging into the crux of this blog, it is noteworthy that while not a female, Mr. Clutch was a softball Phenom in his own right. The early days of the career featured playing on two teams, of which each played a double-header every Sunday. It was mornings on schoolyard blacktop and afternoons on the grass. A power hitter by trade, Clutch was also a gold-glover on the left side of the infield. The highlight of the Clutch career was leading the 2000 Summerfield co-ed team to a 12-0 perfect season. The lowlight would be a few years later where this stellar career came to abrupt end on opening day of the JCC (Jewish league) season. Trying to get back to first base and not get doubled off Clutch’s cleet got stuck in the base causing a rolled and badly torn ankle. It was a season and career ending injury for the legendary hitter.

Only those movie buffs out there would know what the real topic is here. It’s the AAGPBL or All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league had absolutely zero notoriety until the hit movie “A League of Their Own” was released in 1992. Though fiction in plot, it was based on real events which was a women’s “Baseball” league that was in effect from 1943 to 1954. Baseball is in quotes only because it was a somewhat modified morphed version of the game. It was close to regular baseball except the ball was larger – closer to a softball – and the bases were 65 feet instead of 90.

Most of the concepts that were displayed in the movie were real including the short dress uniforms and the players being sent to charm school during spring training.  There really was a Rockford Peaches team and they won the title multiple times during the leagues existence. The purpose or reason that the league existed to begin with was to keep professional baseball alive during the war. Also like the movie, attendance and interest in the games started to grow over time, though not in the initial season.

The girl’s league was the brainchild of Philip Wrigley, the gum mogul and of course the moniker that appears in that still famous baseball stadium in Chicago.  I guess the heirs weren’t keen on using the name in the movie since they changed it to “Harvey” and called the guy a chocolate guy instead of gum, sugary nonetheless. They only changed the name of the Tom Hanks character who was the drunkard manager and former star player.  Jimmy Dugan from the movie was actually Jimmy Foxx, the slugger and all around great hitter who played 20 years in the bigs and amassed 534 HRs, a shade under 2,000 RBIs and a .325 BA during that period.  Oh, and by the way he also executed the “Triple Crown” in 1933. Not too shabby.

Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell played for the Hanks team. They are of specific interest, unlike some of the other star studded cast members like Geena Davis and the great Lori Petty, because they were also New Yorkers. Rosie a native, and Madonna moved to the big apple as a teenager trying to make it in show business, and wow did that work out. Madonna’s baseball career ended when filming wrapped. Rosie would reprise her role as a ballplayer in arguably one of the best episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. Her softball team plays against Larry’s and let’s just say that the plot of the show was about Larry “Juicing” to succeed in the game and in a love triangle where he and her were chasing the same girl.

Girls in baseball had reminded relatively quiet through the years until 2014 when little leaguer Mo’ne Davis came along. What came along with her was a 70mph fastball and a winning team. The uniqueness of this player, mainly being a girl succeeding in a boys sport, brought on tons of fanfare and media. Mo’ne was quickly a star in many ways, including the SI cover, an ESPY, book deal and so on. Mr. Clutch ran into Mo’ne at a sweet 16 birthday party recently where Clutch Ms. Jr. was being dropped off. Wow two celebrities in the same place at the same time. And of course at an event where girls just want to have fun! 

Clutch 27-2016: Managing the Manager

Like all major sports baseball has a “Guy in charge” on the field. In baseball he/she is of course called the “Manager”. Football uses “Head Coach”, basketball uses the term “Coach” and in growing up in an area where hockey was way down the totem pole, not sure what the sports calls it – perhaps “Ice Captain”?

Back in the good old day’s life was simpler in a many ways. Rants about cell phones and cable TV are a few, but they don’t apply to baseball. In baseball back then the buck kind of started and stopped with the manager. He reported up to a general manager who reported up to an owner. There wasn’t much more in terms of additional levels or other baseball people coming in on a 45-degree angle. The manager managed the team, the GM took care of the player roster and the owner paid the bills.

The physical attributes of a manager back then were typically the same through the league. Of course there were some outliers and slight differences, but generally they were the same. A stereotypical manager was an old short guy with a beer gut. He had an “Average” career as a player back in the day and for some reason or another was never in a good mood. This guy would waddle out to the mound to make pitching changes and usually held his job for a long period of consecutive time. Lastly  - he made all the baseball field decisions.

Today managers come in all shapes and sizes. Many of them are “In shape” physically and tend to be a little younger than the managers of old. In the past a manager would typically work his way up from the “A” level to the major leagues just like a player does. Current trends are that retired players get popped right into managing a major league ball club. Mr. Clutch doesn’t understand the philosophy behind that, but it is becoming ever popular. That said, a number of these green managers end up getting fired before completing one cycle through the season.  Of those, some of them never return to managing.

The baseball player to manager fraternity has been pretty solid. There are practically no managers in the history of the game that didn’t play the game at some professional level. Most, as noted, had major league careers of sorts. An interesting one is current Mets manager Terry Collins (shout out to Long Island City!). Terry kind of fits two of the modern and non-normalized molds. He never played in the bigs, though he did have a minor league career, and the Met’s hired him though he had limited to no big league managerial experience. He actually came to the Mets via the Orix Buffaloes of the Japan league!

In addition to the dynamic of the manager profile changing so has the responsibilities. One day out of nowhere came this new position called a “Bench coach”. This new position is considered second in command and is the manager’s right hand person. They take over when he gets the boot and typically whispers general advice in the manager’s ear during a game. It’s Clutch’s guess that the bench coach also handles other duties like keeping the players in order, etc. This just seems like an unnecessary layer and more of a “Friend” of the manager and assisting in times of need.

Teams have also more recently added other egghead executives who sit up in the press box in front of a laptop and think they are playing a modern day version of strat-o-matic baseball. These guys have all the advanced analytics at their disposal along with more charts and graphs than you would ever want to see. Mr. Clutch is studying some of the underlying methods and language (“R”) that generates these values, and there is certainly some validity to the output. Not to be confused with is seen on the idiot box, i.e. how many times Cecil Cooper hits a line drive to right field, this information goes ions deeper.

These guys are looking at information (for one example) like speed in which the ball goes from the hitters bat to a certain point on the field and how long it takes a fielder to react to that and get to that position for one. Weather, see Mr. Clutch’s friends at Playanlytics.com for more details on this, factors into that equation along with many other measures and components.  The end result is that a guy in street clothes literally calls down to the dugout and informs the manager that the left fielder needs to move three steps to the right when a certain hitter digs in to the batter’s box. It’s just an additional case of the machines taking over.

General Managers who typically make trades have in recent times gotten more involved on the day-to-day activities going on between the chalked lines. For a good example of that, fused with some early day analytics, take a look at the movie “Moneyball”. Though the crux of the movie was how Billy Beane, as GM of the A’s, built a winning team with little money, one of the subplots was how he was trying to force manager Art Howe to start a certain player at first-base over another.  Billy was basing this on analysis done by Paul DePodesta. Paul was an assistant who crunched numbers and recommended decisions to the GM who fought over them with the manager. Just more layers to the layers.

Regardless of how one looks at it – computer controlled or decisions made with gut of a true baseball person, it’s a Clutch opinion that baseball is the furthest from other major sports on results being decided by managerial choices. Yes, decisions are made on pitching matchups (kind of important) a lineup (not really important) and moving players around on the field (even less useful), but the players still need to play the game and execute. Of course the same can be said for all sports, but baseball is certainly not as micro-managed with play calling. With all the additional cast of characters some human and some robotic helping managers these days – major league baseball ownership certainly doesn’t share that opinion! 

Clutch 26-2016: Injuries and Worse

Generally speaking natural instinct is to not purposely do anything that would jeopardize one’s ability to do their job. That could be said for the short-term as well as something that would affect the ability to do the job ever again. Your job is typically your livelihood and one would not want to put that risk. This goes doubly if the person has no other skills or ability to get “Another” job that they would be physically able to with a similar compensation level.

It’s fair to say that this would be a main and golden rule if your job pays up in the higher stratosphere like a major league baseball player. Now, unlike professional football, an MLB player generally has a longer career which brings with it a longer ability to make money. Smart players would “Make hay while the sun shines” and try to best capitalize on the amount of years that they are granted. Even those who stay involved in the game after retiring as an active player can make a few bucks, but nothing like what they made on the field.

There have been many intentional, kind of intentional and accidental while at risk incidents that have happened through the years with active baseball players. These all ended with bad results, some not too bad, some pretty bad and some flat out fatal. In all cases a player’s action or lack of led to their career going sideways or ending. That leads to deeper affects like how their families could be supported, etc.

The first player to discuss is the reason for this blog due to the close timing of the incident. This is referring to the budding star from the Miami Marlins, 24 year old pitching sensation Jose Fernandez. From all accounts Jose was a great guy on and off the diamond. He was only at the beginning of what was going to be a long and prosperous career with Jose likely being a perennial all-star and a feared pitcher. During an off-day in Miami Jose and two friends were excessively speeding on a boat recklessly in the literal middle of the night. They crashed and all three of the guys died on the scene. RIP #16.

That case is of course a tragedy on all counts and for all reasons. What makes it just worse than worse is that someone in Jose’s position should not be participating in fun activities that put his life at risk. Really nobody should, but especially when you are a public figure of sorts with a tremendous revenue upside and you are someone beloved by a global fan base. In Jose’s case his fiancé has a baby on the way and will now need to find ways to support that. Things happen and Clutch’s handbook doesn’t say that players or regular people should not leave the house, but controlled risk is probably a better option.

There are also many cases of reckless activities on the field that led to injuries of all shapes and sizes. These cases usually only put a team’s ability to win at risk, but can cause a player his career. There is a couple from the Clutch archives of a “Lighter” note than above. Met icon Pat Zachry once kicked the dugout bench after getting the hook during a bad outing. This lead to a broken leg and missing most of the season. Of course this was during the bad Met era of the late 70s so it didn’t affect “Winning” too much.

Another Met that was the recipient of a bizarre injury that kind of was a negative turn to the Met season and may have put the kibosh on a possible World Series win. It also wound up ending his career, which was a shame. His name was Duaner Sanchez, and he was the setup man for the 2006 club. With him and Billy Wagner the Mets had a pretty dynamic back of the bullpen.  On a summer night he went out to dinner after a game with a few guys and was in a taxi when a drunk driver hit the taxi connecting the two cars and separating Duaner’s shoulder.  He missed a season and a half with the injury, made a short comeback and then was released. Middle to late inning relief guys can usual play forever, or until they stop throwing strikes. Sanchez had around a five year career and was last seen a few years after his last Major League appearance trying out for Long Island Ducks.

Though the name escapes Clutch’s memory banks there was a player recently who broke his leg during a home-plate celebration. He had just hit a game winning homerun and his teammates met him at home plate where everyone proceeded to jump around hooting and hollering. The end result was a trip to the ER and a cast on the leg. This clearly could have and should have been avoided. This was basically a super-sized version of getting injured while issuing or receiving a high-five.

The last Met who was victim of preventable injuries is the great Bobby Ojeda. Ojeda was a key cog of the 1986 championship Mets. Though he had a pretty good career it was derailed by two pretty preventable incidents. The first was when a year after winning the title he lost part of a finger or two on his pitching hand while trimming the hedges at his house. You would think he would hire someone for that. A few years later during spring training with the Cleveland Indians Bob went on a boat ride with two fellow players, Steve Olin and Tim Crews.  Crews was legally drunk and the boat crashed. He and Olin died, while Ojeda survived but missed the entire season and was never the same.

Things happen all the time and there were many active players’ fatalities over the years for one reason or the other. As noted earlier it’s a matter of controlled risk. Players and their entourages should be smart enough to not do anything to put their livelihood in jeopardy. Maybe they think their invincible because of the ability to throw a hard to hit curve-ball or hit a ball over the fence at will. That works and is likely true in the game, but doesn’t apply to real life. This blog is dedicated to all the players we lost way too early. 

Clutch 25-2016: The Brothers Reuschel

It doesn’t seem that baseball “Runs in the family” as most as it did it in years past. The same can probably said for any line of business in the modern era. This possible could be due to the increased numbers of “Things to do” in the world as well as the theory that a generation wants to be a rung up on the previous. Parent, in some respects, have a job of giving their kids the better opportunity than they had. Back in the day more folks did what their fathers or brothers did as it what all they knew.

That said, there are some relatives in baseball today. The first one that comes to mind is the Seager brothers. Most of us know about at least two of them, Kyle (Mariners) and Corey (Dodgers). Low and behold there is a third Seager brother Justin, who is currently in the minor leagues also with Seattle. It’s an interesting dynamic in that all three of these guys are excellent players. This has happened in the past, but many of the brother combinations were that of a slanted scale with one being great and the other just getting by.

Many moons ago Mr. Clutch worked, not in sports, with a gentleman by the name of Geno. It was Geno DiSarcina to be exact. The relevance of this is that Geno was the younger brother of Gary. Gary of course had a better than average 10+ year career at SS for the California Angels. Why it’s also relevant is that there was also a third brother here Glenn who was drafted by the White Sox. Glenn’s claim to fame was that he played for the Birmingham Barons in the minor leagues with – you guessed it; Michael Jordan. The best part about this is that Geno, who never played baseball at any professional level, claimed he was the best of the three!

There have also been many generational players in the game of course. The most famous ones that come to mind are The Griffey’s, with both Ken’s being phenomenal players, with the latter of them being a first ballet hall of famer. Ken and Ken also hold the pretty cool distinction of being the only father and so duo to play in an MLB game together. It was August of 1990 when Ken Sr. was on his way towards retirement and Jr. was just starting to make his mark.

There were also a few odder family tree relations in the game. Mr.Clutch’s favorite player, or at least one of, Dr.K Dwight Gooden was the Uncle of Gary Sheffield the power hitter from the Marlins. One of Mr.Clutch’s confidants and personal friends Joe McEwing’s former brother-in-law is also Bristol, PA native Jeff Manto. Matt Franco, former Met utility guy, is the nephew of famed actor Kurt Russel. One could argue that’s a stretch since Kurt “played” a role in sports movies, but – little known fact that Kurt played minor league ball in the early 70s for the Angels!

There are some better known tandems who played together, meaning in the same time, from back in Kid Clutch days. These are combinations that we, we meaning people of similar age, likely recall with a grin. George Brett was a great hitter, while Ken Brett was a mediocre pitcher. The Forsch brothers were both mediocre pitchers if memory serves correctly. Then there were the Niekro’s Phil and Joe who were both high quality pitchers. Phil was the top half of that and a hall of famer.

Twins have also factored into the MLB relative landscape. Controversial player and former “Smash Brother” Jose Canseco has an MLB player twin brother named Ozzie. The strange thing about this is that they were identical twins, which would make you think that they had the same DNA strand and the same skills. This was not the case here, as the career HR difference between the two was 462. That also happens to be the number of career HRs hit by Jose. Ozzie had no dingers in his three year limited career. He actually only had 65 At bats over that span. The twins did play together in Oakland for the A’s in 1990. That alone is an interesting dynamic. The Clutch research staff just returned some information that you probably assumed they would. Ozzie often “Subbed” in for Jose at autograph signings and other promotional events. Twin shenanigans with these guys, would anyone think otherwise?  

Last of the list of those from the same era is the Reuschel brothers. Rick and Paul Reuschel both had major league pitching careers. Similar to the common theme of the majority of the DNA going one way, Rick had a much better career than Paul. Rick had 214 career wins, over 2,000 strikeouts and a respectful career ERA of 3.37. Brother Paul, on the other hand, only played in the big leagues for five years and ended up with a 16-16 record. One of the interesting factoids about these guys is they are, and likely will continue to be, the only brothers to pitch a combined shutout, which was for the Cubs back in 1975. It’s also noteworthy that towards the end of Rick’s career he appears on a baseball card and was the spitting image of kid Clutch’s 11^th grade Spanish teacher.

What spurred a discussion on sibling athletes is that Mr. Clutch recently listened to an interesting lecture on Catholic faith recorded live on CD by a gentleman named Darrell Miller. It would take too long to explain how and why this happened, though the short of it is that the CD cover had a baseball field on it with the title being “More than a game” or something like that. Darrell had a brief nondescript career with the Angels from 1984 to 1988. The interesting part is that he is the big brother of Reggie Miller (NBA Pacers HOF) and Cheryl Miller (Women’s basketball in many HOFs). What a talented family!    

Clutch 24-2016: Evolution of the Game

Regardless of your beliefs in “Evolution” the fact of the matter is that everything and everybody changes over time. Some change for the better, some for the worse and some change is sideways. Evolution by definition is the gradual development or advancement of something. What’s noteworthy and possible overlooked is that the definition doesn’t have an “End” or time in which that something is completed.

Baseball, like everything else, has certainly evolved over time. Some of the evolution has been more natural and closer to the vest of the definition while other parts were more forced change for various reasons. Within that, some was “Change for the sake of change”, while some was change for the betterment of the game. Lastly, some was so the game can continue around evolution of other things.

Let’s start with what’s most important, which is the on the field stuff. Fortunately, the look and feel is that the basic “Rules” of the game have not changed in a long while. The number of strikes, outs and innings have all remained the same. It’s probably fair to say that if you pick up an “Official” major league baseball rule book from 50 years ago it would still be relevant today. As a purist around statistics (more to come on this shortly), Mr. Clutch is very glad that this is the case and that the core game is still that.

Once obvious glaring change in the game is the concept of “Instant replay” and call reviews. This is a case of technology driving the evolution of umpiring a game. Back in the day this was not possible from a functional standpoint as there was not six zoomed in camera angles of every play, which were incidentally instantly available for review and in high definition. At best you had a single camera shoot in black and white, with a 30-minute lag time to “Review” a play. The question at hand is what’s right? Getting the call exactly correct? Or keeping the ruling on the field human?

A Clutch guess would be that most people would vote for getting the call “Exactly” right and that reviewing calls is a good thing. A small minority of purist might think it changes the integrity of the game and that good and bad calls are part of the game. Recalling what was stated above – call review was born by nature of being technologically available. This would mean that if it was possible to review calls back in the day, baseball probably would. That sort of kind of proves the case that it’s a good thing. The other reason instant replay works is that an umpires call is and never will be an “Opinion”. A runner is either safe or out, a fielder either did or didn’t make the catch and a ball is either fair of foul.

The players on the field have of course physically evolved over time. Some of this is due to extreme workouts and paying more attention to shape, while others were artificially driven through drugs and what not. Just think back to the greatest players of the previous generation and what they look like. Take Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio for example. Two icons of the game that let’s face it – never exactly looked like a modern athlete. Clutch’s vision of the Sultan of Swat is that he was always an old out of shape guy. The Bambino never seemed to have a youth and/or a prime as it related to being in shape. DiMaggio was in shape per-se, but looked nothing like the star players of today.

The evolution of the man baseball player has certainly led to a shift in statistics. For example, in previous eras a short-stop was hired to play the field only, and in most cases batted eight and was a usual out. An average SS back in the day would hit an occasional homerun and get on base every now and again. The perfect example of this was great Met Rey Ordonez. Rey would literally (and uncanny) hit one (1) homerun every year. He did this in five of the six complete years that he played. Rey had a power surge in 2001 where he hit three. He batted in the .240 range and knock in around 40 runs a year. These prestigious stats earned Ordonez a $6mm salary in his last few seasons in the game. That’s $8mm adjusted for inflation. He earned that salary by way of being a phenomenal fielder and all said one of the best at his position during that time.

Fast forward to 2016 – the year of the power hitting short-stop. Let’s start with Colorado Rockies rising star SS Trevor Story.  Trevor had 27 HRs in 400 ABs before getting injured. The interesting stat here is that he had seven (7) HRs by April 10^th, a mere single week into the season.  More interesting is that in the 2016 season 20 starting Short-stops had 20 HRs or more for the season. In 1985 – there was one, and that was Cal Ripkin, one of the clear exceptions to the rule. Remove that outlier and you are down to none. It’s safe to say that this position has evolved. Anyone wanting to play it at a high level needs to bring both a glove and bat to tryouts.

To step off the field and into the stands for a moment, the fan experience and concept of attending a major league baseball has evolved off the charts. Just look at any of that old grainy footage from yesteryear to get an idea, and then compare it to the game watching of today. There are many aspects of this to analyze, with today’s focus being on fan representation and stadium offerings. These probably represent two of the biggest changes in fandom and one could think that they both evolved for the worse.

Old footage shows fans sitting in the stands wearing two or three piece suits, dresses, derbies, neckties and shoes. Going out to the ballgame was an event that required dressing up and looking your best in a respectful manner. It was the equivalent of going to the ball, not playing ball. Fans also quietly watched the game in awe of what was being seen. Today attire for attending a game is printed t-shirt or jersey, and gym shorts. Oh have times changed! Also, fans of today seem to have a vested interested in cursing out the opposing teams and players, starting brawls in the stands and of course finding a need to tweet a play by play.

The in stadium experience has clearly taken a turn for baseball purist worse. Back in the day you sat down and watched nine or more innings of baseball and possible kept score in this thing called a scorebook. It got you intimately close to the game at hand. Maybe you ran to the restroom in-between innings and grabbed something quickly at a concession stand if the concession in question wasn’t hand delivered to your seat by a vendor. Today, stadiums have pools, wiffle-ball fields, numerous sit-down restaurants and a plethora of “Other” things to do during the game. When cameras flash to foul balls, many of the seats are often empty during sell outs. It has become an unnecessary necessity to add entertainment to an entertainment event.

Darwin where are you? He’s likely turning over in the grave over certain portions of the evolution of the game.