Clutch 32-2016: This Is the End

“This Is the End” is a couple of things. The title, like some others of these blog posts, has been named after a movie or event. In this case it was the movie starring the modern day brat pack which was a humorous and pretty R rated look at the apocalypse. That’s not exactly or remotely close to what this is about – but a funny title nonetheless. It’s really about the end of a long journey. It was a journey that started in February and ended on a cool November Sunday. It was the marathon, and ironically on the day of the New York City marathon, of the baseball season.

Mr. Clutch is exhausted and looking very much towards taking a few days off before it gets started up again. Hurt feet, bags under the eyes and just general tiredness have all been experienced from the day to day labor associated with the Major League Baseball season. All this noted and filed by a person who didn’t step foot on a field, make a throw or have a single plate appearance during the whirlwind season.  It’s all the other baseball activities, including a new one that was added this year, which lent itself to this happy day or the end.

Likely sprinkled in over some previous blogs, Clutch of many ages has participated in the same fantasy baseball league (called Rotisserie baseball back then) since 1988. Yup, that’s 29 years of competing year in and year out against the same guys. Naturally some new teams came in, old teams went out, and it’s believed that one original team owner died of old age. But, the core teams have been together since then. Most probably know that running a baseball team, unlike fantasy football, is an everyday job with a focus required all the time. For those that want to win at this, it starts way before the season does and never really ends.

Team Clutch has been famous for “Discovering” players who at the time of being first fantasy drafted were an unknown that quickly became a household name. This is done through excessive research and development, most of which is worked on during the off season. Studying play in the domestic fall leagues and international winter leagues is where it starts.  Following players from rookie ball through the various single to multiple “A” levels of the minors is also a requirement to successfully make these discoveries. The Internet, invented after Clutch’s league was formed, has made it a little easier, but at the same time made it harder since it has generated more information and data to analyze.

The first such discovery was a scrawny kid coming up in the Atlanta organization in the late 80s. He became the Braves regular second baseman his rookie year – and did what the prototype at that position didn’t do back then – crack 20 homeruns and steal 20 bases. Power and speed is an all-out fantasy stud, and it’s a super-stud when you draft him for close to nothing (The league was an auction, not pick dract).  After that he switched to the outfield and was a staple to hit 30 homers and 30 steals a season. Being in or close to the 30-30 club was a top gem in the fantasy world. His name was Ron Gant. The name probably rings a bell to you now – but unlikely back in 1988 when his career started as a nobody. The dynamic and outgoing player, now well retired, co-hosts a TV talk show back in Atlanta.

It’s this type of hard-work and dedication that leads to a winning fantasy baseball team. Again, it starts way before the season starts and continues day in and day out during the season and after. The in-season discoveries are sometimes as valuable as or greater than the ones done pre-season. Two in-season studs that come to mind are both from the Cubs franchise. The first was the great Kerry Wood. Clutch snagged him after his first career start and had him on an active roster literally hours before Wood pitched one of the best games in Major League History. Kerry threw a complete game one-hitter (bunt single) with no walks and 20 strikeouts. He was 7 strikeouts and one less hit away from the ultimate perfect game.

The other Cubs gem found in the May timeframe was a current stud that everyone likely knows by the name of Jake Arrieta. Jake has only thrown a couple of no-hitters in the first few years of his past, now and future illustrious career. He joined the Clutch team in 2014 after he was a castaway from the Baltimore Orioles, and a “Throw in” in a trade to the Cubs. There were many other great finds over the couple of decades of this fantasy baseball life. Too many to name or discuss, most of which are past retirement age now. Mark Grace (also a Cub!), Pedro J., Chipper Jones and David Wright are a few worthy of bragging about.

The other baseball item of note, besides fantasy baseball, which has kept the Clutch camp extremely busy and in dire need of a “Vacation” is the addition of this. The this is what you are reading right now, and was mid-season named as “Clutch Speaks”. Adding that to an already full plate was challenging and fun at the same time., It’s the now 33 blogs that were thought up, researched, written, critiqued and posted during the course of the season.  All in that’s a lot of words.

Writing 33 blogs over the course of seven or eight month might not seem “Hard”, but try coming up with 33 different topics to discuss over one subject matter – which in this case is baseball. Every post needed to be unique, interesting and somehow tie to a current baseball event or have something to do with Mr. Clutch’s long baseball history. It got harder and harder as the season went on. Delivering great and fresh content week after week seemed like an eternity because it was.

Both blogging and following a kid who is currently playing in Rancho Cucamonga (A real baseball fan will know what this is) is just flat out exhausting and requires an official break. The itch and need to continue on both of those fronts will be just around the corner. Until then team Clutch is on vacation, will enjoy a little time off, and for the here and now: “This Is the End”. 

Clutch 31-2016: I Love Cheaters

Let’s first clear up the title of this blog. It’s not what you may think and it’s unlikely you would be able to guess it with 10 or 100 guesses. Mr. Clutch actually despises cheating, especially when it comes to blatant breaking of a law. Where the title comes from is while on one of the patented Clutch annual baseball pilgrimages a member of the Wolfpack noticed a women strolling down Margret Corbin Drive (Yes, that’s a real street) wearing a hat that bared that phrase. Since the topic of this blog is cheating and baseball – it seemed like a good fit.

It’s obvious that is “Cheating” occurs in every business in some faucet or another. Perhaps it’s something light like fudging numbers on a tax return or faking the original retail price on a factory outlet sale item. Sometimes it’s worse like stealing all of a customer’s money or cutting a corner that puts the public in danger. Cheating happens on a personal level all the time too. But – people who cheat on something individually usually don’t do it to perform better or work….or maybe they do?

To quote one of the movies on the Mr. Clutch all time roster: “The Firm”, Avery Tolar played by the immortal Gene Hackman described cheating well. He said something like “The difference between tax
avoidance and tax evasion is…” with multiple choice answers. Some of the answers were “Whatever the IRS (or powering body) says”, “A smart lawyer” or “10 years in prison”. The last option was “All of the above”.  Let’s take a look at that and convert this to baseball terminology.

Certain rules of the game are “Grey” area which means how they are interrupted, or in some cases their non-existence and non-assumption, is “Avoiding” versus “Evasion”.  The IRS is of course the baseball commissioner who can decide what is and isn’t a rule and also if a player broke one or not.  The smart lawyer is either the player or his representation trying to get around a rule. The 10 years in prison is a suspension if you get caught and then the commissioner determines that you indeed broke the law.

First there are the clear grey area items which the Clutch fact finding commission has determined is not really cheating, but more like taking advantage. “Stealing” signs from second base for example is something that is probably more unsportsmanlike than cheating. If a runner is on second base and can clearly see the next pitch battery signs of catcher instructions to pitcher, then it’s just something that’s out there. The runner has the option of reporting this information to the batter, and that’s probably where it gets grey. Now, stealing the team’s playbook prior to the game to gain the signs (cue Greg Brady) is a totally different story.  

Mr. Clutch’s long-time sensei, the late great Grandmaster John Kuhl, would often use the phrase “Steal with your eyes”, which somewhat correlates to the above notion of stealing a sign from the field. What Master Kuhl meant was that if you are preparing for a physical altercation with someone use the visuals around you to gain an advantage. How a person stands, clinches a fist and motions his body can easily determine his next move – just like in baseball.  When class wasn’t practicing sign stealing the students weren’t busy learning how to break necks and avoid being thrown off a rooftop.

Pitchers cheated all the time back in the day, and it seems to be something that has tapered off in recent years. There is that famous pre-cellphone camera footage of one of the Niekro brothers tossing a nail file off the mound into the grass before getting busted. It was Gaylord Perry who was infamous for throwing the “Spitball”. Scuffing or altering the ball in anyway gives the pitcher a clear unnatural advantage. Most recently (probably a few years ago) a Yankees pitcher got tosses for having some sort of grease on his glove. This is all cheating plain and simple.

Yes, returning back to the movies to find the gem when pitcher Eddie Harris in “Major League” gives the speech that describes it all. “Crisco, Bardahl, Vagisil. Any one of 'em will give you another 2-3 inches drop on your curve ball”. Apparently he used these substances to get his nose running so he could put snot on the ball. It was paying homage to the old pitchers named above who cut corners to get outs.

Hitters are not immune to cheating in the modern game. They are infamous for doing whatever they can to make the ball go farther and faster off the bat. The most common type is “Corking” the bat. This is simply coring out the meaty part of the bat where most contact is made and filling it with cork or any other rubbery bouncy type substance.  One of the most recent and more publicized version of this was when Sammy Sosa’s bat exploded when he grounded out that one faithful afternoon. He likely blamed it on the batboy.

Then there was the much ado about nothing famous George Brett pine-tar play. Long story short, Brett had 1” of extra pine-tar going up the handle of the bat which was noticed by manager Billy Martin. Brett hit a go-ahead home run in the 9th inning of that game versus the Yankees, but was declared out by the umpire when the measured the pine-tar and noticed it was illegal. As crazy as it sounds, the Royals protested the game and won! The commissioner (IRS) declared that though it was against the rules, it wasn’t done to gain unfair advantage in batting. The pine-tar clearly wouldn’t affect the distance or speed the ball would travel.

In closing, it wasn’t an accident that steroids, human growth hormones, Adderall, poppy seeds and other illegal substances weren’t mentioned here. That’s a subject that will be addressed in its own era.

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.