In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: showboating and celebrations These old stories help show just how far baseball has come.
Curt Schilling in the Boston Herald in 2006, talking about how he approaches showboating hitters in light of the fact that his Red Sox team, featuring guys like David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, was itself known for similar acts:
“People should not just assume that if guys on your team do it, then you shouldn’t care if guys on other teams do it. What the guys on my team do at the plate has no relevance to when I’m on the mound. I don’t show hitters up, and I don’t expect hitters to ever show me up. How I feel about a hitter and what he does at the plate against me is the only thing I factor into the equation. If it bothers you, you have a forum to take care of the problem.”
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: showboating and celebrations These old stories help show just how far baseball has come.
In 1981, Reggie Jackson was already on edge from a number of brushback pitches he’d been forced to avoid a week earlier. So when, in Yankee Stadium, Cleveland Indians pitcher John Denny threw a fastball up and in, again making the New York star duck and cover, then compounded the frustration by striking him out two pitches later, it did not sit well with the star. Jackson ran toward Denny, clearing the benches, though though no punches were thrown. Jackson was carried from the fray by teammates Oscar Gamble and Bobby Brown.
Jackson exacted the best possible revenge in his next at-bat, taking Denny deep in the fourth inning with a man aboard to give New York a 6-1 advantage. That was only the beginning.
Reggie was already known for admiring his home runs, but he took things to the next level. He flung his bat and watched the ball, then pumped his fist in Denny’s direction before starting a slow trot around the bases. After rounding third he tipped his cap to the crowd.
Denny was not enthralled by this, glaring as Jackson circled the bases, then descending the mound to yell at his antagonist. Once Reggie crossed home plate, instead of turning for the dugout he spun and charged the mound for the second time on the day, this time pulling Denny to the ground, sparking a multiple-player fracas. Gamble and Brown again had to drag Jackson from the field, literally picking him up off the ground to do so. Never one to pass up attention, Jackson began clapping and inciting the fans as he was borne away.
He wasn’t done for the night, however. Moments later he reemerged from the dugout, this time with his jersey removed, to take another crack at the Indians. Cleveland catcher Ron Hassey took up the challenge but was intercepted by security guards, who maintained order.
Both Jackson and Denny were thrown out of the game.
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: showboating and celebrations These old stories help show just how far baseball has come.
One of the supreme red-asses of the 2000s was Marlins/Red Sox/Dodgers pitcher Josh Beckett, who harbored no tolerance for celebration on his watch. During a spring training game in 2006, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard was slow to leave the batter’s box on a fly ball that ended up being caught on the warning track. Beckett shouted at Howard to, in order: run, quit acting like a pussy, and sit his ass back down.
“I wanted to make a point,” Beckett explained later that day. “You look like a jackass whenever you hit the ball like that and you’re pimping it, and you’re out. I’m kind of about respecting the game, and I’m not the type of guy to not say anything.”
Howard said later that he’d simply lost sight of the ball and was trying to figure out where it was. He also said that he opted to ignore his profane antagonist. Which only made Beckett angrier.
The next inning, as Howard played the field, Beckett kept up the verbal assault from the nearby first-base dugout, then moved toward the stairs as if to engage on the field. That was all it took. Howard dropped his glove and approached the rail, arms spread wide in invitation. Beckett tried to oblige but was pulled back by teammates. (For what it’s worth, Beckett—at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, one of the larger men in the big leagues—found one guy he couldn’t be accused of picking on: Howard was 6-foot-4, 250.)
That was only one of the things Beckett didn’t tolerate. He once screamed at Toronto’s Shea Hillenbrand for jogging to first base on what he thought was ball four, before having to return to the box after the umpire called the pitch a strike. He also shouted at Kenny Lofton for flipping his bat following a walk, leading benches to empty.
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: showboating and celebrations These old stories help show just how far baseball has come.
In the final game of a homestand in July 1997, Angels slugger Jim Edmonds hit a mammoth home run against Cleveland’s Charles Nagy, stood at the plate, screamed in celebration, then took his time circling the bases.
When he next batted it was the eighth inning. Indians manager Mike Hargrove had decided after the seventh that Nagy was finished, but with Edmonds leading off, sent the right-hander out to start the eighth. Nagy promptly drilled Edmonds, and the two exchanged heated words.
“It was the first sign of life the Indians had shown in two weeks,” reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Hargrove orchestrated it, but how many noticed?”
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: showboating and celebrations These old stories help show just how far baseball has come.
Marty Marion once took his time in the batter’s box, smoothing out the dirt while Whitlow Wyatt stood on the mound and waited. When Marion finally finished, the indignant Wyatt shouted in, “You ready?”
With his next pitch, Wyatt knocked Marion down. The hitter, fully expecting it, got up laughing. One pitch later, Wyatt hit him in the ribs. “Jesus Christ, Whit!” Marion yelled.
The pitcher had a ready response. “Don’t laugh when I’m on the mound,” he said.
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: showboating and celebrations These old stories help show just how far baseball has come.
In 2006, 21-year-old Mets rookie Lastings Milledge hit his first-ever home run, against the Giants, then high-fived the front row of fans at Shea Stadium as he ran to his position in right field to begin the following inning.
The outcry from San Francisco players was swift. “We weren’t too happy about that,” said Giants pitcher Steve Kline afterward. “I think he genuinely knows he did wrong.”
To avoid further bad blood, Mets manager Willie Randolph said publicly that he would talk to Milledge to assure that such behavior would not be repeated. Teammate Cliff Floyd also mentioned the potential consequences of such actions, telling reporters, “If that’s what you want to do, you do that. But at the same time, if you want guys throwing at your head constantly, you proceed to do it that way.”
At the very least, a guy across town had Milledge’s back. “I was so happy when I hit my first home run,” Derek Jeter told the Morrisown Daily Record. “If there were fans on the way back to shortstop I would have high-fived them. I don’t blame the kid.”
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: Talking during a no-hitter.
Rex Hudler, who played for the Cardinals when Fernando Valenzuela no-hit them in 1990: “After the game, I walked up to out dugout and took the lineup card off the wall. The next day I had Fernando and some other players sign it. I wanted a keepsake.
“I had it professionally framed, with a photo of Fernando. I had it a long time. Years later, when I worked for the Angels, I asked Freddie, after he became a broadcaster, ‘Do you have anything from your no-hitter? The ball or anything?’ He said, ‘No, I have nothing.’
“I said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ I went home, took the frame off the wall and brought it to the ballpark the next day. I gave it to him around the batting cage. Mickey Hatcher, Scioscia, all these ex-Dodgers had their names on it. I said ‘Fernando, come check this out.’
“Mike [Scioscia] was talking about how they pitched each of the guys. When we were done, Fernando gave it back to me, and I said ‘No, that’s for you and your family. I want you to have it.’
“He got all emotional and excited. The game means so much to us. It means our whole life, and you can only do it for such a short time. That’s why memories are so big.”
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: Talking during a no-hitter.
Oscar Gamble: “When Rick Wise threw that no-hitter, in about the sixth or seventh inning, Pete Rose realized what was happening. He was saying that he was going to break it up. ‘I’m coming back up. It’s gonna be broke up. I know you have a no-hitter going!’ He’d talk real loud and let him know. ‘I’m gonna break it up! I’m gonna break it up!’
“When he was playing third base he’d yell into their dugout: ‘I know he’s got a no-hitter—I’m coming up again and I’m going to break it up.’
“He did come up again, and ended up hitting a line drive … right to Mike Schmidt. He was a great player, and it felt like he was going to get a hit all the time, anyway.”
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: Talking during a no-hitter.
Brooklyn’s Rex Barney had just finished his seventh no-hit inning against the Cubs in 1949 when he bragged on the bench to Ralph Branca that he was going to complete the task.
Branca was incredulous that he’d even mention the event, at which point Barney explained that the only stout hitter he’d have to face over the final two frames was Phil Cavarretta. “If I get him out, they’re dead,” he said.
Cavarretta led off the eighth. Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella signaled for a first-pitch curveball, but Barney, figuring that Cavarretta would be taking, shook the catcher off and threw a fastball. Cavarretta rifled it through the right side for a clean single.
Barney finished the inning (and the game) without further incident, but as he was walking off the mound after the eighth, Campanella approached him. “Don’t ever shake me off again,” he said, “You know I’m smarter than you are.”
In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: Talking during a no-hitter.
During Sandy Koufax’s no-hitter in 1963, San Francisco’s Felipe Alou hit a long fly ball that Tommy Davis had to catch on the run. Dodgers rookie Dick Calmus jumped up to applaud, which was entirely too much for coach Leo Durocher, who ordered him to sit back down.
The Baseball Codes 