Jose Canseco : The Tawdry & Titillating

Jose was built, but not built to last.

JUICY  Confessions of a former Baseball wife.  Jessica Canseco.  Regan Books.  2005.  248 pages.

Jose Canseco’s reputation has rebounded since he was ridiculed for “lying” in his 2005 book titled, “Juiced”.   Not many believed his allegation that 85% of MLB players were juicers.

When the Mitchell Report came out in 2007, Canseco didn’t look unscrupulous anymore.  His next book, “Vindicated” soon was published.

But don’t confuse Jose Canseco with a do-gooder or a whistle blower.

He’s a guy with a lot of bad habits.  He career total of  461 HR’s was wickedly inflated by winstrol and testosterone use.  He was married twice and a father twice, but he patronized a call girl service for years while married.  He was a hound for years while married.  He transmitted bacterial infections to loved ones through intercourse.  He loved to watch himself have sex.  He was pretty much self-obsessed 100% of the time, and constantly in search of sex.

He was good looking.  Large.  Strong.  Handsome.

And he was making $5,000,000 per year as MLB’s highest paid player.

Jessica Sekely found Jose’s looks and lifestyle intoxicating.  She loved his 20,000 square foot home, with pool and waterfall.  When he offered to let her use one of his cars, she took his Bentley.  Soon after meeting, he took her to the mall and bought her $4,000 in designer clothes.

In this book, Jessica, after describing much cheating, abandonment & abuse, says the guy is an asshole, but the perks are good.

Jessica is a middleclass girl from Ohio who was on the high school track team.  Her Mom was a Nurse.  Her Dad was a businessman.  She was the middle child in a brood of 3 girls.

She had A.D.D..  She struggled at the local college.  She was not a terribly deep young person.

In 1993, at age 19, she got a waitress gig at Hooters.  On her third day of training, Canseco walked in.  He finessed his way into her station and got her phone number.

The rest is fast moving history.

After one lunch together, and an invitation for sex that Jessica declined, Canseco has his assistant arrange travel for Jessica to Boston, where Canseco’s Rangers are playing the Sox.

Just like that, the 19 year old blonde consents to running with Jose, and is doing it in Beantown with the Cuban bad boy.

What follows are 200 pages of everything being done Jose’s way.  Stay home when he wants.  Travel when he wants.  Sit by the pool alone when he wants.  Have sex as he wants.  Feed the baby cougar.  Pet the baby leopard.  Save the giant turtle from drowning in the pool.

The nature of the relationship is boring, demeaning and submissive.  The story is punctuated with an unending series of facials, manicures, boob jobs, and collagen injections.

Any chick with half a tailbone would have been out of there in a month.

She stayed seven years.

At 19, Jessica was intoxicated by his looks, money and lifestyle.  He gave her a charge card she could use as she wished.  He paid the bill when it came.

By 1999, she was experienced.  By then she had left Jose three times and come back.  She had married him and divorced him and was back living with him again.  She had one baby with him, a daughter named Josie, who is a 7^th grader today.

Eventually, she finds the path to enlightenment through books and education.  As she grows, Jose opposes her development in every way possible, as if a stupid partner is more controllable and thus preferred.

Eventually, she did marry the right guy.  On June 23, 2007, she married plastic surgeon plastic surgeon Garth Fisher at his Bel Air mansion.

There is not too much baseball in this book.  She was at the game when the Carlos Martinez fly ball bounced off Canseco’s head for a HR in 1993.  She mentions Jose’s free agent signings, trades and releases and the related moves to Boston, New York and California.  She describes how Scott Erickson asked her if she was alright in a Florida parking lot after she and Jose had punched each other.  Kevin Kennedy comes up.  The baseball names are interspersed.  But the author is not a Baseball fan.

She’s more of a devotee to self-improvement.

Despite its tawdry nature, the book is a good and fast read.  A glimpse into the life of a modern, over paid, self-important Baseball hero.

I won’t mention Jessica’s book tomorrow when I meet Jose at the Greater Boston Sports Collectors Convention.

Trashy yet arresting, you cannot put it down.

Joe Falls: 50 Years of DiMaggio, Kaline & Jordan

There is much to like about Joe Falls book, “50 YEARS OF SPORTS WRITING, And I still can’t tell the difference between a slider and a curve.”  (Sports Publishing, 1997.)

This 187 page tome navigates Falls’ personal experiences with DiMaggio, Williams, Mantle, Jordan, Nicklaus, Schembechler, Hayes, and on and on and so forth.

Joseph Falls, son of a New York City cop, at the age of 17 in 1945 took a job as a copyboy for the Associated Press. After an apprenticeship of eight years, Falls moved to the Detroit bureau of the AP, where he flourished. He was hired by the Detroit Times in 1956 to cover the Detroit Tigers, and continued that beat with the Detroit Free Press from 1960 to 1978.  Later, he moved to the Detroit News, where he was a columnist and Sports Editor.

Those of us living outside of Greater Detroit in the 60’s and 70’s knew of Falls because he wrote a weekly column in The Sporting News.

What a writing cast the TSN had !

Furman Bisher.  CC Spink.  Jerome Holtzman.  Dick Young.  Jim Hawkins.  Joe Falls.  That stable of Sporting News columnists doled out exotic, intoxicating Baseball intelligence, covering the turf from the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum to Shea Stadium.  The Baseball Universe in 48 tabloid pages, a 4-color photo of Reggie Jackson on the cover.

In 2001, Falls won the J. G. Taylor Spink Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Falls may have started as a humble copyboy, but he ascended to a prominence that unlocked doors that other writers could only dream about opening.

In 1965, not long after making the transition from reporter to columnist, a colleague suggested that Joe interview Walter Hagen, who was 73 and lived within a day’s drive of Detroit.  Hagen, who won 11 Majors, picked up the phone but was silent as Falls said hello.  After an uncomfortable silence, Hagen’s housekeeper came on the line and explained that the Golf HOFer was unable to speak because he had throat cancer.  But Hagen knew how respected Falls was, and granted him a meeting.

When Falls arrived for the interview, Hagen was smoking a cigarette and wearing a white bib.  Hagen is  a prime example of why Falls says that Golfers are the nicest athletes to interview.  He was welcomed into the lakeside Hagen home.  He spent two delightful hours “chatting like mad”, Falls talking, Hagen signing to the housekeeper, and the housekeeper speaking for Hagen.  After Falls knew it was time to leave, Hagen offered a demonstration of his golf swing.  He took his stance, drew back his club, and swung through an invisible ball.  Hagen then let out a loud whoop.  “Oh”, said the housekeeper, Mr. Hagen made a perfect shot, right into the middle of the lake.”

Falls was transfixed.  He had met a sporting legend, sick and failing, and felt his robust love of life.

Falls was, above all, a fan of Sport.

As a reporter, he set aside his childhood allegiances, like the one he had with the Yankees.

He found joy watching athletes push themselves to excellence.

He felt their pain as well.

As in the case of Mickey Mantle…….immediately after the conclusion of the 1960 World Series…

“Mazeroski’s home run against the Yankees in 1960…I  can still see Yogi Berra going back for the (homerun) ball…”

“It was a difficult moment for me.  I was old enough to know better, but I was still a Yankee fan.  I felt suffocated.  But I knew I had my work to do.  My feelings for the Yankees had fallen away when I became a baseball writer and saw them up close.  They were very arrogant, even nasty.  Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Billy Martin and Clete Boyer always seemed to be laughing at those around them, mostly the newspaper men, making them look stupid whenever they could.  These players had been my heroes; now they were distasteful people.”

“Mantle was a little different from the others.  When he was around Martin, Ford and Boyer, he could be a smart aleck, very cutting, trying to get laughs from them.  When you got him alone, he was much different.  He was pleasant and cooperative, and this is the Mickey Mantle I chose to remember when he died.”

“Anyway, when I walked into the Yankee dressing room that day, Mantle was sitting in front of his locker with his head down.  He was crying, and the tears were spotting the floor.  I knew, in that moment, the measure of a man.  He was a big star – a celebrated figure – but he was also an athlete – and now he was crushed.”

“At that moment, Elroy Face, Pittsburgh’s great relief pitcher, appeared in the doorway.  I thought he had come over to offer his congratulations or condolences to the Yankees.”

“He had an awful expression on his face.  He looked around the room and said, “F—  you guys.”

“Some memory.”

This poignant, hardcover collection of memories was  gathered by a man that few players hated,  most  respected.

Falls takes you places you cannot go on your own.  His decency and fairness gained him entry into insulated clubhouses and homes.

It is a great read.

Book Review: How the 1971 Pirates rocked Baseball

The Team that Changed Baseball.  Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates.   By Bruce Markusen.  Westhole Yardley. 2006. 213 pages.

 

Willie Stargell was in 1971 to the Pirates what David Ortiz was to the Red Sox in 2004.

 

Bob Robertson hit three home runs in one NLCS game — off 3 different Giant lefties !!!

 

The Orioles won 14 in a row heading into the Series, and were a 7-5 Vegas favorite to repeat as Kings of the MLB, but wait…..instead we had a Series to remember.

 

All of this was long since forgotten by me.  Old memories wrapped in the shroud of one man who died when his humane mission ended in a crash at sea.

 

I saw him play at Shea in 1970.  His base running shocked me.  His outfield arm amazed me.  He was put together differently, and did things no one could do as well.

 

Clemente was so well rounded and unique, and his passing so sorrowful, I forgot about the joy that occurred in Pittsburgh 15 months before he died.

 

The author does a nice job with the context and telling of the season, another  tale of civil rights and team work.

 

BLACK QUOTAS BY TEAM ?

 

Markuson paints a still life of civil rights progress.  Few blacks made the majors in the first 8 seasons after Jackie broke the color line.  In 1955, 12 Blacks were in the Majors, including Clemente.  A small, limited amount of minorities was allowed. 

 

The progress was uneven. 

 

The 1960 New York Yankees had Ellie Howard, Jesse Gonder, Hector Lopez and Luis Arroyo. 

 

The ’60 Pirates had Clemente, Gene Baker, Roman Meijas, R.C. Stevens, Joe Christopher, Bernie Daniels and Diomedes Olivo, which was more color than the Yankee team they would beat on Mazeroski’s stunning World Series walk off HR that year, but about average for major league baseball.

 

The Bucs looked quite different by 1970.  The Pirate played 15 minorities alongside 21 whites over the course of that long season.  Sanguillen, Stargell, Matty Alou and Clemente, all men of color, were the stars.

 

The only thing they lacked was color in the infield.  GM Joe L. Brown, the son of famed comedic actor Joe E. Brown, would change that as well with a couple of all stars-to-be, good as Cash in the bank.

 

STARGELL EMERGES

 

 

The opening day starting lineup/batting order on was:  Mazeroski, 2B; Richie Hebner, 3B; Roberto Clemente, RF;  Manny Sanguillen, C; Bob Robertson, 1B, Willie Stargell, LF; Al Oliver, CF; Jackie Hernandez, SS and Dock Ellis, P.

 

Dave Cash would soon replace Mazeroski. There were other changes.

 

Stargell, long criticized for not living up to his potential and failing to control his weight, would move up in the batting order.

 

By May 1, he was firmly embedded as the clean up hitter.  A remarkable April has placed him there.  Wilver Dornel Stargell, the product of Oakland’s Alemeda tenements, had been denied in years past by Forbes Field’s 406 ft. power alleys. 

 

The friendlier confines of Three Rivers Stadium had replaced those of Forbes in July 1970. 

 

Having never hit more than 33 HR’s in a season before, Stargell’s MLB record 11 HR’s in April foreshadowed a leap to 48 taters in 1971.  He would go on to average 42 HR’s from 1971 to 1973, the power pinnacle of his HOF career.

 

He finished April with 11 HR’s, a .347 BA overall, and a .300 BA against lefthanders.  He had become the complete hitter, a man who could hit for average and power against anyone.

 

He was now the clean up hitter, a maker of moon shots, no matter  the opposing starter.  You could no longer walk Clemente, the #3 batter, and then bring in a lefty for Stargell to end the inning.  That wasn’t going to work anymore.

 

BROOKLYN SIGNS ROBERTO

 

 

Why did Clemente become a Pirate ?  Because Pittsburgh discovered that Brooklyn was hiding him in the minors, pulling him from games early, limiting his p.t. with their Montreal affiliate. The rule then was that if you signed a player for $4,000 or more, you had to bring him to the big club, or else he could be drafted by another team. 

 

Markusen inaccurately claims that Brooklyn already had a great outfield in 1953 (Robinson, Furillo, Snyder), and that if they had brought Clemente to Brooklyn in 1954, he would have rotted on the bench.

 

Markusen was wrong.  The Brooklyn outfield was not as solidified as he claims.  Between ’53 and ’56, the 3^rd outfield spot was played by 3 players with none of them exceeding 76 games in any of those seasons.  Meanwhile, Roberto debuted in ’55, with his new team in Pittsburgh, averaging 128 games in his first two years.

 

Dude, the Dodgers should have promoted Clemente.  There are no excuses.

 

SOMETHING’S HAPPENING IN PITTSBURGH

 

The 1971 Pirates ate together, drank together, went to bars and to each others homes. 

 

There was lots of good natured racial jousting.

 

“That’s the problem with the world today.”, said Al Oliver, “That’s why racism is going on in the world today.  People don’t sit down and learn and take the time to get to know people.  After all, hey, we’re all God’s children.  That’s the way we approached it in 1971.”.

 

+++++++++++.

 

The ’71 Pirates began the year by going 14-11 in April, carried by Stargell’s 11 HR’s, overcoming injuries to Clemente and Cash.

 

In May, Clemente got hot, lifting his B.A. by 50 points to .295.  He still could do it all.  In a May 19 game at Riverfront in Cinn., he had 4 hits including a triple and an inside-the–park HR, a rather stunning accomplishment for a 36 year old.  Pittburgh beat the Reds, 6-1.

 

On May 20, Murtaugh had chest and arm pains, leaving the team in the hands of Bill Virdon until June 6.  While Murtaugh was away, Bucs pitching excelled.  Blass established himself as the clear #2 behind Ellis with an 11 K, 2-0 shutout in Cinn..  Then Bob Moose throttled the Cubs with a complete game 3-hitter.  Grant and Giusti helped the Bucs win nearly every game they led after 6 innings, and Bob Veale quietly emerged as a bullpen favorite.

 

The Pirates finished May with a 29-19 record, in second place, 2.5 games behind St. Louis.

 

++++++++++++.

 

On June 8, Cash’s BA stood at .356, tied with Joe Torre for 3^rd place in the batting title race.

 

On June 10, with Walker, Johnson and Veale banged up, and Nelson and Moose away on Military Reserve leave, Pittsburgh had just 6 pitchers available  —-  and they still swept the Cardinals to solidify their lead on a 3-1 victory by Blass, the power of Al Oliver, and a come from behind 5-4 win over Steve Carlton with a top of the ninth rally.

 

Next, Clemente lifted the team, first with his glove.  He made a leaping catch on a gashed knee and bruised ankle, reaching over the HR line in the Astrodome to rob Bob Watson.  Then, with his bat, hitting a game winning 2 run HR the next night to win 6-4 in Houston.

 

Stargell’s hitting continued to drive victories.  His 23^rd longball was a tape measure into the third deck at Three Rivers in a 7-1 win on June 20, in game 1 of a double header.  In the second game of that twin bill, Stargell hit a game winning grand slam to notch a 7-3 victory.  His 25^th came the next night to defeat Koosman and the Mets 6-0 and lift Doc Ellis to an 11-3 record.

 

Stargell was a challenge.  As a young, fireballing Nolan Ryan said of Willie, “You’ve got to outguess Stargell…You can’t give him the same pitch twice in a row.”

 

+++++++.

 

Willie Stargell reached the July 4 weekend with 28 HR’s, and his team held a 2 game lead over the second place Mets in the NL East.

 

At the All Star break, Willie sat at 30 HR’s, his last coming in the 8^th inning of a dramatic come-from-behind win over Phil Niekro and the Braves. (Guisti got his 19^th save.)  And Stargell deflected the expected media inquiries about his chances to surpass Ruth and Maris.

 

The Pittsburgh Pirates on the 1971 All Star squad included Stargell, Ellis, who was then 14-3, Clemente and Sanguillen.  Dave Giusti, with his 19 saves, was a glaring omission.  Sparky Anderson had taken Clay Carroll over the Pirates stopper.

 

The loquacious Doc Ellis at the All Star break:  Doc told the media that Sparky Anderson would never start a brother in the All Star game.  But Sparky then surprised Doc, announcing that Ellis would indeed be his starter.  That caused a media and fan reaction.  When Doc received numerous letters criticizing his lack of faith in “the man”, and the media questioned his attitude, Doc stuck with his story that Baseball was still racially backward.  He made no apologies for saying that Baseball would never showcase a brother in the biggest game of the year.  In Doc’s opinion, black players received Less.  Less attention.  Less endorsements.  Less promotion.

 

Ellis squared off with Vida Blue in the 1971 All Star game.  Leading 3-0 in the bottom of the 3^rd, Doc yielded a single to Aparicio, followed by a 520 ft. HR to Reginald Martinez Jackson under the glaring lights of national television.  The worse was yet to come.  Frank Robinson snapped a 14 at bat All Star Game hitless streak by taking an Ellis fastball into the rightfield stands, blazing the way to a 4-3 AL win and an All Star MVP Award for Frank, an L for Doc.

 

+++++++++++.

 

The 1971 Pirates simply tore it up after the break.   At least for a while.

 

As they coasted into August, they had ridden Willie Stargell’s career year, great pitching and fielding, and Murtaugh’s uncanny ability to make the right moves.

 

They met August with an 8 game lead over second-place St. Louis.

 

And then, the inevitable losing streak that follows a hot streak occurred.  The Pirates lost 11 of 15 games.  A perfect storm of injuries and poor play cut their lead over St. Louis to 5 games.

 

On Sept. 1, they were 26 games over .500, playing .594 ball with a 5.5 game lead.  Murtaugh looked over the players available, and made his line up card out with the best nine starters he had:

 

Stennett 2b

Clines CF

Clemente RF

Stargell RF

Sanguillen C

Cash 3b

Oliver 1b

Hernandez SS

Ellis P

 

That lineup represented, for the first time in MLB history, a starting lineup made entirely of men of color.

 

+++++++.

 

The Bucs turned on the power, speed and pitching now.  They were up 9.5 games on Sept. 15.

 

On 9-22, they clinched the division vs. Bob Gibson, with Giusti recording his 29^th save, closing out his former team, and closing out the division winning game for the second year w his palm ball.

 

The team was multi-talented and multi-racial.

 

They were led not by a black, white or Hispanic guy, but rather by all THREE. 

Mazeroski, Clemente and Stargell.

 

Stargell would finish with a 295 B.A., 28 dingers and 125 RBI.  Clemente batted .341 with 86 RBI.  Robertson chipped in 26 HR’s, Clines hit .308, Blass notched 15 wins,  Giusti had 30 saves and 58 appearances.

 

Pittsburgh led the NL in Hits, Total Bases, HR, Slugging, and Runs.  They were 5^th  with a 3.31 team ERA, 3^rd in shut outs, and first in Saves.

 

Mazeroski:  “This (1971) is the strongest Pittsburgh team in my 16 years with the club.”

 

They finished at 97-65, the best in the N.L.  Their NLCS opponent was a 90-72 Giant team with four future hall of Famers:  Perry, Marichal, Mays and McCovey  — not to mention Bobby Bonds.  The Pirates were headed to the NLCS with a bashing outfield of Clemente, Stargell and Oliver, and 3 pitching headliners in Blass, Briles and Ellis.

 

THE NLCS

 

The Giants take game 1 by a score of 5-4, as an unnerved Blass allows two 2-run HR’s to McCovey & Fuentes in the bottom of the 3^rd.

 

Pittsburgh triumphs 9-4 in game 2, as Bob Robertson smashes 3 home runs off three different lefties (Cumberland, Bryant & Hamilton), and middle reliever Bob Miller picks up a faltering Ellis.

 

The Bucs win Game 3, 2-1, when emergency starter Bob Johnson shuts down the Giants. Intended starter Briles pulls a hamstring in the bullpen minutes before the start.

 

The Pirates close out the NLCS, 9-5, as Kison tosses 6.2 IP’s of scoreless ball after Blass can’t get through the 3^rd.  Giusti locks down the victory getting the last 7 outs of the game.

 

The 1971 Bucs won the NLCS on the power of Robertson & Hebner, and the strength of a strong pitching staff.  They won despite an 0-for-14 from Stargell, and zero extra base hits from Clemente.

 

Now they would move on to face 7-5 World Series Favorite Baltimore Orioles, a 4-armed, slugging monster that ended the regular season with an 11-game winning streak and a 101-57 record.

 

THE SERIES

 

In Baltimore –

WS Game 1:  Baltimore wins 5-3 as McNally bounces back from a 3-run deficit, and Doc Ellis eats his boastful words.

 

WS Game 2: Baltimore wins 11-3, This Monday afternoon game goes off after the first rained out Series game since 1962 is postponed on Sunday.   The O’s are led in the field and at the plate by Brooks Robinson, as the Weaver Men throttle surprise starter Bob Robertson.

 

In Pittsburgh –

WS Game 3: Pittsburgh wins 5-1 as Blass and Sanguillen take a no-hitter into the 5^th, and a shut out into the 7^th , whereupon Frank Robinson homers.   The Bucs scratch out 2 runs in the first six innings.  Then, Robertson misses a bunt sign in the bottom of the 7^th and whacks a 3-run homer off Cuellar.  The Pirate victory ends a 16 game winning streak for the Orioles.

 

 

WS Game 4: Pittsburgh wins 4-3.  In the first night game in World Series history, middle reliever Kison picks up starter Luke Walker, who is driven out in the 1^st.  Kison’s 6.3 innings of scoreless relief gave way to pinch hitter Milt May, who unties the game in the bottom of the 7^th with an RBI single he smacks from his Carl Yastrzemski style batting stance.

 

 

WS Game 5: Pittsburgh wins 4-0.  Nellie Briles cries in the batter’s box hearing a loud &  long ovation from Buc fans late in the game.  He has pinpoint control all night.  He pitches a complete game, 2-hit shutout, facing just 29 O’s.  Nellie’s performance ranks only behind Don Larsen’s perfect game in efficiency.  The Orioles have now failed to score a run in 17 innings.

 

Now, down 3-2 in games, the Orioles golden defense has committed 9 errors and yielded 5 unearned runs.  Unthinkable.

 

 

In Baltimore –

WS Game 6: Baltimore wins 3-2.  Johnson, Giusti and Miller pitch to a 2-2 draw against  Dobson and McNally.  Frank Robinson walks, steals, and gets sac flied home in the 10^th to force a game 7.

 

WS Game 7: Pittsburgh wins 2-1.  Clemente’s tape measure HR and Jose Pagan’s RBI single are all Steve Blass needs to win a complete game, 4-hit victory against Cuellar.

 

Clemente was voted the World Series MVP, with twelve hits in twenty-nine at-bats and a .414 average.

 

 

A FINE MIX OF TALES AND FACTS

 

Markusen admirably balances the banal with the dramatic. 

 

He lets the reader breathe in some of that warm air from the summer of 1971.

 

It is intoxicating at several points.

 

Certain passages in this book, notably Robertson’s 3-HR playoff game, reverberate with the profoundness of an oft forgotten, powerful moment in baseball history.

I always suspected that Reggie’s 3-HR game in the ’78 Series was over ballyhooed.  He’s not the only guy who did it in the post season.  Just the most puffed one.

 

Hey, I’m a working man and I root for the journeyman. Hats off to Bob Robertson. 

 

Pirate announcer Bob Prince once said of him, “Robertson could hit a ball out of any park—including Yellowstone.”

DENNY McLAIN: MORE FUN, MORE FAME, MORE OF EVERYTHING

I TOLD YOU I WASN’T PERFECT

 

Denny McLain with Eli Zaret.  Triumph Books.  2007.

 

 

Leigh Montville wrote that when Ted Williams was a kid in San Diego in the 30’s, he used to go to the movie theater with his pal, Joe Villarino.  Ted would go to the water fountain and wet his hands, return to his seat, do a loud KERCHOO ! and flick the water on the people seated in front of himself and Villarino.

 

 Unrestrained adolescent pranks and desires go right to the heart of who Denny McLain was — and may continue to be.

He couldn’t resist so many things.  Like making an easy buck.  Like a get rich quick scheme.  Like a basketball or football bet.  Like a bottle of Pepsi.  Like loaning his plane to drug dealers.  Like signing blank legal documents.  Like the lure of the media,  and attendant fame.

And he was wildly successful — at least three times.

McLain is a living, breathing Dow Jones Industrial.  He has roiled through personal bull and bear markets for all of his 64 years.  He has made piles of copious loot, only to set them afire every time.

Over and over.

He is one talented nut job.

 

GET IN THE GUTTER.

 

This book was nothing like I expected.  I really didn’t know squat about Denny McLain the person. 

From afar, we know Denny was a roman candle.  In 4 years, he went from winning 2 Cy Youngs to being disgraced in an association with gamblers, and then retired 2 woeful season later.

 

He was brilliant.

He won 108 games in 5 years, 20 or more 3 times, between 1965 and 1969.

31-wins put him on the cover of Sports Illustrated in Sept., 1968. 

He was repugnant.

18 months later, he was on the cover of S.I. again, this time for consorting with gamblers. 

He was making book on the side, which led to a large debt, which led to an alleged broken toe, which led to Denny pitching poorly down the stretch of the ’67 season. Detroit dropped from the pennant race, oiling the wheels for Boston.

In 1985, McLain was convicted of racketeering, loan-sharking and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

None of that is news.

What is striking is how he reveals himself as an aggressive, brutal story teller, with an eye for cleavage and a knack for whacking icons.

He paints Ted Williams, who managed him in Washington, as a self absorbed narcissist who was unable to relate to players because he couldn’t understand how mere mortals could not hit the baseball like he did.

“Williams desparately needed to be the center of the universe.  It always had to be in the papers…Ted said this…This is what Ted is thinking.”

“Obviously, Bob Short catered to his whims and allowed him to be this way with no recrimination.  Not only did Williams live for free at the Shoreham Hotel, but Short paid for his hookers, the best looking hookers in the league.”

“You couldn’t have gotten close to Ted  if you’d wanted to…..at the end of his career, my father-in-law, Lou Boudreau, played with Ted in Boston in ’51 and ’52.  Lou commiserated with me, saying of Ted, ‘He was a great hitter, but he never gave a shit about anybody but himself.’”.

He reveals Eddie Matthews as “a drunk, a bitter alcoholic”.

He rats out Kenny Holzman as “a degenerate gambler”, who needed no corruption whatsoever by Denny.

He says Mayo Smith drank so much that it usually took him three or four innings to sober and get his head into the game”.

He has splenty to say about ALL of his enemy combatants.

He names the names — and aims point blank.

To be fair, the sordid is  mixed with the fascinating. 

He explains that John Wyatt relied on Preperation H for his superb spitball. 

He confesses to plunking Boog Powell after Das Booger lined a screamer at McLain’s package, the high point of a 14-for-15 run that Powell was enjoying against Denny.

His accounting of the ’67 Pennant Race and his run to 31 wins the next year are r-i-v-e-t-i-n-g !

So is his retelling of his prison time.

The death of his daughter, Kristin, is heartbreaking.

 Rest In Peace, Kristin.

THE CENTER OF ATTENTION

Denny never has been able to get enough.  He is frank about this, too.  Here is a passage from his chapter on the Press:

“I wanted the attention of writers so badly that I ‘d get depressed between starts because they weren’t in front of my locker.  I wanted to talk about anything and everything in grand fashion and be the center of attention.”

 

A MAN WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY 

Denny repeatedly gave himself permission to do whatever he wished.  He took $160,000 from a manslaughter convict in exchange for helping him flee the U.S..   He flew cocaine across state lines for a fee.  He became a high stakes bookie.  He partnered with borderline lenders of last resort, charging 28% interest, squeezing the most desperate. 

Why ?”

“Again, my  ability to rationalize and justify the use of my plane while disregarding my participation and the consequences was typical for me.  The law calls it ‘deliberate indifference’……”

One might expect he would be anything but indifferent on the occasion of his 1985 conviction for loansharking, racketeering, cocaine possession and extortion..

The book  supports that:

“In those immediate and awful moments, I saw my family sobbing uncontrollably in the courtroom and I realized that my life as I had come to know it would never be the same.  My thrill seeking lifestyle had finally caught up with me.  I had destroyed my family and all I had stood for and accomplished in my life.  How would Sharon and the kids survive ?”

******************.

McLain’s sorry words resonate with sincerity.

He would serve his time in a hellish prison.

He would become truly repentant.

He would go back to jail in 1994 for stealing from a Pension Fund.

Call it John Belushi Syndrome, or whatever you wish.

The desire to have…..MORE….more fun, more money, more attention….is irresistible to Denny.

 

******************.

McLain chronicles his career and personal life with wit and clarity, telling jokes, outing jerks, while naming names. 

If you remember when Denny McLain was the most famous man in America, this book is for you.

 

BILLY WILLIAMS My sweet swinging lifetime with the Cubs

Favorite Cub of a Generation !

With Fred Mitchell.  213 pages, Triumph Books, 2008.

Billy Williams is one of the most beloved Cubs among baby boomers.  That sweet swing, 500 home runs, and his affable nature appeal to Cub rooters, and connects them to one warm, bright summer 40 years ago.

Remember the ’69 Cubs ? 

Their starting 4 – Jenkins, Hands, Holtzman and Selma- had 74 victories. 

Phil Regan, The Vulture, came in for relief and picked the bones of chased hurlers for 13 wins and 17 saves.

The ’69 campaign had memorable moments. 

Opening Day was a come from behind victory in extra innings.  Don Kessinger set a record with 54 consecutive errorless games to start a season.

Billy Williams smashed Stan Musial’s N.L. record for consecutive games played as the Cubs swept the Cards on June 29. 

Kenny Holtzman tossed a no-hitter.

But the season was memorable for a collapse.  The Mets couldn’t hit and weren’t thought to be qualified to sniff 3^rd place. 

The lead was down to 2.5 games on Aug. 27, as the Cubs lost for the 7^th time in 9 games.

From Sept. 8 to 17, the Mets stayed hot while the Cubs doddered.

At the finish:  Mets 100-62.  Cubs 92-70.

The pain was acute.  Despite the choke, these talented Cubs attracted new fans in the Summer of ’69.

Williams profiles his famous Cub mates (Banks, Fergie, et al.)  But it is his notes on the lesser stars that are interesting.

Pete LaCock, son of Hollywood Squares host, Peter Marshall, got his first MLB hit off Dock Ellis, and recorded the last hit given up by HOF’er Bob Gibson, a pinch hit grand slam in 1975.  Although he wasn’t a big star, LaCock was a certified talent, winning the 1977 AA MVP Award with a .320 BA and 27 HR’s.

Lou Johnson was the only other African American teammate of Williams’ on the 1959 Houston Buffaloes.  A good athlete, a tough guy, and a great dancer.  Lou was a Dodger when Koufax no-hit the Cubs in 1965.  In that game, the Cubs starter, Bob Hendler, tossed a 1-hitter.  Lou got the only hit off Hendler.

Gene Oliver, Cubs back up catcher, for reasons unknown, hit Sandy Koufax like he owned him. Milt Pappas, who no-hit the Padres in 1972, still gets red in the face when remembering how Bruce Froeming called a 3^rd strike a ball to take away the possibility of a perfect game.

Adolfo Phillips was going to be the next Willie Mays, according to Durocher.  He hit 4 home runs in a double header.  He could do it all.  But physical ability doesn’t get it done without the right mental makeup.  Once N.L. pitchers started to brush him back, he was never the same.

This book is an easy read.

It is like being locked in a room with Billy Williams for 6 hours as he tells story after story, some  short, some long.

He’s an aged, wise, open eyed historian that understands where his career was in the progression of racism in baseball. It reads like oral history — organized into 8 chapters:

-I Quit.  (Sick of racism in the Texas minor, he went back to Alabama.)
-The 1969 Cubs Collapse
-The Mobile Mafia
-Cubs teammates from A to Z
-That sweet swing
-It’s Oakland In and Out (1975 & 1976 with Charlie O’s crew.)
-The Right Necessities (African Americans & opportunity)
-A Spoonful of Wheat Germ & Honey (Thoughts on Steroid users)

These chapters are followed by the complete text of Billy’s HOF induction speech.

This is not a great book for Baseball fans of all breeds.  Fans with a historical bent could be mildly entertained by it.

Williams’ life is all about the relationships with teammates and fans.   Fans of the great City of Chicago will find it rewarding.  An important life in the rich tradition of the Cubs is examined, and this read is enriching for members of the Cubs’ family

 

 

REVIEW: PRIDE AND PINSTRIPES MEL STOTTLEMYRE

PRIDE AND PINSTRIPES, The Yankees, Mets, and surviving life’s challenges.  By Mel Stottlemyre with John Harper.   Harper, 2007. 269 pages.

 

 

Mel’s baseball journey broaches three baseball dynasties:  one that was ending (’64 Yankees), one that should have happened but did not (the 1980’s Mets), and one that did come to full fruition (the Jeter era Yankees.).

 

The portrait he paints of what the Mets could have been and should have been alone makes the book worth reading.

 

*************

 

Stottlemyre doesn’t waste anytime painting George Steinbrenner as a meddling, former Assistant Football Coach (Northwestern 1955, Purdue 1956) who secretly believes the Yankees “….should win all 162 games in a season, or at least come close, the way a powerhouse football team might go 11-1 in college, or say 14-2 in the NFL.”

 

Stot dances right up to the cutting edge of brutal, fire-breathing honesty about George.  Then, so as not to totally offend, he backs off, softens his stance, and points out that George has a good side. 

 

Then he points out that the good side only comes out when things are generally going George’s way. 

 

The hatred burns quietly.

 

Mel joins the late Bobby Murcer in having written a recent memoir that reveals Steinbrenner as a Baseball amateur who attracts talent with his millions, and drives talent away with his personality.  

 

It appears that George has no loyalty to his team.  His true loyalty is to burnishing his legacy as the Yankee owner who bought all the booze and then stirred the drink, too.

 

The only thing new about any of this is to hear it directly from a classy guy like Stottlemyre.

 

 *************

 

Mel Stottlemyre’s playing career is well known to 50-something fans.  Hailing from little old Mabton, Washington, he excelled in High School Baseball while avoiding Football, which his disciplinarian Dad simply forbid.

 

Mel threw in the mid-80’s while at Mabton High where his Class of 1959 numbered 24 Seniors.  Yankee Scout Eddie Taylor signed Mel out of Yakima Junior College, signed him right in a Mabton mint field in the midst of crop workers and farm equipment, for no bonus, $400 a month, and a roster spot on the 1961 Harlan (KY) entry in the Appalachian League.

 

God granted Mel a naturally occurring sinker.  He put it together with a little slider and minor league hitters were flummoxed from Day 1.  He went 9-4 in Harlan and Auburn in 1961.  Them he notched a 17-9 record with 8 shutouts in Greensboro (1962).  He spent the 1963 season in AAA Richmond adjusting to the demands of pitching to adults, producing a 7-7 mark.  Then in 1964, emerging from the Richmond Bullpen to which he had been demoted, Mel notched 10 consecutive wins as a starter.  He had learned to set up hitters, getting them to think slider and then throwing sinker.

 

By July, 1964, the Yankees were in a pennant race with the Orioles and White Sox and were in need of pitching.  On Aug. 12, 1964, Stottlemyre walked form the Concourse Plaza Hotel to Yankee Stadium, where he made his MLB debut.  He induced 19 ground ball outs, winning a complete game 7-3 victory over the White Sox.  Mantle, who hit two home runs that day, one a 500 footer, graciously stood with Mel for photos.

 

An untouted rookie in a pennant race, Mel became a sensation.  He finished 9-3. He made 3 World Series starts, all against Bob Gibson

 

1964 was the last good year for the Yankees until 1970.  Aging stars, the first MLB draft, and a lack of young talent all took their toll on Yankee fortunes.

 

Mel was instantly the ace on a bad team.  How do these number sound to you ?  20-9, 2.63 in ’65.  12-20, 3.80 in ’66.  15-15, 2.96 in ’67.  21-12, 2.45 in ’68.  20-14, 2.82 in ’69.  15-13, 3.09 in ’70.  16-12, 2.87 in ’71.  14-18, 3.22 in ’72.  16-16, 3.07 in ’73.

 

Stottlemyre would make $13 million a year today.  Regardless of the W’s and L’s, his ERA and 272 IP average per year would make him a #1 starter almost anywhere.

 

 

 *************

 

 

A torn rotator cuff ended his career 16 games into the 1974 season.

 

The Yankee Doctor caring for Mel’s shoulder was woefully inadequate.  First, they rested him, then they ordered him to pitch through the injury.  Later, in Spring of ’75, the Yankees sent Mel for dangerous X-Ray therapy.

 

Perhaps fostering what would become a full blown grudge against George later in life, the reckless X-Ray therapy became in Mel’s mind the potential cause of his son Jason’s death in 1981 from Leukemia, and his own Multiple Myloema in 2000.

 

 

 *************

 

Stotlemyre’s story also includes 10-years stints with the Mets and Yankees as their pitching coach.

 

He reminds us of what a cocky and powerful team played at Shea in 1986……..

 

“….Davey set the tone….the players took it from there, playing with a swagger that rubbed some people the wrong way, making us a hated club as the wins began to pile up, but we weren’t interested in making friends that year.  In fact, our guys were more than happy to brawl…”

 

Mel brings us back to young Doc Gooden, before the drugs, when he threw a 97 mph heater and a 12-to-6 curveball that froze batters.  At age 21, he simply made men look like boys.  He looked to be a sure fire HOF’er, no doubt.

 

Stot also recalls the improbable Mets comeback in game 6 of the 1986 World Series  – a little too clearly for this Red Sox fan.

 

 

 *************

 

The Yankee Years were glorious.  He was tight with Zim, had a great relationship with Torre, was close to the Pettitte’s and Jeter’s while getting along with the David Wells types.

 

On David Wells:  “Sometimes perfect, sometimes perfectly exasperating.”

 

 

On Andy Pettitte:  Anti-Pettitte ramblings reverberated constantly within the Yankee organization, dating back to the very start of his career and emanating from Tampa.  His soft body must mean that he is lazy.  No matter Andy’s real world results, the whisper campaign persisted:  He could not be counted on to be a consistent winner.  The whisper continued right up until he left in 2003.

 

When Pettitte was at a low point in his Yankee career circa June 1999, meddling George wanted to trade the lefty.  Stottlemyre went to Cashman.  “Brian…look at Andy Pettitte as if he was on another team, not the Yankees.  Look at what he has done during the season and in the post-season, and let’s say you had the opportunity to make a deal for him and have him pitch in Yankee Stadium, where you love having left handers.  You’d give up almost anything to get a guy like him.  Yet, we already have him and there’s this talk about trading him.  I can’t understand it.”

 

Cashman:  “I can’t argue your point.”

 

After lobbying by Mel and Torre, Pettitte survived the trading deadline.  And George’s comment to the press was none too supportive:

 

“He should be very relieved…Certain people put a lot of faith in him.  Now we’ll see what kind of man he is.  This is a very defining moment for him.”

 

That was classic George, trying to motivate people by challenging their manhood.

 

 

*************

 

 

Stottlemyre crosses an entire era of baseball history in this memoir.  There is much more on his sons Todd and Mel, Jr., the Mets, Zimmer, Jeter and Joe.

 

He also shares his personal ordeal of losing his son, Jason to leukemia.  Stottlemyre is a man of character.   He explains how he made it through the loss and then continued on to more challenges and conquests.

 

When facing his own cancer challenge in 2000, he received letters from others with multiple myloema.  They said they watched the Yankee games hoping to catch a glimpse of him in the dugout.  They wanted to see the man who had the disease that they had, who did his cell therapy and chemo, and now was back at work trying to win a championship.

 

At first, Mel wrote letters back to these people.  Then, it occurred to him that a telephone call would have a greater effect.  His call startled them.  Who would think that the Yankee Coach would take the time to reflect on their letter, never mind respond to it ?

 

He chatted with them, exchanging info on how their cancer treatment was going and how they were feeling.

 

He set a great example.  He used his special status as a baseball hero to bring hope.

 

The inclusion of his cancer battle in this book was intentionall.  He wanted to help others with multiple myloema resist giving in to the fear of imminent death.

 

Mel is a character guy.  That come through loud and clear.

 

Always focused.  Always professional.  Loyalty.  Family.  Perseverance. 

 

*********.

 

 

I give the book 4 stars out of five.  Regardless of your team loyalty, you’ll find this book worth reading if you remember watching Joe Pepitone or Thurman Munson play.

 

Younger Yankee devotees will enjoy the insights from the 90’s.

 

Current Mets fans, having suffered unspeakably for the last two years, should wait until the Mets win another Division before reading this book.  The memories of what should have been are only salt in the wound, at present.

 

Review: Yankee For Life by Bobby Murcer

YANKEE FOR LIFE. My 40 year journey in pinstripes.  By Bobby Murcer with Glen Waggoner.  Harper, 2008.  304 pages. 

 

One begins this book knowing that Murcer passed away, but full of hope that his story will be a treasure box of 60’s and 70’s baseball and a testament to human character. 

 

Within an hour, the reader’s heart breaks.  It becomes clear that Murcer was a terrific guy.  He loved Baseball, rocking chairs, his kids, and Kay, his wife of 41 years.  His death at age 62 is a tragedy.

 

*****

 Opening Day, April 2, 2007

 

“…I knew I couldn’t handle any on-field introduction; I’d have broken down for sure…After I’d done my inning, the scoreboard in right-center flashed out the news that Bobby Murcer was in the house, and I received the loudest, most thrilling ovation  I have ever heard from 55,031 Yankee fans in attendance.  The giant scoreboard video screen flashed an image of me waving from the booth, and they cheered even louder.  I waved again, and they cheered even more.  Then Joe Torre and all the guys came out of the dugout, and all the guys in the bullpen came onto the outfield grass, and they all waved and clapped and took off their caps.

 

That’s when I cried.”

 

*****

 

 

Born a Boomer Sooner.  Heavily recruited by 8 Universities for Football, Murcer signed with Tom Greenwade, the scout who signed Mantle. 

 

Murcer signed for $10,000 with the Yankees, turning away $20,000 from the Dodgers —because he was a Yankee fan.

 

On beginning in the minors in Johnson City, Tenn:  “Rookie ball back then was a lot like it is in (the movie) Bull Durham  – only without Susan Sarandon.”

 

Bobby spent two years in the minors proving that he had the tools and the makeup to be a pro.

 

Murcer alludes to a succinct formula for major league success. 

 

TOOLS + MAKEUP = Success

 

(No wonder Dustin Pedroia’s success startles everyone.  He lacks the size and speed to play on the elite level.  But his makeup is unrivaled.)

 

In 17 MLB seasons, Murcer had only 1 DL stint (1965).  

 

His first MLB hit was a game winning 2-run HR  on 9-14-65.

 

He spent two years in the military after two in the minors, was nipped by Lou Pinella for A.L. Rookie of the Year in 1969, was an All Star every year from 1971 to 1975, and garnered MVP votes every year from 1971 to 1974.

 

His playing career included a cup of joe with Mickey and Whitey during his MLB debut in 1965 and the arrival of Don Mattingly in 1983.

 

The Yankees declined, rose, and declined again over Murcer’s career.

 

Murcer’s description of the Yankees Great Depression of the 60’s and 70’s is cold and honest.  It is a set of phenomena that aptly tells how Baseball changed by leaps and bounds.

 

 

Causes of Yankee Depression 1965 – 1975

 

Murcer’s contributing factors to what Red Sox fans may call a glorious Yankee drought:

 

*Charley Finley buys A’s (1960) & soon stops supplying talent to Yankees

*Mickey, Whitey & mates are injured and grow old

*Talent dries up in the Yankee minor league system

*CBS buys Yankees (late 1964)

*The First Year Player Draft debuts in 1965

 

Has anyone ever written a more concise summary of what killed the Yankees ?

 

 

**********

 

The Yankee teams of 1969-75 were populated by weak hitters.  They never finished first.  But for Murcer, those years that included a Gold Glove, 5 All Star Games and joining Mantle & DiMaggio as the only Yanks to earn $100,000. 

 

These years were also marked by the only sale of an MLB team in which the seller, CBS, received less (by 20%) than the amount they originally paid for the team. 

 

It was 1973.

 

Exit CBS. 

 

Enter George.

 

 

**********

 

In 1974, Bobby was still the biggest Yankee star.  Tight with his mates, especially Munson and Pinella, Murcer was ripped away, betrayed by George and Gabe Paul.  They traded him for Bobby Bonds, condemning him to the chilly winds of Candlestick.  Once there, he immediately & quietly begged Horace Stoneham to trade him.  He spent three years in Yankee exile, one in San Fran, two in Cub land.

 

While his Bronx cronies were reaching three World Series from 1976 through 1978, Murcer’s teams never won more than they lost.

 

1976 – San Francisco finished  74-88 and in 4^th place

1977 – The Cubs finished 81-81 and in 4^th place

1978 – The Cubs finished 79-83 and in 3^rd place

 

Meanwhile, Gabe, George and the boys collected rings for 1 AL Pennant and two World Championships.

 

**********

 

Bobby returned to the Yankees in 1979 and spent much of his last 5 seasons as a part time outfielder and platoon D.H.

 

He finished with a .277 B.A., 252 HR’s, 285 doubles, 1,862 hits in just 6,730 for his career.

 

A phone call from Steinbrenner in 1983 brought the end of Murcer’s playing career.  It also started a 25 year broadcasting career.

 

The obsessive, controlling owner gave Murcer 30 minutes to agree to leave the active roster to make room for rookie Don Mattingly and accept a job as a Yankee TV broadcaster, effective with that night’s broadcast.

 

He took it.  He was too experienced to not accept the Will of George.

 

He joined Scooter, White and Messer that night.

 

17 years as a player.  25 as a broadcaster.  42 years at the top level of Baseball.

 

 

 

**********

 

Murcer covers many topics aside from his playing days and cancer battle, including:

 

• A compelling Munson tribute
• The Bobby Murcer Professional Baseball School
• The 1981 Strike Season
• 12 pages of Scooter stories
• 8 pages of Mantle reflections
• His all time Yankee All Star team
• personal recommendations for NYC tourists
• the Peterson kekich swap
• the exact places that Gaylord hid dabs of K-Y Jelly on his uniform and cap
• The consequences of tobacco use and his personal guilt about promoting Skoal

 

He also helps us understand the battle that took his life.  Bobby explains that the worst kind of brain tumor is Glioblastoma Multiforme 4.  It’s a death sentence with a 14-month window.  This memoir lets us understand how Bobby, wife Kay, kids Tori, Todd and family, battled against it.  They found hope.  They clung to hope.

 

 

An emotional return to Yankee Stadium

 

Murcer felt a special loyalty to The Yankees and closeness with Yankee fans.

 

4 months after his diagnosis and surgery to remove the malignant tumor, he returned to Yankee Stadium for a brief stint in the booth.

 

Here is how he describes it:

 

Opening Day, April 2, 2007…I knew I couldn’t handle any on-field introduction; I’d have broken down for sure.  So I came in under the radar, went up to the booth, and worked the third inning with my YES Network colleagues (Michael Kay, Ken Singleton, Joe Girardi.).

 

After I’d done my inning, the scoreboard in right-center flashed out the news that Bobby Murcer was in the house, and I received the loudest, most thrilling ovation  I have ever heard from 55,031 Yankee fans in attendance.  The giant scoreboard video screen flashed an image of me waving from the booth, and they cheered even louder.  I waved again, and they cheered even more.  Then Joe Torre and all the guys came out of the dugout, and all the guys in the bullpen came onto the outfield grass, and they all waved and clapped and took off their caps.

 

That’s when I cried.

 

It was a great game.  We fell behind 5-3 after five, but came back to win 9-5.  A-Rod and Jorge hit homers, Derek drove in two runs, and Mariano – of course – pitched a scoreless ninth.

 

Exactly the way you want to begin a new season.

 

 

MORE MURCER MEMORIES

 

 

Ralph Houk’s boat is named, “Thanks Yanks”.

 

**********

 

Gene Michael uses special lingo: 

 

“Remember the time that M & M & M went B to B to B ?

 

“Huh ?”

 

“You know, the time Murcer and Munson and Michael went back-to-back-to-back ?”

 

Michael hit 15 career dingers in 10 seasons and remembers every one of them with perfect recall.

 

**********

 

Sometimes the trades you don’t make… Toronto agreed to send veteran starter Bill Singer to the Yankees for a little used lefty reliever in the Spring of 1977.  The deal was done until the Blue Jays realized they had already put Singer on the cover of their 1977 Media Guide.  They nixed the deal.  Thus, Ron Guidry, little used lefty reliever, stayed with the Yankees and fulfilled a spectacular destiny.

 

**********

 

THAT’S A RING TAILED TOOTER OF A WRIGLEY GAME.  Never heard that one.  Put it in your esoteric baseball lexicon, file under “The charming Mid-West”.

 

**********

 

On Roger Clemens’ steroid denials and Andy Pettitte’s incrimination of The Rocket, Bobby Murcer wrote, “If I believe Andy, and I do, then I cannot also believe Roger.”

 

********.

 

How to describe Bobby Murcer after reading his book ?  Perhaps 3 words.

 

Generous.

 

Unpretentious.

 

Down-to-Earth.

 

That happens to be how Murcer describes Phil Rizzuto in Yankee For Life, but in fact, Murcer could have been holding up a mirror.

 

 

********.

 

Rating:  3.5 stars.  A great and fast read.  Beneficial for all fans, even Red Sox Nationals like me.

Review: DEEP DRIVE Mike Lowell

DEEP DRIVE, A long journey to finding the champion within.  By Mike Lowell with Rob Bradford.  Foreword by Josh Beckett.    256 pages.  2008.  Celebra books.

 

This book is a great baseball story and an even better human one.

 

In Short – Lowell’s family are refugees from Castro, and he grows up a scrawny kid near Miami.  He works his ass off, turns the skinny build into a productive one.  599 guys are drafted in front of him, but he grows into the Yankee Organization Player of the Year before being traded to the Marlins.   Cancer interrupts his life TWICE.  Steroid rumors swirl but do not prevail.  He loses his swing.  He is betrayed by money grubbers.  He overcomes it all.

 

Lowell wins the World Series twice.  Lowell becomes a World Series MVP. 

 

Great Player.  Great Teammate.

 

It’s a great read and you should pick it up.

 

*******************

 

 

Lowell’s Dad, Carlos, at age 11, escaped from Cuba to Puerto Rico.  Carlos played baseball on the San Ignacio H.S. team.  He played his college ball at St. Joseph’s in Philly, where he tossed a no-hitter and won the MVP Award.  Carlos competed for the Puerto Rico National team.

 

Mike Lowell was raised in Florida where he changed High Schools when it became apparent he wouldn’t get adequate playing time while studying with the good Brothers at Christopher Columbus High School.  The last two spots in the batting order of the Christopher Columbus freshman team were historic.  Batting 8^th and playing SS was Alex Rodriguez.  Batting 9^th and playing second base was Lowell.

 

A-Rod transferred to Westminster H.S. due to a lack of playing time and Lowell left for Coral Gables H.S. for the same reason.  Imagine what Brother Herb Baker might say today about not having foreseen the potential of these future MLB All Stars.  According to this book, Baker was pretty stoic about it.

 

Before going to Florida International with close to a full ride, Lowell was recruited by Notre Dame assistant Coach Pat Murphy, who would later coach Dustin Pedroia at Arizona State.

 

After developing as a second baseman throughout High school and College, Mike was selected by the New York Yankees in the 20^th round of the 1995 draft.  He was shocked when the Yankees informed him they intended to convert him to a catcher.

 

They didn’t stick with that decision after seeing what great hands he had at third.

 

Mike had little power at first.  He was underweight at Oneonta (NY Penn League) and Greensboro (A).  But in 1996 and 1997 he gained 25 pounds of muscle, batting .344 for half a season in Norwich (AA) and hitting 15 Homers in half a season in Columbus (AAA).  In 1998, he played 126 games for Columbus, batting .311 with 25 HR’s.  Mike made his MLB debut on 9-13-98 at Yankee Stadium in front of 47,471 fans.  He singled in his first at bat.  Although he was the starting 3^rd baseman that day, he was behind Scott Brosius on the depth chart.  Still, he was the Yankees 1997 Organization Player of the Year and had a terrific 1998.  Thus, before the post-season, Lowell was told he would be the 1999 starting third baseman on the Yankees, unless Brosius won the World Series MVP, an unlikely possibility…..

 

……and that is exactly what occurred. 

 

Lowell was traded to his hometown Marlins on Feb. 1, 1999. 

 

He had no objection to playing in hometown Miami.

 

But within a month of the trade he was diagnosed with cancer.

 

1999 was a rollercoaster.  Traded, then diagnosed, he underwent surgery and chemo, was sent down to AAA to rehab, and was required to prove he was still major league capable in May. 

 

By Oct. 1, 1999, Mike had batted .253 with 12 home runs in 97 games and was informed he would be a starter for the 2000 squad.

 

“Surviving cancer was, and always will be, my toughest battle. I laugh when people talk about how tough it is to deal with the boos of fans….when cancer comes calling, baseball takes a backseat…having 40,000 people at Yankee Stadium tell me I suck is a nice diversion.”

 

 

NUGGETS

 

 

THE STORY OF “PAM”:  Lowell clarifies why MLB players might be wary about people pretending to be friends.  The story of “Pam”, a BFF of Bertica, his wife, makes the point.  Friends since they were age 15, “Pam” was injured in a car accident with Bertica at the wheel during Lowell’s rookie year.  At first unconscious, “Pam” recovered pretty quickly and all was well.  Some months passed, and then “Pam” stopped speaking with Bertica.  Suddenly, the Lowells were hit with a $1.2 Million law suit alleging pain and vision issues for “Pam”.  At that point, Lowell had made $60,000 total playing 4 years of pro ball and had $7,000 in the bank.  “Pam” and her attorney were stunned when Mike showed them his IRS returns.  The money grubbers slunk away.  They were not heard from again under after Mike signed a major contract the following year.  Ultimately, they sued for $600,000 and Lowell settled for half of that to put it behind them.  Unfortunately for Bertica, the emotional injury cast a shadow for two years.

 

 

THE IRON MAN  SONG:   Have you sat in Fenway wondering how the music dude selected Black Sabbath’s IRON MAN for Lowell’s at bats ?  Turn to page 161.  The story involves getting beaned in the noggin by Adam Loewen and then diving into the field boxes to make a catch in the top of the next inning.

 

BEING GROUNDED:  Mike Lowell is a grounded individual.  “I’ve always said that I play baseball but that is not who I am.  That’s part of who I am.  But I’d much rather be a good father, husband, friend and brother…the game is just what everyone sees, but there is so much more to me.”

 

As Jackie Kennedy said, “If you screw up raising your children, it really doesn’t much matter what else you achieve with the rest of your life.”

 

 

BE POSITIVE:   “You can choose to harp on negativity  – I certainly could have when cancer came calling, or when the hits were hard to find in 2005 – but if you choose the positive you’re going to get the most out of life.  It has worked for me, and I’m not about to stop now.”

 

 

 

AMERICA IS A PLACE TO START AGAIN:  Lowell’s family believed, achieved and overcame Communism & Cancer. 

 

The Seattle Mariners’ Don Wakamatsu today became the first person of Asian ethnicity to be a MLB Manager, rising above a different and regrettable form of oppression.

 

Lowell’s Dad and Father-in-Law were victimized by Castro. 

 

Wakamatsu’s grandparents were victims of the U.S. Government. 

 

They lost their home and were imprisoned in a World War II internment camp.

 

Baseball reflects America.  The good and the bad.

 

 

DEEP DRIVE is a story of family strength.   It’s a good read.  Tackle it and be rewarded.  Red My fellow Sox fans will be rewarded to know that though we lost Teixeira to the Yankees we have retained a man of singular character and skill.

MVP gets 2 cars & a Disney Parade !

Review: Reversing The Curse

REVERSING THE CURSE:  A Season in the Life of America’s Greatest Sports Rivalry.  By Dan Shaughnessy.  2005. 272 pages. Houghton Mifflin.

 

 

About 40 pages in, Shaughnessy lucidly recalls how young Theo submerged himself in professional baseball, postponing his driver’s license test for 7 years, living on McDonald’s, working 12 hour days, becoming a lawyer and climbing the ladder with preposterous speed.

 

At that point I thought, “This book is far better than I expected.”.

 

About 70 pages in, Shaughnessy quotes Halberstam’s summation of Red Sox fans, “It’s really very distinctive……I have maybe gotten into the artists and writers and poets of Red Sox Nation.  The fans are quite interesting and important and different……”

 

At that point, I started to feel like I owed Shaughnessy an apology for not reading his book sooner.

 

Should have known that the guy with total access to Theo and his minions would bring a book packed with inside stuff.

 

Should have known that the guy who can make about 800 words work three times a week would write one of the better books about the 2004 Red Sox.

 

Shaughnessy has serious writing chops.  On TV and in public he carries himself with reserve and courtesy.  He’s a polite guy.  Maybe even camera shy.  I am almost surprised he isn’t a little bit immodest.  He’s that good.

 

He has taken his hard shots at the Sox in the past, but not so in this book.

 

Nothing so cutting as the harpoon with which he speared Nomar on Aug. 1, 2004.  (As I remember it, he wrote that the clubhouse cancer had been removed.)

 

The sharpest criticism D.S. levels in REVERSING is to make it clear than Pedro Martinez did not attend team meetings, work outs or even arrive in the dug out for games he did not start  —– until the 7^th inning !

 

During one critical series against the Yankees, he didn’t even come down with the team.  He waited until his start before making the 200 mile trip.

 

So, why did Tim Wakefield make the same trip promptly ?

 

“Because I wanted to be with my teammates.”, said, Wake.

 

That’s the contrast Shaughnessy strikes.  Pedro the Hall Of Fame Prima Donna versus  Wakefield the Team Guy.

 

Pedro had a negative effect on Manny.  After Pedro took an outrageous 6-day vacation in the middle of the season, Manny reported tightness in his hammy and took a few days off, too.  There had been no indications that anything was wrong with Manny.

 

Two feakishly talented slackers.   Two players that find themselves outside of the organization’s circle of love at the moment.

 

************ 

The portrait of Larry Lucchino in the book is titillating.  LL emerges as a fearless, F-bomb dropping, Yankee hating leader.  With a mind like a steel trap.

And yet, Lucchino has moments of doubt.

 

Larry’s moments of vulnerability came in game 4 and game 5 of the 2004 ALCS when the Sox were within a few outs of elimination.  Lucchino began scribbling notes for a speech.  As much as losing hurt, he would say that they were not vanquished, not defeated, and would come back with passion and a singular goal in 2005.

 

But things kept happening.  With the Yankees leading 4-3 in the 9th, Millar walked and Roberts stole second.  Lucchino put his notes in the desk of his luxury suite.  He settled in until Ortiz hit a 12^th inning walk-off HR off Quantrill, making Larry’s speech at least temporarily moot.

 

The next night, down 4-2 in the 8^th and back on the brink, Lucchino retrieved his note pad to re-draft his concession-without-submission speech.  But then Ortiz homered off Tom Gordon, a rally ensued, and Tek sacrificed in the game tying run..  Again, Lucchino put his notes back in the drawer.  He settled in to watch the completion of the 14 inning Sox victory, won when David’s gork dropped into Centerfield for a single.

 

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see that incomplete draft of Lucchino’s speech.  It marks a desperate moment in Sox history and shines light into Larry’s character.  The darkest night comes just before the Dawn.

 

Call me a sick Soxaholic, but I just feel gratified to know about that draft.  If and when I meet Larry, I’ll be sure to ask about it.

 

Reversing The Curse is filled with such gold, excavated and preserved by the author.  I won’t ruin it for you b revealing more now. 

Even if you are prone to bashing Dan,  I recommend you read this book this winter.

 

You’ll be glad ya did.

 

The Author

Book Review: Larry King WHY I LOVE BASEBALL

Why I Love Baseball.  By Larry King with Julie McCarron.  Phoenix Books.  160 pages.   2006. 

Little Larry King, who would one day become a broadcasting legend, stood on a Brooklyn street with lifelong friend, Herbie Cohen.  It was either 1948 or ’49.  King, a not so rugged 15 year old, smashed Herbie’s head into a lamppost.  Cohen then nailed King with a shot to the chin. 

 

Down on the street they went, both bleeding and struggling.

 

When the fisticuffs were over, the two friends didn’t speak for a week.

 

What Cohen said to ignite King was this:.  “Snuffy Stirnweiss is a better second baseman than Jackie Robinson.”

 

That assertion still bothers King to this day.  It is shocking and obscene to him.

 

If that seems extreme to you, well…..I’m not sure I agree with you.. 

(It bothers me to this day that my beloved brother teased me 35 years ago by referring to my own hero as “Carl Pigstremski, son of a potato pickin’ polack”.) 

King’s father died when he was just 9 years old.  A fatherless, unathletic kid raised in Brooklyn, King had ample opportunity to get into the bleachers at Ebbets Field when he had the spare change, or into the Left Field Grandstand for free through the courtesy of the Police Athletic League.

 

King became a hard wired Brooklyn fan.  Locked in for life.  True Blue. 

His cousin Bernie took him to his first Dodger game 2 months after his Dad passed away.

 

“It was a clear, sunny day.  I remember walking into Ebbets Field and seeing that magnificent old stadium, smelling the popcorn and beer and hotdogs, seeing the brown dirt against the green grass and the crisp white uniforms of the Dodgers….They were playing the Cincinnati Reds, who wore their visiting gray.  Curt Davis was pitching for the Dodgers.  We won, I think the score was 4-3 or 5-4.  I can still vividly recall how my heart pounded just at seeing a major league field.  By the way, that feeling remains to this very day.  I’ve been to hundreds and hundreds of games, and every time I walk into a ballpark I get the same feeling I had at my first game, that summer day in 1943.

 

   

Young King was constantly at Ebbets Field. 

He fed Jackie Robinson and Joe Hatten chicken-fat-and-matzo sandwiches from behind the dugout.  He watched Pistol Pete Reiser run flat out into the outfield wall, which would help cut short a HOF-bound career.

He dearly remembers the ’47 Series when Lavagetto hit a 9^th-inning, 2-RBI double to win game 4, and Gionfriddo robbed DiMaggio in game 6 with an outfield catch that defied logic.

 

The Boys of Summer were his boyz.  Robinson, Hodges, Cox, Reese, Campanella, Snider and Furillo.  King observes that Left Field was always a problem for the Brooklyns.  They first filled it with Hermanski and later Pafko, neither of whom had as much talent and pizzaz as the rest.

 

Following the Dodger abandonment of Brooklyn, King refused to transfer his personal loyalty to Los Angeles.  They ripped his heart out.  A decade later, he threw his loyalty in with two other team.

 

He became a Baltimore Oriole fan.  And a New York Mets rooter. 

Living in Washington D.C. in the 70’s, he became acquainted with Edward Bennett Williams, Earl Weaver, the Robinson boys, Jim Palmer, and the rest of the team that provided one of the longest periods of extended excellence in the history of Baseball.

 

Bobby Valentine was King’s connection to the Mets. 

With 30 years experience as a national media man, King briefly recounts the interviews of many stars in this book, including Durocher, Weaver, Sparky Anderson, Torre, LaRussa, Berra, Jackie, Brooks, Mantle, Henrich, Palmer, Reese, Ripken, and others

 

The memories resonate.  In the Barack Obama era, none ring with more import than those of Jackie Robinson, months before his death,  

“Don’t put me in the grave telling me that someday my people will have equal rights.  Give it to me now, so that when I die I know they have it.  I hate promises…”

 

God Bless Robinson.  He led the way in Baseball, and Baseball helped make it subsequently happen on buses, in schools, at the polls. 

 

This book is written like a long sprawling speech made at a hot stove league dinner in winter.

 

It is a fantastic and fast read. 

King includes his memories of–

 

-His favorite baseball books

-His favorite baseball lyrics

-The 14-year old baseball bookie now in prison
-Past owners, radio broadcasters, umpires and Players Association officials 

He includes short essays from Herbie Cohen, Charlie Bragg, Bob Costas, and a 23 page reprinting of George Will’s 99 reasons that Baseball is better than Football. 

 

#13 of Will’s reasons is the following insight….”Football Coaches talk about character, gut checks, intensity and reckless abandon.  Tommy LaSorda said, ‘Managing is like holding a dove in your hand.  Squeeze too hard and you kill it; not hard enough and it flies away.’.” 

There are dozens of such jewels in Why I love Baseball.

 

This book will have its critics.  Too facile, too conversational.  But if you love Baseball you will find plenty of warm and valuable memories in it. 

I give it an A -.

 

Buddies who share an unabiding love of the game

Always tries to make BP

 

 

 

Jackie graciously ate Larry