Discuss this article in the Community & Society forum of Post &
Riposte.
From the archives:
"Flashback: Ballpark Memories"
Perspectives on the game of baseball -- from the 1920s to the 90s.
|
When he heard the noise? "No, just now, when you asked me how it felt. Go tear
your elbow out and put it into words."
Postgame the formerly dominant lefty underwent a fourth bout of reconstructive
surgery on the troubled joint, which was rebuilt using cartilage from his ears
and a ligament from the ankle of pitching coach Mel Pehr. "Next year I'm going
wire to wire," vows Dealie. "And part of me'll be there with him," quips Pehr.
We'll see.
Emanuel Vesto is just two bases shy of becoming the 138th man in history to
reach the 300-pilfer milestone, but contract-extension hassles have left him
reluctant to slide: "These legs put my children's food on the table. Why should
my family have to be insecure about what I'll be making in 2002? It's affecting
my intensity level." Current $53.5-mill pact expires just after the
millennium.
Cub SS Porter Creach -- batting .323 and slugging .523 with 23 HR,
23 steals, and 23 doubles in 423 AB over his last 123 games --
recently turned twenty-four. "Kind of ironic, isn't it?" said the taciturn
Creach. "Well, that's baseball."
Mets have farmed set-upper Chad DeSisto to Single-A St. Lucie. "We were
pleased with his mechanics," says a front-office source, "and he had a lot of
presence on the mound -- plus you couldn't measure the intangibles he
potentially gave us. But he had lost two inches off his velocity."
Both pitchers' and hitters' unions are closely following progress of suit
filed by Tito Jolly to redefine a quality start, in light of run inflation, as
five innings giving up fewer than five ER. Jolly's pact calls for bonus of
$55,000 per quality start. Any trend toward adjustment for inflation is likely
to be opposed by hitters, concerned their own incentives might be
jeopardized.
TOUCHY, TOUCHY: His battle back from experimental groin surgery is something
Harkey Pollum refuses to discuss with the press, despite reported movie
interest. Groin is still nagging, teammates confide, but Pollum was mum
Thursday after consulting with groin specialist Dr. Shane Ng on the heels of
four straight whiffs against Indians.
Pulvio Lentz cleared the Fenway Monster twice Friday while blanking Sox,
which gave the Marlins' LHP more dingers than Jirod Ford, Bo Clear, Motorola
Joralemon, Anastasio Nix, Cobia Seay, Bamalam Copay, Jermayne Laine, Luc
Estacion, Mickey Berry, Chet Pockett, Toto Lavallier, Ellis Booley, Spackle
Mathis, Andre Umphree, and Cesar Spang -- combined.
Looks like, barring tragic injury, The Force will be with us for a while.
Eyeing the arc of Rollie Wilt's 3-0 cripple picked on by slugging phenom Wilton
"The Force" Coursey, a press-box wag shook his head over the mammoth smash and
wondered aloud, "Ruth? Aaron?"
Came back the quip, "People to compare him to, or books in the Bible?"
To which was rejoined, "Aaron's not a book, he's Moses' brother."
"We will be too, by the time that clout comes down," was the
re-rejoinder.
Speaking of biblical Aaron, he turned rod into serpent and caused it to bud,
blossom, and bear almonds -- everything but make contact with
horsehide. That's about what Tintin Coates did to Dodger lumber in 2-0 whitewash Wednesday. "He threw us more knucklers than we could shake a stick at," sighed L.A.'s Bobby "Chef" Boyardy. But they tried.
That frayed rotator-cuff fringe revealed in his last MRI has not kept Duwane
Tice from spending off days speaking to junior high schools about the perils of
nondeferred compensation: "If I can save even one kid from confiscatory
taxation, it'll be worth it."
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "Anything I have to say to that [expletive expletive] I'll
say to his face. I don't need to send that [expletive expletive] messages
through the media" -- Herc Kibble after Astro RHP Tarlton Pye was
quoted as
calling him an [expletive].
LINE OF THE WEEK, SIGN OF TWO BEASTS DEPT.: (Noland Tollefer, Tuesday, facing
Rockies): 6 6 6 6 6 6
NAME OF THE WEEK: Waterloo Fanning, DH-ing at Medicine Hat.
OKAY, WHATEVER: In the wake of rumors about his suspect left foot, Red IF/OF
Job Sootlich snapped, "It feels like barbed arrows of hellfire running back and
forth from the [hyperextended] subtarsal pad to the [further torn] plantar
fascia. A foot is a personal thing. My mother kissed my feet when I was a
little child. I stood on these feet when I was married. My foot is not in my
own hands -- all I can do is try to do a good job exemplifying Jesus
Christ." Hey, Job, how about this: "sooties" is what Elvis and mom called
their feet.
What began simply as a flyer last spring has matured into full-fledged
reality: Tojo Colon, who had the best raw tools of any 2B under twenty-seven
but couldn't budge ironman keystoner Flea Armiento from his slot, has found
himself at the hot corner. "He always had that gun and those soft hands," says
Sox scout Doggie Schepp, "and now he's proving acclimated around the other
bag."
Old Anaheim hand Cleve Trinidad, toiling under his ninth career skipper,
likes the clubhouse atmosphere since new helmsman Solly Mele took over Angels'
reins. "We've got that looseness mentality, so guys are tight enough to get on
guys without the personal vendettas. We're not dead like we were." They still
trail A's by twelve.
NO MORE GERBILS FOR INDIANS: After Quilvio Hein was hobbled by a rib-cage
strain resulting from mishap experienced while assembling his son's gerbil
environment, Tribe front office issued clarification of contract provisions
regarding pets. "With just 'potentially hazardous animals' it was left too wide
open for interpretation," said GM Mel Orny.
Bouncing courageously back from removal of scar tissue formed after
ulnar-nerve surgery, Joaquin Pez is handling the bat with authority, spraying
it around with pop. "My shoulder's made super strides," he says. "Now, if trade
rumors would only stop swirling around me." Word around the league is, little
does he know.
In a dizzying ending to a bizarre season-long story line, Detroit abruptly
ended prolonged off-and-on contract-restructuring negotiations with agent Deke
"Quickie" Norway on learning that Norway did not actually represent any player.
"He talked a good game," said a red-faced Tiger exec. One more major disaster
for a front office that shot itself in the foot big time on the Ferret-Morganza
deal and has a massive void of talent to show for it.
SHORT HOPS: It's "agony and ecstasy" time in Cleveland ... After
Dome was
fumigated for fruit flies, LHP Dody Ilster fanned a career-high eleven over
five and two thirds ... Mel Grobel's shoulder is so bad he can't get
on top
to snap off his slider ... Can we say Mariner submariner Lumar Varcy has
taken his game to another level? ... Blanked for six innings by Darrin
Badger's offerings, Royals demanded his elbow be x-rayed for foreign substance,
but the much-whittled joint checked out at over 60 percent organic. "They were
just trying to throw me off my rhythm," said Badger ... Cope Wigbe's
strained
left rib cage sent a shudder through the whole Brewers organization --
which breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Big Ticket rebounded
with no long-term implications ... Insiders fear Evangelisto Crispo's
looming trials for substance possession, false imprisonment, and menacing
of a female relative can't help but affect him mentally at the
plate ... Talk about hair-trigger men in blue: Kelso Outlar turned to
vet arbiter Rollie Babondi the other night at Wrigley after a close strike
call and said, "Wha ... ?" "Watch it," said Babondi. "I'll
run you." "For saying 'Wha ... ?'" demanded Outlar,
open-mouthed. Rollie ran him ... Addition of Jansen "Mr. Ed" Orengo,
no longer hobbled by shoulder-fluid buildup, to the already arm-rich Expo
staff creates a rotation dilemma, but "that's the kind of dilemma you like
to have," says new director of player personnel Pooh Lupis ... Tuesday
night Adrian Cherney became first Giant hurler since the Second World War
to cry openly on the mound ... When the Yanks' Olen Linker blooped
meekly to short Monday, it marked his first soft liner of the
campaign ... Sushi Inoko surrendered two free passes to Orioles
Thursday, breaking a skein of ten walkless starts ... The next Trout
rumor you hear may be Atlanta ... What put kibosh on much-rumored
three-way deal with Twins? Padres', Bluejays' inability to see eye to
eye ... Inflamed Achilles forced Donnie Poppe to sit during the Cards'
western swing ... Yes, that was Hibbett Wangel in another bizarre
incident ... Cedric Smallwood, filling in for Coby Deplane (groin
damage) in center till Lejermian Tyle's promising glove could be summoned
from Triple-A Buffalo, muffed routine fly against Rangers, prompting a
press-box wag to crack, "Must've been something E-8" ... Last year it
was southpaws. This year, righties. What to make of it? "These things,"
says Tulsa GM Ping Leggio, "go in cycles."
Illustrations by Barrett Root
Copyright © 1997 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All
rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; August 1997; Diamond Nuggets;
Volume 280, No. 2; pages 61-63.
|
