I was watching Bruce Sutter on the Tim McCarver TV show and Bruce said his father told him one day, "Son, baseball is a perfect game; it's the people who play it who are not perfect." I like that. Hell, I even like Bruce Sutter. Bruce says the minor league pitching coach Fred Martin taught him how to throw the split-finger fastball. Martin taught it to Sutter and then to Roger Craig, the old Dodger pitcher who was pitching coach for the San Francisco Giants. Sutter says Craig taught the split finger fastball to other players, but Sutter was the first pitcher to use the pitch successfully.
Bruce Sutter when he pitched for the Atlanta Braves [It is the 1970s--the Hippies really influenced hair styles and beards in those happy Hippie early days.]
Bruce Sutter was a "real" ballplayer. He was first scouted and offered a deal from the Washington Senators. He turned that down. Then he was picked as an "amateur" player by the Chicago Cubs, who then traded him to the Saint Louis Cardinals when they thought he was a worthless pitcher--and, he says, he was--he didn't have a good fastball and he depended on his curve ball but throwing the curve ball pinched a nerve in his elbow and Bruce went back to his hometown in Pennsylvania and had elbow surgery done on his arm--on his own--when he went to spring training with a Saint Louis minor league team he wore long-sleeve shirts to hide the surgery scar, but Fred Martin noticed the scar one day and that's how Bruce Sutter got to be the first pitcher to ever be taught the split-finger fastball.
Eatin' a Little Crow
The Yankees won their 10th in a row last night in yet another walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth. If they'd a been playing in Philly, the Yankees would have lost. A-Rod hit the game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth and then after a single, Melky Cabrera doubled in the winning run. Over the last 10 games, the Yankees have pulled an amazing number of ballgames out of the fire in the bottom of the ninth. The Yankee pitchers are coin-tosses in terms of their ability to win--Andy Pettite pitched yesterday's game--he looked like regular old Andy--he had stuff but still that Phillies hotshot who already has 17 home runs, folks, poled one off Andy--and Andy ended up taken out of the game losing.
The Yankees without a doubt have the most expensive and the best hitters in baseball today. Jeter, A-Rod, Cano, Cabrera, Damon, Texiera are all .300 hitters--and when Matsui gets off the injury list, he's another potential .300 hitter. It's an awesome lineup; yet, the Yankees, even after 10 in a row still aren't in first place, 1 1/2 behind Toronto who's on top at the moment.
Critics say the Yankees so far haven't played any really tough teams--the Phillies are atop their division in the National League (a game or so over the Mets)--and they are the reigning World Champs, but the Phillies are like the Yankees--vulnerable on the mound. They've got hitters galore, but their pitching is their Achilles heel.
I must admit I may have misjudged Joe Girardi. The players do seem to like him better than they did Joe Torre. Joe was too serious for the fun-loving Yankees. A-Rod has dumped Madonna and is boogie-ing down with Kate Hudson now. I have no idea who Kate Hudson is, but A-Rod is a hell of a player both on and off the field. What a life, eh? You make 150 million dollars a year but you're still a only baseball player, a fieldhand for the rich plantation owning baseball owners; just like Madonna and Kate Hudson are fieldworker whores for the plantation system that is Hollywood. Bruce Sutter for most of the ten or so years he was in pro baseball made an average of a million bucks a year--10 million in ten years. Not bad, but not enough for Bruce to philander. Sutter has been married 35 years to the same woman. "She went through the minor leagues with me, so I thought she deserved to stay with me through the majors--I had to reward her...." Could Bruce Sutter strike out A-Rod? I betcha he could. Some players said when Bruce conquered that split-finger fastball, he was impossible to hit. Sutter was the first pitcher ever installed in the Hall of Fame (2006) who never started a game. Bruce Sutter was one of the first late-innings reliever in a game where pitchers were supposed to go full nine innings with no relief--like Warren Spahn was called an Ironman pitcher because there were many a times when Spahnie pitched both ends of doubleheaders--doubleheaders? Yeah, they don't have doubleheaders anymore now that baseball fans aren't the most important element of the game. Pleasing the high-end ticket "fans" is now the name of the game--fans who can afford $125 General Admission to see a baseball game--or how about fans who can afford $2500 to sit behind homeplate. That's hard for me to comprehend. Think of that, $2500 to see a baseball game. And how about "Ladies Nights" when women got in free? No more. Knothole Gangs? No more. Sushi restaurants? Oh hell yes--a major sushi restaurant at Yankee Stadium. I guess that's for the Japanese businessmen who are the preferred fans at Yankee Stadium because of Matsui, except now Matsui is on his last legs and the big-time Japanese hitter is still out in Seattle, a team that loved Japanese businessmen so much they sold the majority of the team to the Nintendo Corporation. It seems to me like the fascination with Japanese baseball players may be over--or at least hitting a lull. Besides, there are more Dominican Republic players in baseball by far than Japanese players--so why not "Dominican Nights" at Yankees games? I'll tell you why, because Dominicans are peasants to baseball owners! I'm sorry, but there is a class difference in baseball now that it has been totally taken over by Capitalist pigs. I remember when the teams were owned by their managers--that's how old I am--I remember Connie Mack--who owned and managed the Philadelphia Athletics--"Mr. Mack," they called him; and he wore vested suits and bowler hats when he managed.
Connie Mack managing. In the 1920s, Connie Mack had several powerhouse teams starring the likes of Lefty Grove and Jimmy Foxx. The Athletics would win the World Series and then Mr. Mack would sell off his best players for money and field lesser teams the next seasons.
Connie Mack the baseball player. He caught for the Washington Senators in the late 1880s. Mr. Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics into the early 1950s. The last time I saw Mr. Mack managing, he was wearing a seersucker suit and a straw boater. Now Mr. Mack is no more--and Connie Mack Stadium is no more--and the Philadelphia Athletics are no more.
Admission of False Pretenses
I have to admit, last night's Yankees victory over the Phillies was exciting. Both teams are great teams. It was exciting for me to see John Mayberry's son playing for the Phillies! Big John Mayberry--I remember what a pain in the ass he used to be for the Yankees when he played for the Kansas City Athletics. Now his son's a Philly.
Predictions
Yankees should be in the division race most of the way. If they can sweep the BoSox or Toronto, it might help to keep them in first place. However, they've been playing bum teams up until the Phillies hit town. Everybody this year is beating teams like Baltimore and Tampa Bay, though the division is tighter than Dick's hatband--currently the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are only 3 games out of first--oops, I'm sorry, the Devil Rays got Christianized, they're just the Rays now--and that could mean the rays of the sun--why not the X-Rays? And, yes, folks, it's true, the Springfield Isotopes were sold to the Albuquerque team back in that past episode of "The Simpsons"--where Homer's the team's Philly Phanatic. The Albuquerque minor league team is today called the Isotopes.
As for the Mets. I still don't like Jerry Manual, sorry. The Mets like the Yankees have a great hitting team, when they're not injured, and again like the Yankees they are dependent upon their pitchers to win--aren't all teams? Mets pitching at best is wishy-washy. Yet, they should, same as the last three years, be in contention until the end of the season. Can they beat out the Phillies this year? Right now I doubt it.
As you recall, Joe Torre and his Los Angeles Dodgers are hot as firecrackers in their division. San Diego just won 7 in a row and they're still 6 1/2 behind the Dodgers who earlier in the year won 12 in a row before they caught Manny Ramirez using female hormones to repair the injuries done when he used steroids. Come on, folks. It looks like Jose Canseco was right all along--remember how Joe was put down and ridiculed for saying the biggest stars in the game were all using steroids. It's like when they took cocaine away from Doc Gooden...ruined his game.
As I've said many times, when I was in high school, and it's many years ago now, our coaches gave us some little white wafers to take--pep pills they called them then--boosters--enhancers--what they were, we didn't know. We trusted our coaches in those days.
marvelousmarvbackbiter
for The Daily Growler
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