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Archive for May, 2006

The Right Cross – A Baseball Tradition

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

“He grabbed me and said, ‘I didn’t have the ball’ and then he punched me. … I was trying to pick up my helmet. I tried to take a step around him and he grabbed me. I thought he was going to say ‘Hey, are you OK?’ And I was going to say the same thing. The words came out, I got hit and the next thing I know, all hell broke loose.”

A.J. Pierzynski

And somewhere Carl Reynolds agreed.

Fact, Michael Barrett popped Pierzynski on the jaw on Saturday and the sports world threw up their collective arms and were either shocked, titillated or they missed it.

Violence on the field is hardly a new concept in any of the major sports always seems to make us to a check on our own hot buttons for what is acceptable, and what is not acceptable in relation to the subject.

Saturdays incident has a precedent that goes back to 1932, when on the 4th of July Washington outfielder Carl Reynolds scored on a broken play on a sacrifice fly. After a brief collision Reynolds celebrated with the team’s batboy, at that point his teammates implore him to touch the plate, fearing that he had not done that cleanly. As he turned to go towards the plate Dickey smashed his jaw with a right cross, breaking it in 2 places and causing a general melee. For his infraction Dickey was fined $1000 and suspended for 30 days, a pretty stiff fine and punishment during the Depression. Dickey claimed he was confused by Reynolds coming at him after the run had scored.

In the natural order of things you’d think that a precedent had been set, one would expect a similar type of punishment if a similar infraction occurred in a game in the future.

But no one ever said that baseball was the slave to any order, much alone natural order.

Jumping ahead to 1960 and into the National League another famous punch can be found lurking in the shadows; this one is highlighted by the participant who personified fiery and shoot from the hip as a manager in the 70’s and the 80’s, I’m talking about Billy Martin a man whose brief career in Cincinnati and the National League gets lost in his giant life in baseball.

The Indians wanted Johnny Temple, the Reds wanted Gordie Coleman, and Billy Martin came over as a trading chip and a placeholder.

“We had picked up Billy Martin in the off season and I loved him. He had the Napoleon complex so many little guys have and he always seemed to be in a fight. Someone always wanted to knock him down and he’d always retaliate.”

Jim O’Toole

May 15th – Phillies vs. Reds. Reds pitcher Raul Sanchez hits three Phillie batters in a row, the third being 6’9” Gene Conley. In a fit of rage rookie Phillie manager Gene Mauch rushes Sanchez on the mound starting a fight between the two teams. In a “peacekeeper” role Martin gets popped in the face by Conley.

“I was holding back Mauch and Conley belted me. But I got Conley too. I had to jump up to hit him. Fighting him is like fighting a two story building.”

Billy Martin.

For his trouble Martin hurt his hand and missed two weeks.

Mauch was fined $100 by NL President Warren Giles.

Martins hitting mojo was never fully charged and as the decade matured his bat wilted. A contact hitter with both low strikeouts and walk totals Martins stay in Cincinnati was highlighted by his last year with a .300 plus on base percentage.

August 5th – The one-year anniversary of Martin getting beaned in the face as a Cleveland Indian by Senator pitcher Tex Clevenger’s fastball, Martin had seven facial bones broken, but declared it an accident and forgave Clevenger for the incident. On the anniversary the Reds are in Chicago playing the Cubs and the Senators are also in town to take on the White Sox in the evening.

Several of the Senator players visited the Reds clubhouse prior to the contest and engaged Billy Martin in a conversation, Billy felt that he was being crowded in the National League (The Dodgers in retaliation for a Roger Craig collision had beaned Vada Pinson three times since the incident causing the Reds to be somewhat on edge.) According Senator pitcher Hal Woodeshick Martin was “fed up with getting knocked on his ass every time up.” And then he swore, “Someone’s going to pay.”

On the mound that day for the Cubs was 22-year-old Jim Brewer, a rookie making his fourth start of his career. After walking Martin to lead off the game Brewer gave up 3 hits and allowed 2 runs. In the second inning he got two quick outs and Martin stepped to the plate. The first pitch was high and tight and Martin acted as if he had been struck in the helmet and took off for first, the ruse didn’t take and he was ordered back into the box. Brewer threw the 1-0 pitch and Martin took a half swing and his bat skittered out towards the mound landing ten feet to the right of the rubber.

Martin said it “Slipped” from there he walked out to the mound to retrieve his bat. In his hearing with Warren Giles he claimed that Brewer was “mouthing off and that if he had kept his mouth shut nothing would have happened. Brewer admitted he asked if Martin wanted to fight. Martin’s reply was “No, I’m out here to get my bat, kid.”

It was then that Martin attacked Brewer with a surprise right, fracturing his cheekbone and orbital, starting a general ruckus that featured an angry Brewer stalking the field with a broken bat in his hand.In the aftermath it was obvious the culture of the game was going to point to the pitcher vs. the hitter aspect of this fight. The Sporting News ran stories about Martins 1959 beaning, and even printed a letter to the editor about “The Carl May’s Pitch” from former Major Leaguer Dummy Hoy. The general consensus was that the batter was at the mercy of the headhunters.

Martin gave his final word on the matter, “Nobody, and I mean nobody is going to throw at my head, they can hit me anyplace else, but not in the head.”

When a man has a history of violence, as well as a history of being beaned what to you use as your basis for your ruling on the matter?

This is the sort of thing that Giles had to ponder, even despite current Reds GM Gabe Paul’s assertion that “Its pretty difficult to figure the thinking processes of a man who has been hit in the jaw by a pitched ball.”

“We can’t have batters charging the mound every time they think the pitcher has thrown at them.”

Warren Giles

After hear both sides, Giles levied a $500 fine and a 5 game suspension for the infraction.

In the aftermath two opposing camps arose, those who felt the penalty was too lenient and those who felt it was not warranted due to the nature of the altercation, that being a pitcher – batter confrontation.

On the side of Giles was too harsh was Reds slugger Frank Robinson.

“Giles ruling should make Don Drysdale very happy.” At the time Drysdale led the National League in hit batsmen with ten.

On the other end of the stick was Cubs owner and the man who signed Jim Brewers checks. Wrigley called for a $1000 fine and a suspension that equaled the disabled Brewer’s absence, he even went as far as to call the decision “Wishy Washy”

Certainly a precedent had been set with the Dickey situation, but the introduction of the pitcher into the fight changes the ground that it begins on, and as for Saturdays combatants we hear this from the man with the quick right cross.
“He had every right to hit me,” Barrett said about the initial hit. “He made a great play in taking me out before the ball could get to me. As soon as I got knocked down, I fall back, a little startled at first. All I know is when I got up and gained some kind of consciousness, he’s walking toward me and sort of bumps into me. At that point, I just reacted.”I wish I would have pushed him away from me. Unfortunately, what’s done is done. All I know is that as I’m laying down, he’s walking toward me and nudges me — barely nudges me. At that point, I don’t know what’s going on.

“A.J. is an emotional player; we all know that. I felt, especially after watching the replay, that after he touched home he could have easily gone back to his dugout. He didn’t have to cross over and come toward our side. I was clearly two to three feet on the other side of home.” Barrett said he regretted it wasn’t a PG-rated play on his part. “There are kids watching,” he said. “You don’t like for those sort of things to happen. I expect to be disciplined. … When you hit another grown man, it’s never right.’‘

So I suggest that when Mr. Selig ponders the Barrett punch from Saturday after noon that he pay credence to the events that transpired almost 74 years ago and not the one from 46 years ago.

One final note, in his short time in the National League Billy Martin was never hit by a pitch.

Posted in Baseball History, Reds History | 3 Comments »

Today’s Dead Baseball Player – The Scout

Tuesday, May 16th, 2006

I wish I could take a psychologist with me, I’d like to know if the boys have the will to win. If they do I want them. If they don’t, they’re no good to me.”

Part of the goal of Baseball Minutia is to chronicle some of the strange and complicated webs of baseball history. Everyone knows about Roger Maris, Ted Williams and The Big Train, what reader of this site can say they don’t know about the Babes Called “Shot” or the pine tar incident and the earthquake of 1989?

Few, if any would be my guess. This isn’t any attempt to diminish those players or moments, however let us leave them behind and dig deeper into the trunk of baseball history and take a look at men who gave to the game and might have eluded your prior examinations of the history of the game.

One of the great things about baseball is that it brings father and sons together (and numerous other family members, but I have a theme here) part of this father and son bond can be seen in the pairs of fathers and sons who both plied their trade on the diamond. Many stars have sons who are stars, like the Bonds and Griffey families, or a star has a son who doesn’t match dad’s exploits (big shout out to Dale Berra.) Other player’s sons eclipse their father’s shadow by outperforming the old mans performance (Roberto Alomar and Joe Coleman) Then there is the father and sons who both never amounted to anything above a role player, this can be seen in the Stillwell’s and the Mattick’s.

The Mattick’s?

WALLY MATTICK

BORN: 3/12/1887 St. Louis, Missouri

MLB DEBUT: 4/11/1912

SLG  OBA   OPS

.302  .302  .604

BOBBY MATTICK

BORN: 12/5/1915 Sioux City, Iowa

SLG  OBA   OPS

.233  .281  .269  .550

Yep… two very short careers in pro ball, totaling 1323 AB’s, father Wally played some outfield (mostly CF) for the White Sox in 1912-1913 and had a cup of coffee with the cardinals during the war shortened 1918 season. Son Bobby was also a skill player and played shortstop for the Cubs and the Reds from 1938-1942, finally succumbing to an eye injury. Between the two only dad could claim a home run in both their careers. The game is peppered with all sorts of father and son combinations and this one might be one of the weakest player combos, it also contains one of the most under recognized baseball men in the history of the game as well as the major figure in the building of the Cincinnati Reds in the late 50’s, from there he followed Gabe Paul around from organization to organization and eventually landed a job as one of the main architects of the expansion Blue Jays in the mid 1970’s. Later Bobby became the oldest manager to debut in a season opener when he managed the 1980-1981 Blue Jays. That was his first and only job in the dugout after a career of scouting.

And what a career it was, if you have been lucky enough to get your paws on Dollar Sign on the Muscle then you will appreciate the world of the scout and the way they look at players, and have looked at players since the days before roads between some of the burgs they had to traverse to dig up a player.

If the mans life’s work was the talent he brought to the game then Bobby Mattick was the Ty Cobb of scouts. The list of his finds for the Reds in the mid 50’s is one that is as impressive as any others out there. The prize of the picks was Frank Robinson whom Mattick inked for $3000 after seeing Frank swing at the age of 14 (Mattick at the time was scouting J.W. Porter a catcher, Porter got 65K from the Chi Sox and was out of MLB by the age of 27) Frank was impressive then and even more when he began his climb up the ladder for the Reds in the minors. Robinson’s stance possessed a hitch that Frank’s manager in the minors wanted to fix… Mattick put a stop to those shenanigans. So impressive was young Robinson that during trade talks between the Reds and the Pirates the Pirates GM, Branch Rickey tried to have Frank included as a throw in…. Gabe Paul put a stop to those shenanigans.

Known as an aggressive scout who hung around the families as much as the diamonds, often college coaches found him a bit too aggressive and UC Berkeley’s coach Clint Evans felt his involvement with his star pitcher Bill Gear was a little out of line, calling Mattick a “corner Cutter.” Mattick fame was in finding young talent not college talent and no where was he more successful than in Oakland where Mattick was also able to ink a player who went to school with Robinson, a slight young pitcher with impressive speed and quick wrists named Vada Pinson. For four thousand dollars Vada was willing to sign with the Reds and abandon pitching for the outfield.
What’s more impressive is this also came on the heels of the Mattick also getting the signature of another fleet outfielder from the Oakland sandlots for the Reds, The outfielder had an impressive 26 extra base hits in 27 games and was hitting .620. His name was Curt Flood and he like Pinson got $4000 to sign.

Unfortunately for Reds fans Flood was never to make his mark as a Red and was the crown on the head of Bing Devine’s first trade as a Cardinal GM. The possibility of an all black outfield might have been a hurdle the club wasn’t ready to attempt and when he was in the minors one season the Reds tried Flood at 3rd, 41 errors later he was back in center field.

Mattick scouted and signed three of the best outfielders in the National League in the early 1960’s and spent only $11,000 dollars for them, or approximately 16.9% of the cost of J.W. Porter. That’s an impressive move in an era that awash in bonus signings and unrivaled spending on unproven talent.

Throwing another log on the Oakland fire was the signing of Tommy Harper from the same neighborhood that produced the prior three stars, Harper never had the careers that the others had, however he had quite a career himself, including getting to be part of the Pilots, an honor that no one can ever take away from him.

Mattick’s best pitching find would have to be the slow and laborious dance he performed to get Jim Maloney to sign with the Reds. At the time Maloney was as known for his stick as he was for his arm, in the reverse of the Pinson situation Mattick convinced Maloney to forgo the bat for the mound. From there it is history, with Maloney taking the mantle as best Reds starter from 1963 to 1969, during this time he also was one of the best starters in the National League.

When Reds GM Gabe Paul left to run the Houston expansion team new Reds GM Bill DeWitt signed Bobby to a 3 year contract, letting the world know that he felt lucky to have Mattick on his side, that buzz only lasted 2 months, and after much deliberation Bobby Mattick followed his mentor and the man who first hired him as a scout to Houston.

No one was surprised when Houston signed the sought after Rusty Staub, the man next to him in the signing picture was Bobby Mattick.

Later in his career Mattick also got credit for signing Don Baylor and Gary Carter, and also worked as the cross checker for the Expos before he moved over to the Blue Jays. The result was he was voted in to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame for his work with the Blue Jays and was lionized by admirers all over baseball; perhaps this story involving Buck Showalter best exemplifies what baseball men felt about Bobby Mattick.

When Buck Showalter was managing in Arizona, Mattick once paid a visit during a practice. Buck stopped all activity, gathered his players and told them, “This is one of the great baseball men in the game; don’t ever forget what he did at Toronto. He respects the game and he respects people, and he’s not going to make somebody look bad.”

What’s a baseball man?

Bobby Mattick would be a good answer, son of a player, a player himself, a scout, an administrator and a manager.

One thing’s for sure the man knew talent.

Posted in Baseball History | 3 Comments »