Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
When I was at the Stadium last week with Jay Jaffe two kids, must have been about six or seven-years old, sat nearby. They were dressed in Yankee gear, down to the batting gloves. I wondered what they would actually remember of Derek Jeter or Mike Mussina when they get older. It is possible to watch so many more games on TV today, I wonder if kids of this generation will have more than fleeting impressions of the stars of their childhood.
Probably not. I don't know how many times I actually ever saw Willie Stargell or Joe Morgan or Yaz actually play. But to this day, I can imitate their batting stance. It's like being able to do an imitation of Ed Sullivan or Richard Nixon--it doesn't necessarily have to be good or even competent to be recognizable. In a simple motion of twirling the bat around and shaking your ass you can instantly become Pops Stargell. It is something that you will be able to do until the day you die.
After work last night I walked from midtown through Central Park and east to the Frozen Ropes hitting cage located on York Avenue and 90th street, a place my father would have called "the ass-end of the planet." On the way, I passed an apartment building on 89th street between 1rst and 2nd avenues where, one summer in the early 80s, my father subletted an apartment for the summer, the year the USFL folded and I became addicted to Sports Center (Remember the days when Bill "Doran" Doran, Jose "Can You See?" Cruz and Chris Berman's other quips were something that you actually looked forward to hearing?).
Soon, I was standing over a tee with a ball on it in a mesh cage with a bat in my hands, imitating Don Mattingly's stance and using one of Mattingly's bats. Joe Janish, a public relation's man for Mattingly's line of "V-Grip" bats, met me at the hitting cage to demonstrate the product. Janish explained that when Mattingly played, he would shave the sides of his bad near the handle so a "V" shape was formed. This helped him keep his knuckles lined up on the bat and prevented him from holding the bat in the palms of his hands, which robbed him of his power and he met the ball. Later, when Mattingly saw his boys struggle with keeping their knuckles lined up properly he had the idea of designing his own line of bats.
This is the second season that Mattingly's bats have been on the market--almost all of their business comes from alumninum bats made for kids. Joe and I had a catch and then I hit off a tee and used a series of Mattingly's bats, as well as some regular ones--both wood and aluminum. I found the V-Grip to be perfectly agreeable.
Joe Janish is one of those resourceful men who has tried his hand at a lot of different things--editor and writer for a magazine about dogs, public relations man, writer, and web designer in the wine industry, coach and hitting instructor to young kids, Met blogger--and yet gives the impression that while he's good at many things he'd trade it in for being great at one thing.
Janish, 38, played baseball in college and still plays in a semi pro league (19 and up), "the guys don't really know how old I am," he says. "During my junior year in college I had scouts coming out to see me," says Jannish, a tall, athletic man who looks unremarkable but is not unhandsome. "Then I hurt my ankle, the scouts went away and they never came back. I was told that I was too old when I was 23. Can you imagine that? 23. I couldn't accept that."
So Janish continued to play baseball and has been a catcher to boot. Still is. "A glutton for punishment," he says with a shrug and smile. In his early twenties, Janish, a native of New Jersey, caught Jim Bouton (one of his childhood heroes), then over fifty and throwing mostly all knuckleballs, for two seasons, "maybe fifteen, twenty games in all."
I asked him if he had a hard time getting over not making it.
Jannish smiled sheepishly. "Why do think I'm still playing today?"
Most guys who continue to play hardball into their thirties, even forties if they are truly obsessed, cannot let go of the dream. The dream they once had of making it. Or maybe it was their father's dream of them making it. I have a friend that I went to high school who still pitches on the weekends. His father drove him hard when we were young, he internalized it, and won't let it be. He'll continue playing until his body quits on him.
What stands out most about these kind of guys is not so much that they are resentful or even desperate, it is that they truly consider themselves ball players. Luck and health and ambition and drive is what separates the success stories from the failures when you get to a certain level. But the ones who don't make a career out of playing the game can't just give it up. It is still an inherent part of how they define themselves, how they comport themselves.
"I'm so happy when I'm around baseball," says Janish. "I don't know what to do with myself in the off-season. A day without baseball is like missing a meal. Something is missing."
Playing baseball is something he is good at, something that makes him feel good about himself. Guys like Janish, or Bob Klapisch even, the columnist who is a committed semi-pro pitcher, feel and think like athtletes even if they weren't blessed with the talent, health, good fortune or mental fortitude to make it to the big leagues. And just because they are not professionals who says that they aren't entitled to define themselves as ballplayers? In fact, their commitment is almost more impressive than that of a professional because guys like Jannish structure their lives around the game, they don't get paid, they just get the satisfaction of playing.
I like talking about the game with jocks like Joe because they are unable not to give great players their due. Janish is not a fan of Alex Rodriguez on some level, but on another level he can't not be a fan because Rodriguez's talent is so compelling to a fellow player.
I also liked the camaraderie of being around a jock, of Janish placing ball after ball on the tee as I drove the ball into the net, the unspoken rhythms of me swinging, him placing another ball on the tee, us chatting, and then both of us bending down and picking up the scattered balls and putting them back in the bucket.
I did not have the confidence or physical stature as a kid to be a very good player, but I always had good mechanics and could at least fake being a good player. I looked like I knew what I was doing, at least at the plate. I was far more confident in the field.
It felt good being with Joe, hitting balls for the better part of an hour. I left duly impressed with Mattingly's bats and feeling good about hitting. Which is more than the Yankees can say. The Bombers were shut-out, 4-0, on a soggy night in Kansas City. The field looked like the Crash Davis and his pals had left the sprinklers on all night. But that didn't stop the young and energetic Royals from giving their fans--especially the brave souls who stuck it out for the entire game--something to cheer about. According to the Post:
"You look out there and those kids are run ning around like maniacs," [Jason] Giambi said of the youthful Royals, who have swiped six bases in nine attempts in the two games. "And we are looking like old men."
I keep figuring today will be the day that the offense wakes up. With a weekend series in Boston looming, it would behoove our boys to shake, rattle and roll over the Royals today, wouldn't you say?
i am terrible. i hit a lofty .185 last season, but i can't express how much fun it is to put on a uniform and play a game of baseball with a bunch of great guys. win or lose, it is the perfect way to spend a sunday afternoon.
I don't think it made us better hitters because even at the high school level, live pitchers had a lot more going on than the pitching machines. Still we couldn't think of a better way to burn a summer night.
Speaking of pitching machines, this Farnswacker's something, isn't he?
and that Giambi quote makes me want to beat my computer with one of Mattingly's V-Grip jobs.
Anyone know what the pitches per plate appearance stat is for the last few years?
Fifth floor, railroad, $700 a month (1992 dollars), which I shared with a friend from high school. There was a wretched, wretched old lady across the hall. Deranged. Collected garbage. If we had the ill-fortune to come out of the apartment when she was active and her door was open, we had to endure one of the most powerful stenches you can imagine: urine mixed with God knows what else.
It was profoundly sad and disturbing.
"Orlando Hernandez is out indefinitely with a strained tendon in his troublesome right foot, another blow to the New York Mets' pitching staff."
Last night we had a mangled pitching situation (over managing) and faced a possibly legitimate ace (and a feel-good story, actually). We are 4-5 not 1-7. If our pitching holds, the hitting will arrive. Ommmm.
But no I'm not ready to explode the team. It's April after all. I just wish they'd start hitting!
Tell me, though, how do you manage the fear of getting drilled when you're up at the bat?
Because whenever I get grand ideas of finding a hardball league, I imagine my 35-year-old, 6-foot, one-hundred-fifty-five pound frame getting drilled (the arm the shin, to say nothing of the head) and that's the end of that fantasy.
I wince just thinking of it.
Do you get drilled? And does it kill?
Also, what do you attribute your low average to? Striking out? Fear of the ball and stepping in the bucket?
I'm curious because my five-year old and I play in the backyard so I'm always trying to improve my coaching eye.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/g/giambja01.shtml
0 outs .299/.359/.477
1 outs .200/.240/.300
2 outs .222/.293/.300
i get hit at least once a season. you just walk it off. it stops smarting by the time you're standing at 1B.
plus, the bruises that show the seams of the ball get a lot of sympathy out of the wife, so there are benefits.
my low average is probably due to over thinking at the plate. i can't shut my head down. i also tinker with my stance way too much. if i could just get myself to walk up there and swing, i could soar to new heights...
...i'm talking .250 territory. yes. i dream big.
Also, don't underestimate the impact of losing Posada, or having Posada be nothing but a shadow of his 2007 self. It will be profound.
ya know .... there's this thing out there called HGH ... :-)
I hate to think of this team as a thin-blooded, warm weather squad, or worse, an indoor team -- but some of these older guys might be better off at room temperature.
I prefer to view this as a collective slump that will be over soon.
re: lack of yankee offense
i am clinging to the notion that all it will take is one high scoring game to turn this around.
also, if they can string together a solid stretch while the captain and jopo are shelved, the team's spirits will improve, possibly providing the spark people have been looking for.
(i hope.)
"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." - Jim Bouton
0 I was standing over a tee with a ball on it in a mesh cage with a bat in my hands, imitating Don Mattingly's stance
Which one? :)
2 I play in a hardball league myself (I'm 33). In my high school days, my coaches thought I was good enough to at the very least get a scholarship to a college (even back then, at that level, people were looking for lefties), but I was too busy chasing girls and drinking to commit to playing ball.
I've retired every year since 2000. But every year, when I am cleaning up around the apt, I come across a baseball. I pick it up, start rolling it around in my hand. Futzing around with it. Then I find my glove, put it on, pop it a couple of times. Go through my windup a few times. Then I pick up my bat. Start taking a couple of practice cuts... All this is usually followed by a phone call to one of my boys that #11 is back :)
http://tinyurl.com/57xbtc
Anyway, at this stage of the game, my arm hurts every time I throw. I wrecked my shoulder playing racquetball when I misjusged my location in relation to the wall. I've suffered pulls, strains and tears to my quad, hammies, calves and groin. I have a bone spur coming in my right heel. I have the range of a basset hound, due to all my leg injuries, as well as the weight I gained since I moved back to NYC.
But I am still addicted to the game. I will probably play until they bury me. Or at least until I can't hit the fastball :)
13 To be fair to Boggs, while I was annoyed at the time, I understand that he was resting for the playoffs, and it made no sense for him to potentially injure himself for a batting title. Had the Yanks been a bit closer in the standings, I could see him playing, but it wasn't really necessary.
19 I stand off the plate so I don't worry about getting drilled. But it's not really a thought that enters my mind. Always look fastball, and if one gets away, I'm quick enough to move. Matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I was hit.
i don't always make a whole hearted effort to avoid getting plunked. especially if there are 2 outs. i have to be somewhat creative when it comes to getting on base.
You're a rockstar up there!
Yeah, the pain. I get that from softball but I just will myself through it.
One game I was so lame I couldn't play the outfield but refused to come out of the game so I pitched, which I suck at.
Adrenaline and whatnot, though, I was lunging all around out there like a crazy person, practically stealing balls from the third baseman and popups from the catcher.
Oh, God, I miss it. I hope I get to play again this summer.
Yesterday I had to reprimand him because he butt and the bat were going in two totally different directions.
Man, but he's gonna be a star someday, mark my words!
Excellent story of our local semi-pro team the Milford Macs. (local as in Cooperstown NY area)
I have a funny Elway story involving strippers, Jack Daniels, and quarters that I'm saving for the next rain out.
Is it as funny as #467-#470 from last night?
https://bronxbanter.baseballtoaster.com/archives/945324.html#comments
... which made a dreary game a little easier to survive ...
the elway story is better, i think.
It'll come around, and I'm encouraged both by the pitching and Girardi's use of the pen. The bench on the other hand, well, why exactly wasn't Morgan Ensberg hitting for Giambi against the left last night? It'd be one thing if Giambi was raking, but he's on the wrong side of .100 at this point. What does he have, 1 hit?
Just remember guys, this time last year, Wang was on the DL, Kei Igawa and Carl Pavano were in our rotation and Mariano Rivera was giving up game winning HRs to Marco Scutaro. That should give some perspective :).
Most of the Yanks position players have not had to fight for a spot on the field (or even particular spot in the lineup) in years. With very few exceptions, they have all had solid to MVP caliber seasons within the past couple years…do you think this can, even subconsciously, lend itself to complacency through Spring Training and the early part of the season? They know they're in for a 162 game grind, and I wonder if some of them are mentally up for it yet.
The pitching on the other hand has been largely good, and the staff has a much different composition than the lineup- fired up young guys (Hughes/Joba), guys trying to make the squad (IPK, Ohlendorf), guys trying to prove they still have it (Moose, Pettitte), unflappable anomalies (Wang).
Just thinking out loud, but if there is any credence to my hypothesis, I hope the bats gear up, and soon.
I think its just one of those statistical blips, which unfortunately has happened at the start of the season. If we had a 4-5 stretch in July with a few weak offensive games I don't think there'd be as much hand wringing.
An interesting stat on things like this concerns the Tigers. If you ask how many playoff teams have started the season 0-7, its not very many. But, if you ask how many playoff teams have lost 7 in a row at some point in the season, its a lot more, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it for a moment.
Also, I'm hoping they're just trying to get AG a taste and try him out at the big league level - maybe see if he could stick or showcase him for a trade. Anything other than thinking he's a better regular starting option (in any way shape or form) than Wilson. Personally, I think AG sucks and is Nick Green II (Upside is Miggy Cairo).
re: your last paragraph ... you rang ...? :-)
https://humbug.baseballtoaster.com/archives/945383.html
As for giving AG a taste. He will never be anything but Miguel Cairo. He's 25 and hasn't managed to hit at AAA yet. I don't see how promoting him to the majors will do anything to change that. Duncan on the other hand has hit at the major league level, and hit well, with considerable power. He also fields RF better than we give him credit for.
http://i26.tinypic.com/i19po6.jpg
Huh? Why does that suggest that he's injured? Wouldn't it be the other way around?
"Venezuelan Alberto Gonzalez is an especially slick fielder who skipped a level and didn`t get blown away by Double-A, though his bat is still nothing special. He went to the Yankees in the Big Unit deal. Perhaps in a year or two he`ll be able to pry Miguel Cairo`s cold, dead hands off of the utility infield job."
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