The Southpaw

Agnew Resigns. Mets up 2-0.

On Oct. 10, 1973, the Mets and Reds were playing the fifth and deciding game of the NLCS. On that same afternoon, another momentous event occurred: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned. Justice Potter Stewart decided that this news couldn't wait for a break in the court's proceedings, so he slipped a note to Justice Harry Blackmun. The note, below, was discovered in the National Archives.

According to an article by Skip Card in the March/April 2005 issue of the New York State Bar Journal, this note wasn't unusual: Stewart, a Reds fan, had been getting half-inning updates throughout the playoffs. An earlier note, detailing the top of the first, was even more detailed, reports Card:

Rose grounded to 2nd.
Morgan walked.
Driessen singled and Morgan took 3rd.
Driessen took 2nd on WP.
Perez struck out swinging.
Bench walked intentionally.
Griffey flied to center w/ bases loaded.
NO SCORE.

No telling how Stewart reacted to the final result: Mets 7, Reds 2, Mets win the NLCS. But he probably poured himself a stiff one -- and stopped passing notes during the A's-Mets World Series.

Some Tim McCarver classics

Tim McCarver, please shut up! is a Web site that would go out of business if McCarver did, indeed, shut up. It's a simple setup, a small database of classics from the mouth of McCarver. A sampling of my favorites; check out the site for more:

⇒ "Pitching is such a vital part of the game, as far as winning is concerned."

⇒ During a mound conference:  "You see Colon talking into his glove because David Ortiz, from the Dominican Republic, can obviously read lips in Spanish."

⇒ "One thing about ground balls. They don't go out of the ball park."

⇒ "Roy Oswalt is a drop and drive pitcher. What is a drop and drive pitcher? He is a guy who drops and drives. Very simple."

⇒ "There is a world of difference between a count of one ball and two strikes is a lot different situation than hitting with two strikes and one ball."

Bill Murray as Joe DiMaggio

Well, sort of, as he plays DiMaggio in the Yankee Clipper's second-favorite setting -- his restaurant, DiMaggio's on the Wharf. This is one of Murray's SCTV skits, and a pretty good one, I think. Enjoy.

Listen to Don Larsen's perfect game

Monday, Oct. 8, 1956. Dodgers vs. Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. Sal Maglie is on the mound for the Dodgers. Don Larsen's pitching for the Yanks. Yankee Stadium is packed, from the first pitch to the final out. Maglie's performance is superb. Larsen's perfect game is unprecedented ... and remains, 50 years later, unmatched.

Larsen's cousin, Phillip Hoose, does an excellent job of describing the feat in his book, Perfect, Once Removed.

If you want to hear the game as those listening back in '56 did, have at it.

Don Larsen's perfect game (mp3)

When Piersall was KO'd by a revolving door

On Sept. 14, 1962 Jimmy Piersall, then playing for the Washington Senators, charged into the stands to confront a fan who was heckling him. Police arrested both Piersall and the fan. He went to court for a hearing (which was subsequently postponed) and upon leaving the building, he was knocked unconscious by a revolving door. Piersall required three stitches and a hospital stay, and wouldn't play until four days after his encounter with the door.

The power of (uniform) numbers and the appeal of humility

Now that he's with a new team -- the Mets -- reliever Scott Schoeneweis has a chance to get rid of an awkward component of his jersey. Since 1999, reports the New York Times, when he made the Angels after wearing number 60 in spring training, he's both been stuck with and stuck to the number.

Traditionally, in spring training, the lower your chance of making the big league squad, the higher your number. Being given "60" meant that the Angels didn't expect Schoeneweis to go to Anaheim with them once they broke camp. But he did go. According to the Times, "The team never offered to give him a lower number, so he kept it. Schoeneweis assumed he would switch at some point, but every year when he arrived at spring training, No. 60 awaited him."

This year, he thought he'd change his number, but the No. 36 jersey that awaited him at Port St. Lucie the other day rubbed him the wrong way. So he's going back to 60. He explained that he wants to remember where he's come from -- it's been a long struggle, including serious health problems, for him to get to the point where he's solid enough for a 3-year, $10.7 million deal.

Earl Weaver and an ump argue for 3 minutes -- see (and hear!) it all

Watching on TV you can often tell the players and managers are cursing when they're arguing ... but you just catch a word or two. This is a great clip of O's manager Earl Weaver arguing during a 1982 game. Weaver's persistent and profane, but the ump is equally capable of dropping f-bombs. At one point Weaver tries to one-up the ump by boasting that he's going to be in the Hall of Fame. Strange.

Chris Farley on baseball

The late, great Saturday Night Live star waxes prosaic about Our National Pastime, during the players' strike. He recalls the 1978 World Series: "And as I'm dragged from the field, Bucky Dent points right at me and says, 'That pathetic idiot."

Pee Wee Reese (and Don Zimmer!) for Gillette Razors

           

Endorsement spot for Gillette Razors featuring Major League Baseball greats Pee Wee Reese, Don Zimmer and Roy Campanella.

Game 6, 1986 World Series: The last 10 minutes

You've seen the Buckner play. You've seen other brief snippets. But here is the complete final 10 minutes of one of the greatest games in World Series history -- Mitchell, Carter, Knight, Wilson, Schiraldi, Stanley, McNamara, Davey Johnson ... and, of course, Vin Scully.

Note that no mention is made by the announcers of replacing Buckner with Dave Stapleton, nor was one made the entire game.

Lee Elia rants against Cubs fans ... but defends his players

On Friday, April 29, 1983, the Cubs lost to the Dodgers. Their record dropped to 5-14 with the loss. After the game, Chicago manager Lee Elia, talking to reporters, let loose on Cubs fans, exploding with anger. His rant went on for three minutes, but the beginning of it has become the part that's remembered:

We’ve got these so-called fucking fans, who come out here every day and say they’re Cub fans, and they’re supposed to be behind you, but they’re ripping everything you do ... The motherfuckers don’t even work. That’s why they’re out at the fucking game. They ought to go out and get a fucking job and find out what it’s like to earn a fucking living. Eighty-five percent of the world’s working. The other fifteen come out here.

And he was just getting started.

But what's left out of most accounts of the incident, or cut out of most recordings, was Elia's passionate defense of his players. That came after he ripped the fans, and besides backing his players, who he said were busting their butts every day, he took responsibility for the team's performance, saying (this is a paraphrase), "If you're going to blame anybody, blame me!"

It's understandable why Elia was peeved at Cubs fans. Back then, Wrigley Field wasn't a shrine -- it was just an old ballpark. And the fact was that Chicago's attendance was dismal: that Friday they drew 9,391, which was spectacular compared to the previous day's attendance of 3,383. On Opening Day, which the Cubs played at home with Ferguson Jenkins pitching, only 4,802 showed up. Pretty pathetic.

According to Jim Ksicinski and Tom Flaherty, who write about Elia in Jocks and Socks, Elia was normally a mild-mannered man, and took some pride when they played him a tape of his tirade.

The Cubs didn't improve much after Elia's outburst, finishing fifth place in the NL East with a 71-91 record. Elia didn't make it to the end of the season. He was replaced by Charlie Fox after 123 games. After leading the Cubs to two fifth-place finishes in 1982 and 1983, he took over the Phillies helm in 1987 and 1988, bringing them home in fourth and sixth place. 

Lee Elia rant (mp3 file)