Daily Archives: March 4, 2009

Our man in L.A., the great Jon Weisman, is a heppy ket tonight as Manny makes like Randy Newman:

Every once in awhile I enjoy tweaking my father-in-law by making a reference to Juan Marichal. The mere mention of the “Dominican Dandy” brings out a few exclamation marks from my wife’s dad. You see, he’s a Dodger fan, going all the way back to the Brooklyn days, and he remembers all too well the time that Marichal decided to take a bat to the head of Dodgers catcher John Roseboro. I try to explain to my father-in-law that Marichal is really a pretty good guy, that he actually reconciled with Roseboro, but he won’t buy that line—not at all.

This 1974 card of Mr. Marichal is one of the last two regular cards that Topps issued for the Hall of Fame right-hander; the other one is part of the Topps Traded series for 1974, featuring Marichal in the colors of the Red Sox. Yes, it is strange to think of him in Beantown after all those years by the Bay, sort of like watching Elston Howard finish up his career in Boston after all those seasons in pinstripes.

Although it has no remarkable monetary value, the regular issue ’74 Marichal encapsulates the lasting image of the great right-hander’s most memorable attribute—not his onetime bat-wielding incident, but an extraordinarily high leg kick that counterbalanced a no-windup delivery. The photographer skillfully manages to catch Marichal’s left leg near its highest point, with the toes of his left foot practically even in height with the tip of his cap. (Don’t try this at home; it’s sure to cause a muscle pull or some other significant injury.) The photo on the card is particularly striking because few pitchers in today’s game use this kind of a motion, in part because of the modern-day emphasis on the slide step and in part because pitching coaches like to teach more compact motions, thereby lessening the possibility of bad mechanics. As distinctive as Marichal’s motion seems in contrast to today’s big league pitcher, it’s hardly the only one of its kind in baseball history. A number of great pitchers have used high leg kicks and—in contrast to Marichal—large, convoluted windups, including Hall of Famers Bob Feller and Warren Spahn. For years, the high leg kick was considered important for a variety of reasons; it added to a pitcher’s velocity, proved distracting to a hitter, and helped a pitcher hide the ball—and his pitching arm— behind his leg.

While one’s eyes naturally tend to gravitate toward Marichal’s front leg, his back leg is also worth a look. In the photo, he’s bending his right knee severely, almost unnaturally, as a way of absorbing all of the weight that the leg kick causes to shift to the back side. The more I look at that back knee, the more my own joints start to suffer.

Other attributes of this card bear exploring. The photograph for the ’74 Marichal was taken during a day game at Candlestick Park, at a time when the old stadium still featured artificial turf—and lots of empty seats beyond the left-field fence. Yeah, those were the really fun days in Frisco, when players not only had to deal with the howling wind and glaring sun at The Stick, but also the rock-hard turf that supplied a pounding to the legs of infielders and outfielders. Of course, the fans didn’t have much fun either while dealing with the Candlestick elements, which kept down the size of the crowds in 1973, the year that this Marichal photo was taken. (The Giants finished a more-than-respectable 88-74 that season, but drew fewer than 900,000 fans, the third-worst figure in the National League.) So even on a day when the popular Marichal pitched, fans showed their apathy in the form of their absence.

Still, for those who had a chance to watch Marichal, he usually entertained with a speckled assortment of breaking pitches and that gymnastically fashioned leg kick. And perhaps that helped him atone for that one incident—one that he probably regretted for years—at least until he finally made amends with Mr. Roseboro.

Today’s news is powered by a little league game turned into a big-time event …

• A-Rod has been diagnosed with a cyst on one of his hips, and will most likely miss participating in the WBC.
• Here’s the official press release from the Yanks on the cyst-em of a down-ed player.

[My take: Unfortunately, one of the first things I thought of when I read this news was ‘cysts can form around multiple injection sites, but its highly unlikely it developed five years after he stated he last used injected PEDs … unless he was using HGH recently’.  (Yeah, I wanna give him the benefit of the doubt, but its so hard to given all that has gone on lately …).]

• Rodriguez complimented the play of Jose Reyes, but may have slighted his BFF Jeter in doing so:

“I wish he was leading off on our team, playing on our team,” Rodriguez said of Reyes, who hustled to take an extra base in the fifth inning and then stole third and scored in the Dominican team’s 10-1 win over the Marlins. “That’s fun to watch. Anytime you have that type of speed… I mean, we have a guy in (Brett) Gardner that’ll be fun. That’s probably the most you can have, watching those guys run.”

Rodriguez may have forgotten who plays shortstop for the Yankees these days, but he quickly remembered once his brief press conference was over. A Dominican team spokesman told reporters that Rodriguez’s compliment of Reyes was not intended as a shot at Jeter, the Yankees captain who has remained somewhat distant since A-Rod’s steroid admission.

[My take: Its the subject of our poll today (see below).]

(more…)

The Yankees–without Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, or Robinson Cano–nearly beat the All-Star-quality Team USA (which did have Jeter) yesterday afternoon, and likely would have if not for some poor play in the field by the New York reserves. As it was, they led the US in hits 13 to six, didn’t allow an extra-base hit, and the only member of the US squad who had a multi-hit day was their captain, Derek Jeter, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored, two RBIs, and a walk against his real team. In the end, John Rodriguez flied out with the tying run on base and the Yankees lost 6-5.

Lineup:

L  – Johnny Damon (LF)
L – Brett Gardner (CF)
S – Mark Teixeira (1B)
S – Jorge Posada (C)
R – Xavier Nady (RF)
R – Cody Ransom (2B)
R – Kevin Cash (C)
R – Angel Berroa (SS)
R – Justin Leone (3B)

Subs: Nick Swisher (1B), Ramiro Peña (2B), Eduardo Nuñez (SS), Doug Bernier (3B), Kyle Anson (C), Shelley Duncan (RF), Melky Cabrera (CF), Colin Curtis (LF), John Rodriguez (DH)

Pitchers: Phil Hughes, Phil Coke, Eric Hacker, Michael Dunn, David Robertson, Jose Veras

Opposition: The USA All-Stars.

Big Hits:

Brett Gardner went 3-for-3 with a double and a stolen base. Nick Swisher (1-for-2) delivered a two-RBI ground rule double that bounded over the outfield wall. Jorge Posada and Cody Ransom both went 2-for-3; Ransom also stole a base.

Who Pitched Well:

Everyone but Hacker. Michael Dunn, David Robertson, and Jose Veras combined to hold the US hitless over the final four innings, striking out seven and walking one man each. Phil Coke allowed just a single in 2 1/3 innings and struck out Adam Dunn and Ryan Braun swinging. Phil Hughes faced the minimum for the first two innings, getting Jeter to ground into a double-play in the first, striking out David Wright and Dunn looking back-to-back in the second–Wright on a fastball on the inside corner, Dunn on a curve that dropped into the zone. In the third, Braun reached on a broke-bat single and with one out Hughes threw inside under Curtis Granderson’s hands and clipped his jersey, putting him on base. The runners move up on a 400-foot fly ball to center tracked down by Gardner before Jeter hit a bouncer past Berroa at short to drive them both in and end Hughes’ day.

Who Didn’t:

Eric Hacker allowed two singles, walked two men, and uncorked two wild pitches without getting an out. Angel Berroa botching a backhanded grounder didn’t help anything but Hacker’s stat line, which shows four runs allowed, but only three earned in zero official innings pitched.

Battles:

Melky Cabrera went 1-for-2 and stole a base, the hit and steal coming during the Yankees’ ninth-inning rally against Matt Lindstrom which fell a run short. Unfortunately for Melky, Brett Gardner had already gone 3-for-3 in the game with a steal of his own and a double down the left field line. Adding insult to injury, during a remote from the dugout with the YES Network former Yankee and current Cubs and Team USA lefty Ted Lilly complemented Gardner’s swing and asked if he was going to be the Opening Day center fielder. Xavier Nadywent 1-for-3 and hit into a 2-6-3 double-play. Nick Swisher went 1-for-2, his one hit being a booming two-RBI ground-rule double. Cody Ransom went 2-for-3 with a stolen base and a great diving play to his right at second base, while Angel Berroa went 0-for-3 and made an error at a ball hit to his backhand at shortstop. Jose Veras, having passed on the Dominican team to fight for his bullpen spot, turned in a second strong outing. David Robertson turned in his first strong outing of the spring. Phil Coke‘s 2 1/3 innings suggest he is indeed in the long-relief battle and his dominance in those inning suggest he’s got a good lead in that battle.

Ouchies:

Jorge Posada went 2-for-3 as the DH. His shoulder soreness seems to have already been forgotten about. Across the state with the Dominican team, Alex Rodriguez was diagnosed with a cyst on his right hip. It’s not enough to keep him from working out, and shouldn’t threaten his availability for Opening Day, but it could give the Yankees and excuse to recall him from the WBC.

More:

The Yankees’ games against the USA (yesterday) and Canada (Thursday) won’t count in the spring statistics, which doesn’t make much sense to me, as all of the spring games are exhibitions, the US is an All-Star team and Canada is at least as good as a split-squad team (more hitting, less pitching).