Occasionally, I will write on a baseball game I have watched. This is #1. MLB.tv offers a free game per day, which I like to watch, as I am too cheap to buy a full subscription and lack cable TV at the moment. It is an interesting way to follow the game, never knowing what the next game will be. You get to see every team over a period of time. Right now I'm watching Kansas City at Texas. Yesterday I watched Seattle at Minnesota. Watching a random game takes the fan emotion out of the equation. You hardly ever get to see your team. Also, it's very interesting to watch bad teams. They can teach as much about the game as good teams.
Seattle (24-31) v Minnesota (23-29) isn't as bad as, say, Miami v Houston. But pretty bad. Both teams have little if any chance to be playing post-season baseball. I wonder what players on teams that are out of it in June think about while they are playing every day. Take the money out of it for a moment. Each player on each team has had tremendous individual, if not necessarily team success throughout his baseball life. They are all great players, so much better than non-professionals that most fans watching have no idea just how good they are. To get an idea, try watching a few high level amateur games. And yet here they are, grinding out game after game in a season where .500 (81-81) would be a great accomplishment for each of these teams. Perhaps they concentrate on every game as they play it and don't worry about the drab context they are in. And for great players on bad teams, like Seattle's Felix Hernandez or Minnesota's Joe Mauer, do they wonder "How did this happen to me?"
It was an interesting game, with a fabulous finish, in which Minnesota won on a triple by Ryan Doumit.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_06_01_seamlb_minmlb_1&mode=box#gid=2013_06_01_seamlb_minmlb_1&mode=video
and click on "video" "Doumit's walk-off winner."
Doumit is in his 15th professional season, with 6 minor league teams, as well as seven seasons with Pittsburgh and two with Minnesota in the majors. He has had many great games.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/D/PX_doumr001.htm
This was one of them. His third hit of the game beat Seattle's stud "closer" (a 9th inning only pitcher who's only job is to get three outs with his team in the lead), what is known in baseball as a "walk-off" hit. It must have been very satisfying for a guy who also caught the whole game, the last third of which was played in a steady rain.
Other interesting features.
A. Home Plate umpire Tim McClelland, who is in his 33rd major league season, and who has umpired the plate over 1050 times, did not call a single third strike in the entire game. Home plate umpires' signature calls are their called third strikes, the one time they can really express themselves. McClelland's regular called strikes are so nonchalant they are hard to recognize, so I kept waiting to see how he would express himself. I'm still waiting.
B. Minnesota regular first baseman Justin Morneau reported to the park sick, so rookie Chris Colabello replaced him. Colabello has a pretty unique background. He played seven years in the independent CanAm League,
http://www.canamleague.com/history.php
of which he is one of three current graduates to the major leagues
http://www.canamleague.com/alumni.php
He then played two seasons of minor league ball before getting to the majors. The broadcasters mentioned this during the game, so I watched him closely during his four at bats to see if he would have stars in his eyes. But he didn't. He had perfect major league body language. He looked like a ten year major league veteran to me. Too bad he had only one hit in four times at bat. When Morneau regains his health, Colabello will return to the bench. But what a story this is, even if Colabello never plays another major league game. There's a movie to be made of this guy's life. I hope someone makes it.
Update 3: Colabello came out of the blocks in a big way in 2014, putting up great numbers for in his first week. He went 9 for his first 23, with a home run and 11 RBI as Minnesota split 6 games. .391 ba, .696 slg. For his highlights for the week see:
http://mlb.mlb.com/search/media.jsp?player_id=499624
What a story!!
Update 2: On Labor Day, Sep. 2, Colabello had a career day v Houston. He hit two home runs (5th and 6th of the season), drove in 5 runs, and won the game with a grand slam home run in the top of the ninth inning.
Home run #1:
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=30260527&c_id=mlb
Grand slam home run:
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=30267995&c_id=mlb
Obligatory interview:
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=30276197&c_id=mlb&topic_id=vtp_behind_the_scenes
Update: July 27, 2013. On Jul. 20, Colabello was called up by the Twins for the third time this season. On Jul. 26, again vs Seattle, after entering the game as a pinch hitter in the 8th, Colabello came up with a man on in the 13th.
http://www.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=29177513&c_id=mlb&topic_id=vtp_longest_drives
1st Major League home run, and it won a ballgame.
Obligatory interview:
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=29182219&c_id=mlb
Go Chris!!
C. Minnesota is presently playing with a 25 man roster, 13 of whom are pitchers. This left manager Ron Gardenhire, with Morneau being sick, two position moves to make for the entire game. Does any team, much less one that is out of contention in June, need eight non-starting pitchers?
Which leads to the most interesting part (to me, anyway) of the game. In baseball, TV commentating is usually done by a two man team, one who tells you what you are seeing (a pretty redundant role, especially with all the graphics available today, for any fan who watches the game) and an "analyst", usually a former major league player who can tell you a whole lot if you listen. For example, in the June 1, 2013 game between Chicago and Oakland, Oakland baserunner Yoenis Cespedes was picked off first and headed to second. It took the Chicago defense four throws to get him. First baseman to shortstop to pitcher to second baseman to catcher. This is an excellent run-out rotation primer for a pick-off run down. But the idea is to do it with the fewest throws possible as plan A, and with the runner going back to the base he came from as plan B. Chicago violated both these rules and it was only Cespedes' increasing exhaustion as he headed toward second for the third time that allowed the Chicago catcher to tag him. Chicago analyst Steve Stone, a very intelligent ex-pitcher, summed this up succinctly. "That's exactly how you want to work your run-down. You want to throw the ball as much as you possibly can." Stone can be a very funny man. Don't believe it? See:
http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=27649537
But I digress. The Twins analyst is Hall of Fame ex-pitcher Bert Blyleven.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/blylebe01.shtml
Blyleven won 287 major league games in 22 seasons. He pitched over 300 innings once, and over 250 innings 8 times. He threw 262 complete games and 60 shutouts. As you might expect, he takes a dim view of how managers handle modern day pitchers, and an even dimmer view of so called "pitch counts." It was wonderful to hear Blyleven pontificate on these matters more than once during the telecast. He especially relished talking about a contemporary of his, Mickey Lolich, who once pitched 376 innings in a season and pitched over 300 innings four times.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/L/Plolim101.htm
Blyleven finished by editorializing something to the effect that he had his own feelings about the state of modern day pitching, but couldn't say how he felt on the air. He said he might blog about it sometime. As for me, that blog can't come soon enough!
All in all, a lot of food for thought in a single, pretty much meaningless baseball game that will be forgotten as soon as yesterday's newspaper. And thanks to the free game of the day, I got to see it all.
