Keith Hernandez? He was a dodo bird, poultry in motion.
Allow me to be the last, this week, to check in on Hernandez.
There may never be another Keith Hernandez, the player, drug-sanction warts and all. Not because he’s beyond duplication. Hardly. But because MLB no longer, as a matter of training or demand, produces such players.
To a great, inevitable and unfortunate degree, Hernandez is and was a dodo, trending extinct.
His foresight, confidence and skill after fielding ground balls at first base with runners on first was special, even among the special. He knew what to do, when to do it, how to do it. Thus, he’d regularly pass on the easy out at first for the force at second, his throws so accurate that they could be returned for a double play.
The combination of double plays that included any combination that began with the first baseman followed by the shortstop, second baseman, pitcher or return throw to the first baseman, made for beautiful ballet. Craig Swan Lake.
It also won games.
But it has become an antiquated, neglected art for no reasonable reasons:
1) First base has become primarily a “hitters’ position,” those paid huge dough to hit home runs, bang into the shift or strike out, no advanced or even limited fielding skills required. First base is now one position removed from DH.
2) Second basemen and shortstops are unaccustomed to such play from first basemen, thus are rarely in position to take such throws should a first baseman risk it, let alone consider it.
3) The shift has often placed infielders too far from second, often in the outfield, to take throws from first.
Hernandez, Don Mattingly and Steve Garvey were among the last of a dying breed trained and eager to be complete, two-way first baseman.
Thus, if a young player, especially one signed to a huge bonus, chooses to play the field as Hernandez did, that’s strictly his own business. It’s no longer a required course in order to graduate. And it shows.
Announcers run away from Gallo jog
Don’t know how much more juice I can muster to keep spitting into the storm for both of us.
All I know is that I’ve neither heard nor seen it this bad. Never knew that the most c onspicuous truths must be left unspoken, as if we can’t handle or grasp such truths, or are unworthy of them as if we’re too stupid to recognize what we can’t miss.
Last Friday night in Boston, the Yankees’ Joey Gallo hit a high fly toward right. Once blithely known as a “can of corn” as per grocers easily catching canned goods after knocking them with a pole off a top shelf, the ball was lost by right fielder Christian Arroyo.
By the time it was retrieved and thrown home by Arroyo, two runners had scored, but Gallo was thrown out at home attempting an inside-the-parker.
It was plain to see that unless an unexpected barrier arose (perhaps a presidential motorcade’s sudden appearance between second and third), Gallo would have easily scored — had he run hard all the way to first.
But he didn’t.
He left the batter’s box with a capitulating jog, another act of systemic minimalism that has replaced winning baseball on the highest-paid — obscenely paid — level. And after Gallo was tagged out at home, he rose with a smile, which was noted and approved by Yankees and YES regular substitute play-by-play man Ryan “Rah-Rah” Ruocco.
Still, on the Yankees’ regular exclusive Friday night Amazon Prime Video streaming “platform” — it’s a “platform,” like a cliff from which to be shoved — no mention was made, even after replays, that Gallo hadn’t bothered to run hard initially.
Analyst David Cone, again relying on the his selective eyesight and judgments that prevent his standing as reliable truth-teller to YES’s paying subscribers, joined in Ruocco’s Sgt. Schultzian ignorance. We must’ve been seeing things!
The next night on Fox, Yankees at Red Sox, that Friday play reappeared. The point: Arroyo panicked, recovering in time to nail Gallo, but not before two runs scored.
But again, the indisputable fact that Gallo jogged halfway to first went ignored, as if we again couldn’t see or know better. This time that truth was ignored by Adam Amin and A.J. Pierzynski.
Why? Why has this disregard for the truth in televised sports events — ignoring or refuting what we can plainly see — become standard?
If I ever find out, I assure you, you’ll be the second to know.
By Wednesday, after Gallo walked against the Reds to lead off the third inning, Michael Kay said, “Now Gallo’s a good baserunner,” adding, “but he has to watch out, [Mike] Minor has a very good pick-off move.”
As reader Alex Burton soon wrote, Gallo “in eight big league seasons, has averaged 3.37 stolen bases per year.” And he only has one the past two seasons.
Baseball dumbing it down
The combination of blind allegiance pledged to analytics, the absence of fundamental skills and the eagerness of Rob Manfred to fix what ain’t broken has turned MLB stupid.
The Yankees and Mets games last weekend were determined by terrible baseball or terrible decisions.
Saturday, Manfred’s preposterous automatic runner at second allowed the Marlins to take the lead in the 10th inning on a throwing error by Francisco Lindor.
That half-inning ended when Miami’s Jon Berti was picked off second because he chose to not slide back into second!
The Mets won it in the bottom of the 10th, the Marlins blowing it with two infield botches, the second with two outs when “closer” Tanner Scott threw a wild pitch to first on an easy comebacker.
Sunday, the Marlins, 2-0 winners, took a 1-0 lead in the 10th — without batting a ball in play. “Ghost runner” Billy Hamilton stole third, then scored on a wild throw by Tomas Nido. Manfred Baseball at its finest!
Saturday, the Red Sox beat the Yankees in 10 as managers Alex Cora and Aaron Boone swapped turns trying to find just the right pitcher to blow the game.
That began after the fifth when Cora, likely much to the Yankees’ approval, yanked starter Kutter Crawford, who’d allowed one run on four hits and struck out six.
Cora replaced him with Ryan Brasier, who retired one batter — but not before allowing three hits and two runs. Then Boone played bullpen Russian Roullette until the Red Sox won. And both, as they’ve proven, would do it again — and again and again.
Off the top of his head Saturday, Howie Rose knew that Doug Flynn holds the Mets’ record with three triples in a game. He then thought aloud that it might’ve been against the Expos. Bingo. Aug. 5, 1980, against the Expos.
Angels-Orioles, Saturday: 1-0, Orioles in 8 ¹/₂ innings. Regardless, the totals: 10 hits, 24 strikeouts, eight pitchers, three hours.
Reader Pat Esposito worries that Marlins infielder Jesus Aguilar, seen against the Mets on SNY catching a pop-up with two hands to make extra sure, will be fined, suspended or both.
So you wanna be a rock’ roll star? First Erin Andrews and Chris Russo felt compelled to share with us their frustration of being among the tens of thousands to have their flights canceled. The nerve! Then Andrews explained on a podcast that she quietly re-signed with Fox because, “I figured enough was enough with the headlines for a while.” Nurse!
