The Diamond Fan

Tommy Lasorda, the Hall of Fame Dodger manager, was once taped when being interviewed after a Dodger loss in which opposing slugger Dave Kingman hit three home runs to beat the Dodgers. During this interview Lasorda launched into a profanity-laden tirade when asked, “What did you think of Kingman’s performance?” The redacted version of the tape (with the frequent profanity being replaced by bleeps) has become well-known, with a version of it appearing on the CD compilation, Baseball’s Greatest Hits. It has made the rounds on the Internet as well.

The date given for the tirade (on the Greatest Hits CD and elsewhere) is June 4, 1976. If you look at the box score for that date, the Dodgers lost a game to the New York Mets, 11-0, in which Kingman did indeed hit three home runs, the last of which was a three run blast in the top of the seventh giving the Mets a 10-0 lead. In 2006, there was wide reporting on the 30^th anniversary of this event, featuring Lasorda’s famous outburst. See, for example this CBS News site and this Sports Illustrated story. All reported the date of the taping as June 4, 1976.

The only problem is that this was almost certainly NOT the date the incident occurred. For one thing, Lasorda wasn’t the Dodgers’ manager at that time; he was the third base coach. I suppose it is possible that the reporter might have interviewed the third base coach about the loss, but more likely he would have wanted to speak to then-manager Walter Alston. More significantly, the Dodgers lost that game by 11 runs and while Kingman’s three home runs contributed mightily to the one-sided game, the Dodgers didn’t score any runs and would have lost the game even without Kingman’s feat. It seems highly unlikely that the team’s third base coach would get so worked up by the home runs in such a circumstance, and at any rate the reporting on the 30^th anniversary invariable mention that the Dodgers lost the game in extra innings, not in a one-sided blowout. So the June 4, 1976 game at Dodger Stadium is extremely unlikely to have been the game that caused Tommy to launch into his famous bleeping monologue.

There was another game in which Kingman hit three home runs against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, and it more closely matches the game described in the “30^th anniversary” coverage in June of 2006. This second three-homer game was played on Sunday, May 14, 1978. Kingman was then playing for the Cubs, and he hit a homer in the sixth inning with one on to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 3-2, another in the top of the ninth with one on and two out to tie the game 7-7, and a third in the top of the 15^th with two on and two out to give the Cubs a 10-7 lead that would prove to be the game-winning blow. Kingman single-handedly drove in eight of the Cubs 10 runs, striking a blow to tie the game when the Dodgers were one out away from victory in the ninth and capping it with yet another to win the game in the 15^th inning. Now that is a performance that can drive an opposing manager to profanity! And it is almost certainly the game that triggered Lasorda’s famous outburst. The 30^th anniversary was marked, with big media hoopla, two years too early.

How did this error happen? Sloppy research. At some point someone had a copy of the tape and wanted to associate a date with it. They did some kind of perfunctory research and found the June 4, 1976 game and, without looking further or deeper into the matter, assumed that this was the date for the famous interview. Once that date got associated with the recording, everyone else (including a lot of people who should have known better) just accepted it without question and without looking into it on their own, even though it would have been very easy to find the discrepancies with a little bit of research. Both Lasorda and the reporter (Paul Olden) were interviewed in the media coverage of the anniversary and neither of them questioned the date either. But anybody who reads Lasorda’s comments could easily see that the game he was remembering couldn’t possibly have been the 1976 game that was being marked:

“I mean, we lose the game in 15 innings, I had to go into my starting pitchers, and it knocked the daylights out of me. Then this guy comes in at the very moment I sat down and asked me `What is your opinion?’ So I proceeded to tell him what my opinion was.” (The pitcher Kingman homered off of in the 15^th inning of the 1978 game was Rick Rhoden, normally a Dodger starter.)

There are places that have the correct date. The Wikipedia entry for Dave Kingman gets it right, and an ESPN piece from 2003 correctly notes the date as Mother’s Day 1978. Yet most references to it that you will find refer to the date as June 4, 1976. The lesson to be learned is: do your research well. Because once you’ve introduced an error into the collective consciousness it can be hard to stamp it out.

Today’s game between Cleveland and New York ended with the Yankees winning 7-4. The biggest thing about the game, though, wasn’t the final score, it was that the game exposed baseball’s new, limited instant replay as a total farce.
With the score 3-2 Indians and one on in the bottom of the 7th, Jorge Posada hit a ball on which Cleveland outfielder Trevor Crowe was prepared to make a leaping catch. Only he didn’t make the catch because a fan (two fans, actually) reached over the fence and deflected the ball before it got to Crowe’s glove.
The ball hit the top of the fence and bounced back into the field of play, but the umpire signalled home run. Ball call, but hey, this is the kind of play for which instant replay was specifically instituted, right? Wrong! Somehow, even after watching the replay, the umpires decided that, no, the fan who had his arm fully extended outward toward the field while standing right at the fence, was NOT interfering with the play. What ?!#?
The only thing I can think is that this was a CYA thing for the umps. Our guy made the call and it would look bad to overrule him, so let’s just pretend that there is not enough “clear and convincing evidence” to overturn. What a joke! If you’re not going to overturn that play, then the whole instant reply idea is a complete waste of time and might as well be ditched.

Well, I’m a few days late, as the season has been underway since Monday, but at long last here are my predictions for the 2009 MLB season.  Check back in October to see how I did.

American League

East: New York Yankees
The Bronx Bombers have brought in the right pieces to buy another AL East title.

Central: Minnesota Twins
This is the hardest division to figure.  Any of the five teams could conceivably win; any of them could also finish last.  I’ going with the Twins just because Ron Gardehire always seems to get the best out of his crew.

West: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Angels’ pitching is in a bit of disarray to start the season with Lackey and Ervin Santana on the DL, but despite that and the loss of Mark Texieria, the Halos still have enough to win in a relatively weak division.

Wild Card: Boston Red Sox
It won’t be easy holding off the Rays, but Bostons’ pitching depth and balanced lineup will carry the day.

Pennant Winner: Boston Red Sox
While I think the Yankees will have the better record over the course of the long season, I like to Red Sox to prevail in the playoffs with their strong pitching and veteran lineup.

National League

East: New York Mets
Next to the AL Central, this is th hardest division to handicap.  The defening champion Phillies look to be strong again, the Mets have taken steps to address their weaknesses, and Atlanta appears to have improved enough to mount a challenge.  I think the Mets will be hungry for redemption and will ride its youhg stars David Wright and Jose Reyes to a title.

Central: Chicago Cubs
Lou Pinella’s squad has unfinished business after last year’s playoff debacle, and they are clearly the most talented team in the field.

West: Los Angeles Dodgers
If the pitching holds up, they could run away with it.  If the pitching is less than stellar, expect a dogfight with the Dbacks.

Wild Card: Philadelphia Phillies

They’ll be better than you think: Cincinnati Reds
The Reds have a pretty good core of young talent, and if their young Dominican pitchers take another step forward they have the potential to surprise a lot of people.

Pennant Winner: Chicago Cubs

World Series: Cubs over Red Sox in seven
The last of the hexes finally falls.

Japan defeated Team USA tonight in the World Baseball Classic, 9-4, knocking the US out of the tournament and setting up a showdown with Asian rival Korea for the WBC championship.  The remarkable thing about this is that is was not at all a surprise.

Japan won the last WBC.  Korea won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.  The US teams, whether they feature Major League players or not, generally have not fared well in international competition for years.  Simply put, despite the fact that we shower elite players with obscene salaries, the United States no longer produces the best baseball players in the world.

Need more proof.  Major League rosters are already over 1/3 foreign born. In the minor leagues, the figure is close to 50%. MLB is promoting the World Baseball Classic as a way to grow the sport internationally.  That’s all well and good, but if the baseball powers that be want the greatest sport in the world to continue to flourish, they had better figure out a way to revitalize it in the country of its birth.

Right now the best inner city athletes play basketball.  In rural areas and smaller cities, the sport of choice is likely to be football, followed by basketball, with baseball (maybe) a distant third.  In football and basketball, the good athletes at least get to play before large and enthusiastic crowds during their best amateur years in high school and college.  If they play baseball, they will play most of their games before friends and family and very few others.  The top players the US does produce tend to be one dimensional, slug-the-ball-out-of-the-park type of player, playing to pad their stats instead of helping the team win. The US ballplayers could learn a lot by just watching the team play of the Japanese or Koreans, or even the intensity and swagger of the Cubans or the athleticism of the Dominicans or Venezuelans.

Baseball is not America’s game any more, it is the world’s game.  That’s a good thing, but the reason this came to pass is nto so good.  Because in the country of its birth, baseball is now primarily a business, one largely living on past glories.  In the rest of the world it is still a sport.

Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back by Josh Hamilton

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love baseball, but I have to admit that baseball autobiographies are often not the greatest, most well-written books. This one is different. The first part of the book was not so good, as Josh talks a lot about how great a player he was as a kid. So much so that I’m thinking, “Oh, no, another boring ‘I’m thankful that the Lord made me such a great player’ story.” But once he gets into the truly harrowing tale of his slide into drug addiction, this become a can’t-put-it down story of tragedy and redemption.

Josh pulls no punches in telling just how bad it got before he found strength in his faith in God and, with help from his family, pulled himself out of the pit of drug addiction. This is a frightening but ultimately uplifting book that many people would benefit from reading. Thanks for telling your story, Josh, and for sharing your faith in a way that is both realistic and compelling.