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.

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.

I love this speech, given on the floor of the House of Representatives by Congressman Richard Durbin.  He has to be a great American to have given such an oration.  “Any tree in America would gladly give its life for the glory of a day at home plate.”  Gotta love it!  I reproduce it here for my readers’ enjoyment.

From the Congressional Record, July 26, 1989 page H4274

Desecration of a Great American Symbol: the Wooden Baseball Bat

(Mr. Durbin asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

MR. DURBIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to condemn the desecration of a great American symbol. No, I am not referring to flag burning; I am referring to the baseball bat.
Several experts tell us that the wooden baseball bat is doomed to extinction, that major league baseball players will soon be standing at home plate with aluminum bats in their hands.  Baseball fans have been forced to endure countless indignities by those who just cannot leave well enough alone.
Designated hitters, plastic grass, uniforms that look like pajamas, chicken clowns dancing on the baselines, and of course the most heinous sacrilege, lights in Wrigley Field.
Are we willing to hear the crack of a bat replaced by the dinky ping? Are we ready to see the Louisville Slugger replaced by the aluminum ping dinger? Is nothing sacred?
Please, do not tell me that wooden bats are too expensive when players who cannot hit their weight are being paid more money than the president of the United States.
Please, do not try to sell me on the notion that these metal clubs will make better hitters.
What is next? Teflon baseballs? Radar-enhanced gloves? I ask you.
I do not want to hear about saving trees.  Any tree in America would gladly give its life for the glory of a day at home plate.
I do not know if it will take a constitutional amendment to keep the baseball traditions alive, but if we forsake the great Americana of broken-bat singles and pine tar, we will have certainly lost our way as a nation.

I just got back from a trip to Kansas City. I was there on Opening Day, but the Royals opened on the road so I didn’t get a chance to catch a game.  Too bad: it would have been nice to add another to my list of major league cities where I’ve watched a game.

I did, however, take the opportunity to visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  It was a terrific experience,  a way to learn a little more about an aspect of baseball history that I knew relatively little about.  The museum is a fitting tribute to men who obviously loved the game, many of them truly great players.  I recommend it to any baseball fan who visits the Kansas City area.

I need to start off this post by saying that I have a great deal of admiration for the folks over at Baseball Prospectus. I appreciate the great statistical analysis and enjoy reading their insights on the game they obviously care very much about. I subscribe to their premium service, so the fact that I’m willing to pay good money to read their stuff when there is so much baseball-related material available for free on the Internet tells you a great deal about how much I respect their work.

That being said, Gary Huckabay’s latest post there on the Congressional investigation into steroid use in baseball strikes me as a ridiculously ill-informed rant. Basically, Huckabay’s position is that Congress has no business investigating steroid use in MLB because:

a) they have more important things to do, and
b) it’s no big deal anyway, and
c) baseball is already cleaning up its act

To make his point, (and perhaps to cover up the fact that he really has no argument to make) he resorts to hysterical playground language, cleaned up to make it fit for public consumption, to wit:

“utterly f***ing ridiculous” (the title of the post),
“piss off” (preemptively to those who might disagree with him), and
“this whole issue is bulls–t”

Very eloquent. (NOT) Read the rest of this entry »