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WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By “Bull” Allen July 21:
Hello there, everybody! This is Bull Allen, greeting you from the Mel Allen Voice of the Yankees Broadcast Booth in the mezzanine behind home plate in the Big Ball Park in Da Bronx where everything was big.
Big outfield. Big Upper Deck with a 45 degrees rake jutting fans out to field edge.
Big bullpens visible from every seat in the park where you could see the mopUP men warming up to take over for a starter that did not have it. Mopup men then had to pitch into the ninth inning and get out guys without walks.
Big Closers who usually warmed up alone– the reliables the Money Pitchers who did not start innings, they came in with tying and winning runs on the bases and were expected to “put out the fire” throw a double play ball or throw both smoke and strikes. I remember them: Joe Page,Luis Arroyo, Bud Byerly, Bob Grim, Ryne Durin, Sparky Lyle, Tommy Byrne. Steve Hamilton.
Big starters.
They gave you 7 innings a start, if not all 9 innings: The Big Train, Gomez, Ruffing, Reynolds, Turley, Hoyt, Spahnie, Koufax, Feller, Lemon, Wynn, Lary. Pierce, Donovan, Pascual, Ramos (No first names, because you know them. The Starting Pitchers were big. They were marquee names that fans would go to see….because they were good.
Big plays. Lots of them because the outfield was big. Big plays you remember if you saw them. In the Big Ball Park the catches were legendary:
Wes Covington running into the left field corner from left center and gloving back-handed in full stride spearing Bobby Shantz’s liner to left in Game 2 of the Series in 1957. Sandy Amoros racing deep into the left corner in the 7th game of the 1955 series and robbing Yogi Berra of a double that would have tied the game: Wikipedia describes the action:
The first two batters in the inning reached base and Yogi Berra came to the plate. Berra, notorious for swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, hit an opposite-field shot toward the left field corner that looked to be a sure double, as the Brooklyn outfield had just shifted to the right. Amorós seemingly came out of nowhere, extended his gloved right hand to basket-catch the ball and immediately skidded to a halt to avoid crashing into the fence near Yankee Stadium‘s 301 distance marker in the left field corner.
Amoros wheeled around then threw to the relay man, shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who in turn threw to first baseman Gil Hodges, doubling Gil McDougald off first; DOUBLE PLAY! Hank Bauer grounded out to end the inning.
How about that! A catch-em and throw em out 7-6-3 Double Play. Perhaps the most incredible catch and save the game catch ever.
The essence of baseball is ever present tension, striving,never giving up on a ball or a feared hitter. You always think you can get to the ball so you go all out. Reach back for that EXTRA SOMETHING EXTRA and brain, body and mind coordinate to make you run faster than ever, see the ball, YOU ONLY SEE THE BALL into the webbing of your glove and – your legs and body precisely knowing aware you’re about to crash into the wall you automatically dig your spikes into the running track to stop yourself, spin, whirl and hit the cutoff man and you become immortal in the sun for eternity. Never tp be forgotten.
Or if you’re a pitcher in the pinch against a great hitter, throwing a pitch like the Twentieth Century Limited right on the outside corner at the knees, you save the game. Like Devin Williams did on Opening Day this year.
Ahh, memories in the sun.
Kurt Gibson’s 3 run pinch hit homer, off Dennis Eckersley against the great Oakland A’s in 1988 leading the Dodgers to a World Series victory. It was Gibson’s only at bat in that series, and it was a mightY drive unbelievably deep in the right field stands in the setting sun, prompting Jack Buck to yell into the microphone “I can’t believe what I just saw!”
The ground ball going through Bill Buckner’s legs in the 1986 World Series 6th game turning the Mets fortunes around.
Luis Gonzalez blooping a single to left off Mariano Rivera with 2 out to drive in the winning runs in the 7th game in 2001 to give the Diamondbacks the World Championship.
You can replay them wonder in your mind and they come right back. The joy. The pain all comes back.
Nothing artificial about them. They were wrenching heart-breaking and ecstatic miracles that you never forget.
Where am I going with this?
Baseball is the only place you can see miracles: miracle plays.
I told myself after the All Star Game I was not going to talk about using a home run derby hit-off to decide the All Star Game.
But I was talking to the old Dutchman Larry Shapiro down in North Carolina about the All Star Game. I said, “of course they used real major league pitchers during the Home Run Derby to test the homer hitters?”
The Dutchman said “NO they were the batting practice pitchers they used during the home run derby Monday night.”
“I said, you’ve got to be kidding? They decided the game with batting practice?”
It is one more example of how baseball and the people who run it have no respect for their game and its great uniqueness.
The great appeal of baseball is the extraordinary play. The miracle homerun. The bloop single by Gonzalez.
The reason this homerun derby decided the game: “to avoid running out of pitchers.” How stupid is that. If you are not going to test the All Star managers by making them use the pitching staff they have wisely when they are under pressure to use everybody—but wisely, then they shouldn’t play the game, or make it a full week (no game on Friday. That gives every pitcher 3 days rest.
I’d take the top three pitchers and pitch them 3 innings each—so you see how they do against the full lineups.If they get in trouble, bring in relievers (the Aaron Boone school of pitching management).
And you go to real extra innings.
Really a Home Derby to avoid running out of pitchers mocks the game.
The players play hard they want to win. And when you decide a game by seeing how many hit homers off pitches right down the pipe well that is batting practice. That is disrespecting the fan. It is disrespecting the players. They should least use the stupid ghost runner on second in the 10th inning.
What disturbs me is the true believers in the current state of Artificial Baseball: 20 seconds to pitch, 9 seconds to get in the batter’s box, no shifts, the awful runner on 2nd to start the 10th inning, every relief pitcher has to pitch to three hitters (which turns matchups upside down) already plays havoc with bullpens. Writers are waxing eloquent about the pitching clock, the speeding up of the game, the hitting, and how the games are not as long.
But some of them are longer than others: “Unwatchable,” especially if you broadcast Yankee games.
And the umpiring! I watched a 1920s kinescope of a Giants-Cubs game on YouTube and I saw something incredible umpires running to anticipate a play after an initial play. You do not see that in major league umping today. Now this is not the fault of the umpires. It is the effect of the challenge rule. If your call is going to be decided by non three dimensional replays (which do not show depth of field), you have tendency to feel you have back up. It doesn’t matter what my call is. It is only natural.
Now those very same writers are praising the excitement of home run derby and how it is more fun for the players and suggesting it replace extra innings.
Are they out of their minds? Talk about a gift to gambling from Major League Baseball this would bring a lucrative opportunity to bet on who would win home derby if the game ended in a tie.
They should not do that.
They should bring back the donnybrook extra innings of old, play until somebody wins.
Fans love it.
Only sportscasters, sportswriters and networks hate it.