Update 11-18-2024
All-Star Game?
On Tuesday I watched a TV show called the Major League All-Star Game. Sometime after the Home Run Derby, a rodeo, cute kids in felt hats, and high-tech video highlights, the event featured a baseball game. I get the feeling that this is where the TV production folks lose interest.
Regardless of how hard television producers work to turn baseball into a media event, the game is still THE Major League All-Star game. Maybe it is not the Willie Mays, Pete Rose, and Brooks Robinson kind of contest, but the simple confrontation of pitcher vs. hitter is unique despite the distractions. Defensive players still make unbelievable plays and superstars like Shohei Ohtani and “who” guys like Jarren Duran (MVP) still hit home runs.
The good news is that the Baseball All-Star Game works better than the 170—160 shooting contest the NBA calls an All-Star Game or the NFL video game known as the Pro Bowl. What do you think? Please consider sharing your thoughts.
Smyly Rewind
This week I wrote about no-hitters and manager relieving pitchers who had not allowed a hit. I didn’t have space to retell Arkansas native and former Razorback pitcher Drew Smyly’s unique brush with no-hit fame.
April 21, 2023
It was one of those Chicago Cubs’ afternoon games at Wrigley Field, chilly, windy, 30,000 loyal fans in the stands, and the loaded LA Dodgers in the visitor’s dugout. With Drew Smyly on the mound, the Wrigley fateful were hoping that their Cubbies could score enough runs to overcome low expectations for their fourth starter. The Cubs’ hitters obliged with a 13-run onslaught, 12 of which were unneeded.
In the top of the first inning, Mookie Betts hit a tough-chance ground ball between third and short. Shortstop Dansby Swanson, maybe the best defensive shortstop in the league, would likely not have been able to throw out the speedy Betts, but third baseman, Nick Madrigal cut off the grounder and threw out Betts by a step. Freddie Freeman lined a 2—2 pitch deep to left center, but former Dodgers’ Gold Glover, Cody Bellinger caught up with the drive in front of the ivy. J. D. Martinez struck out to end the inning. Smyly had survived two hard-hit balls, and he had escaped the first inning.
Chicago scored two in the home half of the first. So far so good, but the Cubs had all the runs they would need. Sometimes without the fastball of his youth, Smyly was vulnerable and inconsistent, but occasionally, as he demonstrated in the second Field of Dreams game, he was masterful. This would be another of those magical days.
He struck out the side in the second inning and the first two in the third before a popup ended the five-K streak. Routine fourth and fifth innings, combined with a Cubs hitting show, left no doubt about the outcome. Smyly entered the sixth inning with a 12—0 lead, but the Cubs fans were on their feet on every pitch. He had not allowed a runner to reach first base. There was no action in the Cubs’ bullpen.
Two more three-up, three-down innings found Smyly beginning the eighth inning pitching the game of his life. The previous inning, with the game decided, Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts had replaced his cleanup hitter with light-hitting David Peralta. The reserve outfielder would lead off the eighth inning.
Peralta looked helpless on Smyly’s first offering and bearly made contact on the second pitch, a breaking pitch off the plate by a few inches. Baseball is a game that allows the defense to plan before each pitch, but with no runners on base, the strategy is simple. All ground balls go to first. Peralta’s desperate lunge had allowed him to reach the outside pitch and tap it weakly toward third base. As the ball trickled into the most vulnerable spot for a left-handed pitcher and a right-handed catcher, both reacted as if a perfect game was on the line. Indeed it was!
Smyly arrived first, grabbed the ball in his left hand, and began the full pivot required for the lefty to throw to first. Catcher Yan Gnomes arrived a split second later determined to save the perfect game. Gnomes leaped to avoid his pitcher but landed squarely on Smyly’s back. There would be no perfect game. Two outs later, manager David Ross relieved Smyly after 103 pitches. The Cubs “held on” to win 13—0.
In case you missed it this week’s Backroads and Ballplayers Weekly featured a look at the history of Arkansans in the MLB Draft and managers relieving pitchers working on a no-hitter. Link