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Wild Pitches By Jayson Stark ESPN.com | |||||||||||||||||
| Computer war of the week Remember last week, when Wild Pitches reported that Doug Glanville's two-homer eruption against Curt Schilling, was simply Glanville's way of getting even for Schilling abandoning Glanville in an online game of Everquest when they teammates with the Phillies? Well, this story isn't over. Schilling checked in to retort he's being unfairly maligned by his old pal. "Suffice to say that I did not kill one of his characters," Schilling told Wild Pitches. "Only his yellow streak and his ineptness at running around in the woods got him killed. He'd have been fine if he hadn't gone into a 'newbie' panic on me." Schilling went on to accuse Glanville of "slanderous lies being spewn, about the kind-hearted (computer) dwarf of mine. Stout and strong, yet gentle is he. But he will not allow his good name to be dragged through the mud by a reckless goof of a Paladin." Gosh, we love that kind of talk. Next thing we knew, the two of them were on the Dan Patrick radio show Friday, hashing this out. And they plan a rematch online this week. We'll keep you posted. Just bear in mind that these two teams don't meet again until August 10. So there's no telling what kind of computer atrocities could take place between now and then. Rod and reel gem of the week Mets left-hander Dennis Cook made a play Monday that you will not see demonstrated on any Tom Emanski videos. Montreal's Mike Mordecai hit a rocket up the middle. Cook saw it zipping toward the hole and did the only thing he could -- wheel his glove behind his back to try to catch it. Well, we're not sure if he caught the ball or the ball caught him. But baseball hit leather. The glove flew off his hand. And as Cook was falling off toward third base, the glove was bouncing toward first base. Not a good situation. But Cook scrambled back to look for the ball, found it miraculously still nestled inside the glove, yanked it out and fired it to first for the most improbable 1-3 putout of his -- or just about anybody's -- career. Asked by Wild Pitches where Cook practiced that technique, fellow Mets left-hander Al Leiter replied: "Dennis learned that play while fishing in his home town of Dickinson, Texas. After hooking a striped bass, it is customary to net the fish from behind the back. ... He's been doing that number for years. That catch, in his neck of the woods, is called the Corpus Christi Flip." Except in Corpus Christi, they never throw the striped bass to Todd Zeile. One-hitter of the week Until Wednesday, when their banged-up F Troop lineup got one-hit by the Cubs' Jon Lieber, the Reds hadn't been shut out in 208 games, a modern NL record. How long a streak is that? In between Reds shutouts, the other 29 teams were shut out 272 times. That's how long. But when those Reds went, they got it over with fast. Lieber zipped through his one-hitter in 78 pitches. He got through five innings in 37 pitches. And he made it through eight innings in 62. Which led to one of the great quotes of the year, from Cubs manager Don Baylor. "They played," Baylor said, "as if they had a plane to catch." Box score line of the week Angels ace Scott Schoeneweis had allowed 10 earned runs in his previous five starts combined when he headed for the mound Wednesday to face the Orioles. Then this happened: 4 IP, 12 H, 11 R, 11 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 2 WP, 1 HBP, 98 pitches to get 12 outs. Fact of the day: Approximately 6,400 games into the life of the franchise, Schoeneweis became the first Angels pitcher ever to allow 11 earned runs in one game. Quote of the day: "At least I'll be in the record books for something," Schoeneweis told the Los Angeles Times' Mike DiGiovanna. Four-peat of the week A funny thing happened to Giants reliever Alan Embree last weekend in Atlanta. While Barry Bonds was busy hitting home runs every at-bat, Embree sneaked into the record book with him. How? By becoming the first reliever to allow four home runs in one inning since Paul Foytack, of the old Los Angeles Angels, did it on July 31, 1963. Embree served up shots to Andruw Jones, Brian Jordan, Javier Lopez and Wes Helms in a span of five hitters Sunday. "That was a barrage right there," said Braves pitcher John Burkett. "I think they were watching Barry and saw how to do it." Oval officers of the week Ever get the feeling that all President Bush does is plan his next baseball event? Well, the latest came last weekend, when two well-known Detroit Tigers -- Heath Murray and Matt Miller -- were invited to the White House hang out with the Prez. (Official reason for the visit, according to White House sources? He's friendly with Miller's aunt and uncle.) After returning to the security of Camden Yards, Murray told Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler: "It was cool. He was just a normal guy -- but then he had to go meet with the secretary of defense." Not that there's anything abnormal about that. DP of the week Not all double plays are turned on purpose. In fact, the Mariners still aren't sure how they turned two in the fourth inning of their game against the Yankees last Sunday. To turn this DP, center fielder Mike Cameron had to drop a fly ball by Alfonso Soriano, then look up to see that neither of the two Yankees on base -- Jorge Posada and Scott Brosius -- had any idea whether he'd caught it or not. So Cameron tossed the ball to shortstop Carlos Guillen, who tagged a befuddled Posada for one out, then stepped on second for the second out. End of inning. End of rally. "I don't know what the umpires called there," said manager Lou Piniella. "All I know is we got two outs out of it." Memento of the week Giants pitcher Ryan Jensen will never forget his first game in the big leagues. He beat the Braves last Saturday. Barry Bonds hit three home runs. And Jensen drove in a run with a single off Odalis Perez in his first career at-bat -- on the old fake-a-bunt, swing-away play. The only thing his teammates remembered, however, was that Jensen was supposed to fake that bunt and hack away one pitch earlier -- but tried to bunt instead. So after the game, they presented him with a game ball that read: "1st ML hit, 1st ML RBI, 1st ML missed sign." On the other side, it said: "Broken-bat single off broken-down LH throwing 70 mph." 20 spot of the week The San Diego Padres had themselves one of those nights last Saturday in Montreal. Not only did they win, 20-7. Not only did they score in eight of nine innings. But the Elias Sports Bureau's Randy Robles reports they also tied a post-1900 record by scoring at least three runs in five straight innings. (Back before 1900, though, three teams did that in six straight innings -- the 1883 Providence Grays, the 1887 New York Giants and the 1896 Philadelphia Phillies.) Which all set the stage for another classic Rickey Henderson story. In the eighth inning, with the Padres holding a 14-7 lead, manager Bruce Bochy asked Rickey if he wanted to hit against reliever Scott Strickland, whom he'd never seen, "so you can scout him." Henderson decided to hit, thumped a two-run homer and then bolted for the clubhouse. Asked the next day by the San Diego Union Tribune's Tom Krasovic where he was rushing to, Henderson said: "I had to get to this Chinese restaurant. They closed at midnight. ... Best Chinese food I've ever had." And what's the place's big dish? Sushi -- because it's a Japanese restaurant. Love that Rickey. 1-2-6 save of the week You can take the team president out of Detroit, but apparently, you can't take Detroit out of the team president. On Tuesday, John McHale Jr. was named the new COO of the Devil Rays. On Wednesday, McHale told Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler he was having a hard time following the Tigers' win Tuesday over the scoreboard in St. Pete. Of course, that had something to do with our hero, Tigers closer Todd Jones. In his normal, unassuming way, Jones got the first two outs of the ninth inning in a game his team was winning, 3-0, against Cleveland. Then, with the No. 8 and No. 9 hitters coming up, he promptly loaded the bases for Ellis Burks before calmly racking up another never-in-doubt Todd Jones save. But McHale had no idea of that. He said the next day: "That ninth inning seemed to take a long time." Jones' response: "He should know by now." One-run game of the week When the Mariners and Twins met for the first time this year on Tuesday, with Brad Radke facing Paul Abbott, you might have expected, say, a 4-3 game. How 'bout 12-11? Along the way, Radke got an 8-0 lead and couldn't make it through the fifth, the Twins saw an 8-0 advantage turn into 8-7 and then transformed a 12-7 game in the ninth into a 12-11 game, with the tying run on base. But LaTroy Hawkins finally struck out Mark McLemore to end it. Whereupon winning manager Tom Kelly summed up his jubiliation this way: "I think we won." Farm report of the week Indians rookie C.C. Sabathia got lured into competing in the annual pregame cow-milking contest in Anaheim last weekend -- and lost to rookie Angels catcher Jamie Burke. But Sabathia claimed the contest was fixed. "The cow knocked over my milk bucket," he claimed. "But I still had more milk than him." Yeah, sure. Tell it to the grange fair. At any rate, Sabathia's loss inspired the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Paul Hoynes to type the newspaper line of the week: "C.C. Sabathia," Hoynes wrote, "obviously needed more time on the farm." Comic relief of the week The Mets' offense has been almost comical this season. So it almost made sense that the guy taking batting practice with them Thursday was former Saturday Night Live great Kevin Nealon. Beforehand, Nealon -- a friend of first baseman Todd Zeile -- conducted manager Bobby Valentine's pregame press briefing in the character of his legendary Mr. Subliminal, occasionally dropping in the word, "losers," when he mentioned the Marlins. "I've got a little secret weapon I'm throwing out there tonight," Nealon told the Newark Star Ledger's Lawrence Rocca. "This is my first game of playing. I've had a lot of time to think of surprises. I'll be at first and third. Ironically, not a lot of Marlins hit it to second or short. It's like a soccer goalie. You pick one side you think it's going." Nealon also said his first visit to a big-league clubhouse surprised him. "It's kind of like a ladies' lounge," he said. "There's a nice carpet. Everybody has their own locker and very comfortable chairs. There's no metal doors you can slam." Pierce-piration of the week In other Mets developments, the Mets were reminiscing fondly Thursday of their one-time prospect, A.J. Burnett, who this month became the first pitcher with a nipple ring ever to pitch a no-hitter. That reminded Valentine that current backup catcher Todd Pratt also has a nipple ring. "We would have had the first all-pierced-nipple battery," Valentine said, "if he just would have stayed with us." Good wood of the week Any time a slumping team starts hitting, there's always a reason. But it isn't usually that their bats are eating better. That, however, is what rookie first baseman Julio Zuleta claims happened to the Cubs this week, when they broke their eight-game losing streak and won their next five in a row. After their 4-2 win over the Reds on Wednesday, Zuleta showed reporters a tray of fruit, sunflower seeds, pain reliever and an animal bone. "The bats, they get tired," he said. "They need to eat a little. I thought they were hungry, so I put some fruit in there." And here we thought the only C the Cubs needed was on their caps. Now it turns out they need vitamin C in their bats. Who knew? Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com. Wild Pitches appears each Friday. |
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