|
|
| |
|
| |||||||||||||||||
Wild Pitches By Jayson Stark ESPN.com | |||||||||||||||||
| Puckaholic of the week The Colorado Rockies' biggest worry this year isn't their bullpen, their health or their road record. Heck, no. The biggest problem the Rockies have is the end of the hockey season. That's because their biggest star, Larry Walker, is the pride of Maple Ridge, British Columbia. And hockey, says Rockies coach-witticist Rich Donnelly, "is much more important to him than baseball." So last Saturday afternoon, faced with the disastrous prospect of having the Rockies' game with the Giants run past the starting time of the Avalanche's Stanley Cup game with the Devils, Walker did what any good hockey maniac would do. He ended it with a game-winning two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. "I looked at the clock and saw they were going to drop the puck in five minutes," Walker said. "I thought I'd better do something." So he did. And a couple of days before that, Donnelly reported, "he got into the batter's box and the crowd roared -- because the Avalanche scored. So next pitch, he hit one out." But alas, after this weekend, there won't be a hockey game for Walker to use as motivation for almost four months. So this has the Rockies thinking -- about hockey. "We need to make that Stanley Cup best of 700," Donnelly proposed. "Larry might have his best year ever." Dome-scraper of the week It wasn't just a home run. It was a home run that almost had to clear customs -- on the way to Mars. In Toronto last Sunday, Manny Ramirez crunched the longest home run in SkyDome history -- into the fifth deck in left field, a few rows higher and one section to the center-field side of the previous longest Skydome bomb, by Jose Canseco. The Blue Jays estimated it at 491 feet. But the true measure of just how high and just how far this ball traveled is that it almost ricocheted off the window of room 406 of the SkyDome Renaissance Hotel, more than 100 feet above field level and overlooking that fifth deck. It missed the hotel -- which has never been invaded by a single home run -- by a mere two rows. The guests in that room, Lauren Weixler and Jane Messina, were visited by the Boston Globe's Gordon Edes. And they were still in shock over seeing a baseball attempt to stop by and refill their mini-bar. "We were just saying, 'Wow, we're really way up here. Nobody is going to hit one here,' " Weixler told Edes. "Then we look down and we say, 'Hey, that's coming right at us.' " The ball never did quite make it to the window, though. It finally rolled down the blue tarp that blocks off the section and descended into the Blue Jays' bullpen. Andy Stewart, the bullpen catcher, then tossed it into the stands. "He didn't think we'd want it for our hall of fame," quipped Blue Jays media-relations wit Howard Starkman. Refund of the week Those 491-foot homers aside, maybe the biggest development of Ramirez's week was the bulletin that the Ohio Department of Commerce determined that it owes Manny money. A whopping 22 dollars -- and 62 cents. The Akron Beacon Journal reported this week that the department's Division of Unclaimed Funds still owes Ramirez that monstrous sum from an overpaid utility deposit he made eight years ago, when he was with the Indians' Double-A team in Canton-Akron. Asked by the Boston Globe's Bob Hohler what he plans to do with the money, Ramirez replied, like the benevolent citizen he is: "They can keep it." Slap shooters of the week We've seen many crazy sights over the years in the inimitable Metrodome, the only ballpark ever built where men routinely lose ground balls in the lights. But the Twins' insane 11-10 win over Cleveland on Monday is right up there with any of them. The Indians hit five home runs -- or, by Twins manager Tom Kelly's estimate, "18 or 19 home runs." But the Twins won anyway -- because they managed to slap a ridiculous seven balls off the Dome's flubberized carpet that turned into infield hits. They kicked off the evening with five infield hits just in the first two innings. They capped off the evening with a "bunt homer" in the seventh by Cristian Guzman -- which, technically, was just a bunt that pitcher Ricardo Rincon threw away -- and a game-winning high chopper in the ninth after the Indians had come from six runs back to tie the game at 10-10. And that was just the first game of a fascinating four-game series. "Three more games like this," Kelly told the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Jim Souhan, "and I'm going to need a hair transplant." Cagers of the week Thanks to the always-balmy spring climate in western Pennsylvania, the Pirates had to take batting practice indoors before 11 of their first 27 home games at new PNC Park. That was the bad news. The good news was, they got to hold an emotion reunion with the old AstroConcrete of Three Rivers Stadium, which lines those cages and still has the old Steelers yard lines painted on it. "If we could play our games in the cage," Brian Giles told the Beaver County Times' John Perrotto, "a positive would be: we would hit more singles. The grass is so high (in the PNC infield) that you can't get a ball through the infield. And, if we played in the cages, we wouldn't lose nearly as many balls." Tough ticket of the week The Tigers had an off day in Boston on Monday. So closer Todd Jones, coach Bill Madlock and bullpen catcher Ronnie Nedset decided they'd spend their evening going out to Fenway to watch Pedro Martinez pitch against the Yankees. They called, got tickets and assembled in the lobby, all charged up about their big evening. Only one problem: They then found out that game was in New York, not Boston. Schnozz of the week Usually when you hear a player has a nose for the ball, that's a good thing. But it wasn't such a good thing for do-it-all Twins first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz last Sunday. He settled under a twisting, slicing, wind-altered foul pop-up by Rusty Greer. Then, as the breezes continued to play tricks with the baseball, Mientkiewicz took a last-second lurch at it and needed just about every part of his body to gather it in: "Glove, nose, chest," he reported. Good reporting. The ball hit his glove, bounced up and hit him in the nose, then finally landed back in his mitt, which was resting atop his ribs, as he fell flat on his back. "I tried not to fall over laughing," pitcher Eric Milton told the St. Paul Pioneer Press' Gordon Wittmayer. "Nothing surprises me with Doug, with the plays he's been making. Just another one to add to the highlight reel." Brother act of the week Until Thursday's Padres-Giants game at Pac Bell Park, there had been exactly seven home runs in history hit by players named Crespo. Then, thanks to the Giants' Felipe Crespo (who had hit all of the previous seven) and his little brother, Cesar (just called up by the Padres), they combined for three in one game. With their mother and brother in the stands, they became just the seventh set of brothers to homer for opposing teams in the same game -- joining Bret and Aaron Boone (twice), Jose and Hector Cruz (1981), Jim and Graig Nettles (twice), Joe and Dom DiMaggio (1950), Al and Tony Cuccinello (1935) and Rick and Wes Ferrell (1933). Cesar hit the first homer of his career. And Felipe had the first two-homer game of his career. All of which practically overshadowed the oh-by-the-way fact that some guy named Barry Bonds also hit the longest home run in Pac Bell history (451 feet) in this game. "There aren't many days," Felipe said, astutely, "when I'm going to out-homer Barry." Fakeout of the week Back in the 1972 World Series, Johnny Bench assured himself a place in weird-play highlight-film immortality by successfully pulling off a fake intentional walk. So Wednesday night in New York, almost three decades later, the Orioles attempted to pull off the same stunt on Derek Jeter. With a 3-2 count on Jeter in the seventh inning and a runner on second, Orioles pitching coach Mark Wiley went to the mound and suggested to pitcher Jose Mercedes and catcher Brook Fordyce that they give it a shot. So Fordyce stood up, held up four fingers and then jumped back into his crouch as Mercedes delivered. Only one problem: Instead of intentionally walking Jeter, Mercedes threw a fastball high -- and unintentionally walked him. It wound up not mattering, since the Orioles got out of the inning. But a few Yankees snickered over this trickery, much to Mercedes' amazement. "The game is all about confusing the other side," he told the Baltimore Sun's Joe Strauss. "If you weren't trying to confuse anybody, you would just stand out there and throw fastballs all game." Comeback of the week Reds infielder Bill Selby hit the comeback daily double Friday in Cleveland. He hit his first home run in the big leagues since May 28, 1996 -- and later also was given his first intentional walk since 1996, both against his former team, the Indians. When Selby arrived at first base after the intentional walk, he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Joe Maxse that Indians first baseman Jim Thome asked him: "How do you do it, man?" "I told him, 'I've just been watching what you've done all these years.' " Selby said. White House invaders of the week Always looking for his next chance to talk a little baseball, the head of the Baseball Tonight Fan Club, President Bush, invited 11 members of the Mets to stop by the White House on Monday. Among those invited: Mike Piazza, Al Leiter, Texans Dennis Cook and Darryl Hamilton, and, of course, the manager the president once fired in Texas, Bobby Valentine. Asked by the Newark Star Ledger's Lawrence Rocca how Bush had determined which Mets he'd invite, Valentine replied: "The guys who played for the Rangers -- and the guys who might buy a plate at a fund-raiser." Bobble-bobble-heads of the week The incredible baseball bobblehead-doll craze will reach a new height July 22 in New Britain (Conn.), when the New Britain Rock Cats hand out the most unique bobblehead ever. Because it has two identical heads. One belongs to Rock Cats manager Stan Cliburn. The other belongs to his twin brother, Rock Cats pitching coach Stu Cliburn. "It will have my number 16 on the front," Stu Cliburn told the Erie News Press' Joe Mattis, "and Stan's number 33 on the back. Each of the two heads will be looking sideways in opposite directions." Tremendous idea. But we've got just one question: How can the Rock Cats not play a doubleheader that day? Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com. Wild Pitches appears each Friday. |
| ||||||||||||||||
