another round of Porters please

Some loved their mother surrogate too much. Others were afraid to be alone. Either way, Mrs Z’s influence had to end. We sort of knew someone would replace her. Sort of because the feeling was vague like living in a fog but sure enough;  into that unknown world swirled Darrel Porter and his highly respectable .371 OB% in 1975. 

We first learned about Porter from our strat-o-matic baseball guru. We all had older brothers, but only he had a brother who ordered Bill James Baseball Abstract from the back of Baseball Digest in the late 1970’s. There was no Cain and Abel in their family. The brothers were too different, but they both shared a love for baseball.

One took a path of booze and music and the other computer programming, but they both celebrated on base percentage and our guru was generous with his wisdom. The booze warmed his heart I suppose and after Porter’s 1979 season with the Royals, a poster went up on guru’s bedroom wall and word got out real fast. It was no longer a secret. OB% was the key.

Our annual winter drafts were never the same. All the sentimental and emotional value was sucked out; replaced by stock market perusal of the previous year’s final stat page. No more Freddie Patek because he was small and Jose Cruz because you could say Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuz every time he came to bat.

What mattered was walks and ob% and defensive range and throwing arms and the points on a pitchers card; a secret system invented by our guru that he shared with us too. Parity arrived to our league and Darrel Porter was our first cause and that carried extra weight in Milwaukee because Porter was the first player ever chosen by the Milwaukee Brewers.

In June of 1970, the Brewers selected him as the 4th overall pick and as it turned out, Porter enjoyed the most productive career of any player selected in that first round.

Porter had a drinking and drug habit and went to treatment in 1979. He also became a born again Christian. I don’t know which came first, but either way, his best years were behind him; both in terms of partying and production. Maybe he was just tired as he neared 30.

I was  never sure if guru loved him for the booze or the exaggerated crouch of a stance; part Brett; part Cooper with knees bent even further or maybe he crouched more later in his career. Shocking either way and almost a miracle in that Porter was drafted as a catcher and remained a catcher. It’s tough enough to squat all day on defense and do it again at the plate! Maybe his body became a mold.

I70baseball.com

Porter attended Southwest high school in Oklahoma; same high school as Bobby Murcer and Mickey Tettleton; three future big leaguers from the same school; kind of unique but not out of this world. Porter and Tettleton were both catchers however and both rank in the top 30 all time; OB% for catchers. 

Tettleton finished with a .3688 OB; good for 13th all time and Porter at .3539; 24th place. Porter was traded to Kansas City; not a very good trade for the Brewers; bringing in Bob McLure, Jim Wohlford and Jamie Quirk.

Then again McLure pitched 9 years as a Brewer; starter and reliever and won game 5 of the 1982 ALCS, but then lost two games in the World Series including the decisive game 7.

Porter only played four years with KC; signed with St. Louis and faced the Brewers in the 1982 series and won the MVP. Five years as a Cardinal and two more in Texas before retiring. He passed away in 2002 at 50 years young.

Our strat-o-matic guru loved Porter; that swing and crouch; the ob% and booze; him being a catcher and working so hard; a shot and a cold one at the rail of another long day. We named a cocktail after him; nothing fancy; just a glass of whiskey. We called it a Porter; to remove the baggage from our lives; for a few hours anyway.

 

the parking lot that changed baseball

Dice, jacks, flipping baseball cards, slinkies, silly putty, smart phones. Evolution? Maybe. Maybe not. Stage coaches bumping dirt roads, trains over tracks, automobiles on interstates. Evolution? Maybe. Maybe not

But parking lots, we love you. Frisbee, pickle, and sip beer. Barbecue brats tailgate, and listen to old 8 tracks, The Scorpions, Frank Sinatra, or Cold Play, whatever you want. The lot is big enough for lizards with wet t-shirts too. The sky is our umbrella and first pitch is soon or when the beer runs out or the 4th inning or whatever comes first. Who’s on second. Pass me another Schlitz.

You gotta have a parking lot. Street cars are too old and trains? Forget about em! Too early for spaceships and no one walks anymore unless it’s inside and at a mall and Walter O’Malley knew this way before anyone else or he watched Lou Perini exercise some good old-fashioned guts and Go west and warm the blood of baseball and become the first team to relocate and change baseball forever?

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Bushville Milwaukee changed baseball forever? Dear Casey Stengel! Ok, maybe it was more Perini than Milwaukee, but it takes two to tango and what great dance partners they turned out to be. And when Milwaukee with its new County Stadium and massive parking lot got those turnstiles spinning and runners scoring on the diamond and Spahn and Sain and pray for rain, well, you bet your Howling Hilda Chester that Mr Walter O’Malley took notice.

But I don’t have the impression that he really wanted to leave Brooklyn. O’Malley really tried to stay and according to a little snippet in the book Lords of the Realm, he even considered a dome long before anyone else even knew what the hell a dome was.

And even the vilified master builder Robert Moses proposed a stadium in Brooklyn, but in the end, it was the Braves in Milwaukee and Calvin Griffith of the Twinkies visiting Los Angeles and apparently discussing his team’s potential move from Minnesota to L.A. Gave O’Malley itchy feet I guess. He wanted in on LA and not no second fiddle so  so he packed up some Perini guts and road his coattails out west, way out west to Beverleeee and Stoneham followed with his  Giants and another Iron curtain bites the dust as snow melts and water races for a homeland; out to sea or something like that.

…..and the Athletics move to KC and then to Oakland and KC is awarded the Royals. The Braves flee to Atlanta and Milwaukee steals the Pilots from Seattle and Mariners are born 7 years later and am I repeating myself? and interstate commerce and speed up the reels and it’s all a blur and and and

now it’s 2014 and the Giants and Royals are in the World Series together for the first time and the series is tied 1-1 and they’re going back to San Francisco but without flowers in their hair thanks to Giant’s big hunk rookie right hander Hunter Strickland…..Hunter Strick Land. What a freaking name! and what a freaking temper and rightfully so.

He served up his 5th post season home run last night; five in 5.1 innings and according to everyone’s favorite, Joe Buck, that’s the most home runs allowed in a single post season since gulp…the Brewers’ Chris Narveson back in 2011. He performed his stunt by allowing 2 to the D-backs in the NLDS and 3 to those lovely Cardinals in the NLCS.

moondog, rainy nights and did that infield hit really just happen?

I sometimes watch a spider climb a wall and It looks good and right in all its efforts with moondog’s invocation song playing in the back round and the Royals and Orioles stuck in a rain delay.

And people were saying,
“we kept waiting for the song to start but twang went the diving board. Twang twang twang and still no jump, soar and splash or maybe we missed a flash?

“well,” some other people were saying. “it ain’t called invocation for nothing; every moment a virgin birth, especially when you’re inside Rick Sutcliffe’s mind. That guy pretends to know the future, but he’s not pretending. He really believes it,  so damn much that he must be continuously surprised when oops he suddenly doesn’t know the future.

We called Sutcliffe The big red baron and impersonated his cupped ball delivery when he pitched the Cubs to the division title all the way back in 1984 was Leon the Bull Durham and Keith Real Estate Moreland and Jody Davis Eyes and I grew up listening to Chris Ethel Merman Berman and his endless nicknames.

I think Sutcliffe was just about undefeated after the Cubs acquired him from somewhere else, probably in a middle of the season trade or maybe he started the season on the Cubs? I can’t remember but anyway, now the big red baron is in the broadcast booth for game 1 of this ALCS a few days ago and he says “that Billy Butler has no look of infield hit anywhere on his face;” a double meaning to indicate he’s all thunder bird power and no road runner speed.

but then as sure as a morning dew drop is pinned to a blade of grass looking like a buddhist tether ball reflecting the world …Billy Butler hits a ground ball in the hole, gobbled up by JJ Hardy who for no known reason hurries the throw and Butler and his baby fat cheeks are chugging a boogie up the line but coming nowhere near beating out the throw one hops Steve Pearce at first base he swallows it up; the ball disappearing in there rattling around but Pearce can’t hold on and Sutcliffe’s partner-I forget his name he’s mild mannered as always but with a dash of subtle needle says “should be scored an infield hit” and there’s a lilt in the way he says hit.

I mean there was no more words for Sutcliffe to say. Broadcasters like to say “right on cue” when there’s talk of long ball and the player hits a long ball, but this was reverse cue Billy Butler and the infield hit.

that’s a fine tasting sandwich

It’s amazing what a little vinegar can do to a sandwich. No point in flipping out over nothing, Cheese, bread, lettuce, olives, and vinegar and this is turning out to be a nice playoff season.

One Brewer fan curls up like a sow bug. He can’t bare or bear to watch the Royal surge. It’s not the pimples in the sourdough of adolescence. No, it’s not that. He enjoys the Hosmer Moustakas Gordon Butler; the HMGB fantastic four; the original Royal draftees, the pride and glory, especially G. Gordon Liddy. He was destined to be the next Brett and cheers to him for rising to some semblance of the occasion. He’s a damn good left fielder.

That Brewer fan can’t bear or bare to see all those former Brewers in the playoffs while the Brewers are mourning the loss of their AAA affiliate. Nashville said they were no longer interested, but that’s alright and that’s ok cause Colorado Springs saves the day. They rolled out the AAA carpet for 2015..

I’m enjoying this, but I wished they would have chosen a city closer to Milwaukee so AAA players could be called up on a whim like the Atlanta Braves do with Gwinnett Georgia. I remember the dawn of Julio Teheran’s career. He would pitch one game and be sent back down. And what a glorious tease with his across the body delivery and other worldly confidence a la Pedro Martinez.

Anyhoo, this is a time to celebrate former Brewer’s manager and former Brewer catcher Ned Yost and a time to celebrate the trade that brought Zach Greinke from the Royals to the Brewers in exchange for current Royal’s shortstop Alcides Escobar and current Royal’s starting center fielder Lorenzo Cain; both the pride of the Brewers system.

Then there’s Norichika Aoki. Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin pulled a fast one on the baseball world back during the Yu Darvish auction daze. While the world drooled Darvish, the Brewers signed Aoki for a million dollars. What a steal for two seasons; maybe the most underpaid lead off hitter in all of baseball.

And last off-season, he was dealt to the Royals for reliever Will Smith; a good trade for both teams. I feel like I’m repeating myself. Yes, I’ve talked about the Royals a number of times this season and why not? Ned Yost is their manager and he has been since 2010. The Royals were 55-72 under Yost that year and he still predicted a World Series victory before his time was up in KC.

Yost hit a home run in 1982. No big deal except that it was the only home run he hit all season and for his career he only hit 16, but the most memorable blast was in 1982; September 29-Game 158 out of 162. It was a ago ahead 3 run homer at Fenway.

The Brewers won that game thanks to Yost and had a three game lead over the Orioles heading into the last series of the season…4 games against Baltimore of course..in Baltimore.

The Orioles won the first three games. It was showdown game 162. Don Sutton faced Jim Palmer and Robin Yount happened like he did all of that MVP season. He hit 2 homers and Bob McLure recorded the final out-I think that was Gary Roenicke. That’s the same McLure who was the Royals pitching coach for many years. That was the same day Earl Weaver made his first retirement.

Speaking of coaches and managers, the Royals current bench coach is former Brewer shortstop Dale Sveum-also a former Brewers manager. Fitting that Sveum and Yost are together again. Yost was fired as Brewers manager back in 2008 and replaced by his bench coach Sveum with like one week to go in the season. I feel like I’m repeating myself. I probably am.

Let me sip a little whiskey Friday night and see the blue team out there. It’s kind of blurry, but isn’t that Alcides Escobar ranging to his right at short? And isn’t that Cain in center? Aoki in left? Where am I?

a royal rooter

A manager walks into a spring training clubhouse coffee clutch and sermons some hope.  Another manager spills some doom. Two polar opposite approaches to a long season ahead. There are no guarantees.

Ned Yost leans towards miracles. He sort of made a mistake when he referred to his three run home run as the greatest moment in his life; even greater than witnessing his first child being born.

wikipedia

Yost’s enthusiasm is understandable, even to his wife who lugged their bowling ball baby around for 9 months. She knows how many home runs he hit over a 6 year career as a catcher; 16 in 605 at bats. She knows that one home run sticks out like a palm tree in a New York subway. She believes.

Yost hit that long fly in 1982, hit it over Fenway Park’s Green Monster giving the Milwaukee Brewers a win over the Red Sox and more importantly, a 3-game lead over the second place Baltimore Orioles with 4 games remaining in the season; 4 games in Baltimore; a story book ending to the pennant race.

The Orioles won the first three games. Two teams with identical records; 94-67 with one game to play. Yount hit two home runs on that Sunday afternoon. Sutton beat Palmer. Brewers clinched the division. Yount was a hero. Sutton was hero. General Manger Harry Dalton was a hero for drafting Yount and trading for Sutton. And over in the corner; in the shadows…. the Yost home run became legend.

It’s the same in every stadium, every season; for every team and every  pennant race, for every game and every inning. Even when a game is lopsided 12-0, a seemingly useless base hit by Dick Davis can carry over into the next day and the Brewer’s score 12 runs of their own. It’s an impossible science, this cause and effect momentum. Yost knows this.

He was hired to manage the Milwaukee Brewers in 2002 and he did all the way until 2008 on a ticket preaching pitching and defense. In 2008, it all came together.  The Brewers were 80-57 on September 1st. Playoff tickets were printed; first time in 26 years. The Brewers had landed CC Sabathia in a mid-season trade. World Series was on the mind. Then they lost 7 out of 10 games, but still sat a top the wild card race. Yost was fired on September 15. The Brewers won the wild card without him. What a low down feeling for Yost.

ksn.com

But then the Royals called in 2010. Yost inherited a team that had lost 97 games the previous season, not to mention three consecutive 100 loss seasons from 2004-2006. But they had prospects, made a few trades, signed a few players. Same old formula for small market teams. Maybe it comes together , maybe it doesn’t.

Yost promised a Royals pennant. People said he was crazy or that the ghost of Sparky Anderson had possessed him. Yost was just sounding out that old enthusiasm; probably rooted in that imposible-possibie Fenway Park home run he hit, in the shuffling of fates or chance or a batting order being a lottery machine filled with ping-pong balls when presto abracadabra-your number is called. You rise.

The Royals weren’t much better in Yost’s first season, losing 95 games in 2010, then 91 and 90, but last season; finished 86-76, leading the majors in defensive runs saved with three gold gloves including catcher Salvador Perez. It was the team’s first winning record since 2003  Yost has created a little empire of  enthusiasm. The entire team is thinking playoffs 2014.

toronto hemp company cure

Jeremy Jeffress smoked a joint and then another and then another. He probably smoked more than three, but that’s how many times he got caught. In total, the former Milwaukee Brewer prospect missed 150 games, suspended for substance abuse.

But this isn’t a story about the legalization of marijuana in Oregon and Washington exposing the ridiculous drug laws in baseball and America that forced a great pitching prospect to miss months of essential development for what? Getting high? That pisses me off, but that’s for another day and another blog. This is a story about getting a second opinion.

The Brewers snatched Jeffress in the 2006 draft as the 16th overall pick in one of the more memorable first rounds. Max Scherzer, Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, and Evan Longoria all went before Jeffress.

The Brewers history of drafting and developing effective major league pitchers makes for a list a little longer than players with one hand. It doesn’t matter. I suffer a bad case of rosy colored glasses over any drafted Brewers and I get punch drunk when he throws 99 mph as a high school senior in South Boston, Virginia. Jeffress got me high.

The Brewers were content and so was I, but then came a marijuana warning and then drug suspension number one in 2007-50 games followed by marijuana suspension number 2 in 2009-100 games. The Brewers probably got suspicious. They packaged Jeffress with three other top prospects and sent them to the Royals for Zach Greinke. Good enough. Great! Amazing! The Brewers won the National League Central.

And hopes were still high for Jeffress under former Brewers manager Ned Yost in KC, but he could never maintain any consistent control and was traded again; to the Blue Jays for future cash considerations  Hopes were not so high anymore, but then an amazing thing happened in Toronto…..a socialized medicine miracle that maybe goes unnoticed or under appreciated by most Canadians, but not to Americans stuck in the great white north.

Jeffress had been suffering from seizures since he became an adult and doctors were never able to diagnose and treat his condition. The medication/sleep cure didn’t do much. The seizures got worse and were compounded by an anxiety disorder; not knowing when another tremor would erupt.  No doubt it messed up his performance and apparently explained his marijuana usage. It mellowed him out. Makes sense.

He was always a bit wild; missing the strike zone on a regular basis, but that’s what flame throwing prospects tend to do. He also missed a lot of bats; striking out 498 batters in 454 innings in the minors and with the Brewers-Royals-Blue Jays 46 k’s in 49 innings.  He still is one of baseball’s hardest throwers. Last season he was clocked at 104 mph. That puts him on par with Aroldis Chapman of the Reds.

During his first year in Toronto, team doctors asked for second and third opinions and together, they diagnosed the Jeffress with juvenile epilepsy and provided different medication. The seizures stopped.  He was still wild last year at AAA Buffalo, but he got outs and finished with a 1.65 ERA in 27 innings. Small sample size, but as always, the strikeouts were above 9 per 9 innings. And now he has a big advantage; one he has never enjoyed before.  No more seizures and a lot less anxiety.

The 2011 Topps baseball card of Jeffress instantly became one of my all time favorites; hand around heart and eyes looking to the sky; searching for answers. Or maybe he’s unzipping his jacket, unsure of his team. Who wants him?

And then he was traded to Kansas City and the 2011 Opening Day Topps baseball card of Jeffress  instantly became another favorite. Same exact picture. Perfect! Jeffress was still looking for answers.

I don’t think a Jeffress card has been issued in a Blue Jays uniform or I haven’t found it yet. I hope he’s on the mound pitching.