The Baseball Digest Archive

June 1985

Dwight Gooden. 1985. WAR is more of a useful tool than a be all and end all, but this is still worth noting. This year he had the highest single season bWAR of any pitcher in the post-deadball era. I can confirm that every Gooden start was a special event; it was a quintessential “tell your grandkids about this” year.

As much as I loved watching Gooden, it’s undeniable that most fans are going to have a special connection to a guy who played when they first fell in love with the game. As a young baseball fan, Tug McGraw was one of my favorites. In addition to being a terrific relief pitcher, he was also a funny guy who was reliably quotable, not to mention the man who popularized the “ya gotta believe” mantra which spurred the Mets to the 1973 NL pennant. Equally beloved as both a Met & a Phillie, he retired after the 1984 season and this issue included a short salute to one of the game’s great characters.

With Tug’s retirement it’s fitting that the issue also contains an article spotlighting funny quotes. Most of these are corny dad jokes. Which was the best one featured here? Perhaps Jack Buck describing George Steinbrenner’s yacht. “It was a beautiful thing to behold, with all 36 oars working in unison.” Or maybe Tommy John after asking his surgeon to put in Koufax’s fastball, “They did. But it turned out to be Mrs. Koufax’s.”

Finally, one of the highlights of 1985 was when Pete Rose broke the all-time hits record, surpassing Ty Cobb with hit #4192. Even back then, however, SABR had noticed the discrepancy in Cobb’s record. He actually had 1 fewer hit than he was credited with, but MLB was stubborn back then and felt the record book was sacrosanct and not to be tampered with. That’s no longer the case; the league now recognizes that record keeping in the sport’s early era was imprecise and the official record is amended when evidence is presented. Yes, Cobb’s hit total has been properly amended. That wasn’t the case in 1985; history shows that Rose broke the record with a single against San Diego’s Eric Show, who responded by petulantly sitting on the mound as Rose was being honored. In actuality, Rose had already broken the record by that time, so Show technically should have been off the hook.

Today’s Olympic Thoughts

To give you all a heads up, there is so much that I want to write about the Olympics - too much to fit into one newsletter, so I will continue to share my takes about both the Games in general and Paris 2024 in particular for the foreseeable future. I promise I’ll finish before the next Olympics begin.

I always have mixed emotions when the Games end. I love watching it, and the event never fails to provide a plethora of thrilling moments that I will remember forever. At the same time I spend so much time watching and following it that I’m pretty exhausted by the closing weekend. As much as I enjoy it, there’s sometimes too much of a good thing at play.

In addition, when the last light is turned off I have a quick exhale. It’s not on the top of my mind, but there is always a concern with such a high profile event that something terrible could happen. I have never been concerned about the potential of an Al Qaida type of attack, even during the Salt Lake City Games that took place only 6 months after 9/11. It might be naive, but I think it’s too risky for a terrorist group to antagonize every single nation in the world. The real danger in my eyes is something similar to the tragedies that took place in the past; either a targeted attack on one specific delegation, or an explosive device detonated just outside the main security perimeter. Now that it’s all over and everyone is safely on their way home, all turned out well.

As for the chief concern ahead of time, the Seine largely passed all tests. All 5 events that were scheduled to take place in the river went off, with the men’s triathlon the only one which was postponed for a day due to high e-coli levels. There were at least 2 swimmers who fell ill, or at least publicly announced that. I haven’t seen any indication of the severity in either case, so maybe it’s too early to take a victory lap, but I suppose the organizers are relieved that it wasn’t as bad as some had feared. On a related note, the broadcast mentioned that one of the triathletes prepared for the event by microdosing e-coli ahead of time. He wouldn’t wash his hands after using the bathroom for example. Umm… ick.

So… breakdancing. When I first heard that it was being added to the program, I scratched my head. Why now? And why in Paris but not Los Angeles? (Each host country has a few open slots in which they can test out sports. LA is not using one of those slots for breaking in 2028, so this could very well be its one and only Olympic appearance.) My first thought was that it would be akin to artistic swimming or rhythmic gymnastics, but I had a eureka moment when I watched it. The spins and flairs that the dancers performed were just like what you would see on a pommel horse or in a floor exercise. I found the competition very entertaining. I can’t say that I intend to watch any more breaking contests, but I sure hope it can find its way back onto the schedule in 2032 Brisbane. We even had a modern day Eddie the Eagle, with the performance of Australian dancer Raygun, who went viral for whatever that was.

Two of the biggest highlights of the final weekend came in the basketball gold medal games, with Team USA defeating France in each. Both teams had to sweat it out. Back in the Diana Taurasi era at UConn, Geno Auriemma used to say that they had an inherent advantage because “we have D & you don’t.” Same with the US men’s team. Serbia, you may have Nikola Jokic. France, you may have Victor Wembanyama. But the US has Bron, Steph, AND KD. How can you stop all 3? Steph Curry in particular was ice cold vicious in the gold medal game. How fortunate that the timing worked out so perfectly that 3 generational stars were able to team up for this one dance. (It’s still stunning that this was Curry’s sole Olympic appearance, but he always wound up with an injury come Olympic time until now.)

The streak for the women will eventually end, just not yet. The US women’s team continues its stunning run of dominance. Not only have they won every Olympic gold going back to 1996, but in that time frame they are undefeated. They have not even lost a single game in pool play, never mind in knockout rounds. This year’s title game was the toughest one yet; it was in doubt until the very end. Credit due to France for playing a physical game, but for the Americans in the first 2 1/2 quarters it was almost a perfect storm for now to lose a game. They shot horribly, missing open jumpers as well as easy layups. They handled the ball sloppily, and were outclassed on the boards. France grabbed just about every free ball, and needless to say the home crowd gave the French team a huge lift. The hero of the game was Kahleah Cooper. In crunch time she went into full KFC mode. The game was crucial for another reason. The basketball game was the 329th & final gold medal event. If that’s your thing, the victory allowed the US to tie China for the most golds this year. In my opinion medal standings aren’t really a thing. There are more than 200 nations, with wide disparities of size, population, and sports infrastructure. Comparisons of medal totals are meaningless, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union. There was a bit of spice to the medal race when the Olympics were a proxy battle in the Cold War. Now, it’s a nice feeling to see the US atop the medal board, but I can’t too worked up about it.

Last thing for today. Watching the American delegation march into the stadium for the closing ceremony is uplifting. What a wonderful testament to our diversity. So many different ethnicities, so many different religions, so many different sexual orientations. So many children of immigrants, so many that are themselves immigrants, including several who sought asylum to enter the country in the first place. That is America.

Current Chicago White Sox Pace

38-124.

Racing Around The Basepath

Next season’s special MLB event is now official, with the announcement that in August 2025 the Reds & Braves will play a regular season game at historic Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. It will answer the question: can Elly De La Cruz circle the bases faster than a stock car can complete a lap?

When I first heard the news I was concerned about the field configuration; Bristol is a short track, so it could be tricky. No need to worry. The outfield dimensions are going to be fairly standard; 330 down the lines, 400 to straight center, and 384 & 375 for the left and right power alleys, respectively. The track also has a huge capacity, it seats 146,000. It remains to be seen what the sight lines will be like; the seats are angled for optimal viewing of the track, not sure what type of shifting could be required for a baseball diamond.

Part of me also wonders if choosing this location at this time is an expansion test run. Rob Manfred has stated that expansion is on the back burner until the stadium issues in Oakland and Tampa Bay are settled. Right now Tampa Bay seems to have reached a deal on a new park & I don’t need to remind anyone about the Oakland/Sacramento/Vegas clusterf***, so theoretically expansion talk could be in the works. If the wheels are rolling on expansion, among the cities that have been mentioned as possibilities are Nashville and Charlotte. This game could be a testing ground for the level of interest in the mid-southern region of the country. (I’m still wishcasting for a Montreal return, complete with the red, white, & blue uniforms.)

TV Of the 21st Century - Mad Men

You don’t really need me to tell you much about this show. One of the most prominent examples of Peak TV, Mad Men had immense critical praise and was an awards show darling. Instead of overly singing its praises, I’ll instead cherry pick a few bullet points about the show.

It took me a while to get into the show. I could see how good it was, but it was too effective in recreating the attitudes and mores of a certain era. I know that the overt sexism of the characters was part of the point, but do I really want to spend time every week with this batch of cavemen? I eventually did learn to appreciate what the show was trying to do, but it took time.

It was also a challenge to separate my feelings for the actor from my feelings for the character. Similar to Bryan Cranston/Walter White, Jon Hamm seems to be a likable guy so it wasn’t always easy for me to understand that even though he was the main character, Don Draper wasn’t exactly intended to be an admirable figure. He was inscrutable and only tolerated other people for what sort of use he could get out of them. Every time he would do something which wasn’t heroic, I would think “Jon, what are you doing?” before I had to remind myself that I’m not watching Jon Hamm, I’m watching Don Draper. Or more accurately, I’m watching Dick Whitman pretend to be Don Draper. Is that a spoiler? On a related note, how awesome was John Slattery? Roger Sterling was a dog, but he also had a better understanding than any of his peers that he was quickly turning into an anachronism. On the other hand, attempting to tolerate Pete Campbell was a real challenge, Pete was such an odious character; Vincent Kartheiser did a great job of making him so creepy. Any episode in which someone would punch him in the face was a good one.

As sexist as the male characters were, the female characters had a chance to show their secret strength. Before too long Peggy was essentially the co-lead character, and her arc made the show’s central theme very clear. She was an obvious budding superstar in the advertising business. In some ways she was born at the right time, in others just a bit too soon. She had opportunities that an older woman would not have had, but not as many as a younger one would. Elisabeth Moss has made a specialty of portraying characters who are emotionally tortured; it’s nice to see her here a little less tormented. Poor timing could also be seen with Joan. Only a few years older than Peggy, she was still limited to the secretarial pool, eventually to become office manager. People couldn’t see past her physique to recognize her potential. Even after she rose to become a partner in the ad agency, this was still the 1960’s. A potential client promised to bring in his business if she would sleep with him. Joan took one for the team, but that is obviously a sequence of events that would not fly nowadays. Like all of the other actors in the show, Christina Hendricks really nailed it. She struck the right balance of exasperation and self-confidence.

I should also mention the serendipity that came when Kiernan Shipka was cast as Sally Draper. Child actors are tricky; they are initially hired because they’re cute, but who knows what will happen as they grow up. Look no further than Bobby Draper; 4 different actors portrayed him over the show’s 7 seasons. Shipka was a different matter altogether. As she neared adolescence, it was clear that she was a talented actress and that the writers could provide her with complex material.

Finally, I want to mention this. In addition to the women, many of the younger members of the firm showed that they were more highly evolved human beings. I’m specifically thinking of Stan & Ken. Then there was Harry. It was hilarious to see how he repulsed everyone else on the show. I loved any year in which new seasons of Mad Men & Veep ran at the same time. On a Sunday evening you could watch people say “ugh” every time Harry walked into a room and afterwards watch characters on Veep have the exact same response to Jonah. If only the timelines of the two series had matched up a spin-off series featuring the two of them would have been gold. Maybe if that hypothetical show involved time travel?

Originally aired on: AMC

Currently streaming on: AMC+

Closing Laughs

It’s gonna be strange to wake up in the morning and not find Olympics waiting for me on my DVR. We can get through this together. See you all again on Wednesday. Have a great day.