The Baseball Digest Archives

December 1984

Baseball Digest editors, what are you doing? Giving Mark Langston the cover & relegating Dwight Gooden to the inset? I have to believe that slap in the face is what drove Gooden to put together his historically great 1985 season. If that’s the case, I take back my criticism. Thank you. And as a side note, Langston didn’t even win the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1985, that went to his Seattle teammate Alvin Davis.

The Baseball Digest All-Rookie team was an annual staple of the magazine, and 1984 produced a solid crop of rookies. We’ve got one future Hall of Famer on this squad in addition to several who put together outstanding careers. Remember, just like the ROY award, it’s not meant to be a predictor as to who will have the best career, it’s who had the best rookie season. Having said that, it does interest me to see which players build on strong rookie campaigns and which ones don’t. I suppose Brook Jacoby is the player from this list who went on to become a bit of a disappointment, but being that this was his age 25 season, maybe it wasn’t too big of a surprise.

I get a sense of joy looking at advertisements in old magazines. This is particularly true when looking at old comic books - anyone of a certain age well remembers Sea Monkeys, X-Ray Specs, Charles Atlas, and of course the selling seeds door to door ads. How long do these companies remain active? If I send the CSN Gift Center $20.95 do you think they will still send me a Super 8 film of the 1973 All-Star Game? Or would I be better off splurging on the Ali-Shavers fight? At least that one has sound.

Looking at some of the other articles in this month’s mag, in case you were wondering the game that George Foster will never forget did not come when he was a Met, it came in the 1976 NLCS. The Reggie Jackson article came on the heel of his having reached 500 career home runs in the 1984 season. That article about how defense is no longer important is standard Grizzled Old Baseball Men complaining - Gene Mauch is quoted a lot. I am looking forward to coming across an article in which retired pitchers complain about how soft modern pitchers are. You know that’s coming, it’s a criticism old as time.

The article I’m most focused on this issue concerns one of the saddest stories from my baseball fandom, one which I often look at as a cautionary tale. That is the J.R. Richard story. He was a big favorite of mine; I’m sure the fact that he wore those glorious Houston Astros Tequila Sunrise uniforms was a factor, but here was a big guy (6’8”; it was still extremely unusual at the time to see a pitcher that tall) with an explosive fastball. It took him a few years to command his pitches, but once he did he went on a dominating run.

Every fan can think of several “what could have beens,” Richard was one of the biggest for me. His story is so sad because it could have been avoided, and it circles back to one of my pet peeves. My default instinct is to believe an athlete when they complain that something doesn’t feel right. Just look at ourselves, no one knows our own individual health like we do. So if an athlete says he is hurting, believe him. After all, we’re not yet living in Star Trek times. There’s no simple scanner that a doctor can wave over us which immediately diagnoses any malady.

In the 1980 season Richard began to complain about discomfort. At the time imaging was not yet routine, so he was only given simple exams which revealed nothing wrong. As a result, whispers started to grow that he was faking it, or worse, that he was just being lazy & didn’t want to pitch. And then everyone learned all too well what the source of his pain was. While warming up one day he suffered a devastating stroke and he never threw a pitch in the major leagues again. The blood clot which eventually caused the stroke had been pressing against his rib cage. Perhaps if Houston’s medical staff had listened to Richard more closely they could have caught it before he suffered the medical calamity.

The article set a sunny tone over his recovery, and it’s possible that was true when this was written. But Richard did have a rough go of things in later years, including a brief spell of homelessness. He was able to eventually get back on his feet, but ultimately sadness surrounds so much of his career arc. Once again, what could have been. What should have been.

The Ballot Breakdown - Mary J. Blige

It’s fitting that Mary J. Blige comes up first alphabetically in this year’s list of nominees for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. IMHO she is easily the most deserving of the 15 names on the list. If you have earned a regal nickname that means you’ve clearly done something right. The Queen Of Hip-Hop Soul moniker was well deserved.

She emerged at the height of the New Jack Swing era, & fit in perfectly with that sound. From her fashion sense to her cool vibe, she was practically an avatar of that moment in time. Her debut album made her an instant star, but it was with her followup that she truly became MJB.

My Life is a modern R&B classic. The title is fitting, because it cemented her persona. Blige has always been an open book, with each new recording she has told her audiences exactly what her state of mind & position in life has been at the moment. Just look at her album titles - Share My World, No More Drama, Stronger With Each Tear, and so many more. Her career has almost been an Oprah episode brought to life, complete with a “we’re all in this together” message. There are plenty of popular artists, Blige is one who Means Something to her fans. That’s precisely the sort of thing that separates someone from the pack. Or put it this way. There is a select group of celebrities who you know who they are even if they’re only identified by their first name. I believe that Blige has earned that honor, even though her first name is very common. How many others have “claimed” such a common first name? The best I can think of is that if someone says “Jack” you know they’re referring to Nicholson.

Another crucial aspect of her talent is the fact that she is an electrifying performer. She can get in that zone in which she almost appears possessed, as if she were taken over by a higher being. Think back to her performance at the Super Bowl halftime show a couple of years ago. She tore down the house & then collapsed on stage in a way that made it look like the performance had sucked every ounce of energy out of her body. Or way back when she performed No More Drama at the Grammy Awards. She stalked the stage, wringing every possible emotion out of herself, looking like she was about to burst out of her skin. A great soul singer makes you believe in every single word coming out of their mouth. That is Mary J. Blige in a nutshell.

If elected, will she perform at the ceremony? Yes. She has acted as a presenter in the past, and she is a frequent presence at industry events.

Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hit - Family Affair

My Personal Favorite - Deep Inside

Nominees For Springfield

And Naismith Hall Of Fame season is underway as well. The list of finalists was announced during NBA All-Star weekend.

There is a slight tweak to the election process this year. Over the past several cycles the finalist list had only come from the North American & Women’s Basketball committees. Candidates from other committees (International, Veterans, Contributors, Women’s Veterans & Early African-American Basketball) were considered separately & classified as “directly elected.” The final selections from those groups would then be announced along with the list of inductees from those other committees. This time candidates from all committees are being thrown together on one ballot.

The 2 names that jump right off the list are Vince Carter & Seimone Augustus, along with Jerry West. I don’t know if the Hall necessarily needs to induct a person multiple times, but West’s success as an executive has been significant enough that it’s justified. Beyond that, it’s not a very inspiring list of names. You could make arguments for several of the finalists, but I don’t think anyone is a, pardon the expression, slam dunk choice.

Michael Cooper was a key component of the Showtime Lakers, but was he Hall level? Similar deal with Dick Barnett. He was a member of those Knicks teams that were among the most admired in league history, but he made a grand total of 1 All-Star Game in his career. I don’t think that’s Hall worthy. Bo Ryan won a lot of games, but I’d have more enthusiasm for his candidacy if he had either won a national championship or if he was the creator of some type of innovative strategy. And no, the Charles Smith listed above is not THAT Charles Smith. The finalist here is the winningest coach in Louisiana high school history. I’ll defer to the experts, but I don’t know if that merits induction. At least no referees are nominated this time; there are already more refs in the Hall than necessary.

Finally, the one omission that completely baffles me is Maya Moore. She has a GOAT level resume, yet she is still left out. Moore last played in 2018, so she is theoretically eligible. The only explanation I have is that because she didn’t officially announce her retirement until a year ago, that is when her eligibility clock started. It doesn’t make much sense to me, especially considering that her presence would have greatly elevated the stardom level of this year’s class.

The Class of 2024 will be announced during Final Four weekend in April.

NBA All-Star Weekend

This was a dreadful All-Star weekend, and you could tell from Adam Silver’s demeanor as he handed out the trophies last night that he was quite displeased by what he saw.

Let’s start with Saturday, which had some high points, but not enough to salvage the whole affair. The league is trying its best to make the skills competition into something coherent, but it’s still a work in progress. And I don’t know what can be done to save the slam dunk competition. The event has almost no star power anymore. It’s not encouraging when the reigning champ comes from the G League, and one of the other participants is a player on a 2-way contract. And I’m sorry, the degrees of difficulty for the dunks may have increased, but it takes a lot of the wind out of the sails to see so many missed attempts. Yet even that increased difficulty grows tiresome. How many times can I watch a player leap over someone to make a dunk?

At least the 3-point contest was exciting, and the Stephen Curry/Sabrina Ionescu match lived up to the hype. This was no Bobby Riggs display of chauvinism, it was a respectful game recognize game competition between 2 greats. No shame that Ionescu fell short of defeating the greatest long range shooter in league history; her score would have put her in the finals had she competed in the regular contest. You can bet the league is already eagerly anticipating a similar match next year involving Caitlin Clark.

The less said about the actual All-Star Game, the better. The only good thing I can say about it is that it puts to lie the claims that people often make about no one in the league playing defense. I’ve said it over and over again, there’s only so much you can do to stop Giannis Antetokounmpo when he gets a full head of steam. How can you defend Damian Lillard when he can sink 35 foot shots like they were nothing? It’s not that there’s no defense played in the NBA, it’s that the players are too good to stop. The only way to slow down these guys is to adjust the rules so that we could bring back the slogs we used to have back in the 90’s. Does anyone really want to go back to the days with routine final scores of 75-71? I doubt it. Last night’s display? THAT’S what no defense looks like. The West scored 186 points, yet were still blown out. The winning East squad tallied 211 points. Offense is fun, what we saw last night was overly indulgent. It’s like eating an entire box of Krispy Kremes in one sitting. Way too much of a good thing.

The only time the game is entertaining comes when the game is close in the 4th quarter. In that case, the players’ natural competitive instincts kick in & they play hard to the final whistle. Last night’s game wasn’t close enough to give us that. Like I said, Adam Silver clearly was not happy at the end of the night. I’m not sure what can be done to rescue the event, but you can bet that the league and the player’s association are going to put their heads together to come up with something. What we saw last night is unsustainable.

This Week In Reproductive Rights Dystopia

It can’t be repeated enough - the repeal of Roe v. Wade wasn’t about abortion as much as it was about control. The Dobbs decision has given theocratic freaks the cover they need to impose their collective will on half the population. Birth control is the next target for these weirdos.

Take a look at the bullet points on this bill in the Oklahoma house. Restricting certain over the counter contraceptives? I’m old enough to remember when the GOP claimed they were the party of small government. Or when the chief complaint over the Affordable Care Act was that it allegedly placed government bureaucrats in the middle of medical decisions between patient and doctor. These proposals sure sound intrusive to me.

And then there was last week’s ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court, which classifies frozen embryos as human children. This judgement essentially outlaws IVF in the state. Just think of how many couples have been unable to conceive naturally and have depended on IVF treatments in order to have children. That court really wants to remove that option?

If there is any consolation it’s that the abortion issue has fired up the Democratic base. It’s an uphill climb in red states, but it’s still crucial to vote out as many of these people as possible. The fear is that courts have already done too much damage.

Closing Laughs

On this President’s Day, remember that there were other Presidents besides Washington & Lincoln. I would have mad respect for a furniture store that hires an actor to dress up as James K. Polk for their ad campaign. And out of respect to William Henry Harrison, please be sure to wear a topcoat if it’s cold today. See you all again on Wednesday.