The Baseball Digest Archives 12/78

December 1978

A few weeks before Dave Parker is officially inducted into the Hall Of Fame I happen to pull an issue out of the pile which has The Cobra on the cover. 1978 was the peak of his career; this was the season in which he won his second consecutive NL batting title and he would also win the NL MVP award in 1978. The award winners had not been announced yet by the time this issue was published, so those results had no bearing on the magazine’s selections for the top players of 1978. Parker placed 4th, making him only the second highest ranked NL player behind Pete Rose. That year’s AL MVP race was highly contentious; both Ron Guidry and Jim Rice had amazing seasons. Guidry won 25 games with a sub-2 ERA, and Rice became the first player in almost 2 decades with more than 400 total bases in a single season. In the end Rice was named MVP despite the fact that Guidry’s Yankees won the AL East. Guidry wound up as Baseball Digest’s player of the year choice.

The issue includes a breakdown of Mickey Mantle’s famous 1952 home run in Washington which supposedly traveled 565 feet and introduced the phrase “tape measure home run” into the lexicon. There was no Statcast in those days, so any measurement of a home run distance would be nothing more than an estimate. And boy, was there some Liberty Valance style myth making with this one. How do we “know” that it was a 565 foot drive? The ball traveled out of Griffith Stadium on the fly, and a Yankees PR guy went outside to investigate and asked witnesses on the street where the ball landed. He found a kid who had picked up the ball, asked the kid where he found it, the kid pointed to a spot and said “over there.” The PR guy then measured how far over there was from home plate, and voila! 565 feet. Was the kid lying about the spot where he picked up the ball? Or even if that was where the ball landed rather than where he retrieved it after it stopped rolling? Who’s to say?

Why aren’t there any left handed catchers is an eternal question because there is no logical reason for their absence. Because there are more left handed hitters than there are righties, a left handed throwing catcher would have a slight advantage in throwing out runners. The simple answer is that it has become a self fulfilling prophecy. Because there are no left handed catchers there is no incentive for glove manufacturers to produce mitts. If a left hander can’t purchase a mitt there is no opportunity to learn the craft. And so on and so on.

Dave Parker is on the cover because of his placement on the top players of 1978 list, but he also plays a major role in another piece in this issue. The article on home plate collisions was accompanied by a photo of Parker crashing into Steve Yeager and it also describes his famous collision with John Stearns, in which it was Parker who emerged from the crash worse for the wear.

There are a lot of quick hit profiles in this month’s issue, but I’ll close things with a pull quote from the article on Kent Tekulve. Tekulve is well remembered for several things which made him stand out from the pack: his shades, his sidearm delivery, and his physique. Dude looked like he weighed about 115 pounds soaking wet. “Mickey Lolich was the fat man’s hero. Maybe eventually I’ll be the skinny man’s hero. Who knows?” I don’t know if he was ever the skinny man’s hero, I’m skinny and I never had a Kent Tekulve poster on my wall. But he was the relief ace for the World Series winning We Are Family Pirates in 1979. So he was a hero for many.

Most Memorable Moment - Los Angeles (And Brooklyn) Dodgers

MLB’s Original 1976 Choice: Sandy Koufax’s Perfect Game

My Updated Selection: Jackie Robinson Takes The Field

Bonus Los Angeles Selection: In a Year That Has Been So Improbable…

This demonstrated the limitations of MLB’s decision making process back in 1976. They only chose based on the current location for each franchise, so the Dodgers’ options were limited to what at the time was a tenure of fewer than 20 years in Los Angeles. (The same issue will come up concerning the Giants.) The Koufax perfecto was a great choice under those parameters, but come on. The moment that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier was not just a great Dodgers moment, it was almost certainly the most special moment in MLB history.

First, give credit where credit is due to Sandy Koufax. With that perfect game in 1965, his 4th no-no overall, he broke what was then the record for most career no-hitters. It loses a bit of its immediacy because there is no available footage of that gem. We don’t have video, but we do have Vin Scully’s radio call which was as much of a tour de force at the microphone as Koufax was a tour de force on the mound. The 9th inning in particular is a work of art. We often hear of how a great radio play-by-play broadcaster can create a picture in the listener’s mind and that is exactly what Scully did here. I have listened to this multiple times and based purely on how well Vin describes the action, I can vividly see everything in my mind. Sublime.

A special place of honor should also go to Kirk Gibson’s walk off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, another moment punctuated by a famous Vin Scully call, this time in the national TV booth for NBC. The parallels to Freddie Freeman’s Game 1 homer last year are obvious, especially because both blasts felt as if for all practical purposes each had wrapped up their WS as early as Game 1, but there are crucial differences which separate Gibson’s feat from Freeman’s. Both players were hobbled, but Freeman was well enough to play all 5 games in the series; Gibson was in such poor physical condition that he only had one at bat in him. The 2024 Dodgers were slightly favored going into that Series, whereas the 1988 Dodgers were overwhelming underdogs. And all due respect to Nestor Cortes, but he is no Dennis Eckersley. 1988 Eck was practically untouchable. The whole thing was made possible when Eckersley uncharacteristically walked the light-hitting Mike Davis with two outs and a one run lead. Then, Gibson worked the count, fouling off pitch after pitch. Finally, Eckersley did what the Dodgers scouting reports said he would do under those circumstances. He tried to sneak in a backdoor slider, Gibson pounced on it, and she was gone. I loved the camera shot which showed brake lights just past the right field fence. All of those fans left Dodger Stadium early. They missed something.

In the end there is no argument over what should be the Dodgers moment. More than 80 years after Moses Fleetwood Walker was, pardon the expression, blackballed from major league baseball, Jackie Robinson started at first base for the Dodgers on Opening Day in 1947. It took time for the league to fully integrate, and there wasn’t as much smooth sailing in the process as MLB likes to pretend. In the initial phase major league teams generally only signed star players from the Negro Leagues. The types of useful role players who fill out major league rosters still could not find a place in the league if they happened to be black, and being that the Negro Leagues would soon go out of business this category of players were quickly finding themselves unable to make a living playing baseball. Also, we’re talking about the Jim Crow era. Minor league teams are located in small towns, many of them in the Deep South. Not every major league team provided a strong support system for their African-American players; too many of them were left to fend for themselves. You don’t hear much of that when MLB pats itself on the back every Jackie Robinson Day.

None of this should diminish Jackie Robinson’s accomplishments. The moment he took his first major league at bat the game changed forever, and for the better. It’s a historical tragedy that for decades the best did not play against the best. It didn’t immediately pivot to such a scenario in 1947, and it would take time for full Latin American participation as well. But Robinson’s debut was a huge, and vital, step in the right direction. There could be no other choice for most memorable Dodgers moment.

No Kings

When I was on my way into Manhattan on Saturday I texted some friends saying that my subway platform was packed; morning rush hour packed. That was an exaggeration, but it was clearly much more crowded than one would generally see on a random Saturday. So I was fairly confident that despite the weather there was going to be a massive turnout for NYC’s No Kings rally.

And the weather was not ideal. It was considerably cooler than normal for mid-June, and although the morning downpours had died down by the time the march had begun, it was falling steadily for the first hour or so. Not heavy by any means, but heavy enough to be mildly irritating. But you know what? There was nowhere else I would have rather been than right there, right now. The vibes were impeccable, the crowd was pleasant, the signs were awesome.

I’ve attended protests in the past with one of two strategies: either go with a group or go in by myself to soak up the atmosphere. This time I went with the latter; I am always inspired by the sense of community that such an event entails. I’m not going to kid myself; we still have a long and difficult road ahead of us. But the huge crowds nationwide - including in some deeply red areas - prove that there are a lot more of us eager and willing to defend democracy.

One thing I also like to do when I attend a march solo is to keep my head on a swivel to see if there is anyone I know whom I can run into by chance. Didn’t happen this time, but there were so many people there that there is every chance that I knew people standing only a few feet away from me buried in the crowd. Also, because this is New York, I look to see if there are any famous people walking next to me incognito. There’s always a chance that this is where I can have my Notting Hill moment. I could run into a female celebrity whom I have a thing for and say “Oh, you’re here too? We have so much in common. Let’s grab a coffee at the end of the day.” Hasn’t happened yet. Yet.

As for Lil’ Donnie’s big boy parade, my schadenfreude levels were off the charts. What was the best part? The shot of him sitting in the stands with a sourpuss expression, just waiting for someone to insert the Curb Your Enthusiam theme? The fact that it was one of the rare photos of the two together in which Melania was not the unhappier of the pair? The moment when Fortunate Son was the background music? (Does anyone listen to the lyrics?) The moment when the crowd was so sparse and quiet that the loudest noise heard was the squeaking of the tank wheels? The looks on the faces of the cabinet members as they wonder which one of them would feel the brunt of the POTUS wrath? The fact that many of the soldiers weren’t even bothering to march in formation; they were simply wandering around as if they were in a shopping mall? The anchors on North Korean State Media, aka Fox, gushing over the event despite all visual evidence?

My confidence v gloom mood ping pongs back and forth so many times over the course of a day. I am completely aware of how drastically things can change in any one day. Even a generally optimistic day such as Saturday began with the awful news of a political assassination in Minnesota. But it’s a good feeling to know that at least for one day it was nice to go to bed in a good mood.

The Oscar Mulligan - 2012

Best Picture: Argo

Other Nominees: Amour, Beasts Of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life Of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty

2012 was a year in which you could clearly see the effects of the increase in the number of nominees. I can look at 2 movies on this list which would have been long shots to have received nominations in the years when there were only 5. This is also another year in which I have to think long and hard whether my personal favorite among the nominees is the one which most deserves to have won.

Argo did a great job of recreating an era. With the fashion and hair styles seen here, it screams 1979. I can almost smell the Aqua Velva emanating from the screen. I have clear memories of the story when it occurred; Canada safely evacuating American diplomats out of Iran in the early days of the hostage crisis. It wasn’t until the release of this movie that I was aware of the full story and it was bananas. To have convinced the Iranian government that the evacuees were part of a film crew? Amazing that they pulled it off. It was an entertaining movie, and it merits bonus points for showing us a side of history that many of us were unaware of, even if it’s recent history. How does it compare to its competitors?

Zero Dark Thirty was even more recent history; there has always been dispute about its accuracy although I’m not sure how valid the criticism is. Much of the story is classified, so it’s inevitable that much of the movie is speculative. Django Unchained is another example of Revisionist History From Quentin Tarantino. I find depictions of slavery to be a difficult watch, so while Django makes for a cathartic experience it’s more a movie that I admire than anything else.

Then there were all of the movies which are best known for the Oscar winning performances found therein: Les Miz, Lincoln, and Silver Linings Playbook. (Django also qualifies here.) I wonder if Les Miz would have worked better had someone other than Russell Crowe portrayed Javert, or at least someone who had given a more honest effort in attempting to actually sing. Silver Linings suffers from the disparity in actor’s ages. It was too distracting for me. And as magnificent as Daniel Day-Lewis was, in the subcategory of American History From Steven Spielberg, I preferred Amistad.

Which leaves Life Of Pi as my choice. I think we are getting to the point in this segment where the Has The Movie Stood The Test Of Time? question is less applicable; now that we are dealing with movies only a dozen years old it’s still too soon to say for sure which movies will be the longest lasting. Instead the bigger factor is which movie affected me the most, and in this case it’s Life Of Pi.

Not having read the novel I was only vaguely familiar with the plot, so I wasn’t fully prepared for how easily it sucked me in. I did not think I would be so mesmerized by a story in which large chunks of it consisted of a young man alone on a boat with a tiger and other wild animals. The CGI was realistic, and the story was compelling. And as I said, I had not read the novel so I did not know of the twists that the story would take. Outstanding work all around.

Ang Lee has had a very interesting career when it comes to the Oscars. He won his second Best Director award for Life Of Pi, but just as was the case for Brokeback Mountain, his movie failed to win Best Picture. It’s almost as if the Academy was telling him that they love him, they just hate his movies. This makes for the third time that one of his movies has won my Retroactive Fake Oscar, which proves that I appreciate his work much more than voting members of the Academy do.

Closing Laughs

I can’t believe that I forgot to acknowledge Dock Ellis Day last week. Hope everyone celebrated responsibly. Thanks as always for tuning in. Have a great day and I will see you again on Wednesday.