Baseball has been a part of my life as either a player or a
spectator for close to 59 years. Prior to my birth in the early 1950s, my
father coached a baseball team at Ft. Eustis, VA., that had a centerfielder by
the name of Willie Mays. Mays had been drafted after his first year of play
with the New York Giants.
Having been born and raised in Cincinnati, the Reds were my
major league team of choice as a young boy, teenager and even as a young adult.
After moving to Tucson 32 years ago I tried to follow the Reds via cable
television and the newspapers (before the Internet and superstations on cable
TV).
When the Diamondbacks were born in the late 1990s they
sparked my interest especially during the 2001 championship season and
subsequent campaigns including the push for a Western Division championship a
year ago.
When my wife, Kathy, and I first met about nine years ago she
was an argent pro football fan having followed the Denver Broncos. She knows a
little about baseball, but lacks background regarding strategy on the best use
of position players and pitchers.
During the 1970s, the “Big Red Machine” in Cincinnati used a starting
lineup of position players that started just about every day. Since he became
manager of the Diamondbacks Kirk Gibson has employed a philosophy that calls on
every position player to be ready to start every game. Yes, there are some
position players who will start five or six games out of every seven, but there
are some who don’t know if they are in the starting lineup until they arrive at
the ballpark that day.
There are some position players who will bat in the same
position in the lineup day after day. Outfielder Justin Upton has been a fixture
in the three-hole for much of his tenure. Yet, reserve outfielder Gerardo Parra
has batted first, second, seventh and eighth when he has started. Statistics
indicate that Parra’s performance at the plate has been better as leadoff or
batting second and not so good when batting seventh or eighth.
Kathy is aware of my background in baseball so she asks
questions about Gibson’s strategy of shaking up who starts from one game to
another and moving them around in the lineup. One of my favorite managers growing
up was Sparky Anderson who liked to use a standard lineup of the same players
every game batting in the same spot in the lineup. Ironically, Gibson played
for Anderson with the Detroit Tigers and has stated on more than one occasion
that his managerial style is patterned after Anderson.
I see merits to each approach, however, athletes especially
baseball players are creatures of habit and when habit and routine are
disturbed I suspect it affects their performance. I think Anderson’s approach
worked 30 years ago. The jury is still out as to whether or not Gibson’s
approach will work with today’s professional baseball player.
The other issue Kathy has trouble understanding is pitching.
With her background as a fan of pro football she is accustomed to underperforming
players being pulled from the game for substitutes. In football, the player
that is substituted for can return to a game at a later time. In baseball, when
they leave the game they are unavailable for the remainder of that game.
Thus, she has trouble understanding why managers are
reluctant to pull starting pitchers early is a game. In this era of specialized
relief pitchers she does no understand the concept that an early departure of a
starting pitcher can affect the availability of relief pitchers for subsequent
games.
Back in the 1970s, Sparky Anderson’s nickname was “Captain
Hook.” If a pitcher, especially a starter didn’t have it he was sitting on the
bench and someone was summoned from the bullpen. Today, if a starter is off he
is given the opportunity to pitch through his troubles in the hope that he will
get the game into the sixth inning with an opportunity for the bullpen to take
care of the last four innings while the offense does what is necessary to catch
up an go ahead for the win.
Sparky’s philosophy worked 30 years ago. Gibson is stuck with
pitchers who are specialists in today’s game. Which is best? Have you got a
coin so that we can flip?
