Author: Larry Dierker

SUNDAY, MARCH 6 ● Houston, vs St. Louis

Before I knew it, anyway. Despite being warned several times, I forgot to spring forward. Because I left my alarm clock in Florida, I was counting on Judy to get me up. She usually rises before 8 o’clock, but this morning she slept in.

Cubby came by to pick me up at 9:00. Judy had just gotten up, and I was still snoozing. I made a quick change, and we were on our way at 9:15 — just like spring training.

After all these years playing mostly night games, I still have problems with day games, and for one reason and another, we have been playing more day games in recent years.

 

I really wrestled with the lineup for this game against Todd Stottlemyre.

Todd beat us several times last year. His breaking pitches are really tough on righthanded hitters. Last year, all we had was righthanded hitters, so we didn’t have much choice except to hope he would make mistakes. He didn’t make many — last year or today.

But today, at least, I was able to make him face lefties. I couldn’t decide whether I should play all my lefthanders, or save one back. Because Bagwell has hit Stottlemyre well, I could save Bill Spiers in case it came down to needing a pinch-hitter against Dennis Eckersley. But Bagwell has a sore hamstring, and with a day off tomorrow and a night game on Tuesday, I had a chance to rest him almost three full days.

I finally decided to play all of the lefthanded hitters. That left me with Bagwell, Berry, Eusebio, Mouton, Bell, and Montgomery on the bench. The beauty of this lineup was that I had power and speed available to insert into the game when it was most needed.

 As it turned out, it was desperately needed. And in the end, it paid off with another win.

 

Stottlemyre bent in the first inning. We had the bases loaded, with one run already home, when Bill Spiers popped up, Bobby Abreu struck out, and we came away with almost nothing. Still, that one run held up until the seventh, as Shane Reynolds pitched a gutty game without his best stuff.

When Ron Gant singled in the go-ahead run with one out in the seventh, I brought José Lima out of the bullpen. Lima got the next two batters out, and we came up down 2-1.

Ray Montgomery hit a ground ball in the hole at short off Tony Fossas. Royce Clayton threw the ball away for an error. I left González in to hit against the soft-throwing lefty, hoping he could pull one through the open right side of the infield. He tried, but he popped out to first base.

I brought Bell in to hit for Abreu, and La Russa brought in John Frascatore, a righthander. Derek grounded to third, with Montgomery taking second base. That brought Spiers up, with Tim Bogar on deck. Luckily for us, Spiers walked.

Throughout this game, I had been looking for spot to use Bagwell. Each time the opportunity seemed imminent, we ended up with an open base, so that La Russa could walk him. Now Tony could not issue the pass without putting the winning run on second.

When Bagwell came out of the dugout, an expectant roar came from the crowd. He doubled down the leftfield line, and the roar became hysteria. Both runners scored. Now we had a 3-2 lead, with Hudek and Wagner rested and ready in the bullpen.

Wagner came into the game as Hudek started lobbing the ball in the bullpen. It didn’t look like he would have to do much more than lob it, as Wagner struck out David Bell looking on a 3-2 count.

Then came the lapse.

Gary Gaetti pinch-hit for Mark Sweeney, and Wagner sprung a leak. I don’t think I have ever seen a pitcher lose so much velocity from one pitch to the next.  He was throwing 96 MPH to Bell, then he was throwing 87 to Gaetti, a dangerous hitter.  

Perhaps Gaetti was still looking for 96 when he got out in front of a slow 3-1 fastball and hit a ground ball to third. Sean Berry booted it, and I was worried about Wagner for the first time all year.   

When Billy went 2-0 to Roberto Mejia, Vern said, “He’s rushing.”  I sent sent him to the mound, for two reasons: I wanted to buy some time for Hudek, so I could bring him in if Billy walked Mejia; and I was hoping Vern could get him to slow down.  

The advice — for Billy to come to a balance point before starting forward, toward the plate — paid a big dividend.  After throwing ball three at 96, Billy came back and struck him out with three blazing fastballs.  Then he fanned Ron Gant on three pitches to nail down the save.   

SATURDAY, APRIL 5 ● Houston, vs St. Louis

Got a great night’s sleep. After using an alarm for the better part of the last two months, it’s nice to sleep until you wake up. It’s also nice to start the day slowly, reading the paper and drinking coffee.

I guess I’m just a night owl. I like to start out nice and easy and build to full strength about 7:00 – game time.   

I came out early and found that it would take me about an hour-and-a-half to watch a two-and-a-half-hour game on the VCR. It actually took longer than that, because people kept coming into my office.

 

After batting practice today, Craig Biggio walked by and asked, “Are we taking infield?” I continued walking, as I did not want to pursue this conversation without some background information.

I stopped by the coaches’ room and asked, “Is there any reason why we shouldn’t take infield?”

“So, they’re onto that already,” Cubby said. “I wondered how long it would take.”

Ash chimed in, “So what’s the big deal about infield?”

“They don’t like to take it,” Cubby said.

“Why not?” I asked. “I always thought it was kind of fun.”

“I liked to take infield,” Ash said.

“Well, these guys don’t,” Cubby said. “Believe me, you are going to hear about this all year. Last year we took it every day, because that’s the way Dallas [Green, the Mets’ manager] wanted it. But you should have heard them complain.

“Todd Hundley was the worst. Seems like every day he would be crying, ‘I got a sore arm, and now I have to take infield and make it worse.’ The fact is, his arm wasn’t that bad. And we take the shortened version these days. He only has to make five or six throws, and he doesn’t have to throw hard.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why wouldn’t a guy want to take infield? I mean, when I was playing, we might skip it if we had a day game and maybe we played 15 innings the night before, and everyone was tired. But this is the first week of the season.”

“I don’t think it’s a matter of being tired,” Cubby said. “It’s a matter of wanting privileges. A lot of teams don’t take infield much anymore. The Braves only take it the first day of each series.”

“How do they stay sharp?” I asked.

“They take a lot of ground balls and fly balls during batting practice.” Cubby said. “Plus, they’ve played together for a lot of years.”

“Leyland gave them Wednesday and Sunday off,” Bill Virdon said. “I don’t think they need much more time off than that. You can give them an extra day now and then, but you need to set a policy. Cubby is right: they’ll bug you every day about it.”

This seemed so strange to me. These guys spend way more time on conditioning — especially weight-training — than we did years ago. They also spend an inordinate amount of time taking extra batting practice. So why not work on fielding, too?

I guess it boils down to motivation. Even in my day, players were much more motivated to hit than to field. Batting is where the money is. 

Personally, I would rather practice fielding than lift weights. But these guys have some great-looking bodies. The reward of being fully buffed-out may be a tremendous motivator. Why else would these guys lift weights all the time? I really don’t think it helps them play better at all, and it could hurt their game in terms of flexibility and body control. And lifting weights is work. Hard work.

I mean, which would you rather do? Play a game of catch-and-throw, or bust a gut pumping iron?

I asked for suggestions, and I got a whole range of answers. Virdon thought two out of three days was reasonable. Cubby and Ash think we can take it every day, but that the everyday players can get someone to fill in for them when they are tired.

“Wednesday and Sunday wasn’t bad.” Bill said.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Let’s talk about preparation. Do we really need infield? I see the infielders taking ground balls and throwing during batting practice. The outfielders take fly balls. But do the outfielders throw?”

“They throw early when they play catch, but they don’t throw to bases except during infield.” Bill said.

“How can we get them some throws to the bases without taking infield?” I asked.

I looked around the room and saw only blank stares.

Finally, Cubby said, “You could bring them out early.”

“Would they prefer that to taking infield?” I asked, and I got more tilted heads and blank stares.   

I could tell that this was not a problem that would go away, or have an easy solution. And I know that I am going to have to set a policy soon. I have already given them tomorrow off, because it’s a day game after a night game.

Where do we go from here? I don’t know.

           

We played another good ballgame tonight, and we won it 6-2.

El Sid got an early wakeup call when Delino DeShields hit Sid’s second pitch into the seats for a home run. The Cardinals just aren’t having much luck these days, though. They hit Fernandez hard for three innings and only got two runs.

FRIDAY, APRIL 4 ● Houston, vs St. Louis

My vision started blurring about two years ago. I got some bifocals so I could see my scorecard and the scoreboard with clarity. I seldom used the glasses, except when I was broadcasting or watching a movie or a play.

I also have high-frequency hearing loss in both ears. I tried hearing aids, but they were more trouble than they were worth. It was like listening to a radio station that is not fully tuned in, then turning up the volume.

For the past two years, I have witnessed the world with blurred vision and wandered through the community of man asking people to repeat themselves. The first three games of the season came to me in soft focus.

When I finally decided that I wasn’t going to find my old glasses, I went to get some new ones. This time I brought Judy with me, because she didn’t like my last selection.

Ashley came to the game, and Judy watched on TV. Both commented favorably on my new specs. They may look good, but looking through them was startling. Everything looked so crisp that it was slightly disturbing.

 

Cardinals broadcaster and former third-baseman Mike Shannon came by my office and visited for half an hour. He was clearly amused by my attempt to change hats.

“You got a good team,” he said. “You’ll be fine. Hell, it ain’t rocket science.”

The game was a nail-biter: a 3-2, 11-inning victory. Tony La Russa did a lot of maneuvering, and so did I.

Tony’s coup came in the sixth inning when we loaded the bases with no outs. Lance Painter was summoned from the bullpen, and he retired Luis González on a short fly ball. Bill Spiers was due, but I thought Sean Berry would be a better choice. When Berry came up to pinch-hit, La Russa went back to the mound and brought righthander Russ Batchelor into the game. Berry got a couple of good swings, then bounced into a double play.

After that, it became a battle of the bullpens. Both teams had chances but couldn’t score, and we went into extra innings for the first time this season. I was especially proud of our guys, because they pitched through several errors without yielding a run.

In the eighth, I brought Ramón Garcia into a 2-2 game, despite the fact that Wagner was also ready.  Vern did a doubletake on that decision. The Cardinals had two righthanded hitters due, and I wanted Garcia to get into a game. It was a gutsy move, but it did not pay off.

Brian Jordan got a broken-bat hit to lead off the inning. With Garcia on the mound, he could steal second, so I went to Wagner and it worked out, but I sure hated to take Garcia out after a broken-bat hit. He probably feels that I don’t have much confidence in him. I do think he can pitch well-enough to help us, but this was an end-game assignment and we have him ticketed for long relief and spot-starting.

I ended up using both of my closers, and all other relief pitchers except Tom Martin. In the meantime, La Russa was expending bench players and saving Dennis Eckersley, hoping Eck would get a chance at the save.

We each used 18 of 21 available players, and we won on a bases-loaded hit by Bagwell in the 11th. I was relieved to get the hard-fought victory, but I was a little disturbed at the same time: Sean Berry is obviously not moving well. I fear the groin pull is more serious than we first thought.

And Pat Listach’s fielding problems continued. He really looked shaky, and I know we’re not going anywhere in the long run without better play on the left side of the infield.

 

Another concern with Listach is the nature of his hitting. Though he has been getting some hits, they have all been soft liners and choppers. The outfielders have taken to playing him so shallow that it would be hard for him to drive in a runner from second. As a result, several pitchers have wisely pitched around Biggio to get to Pat. If they don’t get him out, they are in trouble, because Bagwell is next. But they have been getting him out most of the time.

Jeff Bagwell makes a good leadoff man in the next inning, with his .450 on-base average, but that’s not exactly what we have in mind for him this year.

I find myself in about the same mood I was in after a week of spring-training games. We were winning, but I was concerned that we could not keep winning without better fielding. So far, our pitching has been good enough to overcome our defensive problems. But we can’t expect them to hold the line all year without better support. 

 

Another thing that bothered me today was our lack of running. The Cardinals had two pitchers who were so slow to the plate that it was an open invitation to steal.  The Cardinals’ catcher, Tom Lampkin, is only an average thrower. But when the game got into the seventh inning, we shut down their running game.

I continued to reinforce the green light, and Cubby passed it along. But the runners were afraid of getting caught. I am going to have to tell them before the game tonight that they will not be exiled to a distant bush league if they fail.

 

Both teams were tight tonight; I could feel it. In this sense, it was different from the Braves series, where both teams seemed to play with poise and confidence.

Cubby and I are going to look at the dirt cutouts around home plate and the bases. The players are saying that the dirt is so soft that they can’t get a quick start. I don’t know if this is just an excuse for not running, or a good reason not to run. We’ll find out.

One thing I have noticed over the years is that the cutouts are a problem in the Dome — especially for the home team. The seams between the turf and dirt are often uneven, and the dirt comes up in clumps.  As a result, our corner infielders play in close, to avoid bad hops. This gives them more confidence, but it limits their range. Visiting teams are not aware of the problem, so they play back and have more range.

This is what our players should do — bad hops or not. But it’s hard to make them play back. They just keep creeping in.

           

I got my VCR/TV today. It is packed in a crate that we will take on the road. After each game, I will watch it again from the centerfield camera angle. I imagine some of the coaches will join me. We should be able to pick up some information about how they are working our hitters and how we can work theirs. If we are lucky, we may pick up a sign or something in a pitcher’s delivery that will tell us what he is going to throw ahead of time. 

I am going to go to the park early tomorrow and see how long it takes to watch a game using fast-forward to zoom through the commercials.

El Sid is pitching for us tomorrow, and our bullpen is pretty-well spent. On the other side, Eckersley is ready, willing, and able. Looks like another stiff challenge in the offing.