RMJ 55 April 10

THURSDAY, APRIL 10 ● Atlanta, vs Braves

When I woke up this morning, I was a little concerned about tonight’s game with the Braves.

We have a rookie, Chris Holt, making his first start on the road; and the Braves are sending last year’s Cy Young Award winner, John Smoltz, to the mound. It is not critical that we win, but it is important that we establish ourselves on the road during this trip.

If we don’t win tonight, we will have to do it in St. Louis. The Cardinals are pretty banged-up right now, so it is a good time to play them; but the weather is terrible throughout the Midwest, which could be an equalizer.

I think our opening homestand went a long way toward the feeling of home superiority that you need to win a championship. You also need to play .500 ball on the road.

           

I didn’t have too much time to worry about these things; I was scheduled to appear at Planet Hollywood in downtown Atlanta for the taping of a sports show. I was accompanied by Rob Matwick; two of our announcers, Bill Brown and Vince Cotroneo; and several of Bill’s friends.

As we approached the building, we saw a banner that read

 

Welcome Houston Astros Manager Larry Dierker

 

The celebrity status afforded major-league managers continues to amaze me.

Planet Hollywood was jammed, but they had a table up front reserved for them and a stool for me. I was right in the middle of the room, where diners could stare at me from all angles. This would probably be somewhat intimidating to most big-league skippers, but it was old hat to me.

My experience in broadcasting does help in this job from time to time. I still feel better with a microphone than with a lineup card, but the dugout business is getting more comfortable every day.

The show only took about half an hour to tape. I said my goodbyes to the entourage and headed back to the hotel to pack, and to finish writing yesterday’s notes.

One thing I don’t have to worry about is eating. The clubhouses of the league are like short-order restaurants these days. This can be a real timesaver.

           

The first thing I did when I arrived at the clubhouse was to put an asterisk by the “infield” portion of our daily schedule. Then I changed into my uniform and had a chew.

I have found it more difficult than I expected to stop chewing before the game, and it’s sort of perplexing. I didn’t chew when I played, and I seldom chew during the offseason. But there is something about the pregame workouts that gets to me. It may be that I don’t have anything to do but watch. I am hoping to put an end to this soon.

Today I brought a couple of cigars to the park, and I smoked half of one after batting practice.

Infield came off without a problem. Biggio, Bagwell, and Bell skipped it; the rest of the guys took it. What it amounts to is two sets of rules: one for the stars and one for everyone else.

A lot of managers pay lip service to fair-and-equal treatment, but seldom pull it off. I’m not sure it’s worth much to even pretend. I think the players realize it’s going to be that way from the beginning.

In a way, it may offer a small incentive to the journeyman-type player. He has to know that he, too, will be patronized if he has a great year.

           

After infield, I talked with Vern and Gerry. Seems Sid is feeling shooting pains in his arm, and he may not be able to make the call on Saturday. If that happens, we will have to bring Mike Hampton and Darryl Kile back on three days’ rest.

I don’t think this will be a problem, because neither of them labored in their last start. Still, it is mildly disturbing that we have to keep a “Sid vigil” at all times. It would be easier to just call up Donne Wall and be done with it. But Sid can be extremely effective when he is healthy, so we will ride along with him a little longer.

           

Chris Holt was a little shaky in the first inning, but he managed to retire the side in order, partly because Brad Ausmus threw Kenny Lofton out stealing for the third time in the six games we have played with Atlanta. Most of the time, teams will be hesitant to run on him.

In the second inning, Bill Spiers connected with a 3-2 pitch and hit a two-run homer. Our comfort zone was invaded immediately when Fred McGriff hit a solo shot in the second.

The Braves turned up the heat in the third, with four base hits. Fortunately, one was an infield hit, and Bobby Abreu threw out Chipper Jones at the plate. The Braves only managed one run out of all that hitting.

In the fifth, Craig Biggio grounded to second to go 0-for-3 with a strikeout. He went ballistic in the dugout, and I was mildly amused. I call Bidge “Happy” because he always has to have something to complain about. Tonight, he graduated from Happy to Ecstatic.

Later in the inning, Jeff Bagwell hit a towering home run to center field. It was his first of the year, and it could not have come at a better time.

When Holt came into the dugout after the sixth inning, he went down to the end of the bench and put his jacket on. I walked down there and asked him, “Are you finished?”

He looked at me with a puzzled expression, and I said, “You’re the hitter if you can still pitch.” It was a serious statement on my part, because Holt had survived numerous rallies and still had a 3-2 lead. He immediately took off his jacket and headed for the bat rack. I followed him, and while he was selecting his weapon I said, “Look, you’ve thrown a lot of pitches and done a good job. If you’ve had it, that’s fine. We’ll get someone ready to take it from here.”

“No, I feel strong,” he said. “I don’t have any problem going back out there.”

“Okay,” I said. “We’ll send your jacket out when you get on base.” This was meant for comic relief, as Chris has a rather feeble batting stroke. He didn’t catch the humor, however, as he was lost in the game. He just nodded and went up to strike out.

Biggio grounded out again, but then Ausmus walked, stole second, and moved up to third on the overthrow.  Bagwell followed with a triple and scored on a wild pitch by Alan Embree. Now we had them 5-2, and they had three more chances to make their comeback.

Holt was, indeed, strong in the seventh. He got two quick outs, then Michael Tucker got an infield hit. With two strikes on Chipper Jones, Holt threw a curveball that looked like strike three but was called ball two. Given a reprieve, Jones swung late on a fastball but sliced it deftly down the left field line for an RBI double. Holt retired McGriff to complete a gutty performance. His line was

7IP 13H 3R 0BB 3K

Not bad for a rookie on the road against the best team in the league.

We failed to score in the seventh, but Bagwell hit a double in that frame. Now he only needed a single to hit for the cycle. I doubt anyone in the dugout was aware of that, but coming from the broadcast side, it hit me immediately.

Ramón Garcia pitched a scoreless eighth, and in the top of the ninth, Bagwell was on deck when Ausmus hit into an inning-ending double play.

I wanted Jeff to get that cycle. In fact, when Bill asked me if I wanted to steal with Montgomery, I said “no.” I was afraid he would get thrown out, and Bagwell wouldn’t get to hit. So much for strategic planning.

The Hudek card played well, however. John survived a nervous ninth inning to record his first save of the year.

 

It was a great win for the team — a win that had many implications:

• The Braves had won their first five games at Turner Field
• It was our first road win. I certainly didn’t want to get stigmatized as a weak road team
• It was a confidence-builder for Holt, Garcia, and Hudek
• It was the first evidence of the old Jeff Bagwell.

For me, the game had added significance with regard to Biggio. It seemed like he got mad when he struck out to open the game, and he stayed that way throughout.

In the Braves’ half of the third, Craig positioned himself up the middle for Michael Tucker with a man on first and Bagwell holding. This left a gaping hole on the right side of the infield. I have talked to him about not cheating for the double play in this situation, but old habits die hard.

Tucker singled to right. If Bidge had been playing straight up, he would have turned the grounder into a force play, at the very least.

Later in the same inning, in the same situation, he played in the same place for Ryan Klesko. Klesko pulled the ball through the hole, and now I was mad. But I also realized that Biggio was not in the most receptive mood at that moment.

A couple of innings later, the same situation came up. Cubby motioned for him to move over, and he moved about 10 feet to the right. The ball was hit right to him for a double play.

I will talk to him about this again tomorrow. And I’ll let him look at the situation from a hitter’s eyes, which will be easy for him; and also through a pitcher’s eyes, which may take some imagination on his part.

The pitcher’s perspective is this: With a man on first, you want the double play. It is much easier to get a ground ball on the “pull” side of the infield, because a hitter’s bat turns over, and slightly upward, at the end of the swing. Most ground balls go to the pull side; ground balls to the opposite field are uncommon. As a pitcher, I tried to get the hitter to do what he often does anyway: pull the ball on the ground.

But it’s a lefthanded hitter and the first-baseman is holding the runner while the second baseman is cheating up the middle, a pitcher doesn’t know what to do. If Biggio were the hitter and saw a hole like that, I know what he would try to do. That’s how I am going to pose the problem to him.

The other way to look at it is the case where the second-baseman is playing straight up, and the ball is hit on the ground to third or short. In this case it will often take the second-baseman so long to get to the bag that he cannot complete the twin-killing.

The downside, then, is a force at second. The downside of the other scenario is a single to right, with the runner at first advancing to third. There is nothing debatable about it: the second-baseman has to play it straight in that situation.

When it’s a righthanded hitter with a runner at first, it is not the same, because the third-baseman can play off the line to help close the hole for the shortstop,

 

Anyway, Biggio was double-mad now. Not only was he having a miserable day at the plate, he was also being told where to play. But there is one thing about Bidge that is constant: his desire to win.

When we got back to the clubhouse after the game, I relit my stogie. Then I took the other one over to his locker, like a peace pipe. “Here you go, Bidge,” I said. “Light this up and sit back and relax. Tomorrow’s another day.”

A broad smile lit his boyish face. 

“I’m all right now, skip,” he said. “We won the game. Who cares if I can’t swing the bat?”

Bidge lit the cigar, and I returned to my office to meet the press. I can already tell that I will be a lot more quotable when we win.