RMJ 65 April 20

SUNDAY, APRIL 20 ● Los Angeles, vs Dodgers

Getting up was easy; the drive to Dodger Stadium, a breeze. Laura Lynn taxied me out there and gave me the update on her family. John’s art is selling as fast as he can produce it, and it is fetching higher prices. But the income, like the work, is sporadic — so she keeps teaching.

They have just about finished remodeling their house, but because John is doing the finish carpentry, it will take several more months to complete the job. Katie is 14 now and is clearly the brains of the family — not just theirs, but the whole extended family. She is already getting mail from many top-tier colleges on the basis of her PSAT score.

Ashley will be coming our way to visit with Ryan this summer. She is the athlete of the family, and is the most sensitive of the three girls.

It seems like just a few years ago that Lily was born on Christmas Eve, and we raced across LA in the middle of the night to get Laura to the hospital. But it has actually been ten years. She plays the piano and she sings like a bird.

There is a great deal of creative intelligence in that family, and a lot of happiness since John has overcome his midlife crisis.

           

I was ambivalent about putting Bagwell in the lineup today. On one hand, he is swinging the bat well now. But on the other, he is 0-14 off Ismael Valdéz.

I decided to go with the hot hand, and break the jinx. It didn’t work; Baggy went 0-3. But just about everyone had problems with the talented Dodgers righthander.

Valdéz is from Mexico, and although he has created less of a stir than Fernando Valenzuela, he is one of the best pitchers in the league. His instincts are great, and his control is superb. Luckily, he hung a curve ball to Biggio, and Craig hit it out to tie the score at 1.

Chris Holt pitched another impressive game. He did not have his best breaking stuff, but like Kile the night before, he had good movement on his fastball, and the Dodgers had trouble getting it into the air.

We don’t really have too many hot hitters right now. Luis Gonzalez is in a terrible slump; so are Pat Listach and Tony Eusebio.

Tony did a great job handling Holt today. They really kept the Dodgers off balance.

Our big break came in the bottom of the seventh, when Bill Russell pinch-hit for Valdéz. My guess is that Ismael was tired or sore, because he was not ineffective and he had not thrown many pitches.

In the top of the eighth, knuckleballer Tom Candiotti came into the game, with an ERA of 0.00 covering eight appearances and nine innings. We have always hit Candiotti well, however, and even though it can be frustrating trying to hit a knuckleball, it still gave us a psychological lift to have Valdéz retired from the game.

I had Tim Bogar playing third today, as he really needed some at-bats. He came through with a double in the eighth, and I pinch-hit with Spiers. Billy failed, but Biggio came through with another home run to give us a 3-1 lead.

When I brought Tom Martin into the game, I left Spiers in at third and moved Bogar to short. This paid a huge dividend.

Martin allowed a leadoff single to Butler, but then got Guerrero to hit a grounder to short. Bogar got the ball to Biggio so quickly that the double play was a cinch. Listach probably could have made the play, but I doubt it would have been so easy.

Getting two made it impossible for Raul Mondesi to tie the game with a home run. I was hoping he would make an out, so that Piazza would have to lead off the ninth inning. That’s exactly what happened. 

I brought John Hudek in to pitch the ninth, for two reasons: One, the Dodgers had righthanded hitters coming up; and two, I was anxious to get him off my back about the way he is being used.

Even before we went to spring training, I told him that he would have to share the closer’s role with Wagner, as long as both of them were throwing well. Wagner accepted this, and he hasn’t said a word about it. But Hudek comes to me about every other day, wanting me to clarify his role.

The part he doesn’t understand is the part that, in my way of thinking, is the biggest compliment to him. Maybe I need to find a different way to say it. The way I have put it in the past is

 

My goal for you this year is the same as the one you have stated. I want you to last the whole year. Both of us feel that you will help us win a lot of games if you just stay healthy. 

Because I am concerned about keeping you strong, I am going to limit your appearances and your innings. I will use Billy in the eighth, and let him finish. But unless we are in dire need, I will not let you pitch more than an inning in any game. I will also try not to use you more than two days in a row. 

Sometimes I will send Billy out for the ninth, and have you throwing lightly in the bullpen. The reason is that sometimes he gets a little wild, and I don’t want to let a win get away because he can’t throw a strike. I know you can throw strikes anytime, anywhere. I also have confidence that you can strike a batter out. This is why I will try to save you as a last line of defense. 

Everyone has a bad day, and if I sense he is having one, I will bring you in to save him.

 

For some reason, he continues to take this as an insult. The way he sees it, Billy gets all the chances for saves, while he has to throw, but doesn’t get to pitch. This has been the case so far; Billy has been just about perfect. But the day will come when John is needed to pick Billy up. Maybe when this happens, he will finally understand.

In this game, I made it a point to get Billy throwing so that John would see that the roles were reversed. This will not become a habit unless Billy has a slump. But it is the only way I know of to make John feel that I have confidence in him.

Oddly enough, John has been a little wild this year — even a little wilder than Billy, though it has not been a big problem with either one of them.

Leading off the inning, Mike Piazza hit a two-strike fastball so hard that I thought it might disembowel Bogar. But Bogie stayed with it and got the out.

I have my doubts as to whether Pat could have made the play.

Hudek walked Eric Karros and then retired Todd Hollandsworth and Todd Zeile to register his third save.

It was a great feeling to run the gauntlet again. Two out of three against the Dodgers’ best three pitchers, in their own ballpark, is a sign of mental toughness and physical consistency.

It occurred to me that I had already won more games here as a manager than I did as a pitcher.

           

We took a bus to San Diego and watched Presumed Innocent on the way. The movie had a surprise ending just as we pulled into the Hyatt Marina Hotel. I was glad to have had only one surprise today.

I called Judy and found that everything was well at home. Jan Cubbage had become a good companion. She likes to bring Chief over to run in the yard and swim in the lake with Vesta and Babe. And she has been going to church with Judy and Ryan.

I thought I would show Vern my appreciation for the great job he has been doing with the pitchers by taking him out to dinner. We had Mexican food several times in Kissimmee, so I took him to a Mexican restaurant I like here in San Diego. This is where The Perfessor got his second surprise ending of the day.

He inadvertently ordered one of the dishes labeled hot-and-spicy, and it was hot-and-spicy enough to make him break out in a sweat. I didn’t know if he was just sensitive to hot peppers, so I offered to share half of my meal with him in exchange for half of his. I soon found out that his shrimp enchilada was fiery enough to curl the mustache of Pancho Villa.

We went through almost two pitchers of water, and we left wondering if we would be able to sleep.

I guess we used more pitchers than we wanted today.