RMJ 71 April 26

It is a tough assignment to manage a night game, meet the press, and return home to record a journal entry, in time to sleep for a day game. Normally I would save the writing for Sunday night.

I guess it is time to admit that I have not faithfully kept a daily schedule with my word-processor. I have not been untrue by more than three days, however, and that was during Ashley’s wedding.

Tonight, I have no problem. The game took a little more than two hours to play, and there wasn’t much to say afterward. I was home by 10:30.

Now for the telling:

           

I slept late and spent most of the day eating, writing, and eating again while the Rockets were playing the Timberwolves. The Rockets won by two, and we lost by two. Cubby came by at 2:30 and we were at the park by 3:00.

There was no hitting on the field, because there was a kids’ clinic in the outfield. We hit in the cages, so there was really nothing for me to do but to sit around and wait after I filled out the lineup card. 

We had a little meeting with most of the people who will be hitting first, second, and eighth, plus the starting pitchers. What we are going to try to do is steal second instead of sacrificing. It is a play that Alan Ashby learned from the Pirates — the hard way:

Tim Foli would square around to bunt with Omar Moreno on first. When Moreno took off to steal a base, Foli would drag back the barrel of the bat, just higher than the ball as it approached the catcher.

Ashby says it was hard just to catch the ball when the hitter was doing a fake bunt, and he had no chance to throw Moreno out.

“Nothing, other than the knuckleball, bothered me so much. Ashby said. “If the hitter does it like Foli, it really messes you up.”

When the guys heard Ash talking about it, they were all ears. This is a good time to present new ideas, I think. There is a real collective spirit at this juncture. Even Biggio, who is somewhat steeped in the old school, seemed intrigued by it.

I wasn’t too surprised by Biggio, really. I mean, anyone who will let a pitch hit him just to get on base has to have a do-anything-to-win attitude. Biggio was hit 27 times last year.

We didn’t get to try the play tonight, however. Sean Estes made sure of that. He twirled a nifty two-hitter, with nine strikeouts. He allowed only three baserunners. And it was no accident.

I’ve seen a lot of guys beat the Astros the first time around. I saw Jimmy Jones pitch a one-hit shutout here in his first big-league start. But I predict that this kid will do more than Jones before he is through. More than most pitchers, would be my guess.

Chris Holt pitched an admirable game for us. The difference in the game was a line drive off the bat of Bill Mueller that Derek Bell dove for, got a glove on, but could not hold. Had he held it, the score would have been 0-0 after nine. As it was, we lost 2-0.

What a game.

When Estes came out for his warmup pitches in the first inning, Vern said, “If we get a chance to get this kid, we should go for it. I’ve seen him a few times, and I like him.”

I kept at Vern throughout the game. “Oh, he throws good, you say. You jinxed us. With the game this kid is pitching, we’d have to give them Bagwell to make the deal. Nice going, Perfessor.”

When it was over, the only thing to do was tip your hat to Estes. With high-speed sinkers and cutters, a sharp overhand curve, and a nifty changeup, he dazzled us. Pat Listach beat a play at first by an eyelash because Estes was late covering; that was our only hit until Tony Eusebio hit a clean single to right in the eighth. He stuck out Bagwell with a fastball to end it.

 

I greeted the media by saying, “This shouldn’t take long.” But it did take a while anyway. Not long to talk about Estes; he was great, give him his due.

But one writer wanted to know about our problems with lefthanded pitchers. I had to laugh.

“What problem with lefthanded pitchers? This kid would have shut anybody out tonight. Have we faced many lefthanders yet this year? No. Is there a carryover from last year? No. Half the team is new. How could there be?”

I surprised myself by being so abrupt. But this story was about one kid; that’s the whole story.

One writer started asking me about Eusebio: “Since he was the only one to get a clean hit off Estes, will that give him confidence to come out of his slump?”

I know that some of these folks already have their columns written, and they just want to add a quote here and there. If I don’t say what they want me to say, it becomes inconvenient. I’ve been there as a writer. You think someone is going to say something that will support what you have already written, and you can’t get them to say it. You keep going for the quote you need, or even something close. I don’t blame them. But I also want to be honest.

“I never knew Tony was in a slump. He hasn’t been up enough to have a slump this year. I think Tony Eusebio is going to get a hit every time he goes up there. He’s a good hitter. One hit is not going to make him or break him.

“This game was about Sean Estes. The kid pitched a helluva ballgame.”

 

Driving home, I listened to the postgame talk show. Got some people jumping ship and second-guessing already. That’s OK; just keep those calls a-comin’.

We’ll be back out there tomorrow afternoon. I can’t wait.

But the one thing that gets me, as I conclude this segment at 12:30 a.m., is that I could once pitch like Estes did tonight. I can remember some of the more-dominating performances. What a feeling! Nothing like it, except maybe a championship.

I wouldn’t know anything about that.