RMJ 92 May 17

SATURDAY, MAY 17 ● Philadelphia, vs Phillies

I didn’t get around to the meeting today, because the players were wrapped up in the Preakness.

Dennis Liborio won the second leg of the Triple Crown. After picking Silver Charm out of a hat for the Kentucky Derby, he was given last pick — and guess what? He got Silver Charm again. I have to admit I was watching the Rockets play Game Seven with the SuperSonics at the time.

I don’t think it was all that important to talk about the hit-and-run today anyway. It’s hard to hit-and-run against Curt Schilling. He’s leading the league in strikeouts, which makes it difficult to run in anticipation of contact. We did run once on a 3-1 count to a good contact hitter, Tony Eusebio. Tony swung and missed, and Billy Spiers was thrown out.

Perhaps we will have our meeting tomorrow. Perhaps we will hit tomorrow too.  We only got two hits off Schilling, and one off closer Ricky Bottalico. They beat us 4-2.

The Phils may have a bad team, but with those two pitchers, they can beat anyone. Two runs is enough to win with Shane Reynolds on some days; not enough when he is scuffling, as he was tonight.

I gave Shane an additional handicap tonight, without knowing it. He had thrown to Brad Ausmus in each of his previous starts, and I didn’t realize that when I put Tony Eusebio in the lineup.

About twenty minutes before game time, Shane asked me if Brad had trouble hitting Schilling.

“He’s 0-for-8,” I said. “I think he could hit him, but I think Tony can too. Why do you ask? Do you prefer pitching to Brad?”

“Well, I’ve pitched to him every time so far,” he said.

“I’ll keep that in mind in the future,” I said.

This would probably make most managers mad. I know Grady Hatton got mad at me one time when I asked him why John Bateman wasn’t catching. I liked pitching to John, and it was important to me — which made it important, in my mind, to the team. A good pitcher-catcher combination can win a game for you, even if the catcher doesn’t get a hit.

I will, indeed, keep this in mind — but I didn’t want to pull Tony at the last minute. What if Brad gets hurt? Then Shane will have to pitch to Tony. I know he pitched to Tony a lot last year, when he won 16 games. And he pitched pretty well tonight too, but he looked uncomfortable doing it.

Billy Spiers pulled a groin muscle tonight, and Sean Berry is just about over the flu. Seems like every time someone gets well, someone else gets hurt. That’s why bench players are so important in the long campaign. They end up playing a lot — especially in the National League.

I had to make a double-switch tonight, and Bill came out to make sure I got it right. I was having a little trouble figuring it out, and I am still upset with my progress on this fundamental procedure.

I believe I am still in good shape in the most-critical area of managing: keeping all the players ready, willing, and able. But it is also important for me to make the moves quickly and efficiently, to demonstrate my capability.

It’s not that I have messed up too badly; it’s just that I feel I should be more fluent by now. I am going to devise a way to practice this procedure, and work on it away from the ballpark.

 

By the way, the Rockets won, which may be more important than us winning. Gerry and I were talking about it as they closed in on the victory.

“I don’t know whether I should pull for them or against them,” I said, “but I’m a fan and I hope they win.”

“I think it’s good for the city if they win,” he said, once more demonstrating a real grasp of the big picture.

The Rockets will surely take attention away from us, as long as they are in the playoffs. But they will also draw a lot of attention to the sporting scene.

I don’t buy the logic that there is a finite entertainment dollar, and that we are competing with them for our share. I believe that if people are revved up about sports, more dollars will come their way now, and will come our way later — if we win.

We may be competing for our share of the pie; but if we all win, the pie will get bigger.