Giants Bid Adieu to Shockey

Hey Jeremy Shockey, here’s a news flash. The Giants can win without you.

Jeremy Shockey is at it again. You’d think this loudmouth would have taken a slice of humble pie after breaking his leg and watching the Giants march to the Super Bowl without him. But nooooo….

Shockey is a talented football player. The former number one draft pick (14th overall) out of the University of Miami in 2002, is a four-time Pro Bowler. But he’s no team player, never has been, never will be.

He actually came to Giants mini-camp this year (a shock in itself) but did not come on to the practice field on the first day of the mandatory, three-day camp. The Giants had eight other injured players unable to practice in the morning and five others in the afternoon, but all of them were out on the side of field working. All except Shockey.

Throughout his six-year career, Shockey has caught 27 touchdown passes, but he is better known for his hands of stone. He’s had plenty of big drops, perhaps none more critical than the sure TD he dropped in San Francisco in the 2002 playoffs, the turning point in a dramatic 49ers comeback win.

Contrast that with rookie Kevin Boss, who made a key catch and run to help spark the Giants fourth-quarter comeback against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXII.

Don’t get me wrong, the Giants need the enthusiasm Shockey brings to the game. But they could do without the baggage, the arm-waving at Eli Manning, the stupid penalties, the big drops.

It’s tough enough winning a Super Bowl, let alone trying to repeat. The Giants don’t need these kind of distractions. They’ve already proven they can win without Jeremy Shockey.

They should have trade him to New Orleans when they had the opportunity a few months ago.

It’s not too late. Get rid of the bum.

Yankee Numbers Don’t Add Up

Entering the second half of the season, the numbers don’t add up for the New York Yankees. At the All-Star break, the Yankees were mired in third place, trailing both the Red Sox and the Devil Rays in the AL East..

And it doesn’t get any easier. Consider these numbers:

67: Games remaining for Yankees after All-Star break (considerably less  than half)

43: Of the Yankees remaining 67 games are against teams currently above .500

7: Of the Yankees next 8 series are against teams currently above .500

10: Games remaining against traditional nemesis Angels

7: Yankees on opening day roster currently on the disabled list.

0: Number of wins by Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy (and Carl Pavano too

.713: Yankees OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) with RISP (runners in scoring position)

26: Yankee rank in the above category out of 30 teams

.238: Alex Rodriguez batting average with runners-in-scoring-position

32: Of the Yankees final 51 games are away from Yankee Stadium

4.59: Runs per game Yankees are averaging in 2008

5.98: Runs per game Yankees averaged in 2007

1993: Last year the Yankees failed to make the playoffs

Say Hey Kid: Willie Mays Is The Greatest

Several years ago, my son, who is as big a baseball fan as I am, asked me who was the greatest ballplayer I ever saw….in person?

Willie Mays I replied without hesitation. It wasn’t even close.

Saw Williams and Musial, Mantle and Aaron, Ripken and Gwynn, and Bonds too.

Willie Mays, the Say Hey Kid, was the best.

As a kid in 1962, I saw Mays hit a grand slam at Candlestick Park against the Cubs. Later on, I saw him against the Mets at Shea Stadium.

And in 1972, I saw Mays, then with the Mets, and Henry Aaron at Shea. They both went hitless and wound up the evening still tied at 648 home runs apiece, trailing another pretty famous ballplayer name of Babe Ruth at that point in time.

Willie Mays would go on to hit 660 home runs, behind only his godson Barry Bonds, Aaron and Ruth. A four-time National League home run champion, Willie once hit four home runs in a single game, against the Braves in 1961. Not even Ruth, Aaron or Bonds ever did that.

He was Rookie of the Year in 1951 with the New York Giants, MVP in 1954 and 1965. He led the NL in stolen bases four times, and in triples three times. He won the batting title in 1954 with a .345 average, and finished .302 lifetime with 3,283 hits.

“I would love,” comedian and Giants fan Rob Schneider told Sports Illustrated recently, “to be the Willie Mays of anything.”

And he was equally as brilliant as a fielder. Mays won 12 straight Gold Gloves, and is perhaps best known for the most famous catch in baseball history, against Vic Wertz and the Cleveland Indians in deepest center field in the Polo Grounds, a catch that turned the 1954 World Series.

‘Where Triples Go to Die’
“Willie Mays and his glove,” Dodgers executive Fresco Thompson once said. “Where triples go to die.”

Two years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Willie Mays on a flight from San Francisco to JFK. We didn’t talk during the flight, but when we got on the ground in New York I caught up with Willie and we walked together to baggage claim.

I told him about the conversation with my son. He smiled, and asked me which team I rooted for. I told him I was a Yankee fan.

“Well, why aren’t you a Mickey Mantle guy?” Willie asked.

“I loved Mickey, but I always thought you were the best,” I replied. “You were a better center fielder, and you hit more home runs. And you were faster than Mickey,”

“Not always,” said Willie. “”When Mickey came up, he was faster than any of us.”

Willie, Mickey and Joltin’ Joe
The discussion then turned to the 1951 World Series between the Giants and Yankees, and Willie asked me if I remembered the play where Mantle got hurt.

“I was still in the cradle when they played that World Series,” I said.

But I do remember reading about the play, shown above, how Joe DiMaggio called off Mickey for the ball at Yankee Stadium, and how Mantle stopped short, got his foot caught in a drainage cover and tore up his knee.

“Do you know who hit the ball?” said Willie. He quickly added. “I did.”

Think of the convergence of great center-fielders on that one play — Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle (who was playing right tfield hat day) and Willie Mays.

That one play epitomized three Hall of Fame careers. Mantle, the legendary but oft-injured slugger. DiMaggio, the one-time greatest living ballplayer. Mays, the current greatest living ballplayer.

Say Hey!

IBM Hits a Home Run

IBM hit a home run this week with a stellar second quarter earnings report.

And major league baseball hit a home run of its own with the announcement that it will be using WebSphere Portal software from IBM to improve the authentication process for memorable home runs.

Just imagine if that technology had been in place for some of MLB’s most famous home runs, such as Babe Ruth’s 60th in 1927, Roger Maris’ 61st in 1961 or Bill Mazeroski’s home run that beat the mighty Yankees in the 1960 World Series.

No truth to the rumor that IBM now stands for International Baseball Machines.

Baseball Stars Shine Brightest

The NFL Pro Bowl is an afterthought, the NHL All-Star Game a scoring orgy (is scorgy a word?), the NBA All-Star Game an in-your-face slamfest.

This year’s All-Star game proved once again — with authority — that baseball is still America’s pastime. There’s something about the good pitching vs. good hitting confrontation that works in the all-star format

It’s supposed to be an exhibition game. But try telling that to the players who battled through 15 innings and nearly five hours of dramatic baseball at Yankee Stadium. The American League finally prevailed, 4-3, ensuring yet another year of home field advantage in the World Series.

“It was a great day,” said Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, “besides the fact that the game took forever. But it was fun.”

“I just know I looked up and it said 1:40 in the morning, and it was the 15th inning,” said Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, who scored the winning run — just barely. “I never ever expected to come here and experience that.”

Consider the baseball ties that bind generations. The game was played in “The House That Ruth Built.” In 1933, Babe Ruth hit the first home run in an All-Star game during the inaugural mid-summer classic.. Like the Babe, Mickey Mantle hit some of the longest home runs ever in Yankee Stadium. And Josh Hamilton wowed fans in the Home Run Derby, reaching places in the venerable old stadium where only Ruth and Mantle dared go before.

And so it goes….

The SportsLifer Top 10

It was a tough call, but in the end Bucky Dent won out. The SportsLifer’s top 50 memorable sports events attended came down to a pair of decisive baseball games between the Red Sox and Yankees 25 years apart.

Bucky Dent’s decisive three-run homer against the Red Sox in the 1978 American League East playoff game at Fenway Park in Boston got the nod. The Dent game edged out Aaron Boone’s walk-off home run in the 11th inning of the 2003 American League Championship Series contest at Yankee Stadium.

The tiebreaker — the Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1978 to win the World Series. The 2003 Yankees lost to the World Series to the Florida Marlins.

Other top 10 entrants include a Stanley Cup final, World Series clincher, Super Bowl, Triple Crown horse race, NCAA basketball Final Four and Winter Olympics. Counting a major golf tournament, the ‘Lifer has seen all the major championship sporting events, with the exception of the NBA Finals.

Here’s the final countdown.

TOP 10 SPORTING EVENTS

10. Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Ted Williams homer in the same game, Yankees beat Red Sox 5-4, 1960

9. Figure skating, speed skating, the men’s long ski jump and snowmobiling, Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, 2002

8. Florida repeats as national champion with win over Ohio State, Final Four, NCAA Tournament, Atlanta, 2007

7. Affirmed edges Alydar down the stretch, wins by a neck and captures horse racing’s last Triple Crown, Belmont Stakes, 1978

6. David Wells pitches the first perfect game at Yankee Stadium since Don Larsen, Yankees beat Twins 4-0, 1998

5. Ravens defense overwhelms Giants, Baltimore defeats News York 34-7 and wins Super Bowl XXXV, 2001

4. Yankees beat Braves 4-1, complete four-game sweep of Atlanta to win World Series, Yankee Stadium,1999

3. Rangers end 54-year hex, Mark Messier scores game-winnng goal to beat Vancouver Canucks 3-2 and win Stanley Cup, 1994

2. Aaron Boone’s walk-off home run in 11th beats Red Sox 6-5, gives Yankees 39th AL pennant, Yankee Stadium, 2003

1. Bucky Dent ’s three-run homer propels Yankees to 5-4 win over Red Sox and AL East title, Fenway Park, 1978

Special Category

My first major league game features six Hall of Famers, White Sox 7, Yankees 1, Yankee Stadium 1958

First installment: 41-50. includes the St. Louis Hawks, Holy Cross, and a Ranger rout.

Second installment: 31-40. stars Lew Alcindor, The Mick, and the Boston Marathon.

Third installment: (21-30), recalls the play of Willie Mays, Joe Namath and Lawrence Taylor and others.

Fourth installment, (11-20). includes record-setting moments by Barry Bonds, Jim Hickman, Roger Clemens and Eric Young.

Bobby Murcer: A Yankee for Life

Former Yankees outfielder and broadcaster Bobby Murcer lost his gallant battle with brain cancer yesterday and passed away at the age of 62.

When he first arrived with the Yankees in 1965, Murcer was billed as the next Mickey Mantle. And although he never achieved that lofty status, Bobby Murcer along with Thurman Munson was the heart of the Yankees in the late 60s and early 70s.

Murcer was a solid, dependable ballplayer, a five-time All-Star, and later a Yankee broadcaster who brought his knowledge of the game and sense of humor — spiced with a distinct Oklahoma twang — to millions of Yankee fans.

I never did get to meet Bobby in person, but I’ve written about him several times in my SportsLifer blog recently. Perhaps most poignant and fitting today is the reflective piece I wrote about Murcer’s eulogy at Munson’s funeral in 1979, where he used the words of my great uncle, Angelo Patri.

Uncle Angelo’s words seem so appropriate for Bobby Murcer’s own passing. Below is an except from that March 8 blog, A Tale of Munson, Murcer, and Uncle Angelo.

I think I can speak for all Yankee fans today. You were a good man Bobby Murcer. We will miss you and we’ll never forget you.

A Tale of Munson, Murcer and Uncle Angelo

Published March 8, 2008

When Yankee captain Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash in 1979, the entire Yankee team flew to Canton, Ohio, for the funeral on August 6. Two of Munson’s teammates delivered eulogies at the funeral, Lou Piniella and Bobby Murcer.

During his eulogy, Murcer quoted my great uncle, Angelo Patri, the famed progressive educator, writer and philosopher.

Murcer sobbed as he read: “The life of a soul on earth lasts longer than his departure. He lives on in your life and the life of all others who knew him.”

The words are from Uncle Angelo’s syndicated column, Our Children, and were written in 1928.

“In one sense there is no death,
The life of the soul on earth lasts beyond his departure.
You will always feel that life touching yours
That voice speaking to you — that spirit looking out of other eyes,
talking to you in the familiar things he touched…
Worked with…loved as familiar friends.
He lives on in your life
And in the lives of all others that knew him.”

Following Munson’s funeral, the Yankees returned to Bronx, where Uncle Angelo had become the first Italian-born American to become a school principal in 1907. That night the Yankees faced the Baltimore Orioles in a nationally televised game. Yankee manager Billy Martin wanted to give the emotionally drained Murcer the night off, but Bobby insisted on playing. Murcer single-handedly brought the Yankees back from a 4-0 deficit with a three-run homer in the seventh and a two-run single to win the game, 5-4, in the bottom of the ninth.

Murcer never used the bat from the game again and gave it to Munson’s widow, Diana.

Mel Stottlemyre and the Inside-the-Park Grand Slam

Some of the old timers out there might remember when Mel Stottlemyre hit an inside-the-park grand slam against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

The date was July 20, 1965, and I recall listening to the call on the radio on the beach in Spring Lake, New Jersey. The grand slam, which came in the fifth inning, helped the Yankees to a 6-3 win over Boston that day as Stottlemyre recovered from his race around the bases to hurl a complete game.

“I remember a lot about it,” Stottlemyre said. “It was in the [Yankee] stadium, the ball was hit to left-center field, against Boston, a real hot day in July. The pitcher was Bill Monbouquette. Those things you don’t forget.”

What I did not realize until recently was exactly how rare an inside-the-park grand slam really is. For instance, Stottlemyre become the first pitcher to hit an inside-the-park grand slam since Deacon Phillippe did it for the Pirates in 1910. No pitcher has done it since.

Inside-the-park home runs were much more common in the first half of the century, when ballparks were bigger and there was less emphasis on hitting the ball over the fence. There have been 40 inside-the-park grand slams since 1950, eight since 1990, and none since October 3, 1999 when Randy Winn of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays hit one.

Some other interesting factoids:

• Roberto Clemente, one of the greatest outfielders in Baseball history, is also the only player in baseball history to have hit a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam
• Jimmy Sheckard completed a phenomenal feat in 1901, hitting inside-the-park grand slams in consecutive games on consecutive days with the Brooklyn Superbas (later the Brooklyn Dodgers).Sheckard is the only person in baseball history to accomplish that feat.
• Sheckhard’s teammate, Joe Kelly, also hit one in the first game of Sheckhard’s tandem.
• Hall of Fame shortstop Honus Wagner had five inside-the-park grand slams in his storied career, the most in baseball history.
• Tony Gwynn, Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson are also on the list. Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. are not.

The Moose, The Hall And The 100 Plus Club

FACT: No major league pitcher at least 100 games over .500 in his career has ever failed to make the Hall of Fame.

All 18 eligible starters who fit this profile are in — including six who pitched the majority of their careers in the 19th Century. There are a dozen 300-game winners on the list.

The 100 Plus Club list is dotted with the usual suspects — Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Pete Alexander, Warren Spahn, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer and Bob Feller, just to name a few. Young is the only pitcher close to 200 plus in the won-loss category: he finished his career with a record 511 wins and 316 losses.

Whitey Ford has the best overall winning percentage amongst members of the elite club — 236-106 for .690. Lefty Grove is right behind at .680 (300-141), followed by 19th Century hurler John Clarkson at .649 (327-177).

No Koufax, Ryan, Gibson

Then there are those who didn’t make it, immortals like Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson, Dizzy Dean, Carl Hubbell and Rube Waddell.

The 100 Plus Club is due to get some company soon. Recently retired enigma Roger Clemens has a 354-184 record, a .658 winning percentage. He also has a steroid-tarnished resume which may or may not hinder his Hall of Fame chances. Then again, his seven Cy Youngs can only help his cause.

There are five active pitchers with 100 plus stat lines. Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux are 300-game winners, and Randy Johnson is just 11 wins away, at 289. Pedro Martinez is 212-95, a point ahead of Ford’s .690 all-time winning percentage.

All four are pretty much considered to be Hall of Fame locks, with 14 Cy Young awards amongst them (Johnson 5, Maddux 4, Martinez 3 and Glavine 2).

And then there’s Mike Mussina, shown above, a man whose career has been full of almosts and near-misses. Mussina has never won a Cy Young award. He has never won 20 games in a single season, never won an ERA or strikeout title, never won a World Series.

Close Calls

Mussina came to the Yankees the year after they won four World Series in five years. He came within one strike of pitching a perfect game against the Red Sox in Fenway Park in 2001. He’s always left at the altar.

The Moose has won 19 games twice and 18 twice. He’s had 17 straight years of 10 or more wins, an American League record. He’s had only two losing seasons in 18 years.

Overall Mussina is 261-150, a .639 winning percentage. But is that good enough?

Hall of Fame candidates are typically voted in for reaching certain milestones, like 300 wins, 3,000 hits, or 500 home runs. Perhaps consistency should count for something as well.

Only time will tell.

The SportsLifer Top 50 Countdown (11-20)

The SportsLifer countdown of momentous events attended continues this week with the fourth installment, numbers 11-20. Baseball dominates the top 50 more than any other sport, and this segment includes record-setting moments by Barry Bonds, Jim Hickman, Roger Clemens and Eric Young.

We’ll conclude next week with the SportsLifer Top Ten. Don’t miss it.

And readers, it would be great to hear your own lists.

20. Yankees hit 8 home runs to equal team record for one game, beat White Sox 16-3, Yankee Stadium, 2007

19. Yankees and Tigers play to 3-3, 19-inning tie, second game of twi-night doubleheader, 1968

18. Rockies outscore Dodgers 16-15, 10 home runs, Eric Young steals 6 bases, Coors Field, 1996

17. Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk brawl at home plate, Red Sox edge Yankees 3-2, Fenway Park, 1973

16. El Duque Hernandez tames Padres 9-3, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada homer, game 2, 1998 World Series

15. Roger Clemens beats Cardinals 5-2 for 300th win, also gets 4,000th career strikeout, 2003

14. Follow Tiger Woods, others, at first round of U.S. Open Golf tournament, Winged Foot, 2006

13. Dolphins defeat Patriots 16-13 in overtime at Miami’s Orange Bowl on night John Lennon is shot, 1980

12. Outfielder Jim Hickman hits for natural cycle for Mets who defeat Cardinals 7-3 at Polo Grounds, 1963

11. Giants’ Barry Bonds hits home run #756, breaks Hank Aaron’s record, San Francisco, 2007

Special Category:

Ran a press conference on IBM scouting technology called “Advance Scout” at NBA All-Star game in Oakland, 2000

First installment: 41-50. includes the St. Louis Hawks, Holy Cross, and a Ranger rout.

Second installment: 31-40. stars Lew Alcindor, The Mick, and the Boston Marathon.

Third installment: (21-30), recalls the play of Willie Mays, Joe Namath and Lawrence Taylor and others.