Perfect Behavior by a Great Guy - Lousy Behavior by a So-So Guy

The huge kerfuffle over umpire Jim Joyce’s wrong call when Cleveland’s Jason Donald was out at first, thus spoiling Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga’s perfect game last Wednesday June 3rd has gotta be laid to rest. (As if we needed any more proof that Bud Selig was as the French say, un vrai con for not reversing Joyce’s call!) Why? Because Galarraga spoke and behaved in the most graceful and professional ways possible. He accepted Joyce’s apology. He expressed neither bitterness nor anger. He knows he pitched a perfect game. And it’s enough for him. It should be enough for us too.

On the other hand Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth behaves badly in a way that reflects not just on him but on the team as well. He’s been striking out regularly, 0 for 4 last night and 0 for 5 three nights ago. Each time he strikes out he throws his bat in anger. He’s a petulant 31-year old child.

Werth was separated at birth from the “Wild Child of Aveyron (France).” “Victor” was a real boy who raised himself up in the forest seemingly without human contact in the 18th century. He was rescued by a doctor, treated humanely, and as I recall, (we’re talkin’ about the 1970 movie, right?) that kind doctor taught “Victor” to speak. Justly celebrated auteur Francois Truffault, think “Jules et Jim”, wrote and directed that movie and also played the doctor. I took my kids and some of their friends to see it just after we had moved to Manhattan. We all loved it.

But my oh my, that wild child was unclean and unkempt. He seemed never to have had any experience with soap and really did not walk upright either when he was found. Werth doesn’t appear to be having any experience with soap right presently. Yeah, he looks and acts like “Victor” to me. There’s the strikeout anger we’ve seen. There’s that strange lope around the bases. And most importantly, that repulsive, no, egregious facial hair. Ee-yew! Missing Link Department bigtime!

So how come Armando Galarraga – a Venezuelan – has more class than a 3rd generation American major leaguer? Because his parents taught him how to behave, that’s how come. Werth’s parents blew it.

A Local Tragedy

On Memorial Day the Harrisburg Patriot News baseball columnist David Jones (My Two Cents) wrote about 600 poetic words on Phillies telecaster Tom McCarthy which he called “When less really is more.”

“As a Philadelphia Phillies fan, as a fan of baseball, I want three things when I watch a game on television: I do not want to be told things I already can see. I do not want to be told things I already know. I want interludes when I’m not being told anything at all. I want to listen to the sounds of nothing happening. In no other game do the sounds of nothing in particular going on sound quite as they do at a baseball game. ”

David Jones must, and if he hasn’t heard it, would adore the world’s most beautiful song “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” composed by Samuel Barber born in West Chester, PA, with lyrics by novelist James Agee who wrote: “We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville Tennessee in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child.”

…“On the rough wet grass of the backyard my father and mother have spread quilts. We all lie there, my mother, my father, my uncle, my aunt, and I too am lying there. They are not talking much and the talk is quiet, of nothing in particular, of nothing at all in particular, of nothing at all…”

Knoxville: Summer of 1915 was commissioned by Metropolitan Opera soprano Eleanor Steber from Barber in 1949. It was a big hit then and continues to be one of the most well loved songs in the American canon. Barber , Agee and Steber gave us 1915 America. Baseball is America right now and the America in our bones. Until something actually happens, nothing happens; time just passes, out of mind, suspended, eternal.

When Harry Kalas died Tom McCarthy took over. He’s exactly like the Catholic boys from Villanova we never dated in the Fifties when I was growing up on the Main Line. They were so earnest, so sincere. So devoid of cool. David Jones writes: “Not only does McCarthy talk too much, he does it with that voice of the golden-throated pitchman, as if I’m being sold to nonstop. It’s like spending an evening with a Realtor (Italics mine). I’m already on-board with the Phillies. I don’t need them sold to me. Everything is over the top. The effect is this: When something awesome happens, like Roy Halladay’s perfect game, it just sounds like another 100-decibel pitch out of McCarthy’s mouth.”

Great stuff, right? McCarthy’s timbre tires me the way my mother’s did at breakfast while she bashed my long-gone Dad. Heaven forefend I might have been allowed to get up earlier to avoid her. But I can turn the sound of McCarthy off and hear the witty radio guys Larry Anderson and Scott Franke whenever I want to.

R.I.P. Department!

It’s not exactly a secret that Roy Halladay left the Blue Jays because he wanted to pitch for a team with championship prospects and who has been hotter than the Phillies? I mean all the millions the Phillies are giving him didn’t influence him as greatly. (Right!) When he signed, I mean. And I guess he hardly gave a thought about batting or to what kind of manager Charlie Manuel might really turn out to be.

‘Cause in my opinion Halladay is gonna die young. The way things are going and of course I mean the way Manuel refuses to trust his bullpen and keeps him pitching complete games, he won’t make it to September. And maybe not even the 4th of July.

What’s with that?

Last Tuesday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates Halladay got three batters up to 3 and 0. He only had done that 46 times during his entire previous career. He left the game after the 8th inning with a 132 pitch count. 132 pitches, the most in baseball this season so far! Yes we know relievers Lidge and Madson are out. But there’s Romero, Durbin, Baez and Jose Contreras. And Manuel knows how to win without Lidge, who was pretty terrible last season.

The fault lies how Manuel’s managing right now. That game, that pathetic loss to the hopelessly Low-Road Game Pirates – 2-1 – was a lousy harbinger. Why did Manuel let Halladay become so exhausted? Phew! You could really see it! His fabulous ability to locate his pitches wasn’t there as the game progressed as those 3 and 0 counts showed along with the sweat we could see. Still Manuel kept him in. Not a crime, a stupidity. (And the Phillies hitters didn’t deliver either. Did Utley’s night off cast a hex on everybody else?)

Manuel is in his 10th season as manager. His experience comes from being a hitting coach and great hitter himself. He deserves tremendous credit for bringing Placido Polanco back because Polanco - he’s wonderful! He does everything well, with panache! He makes baseball look so easy! He’s the kind of player who inspires children, a lodestar to get them playing young enough so that those who hone their talents do, some of them do make it to the bigtime.

I’ve gotta log onto MLB and order my Polanco shirt. And remember starters Halladay, Hamels, Blanton, Kendrick and Moyer in my prayers while Manuel’s around.

Welcome Back

The Phillies and toothsome catcher Carlos Ruiz – who can forget that grin after Brad Lidge fanned pinch hitter Eric Hinske to take the 08 Series – and Carlos ran out and embraced Lidge on his knees? – have agreed to a three-year $8.85 million contract that avoids salary arbitration. The contract includes a $5 million club option for 2013 with a $500,000 buyout. Not bad for a guy who was making $425,000 in the 08 season. Carlos hit .375 in the 08 Series and .333 in 09 with slugging percentages of .722 and .706. He is the guy of whom they speak when they say ‘and the Phillies really have some power in the bottom of the order’. Carlos bats eighth.

Carlos is really valued for his catching and play-calling skills so it is heartening to see him getting his due. I mean who knows how much worse Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge might have pitched against the Yankees had Carlos not been catching them. After many years in the minor leagues he’s a star. Yes.

You can see his interview on the Phillies website under news. “I’m really glad to be staying in Philly”, he says. And speaking of that, Carlos may not need to go to a Rookie Camp weekend to learn how to avoid the pitfalls of stardom and lots of money. But he well might consider buying a home or apartment in Philly with his new salary. Philadelphia is a huge, spread out city that used to be the 3rd largest in the US because of its no longer existent manufacturing base. So there are lots of swell neighborhoods that have been revitalized that are not too far from Citizens Bank Park including South Philadelphia itself. There’s University City where Penn is, Center City, Society Hill, Fish Town where Chef Gordon Ramsay retooled the Hot Potato Café completely on Fox recently. One of the best - off the Parkway between the Art Museum and downtown Philly - has swell houses and apartments with views of the skyline and back yards for partying. I can just see Carlos now at the barbecue grilling his special Panamanian recipes. Ole!

Placido Polanco is coming back to the Phillies with a 3 -year $18 million contract to replace Pedro Feliz at third base and possibly bat second. He may not be looking for a home in Philly because he already lives in South Florida a few blocks from Phillies left fielder Raul Ibanez. Boy wouldn’t I love living a few blocks from those two! (We’ve had 36” of snow already in Carlisle this winter and expect between 12” and 18” tonight.) Placido played for Detroit for 3+ seasons, got 3 Golden Gloves and had the 2nd lowest strikeout average in the Majors. Don’t the Phillies need him?

That dog hunts.

Jimmy Rollins Bad Batting Slump...

... Appears to be Over with the Sweep of the Mets



We wonder whether we could have lived through what Jimmy’s experienced. But now he’s hitting, and hitting well, including a solo home run early in the third winning home game against the Mets, pitched masterfully by Joe Blanton and the gang. With a lovely little save by Brad Lidge, but of course.

And looking forward to the All-Star Game, whose National League Team will be managed by our Genius-In-Residence Charley Manuel, but of course! Then there’ll be Second Baseman Chase Utley and Left Fielder Raul Ibanez. Utley got all of his votes because he’s so smart and such a good hitter and fielder, and be-cause he’s a home-grown guy. Ibanez got some of his votes, let’s face it, because he’s a Phillie now and exhibited his marvelous skills this year within the wonderful Phillies firmament.

What Did They Forget to Remember? (The Phillies lose 6 Home Games in a Row!)

The essence of what Charlie Manuel must have yelled and lectured them about: don’t forget what playing good baseball means. Execute each play cleanly, sneakily, be aware of what’s going on around you, who’s there, who’s not there, be quick, be aggressive and in all things never ever give up.

Oh we watched them come so close to disproving Charlie’s anger in these games, so many marvelous moments like Ryan Howard’s pinch hit homer out of the hospital bed. Those moments were so short lived, ‘though, not the droppings from the continuous torrents of talent that flow from one player to another and don’t let up that we remember from last year.

Well it may be that Jimmy Rollins’ lousy season is the bell weather of this year. If he doesn’t improve, the gang won’t make it. One does not like to pitch one’s tent on the fate of one batter. Especially when he and Victorino together make a fantastic duo for Utley batting third, driving any pitcher to deepest desperation…I mean that Rollins has to be batting well enough to be leading off. Because he is still, when all is said and done, THE KEY!

Nicknames Die Hard

The Phillies Took on Red Sox Pitcher Josh Beckett – this past Sunday. He might have been surprised by the breadth of their victory. This is because he’s been called a Lousy Teammate and Old Nicknames Die Hard.

Because Beckett makes his opinions known all over the place, with accompanying expressions and gestures, wandering up & down the dugout. And he’s been a good pitcher, it’s not that, it’s that he’s so free with his opinions. He’s certainly beaten the Phillies in the past, beginning when he was a Marlin...

In the 7th inning Jimmy Rollins ended his drought with a lovely line drive lead off home run. The Phillies scored 6 runs in this inning and ended Boston’s 5-game winning streak; this probably made Beckett peckish. The Lord knows he looks puckish for starters. The Phillies won 11-6 and that was very satisfying; as it was to see the attentive way Beckett was watching from the Red Sox dugout after he was taken out in the 7th.