June 13, 1993- Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets
Only the Good Lose Young
An Introduction…
I’m the guy who was late for an entrance in a Collingswood, NJ production of Cymbeline because I
was listening to Roy Halladay’s no hitter backstage on the radio. With the chance of the season
dwindling and only the KBO to salve my baseball addiction, I made the decision to go back in time.
Thanks to the internet and more specifically the saint who runs the ClassicPhilliesTV youtube
watching the 1993 Phillies, day for day just like if it was 27 years ago (but with the internet). To
reminisce about the legends of John Kruk, Mitch Williams, and Darren Daulton, mixing the
knowledge we have now, with jokes of how dumb things were then. Follow along for the month of
June and if it works out, I’ll continue to the month of July.
Where We Last Left Our Intrepid Heroes (and Villains)
The Phillies are walking over the New York Mets as they similarly have been walking over all the
competition in the National League. The Phils have won all three in the series so far, after Danny
Jackson threw a complete game shutout yesterday. Further the Phillies have won 9 out of their last
10, and a smooth 15 out of their last 19. They have yet to lose more than two games in a row and are 20-8 on the road.
The New York Metropolitans on the other hand are the inverse. They have lost 9 of their last 10 and
haven't been able to win more than two games in a row. Currently they sit 23 ½ games behind the
Phillies in the standings, but only a scant 8 games behind the next to last team in the division. This
would not be the worst part of the Mets season, for it couldn’t be the Mets if there wasn’t a dramatic
off the field controversy which would lead to them being called by Tom Verducci “Baseball’s
Buttafuccos” (holy 1993 reference, Batman). Since he’s not playing today, probably due to a bad error yesterday, it’s a good time to talk about Vince Coleman. The speedy outfielder was signed for
big money (4 years 11.95 million) away from the St. Louis Cardinals in the same multi-season
spending spree that brought Eddie Murray and Bobby Bonilla to New York. The once prodigious
base stealer lost speed to injuries and soon started getting into fights with coaches, contributing to
Bud Harrelson’s firing, then shoving his new coach Jeff Torborg, and eventually arguing with newest
coach Dallas Green. The biggest incident came in July of 93, when parked in Eric Davis’ Jeep, as a
way to shoo fans, Coleman threw “an explosive” (wikipedia says “firecracker” SB nation says the
local DA compared it to “a quarter stick of dynamite”) at them. In the altercation, three child fans,
including a two year old, were injured. Coleman would curse at the press when questioned about the
incident the next day, and the Mets would take 72 hours to respond (where Coleman would play in
all three games during that span). This would lead to the eventual arrest of Coleman on felony
charges with the possibility of a sentence that could lead up to three years. He would plead down to
a year probation, community service, and an undisclosed settlement to the victims. Most importantly
to New York Met history is that this event would lead to little known minority owner, Jeff Wilpon,
stepping forward and condemning the entire clubhouse and calling for the removal of Coleman (even
though he was signed through 1994). Wilpon has since the become the lead owner of the Mets,
much to delight of Bernie Madoff and Phillies fans for years.
Today’s Game
It is Sunday June 13th, 1993 at Shea Stadium, which you could see into from the subway stop which
is awesome. Our broadcast is on WPHL 17 in Philadelphia, where Harry and Whitey will man the 1st
through 3rd and 7th through 9th innings, and Andy Musser comes in with Wheels for the 6th through
8th. Andy Musser is the lesser known third member of the classic Phillies broadcast line-up. From
1976-2001, Musser was apart of the team, and brought a level headed voice to mix with the
brashness of Whitey, and the velvety excitement of Harry Kalas. His most famous call came in the
magical 1980 season, when Mike Schmidt homered to take the lead against the Expos, Musser
exclaimed, “Long drive to Left Field! He buried it! He buried It” It made no sense, but also it made all
the sense.
The Line-up
CF Lenny Dykstra
SS Mariano Duncan (batting .390 in June)
1B Ricky Jordan (.282 BA)
LF Pete Incavigla (.308 BA)
RF Jim Eisenreich
C Todd Pratt
3B Kim Batiste (batting .370 in last 12 games(
2B Mickey Morandini
P Ben Rivera
On the Mound
Coming off a loss to the Houston Astros, (where he went 7 innings and gave up 4 runs on 5 hits)
Ben Rivera is on the hill for the Phillies. Rivera has a 4-3 record for the season and 4.25 ERA, but
his most worrisome statistic is walks per 9 which currently stands at a ghastly 5.9.
For the home team, the lamentable and heart breaking Anthony Young is pitching. Young (as
mentioned in an earlier write-up) is in the midst of the longest losing streak in the history of Major
League Baseball. As of now he has lost 20 straight games, and while the record is 23 (set in 1910-
1911 by some poor sap named Cliff Curtis), Young will go onto lose (spoilers) 7 more games before
finally becoming a victor again on July 28, 1993. Some notes about Young, his teammates were both
in awe of his dignity (“he was a true gentleman” according to Met/Phillie Turk Wendell), but at the
same time terrified that he was cursed. During one game while Young was pitching the Mets infield
made 4 errors in 6 innings, and when Young came out the team morphed into Gold Glove winners,
“did you see the plays we made after he left?" Said relief pitcher Jeff Innis at the time, "When he
goes out there, the whole team feels it. It’s intense.” His manager Dallas Green would say, “ It’s a
difficult thing for him to go through. That’s why we’ve had stiff hands out there. Everyone’s trying to
do a little too much.” All throughout this ordeal, Young was a consummate pro as Sports Illustrated
wrote of him, “With all the talk these days about role models in sports, here’s an athlete to whom we
can relate.” Now since it’s the future, let’s put this streak into an actual context. It’s easy to read 27
straight losses and think Anthony Young was the worst pitcher Major League Baseball has ever
seen, but you would be wrong. First, there’s the mostly ignored fact that a majority of Anthony
Young’s losses came out of the bullpen. This doesn’t make his pitching look better, but takes into
account how universally unlucky the streak was. Young’s fate wasn’t like Mike Maroth losing 21
games, where Maroth had days where he was actually a good pitcher (or days where his
team scored a bunch of runs) and thus was able to earn 9 wins. Young only had 9 starts through his
first 20 losses, and 3 of them were quality starts (at least 6 innings pitched with less than 3 er).
Almost nothing is written about the fact that during a large chunk of this streak, Anthony Young was
replacing John Franco as closer while Franco was injured. This attributes greatly to his record as
closers notoriously have more losses because they come in during closer games; and fewer wins,
because they’re team is typically already winning when they enter. Furthermore, Young was actually
pretty good at closing, converting 15 out of 20 save opportunities while collecting 39 appearances
during the streak where he gave up zero runs. Finally is the cold hard evidence: statistics, Anthony
Young had a 4.33 ERA (which improved to 3.86 when he became closer) during the streak with a
respectable 3.86 FIP over 172 innings. Pitchers in 2019 with a minimum 170 innings and a worse
FIP: Jose Quintana, Clayton Kershaw, Madison Baumgarner, and Aaron Nola. This is all to say, that
when you mention Anthony Young, put some respect on his name (RIP June 27th 2017).
Highs (Hopes) and Lows
High Top 2- Kim Batiste Keeps Keeping
A lot has already been written about Kim Batiste in this space, but more still needs to be said about
the job he is doing at third base. Dave Hollins had surgery the day before, and Kim Batiste shows
once again why he’s become integral to the team. This time with a single past third basemen Jeff
Kent (still 5 years from becoming the best power hitting 2nd baseball in history) to score the first run
of the game. 1-0 Phillies.
High Top 3- Double Steal
Double steals are just always cool. Two guys stealing bases at the same time. According to baseball
reference, “Double steals have become fairly rare with the relative decline of stolen bases since the
beginning of the 1990s.” and there’s no list of double steals to see when the last time it happened or who
did it the most often, but double steals are cool. This particular double steal by Lenny Dykstra and
Mariano Duncan helped the Phillies add to their lead when it got Dykstra to third for a sacrifice fly, and
Duncan scored on an Eisenreich single. Double ateals should make a comeback, 3-1 Phillies.
Low but in reality High- Bottom 6 Eddie Murray was Great.
In the bottom of the 6th Rivera started getting into trouble coincidentally during his third trip through the
line-up. After walking Jeff McKnight then giving up a single to Doug Saunders (his first ever, 1 of 14
career hits he would achieve), Eddie Murray hit a seeing eye single up the middle to score McKnight,
making it 3-1 Phillies. This RBI would be career RBI 1596, and would push him past the greatest third
basemen to ever play baseball, Mike Schmidt, on the all-time list. Murray at this time is already a legend
in baseball, having his number retired by Baltimore as he was still playing, but would go on to play four
more seasons. “Steady” Eddie Murray was a force to be reckoned with in the 1980’s, a switch-hitting
power hitter, who could also hit for average. From 1977-1990 Murray would average 28 home runs and
99 RBIs per year and finish in the top 10 of MVP voting 8 times (finishing 2nd twice, 4th once, and 5th
twice). He was also a three time Gold Glove winner, eight time All Star, and only struck out 100 times in a
season once (his rookie season). His final stats: 504 home runs 1918 RBIs, 3,255 hits, and a plaque in
Cooperstown.
High- Back to Back Jacks
After Ben Rivera allowed a home run to Jeff Kent in the 7th making it 3-2, the Phillies decided to do
something else in a pairing. With Jeff Innis pitching, Ricky Jordan and Pete Incavigla hit back to back
home runs to make the score 5-2. Whitey on Jordan’s home run, “That ball was smoked, cleared
Center Field like a rifle shot.” (What does that metaphor mean?) Next up, Incavigla not to be outdone,
smoked his 11th home run of the season to center field,
 |
“That was a monster shot. That was unbelievable.” - Whitey
|
Wild Rides
Finally, a roller coaster of a save that Mitch Williams was infamous for (Multiple GIFS!). He starts off the
inning with a pop-up to Kim Batiste in foul ball territory, but then walks the next batter on four not very
close pitches. With a guy on first, Jeff Kent lofted a ball to deep left center field, and the normally
extremely reliable Lenny Dykstra straight biffs the catch allowing base runners to reach 2nd and 3rd with
one out.
 |
| I got it. I got it. I got it. I don't got it.-Corey Matthews |
Mitch settles down by inducing a rinky dink pop-up to 2nd base out of Todd Hundley, but then
things got wacky again. The next batter hits a line drive that hits Mitch Williams, and in such a way
that Mitch has no idea where the ball is, and starts looking for it, all the while the Met on third (Dave
Gallagher) scores to tighten the game to 5-3.
 |
Finally, Mitch puts the game away with a pop-up to Center Field, which this time Lenny Dykstra is able to handle, and the Phils win the game, Mitch earning his 19th save of the season.
Final: Philadelphia Phillies (44-17) 5 New York Mets (19-41) 3
Words of Wisdom from Harry, Whitey, and Musser (and sometime Wheels)
“That’s what happens, you have a good team, Dave Hollins gets hurt, and his sub comes in and helps
you.” -Musser on Kim Batiste
“With Sherlock Holmes watching… I don’t know what he’s smoking in that pipe.” - Musser
“Well it is New York”- Wheels. They became obsessed with some fan who was smoking a pipe. Showed
him 4-5 times.
“Not a great glove man. But as you can see from that .125 average not much of a bat either.”- Musser
destroying Jeff McKnight, who is 1 season from forced retirement.
“Pratty takes a pratfall” -Musser.
“And Jay Bell is behind only Juan Bell in the All Star voting. Kind of makes you wonder about the voters
doesn’t it?” -Whitey ethering the Phillies fans for voting for Juan Bell before he got cut from the Phillies.
Amazing.
Johnnry Podres has seen Mitch enough to know, he’ll get into trouble, but usually he sees himself out of
it.” - Harry Kalas
In Conclusion
The Phils take the lead early, and hand Anthony Young his 21st loss in a row. Rivera pitched decently, but
thanks to back to back home runs by Ricky Jordan and Pete Incavigla, the Phils are able to win in comfy
fashion. If you enjoyed this wonderful blast from the past please feel free to share, like, or comment on it.
The hope is to have more people watching 93 Phillies games on youtube and talking about it. So hit me
up @Kevin_Seamus on twitter or @loudphilliesguy on Instagram. The Phils continue their road trip to the
great North where they used to play baseball in Montreal. The Expos currently sit in 2nd and have the
look of a team that wants to cause trouble. Sadly there’s no video of game 1, so we’ll be back on June
15th to finally watch Tommy Greene pitch against Larry Walker and the Expos.
No comments:
Post a Comment