April 14, 1993 Philadelphia Phillies (7-1) vs Cincinnati Reds (2-6)
A Rivera Runs Through It
An Introduction
I’m the guy who thinks his fantasy team was cursed because he decided to go against his soul and picked up Dansby Swanson for two weeks. . It’s crazy, but the Major League Baseball season was actually played in 2020, and the Phillies have done everything they could do to try to ruin my fanhood. So I’ve decided once more to go back in time and revisit the greatest season of baseball of my childhood, the 1993 Phillies. Thanks to the internet and more specifically the saint who runs the ClassicPhilliesTV youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWb6dGkCnKBlrQLJAjZ-4-w), I’m going back and watching every 1993 Phillies I can find just like if it was 27 years ago (but with the internet)... Previously I attempted to go day for day with every Phillies game in the month of June, which was a bold idea but proved to be futile. Now the plan is to start from the beginning of the season and attempt 1-2 game recaps per week until we get to game 5 of the 1993 World series and then decide if I really want to torture myself with game 6. Come along for the ride to reminisce about the legends of John Kruk, Mitch Williams, and Darren Daulton, to mix the knowledge we have now, with jokes of how dumb things were then.
Where We Last Left Our Intrepid Heroes (and Villains)
After cruising to a Grapefruit League best record of 16-10 in Spring Training, the Phillies rocketed off to a 7-1 start, sweeping the Astros before losing their first game of the season against the Cubs in the home opener. The day after that loss was (spoilers) only day the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies spent out of 1st place in the NL East. Coming into today’s game, the last of the series against the Reds, the Phillies have won 4 straight games. The night before Tommy Greene pitched 7 innings giving up 2 hits, 1 run and 1 walk while striking out 8 Reds and with the help of a John Kruk double, the Phillies won 3-1.
The Reds have stumbled out of the gate, with promising youngsters, Reggie Sanders and Bip Roberts, superstar Barry Larkin, and free agent signings John Smiley and Kevin Mitchell, the Reds were expected to do battle with the Braves for NL West (yes the great cities of the West: Cincinnati and Atlanta) supremacy. Instead they began the season 2-6 and have four key players injured coming into the game today. While on-field play is an issue, what’s going on behind the scenes is the real cause for the fall of the 1990 World Series champions. As I wrote about in the June 1st and June 2nd entries of this series that occur in the future of this entry, the Reds are at the beginning of their long messy divorce with owner Marge Schott. Schott bought a minority stake in the Red in 1981 and for 11 million dollars in 1984 she bought a controlling share and became the first woman to buy a Major League Baseball team. In November of 1992 in a wrongful termination lawsuit against her by former Reds employee Tim Sabo, Schott was quoted via testimony by another former Reds employee as saying that Reds players Eric Davis and Dave Parker were “million dollar (n words)”. It should also be noted that Sabo believed he was firing for not following Schott’s unwritten rule to not hire black people. Major League baseball set up a four person committee to investigate Schott and in February of 93, Schott was banned from attending Reds games for the 93 season and fined 250,000 dollars. After word leaked of the Sabo testimony, the Reds World Series winning Manager Lou Pinella declined to return to Cincinnati and ran for Seattle. With a huge PR problem on their hands, the Reds baseball operations pushed Schott to hire Reds legend (and minority) Tony Perez as their coach. This would last a total of 44 games before Perez was fired, the shortest stint for a preseason hired manager in 65 years. For the move, General Manager Jim Bowden Jr “needed around-the-clock police protection because of death threats to himself and his family. Fans were also upset because Bowden fired Perez over the phone instead of face-to-face” (according to the Redleg Journal). Eventually Schott would be suspended from baseball again in 1996 after she said of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “He had a lot of good ideas, he just went a bit too far” and was forced to sell her controlling shares by 1999 and bowing out of spotlight. The New York Times dubbed her “Baseball’s Big Red Headache”.
Today’s Game:
It is Thursday, April 14th, in the great city of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, at the trash-can cat shelter we know as Veteran’s Stadium. Today’s games is being presented on PRISM, the regional premium cable channel that is home to 45 Phillies games this season. They are also running commercials explaining a narrator’s uncle who has issues not drinking and driving at Phillies games (it’s implied) so thank god they got PRISM so he doesn’t have to drive to Phillies games anymore. (I swear to God).
In the booth today is Chris “Wheels” Wheeler who refers to a Philadelphia Inquirer story today about how he’s quoted as being “in awe” of Harry Kalas but wants to clarify he is not. Along with him are former Phillies outfielders Garry Maddox and Jay Johnstone. Sadly in the brief months I took a break from this series, Jay Johnstone has died due to complications from Dementia and Co-vid 19. Johnstone played with multiple clubs in his career but was a mainstay on some of the greatest Phillies teams of the 1970’s, including both 101 game winning squads of 74 and 75. These same great Phillies teams constantly ran into the Cincinnati Reds’ Big Red Machine and Johnstone was eventually traded to the New York Yankees where he helped them win 2 World Series in 78 and 81. He was league renowned for his great ability as a locker room prankster and much like the Phillie Phanatic his favorite target was Dodger’s Coach Tommy LaSorda. As is described in Johnstone’s books, he once locked LaSorda into his hotel room by tying a string to a palm tree, and another time he stole LaSorda’s uniforme, padded it, and made a visit to the mound as LaSorda. For good measure in the film The Naked Gun in the infamous baseball scene where Leslie Nielsen imitates an Ump, Johnstone appears at the plate as a Seattle Mariners hitter, and as a prank to only himself, the left handed Johnstone batted right-handed. Vaya Con Dios, Jay Johnstone.
Watch for yourself at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIGPCL8nbNg
The Line-up:
CF Lenny Dykstra
2B Mariano Duncan
1B John Kruk
3B Dave Hollins
C Darren Daulton
LF Pete Incaviglia
RF Wes Chamberlain
SS Juan Bell
P Ben Rivera
On the Mound:
Pitching for the home team is Ben “Bienvenido” Rivera, the 6 foot 6 Dominican fastballer is the only Phillies Starter to record a loss for the season after he got rocked by the Chicago Cubs in the home opener. Acquired by the Phillies in a trade with the Atlanta Braves in 1992, Rivera went a pretty incredible 7-3 with a 2.81 ERA (and respectable 3.51 FIP) to close out the season (and ensure a chance at a rotation spot in 93). His first start left him with a classy 23.14 ERA on the season with 1 strike out.
For the Red Legs, the pitcher tonight is Tom Browning who is also currently 0-1 with a respectable 30.86 ERA after one start in the 1993 season. Some amazing tidbits about Browning, he threw the 12th perfect game in the history of Major League baseball against the Dodgers in 1988 and followed that up with going 8 innings of perfection against the Phillies in his very next start before finally giving up a double in the top of the 9th. Browning also finished second in Rookie of the year voting in 1986 while finishing 6th in Cy Young voting after going 20-6 with a 3.55 ERA. He was an all star in 1991 and finished his career with exactly 1000 strikeouts. During the 1990 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Oakland A’s, Browning’s wife went into labor at the beginning of the 2nd game. After driving herself to the hospital, Browning was notified and left the dugout to be with his wife. As the game went into extra innings, the coach of the Reds Lou Pinella got nervous losing a member of his pitching staff and called up to the Reds radio play-by-play guy. The Reds play-by-play guy got an APB (all-points bulletin) sent out in search of Browning by the local PD, and then the World Series broadcaster Tim McCarver repeated the announcement to help find Browning. Browning heard it in the hospital and did not care because his wife was in labor. The Reds won in extra innings, Browning pitched 6 innings of game 3, earning the win, and the Reds would go on to sweep the Oakland A’s and win the World Series (in a terribly sad ending, Browning would eventually be arrested for not paying child support according to wikipedia).
Highs (Hopes) and Lows:
Low then High: Top 2nd- Catching Fundamentals
After cruising through a 1-2-3 first, Ben Rivera pitched himself into trouble in the bottom of the 2nd, walking the bases loaded, and causing the boo birds to come out of their early season hibernation. With a 2-0 count, Rivera gets Reds Catcher Joe Oliver to pop up to right fielder Wes Chamberlain (who I was certain as 5 year old was the same person as Wilt Chamberlain), who uncorks a perfect strike to home plate to nail the runner and complete the 7-2 double play and end the inning.
More impressive than the Chamberlain throw is Darren Daulton’s expert blocking of home plate that prevents Randy Milligan from scoring. Daulton’s ability to withstand plate collisions put him on par with Dottie Hinson from A League of Their Own (she dropped the last one on purpose) and puts a spotlight on one of the lost parts of playing catcher in the modern game of baseball. A few years ago, Buster Posey the (then) young catching phenom for the San Francisco Giants was lost for the season when he improperly blocked home plate and got his leg broken in multiple places. This caused a league wide discussion about the unsafe nature of the play at the plate, which they weren’t wrong to have. The days of Pete Rose not sliding but instead throwing himself full speed, shoulder first, into a waiting catcher are for sure over. What we know about concussions, and long term injuries from such plays make it impossible to ignore the negative repercussions. Yet what happened to Buster Posey wasn’t one of those plays, but instead had more to do with Posey not really knowing how to play the position of catcher. For decades the position of catcher was one where defensive acumen was more important than offensive contributions, the ability to call a game and prevent runs was more valuable than producing runs. Yet when the sabermetric disciples of Bill James and Moneyball started thinking outside the box in front offices, the defensive minded catcher became expendable. There was no reason to give up a line-up spot to a player who couldn’t help produce runs (runs being the crux of the Moneyball argument), so thus began the moving of more offensive productive players to the catcher position, regardless if they could actually play catcher. What I’m trying to say is that Darren Daulton was pretty amazing as a defensive catcher and for the few years injuries didn’t bother him, he was an absolute offensive force.
HIgh: Bottom 3rd- Kruk’s Komes Through
John Kruk singles in the first run for the Phillies in the bottom of the third, knocking in Lenny Dykstra from 3rd base. Kruk is batting .412 for the season after batting .407 in 1992 during the month of April. A batter later, Dave Hollins knocks in Duncan with a single to make it 2-0.
High: Bottom 5th- 2 out runs
With a man on third, clean-up hitter Dave Hollins, sadly struck out to make it two outs in the inning. After a Darren Daulton walk, there were Phillies on the corners when Pete Incaviglia came up to the plate. With a 2-0 lead and a pitcher who was about to face the Reds line-up for the third time, the game was still in doubt and the Phillies were in need of some help. Right Fielder Pete Incaviglia would answer the call with a bouncer in the hole for a single to make it 3-0. Wes Chamberlain followed that up with his 3rd single of the day and score another run, before Juan Bell (of all people) doubles home two more before the inning ends to make the score 6-0, with all four runs being scored with two outs.
High: Top 6- Working Out of Jams
Much like in the first inning where Ben Rivera walked two Reds to load the bases before getting out of the inning with the Chamberlain throw, Rivera walked Randy Milligan to load the bases in the 6th inning. This time instead of depending on great defense to bail him out, Gentle Ben dug deep into the reservoir and threw 6 straight strikes to K both Gary Varsho and Randy Milligan to end the threat and the inning. Rivera’s day ends after 6 innings 0 runs 4 hits 4 walks and 7 strike outs.
Low: Top 7- Jose De not Good
After adding another run in the bottom of the 6th to make it 7-0, Manager Jim Fregosi opens up the bullpen with right hander, Jose DeLeon. DeLeon came to the Phillies for three spot starts in September of 92 after being released by the Cardinals, fun fact he twice lost 19 games in a season and with Kerry Wood is the only pitcher to win less than 100 games and strike out over 1500 people. Now in the bullpen, DeLeon is already 2-0 in the young season with a 2.38 era, but this is not his finest pitching appearance. After two quick hits and a completely (COMPLETELY) bogus catcher’s interference call, the bases are loaded with one out for Jose DeLeon who answers the challenge with a wild fork ball that scores a Red. DeLeon proceeds to walk the next batter to force the bases loaded again which brings out pitching coach Johnny Podres. “Fans are cheering because they think it’s a pitching change” chimes in Wheels. Podres leaves the mound and DeLeon then throws another wild fork ball to allow another Red to score, and brings the first real rain of boos from the Philly Phaithful in 1993. “Fans haven’t had much chance to boo this year and take advantage of it now” adds Wheels. 7-2 Phillies.
Wild Rides
This section is reserved in telling the final outs of Phillies games, whether it will be the last chance of a rally or the ongoing adventures of closer Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams, it will be covered here to summarize the game. The Phillies tacked on two more runs in the 8th on an Incaviglia double to take any drama out of the 9th inning. So, in this edition we have David “Big Bird” West, so called because he legitimately looks like Big Bird, with some of the worst 90’s hair you can imagine. West came over to the Phillies from the Minnesota Twins in a trade for Mike Hartley whose most interesting factoid on his wikipedia was that he was the head coach of the Croatian National team in 2011. David West is one of those players that current Phillies fans should look at optimistically for how the current bullpen could be re-imagined. West was a lackluster starter/long reliever for some very good Twins teams, his best year was arguably 1991 when he started 12 games won 4 lost 4 and accumulated a 4.54 ERA, a 4.99 FIP and a 1.32 WHiP. Yet the Phillies saw something in him to give him a chance in their bullpen, and even though he had a “shaky” spring (Wheels’ word, I can’t find any spring training stats from 1993 on the internet weirdly) the West idea (spoilers) pays off in spades as he becomes one of the best left handed relief pitchers in the NL in 1993. In today’s game, West is in his second inning of relief and quickly dispatches Cecil Espy and Juan Samuel with pop-ups before inducing a grounder from Roberto Kelly to end the game. The Phillies win 9-2 sweeping the Reds and bringing their record to 8-1 which equals the 1915 Pennant winning Phillies for the best start in franchise history.
Final: Philadelphia Phillies 9 (8-1) Cincinnati Reds 2 (2-7)
Words of Wisdom from Jay and Garry (and Sometimes Wheels):
“You know they’ve been trying to shorten the game of baseball, you hear so much about how the game has gone to be too long.” -Jay. It’s crazy that there were the same complaints from nameless people who want baseball games to be faster in 1993. Here we are 27 years later and it’s the same thing. Today’s video is 2 hours and 48 minutes.
“Last winter people were saying at best this team would be mediocre, and here we are a week in and people are saying we could win this thing” -Garry Maddox.
“Phillies fans have come so accustomed to pitchers throwing strikes this season”- Wheels when Rivera first walked the bases loaded.
“It’s great to see Tony Perez coaching. He deserves that shot.” Jay. Oh the sad irony, that Perez wasn’t getting his shot, and in fact would never get another real chance to coach a baseball team. The Phillies also take the time to make an adorable Tony Perez tribute video for the 1983 NL Champion Wheeze Kids 10 year anniversary. Perez, then 40, was brought in by the Phillies to be a bench player but due to injuries he ended up starting for most of the first two months of the season and helped lift the Phils with a .333/.368/.440 (ba/obp/slugging) and 21 RBIs.
Final Conclusion:
The Phillies phinish their sweep of the Cincinnati Reds thanks to 6 two-out runs and 6 innings of scoreless pitching from Ben Rivera. 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 Phillies are on the road to Chicago and the next game will be against the Cubs on April 16, 1993.
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