April 24, 1993: Inky and the Brain

 April 24rd, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (11-4) vs  Los Angeles Dodgers (6-11)

Inky and The Brain

An Introduction…

I’m the guy who got Mitch Williams autograph after an Atlantic City Surf game in which he and Pete Incaviglia were thrown out for arguing with the ump.  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 losing 2 in a row for the first time all season, the Philadelphia Phillies have won 3 of their last 4 and sit atop the NL East by 1.5 games over the Montreal Expos with a record of 11-4. The 92 Phillies didn’t win their eleventh game till May 3rd, they haven’t been above .500 this far into a season (yes it’s April) since 1990. The Phillies haven’t been in first place this late into a season since 1989 when they were 10-9 on April 25th and up half a game in the East, before losing 16 of their next 24 and cozily placing themselves into the last place cellar. 

The 1993 Los Angeles Dodgers are just 5 years removed from winning the World Series against the Oakland A’s (The Kurt Gibson home run), but most of the players from that championship season have since departed. They currently have a record of 6-11, but on the roster still have ace Orel Hershiser from the 88’ team, as well as 1992 Rookie of the year Eric Karros “a good looking young player” says Harry Kalas.  The once stalwart leaders of the NL West have fallen on hard times for the first time since Tommy LaSorda took the manager job in 1979. The 92 Dodgers were the first team in their franchise’s (then) 87 year history to finish in last place with a dismal record of 63-99. To add injury to insult, due to an anarchic rule that said the worst place teams from the AL and NL would alternate who got first pick in the draft by year, no matter the records, the Mariners (64-98) won the first overall choice and selected an itty bitty baby of a shortstop named Alex Rodriguez. The Dodgers would take Darren Dreifort second, whose biggest claim to fame was being one of the first clients (that I could find) in which Scott Boras was able to make a ridiculous amount of money despite a complete lack of talent. After being injured or ineffective for a majority of his first six seasons in the majors (94-00) accumulating a 39-45 record, 4+ ERA and FIP, over 670+ innings, Boras was able to convince the Dodgers to give Dreifort a 5 year 55 million dollar deal (which per year is what former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber will be making this year with the New York Yankees). Dreifort would pitch 200 more ineffective innings (3.0 WAR combined) for the Dodgers, mostly in the bullpen, before retiring at the age of 32.  

 

Today’s Game:

It is Saturday  April 24th, 1993 at the Broad and Passyunk stop of the Philadelphia subway, known colloquially as the Vet.  Today’s television broadcast is brought to you on WPHL-17 with hall of farmers Harry Kalas and Richie “Whitey” Ashburn for the majority of the game, and Chris Wheeler thrown in for fun. A big crowd on hand for the night game, but even more are expected tomorrow with the Phanatic’s birthday celebration. Harry Kalas at one point mentions a disastrous promotional event at the Vet from the past to which he refers to as “the highest jumping Easter Bunny.” Despite deep research on your intrepid blogger’s part, very little could be found on the event (not even the year), only Larry Shenk’s biography If These Walls Could Talk mentions the catastrophe in passing, “ I laughed when the Easter Bunny tried to take a hot air balloon out of here”. So supposedly what happened is that the Phillies promotional staff (led by Bill Giles) dressed some poor bastard named Paul Callahan up in an Easter Bunny costume and they were going to put them in a hot air balloon and launch the balloon out of the Vet and land it in the parking lot, calling it the “highest jumping Easter Bunny”. Yet what occurred was the hot air balloon not being able to take off due to cross winds inside the giant toilet bowl that is the Vet, and the Phille fans in attendance booing the Easter Bunny for his failure. I love this team and city so much. Amazing this doesn’t come up in the same breath as “boo-ed Santa”.  

Watch for yourself at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGvvT_b_0OY

The Line-up

CF Lenny Dykstra

2B Mickey Morandini

1B John Kruk

3B Dave Hollins

RF Wes Chamberlain

LF Pete Incaviglia  

SS Mariano Duncan

C Todd Pratt

SP Danny Jackson

On the Mound:

Danny Jackson takes the ball for the Philadelphia Phillies today, he’s coming off a decent start in Chicago where he went 6 ⅔ while giving up 2 runs, 5 hits, and 4 walks (2 HBP). The former number 1 overall pick in the 1982 secondary draft currently holds a 0-0 record  with a 4.26 era, but more importantly as to why they got Jackson, he’s pitched 19 of 27 possible innings and has given the Phillies two Quality Starts. In 1994, Jackson would have an even better year personally, going 14-6 during the strike shortened season gaining his second All Star appearance, and garnering a 6th place showing in NL Cy Young voting. Jackson would turn that success into 3 year 10.9 million dollar contract with the St. Louis Cardinals where he went 4-15 over 3 years before being traded to the Padres in mid-June of 1997 (in a deal that included Fernando Valenzuala of all people). He’d finish the 97 season (and his career) in San Diego going 1-7 with a 5.86 FIP. For his career Jackson would play in 4 Championship series, 3 World Series (winning 2), twice be in the top 6 of Cy Young voting, and pitched the only immaculate inning (9 pitches 9 strikes,3 K's) in World Series history. He won 112 games and struck out 1225 professional baseball players, while accumulating 17.1 WAR.    

Pitching this evening for the Los Angeles Dodgers, is former Philadelphia Phillie, Kevin Gross, who at the moment (in 1993) holds a lifetime 100-115 record for his career. In 1992, he went 9-13 with the Dodgers but more importantly Gross threw the only no-hitter in the entire 1992 season against the San Francisco Giants. To double up on the Fernando Valenzuala fun facts, he and Gross are the only pitchers to start against each other and hit home runs off each other in the same inning.  Gross first broke into the majors starting 17 games for the 1983 NL champion Philadelphia Phillies affectionately known as the Wheeze Kids (he did not make the postseason roster). His best year came in 1988, when he was named to his only All Star roster, and went 12-14 with a 3.68 FIP for the Phightins. He was traded for Jeff Parrett after the 88 season, Parrett would have a great season for the Phillies in 1989 going 12-6 with a 2.98 FIP which made him a trade asset for the Phillies who exchanged Parrett with the Braves for Dale Murphy and a player to be named later. That player… Tommy Greene.  

Highs (Hopes) and Lows

Low then High- First Inning- Wes Chamberlain

The youtube video of this games starts in the bottom of the first, with the Phillies already down 1 to nothing. The run came after two singles and a throwing error from Pete Incaviglia. The Phils though answer back in the bottom of the first with a 2 out single by Wes Chamberlain. Chamberlain, batting 5th today with Darren Daulton taking his first off day of the season, is in his third full season in the majors after being drafted in the fourth round in 1987 by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wes was expected to be one of the young prospects to help relief the veteran team after finishing fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 1991. Fregosi has been giving a majority of the starting time to Chamberlain so far this year (despite the plan of platoonings) as Wes has started 12 of the 16 games so far this season in right field. Incaviglia follows up with a single of his own to make amends for his error and take the lead 2-1 PHILLIES.

Low- Bottom 2- Wallach ties it up

Despite finishing in last place in 1992, the Los Angeles Dodgers did very little in the offseason to improve their roster, hoping instead their young prospects would lead them back to a championship (only took 27 years). One of the few moves they did make was to trade for  Tim Wallach (on Christmas Eve), a former five time all star for the Montreal Expos, it has not panned out well for the Dodgers, coming into the game Wallach is batting .133. This of course means nothing as he smashes a Danny Jackson curveball over the wall to make it 2-2. Jackson then loads the bases with 1 out before ending the threat with a 1-2-3 double play. 

High- Bottom Second- Mickey Comes Through

With two on and two out, Mickey Morandini hits a single up the middle to score Mariano Duncan to take the lead. Mickey, like Wes, is also an integral youthful cog in the Phillies machine, which is great to see succeed in important situations. Harry Kalas’ call on the play of “It has eyes!” Is a prime example of what made Kalas so special as a baseball broadcaster. Like other greats, Phil Rizzuto or Vin Scully, Kalas had the vocal range to both put great gravitas to situations, but also to react with unencumbered joy. Baseball is known as a child’s game played by adults, and Kalas was beautifully able to bring a child like enthusiasm to every great play and game. I miss him so much. 3-2 PHILLIES.

High- Bottom 3rd Inning- Philadelphia meet Pete

One of the great folk heroes of the Philadelphia Phillies was Greg “The Bull” Luzinski, a bulking outfielder well known for his strength. Luzinski was an integral piece to the great Phillies teams of the 1970’s as well as the World Champion 1980 Phillies. The Bull was well loved by the Phille Phaithful for his ability to hit gargantuan home runs and .300 despite frequent strike outs. Pete Incaviglia was brought to the Phillies to do the exact same thing, the 6’1” 220+ outfielder looked more like a mob enforcer in The Sopranos then a baseball player (Tony Soprano played baseball, and his Uncle Junior always said he had the talent to make it, sliding doors), but early in the season, it’s not going great. On the season “Inky” is batting .185 with a .216 OBP, his only home run came on the second game of the season and occurred in Houston, away from Phillie fans. After an early error led to a run by the Dodgers, Incaviglia re introduces himself with a rocket home run, to which Wheels comments, “Phillies fans are going to like him.” 4-2 PHILLIES

  

HIGH- Bottom 6th- Tacking On

Mike Piazza hit a sacrifice in the top of the 6th to make it 4-3, but the Phillies go to work in the bottom of the sixth with the help of the Dodgers. First Chamberlain reaches on an error (he comes up limping and is subbed out for Eisenreich), then Incaviglia singles in Eisie due to another throwing error. Inky ends up 3-3 with a HR and 2 RBIS for the day raising his batting average to .258 in one day. Todd Pratt follows up with his first RBI on the season hitting a ground rule double to score Incaviglia to bring the score to 6-3 PHILLIES.

Wild Rides

Eisenreich would add another run in the bottom of the 8th with an RBI triple which makes it 7-3 and a moot point for Manager Jim Fregosi to bring in Mtch Williams if not a save situation (even though he’s already warmed up). Danny Jackson went 7 innings while scattering 8 hits and giving up 3 runs (2 earned) with 4 strikeouts for his 3rd quality start of the season. With Tommy Greene and Curt Schilling thriving in the early goings, Jackson has been able to quietly transition from decent number 2 starter to best number 4 starter in the National League. He’s like the Anti-Jake Arrietta. Larry Andersen pitched an easy 1-2-3 eighth inning which garners enough trust from Fregosi to send LA out for the 9th. This won’t be the last time that Fregosi decides to trust a pitcher to go an extra inning, and for the most part it works out for the skipper. Andersen is able to retire two Dodgers in the 9th but also gives up 2 singles, the second of which brings out Fregosi to call on The Wild Thing (now that it is a save situation). Mitch starts off with a near wild pitch nowhere close to the plate that Pratt luckily grabs, the second pitch is a perfect strike down the middle. This is vintage Mitch Williams. After working a full count, Williams is able to coerce a fly ball to the shortstop to end the game. Phillies win.  

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 7 (12-4) Los Angeles Dodgers 3 (6-12)

Words of Wisdom from Harry and Whitey 

“Phanatic Birthday tomorrow”- Wheels.

“I’ll tell you the one person in this stadium most excited by that… Tom LaSorda”- Whitey. If you haven’t read the cute little write-up MLB.com did after LaSorda’s death about the relationship between Tommy and the Phanatic. Do so now. 

“Kruk looks hitterish”- Whitey. 

“The difference is that I threw a strike”- Harry. Harry and Wheels both threw out ceremonial first pitches at Little League today, Harry needs Wheels to know he’s better than him.

Final Conclusions

Danny Jackson continues to put quality into quality stats, and Phillie fans get their first glimpse at Pete Incvaiglia, as the Phillies take the second game of the series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. 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 goes for the sweep on the Phanatic’s birthday with Tommy Greene on the mound, and I finally write a proper Eulogy for the great Tommy LaSorda

April 23, 1993: Schilling Me Softly

 April 23rd, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (10-4) vs  Los Angeles Dodgers (6-10)

Schilling Me Softly

An Introduction…

I’m the guy who is watching 28 year old Phillies baseball games and then writing two to three thousand words about each one he can find.  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)

The Phillies returned home for the high holiday 4/20 to play the San Diego Padres in a three game set that the Phillies split with the fathers after rain cancelled the April 21st game (this will matter in the past future). For the season Philadelphia has a record of 10-4 coming into a three game series at home against the Los Angeles Dodgers. In a change of pace, the Phillies were completely handcuffed in the game before by Padres starter Andy Benes. The Phillies were able to score a run to continue their non shutout streak, but were only able to scrape that together in the 9th inning before being finished off 2-1. 

The Dodgers have been struggling to start the season and in the last 4 games have only mustered 12 hits. Their road batting average is an anemic .183 and their record is a not great 6 and 10. Their lone spotlight has been the play of 24 year old rookie catcher Mike Piazza, who is on his way to winning the Rookie-of-the-year, is a Phoenixville High School grad, and the godson of his coach. Piazza’s family also owns the restaurant I used to work at, which led to the absurd experience of turning a corner with a hand full of entrees and almost running into Mike Piazza. They are managed of course by “the pride of Norristown” Tommy LaSorda who sadly passed away last week. There are three games in this set, so I’m going to wait to eulogize LaSorda, but know that Harry and Whitey combined to call him an “ambassador to the game” 5 times throughout today’s telecast. 

 

Today’s Game:

It is Friday  April 23rd, 1993 and the Phillies have returned to the concrete wonderland that is called Veteran’s Stadium.  Today’s television broadcast is brought to you on WPHL-17 with hall of farmers Harry Kalas and Richie “Whitey” Ashburn for the majority of the game, and Chris Wheeler thrown in for fun. One random note from the broadcast that I can’t fit into the categories below. Throughout the game, the Phillie Phaithful filled my heart with joy, once when a ball girl misplayed a carom off a foul ball got mercilessly booed, and anytime Darryl Strawberry came up to plate they also heartily booed, for Darryl used to be a Met, and we hate all Mets (No one yelled “DARRYLLLLLLLLLL”, which was a little disappointing).

Watch for yourself at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beFw9_5duIY

The Line-up

CF Lenny Dykstra

2B Mickey Morandini Just turned 27!

1B John Kruk 1st in HR 3rd in Runs 8th in Batting in NL

3B Dave Hollins

C Darren Daulton

RF Wes Chamberlain

LF Milt Thompson 

SS Mariano Duncan

SP Curt Schilling

On the Mound:

Pitching for the home team is Curt Schilling, who comes into the games as one of only 5 pitchers to “hurl” (the broadcast’s word not mine) a shut out this season. He owns a 2-1 record with a 3.63 ERA over 22.1 innings pitched. Schilling would make such a name for himself this season that he gets name checked in the plot of a season 1 episode of Boy Meets World. In the episode, the father Alan wakes up his son Corey to watch Curt Schilling take a no hitter into the 8th against the Dodgers in Los Angeles even though it’s a school night. Corey then fails a test the next day, and Alan learns a lesson about appropriate parenting techniques. All of season 1 of Boy Meets World is intertwined with the 1993 Phillies which in retrospect is a really weird and awesome thing. As far as I know there’s no Canadian sitcom where the protagonist leaves his sibling alone in their house to get Joe Carter’s autograph. 

For the Dodgers is Dominican born Ramon Martinez, more famously known now as Pedro Martinez’s older brother, but in 1993, Ramon is a star pitcher and Pedro is an also ran in the Dodgers’ bullpen. Ramon’s best year arguably came in 1990, when he won 20 games and finished 2nd in the league in strikeouts while finishing 2nd in Cy Young voting. In appearance he looks like a taller Pedro Martinez, which is interesting because Ramon kept telling the Dodgers that his brother was better, but the Dodgers thought Pedro was too small and eventually traded him to the Montreal Expos (it’s wild that two teams traded Pedro before he turned 27). On the year Ramon is 2-1 with a 2.7 ERA and 22 strike outs over 21 innings pitched. 

Highs (Hopes) and Lows

Low- Early Season Slumps

Lenny Dykstra is not doing great. Coming into this season, Dykstra has been a pretty large disappointment after the Phillies traded for him in June of 1989. Though in 1990, Dykstra was an All Star and finished the season 9th in MVP voting, the following two seasons were plagued by injury; first an infamous drunk driving accident with Darren Daulton on the way home from John Kruk’s bachelor party (something that haunted Kruk with guilt), then breaking his hand in his first at bat of the 1992 season from a hit-by-pitch. Now during the best start for the Phillies in Dykstra’s time with the team, he is batting a putrid .232 (albeit with a .370 OBP). Things still aren’t turning around today as he goes 0-3 with a walk and his batting average lowers to .220. It’s wild to know how much it’s going to turn around. 

  

High- Bottom 4- A Little Offense

Both Curt Schilling and Ramon Martinez have been cruising along through three innings and it isn’t until the fourth inning before any semblance of offense occurs in this game. With Dave Hollins up to bat, Whitey comments, “ They’re pitching Dave Hollins like he’s Babe Ruth up there, he must have burned the Dodgers a few times.” (.328 AVG 3 HRs vs Dodgers up to ‘93) As Hollins swings through a fastball.

The following pitch Hollins takes opposite field for his second home run of the season 1-0 PHILLIES. “Now we see why they were pitching him cautiously.” Whitey adds after. 

A couple hits later and Milt Thompson knocked in Darren Daulton on a field’s choice to score the second run of the inning 2-0 PHILLIES.

 Update- Headley’s Choice- Bottom 6, Top 7

Darren Daulton gets hit by a pitch in the bottom of the 6th inning and is none too pleased by the situation. He jaws his entire walk to first base. Everything seems kind of tense. The next inning, Curt Schilling decides not to retaliate against the Dodgers, even though Headley’s Choice (see the April 18th edition for more) is in effect. Harry and Whitey both agree that it’s too close of a game for Schilling to give up a baserunner. No comment from Dave Hollins.

High (but kind of low in hindsight)- Curt Schilling is Really Good

Until Cole Hamels, then Cliff Lee, then Doc Halladay wore red pinstripes, the best pitcher Phillies fans of my age (born in the 80’s) got to root for was Curt Schilling. First in 1993, but more importantly during the terrible times of 94-99, Schilling was a mainstay of excellence in what was typically a barren desert of despair masquerading as a Phillies rotation. Yet every five days there was one good pitcher that gave us a chance to win, I assume this was exactly what the early 70’s was like with Steve Carlton but homey wasn’t alive for that. Schilling never put up the numbers Carlton did, or even post his best numbers for the Phillies, but it was devastating for young fans (I'm talking about me) to see him get traded to a contender. Today's game (in 1993) is one of the best starts of his young career, and it is vintage Schilling, the game lasts only 2:25 minutes as Curt tears through Dodgers line-up like a hot knife through butter. In his first 8 innings of work, Schilling gave up 4 scattered hits, 2 walks, and strikes out 9 batters (a career high to that point) with only one moment where he ran into trouble. In the top of the 6th, after giving up back to back singles to Brett Butler and Eric Davis, respectively, Schilling faced off with the rising star of the Dodgers, Mike Piazza. On the 5th pitch, Schilling got Piazza to foul tip a fastball into Daulton's glove to strike out and end the inning.

Now that we’ve talked about his pitching, let’s remember that Curt Schilling is a terrible human being, who believes in all of the Q bull shit, Alex Jones fake news, and for sure voted for Donald Trump twice. I can’t stand to think about him as a person, and have thrown away the autograph I had after standing in line of a Modell’s in November of 93 for hours. Like Chinatown, it’s hard to enjoy great Schilling starts in hindsight.  

  

Low- Bottom 8th Inning- An Old Future Enemy

Last time, I spent some time talking about Dan Plesac and the warm feelings he gave me as a fan. This time we have the exact opposite of that, with the Major League Baseball debut of Omar Daal. Daal would eventually be a part of the package the Arizona Diamondbacks would use to trade for Curt Schilling, now he's just a young armed reliever for the Dodgers. More so, he’s one of the worst pitchers I’ve ever been forced to watch (and I’m saying this as someone who watched pretty much every 2020 Phillies game). After the trade to the Phillies, Daal went 2-9 with a 4.69 ERA and 4.7 FIP, he did a bit better in second year with the Phillies, but I don’t care to remember that. In 1993, in his first professional appearance he retires the Phillies in order.

Wild Rides

After throwing 119 pitches through 8 innings, and walking a guy to put two men on in the 8th before forcing a pop up, and with the prospect of facing the heart of the Dodgers order in the 9th, Manager Jim Fregosi does the smart thing and sits Schilling so that Mitch Williams can come make the save. Just kidding, it’s 1993. Schilling goes out for the 9th without a peep about his pitch count being mentioned by the broadcast team, the only reason I know his pitch count is because I did basic arithmetic on the baseball reference page.   Mike Piazza pops up for the first out in front of his friends and family (he did get a single earlier in the game), and Daryl Strawberry grounds out for the second out. 1992 NL Rookie of the Year winner Eric Karros then doubles to right field, so surely Fregosi brings in the already warmed up Mitch Williams to cement the win right? Nope, and Schilling rewards his manager’s faith by inducing a ground out to end the ball game. 

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 2 (11-4) Los Angeles Dodgers 0 (6-11)

Words of Wisdom from Harry and Whitey 

“(Piazza)’s come a long way from playing Brad Kalas in little league” Harry Kalas 

“Some guys can just tumble out of bed and can hit and he’s one of em” Kalas on Kruk.

“He’ll come up to me tomorrow and say ‘Dude, you don’t know what the bleep you’re talking about’” Whitey has some ideas about Dykstra’s slumping. 

“He is a pitcher, Harry, you can’t forget about that. They’re the only ones allowed to cheat.” Whitey is talking about pitchers doctoring the ball after a weird incident while Daal is pitching. Whitey dies in 1997, so he doesn’t really get to see the golden age of hitters being allowed to cheat.

Final Conclusions

Schilling throws a gem for his second complete game shutout of the 1993 season, and the Phillies win the first game of a three game set against the Dodgers.. 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 play the second game of the series, Tommy LaSorda is throwing out the first pitch at Penn then going to the Penn Relays before the game, sure hope he’s not too tired.  

April 18, 1993: Revenge of the Beaned Guy

 April 18th, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (8-3) at Chicago Cubs (6-5)

Revenge of the Beaned Guy

An Introduction…

I’m the guy who disliked the national anthem as a kid because I thought that it was in favor of the Atlanta baseball team.  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)

For the first time all season the Phillies have lost two games in a row, after falling to the Cubs yesterday, thanks to a Sammy Sosa home run. With a quick 10-3 record to start the season , the Phillies have already started turning heads in the national media, but are still expected to fizzle out before the season’s end. Coach Jim Fregosi has run the team like a finely tuned drum even though he’s deciding to use multiple platoons. Fregosi  was previously the coach of the Chicago White Sox (when he replaced Tony LaRussa) and would only last three more years coaching the Phillies. Hard to believe a coach bringing a once in a generation team to the championship, and then getting fired so shortly after performing such a Herculean task in Philadelphia (does everyone see the joke I’m making right now?)

The Chicago Cubs are over .500 for the season, but are still trying to come together as a team after losing Greg Maddux and Andre Dawson in the offseason. They do have future superstar (and Baseball pariah depending on how you feel) Sammy Sosa in the outfield, extremely underrated always great Mark Grace at first, and although he’s injured to start the season, hall of famer Ryne Sandberg is still near perfect at 2nd base. 

 

Today’s Game:

It is Sunday April 20th, 1993 on whatever side of Chicago Wrigley Field is. Going into today’s contest the forecast calls for heavy winds heading right out of the ballpark.  Since it’s a Sunday (in 1993), today’s television broadcast is brought to you on WPHL-17 with hall of farmers Harry Kalas and Richie “Whitey” Ashburn for the majority of the game. If you don’t know how TV worked in the late 80’s and 90’s, when the big 3 networks did not broadcast shows, some production companies would sell full shows directly to local affiliates, depending on your broadcast area. WPHL-17 was Philadelphia’s local home of such tv shows like Star Trek: Next Generation, Married with Children, and Renegade. Due to the show having to be sold to each local area, tv shows had to do area specific commercials for their shows, which led to situations like Ed O’Neill showing up sitting on the Married With Children set in a full Philadelphia Phillies satin jacket shilling for his TV Show. The best example of the lunacy of this method is in The Larry Sanders Show as Larry (Garry Shandling) and Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) record each commercial while changing their outfits to regional specific affectations (dealer hats for Vegas, BBQ apron for KC, etc) back-to-back-to-back. 

Watch for yourself at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9lCb8ijoY4

The Line-up

CF Lenny Dykstra

2B Mariano Duncan

1B John Kruk

3B Dave Hollins

C Darren Daulton

RF Wes Chamberlain

LF Pete Incaviglia 

SS Kim Batiste

SP Danny Jackson

On the Mound:

Starting for the Phillies is Danny Jackson, who comes into today’s game with 0-0 record and 5.1 era after two starts this season.  Jackson, as has been mentioned in this space previously, was the booby prize for Phillies fans going into an offseason where they dreamed about the possibility of signing Doug Jones, David Cone, or Gregory Swindell. To quote Jayson Stark at the time, “They talked about David Cone, they delivered Danny Jackson.” The story (according to More than Beards Bellies and Biceps) goes that GM Lee Thomas approached Kruk, and Daulton while the players were eating at Ruth Chris’s with the idea of acquiring Jackson, with Daulton saying, “Yeah get that guy, he can throw”. 

Facing the Philadelphia 9 for the Cubs today, is Greg Hibbard who I incorrectly guessed the spelling for in the previous post (my bad Greg.) Hibbard is a sinker ball pitcher, who lives off of getting ground outs according to Whitey, and is coming off two pretty good starts to begin the season. He owns a 1-0 record with a 1.84 era over 14.2 innings of work.  Hibbard went to University of Alabama and was a 16th round pick of the Kansas City Royals, but was quickly traded to the Chicago White Sox where he made his debut and accumulated a majority of professional statistics. His best year came in 1990 where he went 14-9 with a 3.16 era over 211 innings pitched. In  the winter of 1992, he was selected by the Florida Marlins in the expansion draft but quickly traded away to the Chicago Cubs. Hibbard would leave the Cubs after the 93 season to join the Seattle Mariners on a 3 year 6.95 million dollar contract, where he would immediately get hurt and soon after retire.  Thanks to a random nbcsports.com article from May 2020 called “Remember that guy” I’m happy to report that Hibbard has spent most of his time coaching in the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers organizations respectively, most recently as pitching coach for the Double A Frisco RoughRiders. 

Highs (Hopes) and Lows

High- Top 1st- Kruk Rebounds

Most people would be surprised to know that (particularly after titling his autobiography, “I Ain’t an Athlete Lady”) John Kruk was actually a multi sport athlete in high school in West Virginia, I bring this up because Kruk had one of his worst games of his career yesterday going 0-5 with 2 strike outs and grounding into a double play, and decided to waste little time in rebounding from his previous failures. “What’d I go 0-5 today? Felt like 0-7” Kruk was quoted as saying to Harry Kalas yesterday. Kruk then destroys the second offering he sees from Hibbard and slams the ball 450 feet into centerfield for a two-run home run. 2-0 Phillies

High- This Game- Wind

As mentioned, it is very windy in the Friendly Confines today, and the Phillies hitters do a great job of taking advantage of such events. After Kruk’s home run, Wes Chamberlain would supply one of his own thanks heavily to a very fortunate gust of wind. Kruk would later hit a wind-assisted home run of his own in the 6th inning and once again Chamberlain would respond with a home run in the 8th (this a holy-Jesus-that-ball-was-destroyed variety). This power display from the Phillies right fielder and 1st basemen would help the Phillies put 8 runs with their four homers. It’s also the first time the Phillies have hit a home run in 6 days!

Typical 90’s- Bottom 4th- Headley’s Choice

The most important takeaway from the multiple books about the 1993 Phillies I’ve read about Dave Hollins, is that he’s borderline insane. Not like goofy crazy, like Kruk or Larry Andersen, but just this side of non-homicidal maniac. His exploits of calling his evil alter ego Mikey and destroying the team shower with a baseball bat while naked are well described in those books. Yet the story that most displays Dave Hollins’ eccentricity with its importance of this specific season is the proclamation of Headley’s Choice. The way that the story is relayed is such, Dave Hollins, like Chase Utley after him, was one of the more prolific hits-by-pitch batters in the National League, leading the category in the 1992 season, but he felt that his pitchers didn’t protect him by retaliating. Thus Hollins, also known as Headley (or Head, for being a headcase), approached the pitchers in the spring of 1993 with a choice, either, they would hit the first batter they faced after a Phillie got hit, or Hollins would hit the pitcher  (some stories vary on whether Hollins said that or if he would just ignore protecting a pitcher if there was a brawl). This edict first showed up in the Spring Training when extremely mild mannered Tommy Greene started a brawl with the St. Louis Cardinals after beaning a player in retaliation. Today’s game shows us an example of this type of event after Darren Daulton gets hit by a pitch in the 5th inning, Danny Jackson starts off the 6th by hitting Derek May in the back.  

High- 7th Inning- Larry Andersen’s Big Day

At 39 years old (one month from his 40th birthday), Larry Andersen is the 3rd oldest player in the major leagues, so most of his work constitutes him not picking up a baseball bat to hit. In his illustrious career, Andersen has appeared to bat 36 times before this day in 1993, and currently has a lifetime .111 when he is forced to step up to the plate in the top of the 7th. Andersen was brought in after Danny Jackson coughed up two runs to narrow the game to 6-2, but was allowed to bat only after Wes Chamberlain hit his 2nd home run of the game to expand the lead back to 8-2 before LA’s spot in the line-up. Thus this magical conversion of events led us to Larry Andersen smacking a single in front of a diving Sammy Sosa, making Larry Andersen a 1.000 hitter for the season. The best part of the at bat is hearing Whitey and Harry not to laugh and seeing 3rd base coach Larry Bowa bite his tongue from laughing while not giving Andersen any signs (since LA wouldn't know them anyway).

Hi- Top 7th- An Old Future Friend

Pitching against Larry Andersen in the 7th is future Phillie of little renown but in my heart, Dan Plesac. Plesac at this point is merely a relief pitcher in his career but he will soon morph into one of the last dinosaurs of Major League Baseball a LOOGY. LOOGY of course stands for (L)eft-handed (O)ne (O)ut (G)u(Y) (It’s the G.R.O.S.S. of MLB analytics), or a left handed specialist brought into only very specific situations. They became extremely popular in the late 80’s and 90’s thanks to guys like Tony LaRussa who didn’t create the idea but crafted perfectly the formula of when to disperse it upon an opponent. The idea of the LOOGY is now extinct in Pro Baseball with the recent rule change that requires each pitcher who enters the game to face at least three batters. Now like the Dodo bird and typewriters before it, the LOOGY is no more.

Low- Bottom 8th- Coughing Fits

After being dominant for the first two weeks of the season, the Phillies bullpen has started showing the cracks in the hull that will plague them for the rest of the season. After Danny Jackson left the game 6-2, the Phillies continued to cough up the lead. First a solo shot given up to Steven Buchele and then after two should be double plays, the Cubs scored again to make the lead 8-4 Phillies entering the 9th inning. 

Wild Rides

Even after giving up two runs in the 8th inning, manager Jim Fregosi attempts to give his closer the day off and leaves Mark Davis out to pitch the ninth. Davis rewards his coach’s confidence by immediately giving up a double and a walk before the Troggs’ start warming up for the entrance of Mitch Williams. Davis is able to retire one Cub on an adventure of a pop up to shortstop as the wind continues to mess with the Phillies. As Williams enters he is serenaded by boos from the Chicago faithful, Mitch was a former pitcher of the Cubs, so they know his schtick pretty well. Mitch is able to force a fly ball to Centerfield but once again the wind haunts the Phillies defense, and Lenny Dykstra completely biffs it and the ball drops in for a single to load the bases. Back-up Catcher Walbeck then sacrifices in a run to make 8-5 before Candy Maldonado slams a ball to deep left field to tie the game at 8-8. This one is going to extra innings.

In the top of the 10th, the Phillies meekly go down in order. Cubs fans are real loud now, “Boy has the momentum turned in this game” says Harry. 

Mitch Williams stays on for the bottom of the 10th inning and gives up an infield single to start the inning. Mark Grace then bunts over third basemen Dave Hollins’ head, but Mitch Williams saves the play by throwing out Grace. Whitey is starting to come undone by the weirdness of this game. Mitch strikes out Derek May for the 2nd out and then throws a wild pitch to move the runner to 3rd base, “What’s going on here?” Whitey asks God. Sosa grounds out to end the 10th.

The 11th starts as well for the Phillies as the 10th ended with two easy outs before Mariano Duncan doubles deep to right field; this pushes the Cubs to walk John Kruk and bring Dave Hollins to the plate and face Bob Scanlan. Let’s take a moment in our time machine and go back even further to the 1992 season where two cellar dwelling baseball teams faced each other late in the season. It’s September 24th, 1992 now, and Paul Assenbacher hits Dave Hollins in the 8th inning to force in a run to tie the game 2-2. Obviously this wasn’t on purpose, because it cost the Cubs their lead, but it definitely pissed off Dave Hollins, and it’s quite possible when Mitch Williams didn’t reciprocate in the 9th inning, it really pissed off Dave Hollins. So when Hollins came up to bat in the 10th inning in a tie game, he really didn’t like it when Cubs pitcher Bob Scanlan hit him for the second time in the game. Hollins charged the mound, the benches cleared, and a large brawl ensued that would cost both Scanlan and Hollins four game checks. Do you think this is one of those things that Dave Hollins forgot? We go back to 1993, where Dave Hollins takes a 3-0 count and makes it a 3-2 count before fouling off three close pitches against Bob Scanlan. Fun fact Bob Scanlan was drafted by the Phillies and traded for Mitch Williams. Hollins then focuses his rage and crushes a three run shot to right field to make the score 11-8 PHILLIES.

With a new 3 run lead, there’s no way this could go wrong again for the Phillies bullpen right? Wrong, because out comes Jose De Leon, who is not very good at throwing baseballs, which is a bummer since it is his job. He manages to force one out in the bottom of the 11th but soon gives up a home run to the Cubs back-up back-up catcher (yes the 1993 Cubs decided to carry 3 catchers on their roster) to make it an 11-10 game now. Fregosi tries to let De Leon work through it, but after another single is hit, De Leon is yanked for David West. “What is going on here?” Whitey repeats. With the tying run on first and one out, Jim LeFebrve is forced to bat his closer Randy Myers with the game on the line, because he’s used all of his bench. LeFebrve calls for the relief pitcher to lay down a sacrifice bunt to move over the runner, thinking that’s the safest way to get through the spot in the line-up. Myers then bunts to David West who turns a double play to end this godforsaken game, and allows the Phillies to escape Chicago with at least one win in the series. 

 

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 11 (11-3) Chicago Cubs 10 (6-6)

Words of Wisdom from Harry and Whitey

“At Sacred Heart Hospital in Norristown” As Harry Kalas goes through the fan birthdays and announcements he mentions some one watching at this hospital. Which is the hospital I was born in! 

“He’s batting 1.000 this year”- Whitey, immediately after Andersen’s big hit

“Throws a lot like Pittsburgh’s Randy Tomlin” -Whitey. Whoever that is, Whitey I bet you’re right.

Final Conclusions

The Phillies do more than enough to win the game with their bats, but the wild and wacky wind at Wrigley wrecks the will of Whitey (this sentence barely makes sense but look at the alliteration) as the Cubs almost battle back. 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 have a travel day tomorrow as they head back to Philadelphia to face off against the San Diego Padres on 4/20 (nice).