April 17th, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (8-2) at Chicago Cubs (5-5)
Say It Ain’t Sosa
An Introduction…
I’m the guy who has a backpack from college filled with every Philadelphia Inquirer Sports section from October 2008. 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 Philadelphia Phillies have lost their second game of the season, putting their record at a very respectable 8-2 start. Manager Jim Fregosi is using multiple platoons to great success, but still as a sinkhole at short stop. They are first in the NL East, a game ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Chicago Cubs are at a less auspicious 5-5 start under the management of Jim LeFebrve. The Cubs came into the 1993 season with a lot of question marks after failing to secure the services of their staff ace and future Hall-of-Famer Greg Maddux, as well as their best outfielder and future Hall-of-Famer Andre Dawson. LeFebrve is “Baseball’s first new age coach” according to Sports Illustrated saying that “ The Cubs do not have coaches they have pitching and hitting coordinators” the italics and condescension there within are all SI’s. The 2021 Red Sox just hired Jaseon Varitek as game day coordinator, and Miami Marlins unofficially have deemed their hitting coach their offensive coordinator.
Today’s Game:
It is Saturday April 17th, 1993 at the Friendly Confines in Chicago, Illinois. Though it is much sunnier than the previous day it is a balmy 45 degrees in April. Today’s game is on Sportschannel (an offshoot of Prism) which means our hosts for all nine innings are the venerable Andy Musser and former relief pitcher Kent “Tek” Tekulve. The Cubs are wearing uniforms this season that for the first time in their history provide the names on the back of the jersey.
Watch for yourself at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjx5U72ctgM
The Line-up
CF Lenny Dykstra 11 Runs in first 10 games
2B Mickey Morandini
1B John Kruk Leads the NL in doubles
3B Dave Hollins
C Darren Daulton .306 Lifetime Average in Wrigley
LF Milt Thompson
RF Wes Chamberlain
SS Juan Bell
SP Curt Schilling
On the Mound:
Taking the ball for the Phillies is Curt Schilling who on the year is 2-0 with a 1.59 era. His last start was also against the Cubs and he silenced them to the tune of four hits and a complete game shutout. With Schilling’s Hall-of-Fame candidacy being discussed currently (in January 2021) I’d like to step away from his playing record and his utterly disgusting public record since retirement and take a look at what his teammates and coaches thought of him. Jim Fregosi was quoted as saying “Curt Schilling is a horse on the days he starts and a horse’s ass the four other days.” This quote in some form is also attributed to Darren Daulton. Kruk would later say, “Curt wants to be one of us but we won’t let him.” Curt would defend himself and his position on the team by saying things like, “I like to read books and they didn’t.”
Pitching for the Cubbies today is Jose Guzman, a Puerto Rican native whose pitching arsenal consists of a power sinker, a split finger, and a change-up according to Tek. Guzman was the 1991 Comeback player of the year for the Texas Rangers, and followed the award with his best year as a professional pitcher in 1992, going 16-11 with a 3.66 ERA and 3.2 FIP. His last outing was against the Phillies where he gave up 2 unearned runs over 6 ⅓ innings of work. His first start of the year against the Atlanta Braves was arguably the best start of his career, taking a no-hitter into the 9th inning. It wasn’t until the last hitter the Braves had left, Otis Nixon, came up to bat with two outs that Guzman gave up his first hit of the game. For the 93 season Guzman has a 0.00 Era, with batters hitting .103 against him. During his career Guzman was four times in the top 10 in k/9 and twice top 10 in K’s, which is pretty cool.
Highs (Hopes) and Lows
Low and Lower- 1st Inning- A Bad Start
After Mickey Morandini busted out of a 0-13 mini-slump with a double, Guzman walks the bases loaded with two outs and Milt Thompson at the plate. This is very familiar territory because almost the exact same thing happened in the previous game. Sadly, just like yesterday (in 1993) Milt Thompson grounded out back to the pitcher to end the inning with zero runs scored. Schilling then adds to the woes by giving up a lead-off home run to Dwight Smith (who came in 2nd in NL ROY voting in 1989), making the score 1-0 CUBS.
Low- Bottom 2nd- Ghost of Baseball future
To start off the 2nd inning, Schilling once again gives up a home run to a Cubs outfielder, Tek says of the home runs, “two guys you don’t really expect to hit a lot of home runs”. The second Cubs outfielder is a tiny little Dominican by the name of Sammy Sosa, who at this point is at the start of his fifth season in the Majors and with that home run has a career total of 38. He will hit 571 from this point until his retirement in 2007. Sosa is the poster child of the steroid movement and is the guy every one points to when they say you could take any player and make them a super star with steroids. It’s interesting that Bonds and Clemens continually get close to the 75 percent vote rate while Sosa continually gets less and less votes for the Hall. The argument has shifted to they’re all cheaters, to well Clemens and Bonds were really amazing but also used steroids. 2-0 CUBS
Low with a High Kicker- Top 3rd- The argument against Moneyball
The most basic tenet of the Moneyball ethos particularly if you only saw the movie, is that walks are good. Getting on base is extremely important when attempting to score runs, and runs are the reason you win baseball games. Billy Beane looked at on base percentage as an indicator on how to create runs, while other talent evaluators were obsessed with batting average. The basic principle (without taking other numbers into account) being that if a guy hits .300, but has an on base percentage of .312 (Peak Ben Revere numbers) he’s not as productive as a guy who hits .268 but with an on base percentage of .420 (hello Bryce!). The argument that developed against this (once again very basic idea) was that if your best hitters are taking walks instead of swinging, you’re taking the bat out of the hands of your best players. Which is what occurs once more with the Philadelphia Phillies, for the fourth time in 2 games the Phillies loaded the bases, and in three of those occasions both Dave Hollins and Darren Daulton, the number 3 and 4 hitters in the line-up, were walked. The heart of the order and the players most expected to knock in runs by doing the “smart” thing and taking pitches. On this occasion, Guzman decides to do the Phillies a small favor and throw a wild pitch to allow a run for the away team. But Wes Chamberlain then grounds out to third base to end the inning, with the Phillies once again failing to take advantage of having runners on base. The law of averages does say that the rest of the Phillies will start hitting in those situation and scoring runs, two games is a very small sample size, but still this has been annoying. 2-1 CUBS
Low then Lower then Lowest- Bottom 5th- The Anger Never Goes Away
These games happened 27 going on 28 years ago, but that doesn’t stop me from getting angry at managers, pitchers, or most importantly umpires. With two on and no outs, 3rd Basemen Steve Buchele hit a slow roller to Phillies 2nd Baseman Mickey Morandini, who astutely tried to tag out the runner, Sammy Sosa, as he attempted to get to 2nd base. The fiendish Sosa, dodged the tag, by very obviously running out of the base path and continued to 2nd. Morandini then threw to first base to get the force out at first. Except the umpire didn’t call out Sammy Sosa for stepping out of the base path, because the Umpire was only looking to see if Morandini had made the tag (which he did not).
And since this is 1993, the umpire can’t look like an idiot and reverse his decision, because it would make him look like an idiot, and since since this is 1993, there’s no video review. Fregosi comes out and yells for ten minutes, but it doesn’t matter, the Cubs get an extra out and extra base runner. Unsurprisingly as these things go, the Cubs will go on to score four more runs in the inning to make it 6-1 CUBS.
Low then a little High- Top 7th- Here we are again
The Cubs call to their bullpen and immediately load the bases by walking Phillies for the 5th time this series. For a change of pace, John Kruk the three hole hitter is up to bat, for a terrible twist, he then hits into a 1-2-3 double play. Like literally pitcher to catcher to first. Some solace is achieved when Hollins follows up with a double scoring two Phillies to tighten the game 6-3. Since I’m actually in 2021, it’s impossible for me to imagine a scenario where a Philadelphia Phillies team could possibly overcome a 5 run deficit.
Wild Rides
The Chicago Cubs Closer Randy Myers is a perfect 8-8 on save attempts against the Phillies, and his only two saves this season are against Philadelphia. Dykstra walks to provide some excitement, but then Morandini strikes out on a bad pitch.
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| Let's go ump. |
Final: Philadelphia Phillies 3 (8-3) Chicago Cubs 6 (6-5)
Words of Wisdom for Andy and Tek
“The Plate looks the size of a postage stamp and seems about 50 miles away” Tek is commenting on a Cubs pitcher who walks the bases loaded. I enjoy metaphors.
“Saves them a big sewing bill.” Musser talking about how Rockies decided not to put their player’s names on the back of their jersey.
This isn’t a quote, but Jim Lefebrve wears batting gloves while he coaches… why?
Final Conclusions
The Phillies continually get the bases loaded, but fail to make the most of those opportunities and lose again 6-3 to the Cubs. 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 final leg of the 3 game set is scheduled with Danny Jackson facing Terry Hibbert (whoever that may be), we’ll just have to see when I write it.
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