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).
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