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.
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