April 25th, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (12-4) vs Los Angeles Dodgers (6-12)
Darrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyllllllll
An Introduction…
I’m the guy who just bought himself a copy of “I ain’t an Athlete Lady, I’m a Ballplayer” by John Kruk for his birthday last week. 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 won back-to-back games and 4 of their last 5 to achieve the record of 12-4 which is good enough for the best record in all of baseball. “I did not predict THIS” Jayson Stark says during today’s pre-game show, but what has been stated by Harry, Whitey, and Stark agrees with today is that, “there was very clearly a special feeling about these guys and they just knew that if they could stay healthy and they could avoid all the disasters and catastrophes that they had happen to them the last couple years they were gonna be good team and if you look around look at the rest of the division they’ve got an excelletn chance to win this division.” Also on the pre-game show is a nice piece about young Phillies prospect Kevin Stocker, who Larry Bowa says, “We expect big things out of him and it won’t be too long till we see him in the big leagues.” Keep an eye out.
The Los Angeles Dodgers on the other hand are heading in the opposite direction, now having lost five straight games to sit with a record of 6-12 on the season, thanks to having the worst batting average in Baseball. Coaching the Dodgers, is the Norristown born Tommy Lasorda. Born on Sept 22, 1927 (5 days before my grandfather was born in the same hospital), Tommy Lasorda was signed out of Norristown High School by the Philadelphia Phillies as a left-handed pitcher. He would never play for his hometown team, because after he finished a two year stint in the army, the Phillies sold his contract to the (then) Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948. After five years in the minors, he was called up to pros for cups of coffee in 1954 and 1955 before being sold once again this time to the Kansas City Athletics (they themselves being sold by Philadelphia and eventually bought by Oakland), where accumulated a majority of his major league stats, in the 1956 Lasorda was 0-4 with a 6.16 ERA (6.08 FIP) over 5 starts and 45 innings pitched. On a bright note, he did record a save, ensuring that one game in which he pitched, his team won; there are no game logs available from the 1950’s wildly, so this is the only definitive positive effect Tommy Lasorda ever had on a Major League Baseball game. Lasorda would kick around the minors and something called the “Canadian-American” baseball league until calling it quits in 1960. It’s then when Lasorda started his post-playing career as a scout and eventually coaching in 1966 for the Pocatello Chiefs, in 1973 he became the Dodgers’ third base coach and in 1976 he took over as manager of the team. For the next 20 years Lasorda was one of the most successful coaches in the history of baseball, winning over 1590 games, 8 division titles, 4 pennants, and 2 World Series. His and the Dodger organization’s most uncanny talent was their ability to win Rookie-of-the-Year awards, garnering 9! In the twenty years he was manager. After retiring, Lasorda settled in as ambassador of baseball and a sort of manager emeritus position, with a final act as the coach of team USA in the first World Baseball classic. With the Dodgers in Los Angeles, Lasorda garnered a hollywood-esque type personality, showing up on several television shows like The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, and Hee-Haw, while also acting in 80’s staples, Fantasy Island, CHiPs, and Silver Spoons. Lasorda was a beloved character of baseball, that will be dearly missed in my personal hometown community and the baseball fraternity at large.
Today’s Game:
It is Sunday April 25th, 1993 at 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, with Chris Wheeler and Andy Musser thrown in for the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings. The stadium is packed to the tune of 56,000 fans for today’s games due not to the exciting baseball team but moreso for the birthday celebration of the Philadelphia Phanatic. “Born” in 1978 as the brainchild of long time front office member Bill Giles, the Phanatic is technically the first major mascot in professional sports (the Padres chicken was actually owned by a local radio station, so suck it San Diego). Today’s game marks the 25th anniversary of the Phanatic and will be the last birthday for the original man under the mask Dave Raymond. Raymond was the Phillies intern called upon to give life to the Phanatic, as More Than Beards, Bellies, and Biceps puts it, “ Bill Giles conceived a Phillie mascot, but Dave Raymond invented the Phillie Phanatic move by move, and pratfall by pratfall. Raymond transported Giles’ monster from an innovation to an invention. Raymond’s enthusiasm and talent paved the way for his alter ego to become the longest running- make that longest waddling- most recognizable mascot in all of sports.” Raymond would retire from the position after the 1993 season, he now runs a mascot consultant agency, their last big creation? Some orange guy named Gritty.
Watch for yourself at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblAgf_cOfk
The Line-up
CF Lenny Dykstra .213/.385
2B Mickey Morandini
1B John Kruk Leads league in Total bases
3B Dave Hollins
C Darren Daulton
LF Pete Incaviglia 5-35 lifetime against Tom Candiotti
RF Jim Eisenriech
SS Mariano Duncan
SP Tommy Greene
On the Mound:
Taking the hill for the Phillies is Tommy Greene, who is currently near the league lead in several pitching categories with a 1-0 record and a 1.56 era with 28 strikeouts over 26 innings pitched. Greene is a former 1st round pick (14th overall) of the Atlanta Braves in the1985 amateur draft, after having a god-level high school career. Pitching in Whiteville, North Carolina, Greene along with another future first round pick Patrick Lennon, lit the high school baseball world on fire, leading to USA Today to deem the place Baseball Town, USA. In stats that are hard to believe (to the point that I had to find more sources to actually believe them), Tommy Greene threw 9 no hitters in high school career and struck out 498 batters, in his senior year Greene, had a .07 era (this is the stat I triple checked) over 124 innings where he struck out 270 hitters. I did the math, he gave up 1 one run while striking out 73 percent of his total outs.
Pitching for the visiting Dodgers is knuckleballer Tom Candiotti with lifetime (at this point in 1993) 95-95 career record. For the season he is 0-2 with a 5.92 era over 19 innings pitched. Candiotti had a pretty wild journey to even make it to the major leagues, he went undrafted and unsigned out of college and could only catch on with a professional team in Canada named the Victoria Mussels in 1980, and was then sold to the Kansas City Royals system before being picked in the rule 5 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers, and eventually traded to the Cleveland Indians. In Cleveland is where Candiotti found his knuckleball and hand in hand his most success as a starter. His best year arguably came in 1991, when Candiotti was traded from Cleveland to Toronto for the Blue Jays playoff push, Candiotti was leading the AL in era going into his last start of the season and gave up 7 runs in ⅔ of an inning. According to Wikipedia from 1992-1996 Candiotti had the 4th best era in the NL over that time, trailing only the hall of fame triumvirate in Atlanta. Despite being in the top ten in ERA 4 times, and top ten in WAR and FIP 5 times, Candiotti never got a vote for Cy Young and after retiring with a lifetime accumulation of 41.1 WAR, he garnered but one vote for the Hall of Fame. On a more fun note, he played Hoyt Wilhelm in BIlly Crystal's HBO film *61.
Highs (Hopes) and Lows
Low- First Inning- Darryl Strawberry.
Phillies fans hate Darryl Strawberry. It’s like we were born with that instinct. Something we didn’t even know we even knew. Is it because he was a successful Met? Probably (but so was Lenny Dykstra). Was it because of a bench clearing brawl in 1990 where Dwight Gooden got plunked, stormed the mound, and both sides went berserk? That sounds more like it. According to the story (and this youtube video), on August 9th, 1990 Dwight Gooden had beaned two Phillies, Dickey Thon and Tommy Herr, so when he came to the plate in the 5th inning, Phillies pitcher Pat Combs hit Doc in the leg, and Doc charged the mound. What Doc didn’t expect was the cat-like quickness of Darren Daulton who got Gooden in a headlock, pulled him to the ground, and started to repeatedly punch him in the back of the head. About five minutes later when everything was calming down, Strawberry tries a sneak attack on an unsuspecting Daulton but gets waylaid by Von Hayes and the brawl recommences. In the press the next day Strawberry went out and said "The next time I'm ready to score, we'll see what happens at home plate, "I won't forget what Daulton did. He's good at sucker-punching. If [a Phillie] throws at me, I'm going after the catcher." To which Daulton replied in the press, “Tell him to pack a lunch” Which is a cool? Thing to say. I don’t know what it means, it was 1990, Daulton is from Arkansas, it kind of seems like a cool comeback. Might need to throw that back in the writer’s room though, Dutch. Anyway, Strawberry comes up to bat to a cascade of boos with a runner in scoring position, Whitey makes a great jibe at Straw’s early season struggles, “Strawberry isn’t hitting, he’s on i-76” because Strawberry is hitting .176. Straw then singles in Brett Butler to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
High- Bottom 1st- “A Walk Scores a Run”
My mom’s favorite baseball-ism is “a walk scores a run” I don’t know when she heard it as a small child or when she used it around her father and he agreed and so she kept saying it, but she always says it. With the bases loaded Darren Daulton walked to tie the game 1-1. Incaviglia followed Daulton with a fielder’s choice RBI and Eisenreich followed that with an infield single RBI to make it 3-1 Phillies.
High- Bottom 3rd- Inky Strikes again
A day after raising his batting average 70 points while going 3-3, Incavigla rewards his manager’s faith in him by hitting another bomb, this time to deep left field. “Wow did he get that one airborne” mentions Harry Kalas. Incaviglia has 5 RBIs over his last two games which is equal to the amount he had in the first 15 games of the season. 5-1 PHILLIES.
Mids- Dodgers- Angry Hindsight
For the third time this series, the Dodgers get future Hall-of-Famer (and future Phillie great) Pedro Martinez warming up in the bullpen. Which of course raises the question, why is Pedro Martinez in the bullpen? I understand that the Dodgers couldn’t have possibly guessed how good Pedro really was? But they’re rotation last year had two guys who lost 15 games (Candiotti and Orel Hershiser) and a guy that lost 13 (Kevin Gross). The Dodgers also employed Pedro’s brother, which you’d think would be a pretty good evaluation on how Pedro would mature. For kicks Pedro even had a great track record in the minors too, going 18-8 in 1991 across several levels of the minors while being named the Dodgers minor league player of the year. Lasorda also has a resume full of rookie-of-the-years! All the pieces were in place for Pedro to thrive on the Dodgers, but they just plopped him in the bullpen to rot away on a sub .500 team whose rotation had 3 starters over the age of 33. “Pedro would like to join the Dodgers’ rotation” Wheels mentions. Pedro does eventually come in down 4 runs and cruises for 2 ⅓ innings with 3 ks and 3 bbs, and even getting a nod of approval from Lenny Dykstra.
HIGH- Top 8th- Phillies Fans> All other Fans
After 7 strong innings from Tommy Greene (2 Er, 6ks, 4 hits), David West comes in for the Phillies to pitch the 8th inning. As a reminder the year is 1993, but in the recent past of February 1992, the Simpsons aired what is possibly their greatest episode entitled “Homer at the Bat” (if you’d like to read more about this episode’s creation). In this episode, Homer’s nuclear facility softball team makes a heroic season turnaround from worst to first in thanks to Homer’s magic bat, but with the championship on the line, Homer’s boss the evil Mr. Burns decides to bring in actual major league baseball players as ringers. One of those major league stars that is brought in is none other than Darryl Strawberry. Now each of the major league players was given a small storyline in the episode which eventually leads to their inability to play in the big game, and Strawberry’s was that his fragile ego could not endure the jeers heaved at him from the stands by the Simpsons children. Both Lisa and Bart combine to reign down upon Strawberry with the chorus of “Darrrrrryl! Darrrryl! Darrrryl!” as a singular tear falls down Straw’s face. With one man on and one man out in today’s game, Strawberry was met with similar refrains from the Philadelphia fans, aping their yellow Springfield brethren and it is truly magical to listen to. Strawberry then struck out.
Wild Rides
With the game on the line, Fregosi turns to Mitch Williams to close out the 9th inning. He dispatches Tim Wallach, and Whitey mentions, “Mitch didn’t walk anybody in Spring Training, he also didn’t get anyone out”. Piazza pops out for number 2. Williams then commits some Mitch on Mitch violence by retiring Mitch Webster to end the game with a 1-2-3 save. It is Mitch’s 7th save of the season, and it improves the Phillies record to 13-4 with the sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Final: Philadelphia Phillies 5 (13-4) Los Angeles Dodgers 2 (6-113)
Words of Wisdom from Harry and Whitey
“I don’t lift weights” -John Kruk, this is from a dynamite pre game interview where Kruk confirms things everyone assumed.
“I’ll tell ya if Wallach had hung on to that ball, Lenny would have committed Harikari”- Harry Kalas.
Final Conclusions
The Phillies finish their sweep of the Dodgers thanks to high school super star Tommy Greene, and the bat of Pete Incaviglia. 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 about to play some more NL West teams with the Giants coming to town and spoilers it’s one of best games of the season.
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