May 2nd, 1993: Thank You Terry Much a Mr. Mulholland

 May 2nd, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (17-6) vs  Los Angeles Dodgers (9-15)

Thank you Terry Much a Mr. Mulholland

An Introduction…

I’m the guy that decided the best way to cope with the present day Phillies was by watching the 1993 Phillies. Now that the 2021 season has begun, my attention has returned to the current Phillies, but as too the heartbreak of being a fan of this franchise has also begun, 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 28 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 game recap 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 lost last night thanks to a poor showing from their offense against knuckleballer, Tom Candiotti, a classic Phillies issue. Since the beginning of time, the Phillies have had the most trouble against soft pitching junk ballers, there’s no specific metric to justify this viewpoint, but it’s true. With a 17-6 record, the Phillies are in first place in the NL East in front of the Cardinals by four games. This marks the first time the Phillies have been in first place at the beginning of May since 1964. As Larry Andersen is quoted in Macho Row by William Kashastus, “ Everything is breaking right for us, you watch any good team that wins. Good things happen. We’re a good ball club now, but a lot of this is like fate, too” 

There’s little more to add about the 1993 Los Angeles Dodgers, they’re not very good, but still have an all time great manager. In 1992, their rookie first basemen Eric Karros had a .257/.304/.426 split and won Rookie-of-the-year, beating out Moises Alou and Tim Wakefield for the award. Karros scored 22 of the 24 first place votes mainly because he led all rookies with 20 home runs and 83 RBIs as well as games played, plate appearances, hits, doubles and runs scored. Yet even with the extended playing time he received (which a majority of the candidates were not allotted) Karros was only able to muster 1.0 WAR (wins above replacement) and 109 wRC+ (weighted runs created). In 40 less games, Moises Alou scored almost as many runs(58-63), while playing much better defense than Karros and earned 2.7 WAR and 129 wRC+ with a slash of .284/.328/.455. Tim Wakefield, the receiver of the other 2 first place votes, on the other hand went 8-1 in 13 starts for the NL East Champion Pittsburgh Pirates with a 2.15 ERA, 1.21 WHiP and 3.27 FIP, and though he only pitched 92 innings was still able to garner more WAR that Karros (1.2). This is all to say, that basic counting stats and media voting awards are dumb and have been dumb for a century. 

Today’s Game:

It is Sunday, May 2nd, 1993, and the Phillies are playing their final game of the series against the cellar dwelling Los Angeles Dodgers. The game is brought to you on WPHL-17 Philadelphia with Harry, Whitey, Musser, and Wheels bringing you the color and play by play for the game. Dodgers’ stadium is half empty at the beginning of the game as Whitey comments “They come late and leave early”.   

  

Watch for yourself at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tV1q2ccBlw

The Line-up

CF Lenny Dykstra .

2B Mickey Morandini

1B John Kruk

3B Dave Hollins

C Darren Daulton         Leads the NL in Walks

RF Wes Chamberlain

LF Milt Thompson

SS Mariano Duncan  1-9 career vs Orel Hershiser

SP Terry Mulholland

On the Mound:

The Ace of the 1993 Phillies, Terry Mulholland takes the ball for the series finale. He’s 5-4 with a 2.41 ERA lifetime against the Dodgers, but currently (in May of 1993) Mulholland has only a 2-3 record with a 2.93 ERA. Harry opines in the Pre-show “Terry seems to be the pitcher that Phillies don’t hit for. Only 5 runs scored in Terry’s 3 losses”. A lack of run support has been essential to Mulholland’s entire tenure in Philadelphia, and has greatly muddled the fact that he’s one of the top ten Phillies starting pitchers of all time. With 54 wins, he’s only 1 win behind Roy Halladay and in fact Mulholland’s time in Philadelphia was pretty comparable to Doc’s when you look at the stats. The Hall of Famer Halladay, was 55-29 with a 3.25 ERA, 1.12 WHiP, and 3.17 FIP in his 103 Phillie starts while striking out 622 batters. Terry (with a full season of starts more) was 54-50 with a 3.69 ERA, a 1.21 WHiP, and a 3.46 FIp in his 137 Phillie starts while striking out 518 for some much worse Philadelphia teams. To summarize, let’s put Terry Mulholland on the Phillies Wall of Fame?

Facing the Phillies today for the Los Angeles Dodgers is former Cy Young Winner, Orel Hershiser. In 1988, Hershiser was arguably the greatest pitcher on the planet Earth (you should see the stats of Uglak Urjiujsi of Kashyyyk that year though), leading the NL in wins (23), innings (267), shutouts (8) and complete games (15) while finishing 3rd in ERA and winning the Gold Glove for his position. If you take a closer look you’ll find he had only an above average (but not great) 3.19 FIP and finished just 9th among NL pitchers in WAR that year with 3.9 (Danny Jackson had a 3.02 FIP and 5.2 WAR while finishing 2nd in Cy Young voting that year). Yet this was 1988, and the Cy Young was chosen by the narrative, and Orel Hershiser had quite the epic finish, ending the season breaking Don Drysdale’s streak of scoreless innings, by going 59 consecutive innings from August 30th to a ten inning effort on the last game of the season without allowing a run. But what really made Hershiser’s 1988 season Herculean was his run in the playoffs where he won NLCS MVP and World Series MVP for the champion Dodgers. While watching his warm-up for this game, it was hard to ignore the catchy tune played by Dodger Stadium organist and as any good Theatre Major would, I recognized it as “Master of the House” from the broadway show Les Miserables. Which I thought was weird, since this was 8 years after Les Mis debuted on Broadway, and it was Los Angeles, and this was a baseball game. Yet with some research it was found that the Dodgers’ organist, Nancy Bea, heard the soundtrack of Les Mis in 1988 and decided to play it during Hershiser’s warm-up. Then the previously mentioned scoreless streak began and thus no home start of Hershiser’s wasn’t accompanied by the anthem of the Thenardier’s. Even years later, anytime Orel is in attendance, Master of the House can be heard in Dodger’s Stadium, and you can buy the Orel Hershiser Master of the House organ version on ITunes. 

Highs (Hopes) and Lows

HIGH- Early Leads- Top 1st and 2nd

In the first inning, Lenny Dykstra starts the game off with a single, moves to second on a ground out and scores on a John Kruk single (Kruk gets tagged out trying to stretch for a double) to make it 1-0. The next inning, the Phillies manufacture a second run after singles by Wes Chamberlain and Milt Thompson (“It has eyes!” says Harry Kalas in the way only Harry Kalas could), and scoring on a sacrifice fly by Mariano Duncan. 2-0 Phillies. 

HIGH- The Floodgates Open- Top 3rd

Coming into today’s start, Hershiser is 4-6 lifetime against the Phillies with a 2.82 ERA, but that number shoots way up after the Phillies put up a touchdown in the third inning. It starts with a Mickey Morandini triple that was terribly misplayed by the left fielder Mitch Webster,

“That’s the problem with being an outfielder, you don’t have any one backing you up, so if the ball gets by you, you still have to go chase it down” laments Whitey on commentary. Morandini is knocked in by Hollins for his 18th RBI of the season, Hollins is then knocked in by Milt Thompson. Daulton (who was intentionally walked) comes in on a Mariano Duncan single, and then to add insult to (ERA) injury, Mulholland tops a nubber to Hershiser (former gold glove winner) who does a great job making the play on the ball, but Eric Karros (reigning Rookie of the year) can’t make the catch, and the Phillies score another run to make it 7-0 and send Orel to the showers.

“They didn’t really hit Orel hard”  Harry tries to say to soften the 7 runs allowed by the three time all star. Dykstra then hits an infield single to score the 6th run of the inning and make it 8-0 Phillies, Lasorda goes nuts on the close call at first and even Whitey and Harry admit that Lasorda has a point, Lenny was probably out at first, but no replay so no dice. The next play is another close play at first, this time the ump calls an out, and Harry says, “And I don’t think he got that one right either” 8-0 PHILLIES

HIGH Bottom 3rd- Trivia Time

In the bottom of the Third inning, Harry brings up the trivia question of the day. Unlike how most broadcasts do trivia now, there was no fan interaction in the trivia portion in 1993, as there was no way for a fan to send in the answer. So the segment is mostly just a way to suck up some dead air on the broadcast as the commentators reminisce on the days of baseball past. The Phillies version of this tends to be Wheels being a know-it-all, but every once in awhile (more specifically on Sundays when Harry and Whitey do the 1-2-3 innings and 7-8-9 innings) it’s just Whitey and Harry blathering on about nothing, and it’s the greatest thing in the world. The question today is “Who is the only player to lead the league in RBIs for three years in a row?”, and its instantly recognizable that Whitey has no idea who the answer is and just starts listing off players and with every guess comes a quick decisive “Nope” from Harry Kalas. Some people like to be hyperbolic about an actor’s ability and say that they could watch so and so actor read the phone book, but for real, I could listen to Whitey name baseball players and Harry say “nope” for all eternity. “I can tell you a lot of guys it isn’t” Whitey says as he finally admits defeat, the answer was Cecil Fielder. 

Mids- Offense- The Rest of the Game

In the 6th inning, Tim Wallach hits a weird backspin liner that is out of Mulholland’s reach and lands in front of Morandini for a single.

“That’s the funniest hit you’ll ever see” says Musser, “Yeah it was pretty ugly” adds Wheels. Then father of former WWE Interviewer/Ring Announcer Jojo, Jose Offerman knocks in a run to make it 8-1. In the top of the 9th the Phillies added another run with an Eisenreich double (he’s now 10 for his last 16 at bats) to score Kruk to once again make it an 8 run lead. 9-1 PHILLIES 

Wild Rides

With an eight run lead and the 1992 leader in Complete Games on the mound, Jim Fregosi lets Terry Mulholland finish up the win for the Phillies. And pretty quickly he strikes out Jose Offerman, forces a fly out to Milt Thompson, and a ground out to Mickey Morandini for a 1-2-3 9th inning and a 9-1 win for the Phillies.  Mulholland cruised the entire game, barely getting into trouble while scattering 6 hits and 3 walks over the  118 pitch effort. 

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 9 (18-6) Los Angeles Dodgers 1 (9-16)

Words of Wisdom from Harry, Whitey, Musser, and sometimes Wheels

“I’m talking abut starlets, beach balls, halter tops!” Andy Musser talking about Dodgers fans. 

Final Conclusions

The Phillies take the rubber match thanks to a beautifully pitched complete game by Terry Mulholland to two out of three while in Los Angeles. 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 move north to unfriendly confines of Candlestick Park to play the Giants who are starting to build toward their 108 win destiny. We’ll have to skip ahead a few days to the May 5th game due to availability, but it should be a doozy.   

May 1st, 1993: The Candy Man Can

 May 1st, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (17-5) vs  Los Angeles Dodgers (8-15)

The Candy Man Can

An Introduction…

I’m the guy that decided the best way to cope with the present day Phillies by watching the 1993 Phillies. Now that the 2021 season has begun, my attention has returned to the current Phillies, but as too the heartbreak of being a fan of this franchise has also begun, 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 game recap 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 have entered May with a 17-5 record good enough win percentage wise as the greatest start in franchise history. They just swept a two game series against the Padres in San Diego. The second game was won in spectacular fashion when David West faced Bob Geren in the 8th inning with the bases loaded, and Geren hit a long fly ball to left field that Milt Thompson amazingly brought back from over the wall to prevent a grand slam. It’s probably the best defensive play of the entire 1993 season. The next night in Los Angeles in the first game of the series, Mickey Morandini likewise saved a game with a remarkable defensive play. 

The Dodgers of Los Angeles (Nee Brooklyn) have an 8-15 record on the season and are comfortably relaxing in the NL West basement. Since leaving Philadelphia 6 days previously (in 1993) the Dodgers have won 2 out of 3 against the Mets and Expos after a six game losing streak. Very little is going right for Tommy Lasorda’s ball club, and last night’s umpires only angered him more. A fun fact about Lasorda is that he coached Rookie of Year winners 9 times in the 20 seasons he was manager, the Philadelphia Phillies have had 4 Rookie of the Year winners in 73 seasons since the award was created in 1947. Sadly, the veterans who are brought to Los Angeles with the allure of huge contracts are just as often underachieving. This year’s disappointments Darryl Strawberry and Eric Davis are batting .156 and .253 while making 3.8 and 2 million dollars each (the highest salary in 1993 was 6 million a year, for the services of Bobby Bonilla, services the Mets continue to pay for to this day), the equivalent today would be about 18.5 and 10.3 million respectively. Their lone bright spot has been the play of rookie catcher Mike Piazza. 

Today’s Game:

It is Wednesday May 1st, 1993 and the Phillies are visiting the Chavez Ravine to play the Los Angeles Dodgers. You know how in Roger Rabbit, the reason the Judge wants to get rid of Toontown is to build a mass transportation highway though it. In real life Los Angeles, they built a mass transportation highway through the Mexican Neighborhoods (It’s a metaphor). Then they built Dodgers Stadium.  The television broadcast is brought to you on Philadelphia’s favorite regional channel WPHL 17, home to all of the important Phillies games. Our broadcasters are the A team of Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas, and their gopher Chris Wheeler.  

  

Watch for yourself at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNXabZYdI0 

The Line-up

CF Lenny Dykstra .

2B Mickey Morandini

1B John Kruk

3B Dave Hollins

C Darren Daulton

RF Pete Incaviglia

LF Jim Eisenreich          Batting .320

SS Mariano Duncan  Phillies are 11-0 in Duncan Starts

SP Ben Rivera

On the Mound:

Ben Rivera is one of the few Philadelphia Phillies who has had a rocky start to the season, the six foot six Dominican currently has a 1-1 record and 6.55 ERA over 11 innings. The 24 year old had a late start to spring training due to getting the flu, and had the inconvenience of missing a start due to rain, skipping his spot in the rotation and messing with his timing. Wheels also attributes the fact that it’s cold and Fregosi told the media earlier today that Rivera “was trying to aim the ball”. No matter what, Fregosi needs Rivera to eat innings today after the bullpen took care of four innings yesterday and Mitch Williams has pitched in three straight games. The Phils currently hold a 4.5 game lead over the second place St. Louis Cardinals. 

Pitching for the Dodgers today is knuckleballer Tom Candiotti, as is mentioned multiple times during the broadcast, Candiotti didn’t start his career as a knuckleballer, but kind of slouched there eventually in 1986. Like most knuckleballers before him, Candiotti only learned the pitch when the rest of repertoire failed to make him an employable Major League Baseball player.  Before the knuckleball, Candiotti was 6-6 over 14 starts with a 4.04 FIP and 4.5 K’s per 9 innings, but didn’t even make the major league roster in 1985, and thus began his learning of the great floater of fear. In 1993, he is one of three knuckleballers in the NL, and has a career record of 95-96 and a 1-3 tally against the Phillies. After baseball, Candiotti appeared in Billy Crystal’s HBO film about the 1961 home run chase 61* as fellow knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm.  To learn more, check out Candiotti’s biography A Life of Knuckleballs by K.P. Wee, which both exists and is available on Amazon. 

Highs (Hopes) and Lows

Low- Bottom 1st- Early Hole

The Dodgers quickly get on the board when the male Brett Butler (not to be confused with the female Brett Butler who starred on Grace Under Fire) singles, advances to second after a wild pitch by Ben Rivera, is sacrificed over to third, and comes home with a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0 Dodgers. One might argue that taking the hands out of your 2 and 3 hole hitters is actually a win for the Phillies, as the Dodgers had far less chance of scoring more runs in the inning. Older non-analytics fans would respond that a run is a run is a run. 1-0 LAD 

Low- Bottom 5th- Piazza the Hutt

As mentioned above and in the past three Dodgers’ game write-ups, the best player for LA in this early season is catcher and former 62nd round draft pick (1390th overall) Mike Piazza. Born in Norristown, Piazza grew up in nearby Phoenixville (this is never mentioned by the Phillies broadcast), and was drafted primarily because he was the Godson of Tommy Lasorda. Now in the big leagues, Piazza is thriving to a degree that steroid allegations would haunt his entire career (nothing has ever been proven), and in the 5th inning, Piazza launches his 5th home run of the season. Now he’s slashing .321/.379/.564 with 9 runs 5 home runs and 14 RBIs, if he was on your fantasy team today in the 2021 season he’d be the 4th best catcher in baseball.  

Mids- Bottom 6th- Chess

With the Dodgers still clinging to a 2-0 lead, manager Tommy Lasorda is met with a classic baseball decision, thanks to a strategic move by Phillies manager Jim Fregosi. With a man on first and third with two outs, the Dodgers sent up their 8 hole hitter Jose Offerman (who amazingly is the father-in-law to the WWE superstar Bray Wyatt) to the plate, Fregosi counters by walking Offerman to load the bases and bring up the pitcher Tom Candiotti. Now up to this point in the game Candiotti has handcuffed the Phillies to the tune of 7 k’s and 4 scattered hits through 6 innings, and the fact that Candiotti is knuckleballer gives the pitch count no thought (Tim Wakefield of the Pittsburgh Pirates last week in 1993 threw 171 pitches!). Lasorda decides to go with his pitcher and sends Candiotti to the plate to bat and he weakly grounds out to end the inning. In 2021, there’s no question that Candiotti would be pinch hit for for the chance to score more runs, even if you believe in the adage that knuckleballers can’t be hurt by throwing too many pitches, the fact that the Phillies line-up was about to see him for the third time would scare any present day manager to risk it in a two run game. Maybe not Tony La Russa. 

High then low - Top 7 - Take that Old School or Not?

Jim Eisenreich (who is one of the few Phillies with extended history against Candiotti in the American League) doubles in Pete Incaviglia to tighten the score 2-1 in the top of the 7th, but Candiotti is able to get out of the inning by striking out Mariano Duncan to end the threat. Duncan was particularly perplexed by the knuckler today, ending up 0-3 with 3 strikeouts. So while Lasorda was betting the wrong percentages with keeping Candiotti in, he ended up beating the odds.   

Low- Bottom 8- Terrible Umpiring

It would be nice to tell you, that Umpires were once good, it’d be nicer to tell you that they continually got better and now they’re great, but I can’t. Umpires have been and probably always will be terrible. Of course there are exceptions, but Baseball happens far too fast for this to be a thing any more, so calls get missed, and players/fans/broadcasters will always get angry about it, and now with the technology that television provides, it’s only getting worse. In the bottom of the 8th, the Phillies brought out former Cy Young winner Mark Davis to pitch, but he quickly loaded the bases after giving up two singles and hitting a guy. Which brings up Jose Offerman again (years before he tried to attack a pitcher who hit him with a bat in the Atlantic League), and then came this pitch on a 3-2 count.

“Right down the middle of the plate, fooled the hitter, fooled the umpire.” Says Whitey. Darren Daulton also says something, but it can’t be heard by anyone but the umpire, and he is tossed for whatever opinion he shared. This brings out Manager Jim Fregosi, who also quickly gets kicked out of the game for sharing his opinion to the umpire. After everyone calms down, Mark Davis gives up another single and another run and gets the hook for Bobby Ayrault who gives up another run before finally putting an end to the bleeding. 5-1 LAD. 

 

Wild Rides

Though no longer a save opportunity, Tommy Lasorda brings in Jim Gott to finish off the game after Tom Candiotti went 8 innings,  struck out 9 Phillies, and allowed 1 run, 5 hits, and 1 walk. Jim Gott was the bullpen coach for the 2018 Philadelphia Phillies and was Dennis Quaid’s personal pitching coach for Disney’s The Rookie. He strikes out Dave Hollins to start the ninth when he comes up against Darren Daulton’s replacement, Doug Lindsey. Lindsey is only on the Phillies roster due to an injury to Todd Pratt, and has only played in one other professional baseball game, 2 years previously on the last game of the 1991 season. Lindsey is like Crash Davis, if Crash Davis wasn’t very good offensively, he spent 7 years in the minors, where he was known as the best defensive catcher in the Eastern League (Double AA Reading). In his one other appearance, the only start of his career so far, he had the bad luck of facing David Cone, on a day where David Cone was really really pissed off. Cone would strike out 19! Phillies on that day, and Lindsey would be a victim three times (his only at professional at bats). Now Lindsey comes to the plate fresh off going 2 for 17 in double A in the bottom of the 9th

and slaps a single to right field for his first (spoilers: and only) major league hit.  “I guess he figures after David Cone this game is easy” jokes Whitey. Two pitches later, Pete Incaviglia hit into a double play to end the game.  

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 1 (17-8) Los Angeles Dodgers 5 (9-15)

Words of Wisdom from Harry and Whitey and sometimes Wheels

“All his other pitches couldn’t get anybody out.” Whitey explaining why Candiotti became a knuckleball pitcher. 

Final Conclusions

The Phillies lose the second game of their series in Los Angeles after all the wind comes out of their sail thanks to a terrible umpire call. 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 next game is May 2nd’s day game where we see a battle of the titans with Terry Mullholland facing off against Orel Hershiser.   

April 25, 1993: Darrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyllllllll

 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.