April 26, 1993: Don't Call it a Comeback

 April 26th, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (13-4) vs  San Francisco Giants (11-8)

Don’t Call it a Comeback

An Introduction…

I’m the guy that is psyched about the fact that the Phillies actually made moves with their bullpen this offseason.  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 are coming off a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers and currently* have the best record in baseball (*April 1993) at 13-4. The great start is attributed mostly to a much improved rotation and a perfectly orchestrated platoon system by third year manager Jim Fregosi. In Robert Gordon’s “Then Bowa Said to Schmidt”… The Greatest Phillies Stories Ever Told Mitch Williams is quoted as saying “ Jim Fregosi went out and got a prison squad. I never saw a manager get so much out of a group of players. No other manager could have managed that team. We didn’t have any of the premier guys in the league- at least no one that the rest of baseball recognized as marquee players. But we had guys who would do anything to win. Some of us were just, let’s just say, a bit of a challenge to manage. Fregosi knew how to handle us.” 

The San Francisco Giants are still on the runway in the 1993 season, sitting at a record of 11-8, the Giants are in some sense a disappointment, but in reality are just lucky to playing in San Fran at all. After finishing 72-90 in 1992, good for 5th in the NL West, principal owner Bob Lurie,  who was losing 2-7 million dollars annually, decided to sell the team to an ownership group with the intention of moving the franchise to Tampa Bay, Florida. Beyond mostly losing in the 35 years the Giants were in San Fran, the real reason for the move was that Candlestick park was a terrible place to play and no fans ever wanted to go watch the team.  At the last second a San Francisco investor group led by Safeway magnate Peter Magowan bought the team from Lurie with plans to keep the Giants in San Francisco and build a vastly better ballpark. The Giants, despite losing former MVP Kevin Mitchell in 1992, still had a strong offensive club with veteran sluggers Will Clark and Matt Williams at First and Third base respectively, and decided to go out in the 92 offseason to sign (checks notes… checks notes) the greatest baseball player in the history of the sport (shut up, you know I’m right) Barry Bonds. Bonds had originally been drafted by the Giants in the second round of the 1982 amateur draft, his father Bobby Bonds had been a perennial all star for the Giants, and his godfather Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player in the history of the sport, up til Bonds, for the Giants so it seemed like a perfect match. But as rich Baseball owners are wont to do, the Giants tried to lowball Bonds with a 70,000 dollar offer to forego college, Bonds wanted 75k so he went to Arizona State and was subsequently drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bonds at this point (in 1993) has already won 2 MVP awards in his six full seasons, but has also won very few friends in the game of baseball. The Pirates beat writers voted him “Most Despised Pirate”, and after a disappointing loss in the 1992 NLCS vs the Braves, Bonds opted for free agency and signed for a then ludicrous 6 year 43.75 million dollar deal, the biggest contract in baseball.  

Today’s Game:

It is Monday April 26th, 1993 and here at Veteran’s stadium it is 54 degrees and raining. For every kid who grew up in the Delaware Valley, this is the weather we associate with the worst memories of April. Where it should be warm and finally nice, it is instead windy, rainy and cold, and we’re all still forced to go outside because it’s technically Spring.  Tonigh’s game started at 7:41 which is only important since the second and last game of the series tomorrow starts at 1.  The television broadcast is brought to you on PRISM (stay tuned for the Shane Black classic The Last Boy Scout after the game) with Chris Wheeler all game, but Jay Johnstone and Garry Maddox help alleviate the tedium. I tend to give Wheels a lot of unfair grief in this space due to his continued presence as sage broadcaster following the deaths of Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas, but I’ve finally put my finger on why Wheels bothers me. Wheels is the kid whose dad goes up to people and says, “My kid knows everything about baseball. Ask him anything… go ahead ask” and then they sit there until you ask and the kid does know the answer. 

  

Watch for yourself at: 

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

The Line-up

CF Lenny Dykstra .

2B Mickey Morandini 6 game hitting streak

1B John Kruk

3B Dave Hollins

C Darren Daulton

RF Pete Incaviglia

LF Milt Thompson

SS Mariano Duncan

SP Ben Rivera

On the Mound:

Making his first start since April 14th is Bienvinido Rivera, who is currently for the year has a 1-1 record with a 6.48 ERA. This is only his third start of the year, but his previous effort was a nice 6 inning affair where he gave up 0 runs against the Reds while striking out 7 and walking 4. Rivera owns a pretty basic repertoire of fastball curveball, but if he is able to keep the ball down, he can be very effective.

Pitching for the San Francisco Giants is a future Phillie, a man by the name of Jeff Brantley. Brantley is a product of Mississippi State and has spent most of his career as a relief pitcher, making an All Star team in 1990. After holding Left handers to a .180 batting average in 1992, the Giants in desperate need for starting pitching decided to try Brantley out as a starter (he briefly auditioned at the end of the 92 seasons with 4 starts going 3-0 with a .44 ERA over 20.2 innings). The experiment has given the Giants some mixed results as he sits with a 1-1 record and a 3.45 ERA but 5.29 FIP over 15 innings. Brantley goes back to the bullpen after 8 more starts (not including tonight) in the 93 season never to return to the role again. In 1996, Brantley would lead the league in saves for the Cincinnati Reds, and in 1999 he would join the Philadelphia Phillies. His time in Philadelphia was terrible, to the tune of a 3-9 record 28 saves a 5.77 ERA and 5.27 FIP over two seasons (though the first season was only a month long after and injury shortened his year). Brantley is currently a broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds after a stint on Baseball Tonight for ESPN.  

Highs (Hopes) and Lows

Low, low, low, all the lows- The First Five and a Half Innings  

As New York Times bestselling author Shea Serano likes to remind people, “You can’t win a game seven without first losing three times.” And in that same vein, you can’t comeback from 8 runs without first giving up 8 runs. And that’s exactly what the Phillie pitchers did through the first six innings of tonight’s game in Philadelphia. As Lenny Dykstra puts it in the 1993 season video yearbook, Whatever it Takes Dude, “this was a nightmare, it was raining, and we were getting a big league butt kicking from the Giants.” Ben Rivera lasted only 2 ⅔ innings, giving up 4 runs (2 Earned) while walking 6 Giants and striking out 4 (he struck out the side in the first), relieving Rivera. Jose De Leon, didn’t do much to quell the fire by giving up 2 more runs (1 earned) with 3 more walks. On the day the Phillies pitchers would hand out 14 free passes to the Giants (1 intentional). “Everything they hit just seemed to find a hole” added Dykstra. The starting pitcher for the Giants, Jeff Brantley entered the game with two career RBIs and doubled his lifetime total with 2 more in tonight’s game with two hits of his own. The game gets so bad at one point, the person who taped the game on their vcr in 1993 starts tv surfing and misses an entire inning. 

High- Bottom 6th- Let it Begin

After spotting the Giants 8 runs, the Phillies offense finally decides to get to work in the bottom of the 6th inning as career reliever Jeff Brantley faces the line-up for the third time. Morandini walks to start the inning and moves to third on a John Kruk single. Kruk is then pulled from the game with an apparent hamstring injury, but Fregosi has already used back-up 1st Baseman Ricky Jord as a pinch hitter so Jim Eisenreich (who started 14 games at first base in 1991 for the Kansas City Royals and will go on to start 19 games at first base for eventual World Series winning 1997 Florida Marlins) is pressed into service. Morandini scores on a sac fly from Dave Hollins to finally put the Phillies on the board 8-1. After a walk to Daulton, Brantley hits the showers, and the Phillies score two more runs on an Incaviglia infield single and a Mariano Duncan double narrowing the game 8-3 when Wes Chamberlain pinch hit for the relief pitcher Bob Ayrault. The resulting play would really spark the fire for the Phillies, as Wes Chamberlain hits a shot right back to the pitcher Brian Hickerson, who snags it right out of the air for the third out of the inning. In an outburst of emotion, Hickerson spiked the ball onto the ground, and that really pissed off the Phillies.

“That was the wake-up call we needed” says Dykstra in Whatever it Takes Dude. Milt Thompson is quoted in William Kashatus’ Macho Row “I’ve never seen anything like that before. It ticked us off. And fired us up. We were destined to win after that.” The remaining Phillie fans, of the announced 17,000 who showed up for a cold rainy baseball game, decide to chant “Ass-Hole Ass-Hole Ass-hole” at Hickerson to end the 6th. 

High- Top 7th- Fregosi Playing Chess.

With the Phillies now trailing 5 runs in the 7th inning, Jim Fregosi makes a move that very few managers would make. With a Giant on third and two outs, Phillies’ reliever Mark Davis is facing off with GOAT Barry Bonds at the plate. For the season Bonds is batting .414 and is leading so many categories its humorous hearing Jay Johnstone list them all off. He hit a home run in his first game for the Giants and (spoilers) would win his third MVP in seven seasons when the year is all said and done. Fregosi intentionally walks Bonds (his fourth walk on the day btw), while down 5 runs with two outs. Larry Andersen said about the move in More Than Beards Bellies and Biceps "To me as a player, that move was a message. That's what we mean about being 'old-school,' a throwback team. We were trying to beat you right till the last out." This is the kind of stuff that Joe Maddon gets called a genius for day in and day out. I laughed so hard watching and Fregosi laughed (inside probably) when Davis retired Jeff Reed to end the inning. Fregosi would tell the media, "We still had a chance to win the game. It wasn't over."

High- Bottom 7th- Inch by Inch

New First Basemen Jim Eisenreich knocks home Lenny Dyskstra to make it 8-4, before the Giants decide to give out back to back walks to Dave Hollins and Darren Daulton to load the bases for Pete Incaviglia. It’s at this point (about 3 and a half hours of drinking into the game) that the Philly fans start to get really loud, and Incaviglia hits a tapper to 2nd baseman which promptly get thrown away for an error by Mike Benjamin to make it 8-5.

I should note that Wheel’s tv broadcast call of “Tapper to second and Benjamin BOOTS it and Incaviglia is safe!” is probably his best call of his career, and in fact this entire game he’s pretty great (which takes a lot for me to say). Thompson follows up with a two RBI single up the middle (just past the pitcher’s glove) to tighten the score 8-7. 

Low, but saved- Dave Hollins

Dave Hollins develops the yips in front of our very eyes in this game. After only committing 1 error in his last 51 games dating back to the 1992 season, Hollins commits 3 errors in this game, all throwing. His first comes after a nice stop, but he attempts to throw off balance to 2nd base and throws it into left field, his next comes when he’s thinking about a throw and the ball pops out of his glove. Further, Hollins gets so far into his own head (which is suiting given his nickname as “Headley” or “Head” for being a headcase), that he hesitates on an easy throw to second on a play which makes it impossible for Morandini to turn a double play. Now with Eisenreich at first base, Hollins is throwing the ball all over the place, Johnstone comments on Hollins’ throws, “Well at least (Hollins)’s is consistent he hasn’t had a good throw yet.” Eisenriech though is proving up to the task with some great snags, but after Hollins gains his third error of the game, the Giants have two guys on with Darren Lewis at the plate. What follows is that David West hits Darren Lewis. 100 percent, no doubt about it, David West hits Darren Lewis with a pitch.

Except… home plate umpire Randy Marsh (who may or may not have been the reasoning behind the name of the father of South Park character Stan Marsh) called it foul ball. David West then struck our Darren Lewis to end the inning. 8-7 GIANTS  

HIGH- Bottom 8- Tying Time.

With one out in the bottom of the 8th inning, Mickey Morandini “scoots” a ball into the right field gap for a triple to bring up Jim Eisenriech. Eisie had entered the game as a pinch runner in the 6th and delivered already with a rbi single in the 7th, and now comes to the plate as the go ahead run in the 8th. In the Phillies Clubhouse, the injured John Kruk is drinking beer and watching the game from the video room, and thankfully being filmed by Video Dan Stephenson who had the foreknowledge to grab a camera while Kruk was drinking. “I’m telling ya, Eisie is going to get another knock (RBI) and I’ll never fucking play again.” He is recorded as saying for Whatever it Takes Dude.

Eisie knocks in Morandini to tie the game at 8-8. 

Wild Rides

Tied at 8-8, Fregosi decides to stick with David West for a second inning as Mitch Williams warms up in the bullpen. West starts the inning with a walk but retired Matt Williams on a grounder before striking out Barry Bonds on three pitches for out number 2. Bonds ends his night going 0-2 with 2 strike outs and 4 walks. West then gives up another walk, the 13th and final walk of game given up by Phillies pitchers, before getting Royce Clayton to strike out to end the top of the 9th.

The Giants counter with the pitching version of John Kruk also known as Rod Beck. Beck along with Mitch Williams are the inspiration for Kenny Powers in Eastbound and Down played by Danny McBride, a mullet wearing, slightly overweight fireballer, Beck would make 3 all star teams in his career and finish top 10 in saves in 9 seasons, ending his career in 2004 a year after winning Comeback Player of the Year for the Padres in 2003. Beck would die of a cocaine and heroine overdose in 2007. Tonight though, Beck’s signature forkball completely flummoxes the Phillies hitters as he strikes out 4 of the 5 guys he faces and gets out of the 9th inning unscathed.

Extra Wild Rides

In the 10th inning with the game still tied, Fregosi opts to go with 39 year old Larry Andersen instead of Mitch Williams, who after warming up, joins John Kruk in the video room. Larry gets a pop up before allowing a single, and then strikes out the next two Giants to end the 10th leaving the game still tied.

Defensive replacement Juan Bell leads off the 10th and works a walk to get on base. Following back to back to pop ups by Dykstra and Morandini, once again Jim Eisenreich comes up to bat in a pressure situation. Eisie grounds a ball into the gap between short stop and 3rd base, but its fielded by Royce Clayton who tries to make a play at second, but like Dave Hollins earlier, throws the ball away allowing Bell to advance to 3rd and Eisenreich to 2nd.

In the video room, Mitch Williams tells the camera, “If it’s a wild pitch… we win”,

and Giants pitcher Gino Minutelli obliges the Wild Thing and throws a wild pitch allowing Juan Bell to score and the Phillies to win on a walk-off.  

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 9 (14-4) San Francisco Giants 8 (11-9)

Words of Wisdom from Wheels, Jay, and Garry

“Fans haven’t had much chance to boo this year, so some are taking advantage” -Wheels as Ben Rivera is being removed from the game. 

“Daulton can’t hit a 7 run home run hear so he’ll probably take one here”- Garry Maddox weighing the odds of Daulton taking a 3-0 pitch while the Phillies are down 8-1.

“You know what he would do. The next day he’d throw. A day after going 9, he would long toss right in front of you” Garry Maddox telling stories about how Steve Carlton was a machine of a human being. 

“He plays so shallow and he’s so good” Wheels is talking about Barry Bonds here, and reading the quote does not do justice to how good Bonds is. 

Final Conclusions

The Phillies complete a huge comeback against the San Francisco Giants, thanks mostly to Jim Eisenreich. In Kruk's book he writes about this game, 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. Join me next time as the Phillies head to the west coast to play a quick two game series against the San Diego Padres.   

April 14, 1993: A Rivera Runs Through It

April 14, 1993 Philadelphia Phillies (7-1) vs Cincinnati Reds (2-6)

A Rivera Runs Through It

An Introduction

I’m the guy who thinks his fantasy team was cursed because he decided to go against his soul and picked up Dansby Swanson for two weeks. . 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)

After cruising to a Grapefruit League best record of 16-10 in Spring Training, the Phillies rocketed off to a 7-1 start, sweeping the Astros before losing their first game of the season against the Cubs in the home opener. The day after that loss was (spoilers) only day the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies spent out of 1st place in the NL East. Coming into today’s game, the last of the series against the Reds, the Phillies have won 4 straight games. The night before Tommy Greene pitched 7 innings giving up 2 hits, 1 run and 1 walk while striking out 8 Reds and with the help of a John Kruk double, the Phillies won 3-1. 

The Reds have stumbled out of the gate, with promising youngsters, Reggie Sanders and Bip Roberts, superstar Barry Larkin, and free agent signings John Smiley and Kevin Mitchell, the Reds were expected to do battle with the Braves for NL West (yes the great cities of the West: Cincinnati and Atlanta) supremacy. Instead they began the season 2-6 and have four key players injured coming into the game today. While on-field play is an issue, what’s going on behind the scenes is the real cause for the fall of the 1990 World Series champions. As I wrote about in the June 1st and June 2nd entries of this series that occur in the future of this entry, the Reds are at the beginning of their long messy divorce with owner Marge Schott. Schott bought a minority stake in the Red in 1981 and for 11 million dollars in 1984 she bought a controlling share and became the first woman to buy a Major League Baseball team. In November of 1992 in a wrongful termination lawsuit against her by former Reds employee Tim Sabo, Schott was quoted via testimony by another former Reds employee as saying that Reds players Eric Davis and Dave Parker were “million dollar (n words)”. It should also be noted that Sabo believed he was firing for not following Schott’s unwritten rule to not hire black people. Major League baseball set up a four person committee to investigate Schott and in February of 93, Schott was banned from attending Reds games for the 93 season and fined 250,000 dollars. After word leaked of the Sabo testimony, the Reds World Series winning Manager Lou Pinella declined to return to Cincinnati and ran for Seattle. With a huge PR problem on their hands, the Reds baseball operations pushed Schott to hire Reds legend (and minority) Tony Perez as their coach. This would last a total of 44 games before Perez was fired, the shortest stint for a preseason hired manager in 65 years. For the move, General Manager Jim Bowden Jr “needed around-the-clock police protection because of death threats to himself and his family. Fans were also upset because Bowden fired Perez over the phone instead of face-to-face”  (according to the Redleg Journal). Eventually Schott would be suspended from baseball again in 1996 after she said of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “He had a lot of good ideas, he just went a bit too far” and was forced to sell her controlling shares by 1999 and bowing out of spotlight. The New York Times dubbed her “Baseball’s Big Red Headache”.

Today’s Game:

It is Thursday, April 14th, in the great city of Philadelphia Pennsylvania, at the trash-can cat shelter we know as Veteran’s Stadium. Today’s games is being presented on PRISM, the regional premium cable channel that is home to 45 Phillies games this season. They are also running commercials explaining a narrator’s uncle who has issues not drinking and driving at Phillies games (it’s implied) so thank god they got PRISM so he doesn’t have to drive to Phillies games anymore. (I swear to God).

In the booth today is Chris “Wheels” Wheeler who refers to a Philadelphia Inquirer story today about how he’s quoted as being “in awe” of Harry Kalas but wants to clarify he is not. Along with him are former Phillies outfielders Garry Maddox and Jay Johnstone. Sadly in the brief months I took a break from this series, Jay Johnstone has died due to complications from Dementia and Co-vid 19. Johnstone played with multiple clubs in his career but was a mainstay on some of the greatest Phillies teams of the 1970’s, including both 101 game winning squads of 74 and 75. These same great Phillies teams constantly ran into the Cincinnati Reds’ Big Red Machine and Johnstone was eventually traded to the New York Yankees where he helped them win 2 World Series in 78 and 81. He was league renowned for his great ability as a locker room prankster and much like the Phillie Phanatic his favorite target was Dodger’s Coach Tommy LaSorda. As is described in Johnstone’s books, he once locked LaSorda into his hotel room by tying a string to a palm tree, and another time he stole LaSorda’s uniforme, padded it, and made a visit to the mound as LaSorda. For good measure in the film The Naked Gun in the infamous baseball scene where Leslie Nielsen imitates an Ump, Johnstone appears at the plate as a Seattle Mariners hitter, and as a prank to only himself, the left handed Johnstone batted right-handed. Vaya Con Dios, Jay Johnstone.

Watch for yourself at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIGPCL8nbNg

The Line-up:

CF Lenny Dykstra

2B Mariano Duncan

1B John Kruk

3B Dave Hollins

C Darren Daulton

LF Pete Incaviglia

RF Wes Chamberlain

SS Juan Bell

P Ben Rivera

On the Mound:

Pitching for the home team is Ben “Bienvenido” Rivera, the 6 foot 6 Dominican fastballer is the only Phillies Starter to record a loss for the season after he got rocked by the Chicago Cubs in the home opener. Acquired by the Phillies in a trade with the Atlanta Braves in 1992, Rivera went a pretty incredible 7-3 with a 2.81 ERA (and respectable 3.51 FIP) to close out the season (and ensure a chance at a rotation spot in 93). His first start left him with a classy 23.14 ERA on the season with 1 strike out.

For the Red Legs, the pitcher tonight is Tom Browning who is also currently 0-1 with a respectable 30.86 ERA after one start in the 1993 season. Some amazing tidbits about Browning, he threw the 12th perfect game in the history of Major League baseball against the Dodgers in 1988 and followed that up with going 8 innings of perfection against the Phillies in his very next start before finally giving up a double in the top of the 9th. Browning also finished second in Rookie of the year voting in 1986 while finishing 6th in Cy Young voting after going 20-6 with a 3.55 ERA. He was an all star in 1991 and finished his career with exactly 1000 strikeouts. During the 1990 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Oakland A’s, Browning’s wife went into labor at the beginning of the 2nd game. After driving herself to the hospital, Browning was notified and left the dugout to be with his wife. As the game went into extra innings, the coach of the Reds Lou Pinella got nervous losing a member of his pitching staff and called up to the Reds radio play-by-play guy. The Reds play-by-play guy got an APB (all-points bulletin) sent out in search of Browning by the local PD, and then the World Series broadcaster Tim McCarver repeated the announcement to help find Browning. Browning heard it in the hospital and did not care because his wife was in labor. The Reds won in extra innings, Browning pitched 6 innings of game 3, earning the win, and the Reds would go on to sweep the Oakland A’s and win the World Series (in a terribly sad ending, Browning would eventually be arrested for not paying child support according to wikipedia). 

Highs (Hopes) and Lows:

  

Low then High: Top 2nd- Catching Fundamentals 

After cruising through a 1-2-3 first, Ben Rivera pitched himself into trouble in the bottom of the 2nd, walking the bases loaded, and causing the boo birds to come out of their early season hibernation. With a 2-0 count, Rivera gets Reds Catcher Joe Oliver to pop up to right fielder Wes Chamberlain (who I was certain as 5 year old was the same person as Wilt Chamberlain), who uncorks a perfect strike to home plate to nail the runner and complete the 7-2 double play and end the inning.

More impressive than the Chamberlain throw is Darren Daulton’s expert blocking of home plate that prevents Randy Milligan from scoring. Daulton’s ability to withstand plate collisions put him on par with Dottie Hinson from A League of Their Own (she dropped the last one on purpose) and puts a spotlight on one of the lost parts of playing catcher in the modern game of baseball. A few years ago, Buster Posey the (then) young catching phenom for the San Francisco Giants was lost for the season when he improperly blocked home plate and got his leg broken in multiple places. This caused a league wide discussion about the unsafe nature of the play at the plate, which they weren’t wrong to have. The days of Pete Rose not sliding but instead throwing himself full speed,  shoulder first, into a waiting catcher are for sure over. What we know about concussions, and long term injuries from such plays make it impossible to ignore the negative repercussions. Yet what happened to Buster Posey wasn’t one of those plays, but instead had more to do with Posey not really knowing how to play the position of catcher. For decades the position of catcher was one where defensive acumen was more important than offensive contributions, the ability to call a game and prevent runs was more valuable than producing runs. Yet when the sabermetric disciples of Bill James and Moneyball started thinking outside the box in front offices, the defensive minded catcher became expendable. There was no reason to give up a line-up spot to a player who couldn’t help produce runs (runs being the crux of the Moneyball argument), so thus began the moving of more offensive productive players to the catcher position, regardless if they could actually play catcher. What I’m trying to say is that Darren Daulton was pretty amazing as a defensive catcher and for the few years injuries didn’t bother him, he was an absolute offensive force.

HIgh: Bottom 3rd- Kruk’s Komes Through

John Kruk singles in the first run for the Phillies in the bottom of the third, knocking in Lenny Dykstra from 3rd base. Kruk is batting .412 for the season after batting .407 in 1992 during the month of April. A batter later,  Dave Hollins knocks in Duncan with a single to make it 2-0.

High: Bottom 5th- 2 out runs

With a man on third, clean-up hitter Dave Hollins, sadly struck out to make it two outs in the inning. After a Darren Daulton walk, there were Phillies on the corners when Pete Incaviglia came up to the plate. With a 2-0 lead and a pitcher who was about to face the Reds line-up for the third time, the game was still in doubt and the Phillies were in need of some help. Right Fielder Pete Incaviglia would answer the call with a bouncer in the hole for a single to make it 3-0. Wes Chamberlain followed that up with his 3rd single of the day and score another run, before Juan Bell (of all people) doubles home two more before the inning ends to make the score 6-0, with all four runs being scored with two outs.

High: Top 6- Working Out of Jams

Much like in the first inning where Ben Rivera walked two Reds to load the bases before getting out of the inning with the Chamberlain throw, Rivera walked Randy Milligan to load the bases in the 6th inning. This time instead of depending on great defense to bail him out, Gentle Ben dug deep into the reservoir and threw 6 straight strikes to K both Gary Varsho and Randy Milligan to end the threat and the inning. Rivera’s day ends after 6 innings 0 runs 4 hits 4 walks and 7 strike outs. 

Low: Top 7- Jose De not Good

After adding another run in the bottom of the 6th to make it 7-0, Manager Jim Fregosi opens up the bullpen with right hander, Jose DeLeon. DeLeon came to the Phillies for three spot starts in September of 92 after being released by the Cardinals, fun fact he twice lost 19 games in a season and with Kerry Wood is the only pitcher to win less than 100 games and strike out over 1500 people. Now in the bullpen, DeLeon is already 2-0 in the young season with a 2.38 era, but this is not his finest pitching appearance. After two quick hits and a completely (COMPLETELY) bogus catcher’s interference call, the bases are loaded with one out for Jose DeLeon who answers the challenge with a wild fork ball that scores a Red. DeLeon proceeds to walk the next batter to force the bases loaded again which brings out pitching coach Johnny Podres. “Fans are cheering because they think it’s a pitching change” chimes in Wheels. Podres leaves the mound and DeLeon then throws another wild fork ball to allow another Red to score, and brings the first real rain of boos from the Philly Phaithful in 1993. “Fans haven’t had much chance to boo this year and take advantage of it now” adds Wheels. 7-2 Phillies.

Wild Rides

This section is reserved in telling the final outs of Phillies games, whether it will be the last chance of a rally or the ongoing adventures of closer Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams, it will be covered here to summarize the game. The Phillies tacked on two more runs in the 8th on an Incaviglia double to take any drama out of the 9th inning. So, in this edition we have David “Big Bird” West, so called because he legitimately looks like Big Bird, with some of the worst 90’s hair you can imagine. West came over to the Phillies from the Minnesota Twins in a trade for Mike Hartley whose most interesting factoid on his wikipedia was that he was the head coach of the Croatian National team in 2011. David West is one of those players that current Phillies fans should look at optimistically for how the current bullpen could be re-imagined. West was a lackluster starter/long reliever for some very good Twins teams, his best year was arguably 1991 when he started 12 games won 4 lost 4 and accumulated a 4.54 ERA, a 4.99 FIP and a 1.32 WHiP. Yet the Phillies saw something in him to give him a chance in their bullpen, and even though he had a “shaky” spring (Wheels’ word, I can’t find any spring training stats from 1993 on the internet weirdly) the West idea  (spoilers) pays off in spades as he becomes one of the best left handed relief pitchers in the NL in 1993. In today’s game, West is in his second inning of relief and quickly dispatches Cecil Espy and Juan Samuel with pop-ups before inducing a grounder from Roberto Kelly to end the game. The Phillies win 9-2 sweeping the Reds and bringing their record to 8-1 which equals the 1915 Pennant winning Phillies for the best start in franchise history. 

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 9 (8-1) Cincinnati Reds 2 (2-7)

Words of Wisdom from Jay and Garry (and Sometimes Wheels):

“You know they’ve been trying to shorten the game of baseball, you hear so much about how the game has gone to be too long.” -Jay. It’s crazy that there were the same complaints from nameless people who want baseball games to be faster in 1993. Here we are 27 years later and it’s the same thing. Today’s video is 2 hours and 48 minutes. 

“Last winter people were saying at best this team would be mediocre, and here we are a week in and people are saying we could win this thing” -Garry Maddox. 

“Phillies fans have come so accustomed to pitchers throwing strikes this season”- Wheels when Rivera first walked the bases loaded.

“It’s great to see Tony Perez coaching. He deserves that shot.” Jay. Oh the sad irony, that Perez wasn’t getting his shot, and in fact would never get another real chance to coach a baseball team. The Phillies also take the time to make an adorable Tony Perez tribute video for the 1983 NL Champion Wheeze Kids 10 year anniversary. Perez, then 40, was brought in by the Phillies to be a bench player but due to injuries he ended up starting for most of the first two months of the season and helped lift the Phils with a .333/.368/.440 (ba/obp/slugging) and 21 RBIs. 

“A foot outside, but hey” Garry Maddox after Ben Rivera’s last strike out which wasn’t quite a strike persay, but it helped the Phillies.

Final Conclusion:

The Phillies phinish their sweep of the Cincinnati Reds thanks to 6 two-out runs and 6 innings of scoreless pitching from Ben Rivera. 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 on the road to Chicago and the next game will be against the Cubs on April 16, 1993.