It is a wonderment how a closely fought ballgame can suddenly, inextricably break wide open in what biblical scholars/baseball fans have for generations cited as the “BigInning.”

Just such a game took place on Wednesday between two heretofore hapless AL teams; the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers.

The cellar-dwelling AL West Rangers battled the AL Central 4th place Tigers for five innings with the Tigers holding a narrow 7-6 lead, although Ranger pitchers were being pounded hither and fore with no one pitcher lasting more than 2 1/3 innings through the entire game.

For the Tigers, the dirt-ball specialist, veteran lefthander Kenny “the Gambler” Rogers lasted 3 1/3 innings giving up 6 runs on 9 hits, walking 3 and striking out none.

But lo, the Tigers bullpen allowed but two Rangers to reach base over the last 5 1/3 innings, single base hits in the seventh and eighth innings, while the Detroit offense proceeded to produce utter chaos to the tune of 11 runs off of the two Rangers relief pitchers of the sixth inning; 5 runs on 3 hits off of reliever Jamey Wright and 6 runs on 6 hits off of Wes Littleton. Wright fell victim to a 3 run clout by dh Miguel Cabrera amidst the onslaught.

For good measure, the Tigers added a 19th run in the seventh inning off of Rangers reliever Joaquin Benoit who had difficulty finding the plate, issuing the run on four bases-on-balls.

For more on the Tigers’ sixth inning explosion, click here.

The win went to Tigers’ lefthanded reliever Clay Rapada who held the Rangers at bay in relief of Rogers. The loss was charged to Rangers’ reliever Frank Francisco who coughed up the Tigers’ lead 7th run on a bases loaded walk in the fourth inning.

This was not the only citing of The BigInning in April. Baseball Library cites that nine seasons ago, on April 23, 1999, the St. Louis Cardinals, down 2-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers after two innings, exploded for for 11 runs in the third inning to go on to defeat the Dodgers by a 12-5 score at Dodger Stadium.

According to Baseball Library, quite a few MLB records were set in this game;

3B Fernando Tatis set a major league record by hitting 2 grand slams in a single inning. His 2 homers came in St. Louis’ 11-run 3rd inning. He also sets a record with 8 RBIs in the inning‚ while LA P Chan Ho Park becomes the 1st pitcher this century-and only the 2nd ever-to surrender 2 grand slams in a single frame. Bill Phillips of the Pirates did so in 1890. Park became the 36th major-leaguer to serve up two slams to the same player in his career.

Note: According to the Baseball Almanac, the name of the Pittsburgh team in 1890 was the Alleghenys.

Tatis, by the way, went on to have his only career season in 1999 with 34 HRs, 107 RBIs and a .298 BA, although he played with 4 teams over his 8 season career.

Finally, Baseball Library notes that on April 13, 2003, 5 years ago, the Phillies‚ who were locked in a scoreless tie with the Cincinnati Reds after three innings, exploded to score all 13 of their runs in the 4th inning to trounce the Reds‚ 13-1. Remarkably, there was only one homer in the inning, centerfielder Ricky Ledee’s 2 out, 3 run shot off of reliever Scott Sullivan.

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The Detroit Tigers and their new third baseman Miguel Cabrera reached agreement on Monday to a $152.3 million, 8-year deal, pending Cabrera’s passing the normal physical before an agreement can be finalized.

Cabrera’s deal puts him in exclusive territoryas one of the five highest paid players in baseball.

AP sports writer Larry Lage reports for Yahoo sports;

Cabrera agreed on Jan. 18 to an $11.3 million salary for this season. The new deal adds $141 million over the following seven seasons.

Cabrera will earn $15 million in 2009, when he would have been eligible for salary arbitration. He will average $21 million annually over the next six seasons, when he would have been eligible for free agency.

Cabrera’s average salary of $19,037,500 will be the fourth-highest in the major leagues behind those of New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez ($27.5 million), New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana ($22,916,667) and Boston left fielder Manny Ramirez ($20 million).

His deal will be the fourth-highest package. Rodriguez is starting a $275 million, 10-year contract, Yankees shortstop  Derek Jeter is entering the eighth season of a $189 million, 10-year deal and Ramirez is in the final guaranteed season of a $160 million, eight-year contract.

Florida sent Cabrera and [Dontrelle] Willis, the last players left from the Marlins’ 2003 World Series championship team, to Detroit for six prospects. Cabrera made $472,000 two years ago and $7.4 million last season, when he was eligible for arbitration for the first time.

Two years ago, Cabrera hit a Marlins-record .339 while joining Pujols, Rodriguez and Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg as the only players to hit 25 homers and 50 doubles in a season before turning 24.

He followed that up with career highs in homers (34) and RBIs (119) last season.

Related blog post; Tigers Acquire Cabrera, Willis From Marlins in 8 Player Deal

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Nine days ago, I wrote about how the the Oakland A’s demolished the San Francisco Giants by a 23-5 score in the most lopsided spring training game that I can recall.

However, 41 years ago on this date, March 16, 1967, the Boston Red Sox scored 10 runs in the 9th inning to come back from a 5 run deficit to beat the hapless New York Mets by a 23-18 score in one of the all-time wildest spring exhibition games on record.

Baseball Library reports;

Boston outhits the Mets 23 to 17 and Jim Lonborg is the eventual winner over Jack Hamilton.

Lonborg went on to post the best season of his career in 1967, a 22-9 mark to lead Boston to the AL pennant.  However Boston, still afflicted with the “curse of the  Bambino”, fell in the World Series to Bob Gibson and the  St. Louis Cardinals in 7 games.  Lonborg went on to have some fine years with the Phillies in 1974, 1976 and 1977 in the same rotation with Lefty  Steve Carlton.

Hamilton, however, was a mediocre at best, journeyman pitcher who began his career with the Phillies in 1962.  There is some debate as to whether Hamilton was actually tagged with the loss.  The above Baseball Library caption indicates that Hamilton apparently was the losing pitcher, while Baseball Almanac indicates that Hamilton was 2-0 with the Mets before going to the then-California Angels where he compiled a 9-6 mark; a combined 11-6 for the season.

While Boston went to the 1967 World Series, the lowly Mets finished dead last in the NL, 40 games behind the Cardinals, despite the 16-13 Rookie of the Year performance by Tom Seaver.  Hall of Fame righthander Seaver would go on to win 311 games over his 20 year career with four teams.

                           Related Blog Post;

               SF Giants Pounded by the Oakland A’s

June 15, 1977; The Day the Mets’ Traded Seaver, The Phillies Acquired Bake McBride

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Baseball Library records that on March 11, 1988, 20 years ago, Angels Manager Gene Mauch, who had managed 4 teams over 26 major league seasons winning 1,902 games, left the then California Angels for health reasons.  He officially retired from baseball 16 days later.

Mauch is best known for managing the Phillies from 1960 through June of 1968, including the infamous 1964 collapse where the Phillies held a 6 1/2 game NL lead with 12 games to play and proceeded to lose 10 straight games to lose the NL pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals on the final day of the season. 

Mauch is also known for being at the managing helm for the Angels’ two near misses in AL championship play in 1982 and 1986.

But in researching Mauch, I came across a game in 1961 which had eluded my memory but would typify Mauch’s penchant for strategy and tactics.

The 1961 Phillies were at rock bottom, at their absolute hapless worst.  They finished the season, the last 154 game season in the National League, with a woeful 47-107 mark.  Their haplessness would only one year later be eclipsed by the Casey Stengel-managed expansion  1962 New York Mets, in their initial season, who finished 40-120 thanks to 4 merciful rainouts.

On the previous day, June 28, the Phils had played to a 7-7 15 inning tie in the 3rd game of a 4 game series with the San Francisco Giants. The two teams had split the first two games.  That game was suspended due to curfew and replayed again as part of a make-up doubleheader the next day, June 29.

Baseball Library outlines Mauch’s strategy in the opening game of the doubleheader and what ocurred;

Mauch’s efforts to conceal his starting pitcher and force Al Dark’s hand has a Phillie lineup including hurlers Don Ferrarese (batting leadoff‚ playing CF)‚ Jim Owens (3rd‚ RF)‚  Chris Short (7th‚ C)‚ and Ken Lehman (9th‚ P) against San Francisco. When Dark sends lefty Billy O’Dell to the mound for one batter‚ Mauch replaces Ferrarese‚ Short and Owen. Dark then replaces O’Dell with Sam Jones. Mauch replaces Lehman with Dallas Green after 2 batters. All the maneuvering takes 3 hours and 20 minutes. 

But this game, with all of the strategizing, nevertheless goes 10 innings. Giants’ great centerfielder Willie Mays’ solo shot off in the 10th of Phils’ losing pitcher Frank Sullivan was the game winner.  Mays went 4 for 5, hitting 3 homers and driving in 5 runs.   The “Say Hey Kid” became the 4th ML player all-time to hit 3 or more HRs twice in one season.  The Giants put the topping on the cake in the nightcap, defeating the Phillies in a normal regulation 9 innings by a 4-1 score.

The Phillies would go on to lose 12 of their next 13 games and would go on to lose an all-time 23 consecutive games between July 23 and August 20, much to the total consternation of the fans and manager Mauch.

                                     Related Posts;

A Special Fathers Day for Baseball Dads, 42 Years Ago

All Star Game Highlights #4: Bunning Fans 4, Callison’s Game Winning Homer

Sad News: Former Phillies RF Johnny Callison Dead at 67

Remember When: Dick Allen’s $250K Highest in MLB, $15K Minimum Pay

History: Opening Day 1970 Phillies vs Cubs; Short vs Jenkins

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The woeful San Francisco Giants got rolled 23-5 last Saturday by their  Oakland Athletics neighbors in a game most notable for perhaps the most lopsided spring exhibition drubbing that I can recall since first becoming cognizant of baseball in the 1950s.

The A’s charged right out the box in the 1st inning bludgeoning the lefthanded $126 million man Barry Zito for 8 runs on 7 hot and 2 walks in 2/3rd of the first inning. Zito,  who didn’t pitch near up to the expectations of his price-tag in 2007, continued to unimpress putting the Giants in a deep whole from jumpstreet.  Then the A’s just kept coming and coming and puonding the Giants’ bullpen, mostly minor leaguers up for tryouts, to a pulp.  Only relievers lefthanded Erick Threets with his 19.29 ERA (3 games in 2007), and late season closer Brian Wilson got away unscathed in the A’s onslaught.

Meanwhile, Oakland got to give young starter prospect Greg Smith, as well as it’s bullpen, an early spring workout in a laugher with no pressure.  The A’s offense pounded out 29 hits with five guys getting 3 hits each and six more registering 2 hits each.  The AP report for Yahoo sports notes;

A’s starter Greg Smith, meanwhile, needed just 20 pitches to get through two scoreless innings. The left-hander, part of the offseason trade that sent Dan Haren to Arizona, is part of the competition for a spot in the rotation.

“I try not to think about it, but it is in the back of my mind,” Smith said. “I think about it at home watching television. When I get to the ballpark, we all have our work to do.”

Smith gave up a hit and struck out two, though he never got a chance to throw a curve.

“They told me to take it easy,” he said. “The heat helped a lot and it was easy to stay loose.”

The Giants currently stand at 2 wins and 7 losses for the spring while Oakland stands with almoat the reverse record, at 6-2.  Former Phillies centerfielder Aaron Rowand, who missed playing in this pounding, is 5 for 15 with a homer and a couple of RBIs this spring.  He’s gotta be wondering early on — was it worth the money to go from division winners to cellar-dwellers over the winter.

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Baseball Library records The 25th and 27th of February, 35 years ago, marked two groundbreaking events which have served to shape fiscal and economic reality in contemporary baseball.  The former date being the root for the evolution of MLB salary arbitration and free agency. 

Baseball Library records on February 25, 1973;

A new 3-year Basic Agreement is reached between players and owners… Among the provisions of the agreement are a $15‚000 minimum salary‚ salary arbitration‚ and the “10 and 5″ trade rule‚ which permits a player with 10 years in the ML‚ the last 5 of which are with his current team‚ to veto any trade involving him.

The latter date in 1973 made Dick Allen baseball’s highest paid player having received a 3 year, $250,000 per year deal from the Chicago White Sox.

Allen burst onto the Phillies scene at the beginning of the 1964 season, a season memorable for Jim Bunnings’ Fathers Day perfect game against the Mets, rightfielder Johnny Callison’s All Star game 3 run walk-off homer and the club’s late-season collapse blowing a 6 game NL first place lead in the final 12 games of the season.

Allen’s rookie season reflected the same sort of promise of a great career as Ryan Howard’s rookie season did in 2005.  But Howard hit his 22 homers with a .286 BA in 88 games where Allen’s 29 homers, 104 RBIs, 201 hits and .318 BA were full season stats.  Although he committed 41 errors at 3rd base, having never played there previous to arriving in the big leagues, Allen wooed the baseball writers with his stats and was voted 1964’s NL Rookie of the Year.

While Howard also won rookie of the year honors in 2005 season, he also went on to garner a wall full of awards for his 58 homer, 149 RBI, .313 BA 2006 season which, by comparison, blew away Allen’s second season.  Further, it took Allen 4 1/2 seasons to duplicate Howard’s 129 homers accomplished in less than 3 full seasons.

Although Allen would put together impressive numbers in 1965 before really blossoming for the Phils with a 40 homer, 110 RBI, .317 BA season in 1966, his off-field turmoil eventually spilled over onto the field.

A glimpse at the future disruptiveness which would dog Allen throughout his career was seen a year later in 1965 in his run-ins with veteran journeyman utility player Frank Thomas who was near the end of a 16 year career.  Thomas, who packed some thump in his bat throughout his career, provided some clutch pinch homers for the Phils after his acquisition late in the 1964 season.  But perhaps the turbulence that marked Allen’s career was rooted in his minor league experiences with the Phillies affiliate club in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Wikipedia records this regarding Allen’s minor league experiences;

His career got off to a turbulent start as he faced racial harassment while playing for the Phillies’ minor league affiliate in Little Rock; residents staged protest parades against Allen, the local team’s first black player. Nevertheless, he led the league in total bases.

My recollection is that the run-ins occured when Allen took issue with alleged “racist” comments made by Thomas. 

Wikipedia goes on to record some of Allen’s scrapes through his years with the Phillies;

He quickly wore out his welcome due to erratic behavior. He got in a fistfight with the popular Phillie Frank Thomas in July 1965, gashed his throwing hand by pushing it through a car headlight on August 24, 1967, and earned a 26-game suspension in June 1969 after being stopped by police for erratic driving, and showing up late to a doubleheader; he also began drinking heavily.

Even Allen’s name was a source of controversy: he had been known since his youth as “Dick” to family and friends, but for reasons which are somewhat obscure at this late date, the media referred to him upon his arrival in Philadelphia as “Richie,” possibly a conflation with the longtime Phillies star Richie Ashburn. After several years, he asked to be called “Dick,” saying Richie was a little boy’s name.

The Phillies’ Boo Bird fans, known for being tough on hometown players even in the best of times, exacerbated Allen’s problems. Initially the abuse was verbal, with obscenities and racial epithets. Eventually Allen was greeted with showers of fruit, ice, refuse, and even flashlight batteries as he took the field. He began wearing his batting helmet even while playing his defensive position in the field, which gave rise to another nickname, “Crash Helmet”, shortened to “Crash”.

One of Dick Allen’s most infuriating moments to fans was on June 24, 1969. Allen was fined $2,500 and suspended indefinitely when he failed to appear for the Phillies twi-night doubleheader game with the Mets. Allen had gone to New Jersey in the morning to see a horse race and got caught in traffic trying to return.

When the Phillies had finally had enough of Allen’s antics, they traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1970 season.  But even that deal was wrapped in controversy, although not of Allen’s doing.

The Phillies had traded him to St. Louis in exchange for outfielder Curt Flood who wanted no part of playing in Philadelphia.

Wikipedia notes;

Flood refused to report to the Phillies as part of the trade. (Flood then sued baseball in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the reserve clause and to be declared a free agent.)

Flood, it turned out, sat out the 1970 season before signing with the  Washington Senators where he played 13 games before retiring.  The Phillies, who sought Flood, were given young outfielder Willie Montanez instead.

Meanwhile Allen had a productive 1970 season of 34 HRs, 101 RBIs and .279 with the Cardinals.  But in 1971, he was traded to the Dodgers and then to the White Sox where he played from 1972 through 1974.

In 1972, after Allen clubbed a White Sox club record and league-leading 34 HRs with a .316 BA, he reached the pinnacle of his career, winning the AL MVP award.  In 1973 after receiving the 3 year deal from the White Sox, Allen broke his leg in a base-running collision at the end of June and missed the rest of the season.  In 1974, he came back with 32 HRs and a .301 BA but quit the team, without giving a reason, in mid-September.

Former Phillies great centerfielder, Richie Ashburn, now doing play-by-play announcing for the team, coaxed Allen out of retirement to rejoin the Phils.  But Allen had 2 disappointing seasons with the club.

Allen’s career came to an end in Philadelphia at the conclusion of the 1976 regular season in which the Phillies won the NL East championship. He jumped the club over their decision not to include veteran 2nd baseman  Tony Taylor on their post-season roster for the upcoming NLCS with the  Cincinnati Reds.  Taylor had been a 2nd base fixture and a rock of consistency in the Phillies infield throughout all of the lean last-place finishes of the 1960s.

Allen may have had a point regarding loyalty to a player, but the Phils had to do what was best for the club and Taylor was an aging player visibly at the end of his career.  And after the litany of all of his previous tumult, this was just the topping on a very tasteless cake.

In Thursday’s spring training action, 1st baseman Ryan Howard pounded a 3-run homer in the 3rd inning, 2nd baseman Chase Utley had 2 hits, but it wasn’t near enough as two of the Phillies’ young arms Joe Savery and Josh Outman were pounded for 9 runs squandering a 5-1 3rd inning lead as the Phils were clubbed 11-6 by Pittsburgh.  2nd year pitcher Kyle Kendrick started and pitched 1 run, 3 hit ball over 3 innings, only giving up a solo shot to Pirates 1st baseman Adam LaRouch in the 2nd inning.

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