Baseball Humbles Superheroes and Sentiment

As the baseball world processes the World Series just ended—including the Kansas City Royals’ persistence, contact-hitting prowess, and relentless pressure on defenses—the New York Mets might consider whether they bought too much into the “Dark Knight” Batman superhero persona that their ace Matt Harvey has embraced and brings to the mound. After all, right or wrong, manager Terry Collins’s decision to yield to Harvey’s “no way!” demand that he not be removed after eight superlative innings in Game 5 of the World Series with the Mets nursing a slender 2-0 lead in an elimination game for them will be debated long into the winter, and then some. Rather than leaving the mound a conquering hero with a complete game victory to send the Mets and the Series back to Kansas City, Harvey failed to get an out in the ninth, the Royals tied the score, went on to win in 12 innings, and are now World Series champions.

Baseball Humbles Superheroes and Sentiment

Fifty years ago, with the 1965 World Series tied at two games apiece, Sandy Koufax pitched a complete game, 4-hits-allowed 7-0 shutout in Game 5 over the Minnesota Twins. No thought was given to him coming out of the game, despite the Dodgers’ big lead. Three days later, Koufax surrendered just 3 hits in another complete-game shutout to win Game 7 and the World Series. This time the lead was just 2-0, and despite pitching in near-exhaustion, again there was not a thought to bring in relief ace Ron Perranoski, whose 8 saves in September alone were critical to the Dodgers’ winning a close pennant race.

But that was a different time, a time when it was a given that self-respecting top-ranked starting pitchers finished what they started. Ask Don Drysdale (20 complete games in 1965), if you don’t believe Sandy Koufax (27 complete games and 336 innings pitched that year). These are different times, one where closers dominate the end-game, especially in must-win games that are close, like 2-0, in the last inning. In addition to their vaunted trio of young guns—Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Noah Syndergaard—the 2015 Mets have a top-flight closer in the person of Jeurys Familia.

Harvey had not completed a game all year. He has just one complete game in 65 major league starts, a shutout in 2013. In today’s day and age, there is absolutely no disgrace to not finishing the game. Finishing games to protect a 2-run lead is the closer’s job. And moreover, while the presence of deGrom and Syndergaard meant Harvey would not be asked to pitch Game 7 on two days of rest as Koufax did in 1965, he would have been ready to do his best Madison Bumgarner imitation in Game 7—which surely the Royals would not have wanted to see for the second year in a row—if it came down to that.

But the controversy over his innings limits in his first year back from Tommy John surgery put Harvey in the middle of the argument between his agent and his general manager. Harvey’s awkwardness in handling the issue left a perception that he was more concerned about himself than his team, hardly becoming of the Dark Knight who would sweep away the Mets’ enemies. And so there was “no way!” Matt Harvey wanted out of that game, no matter that he had a Tommy John arm, had thrown over 100 pitches in the game, and Familia was warmed up and ready to close out the Royals so the Mets could get on their plane to Kansas City.

Sometimes, however, the interests of the team should take precedence over the macho posturing and desires of its best players, even the Dark Knight. That is the manager’s responsibility, and Collins acknowledged as much in his post-game remarks. With only a two-run lead in a game the Mets could not afford to lose, and with Familia—like most closers—most comfortable coming in to start an inning rather than to put out a fire not of his making, this was one of those times where, after his eight superb innings, it was time for Commissioner Collins to tell his Dark Knight:

We Metropolitans in Gotham are enormously grateful for what you have done to show these KC devils, who have drained our lifeblood with interminable paper cuts, that they cannot prevail. I realize they are not yet dead and buried, but it is time now for us to relieve you of the burden of finishing the job. At least for today. Rest assured, I will use my best man—Mr. Familia—to close this thing out. We will not lose this battle of Metropolitan good versus Royal evil, and we'll see what the next few days will bring. If we need you, O Dark Knight, to save the day on Tuesday or Wednesday—the day of the Final Judgment—to permanently vanquish these guys, I know where to reach you. And if needed, you WILL be called.

Instead, the Dark Knight insisted on finishing the job himself, and the Commissioner bought into it. “I let me heart get in the way of my gut,” said Collins.

This is the kind of thing where you just hope that everybody recovers from the ugly events that transpired. Especially that Matt Harvey, having put his Tommy John arm at risk, hasn't compromised his future and does not allow his stampeding his manager into an ill-advised decision to haunt him in the year ahead when his excellence will be needed for the Mets to return to the World Series.

And that Terry Collins be remembered for the superb job he did in guiding a team that was beset with injuries to key players and with virtually no offense worthy of the name for two-thirds of the season to an upset of the overwhelmingly-favored Washington Nationals in the National League East. Sure, the Nationals had their share of injuries, but the Mets overcame third baseman and team captain David Wright and catcher Travis d’Arnaud both missing more than half the season on the disabled list, a top-of-the-rotation ace, Zack Wheeler, missing the entire year with his own Tommy John surgery, as did lefty reliever Jerry Blevins, and would-be-closer Jenrry Mejia suspended for performance-enhancing drugs. Collins put the Mets in position to win it all—right up until he allowed the aura of the Dark Knight narrative, and sentiment, to get in the way of his better judgment.

Welcome back in 2016, New York Mets. Your opening day opponent? The Kansas City Royals.

60 Years Ago (1955): Brooklyn Back in the World Series, Milwaukee Waits For Next Year

The Brooklyn Dodgers clubbed the Milwaukee Braves into submission on September 8, 1955—sixty years ago—with a convincing 10-2 win that officially cinched the National League pennant. They were going back to the World Series for the third time in four years, after having finished second in 1954. Not only would National League fans not have the excitement of a September pennant race in 1955, but the Dodgers may have felt great satisfaction in the fact that they secured their return to the Fall Classic so early in the final month against an up-and-coming team that seemed on the threshold of greatness and a good bet to come in first in 1955. 

Brooklyn Back in the World Series, Milwaukee Waits for Next Year

The 1955 Dodgers arrived in Milwaukee on September 7 for the start of a 10-game road-trip—and their final games with the would-be rival Braves—on a hot streak that began on August 27 in Brooklyn when Sandy Koufax shutout the Reds on two-hits for his very first major league victory (the subject of a previous post on Baseball Historical Insight). They had lost only once since, to Milwaukee at home on the last day of August, while winning 11 of 12 to boost their league-lead to 15 games. That included a second shutout by Mr. Koufax for his second big-league win, against the Pirates. In only his third career start, Koufax surrendered five hits but walked only two—the inverse of two hits and five walks in his previous start—and did not allow the Pirates to advance anyone beyond second base. Koufax had yet to lose a game, and he was still nearly four months shy of turning 20.

The three runs scored by the Dodgers after two were out in the first of the two games in Milwaukee were all Billy Loes needed to outduel Lew Burdette, 3-1. If they lost all their remaining games, the Braves would still have to win all of theirs just to tie with Brooklyn at the end of the 154-game schedule. The next day, the 8th of September, the Dodgers emphatically put an end to the pennant race with four runs in the first off starter Bob Buhl, who did not get out of the inning, and four more in the fifth.

It was Brooklyn's 9th straight win and their 12th in 13 games. It was their longest winning streak and best stretch since beginning the season with winning streaks of 10 and 11 games on their way to a 22-2 record.

Being eliminated so early in September was surely a disappointment for the Braves, who expected to be a serious contender for the 1955 pennant. Robert Creamer's conclusion about Milwaukee in SI's pre-season prognostications issue was that "the Braves are a good bet for the pennant, particularly if [Bobby] Thomson proves healthy and the pitchers ["a top-notch pitching staff"] do as expected." He was arguably proven correct, in a negative way, on both calls.

Bobby Thomson struggled in his comeback year following a severe ankle injury in spring training 1954 that limited him to 43 games and opened the door for Hank Aaron's entry into the major leagues. Three times in '55 he was out of action for at least seven days, and his 12 home runs were his fewest yet in any season he had at least 100 at bats dating back to his big league debut in September 1946. He hit only.257 and his player value as measured by wins above replacement was that of a marginal big leaguer.

And the Braves' pitching was good, but not at the level of expectations. Rather than his customary 20 wins, Warren Spahn finished the year with a 17-14 record, although his 17 wins were third and his 3.26 ERA fourth in the league. Burdette's 13-8 record was among the league leaders in winning percentage, but his victory total was down from back-to-back 15-win seasons and his ERA had jumped from a second-best 2.76 in 1954 to a less-than-ace-like 4.06 in '55. Buhl rebounded from a mediocre sophomore year in 1954 to match the victory total of his rookie year in '53 with a 13-11 record. Gene Conley (11-7) and Chet Nichols (9-8), who each started 21 games, both had ERA's over 4.00.

But the real reason for the Braves' disappointing season in 1955 was that the Dodgers got off to such a phenomenal start, winning 22 of their first 24 games, to grab a 9½-game lead as early as May 10th. No matter how well they played, no matter that Hank Aaron had a breakout season with 24 home runs, 106 RBIs, and a .314 average, no matter than Eddie Mathews knocked out 41 home runs, falling 10 games behind—as the Braves did—before May was even half over was a tough deficit for any team to overcome. From then till the rest of the way, the Milwaukee Braves were only 3½ games worse than the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Now, on September 8, 1955, with 138 games gone, their record at 92-46, their lead up to 17 games, and just 16 games to go ... and with the Braves having just 15 games left... the Dodgers could lose every remaining game and Milwaukee could win every remaining game, and it would not make a difference. The middle three games of the 1955 World Series were going to be played in Brooklyn's Ebbets Field. Perhaps this year "wait till next year" would become a reality.

But first, the Dodgers would have to wait to see who would win out in the American League, where the Yankees and Indians were in a tight tango for the pennant and the White Sox were still hanging around.

As for the Braves ... Well, for the third consecutive year since moving to Milwaukee, more fans came to see their home games than any other team, including the Yankees in the AL. Over 2 million visited Milwaukee's County Stadium in 1955, and the Braves home attendance since 1953 now stood at just under 6 million (5,963,621 to be precise). They would finish second for the second time since moving to Milwaukee. But after their loss to the Dodgers on September 8, 1955, it was the Braves who were waiting for next year.

60 Years Ago (1955)--Introducing a Kid Named Koufax

On August 27, 1955, Sandy Koufax won his first major league game, doing so by shutting out the Cincinnati Reds, 7-0, on just two hits, walking 5, but striking out 14. His victory ended a three-game losing streak that had cut the Dodgers' lead from a season-high 15½ games on August 14 to 10 games. It had been a rough month for runaway Brooklyn. The Dodgers had lost 8 of their previous 11 games and were 9-13 so far in August.

60 Years Ago in 1955: Introducing a Kid Named Koufax

Manager Walt Alston had three starting pitchers he relied on in 1955. Don Newcombe at this point in the season was 18-4, but had lost all three of his decisions in August, although all three were "quality starts." Carl Erskine, the Dodgers' best pitcher the three previous years (two of which Newk was in the service) was 10-6, and Johnny Podres, only 22 years old in his third season, was 8-9. Russ Meyer, Billy Loes, and since the beginning of July, rookie southpaw Karl Spooner, had also contributed as starters to the Dodgers' big lead in the standings. 

The Dodgers had another rookie southpaw all season on their 1955 roster. Fresh out of high school and in Brooklyn only by virtue of being a "bonus baby"—meaning he accepted a signing bonus in excess of $4,000—Sandy Koufax was only 19 years old and very much in a learning mode that more appropriately should have taken place several rungs down the minor league ladder. 

He did not appear in a big-league game until June 24, the 66th game of the season for Brooklyn, in a Dodgers' loss in Milwaukee. His team was already down 7-1 when Alston called upon him for two innings of relief beginning in the fifth. Johnny Logan, the first major league batter he ever faced, singled. After throwing Eddie Mathews' comebacker into center field trying to start a doubleplay and walking Hank Aaron, Koufax found himself in a bases loaded, nobody out situation in his very first game. Still trying for his first out, Koufax escaped the inning unscathed, striking out Bobby Thomson (yes, that Bobby Thomson, now with the Braves), and inducing a doubleplay grounder by Joe Adcock.

Alston next used Koufax five days later to pitch the ninth inning in a game the Dodgers were being blown out, 6-0, by the Giants. Once again Koufax loaded the bases with nobody out on two singles and a walk to Willie Mays, and once again he escaped without surrendering a run as he retired the next three batters, none on a strikeout.

The third game for Koufax was his first start, on July 6 in the second game of a doubleheader in Pittsburgh. He lasted only two outs into the fourth inning. Alston came to get him with the bases loaded, the score tied at 1-1, after he walked consecutive batters to force in the tying run. The control problems that plagued Koufax in the early years of his career were certainly evident this day; he walked 8 of the 23 batters he faced and also gave up 3 hits. But under the rules then in place for receiving his big signing bonus, the Dodgers could not send the kid down to the minors to work on his command and control issues. Koufax was spared the loss in his first big-league start because his relief, Ed Roebuck, stranded the bases loaded.

Since then, Koufax had pitched three times in relief in games Alston already considered a lost cause. In four innings, he had given up two runs. When he took the Ebbets Field mound on August 27 for the second start of his big league career, it had been nearly two months since his first.

The Reds were in fifth place, no more in contention than any other National League club, but were an imposing team offensively. Cincinnati ended the season with the second-most runs in the National League after Brooklyn. They had one of baseball's best-slugging line-ups. Ted Kluszewski ended the season with 47 home runs—his third straight year with at least 40 round-trippers; Wally Post hit 40; Gus Bell 27; and Smoky Burgess 20. 

Unintimidated, Koufax pitched the first great game of his career. Kluszewski singled in the first, Sam Mele doubled with two outs in the ninth, and in between only five Cincinnati batters reached base. Before Mele's hit, the Reds had runners in scoring position just twice—in the sixth, when Koufax walked Johnny Temple and Burgess back-to-back and committed a balk that put runners on second and third with two out; and in the seventh, when Koufax gave up a pair of two-out walks. He got the third out both times, no problem. Everyone in the Reds' starting line-up went down on strikes except for Temple and Post. Burgess and Roy McMillan each fanned twice, and the left-handed batting Gus Bell was definitely overmatched this day, striking out against Koufax in all four of his at bats. After Mele's two-out double in the ninth, Koufax finished off by getting Rocky Bridges to pop out to the shortstop.

When Sandy Koufax walked off the mound with his first major league win and a record of 1-0 so far in a career whose prospects were still uncertain, the Dodgers led the second-place Braves by 10 games with an 81-45 record. With 126 games down and just 28 to go, Brooklyn was in coast mode on the way to a third World Series in four years. Who they would play was far from certain. The Yankees ended the day tied with the Cleveland Indians for first, and the Chicago White Sox were breathing hard down their necks, a half-game back.

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