So, place yourself 'neath the cap of the major league manager, who calls up his young phenom, who has spent the first two months of the season tearing minor league pitching apart. Bat him third, that seems pretty reasonable, if's he's been all that so far this year.
The team responds by winning three straight: he goes 0-5, 0-3, 0-4. Now you head back home, and the next game features your opponents ace.
Screw it, leave him in. Your phenom gets things rolling in the bottom of the first with a home run, but nobody else can get anything going and the winning streak comes to an end. Phenom was hitless after the first, and is now 1-16.
Leave him in, you say? Two games the same day. He's 0-3 in the first game, and when he has to be taken out of the second game he's 0-2. Hmm, maybe you should give him a game off, rest his cramp, settle his head, perhaps take some of the pressure off.
Screw it, plug him back into the lineup. 0-5.
You gotta think that, were this to happen today, nitwit radio would be all over the manager to ship this kid back to Minneapolis, or at least bench him. Not Durocher - Leo just drops him down to the 8th spot in the lineup. And Willie finally starts to hit like Willie Mays.
A number of the biographies I tracked down had Willie's start at 1-25, but 1-26 is consistent with the box scores that appeared in the New York Times (I spent an hour in the microfile room at BPL fact checking).
Something to keep in mind the next time a slow start "proves" that a hitter doesn't have what it takes to hit in the major leagues.
May 28, 2004 9:16 PM
| TrackBack