It’s possible to look at the pages decades later, centuries later, and comprehend exactly what transpired.
Baseball scorebooks can serve as time machines
Last week I started cleaning out my basement, a project that should be completed by 2012. I came across a pennant from the inaugural Triple-A All-Star Game at Pilot Field, stacks of sports books I’ve been meaning to read, a cap from Athens 2004, which got me to wondering what’s become of all the sporting venues Greece built for its three weeks on the world stage.
I began separating the stuff worth keeping from what belonged in the trash, and I was moving right along until I came upon a couple of baseball scorebooks. So much for the rest of the night.
There it is, the 1991 All-Star Game played at Skydome. A game-opening single by Tony Gwynn on a 2-1 pitch from Tom Glavine. Cal Ripken’s three-run homer in the third on a 2-1 pitch from Dennis Martinez, a mere continuation of the previous night, when Cal won the home run hitting contest with a barrage he said made him feel he was back in Little League.
An inning later Andre Dawson homered off Roger Clemens, on a 3-2 pitch. Ball-ball-foul-swinging strike-ball, if you care to know how the at-bat unfolded. The AL won, 4-2, the insurance run coming after Joe Carter pinch hit for Rickey Henderson and singled off John Smiley. (Remember him?) Carter eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Harold Baines.
No major sport submits itself to intricate documentation as does baseball. There’s no way of tracking the chaos of what occurs in the corner of a hockey rink, what takes place on the line of scrimmage in football, the picks set on a basketball court that free another for a bucket. But in baseball every act that affects the outcome is easily recorded, making it possible to look at the pages decades later, centuries later, and comprehend exactly what transpired.
The next game in the scorebook comes nine days later, the Buffalo Bisons (46-42, up two games up in the American Association East) against the Omaha Royals (44-49 and 7z 3/4 1/2 me 1/3 back in the West). Herd pitcher Roger Mason escapes with two on and one out in the first and goes on to allow seven hits over six innings. Fourteen of his outs come via fly balls, but it’s the double- play grounder he gets from Jeffrey Leonard (remember him?) in the sixth that demoralizes the Royals in a 4-0 Buffalo win.
Then we backtrack to May of that year, with Pawtucket visiting Pilot Field. Two players with Western New York ties, Wilson native Mike Twardoski and incoming Buffalonian Rick Lancellotti, are in the PawSox lineup. Twardoski, batting second, goes 0 for 4 after lining to left in his opening at-bat. Lancellotti goes 0 for 3 with—get this—a sacrifice bunt out of the cleanup spot. Buffalo starter Mason was working magic again, firing no-hit ball for 5c 1/2 n 2/3 combining on a one-hitter with Rosario Rodriguez.
Another scorebook. What’s this? Yankees versus Indians at the Jake on May 1, 2000. A 1-hour, 4-minute rain delay followed by a 3-hour, 15-minute game played before 42,711. The Yanks come in with a 10-1 record when they score first. And the trend holds as Shane Spencer fouls off four pitches in a seven-pitch at-bat against Jared Wright before stroking a two-run, two-out double in the fifth for a 2-0 lead (remember how those Yankees of Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez were expert at fouling off pitches until getting the one they wanted to hit?). New York won, 2-1, to improve to 16-8 and drop the Tribe to 13-9.
Triple-A scorebooks stir memories of the players who’ve passed through over the years. Here’s a game with David Eckstein batting leadoff for Pawtucket, another with Jeff Conine batting third for Omaha. On May 22 of ‘91 Rick Reed suffered a rare Bisons loss when he gave way to Jeff Neely with two on and one out against Syracuse. Neely’s first pitch left the park to left, compliments of Derek Bell.
The aforementioned Williams was a much-hyped Yankee prospect during the ‘91 season, and he validated the praise on June 24 at Pilot Field with a solo homer, a bunt single and a two-run triple. But the miracle of the day belonged to Columbus starter Alan Mills, who walked two in the first, four in the third and two more in the fourth yet yielded but one run over five innings.
I know there are more scorebooks somewhere in the basement. In time, I’ll find them. And that’ll be another day when the work at hand grinds to a halt and games from the distant past come back to life.
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