The Baseball Gazette

The Sabathia Trade
CC Sabathia Starts and Wins His First Game In a Brewer Uniform!

October 12, 2007
C.C. Sabathia winds up and throws a strike. It’s Game One of the 2007 ALCS and Sabathia is starting. Just eight months later, there is talk of trading him. And then on July 7, 2008, C.C. Sabathia became a Brewer. July 8 he made his first start for the Brewers.
Some people think it was silly to trade four prospects for Sabathia.


Me? I like the deal. It greatens the Brewers’ chances to win the World Series, and with the 1-2 punch of Sheets and Sabathia, the Brew-Crew is good to go. Did I mention that Sabathia’s ERA is now 4:34, and if you take away his first four starts, he’s got a 2:04 ERA and a 73-14 strikeout-to-walk ratio? But then again, both Sheets’ and Sabathia’s
contracts expire at the end of this season, so unless the Brewers load up on contract extensions, it’s highly unlikely that the Brewers will be able to keep both players. But as I said before, I think the Brewers are loaded and ready to go!


Great Names in Baseball Word Search

B A B E R U T H E B K O J Y R H U H J F H J
E H J F A R W E O U M I H U S N J U F E H H
B C H J T H R N J O E T K T G V R I B H N H
U D L K E B Y R J F L O U G E H R I G O H J
U J H L H N J Y E I G E A I H G H F S E J H
O L L B U V H A G I J C D L J L L E Q J B N
L E H F H U F A H K L U T Q E F H K E F T E
I G I G E O K R I W J W R U E T T E T Y P J
U F H N H V J O H U K I E O A S F T A O D A
Y H J O E T E N E L I O F M O A G G I J F C
Q Y Q Y T A T A E Y I O Y D S M K R Y F H K
L I R E W V T Y G N M T D F E M J K I T N I
B N U M D O J R L T S K L H N Y V X M G Y E
R L A W E T T I E I I T Q C Z S R I G Q W R
M A R K M Q U I R E N M B T R O L U N T P O
L I S R W T I H R O U P N M W S J L P A D B
T G T V R U C C S A B A T H I A O R K R J I
J L J H R T J L O U G E H R I M U S T U W N
R N V T W U L T M W U R O U H M B P U E K S
B A B E K I U O W A L T E R J O H N S O N O
N O U Q W E T H R W H E N R Y A A R E N O N

CC Sabathia Babe Ruth Henry Aaron Mark McQuire Sammy Sosa
Lou Gehrig Walter Johnson Christy Matheson Jackie Robinson
The Alexander Game

One of the greatest pitchers ever was Grover Cleveland Alexander. He pitched in the 1926 World Series--Games Six and Two being complete game victories, Game Seven being a relief appearance. Game Seven is the one called the Alexander game, even though Alexander only pitched to seven batters.
The story goes like this. After Alexander won Game Six, Rogers Hornsby, who was the manager and 2B for the Cardinals, said to Alexander “You’re in the bullpen tomorrow.” Having gone nine innings Saturday, there wasn’t much of a chance he’d have to crank up his old “soup bone” again Sunday.
“All right, Roy,” Alexander said, “But I’ll tell you I’m not going to warm up in the bullpen. I’ve only got so many throws left in this arm; I’ll take my warm-up throws on the mound.”
It was an awful day in New York, announcer Graham McNamee of WJZ radio told his listeners. “It is cold. It is dark. It is dripping. It is damp and thick and all that but it doesn’t make any difference. You can’t dampen the ardor of a real
(cont. from p. 2)
looked at every base to find Yankees on every one.
“Bases filled, eh?” he asked Hornsby. “I guess there’s nothing much to do, except give Tony a lot of hell.”
“Can you do it?” asked Hornsby.
“I can try,” came the reply. “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to throw the first one fast…”
“No, no,” protested Hornsby. “You can’t throw him a fastball.”
“Yes I can, and if he swings at it he’ll most likely hit it on the handle, or if he hits it good, it’ll go foul. Then I’m going to come outside with my breaking pitch.”
Hornsby looked into Alexander’s eyes and said, “Who am I to tell you how to pitch?” And that was the end of the mound meeting.
Alexander took only four warm-up tosses, and then the dramatic battle between Alexander and Lazzeri began.
baseball fan.”
The pitchers of Games Three and Four faced each other in the final game: Waite Hoyt and Jessie Haines. Hoyt for the Yankees and Haines for the Cards. In the first two innings, nobody scored.
In the third inning, Babe Ruth hit a one-run round-tripper. In the fourth inning, the Yankees had enough errors that three runs were scored by the Cardinals. The errors included a ground ball misplayed by the shortstop, an untouched short left field fly ball that left-fielder Bob Meusel or shortstop Mark Koenig should have gone for, and a fly ball that left fielder Bob Meusel botched in his haste to catch when really center fielder Earle Combs should have taken. Finally, a single scored two runs, the next two Cardinals went down, but it was too late to stop three runs from scoring. In the bottom of the sixth, left fielder Chick Hafey went for an amazing catch and missed it when he probably should have picked up on the bounce.
During all the action, Cards hurler Jessie
Alexander wound up and threw the ball, low and outside. Ball One.
Alexander tried again and hit the outside corner, for Strike One. The next pitch was high and tight. Lazzeri swung and hit a long line drive down the left field line. If it remained fair it would be a grand slam homer. It curved foul.
Now Alexander pitched a low breaking ball. Lazzeri swung and missed for Strike Three; inning over! Neither team scored in the eighth inning.
In the ninth, the Cards went down in order, and now the famed “Murderers Row” of the Yankees was up. Earl Combs and Mark Koenig were victims of the same fate. That fate was two strikes and a grounder to third. It happened first to Combs and then to Koenig. The next batter would be—who else?—Babe Ruth.
The smartest thing to Haines had developed a blister on his middle finger of his pitching hand and now it was bleeding. While the bases were loaded with two outs and the rookie sensation Tony Lazzeri up to bat; now the entire infield was on the mound discussing the blister on Haines’ finger.
“Can you throw it anymore?” Hornsby asked. “I can throw the fastball but not the knuckler,” replied Haines.
“Well, we don’t want any fastballs to Lazzeri,” Hornsby raised his right hand to signal the bullpen. Haines was finished for the day; a relief pitcher would be coming in to pitch.
In the bullpen, according to legend, Alexander was sleeping, when he was roused awake and told “Hornsby wants you to come and pitch.”
“What, again?” he said, and he picked up his glove and walked to the mound. Alexander was wearing a red Cardinal sweater. When he got to the mound he tossed his sweater to a batboy, and asked Hornsby, “Who’s up?”
“Lazzeri,” Hornsby answered.
“How many outs?”
“Two.” Alexander
(cont. on p. 3)
do would have probably been to intentionally walk the Babe, but that wasn’t Alexander’s style.
Alexander unleashed a quick strike, then came a ball, a foul, and three balls, and the great Bambino was walked.
Up next was Bob Meusel. On the first pitch, Meusel swung and missed—Strike One. Meanwhile, Ruth edged farther off first. He had swiped eleven bases that season and was thinking of trying it again.
As Alexander began his windup, Ruth took off from first and Hornsby ran to cover second base. Catcher Bob O’Farrell caught the pitch and whipped it to second. The throw was right on. Hornsby caught it and stuck his glove in between Ruth’s sliding foot. Out! Game over! Series over! Season over!
The Cardinals had won their first ever World Series!

TEST YOUR BASEBALL I.Q.:

1. The top three in the lifetime home run category are Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and Babe Ruth. Who’s fourth?
2. Who is the all-time leader in 20th century wins?
3. Nolan Ryan is the all-time leader in career strike-outs, but who’s second?
Answers, see page 4.

The Cheating Pitcher

Walter Johnson, some say, had the fastest fastball ever. Others defend Lefty Grove, Bob Feller, Sandy Kofak, or Nolan Ryan. The debate remains. But it was only Walter Johnson who did this
experiment. Yes, the experiment was cheating and that is why this article is called “the cheating pitcher.”
Our story starts in late afternoon with darkness starting to fall. It was the bottom of the ninth with two outs and two strikes. The catcher came to the mound for a conference.
When he returned to the plate, he had the ball hidden in his huge catcher’s mitt. Walter went into his usual windup, but this

time without the ball.
Right after he apparently threw the ball the catcher smacked the ball in his glove. With only a moment’s hesitation, the umpire called “Strike Three.” The batter headed toward the dugout and that was the end of the ball game.
A Baseball Joke

Q. A man goes out for a walk. He takes a left, a left, and another left. When he comes back home, there are two men at his house. Who are they?

A. The catcher and the umpire!

Answers to Baseball I.Q.
1. Willie Mays
2. Walter Johnson (in case you thought ‘Cy Young,’ most of his winning games were pre-1900!)
3. Randy Johnson

Bibliography

The Story of Baseball, Lawrence S. Ritter
Baseball’s Greatest Games, Dan Gutman
25 Great Moments, Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns
Roberto Blemente, Peter C. Bjarkman
Eyewitness Baseball, James Kelley
The Way Baseball Works, Dan Gutman
Casey Back at Bat, Dan Gutman
How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball, David Shannon
Baseball Math, Christopher Jennison