World Series withdrawal was completed in time for the Ravens’ bye week, the midpoint of the NFL season, the early rounds of activity for both the NBA and NHL, and baseball’s official Awards Week.
A reminder once again that timing is everything — and pitchers and catchers report two days after Super Bowl LVII.
Don’t worry, it won’t be long. Halloween’s gone, Thanksgiving’s around the corner, Black Friday got lost in the shuffle, and Christmas cards are in your email box. Happy New Year to all.
To borrow a phrase from Scott Van Pelt and keeping up with the trend of “five takeaways,” or things we have learned, the three craziest things I saw during the 2022 World Series were:
3. Cristian Javier being taken out of Game 4 after allowing no hits in the first six innings.
2. Zack Wheeler being taken out of a 1-0 game in the sixth inning of Game 6 after a bogus hit batter and ground ball single.
1. The guy who bet $10 million on the Astros to win it all getting to throw out the first pitch before a World Series game.
OK, some explanations.
Normally No. 3 would get top priority but I’ve been brainwashed, having seen this way too often. Plus, I gave Dusty Baker the benefit of the doubt that he was protecting himself from Lance McCullers Jr. in a potential Game 7.
No. 2, Martín Maldonado had no business being awarded first base to start the inning, and Wheeler was the best chance the Phillies had of winning the game 1-0, which of course they didn’t.
As for No. 1, the guy owns a mattress store and was covering his offer of refunds if the Astros won the Series. Seemed like the perfect time for baseball to “sleep on it” before allowing that decision to be made.
I mean, c’mon man.
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As they say, records are made to be broken and since we live in an age where we often don’t even know they exist, it should come as no surprise to learn that Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski became the first executive to lead four teams to the World Series, only to find out that he was also the only one to lead three teams to the Fall Classic, thus breaking his own record, most likely unknown to all but a chosen few.
Whew. A lot to digest … just don’t try to diagram that sentence/paragraph.
It all started with the Chicago White Sox, and if owner Jerry Reinsdorf hadn’t allowed Ken Harrelson to be a one-man wrecking crew, it would’ve had a different look. In one chaotic year, 1986, manager Tony La Russa, general manager Roland Hemond and Dombrowski were sent packing. You won’t find that in the record book, either, but it has to go down as the worst front office cleaning in baseball history.
A year later, Harrelson went back to the broadcast booth, where he would earn Hall of Fame recognition as an announcer while Dombrowski, like La Russa before him, jump-started a career that could eventually earn him a plaque in Cooperstown.
Dombrowski has been to the World Series with the Marlins, Tigers, Red Sox and now the Phillies, winning it all with the Marlins in 1997 and Red Sox in 2018. In addition, he helped build a top minor league system for the Montreal Expos. He became the youngest GM in baseball with the Expos at age 31, before helping to launch Florida’s expansion franchise — and a career that will eventually get Hall of Fame consideration.
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The strangest note I saw during postseason play was the one about the bat Houston catcher Martín Maldonado used during the first game of the World Series. It seems, as a tribute to the retiring future Hall of Famer, Maldonado asked Albert Pujols for one of his bats.
Pujols responded by gifting a half-dozen, one of which was used in Game 1. Major League Baseball then informed Maldonado the bat was banned from future use, but hardly out of respect for Pujols. It turns out that model bat has been deemed unsafe because of excessive breakage, presumably into unhealthy pieces.
Pujols was grandfathered into continued usage of the bat model, not because of his stature but because of his length of experience. Now, if you are asking why King Albert would use a bat that broke into unhealthy pieces — or why he would be allowed to use it because of his age or experience with the manufacturer … I didn’t see any answers for those questions.
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There was a lot to like about baseball’s postseason, and the World Series was a nice finish. But here’s one thing, borrowing from SVP again, there was one thing I really — I mean, really — didn’t like, there were way too many hitters being hit by pitches that were avoidable. There was one noticeable instance where the batter wasn’t allowed to go to first, but there could have been more — especially the one Maldonado leaned into to set up Wheeler’s departure.
Every major league hitter has been tutored on how to avoid getting hit — by turning back and away — but too often you see them leaving an arm close to, if not in, the strike zone or half-heartedly lifting a foot, too often more than willing to take a base. Given all the protective equipment now available, it’s the kind of tactic that invites retaliation from frustrated pitchers.
The fact that it happened in such high leverage situations was probably the only reason it didn’t escalate, especially during the World Series. But that’s hardly the stage for hitters to exploit it.
Jim Henneman can be reached at JimH@pressboxonline.com
Photo Credit: Colin Murphy/PressBox