Playoff "Predictions"
Playoff predictions. Everyone makes them. How often do you go back and check to see who was right? I’m guilty as well. This year I won’t bore you with predictions on the upcoming series but will offer you a new angle. I’ve decided to feature what is NOT going to happen. Whether you view the games on the large television set in your family room, the laptop on your desk, or on your iPhone, here are some things that happened in playoff past that we are NOT going to see this October.
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I was a fan of those television series that you may now find on the TV Land channel, especially “The Andy Griffith Show”. My favorite episode was when Mayberry and Mt. Pilot played in the little league championship. Who else but the uncompromisable Sheriff Andy Taylor would umpire the game? Unfortunately, his son Opie clearly slid safely into home on the final play only to have Andy call him out. The play reminds me of the first game of the 1970 World Series when the Reds’ Bernie Carbo slid into home as the Orioles’ catcher Elrod Hendricks applied the tag with his mitt but the baseball was in his other hand. Umpire Ken Burkhardt made the same mistake as Sheriff Taylor and held up his right fist signaling out. Only a post-game photo captured the mistake. Today, we have replay cameras and challenges to correct a run-scoring call.
My early memory of watching World Series play was when my Dad would take weekday afternoons off for vacation and come home and watch the games with me. I clearly remember his telling me in the fifth game of the 1968 Series that once Lou Brock was thrown out stealing in the fifth game, the tide had turned for Detroit. (Boy, was he right!) We would watch together every inning of every game since the games were played during the day, way before my bedtime. In 1971 the first World Series game was played under the lights at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The advertising world soon win out, as now all World Series games since Game 6 of the 1987 Series have been played at night. You (and for many of you, your grandchildren) won’t see a World Series game during the day this October; you may never see one again.
You also won’t see a pitcher coming to the plate with a bat in hand. The universal designated hitter rule became effective April, 2022, so no longer will pitchers hit in the NL playoff games or in the home games of the National League in the World Series. There’s reason to miss that. How fun was it to see Oakland’s Ken Holtzman hit a home run in the 1974 World Series! And how about the two home runs each hit by Bob Gibson and Dave McNally in World Series play before that! Never, say never, though. With the Phillies in the playoffs, pitcher Michael Lorenzen, an excellent hitting pitcher, may indeed get an at-bat in the late innings of a game.
We won’t also see a starting pitcher dominate a baseball playoff game for nine innings anymore. Of course there have been some once in a lifetime games in our playoff past. It is doubtful that Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series or Roy Halladay’s no-hitter for the Phillies in the 2010 NL playoffs will ever be replicated. Why not? It’s called pitch counts and bullpens. Just last year, the Astros painfully threw the first “combined” no-hitter. Cristian Javier pitched six innings of no-hit ball and was followed by Houston relievers the rest of the way. For me, it was just bad history in the making.
The kicker is that we won’t see a solo pitcher hurl a shutout or even a complete game. It just doesn’t happen anymore. Madison Bumgarner threw the last shutout in the MLB playoffs, a 2014 Wild Card game between his Giants and Pittsburgh. In the Astros’ 2017 ALCS Game 2 win over the Yankees, Justin Verlander pitched the last complete game in playoff history. Indeed, telling statistics over the past twenty years of playoff baseball include: (1) the American League’s starting pitchers averaged 5.94 innings in 2000 and just 3.75 innings in 2021; and (2) the National League average dropped from 5.46 to 4.44 during the same timeframe. A majority of MLB playoff innings are now pitched by the bullpens!
There is though one sure thing “prediction” for my readers. The Baseball Bench Coach will be back next spring for its sixth season! Thank you for reading the blog and for your love of baseball. I would enjoy seeing some of your own predictions in the comment section below.
Until next season,
your Baseball Bench Coach