Right Way — Baseball Bench Coach

If you’re lucky in life, you come upon one or two mentors who help shape your way of thinking and provide life lessons. One of those for me is Frank Espelage, who passed away two weeks ago at the age of 93. He lived a very full life, and one of his life treasures was managing my Knothole (little league) baseball team with the help of our third base coach, his son Ron. Three years ago our second baseman and my dear friend, Tom D’Agnillo, hosted a reunion of that team, a night of laughter and reminiscing about key games and rival teams, and even perusing old scorebooks. Mr. Espelage attended that reunion, and to a player, we expressed our thanks to him. The common theme was that we worked very hard to become an exceptional team, and he coached us to do it the “right way”.

What is the right way in baseball? For me, it’s all about players and teams executing the basics of the game. Recently I read that the 1959 AL pennant winning White Sox was the last team to appear in a World Series that stole more bases than hit home runs during the season. The “Go-Go Sox” would definitely have been my kind of team, managed by Al Lopez, a 20-season defensive specialist as a catcher who brought his focus on fundamentals to the ball club. Nellie Fox, the AL MVP and Sox second baseman, was one of the most difficult hitters in MLB history for a pitcher to strike out. Steady fielding shortstop Luis Aparicio made Chicago even stronger up the middle as he finished 1959 MVP runner-up and led the league in stolen bases for nine seasons. Cy Young award winner and Sox ace, Early Wynn, dominated hitters with his power pitching, but also displayed a mastery of the strike zone. Sherm Lollar, the team’s veteran leader and catcher, led the team with just 20 HRs and 84 RBIs. The ’59 Sox were just a solid team, all around!

In St. Louis, you often hear the term “Cardinals Way” to describe not only the brand of baseball the team plays, but also how the team conducts its business from top down. In a 2016 book by baseball journalist Howard Megdal, “The Cardinals Way: How One Team Embraced Tradition and Moneyball at the Same Time”, the author describes how owner Bill DeWitt, general manager John Mozeliak, and former managers, such as Tony LaRussa, take great pride in the team’s code of conduct, use of statistics and analytics, and a farm system designed to groom players for the big leagues. Much of the system-wide approach though can be traced to the late George Kissell, who served the Cards for most of his lifetime as a minor league player, manager, coach, scout, and roving instructor. The so-called “Professor” preached fundamental baseball to players, coaches, and managers throughout the organization. Kissell not only mentored LaRussa, but two other great managers, Sparky Anderson and Joe Torre (see “Best Skippers”, 08/26/2019).

Should we extend the right way of playing on the field to how players look? That seems outlandish in MLB today, especially with the new look many of us have adopted during the pandemic, but baseball has some history of maintaining appearance policies. Prior to 1972, you could not find an MLB player with facial hair. The Oakland Athletics won the World Series in 1972 in a flamboyant style with many players sporting mustaches and longer hair. As a result, the Yankees adopted a policy in 1973 that players must have their hair cut above the collar of their baseball jersey and no beards were permitted. The original policy was established under the late George Steinbrenner because he wanted the players to adopt a “corporate attitude”. The policy actually remains in effect today, much to the dismay of many MLB players. Former Red Sox star pitcher David Price, now with the Dodgers, has stated that he would never play for the Pinstripes for that reason alone. The Reds, until 1999, were the only other team to prohibit beards but it was more of an unwritten rule than an actual policy.

Most unwritten rules, a set of unspoken rules in baseball that managers and players are to follow, concern play on the field. These rules include many prohibited acts, such as DO NOT: (1) bunt to break up a no-hitter; (2) stand at the plate and admire a home run; (3) swing at a 3-0 pitch when your team is winning the game; or (4) steal a base when your team has a big lead. Players with some urging of their managers are the enforcers, and many tend to have long memories about perceived violations. Bob Gibson had an especially long memory; one story has him beaning an opposing hitter for a slight that happened 15 years earlier. Humorously, the ultimate competitor, Michael Jordan, who played minor league baseball in the middle of his pro basketball career, stole third base once with his Birmingham Barons team up 11-0. Jordan’s then manager, Terry Francona, had to explain to him that an unwritten rule had been broken.

One of my favorite scenes from the movie “Bull Durham” is when catcher Crash Davis, played by Kevin Costner, scolds an opposing hitter for admiring a home run even though Davis had told him what pitch was coming. Taking that long look at a home run took an ugly turn last year when a former Reds player, Derek Dietrich, was perceived by Pirates pitcher Chris Archer of violating the unwritten rule. On Dietrich’s next plate appearance, Archer threw the first pitch behind him, resulting in a melee on the field and several suspensions. Earlier in the season White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, who went on to become the AL batting champion, violated a similar, unwritten rule by flipping his bat after a home run against Kansas City. Royals pitcher Brad Keller plunked Anderson on his next at-bat, also resulting in an on-field brawl. Both of these 2019 incidents were despite the fact that in 2018 MLB launched a marketing campaign called “Let the Kids Play”, designed to criticize the outdated unwritten rules.

So where are we in 2020 on unwritten rules? It depends on whom you ask. In a game two weeks ago between the Padres and Rangers, one of baseball’s rising superstars, San Diego’s shortstop Fernando Tatis, Jr., swung at a 3-0 pitch with the bases loaded and his team leading 7-0 in the eighth inning. Tatis hit a grand slam, and quickly received grief from both sides. When he returned to the dugout, the Padres first-year manager, Jayce Tingler, admonished him for missing a take sign. The Rangers were a little more upset, and Texas pitcher Ian Gibault, who had just entered the game, threw behind the next batter, the Padres other big star, Manny Machado. Gibault received a 3-game suspension and his manager, Texas’ Chris Woodward, got one game. Woodward’s post-game comments reflect today’s dilemma on unwritten rules: “I didn’t like it, personally. But, like I said, the norms are being challenged on a daily basis.”

One thing to consider for those supporting unwritten rules is that baseball sorely needs superstar players who can create excitement like Tatis. If you haven’t seen him play in this crazy short season, you need to do so. Not only is he at the top of the charts in HRs, RBIs, and batting average, but his defensive range is flat out remarkable. Tatis after the game apologized for his grand slam discrepancy, but current and former MLB players quickly rushed to his defense. Tim Anderson had this to say: “He hit a grand slam. What are you apologizing for?” Former players Reggie Jackson, Ozzie Guillen, and Johnny Bench chimed in their support. Bench, after calling the 21-year old Tatis a future Hall of Famer, tweeted: “Everyone should hit 3-0. Grand Slams are a huge stat.”

At the beginning of each Knothole season in Cincinnati, my teammates and I gathered for the uniform distribution. There were many sought after numbers because of the Reds star players at the time, and perhaps none brighter than # 5, Bench’s jersey. Each season we did our best to play the game the right way. In those many years we won the District 18 championship, our first round opponent was most often the Delhi Eagles, the top team on the west side of Cincinnati. I chuckle still about Mr. Espelage telling us before those games, “don’t worry, they put their pants on the same way we do, one leg at a time.” Humor aside, it was an important life lesson for me. No one is better than me; and just as importantly, I am better than no one else. Thank you Mr. Espelage. Rest in Peace.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach