As a rule, you want to have more Runs up there on the scoreboard than Errors. When you have it the other way round... well, it seldom works.
At least the Jays weren't the only team taking this approach last night. Washington scored zero runs against Tim Hudson and the Braves, while making a couple of errors. And the Cubs, bless them, made three errors against Houston; the two runs they finally got in the bottom of the ninth weren't enough to get them off the hook.
I was worried about how the ten day layoff would affect Josh Towers' command, which is what his entire game is based on. As it turned out, his command was just fine. I thought he ran out of gas after about 70 pitches, and the layoff may have contributed to that; on the other hand, it may have been just the regular wear that comes from having to work out of the jams your shoddy defense has ... anyway, he'll be fine. I have no worries whatsoever on that score. I'm more worried about Chacin and Ohka than Towers.
Rawlings, the people who make the Gold Glove, are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gold Glove awards by collecting fan votes for the All-Time Gold Glove team. The results of the first batch of voting has just been announced, and the fans are doing OK if you ask me. It wasn't the fans who put Derek Jeter on the ballot, and it's the fans who have cast their votes for other shortstops.
Presumably, you would have to have won a Gold Glove at some time or another to even be considered. They didn't always just grab the guys with most Gold Gloves at each position and stick them on the ballot, but that does seem to have been a common procedure..
Catcher - Johnny Bench has a big 2-1 lead over Ivan Rodriguez. I am becoming more and more convinced that there's probably very, very little to choose from between these two. I might go with Bench because he did it first; he more or less pointed the direction to a new way to play the position. Also on the ballot are Bill Freehan, Bob Boone, and Jim Sundberg. These are the only five catchers to win at least five Gold Gloves, as it happens.
First Base - Keith Hernandez is ahead of Don Mattingly. It's very close. It shouldn't be remotely close - Mattingly was awfully good, but Hernandez was in a class all by himself, the best I have ever seen by a mile. He was amazing. Also in the running: Wes Parker, Vic Power, Bill White, and J.T. Snow. The original Boomer, George Scott, winner of eight Gold Gloves, has been forgotten. And frankly, his defense was overrated.
Second Base - Joe Morgan is ahead in a close four way race with Ryne Sandberg, Roberto Alomar, and Bill Mazeroski. Morgan, Sandberg, and Alomar were all very good indeed, but no matter. As everyone knows, Mazeroski was better than anyone - Maz didn't turn the double play, the baseball was somehow seamlessly redirected to first base, as if no human intervention had even been required. I don't know how else to describe it. I rather think Frank White was better than the other guys as well - no one else understood better than White how to play infield on artificial turf. White's also on the ballot, along with Bobby Richardson. These six players are the only second basemen with five Gold Gloves.
Shortstop - In a battle of the Ozzies, it's Smith over Vizquel by a landslide. Which is as it should be, although the runner up should be either Cal Ripken or Luis Aparicio. Davey Concepcion and Mark Belanger are also listed, which is certainly fine by me. Ripken isn't even on the ballot, probably because he was much too tall to be a shortstop. The other five players are the only shortstops to win five Gold Gloves. They're all on the ballot, and so is... ahem... Derek Jeter. Who's not terrible, but obviously doesn't belong in this group, even if he did win three times. So did Roy McMillan and Rey Ordonez, who were far, far better shortstops. And hey - what about Tony Fernandez and Alan Trammell (four Gold Gloves apiece)?.
Third Base - Brooks Robinson has a big lead over Mike Schmidt. Well, Schmidt was a great defender, but Brooks was a little better. Of course, Graig Nettles at his best might have been better than either of them, but he's not even on the ballot. We can't have everything, and the other candidates - Buddy Bell, Ken Boyer, Eric Chavez, and Scott Rolen - are certainly worthy. Boyer, who won five Gold Gloves, bumps aside Robin Ventura (who won six). Everyone else went six or more.
You notice that Brooks Robinson and Keith Hernandez - even if you don't believe they were the greatest defenders ever at their positions, you'll certainly concede that they're part of the discussion - had pretty well no foot speed whatsoever. Zilch. They had team mates who would lap them if they ran around the bases twice. Hernandez ran OK in his youth, when was with the Cardinals. But by the time he turned 30 and came to New York, it was all gone. And he was a better defensive player than ever.
Outfield - Willie Mays has more votes than anyone, and really... why on earth wouldn't he? There's plenty of film of the man playing, there are still many among us with living memories of watching him play. No one like him. And Roberto Clemente has more votes than anyone except Willie and Brooks, and that's OK too. No one in the last thirty years has played right field like Roberto. Mays and Clemente each won 12 Gold Gloves, more than any other outfielder. However, the next highest vote getter among the outfielders is Ken Griffey, which brings us to that goofy inability of the Gold Gloves to notice that outfield is three different positions, not one repeated three times. There are 11 centre fielders listed (Mays, Blair, Dawson, Edmunds, Flood, Griffey, Hunter, Jones, Maddox, Puckett, White); there are 6 right fielders listed (Clemente, Evans, Kaline, Suzuki, Walker, Winfield). But there is only one left-fielder on the ballot - Carl Yastrzemski. Happily, Yaz was as good a left fielder as you could want to see - Joe Rudi and Barry Bonds are the only other left fielders to get any respect in the Gold Glove voting. (And there's no doubt in my mind that Mike Cameron and Gary Pettis were far better centre fielders than Griffey or Puckett.)
Pitcher - Only three men are listed - Maddux, Kaat, and Gibson - and Maddux is winning. Gibson was an amazing athlete, and it's remarkable that he was able to field his position at all (if you've ever seen footage of him delivering a pitch, you'll know what I mean.) The best defender from the pitcher's mound I ever saw was actually Bob File of the Blue Jays, but alas... you have to be able to stay healthy and pitch a few years to have a shot.
At least the Jays weren't the only team taking this approach last night. Washington scored zero runs against Tim Hudson and the Braves, while making a couple of errors. And the Cubs, bless them, made three errors against Houston; the two runs they finally got in the bottom of the ninth weren't enough to get them off the hook.
I was worried about how the ten day layoff would affect Josh Towers' command, which is what his entire game is based on. As it turned out, his command was just fine. I thought he ran out of gas after about 70 pitches, and the layoff may have contributed to that; on the other hand, it may have been just the regular wear that comes from having to work out of the jams your shoddy defense has ... anyway, he'll be fine. I have no worries whatsoever on that score. I'm more worried about Chacin and Ohka than Towers.
Rawlings, the people who make the Gold Glove, are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gold Glove awards by collecting fan votes for the All-Time Gold Glove team. The results of the first batch of voting has just been announced, and the fans are doing OK if you ask me. It wasn't the fans who put Derek Jeter on the ballot, and it's the fans who have cast their votes for other shortstops.
Presumably, you would have to have won a Gold Glove at some time or another to even be considered. They didn't always just grab the guys with most Gold Gloves at each position and stick them on the ballot, but that does seem to have been a common procedure..
Catcher - Johnny Bench has a big 2-1 lead over Ivan Rodriguez. I am becoming more and more convinced that there's probably very, very little to choose from between these two. I might go with Bench because he did it first; he more or less pointed the direction to a new way to play the position. Also on the ballot are Bill Freehan, Bob Boone, and Jim Sundberg. These are the only five catchers to win at least five Gold Gloves, as it happens.
First Base - Keith Hernandez is ahead of Don Mattingly. It's very close. It shouldn't be remotely close - Mattingly was awfully good, but Hernandez was in a class all by himself, the best I have ever seen by a mile. He was amazing. Also in the running: Wes Parker, Vic Power, Bill White, and J.T. Snow. The original Boomer, George Scott, winner of eight Gold Gloves, has been forgotten. And frankly, his defense was overrated.
Second Base - Joe Morgan is ahead in a close four way race with Ryne Sandberg, Roberto Alomar, and Bill Mazeroski. Morgan, Sandberg, and Alomar were all very good indeed, but no matter. As everyone knows, Mazeroski was better than anyone - Maz didn't turn the double play, the baseball was somehow seamlessly redirected to first base, as if no human intervention had even been required. I don't know how else to describe it. I rather think Frank White was better than the other guys as well - no one else understood better than White how to play infield on artificial turf. White's also on the ballot, along with Bobby Richardson. These six players are the only second basemen with five Gold Gloves.
Shortstop - In a battle of the Ozzies, it's Smith over Vizquel by a landslide. Which is as it should be, although the runner up should be either Cal Ripken or Luis Aparicio. Davey Concepcion and Mark Belanger are also listed, which is certainly fine by me. Ripken isn't even on the ballot, probably because he was much too tall to be a shortstop. The other five players are the only shortstops to win five Gold Gloves. They're all on the ballot, and so is... ahem... Derek Jeter. Who's not terrible, but obviously doesn't belong in this group, even if he did win three times. So did Roy McMillan and Rey Ordonez, who were far, far better shortstops. And hey - what about Tony Fernandez and Alan Trammell (four Gold Gloves apiece)?.
Third Base - Brooks Robinson has a big lead over Mike Schmidt. Well, Schmidt was a great defender, but Brooks was a little better. Of course, Graig Nettles at his best might have been better than either of them, but he's not even on the ballot. We can't have everything, and the other candidates - Buddy Bell, Ken Boyer, Eric Chavez, and Scott Rolen - are certainly worthy. Boyer, who won five Gold Gloves, bumps aside Robin Ventura (who won six). Everyone else went six or more.
You notice that Brooks Robinson and Keith Hernandez - even if you don't believe they were the greatest defenders ever at their positions, you'll certainly concede that they're part of the discussion - had pretty well no foot speed whatsoever. Zilch. They had team mates who would lap them if they ran around the bases twice. Hernandez ran OK in his youth, when was with the Cardinals. But by the time he turned 30 and came to New York, it was all gone. And he was a better defensive player than ever.
Outfield - Willie Mays has more votes than anyone, and really... why on earth wouldn't he? There's plenty of film of the man playing, there are still many among us with living memories of watching him play. No one like him. And Roberto Clemente has more votes than anyone except Willie and Brooks, and that's OK too. No one in the last thirty years has played right field like Roberto. Mays and Clemente each won 12 Gold Gloves, more than any other outfielder. However, the next highest vote getter among the outfielders is Ken Griffey, which brings us to that goofy inability of the Gold Gloves to notice that outfield is three different positions, not one repeated three times. There are 11 centre fielders listed (Mays, Blair, Dawson, Edmunds, Flood, Griffey, Hunter, Jones, Maddox, Puckett, White); there are 6 right fielders listed (Clemente, Evans, Kaline, Suzuki, Walker, Winfield). But there is only one left-fielder on the ballot - Carl Yastrzemski. Happily, Yaz was as good a left fielder as you could want to see - Joe Rudi and Barry Bonds are the only other left fielders to get any respect in the Gold Glove voting. (And there's no doubt in my mind that Mike Cameron and Gary Pettis were far better centre fielders than Griffey or Puckett.)
Pitcher - Only three men are listed - Maddux, Kaat, and Gibson - and Maddux is winning. Gibson was an amazing athlete, and it's remarkable that he was able to field his position at all (if you've ever seen footage of him delivering a pitch, you'll know what I mean.) The best defender from the pitcher's mound I ever saw was actually Bob File of the Blue Jays, but alas... you have to be able to stay healthy and pitch a few years to have a shot.
