## Standings / Recap / Comments3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Detroit 58 33 .637 - L1 428 306 .281 71 79 3.08 2.9 5.8 .983 42.5 44.4
Boston 48 40 .545 8½ L3 399 311 .276 69 48 3.32 3.0 5.8 .981 38.9 37.3
New York 51 43 .543 8½ W4 401 437 .247 91 28 4.30 2.7 5.0 .981 -4.9 33.7
Cleveland 38 54 .413 20½ L4 332 395 .247 83 29 4.09 3.4 5.4 .981 9.1 28.8
Milwaukee 37 53 .411 20½ W1 363 428 .259 55 64 4.27 3.4 4.9 .979 -13.9 32.9
Baltimore 34 51 .400 21 L1 349 421 .251 73 35 4.39 3.9 5.0 .977 -6.1 39.1
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Texas 57 32 .640 - W3 358 263 .263 57 47 2.68 3.2 5.1 .984 43.9 35.7
Chicago 52 38 .578 5½ W1 393 344 .261 81 50 3.46 3.5 5.2 .982 30.8 35.1
California 44 45 .494 13 W1 387 391 .263 66 66 3.99 3.3 4.7 .981 30.1 40.9
Oakland 45 47 .489 13½ L1 379 399 .265 63 40 3.97 3.1 4.9 .980 3.4 33.8
Kansas City 43 52 .453 17 L10 443 475 .255 70 47 4.57 3.7 4.7 .983 9.0 31.9
Minnesota 35 54 .393 22 W4 332 394 .245 74 46 3.97 3.4 5.2 .977 1.4 33.8
NATIONAL LEAGUE
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Philadelphia 56 34 .622 - W1 432 336 .250 72 70 3.33 3.1 5.3 .981 30.5 45.5
St. Louis 51 38 .573 4½ L1 362 351 .253 82 27 3.41 3.2 5.8 .980 15.4 42.3
Chicago 49 43 .533 8 W1 360 343 .257 70 48 3.47 3.3 4.9 .986 41.4 40.3
Pittsburgh 41 47 .466 14 L1 289 291 .232 39 22 3.08 2.7 5.9 .982 11.2 36.2
New York 40 47 .460 14½ L1 288 352 .247 37 54 3.52 3.4 5.1 .981 15.8 45.5
Montreal 35 53 .398 20 W1 352 420 .246 70 36 4.00 3.6 5.2 .977 -4.9 34.4
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Houston 52 44 .542 - L1 400 386 .254 84 40 3.52 3.7 6.0 .977 8.7 31.9
Cincinnati 49 43 .533 1 W1 385 352 .251 71 38 3.52 3.0 5.7 .980 8.2 25.3
Atlanta 48 47 .505 3½ L1 361 325 .248 65 29 3.06 3.1 6.0 .982 4.1 31.1
San Diego 46 45 .505 3½ W1 351 314 .251 52 38 3.03 3.4 5.4 .979 43.9 36.8
San Francisco 41 52 .441 9½ W1 332 377 .246 69 53 3.54 3.2 5.5 .980 8.7 30.6
Los Angeles 39 54 .419 11½ L1 279 344 .241 80 38 3.26 3.1 5.4 .979 35.1 35.6
One week before the All-Star Break, folks! Things have really settled into a haves and have-nots deal, with only one division having a 2nd place team within a series of 1st. As a Mariners fan (who?) though, let me tell you how quickly a 10 game lead, let alone an 8 1/2 game lead, can get frittered away...
We've got a Yuppie Tie between the White Sox, who rebounded well from a tough week the week before to go 5-2 vs the Yankees and Orioles (they won both series), and the Yankees, who recovered from that 2-1 series loss to the Chisox in Comiskey Park to sweep the Royals at home in a 4-game series themselves. Both of those teams are 2nd in their divisions and both will need some help to move up. The White Sox are technically closer but are now without unexpected power thread Pedro Castrejon (.295, 10, 29) and have been relying on DH Jeff Nation (.270, 17, 65) to hit cleanup now. And honestly, Nation is looking pretty good, although his career high in HRs is 21 (in his rookie year of 1970 with the Royals) so he might be playing a bit over his head right now. The Yankees seem set with their lineup but their pitching staff has huuuugely let them down this year, having allowed the 2nd most runs in all of baseball. Improved performance from Santos Rodriguez (4-5, 6.41 with his new team) and Manny Carbajal (3-6, 4.62) would help but at this point they've got to not just equal the division-leading Tigers, they need to seriously outplay them.
The dirty hippies are obviously the Royals, who are on a 10-game skid that has sent them from dark horse AL West contenders (maybe that was always a pipe dream) to "contenders" to catch the Twins in the cellar. They are now 4-11 for the month, which I guess means that they opened it kind of strong. At this point, they're the answer to the question "just who in the league has a worse pitching staff than the Yankees?" with 475 runs allowed and an MLB-worst 4.57 ERA. They do have the top offense in the league. Lately that's gotten them a lot of 6-5 losses like the one they suffered today in Yankee Stadium. And they've got a 3-game series at Detroit next week so it doesn't get any easier for them...
I was thinking about saving the league leaders for next week but I'll probably be breaking down the AS rosters so... I'll do it now instead.
In the AL, CAL 1B Chris Seek (.341, 10, 53) is juuuust holding onto the batting race lead ahead of Boston's 1B/OF Brian Johnson (.339, 3, 35) and LF Bruce Springsteen (.333, 6, 41). Seek's also "only" hitting .332 with the Angels since coming over from Texas earlier in the year so the trend-line is not in his favor. Also, of course, Johnson and Springsteen have the air of desperation about them whereas Seek is more or less getting his hits for fun at this point.
The HR race is of course stil led by Yankees DH Ernesto Garcia (.252, 32, 69), although he's had a real power outage this month - just 1 HR and 6 RBI since July 1 - and that's allowed shock rocker Alice Cooper (.305, 25, 67) to scooch in to contend for both this and the RBI lead. The Twins' 37 year old slugger Angelo Martinez (.271, 20, 63) is currently the only other ALer with 20+ HRs. For RBIs, it's Garcia and Cooper up top followed by a tie between Cooper's White Sox teammate Jeff Nation (see above!) and the A's Casey Satterfield (.293, 16, 65). Alvin Romero (.293, 3, 36) is of course the steals man with 43, well ahead of the Astronaut Jon Glynn (.283, 7, 34) with 29, and in 3rd there is once again a tie between Texas' 3B Bobby Ramirez (.324, 6, 30, also 5th in batting) and California's Richard Simmons (.239, 2, 21) with 17. Simmons spent some time in the minors but is back in the bigs and starting again.
The AL pitching story is of course dominated by Detroit's Jimmy Goddard (18-1, 1.75), who's way aout ahead of both the ERA and wins races; in fact, he's the only qualifying ALer with a sub-2.00 ERA. Boston's Brian Osbourne (10-2, 2.38) is kind of playing out of his mind for 2nd with Texas' Billy Crystal (14-7, 2.48) in 3rd. Crystal's also 3rd in victories which means that Goddard's teammate Edgar Molina (15-9, 3.59) is in "place" in that category. Sadly, Goddard isn't really a K guy so it's unlikely that he'll win the triple crown. That's Edgar Molina's category - with 14 of them he's 21 ahead of Boston's Michael Pesco (11-11, 3.28) and 22 ahead of fellow Bostonian Marco Sanchez (12-10, 3.45), both of whom are having hard-luck seasons in spite of all the Ks.
Malcolm Post (5-2, 2.01) has been just about the only reliever in the junior circuit to have been good all season long with no real hiccups and so it's appropriate that he leads everyone in saves (17) and shutdowns (18). Texas' Tanzan Kihara (1-2, 2.86) is #2 with 14 saves, 7 each in Texas and California; he's been ripped apart kind of hard with the Rangers though, yielding a 4.72 ERA with 3 HRs allowed in 13.1 IP. Jim Marceau (3-4, 2.23) is tied for 3rd with 12 saves and in 2nd with 15 shutdowns and his tie-partner is Oakland's Willis Chavez (5-8, 2.91) who's also 3rd in ****downs (13). Lots of losses for a reliever though, wow.
In the NL Justin Stone (.323, 20, 42) now has the at-bats to qualify for the batting title and so he's looking like a triple crown threat himself. He's in a bit of cold streak though so Rafael Disla (.321, 8, 46) and Mike Morrison (.321, 3, 27) are right in there behind him. Cincinnati's Jaden Weaver (.244, 22, 70) has played all year and so still holds the HR lead over Stone as well as the RBI lead over... everyone, Stone is pretty far back actually. Alberto Juantorena (.310, 18, 63) is 3rd and is himself a hot streak away from a Triple Crown run; he's also 2nd in RBIs, with the Reds' RJ Dominguez (.306, 14, 61) in 3rd. Jon Berry (.275, 8, 25) is about the only thing the Giants have to root for right now and is leading the NL in steals with 29, just ahead of Juantorena with 25 (quadruple crown?). Waaaaay back behind him in Cincinnati leadoff hitter and 2B Pedro Ortiz (.246, 4, 35).
There's no single guy dominating the NL pitching leaderboards, which, great! There are two guys with ERAs under 2: Pirates ace Jeremy Battaglia (8-8, 1.81) and knuckleballer Colin Rose (8-3, 1.91), the latter of whom is looking like a bit of a Cy Young contender now himself after starting the year in the bullpen for Atlanta. Roger Quintana (11-6, 2.19) leapfrogged into 3rd ahead of LA's Fernando Apolonio (10-8, 2.21) thanks to an 11-inning, 1-run performance at San Diego yesterday.
Richard Starkey's (15-4, 2.49) got the old win lead still; you can say it's because of run support but Ringo's pitching pretty well too. Nobody has won more games over the past 3 years than Tony Rivera (13-5, 2.37) so it's fitting that he's in 2nd now, with 3rd a 3-way tie between Quintana, George House (11-8, 3.17), and San Diego's Don Henley (11-5, 2.23). House is also just barely winning the K race right now with 127 to Rivera's 126; Quintana is right behind both with 124.
The Mets have fallen apart this year but that's not the fault of Geoff Saus (7-6, 3.12), who leads the NL in saves (17) and shutdowns (24). I mean, I guess he hasn't been lights-out like he has in the past but come on man. Darius Parchman (2-3, 1.25) is moving on in behind him in saves although his 16 shutdowns doesn't even crack the league's top 5. Tom Grohs (2-6, 3.13) is a little up-and-down himself but hey, 13 saves is 13 saves and he is tied with Paz Lemus (9-3, 1.85, 10 Sv) for 4th in shutdowns himself. #2 for shutdowns is, like the last time we looked at this, a tie between Chicago's Jesse Kelly (6-3, 2.38, 12 Sv) and Cincy's Brian Yates (6-2, 1.21, 12 Sv).
## Major Transactions
July 9: The Orioles claim RP Michael Williams (0-0, 4.05) off waivers from the Yankees. Baltimore's bullpen has been just plain awful since they traded off Montay Luiso (0-2, 2.82, 7 Sv) and while Williams hasn't been amazing this year, he did have 69 Ks in 73.2 IP at AAA Syracuse last year (where he went 4-4, 1.10 with 19 Sv) and really was a victim of a numbers game for the Bronx Bombers. He'll get immediately slotted in as the team's new stopper to replace the struggling Akihisha Mera (1-7, 6.10, 5 Sv).
July 10: The Expos purchased CF Allen Scurry (.224, 1, 8) from the Royals for $7,500. Scurry has been pretty well kicked into a 5th/6th OF role with the defensive emergence of Prince Charles (.212, 8, 31) but the Expos could stand to take a longer look at him with their own guy Anton Mendoza (.272, 3, 29) OBPing .293 this year and prospect Arsene Wegner (.250, 5, 29 at AAA Peninsula) not exactly looking like a world-beater in the minors.
July 11: The Rangers purchased CF Curtis Hope (.190, 1, 9) from the Mets. For the Rangers, Norm Hodge (.258, 2, 18) is certainly hitting better than last year (.206, 2, 20) but his glove isn't *quite* what it was in his heyday and that .258 is a very empty .258. Hope was the Mets' starter from 1968-1972 but lost his job this year after slashing .211/7/46 last season. He's still only 27 so hopefully the bad hitting was a blip. For the Mets, they're slip-sliding away, newcomer Kjell Isaakson (.260, 2, 24) has a lock on the CF job now, and hey, free money.
## News
July 9: The ested Tower, opens outside the city of Liberec in Czechoslovakia. It looks... funky and has a big old transmission antenna on it.
July 9: PURELY COINCIDENTALLY I'M SURE the US and Czechoslovakia agree to establish diplomatic relations for the first time since the country fell under the Iron Curtain following World War II. US Secretary of State William Rogers and Czechoslovakian Foreign Minister Bohuslav Chnoupek sign the agreement to open consulates in each others' nations during Rogers' visit to Prague.
Jusly 9: British serial killer Patrick Mackay - yes, apparently even Britain has serial killers in the 70s - commits the first of 13 murders to which he will eventually confess, stabbing a woman on a train as it passes near Catford in the greater London area.
July 9: Also PURELY COINCIDENTALLY it's a bloody, bloody day in baseball. First up, Giants 1B Justin Richens (.225, 3, 25) was diagnosed with a broken bone in his elbow, which will take him out for the season and possibly end his career. Should this be the end, Richens will have finished with 10 All-Star appearances, 2,560 hits (currently 6th all-time), a lifetime .295 average, 430 HRs (6th), and 1,417 RBIs (5th). Yeah, those are not eye-popping numbers thanks to the 60s but he's a clear Hall of Famer.
His best year was probably 1957, when, as a Tiger, he finished 2nd in MVP voting (to C Mario Moreno (.375, 13, 75)), just missing a Triple Crown with a .353 average (2nd to Moreno), 34 HRs, and 105 RBIs (both of which led the league). I guess voters decided that Moreno's defense was a bigger deal...
July 9: Also out for the season is White Sox slugger LF Pedro Castrejon (.295, 10, 29), just signed this offseason out of the Mexican League He suffered a torn flexor tendon. As he's 35, I guess it's not out of the question that these 49 games will be all we'll see out of this man as well. 22 year old rookie Peabo Bryson (.212, 0, 0, but .260, 4, 12 at AAA Iowa) will try and fill that man's shoes.
July 9: Royals DH Edwin Manchego (.227, 17, 60) had been having a pretty rough year prior to last week. He's still an all-or-nothing guy but last week he was "all" with a .435 average (10-23) with 4 HRs and 13 RBIs to earn the AL Player of the Week. This is his first-ever MLB PotY, although he did win it twice in the minor leagues. I'm going to guess this won't be enough for him to make his 2nd trip to the All-Star Game but hey I guess we'll see, right? Also, second straight week that a Royal wins PotW. There's something in that... Missouri River water?
July 9: Meanwhile, in New York, Mets RF Barry "The Ritz" Cooper (.296, 2, 29) has maybe been a bit too much the opposite of Manchego in terms of hitting: he's just a straight up singles hitter with zero power - but last week he, too, was the best man in his league with a 12-24 output (.500 of course). He... didn't really do a lot else, with just 1 HR, 2 RBIs, and 4 runs, but we can chalk that up to his teammates not coming through. The 3-time All-Star and lifetime .306 hitter has picked up this award one other time, the week ending April 19, 1970.
July 9: SYD THRIFT'S NEATO STAT OF THE WEEK is a real 70s/80s job: the top 5 strikeout men during the daytime:
5. Edgar Molina, DET (14-8, 3.71), 49
4. Ricky Rosas, MIN (4-7, 4.90), 52
3. John Carpenter, NYY (12-8, 3.87), 54
2. Obe Olthof, SF (4-11, 4.37), 57
1. Michael Pesco, BOS (11-10, 2.93), 59.
Olthof is up there mainly because 12 of his 18 starts to date have come during the day, although unlike most pitches he's also clearly pitched better before dark. He's 3-6, 4.30 in day games vs 1-5, 4.54 at night with 5.8 Ks/9 when the lights are off and 5.2/9 when they're on. All 4 of his complete games have come during the day as well. Could this be the key to unlocking his potential? Outside of trading him to the Cubs, I would say "no" and also "I ain't got time for that kind of micro".
July 9: Texas is visiting Detroit early this week and Game One was one for the ages... Rangers starter Robby "Hagrid" Coltrane (9-3, 2.00) made one mistake all night but it was the game-deciding mistake, a solo HR to 2B Joey Ramone (.323, 7, 60). Detroit was meanwhile starting Jimmy Goddard (17-1, 1.81), who now has a Smokey Joe Wood type record. "I've got to figure these guys out now," said Goddard following the game, "because we might be playing them again in October."
Goddard has already tied last year's shutout mark of 5 and is, inconceivably, on pace to break the all-time record set by Houston's Tony Rivera last season (9).
July 9: Phillies CF Bryant Tarala (.267, 9, 16) has got a well-earned reputation for giving it all up on the field. Sometimes this isn't a good thing: the 10-year veteran hasn't played more than 125 games in a season since 1968. There are good sides to this to, for example today when he led his team to a 1-0 win over the Braves with an 8th inning INSIDE THE PARK HOMERUN off of Felix Carranza (6-10, 3.74). Carranza for his part gave up 8 hits but did a pretty good job of keeping the Phillies from capitalizing overall.
For Philadelphia, Vince "The Eligible" Bachler (6-1, 1.91) continued his nice run after getting called up from AAA Eugene at the beginning of June: the 26 year old now has 7 quality starts and 2 shutouts in 8 major league starts.
July 10: The Bahamas are granted independence by the United Kingdom, become a nation with Sir Lynden Pindling (hmm) as their first Prime Minister. The Caribbean archipelago remains within the Commonwealth.
July 10: Treasure hunter Mel Fisher announces that he and his team of explorers have located the remains of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which had sunk in a hurricane in 1622. The worth of the treasure is estimated at more than $600M.
July 10: John Paul Getty III is kidnapped from the Piazza Farnese in Rome and held for $17M in ransom. Getty, 16 year old grandson of the wealthiest man in the world, refuses to pay the ransom at first until... a newspaper receives the teenager's ear in the mail. He eventually sends them a ransom of $3.2M and Getty will be freed on December 15.
July 10: In Prague, Olga Hepnarova drives a rented truck into a crowd of people and kills 8. The manuever was done intentionally and, in the words of what was supposed to be a suicide note, "TO PAY BACK [her] HATERS". She is captured, sentenced to death, and hanged in 1975.
July 10: Oleksander Yanukyovych, the Ukrainian multi-millionaire and son of current MLBer Viktor Yanukyovych (1-1, 2.16 with Pittsburgh) is born in Donetsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.
July 10: Wallace "Bud" Smith, 49, the former world lightweight boxing champion from 1955-56 and an Olympian in 1948, is murdered when he tries to stop a man beating up a woman in Cincinnati. The man pulls a gun and shoots Smith in the head. Smith defeated Jimmy Carter (not that Jimmy Carter) to win the lightweight title in a 15 round split decision on June 29, 1955, defended it successfully one time in a rematch against Peanuts (not his actual nickname), and then lost it to Joe Brown in another 15 round split decision. He lost to Brown via TKO in a rematch and then, like a lot of lower-weight fighter, dropped off after that and retired a year later.
July 10: The Red Sox' already dim pennant hopes took a big hit today as 1B/cleanup hitter Mike Miller (.286, 10, 43) was diagnosed with an intercostal strain that will keep him out until mid-August. This does coincide with the return of 2B Brian Long (.214, 0, 2) from his own long-term injury - he just came back on the 7th after having been out since the 17th of April with a dislocated shoulder - but that's a big bat to have to replace in the lineup.
July 10: The Oakland A's CF David "Aperture Science" Mesa (.258, 1, 20) will also miss the next 5ish weeks with shoulder inflammation, which at least in this case is probably worse news for Mesa than it is for the A's. Cat Stevens (.296, 2, 8), the 1972 NW League MVP who's flashed in the pros so far, will take over up the middle in his stead; Mesa will just have to hope he doesn't get Wally Pipp'ed here.
July 10: You wouldn't know it from the wins and losses but Dodgers pitcher Rogelio Salinas (8-10, 2.38) has really upped his game this year. Following 4 straight years of giving up 30+ HRs, including a league-high 36 last year, the 30 year old lefty has cut those down to manageable levels (14 in 136.1 IP, 0.9/9) and as a result he's that much more effective. Today he shut out the Cardinals on 3 hits, walking 2 and striking out 5.
There was a prime moment in the 8th where a Salinas of the past surely would have come unraveled: RF Ryan Ashbaker (.329, 0, 18) walked with out out, followed by a single by 2B Tom Depew (.261, 6, 22) that turned into a 2nd-and-3rd situation when the throw in from LA RF Ray Costa (.250, 6, 20) was late and slow. With PH Parker Sweeney (.236, 3, 6) up, Salinas got him to hit in the air... to short center, too short for Ashbaker to try to score. The pitcher (Roger Quintana (10-6, 2.28, who himself was throwing a 6-hitter)) was up next and so ended the rally. Dodgers win, 2-0.
July 11: A fire breaks out in a lavatory on Varig Flight 820 near Paris, causing a crash while attempting to make an emergency landing in an onionn field 2.5 miles short of Orly Airport. Among the dead are the president of the Senate of Brazil, an Olympic sailor, and a well-known Brazilian sports journalist.
July 11: The Battle of the Sexes match is set up as 1973 Wimbledon champion Billie Jean King accepts a challenge from 1939 Wimbledon men's champion Bobby Riggs for an unprecedented "winner take all" $100,000 prize (circa $670,000 today). Riggs, a self-described "male chauvinist" (yeah, there was a time when this wasn't a pejorative), had said earlier that it was fair that men got paid more than women because he, in his 50s at the time, could beat even the best women in the world.
July 11: American actor Robert Ryan, best known for playing villains and cops in movies and on television, dies at age 63.
July 11: Padres RF Ray Herring (.176, 2, 17), who is hitting as well as that line would imply, came into my office and told me he wants to start. Well, I wanted you to play better, Ray; we can't always get what we want. Herring did, to be fair, hit .304/11/38 last year in part-time play so I was counting on him. I guuuueeeess Ed O'Neill (.233, 3, 18) hasn't been hitting super great himself so I think I will for once accede to demands and stick Herring in more of a half-time role in right. If he doesn't hit, you must... DFA.
July 11: The White Sox have a big (6 game) deficit to make up to the Rangers and are now without their cleanup hitter so if they're going to catch up to Texas they'll need more performances like tonight's masterpiece by SP Rich Reese (11-4, 2.64). Reese threw a 1-hitter, struck out 9 and walked just 2 in an 8-0 romp over the Yankees at Comiskey Park tonight. The 28 year old Reese had never quite clicked as a prospect in Minnesota but following a minor league trade in 1971 and very solid year in relief last season (5-1, 1.99) his new team decided to switch him back into the rotation. Thatt has worked out quite well to say the least: Reese has worked to strike out a few less people in exchange for making them hit his 12-to-6 curveball and excellent forkball even more.
A HR by DH Jeff Nation (.264, 15, 61) in the 5th sure didn't hurt although truth be told the White Sox had already scored all the runs they'd needed in the 3rd thanks to a 2-RBI single by SS Josh Johnson (.317, 4, 37).
July 11: The Mets broke their 7 game losing streak tonight but man oh man did it look dicey for a while. They carried a 7-3 lead into the 7th but an error by SS Chris Adams (.333, 0, 1), making his 1973 debut after suffering torn ankle ligaments in spring training, followed by a HR by former Met Joshua "Superman" Waltenbery (.304, 16, 47) put the Houston Astros ahead 8-7. They'd extend that lead to 9-7 (and boy oh boy was I second-guessing myself, leaving stopper Geoff Saus (7-6, 3.16) in the bullpen until the 9th because I didn't want to overuse him - instead Roy Holm (4-2, 1.95) just about ruined the game) with a HR by SS Dusty Hill (.281, 4, 22).
Then (speaking of second guessing) the Astros elected to try and push Chris Wilson (0-0, 2.94) for a 3-inning save - starter Ernie Alvarez (10-9, 3.66) had been knocked out of the box in the 3rd and so the Astros' bullpen was looking light. That did not do the trick, as Wilson allowed a walk to Adams and a single by Barry "The Ritz" Cooper (.297, 2, 29) and a belated switch to stopper Adam Eastin (3-2, 2.84, 10 Sv). It should be noted that Eastin was tired but, you know, needs must. Well... Eastin got 1B Jim "Garfield" Davis (.231, 9, 19) to foul out to catcher but then C Jason Bushon (.293, 5, 36) belted a game-tying, 2-RBI double to right field. As Bushon got to 3rd on the play, the proper move here was to walk 3B Vicente Luna (.274, 4, 27) in order to face lefty but poorly hitting lefty Ethan Keesee (.195, 1, 16). Keesee hit the ball out of the infield and while Houston CF George Foreman (.301, 14, 56) chased it down, it was way too deep to make a play. BOOM, Mets win, 10-9!
It's always good to see the Astros (now 50-42) lose but I swear I'm not weighing the scales down! The bullpen blew up on its own.
July 11: Fernando Apolonio (10-8, 2.21) threw a 6-hitter and struck out 7 but in classic Dodgers fashion, the one run he gave up wound up being a run too many as his teammates let him down, 1-0. The Cardinals' Raul Mendoza (9-5, 2.89) threw the shutout himself with 5 hits allowed, 5 Ks, 2 walks, and a clutch, inning-ending double play in the 8th inning. "We'll get them next time," said the laconic Apolonio following the game. His team is 11th in the NL in runs scored, ahead of only the Pirates, and as such is in the NL West cellar in spite of having the best starters' ERA (2.92) in the majors.
July 12: A major flire breaks out and destroys the entire sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center in Overland, Missouri. The fire destroys almost all (80%) of the records from the VA for US Army personnel who served between 1912 and 1960 and 75% of the USAF records stored on that floor. None of the records had had copies made or had been microfilmed.
July 12: University of Maryland basketball coach Lefty Driesell and two other men save the lives of 10 children in a fire in several beachfront townhouses in Bethany Beach, Delaware. Coach Driesell's involvement will go unnoticed until the Washington Star-News reports it on the 20th.
July 12: President Nixon is admitted to the Bethesda Naval Hospital after being diagnosed with viral pneumontia. Spoiler alert: he lives! Sorry!
July 12: One person who did not live today is Lon Chaney Jr., the son of horror film staple Lon Chaney and a pretty big name in horror films himself. He died today of heart failure due to arteriosclerosis.
July 13: It's Friday! The thirteenth!
July 13: Hector Jose Campora resigns as President of Argentina to allow Juan Peron to return to power. Raul Lastiri, the President of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, will step in as interim president until elections can be held on September 23 and will eventually be succeeded by Peron after he's elected on October 11.
July 13: Alexander Butterfield, head of the FAA, and HR Haldeman reveal that almost all of Nixon's White House conversations had been recorded, the first indication to investigators of the Watergate scandal of this previously unknown source of evidence. While John Dean had earlier voiced an opinion that he thought all the conversations were taped, no witness had yet confirmed this until Butterfield, interviewed today by Donald Sanders, one of the Watergate Committee's attorneys, answered, "I was wondering if someone would ask that. There is tape in the Oval Office."
July 13: The self titled debut studio album by the British rock band Queen is released simultaneously in the US by Elektra Records and in the UK by EMI Records. I hear they're pretty good...
July 13: James Carpenter (13-8, 3.60), normally a pretty good control guy, had one of those games where nobody, neither his catcher nor the Kansas City Royals, knew where the ball was going. He threw a 6-hitter, which itself looks more hittable than it was with a rough 9th (he wound up throwing 153 pitches), with 8 Ks and 6 walks en route to a 3-0 win for his Yankees. "It was kind of scary tonight," admitted Carpenter following the game. This was his 2nd shutout and 10th complete game on the season, and the Ks moved him up to 115, 5th in the American League.
July 13: There was a point this year where White Sox RF Josh Wade (.298, 7, 35) was having an off season. Well, today he went 3-4 vs the hapless Orioles to sit just under .300 and also extend his hitting streak to a career-high 20 games. This is in fact tied for the 2nd longest streak in the majors this year: only California's CF Carlos Hernandez (.295, 6, 40) has a longer one (21 games from May 8 to June 3) with Cardinals C John Stuart (.286, 10, 32) also hitting in 20 straight (May 26 to June 22). Wade is slashing 391/409/484 on the month; yes, he's a singles guy but it's a lot of singles.
July 14: Peter Revson wins the 1973 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, a race that is marred for a huge pile-up in the first lap that causes eleven cars to retire, including Brabham driver Andrea de Adamich, who suffers a broken ankle that winds up being a career-ending inury. Revson is apparently known for popularizing the now-common practice of spraying the podium with champagne to celebrate his victories, earning him, at the time, the nickname "Champagne Peter".
July 14: In an otherwise pretty boring game, Braves 1B Jon Hernandez (.218, 4, 21) tied the National League record for the most walks in an extra-inning game with 5. That's a massive caveat, as St. Louis' Lorenzo Martinez walked 6 times on May 11, 1965 in regulation. The other huge caveat is that while the Braves did win 5-2 over the Expos, it took them 14 innings to get there because without Henry Riggs this team has zero power whatsoever. Ironically, the game was won on a HR, this time by C Gianluigi Farinelli (.257, 2, 20), who was hitless on the night heading into that at-bat. Hernandez was on base for it, too; not sure if that counts as irony or not.
The last man to walk 5 times in a game in the NL in extras was Chris Granneman of the Dodgers on June 18, 1960. The one other time it's been done was in 1948. The Braves, even with Riggs in the lineup for most of the year, are sitting at 9th in the NL in HRs with 65 (18th overall) in spite of playing their home games, as this one was played, at the Launching Pad. Their hitters just have not been able to get the ball over the short porches there - only 33 of those HRs have been at home.
July 14: Just another Dodgers game at Dodgers Stadium... although this time at least the home town fans went home "happy". The Cubs fought - "fought" - LA for 10 innings, losing 1-0. Ken Hansen (6-8, 3.77) pitched his 3rd shutout of the year and struck out 11 - his first 10 K game since September of last year - while Max Weinberg (5-5, 2.70) did well himself but tired in the 10th with a base hit to C Gary McCord (.262, 1, 14), a bunt by Hansen, an intentional walk to CF Ross Poynor (.258, 4, 13), and then a single into right by SS Ronnie Yitzakhi (.265, 9, 24) that won it.
The last-place Dodgers are still dead last in baseball in runs scored (279) and 2nd-worst in average (.242; the Pirates are hitting .232 on the year).
July 15: The Soviet city of Alma-Ata (now Almaty) in what is now Kazakhstan is narrowly saved from destruction by a landslide when a massive torrent of mud is blocked by a dam that had just been built the year before. Persons above the Medeo Dam were killed when the mudslide, from the Tuluk-Su glacier, sent 225,000 cubic meters of water into the valley below. Alma-Ata, incidentally, is one of those cities nobody in the West has heard of but which is gigantic, with a 2020s population of more than 2 million people.
July 15: The nation of Bangladesh amends its constitution so that it can pursue prosecution of war crimes arising from its fight for indepenedence.
July 15: Clarence White, an American bluegrass guitar player for the Byrds and pioneer of country rock, is killed in Palmdale, California when a drunk driver hits him as he's loading equipment into his car after performing in a concert.
July 15: Let's take a look at the penultimate voting totals for the All-Star Game.
Below are the current standings for the American League All-Star Fan voting (as of Sun. Jul. 15th , 1973) for the All-Star Game, which will be played on Tue. Jul. 24th , 1973. The top vote getter at this point is Alice Cooper with 1,281,240 votes.
CATCHER
1. Josh Lewis, Oakland Athletics: 868,444
2. Frank Abagnale, Baltimore Orioles: 815,326
3. John Lennon, Cleveland Indians: 500,484
FIRST BASE
1. Alice Cooper, Chicago White Sox: 1,281,240
2. Angelo Martinez, Minnesota Twins: 916,833
3. Chris Seek, California Angels: 912,441
SECOND BASE
1. Geoffrey Rush, Texas Rangers: 828,881
2. Rodrigo Juarez, California Angels: 810,813
3. Bill Murray, Baltimore Orioles: 757,724
THIRD BASE
1. Tom Weiss, New York Yankees: 990,885
2. Jose Ayala, Detroit Tigers: 954,570
3. Bobby Ramirez, Texas Rangers: 915,477
SHORTSTOP
1. John Johnson, Chicago White Sox: 906,756
2. Oniji Handa, Boston Red Sox: 747,529
3. Rob Curran, Detroit Tigers: 727,485
LEFT FIELD
1. Tony Danza, Kansas City Royals: 1,067,864
2. Bruce Springsteen, Boston Red Sox: 942,395
3. Pedro Castrejon, Chicago White Sox: 719,246
CENTER FIELD
1. Alvin Romero, Detroit Tigers: 979,091
2. Ronnie Hellström, Minnesota Twins: 713,878
3. Frank Beard, Baltimore Orioles: 695,888
RIGHT FIELD
1. Tommy Pron, Oakland Athletics: 877,092
2. Dave Corona, Kansas City Royals: 830,388
3. Brandon Anderson, Cleveland Indians: 815,418
DESIGNATED HITTER
1. Ernesto Garcia, New York Yankees: 1,138,010
2. Joey Ramone, Detroit Tigers: 1,016,908
3. Brian Johnson, Boston Red Sox: 712,016
STARTING PITCHER
1. Jimmy Goddard, Detroit Tigers: 499,206
2. Justin Kindberg, Boston Red Sox: 471,901
3. Michael Pesco, Boston Red Sox: 437,578
4. Rich Reese, Chicago White Sox: 425,765
5. Marco Sanchez, Boston Red Sox: 423,490
RELIEVER
1. Montay Luiso, California Angels: 520,179
2. Malcolm Post, Chicago White Sox: 481,833
3. Willis Chavez, Oakland Athletics: 415,657
4. Jim Marceau, Detroit Tigers: 407,980
5. Nate Kemp, Texas Rangers: 399,532
Cooper boasts a lifetime batting average of .278 with 280 hits, 89 homers, 188 runs scored and 210 RBIs.
Not a lot of movement from last week, of course. It looks like Texas Josh Lewis (.290, 5, 29) has wrapped up the catcher job pretty much by default. Tommy Pron (.320, 5, 40) in right is an... interesting choice; his RBI totals are a little low for a #3 hitter but he seems to have his hitting stroke back. I personally would still go with "Cookie Monster" Dave Corona (.269, 8, 33) even though his raw numbers aren't flashy. Jimmy Goddard (18-1, 1.75) should have about a zillion more votes at SP than the next guy; at least he's on pace to be the starter.
And in the NL:
Below are the current standings for the National League All-Star Fan voting (as of Sun. Jul. 15th , 1973) for the All-Star Game, which will be played on Tue. Jul. 24th , 1973. The top vote getter at this point is Justin Stone with 1,121,301 votes.
CATCHER
1. Jason Bushon, New York Mets: 1,064,975
2. John Stuart, St. Louis Cardinals: 963,615
3. Doug Connally, Pittsburgh Pirates: 802,711
FIRST BASE
1. Justin Stone, Los Angeles Dodgers: 1,121,301
2. Joshua Waltenbery, Houston Astros: 1,055,593
3. Lorenzo Martinez, St. Louis Cardinals: 866,651
SECOND BASE
1. Juan Perez, Chicago Cubs: 1,037,259
2. Paul McCartney, San Diego Padres: 997,835
3. Kevin Dwyer, Atlanta Braves: 853,641
THIRD BASE
1. Dale Earnhardt, San Diego Padres: 928,446
2. George Harrison, San Francisco Giants: 840,972
3. Pete Little, Houston Astros: 805,077
SHORTSTOP
1. Tony Shannon, Philadelphia Phillies: 877,474
2. Joe Wicker, San Diego Padres: 596,546
3. Ronney Yitzhaki, Los Angeles Dodgers: 588,387
LEFT FIELD
1. Alberto Juantorena, Philadelphia Phillies: 1,011,869
2. Henry Riggs, Atlanta Braves: 981,798
3. R.J. Domínguez, Cincinnati Reds: 977,624
CENTER FIELD
1. George Foreman, Houston Astros: 1,058,077
2. Greg Lake, Philadelphia Phillies: 733,945
3. Mike Schurke, Chicago Cubs: 610,213
RIGHT FIELD
1. Matt Williams, St. Louis Cardinals: 910,527
2. Paul Kahl, Montreal Expos: 817,506
3. Jaden Weaver, Cincinnati Reds: 817,478
STARTING PITCHER
1. Tony Rivera, Houston Astros: 275,486
2. Danny Plaunt, Philadelphia Phillies: 254,777
3. Fernando Apolonio, Los Angeles Dodgers: 245,806
4. Jeremy Battaglia, Pittsburgh Pirates: 228,348
5. George House, Atlanta Braves: 226,932
RELIEVER
1. Geoff Saus, New York Mets: 321,778
2. Brian Bruno, Pittsburgh Pirates: 288,784
3. Paz Lemus, Pittsburgh Pirates: 275,542
4. Pete Lynn, Cincinnati Reds: 274,759
5. Alec Cosby, Los Angeles Dodgers: 261,237
In 1809 career games Stone is hitting at a .321 pace with 2230 hits with 360 doubles, 76 triples and 485 homers while scoring 1353 runs and racking up 1413 RBIs. He logged 840 walks and owns a .396 on-base percentage.
Stone (.328, 20, 42) has cooled off a bit the past couple weeks (.250, 3, 7 in July) and set up a showdown for "Superman" Waltenbery (.297, 16, 47) for who's gonna start at first. Both guys will surely be on the team though. Juan Perez (.295, 13, 37) still leading all second baseman is... weird given that he's out possibly for the season with a torn rotator cuff. Paul McCartney (.293, 11, 48), then, is almost a lock to start but it'd be cool if he had a nice final week to make it official. On the flip side for the Pads, I'm not sure Dale Earnhardt (.293, 14, 43) quite deserves it over George Harrison (.318, 11, 51) at third, especially given that Harrison is pretty much the only bright light in the Giants' lineup right now. Dale is also going to miss the AS Game so I guess it's a moot point. Matt Williams (.274, 11, 30) on the other hand I think will be healthy just in time for the game; he's been on the bench since July 3rd with a sprained ankkle.
July 15: Woooow it's a Sunday and we DON'T have any double-headers today. What gives, schedule gods????
July 15: Texas looks like they're for real. This was a real make-or-break week for the AL West contenders; they've risen to where they are with a gaudy 36-7 record at home but have looked very vulnerable on the road. Well... following a 3 game series vs Detroit, which they did drop 2 games to 1, though they were competitive in all of them, the Rangers just completed a 3-1 series with over the Red Sox at Fenway Park with a 3-0 shutout by 2nd year man Billy Crystal (14-7, 2.48). Crystal allowed 4 hits and a walk and struck out 5 to put his team (at least for now) 6 games up on the White Sox.
On Boston's side, they really needed this series and now they've basically got to hope for a Tigers collapse, as pending Detroit's game today they are a full 9 games back. On top of that, they're without 1B Mike Miller (.286, 10, 43) for the next month. Brian Johnson (.339, 3, 35) has been filling in well but obviously he's not going to provide the middle-of-the-order power that Miller does when healthy. Right now their best power guy is RF Tom Brown (.285, 10, 52), who's more of a 15-20 HR guy at best.
July 15: Hey, remember when the Royals were looking like one of the next big teams? I guess they can still get there but in the midst of a giant stretch against AL East teams, they've managed to lose every single one of them going back to July 6: 10 games in all now. Today they fought back from a 5-3 deficit to chase Yankees SP Manny Carbajal (3-6, 4.62) only to have normally solid RP Dylan Mincher (2-1, 2.50) give up a game-winning single to 1B Pete Jennings (.271, 4, 28).
I guess the Royals were never truly in the race to begin with but this slide coupled with the Rangers' rise means they are now 17 games out. Wait 'till next year, KC fans.
July 15: In San Diego we had a game we just haven't had many of the past couple years in the NL: a good old fashioned barn-burner. The Cardinals knocked starter Steven Tyler (7-6, 3.29) out of the box in the 4th, posting a 6-0 lead, but then a whole bunch of errors allowed the Padres to score 5 in the bottom of that inning and then, after the Cards got 3 more in the 6th, to even take the lead once Raul Mendoza (9-5, 2.92) was KO'd himself (only giving up 2 earned runs in 5+ IP) and lefty specialist Cody Foy (1-1, 5.68) proved to be too wild. With the score now 10-9 for the home team the Padres' bullpen - Roy Moore (2-2, 2.00) and stopper Darius Parchman (2-3, 1.25, 15 Sv) slammed the door shut.
2B Paul McCartney (.299, 12, 51) went 3-4 with a double, a HR, and 3 RBIs in this game for the winners. The "24" year old 3-year vet is already staring down his 3rd All-Star appearance next week. 2B Tom Depew (.288, 6, 26) also had a multi-hit, 3-RBI effort for St. Louis, who fell to 4 GB the NL East leading Phillies pending their game today.
July 15: I'm torn on reporting this because it came against the Pirates but... Giants SP Obe Olthof (5-11, 4.08) is a known Dutchman but sticks around in this league because he (generally) keeps the ball down. Tonight the ball was not only staying down, it was missing all kinds of bats, too, as the 28 year old posted his first 10 K game since he was a Yankee (in 1970) and threw a 5-hitter to take down Pittsburgh 3-0. 3B George Harrison (.320, 12, 53) was once again San Francisco's hitting star with a 2-4, 2 RBI night including a ding-dong off of DJ "Old Money" Cheeves (5-11, 4.03) in the 3rd.
## Teams in Review
Ain't none this week... somehow!