By Popi
Baseball wasn’t always like this. Before free agency and the big money, in a time where the idea of a player spending an entire career with one team was the rule rather than the exception, the batter’s box was more a shooting gallery than a safe space.
This is not some old guy pining for the “good old days.” Today’s game is what it is and it’s what younger fans will build their memories on, but it was once played in a way too alarming for the wimpy and whining players of today.
Talking about pitching inside.
“Show me a guy who can’t pitch inside and I’ll show you a loser,” said Dodger legend Sandy Koufax.
Don Drysdale said, “You’ve got to keep the ball away from the sweet part of the bat. To do that, the pitcher has to move the hitter off the plate.”
I have no point of reference for the eras preceding my childhood when there was no ESPN, no cable and certainly no internet. But I saw three of the fiercest pitchers of any era – Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax.
Sandy Koufax
“Pitching is the art of instilling fear.” Koufax said.
Pitchers owned the dish in those days and batters crowded the plate at their own peril.
Red Schoendienst, longtime manager of the St. Louis Cardinals said it best. “Gibson couldn’t pitch today because they wouldn’t let him. The way he threw inside, he’d be kicked out of the game in the first inning, along with guys like Drysdale and Koufax.”
Bob Gibson
Now, you knock a guy down and the world seemingly comes to an end. Pitchers and managers are threatened by umpires and benches fake outrage. Knocking someone down used to be part of the game.
Drysdale had a famous two-for-one rule. You knock down one of his guys and he knocked down two of yours.
Don Drysdale
He said, “The pitcher has to find out if a hitter is timid and if he is timid, the pitcher has to remind the hitter he’s timid.”
“I’m sorry” was not in the vocabulary. “I hated to bat against Drysdale.” Mickey Mantle said. “After he hit you, he’d come around, look at the bruise on your arm and say, “Do you want me to sign it?””
No batter dared show up these guys either.
Hank Aaron once said, "Don’t dig in against Bob Gibson, he'll knock you down. He'd knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don't stare at him, don't smile at him, don't talk to him. He doesn't like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don't run too slow, don't run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first…”
San Diego’s own Doug Harvey, Hall of Fame umpire said, “Barry Bonds? If he hit a home run off Gibson or Drysdale and stood and admired it, they’d knock that earring out of his ear the next time up."
They don’t play like that anymore.
There have been plenty of pitchers then and since that hitters have feared. Nolan Ryan (just ask Robin “punching bag” Ventura) and Randy Johnson come to mind. But ownership of the of the inside plate has been legislated to the hitters and to throw one too far inside is to risk expulsion.
This is no advocation of a return to a different time. The game is safer as it should be. The point is for better or worse, the game within the game is just not the same and it’s too bad for the fans today who never saw it. For those of you who remember, can you imagine Mays, Aaron or Clemente hitting without having to think about one high and tight?
Enough of that.
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