[Jazzmosis]

Chapter 75: Start with a bang

Spring Training came quickly, and before I knew it, the collage of faces that were all over the field in March had been thinned to 25. There was a few key surprises - a veteran pitcher named Eloy Soto had won a bullpen job over Dannie Dones, and Ira Hull took the starting leftfield job amidst fierce competition from Kolodziej. Gouin assumed the rightfield job that was vacated by Martinez, and Paul Dekker and Johnny Clutch were put into a platoon at second after Dekker hit .451 in Spring.

What was the most concerning was the starting rotation. The five pitchers combined didn’t have 120 wins; something all the critics were quick to point out. However, optimists also pointed out that the trio of Duncan, Jackson, and Delaney all had incredible strikeout potential. At the same time, the staff figured to lead the league in walks. The bullpen was a mixture of talent, with arms like Basil Dominguez looking to rebound at 23 years old, Popham starting his 4 year contract at 1.9 million, looking to top his last year, veteran fliers like Soto, Coy Kass, who was solid in long relief, and the lights-out Cole Aitken. Aitken was a no-doubter - and heralded as one of the best closers emerging in the game - but the question was whether or not the bullpen could get the ball to him with a lead.

The first game was in Chicago, against last year’s wild card. I marched Duncan out onto the mound, and during the national anthem I looked at the packed stadium - fans were in every seat, standing where there was room, anxiously awaiting the season to begin. The air was brisk - the sun coming down but providing no heat in the middle of the day. Upon the first pitch, it was a balmy 51 degrees, with a sharp wind. Of course, the season would start with a difficult pitcher opposing - the reigning Cy Young in Greg Vinson handling the duties for Milwaukee.

Duncan made quick work of Milwaukee in the first inning, retiring the first two batters on strikeouts before getting a fly out. Vinson returned the favour, and the two traded zeroes for the first 3 innings. Finally, it was a double by third baseman Mark Curtsinger that broke up the no-hit bid for Duncan in the fourth. However, a walk to the catcher Franco, and a single to Delbert Pierre, a batter that hadn’t hit below .320 in his 5 year career, brought in the first run of the season. Duncan, seemingly losing focus, then gave up a hit-and-run single to shortstop Dawson that plated the other two baserunners. Jimmy worked his way out of the inning after that, but Milwaukee had jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

We responded in kind in the bottom half, when a Hickman walk turned into a stolen base. Taylor singled him to third, and he trotted home to the approval of the crowd when Clough singled up the middle.


In the top of the sixth, Walton relieved Duncan - and promptly gave up a solo blast to Dawson, putting the Brewers up 4-1. Vinson looked to cruise through us until the 7th inning. Deguzman, Hull, and Talmadge all singled, which was sandwiched by an error to Clutch by Pierre. Deguzman scored an unearned run, and Kolodziej came up to bat for Walton. He promptly whacked a two-out single that allowed Hull and Talmadge to hustle home ahead of the throw, and just like that, the score was all locked up at 4.

From that point, I used Dominguez for an out in the 8th, before letting Popham take an inning. Vinson finally was out of the game in the 9th, but we couldn’t muster a run, and the game went into extras. I threw Aitken onto the mound for the 10th, but after that I was running low on arms - and Kass came out. The score was locked up, but Kass was nothing short of dominant. The game crawled past the 11th, 12th, and 13th inning, all with Coy on the hill shutting them out. After another shutout top of the 14th, Richard Wright, a pitcher Oberg had tried to sign, came out of the pen for Milwaukee.

He gave up a single, and two walks before recording a strikeout of Deguzman. The fans were bubbling with excitement - the bases loaded, one out - and Hull came up. Wright quickly got ahead 0-2. On the third pitch, he dropped a curveball that was off the outside corner of the plate - but Hull reached for it, and poked it down the line, just out of reach of the first baseman. Gouin hustled home, giving us the walk-off 5-4 win in 14 innings. Kass got the win, and the player of the game award, marking the first time a reliever won it while I was managing.


Luckily, the next series of games only went 9 innings. After two weeks of play, Duncan, Jackson, and Delaney all had ERAs below 3, while Guillen and Morales had ERAs above 13. Not surprisingly, neither of those two had won a game. That would all change, as from April 15th to the 22nd we went on a 8 game winning streak, which saw Gouin mash 4 home runs, Taylor extend his hitting streak to 17 games while hitting .465, and Aitken save 4 games while Kass had to save two of his own. We were 13-4, and half a game above Cincinnati for first. We had stormed out of the gate by the end of April, leading the central with a 17-7 record, 2.5 above Cincy and 3 up on St. Louis, while Jackson and Duncan were in a K race, Jackson leading 41-34, good for best in the NL; meanwhile, Delaney had shown a ton of promise with a 4th-best 2.32 ERA, while Aitken was 7/7 in saves while sporting a WHIP of 0.56 and an ERA of 0. That was just the start of his record-shattering season, one that would go down in major league record books as the most dominating season for a closer. Meanwhile, the offense was keeping pace with the pitching - Aaron Taylor won the batter of the month award after hitting .444, a major-league best. Gouin had parked 5 homers with 11 RBIs, while hitting .337 and walking 17 times, good for a .447 OBP. Deguzman was right on track with 4 homers and 12 RBIs, while Clough led the team with 6 jacks and 19 RBIs, complete with a .298 average.

However, Clutch had stumbled to a .167 average in 66 at-bats, which prompted me to shift him back to third base and give Deguzman the shortstop position again. Dekker, meanwhile, had hit .333 in 33 at-bats, which gave me the idea to try and let him learn third. I talked it over with him, and he was more than receptive to the opportunity, as long as he could get more plate appearances. I agreed, and I watched over the season as Dekker made his push for a starting job. Hull had really stumbled out of the gate, hitting only .212, while Kolodziej was hoping for an opportunity by hitting .259 in 27 at-bats. Gober, a player I’d always loved since seeing him two years ago, was tearing the cover off the ball in AAA, while Dardey for Chicago was struggling mightly.


The changes for the team started to pour in as the temperature got warmer. Oberg was quickly gaining a reputation for making deals and changes. The first was an obvious move: Jose Morales, who had absolutely crumbled thus far, was given the ticket to AAA; meanwhile, 2008's 16th overall selection, Stefan Takeo, got the call to take his place in the rotation. At this time, we had a scant 0.5 game lead over red-hot Cincinnati. We had all seen Takeo before, with his solo start two years ago, but I had the reason to believe he would provide a more lasting impression this year.

Around the same time, Eloy Soto was given his departure ticket, ending his brief appearance with us. His ERA was an atrocious 10.39 in 8 appearances, and on May 13th he received his unconditional release. Needless to say, he wasn’t picked up by any team for the rest of the year, and eventually signed with an independent league.

7 days passed before the next deal; papers were rumbling all over Chicago about whether or not the team was going to dissolve, which kept many players on edge. But even during that time, they managed to keep their composure and stretch the division lead to a full game. However, Ira Hull was moved across the city to the White Sox in exchange for a low-level prospect named Pedro Rodriguez.

What was more important about this day was the return of Robert Gober. Dardey was hitting exceptionally poorly, so I after a brief conversation with Oberg, Dario found himself back in AAA while Gober, one of my all-time favourite players to manage, came back to the majors after tearing the cover off AAA pitchers to the tune of a .345 average. In the small sample of last year, he’d hit .304, and in AAA he’d never hit below .300 - so everyone knew there was talent there, it was a matter of wondering if he’d find it in the majors. But what I loved about this man was that he was genuinely happy just to play in the bigs - while some players get egos, and start expecting more of their roles as they make their return trips to the majors, Gober was the kind of player that was confident, if unsure in its potential, about his own abilities. Whenever I told him to grab a glove or a bat, he would hop up and immediately get to it.

In fact, if there’s anything I could never forget about 2010, it was Robert Gober. I idolized his hustle - I idolized his upbringing, and attributed much of it to how he played. “Always learning,” he would say to me. I can remember countless games and nights where he would pick my brain, asking me about pitchers tendencies, asking the fielding coach about hitter’s spray charts - some players got annoyed by what he called his “baseball nerd” tendency, but nobody could lie that when it came down to it, he got the job done.
It was in late May when I learned something about Gober that I would admire for the rest of my life. It was a few hours before game time, and I saw him in the video room.

“Who are you watching?” I asked casually.

He looked up at me with a quick smile and then returned his focus to the monitor, jotting notes down as he did. “Kenneth Sardina.”

I gave him a puzzled look. “The Rockies pitcher? Why?”

“He was claimed by Pittsburgh a few days ago - I just want to make sure I know what he’s got.”

I looked at him, then to the screen. “Why a relief pitcher though? What about the starters?”

“Well, I figured that I won’t be starting in the outfield, and if I get regular at-bats it’ll be against relievers. It’s more useful for me to know how relievers pitch if I’ll be facing them more often than starters.”

I stopped, ready to say something but not finding the words. He gave me an expecting look, which made me blurt out exactly what I was thinking at the time. “Gobey, it’s that kind of thinking that’ll keep you in the bigs.”
It was those words that started a lasting friendship, and a trust for late-game situations.


Meanwhile, the team was cruising. We cruised through Pittsburgh, and by the end of the month, had opened up a 3 game lead over Cincy, who was trailed closely by Houston and St.Louis, both who were 3.5 back. We had a nice 31-21 record, while Aitken continued with his perfect season at 12 saves with no ER.

But the end of the month brought yet another Oberg trade. This time, it was Spanish Koan heading out the door, following Koan’s departure from last year. When Guillen was removed from the rotation, he was sporting a putrid 7.79 ERA, and a few appearances in the pen did nothing to help. This deal sent him to Philadelphia in exchange for another young pitcher, 25 year old reliever Clemente Rodriguez. At the same time, 38-year old southpaw Thomas Crumley was signed on as a situational pen arm when Pagel was sent back to AAA; then Eusebio Diaz, a 35-year old reliever, was signed and called up to take Spanish Koan’s spot in the pen. One would last less than two months; the other would remain on the team for the rest of the season.