19 Days Until Spring Training: Dave Righetti

Dave Righetti was one of the lucky few who grew up rooting for the Yankees and lived out the dream of playing for his favorite team. His paternal grandmother grew up next door to Tony Lazzeri in San Francisco, and although she lived 3,000 miles from the Bronx, became a fan of the Bombers. His dad Leo signed with the Yanks shortstop in 1940 at the age of 17, but never made it to the Big Leagues, his journey derailed by a freak accident that severed the tip of one of his fingers.

However, Dave did achieve that goal and a whole lot more. He was originally drafted by the Rangers but was dealt to the Yankees in November of 1978 as part of a trade that sent Juan Beníquez, Mike Griffin, Greg Jemison, Paul Mirabella and Righetti to New York in exchange for Sparky Lyle, Domingo Ramos, Mike Heath, Larry McCall, and Dave Rajsich.

Just three months later, he was nearly redirected to Minnesota as part of a package for Rod Carew. The Yankees agreed to part with Chris Chambliss, Brian Doyle, Beníquez and up to $400,000 but balked at the inclusion of Mirabella or Righetti. Carew grew frustrated with the talks, saying:

"I don't like the idea of being pushed around, cooling my heels while they [Steinbrenner and Twins owner Calvin Griffith] go fishing and play golf. If they think they can wait until the last minute and then tell me to start packing, they are out of their minds."

Luckily for Rags and his family, Carew was sent to the Angels and he got to stick around with the Yankees. After one season of 2.31 ERA ball split between AA and AAA, Righetti made his Major League debut in September of 1979 wearing number 56 when he was only 20 years old. It was a very short stint and he spent all of 1980 in AAA, struggling to a 4.53 ERA.

After an excellent 5-0 tear to begin his season in Columbus in 1981, he was called up in May. Rags got off to a great start, pitching to a 1.50 ERA in his first six starts and went on to win the American Leauge Rookie of the Year in a landslide.

In his next two seasons as a starting pitcher, Righetti threw exactly 400 innings of 3.60 ERA ball (109 ERA+). He famously tossed a no hitter against the Red Sox on the 4th of July in 1983, which Matt detailed around that time last year. It was the first such event in Yankees history since Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Of course, the 4th is also George Steinbrenner's birthday which greatly endeared him to the Boss.

Paradoxically, being a favorite of the Boss sent his career down a path that never quite suited Righetti. At the behest of Steinbrenner, before the 1984 season began, the Yanks transitioned the Big Ragu into a reliever to replace the departed Goose Gossage. Privately, he didn't agree with the move to the bullpen, aware that he could be more successful and make more money as a starting pitcher over the long run. Outwardly though, he embraced the role and set the Major League Record for saves in 1986 with 46, though that record would be shattered by Bobby Thigpen 4 years later.

Like Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, there was frequent and heated debate in regards to Righetti's proper role. Publicly, he was known as the "polite Yankee", keeping quiet about his amidst the chaos, refusing to charge for autographs and personally answering his fan mail.

But in the privacy of the clubhouse, he was rumored to react to his failures by flushing his cleats down the toilet and destroying locker room garbage cans. Eventually, he explained to Jill Lieber of Sports Illustrated how much the pressure of closing was weighing on him:

I've been booed so bad. I walk from the mound with my head down, then fight to get through the parking lot. I watch the fans cheer guys who don't hustle. They cheer guys who rip the organization. I guess you have to be rotten to have the fans like you. Keith Hernandez is involved in the Pittsburgh drug trial, and he gets a standing ovation at Shea Stadium. I give up a run, and I get booed like crazy. You figure it out.

I wish Yankee fans appreciated me as a reliever. They've never accepted me because the team has never stuck behind me as a reliever. And because I've never complained, they think I don't stand up for myself. They think I'm a patsy.

Although it was clear that Righetti wasn't embracing his role as closer, Steinbrenner remained adamant:

He is going to be the closer. He will be brought in in the ninth inning. Period. I'm the only one who knows how to use him. I've told my manager and coaches, 'If you reach for him too early, you'll be reaching for the next train home.'

Those quotes were recorded in early 1990, in Righetti's last year as a Yankee. He rode out that season with a 3.57 ERA and converted 36 saves. The Yanks allowed his contract to expire and he signed as a free agent with the Giants. While he was fairly effective in 1991, he was released halfway through his second consecutive terrible year in San Francisco in 1993.

Rags bounced around from the A's to the Blue Jays to the White Sox at the end of his career before retiring in 1995. In that final season, the White Sox let Rags start 9 games and he was actually pretty respectable, racking up a 4.20 ERA (107 ERA+).

Today he serves as the pitching coach for the Giants a position he's held since 2000.

Sadly, Righetti's career with the Yankees began with a ton of promise - a fan since childhood, a Rookie of the Year and a consummate nice guy. But like many of the Yankee teams he played on throughout the 1980's, his success was hampered by the tyrannical rule of the Boss.

Still, he left an indelible mark on the franchise. Every 4th of July, Yankees fans fondly remember Righetti for his finest moment in Pinstripes and are left to wonder what might have been had things turned out a different way.

Game 106: Wasted Words

After the off day and the shift in the rotation, it will be Andy Pettitte on the mound for the Yankees tonight up in the Rogers Centre. Pettitte has a solid run over his past three starts, even though he's taken two no-decisions and a loss. He's thrown 20 innings, given up 16 hits, struck out 23 and walked only 3. His ERA over that span has been 2.70 and as the fine fellows at The Yankee Universe note, his FIP is only 1.86. They attribute some of Pettitte's success over that span to the fact that he's been throwing to Jose Molina, but that won't be the case tonight as Jorge Posada will be doing the catching.

This is the first time the Yanks have played the Blue Jays since the trade rumors about Roy Halladay started swirling. The two teams had just wrapped up a four game series which the Yankees won 3 of when Ken Rosenthal wrote that article on July 7th. One of those contests took place on the 4th of July, when the Yankees scored 5 runs off of Halladay and won in extra innings (in what might be the last game started by Chien Ming Wang as a Yankee, no less). Despite the successful outcome that day, I think most Yanks fans were either excited about the slim chance of acquiring Halladay or at least the possibility that he would be gone from the AL East.

Hundreds of blog posts and columns were devoted to the subject and it generated literally millions of pageviews for sites like MLBTradeRumors.com, but in the end we're right back where we started. Halladay was not "a goner" like Rosenthal assured us and the process did stop even though Lil' Ken claimed it was "nearly impossible" for it to. (Props to Craig from Shysterball who never bought it to begin with.)

Great job, Ken. Think of all the time, thought and writing that was wasted as a result of your breathless speculation. Next time a General Manager says he's "leaning more towards listening", why don't you try not blow blow it completely out of proportion? It would save us all some time.

You seem really sure 'bout something I don't know,
Take that load off, looks like chests about to go.
Your wasted words so absurd,

Are you really Satan, yes or no?

Game 81: America, F___ Yeah

[The previews are abridged for holiday weekend purposes. Hope you understand. Because if you don't, you hate America]

The Pitchers:

[UPDATE : Richmond has a sore shoulder and has been scratched in favor of lefty Brett Cecil. Except we didn't prepare a graphic for him. Such are the perils of mailing it in on a holiday weekend. Check his numbers here.]

The Song:

America, FUCK YEAH!
Coming again, to save the motherfucking day, yeah,
America, FUCK YEAH!
Freedom is the only way, yeah,
Terrorists, your game is through, cause now you have to answer to,
America, FUCK YEAH!
So lick my butt, and suck on my balls,
America, FUCK YEAH!

Game 80: Saturday In The Park

[The previews are abridged for holiday weekend purposes. Hope you understand. Because if you don't, you hate America.]

The Pitchers:

The Song:

Saturday, in the park,
I think it was the Fourth of July,
Saturday, in the park,
I think it was the Fourth of July.

People dancing, people laughing,
A man selling ice cream,
Singing italian songs,
(fake italian lyric),
Can you dig it (yes, I can),
And Ive been waiting such a long time,
For saturday...

The Luckiest

eventy Fourths of July ago, 61,808 fans packed Yankee Stadium. With an Herculean record of 52-17, the Yankees were in first place in the AL by 11.5 games and well on the way to their fourth straight World Series victory, but fans didn't just come for the doubleheader against the Washington Senators.

They were there for Lou Gehrig. The Iron Horse was a major part of the previous three titles, and three more before that, hitting .371/.477/.731 with 10 homers and 35 RBIs in 34 WS games. But the 1939 team would have to do it without him.

Gehrig placed in the top five in the AL MVP voting every year from 1931 to 1937, but right around the All-Star break in '38, his production started to slide. He still finished the year with 29HRs, but just two years earlier he had hit twenty more. Lou was 35 years old and he couldn't pinpoint what exactly was wrong with himself: "I tired mid-season. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get going again."

If it was just fatigue, one would think that the offseason would have done him well, however when he should up to St. Petersburg for Spring Training in 1939, he had lost even more power. It became apparent that this wasn't your average career arc. James Kahn, a reporter for the New York Graphic wrote at the time:

I think there is something wrong with him. Physically wrong, I mean. I don't know what it is, but I am satisfied that it goes far beyond his ball-playing. I have seen ballplayers 'go' overnight, as Gehrig seems to have done. But they were simply washed up as ballplayers. It's something deeper than that in this case, though.

Unfortunately, Kahn was right. What he was witnessing were the debilitating effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in action.

Still unaware that there was a fatal illness consuming him from within, Gehrig started the regular season as planned. Yankees Manager Joe McCarthy found himself between a rock and a hard place. It was simultaneously painfully obvious and totally inconceivable that The Iron Horse, owner of a .340 lifetime batting average and carrier of the awe-inspiring consecutive games played streak was done for. With Babe Ruth four years removed from Pinstripes, Lou Gehrig was the cornerstone and face of the franchise, his tenure with the Yanks predating McCarthy's by 8 years. There was no way the Skipper was going to sit Gehrig.

Gehrig's breaking point came when he covered first base on a routine groundball and was congratulated by pitcher Johnny Murphy. He had just 4 hits in 33 plate appearances, but had only struck out one time. He was making contact, but with nothing behind it. Before a game against the Tigers on May 2nd, he finally caved in, benching himself. He took the lineup card out to the umpires himself and it was announced over the PA system that he would not be playing. Fans gave him a standing ovation as he stood on the steps of the dugout.

It wasn't until June 13th that Gehrig and his wife, Eleanor visited the Mayo Clinic to see what was actually wrong. Six days later, on his 36th birthday, he was diagnosed with ALS. Two days later, the Yankees decided that July 4th would be "Lou Gehrig Appreaciation Day" and there would be a ceremony held between the doubleheader against the Senators.

The all of the components of the famed 1927 "Murderer's Row" line up were in attendance. Speeches were giving by mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Postmaster General James Farley, Joe McCarthy, and Babe Ruth. As I detailed more extensively before Spring Training, the two sluggers hadn't been on good terms since 1933, and this was the first time they put the grudge aside.

Gehrig took to the podium at the crossroads of two scenarios that everyone has probably imagined themselves in, but will most likely never experience. He was a legendary athlete with a death sentence. A iconic figure faced with a inevitable demise. He said he was the "luckiest man on the face of the earth" but so too was he the unluckiest.

It's hard to imagine a scenario quite like this one ever unfolding again. It's almost as if Gehrig got to attend his own funeral. Paradoxically, people save their most glowing praise and appreciation for those they love until it's too late for the person to hear it. He not only got to hear it, but got the chance to respond.

The full transcription of the speech can be found below.

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.

"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." — Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939

Riches To Rags

Yesterday we looked back at Andy Hawkins' no-hitter that wasn't. As promised, today we'll look back on a more pleasant no-no. Saturday marks the twentysixth anniversary of Dave Righetti's Indepence Day no-hitter against the Red Sox. Since we'll all be off enjoying the holiday weekend on the actual anniversary, we'll revisit the game today.

Righetti was acquired in November of 1978 as part of a ten player trade that saw the Yankees send their former closer, Sparky Lyle, to the Texas Rangers. Rags made his Major League debut as a September call-up in 1979, spent all of 1980 back in AAA, then returned in 1981 to capture the Rookie of the Year award, going 8-4 with a 1.07 WHIP and leading the league in ERA, ERA+, H/9, HR/9, and K/9. In 1982 he fell back to earth a bit, serving a brief stint in the minors and going 11-10 with an ERA just better than league average (105 ERA+). He once again led the AL in K/9, but also led the league in BB.

The July 4, 1983 game fell on a Monday, a blistering 94 degree day, the final day of play before the All-Star break. Righetti would later admit he was steamed at not being selected, and he had a good candidacy, entering his start that day at 9-3 with a 3.53 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP while holding opponents to a .248/.294/.340 batting line.

Righetti fanned Jerry Remy and Wade Boggs to begin the game, then promptly lost the perfecto by walking Jim Rice. He completed the first by whiffing Tony Armas. Rags was perfect in the second, third, and fourth, striking out two in both the second and third. He broke his string of eleven straight batters retired by issuing a one out walk to Reid Nichols in the fifth, but then promptly picked him off attempting to steal.

The Yankees supplied Righetti with some offense in the bottom of the fifth, as an Andre Robertson single scored Steve Kemp for the game's first run. Rags worked a perfect sixth, walked Rice for a second time with one out in the seventh, the erased him on a 6-4-3 double play.

After a 1-2-3 eighth, Righetti walked light-hitting catcher Jeff Newman to lead off the ninth. Newman was replaced by Glenn Hoffman on a fielder's choice, narrowly avoiding a double play. A Remy groundout moved Hoffman to second. With just one out to go, Wade Boggs stepped to the plate. Boggs entered play that day hitting .361, the same mark as his end of season average, which would win the Major League batting crown by a whopping twentytwo points. Righetti caught him looking in the first, then coaxed flyouts to center in the fourth and seventh. After peppering Boggs with fastballs to the run the count to 2-2, Rags came back with a slider. Fooled, Boggs flailed feebly at it, giving Righetti his ninth K and the first Yankee no-hitter since Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

Righetti finished 1983 at 14-8 with 1.20 WHIP and 3.44 ERA (112 ERA+). Not yet 25 at season's end, Righetti was 33-23 with 117 ERA+ in his young career, projecting as a solid number two starter if not a future ace. But incumbent Yankee closer Goose Gossage departed the team after that 1983 season, and 1984 saw Righetti as the new closer. He would never start another game for the Yankees.

He spent the next seven seasons at the back of the Yankee bullpen, never saving less than 25 games in a season, including a then Major League record 46 in 1986. While Righetti was a good closer, he was never quite great. Because of things like small sample sizes and inherited runners, I prefer to use Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) to evaluate relievers. In three of his first four years as Yankee closer ('84, '85, '87), Righetti was bettered or equaled FIP by other Yankee relievers (Jay Howell, Brian Fisher, and Tim Stoddard respectively).

Meanwhile, the Yankee teams of those years were perpetual bridesmaids and notoriously short on starting pitching. In 1985, the Yankees finished in second place, just two games behind the Blue Jays. Despite posting an ERA better than league average, Yankee starters' FIP was far worse than league average. Righetti on the other hand was 1.25 runs better than the league in FIP. His numbers may have suffered somewhat from the additional exposure of pitching in the rotation, but he assuredly would have performed better than starters like Ed Whitson. We'll never know if his presence in the rotation could have made up those two games.

In 1988, the Yankees finished 3.5 games out of first. Once again, Yankee starters were worse than the league average while Righetti out performed the league by two thirds of a run. Again, there's no telling if Righetti in the rotation would have been enough to make up the 3.5 games and four teams between the Yankees and the division crown, but he certainly would have been a better option than Rick Rhoden, Rich Dotson, or 45 year-old Tommy John.

This weekend you're sure to hear about Righetti's no-hitter. You're also likely to hear the old Joba-to-the-bullpen argument or the newer and now more-popular Hughes to the eighth inning argument. When you do, think back to what it may have cost the Yankees the last time they relegated a potential front end starter to the back end of the pen.