Morrow's Sorrow Recalls Stieb's Near No-Nos

Good morning Fackers. Despite merely splitting this weekend's four game wrap around series against the Red Sox, things couldn't have gone much better for the Yankees over the past four days. The split against Boston leaves the Yankees six games up on their archrivals with more than two thirds of the season completed. It's far, far too early to start counting magic numbers, but as the wounded Red Sox continue to limp along, this weekend's series pushed them four games closer to elimination.

Of greater importance to the Yankees right now is the favor that the Blue Jays performed for them over the weekend, sweeping the Rays in a three game series, allowing the Yanks to extend their lead over Tampa Bay by a game and a half. Toronto snuck by with a narrow 2-1 victory on Friday; dropped a 17-11 beatdown on Saturday, featuring eight home runs by the offense and a four for five, eleven total base debut by J.P. Arencibia; then took another pitcher's duel with 1-0 victory on Sunday.

It's of course Sunday's game that is most memorable, as Toronto starter Brendan Morrow came within one out of being the third pitcher to no hit Tampa Bay this season, and the fourth in the last thirteen months. Morrow was masterful, striking out a 2010 MLB high 17 batters, walking just two, allowing just six balls out of the infield, and losing his no-no on an infield single by Evan Longoria with two outs in the top of the night.

The instant Longoria reached first base safely, my thoughts immediately turned to former Toronto ace Dave Stieb, something that wasn't lost on the good folks at Big League Stew as they recapped the game yesterday. The heartbreak suffered by Morrow yesterday and Armando Galarraga earlier this year is something the Jays' mustachioed and criminally underrated 80's ace could relate to all too well. And the Yankees played a role in two of Stieb's near misses.

In 1988, Stieb carried no hitters into the ninth inning in both of his final two starts. In Cleveland on September 24th, Stieb struck out Andy Allanson leading off the ninth, then got Willie Upshaw to ground out. With just one out separating him from a no hitter, Stieb faced Indian's leadoff hitter and future batting champ Julio Franco. Already thirty years old at the time and with nearly twenty years left on his Major League career, the jheri curled second baseman took a ball, then two strikes, then fouled off three straight pitches before working the count even at 2-2. On the eighth pitch of the at bat, Stieb's 123rd on the night, Franco bounced a base hit through the middle. Stieb then retired Dave Clark to the end game, settling on a one hit, two walk, 1-0 victory nearly identical to Morrow's outing Sunday.

Six days later, in the opening game of Toronto's final series on the season, Stieb took the mound at Exhibition Stadium as the Jays hosted Baltimore. Once again, Stieb was outstanding. He was perfect through six and a third, with his lone walk of the day being erased on a subsequent double play. Facing the bottom of the order of a feeble Baltimore team that would finish a Major League worst 54-107, Stieb once again came within one out of a no-no. Both Brady Anderson and Jeff Stone tapped back to Stieb. With just one out to go, O's skipper Frank Robinson sent Jim Traber to pinch hit for rookie third baseman Craig Worthington. To that point, Traber was just one for eight against Stieb in his career. But Traber lined a 2-2 pitch to right field for Baltimore's first hit, and for the second time in as many starts, Stieb had his heart broken just one strike away from finishing a no hitter.

His luck didn't get any better in 1989. He started in Kansas City in the second game of the season, and held the Royals to four hits, two walks, and a lone run over eight frames, but his offense could only manage one run of their own, courtesy of a solo homer by Jesse Barfield, who was just 25 days away from being traded to the Yankees. For the ninth inning, Stieb gave way to Todd Stottlemyre, son of former Yankee ace and future Yankee pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre. After getting two outs, Stottlemyre surrendered a double to future Yankee Danny Tartabull and a single to former Yankee first round pick Pat Tabler, allowing KC to walk off with a 2-1 win. But compared to his two previous starts and his next start, Stieb's hard luck no-decision in Kansas City was nothing.

Five days later, Stieb took to the hill at Yankee Stadium in the opening game of a three game series. Again, Stieb would allow just one hit. This time at least, he got it out of the way early, yielding a fifth inning single to Jamie Quirk.

Stieb wouldn't have any more near misses until four months later, when he faced the Yankees at Skydome on August 4th. This was perhaps Stieb's best start of all. He needed just 82 pitches to retire the first twenty six batters he faced, eleven by strikeout. For the third time in eleven months, Stieb stood a lone out away from a no hitter. If he could retire the young Yankee center fielder Roberto Kelly, he would complete just the eleventh perfect game in baseball's modern era.

Kelly was in the midst of his first full season as the Yankee center fielder. He made a brief cameo in 1987 and entered 1988 as the starting center fielder. But after a slow start, he lost his job to Claudell Washington, and by July he was back in Columbus. 1989 was a different story. With Washington having signed with the Angels in the off-season, center field was Kelly's to lose. This time, he got off to a strong start, and with Dave Winfield out for the year following back surgery and Rickey Henderson's contract demands resulting in a June trade back to Oakland, Kelly was the Yankees best outfielder on that woeful '89 team and the best player outside of Don Mattingly. As he stepped in against Stieb with two outs in the ninth, he was batting .328/.389/.448.

Not quite nine years old at the time, I can recall watching the game with my father. At some point in the ninth inning, referencing Stieb's tough luck over the previous year, Dad predicted the Yanks would find a way to spoil Stieb's night. Kelly got ahead 2-0, then lined a double down the left field line. Steve Sax followed with a single to spoil Stieb's shutout. A groundout from Luis Polonia put an end to the game, but once again Stieb had come so close without sealing the deal.

In a span of 25 starts, Stieb had pitched three one hitters and a two hitter. Three times he had lost a no hitter with just one out to go, one of them a would-be perfect game. In the history of baseball, just four men (Johnny Vander Meer, Allie Reynolds, Virgil Trucks, and Nolan Ryan) have pitched two no hitters in one season. Stieb was four batters away from recording four within eleven months. Over the four starts, Stieb tossed 36 innings, allowed five hits, one run, seven walks, and recorded twenty eight strike outs, four complete games, and three shutouts. Still he failed to get his name into the record books.

Just over a year later, Stieb would finally break through. The 1990 season, much like this year, was marked by an unusually high number of no-nos. As Stieb made his start on September 2nd, there had been six already on the season, not including the Yankees' Andy Hawkins' lost no-hitter against Chicago on July 1st nor future Yankee Melido Perez' rain shortened no-no against the Yankees on July 12th.

Facing the Indians at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the site of his first heartbreaker nearly two years earlier, Stieb recorded the seventh and final no hitter of 1990, and the first in Blue Jay history. He walked four, but struck out nine, getting Jerry Browne to line out to right for that elusive twenty seventh out.

Stieb pitched two more injury plagued seasons for the Jays before signing a free agent deal with the White Sox. He made just four appearances in a Chicago uniform before being released less than two months into the season. He spent four full years out of baseball before resurfacing with Toronto as a 40 year old swingman in 1998. His second to last Major League appearance came on September 20th, against Tampa Bay, the team Morrow nearly no hit Sunday. Stieb came on in relief of a Blue Jay making his Big League debut: Roy Halladay, who of course tossed a perfect game of his own earlier this season.

Monday Afternoon Linkdown

Yesterday was International Penguin Day. Here are some fun facts on the fat, feathered fackers that you might not have been aware of.

On to our regularly scheduled linkification:

Happy 93rd birthday to the oldest living former Yankee, Virgil Trucks.

The numbers say that Andy Pettitte is off to the best start of his career.

On the day when the Yankees are scheduled for a visit to the White House, Lisa Swan at Subway Squawkers asks why the 1996 Yankees never made that trip.

Ryan Howard just got PAID to the tune of 5 years, $125M. The deal also contains a $23M option for 2017 with a $10M(!!) buyout. It's questionable whether Howard will be worth what he's making this year, let alone five or six years from now. But don't worry, Jon Heyman thinks it's a good deal. That sound you are hearing? Albert Puljos' stock entering the mesosphere.

Javier Vazquez ≠ Chien-Ming Wang. And making that comparison shows that you have an astonishingly short memory or a stunning lack of perspective. After three games in 2009, Chien-Ming Wang had given up 23 runs in 6 innings and had an ERA of 34.50. Opponents were hitting .622/.667/.1026 off of him. By contrast, through four starts, Vazquez has given up 20 runs in 20 innings and an opponents line of .309/.398/.580. Granted, that's pretty terrible, but it's not in the same multiverse of suckitude as Wang was last year.

EJ from TYU took a look at Yanks prospect Graham Stoneburner and attempted to establish some standard criteria by which we can evaluate minor league pitchers.

Christian Garcia underwent Tommy John Surgery and will be attempting to recover from it for the second time. As Matt said when the news of Garcia's injury first broke, the could be the final blow to his career, but if all goes well he should be back on the mound next May.

The Hardball Times started up a new Twitter feed for the sole purpose of linking to interesting baseball writing all over the web. I'm guessing it will be pretty similar to kind of stuff you can find in these link dumps.

Joe Posnanski wrote a characteristically thorough and interesting take on why it's easy for people to hate A-Rod.

Richard Sandomir writes explores the history of the theme songs of the Mets and the Yankees, Meet the Mets and Empire State of Mind. Oh, I'm sorry, is that not the Yankees official song?

This has been linked far and wide, but for posterity's sake, here is Flip Flop Fly Ball's graphical interpretation on A-Rod's spat with Dallas Braden.

A few current and former players have weighed the War of Rodriguez & Braden. Tim Hudson and Chipper Jones called it "silly" and "childish" while David Wells went in the opposite direction, calling A-Rod full of shit. Bronson Arroyo (of all people) said he "wouldn't think twice" about A-Rod running over the mound and Morgan Ensberg called Braden's tantrum a "full blown loss of mind". (h/t to Lisa for some of the links)

Speaking of Mr. Ensberg, he and Tom Tango had an interesting conversation about players' arbitration clocks and some of the differences between the way the NHL and MLB handle contract buyouts and service time (among other topics).

The Wall Street Journal used some of Larry's data and ganked his idea without linking back to him, but they did make the sweet graphic above, averaging the Yankees' home run trot times.

Greg Fertel explains why pinch hitting for Nick Johnson is not a good idea.

They're a bit outdated by now, but Kevin Dame at THT created some visuals illustrating the performance of the rotations of the AL East teams.

Consternation from Red Sox Nation. Is there a more enjoyable combination?

Harvey Araton wrote a piece for the NYT about the "elegance" of Marino Rivera that has no business being in the sports section because it focuses mostly on his role as a male model for Canali.

If you spent a good amount of the weekend listening to Gang Starr, you might want to check out the piece that Guru's brother - who happens to be a drama professor at Stanford - wrote about him for the Boston Globe. D.J. Premier also made a mix in memory of the man.

In addition to penning his L.A. Times obit and a piece that aired on NPR embedded below (click through if you are reading via RSS), Oliver Wang from Soul Sides put together an appreciation of Guru's work on his blog. Even if you aren't a fan, checking out any of these pieces should give you a healthy respect for the man's work.

That's it for us today. Catch you folks in the morning.

Keep On Trucks-ing

As Alex Belth pointed out this morning, you can feel baseball getting closer. The air is starting to smell like spring just a little bit. I don't need to turn on my headlights on my drive home from work at the end of the day. Daylight Savings Time begins twelve days from now; the Spring Equinox comes six days later. Spring Training games start tomorrow.

Elsewhere in the world, the other rites of spring are taking place. The NHL trade deadline is tomorrow. NCAA Conference Tournaments begin over the next week and March Madness will soon follow.

For me, another rite of spring is the Allman Brothers Band's annual NYC residency. As we detailed last June, the ABB is vacating the Beacon Theater this year and heading waaaaay uptown to the United Palace Theatre for thirteen shows beginning March 11th.

Derek Trucks will be part of it, as he has been since joining the band at twenty years old following the 1999 Beacon run. We've talked about Derek quite often here, including detailing his family ties to former Tigers, Browns, White Sox, and A's pitcher, as well as the oldest living former Yankee, Virgil Trucks.

At MLB.com Saturday, Peter Gammons took an extended look at Virgil's career, in a great column that details how Derek's baseball fandom spurred him to seek out the relative he had never met:

Virgil Trucks had just turned 91 two years ago when this boyish kid who looked as if he were 20 showed up at his door. The kid introduced himself as Derek Trucks, Virgil's nephew's son, and they spent the day tying together the frayed generations of Trucks, of baseball stories Derek loved hearing, and music that Virgil says he didn't fully understand.

For years, Derek had Virgil "Fire" Trucks' baseball card on the back of his guitar, with the Allman Brothers or The Derek Trucks Band, with his wife Susan Tedeschi, playing lead on the Eric Clapton tour, backing Buddy Guy. That he told Virgil, and that Derek's uncle Butch, who has been the Allman's drummer since they formed in 1969, has often had another baseball card on his drums. "I haven't listened to the Allman Brothers too much," says Virgil. "They don't play them much on the Birmingham station."

When Virgil was told that Derek has a 1952 Tiger uniform with Virgil's 23 hanging in a trophy case, he said, "maybe I should start listening to the Allmans a little more."

For the Gammons haters out there - and you know I'm not one of them - you can take solace in the fact that Peter incorrectly claims Derek is Virgil's great-nephew. As we posted here in December, with thanks to Derek's cousin Vaylor, Virgil is the first cousin of Derek's grandfather, making them third cousins twice removed. That's the type of hard-hitting analysis you Fackers get here, something a Ford Frick Award winner can't bring you.

That notwithstanding, it's a great column. Head over and give it read. Just be sure to ignore the part about how the family of Derek's wife Susan Tedeschi are long-time Red Sox season ticket holders, or how they're taking their eight year old son to Red Sox camp this week. Hey - nobody's perfect.
As Jay detailed after we attended the Derek Trucks Band's concert at The Egg in December, the dTb is now on an extended hiatus. Derek and Susan are forming a new band, which at present appears to feature a rotating cast of musicians. They have dates scheduled through the spring and into summer, including stops as part of outstanding line ups at the Wanee Music Festival in Florida and the Mountain Jam in Hunter, NY.

Fack Youk Field Trip: The Egg

Time for another Field Trip Fackers, and with it being the baseball off-season this one will involve our other favorite pastime here: music. While the 21st Annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam took place in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend, Jay and I will be heading to The Egg in Albany this evening to see Haynes' fellow Allman Brothers Band guitarist and blog favorite The Derek Trucks Band. We'll probably have a summary sometime tomorrow.

Unfortunately this show comes on a night that the Giants and Eagles meet in a crucial NFC East match up. As disappointing as it will be to miss the game, it figures to be worth it. dTb announced in November that they will be going on an indefinite hiatus in 2010, tonight's show is the band's final performance for the foreseeable future. They're a band I've seen countless time over the past decade, starting with a performance for about 20 people at Boston College's O'Connell House during my sophomore year at BC. It will be nice to catch their final performance for the next year or so.

As we've mentioned before, Derek Trucks is a relative of the oldest living former Yankee, Virgil Trucks. However, I previously fouled up the specifics of the relationship. Our last post about it was picked up by an Allman Brothers Band listserv, where Vaylor Trucks - Derek's cousin, Butch's son, and the little kid on the cover of the ABB's 1973 Brothers and Sisters album, set the record straight. Virgil is the first cousin of Butch's father, making Derek Virgil's third cousin twice removed.

Now that we have the family tree squared away we can head off to the show. Here's the Derek Trucks Band, along with Derek's wife Susan Tedeschi, covering some Derek and the Dominoes:

R.I.P. Tommy Henrich

When a franchise boasts names such as Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Ford, and Mantle, it is riddled with second bananas. Yankee history is fraught with very good to great players whose accomplishments have been overlooked thanks to the passage of time and the presence of teammates who are amongst the game's all-time greats.

Players like Paul O'Neill, Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles, Roy White, Bobby Murcer, Roger Maris, Elston Howard, and Hank Bauer are still relatively familiar to Yankee fans, but what happens as time marches further from their careers and fewer fans actually remember their playing days? It's a theme we touched upon earlier this year as we looked some great, if somewhat forgotten, Yankees from the late 1930s and 1940s: Joe Gordon, Charlie Keller, and Tommy Henrich.

Thus, it somehow only seems fitting that Tommy Henrich passed away today of all days. After a playing career that saw Henrich perpetually overshadowed by more illustrious teammates, and a retirement that - at least in its later years - saw Henrich all but forgotten by the Yankees and most of their fans, Henrich passed away on one of the few days in the last three and a half weeks that offered legitimate baseball news. Henrich's passing was at least partially overshadowed by arbitration offers, or lack thereof.

Yet still, Henrich was remembered today: in statement from the commissioner, in posts throughout the Yankee blogosphere, and the baseball blogosphere at large. Perhaps he was better remembered than I thought.

It's been more than fifteen years since I read it, but Henrich's Five O'Clock Lightning was a personal favorite amongst the dozens and dozens of Yankee books I devoured around that time. Somewhere in my parents' house there is a video tape of a 12 year old me, as Tommy Henrich, being interviewed by my cousin as part of a seventh grade book report I did on Henrich's biography. I think I'm going to have to dig that up now.

We featured Henrich in late September in part because the death of Lonny Frey left Henrich as the oldest living Yankee. Henrich's passing leaves 92 year old Virgil Trucks, uncle of Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks and great uncle of blog favorite Derek Trucks, as the oldest living Yankees.

Godspeed Old Reliable.

Sneakin' Out The Beacon

In case you hadn't noticed, both Jay and I are pretty big music enthusiasts. One band we are both really big on is the Allman Brothers Band and I think the first exchange Jay and I had here on Fack Youk was regarding the annual Beacon run of this past March.

So as the city prepares for the year's first Subway Series, today we report news (h/t jambands.com) about something that is as much a part of New York City to me as the Yankees or Mets. Says founding ABB member Butch Trucks:

"...we won't be at the Beacon anymore. They just announced that Cirque du Soleil is moving in there, sad to say. We'll still do a multi-show thing in New York, but we're looking for another venue. With things the way they are, there's a lot of empty theaters on Broadway."

That's some sad stuff right there, and it's gone relatively unnoticed. After years of freakin' and peakin' at The Beacon, now the ABB is sneakin' out The Beacon. I've gone to at least one show every Beacon Run since 2001. It's every bit as much a right of spring to me as "pitchers and catchers report" and Opening Day. Yet I can't say I'm surprised.

The Beacon came under the control of Cablevision in November 2006. As you may know, everything Cablevision touches - the Knicks, the Rangers, my buddy Art's cable installation - turns to shit. From the time they seized control of The Beacon I suspected this day was coming. Planned renovations nearly derailed the 2008 run, until a last minute deal was reached. In the end, a flare up of Gregg Allman's hepatitis cancelled the 2008 run. Now it's done for good. For Cirque du fucking Soleil. /vomits

Expected or not, it's the end of an era. The Allmans first played The Beacon on September 27, 1989, as part of their 20th Anniversary Reunion Tour. They would play there three more times that month and add 184 more Beacon shows through multishow runs in 1992, 1994, 1996-2007, and 2009. As it stands now, the last ABBeacon show ever was March 28, 2009 - a show I attended - but that's no consolation to the end of this tradition.

The Beacon Run was quintessential ABB. Guests came out of the woodwork to play there. Through the years I've seen Chuck Leavell, Gary Rossington, Peter Frampton, Hubert Sumlin, Bela Fleck, Luther Dickinson, Larry McCray, Dick Griffin, Robert Randolph, Susan Tedeschi, Roy Haynes, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and others. You may not recognize any, or all, of the names, but it was an atmosphere that couldn't be recereated elsewhere.

If 2009 was in fact the final Beacon Run, they went out with a bang. It was the band's 40th Anniversary celebration, and a tribute to the memory of founder Duane Allman. All manner of guests joined in to honor his memory and the history of the band, amongst them: Bonnie Bramlett, the aforementioned Weir and Lesh, John Hammond, Taj Mahal, Levon Helm, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, Trey Anastasio, Boz Scaggs, Jimmy Herring, and for the first time ever, Eric Clapton.

This won't be the first time the run moves from the Beacon. 1995 saw a six show run at Radio City Music Hall in place of the Beacon. Radio City is also Cablevision controlled, so I doubt that's where they'll go now. Butch mentioned a potential "Broadway Theater", but my guess would be the United Palace Theater up in Washington Heights. It's becoming the new "it" theater in the city, and was the rumored back-up destination had The Beacon fallen through in 2008.

But it won't be the same. Aside from the atmosphere, and the beautiful, classic venue, I'll miss the neighborhood. Brother Jimmy's, Blondie's, the since relocated P&G, the Gin Mill, the Westside Brewing Co. Amsterdam Ale House. And I'll miss the memories; some of the best music I've ever witnessed in person was at The Beacon, and making that annual pilgrimage with lifelong friends was something I looked forward to every year.

This also marks the end of an era for the ABB. Founding members Gregg Allman, Butch Trucks, and fellow CT resident Jaimoe are getting old. Guitar slingers Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks both have their own bands, which they have to neglect for large portions of the year while touring with the ABB. Outside of the NYC run next year and perhaps a summer festival or two, it doesn't appear that the band will be touring any more. And that's real sad. I strongly, strongly suggest you get out this summer and catch the ABB - preferably while they're on the road with Widespread Panic.

All good things must come to an end. And it appears that 2009 will mark the end of The Beacon Run and the ABB summer tour. Like Yankeee Stadium closing last year, it's sad. Something that means a lot to me won't be around anymore. But I look forward to what 2010 and beyond holds for Gov't Mule, the Derek Trucks Band, Soul Stew Revival, and whatever Oteil Burbridge is cooking up.

This is, afterall, a baseball blog. So lest we get chastised again, I'll end on a baseball note. Guitarist Derek Trucks is a big baseball fan and is the nephew of drummer Butch Trucks. Butch is the nephew of former Major League pitcher Virgil Trucks. Virgil is one of four men (Nolan Ryan, Johnny Vander Meer, and former Yankee Allie Reynolds) to throw two no hitters in the same season. He finished his 17 year Big League career in 1958 with the World Champion New York Yankees.

See, it all comes back to baseball....