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PDF versionPedro Martinez bounced the pitch. Catcher Carlos Ruiz recovered the ball quickly and fired a strike to Pedro Feliz at third, who tagged out the Mets runner trying to advance for the final out of the eighth inning.
And even more remarkable than the fact that manager Charlie Manuel allowed his 37-year-old starter to throw 130 pitches that night was that the play involved three Latin players. Martinez and Feliz are from the Dominican Republic, Ruiz is a native of Panama.
It's hard to believe but as recently as 1989, the only Latin player the Phillies had all season was Juan Samuel . . . and he was traded in June.
All of which leads us to a terrific movie that has just been released on DVD. At its most basic level, "Sugar" is the fictitious story of Miguel Santos, a gifted young pitcher from San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, whose nickname is "Sugar" or Azucar in Spanish, as he chases his dream of making it to the big leagues.
But the rich subtext is a realistic examination of the tug-of-war between the hope of making it big and fear of failure that these players face, all while having to cope with the language barrier and adjusting to an alien culture.
"I think it's very real, very close to what we normally go through, especially in the first stages of our arrival in the United States," Martinez, who attended the opening night for the film in the Dominican, says in one of the bonus scenes.
In one haunting bit of screen verite, former major leaguer Jose Rijo plays the role of a big-league team's representative in Latin America. Rijo, of course, was a special assistant to Nationals general manager Jim Bowden who ran the club's Dominican academy before both resigned this spring after becoming entangled in the Latin bonus-skimming scandal.
At one point, a prospect tells Santos that the fictitious Kansas City Knights have offered him a contract. Santos, played by Algenis Perez Soto, asks how much they're willing to pay. The kid says it's $115,000 but adds, almost offhandedly, that his agent will take $40,000 of it.
Anybody who watches this movie will come away with a deeper appreciation of what the Latin players go through just to get a chance to play baseball.
THE HOT CORNER
--Former Diamondbacks ace Brandon Webb, injured all year, said that if the team wants him to restructure his $8.5 million option for next year, they can forget it. "No, I'm not interested in doing that," he said flatly.
--At a time when most teams who move their spring-training sites go from Florida to Arizona, the Cubs are threatening to leave Mesa, Ariz., for Naples, Fla., if they don't get the new complex they're demanding.
AROUND THE BASES
--Mets outfielder Gary Sheffield told the New York Post he wants to play next year and plans to work out with boxer Winky Wright this offseason to get into top shape.
--The Pirates have lost 23 of their last 26 games. In the 123-year history of the franchise, it's the worst stretch since the 1895 team finished 3-25-1. "It's miserable, just miserable," rightfielder Brandon Moss said.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Oakland's Adam Kennedy, on what he said to home plate umpire Eric Cooper to get ejected in the first inning Tuesday: "I told him, 'If you're going to keep calling them like that all night, you might as well eject me now.' "
CAMPAIGN TACTIC OF THE WEEK
After Kansas City's Zack Greinke beat the Mariners on Aug. 30, Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu was asked to assess the opposing pitcher's performance. And, of course, he said a lot of nice things.
Well, now the Royals have taken those quotes and featured them in a glossy brochure touting Greinke for the AL Cy Young Award. Which is interesting because Wakamatsu is obviously supporting his own pitcher, Felix Hernandez, for the honor.
STAT OF THE WEEK
Speaking of Zack Greinke, according to the Kansas City Star, 2009 All-Stars are 23-for-129 (.194) with 50 strikeouts against him this season.
IN YO FACE OF THE WEEK
Back in May, when the Rangers swept the Angels to drop the defending division champions 4 1/2 games back, some Texas players were vocal about their desire to be taken as serious contenders. Ian Kinsler was even caught by television cameras yelling, "Get the (bleep) off our field," after the last game.
Well, things have changed. The Angels will win the AL West again. The Rangers will almost certainly miss the playoffs again. So after John Lackey beat Texas on Sunday, he reflected on the earlier incident.
"We notice that kind of stuff, for sure," he said with a smirk. "But we try to fly flags. We don't talk."
CHEERS
For major league journeyman Pete Orr. Now with the Nationals, the 30-year-old will not go home when the season ends a week from Sunday. He'll report to Washington's spring-training base in Viera, Fla., and begin to learn how to catch.
He's never done it before. But team officials asked him if he'd like to give it a try and he jumped at the chance.
"Anything to give myself a better chance to be in the big leagues, I'll do it at the drop of a hat," he explained.
And if he doesn't make it, at least Orr will know that he did everything he could possibly do.
JEERS
To prospects who turn down the chance to play winter ball. Pirates general manager Neal Huntington was openly upset this week that some of the organization's younger players weren't willing to work on their skills during the offseason.
"We had hopes that a lot more of our guys would be willing to go, but in this day and age guys are a lot less willing," he said. "It's a shame. They're missing tremendous development opportunities.
"I hate to sound like an old-timer, but a lot of these guys don't need the money that's down there. It shouldn't be about the money. It should be about the development."
We can only imagine what Pete Orr thinks about this.
BY THE NUMBERS
4: National League managerial changes this season, with the Astros' firing of Cecil Cooper on Monday. Previously: Manny Acta (Nationals), Clint Hurdle (Rockies), Bob Melvin (Diamondbacks).
64: Years since two teams from the same market combined for 200 losses. The Phillies (108) and Athletics (98) did it in 1945. The Orioles and Nationals could do it this year.
202: Rookies who made their major league debuts this season.
700: Career wins for Twins manager Ron Gardenhire after he notched the milestone Tuesday. Since he was hired in 2002, only four managers (Joe Torre, Mike Scioscia, Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox) have more.
UP NEXT
The Cardinals are at Colorado this weekend, which means it will be Matt Holliday's first trip back to Coors Field since he was traded to St. Louis 55 games ago.
Adding to the intrigue, there are postseason implications for both teams. The Cardinals are trying to earn homefield advantage throughout the NL playoffs and the Rockies are hoping the lock up the wild-card berth.
FINALLY
You might recall the recent note about Giants manager Bruce Bochy admitting he's tried to mess with Brad Penny's head when the big righthander pitched for the Dodgers. For games at AT&T Park, he'd tell the scoreboard operator to take five mph off Penny's fastball before displaying the number.
That brought an e-mail from Chris Zonca, a financial planner in San Ramon, Calif., who used to work for the Phillies, a job that sometimes included holding the radar gun. And the Penny story reminded him of something that happened at Veterans Stadium years ago.
"In 1999, when I was doing the radar gun for the Phillies I got a call about five minutes before a Sunday afternoon game that had the Phillies starting Paul Byrd. 'Chris, it's (general manager Ed Wade). Byrdie is throwing today. No fastballs slower than 85 mph, OK?'
"'Yes, sir,' I responded."
The Phillies felt that Byrd was the kind of pitcher who looked at his velocity during games and would lose confidence if he wasn't throwing as hard as he thought he was.
Zonca went on to say that Byrd was topping off at 82 that day with some fastballs at 79.
Sometimes you add a few miles an hour. Sometimes you take a few off. And sometimes the mind games are even more fun than the games themselves.
