Seaver and Brock were 2 of the smartest players of their time. Brock had a background in mathematics and applied it to base stealing. But he didn’t like to talk about it, never reveal an advantage.
Towards the end of his career, and early in my career, I asked Brock to have breakfast with me when Cards were in New York playing the Mets. He was on time, smartly dressed, gave me plenty of time and was just a classy gentleman. Everyone in MLB loved him or loved him, because he deserved it. But teammates like McCarver say he was one of the toughest players of that time after Bob Gibson. That HARD skidding with his feet was risky for Brock, but riskier and distracted those who tried to tag him, which didn’t bother him. If a second baseman was out of line on the second base side, it would often go to CF, as Brock would get up and go to 3rd, because the infiledre covering 2d would not cross Brock’s spikes to get the pitch.
Brock made a great quote: “First base is useless”. (I think that’s the wording. That was his POINT anyway.) You can’t score from 1st on a single. You can be part of a double game. As soon as you steal 2d, you take away the possibility of DP, you can score on any shot at the OF and, for a vet like Brock, you can (legally) steal the catcher marks. And of course, Brock was great at stealing 3rd place, which skewed the positioning on the pitch and kept the pressure on pitchers to throw quick balls and not “tick” by smashing balls into the dirt because Brock them would have turned into wild tosses and past balls.
My favorite Seaver story is from spring training in ’84. I’ve always loved interviewing Carlton Fisk and, with O in AL, I had a lot of possibilities. Seaver, not so much. After Seaver teamed up with Fisk with the White Sox, I was looking forward to talking to both of them in the relaxed atmosphere of spring training. Since Fisk and I (born the same week) got along so well – no formalities, lots of jokes, I knew this would “bring out” Seaver that he would relax and start telling stories too. Additionally, both Fisk and Seaver were staunchly pro-union at a time when free will was still in its first decade and there was a bad strike that ended the season in ’81. At the time I was one of the very few strongly pro-union MLB writers: they made mistakes, but the owners were then just total exploiters. For example Fior, Brock’s career was ’61 -’79. His TOTAL career earnings were $ 1.1 million. That’s not a typo: A million dollars for all these great years combined, and that’s before tax. Reggie Jackson, who was a rookie in ’69, has only made NINE million dollars in his entire career. Nats manager Dave Martinez, who was a rookie in 86, made> $ 15 million. Thus, there was no more important topic with union players and how to get their fair share. Just look at the difference in that example of what difference it would have made if you entered ’61 or 86 – “only” 25 years old. A Hall of Fame like Brock earned $ 1.1 million. A quality worker with> 1,600 hits, but a single all-star game (he didn’t play), like Martinez, could earn $ 15 million.
Sorry for being distracted. But I knew this was the perfect time to reunite Fisk and Seaver and it was going to be a fun, funny and edgy cover, not an interview. Coincidentally, I had taken my girlfriend (now my wife for 35 years) to train with me. I saw Fisk and Seaver walk into the Chicago clubhouse and they said, “Honey, I’ll be back in five minutes. I just want to say hello. Keep an eye on my typewriter.” (Yes, yes, I know –TYPEWRITER,
Much later – my wife and I still don’t agree on HOW LONG after that – the man from the clubhouse came up to me and handed me the typewriter. “A blonde told me to give you this.”
I ran out. Of course she was gone. I went back and asked Seaver and Fisk: “Which is the hottest bar in Sarasota”. They told me. I went. My girlfriend was sitting at the bar with the White Sox starting from first, second and third base. I walked over and said, “What’s the matter? Couldn’t you get shortstop too? Then you’d have the whole infield.”
One of those three, unnamed, mysteriously materialized at our dining table, not in that bar, but across town. What a coincidence! “Hi, Wendy!” he says. He didn’t remember my name! We had fun. Afterward, Wendy, continuing to give me a hard time, said, “What a good guy, so handsome and funny (and 1.8m tall).” I said, “You’re right about all of this. He also earns $ 950.00 a year. Which makes his wife and five children happy.”
She laughed. But for years, every time I saw that player, he would smile at me and say, “How is Wendy?”
Fisk had a sign on his locker that said “THINK”
He and Seaver were a perfect match.
Thanks for mentioning Steve Jacobson, an excellent writer for Newsday. I bet that book is a good read. John Feinstein also had a great column on Seaver this weekend, his childhood hero.
I saw on TV that the only two pitchers with 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts and an ERA of less than 3.00 are Walter Johnson and Tom Seaver. It seems hard to believe. But it’s true. There are still only 18 pitchers with 3.00 or K. Those with ERA <3.00 did not win 300. Those with 300 wins did not have ERA <3.00, often because they pitched so long that their later years pushed towards the their ERA high, like Greg Maddux ending at 3.16.
Of course, for perspective, Walter Johnson scored> 400 wins (417), not just> 300, and his ERA was 2.17. Yes, Dead Ball Era. But “you can’t have both”. Johnson’s ERA was aided by Dead Ball until 1920. BUT his strikeouts were kept low because EVERYONE (almost) was a contact hitter, all court or opposite court hitter and many bunted, especially against Walter . His strikeouts may have been suppressed 50 to 100 per season since his era, compared to later times. Yet his 3,509 strikeouts are STILL in the all-time Top 0 (ninth). THIS is how hard it was to hit him, just to make contact. He won 12 strikeout titles and had seasons with 303 and 313 K. To “translate” should we think of those from the 400-K seasons? Probably.
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