In baseball, as elsewhere, one conversation leads to another. For example, when the Texas Rangers were here to help the White Sox open their home schedule, manager Johnny Oates was talking about the possibility of sluggers Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey breaking Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in 1961.
McGwire had homered in each of his first four games, certainly a strong beginning, and Oates predicted baseball would crown a new single-season home run king. There is nothing unusual about that. Most baseball insiders have made the same prediction.
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But Oates offered a new spin and said it wasn’t necessarily because expansion had diluted the caliber of pitching. The principal reason, he insisted, can be traced to the five-man starting rotation. Oates then revealed Sparky Anderson, who had a distinguished 26-year major-league managerial career, recently told him if he managed again he would use a four-man rotation.
“You should talk to Sparky,” Oates said. “He has some very good ideas about it.”
Anderson was reached at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He shouldn’t need much of an introduction. But for those who have just checked in, he is the third-winningest manager in baseball history, behind Connie Mack and John McGraw, and the only dugout wizard to win the World Series in both leagues.
Still, he insisted he wasn’t the smartest manager of his time. That accolade, he said, should go to Baltimore’s Earl Weaver.
Why is that?
“Because he was the last one to use a four-man rotation,” Anderson explained.
“He had his best four pitchers pitching every fourth day. He realized his fifth best was the worst of the lot. So why run him out there? When I began managing I tried it one year, for a short while, maybe twice around. I don’t know why but we convinced ourselves that these young people needed a rest. I always thought it was the old people who need a rest.”
Anderson suggested a check of Weaver’s record, especially in 1971, when each of the Orioles’ rotation starters won 20 games: Dave McNally went 21-5, Pat Dobson 20-8, Mike Cuellar 20-9 and Jim Palmer 20-9. The only other modern major-league team with four 20-game winners was the 1920 White Sox.
A day-by-day pitching chart of the ’20 White Sox isn’t available. But remarkably, Weaver didn’t summon a fifth starter until June 22 in the 65th game of the season. Then, he gave the ball to Grant Jackson in the second game of a double-header.
By this time, McNally, Dobson, Cuellar and Palmer had each made 16 starts without interruption. Imagine, more than one-third of the season gone before the rotation was broken. Weaver’s Big 4 made 142 of the Orioles’ 158 starts.
Aside from Jackson, who opened nine games, the “fifth” men were Dave Leonhard with six and Dave Boswell with one. Their tally endorsed Weaver’s opinion. The fifth starters, combined, weren’t even .500 on a team that won 101 games. They were 5-8, with three no-decisions.
“I’m not a pitching coach,” Anderson said. “But I know this, looking back on my 26 years, I was absolutely wrong. If I had pitched four guys and used them with three days of rest, every fourth day, they would have been better pitchers. It’s too late for me, but I want to admit I was wrong.”
Anderson says the late Harold “Lefty” Phillips, his friend who managed the California Angels, was the first to advise him of the benefits of a four-man rotation.
“I was stupid. I never listened to him,” he said. “I remember him telling me the guy who pitches every fourth day will have better control. And he told me, `Don’t worry, you’re not going to wear them out. All the great pitchers worked 280 to 300 innings and it didn’t hurt them.’ “
Steve Carlton, the former Philadelphia ace, was the last pitcher to work more than 300 innings, with 302 in 1980. Today, the major-league average for a starter is fewer than 200. Last season, Jaime Navarro led the Sox with 209 innings. Steve Trachsel was the Cubs’ “workhorse” with 201 innings.
Johnny Sain, a former White Sox pitching coach and an ironman who once made nine starts in 29 days, often suggested going with four starters. He told them they have a better chance to win more games and make more money.
Stan Bahnsen, then with the White Sox, agreed that it made good sense and that he could do it. Bahnsen changed his mind an hour later.
“John, I know you’re right,” Bahnsen said. “But we have a chance to lose more too.”