Were Jim Riggleman a different kind of manager–stage, rather than baseball–how much more compelling might have been a Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field?
“Gibson against Koufax,” Houston manager Larry Dierker said, putting the possibility into his generation.
Who is which was left unsaid, though I would assume Kerry Wood to be Bob Gibson and Randy Johnson to be Sandy Koufax, righty to righty and lefty to lefty.
Is that what the world missed? I doubt it, though the national TV folks would have sold it that way, were ready to sell it that way, until Riggleman left Wood in his proper turn Friday night against San Francisco.
That was the baseball thing to do and it worked out in a baseball way. The Cubs won the game Wood started.
“If I was Riggleman, I would have done the same thing,” Dierker said. “They are a lot closer to the Giants than to us. You take your best chance to beat who you have to. It isn’t like home-court advantage is a factor.”
So, it was only Koufax–er, Johnson–on the national stage Saturday and he was every bit as dominating as expected, two hits over seven innings, nine strikeouts, the only run a solitary homer from Glenallen Hill.
The Cubs looked like street mimes against him, pretending to wave at invisible pitches.
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Sammy Sosa failed to get the ball out of the infield against Johnson, but Sosa did no better against the leftovers out of the Astros’ bullpen, striking out with two on to end the game.
Johnson retired the last 11 Cubs he faced, took a seat and watched the Houston bullpen worry its way to the finish.
“I threw strikes,” Johnson said.
Ah, that would have been it, of course. Johnson throwing strikes. Wood throwing strikes. Very, very fast strikes. The pair are 1-3 in the majors in strikeouts. They would have needed a spare radar gun and a larger fire extinguisher.
Who wouldn’t want to see that?
“I wouldn’t want to see Kerry Wood again in my life,” Dierker said.
The man does know how to give a compliment.
This would have been the pitching equivalent of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (or Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, just to keep the image in a Hall of Fame context).
Possibly that is how this notion got out of whack in the first place. With McGwire-Sosa still fresh, Wood-Johnson seemed the next natural sideshow. Hey, the Cubs have been in the sideshow business a lot longer and more often than they have been in the pennant-race business.
Riggleman was never really tempted to let it happen, not that he has no romance in his soul but that he has better sense in his head.
It only became an issue at all because, when Wood was suffering his phantom arm trouble and was thought to need to take off a turn, Saturday would have been his day.
Riggleman has handled twin bits of potential distress very well this season–how to pitch Wood and how to keep Sosa’s individual ambition inside the Cubs’ goals.
It would have been more natural than not to overuse Wood, both as an attraction and into the later innings. The most damaging result of Riggleman’s care may turn out to be an overused bullpen, but better them than Wood.
Sosa, in other seasons not known as the most eager team player, has been convinced that what is best for the team is best for Sosa.
Managing is not just in the details, it is in the results. And the results are in the standings and in the achievements of both Wood and of Sosa.
May baseball never resort to manipulating its moments. Wild-card teams and interleague play are bad enough.
Still, Gibson against Koufax . . .