Trump.45 is set to visit a GM plant in Michigan today as a lead-in to his second 2020 campaign rally in Tennessee this evening. Trump.45 keeps saying jobs are priority one. Big beautiful jobs for Americans. Americans first.
GM knows that good government relations are critical to its business survival. It wasn’t so long ago the company was on economic life support, and rescued by bold and not entirely popular aid and support from a Democratic President who saved the company’s bacon while Republican representatives said “Let it bleed, let it die.” Darwinian business principles uber alles. The free market speaks and all. But that was then.
Anyway, GM tries hard not to directly bite the hand that can hurt it in return. So, seeking a peace gesture of sorts to appease El Presidente and his insatiable greed for jobs creation credit no matter the source or spin, GM has produced a humdinger of a pre-visit announcement to assure an Era of Good Feelings job wise with Trump.45.
Here from the reliable business folks at Fortune is today’s gem of a performance.
The hoped for take away is in the headline (courtesy of Fortune’s spin masters).
GM Is Rehiring 500 Workers That Were Slated for Layoffs
Now, this is a headline Trump.45 will love, and his world weary staff minions can happily provide for the Trumpster to gloat over among tomorrow’s xeroxed positive news summary clips. It ought to make for a good solid breakfast hour, especially if Trump.45 stokes up his endorphin charge listening to adoring, chanting Trumpeteers at tonight’s rally.
Back to the article’s actual contents. The reality for workers is in there all right. Fortune wouldn’t exactly lie. You just have to actually read the article to get over the headline pink ribbons, fluff and stuff. Here’s the whole story.
General Motors plans next year to rehire 500 Michigan assembly plant workers who are to be laid off in May, citing increased demand for larger vehicles, the company said on Wednesday.
GM said last week it planned to lay off 1,100 workers in May at its Lansing Delta Township assembly plant in Michigan. The company is moving production of the GMC Acadia mid-size SUV to Spring Hill, Tennessee, from the factory, which will build just two models, the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs.
The company said that when it begins full production of the new versions of the two models in 2018, it would “bring back approximately 500 jobs to give the company flexibility to meet market demand.”
GM also said it would add 220 jobs at a plant in Romulus, Michigan, that is building 10-speed automatic transmissions, and it would retain 180 jobs by shifting Lansing workers to a Flint assembly plant to support pickup truck production.
The news comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is set to visit Michigan later on Wednesday to announce that his administration will reopen a review of fuel efficiency standards, a move that could help automakers sell more of their larger models. GM did not credit Trump with the decision to add jobs.
“We haven’t fundamentally changed any of our plans, but we continue to look for ways to improve our operations and find ways to help the country, grow jobs and support economic growth,” spokesman Pat Morrissey said.
He said Trump’s visit “gave us a positive venue to share good news for the state of Michigan – and specifically for our plants and people in Flint, Romulus and Lansing.”
The Detroit automaker in recent months has announced other U.S. job cuts and new investments. GM said in January it would invest another $1 billion in its U.S. factories.
Trump has urged GM and other automakers to build more cars in the United States as part of his pledge to boost the nation’s manufacturing jobs and discourage the industry from investing in Mexico.GM said in November it would cut about 2,000 jobs when it ended the third shift at its Lordstown, Ohio, and Lansing Grand River plants in January. In December, it said it planned to cancel the second shift and cut nearly 1,300 jobs from its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in March.
Just to be clear for the topline summary. GM is not actually rehiring 500 workers slated for layoffs. They are actually laying off 1,100 workers in May 2017 from the Lansing, MI Plant, just like they recently promised. What GM is doing is making a future promise, with no guarantees beyond this PR release that next year sometime they will re-hire 500 workers to provide flexibility at the Lansing plant. There is no reliable information about whether the GM spokesman making the statement was crossing his fingers or toes out of sight of the reporter.
And they don’t even sugarcoat or set in stone a fixed number of 500 re-hires in the future. The precise wording is approximately 500. That could be 400, or 425, or maybe even 350. Or maybe none, depending on economic circumstances the company can’t predict a year from now, since they must be flexible for business reasons. Call it an aspirational goal, like the solemn promises Christians make each week to go and sin no more.
The 1,100 layoff figure is, however, not a future promise; it is the reality of a shower of pink slips for 1,100 families 60 days from now. I’m quite sure the workers and their loved ones will just dip into their capacious savings to get along for the next year or so, until the blessed call to report back to work comes from a benevolent and generous employer.
You know, COBRA for health insurance will be available to them to manage their health care needs and medical costs. And access to the beautiful new TrumpCare system will also be available to help them out once it is passed and the actual amount of steep cuts in direct federal insurance subsidies and the ballooning increase in out of pocket deductibles for medical expenses are worked out by the Republican majority in Congress. Oh joy, Oh happiness.
To return to the jobs re-hire so-called promise. Some of the men and women will have moved away, some may be retired or be accepted on disability, some may be on unemployment or pubic assistance, some may be working at good paying jobs at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s to fill in the gaps. In which case the 500 number might shrink even a bit further.
Besides, since the full 500 is less than half of the workers to be let go now, there will probably be enough residual competition for the Musical Chairs Jobs Game, that when and if the time comes, the surviving contestants may grudgingly accept a lower wage rate, or fewer benefits to get their jobs back. A little unexpected bonus. Every little bit counts for GM’s bottom line. And it’s all consistent with Trump.45’s jobs obsession, and credit hogging machine action. He’ll probably bless it. Watch for his remarks on the stage in Michigan today.
GM is not hiding anything. They are being perfectly straight forward about their overall plans.
“We haven’t fundamentally changed any of our plans, but we continue to look for ways to improve our operations and find ways to help the country, grow jobs and support economic growth,” spokesman Pat Morrissey said.
But the brilliance of making this beautiful press announcement and linking it to Trump’s Job Crusade, is the professional grade spitball* it contains after the headline.
Let’s look at the entire pitching sequence.
In this story GM announces layoffs:
- January 2017 for Lordstown OH: 2,000 jobs cut
- March 2017 for Detroit-Hamtramck MI: 1,300 job cut
- March 2017 for Romulus MI: 220 jobs added
- May 2017 for Lansing MI: 1,100 jobs cut
With this announcement, GM confirms actual job cuts of 4,400 and new job hires of 220, for a net loss of 4,200 highly paid manufacturing jobs. The ones Trump.45 promises to preserve and bring back by his personal Herculean efforts.
A highly polished spitball of truly professional grade, just like GM’s truck slogan.
GM can gloat.
The GM spokesman said further that Trump’s visit “gave us a positive venue to share good news for the state of Michigan – and specifically for our plants and people in Flint, Romulus and Lansing.”
GM marches on. Trump.45 has not a clue. GM’s loyal workforce takes it from behind yet again. Kumbaya, my friends.
Watch a real workers’ champion sing it. American grand master folk singer Pete Seeger from October,1963.
Watch The Seekers sing it proud in 1993.
And a happy PR day was had by all this March 15, 2017. Just look at the headline again.
The promise of future good times sometime, after a world of hurt today and tomorrow.
For Trump’s loyal DWA supporters who voted for change, does this sound PR track resemble the chorus for Mexico Will Pay for the Wall, which in truth will be paid for 100% with US taxpayer dollars now, against some future collection scheme To BE Determined Later.
Or how about TrumpCare Repeal and Replace which, according to the independent CBO scoring analysis will cause 14 million people to lose their health insurance in the next year, shock increase premiums, and reduce insurance subsidies for the rest of working Americans, all at one and the same time, while giving a $158 billion embedded tax cut to the richest 1% as part of the same deal. Does that sound like the Health Plan you thought you were voting for in November after listening to Trump.45’s promises?
Yet last week Trump.45 said again this health plan deformity is a beautiful, beautiful plan. He repeated himself in glowing terms tonight in Nashville. Watch it for yourself, if you can stomach it. It’s all over YouTube with crowd sots and patriotic music. And a repeat of the inaugural entertainment with the Gatling Brothers and Lee Greenwood for your rally set-up pleasure while Trump.45 cools his heels to plump the crowd, and shows up for the faithful 1 hour and 40 minutes late, all streamed live.
You decide, America.
The Windup and Strikeout
Maybe it’s better to quit after you read the headlines in the news, and skip the fine print. After all, would Trump.45 ever lie to you? Isn’t he the first and only truly honest, tell it like it is politician in living memory?
As for Trump.45 he is ready to move on to Nashville for his second official 2020 campaign rally this evening.** Where you can be sure he will tout his already considerable record of success as President after just 56 days in office. A massive record of success, maybe even the Best in History Presidential 50 Days, to hear him tell it.
His evening rally in Nashville starts at 6:30 PM local time, and as of 9AM this morning there were already 50 eager voters in line to express their support. By noon ahead of the 3 :30 PM door opening the line numbered several hundred.
The usual Trump Crowd protocol is in effect. Admission is first come, first served. The fact that someone registered or received an obligatory E-ticket does not guarantee admission. The Crowd is limited by legal regulation of auditorium square footage under formal Fire Marshall’s rules. The Trump folks are juicing the crowd line for prior advance PR appeal, knowing full well if lots of people show up due to their ticketing procedures, they will not be admitted due t legal space constraints. If Trump.45 were concerned for crowd safety or comfort, all they had to do was rent a bigger hall. That’s not too complicated for the Trump First Teamers, is it?
Another crows=d size scam, Trump style. Regardless, look for some mention by Trump.45 of the huge, huge crowds turned away from his rally due to the dastardly incompetent Fire Marshall. As if Trump has nothing to do with it, should it happen. The Lizzie Borden Orphan Crowd Size Defense.
The actual rated crowd capacity for the Municipal Arena event venue is 9,900. Expect a crowd size estimate from someone in the campaign, or even from the Big Dog himself before the night is over. And surely the Alt Right Media Echo Sites will blast in with their assessments to soothe the afflicted and telegraph the crowdly enthusiasm of true believers.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Another dreary repeat.
I can’t wait for the 2020 campaign to begin in earnest. I think Trump.45 has decided that there should be a permanent campaign rolling, since that is the only space he seems assured of controlling completely in his favor. And the locals can always be summoned to react with pitchforks and torches to assail the low life enemy agents of the Press, and the losers and haters, and the Deep State Democrats who wiretap and conspire against the pure and holy Crusade for American that is Trump’s dream and motivating vision.
For ever and ever. Amen.
Spring training for the 2017 MLB season is in progress. The previously century-long unfortunate Cubbies are in the thick of preparing to defend their hard-won and deserved World Series Championship title starting in less than a month. Time to bring some baseball lore back in the hunt for the authentic Trump.45. He played the game as a high schooler, but seems to have never learned the sport’s larger life lessons. Too sad for him, and too bad for the rest of us.
From the Wikipedia entry for the Spitball:
A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of saliva, petroleum jelly, or some other foreign substance.
This technique alters the wind resistance and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to move in an atypical manner. It may also cause the ball to “slip” out of the pitcher’s fingers without the usual spin that accompanies a pitch. In this sense, a spitball can be thought of as a fastball with knuckleball action.
Alternative names for the spitball are spitter, mud ball, shine ball, supersinker, vaseline ball (because originally, Vaseline was used to give the ball a little more break), and emery ball, although technically, an emery ball is one where the ball has been abraded in much the same way that the original cut ball had been physically cut (an emery ball is also known as a scuff ball).
The invention of the spitball has been popularly credited to a number of individuals, among them Elmer Stricklett and Frank Corridon. Numerous accounts, however, refer to different players experimenting with versions of the spitball throughout the latter half of the 19th century, and it remains unlikely that any one individual “invented” the spitball.
Ed Walsh, however, is certainly responsible for popularizing it. Walsh dominated the American League from 1906–1912 primarily on the strength of his spitball, and pitchers around the league soon copied his spitball or invented their own trick pitch.
The dramatic increase in the popularity of “freak deliveries” led to a great deal of controversy throughout the 1910s regarding the abolition of the spitball and related pitches. In his autobiography, Ty Cobb wrote that such “freak pitches […] were outlawed when the owners greedily sold out to home runs.”
In addition, there were serious issues with the spitball, as a variation on the standard spitball called for the pitcher to smear the entire surface of the normally white ball with a mixture of tobacco spittle and dirt or mud in order to stain it the same deep brown color as the infield, making it nearly impossible for batters to see or avoid in low-light conditions. In August 1920, Ray Chapman was killed when he was struck in the temple by a spitball thrown by pitcher Carl Mays during a poorly lit game.
The spitball was banned in two stages. In the winter of 1919–1920, managers voted to partially ban the spitball, allowing each team to designate at most two pitchers who would be permitted to legally throw spitballs. Then, following the 1920 season, the spitball was banned leaguewide, except for existing spitballers who were grandfathered in and allowed to keep throwing the pitch legally until they retired.
Seventeen existing spitballers were granted this exemption. Burleigh Grimes lasted the longest, retiring in 1934. The complete list: Ray Fisher (played through 1920); Doc Ayers (1921); Ray Caldwell (1921); Phil Douglas (1922); Dana Fillingim (1925); Marv Goodwin (1925); Dutch Leonard (1925); Allen Russell (1925); Allen Sothoron (1926); Dick Rudolph (1927); Stan Coveleski (1928); Urban Shocker (1928); Bill Doak (1929); Clarence Mitchell (1932); Red Faber (1933); Jack Quinn (1933); and Grimes.
In March 1955, MLB Commissioner Ford Frick advocated for the return of the spitball, telling a sportswriter, “If I had my way, I’d legalize the old spitter. It was a great pitch and one of the easiest to throw. There was nothing dangerous about it.”Despite the Commissioner’s enthusiasm, the pitch remained illegal.
Although the spitball is now banned at all levels of professional and organized amateur baseball, it is still sometimes thrown in violation of the rules. (In 1942, Leo Durocher, then-manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, fined Bobo Newsom for throwing a spitball and “lying to me about it.”) Typically, a lubricant is hidden behind the pitcher’s knee or under the peak of his cap. Others will place the ball in their mitt and then cough on or lick it. Another tactic pitchers use is to soak their hair in water before going out to the mound, and then rubbing their hand in their hair before a pitch. Some pitchers have even glued a piece of sandpaper to one of their fingers, and scuffed a part of the ball to achieve a similar effect to the spitball. Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe has stated that he would hide a piece of emery board in his belt buckle so that he could roughen the ball or even cut it. During the Minnesota Twins’ 1987 pennant chase, one of their starting pitchers, Joe Niekro, was suspended when he was caught on the field with a nail file in his back pocket; Niekro said in defense that he had been filing his nails, a common practice amongst knuckleball pitchers. One week later, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Kevin Gross was caught with sandpaper in his glove and suspended. In the 1986 season, Houston Astros pitcher Mike Scott was frequently accused of cheating; during the 1986 NLCS, New York Mets player Wally Backman presented to the media a collection of 17 balls scuffed the same way, after Scott’s dominating performance in Game 4 of that series.
One of the most famous spitballers was Preacher Roe, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s. Roe was renowned both for his ability to control the spitball and to throw it without getting caught, and described his methodology in a 1955 article in Sports Illustrated, “The Outlawed Spitball Was My Money Pitch”, published a year after he retired. Another famous user of the pitch was Gaylord Perry, who went so far as to title his autobiography Me and the Spitter. (For example, Perry would put vaseline on his zipper because umpires would never check there.) Don Drysdale and Lew Burdette also used the pitch regularly.
The name dry spitter is sometimes used to describe a pitch that moves like a spitball without saliva, such as the forkball or split-finger fastball. It is sometimes used simply as slang for the knuckleball.
There is also the remote term of God-given spitter, which is when the ball is naturally dampened by moist air or light rainfall, which allows pitchers to be able to throw pitches with sharper breaks, much like a spitball.
In today’s game, pitchers are allowed to moisten their fingers with saliva, so long as they wipe their fingers on their uniform before again touching the baseball.
The techniques used to prepare a spitball are analogous to the techniques still used to condition the ball in cricket. As was the case in pre-1920s baseball, a single cricket ball is used for a long period of time (almost 500 deliveries in international cricket), and the fielding team progressively attempts to make one side of the ball more shiny than the other to create such phenomena as swing bowling. Some techniques, such as physically polishing the ball against the player’s clothing, or applying sweat and saliva (even when tainted with mints that a player is sucking on), are entirely legal and are used widely; others techniques are illegal (known as ball tampering), including such practices as altering the ball’s state by the use of artificial substances such as sun block or dirt, or degradation by fingernails or other hard substances, intentionally returning the ball along the ground to abrade it, or raising the seam.
One of the modern practitioners of the spitter’s art was pitcher Joe Niekro, who was caught and suspended in 1987 during his last year in the Majors while pitching for the Minnesota Twins. This was ironic since in his younger days Niekro was known primarily for throwing the knuckleball, anther notoriously hard pitch to hit, and equally hard to catch. But perfectly legal under the rules.
From the Wikipedia entry for pitcher Joe Niekro:
Joseph Franklin “Joe” Niekro (November 7, 1944 – October 27, 2006) was an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He was the younger brother of pitcher Phil Niekro, and the father of Minor League Baseball pitcher and first baseman Lance Niekro. Born and grew up in Martins Ferry, Ohio, Niekro attended Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Ohio and attended West Liberty University in West Liberty, West Virginia. During a 22-year baseball career, he pitched from 1967–1988 for seven different teams, primarily for the Houston Astros.
Niekro pitched for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Detroit Tigers with occasional success before joining Phil with the Atlanta Braves in 1973. Joe used a fastball and a slider early in his career, with mixed results. He spent two seasons in Atlanta with Phil and got re-acquainted with the knuckleball that their father taught them. The knuckleball became an essential part of his arsenal though never his sole pitch. Joe threw harder than Phil and could set up batters nearly as effectively with his fastball in combination with his excellent changeup.
The Houston Astros purchased Niekro’s contract from the Braves for $35,000 in 1975. He blossomed into a dominant pitcher as he perfected his knuckleball in Houston, going 21–11 in 1979 and 20–12 in 1980, to become the first Astros pitcher to win 20 games in consecutive seasons. He also made the National League All-Star team in 1979, a season in which he led the league with his 21 wins and five shutouts, won the TSN Pitcher of the Year Award, and ended second in voting for the Cy Young Award behind Bruce Sutter. 1979 also saw the Niekro brothers tie for the wins leader in Major League Baseball, marking this the only year that two brothers shared this honor.
In 1980, Houston had a three-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, then lost their last three games of the regular season in Los Angeles, to force a one-game playoff. Niekro allowed six hits in a 7–1 Houston victory that propelled the Astros to their first postseason. He then pitched 10 shutout innings in Game 3 of the NLCS and the Astros won, 1–0, though they lost the series to the Philadelphia Phillies, 3–2.
In September 1985, Houston traded the 40-year-old Niekro to the New York Yankees, where he briefly reunited again with Phil. Niekro finished his career with the Minnesota Twins, where he pitched in the World Series for the only time, in 1987. Earlier that season, Niekro had been suspended for ten games when umpire Tim Tschida discovered a nail file in his pocket during a game against the California Angels. When Tschida told Niekro to empty his pockets, Niekro reached into his pockets, pulled out his hands and threw them in the air. The emery board and a piece of sandpaper flew out of his pocket and fluttered to the ground. The video of this made a lot of sports-highlight shows and is a common “blooper” clip today. Niekro said he was filing his nails in the dugout, but American League president Dr. Bobby Brown did not believe him, and ordered the suspension. Niekro was eventually released by the Twins shortly into the second month of the 1988 season and subsequently retired.
A short history of some of baseball’s best spitter stories from Sports Illustrated:
In the wake of allegations by Blue Jays broadcasters Dick Hayhurst and Jack Morris that Boston’s Clay Buchholz applied a foreign substance to the baseball on Wednesday in Toronto, it’s worth remembering that baseball lore is chockfull of colorful stories of pitchers (or position players) doctoring the baseball by various means. Saliva, sweat, scuffing, sandpaper, and substances such as Vaseline, K-Y Jelly, pine tar and glue have all been used in the years since Major League Baseball officially outlawed the spitball after the 1920 season. Most pitchers aren’t choirboys; get any one talking long enough, and he’ll probably own up to a bit of dabbling in the black arts, at least “in the bullpen” — nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more.
It isn’t just the marginal ones who search for that extra something that will make the ball dart unpredictably, either. Many a good pitcher has been accused of doctoring the ball by a frustrated opponent (or an opponent’s adjunct, as Dirk Hayhurst and Jack Morris served when accusing Buchholz). Some pitchers have even owned up to doing so. Only a few have been caught and drawn ejections or suspensions; in my Buchholz piece I listed 12 from the 1980-2012 range. What follows is a colorful but hardly comprehensive tour through the annals — accusations, admissions and the occasional action to eject or suspend — ordered roughly by chronology.
Preacher Roe: A late-blooming, wily lefty who became a mainstay of the Boys of Summer-era Brooklyn Dodgers staff, Roe confessed to using a “Beech-Nut slider” less than a year after retiring, in the pages of a 1955 Sports Illustrated article by Dick Young:
“One way I figured out to keep my fingers clean, was to wipe ‘em on the visor of my baseball cap. It looked like I was adjusting it on my head. I always made certain the visor was kept clean. I even went to the trouble of brushing it off with a towel on the bench between innings.
“It didn’t take long for some of the hitters to figure there was something going on between my spitter and the way I fingered the cap. That was just fine for me. I started using the gesture as a decoy. That was as good as the pitch itself. From then on, even when I wasn’t going to throw a wet one, I’d go to my cap just to cross them up.”
Whitey Ford: A Hall of Famer who pitched for 11 pennant-winning Yankees teams during his career (1950-1967), Ford was open to admitting to all kinds of shenanigans after his playing days were over. “I didn’t cheat until later in my career when I needed something extra to survive,” he told FoxSports’ Hal McCoy last year. “I didn’t cheat when I won the 25 games in 1961. I don’t want anybody to get any ideas about taking away my Cy Young Award. And I didn’t cheat in 1963 when I won 24 games. Well, maybe a little.” Ford said he would use his wedding ring, his belt buckle or catcher Elston Howard’s shinguard to scuff the ball, as well as a “gunk” composed of baby oil, turpentine and resin.
Art Fowler: Though he reputedly threw a spitball during his nine-year major league career (1954-1964, with a couple gaps), Fowler is more famous for his long tenure as Billy Martin’s pitching coach at several stops, where he’d teach the tricks of the trade. Most famously, he’s said to have taught the spitter to A’s starters Mike Norris, Rick Langford, Steve McCatty, Matt Keough and Brian Kingman, a rotation that completed an amazing 94 of 159 starts in 1980, Martin’s first year at the helm in Oakland. The team won 83 games, 29 more than the previous year, and their success drove opponents crazy.
“Rick Langford threw about 15 against us,” said Yankees manager Gene Michael after one series. “We didn’t see Mike Norris, but we know he throws it (the spitter) too. They all do, but Langford was the worst.”
Gaylord Perry: The most famous post-ban spitballer, Perry won 314 games and struck out 3,534 batters (still eighth all-time), sometimes by applying a little something extra, sometimes by just letting a batter think he had. It was all part of an elaborate pre-pitch ritual in which he’d touch his cap and various parts of his uniform, as you can see in this video and this one. As Peter Gammons wrote in a 1989 SI article:
Perry has admitted to having used K-Y jelly, vaseline, saliva, fishing-line wax, resin, sweat and dirt to make baseballs do peculiar things. However, he may not have been as much of an outlaw as he led us to believe. Dave Duncan, who was Perry’s catcher with the Cleveland Indians in 1974, a season in which Perry went 21-13, claims Perry threw only one spitter that year. “He had a great sinker and just kept up the act [his fidgeting on the mound] to make hitters believe he was loading up the ball.” says Duncan. “So they focused on trying to catch him cheating instead of concentrating on how he was pitching them.” Though opponents watched him closely. Perry was caught throwing an illegal pitch only once in his career.
Perry, who titled a mid-career autobiography Me and the Spitter, legendarily offered his services to Vaseline as a pitchman, the response to which was contained in a one-line postcard. “We soothe babies’ asses, not baseballs.” He didn’t get busted until 1982, the 21st of his 22 seasons, when he was ejected after umpires found a slippery substance on the ball.
Don Sutton: Another Hall of Famer and 300-game winner and a contemporary of Perry’s, Sutton was notorious for the ways in which he would deface baseballs. As Thomas Boswell wrote in “Salvation Through Salivation,” a Washington Post column collected in the 1982 classic How Life Imitates the World Series, Sutton
“…has been accused of cutting, scuffing, sandpapering, and generally disfiguring balls in so many ways that he says, ‘I ought to get a Black & Decker commercial out of it. The only fun I get now is hiding dirty notes in my uniform pockets for the umpires to find when they search me. I have a bet with [PGA golfer] Gary McCord that if I’m searched on national TV, I’ll strip to my undershirt and jock.'”
Tommy John: Groundbreaking elbow surgery wasn’t the only thing that enabled John to last 26 years in the majors. Boswell called him “the elegant Rhett Butler of outlaws” and wrote, “[T]he gentlemanly John can turn a tiny scratch into a double-play grounder. Asked how many pitches he has, John said, ‘Four basic ones—fastball, curve, slider and change-up—plus eight illegal ones.'”
Mike Scott: A mediocrity for the first six years of his career with the Mets and Astros, Scott emerged as an ace with Houston in 1985, and he won the Cy Young the following year, nearly doubling his strikeout rate (from 5.6 per nine to 10.0) while helping his team make the playoffs. His dramatic transformation was said to owe to his learning to throw a split-fingered fastball, but the Mets, his opponents in the 1986 National League Championship Series, believed he had scuffed balls in his 14-strikeout series-opening shutout.
“New York manager Davey Johnson showed a group of reporters eight balls that were scuffed in exactly the same spot — a mark about the size of a 50-cent piece,” said one newspaper article. Backed by home pate umpire Doug Harvey, Scott denied the allegations at the time, but in 2011 he came clean… sort of. “I’ve thrown balls that were scuffed but I haven’t scuffed every ball that I’ve thrown,” he said for an MLB Network special.
Joe Niekro: The less famous brother of Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro, Joe won 221 games in 22 years himself, but he’s remembered as much because he was caught red-handed in 1987, when he was pitching for the Twins in his the penultimate season of his career. Asked by home plate umpire Tim Tschida to empty his pockets, he tried to fling an emery board and a piece of sandpaper away (see the 34-second mark of this video) but the umps found it immediately:
Niekro claimed he used the emery board to manicure his nails — a plausible alibi for a knuckleballer — and the sandpaper for his blisters, but he drew a 10-day suspension nonetheless.
Jay Howell: As the closer for the 1988 Dodgers, Howell was ejected in the eighth inning of Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Mets after pine tar was discovered on his glove; he claimed it was merely to improve his grip. After he was ejected, the Mets rallied for five runs and won the game to take a 2-1 series lead. Howell was suspended for three days (soon reduced to two), an action that even drew criticism from the Mets, who had earlier rallied to beat him in the 9th inning of Game 1. His suspension forced the Dodgers to use Orel Hershiser to close out Game 4 in the 12th inning, and they eventually won the series in seven before going on to upset the A’s in the World Series.
Orel Hershiser: He may have looked like a choirboy, but after coming back from 1991 shoulder surgery, Hershiser drew suspicion that he was reaching back for something extra. Ironically, the most famous allegation came from Davey Johnson, who managed the Mets during the 1986 Scott and 1988 Howell controversies; he was piloting the Orioles in 1997 when they faced Hershiser’s Indians in the ALCS. After the 39-year-old Hershiser shut out the Orioles for seven innings in Game 3. Johnson spoke up. From the Philadelphia Daily News:
“I know from my experience that Orel likes to put water on the back of his neck… He prefers to have the cover of the ball moist as opposed to dry, and he will get water wherever he can get it… He was going from his mouth right to the ball, and that’s illegal. I wanted to point it out to them, and at least Orel was thinking about it.”
Adding fuel to the fire, Indians teammate Chad Ogea agreed with Johnson after the game: “I’ve known Orel for three years and he cheats…He showed me how to cheat, but said I can’t do it until I’m about 35.” Hershiser laughed off the discussion and wasn’t disciplined.
Kenny Rogers: The most famous recent allegations of such skullduggery came in Game 2 of the 2006 World Series between the Tigers and the Cardinals. TV cameras spotted a brown smudge on the thumb of Rogers’ left (throwing) hand during the first inning (SI.com later unearthed photos of him with similar smudges from midseason and the ALCS). After umpires conferred before the start of the second inning, Rogers was ordered to clean his hand of the smudge, which was said to be some combination of dirt, rosin or pine tar. He did, and went on to pitch eight scoreless innings in a Detroit win. Said umpire supervisor Steve Palermo after the game:
“There was no formal request made about [Rogers] being inspected… There was a noticeable dirt mark on his pitching hand, and after the first inning, Alfonso Marquez, the home-plate umpire, asked him to remove the dirt so there wouldn’t be any question about any controversy. And I think if you see the following innings, he pitched fine without the dirt.”
From the Baseball Almanac, here is the definitive list of the 17 pitchers grandfathered in and expressly allowed to throw spitballs after the 1920 rule change.
Here is a picture of the last legal Major League Spitballer, Burleigh Grimes, who retire in 1934.
And finally a word on Edward Charles ‘Whitey’ Ford, the Yankees Chairman of the Board, a New Yorker who played his entire 16 year baseball career for the New York Yankees. A masterful pitcher, who didn’t have the best fastball, but a bewildering array of curves and off-speed stuff. And a cunning baseball brain and wily competitor spirit to match. A member of the legendary Yankees teams of the 18950’2 and 1960’s while I was growing up, along with Mickey, Yogi, Moose, Elston, Roger, Hank, Tony and the rest of the boys.
Whitey was and remains my very favorite lifetime pitcher, not least because I am also a pure lefty, and pitched in his stead in countless games of childhood one-on-one stickball with a pink rubber Spalding, and later a Whiffle Ball against the handball court wall in my home town park from 1956-1963 or so.
Honestly, with the Whiffle Ball’s magic, and a left handed delivery from side arm, submarine, and three quarter delivery positions, on the kid’s court I represented my baseball hero rather well, I think. As the only lefty among our circle, I was considered a very dangerous opponent, and a desirable teammate for two on two matchups and round robins.
It is a little distasteful to learn that a childhood hero was not above sneaking an occasional edge or two over 16 years of high level sports competition. But that was not the essence of Whitey’s talent and career stats. Ask anyone who had to bat against him on a regular basis for real.
That is the difference between a child’s unconditional love for his sports hero and an adult’s more balanced perception.
Trump.45 is no Whitey Ford for occasional rule bending. He is a determined, accomplished, and persistent rule breaker and political cheater, who can’t win straight up on talent and skill alone. Trump always has to shade the truth and manipulate the odds. Sad, so sad.
From the Wikipedia entry for Whitey Ford, winning masterful nifty lefty baseball pitcher. One of the greatest New York Yankees players of all time.
Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford (born October 21, 1928), nicknamed “The Chairman of the Board” is an American former professional baseball pitcher who spent his entire 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.
Ford is a ten-time MLB All-Star and six-time World Series champion. Ford won both the Cy Young Award and World Series Most Valuable Player Award in 1961. He led the American League in wins three times and in earned run average twice. The Yankees retired Ford’s uniform number in his honor.
In the wake of Yogi Berra’s 2015 death, George Vecsey writing in the New York Times, suggested that Ford is now “The Greatest Living Yankee.”
Ford was a native of the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City, a few miles by the Triborough Bridge from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. He graduated from the Manhattan High School of Aviation Trades.
Ford was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1947, and played his entire career with them. He was nicknamed “Whitey” while in the minor leagues for his light blond hair.
He began his Major League Baseball career on July 1, 1950 with the Yankees and made a spectacular debut, winning his first nine decisions before losing a game in relief. Ford received a handful of lower-ballot Most Valuable Player votes despite throwing just 112 innings, and was voted the AL Rookie of the Year by the Sporting News. (Walt Dropo was the Rookie of Year choice of the BBWAA.)
During the Korean War, in 1951 and 1952 Ford served in the Army. He rejoined the Yankees for the 1953 season, and the Yankee “Big Three” pitching staff became a “Big Four”, as Ford joined Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi and Eddie Lopat.
Eventually Ford went from the No. 4 pitcher on a great staff to the universally acclaimed No. 1 pitcher of the Yankees. He became known as the “Chairman of the Board” for his ability to remain calm and in command during high-pressure situations. He was also known as “Slick,” a nickname given to him, Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle by manager Casey Stengel, who called them Whiskey Slicks. Ford’s guile was necessary because he did not have an overwhelming fastball, but being able to throw several other pitches very well gave him pinpoint control. Ford was an effective strikeout pitcher for his time, tying the then-AL record for six consecutive strikeouts in 1956, and again in 1958. Ford pitched 2 consecutive one-hit games in 1955 to tie a record held by several pitchers.
In 1955, Ford led the American League in complete games and games won; in 1956 in earned run average and winning percentage; in 1958, in earned run average; and in both 1961 and 1963, in games won and winning percentage. Ford won the Cy Young Award in 1961; he likely would have won the 1963 AL Cy Young, but this was before the institution of a separate award for each league, and Ford could not match Sandy Koufax’s numbers for the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League. He would also have been a candidate in 1955, but this was before the award was created.
Some of Ford’s totals were depressed by Yankees manager Casey Stengel who viewed Ford as his top pitching asset, and often reserved his ace left-hander for more formidable opponents such as the Tigers, Indians, and White Sox. When he became manager in 1961, Ralph Houk promised Ford he would pitch every fourth day, regardless of opponent; after exceeding 30 starts only once in his nine seasons under Stengel, Ford had 39 in 1961. His first 20-win season, a career-best 25-4 record, and the Cy Young Award ensued, but Ford’s season was overshadowed by the home run battle between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. As a left-hander, Ford was also deft at keeping runners at their base: He set a record in 1961 by pitching 243 consecutive innings without allowing a stolen base.
In May 1963, after pitching a shutout, Ford announced he had given up smoking. He said, “My doctor told me that whenever I think of smoking, I should think of a bus starting up and blowing the exhaust in my face.”
Ford won 236 games for New York (career 236-106), still a franchise record. Red Ruffing, the previous Yankee record-holder, still leads all Yankee right-handed pitchers, with 231 of his 273 career wins coming with the Yankees. Other Yankee pitchers have had more career wins (for example, Roger Clemens notched his 300th career victory as a Yankee), but amassed them for multiple franchises. David Wells tied Whitey Ford for 13th place in victories by a left-hander on August 26, 2007.
Among pitchers with at least 300 career decisions, Ford ranks first with a winning percentage of .690, the all-time highest percentage in modern baseball history.
Ford’s career winning percentage cannot be attributed just to being on a good team: The Yankees were 1,486-1,027 during his 16 years; without his 236-106, they had 1,250 wins and 921 losses, for a won-loss percentage of .576. Ford was thus 11.4 percentage points higher than his team’s record, independent of his record.
Ford’s 2.75 earned run average is the second-lowest among starting pitchers whose careers began after the advent of the live-ball era in 1920. (Only Clayton Kershaw’s current 2.51 ERA is lower.) Ford’s worst-ever ERA was 3.24. Ford had 45 shutout victories in his career, including eight 1-0 wins.
Ford’s status on the Yankees was underscored by the World Series. Ford was New York’s Game One pitcher in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, and 1964. He is the only pitcher to start four consecutive Game Ones, a streak he reached twice. In the 1960 World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Stengel altered this strategy by holding Ford back until game three, a decision that angered Ford. The Yankees’ ace won both his starts in Games Three and Six with complete-game shutouts, but was then unavailable to relieve in the last game of a Yankees loss, the Pirates winning the game—and the Series with it—on Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. Ford always felt that had he been able to appear in three of the games instead of just two, the Yankees would have won.
For his career, Ford had 10 World Series victories, more than any other pitcher. Ford also leads all starters in World Series losses (8) and starts (22), as well as innings, hits, walks, and strikeouts. In 1961 he broke Babe Ruth’s World Series record of 29⅔ consecutive scoreless innings. (The record would eventually reach 33⅔. It is still a World Series record, although Mariano Rivera broke it as a postseason record in 2000.) Ford won the 1961 World Series MVP. In addition to Yankee Stadium, Ford also pitched World Series games in seven other stadiums:
- Ebbets Field (1953 and 1956)
- Milwaukee County Stadium (1957 and 1958)
- Forbes Field (1960)
- Crosley Field (1961)
- Candlestick Park (1962)
- Dodger Stadium (1963)
- Sportsman’s Park (1964)
- Ford appeared on eight AL All-Star teams between 1954 and 1964.
Whitey Ford’s number 16 was retired by the New York Yankees in 1974.
Ford ended his career in declining health. In August 1966, he underwent surgery to correct a circulatory problem in his throwing shoulder. In May 1967, Ford lasted just one inning in what would be his final start, and he announced his retirement at the end of the month at age 38.
Ford wore number 19 in his rookie season. Following his return from the army in 1953, he wore number 16 for the remainder of his career.
After retiring, Ford admitted in interviews to having occasionally doctored baseballs. Examples were the “mudball”, used at home in Yankee Stadium. Yankee groundskeepers would wet down an area near the catcher’s box where the Yankee catcher Elston Howard was positioned; pretending to lose balance, Howard would put down his hand with the ball and coat one side of the ball with mud and throw it to Ford. Ford sometimes used the diamond in his wedding ring to gouge the ball, but he was eventually caught by an umpire and warned to stop. Howard sharpened a buckle on his shinguard and used it to scuff the ball.
Ford described his illicit behavior as concession to age: “I didn’t begin cheating until late in my career, when I needed something to help me survive. I didn’t cheat when I won the twenty-five games in 1961. I don’t want anybody to get any ideas and take my Cy Young Award away. And I didn’t cheat in 1963 when I won twenty-four games. Well, maybe a little.”
Ford admitted to doctoring the ball in the 1961 All Star Game at Candlestick Park to strike out Willie Mays. Ford and Mantle had accumulated $1200 ($9,501 today) in golf pro shop purchases as guests of Horace Stoneham at the Giants owner’s country club. Stoneham promised to pay their tab if Ford could strike out Mays.
In 1977, Ford was part of the broadcast team for the first game in Toronto Blue Jays history. In 2008, Ford threw the first pitch at the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. On September 21, 2008 Ford and Yogi Berra were guests of the broadcast team for the final game played at Yankee Stadium.
**From the Tennessean this afternoon, March 15, about Trump’s Campaign Rally there:
Hours before President Donald Trump was expected to take the stage for a rally in downtown Nashville, hundreds of people waited in a line that wrapped around several blocks outside of the Municipal Auditorium.
Vendors offered the hopeful supporters a chance to accessorize with $1 buttons and $20 Make America Great Again ball caps. Jessica Fiveash of Murfreesboro came prepared with plenty of Trump gear.
A “Trump 45” beanie was pulled down over her ears, a button featuring First Lady Melania Trump was on her coat and her shirt was from First Daughter Ivanka Trump’s clothing line.
But there was one accessory she was missing — until a stranger passing by with a to-go carrier of coffees handed her a cup.
“God bless,” she hollered back.
Fiveash had been in the sprawling line since 10:15 a.m., and had camped out next to a Jackson couple. All believe Trump is doing a great job in office – even Ted Phipps, who said he had been lifelong Democrat until he voted for Trump last year.
He was swayed by Trump’s business experience and pledges to reform Washington, D.C.
“So far, so good,” Phipps said.
Trump’s transition and executive orders have been criticized by some as haphazard. But for many in the crowd outside the Nashville rally, Trump’s first days in office represented a series of promises kept.
“He came in like a wrecking ball,” Fiveash said “He’s doing awesome. Give him a shot.”
A man dressed as Trump — complete with a wig and makeup — kept supporters waiting to see the real thing in good spirits.
Bantering with a religious protester, the impersonator emulated the president’s distinctive speaking style over a megaphone.
“Even God wanted to make America great and stuff,” the impersonator said to laughs from the crowd.
About 50 eager Trump supporters were in line at Municipal Auditorium by 9 a.m. — and braving 20-something degree weather in hopes of a good seat for the rally. Sharon Anderson, who had been in line since 5 a.m., came to Nashville from Etowah, Tenn, about a three hour drive.
“I want to show support for President Trump,” Anderson said. “He has campaigned and said he wants to be our voice and he can’t be our voice unless he hears what we’ve got to say.”
The rally starts at 6:30 p.m., with doors scheduled to open at 3:30 p.m., with seating on a first-come first-serve basis.
Most in line early were bundled up and seemed to be Trump supporters with no visible protesters yet onsite.
“I would love to get front row, which we most likely will,” said 16-year-old Jack Vaughan who came on spring break from Knoxville. “I would love to shake his hand, just say hello and just being in the front row and seeing the emotions on his face with no filter from the news.”
Doors will be closed when Municipal Auditorium reaches capacity that will be determined by the fire marshals present. An E ticket or ticket doesn’t guarantee entry.
Legal capacity for Municipal Auditorium is 9,900, General Manager Bob Skoney said. But the exact number allowed into the venue was uncertain with space needs still fluid, Skoney said.