Book Review: Hard-Luck Harvey Haddix and the Greatest Game Ever Lost - Lew Freedman

"Hard-Luck Harvey Haddix and the Greatest Game Ever Lost"
Lew Freedman
McFarland Publishing, 2009
210 pages


This week Mark Buehrle set a Major League record for consecutive outs with 45. His tremendous feat came on heels of pitching a perfect game, followed by almost another six "perfect" innings in the next game. Without fail during the media coverage of Buehrle's streak, Harvey Haddix's flirt with perfection 50 years prior was ushered to the forefront of baseball discussion. Chicago-based sportswriter Lew Freedman recreates the events of May 26, 1959 with his new book, Hard-Luck Harvey Haddix and the Greatest Game Ever Lost, placing the reader in a box seat for all of the action.

Imagine pitching not only nine innings of perfect baseball as Buehrle did, but pitching 12 in an extra inning game, only to lose in the end. To add insult to injury, 30-something years later, a minor rule change strikes your no-hitter from the record books. Such is the story of "Hard-Luck" Harvey Haddix.

Follow Haddix as he battles flu-like symptoms to silence the bats of greats such as Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron. Freedman keeps the reader on the edge of their seat as the game tightens with each zero placed on the board. Every inning, you receive insider commentary from Haddix's teammates as he records another trifecta. As the game goes along you hope that the Pirates can string together a few of their 12 hits off of Lew Burdette to push a runner across the plate.

You are clued into the mind of Manager Danny Murtaugh, dissecting each move as you approach the later stages of the contest. Will Murtaugh summon ace reliever Roy Face? Will a pinch-hitter appear for Haddix in the late innings? Conspicuously absent from the lineup was the injured Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, opening the door for Roman Mejias to start. Mejias would later gain infamy on a key play during the early stages of the game. Would the result have been different with the Puerto Rican star in the lineup?

In between the description of the game's events, Freedman delivers insightful profiles of the players on the field for Pittsburgh, allowing the reader to gain a look at lesser known players that contributed that day such as: Bob Skinner, Dick Schofield, Dick Stuart, Rocky Nelson, and Smoky Burgess.

Sadly, no footage of this game exists. The Pirates were on the road and the local TV station KDKA chose to show a speech of vice-president Richard Nixon instead of the game between the Braves and the Pirates. This is why this book excels. With the recently released footage of Don Larsen's perfect game, the mystique of what actually transpired has been diminished. It is no longer a story told by only those who were there to witness it. Freedman's script of Haddix's game and its surroundings only enhance the legend of Haddix's duel with Burdette. If you want an illumination of one baseball's most magical games, Freedman serves up a winner in detailing the greatest game ever lost.

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Acquiring Propsects at the Trade Deadline, Fools Gold or Treasure?

Yesterday's transaction between the Cleveland Indians and the Philadelphia Phillies read as follows: July 29: Indians trade Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco to the Phillies for Lou Marson , Jason Knapp, Jason Donald, & Carlos Carrasco. While the Phillies addressed their need for an additional frontline starter and a backup outfielder, what exactly did the Indians get in return?

The centerpiece of the deal for the Indians are the two pitchers they received in Knapp and Carrasco. Knapp has yet to turn 19, and is throwing in the 97 MPH range. He is a few years away from the Majors, but the scouts drool over his upside. At his age, the Indians can afford to bring him along slowly. Carrasco at 22 entered the year as the #2 prospect in the Phillies organization, and is a veteran of two Futures games. He has hit a speed bump in AAA, posting an ERA over 5, however, he could benefit from the change of moving into a lower pressure situation in Cleveland. He throws in the mid 90's with two good offspeed pitches. Donald projects as a backup infielder, as he is hitting .230 at AAA. Marson adds to an already crowded catching situation with Victor Martinez and Kelly Shoppach. The departure of Ryan Garko could allow Martinez to shift to first base full-time and open the door for Marson to compete for the full-time catching gig.

This trade begs the question of the title of the article, did the Indians acquire a hidden treasure from the Phillies or a bag of fools gold? Does the scouting department of the Indians see something that the rest of us do not? Was this the best offer that they could get for Lee at the trade deadline? Approaching age 31, do they Indians feel that Lee's best days are behind him? Will the two pitchers reach their potential and eventually fill the void left by the trade of Lee?

With any trade, as time passes, the answer will be revealed. History, however, tells us a different story of prospect trades gone to bust. ESPN's Jerry Crasnick offers his view on nine trades where prospects didn't pan out entitled, "They're Called 'Prospects' For a Reason".

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Mets fire Tony Bernazard

According to the New York Daily News, the Mets have fired controversial VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard. A press conference was held at Citi Field Monday, where Omar Minaya announced the firing. Bernazard found himself under the microscope after recent flare-ups where he allegedly challenged the Binghamton Mets to a fight, cursed out a Mets official over a seating dispute at Citi Field, and had to be separated from Francisco Rodriguez on the team bus after an 11-0 loss to the Braves. Bernazard played 10 seasons in the Majors, as well as 3 in Japan. He had held his current position since December, 2004.

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Will 2010 bring the election of the next designated hitter to the Hall of Fame?

Yesterday's induction of Joe Gordon, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice into the Baseball Hall of Fame now gives us almost an entire year to contemplate the candidacy of the new crop of players eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. The list of includes (in alphabetical order): Roberto Alomar, Kevin Appier, Andy Ashby, Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga, Pat Hentgen, Mike Jackson, Eric Karros, Ray Lankford, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff, Shane Reynolds, Robin Ventura, and Todd Zeile.

A name that jumps off of this list, certain to be a hot topic of debate is Edgar Martinez. Martinez spent his last 10 seasons exclusively as a designated hitter, only appearing in 33 games in the field from 1995-2004. Paul Molitor is the only player in the Hall of Fame who spent nearly half of his career as a designated hitter. However, a quick comparison of Martinez to Molitor shows that Molitor spent substantially less time as a DH, playing 900 more games in the field. Molitor is also 9th all-time in hits with 3,319, over 1,000 more than Martinez.

Offensively, Martinez is only one of 15 players that has a lifetime BA of over .300, a lifetime OBP of over .400, and a lifetime SLG of over .500. 13 of the 15 players are in the Hall of Fame. The two that aren't are Joe Jackson and Martinez. While Martinez was one of the most feared hitters of the mid-late 1990's, are his offensive numbers dominant enough to overshadow the fact that he didn't pick up a glove for his last 10 seasons in the Majors?

When fans and voters discuss the merits of the forthcoming Hall of Fame candidates, how significant will defensive play be factored into the equation? If you only have to go up there and hit 4 times a game without the grind of playing in the field 9 innings, do you have an unfair advantage over the players who are expending their energy on both offense and defense? How far ahead offensively does one need to be for public consensus to deem them Hall of Fame worthy if you are primarily a DH? These are the questions will be investigating as Edgar Martinez begins his campaign for the Hall of Fame. There is already a website dedicated to promoting his candidacy for the Hall of Fame. You can read all about it, here.

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Book Review: Going, Going ... Caught! by Jason Aronoff

"Going, Going ... Caught! - Baseball's great outfield catches as described by those who saw them, 1887-1964"

Jason Aronoff
McFarland Publishing, 2009
266 pages

On the heels of Dewayne Wise's leaping catch during Mark Buehrle's perfect game, it's only appropriate that I present a book detailing the greatest outfield catches in Major League Baseball's history.

"Going, Going ... Caught!" was originally recommended to me by former Brooklyn Dodger outfielder Don Thompson as he attempted to describe Duke Snider's nearly impossible catch of Willie "Puddin Head" Jones' smash in Philadelphia on Memorial Day of 1954. Thompson should know a thing or two about Snider's climb up the wall that day; he was standing next to Snider when he did the seemingly impossible, digging his spikes into the outfield fence after sprinting into the depths of left-center only to throw his glove hand above his head and across his body for the catch as he collided with the wall. While Aronoff provides an illustration recreating the catch, there are no actual photographs of his theatrics available. This goes for about 95% of the other catches mentioned in the book. All we have left of these grabs are the accounts from the sportswriters and players who saw them. These accounts are what make this book special. You are transported back to a time when mass media didn't cover baseball and left you to create your own picture of a great center fielder chasing down a ball that seems way out of his reach.

Aronoff has done painstaking research to uncover multiple sources detailing catches that the writers at the time described as the "best ever." There is great detail given to the dimensions of old ballparks and how their cavernous reaches allowed for these players to catch up to balls that everyone in the crowd thought were going to fall in for extra-base hits.. Unlike modern stadiums, outfielders had to travel farther distances and contend with unpadded wooden and concrete walls to haul in shots hit into the far reaches of the ballpark.

While "Going, Going, Caught!" is well researched, the reader is bogged down with redundant accounts of the same catch, and multiple catches made by the same player that were "very good" but not great. Aronoff could have condensed the accounts he relayed in order to make it more digestible. It may be a bit too intense for the casual baseball reader, or those not familiar with the players of yesteryear.

However, Aronoff's book not only further enlivens the debate between Mantle, Snider and Mays, it also brings up fielding stars that time has forgotten, such as Jimmy Piersall, Terry Moore, Jigger Statz, Dode Paskert, Bill Lange, and baseball's earliest deaf player, "Dummy" Hoy. It may even make you question your beliefs of who is the greatest outfielder of all time. While their Hall of Fame contemporaries of Keeler, Cobb, Speaker, and DiMaggio are all profiled at one point, it's the exploits of the lesser known aforementioned players that make "Going, Going ... Caught" run.

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