Charlie Hough sat there in front of his cubicle, same as always. Maybe not the same. Now, his 200th career victory was history-literally-and now he could talk about things.
”All I ever wanted to do was play baseball,” Hough said. ”My father played. I have an older brother who signed with the Red Sox. He was released three times before he was 21.
”I just always wanted to play. It really didn`t make any difference how.”
Pitching?
”I didn`t particularly care for pitching. I always wanted to play third.” Reality said no. ”My brother was a better hitter than me, and he got released.”
So Hough became a pitcher.
”Basically, I really should never have played,” he said. ”If it weren`t for Tommy . . . ”
Tommy Lasorda had him in the Instructional League in 1969 and let the kid with the comatose arm work on the knuckler. It was that or release him. The rest is in the record books.
If Lasorda had said scram?
”I`d have tried to catch or something . . . ”
– Oh: Perspective time.
On July 26, the Sox were 12 1/2 games out of first place in the American League West.
The following, courtesy of the Elias folks, is a complete list of teams that won a championship, league or division, over the last 91 years after being 12 or more games back sometime during the season:
Boston Braves, 1914. New York Giants, 1951. New York Mets, 1973. New York Yankees, 1978.
The Braves and Mets were dubbed the ”Miracle Braves” and ”Miracle Mets.” The ”Miracle at Coogan`s Bluff” won it for the Giants.
The Yankees? They had Reggie Jackson.
– Cooperstown diary: A couple of items that didn`t make it into the paper the day after the Sox and Mets played at the Hall of Fame:
– Tim Raines overslept Monday at the Sox team hotel in Utica and missed the 8:15 a.m. team bus to Cooperstown, about an hour away. He eventually bummed a ride to Cooperstown from a representative of the Rawlings sporting goods people.
Raines endorses Wilson.
– Nice moment: Wilson Alvarez seeing his autographed no-hitter baseball on display.
– Yes, Dave LaRoche, former Sox bullpen coach now with the Mets, sat with his ex-pupils, which seemed kind of fun at the time. Turns out not everyone on the New York side was amused.
– And finally: The Mets were already boarding their charter for Pittsburgh when the buses carrying the Sox arrived on the tarmac at Utica airport. The Sox plane wasn`t there, which caused some grumbling-until someone figured out there was this problem with the Mets` plane: It didn`t work.
Half an hour later, with the Mets still on the ground, the Sox plane arrived and their buses moved toward it . . . thoroughly mooned, through an open passenger door, by a Met who shall remain nameless.
– Another side: Speaking of LaRoche (and no, he wasn`t the moonie) . . .
So what does Mike Squires, by trade a first baseman, actually bring to the bullpen, aside from being able to answer a phone?
”We talk about the things we want the pitchers to do, and `Spanky` makes sure it`s done in the bullpen,” said pitching coach Jackie Brown. ”If there`s a mechanical problem or whatever, he watches it. He doesn`t have to be a pitching coach to see that.”
”I was a pitcher all through college,” said Squires. ”I have some sort of idea.”
There`s more.
”I`ve never been in the situation to be a relief pitcher,” Squires said, ”but I`m the type of guy that tries to be positive all the time, and I try to bring that out to the bullpen. I have to do a lot of listening.”
And more. ”I can look at it from a hitter`s standpoint, too,” he said.
”When they talk situations-what`s a hitter looking for in a certain situation-I can relate that to them.”
”Which,” said Brown, ”is something I can`t do.”
So there.
– Another hit: Twins pitching coach Dick Such, after Tuesday`s 19-11 Sox win that featured 38 hits, 19 by each team: ”Not a good day to be a pitching coach.”
– Around the league: The Yankees` Melido Perez, in case this slipped by in the tiny type, began the weekend leading Roger Clemens in the AL strikeout race. Perez, by the way, was the first Yankee to have more than 100 at the All-Star break since Ron Guidry in 1979. He`s 9-11 and deserves better. . . . Bo Schembechler was fired, by fax, on his 24th wedding anniversary. His wife is dying of cancer. Said Tigers manager Sparky Anderson: ”To me, Bo Schembechler was treated the worst I ever saw someone being treated.” Bo, after the firing, on the Tigers: ”The hell with them.” . . . Jose Canseco tied a major-league record when he walked seven straight times over games Tuesday and Wednesday with the Rangers. In the eighth at-bat, he was 3-0 against Bobby Witt, went to 3-2, then chased a slider in the dirt. . . . Kevin Mitchell, who missed last weekend`s series in Chicago when he strained his left side while vomiting, reinjured the muscle Monday when he re-vomited on the off-day.
”Sometimes,” said Mitchell, ”I just do that.” He is known to have vomited in at least six American League cities this year alone.
The Mariners` Randy Johnson has allowed 115 baserunners via either walks
(99) or hit batsmen (16) in 125 1/3 innings. He`s also hit two first-base coaches on attempted pickoffs. . . . Kelly Gruber is taking more tests for his aches and pains-this time, it`s a stiff neck-and Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston has about had it with him. ”I don`t know what to say about Gruber anymore,” he said. ”Talk to him.” . . . Billy Hatcher`s steal of home the other day was the first by the Red Sox at Fenway Park since 1968. The last time, it was Joe Foy, on a blown squeeze. . . . Milwaukee`s Robin Yount, through Thursday, needed 29 hits for 3,000. He was 9 for his last 64. . . . And the Brewers have shut Teddy Higuera down for the year. Again. He`s in the second year of a four-year, $13 million contract-for which they`ve gotten seven big-league starts and 36 1/3 innings, all last year. . . . The Tigers moved John Doherty, 25, into the rotation last week, and Doherty threw six scoreless innings in his first big-league start. Said Sparky: ”It`s nice to have a guy that young come along. We usually go out and find somebody who`s 47.”
