Once on a bus from the Astrodome to the airport in Houston, Darrell Porter tapped St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Rick Hummel on the shoulder to ask who was pitching for Cincinnati in the next game.
Hummel told him it was Ted Power, and that caused Porter’s brow to furrow. “I don’t think I know him,” Porter said.
“You tripled and homered off him three days ago in Cincinnati,” Hummel said.
Porter brightened. “Well,” he said, “I can hit him.”
That was vintage Porter.
Porter, a four-time All-Star who died last week in Kansas City, Mo., was the absent-minded professor of catching. He was an instinctive player, but you wouldn’t want to ask him for directions in any town in America. He admitted to heavy cocaine and alcohol use in his 20s and seemed foggy in his 30s.
Once a reporter tried to get Porter to relive a basketball playoff game their high school teams had played. Porter looked at him like he had asked for the square root of pi.
“Man,” he said, friendly as always, “I’ve played in World Series games I can’t remember.”
Porter spent 17 seasons in the major leagues with Milwaukee, Kansas City, St. Louis and Texas. He was the most valuable player of the Cardinals’ victory in the 1982 World Series but is just as widely remembered for the courageous way he tackled drug rehabilitation.
Whitey Herzog was along for the full ride, first with Kansas City, when Porter was at the height of his addiction, and in St. Louis, after he had taken the cure. In their later years together, Porter joked with Herzog about not knowing that foul tips hurt so much.
“All those other years,” he said, “they never hurt at all.”
According to his later recollection, Porter was consuming more than a gram of cocaine a day when he had the best season of his career.
He challenged for an MVP award in 1979, hitting .291 with 20 homers and 112 RBIs while playing 157 games.
A year later he put himself into rehab. He emerged as a markedly changed man, becoming a leading spokesman for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Porter was never more than a platoon player after entering rehab. His reputation as a consummate teammate allowed him to play as long as he did. He averaged only 43 RBIs in his last seven seasons and detailed the whole story in his autobiography, “Snap Me Perfect.”
“I’d been fairly successful the whole time I was doing drugs,” Porter once said. “When I stopped doing them, I just struggled. On the field I couldn’t get it going. I thought, `What in the world am I going to do?’
“The Lord made things like that happen to me. God humbled me. I fear Him and I know He loves me, and I’m trying to get where He wants me. I wouldn’t say I’ve overcome anything yet, but I’m on the right track.”
Porter, 50, was buried Friday.
His death continues a sad trend in St. Louis, where Cardinals fans have lost longtime team VP Jim Toomey, broadcaster Jack Buck and pitcher Darryl Kile since the spring. Enos Slaughter, another Cardinals legend, remains in critical condition.
Chasing Willie: Bobby Bonds doesn’t think son Barry was very emotional about the pursuit for his 600th homer, at least not nearly so much as he will be when he gets close to 660. That’s the total of his godfather, Willie Mays.
“If there’s a home run that will really be significant to him, and I really believe this, if he ever gets to the point where he’s going to hit 661, [that will be it] because of his godfather,” the elder Bonds said. “He puts Willie on such a high plateau. That’s the ultimate. That’s going to be the most difficult one for him to hit.”
Barry’s dad has known his son was going to be a great ballplayer since he was in ninth grade. But this great?
“If I’d have said he was going to hit 600 home runs, you could have put me in an insane asylum,” Bobby said.
Surprise package: If you’re wondering about shortstop Chris Woodward, who hit three homers for Toronto on Wednesday night, be advised that he might be selling life insurance had he come along at a different time.
That’s because Woodward was a 54th-round pick of the Blue Jays in 1994, four years before the draft was cut to 50 rounds.
Woodward played in the shadow of Cesar Izturis and Felipe Lopez in Toronto’s farm system. He moved up in the pecking order when Izturis was traded to Los Angeles, opening the year as a backup for Lopez. He has since won the job outright, hitting .308 with 11 homers and 24 RBIs in only 156 at-bats. A two-homer game with Triple-A Syracuse in 2001 had been Woodward’s only multiple-homer game before Wednesday. He says he didn’t even hit homers in Little League.
“I don’t know what I’m capable of in a whole year because I have never played a full season in the majors,” he said.
Toronto has changed regulars at several other positions during the season, going with Orlando Hudson at second base, Ken Huckaby at catcher and Josh Phelps at DH.
Money matters: While George Steinbrenner is claiming foul about the latest Cliff Floyd trade, if anything it is another piece of evidence about the need for economic reform.
Floyd, who was dealt from Montreal to Boston, appeared headed to Oakland at one point. That deal fell apart because the A’s needed the Expos to pick up some of Floyd’s $6.5 million salary. The Red Sox didn’t need such help.
“We couldn’t justify it; we’re way over budget,” said Oakland owner Steve Schott, who didn’t buy Steinbrenner’s theory about the MLB-operated Expos showing favoritism to Boston. “I’m not always in front of the curve, but I’m convinced there’s not any conspiracy.”
In the wings: Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria lacks credibility in South Florida, partly because he and his front office are always downplaying the economic factors in their dealings. He’s still trying to justify the deal that sent Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca to the Cubs for Julian Tavarez.
“My response is Vladimir Nunez has saved [20] games so far,” Loria said last week. “Alfonseca has saved, what, 13? Clement is a good pitcher, and our people perhaps didn’t feel he was somebody that was going to work. . . . He’s a very fine pitcher and a very fine young man, but next year or two years from now, when you see Dontrelle Willis, you’re going to understand why we did that trade.”
Willis, who was rated as the Cubs’ 21st-best prospect by Baseball America, is 12-2 with a 1.77 ERA in 22 starts between Class A Kane County and Jupiter. His path to the big leagues could be cleared by more trades in the near future.
Pitchers A.J. Burnett, Brad Penny, Carl Pavano, Armando Almanza and Nunez are among 13 Marlins who could be arbitration-eligible this winter. The others: All-Star second baseman Luis Castillo, first baseman Derrek Lee, shortstop Alex Gonzalez, catcher Mike Redmond, utility man Homer Bush and outfielders Juan Encarnacion, Eric Owens and Kevin Millar.
Double dipping: Toronto pitcher Mark Hendrickson is new to the major leagues but not big-league sports. He’s a 6-foot-9-inch lefty who played parts of five NBA seasons with the 76ers, Kings, Nets and Cavs. Hendrickson, a two-sport star at Washington State, has fully committed himself to baseball only in the last two seasons.
“I just want to put baseball first just to see how good I can be and then kind of re-evaluate it,” he said. “I have some gifts here. Being 6-9 and left-handed is like being a 7-footer in basketball.”
Hendrickson is the 10th major-leaguer to have played in the NBA. He joins Danny Ainge, Gene Conley, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Frankie Baumholtz, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Chuck Connors and Steve Hamilton.
Toronto manager Carlos Tosca uses Hendrickson as a left-handed specialist.
He allowed five earned runs in one-third of an inning in a memorable debut Tuesday against Seattle but bounced back to get two outs on two pitches Thursday, cutting his ERA from 135.00 to 45.00.
Whispers: Diamondbacks player representative and Notre Dame alumnus Craig Counsell might have to pass up a chance to speak to the Irish football team because of Monday’s union meeting at O’Hare. The World Series champs will be in South Bend for an exhibition against their Midwest League affiliate. … Look for former Cleveland manager Charlie Manuel to surface in some capacity with Colorado. … Padres lefty Oliver Perez, the most electrifying pitcher to surface this season, is on the DL after a headfirst slide into first base. There are few dumber things in the current era than pitchers getting hurt hitting or running the bases. It’s one of the best reasons both leagues should use the DH rule. … Julio Lugo and new third baseman Geoff Blum are giving Houston great fielding from the left side of the infield. The Astros are leading the majors with a .987 fielding percentage, which would set a club record. … Woody Williams will be out at least two more weeks, which is two weeks too long for the Cardinals. … Valparaiso resident and Phillies reliever Dan Plesac entered the weekend needing eight appearances to become the seventh pitcher in history to work 1,000 games. … The White Sox entered the weekend having gone 347 games without a 10-strikeout game by a pitcher. Texas (426) was the only AL team with a longer streak.
The last word: “They ought to freeze him, like Ted Williams. I never give a pitcher that much credit, but I give him credit. He knew exactly what he was doing. He [struck me out with] a 3-2 changeup and then a 3-2 breaking ball. He was toying with me.”
–Career .333 hitter Todd Helton on Mark Prior.
