Short Hops: Doggy's downer vs. Manny's happy returns

DOGGY’S DOWNER vs. MANNY’S HAPPY RETURNS

Here’s the thing about Old-School Fan. Old-School Fan likes humility in his heroes. Old-School Fan liked it when Greg Maddux won his 350th game a couple of weeks ago and was so blasé that, when given the ball after the game, he told reporters, “I’ll take any free ball I can get. I’ll give it to my kid. Let him go play with it somewhere.” The most colorful adjective Maddux ascribed to his achievement was “cool,” and he would offer no further embellishment than, “It is May and we haven’t been playing that good, and you just really want to win for the right reason and not necessarily for the wrong reason.”

However, Old-School Fan also likes to see that Boys of Summer-childlike exuberance in his heroes — you know, like when it was “just a game.” So why does Old-School Fan tack Maddux posters up on his son’s wall, but cringe when Manny Ramirez hits his 500th home run on Saturday and milks the moment like he’d just won WrestleMania?

After contact, the dreadlocked Dominican froze to watch the ball’s flight, then practically needed GPS to find his way to the dugout. The protracted sojourn included a high-five with the first base coach, a hand-slap at third, a home plate hug with the on-deck hitter, the gesticulations of an airplane-parker and interminable bounces and bumps with teammates. “I’m happy, you know, about everything I accomplished in life,” Ramirez self-congratulated. “[My teammates] are so proud to have me, a guy so loose, to play the game.”

So in Maddux’s case, is it modesty or false humility? Dignity or aloofness? In Ramirez’s, is it joy of the game or pompous narcissism? Honesty or conceit? In the end, it’s just Doggy being Doggy and Manny being Manny. Deal with it, Old-School Fan.

IF YOU’RE SCORING AT HOME...

An intriguing official scoring situation came up a Mets-Dodgers game last week, one in which earned runs were charged even though an inning would have ended without a run had there not been an error.

Mets pitcher Claudio Vargas apparently made the third out when he was retired on a routine grounder. However, the ump ruled that catcher Russell Martin had tipped the bat, and Vargas was awarded first base on catcher’s interference. The Mets rallied for four runs in the stanza. So even though an error was charged to Martin, there can be no assumption that Vargas (he’s the bulbous dude with the batboy stuffed inside his jersey who actually stopped running on the play) would have been thrown out at first.

That got us to questioning “assumptions” in the official scoring rules. For example, a scorer can never assume a double play. So let’s say there’s a man on first with less than two outs and a grounder is hit to the second baseman. He steps on the bag for one out, but his throw to first — though ahead of the batter/runner — can’t be scooped out of the dirt. That’s not scored an error. It was a routine play; it prolonged the inning; and it would have been called one if it was not preceded by a force — so why no “E”?

And by the way, why is there not an at-bat charged for a sacrifice fly? It’s not the same as bunting to move a runner, which is an intentional “sacrifice” of one’s opportunity for a hit. Had the batter knocked in a run with an infield grounder, that would be an at-bat, so what’s so altruistic about a can o’ corn?

But we digress. Getting back to the catcher’s interference thing...a little brain teaser: What is the only other instance (that we can think of anyway) in which runs can be earned even though the inning would have ended scoreless were it not for an error or passed ball? (answer below)

HIT AND RUN

Short Hops’ recurring installment of slapdash observation and imprudent opinion:

Rockies rookie Greg Reynolds’ eight-walk/no-strikeout non-performance of May 28 was just the eighth of its kind in the past half century — but it wasn’t the most interesting. In 1971, Ernie McAnally of the Expos walked nine without a whiff, but did so in a five-hit complete game in which he beat the Cubs, 6-1.

As of the weekend, the White Sox bullpen had allowed two earned runs in its last 32 innings — both of them walk-off homers.

In periods that overlapped during their 12-game losing streak, the Royals went 79 innings without a “real” home run (Mark Teahen’s inside-the-parker excepted) and 37 innings without drawing a walk.

The Indians have been no better; they batted .218 in May.

QUOTABLES

“He’s got a uniqueness about him that makes him easy to like. He looks like a Brazilian Rainforest guy. You take away the hair and the baggy uniform, he’s just a guy that can hit.” — Former teammate Kevin Millar on Ramirez.

ANSWER TO “SCORING AT HOME”

A pitcher can avoid an unlimited number of earned runs if, at any point in an inning, there was an error (other than the interference described above) that would have otherwise been the third out. However, if he is removed before that inning ends, his reliever does not get the benefit of that presumptive final out. Therefore, if any batters who face the reliever score without facilitation by additional errors or passed balls, those constitute EARNED runs. Thus, the reliever gets tagged with the earnies even though, were it not for the E(s), the inning would have ended before he even got into the game.