Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - 8-29-19 Locked on Mariners Episode 14: Remembering when Babe Ruth begged for a job coaching baseball in Seattle

Episode Date: August 29, 2019

The Seattle Mariners got swept by the New York Yankees on Wednesday, with James Paxton getting the better of Justus Sheffield, whom he was dealt for over the winter. Host Andy Patton takes an encouraging look at some of the things Sheffield did well in his second big league start, and why fans shouldn't just read the box score.Next, Patton uses throwback thursday to talk about the Seattle Rainiers, a PCL team that played at Sick's Stadium in south Seattle for over four decades, and who were nearly managed by the great Bambino himself, Babe Ruth. Ruth actually called and publicly declared he wanted the position - how crazy is that? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is up Mariners fans? I'm Seattle Sports Media's utility infielder Andy Patton, and you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast, part of the Lockdown podcast network. The Yankees completed a rather deflating three-game sweep of the Mariners yesterday, with veteran James Paxton getting the better of Justice Sheffield, the prize return and the very trade that put Paxton in Pinstripes last winter. I'll recap that game in segment one, and then in segment two,

I'm going to throw it way, way back for throwback Thursday, where I'll discuss the time Babe Ruth. Yes, that Babe Ruth, nearly managed the Seattle Rainiers. Finally, there are three former mariners who are celebrating a birthday today. Stay tuned to find out who. When you need red wine at 4 p.m.,

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postmate it. Download Postmates and save with code locked on today. The Yankees would be the team to ruin what had been a really fun stretch in August. After the Mariners won two out of three in their last four series, the Yankees came to town and promptly laid waste to the Mariners in three straight games. This game was all hyped up for one main reason. James Paxton, who the Mariners traded last winter, went up against his former team and Justice Sheffield, who was the main piece in the trade that came back. If you look at the box score, it's pretty clear, okay, you look and you see, okay,

James Paxton gave up two runs, Justice Sheffield gave up five runs, Justice Sheffield gave up six hits and two home runs. James Pacton gave up one hit and one home runs. So Paxton wins, right? You know, it looks like that. Obviously, the Yankees won seven to three, so it's pretty hard to look at that numbers and think, oh, well, you know, Sheffield must have had just as good of a game. But I think there's a lot more to this than, first of all, I think comparing the two guys straight up is kind of pointless. Paxton's much further into his career. He's a veteran guy. Justice Sheffield was making his second career big league start. I don't think that the expectation that he would pitch anywhere near as well as Paxton is remotely relevant, and it's

just one game. You know, there have been numerous times where bad pitchers have outperformed. Good pitchers. It doesn't necessarily mean anything. But I think a lot of fans will look at this, and they'll look at the start from Sheffield, and they'll think, wow, like, you know, this, we're clearly not winning the trade. And I don't think that that's fair to do, one because of what I just said, but also because I don't think Sheffield's line accurately reflects how well he pitched.

He got off to a really good start. He got the first two guys who got DJ Lemahue and Aaron Judge out right away. And then Dee Gordon misplayed a ground ball from Gleber Torres that it didn't go down as an air. I get why it wasn't an air, but it is a, you know, Gordon's one goal gloves. It's a play he should have made. And then after that, a really tough at bat from Gary Sanchez, excuse me, three two count, and Sanchez lifted one nearly onto the turf at Century Linkfield. He blasted one just fair down that line and all of a sudden it was two old Yankees on an ending that he

probably should have been out of. Excuse me, I almost said, Paxton. Sheffield really settled down after that. He got the next, he struck out four in a row at one point. He got through the next three innings, only given up one other hit, didn't go up any more runs. Looked really solid. This is something that he struggled with, is kind of keeping his composure, not letting

bad innings or rough starts to games get to him. And it's something he really struggled with, even going dating back to his time with the Yankees, and he struggled with a lot this year. so it was really good to see him kind of keep his composure and his command. His command was the biggest thing. If you guys remember, Sheffield's had been walking just about everybody in AAA. His walks per nine was over six, which is outrageously bad. He didn't walk anybody in this one.

The Yankees are a patient team. You know, they're not the most patient in the league, but they're pretty good at drawing walks. You know, Judge has good plate discipline. Sanchez has decent plate discipline. It's tough to get through this lineup without walking anybody. Paxton, for reference, walked five. Again, I know we're not playing the comparison game between those two, but it's notable. Anyway, Sheffield did pretty well after that, and then he got into the fifth inning, and he got into some trouble.

Mike Ford, who's been killing the Mariners lately, he took him deep, and they ended up pulling Sheffield after just four and a third, so his line looks a little bit ugly because of that. But for the most part in this game, he looked good. I think that it was definitely one of those things where the line does not accurately reflect. how he pitched. There are some things I'd like to see Jeff, they'll do a little bit differently. And again, at second big league start, it's really hard to make any kind of brash judgments about his pitch mix or anything. He threw quite a few changeups in this game. He threw, he still mixed his slider in more than anything else. And I know that for him, he's always been

a fastball slider guy. His changeup has kind of been the pitch that has been the question mark of like, if his change up develops, he becomes a front of the line type of rotation starter. If his change-up never gets there, he's kind of more of a either back end of the rotation starter or maybe even a really high-leverage bullpen guy, like a Josh Hater-type guy, if he can never really get that change-up to develop. That's for a lot of pitchers. Their third pitch or their fourth pitch is where they need to really shine in order to make that jump from weak starter to elite starter.

And so it was great to see him throw it a lot. It was all over the place. He barely ever put it in the strike zone. He left some really high. He left some really low. again, it's not something to be overly concerned about, but it is something to monitor of like, can Justice Sheffield learn how to command his change-up effectively because otherwise, I don't know that his ceiling is all that great. He did a pretty good job of elevating fastballs.

He kept a slider low, his fastball high, which is always something that tends to help. He was all around the zone, which isn't surprising. He didn't walk anybody, obviously. But yeah, if you look at his chart, his change-up was everywhere, his fastball was relatively high, his slider was relatively low. He missed over the plate a few too many times. Didn't hurt him too often, although obviously he did give up two home runs in barely over four innings, so something he'll need to work on a little bit there. But I was overall encouraged from what I saw out of Justice Sheffield more so than you would imagine by looking at the box score anyway. The Mariners said they wanted to get him four or five more starts down the stretch to kind

to help build that confidence, get him used to pitching on a big league mound against big league hitters, all that kind of stuff. I think it's time. There's no reason to be Maybe Justice Sheffield this year, if he absolutely really, really struggles down the stretch, maybe you start him out in AAA next year. If you're not ready, if you don't think he's ready, I understand that. But for this year, unless he's hurt, there's really no reason to not let him throw down the stretch, let him see what he can do it. And if he struggles, but he's trying new things, you know, if Justice Sheffield struggles

because he's trying really hard to find a feel for his change-up and he is struggling with it and getting hit a lot, that's totally fine with me. I have no problem with that. The Mariners aren't playing for anything. Let your 24-year-old left-handed stud pitcher try to figure out his change-up in the big leagues. That's totally fine with me. If he struggles just because he's nervous or he's not pitching well or things like that and he just doesn't seem ready, then yeah, okay, maybe he's not ready next year.

But I would love to see him just get out there and give this stuff a shot and kind of try some new things and see if he can figure it out. I think that that's kind of what they did with James Paxton. You know, he didn't he wasn't very good right away. He had a lot of ups and downs, and then after a couple years, he really hit his stride and kind of became that guy that they wanted him to be. So maybe that's the case with Sheffield. It takes him a year or two to kind of, he's a little bumpy for a little bit, and then start in 2021 or so. He really hits his stride and gets going, and that would be perfect for the Mariners because that's when they'll have Julio Rodriguez, Jared Kellanick, Logan Gilbert. Those guys will start to be, you know, if not in the big leagues already, very close.

And so I think that having a couple rough years for Justice Sheffield, not necessarily a bad thing. And in this game, this kind of line, you might see a little bit more often. But if the performance is there and if he's mixing his pitch as well, if he's not getting too rattled when he gives up big innings, those are going to be good things going forward. One more quick note on this game before we move on. Kyle Seeger hit his 18th home run of the season and also his ninth home run of the month of August. That is the most home runs he has ever hit in a month in his career. We've talked about it pretty much every day that I've been on the podcast. Kyle Seeger is having a monstrous month.

He has always been a bit of a slow starter, and because he was hurt to start the year, his slow start occurred in June, July this year, instead of happening, or May June this year, instead of happening in March and April like it normally does. So it's been really fun to see Kyle Seeger get hot. I think he's kind of cemented himself as being a harder player to get rid of than the Mariners may have anticipated. His contract has made that challenging as well. I'm going to have a whole segment where we talk about Kyle Seeger and what the Mariners are going to do with him going forward. Not today, though. So just stay tuned for that coming up. But it's always great to see

Kyle Ziger continue to hit well. And now he's got a couple more days to tack on and hopefully break his record or continue to break his record for most home runs in a month. All right. Coming up, I'm going to talk about the time that Babe Ruth literally requested to manage the Seattle Rainiers, a story told in the wonderfully entertaining book by Dan Rayleigh called Pitchers of Beer. Guys, let's talk about sex. Good sex. Remember the days when you're always ready to go? Now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence in bed. Listen up.

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And we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. All right, y'all, for Throwback Thursday today, we're going to talk about one of my favorite, favorite, just books, period. I was going to say baseball books, but I love this book. It's called Pitchers of Beer. It was written by Dan Rayleigh. He's a sports reporter in Seattle area. I found this book at a Goodwill randomly.

and just loved the name, Pitchers of Beer. It was a picture of baseball players, and I thought, you know what, got to check that thing out, got to see what it's about. It was all about the Seattle Rainiers, who were a baseball team from like the 20s into the 50s, I think maybe even all the way into the 60s. They played in what is, it was the Pacific Coast League then. It still is. Obviously, it's got very different teams.

San Francisco was a team at the time. San Diego was a team at the time. They've kind of gone through a bunch of different renditions of the Pacific Coast League. it was not major league baseball. It was minor league baseball, obviously, as it still is. But it was based in Seattle. It actually, the stadium was called Sick Stadium.

It was owned by Emil Sick, who was the creator of Rainier Beer. And he was the owner of the Seattle Rainiers. That's why they're named that. They are named after the beer. For some people who think that that's not necessarily true, it is. They were named after the beer. The beer is obviously named after the Mountain. So in a sense, they're named after the Mountain as well, I guess.

Anyway, that's semantics. The Seattle Rainier's were awesome. They were a good baseball team for the majority of the time that they played. The stadium was off of Rainier Avenue in South Seattle. There's a lows there now. If you go into the lows, you can see where Home Plate used to be. And the stories in this book are amazing. It sounded like an unbelievably fun atmosphere to watch baseball.

It was in an era where there was a lot of barnstorming going on, so you got to see a lot of superstars in leagues like this. you got guys who like one of the best stories of the team's history is fred hutchinson who was an 18 year old kid who was from the area he went to the university of washington he had one good year at ub and then just went straight to the straight to the PCL that doesn't happen anymore you know obviously there's a draft and there's a whole process in the time he just signed with the minor league team and then he killed it in the minor leagues and the detroit tigers signed him and he went on to obviously he unfortunately passed away from cancer and there's the fred hutchinson research society and he I digress.

The Seattle Rainiers are awesome. The book is absolutely awesome. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of baseball, a fan of the city of Seattle, or certainly if you're a fan of both, which if you're listening to the podcast, you probably are. Anyway, one of the best stories in the book, in my opinion, is the story of the time that Babe Ruth not only almost managed the Seattle Rainiers. He wanted to. Like he desperately wanted to, and they turned him down, which is crazy to me. Now, Babe Ruth didn't have any experience managing.

There's not really any indication he would have been a good manager. In fact, some of the quotes in the book talk about how specifically he probably would not have been a good manager. One of the quotes is from a player, a guy who used to play on the Rainier's and he said, Babe couldn't manage himself. So how is he going to manage a team? Which is probably a fair assessment. Ruth had trouble with authority. It was kind of one of his calling cards, I suppose.

So I think a lot of people thought, well, I don't want to hire him as my manager. Like, what if he gives me trouble as an owner? And I can understand that being a concern. There's obviously been managers in history who were players who were really challenging, and then they became managers, and then they also became really challenging. Billy Martin is a good example of that. So I guess I could see the hesitation on Ruth. But the fact of the matter is he called, he specifically asked for the job.

There was a really well-publicized telegram or phone conversation where he specifically asked email sick, hey, about that job opening. I'm interested. And they said, no, they went with somebody else. The guy that they went with is Bill Skiff. Bill Skiff was a teammate of Babe Ruth's for, I think, six games in 1926. He was a backup catcher. He wasn't very good, but he had a lot of managing experience.

So they, you know, I can understand that decision. But to turn down Babe Ruth, I'm very curious how the city of Seattle's baseball history would be viewed had Babe Ruth spent even three years managing a team in Seattle. I have no idea how it would have changed. It would have been from like 1940. See, the problem is he would have taken over in like 1941. So the war was right after that and obviously took away a lot of players. It took away a lot of major league players, but certainly almost any good players in the minor leagues were off at war. So I don't know how much of an impact that would have had.

Ruth obviously didn't go over to war. He was past that age. So I don't know. I'm very curious if Seattle would have gotten a major league team sooner, if they'd been on the map more, if it would have had a negative impact because Ruth ostensibly may not have been a good manager. Really hard to say. But yeah, just to give you an example of how respected this job was, when it came available, Ruth obviously looked for a job, but so did Rogers Hornsby, Paul Wainer, Grover, Cleveland, Alexander,

and Gabby Hartnett. All five of those people are in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, and all five of them we're interested in coaching a AAA baseball team in the city of Seattle in the 1940s. That is wild to me. Anyway, so Ruth didn't get the job. He ended up passing away less than, I think, about five years later. He had throat cancer. He had a lot of health issues.

His lifestyle caught up to him, unfortunately. But, man, I just, anyway, here's the, I guess before I keep going, here's the quote at the end of the chapter about Babe Ruth. I'm just going to read it in its entirety. and you can kind of get a sense of the writing in the book, as well as kind of the thoughts on Babe Ruth overall. So here we go, in quote. In hindsight, the Rainier's missed a great opportunity by not hiring the Yankees legend.

From a publicity standpoint, it might have been the worst mistake Sick Made in his long-running baseball business dealings. Skiff would win a third consecutive pennant with Lelowitz's holdover talent, but the franchise floundered and grew stagnant with the onset of World War II and failed to recover quickly after it was over, forcing Skiff's ouster. considering skiffs were rather forgettable legacy, it might have been worth it for the rainiers to risk putting Ruth in a Seattle uniform, sitting him on the bench and letting him call the shots,

offsetting a grim world that was fast approaching. Anyway, those are my thoughts on Babe Ruth and how he was nearly, nearly the manager of the Seattle Rainiers. The new locked-on NFL is on fire. Last week it was one of the most listened to NFL shows. With the expert analysis of former NFL, Scott Matt Williamson and hosted by Brian Peacock. Lockdown NFL is your daily national podcast on all things NFL with Matt's unique take on the game. Follow Locked on NFL now on your favorite

podcast provider. All right, we ran a little bit overboard on our first two segments, so we're going to make it real quick on the birthdays today. We got three of them to celebrate. First up is Chris Taylor. You all remember Chris Taylor, right? Taylor's turning 29 today. The middle infielder played in parts of three seasons for the Mariners from 2014 to 2016. He had a really good start in 2014. He had 287 and 47 games. Didn't look so good. The next couple of years ended up getting shipped over to the Dodgers for a minor league pitcher. And then blew up with Los Angeles. He's one of the most talked about names when you refer to former Mariners, which is a popular subreddit and also just a group of players who seem to do really well when they leave Seattle. Now, Taylor, I think,

is a little bit exaggerated. He had one great season in 20. 2017. He had 21 home runs with 17 stolen bases and he hit 288. He really wasn't as good the next year. He did it at 17 home runs, but he led the league in strikeouts and he only hit 254. He's having an okay year this year, but I think he's probably more of a flash in the pan of a one great year kind of guy than he is like a completely new, like a completely new man after leaving Seattle. I think he just kind of struck lightning in a bottle one year. But regardless, happy 29th birthday. Next up is Mark Zepchinsky. Mark Zepchinsky.

Let's try that again. He's celebrating his 34th birthday. The man they call Scrabble has appeared in 10 big league seasons with having played for nearly 10 teams. He did spend parts of two seasons with the Mariners. He was okay in 2017, 4.02 ERA in 31 innings. He was really bad in 2018. He only appeared in 7.2 innings and had a 9.39 ERA. He played a little bit with Cleveland that year, but it has not appeared in the big leagues this year,

so that might be the end of the line for Mr. Zepchinsky. But if it is, he still played 10 years in the league. So happy birthday to Scrabble. Last but not least is Henry Blanco. Henry Blanco is celebrating his 48th birthday. Blanco appeared in 16 big league seasons. He had a very lengthy career. He was mostly just a backup catcher.

Had a few pretty solid seasons, but, you know, just kind of live the backup catcher life. as you were. He didn't make it to the Mariners until 2013 at his age 41 season. He was atrociously bad. He had 1.25 with three home runs and 35 games. And that was it. Called it a career after that and has spent the last couple of years sitting on his earnings and is now celebrating his 48th birthday. So happy birthday to him. Coming up on Friday, I'll recap Seattle's series opener against the Texas Rangers and we'll get real analytical in our regular statcast Friday segment. Once again, I'm Andy Patton. You can find me on Twitter at at Andy Patton, S-E-A.

You can find the Lockdown Mariners podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening, and go Mariners.