Painting the Corners Again

by Weintraub, Bob;

  Five hours before the scheduled start of Game Six, Diamond met in his office at the ballpark with Luis Cavalho, his bench coach and closest friend in baseball. He took pride in the fact that he was responsible for getting Cavalho, his former minor league teammate, to recognize the doors that might open for him if he chose to explore a career in baseball and remain in the United States instead of returning to Puerto Rico and an uncertain future there.

  In the same month that Diamond was called up to the big leagues to play in Philadelphia, Cavalho was summoned to the manager’s office in Scranton and told that the club would not be offering him a contract to return to the team for the next season. As Cavalho was aware, the Phillies had a power hitting center fielder on their Double-A roster in Reading and he was being promoted to Scranton the following spring. When he learned of Cavalho’s situation, Diamond spoke to the coach in the Phillies system who played with his father and who was still employed on the club’s entry in the rookie league. He urged him to use whatever connections he had to obtain a minor league position for Luis, and the coach was able to come through. Starting as both an outfield and base running instructor for the Phillies Single-A team in Tallahassee, Cavalho worked his way up to being a third base coach, returning to Scranton in his final minor league assignment. Two years later, Diamond persuaded Gary Sherman to bring Cavalho to Philadelphia as his bench coach.

  “Luis,” Diamond said when Cavalho had settled into his chair, “I’ve decided to put Norris at shortstop and bat him seventh. We need his bat in the lineup.”

  Cavalho was stunned. His anger came immediately, confirmed by the tone of his voice. “You’re kidding, Jimmy. You can’t do that to Kyle. It’ll look like you’re blaming him for the fact that we stunk out the joint those last two games in Houston. We left ten runners in scoring position in the fourth game and twelve in the fifth. It wasn’t just Kyle. No one was getting a hit when we needed it.” Cavalho paused for a few seconds, raising his voice even louder when he continued. “Jimmy, you’ll kill the kid if you make it look like it was all his fault. He’ll feel he let the whole ballclub down. And he’s your stepson, for Christ sakes. Don’t do this to him. Your wife will hate you for it and the whole team will be wondering what the hell is going on. If you make that move, I think a lot of the guys will lose their focus on what we’ve got to do today and tomorrow. That could hurt us the most.”

  Diamond was unprepared for Cavalho’s outrage and passion. He knew his bench coach was right, but while raising the fact that he shouldn’t hurt his stepson, Cavalho was unaware that Diamond was trying to help his own son.

  “I thought we should get Norris into a game now and see what he does at the plate under pressure. If he looks good, I wouldn’t be afraid to use him in the Series.”

  Cavalho stared at Diamond, shaking his head from side to side before answering. “Jimmy, do I have to tell you it’s a little early to be worrying about the goddam World Series? If we lose today or tomorrow, we’ll be sitting at home in front of the TV when the Astros start playing next week. All the pressure is on us today and you’re talking about sticking Norris out there. He’s been up here for how long—just a month—he’s still raw. He doesn’t know this kind of pressure. He could piss his pants out at shortstop, afraid he’ll screw up on a ball hit to him and cost us the game. And if that ever happened, it could ruin the kid, set him back for a long time. We lose the game because you play a Triple-A ballplayer at short, you’ll never hear the end of it. It makes no sense to take Kyle out of there.”

  Cavalho got up and walked toward the door. Before opening it, he turned around to face Diamond. “You’re the manager, Jimmy, and it’s your call. I just had to be honest with you about it.”

  Any suspense for Phillies fans about the outcome of Game Six ended early. The team scored five runs in the first inning, four more in the second, and had an 11–1 lead with the game just three innings old. Diamond thought over what Cavalho had said and winked at him in the dugout as he went to post the lineup card on the wall next to the bat rack. Kyle started at shortstop, walked both his first and second time up and then went hitless in two official at bats. He was replaced by Norris in the eighth inning when Diamond, sitting on a 15–2 lead, pulled four of his starters from the game. In his one at bat, Norris lined a double down the left field line. In the field, his only chance came when he leaped high in the air to snag a line drive and rob the batter of a hit.

  The Astros looked like they knew what fate awaited them as they got ready for the deciding game of the series. They realized that the Phillies pitcher who had given them just four hits in Game Three, and had beaten them twice during the regular season, was matched against their own pitcher who was knocked out of that same game in the fourth inning. The momentum they tried to establish by scoring two runs in their first at-bats went up in smoke when the Phillies scored three runs of their own in the last half of the inning, all driven in by a Jason Mason home run with two outs. Philadelphia scored single runs in the third, fourth and sixth innings while the Houston hitters encountered only futility in their attempt to put more runs on the board. The 6–2 score in favor of the home team after seven full innings was the final score of the game as two Phillies relievers each pitched an inning without allowing an Astros hitter to reach base. Kyle played the entire game, getting a single in four trips to the plate and fielding his position cleanly. When the final out was recorded on a fly ball to center field, Diamond and Cavalho hugged each other for several seconds before joining the rest of the team on the field to celebrate their winning the National League pennant.

  For the third consecutive series, the World Series of baseball, Philadelphia opened at home, hosting the American League champion Texas Rangers. Tommy Hancock went all out for the occasion, providing red, white, and blue bunting that was draped not only in front of the box seats located along the first and third base lines, but which also hung directly below the entire area set aside for the media in the second deck. Hancock arranged for the installation of a giant American flag that covered a large portion of the center field wall until it was rolled up and removed just before the start of the game. Military units from the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, accompanied by a marching band from the nearby Fort Dix, New Jersey Army base, assembled in the outfield. At the appointed time they marched in step toward home plate as the band played the popular fight songs of each of the armed forces. The singing of the National Anthem by Mariah Carey followed immediately. With incredible timing, three Air Force jets roared over the stadium just as she reached the last note.

  When the cheering died down and the crowd took their seats, the managers of the two teams were introduced. Diamond and Terry Granger, skipper of the Rangers, met at home plate, shook hands, and greeted each of their respective players who were not in the starting lineups as they were introduced to the fans and came jogging out of their dugouts. The starters were called out next to the applause of the crowd, with Jason Mason receiving the loudest ovation and waving his cap in appreciation in all four directions. Joey Townsend, the Phillies eighty-three-year-old Hall of Fame first baseman, then walked slowly onto the field to throw out the first pitch. Stopping halfway between the mound and home plate, and smiling broadly as he rotated his arm several times, he threw the baseball into the glove of the team’s catcher. The fans cheered him loudly, many of the older ones with tears in their eyes, as he retreated toward the first base dugout. Finally, a nine-year-old boy in a wheelchair, introduced as the baseball whiz in his hospital’s cancer ward, was brought to the plate and given the microphone. “Play ball,” he hollered, and the World Series had begun.

  The two clubs had their best pitchers on the mound for the first game. Although a tight pitchers’ duel was expected, and neither team scored a run through seven innings, each had collected nine hits to that point. It was only the inability of both to produce a timely hit with men on base that resulted in the presence of fourteen goose eggs on the scoreboard.

  In the top half
of the eighth, Texas put a man on third with two out. The next batter hit a bouncing ball headed for the shortstop hole. The Phillies third baseman reached it but had it bounce off the fingers of his outstretched glove. Kyle, who was running to his right, stopped in his tracks, turned back toward second and grabbed the ball out of the air with his bare hand. Coming down on his left foot, he fired it to first in time to beat the runner by half a step on a bang-bang play. The crowd roared as the umpire pumped his fist once to signal the out, and it gave Kyle a standing ovation as he crossed the infield to the Philadelphia dugout.

  The Phillies’ leadoff hitter in their half of the same inning blooped a ball down the right field line which fell just out of the reach of the three Rangers, allowing him to reach second base with a double. Diamond called for a sacrifice which was executed successfully, moving the runner to third. He considered pinch hitting for Kyle, who was hitless to that point, but decided that his stepson deserved the opportunity to drive in the go ahead run on the basis of his sensational defensive play earlier in the inning.

  The Texas manager pulled the starting pitcher and brought in his fireballing closer, hoping to induce two strikeouts and get out of the jam without allowing the Phillies to score. The move didn’t persuade Diamond to change his mind about using a pinch hitter, and when the closer started out a little wild, missing the strike zone with his first three pitches, Diamond was certain the next pitch would be a fastball over the heart of the plate. He signaled that Kyle had the green light to swing at it if it looked good. Kyle did just that, but got slightly under the ball and hit what the game announcers called a “major league popup” in the infield. His confidence bolstered by the comeback, the Texas pitcher struck out the next Phillies hitter on four pitches, deflating the crowd’s enthusiasm. The game entered the ninth inning still tied at zero.

  It took Texas just two batters to score a run. An infield single was followed by a drive to right center field that split the two outfielders and gave the speedy runner enough time to race around the bases and beat the relay throw home. No further damage ensued, and the home team’s fans were up on their feet immediately, shouting support, clapping their hands and waving their towels in the air, virtually demanding a come-from-behind rally. The noise must have awakened the gods who looked after the Phillies all season because Jason Mason followed a one out single with a first-pitch drive into the third row of the centerfield bleachers for a Philadelphia victory. He was met at home plate by the entire team with each player anxious to make physical contact with some part of his body. Many of the fans were reluctant to leave the park, staying to watch the home run and the celebration replayed several times on the giant scoreboard.

  The fans who attended Game Two of the Series were not treated to the same reward that was bestowed on those at the ballpark a day earlier. The Texas heavy hitters were in good form from the start and their team led 11–3 after five innings. Philadelphia tried to make a game of it by scoring four more runs in the sixth, but the Rangers answered with three runs of their own in the seventh inning. Empty seats were soon visible all around the stadium as droves of fans gave up on the team and left early to beat the traffic.

  Diamond rested several of his starters for the final two innings. Norris, inserted at shortstop, hit a drive to right field that had home run distance but sliced foul and into the seats as it neared the fence. On the next pitch, he stepped into a slider as it hugged the outside edge of the plate and singled to left field. The at bat impressed Diamond who turned and gave a thumbs-up to Cavalho as Norris ran to first. Diamond was also aware at that moment that Kyle had one hit to show for the two games.

  The festivities in the Rangers ballpark in Arlington that preceded Game Three were on a par with those that took place earlier in Philadelphia. Borrowing from the State’s rich football tradition, Grantland Hoban, the team’s owner, arranged for a dozen beautiful cheer leaders on each side of the field to entertain the fans whenever there was a lull in the scheduled activities. The National Anthem, sung by Tony Bennett, followed a recording of “God Bless America,” with the voice of Kate Smith still sounding marvelous over the stadium’s speaker system.

  Diamond felt confident about regaining the lead in the Series. His starter had already beaten the Astros twice in the earlier playoff round, allowing them a total of just ten hits in fourteen innings pitched. The Texas starter had won two games and lost one in the post season to that point, but had an unimpressive earned run average just below 4.00. However, as so often happens, the statistics shown on paper were completely reversed in the playing of the game, and the pitcher with the outstanding record suddenly reverted to what seemed an imitation of his less accomplished opponent. Diamond watched with increasing alarm as the Phillies hurler was touched for six runs in just five innings before handing the baseball over to his troubled manager after walking the first batter he faced in the Texas sixth. The Phillies relievers allowed no runs the rest of the way, but the team was held to a total of three runs and never threatened to overtake the early Texas lead. Kyle went hitless again, his batting average falling to .091.

  In the manager’s office after the game, Cavalho agreed with Diamond’s assessment that the team looked flat on the field. “In the dugout too, Jimmy, there wasn’t a whole lot of chatter,” he added.

  “I think I’ll make a couple of changes tomorrow, and I may shake up the batting order too. Something’s missing there. I don’t know, I’ll sleep on it if I can get any sleep.”

  Diamond posted the lineup for Game Four shortly after arriving at the ballpark in the middle of the afternoon. He wanted to give his players plenty of time to digest the changes he made, both in the insertion of a different catcher and left fielder, and switching the order in which several of the players would bat. He intended to start Norris at shortstop also, but changed his mind at the last minute when he decided, based on that day’s pitching matchups, that a stronger defense was going to be more important than additional offense. He still felt Kyle was a better fielder, overall, than Norris, but his patience was wearing thin on Kyle’s continued ineffectiveness at the plate.

  Diamond was half right about the Phillies offense. The team had eight hits to go along with five bases on balls, but continued its frustrating habit of not getting the big hit when needed, and leaving men on base. After scoring two runs in the first inning, the team led the Rangers until there were two outs in the last half of the ninth with the score 5–3 in its favor. Then, with a suddenness that energized both the players and their fans, the home team put together a double, a single, a stolen base, and another single to score two runs and tie the game. Every hit came with two strikes on the batter, putting Philadelphia just one strike away from victory each time. The roar of the crowd, which was finally given a chance to vent its emotions, was sustained through the Phillies scoreless tenth inning and seemed to foretell the inevitability of what was to follow. The Texas cleanup hitter, batting first, looked at one pitch from the new reliever and deposited the next one into the mitt of a fan in the left field bleachers who wore the same number “22” on his newly purchased Rangers jersey as the ballpark’s hero of the moment.

  Shortly after the game ended, the Texas manager announced to the media representatives crowded into the clubhouse that he would not be giving his Game One pitcher a second start the next day in Game Five. Instead, he would save him in the event a sixth game was necessary, allowing him two additional days of rest. When Diamond learned who would be on the mound for Texas, he made up his mind to have Norris at shortstop. In four games, Kyle had two hits and a .143 batting average.

  Before his team took the field for Game Five, Diamond gathered the players in a close circle in the clubhouse and gave a short speech:

  “We have to win three games in a row to be world champions,” he began, “and everyone in this room knows we can do it. If Texas could do it, we certainly can because we’ve got a better team. But we can’t win three games in one day. So I don’t want any of you out there tryi
ng to win this game by yourself. Just do your own job, the one you’ve been doing all year, and don’t put any extra pressure on yourself. A few hits at the right time and we’d probably be up three games to one ourselves. We’ve got the better pitching going for us today, so let’s give Rudy some support.” Several players started moving away before realizing that Diamond hadn’t finished. He paused several seconds before banging his fist into an open palm and saying, “Then we can go play some more baseball back in Philadelphia.” There was a loud cheer, and the players got ready to go about their business.

  When the World Series was over, and both the media and the fans had time to digest everything that had taken place in the two ballparks over the course of nine days, most of the written and spoken words seemed to focus repeatedly on the ninth inning of Game Four and the ninth inning of Game Seven.

  The Phillies took Diamond’s pregame pep talk to heart and beat the Rangers easily in Game Five, scoring three runs in the first inning and shutting them out 7–0. Texas managed only three hits in the game, had a total of ten strikeouts, and gave their fans nothing to cheer about. Its dream of winning the World Series in front of the home crowd wasn’t realized. Diamond started Norris at shortstop and was pleased to see him single twice and handle six chances in the field effortlessly.