jjc@houxl.UUCP (J.CARBONARO) (11/14/85)
<Also, if Billy Martin hadn't "ruined" a young staff at Oakland, nobody would <have noticed the supposed "AL pitcher burn-out." Fact is, many pitchers go <200+ innings in a season without getting hurt. Quite a few pitch 15 or so <complete games in a season. It just so happened that 5 of his all did that in <one year, and then came up with various injuries. How come nobody blames a <manager when his best pitcher comes up lame when working a similar number of <innings/complete games (Vukovich, Flanagan, ...). I tend to agree. I remember reading (constantly) how many innings of work those 5 guys were getting. Then, about a year or more ago, SI had a "reunion" of those 5. Seems that back in 1979 (or whatever year it was), SI did an article on them, and then they did a "where are they now" piece. I don't know whether it's blind loyalty or what, but 4 of the 5 guys stated EMPHATICALLY that their current troubles (I think only one was still in the majors) had nothing to do with Martin.
ogre@whuts.UUCP (LOCOCO) (11/18/85)
> > <Also, if Billy Martin hadn't "ruined" a young staff at Oakland, nobody would > <have noticed the supposed "AL pitcher burn-out." Fact is, many pitchers go > <200+ innings in a season without getting hurt. Quite a few pitch 15 or so > <complete games in a season. It just so happened that 5 of his all did that in > I tend to agree. I remember reading (constantly) how many innings of work > those 5 guys were getting. Then, about a year or more ago, SI had a > "reunion" of those 5. Seems that back in 1979 (or whatever year it was), > SI did an article on them, and then they did a "where are they now" piece. > I don't know whether it's blind loyalty or what, but 4 of the 5 guys stated > EMPHATICALLY that their current troubles (I think only one was still in the > majors) had nothing to do with Martin. ************************* I cannot understand how the blame can be placed on Martin when he was managing a team without much relief pitching, and everyone from that team was trying to do whatever they could to win. Face it, when Martin made his trips to the mound, he did like any other manager, asking his pitcher if he could go any further, and like any normal pitcher the response was likely yes even if the pitcher was tired. My contention is that the onus is on the pitchers if they were burned out prematurely, since they could have complained about being overworked. As was stated above, none of them complained then or ever. You might call it blind loyalty, but as far as I'm concerned it would be complaining after the fact. Put it to rest Martin haters (Yankee haters); it was the pitchers' own faults if they were burned out prematurely. Martin was only doing his job, trying to win for management and his players with what he best had to offer. \ / |\\ / | | \| | | |\ | | | \| John B. Lo Coco (...whuts!ogre) (...szuxn!ogre) 1-201-467-7436