TAKING NOTE

FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1984

Copyright 1984/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

This Pitcher Knows About Finishing Jobs

    I never interviewed Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Grover Alexander or Christy Mathewson, but I guess one of the things that would have impressed me about all of them was their ratio of complete games to games started. Cy Young finished 751 games out of 818, Johnson 531 out of 666, and Grover Alexander 436 out of 598.

   Pretty good. But how about a pitcher who finished all but two games?

   I have interviewed the guys with the most no-hit games, Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax — they have five and four, respectively), but the other day I interviewed a pitcher who has 50. You heard me. Five-oh. Half a hundred.

   The pitcher I talked to makes Cy Young look like an in-and-outer, Grover Cleveland look careless and Ryan look like, if not a junk pitcher, at least a guy who had to scatter hits.

   Lots of pitchers strike out Reggie Jackson and lots of pitchers manage to keep him in the ballpark on his hits, but Reggie never even got a fair ball off this pitcher. He never hit the ball forward, if you please.

——

   The pitcher I refer to is right-handed, tall (6-2), is a submariner like Kansas City’s Dan Quisenberry, has a fastball that has been clocked at 96 m.p.h., a pitch we used to call the upshoot back on the sandlots of New England and a changeup that appears to come to home plate by parachute.

   The greatest earned-run average in major-league baseball history is Walter Johnson’s 2.37. This pitcher has an 0.19 ERA. Match that around the Hall of Fame.

   Bob Feller has the most one-hit games in baseball, 12. This right-hander has 22. Shutouts? Well, Walter Johnson had 110. This pitcher has 111.

   So, why haven’t the Dodgers signed this phenom? Shouldn’t someone with those statistics be starting the All-Star Game in San Francisco next month?

   Well, there is this one tiny little complication. How would it look for the greatest ballplayers in history to get the bats stuck up their ears by a curveballer named Kathy? What kind of a part is that for Robert Redford?

   The greatest pitcher I ever interviewed, by cold stats, is probably the only pitcher I thought it might be fun to go dancing with after the game. Pitchers with earrings are not that big a novelty anymore, but they look better on this one than they do on, say, Pascual Perez. Anyway, this is the only no-hit pitcher in the game who might be somebody’s mother.

   Meet Kathy Arendsen, sports fans, who might do things with a thrown ball no Cy or Sandy or Rapid Robert or Big Train or Big Six ever did.

   Joe McGinnity pitched five doubleheaders in his career? Kathy pitched 10 games in three days once in Salt Lake City. She pitched 26 innings once in Houston in 100-degree weather. They called McGinnity the Iron Man. Compared to Kathy, he seemed like a spot pitcher.

   Of course, Kathy’s field of endeavor is the softball pitch, as the British call the field of play, where she is only 40 feet from the batter, the runners can’t steal till she lets go of the ball and the batters all swing like girls because they are girls.

   On the other hand, the balls are 12 inches in diameter, the bases are only 60 feet apart, the fences are only 200 feet away and the bats are aluminum.

   Cy Young won 511 games. But he lost 313. He leads in both categories. Kathy has won 162 games. But she has lost only 15. Steve Carlton has struck out more than 3,800 batters, but in 4,600 innings. Kathy has fanned 2,063 in only 1,191 innings.

   Of course, Kathy pitches for a dynastic organization that makes the New York Yankees look patchwork. The Yankees won 33 pennants and 22 world championships in 64 years.  Kathy’s team is the Raybestos Brakettes who have won 19 world or national championships in 36 years. The Yankees won 7,119 games in their span. They lost 5,341. The Brakettes won 1,894 and lost only 241 in their run.

   “They hardly ever let a hit ball touch the ground,” Kathy says admiringly of her support. Cliques don’t form, no lightning bolts come down from the front office.

   Kathy struck out Reggie Jackson three times in an exhibition in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse during the baseball strike in 1981. In 21 pitches, Reggie managed to foul two back to the screen. “Give him lots of credit,” Kathy says. “Not many ballplayers would risk it. Ted Williams is supposed to have thrown his bat in disgust.”

   The greatest pitcher I have interviewed is in the L.A. area for the Women’s International Cup competition at Whittier Narrows Park today through July 4. It brings together the eight best fast-pitch women’s softball teams in the world. The Brakettes represent the U.S. against teams from Japan, China (titillatingly enough, teams from mainland China and Taipei will face each other), Holland, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada.

   Don’t laugh. The Detroit Tigers would be underdogs in this tournament. And just remember, when I asked Kathy about her team’s bullpen, she said, “A what?” I said, “A place for relief pitchers.” And she said, “What’s a relief pitcher?”

   And, why would you need one?  I mean, we’re not talking Cy Young here.

Reprinted with the permission of the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 60753, Pasadena, CA 91116

———

What is the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation? 

  The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, established in 1999 to perpetuate the Jim Murray legacy, and his love for and dedication to his extraordinary career in journalism. Since 1999, JMMF has granted 104 $5,000 scholarships to outstanding journalism students. Success of the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation’s efforts depends heavily on the contributions from generous individuals, organizations, corporations, and volunteers who align themselves with the mission and values of the JMMF.

Like us on Facebook, and visit the JMMF website, www.jimmurrayfoundation.org. 

DECEMBER 13, 1994, SPORTS

Copyright 1994 /THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

Eloquence Belongs to No One

Why can’t a woman be more like a man. — Prof. Henry Higgins in ‘My Fair Lady’

Prof. ’Enry ’Iggins should have hung around a while. Women race cars, ride thoroughbreds, make putts, serve aces, play point guard, hit home runs, go into space, direct movies, run corporations, even run countries nowadays.

   They not only play sports, they write them. They go into battle, sit in the Senate, make our laws, judge them and set our policy. Santa Claus might turn out to be a woman next.

   One of the secrets of the sports world for a long time was that women were often the biggest and most dedicated group of fans in any sport. Baseball put ‘Ladies Day’ into the scene early in the game and those of us on the sports desk who checked our daily mail were well aware women made up the bulk of the readership some days.

   It was women, really, who first embraced pro basketball and it was nothing to see fully half the spectators courtside at the Forum female. Doris Day and Dyan Cannon were Hollywood representatives at games long before Jack Nicholson and Billy Crystal.

   It wasn’t long before they wanted to do more than watch and cheer. They wanted to comment, advise, second-guess, be a part of the sports scene. It wasn’t long before women were as familiar a sight circulating in a sports locker room as trainers.

   They had first cracked the barrier of sports journalism giving the “woman’s angle.” Turned out the woman’s angle on a home run or an end run or an Olympic run wasn’t significantly different.

   A home run was a home run, a goal was a goal, and, of course, an adverb was an adverb. Also, a “No comment!” or a “Get out of my face!” knew no sex.

   There were some contretemps. Some athletes had as much trouble with gender equality as some editors. Some lawyers had to find court rulings that were conspicuously sexless but, of course, lawyers have no trouble finding what suits them or their clients.

   So, it’s altogether appropriate that a colleague, Ron Rapoport of the Daily News, should see fit to collect and publish an anthology of sportswriting by women and show the craft is in good hands.

   Ron’s collection is not “You’ve come a long way, baby.” It doesn’t treat the subject as Barbie Doll journalism. He notes that Mary Garber, who was to sportswriting what Amelia Earhart was to aviation, once presented several articles at a seminar of sports editors and asked them to identify the authors by sex. No one could.

   The book is called ‘A Kind of Grace’ and it offers a compilation of 73 pieces from the women’s side of sports viewing. It is good stuff. For example:

On Page 223, Joan Ryan of the San Francisco Examiner begins her piece, “Nine years before Mary Bacon put a bullet in her head at a Motel 6 in Ft. Worth, Tex., she had already begun to die.”

    Runyon ever say it better? John Lardner?

    On Page 104, Claire Smith of the New York Times is holding forth: “Steve Palermo and Dr. Lonise Bias would not seem to have a lot in common, one being a major league umpire (shot and paralyzed by an armed robber), the second being a doctor of religion.

   “Bias has also suffered grievous wounds in her life, having lost two sons, one to a drug overdose, one to murderous gunplay. Len Bias, Bias’ talented basketball player son, died of a drug overdose on the eve of a professional career with the Boston Celtics.

   “She speaks to athletes, most recently to major league rookies who gathered in Dallas last weekend. ‘You have a responsibility on this earth. Will you cause other young men to be a curse upon this earth or will you cause them to be a blessing? For, you see, good advice with poor example is very confusing. You are educators whether you want to be or not. You will influence the decision of someone sitting at the table with you or someone who will be sitting in a ballpark looking at you. Either you will lead them to a life of prosperity or one of death and destruction.’ ”

   Who needs Dickens?

   Take another Joan Ryan piece on page 332 on the other side of the Super Bowl:

   “Wendy Kusuma walked last Sunday afternoon through downtown San Francisco, which was quiet and nearly empty. So many people were home watching the 49ers-Dallas Cowboys game. ‘I had this feeling of dread: Before the night’s over we’ll have more battered women in either Dallas or San Francisco,’ she said.

   “Football Sundays are heavy workdays for battered women’s shelters. A woman is battered by a husband or lover every 15 seconds of every day. One-third to one-half of all female murder victims die at the hands of spouses or lovers.

   “Next week’s Super Bowl Sunday would be the worst day of the year for battered women. It usually is. A wife or girlfriend steps in front of the television. She doesn’t fetch his beer quickly enough. She can’t keep the children quiet. She contradicts him in front of his friends. Anything can trigger the beating. But it’s usually the beer, the betting, the bruising and banging of players on TV that lead the way. The athletes on screen — men often admired to the point of reverence — reaffirm the batterer’s belief of what it takes to be a man: aggressive, dominant, physical.”

   Go Raiders!

   On Page 114, Michelle Kaufman of the Detroit Free Press zeroes in on a familiar figure. “Her father bought her a .22 rifle when she was in kindergarten and chopped off the stock so it would fit her tiny hands. Her mother has been married seven times. A drunk half-brother once tried to kiss her; she retaliated by burning him in the neck with a curling iron. Twice in the past two years, she filed for divorce and sought restraining orders against her hot-headed husband. Three months ago, police seized a handgun from her after it went off during an argument.

   “Less than a month before the Winter Olympics, Tonya Harding faces the toughest chapter of her tough life.

   “Harding’s background contradicts every image associated with figure skating. The new U.S. champion enjoys drag racing, rebuilding engines, playing pool, hunting, fishing. She smokes cigarettes, despite a serious asthmatic condition. While other skaters choose classical music, Harding has skated to such tunes as ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘Funky Cold Medina’ and her skating dresses are a far cry from designer beauties.”

   OK. How’s that for who, what, when, where and why, the journalist’s fab five?

   On Page 360, Helene Elliott of The Times takes the high road: “When he was a rookie, and other players mocked his devout Christianity, and his decision to abstain from sex until marriage, A.C. Green’s steadfast faith helped him silence his doubters. ‘One thing about me is, I don’t feel I have many limitations. I feel I can really do anything. The Bible tells me — and I really believe the Bible — Philippians 4:13 says, ‘I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me,’ and this Scripture I take to heart.’

   “Green runs a summer camp for children and someday he’d like to establish a home for unwed mothers. ‘There has to be more emphasis put on self-control and responsibility. If there’s so much sex education going on in school, why are teen-age birth rates and abortion rates on the increase? There’s a lot of things that weigh on my heart.’ ”

   Well, was Dr. Bob Schuller more eloquent at the Crystal Cathedral?

   A powerful argument for gender equity is this book. Of course, these women never hit a major league home run, scored a touchdown in the NFL, served aces at Wimbledon or high-sticked Wayne Gretzky. Come to think of it, neither did we.

Reprinted with the permission of the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 60753, Pasadena, CA 91116

———

What is the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation? 

  The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, established in 1999 to perpetuate the Jim Murray legacy, and his love for and dedication to his extraordinary career in journalism. Since 1999, JMMF has granted 104 $5,000 scholarships to outstanding journalism students. Success of the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation’s efforts depends heavily on the contributions from generous individuals, organizations, corporations, and volunteers who align themselves with the mission and values of the JMMF.

Like us on Facebook, and visit the JMMF website, www.jimmurrayfoundation.org.