The Real McCoy

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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy is in his 36th year of covering the Cincinnati Reds, the longest tenure for any active writer covering one team. Counting spring training and postseason games, McCoy has covered more than 7,000 major-league baseball games, written close to 18,000 baseball stories and eaten enough hot dogs to give Babe Ruth indigestion.

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October 2008

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Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > October > 13 > Entry

Tampa Bay gets rid of the devil

By Hal McCoy | Monday, October 13, 2008, 10:54 PM

This isn’t going to be an ‘I told you so’ diatribe.

Well, maybe a little bit.

Back in spring training, I watched the Tampa Bay Rays play three or four exhibition games against the Cincinnati Reds and I said (with Tampa Tribune columnist and good friend Joe Henderson as my witness): “That’s a pretty darn good team. That’s a real good team.”

I said that.

What I didn’t say is that, “Hey, this team might win 97 games and win the American League East.” Wish I had. What I did say was, “Too bad this team is in the American League East with the Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays. If they were in any other division, they might contend.”

Well, they not only contended in the AL East, they won it. And guess what? They might win it all.

I hope they do. This is a team with a $43 million payroll, second lowest in baseball. This is a team with no overpriced free agents or alleged superstars.

What I like is that this is a team with youthful exuberance and feistiness. They showed all year they wouldn’t back down to anybody, willing to fight at the drop of a rosin bag. And this is a team that walked into Fenway Park and put a 9-1 hickey on Boston’s neck. No fear.

This appears to be a reverse Damn Yankees. Remember the book and the Broadway show and the movie Damn Yankees, when Joe Hardy of the woebegotten Washington Senators sold his soul to the devil for an American League championship?

Well, this year Tampa Bay, formerly known as the Devil Rays, removed the devil from their nickname and are now just the Tampa Bay Rays. It must have pleased the baseball gods.

AS FOR THE Dodgers-Phillies, let’s hope for Philadelphia’s sake they don’t have to run Jamie Moyer out to the mound again. The Dodgers are zeroed in on him like Annie Oakley on the ace of spades.

I found the near-fight they had Sunday a tad humorous. As with most baseball skirmishes, it was mostly GMA — general milling around.

They were aiming baseballs at each other early and often, mostly playing by accepted etiquette. If you are throwing message pitches at the other team, you throw at their backs or their thighs. You don’t throw at heads, even though heads are helmeted.

So I agreed with Philadelphia’s Shane Victorino when the Dodgers threw at his head and he went berserk.

The amusing thing about the teams squaring off in the infield, mostly to exchange words, not punches, the three loudest and most active participants were three old-school coaches — Philadelphia’s Davey Lopes and LA’s Mariano Duncan and Larry Bowa.

Lopes and Duncan jawed at each other — and they were teammates with the Dodgers at one time.

Lopes being upset reminded me of what he did back in the 70’s against The Big Red Machine that touched off a brawl.

The Dodgers led, 9-0, and had the bases loaded. Lopes was at the plate and had a 3-and-0 count. When the Reds pitcher delivered the 3-0 pitch, the cripple pitch, Lopes swung from the heels, trying for a grand slam.

Other teams don’t think that’s a nice thing to do. When Lopes batted the next time, the Reds pitcher buzzed one under his chin and the fight was on.

Duncan, of course, was a late-season member of the 1995 Cincinnati Reds, the last time they played in the postseason. The only reason he was with the Reds is that Duncan played for the Phillies and they put him on waivers. Reds GM Jim Bowden, fearful that another contender would pick him up, claimed Duncan. He expected when he laid claim to him, the Phillies would withdraw waivers and take him back.

Didn’t happen. The Phillies said, “OK, you can have him. And you can him, too.”

My favorite Larry Bowa story involved him and former Reds shortstop Davey Concepcion. In the mid-70s, Bowa and Concepcion were baseball’s best two shortstops and their rivalry was intense.

One day in Philadelphia, Bowa was in the dugout when the Reds were taking batting practice and spotted Concepcion standing at shortstop.

“Hey, Elmer,” Bowa yelled. Concepcion ignored him.

“Hey, Elmer!” Bowa yelled again. Concepcion ignored him.

“Hey, Elmer. Elmer Concepcion. I’m talking to you,” said Bowa.

Said Concepcion, “Why are you calling me Elmer?”

Bowa laughed and said, “Because every time I look in the paper at a Reds box score, I see, ‘E-Concepcion.’ So I figured your name was Elmer.”

In a box score, ‘E’ stands for errors.

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