Home >  Sports >  Notebooks

Sunday, August 26, 2001

On a night when Randy Johnson surpassed 300 strikeouts for a record fourth consecutive season ...

On a night when Barry Bonds became only the ninth man ever to hit 55 home runs ...

On a night when Albert Pujols became just the 22nd rookie to hit 30 homers in a season ...

On a night when Johnson became the 42nd pitcher to strike out the side on nine pitches ...

On a night when a 12-year-old left-hander from the Bronx, N.Y., shared the ESPN spotlight with a 37-year-old left-hander from the desert ...

It was a 23-year-old Rick Reuschel-like specimen by the name of Jason Jennings that made Thursday night divinely unique.

Seventy-four young men have pitched shutouts in their major-league debuts. Not many more than that have homered in their first big-league game. But according to The Elias Sports Bureau, no one -- in the Hall of Fame or not, living or dead, traditionalist or DH-lover, Pepsi drinker or Coke drinker -- has pitched a shutout and hit a home run in their big-league debut until Jennings in Colorado's 10-0, five-hit whitewashing of the Mets Thursday at Shea Stadium.

For a true gauge on how special this performance was, consider: Mets fans, known to terrorize a visiting ballplayer or two (read: John Rocker, Roger Clemens, Chipper "Lar-ry" Jones), cheered Jennings after he led off the ninth inning with a home run.

"I think the reality surpassed the fantasy," said Jennings, a first-round pick of the Rockies out of Baylor in 1999.

The fantasy? The Rockies only recalled him from Class AAA Colorado Springs Thursday afternoon.

"This is one of those nights that every one of us will have a hard time forgetting," said Rockies Manager Buddy Bell. "You root so hard for a guy when he first comes up to do well, but you never expect a night like this. ... That was incredible."

And that might be understating matters. On the mound Jennings, who stands 6 feet, 4 inches and weighs 242 pounds to stir images of "Big Daddy" in Bell's eyes, struck out eight and walked four. At the plate, the former collegiate DH and cleanup hitter who once hit 17 home runs in a season for Baylor, went 3 for 5 with the home run and two RBIs. (The Guy In The Stands can only imagine the John VanBenschoten fantasies Jennings' game conjured in the dreams of Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield that night.)

"It's going to be hard to top that one," Jennings said.

Imagine:

At least a couple dozen 15-year-old girls with too much eye shadow swear they saw boy toy Justin of 'N Sync in the pop aisle -- where else? -- at Giant Eagle last weekend. Sixty-five thousand fans can say they saw the first game at Heinz Field yesterday. At least a million claim they saw Maz's homer in '60.

But Jennings is the only one who has ever lived to have done what he did in Shea Stadium Thursday. And with that comes the inevitable reserved spot where all extraordinary events go not to die, but to live forever ...

Sports Trivia Heaven.

Who could ask for more from their first day in the majors?

The Guy can only wonder if anyone's told him about the second.

Facing the facts

ElRoy Face still has it. The Guy got himself into a jam with last week's column and the legendary Pirates reliever came on to set things right. In an item on Roger Clemens raising his record to 16-1, The Guy wrote that he was only the sixth pitcher in history to be 16-1 in a season and included Face among the six. Wrong. In Face's incredible 1959 season, he was 17-0 before losing. Note to "Total Baseball": Make that 194 career saves.

Ending the drought

Just how prodigious a home run hitter Mark McGwire has been the past decade was never more evident than, of all things, when he didn't homer last Sunday in a two-single, one-double, four-RBI performance in a 9-0 win against the Phillies. With some valuable assistance from Brad Hainje of the Cardinals' media relations department, The Guy found that McGwire, owner of 1,400 career runs batted in, had not had four RBIs in a game in which he didn't homer since April 7, 1993, against Detroit.

Calling Dr. Granny

A pennant race can call for desperate measures. This from The Bugtussle Journal of Modern Medicine: The Athletics believe they can have setup man Jim Mecir back before the end of the season. The A's medical staff (Dr. Granny and loyal nurse Cousin Bessie, we presume) is attempting to rebuild the meniscus in Mecir's right knee with a jellylike material extracted from the back of a rooster's head. Ah-say, ah-say ... son ... The Guy could not make this stuff up.

Stretch runnings

Notes and quotes from the postseason races. With their 3-2 win vs. Cleveland yesterday, the Mariners' magic number for winning the AL West is 13. ... The Red Sox are 4-1 on a 10-game road trip to Anaheim, Texas and Cleveland and have cut Oakland's wild-card lead back to one. An important trip? Said pitcher Rich Garces before the Red Sox left last Sunday "This will decide everything." ... Pedro Martinez makes his long awaited return to the Red Sox rotation today vs. Texas. ... Martinez's next start could come Saturday in the middle game of a three-game renewal of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry at Fenway. ... Pitching is suddenly a problem for the Cubs, who began the weekend four back of Houston in the NL Central. In the first 114 games of the season, Manager Don Baylor started one of his regular five starters 113 times. In a 10-day period ending Tuesday, he used eight different starters. ... Dodgers ace Kevin Brown (8-4) is scheduled to pitch Tuesday vs. Colorado for the first time since July 15.

Series of the week

Giants (72-57) at Diamondbacks (74-54), Tuesday-Thursday. ... Wednesday (ESPN2, 10:05 p.m.). ... Diamondbacks hold a 2 1/2-game lead on the Giants in the NL West. ... September comes early. Teams meet six times -- their final six times -- in the next 10 games. ... Arizona owns a 7-6 edge in the season series. ... Randy Johnson (17-6) pitches the series opener for Arizona. ... Barry Bonds (.310, 55 HRs, 108 RBIs) has seven homers vs. the Diamondbacks.

Planning ahead

Danny Almonte, the 12-year-old Bronx, N.Y., pitcher who captured our imaginations in the Little League World Series this week, is not necessarily a stranger to big-league scouts. Bernardo Torribio has operated a Dominican baseball academy for the White Sox in Almonte's hometown of Moca since 1999. "He is a phenomenon of the kind which appears every hundred years," Torribio told the New York Times.

This 'n' that

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia after lumbering catcher Jorge Fabregas legged out his second triple of the season in a game vs. Detroit Aug. 16: "My God, is Halley's Comet coming back this year?" ... Tuesday, Dodgers pitcher Eric Gagne and Florida pitcher Brad Penny tripled, marking the first time opposing pitchers tripled in the same game since San Francisco's Bob Shaw and Houston's Robin Roberts did it Sept. 15, 1965. Thought you'd like to know. ... Angels rookie Shawn Wooten returned to the club last weekend after the death of his father. A proud father? Bob Wooten was buried in one of his son's game jerseys signed by all of his teammates. ... God love Twins catcher Tom Prince, the former Pirates backup. But is a 15-year journeyman catcher so valuable that he has to be signed to a one-year extension with six weeks left in the season? And with an option year thrown in, to boot?

Shot and a jeer

Shot: Proof that Danny Almonte, Bronx Little League sensation by way of the Dominican Republic, is only 12 years old. If he really were 14 or 15, the Dodgers would have already signed him.

Jeer: To Arizona catcher Mike DiFelice. He fights our players. He allegedly pinches, punches and singes our women. Given time, he'd probably ask the short-order cook down Primanti's to leave the slaw off the kielbasa hoagie. Enjoy Tucson.

Box score lines of the week:

The 17th three-homer game of the season in the majors. Heck, it's Sammy's second of August. "I won't lie to you. I feel great at the plate."

No team is supposed to be able to do this on Pudge, who throws out nearly 60 percent of would-be base stealers. Then this. Even Brad Fullmer, as threatening as a Clydesdale, got one. FYI: No team had stolen four bases on him since Aug. 1, 1992.

"Two words. I stink," said Lima. At least he remains verbally efficient.