Allentown Sunday Call-Chronicle - April 6, 1980
Season ended six months too early to suit Bud Harrelson
By Jack McCallum, Call Sports Writer
Bud Harrelson's 1980 baseball season began on Feb. 6, a full three weeks earlier than most players. But his season also ended on April 4, about six months too early to suit Harrelson.
"It's always difficult to do something like this to a class guy." said Manager Dallas Green on Friday afternoon, "but we want to go with the young kids."
So there you have it, sports fans. There you have one of the reasons that baseball players are of the get-it-while-you-can mindset. Derrel McKinley Harrelson is 36, just one year over the MINIMUM age to be President of the United States, and he is gone. In most professions Harrelson would still be on the way up, just learning to apply the tricks of the trade he learned during his dues-paying years. But in pro sports, he is gone.
This is not a paean for Harrelson, nor a complaint about the inhumanity of baseball and the way it tosses aside its older crop like so many rotten vegetables. Baseball is a spectator sport precisely because it welcomes only the youngest and the fittest and the quickest in the front door, while sending the Bud Harrelsons out the back. But it is a plea to remember a guy like Harrelson who gave the game a touch of class, a lot of pride and, not one, but two miracles.
Harrelson and I talked at length recently in Clearwater. Several reporters had already been dropping black bunting around each mention of Harrelson, but Harrelson himself thought he still had a chance to be one of the 25 Phillies heading north. However, his chances had been hurt, he realized, by a pulled groin muscle he suffered in a game the day before our interview.
"Do you know that I NEVER had one pulled muscle before in my entire career?" Harrelson asked rhetorically as he rubbed the throbbing muscle. "I was going from first to third on a single to left and I just felt it snap. It was like I was shot."
Harrelson knew the pulled muscle hurt his chances of making the squad but he tried to put it out of his mind.
"I guess it (the injury) was bad timing but when is a good time to pull a muscle? I'm confident because I seem to heal fast. Back in '75 when he was with the Mets I had an arthrogram on my right knee which showed I had these little pieces of cartilage that were floating around in there like little pieces of glass. They had to drill a hole in my knee and the doctor told me I'd be out for at least a year. You know when I was back? In three months. Not at 100 percent but I was playing.”
As a .235 lifetime hitter with six career home runs. Harrelson's lifeblood through 15 major league seasons has been agility and quickness. Without it he had nothing.
"A lot of my ability to stay in shape has to do with weight." Harrelson said. "I've always tried to keep my weight down. One year, for example, the Mets decided I needed to have more power – can you imagine that? – and I was told to gain weight. I drank Nutrament and bulked up and got my weight all the way up to 172. 1 felt terrible. Gil Hodges) came in the next year and told me, 'Get back to 147. You're a strong 147 and that's where you should be.’”
Harrelson weighed only a few pounds more than 147 when he was cut, a testament to his dedication. He came down to Clearwater on Feb. 6, earlier than anyone except for injured pitcher Larry Christenson, to try and get in shape to beat the numbers game he knew faced him this year.
"Let's face it, there's only so much a guy in my position can do," said Harrelson. "A lot has to do with what you've done before and whether or not they think it was enough. I personally think what I accomplished was enough to warrant the chance but I don't know what they think."
What they thought became obvious when he was cut on Friday. But, in point of fact, Harrelson did have a good season in 1979. hitting .282 in 53 games and playing regularly during a three-week period when Larry Bowa was injured. He also filled in capably at third base for Mike Schmidt and his 12th inning single won a game against the Pirates on August 10.
That he was there at all was well, a miracle. Harrelson began the season playing slo-pitch softball and working for a collection agency in Manhattan. When Manny Trillo. then Bowa were injured, Harrelson placed a call to general manager Paul Owens and told him he was ready to play.
"You know the first thing Paul Owens said to me when I showed up?" Harrelson said. "He said. 'Nice to have you, kid.’ What a change from how I was treated with the Mets. I felt the real age crunch over there once I reached the age of 30. It's a kind of standardization they put on you. When you reach 30, you can't do it anymore. And it is true that all the attributes you once had aren't there Intact. But you can make up for it by being wiser, more experienced, The Phillies gave me that chance."
Well, they gave it to him once, anyway.
The miracle with which Harrelson will forever be associated with, occurred, of course, in 1969. It can be argued, in fact, that the Mets' drive to the 1969 pennant and subsequent triumph over Baltimore in the World Series constituted the last, official season-long miracle that has occurred in the world of professional sports.
"It's true that wherever I go I'm associated with the Mets," said Harrelson. "In fact, I feel like a New Yorker. I walk down the street there and I'm recognized. I have business there. And if I ever land up in baseball as an organization man it would probably be with the Mets. The Phillies? Well, they're a fine organization but they owe a lot more to other people in the organization than they do to me. But the Mets owe me a lot.”
Harrelson, who played 13 seasons with the Mets before first being traded to the Phils in March of 1978, does not like to dwell on 1969. He realizes that several of those Miracle Mets have made their entire careers on just that one season and Harrelson doesn't want to be one of them. (He was also in the 1973 Met team that won the National League pennant, for example, but relatively few remember that.) However, he let his defenses down and talked for a few minutes about that memorable '69 season.
"The thing about that team was that it NEVER depended on one player," said Harrelson. "It couldn't because there wasn't one obvious player to come through like a Schmidt or a Luzinski here. But we had a lot of depth on that team. Everybody was always picking the other guy up. Baltimore's attitude coming into the Series was. Who ARE these And that wasn't something the press built, either. They really did feel that way.”
Harrelson smiled briefly at the memory of the no-names beating the Orioles in five. Then he spoke again.
"You know. I knew there'd never be anything to match that season. Nothing I ever did in baseball. But 1 can't live off that one year. I went through something that relatively few-ballplayers get to experience. My money's gone from that season. My father's wearing the series ring. But deep down, the experience is mine. Nobody can take that away from me."
With that, a gaunt little man who looks more like a jockey than anything else, got up and began stretching.
"I figure if I get the leg ready to play soon, I won't have missed too much." said Bud Harrelson. a two-time miracle man.
A few days later, he was gone.
Pirates still team to beat in NL East
By Dan Shope, Call Sports Writer
It was a dark, wet August night when Philadelphia realized it would not own another red banner proclaiming its Phillies as National League Eastern Division champs.
Rain swept across the Veterans Stadium field. Groudskeepers fought with tarps to keep them from blowing away in the strong winds.
After a two-hour rain delay, Phillies' management postponed the game. Writers, frustrated from waiting in cold seats, headed to the Pittsburgh Pirates' clubhouse.
The men wanted to hear complaints. Like what was everybody doing there? How did the Pirates feel about Phillies' management keeping them around for so long?
The writers soon found that the Pirates were not complaining. They were, in fact, enjoying their night off.
Just the previous af ternoon. they had overcome a giant Phillies lead. Allentonian Ed Ott had slammed a homer to virtually nail a stake in the Phils' heart. Already, the Bucs were "The Family."
Willie Stargell frolicked through the clubhouse with a giant tape player. The Bucs were laughing, joking and singing.
"Ain’t no stoppin' us now," they harmonized. And they were right.
Later, their song became "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge. And with the togetherness that produces championship teams, the Bucs were on their way to a World Championship.
Last year, the Pirates had the ingredients they needed to overcome the rest of baseball… even the gung-ho kids from Baltimore.
And that makeup will be back again this year. The only difference is that we're all one year older. And at 39, that could mean something to "Pops” Stargell.
Still, with his leadership, the Pirates deserve to be the favorite to repeat in the NL East. With an injury-free pitching staff, the most Phils' fans can hope for is the runnerup spot.
Look for Montreal, St. Louis as major contenders, with Chicago and New York fighting to stay out of the cellar.
It's true that the Bucs did little or nothing to improve themselves over the winter. And they along with Montreal may be a bit weaker because of losses to free agency.
The Pirates are minus righthander Bruce Kison, who signed with the Angels. But they hope to make up for him with former Mets lefty Andy Hassler.
Of course, Don Robinson and Rick Rhoden each went on the operating table this winter. And their recovery will be vastly important to the Bucs.
Rhoden pitched only five innings last spring before shoulder surgery in June. Robinson was 8-8, but saved one game and won another in the National League playoffs against Cincinnati. He had shoulder surgery in October.
Still another Pirate pitcher, Jim Rooker 4-7 had arm problems last season and remains a question mark.
What may especially hurt the Pirates is a trade that never happened. During the winter meetings at Toronto in December, they were reportedly offering outfielder-first baseman Bill Robinson for either Houston righthander Joaquin Andujar, San Diego righty Gavlord Perrv and Detroit righthander Milt Wilcox. None of the deals came off.
The Phillies pointed to a rash of injuries for their decline last year. And Phils' manager Dallas Green, who took over for Danny Ozark late last year, worked the team hard in preseason drills in hope of preventing more bruises.
The Phils set an all-time club record with their home attendance of 2,775,000. But they suffered 22 injuries, won six fewer games than in 1978, hit less homers (133-119), stole less bases (152-128) and scored less runs (708-683).
The starting eight could be the best in baseball. But pitching could sadden the Phillies Phanatic.
Dick Ruthven (7-5) and Larry Christenson (5-10) are each questionable after operations. Nino Espinosa (14-12) has complained of a sore arm. And that leaves Steve Carlton (18-11) and Randy Lerch (10-13) as the only healthy starters.
The Expos had the No. 1 pitching staff in the majors last year with a 3.14 earned run average. But since September, they've lost their pitching instructor, Jim Brewer, who quit to join Oral Roberts University.
Then Rudy May (10-3) defected to join the Yankees and Dan Schatzeder (10-5) was traded to Detroit for outfielder Ron LeFlore.
The Expos must also replace first baseman Tony Perez, who went to Boston in the re-entry draft, and reserve second baseman Dave Cash, ho was traded to San Diego.
The Expos picked up Atlanta's Rowland Office in the re-entry draft and obtained Dan Briggs in the Cash trade.
But Cincinnati's 37-year-old Fred Norman (11-131 and Jamie Easterly (0-0) will be expected to make up for May and Schatzeder 's losses.
With Lou Brock retiring, the Cardinals will have a youthful look. And Brock's replacement, Bobby Bonds, acquired in a December trade from Cleveland, could give the Pirates a scare.
Bonds is the only major leaguer to have more than 300 homers and 400 stolen bases.
Hitting should be the Cards' forte with names like Keith Hernandez, Ken Reitz, George Hendrick, Ken Oberkfell, Garry Templeton, Ted Simmons and Tony Scott etched into the lineup.
But pitching will again be a question mark with four righthanded starters like Silvio Martinez. Pete Vuckovich, John Fulgham and Bob Forsch.
The Cubs have two name players, Dave Kingman and Bruce Sutter, and then a bunch of virtual unknowns.
Outfielders Jerry Martin and Bill Buckner bear watching along with catcher Barry Foote. And their biggest improvement comes from the Cardinals, who sent them second baseman Mike Tyson.
The Mets traded first baseman Richie Hebner to Detroit for centerf ielder Jerry Morales and third baseman Phil Mankowski.
But the biggest change in the team came in the front office, where New York publisher Nelson Doubleday, the great-grand nephew of Abner Doubleday, the man credited with inventing baseball, took over ownership from the Payson family.
Manager Joe Torre has a contract until the All-Star break. Enough said?