The Barber's student

Carlos Quentin and the other players on the San Diego Padres roster should be very glad the late Don Drysdale is no longer pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Quentin is the Padres batter who was hit by a pitched ball during a game with the Dodgers. He charged the mound, started a brawl, and injured Dodgers pitcher Zach Greinke.

Drysdale learned much about his craft from Sal “The Barber” Maglie and Maglie was unbothered by the thought of a batter who was unhappy about inside pitches. Neither was Drysdale who, by the way, was large enough and tough enough to handle any batter that ventured from the batter’s box toward the mound.

Drysdale’s mantra was that the pitcher owned half the plate and the batter owned half the plate. The pitcher, Drysdale figured, could decide which half he wanted on each delivery. If the batter stuck his head into a Drysdale fastball, oh well. Bring up the next guy.

And if an opposing batter injured a Dodgers pitcher? Oh Lord, Drysdale pitched every fourth day. He’d have his moment.

In his book, Once a Bum, Always a Dodger, Drysdale wrote that he believed his teammates played hard behind him because of a simple piece of arithmetic he practiced. If an opposing pitcher threw at a Dodgers hitter, Drysdale threw at two opposing batters. Hit a Dodger and two of your teammates would be serviced by the Barber’s pupil, Mr. Drysdale.

Pitchers, by the way, had to face Drysdale as batters. There was no designated hitter. And remember, too, that Dysdale’s career started before batters wore helmets.

Anyone interested in stepping in without a batting helmet against an angry Don Drysdale? Not me.

Quentin has been hit by pitches 116 times in his Major League career. He is the most-hit batsman active in the Majors today. Do you think there might be something wrong with his approach?

Greinke was injured when Quentin rushed the mound and slammed into Greinke. The Dodgers’ pitcher is out for eight weeks or so. Quentin was suspended for eight games, which is in keeping with punishments for similar incidents.

But when Drysdale was pitching, the real punishment would have come in the batter’s box. Helmet or no helmet, the message would have been delivered one fastball at a time.

In all honesty, I think the game was better served when the players enforced the rules.

I once covered a high school player, a pitcher, who threw a 93 miles an hour fastball. He eventually played in the majors for 20 seasons and had that heater all the way through his career. When he was still playing high school ball, his pitching coach always wanted him to put a warm-up pitch halfway up the screen behind the plate just before the first opposing batter was due to come up.

The coach wanted the opposition to wonder if the pitcher had his control that day; whether that 93-mile an hour missile was going to be around the plate or traveling through the batter’s box as the game progressed.

When Don Drysdale was pitching, control was not an issue. Sooner or later (probably sooner), Mr. Maglie’s finest student would present the multiplicative formula, two of yours for one of mine, to the waiting multitudes.

And recess would be over.

 

Thanks for reading. And, wherever you are Double D, thanks for the memories.