Thursday, September 07, 2006

Start Of An Era

Empy pointed out to me that today marks the day of Rich Gedman's Major League debut. 9/7/80. You'd think I would've known, since it says it on the back of his baseball cards, of which I have many. More than anyone in the world, I'd guess. I even have a Rich Gedman card that came inside the Orioles 1994 Yearbook. An update on my Gedman cardquest will be posted soon.

I've never done this before, but I'm finally going to give you a funny keyword search that led to my blog. It's like getting a tattoo--I was just waiting for the ultimate one to come up before deciding to take that next step. Ready?

"red sox pitching what went wrong"

Funny thing is, this blog doesn't even come up on the first three pages of sites if you type those words into Google. Whoever this person is, they're on a serious quest for answers. Good luck!


"From time to time, we'll go to beach and my son will leave and I'll say, 'Where are you going?' He says, 'I'm going to watch the Red Sox.' So I'll go with him." --Rich Gedman, January, 2003

Comments:
This post needs a comment or two, so here goes:

Rich Gedman was way overworked by McNamara in the '86, which might have been responsible for his passed ball in Game '6. Of course, since the backup was the atrocious Marc Sullivan, one could argue that McNamara didn't have much of a choice. Extreme nepotism...just another example of Haywood Sullivan's incompetence.

My high school english teacher was a friend of the Gedman family...don't remember the exact connection anymore.

I think we need another quiz, Jere.
 
Whoa, ginga:

"STANLEY REPLACED SCHIRALDI (PITCHING); Stanley threw a wild pitch [Mitchell scored, Knight to second]; Wilson reached on an error by Buckner [Knight scored (unearned)]"

Gedman was key in getting us as far as we got.

Maybe you could research that connection to the Geddy family. I'd like to find out any stories you can provide me on the helicopter-swinging one...
 
Yes, I know it's recorded as a wild pitch, but it always looked more like a passed ball to me, and a lot of folks agree with me. I don't mean it as a slam on Gedman; like I said, I think he was seriously fatigued at that point, having played every inning in the postseason after a long regular season without a competent backup. The blame for that falls on Haywood Sullivan for his blatant nepotism. I think blame for game 6 is much more fittingly placed on the manager for several really bad decisions that night, including not pinch-hitting Baylor, pinch-hitting Gedman, taking out Clemens, and not subbing Stapleton. I do think it's a shame that Stanley, who was a tremendous pitcher for the Sox foa a number of years, is remembered harshly by Sox fans because of that play.
 
Almost everyone says passed ball. But, nonetheless, wild pitch. I've always blamed McNamara alone for everything. And, yeah, Sullivan should get blame, too.

I'll always associate Stanley aka Steamer aka Big Foot with the rake and the beach balls.
 
Oops...where I said 'pinch-hitting Gedman', it should have said 'pinch-hitting Greenwell'.

I'll try to remember my teacher's connection with the Gedmans...I think he was brother-in-law to Gedman's cousin, or something like that.
 

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