Kirk Gibson’s achievement as a manager this year, I think, is comparable to what he did as a hitter in the opening game of the 1988 World Series.
The pinch-hit, game-winning home run Gibson slugged on his one healthy leg with two out in the ninth inning was instant and one of the most electrifying events in baseball history. It is a fixed moment in anyone’s recollection of memorable World Series moments.
In that regard, Gibson’s effect on the Arizona Diamondbacks as their manager hasn’t been electric, but it has been immensely effective and awesomely inspirational beyond expectations.
On July 1 of last season bench-coach Gibson took over a team that had finished last in 2009 and was last again with a 31-48 record under A.J. Hinch. Even under the interim Gibson the Diamondbacks were no better, compiling a 34-49 record.
But this season Gibson has managed the Diamondbacks into first place in the National League West. At the start of play Sunday they had an 85-61 record and a 9 1/2-game lead over last year’s World Series winner, the San Francisco Giants.
The meteoric journey from last to first began the October day that the new general manager, Kevin Towers, hired only 12 days earlier, named Gibson manager.
“I’ve admired him as a player,” Towers said, explaining his choice, “the way he played the game, a man who respects the game and played that way. You can’t help but admire how he played.”
Towers also liked the fact that Gibson had played for Sparky Anderson in Detroit and served as Jim Leyland’s bench coach for a year with the Tigers in 2006 before he moved to Arizona as the Diamondbacks’ bench coach.
“Sparky and Leyland molded him,” Towers said in a telephone interview Friday.
Two other factors contributed to Towers’ decision. After the San Diego Padres ended Towers’ 14-year tenure as their general manager after the 2009 season, he worked briefly for the New York Yankees and encountered Jerry Krause, who had become a baseball scout after an illustrious career as general manager of the N.B.A. Chicago Bulls.
“He put a bug in my ear,” Towers related, “that there’s a guy who reminded him of Phil Jackson,” who was Krause’s championship coach in Chicago. That was not a bad reference.”
It helped lead Towers in Gibson’s direction, but the clinching factor was a series of meetings Towers had with Gibson.
“We spent nearly two weeks talking about everything,” Towers said, “the type of identity he would like to create for the Diamondbacks, for example. I was very impressed. I decided if this is the type of guy I’m going to put my neck in a noose for, he’s the right guy.”
Once Towers named Gibson, they continued talking, the subject now how to turn the Diamondbacks into what they both wanted.
“Taking over at mid-season last year,” Towers said, “he didn’t have the opportunity to implement things he wanted to. I thought he deserved that opportunity.”
“I inherited some good players, but Gibby wanted to try to change the chemistry of the club. We wanted to get back to basics, which we did in spring training. We wanted to do a better job of holding runners. We’ve done that.”
One other thing. Towers and Gibson wanted the players to add swagger to their game. “We wanted them to be proud of being a Diamondback,” Towers said.
In a perfect world, everything would have proceeded as planned from the beginning, but remember: this team lost 97 games last season. Thirty-seven games into this season, the Diamondbacks had lost 22 times, including the last five games.
“We could have rolled over,” Towers said, “but we played a game in Los Angeles and won, 1-0.” They took off from there, averaging three victories in every five games since.
“We’ve kept it simple; that’s what Gibby is good at,” Towers said. “We focus on one game at a time, one at-bat at a time.”
Gibson’s team has already gained a reputation the manager and general manager can be proud of. “Everybody I talk to in baseball,” Towers related, “says ‘you guys play hard.’”
“You guys” might be accurate and appropriate, but a glance at the Diamondbacks’ hitting statistics shows it’s one guy. He is the right fielder, Justin Upton, who is having the year of his 24-year-old life.
Entering Saturday’s games, Upton was leading the National League in total bases (299), extra-base hits (73), runs scored (97) and doubles (38). He was among the top 10 in a bunch of other hitting categories.
He has already achieved career highs in some categories and will have career highs in virtually every category by the end of the season.
Towers credited Don Baylor, the team’s new hitting coach; Gibson and Upton himself for Upton’s improvement.
“Upton was the face of the organization,” Towers said, “and Gibby told him to forget that. ‘You don’t need that,’ Gibby told him. ‘There are a lot of veterans who can carry some of the load.’ That took a load off his shoulders and he was able to go out and just play.”
Upton’s name dominates the offensive categories, making him a leading candidate for the most valuable player award. Taking nothing away from Upton, Baylor said he wasn’t a one-man team.
“There are other players who have made tremendous contributions,” Baylor said. “They’re just not in the top 10. They win big games for us.”
Baylor was being diplomatic. Yes, other players have helped win games, but Upton has been the most consistent most productive player. How has Baylor helped him get to this stage?
“I talk to him about a lot of situations,” said Baylor, who has been a highly successful hitting coach wherever he has held that job. “He just turned 24 last week. I don’t know if the previous guys had the experience. Maybe they were scared off. That doesn’t bother me. I had Sheffield.”
Upton, Baylor noted, “came up when he was 19, a baby, and a lot was expected of him. You need that veteran who will take him under his wing,” Baylor said. “Twice he was thrown out of games. I said somebody needs to sit down and talk to him.”
Baylor recalled two instances where talking to Upton helped make him a better player.
Getting hit by pitches was becoming a problem, Baylor said, because Upton wanted to charge the mound when he was hit. Upton was in the right place at the right time because Baylor was hit by more pitches in his playing career than any other player.
“I talked to him and he didn’t charge the mound and get kicked out,” Baylor said.
In the other instance, Upton threw a bat toward the stands, and it sailed over the home plate umpire’s head.
“We said this has to stop,” Baylor related. “Kirk and I talked to him.” That was early last month. “Since then,” the coach added, “he’s been hitting great.”
HE PITCHES SHUTOUTS REGULAR-LEE
When Cliff Lee gets in a streak like this, the opposing manager may as well just put his lineup card on the mound and tell his players to take the day off. If he doesn’t give them the day off, Lee will, and that will be more demoralizing.
In the interest of full disclosure, Lee does give up an occasional run. Milwaukee, in fact, scored two runs against the Philadelphia left-hander Saturday night, though one of the runs was unearned, the result of an errant throw.
But the run that was earned was only the third against Lee in his last seven starts, which in 55 2/3 innings computes to a 0.485 earned run average.
In his previous start, against Atlanta Sept. 5, Lee pitched a shutout, marking his 11th start this season in which he pitched at least seven innings and allowed no runs.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, Lee is only the seventh pitcher in post-1919 history to achieve that status. Bob Gibson leads with 13 such games in 1968), Dean Chance had 12 in 1964) and four pitchers had 11 each: Carl Hubbell in 1933, Sandy Koufax in 1963, John Tudor in 1985 and Dwight Gooden in 1985.
SEND BUD’S BREWERS BACK TO A.L.
Jim Crain, a Houston businessman, who is in the process of buying the Houston Astros, was grumbling last week that it was taking Major League Baseball so long to approve the transaction.
He was quoted by the Houston Chronicle as saying he believed approval of the deal was being delayed to pressure him into agreeing to move the Astros to the American League.
There has been talk in recent months that Commissioner Bud Selig wants to even up the leagues with 15 teams each instead of staying with 16 teams in the National League and 14 in the American.
The idea would be to move the Astros into the A.L. West as a rival of the Texas Rangers and also to give the Rangers a team in the same time zone rather than continue with all of the other teams in the division in the Pacific time zone.
When George Bush ran the Rangers before he took a job elsewhere, he objected to the Rangers being dumped in the A.L. West because of the time difference.
But if Jim Crain doesn’t want to move the Astros, I have the perfect solution, and I offer it to the commissioner at no cost. Move the Milwaukee Brewers back to the American League, whence they came. Milwaukee is in the same time zone as Houston.
When the Brewers’ owner, Bud Selig, agreed to have his team change leagues, he said he was doing it because no one else wanted to switch. Skeptics believed Selig agreed to switch leagues because it was a better deal economically, but I can’t imagine that anyone would believe such a thing.