Elliott's 9 innings: Buffalo's Rock Pile, Easter, Frobel, Puhl, Redford
A view from Buffalo’s War Memorial press box to the short right field porch.
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Finally a home game for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Even if it is at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, N.Y.
And before we get rolling Doug Allen, Buffalo Sabres legendary anthem singer, will kick things off with his magical voice.
* * *
First inning
The first time I saw a ball game in Buffalo was 1981.
It was during the 51-day strike and the office sent me to see the double-A Buffalo Bisons play the Holyoke Millers. The then Bisons were in the Pittsburgh Pirates system and had OF Doug Frobel (Ottawa, Ont.) in the lineup. The Millers were a California Angels farm team.
Frobel, an Ottawa-Nepean Canadians grad, had a heck of a year at Buffalo: hitting .251 with 17 doubles, three triples, 28 homers, 78 RBIs and an .807 OPS in 135 games before a September promotion to Pittsburgh.
The War Memorial, also known as the Rock pile where the Buffalo Bills and Cookie Gilchrist starred, was 290 feet to left, 410 to centre and 310 to right, although it played shorter than that.
We really don’t remember what Frobel did in the three or four games that we were there. The most vivid memory we have is talking to Bisons’ manager Johnny Lipon. He had played parts of nine seasons with the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Browns. He managed 31 seasons in the minors, including the 1961 Toronto Maple Leafs ... 4,536 games in all.
Lipon knew his way around a rock pile. So, during practice he stationed five of six fielders in the right field stands to chase down BP drives and beat teenagers to loose balls.
One name we remember was WARTHEN, with a bucket. Dan Warthen pitched parts of four seasons for the Montreal Expos, Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros. He went on to become a pitching coach for 20 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and the Texas Rangers.
Warthen may have been the best pitching coach this side of Ron Perranoski, Galen Cisco or Larry Bearnarth, but every time I saw him on TV I thought on him in Buffalo that day grabbing BP balls and putting them into the ball bucket.
Just as Lipon and I finished talking about Frobel, Holyoke Jim Saul excused himself. Saul had played in the minors 14 years and managed 22 years. He should have known his way around a rock pile.
Saul said, “I didn’t take your advice last night. I didn’t put any pitchers in right field for batting practice. We’re out of balls. The kids grabbed all our balls. Could you give us a couple of boxes and we’ll repay you when you come to our place.”
Only at the rock pile.
The walk-off scene in The Natural … filmed at Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium.
* * *
Second inning
Of course, the War Memorial was where The Natural starring Robert Redford, was filmed in 1984.
Montreal Expos executive Gene Kirby, was hired as a creative consultant. When he returned from Buffalo to Montreal, I asked how creative he has to be on the film based Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel of the same name. Baseball is baseball.
Kirby quickly had vital answers which included:
Players blowing a type of gum which had not been invented in the 1950s.
Players carrying their gloves into the dugout. In the 1950s Kirby said an outfielder would flip his glove on the grass and pick it up the next half inning.
And in the key scene ... Redford goes deep with the game-winning homer ... knocking out the stand of lights atop the right field grandstand ... the lights explode ... and rounding third, Redford heads for the dugout without touching the plate. Whoops.
Former Ottawa-Nepean Canadians/Cambridge Terrier RHP Peter Rywak (Nepean, Ont.) adds ...
The 1980 American League Rookie of the Year Joe Charboneau had a role as an extra in The Natural. He was in a locker room scene and also during singing of National Anthem in the Movie.
Joe lived in Buffalo in the summer of 1983 after being released from the double-A Bisons that year. He ended up playing for the powerhouse semi-pro Buffalo Voyageurs team that summer after the owner got him some side jobs working in a bar and other places.
A few players from the Voyageurs team played for our Cambridge Terrier Intercounty team, and made the drive to Cambridge for games. So I recall they also went for auditions as extras for the movie but not selected. Also remember our Cambridge GM (Cam Allan) had the players ask Joe if wanted to play some games for the Terriers as that would have been a huge crowd draw. Unfortunately he was not able. The Buffalo players all said Joe was a great guy to play with that summer.
And Rywak adds again with former Intercounty Cambridge Terrier GM Cam Allan and Allan said he remembers going to see the Voyageurs play in 1983 at War Memorial during the filming of the Natural.
Allan did talk to Joe about coming up to Cambridge to play a few games but it did not work for him.
After the Voyageurs game Cam got a tour of inside the War Memorial and met the then ticket sales manager, Duke McGuire. His ticket sales office was in the Movie a lot.
Duke was a playing manager for the class-A Niagara Falls Pirates and Cam tried to sign him to play some games in Cambridge.
McGuire works Bisons games from the radio booth and in a member of the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame.
* * *
Third inning
A habit I have when visiting parks for the first time I search for a veteran usher and ask, “Who hit the longest home run you ever saw hit in this park?”
The answer in Buffalo was Luke Easter.
The answer at MacArthur Stadium at triple-A Syracuse was Luke Easter.
The answer at Frontier Field in triple-A Rochester was Luke Easter.
The answer at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana, Cuba, was Luke Easter.
He hit 93 homers in six seasons with the Cleveland Indians and 247 in 4,368 plate appearances with the Homestead Grays in the Negro Leagues, triple-A San Diego, triple-A Indianapolis, triple-A Ottawa, triple-A Charleston, Buffalo and Rochester.
* * *
Fourth inning
If you had to pick one Blue Jay hitter from this group (alphabetical order) Carlos Delgado, Shawn Green, Fred McGriff or John Olerud ... who would it be? Numbers later
* * *
Fifth inning
The Blue Jays signed their first-round pick shortstop Austin Martin from the Vanderbilt Commodores for a signing bonus second to only RHP Alek Manoah the first round choice from 2019. Rogers Communications co-owner Edward Rogers, president of Rogers Media Jordan Banks, Jays president Mark Shapiro, general manager Ross Atkins and scouting director Shane Farrell agreed to give Martin a $7,000,825 US bonus.
There has been talk among scouts that Martin had a case of the yips -- unable to throw the ball to first base accurately. Hence the reason for the position move (from infield to outfield).
Said one insider: “He did look tentative making throws during the first week of the season at third base and has had some arm injuries in the past. That is why he moved. I think the consensus among scouts is that playing him on the left side of the infield would be a stretch. Think he winds up at second base or centre field. He can really hit, though.”
* * *
Sixth inning
Since we are in a Buffalo state of mind ... let’s go back to Buffalo native Joe Hesketh who pitched for Buck Rodgers and the Montreal Expos. Now, we are going to enter the Ted Lilly-John Gibbons world to put things in proper prospective.
Like Lilly, Hesketh had a huge lead in the fifth inning needing only an out to be the pitcher or record. The pitching coach made a visit without settling down matters. Hesketh threw a pitch on the corner, the ump adjudged ball four and Hesketh stepped off the mound walking toward second in frustration with his back to the Expos dugout.
Out came Rodgers. Eventually, Hesketh turned, saw Rodgers -- which meant there would be zero chance of the lefty getting a win -- and threw his arms into the air.
“He could have been saying ‘Buck you know something ... I’ve never told you, but you are the best manager in the world,’ but with those hands in the air .... nope. I don’t think the people in the seats thought that. Let’s say this I don’t think he’ll do it again.”
* * *
Seventh inning
Former Houston Astro CF Terry Puhl (Melville, Sask.) who played without the use of banging garbage cans tells this story about a trip to Montreal.
“(Coach) Billy DeMars is hitting fly balls to Larry Walker,” Puhl said. “I had my mind made up - I was going to find out the secret to Andre Dawson’s success. I went into the cage.
“I only needed to watch four swings as he hit off the tee. The bat speed. The strength. The reason he was better than everyone else was because he was stronger than everyone else.”
For Puhl it was a four-pitch deduction.
* * *
Eighth inning
Morgan Sword, executive vice president, economics and operations at the commissioner’s office, is the man given credit/blame for slashing the roster of minor league teams.
This was long before the virus.
Why is that city losing its franchise someone asked of one burg?
“Bad stadium.”
A minor-league owner asked “What kind of facility do Oakland and Tampa Bay have?”
* * *
Ninth inning
Going off my shaky memory James O’Leary and I met at an NHL draft in Montreal in the early 1980s. I was always impressed with his writing, work ethic and his innate ability to get the story ... the news. I forget who said it first but the line was “they call it a newspaper for a reason -- there is supposed to be news in it.”
We really became close in the spring of 1987. He and I shared a condo and he would pepper me with machine-gun questions: why do managers wear uniforms, they don’t in any other sport? Why do they call it a foul pole? Why is George Bell such a ...? James had moved from being a hockey columnist to a general columnist (hockey one day, football the next, baseball, etc. etc.)
Then, came March 17. Bell refused to DH, staying put leaning up against the tarp down the left field line. The PA announcer said in almost one sentence “Now batting George Bell ... pinch hitting for Bell No. 26 Willie Upshaw.” Out popped Jimmy Williams of the dugout and he strode to where Bell was. Williams dropped a maximum $500 fine on Bell.
The problem was -- while Chicago Cubs OF Andre Dawson was having rose petals thrown in front of him in Arizona as National League MVP -- Bell, the AL MVP, had arrived in Florida to discover he had lost his job and would now DH. Lloyd Moseby moved from centre to left, while rookie Sil Campusano was given the centre field spot.
O’Leary tied a Toronto newspaper record writing seven straight days of excellent columns on the same subject (previous record held by the late John Roberston of The Star who lobbied for grass inside SkyDome). James went from about 90% anti Bell on Day 1 to 80% pro Bell over the seven days as more and more details emerged.
The thing I’ll remember most about O’Leary from that spring was me talking up BT Bones, a steak house, then me suffering an undisplaced fracture of the humours bone and having to wear a sling. Finally, we had an early night and made BT Bones ... except I couldn’t apply enough pressure to cut my steak. I tried. I tried. The steak was beginning to get cold.
I took a deep breath and said “ahhh, James do you think you think you could cut up my steak please.” James cut my steak into pieces, went back to his meal and after a suitable pause said, “No problem ... I do the same each night at diner for the kids.”
Since 1987 we’ve had many meals with Bev and Jim. Now, it is time for them to enjoy life and spoil their grandchildren.
Yet his retirement plans haven’t gotten off to a resounding start. His four-year-old grandson showing his corner kick skills kicked a rock off a composter. Jim didn’t get out of the way of the rock, which landed on the big toe of his right foot.
The toe is broken. First no travel due to COVID and now no golf for a few weeks.
The child felt bad but he learned a new word, which he has promised never to say in front of his mother.
Extras
Carlos Delgado
Yrs G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG OPS
17 2035 7283 2038 483 18 473 1512 .280 .383 .546 .929
Shawn Green
Yrs G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG OPS
15 1951 7082 2003 445 35 328 1070 .283 .355 .494 .850
Fred McGriff
Yrs G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG OPS
19 2460 8757 2490 441 24 493 1550 .284 .377 .509 .886
John Olerud
Yrs G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OBP SLG OPS
17 2234 7592 2239 500 13 255 1230 .295 .398 .465 .863