Elliott's 9 innings: Howarth, Jays layoffs, Kerfeld's year on road, Montoyo
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Another nine innings, post-season time -- one frame at a time:
Singing our national anthem at Tropicana Field is Miranda Lambert. Why her? Well, reason No. 1 is because all through that phase of ball clubs hosting post-game concerts, Lambert is the only one I ever saw ... the Jays would arrive a day or two late or too early so lots of near misses on concerts.
And No. 2 Lambert sang “How ‘Bout Them Cowgirls” with George Strait in front of 106,000 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex. at The King’s final concert.
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First inning
The road warriors also known as Your Toronto Blue Jays left Pearson International July 20 headed for Boston and a two-game exhibition series at Fenway Parks. The Jays will be on the field until at least Sept. 30, the date of Game 2 of their best-of-three series when the 8th-seeded Jays play the No. 1 ranked Tampa Bay Rays.
That’s 64 games in 72 days. Now, that’s a trip.
Was it the toughest ever stretch a team had to make in the game?
Charlie Kerfeld was managing the Grays Harbor Gulls in 1997 in the independent Western League in 1998. He recalls how they opened with six home dates at beautiful Olympic Stadium in Aberdeen, Wash.
Then, they headed to Sonoma, Calif. for a three-game series against the Sonoma County Crushers. The day after, the Gulls bus was about half-way through its 2 1/2 hour trip to Chico, Calif. to play the Chico Heat when Grays Harbour vice president and general manager Pat Brown phoned.
Brown wanted to talk. It was serious. Kerfeld said he could not with a busload of players.
At the next exit the bus got off the highway and players headed for fast food restaurants. Kerfeld returned the call and now Western League president Bruce Engel and Gulls management were on the phone. The franchise was folding after 3 1/2 seasons.
“The Gulls owner said it was over and told us to bring the bus back,” Kerfeld recalled. “The league president said ‘bring ‘em on to the next city, we’ll pay you, cover the costs.’ So there I am 21 players, two coaches and a trainer sitting on the side of the road in the bus.
“I looked around and thought ‘why not?’ The league wound up buying the bus so that was settled.”
And thus the Gulls -- re-named the Western Warriors -- continued on their 84-game trip ... 91 including the playoffs. Now, that’s a trip.
Kerfeld had a meeting with his players, explained what lay ahead and told them “I’ll try and trade you to any team in the league, we won’t hold anybody hostage. We had a few guys who were married.” Kerfeld had been in tough spots before pitching out of the Houston Astros bullpen in the 1986 National League Championship Series.
Following Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Bob Knepper and Jim Deshaies, Kerfeld had 11 wins and picked up seven saves as a 22-year old.
Two players left the Warriors. So, it was skipper Kerfeld, pitching coach Mike Voekel, hitting coach Dan Madson and trainer Beth Jarrett looking after the troops.
“We lived on that bus,” said Kerfeld about the hours spent travelling to Nevada, to Oregon, to Pasco, Wash. to California playing Mission Viejo, Pacific, Sonoma and Chico. “Teams in the Atlantic League and the Can-Am spent seasons on the road, but they were mostly 3-to-4 hour trips. We had some that were 10-to-12 hours.”
“It’s almost like I had 20 sons,” said Kerfeld as they travelled to play the Bend Bandits, Tri-City Posse, Pacific Suns and the Mission Viejo Vigilantes, managed by former Montreal Expos skipper Buck Rodgers. “We lived on that bus. We probably spent 500 hours on the bus. The league gave us $50 a month to wash our clothes
“We ate together and we drank together. It was a lot like frat house.”
In what was his fifth year managing indy ball, Kerfeld said he loosened the rules a lot in 1998.
“I’d tell them ‘sweep two series in a row, I’ll buy pizza and beer after,’” Kerfeld said. “I was the only one with the answers and I only had half of them. A season like that helps you communicate in life.”
Kerfeld would give up his room when a player’s wife would join the team in a town for a series. The manager would bunk in with another player.
A lot of times the home team’s booster club would come tapping on the bus door when it was getaway day for the Warriors. They gave them sandwiches and drinks since they felt sorry for the men of the road.
It was “the Warriors against the world.” Much like the homeless Blue Jays against the teams in the east.
So how close was the Gulls Harbor Gulls/Western Warriors experience to what the Blue Jays experienced this season?
“I played with Charlie Montoyo in winter ball when we were with Indios de Mayaguez, he’s a good talker,” Kerfeld said. “I liked him a lot.”
“The guys on our independent team -- our whole club, including my salary ... times five -- wouldn’t equal the major league minimum,” Kerfeld said. “A lot of my guys were on the last legs of their career. We weren’t flying charter airlines.”
While the Warriors stayed at Motel 6, the Jays were at their usual spots, the Hyatt, a Marriott or the Viscount Vinoy.
“We could go out at night,” said Kerfeld, “no one was watching. All 30 major-league teams couldn’t go out on the road.”
Playing the Bend Bandits, the visitors batted in the bottom of the ninth.
“We’re the home team, we walked Dirty Al Gallagher’s team off. The first game it’s the ninth inning, we’re in Bend and we score. All of a sudden it’s ‘Hey this game’s over.’” Three straight walk-offs in the other club’s park.
Philadelphia Phillies scout Charlie Kerfeld keeping his eye on the ball.
“It was like no other season I’ve ever had,” said Kerfeld the Philadelphia Phillies most respected scout. “A lot of times I asked myself ‘why did I take this on?’”
Kerfeld kept the long-distance dream alive for that group and still hears from many of his ex players. It was a team that had fun and won. They won the best-of-five semi-final series against the Reno Chukars, before being swept by Sonoma County in the final.
In all, he managed nine seasons of indy ball, compiling a 421-397 record with the Beaumont Bullfrogs, Abilene Prairie Dogs, Grays Harbor Gulls, Reno BlackJacks, Chico Heat (going 57-35, .633 and 55-35, .611) and the Gulls/Warriors.
His best teams were in Chico were he went 57-33 (winning percentage .633 in 2000, 56-34 (.622) in 2001 and in 2002 (55-35) .611). Some of his best memories remain with the Warriors.
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Second inning
Most trips consist of 10 days.
The Cleveland Spiders of the National League went on the road for a 114-game trip in 1899. The Spiders finished with a 20-134 record (.130 winning percentage) 84 games behind the Brooklyn Superbas.
When the GOP national convention came to Houston, it forced the Astros on the road for 28 days and 26 games.
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Third inning
As for the longest indy league trips:
The 2015 Frontier Grays of the independent Frontier League, managed by Viny Ganz, played 96 road games.
The 2014 Grays, managed by Kyle Haines, played 95 Frontier road games.
In 2013 the same Grays travelling road show Brent Metheny over a 95-game Frontier trip.
Another vagabond team, the 2007 Grays played 94 Can Am games away from home under Dan Shwam.
The 2011 New York Federals played 93 Can Am road games in 2011.
The Grays played 92 games in the independent Can Am league in 2005 for manager Chris Carminucci.
The Garden State Grays were on the road in 2015 playing 60 games under manager by T.J. Stanton.
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Fourth inning
You can go from Bobby Cox to Cito Gaston to John Gibbons and ask the manager who they would start -- assuming everyone is rested -- and the answer would be “my ace.”
Add to the name post-season Game 1 starters like Dave Stieb, Tom Candiotti, Jack Morris, Juan Guzman, David Price, Marco Estrada -- and Marcus Stroman in the wild-card game -- Matt Shoemaker.
Whether it was Cox, two-time World Series champ Gaston or Gibbons, all three managers had post-season wins, they would have gone with Hyun Jin Ryu. If Ryu had pitched and won Game 1 all the pressure would have been on the hometown Rays, the top seed.
Shoemaker pitched well, but the decision to start him was not manager Charlie Montoyo’s. It’s a group call with the analytics and the deep thinkers having most of the input and Montoyo having to give 100% of the answers.
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Fifth inning
Typing the names Candiotti and Morris brings back a memory from about five years ago when the pair bumped into each other at an airport. Candiotti told Morris the story about passing Twins starter Morris on the work out day before Game 1 of the 1991 American League Championship Series.
Candiotti passed Morris in the hallway one going and one coming to the interview room and remembered saying to Morris “Good luck tomorrow.” And Candiotti recalls Morris saying “I don’t need luck to beat you.”
“Ah, I was probably thinking of him when he was with the Cleveland Indians,” said Morris.
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Sixth inning
Besides the names Blue Jays fans know -- like former Cy Young award winner Pat Hengten, who pitched, coached and helped in any way general managers J.P. Ricciardi, Alex Anthopoulos and Ross Atkins wanted come draft time and durable reliever Paul Quantrill, who after his playing career served as a pitching instructor, many more employees were not retained.
In all, 163 combined seasons of work for Your Blue Jays.
We’ve been told some may be invited to spring training in a reduced role next season.
Hentgen, special assistant to the organization, who pitched, coached and evaluated is gone ... after 32 years.
Jesus Figueroa, assistant coach, rookie-class Dominican Summer League ... after 31 years
Dave Pano, position coach, class-A Lansing ... after 20 years.
Bob Tarpey, trainer, triple-A Buffalo ... after 16 years
Darold Knowles, rehab pitching coordinator ... after 15 years.
Brian Pike, strength and conditioning, double-A New Hampshire ... after 15 years.
Quantrill, special assistant to the organization, after pitching as a reliever and serving as roving pitching instructor ... after 11 years.
Ken Huckaby, scheduled to manage triple-A Buffalo, instead ran the satellite camp at Rochester ... after 10 seasons.
Rafael Lazo, pitching coach, class-A Bluefield ... after seven years.
Stephanie Wilson, special assistant, nutrition ... after four years.
David Aardsma, rehab pitching coordinator ... after two seasons.
Jerry Howarth, a man who I have never seen drink a beer, now has a brand named after him — Hello Friends. Saint Mary and Jerry’s son Joe is on one knee.
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Seventh inning
Jerry Howarth has retired. Yet, you can still hear “Hello Friends.”
Left Field Brewery has named its new hazy IPA “Hello friends,” after the future Hall of Famer’s distinctive opening line.
Howarth showed for the launch of the new brand.
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Eighth inning
Congrats to Tom Young, who pushes all the right buttons behind Ben Wagner and Mike Wilner on the Jays games on radio. The final game of the season was his 2,000th. Tom Cheek would have said used “the first 2,000 are the hardest.”
You sometimes can hear Young chuckle when there is on-air humor.
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Ninth inning
The Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs have a pair of prospects for the June draft.
The pair are 6-foot-4, 240-pound Evan Elliott (Toronto Ont.) and 6-foot-4, 200-pound Cam Thickson (Winnipeg Man.). Elliott, no relation, has had his fastball clocked at 92-to-95 MPH for coach Todd Hubka. Thickson was 90-to-93 MPH before undergoing Tommy John surgery.
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10th inning
Minnesota Twins’ scout Walt Burrows (Brentwood Bay, BC) picked his all-time British Columbia team he scouted since 1991 and likewise for Ontario. Now, Claude Pelletier (Ste-Lazare, Que.), long-time Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets scout is on deck with the best he scouted in Quebec.