Word: dodger
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...terribly disappointing to have faith in someone as a role model and have them turn out to be tainted," complained Gladys Roost, 80, a Dodger fan in Los Angeles. Shirley Murphy, 33, a secretary in Baltimore, agreed. "It is a damn shame that these guys can't depend on their talent to see them through," she said. Declared Ralph Bass, 63, a Texas Ranger booster: "Making that kind of money, they ought to set a better example...
Joaquin Andujar, pitching ace of the St. Louis Cardinal staff who last week became the season's first 20-game winner, was sitting in Dodger Stadium watching Los Angeles Outfielder Pedro Guerrero taking batting practice. Andujar's thoughts about the perennial .300 hitter went beyond the manicured Los Angeles diamond back to the rocky fields of San Pedro de Macoris, a hardscrabble town in the Dominican Republic where, as a teenager, he had first hurled fastballs and curves to Guerrero. Both Andujar, 32, and Guerrero, 29, are the sons of sugarmill workers, and there was little money. But, the pitcher...
Coming to bat for Los Angeles is Catcher Mike Scioscia, a contact hitter. "The bases are still drunk," Catcher Gary Carter calls out a reminder. "Let's get the double play," barks Third Baseman Ray Knight. Joey Amalfitano, the Dodger coach at third base, wigwags some semaphore to Scioscia, who flicks his helmet to signal message received. Gooden looks at Knight and mouths, "Squeeze bunt?" Knight looks at Amalfitano and says, "Too obvious." At first base, Keith Hernandez gives thought to visiting Gooden, but reconsiders. "What am I going to tell him? Bear down?" Bearing down, Gooden makes Scioscia foul...
...three to Brock were all 94 m.p.h., all exactly 94 m.p.h.," sighs the Dodgers' Mike Brito, whose department this is, "and the one to Scioscia was just 92." He lurks behind the backstop, aiming a radar gun as purposefully as Clint Eastwood. "Straight change-ups 71, hard curves 78, soft ones 73," he mutters in review. "Ninety-mile-per-hour fast balls the whole game long, and his best stuff is waiting at the end. I'm telling you, this kid is amazing." A mustachioed Cuban in a white straw hat, Brito is the Dodger scout who discovered 17-year...
...next Dodger, Terry Whitfield, is a pinch hitter customarily, pressed into the lineup by injuries. Maybe because he spent three seasons in Japan, his hitting theories are serenely uncomplicated. "A lot of players think at the plate," he says. "I just hack. I go up there, I see the ball, I hit it." What he will see from Gooden, if he can see them, are all fast balls, and all strikes. Catcher Carter stopped proposing anything else after Gooden shook off two curves. "If he wants to throw something you don't want him to throw," Manager Johnson has advised...