Candelaria Gets Even With Samuel

By BILL PLASCHKE

March 7, 1991 12 AM PT

VERO BEACH, Fla. — In the most unusual incident of the spring, pitcher John Candelaria has admitted hitting Juan Samuel on purpose in an intrasquad game Tuesday because Samuel hit a game-winning homer against him six years ago.

Candelaria has promised to buy Samuel dinner on the first day of the regular season for being a good sport after Candelaria plunked him on the left arm with a fastball.

“It is unbelievable, but it is the truth,” a smiling Samuel said Wednesday. “Candy told me that he finally got even with me after hitting me with that pitch. I said, ‘Why do you need to get even with me?’ He told me about the home run, when I was with Philadelphia and he was with Pittsburgh.

“I didn’t even remember the home run. But now I got a bruise to prove it.”

In answering a question immediately after the intrasquad game, Candelaria acknowledged that he hit Samuel on purpose. But it was assumed he was joking.

Candelaria had said, “I had to hit him . . . it’s been six long years, and pay-back can be a pain.”

Then he laughed.

Samuel has no hard feelings.

“The guy is a competitor, I guess this proves it,” he said.

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Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke, an L.A. Times sports columnist since 1996, is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He has been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards. He is the author of six books, including a collection of his columns entitled “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs.” Plaschke is also a panelist on the popular ESPN daily talk show, “Around the Horn.” He is in the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters Alumni Hall of Fame and has been named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Big Brothers/Big Sisters as well as receiving a Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center. Plaschke has appeared in a movie (“Ali”), a dramatic HBO series (“Luck”) and, in a crowning cultural moment he still does not quite understand, his name can be found in a rap song “Females Welcome” by Asher Roth.