Diamondbacks Go by the Buck, Not by the Book

There are some unwritten laws in baseball that players simply know are true. Sunflower seeds taste better in the dugout. The longer the road trip, the farther your hotel room will be from the elevator. And you are totally free to complain about the contract you just signed, either right before the ink is dry or as soon as you think the manager is misusing you, whichever comes first.

Actually, it’s all pretty comforting, this baseball law business, because you know what to expect. For instance, there’s no fifth-inning stretch, is there now?

Then something happens like that San Francisco Giant-Arizona Diamondback game Thursday night to mess up the whole thing.

You can count on mega-million-dollar contracts, brawls, franchises popping up like the fast-food kind, Mike Piazza getting traded every four or five days all right, but how about what Arizona Manager Buck Showalter did?

Let’s go to the scorebook. The Diamondbacks had an 8-6 lead with two out, the bases loaded and the Giants batting in the bottom of the ninth inning when Conventional Baseball Wisdom took a fastball on the chin.

That’s when Showalter ordered pitcher Gregg Olson to intentionally walk Barry Bonds to force in a run.

The last time this happened was, well, at first people thought maybe never. The Elias Sports Bureau, which knows more about baseball records than anyone except perhaps Ross Porter, had no clue.

However, veteran baseball writer Jack Lang recalled an instance. On July 23, 1944, Bill Nicholson of the Chicago Cubs had hit four consecutive home runs in a doubleheader against Mel Ott’s New York Giants. He came up with the bases loaded and the Giants leading, 12-9, when Ott ordered an intentional pass to Nicholson to force in a run. The Giants won, 12-10.

One thing we do know is that Showalter had not gone by “the book.”

The book of Conventional Baseball Wisdom clearly covers circumstances such as this one.

“If you go by the book, you never, ever put the winning run on base under any circumstances,” former manager Gene Mauch said.

Of course, the winning run already was on base. Showalter simply moved it from first to second.

Further opinions on the strategy varied.

“It was a gutsy move,” said the Giants’ Dusty Baker, the losing manager.

“It was a stupid move,” said the Giants’ Danny Darwin, the losing pitcher.

As it turned out, it was the right move.

After Bonds, Brent Mayne came up, the bases still loaded and the score now 8-7. Mayne worked the count to 3-and-2, then smashed the ball to right fielder Bret Brede, who caught it, clutched his chest and fell to his knees in relief. Game over.

When he really thought about it, Mauch wasn’t all that surprised by Showalter’s unorthodox tactic.

“Look, from my own experience, I managed one expansion team [the 1969 Montreal Expos] and one team that was worse than an expansion team [the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies], so since he’s got his own expansion team, you might even see Bucky do some more crazy things.”

From the safety of the clubhouse, Showalter said he didn’t consider what he did all that crazy. He preferred to characterize it as something more along the “unorthodox” line.

Statistics show that Bonds has been walked intentionally 10 times this season. Meanwhile, Showalter’s intentional-walks-ordered with the bases full, two out, a two-run lead and the bottom of the ninth, now number exactly one.

And it’s that one that Bonds is unhappy about. After the game, Bonds declined comment. Now, a baseball player being uncooperative . . . that’s something you can count on. Maybe things are getting back to normal quicker than we thought.