Ian Casselberry at the very fine Tigers blog www.blessyouboys.com reports that sources suggest that the Tigers hitting coach, Lloyd McClendon* may have been partly responsible for the Tigers hitting woes last year.
Apparently, Miguel Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez and Placido Polanco refused to work with him and Curtis Granderson and other Tiger hitters travelled to Toledo to work with Mud Hens batting coach Leon Durham rather than work with McClendon. One of the sources refers to McClendon as manager Jim Leyland's "buddy".**
OK, NOW HOLD ON JUST ONE COTTON-PICKIN SECOND HERE!
I don't think these "sources" know who they are talking about nor do they know their history very well. Pull up a chair.
In the 1971 Little League World Series, Lloyd McClendon hit 5 home runs in a row and in the championship game after he hit his first home run, he was intentionally walked 4 times! THE GUY HIT 5 CONSECUTIVE HOME RUNS! He was an absolute beast at 12 years old! Pre-pubescent pitchers whimpered in fear when he came to the plate!
As far as replacing him as the Tigers hitting coach, if McClendon was just any old little leaguer like Kelly Leak or someone well then ok BUT THE GUY HIT 5 HOME RUNS IN A ROW IN THE 1971 LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES AND THEN WAS INTENTIONALLY WALKED 4 TIMES AFTER THAT! I am sure that he did not forget how to hit! You are supposed to get smarter with age, you know.
Who are you going to replace him with? George Brett? Rod Carew? Tony Gwynn? How many home runs did they hit in a row at the Little League World Series?
Ok, then. So give it a rest.
*He is playing a really shallow "OF" in that card.
**Normally any buddy of the Marlboro Man is no buddy of mine but I will make an exception here because of McClendon's 1971 performance. Think that's a dumb reason? Think you could hit 5 home runs in a row? Case closed.
7 comments:
LOL. Nicely put.
This kind of perspective is exactly what Sabermetrics is all about. Cold hard facts don't lie.
Impressive, but then he got walked four times in a row. At age 12, one might have forgotten how to hit with all that time off.
If they need a walking coach, then sure. How to take pitches outside? Call Lloyd.
Remember, baseball is a fickle mistress. "What have you done for me lately?" is often heard escaping her full lips. Her answer to Lloyd would be, "Four walks. Keep on walkin', son. Call me when you grow up."
On the other hand, if I had a chance to travel to Toledo, I'd be on that bus in a minute.
And you can tell Computer Boy I'll start posting more when he does.
Actually, I've lined up two posts that will post in the coming days.
When I saw the headline, I thought this post was going to be about how Lloyd Carr caused all the woefulness in Ann Arbor this season.
As for McClendon, if he was at that bar with Miggy, we would never know about this. He would have cut him off, drove him home, tucked him in, and then Miggy would have had some hits that final weekend, instead of none.
Ken,
Exactly!
Look at the stats. Even if they are 38 years old, it still happened.
Kevin
Mark,
True story. I was at a Toledo Mud Hens game with Computer Boy and we were standing at the left field fence as Computer Boy was hoping for a home run ball. A nice guy strolls up and starts talking in a Southern accent. He explains to a group of us that he just moved up to Toledo from well somewhere down there. Someone in the crowd responded, "Why?". Civic pride is a little lacking there for some reason.
Computer Boy is a bit "selfish" with regards to posting in that he enjoys reading posts from others but sometimes is less than enthusiastic about putting up his own. Once he reads this though, he may be shamed which might provoke some motivation on his part; though that is probably in "longshot" territory. He's plowing through a few books right now.
Kevin
Sewing Machine Guy,
Sometimes as hitting coach, your duties go beyond the diamond or even the ballpark and I agree that Lloyd was deficient there.
Kevin
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