Dave Duncan, the 1982 Mariners and lost glory - My Latest for The Hardball Times

In my latest for The Hardball Times, I take a look at Dave Duncan and his legacy. He coached the White Sox into the playoffs and molded World Champion pitching staffs in Oakland and St. Louis, all the while turning unlikely pitchers into aces and Cy Young Award winners.

For one season he ran the pitching for the Seattle Mariners. Could he have put together a championship caliber rotation and bullpen there? If the stats on the 1982 Mariners were any indication, Seattle missed a big opportunity when they let Duncan go after his one year.

Go ahead and read the article here.

The 1977 Topps Dave Duncan card is a sight to behold

Seriously... take a good long look at this card.
I was about to write a post about Duncan and why I think he belongs in the Hall of Fame as a brilliant pitching coach.

But when looking for a picture for the post, I stumbled across this amazing card.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when a player switched teams in the off season, Topps would issue cards where a player's new team uniform and cap painted onto a picture.

Even as a 7 year old kid, I thought this practice was strange and I wasn't fooled.
The pictures often looked a little off. Like someone with a chive stuck in their teeth, you can't help but notice that it wasn't right.

This one of Dave Duncan is astounding for so many reasons.

First of all the paint job sucks.
If you painted it and are reading this blog, I'm sorry. It wasn't your best work. Everyone has done something that sucks. Kubrick had Eyes Wide Shut. Paul McCartney had Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time. You had the Dave Duncan 1977 Topps card.

It wasn't your finest hour.

Duncan, who was on the Orioles in 1976 was dealt to the White Sox for Pat Kelly in November of 1976. The editors of Topps dug up a close up of Duncan and started painting away.

The S-O-X on his cap is too squished. There is a strange attempt at a shadow on the hat. And of course the White Sox uniforms had lapels. So the artist slapped on fake lapels.

And let's face it, the blue neutral background looks kind of fake too.
So the only thing in this card of Dave Duncan that looks remotely real is his head.


It looks as real as when you stick your head in a hole to take a silly picture like I did at Pea Soup Andersen's last month.

And here's the kicker for me.
All that effort was made so when fans collecting cards could have Duncan on his current team.

Do you know how many games he played for the White Sox?

That would be zero.
He was cut in spring training and never played another game in the majors.

He went on to be the greatest pitching coach in my lifetime, turning around staffs and making mediocre pitchers into aces and multimillionaires.

He is leaving the Cardinals as a World Champion to take care of his ailing wife. I wish them both all the best and to get well.

And I hope Dave NEVER has to have lapels painted on a picture of him again.

Brad Penny had his no hitter broken up...

Seriously, if Brad Penny threw a no hitter... they should just put Dave Duncan in the Hall of Fame NOW!

Seriously... what does Dave Duncan know that we don't?

Under Dave Duncan's guidance, Dave Stewart, a career spot starter and long reliever, became a Cy Young contender and World Series MVP.

Dennis Eckersley became a Hall of Famer.

Chris Carpenter went from a broken down and forgotten piece from Toronto to a Cy Young winner in St. Louis.

Jeff Weaver went from being the Billy Bibbit of baseball to having ice water in his veins, winning the clinching game of the World Series.

Each year a new pitcher goes to St. Louis to see if Dave Duncan can do for them what the Cocoons did for Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley and Hume Cronyn.

Joel Pinero, Ryan Franklin, Kyle Loshe, Woody Williams, Garrett Stephenson and many more all saw their careers almost instantly improve when they put on the Cardinals uniform.


And now...

Brad Penny.

Yes the same Brad Penny who did his best to torpedo the Red Sox playoff chances last year before Theo waved the white flag.

Yeah, he pitched well for the Giants down the stretch, but today he shut them down, raising his record to 3-0 with a 0.94 ERA. He pitched into the 8th today and threw at least 7 innings in each of his 4 starts.

I refuse to put him in my NL Cy Young Award conversation just now.

Seriously... how does Dave Duncan do it?
Is he just smarter?
Or does he have a magic potion?

I would accept either answer.

Brad Penny looked like an ace... against the Astros

Seriously... Penny threw 7 innings with no earned runs, 3 hits and no walks against Houston.

That tells you one of two things:

Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan is an absolute genius

or

The Astros are a truly dreadful team.

I guess both can be true.

Did Bengie Molina call Joel Pineiro?

After weeks of speculation that Bengie Molina was heading to Queens, he wound up going back to the Giants... for reasons that I listed earlier.

Well Joel Pineiro was supposed to be heading to the Mets... and he signed on with the Angels.

Now as Rob Neyer pointed out, who knows which Pineiro will show up to Anaheim, the pitcher with the ERA north of 5 in Seattle or the but kicker in St. Louis whose career was revived by the magical Dave Duncan.

Either way, he said thanks but no thanks to the Mets and moved on to the Angels.

It's been that kind of off season for the Mets. Even PITCHERS are forsaking them. They play in a pitchers park in the weaker hitting National League.

And Pineiro basically said "thanks Mets... but I'm going back to the league where I posted an ERA over 5.00 the last 2 and a half seasons I played there."

Fantasy Owners... buy Chien-Ming Wang

I don't do Fantasy Baseball anymore. It is too time consuming and I am going to be spending lots of time on the internet looking up baseball things, it will be for my latest 25 man roster.

But I do offer this tip... buy Wang!

Chad Jennings at the LoHud Yankees Blog writes that the Cardinals are kicking the tires on Chien-Ming Wang.

Chad has no reason to lie to us.

This is great news for Cardinals fans. Wang is obviously talented and he's had a downfall for two seasons because of injury.

Enter pitching coach Dave Duncan.

Dave Duncan is a miracle worker. She is the Annie Sullivan to scores of Helen Kellers.

Joel Pinero? Chris Carpenter? Ryan Franklin? Kyle Loshe?
All turned things around under Duncan and that's just off the top of my head.

Wang will be cheap... and he'll win 15 games with an ERA under 3.50. You heard it here first.

WHO SHOULD I ROOT FOR? Part 5: THE NL CENTRAL (amendment)

A month ago I broke down the NL Central between the Cubs and the Brewers and used my typically faulty logic to root for the Brewers.

The Cardinals have to be included in the equation now. Hell, they are only 1 game back!

What are the circumstances that would make a Cardinals Division Title Cool?

1) The Rick Ankiel Factor:
It would be awesome if Rick Ankiel hit some big homers down the stretch... complete the Roy Hobbs circle and give his movie a great ending!

Extra credit if he knocks out the light tower!












2) The Dave Duncan Factor

Last year his pitching staff won it all without a closer and he turned Jeff Suppan, Anthony Reyes and Jeff Weaver into post season studs.

Yes... that Jeff Weaver.

For an encore he has Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper in the rotation, has turned Joel Pinero into an effective starter and has been winning despite Chris Carpenter and Mark Mulder spending most of the year on the DL, Kip Wells and Anthony Reyes going a combined 8-29 and one of his relievers dying.

Some wonder if he should go into the Hall of Fame.
I say award him the Nobel Prize.













3) The strangest dynasty ever factor

How will the Cardinals of the 2000s be remembered?
This has been a strange glorious decade for St. Louis.

They've only missed the playoffs one year this decade (2003) and have played in 5 NL Championship Series, 2 World Series and winning it all last year.

Yet their truly terrific teams underperformed (the 2002 team should have crushed the Giants, the 2004 team was embarrassed in the World Series by the Red Sox and the 2005 team was beaten by an inferior Astros team.)

And their weakest team won it all... and this team is worse. Why not give them a chance to be the worst back to back champ ever!










4) The Anarchy Factor

The race is so tight and filled with such uninspired baseball, that there could be that chance for the anarchy I so craved at the end of last year!

A chance for Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Louis to all end deadlocked... the panic that would create schedule wise... the "what ifs" that two fan bases would have all year...

It's too delicious. Like a plate of Linguini Carbonara...
I can't resist it!

I'm changing my vote!
I VOTE FOR ANARCHY!

Which ever team is behind, I'm rooting for.
I want a three way tie!

I want to see it once, just to see what will happen.
And they can't award a Wild Card to one of them... so this will be a pure 3 way, 1 goes on, 2 go home post regular season but pre post season conumdrum!

And that might be even more delicious than my mom's carbonara!