Ron's problems are that he can only play against right-handed pitchers because against lefties he swings like Beatrice Lillie, and he has to be the designated hitter because throws and ground balls to first are definite health hazards to him.
Nicknamed Boomer, Ron was born in Atlanta and was the Yankees' No. 1 draft choice in 1967."
-Peter Gammons, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1974 Edition
"Just how exciting a ballplayer Ron Blomberg is was well demonstrated last June, when his great bat was producing a .400 batting average. Ron stayed there until July 4, and he immediately became the most talked about player in New York.
Ron, of course, is still developing. Although his average was the fourth best in the majors last year, he still wants to play every day and make a more complete contribution to the future of the Yankees. Hopefully entering an injury-free season at 25, Ron wants to make this the year of full-time duty.
Atlanta's gift to New York is a much quoted, much photographed strong man, liked by the fans and media alike. But Ron knows that his greatest fame will come the day the Yanks win a pennant and Ron makes a daily contribution to the cause. And no one wants that day to be nearer than Ronnie himself."
-The New York Yankees Official 1974 Yearbook
"Although he saw limited action as he rarely faced left-handed pitching, the Boomer made headlines with his bat, hitting over .400 for most of the month of June and until July 4. Ronnie was involved in much of the early season scoring by the Yankees which kept them in first place during most of June and July.
A severe hamstring muscle pull on June 17 kept out of the regular lineup for the rest of the season, with Ron seeing action thereafter mainly as a DH against right-handed pitching. He nevertheless made his presence felt with 12 homers and 57 RBIs in just 301 at-bats. He knocked in the winning run in nine of the 100 games in which he appeared, second only to Bobby Murcer, who had 13 game-winning hits.
Although basically a line-drive hitter, he has displayed awesome power on occasion, hitting two homers in one game three times during his major league career. Yankee players still talk about the shot he hit over the right-field roof in Tiger Stadium during batting practice in 1969. The Yankees are anxiously awaiting an injury-free season from the Boomer and also one in which he will be able to play against left-handers as well as right-handers.
He was an all-star high basketball player in Atlanta and received many scholarship offers; baseball, however, has always has been his first love. When not bothered by injuries, Ronnie is probably the fastest runner among the 'big' men in the major leagues."
-1974 New York Yankees Press/TV/Radio Guide
THE BLOMBERG AFFAIR
"Ron Blomberg, the New York Yankees' batting star, was comfortably established in front of a huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs in a Baltimore restaurant last summer enjoying his second most favorite pastime- dining. He was attacking the meatballs with almost the same vigor he smotes baseballs while at a different kind of plate.
'Do you know?' he asked as he proceeded to answer his own question. 'I've always felt eating and batting are built-in relatives. After all, food provides strength and strength provides the power to powder the ball.'
The 24-year-old Blomberg is a happy guy by nature. And it is for good reason. He loves his work; he loves his food; he loves everyone. All anyone has to do to this ebullient slugger from Atlanta, Georgia, is smile at him and Ron is susceptible to friendship. He is probably the happiest man in baseball- when he is playing.
But ask the Boomer- that's the nickname he received in his early playing days because of his slugging ability- why he has been used of late almost exclusively against right-handed pitching, and a frown crosses his face. Blomberg says he wishes he knew the answer. Now that manager Ralph Houk has departed from the Yankee scene, the format hopefully changes under New York's new skipper, Bill Virdon. Blomberg has read that Bill Virdon plans to let him bat against lefties.
'I really liked Ralph,' said Ronnie as he put his first against his jaw while seated at the dining-room table of his snug Riverdale (N.Y.) apartment. 'I've played under a dozen managers and he was one of the nicest. He is a man of his word and he's really outstanding. I wish him the best in Detroit. The only beef I had against him was that he kept platooning me.'
The popular Blomberg acknowledges that had he been allowed to bat from both sides of the plate last season, his batting average of .329 (with which he finished the year) would have suffered. He is also convinced, though, that had Houk allowed him to face left-handed pitching on a fairly regular basis, he eventually would have made 'cousins' of the southpaws, too.
'I've always been a natural hitter,' he explained with conviction. 'Ellie Howard (the Yankees first-base coach who was once a great hitting catcher for the New York team) tells me that I was 'bellying' out too much when I was taking on those lefty pitchers. He says my left foot moved away from the pitcher as the ball came whizzing towards me.'
Gene Hassel, the manager of the Kinston club, the Yankees' single-A team in the Carolina League, concurred with Howard. Hassel worked with Blomberg last fall in Florida's Instructional League. So Ronnie began trying to do something about it- even after the season had been finished.
Early last [October], the Boomer could be seen on Brooklyn College's diamond, just a mile or so from where the old Brooklyn Dodgers performed at Ebbets Field, engaging in batting practice three times a week. He did his batting only against southpaw pitchers, minor leaguers the Yankees' management had mustered for the extra service. When the days grew dark earlier, Blomberg moved his one-man batting camp to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. And, as late as last November, the Boomer was still booming long drives into the deepest reaches of the outfield. Passers-by stopped, watched and wondered about the power shown by this 6-foot-1-inch, 205-pounder.
'These extra workouts sure have helped,' said Blomberg. 'And I can feel myself improving. I'm willing to do anything other than sit out half our ball games next season watching southpaws pitch against right-handed hitting guys who have replaced me. Other left-handed batters can hit both ways. There's no reason I can't do it, too.'
Blomberg concedes that Houk allowed him to go through a test against some southpaw pitching during the last spring training season. But he insists the test didn't last long enough.
'Houk permitted me to hit left-handers during the exhibition swing,' said Blomberg. 'But I feel it takes at least two weeks to get tuned in on pitching during the spring. I feel certain if I had been allowed to take on those lefties, say, for five or six straight weeks, I'd have had the formula down pat- that my timing would have improved. I remember that Bobby Murcer was batting only .200 against left-handers midway through last season. But it only was one of those slumps. By the end of the year, Bobby- and remember he hits from the left side, too- was hitting southpaws as though they were throwing up nothing but lobs.'
By way of proving that left-handed pitching isn't necessarily his nemesis, Blomberg often recalls that memorable evening in Syracuse in 1970 when he was playing with that upstate New York Yankee farm team against the Columbus (Ohio) Red Birds.
'I had a great night,' the Boomer recalls. 'I had connected for two homers. Still, our club, which was a strong contender in the International League, was losing by a run. As I came to bat late in the game, the Columbus manager thumbed in Dennis Riddleberger, a left-hander, from the bullpen to face me. Our manager, Frank Verdi, promptly prepared to thumb me for a pinch hitter.
'In view of the great night I'd been having, I got mad for what I think was the first time in my career. I threw the bat down at home plate in disgust. Suddenly, Verdi ordered me to get back to hit. I suppose he was mad, too- at my behavior- and wanted me to look foolish up there. So what happened? I connected with one of Riddleberger's fast ones and produced home run No. 3. Do you know? Verdi, I believe, never used me again against a left-hander that season.'
As exhibit No. 2, Blomberg offers an afternoon last July at Yankee Stadium when Houk left him in a game with the Cleveland Indians even though Mike Kekich, the former Yankee left-hander, had been summoned by Cleveland to face him. Houk evidently was allowing the Boomer to bat because the Yanks had a commanding lead. Blomberg, who already had made two hits against right-handers, made it No. 3 with a long shot into the right-centerfield stands.
'I've always felt I should be allowed to remain in the game even when a southpaw is pitching,' maintained Blomberg. 'I hit for .400 for the first two and one-half months. I was sure Houk was going to use me both ways. I was hitting the ball well. My timing was great. And I was in top condition. So what happened? I kept collecting splinters on the bench while Felipe Alou, who is admittedly a great hitter, kept replacing me. Even after I connected with that long drive against Kekich, I only faced left-handed pitching about a dozen times that season.'
Blomberg is ready to admit that one of the reasons he saw limited duty towards the end of last year probably resulted from a pull in the left groin sustained last July while playing in California.
'I hit a grounder to short and was running to first when I suddenly felt something give under me. I didn't complain, although when I went back to the hotel that night I could barely walk. Finally, it became so obvious that our trainer, Gene Monahan, asked me what was wrong. He examined me and said he thought I'd be back in shape in three weeks. But great trainer that he is, he was a little optimistic. I was bothered with that pull for the rest of the year. I kept playing but not as a first baseman. I was used as a designated hitter against right-handers. I feel, though, I made many a single that could have been a double and a few doubles that would have been triples had I been able to run better.'
Blomberg is one player who feels being on a diamond is the next best place to heaven. He is usually the first to emerge from the dugout hours before game-time. If he is not playing, he still holds on to a bat, often pacing in the dugout like Captain Bligh walking the quarterdeck.
The Yankee slugger got his start at Druid High School in Atlanta, where he was a three-letter athlete- football, basketball and baseball. He did so well as a football end and punter that he was offered a scholarship to the University of Alabama. But, as expected, the Boomer went for baseball.So, after graduation, the 19-year-old Blomberg was sent to Johnson City (Tenn.) of the Appalachian League. There as a rookie, he hit an impressive .297 in 66 games. From there, he moved to Kinston, Manchester (N.H.) and eventually Syracuse. It was in the upstate New York city that the Boomer, who through his high school and early minor league days had attacked left-handed pitching with fury, was marked as weak against southpaws. Blomberg doesn't know how it all got started. What he does know is that when he batted .326 for Syracuse early in 1971, he was called by the Yankees for the second time.
As a Yankee, Blomberg immediately lived up to his promise- against right-handed pitching. He produced an average of .322 in 64 games in 1971.
It was during his early days with the Yankees that Boomer began attracting attention among the club's writers for his appetite as well as for his often unusual approach to the English language. He is said to be a cross rhetoric-wise between Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel, both of whom had been Yankee managers.
There was that day in New York when he was playing first base. All he had to do at one juncture to complete a triple play was to hold on to a thrown ball. But he missed it.
'It was the first triple play I ever saw,' he said later. 'I blew it.'
Shortly after he pulled a leg muscle early in the season, in cold weather, he was heard to remark, 'I never get hurt. But when I do. It's always in weather like this.'
But it is his appetite which gets him the most news coverage off the field. Maintaining that 'I'm still a growing boy,' he has no compunction against sitting in front of a dining table as many as six times a day.
A few years ago, a hamburger chain had a contest. Blomberg won going away by downing 28 hamburgers.
The Boomer knows he will have no difficulty finding enough places at which to eat next season. But he is wondering whether the Yankees' new manager will let him face left-handed pitchers.
'I certainly bear Houk no malice,' he concluded. 'He treated me like a father in all departments except one. But the first time I play against his Detroit club next season I hope I'm allowed to face one of his left-handed pitchers.'
Are you listening, Ralphie?"
-Michael Strauss, Sports Quarterly Presents Baseball, Spring 1974
"Ron Blomberg has already made it to Cooperstown by earning the distinction of being baseball's first designated hitter. After performing that task on Opening Day in 1973, Ronnie's bat was requested by the Hall of Fame."
-1974 New York Yankees Scorebook & Official Program
No comments:
Post a Comment