E-ticket propelled Cardinals to title
ST. LOUIS -- Sometime just after Valentine's Day, when Detroit Tigers pitchers and catchers report to Lakeland, Fla., for the start of spring training, they should not be surprised if they are greeted by the biggest media contingent ever to attend what is customarily a low-key event.
The outsiders will have come to watch Tigers manager Jim Leyland oversee "PFP," which is normally a boring exercise grudgingly endured by pitchers but next spring should be treated with the utmost gravity by anyone with the old English "D" on his jersey.
PFP, for the unenlightened, stands for Pitchers Fielding Practice. It is primarily a refresher course, in which pitchers are put through a series of drills in which they rehearse plays that have been second nature to them since high school: fielding bunts and comebackers, executing pickoffs, covering first base, throwing to the right base.
Many teams often make a game of it. Red Sox manager Terry Francona or one of his coaches, for example, often will hit comebackers in rapid-fire fashion at a pitcher, who frequently resembles a hockey goalie as he stops one ball after another until he finally misses and another pitcher jumps in.
But even with a world-class character like Todd Jones around, chances are there will be a lack of levity in Lakeland when the Tigers' pitchers are put through their paces. What seems so simple in spring can, if not executed properly, be deadly in October, as the Tigers' staff demonstrated in graphic fashion in the 102d World Series when it committed a record five errors in five games. Even Jones acknowledged that may be the lasting memory of this Series, in which the Tigers, after dominating the Yankees and Athletics in the American League playoffs, succumbed to the St. Louis Cardinals, four games to one.
"I'm sure it's going to be a T-shirt somewhere," Jones said.
Greg Maddux, who has a mantel full of Gold Gloves, made a total of four errors in the last three years, a span of 102 starts. The Tigers' pitchers made one a game in the Series. Game 5 loser Justin Verlander made two, his errant throw to third base in the fourth inning of Game 5 leading to the runs that gave the Cardinals a lead they never relinquished.
"We cut our own throats," Verlander said.
Even before the final blunder, Leyland had a vision of next spring.
"The silver lining," Leyland said before Game 5, "is that now that they've seen what's happened in the World Series, none of the pitchers will complain next spring.
"I've already come up with something. I know this sounds a little crazy, but I'm going to have the grounds crew wet down the area in front of home plate a couple of times and have our pitchers work on picking up the ball when it's wet.
"It may be crazy, but we're going to do it. We'll roll some bunts out on the wet grass and make the pitchers throw it."
The dreadful weather that dogged this Series played a part in the sloppy play. Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson might as well have been wearing roller skates when he fell in Game 4, a slip that set up a critical rally.
Even the hometown Cardinals acknowledged that their new digs, Busch Stadium II, had given them fits for much of the season.
"We've had a lot of problems with the new field," center fielder Jim Edmonds said. "With the new field not sticking really well this year, it's been a tough field to play on. The wetness adds to it. For some reason, it stayed wet in the outfield all year. The grass is having a tough time taking to the sand underneath."
The Tigers made eight errors in all, the other three committed by third baseman Brandon Inge. The errors led to eight unearned runs. The Tigers, meanwhile, scored just 11 runs in five games. A St. Louis rookie, Anthony Reyes, retired 17 in a row and 22 of 23 in Game 1. The ace, Chris Carpenter, held Detroit to three hits in eight innings and allowed just one runner in scoring position in Game 3. The reclamation project, Jeff Weaver, held the Tigers to four hits and two runs, one unearned, in eight innings in Game 5 and might not have been scored upon if right fielder Chris Duncan hadn't dropped a ball, which might have weighed on Weaver's mind when he threw his next pitch, the one that Sean Casey hit for a home run.
"This is the time of your life, right here," said New Hampshire native Carpenter, his son Sam in his arms. "I was able to come out and pitch. Jeff Weaver did a great job. Anthony Reyes did a great job. Jeff Suppan did a great job."
Casey, who had three hits in each of the last two games and homered in back-to-back games for the first time since 2004, was the only Tiger to hit in this Series. He batted .529 (9 for 17). Take away his numbers, and the rest of the Tigers hit .160 (23 for 144).
The top three spots in the Tigers' order combined to bat .103 (6 for 58), the second-lowest average in a World Series to the Dodgers team that was swept four straight by the precocious Orioles in 1966. Placido Polanco, the MVP of the ALCS when he hit .529, went 0 for 17 in the Series. Magglio Ordonez, whose three-run home run against the Athletics sent the Tigers into the World Series, batted .105. The inspirational catcher, Ivan Rodriguez, fell into an 0-for-23 postseason funk that lasted until Game 4, when he had three hits. He went 0 for 4 in Game 5 and finished at .158.
"In reality, you have to look at a lot of things," Leyland said. "And a lot of it is the fact that we really didn't hit. I'm not down on anybody about it. These are my guys. I stick by them, I love them. But the fact of the matter is, we really didn't have much offense."
The Cardinals won 83 games in the regular season, the fewest wins of any World Series champion. They had a losing record after April, and a worse record after mid-June than Missouri's other team, the hapless Royals. They had three losing streaks of seven games or more, including a late-season collapse that almost cost them the division. When they met the Padres in the Division Series, all 19 of ESPN's experts predicted them to lose. Beat the Mets? You can't be serious. And yet here they are, World Series champions.
Tony La Russa, who joins his mentor, Sparky Anderson, as the only managers to win World Series in each league, was asked if he ever considered winning with this team mission impossible.
"How about daily?" he told reporters.
