Classic card of the week

Bob Welch, 1990 Score

I would recognize those fingers anywhere. Those are Bob Welch’s fingers, aren’t they?

Indeed they are. And whether they’re strumming the guitar or are painfully stretched across a baseball, those famous fingers have provided inspiration for many. Let’s find out more:



Success Is A Split-Finger

Above our bed hangs a framed photo of Bob Welch’s fingers that contains this famous saying. I bought it at the Things Remembered in the Brunswick Square Mall in 1998. Every morning when I wake up I look at it and say to myself, “Mike, success is a split-finger.” And then I go out into the world and split-finger my way around. For me, split-finger is a metaphor for love, but I do, every chance I get, throw split-fingered fastballs at lunchtime to no one in particular. All of this has played a role in my immense success.

Bob always had an excellent high, rising fastball, a hard, overhand curve and a split-fingered fastball (see front of card).

I did! I usually look at the front first anyway, but thanks!

But in 1990, he concentrated more on his split-finger than he had in the past. “It has made a difference with him,” said A’s pitching coach Dave Duncan. “The pitch has kept those lefthanded hitters off him.”

“Get off of me, lefthanded hitter!” is what Bob Welch would often yell before throwing a split-fingered fastball to a lefthanded hitter. And with that, lefthanded hitters never bothered Bob Welch ever again.

Called the pitch of the 80’s, the split-fingered fastball has made winners out of such pitchers as Bruce Sutter, Jack Morris, Mike Scott, and Orel Hershiser, to name a few.

Congratulations to Bob Welch for deciding to start throwing “the pitch of the 80’s” in 1990. It threw everybody off, so to speak. Also, fyi: the pitch of the 90’s was the steroid fastball and the pitch of the 2000’s was the hanging forkball.

For the record, Roger Clemens also threw a split-fingered fastball, which Tim McCarver derived immense pleasure from calling “Mr. Splitty.” This would always make its way into McCarver’s “Keys to the Game,” which usually read something like:

Keys to the game:
Mr. Splitty?
Remember last Tuesday
Shish Kabobs

Then McCarver would strain to explain all of this while I tried to watch baseball. Anyway, it is uncertain whether Bob Welch’s split-fingered fastball had a name, but may I submit: “Splits McGlits.” It rolls right off the tongue.

Did you know?
Bob Welch also had a face.

Classic card of the week

Pascual Perez, 1989 Donruss

Ahhh, the 80's. Where a guy like Pascual Perez could utilize his “Here Is What I’m Throwing –- Betcha Can’t Hit It” pitch, accompanied by a comical sneer, and still maintain a job in Major League Baseball. Nothing against the great singles hitters of 1989, but I am presently enjoying myself by imagining the result of this particular pitch meeting Albert Pujol’s bat.

That was fun. Anyhoo, let’s find out more about Pascual Perez, shall we? I am going to pick a year off the top of my head and we will examine the statistics of Pascual Perez and then compare them to the rest of Major League Baseball during that year. Ya’ know, for fun! The year that I randomly selected is 1986:




1986 OUT OF ORGANIZED BASEBALL

Bad choice on my part. Wikipedia, thoughts?

Released by the Braves on April 1, 1986, he missed the entire 1986 season.

So, he just…missed it? No injury? No minor leagues? No nothing?

Bob: So, Pascual. Looks like you’ve been missing a lot of work lately.

Pascual Perez: I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing it, Bob.

Randomly taking a year off during your athletic prime would indeed seem odd, unless of course, you are talking about Pascual Perez, whose eccentricities knew no bounds:

Also a showboater, he often drew the ire of many of his opponents. He would use an imaginary finger gun to shoot opponents

I thoroughly enjoy the use of “imaginary” there, so as to specify that Pascual Perez’s finger was not actually a gun. It should also be noted that the term “finger gun” has its own Wikipedia page. Also: really? Twenty years later people make a big deal when Joba Chamberlain shakes his fist after a strikeout. Pascual Perez would pretend to shoot you.

And that wasn’t nearly my favorite thing that Pascual Perez did on the mound:

Pascual first made his trademark peek through the legs to check the runner on first in 1979 in the Dominican League. He put his head through his legs to look at Rafael Landestoy on first base.

When you consider baseball as a whole, with its iconic and legendary players, valued traditions, and influence on American culture, you just have to rank the legacy of Pascual Perez –- the man with the courage and wherewithal to stick his head between his legs to check the runner at first –- right up there with anything the sport has accomplished throughout its long and storied history. It’s shame there was only one Pascual Perez:

Two of his brothers, Melido and Carlos, were also major league pitchers, as was a cousin, Yorkis.

Yorkis!

Did you know?
Pascual Perez once caused a three-car pile up on the New Jersey Turnpike after he attempted to check his rear view mirror by sticking his head under his armpit.