Rita an I just returned from seeing the Royals play four games in the Cactus League. Good time, good weather, not-so-good pitching. But hey, it was spring training. More details in a future post.

With the Mets coming to town to open the season, I thought you might like to hear a Mets spring training story. It is from 1985, but it has nothing to do with the Royals winning the World Series that year. Although that was also a good thing.

Many of you probably know some of the details, but it is timely to tell the story again as a companion piece to a new movie that opened last week: Fastball – a documentary on the fastest pitchers in baseball history. The movie has wonderful vintage video and does a superb job of scientifically comparing the speed of the fastballs thrown by legendary pitchers in different eras. This takes the viewer from Walter Johnson to Bob Feller to Nolan Ryan, as well as to several other power pitchers from today and yesterday. One of those pitchers mentioned in the movie is Sidd Finch of the 1985 Mets.

St. Petersburg – 1985:  After the Yankees ended their spring training tenure in St. Petersburg in 1961, the Mets took their place and shared Al Lang Stadium with the Cardinals. In spring training of 1985, the Cardinals showcased a star-studded team that then lived up to its promise by going on to win the National League pennant.  Willie McGee was MVP, Vince Coleman was Rookie of the Year and stole 110 bases, Ozzie was Ozzie and Tudor, Andujar and Cox were great on the mound. The Cards then lost the I-70 World Series to the Kansas City Royals. I am confident that the Cardinal fans among the Hot Stove readers are spitting the name “Denkinger” as they read this. I had the good fortune to attend all seven games – a highlight of my personal baseball history.

The Mets were good too, but ended up three games behind the Cards in the NL East.  In spring training though, the Mets could easily claim the biggest story in all of Florida – the arrival of pitching phenom Sidd Finch. Most of the media hype on Finch came after well-known sportswriter George Plimpton wrote a long feature in Sports Illustrated about the Finch tryout in St. Petersburg. In those days before digital media, I was a loyal reader of the magazine and still remember Plimpton’s article. Finch was 28 and had never played professional baseball. A Mets minor league manager had seen Finch throw and urged the Mets to give him a tryout. Finch was sort a recluse and not sure if he wanted to play professional baseball. Royals fans will remember that Zach Greinke had similar anxieties and left Royals spring training in 2006, missed the season and almost quit baseball.

Finch had a gifted arm that greatly impressed the Mets and so they were willing to work with his eccentricities. Finch desired privacy and so worked out at a remote area and did not stay in the team hotel. He had workouts with three of the Mets, including Lenny Dykstra, and he got pointers from pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre. The big thing was the Finch fastball that had numbers on the radar gun that made the Mets salivate. He was Nolan Ryan plus. And he had great control. The mostly private workouts were also attended by Mets owner Nelson Doubleday and GM Frank Cashen. They liked what they saw.

To keep their deal with Finch, the Mets were reluctant to talk about him until he made a decision to play. Plimpton proved resourceful in getting background material. Finch had been enrolled for a short time at Harvard, and Plimpton was able to talk to his roommate who confirmed the Zen-like nature of Finch who had studied in Tibet. Although the Mets had tried to impress Finch by assigning him a cubicle between stars George Foster and Daryl Strawberry, Finch kept away from the clubhouse and spent most of his non-baseball time at his boarding house (as his landlady confirmed to Plimpton, saying Finch practiced on his French horn at night). At your leisure, Plimpton’s full article is well worth the read: http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/10/15/curious-case-sidd-finch.

After Plimpton’s article came out, Mets fans screamed for more on Finch. The New York papers complained about Plimpton getting the scoop in Sports Illustrated. The Mets finally agreed to a press conference in St. Petersburg. The then-three major networks attended, as well as some reporters. Finch was there with a prepared statement, but it was read  on his behalf by someone else. The statement announced that Finch was retiring and would not be playing baseball. One can only speculate if Finch would have made the difference for the Mets in their close division race with the Cards. And then have been the opponent for the Royals in the 1985 Series.

Where is Sidd Finch Today?  Many questions were raised after Sidd’s retirement, and a very good answer came when readers were told in a later Sports Illustrated issue to take a closer look at the date on the cover of the Finch issue. It was April 1. Just like the date of this email.

Plimpton and Sports Illustrated had pulled off one of the best April Fool’s Jokes of all time. Plimpton had recruited a small team of folks who all did a good job of keeping it quiet. Only a few Mets were involved. Plimpton had a junior high school art teacher pose as Finch for the photos taken by the Sports Illustrated photographer. The prank is well documented in an ESPN “30 for 30” short (click here, 22.5 minutes). The ESPN piece includes interviews with Plimpton, Stottlemyre, Finch (the school teacher), photographer Lane Stewart, NY Times sportswriter George Vecsey and the magazine’s publishing staff.

There was a hint in the subtitle of the article (see photo below): “He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style. Sidd’s deciding about yoga – and his future in baseball.” When you take the first letter of each word of this subtitle, it  spells “Happy April Fool’s Day – a(h) fib.”

 

Sidd Finch and This is Spinal Tap: One of my favorite movies is This is Spinal Tap, a 1984 mockumentary/rockumentary of a rock ‘n’ roll band. One of the best scenes is when guitarist Nigel explains why the band can play so loud – the volume knobs on their amplifiers can be turned up to 11 instead of the conventional 10. A year after the movie came out, George Plimpton wrote his piece on Sidd Finch. I’m thinking he saw the movie because the scouting report in the article showed that Finch was projected at a rating of 9 on both the speed and control of his fastball. The highest on the scale then being used by the Mets was 8. Finch and Nigel – two great faux characters. I promise you will laugh (click here, 1 minute).

 

Sidd Finch and Baseball Boulevard: As you may recall from Hot Stove #10, the city of St. Petersburg has a series of plaques to commemorate each year of spring training from 1914 to 1998. Some examples: Ruth being chased by an alligator in his first year in St. Pete (1925), Ruth hitting 60 homers (1927), Stan Musial MVP (1946), Yogi Berra MVP (1954), Roger Maris hits then-record 61 homers (1961), and the Amazing Mets win World Series (1969). In 1985, there were some good candidates to put on the plaque. Willie McGee of the Cards was MVP. Dwight Gooden of the Mets won the Cy Young and got a Pitching Triple Crown – best in wins, ERA and strikeouts. But they did not make it. The 1985 plaque reads “The story of spring training is Sidd Finch, a Mets pitcher who threw 165-mph but existed only in the pages of Sports Illustrated, an April 1 hoax.”

 

Fastball,  the Movie:  I got a heads-up on the details of the movie from a Posnanski column. The film is narrated by Kevin Costner (a/k/a Crash Davis of the Durham Bulls), and Joe Posnanski is a featured commentator. Many pitchers are interviewed – Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson, Goose Gossage and others. George Brett is among the batters interviewed (also Jeter, Aaron, Kaline, Gwynn, etc.). Click here for the movie trailer.  It is available on demand on some cable networks and Amazon. The Finch photo below is in the movie (note his feet).

Hot Stove Readers:  I am curious about how many of you already knew the Sidd Finch story, either from seeing the article in 1985 or hearing about it later. Or if this legendary piece of baseball writing by Plimpton was new to you and maybe generated a little surprise at the ending.

 

Next on Hot Stove:  Opening Day (Night).