Nice Catch

Spring Training can be a slow time, and that's when ideas like listing the top catches in baseball movie history happen. Here is Offbase's top 3.


3. Scottie Smalls (The Sandlot)



Scott Smalls wasn't supposed to make that catch, you know. He was supposed to get hit in the other eye, another one of Dennis Leary's steaks was supposed to be ruined, and the Smalls family was supposed to be run out of town. But Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez wouldn't hear of it. Benny the Jet urged Smalls to put his glove in the air and the neighborhood legend would "take care of it". Smalls, having just replaced the glove he won in a bowling alley claw machine with one of Benny's old mitts, followed Rodriguez's instructions and the fly ball landed right in the center of the mitt. The catch cemented Smalls as not a guy who was banned from the sandlot for life, but as a guy who could bat ninth and hopefully not be a liability in left field. You could say that catch became the routine pop fly heard round the world.

2. Willie Mays Hayes (Major League)



We all know the story: Hayes is a non-roster non-invitee-turned-invitee who ends up leading the majors in stolen bases with 273 (unofficial), including a number of steals of home. But his greatest moment comes in the one-game playoff against the Yankees. In a scoreless tie in the sixth, Hayes does his best Otis Nixon impersonation, scaling the Milwaukee County Stadium wall to rob "Williams" of a certain go-ahead home run. Three innings later, Hayes scores from second on the worst bunt in the history of organized baseball. Indians win it, the Indians win it, OH MY GOD the Indians win it. Without Hayes' catch, they may not have.

1. Timmy Lupus (Bad News Bears)



Timmy Lupus was the definition of a bench player. I mean, the kid was behind Ogilvie on the depth chart, for god's sake. But in the championship against the Yankees, Buttermaker had a change-of-vodka and decided to empty the bench. Lupus got the call and headed out to right field. The rest is North Valley League history. A towering fly ball heads out towards Lupus and the frail youngster reaches up and robs the home run. Lupus looks as shocked as anyone as his teammates come rushing out to congratulate him on his F-9. Timothy Lupus: American hero.


Others: Isuro Tanaka's top-of-the-wall catch in Major League II; Ken Griffey robbing Lou Collins of a game-winning HR in Little Big League; Happy Felsch's catch in the regular season finale in Eight Men Out

Brown Passes Away

Cleveland, OH - Sad news last Friday as former Cleveland Indians manager Lou Brown died at the age of 70. Brown, who managed the Triple-A Toledo Mudhens from 1958-1988, guided the Tribe to the AL East title in his first year as manager in 1989.

"He was a player's manager, but he also was tough if he felt you needed it," said former Cleveland third baseman Roger Dorn. "I remember when he urinated on my contract. We had a good laugh about it, until I went to get my pay check and they told me the urine voided the contract and I would not be paid. They called it the Urine Clause, but in the clubhouse we started calling it the Lourine Clause, in honor of our skipper."

"Lou didn't go by the book," said former center fielder Will Hayes, who went by "Willie Mays Hayes" throughout an 11-year career. "I was doing push ups if I popped up, other guys are doing sit ups if they miss a ground ball. And one game, he had Eddie (Harris) throw 193 pitches in a July game against Texas, in 110 degree heat. Eddie was older than Lou at the time. But we all loved (Brown)."

Brown managed the team through the first part of the 1990 season before an in-clubhouse heart attack forced his retirement. In his short stint as Cleveland's manager, Brown went 117-107.

Brown's funeral will be held in the parking lot of the Toledo Tire World, "where he would've wanted it," said former third base coach Duke Temple. Dozens of former players and friends are expected to attend the Wednesday funeral, including former Cleveland broadcaster Harry Doyle, catcher Jake Taylor, pitching coach Pepper Leach and Hall of Fame groundskeepers Kurt and Keith Uchima.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Off Base Percentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy: Ozzie Virgil




Nationals 7, Pirates 5. A day after a sellout crowd watched Strasburg dominate, just 18,876 came out for Brad Lincoln's debut. Good thing, because the No. 4 overall pick in 2006 wasn't very good Wednesday. He allowed five earned runs in six innings, while the Nats pen allowed four base runners in 4 1/3 scoreless innings. Jim Riggleman keeps his condo for at least one more day.

Rangers 12, Mariners 2. MTD and I had a long Vlad Guerrero-is-a-first-ballot-Hall-of-Famer discussion Wednesday, but what we didn't discuss was Ian Snell's candidacy. Quick prediction of our probable Thursday Snell-for-HOF conversation: it isn't likely. While Vlad was busy going 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs, Snell was busy putting together his worst start since last August 13: 1 2/3 IP, 7 ER, and the Mariners remained absolutely horrible for the 47th consecutive season.

Diamondbacks 2, Braves 1. Gerardo Parra must've read Jobu June 1, because he hit and two-run, inside-the-park home run in the eighth inning to lead the Flying Parras to at least a split of a four-game series with Atlanta. True, Nate Mclouth fell down in what looked to be excruciating pain after colliding with Jason Heyward on Parra's fly ball, but any hit counts when you have a .278 on-base percentage. Parra, not Mclouth (.299 OBP).

Indians 11, Redsox 0. The Tribe got their first good news since Willie Mays Hayes scored from second on Jake Taylor's bunt as former Boston pitcher Justin Masterson pitched a two-hit shut out. Travis Hafner blasted a grand slam in an eight-run eighth inning to help Cleveland win for the first time against Boston since May 6 of last year.



Cubs 9, Brewers 4. Geovany Soto and Marlon Byrd hit two home runs each and Derrek Lee hit his 300th career home run (126th player to reach that mark) as the Cubbies remained three games ahead of Milwaukee for third place in the race for the team that's going to finish the season third in the NL Central.