Eyes on the Game

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Welcome to Major League Baseball Tony Vitello, where bats are made of wood and rah-rah only takes you so far.

Vitello had the most interesting quote of MLB’s opening weekend when he said his “fire and brimstone’’ speech to his Giants before the start of the season might have created too much tension for his team. The Giants were swept in the three-game series by Yankees at Oracle Park.

The Giants scored all of one run in the 27 innings — count ‘em, one. They managed only 13 hits and did not hit a home run. They struck out 27 times and batted .143 in the series.

“He is going to have to manage,’’ one longtime scout told BallNine of Vitello, who jumped from coaching at Tennessee to managing in the majors. “Let’s see how he handles things because he was one of those rah-rah, waving the pennant, jumping into the stands guys. He is going to have to manage completely different unless he thinks that crap is going to work in the big leagues, which it won’t.’’

Yankees pitching had a lot to do with lack of Giants offense, but here at BallNine the suggestion box is always open and my immediate reaction to all this is Tony, listen to the wise words of Giants legend Will Clark.

I am a huge fan of Clark’s hitting style and his bold opinions and he recently put it all out on the table for the Giants and baseball in general, when it comes to hitting.

Ditch the Nerd stuff and get back to baseball, and that means get your head out of your iPad and into the ballgame.

That is real advice in this age of over-analytics. Keep it simple. Keep it real. Keep it baseball.

The last time the Giants scored only one run in a three-game series was back in 1949 when they were the New York Giants. The Giants hit .235 last season, 25th in baseball, so this is nothing new to the swing and miss Giants.

Former Giant and current TV analyst Rich Aurilia said, “A lot of this lineup has a lot of swing and miss.”

It does.

I want every young hitter to lock into Will the Thrill’s words.

“This comes with using common sense which does not happen in this game anymore and being observant,’’ Clark said in his chat with Eric Byrnes. “If you sit there and you are in a frickin’ major league dugout and you look out there and you see four straight pitches on the outside part of the plate, what do you think you are going to see? You are not going to see four pitches on the inside part of the plate, you are going to see the majority on the outside part of the plate, so let’s use our little bleeping brain cells, pay attention to the game. Get your head out of the stands or the bleeping iPad or whatever the f— these mother-f—- are doing now.

“I told a kid the other day, we went over in our hitters meeting and he goes ‘I don’t know who (the pitcher) is…  and I told him, ‘Look, you can go walk to that iPad and put your head down or you can pick your head up and he is going to throw eight warmup pitches. He is getting ready to show you what he has and if he has a feel for it. If he throws four fastballs and he is all over the frickin’ dish, well I’m not looking fastball, I’m looking breaking ball because he doesn’t have a feel for his fastball coming in from the bullpen so let’s use common sense and observation.’’’

That is real advice in this age of over-analytics. Keep it simple. Keep it real. Keep it baseball.

Along with that common-sense advice, Aaron Judge made his most common-sense observation that I’ve heard in years, and it may be a great sign of things to come for the Yankees. I believe the Yankees run into trouble because they overthink the situation, every situation, and that includes worrying about the health of the team in the future so they too often sit down a hot hitter for rest and as a result it costs them on the field. The Yankees worry too much about the future instead of taking care of business today but after the Yankees opened the season with that three-game sweep of the Giants, Judge said something I’ve been waiting for him to say for years.

It was only three words, but it was three words of common sense by Judge.

“Every game matters.’’

The Yankees went into that third game against the Giants looking to sweep instead of just settling for the series victory, something they did in the past. I believe the combination of Judge’s losing experience in the WBC, captaining the “Dream Team,” along with finishing behind the Blue Jays last year in the AL East even though both teams had the same 94-68 record, not having the home-field advantage against Toronto in the ALDS where they were drubbed in four games has left an impact on Judge.

Every game matters.

That is not rocket science, it is common baseball sense and like Will Clark said so passionately, players start using your head and stop relying on others, Nerds and AI to do your thinking for you.

See what you see and react to it.

That was forever the genius of baseball.

You don’t have to be a genius to play the game, but you have to be smart in applying what you see in front of you to the game at hand. Analytics is merely a tool; it is not a magical touchstone.

Will Clark’s no filtered partner Eric Byrnes, another player I loved to talk to during his career because he was so real, added another key point. “Kids,’’ he said, “No. 1, they don’t watch full baseball games anymore. Everything is these Instagram clips, whatever. You have to understand, you can observe so much by just opening your bleeping eyes.’’

Tony Vitello had his eyes opened after only one MLB series. Managing men is a lot different than managing college players. Aaron Judge has had his eyes opened, too, every game matters.

*****

Here are some other key Opening Weekend observations.

Been watching the game since 1960 when the Pirates put a hurting on the Yankees in the World Series, but I don’t think I have ever witnessed what I saw Saturday by the Pirates at Citi Field. Their “relief’’ pitchers walked the leadoff batter in the seventh, eighth, ninth innings, and then in the 10th the Mets leadoff hitter was hit by a pitch. In the 11th the Pirates reliever walked the leadoff hitter again. After that last walk to Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr. homered, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 victory; the Fake Runner scored too. Robert did what Will Clark talked about — he saw the pitcher struggling. The first pitch from rookie Hunter Barco was a ball so Robert was looking for something to drive and he got it, an 82-mph batting practice slider from the lefty that was right in Robert’s wheelhouse for the game-winner. The Pirates bullpen bounced back on Sunday in a 4-3, 10-inning win over the Mets, walking only two batters over 5 2/3 innings. Watch what is happening on the field and learn a lesson: Throw strikes.

If umpire CB Bucknor continues to have bad games behind the plate where six of his ball-strike calls were overturned in the Reds 6-5 win over the Red Sox Saturday, CB may want to change his name to ABS Bucknor.

Come on Phillies, you can do better in this Harry Kalas mess. The ballpark restaurant that honored Harry known as Harry the K’s, has new naming rights and is now Ghost Energy at Citizens Bank Park. I would always make sure to hang with Harry for an inning or two in Clearwater during spring training just to listen to his iconic MLB and NFL Films voice. Fix this Philliies: No way should Harry the K’s restaurant: “It Might Be, it Could Be Outta Here!’’

One other Pirates comment … might be time for centerfielder Oneil Cruz to start taking his career seriously, his terrible performance in centerfield on Opening Day was embarrassing – even for the Pirates. As one scout told me, “That was awful’’ … I was not impressed with the Netflix opener, although I enjoyed CC Sabathia’s insights and sense of baseball humor, but that screaming “comedian’’ was a turnoff. All these new platforms have something in common with Rob Manfred, they act like the longtime baseball fan does not exist and that is a shame. Focus on the game.

I like what Freddie Freeman – a lifetime .300 hitter over his 17-year career – says about the art of hitting and it reminds me of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn: “Good hitters get cheap hits,’’ Freeman said. That is something the exit velo Nerds will never understand.

First ABS impression: The top of the zone will be gold for pitchers with the ABS in place. The Yankees’ Cam Schlittler took advantage up there, but that was against the Giants so we will continue to monitor the situation.

In New Age Baseball – NAB as I call it – the leading home run hitters last season for both the Cubs and Nationals in their three-game series, Michael Busch, 34 home runs for the Cubs and James Wood, 31 home runs for the Nationals, both batted leadoff.

I’m so old I remember when team-leading home run hitters batted third, fourth or fifth.