Fare thee well, Woody.
One of my favorite ballplayers, former Giants starter Kirk Rueter (known to teammates as "Woody"), retired today. He'd been trying to catch hold with his hometown St. Louis Cardinals, but it didn't happen.I'm a sucker for a crafty lefthander, and I always loved how much success Rueter had with almost no "stuff." You usually get that with a guy who throws a "heavy ball," that is, a sinkerballer. Those guys get a lot of ground outs, double plays, and so forth. But Woody was a flyball pitcher, so it was doubly impressive. He always seemed on the brink of disaster, and until the last year or two, he always found his way out. To me, there're few greater pleasures than watching a perfectly pitched game by a guy without any great pitches, and Woody afforded me that many times.
Once, I was at a game at Candlestick, and this kid with big ears and a big low ballcap was leaning over the railing, yelling at Rueter. "Hey! Monkey boy! Look! I'm a monkey boy, too!" Rueter stopped his outfield long-toss, and ran, laughing, over to the kid. He ended up giving him a hat. Warmed my heart. He'll be missed.
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posted by Jesse Thorn at Monday, March 06, 2006
4 Comments:
Too bad. Reuter helped out my fantasy team big time one year.
Yeah, crafty lefthanders are awesome. This is before your time, but there used to be a pitcher for the Royals named Larry Gura, and Reuter was the same way. Completely played with the hitters.
Seems like there used to be a lot more pitchers like that, and then Gooden and Clemens came along in the mid-80s and it became about the fastball again. That's what made Pedro Martinez so dangerous in his prime. He could bring the heat or confuse the living shit out of you.
When Doug Jones was in his final years, he was the king of confusion. At one point in his career, he had a low-end major league fastball, like in the mid-to-high 80s. By the time he was like 43, or however old he was in his last years, his fastball was literally in the mid-to-high 70s. In fact, he basically never threw it. He claimed his repetoire was four or five different changeups. When he pitched, the stadium radar gun would be like, "64"... "69"... "66"... but he was still very effective. Not the great closer he had once been, but nonetheless a valuable player. Amazing.
i hope the 'crafty lefthander' remark was New Sincerity in action, Jesse.
Y'ever notice there are no crafty righties?
BTW you don't sound as tall on the radio.
Doug Jones was a crafty right-hander!
I should have called Rueter a "southpaw" or a "port-sider," though. For that I take full responsibility.
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