This Skipper Gets It | Voice of San Diego Close Sign In View Account DONATE Search for: Search All Stories All Recent Stories Arts/Culture Border Education Economy Government Immigration Land Use Opinion Politics Public Safety San Diego 101 Science/Environment Projects 101 Ash St. Criminal Cops Redistricting San Diego 101 San Diego’s Cost-of-Living Crisis Schools Guide Tijuana River Year One: COVID-19 Newsletters Newsletter Hub Not Getting Our Emails? Text With Us Podcasts VOSD Podcast San Diego 101 Podcast Good Schools For All San Diego Decides VOSD Podcast Network Podcast Production Services Events All Events Brews & News Donor Recognition Events Politifest 2022 Politifest South 2022 Support Us Become a Member Become a Sponsor Give the Gift of Membership Members Only Page Member Help Page: Content & Accounts Planned Giving Vehicle Donation About Us Our Story and Mission Our Team What We Stand For Board of Directors Our Supporters Careers Our Interns Newsroom Diversity Content Sharing Policy Submit a News Tip Submit a Commentary Contact Us Privacy Policy Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Close Close Sign In View Account DONATE All Stories All Recent Stories Arts/Culture Border Education Economy Government Immigration Land Use Opinion Politics Public Safety San Diego 101 Science/Environment Projects 101 Ash St. Criminal Cops Redistricting San Diego 101 San Diego’s Cost-of-Living Crisis Schools Guide Tijuana River Year One: COVID-19 Newsletters Newsletter Hub Not Getting Our Emails? Text With Us Podcasts VOSD Podcast San Diego 101 Podcast Good Schools For All San Diego Decides VOSD Podcast Network Podcast Production Services Events All Events Brews & News Donor Recognition Events Politifest 2022 Politifest South 2022 Support Us Become a Member Become a Sponsor Give the Gift of Membership Members Only Page Member Help Page: Content & Accounts Planned Giving Vehicle Donation About Us Our Story and Mission Our Team What We Stand For Board of Directors Our Supporters Careers Our Interns Newsroom Diversity Content Sharing Policy Submit a News Tip Submit a Commentary Contact Us Privacy Policy Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Skip to content Menu Voice of San Diego Unveiling the Unseen DONATE Menu Open Search Search for: Search Posted inNews This Skipper Gets It by Voice of San Diego April 24, 2007 March 15, 2022 Share this: Print The Morning Report Subscribe now. Get smarter tomorrow. Subscribe Read it first Success! You're on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again. Processing… Can we dispense with the “pitchers-don’t-make-good-managers” axiom now, please? It was a lame idea to begin with. Sure, Bud Black is just three weeks into his managerial career, and he’s still as capable of a brain cramp in October as the next guy, but I’ve already seen enough to say that this skipper gets it. He just plain gets it. First and foremost, Black gets pitching, which is half the battle, and more than you can say about a good chunk of the man’s peers. Having been a pitcher, and a heady pitcher at that, Black understands the importance of pacing for the long haul, while still endeavoring to get the most out of his men over a period of, say, a month. REGISTER NOW After a recent stretch which included two long extra-inning games and a bevy of short outings by San Diego pitchers, Black needed innings eaten by his starters over the weekend. That he got them in each of the three games in Colorado is as much a testament to the skipper’s ability as it is to that of his three starters; Chris Young, Clay Hensley and Greg Maddux. I’m sure Black made what was required of the players more than crystal clear, and they were quite obliging, thank you very much. Young bounced back from being roughed up in his last start with a fine seven-inning, one-run performance Friday night, beating the Rockies 11-1 at Coors Field. Just what the doctor ordered. Doug Brocail mopped up the eighth and ninth, giving most of bullpen a much needed day off. Hensley followed with six strong, with Heath Bell, Scott Linebrink and Kevin Cameron each pitching an inning of the Padres 7-3 victory on Saturday. Maddux was a bit shaky in a 4-2 loss Sunday, but he went seven innings, which was huge for the club. Cla Meredith made his only appearance of the series by pitching the eighth, yet again, without allowing a run, and Trevor Hoffman ended up spending the entire weekend as a spectator. With a scheduled off-day Monday, Black will have negotiated his way around what could have been a greater energy-draining time for his bullpen than it ended up being. No small thing for a rookie skipper. Conclusion? This skipper gets pitching, and by extension, the job as a whole. Also of import this past weekend was the reduction of scoring in the mile-high altitude of Denver. The Rockies started storing game baseballs in a climate-controlled room five years ago, but for whatever reason, it didn’t take until 2006. Whatever. Let’s be grateful, because it makes for normal baseball. Here’s an interesting paragraph I found via Google, which sums up the change, from Colorado.com: According to Major League Baseball, in 1999, Coors Field became the most offense-friendly Major League ballpark ever built. That year, the ball left the yard 303 times. To keep the balls from leaving the park so easily, the Rockies have engaged in a few homerun hindering activities. One such example is the use of humidors when storing the team’s baseballs. If that ball coming down the pipe looks a bit bigger and a lot more hittable, it isn’t an optical illusion, it really is. The high altitude has a tendency to expand a baseball. Humidors help mediate this high altitude-induced swelling. MLB, much to its credit, instituted baseball storage guidelines this season. For more information, check out this February story by Thomas Harding, from the Rockies website. — HOWARD COLE WHAT TO READ NEXT Politics Report: Garbage Positions VOSD Podcast Bonus Episode: Sean Elo-Rivera on Homelessness VOSD Podcast: It’s All Trash Politics IB Is Running Out of Patience with Mobile Home Park Landlord Labor Leader Leaves Union-Aligned Charity Over Lemmon’s Involvement Load more posts Loading... Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again. Leave a comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ {{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}Your submission failed. The server responded with {{status_text}} (code {{status_code}}). Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. Learn More{{/message}} {{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}It appears your submission was successful. Even though the server responded OK, it is possible the submission was not processed. Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. Learn More{{/message}} Submitting… This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube About Voice of San Diego is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 110 West A St. Suite 650, San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-325-0525 Links About Us Contact Us Newsletters Podcasts Submit a News Tip Support Public Service Journalism We rely on people like you to support this service. Please donate or sponsor VOSD today. DONATE NOW © 2022 Voice of San Diego. Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic