Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 12, 1993 TAG: 9310120284
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium
No one had to hit the Philadelphia Phillies' centerfielder over the head when he strolled to the plate with one out in the 10th inning Monday at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. He already had an idea.
"I felt like we needed to do something that inning," Dykstra said after Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.
So, one of the most aggressive players in the game decided he wanted to just stand there, among the frenzied buyers of the Home Chopping Network. He was looking ahead, but he was thinking back.
Perhaps to his momentous game-winning, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Houston's Dave Smith that gave the New York Mets a 6-5 victory in Game 3 of the NLCS seven years ago to the day?
No, the game's best leadoff man was thinking back behind the plate, next to his left side, where Francisco Cabrera was catching only his fourth inning of the season for Atlanta.
That Bobby Cox must be a Brave manager! On Cabrera, a pinch-hitting hero a year ago in the NLCS and little more since, the catcher's equipment really defines "tools of ignorance."
Cox had no choice. Cabrera was his only available backstop. So, with a 3-3 tie after Atlanta's wild ninth, Dykstra wanted no more than a walk.
"With Cabrera catching, I figured I could turn it into a double," Dykstra said. "I didn't think he could throw me out. That was my thinking early. I got to like my thinking later better."
Wohlers had given up a meaningless homer to Dykstra in Atlanta's 14-3 win in Game 2, then fanned the Phils' leadoff pest late in Game 4. The Braves' righthander challenged Dykstra, who eventually coaxed the count to 2-2.
Wohlers needed a strike. Cox needed a borderline call from plate umpire Jerry Crawford. Dykstra needed a split-finger fastball.
Wohlers fired. Cox looked. So did Dykstra. Ball three.
"Frankie [Cabrera] called his own pitches," Cox said. "We had Dykstra locked in 2-2 and he was looking split-finger. We just didn't get the call.
"That pitch was pretty darn important."
Not as important as the next one.
"It wasn't tough at all to take that 2-2 pitch," Dykstra said. "It was outside and when the ball's outside, I don't swing. Just because the catcher sets up out there and catches it there, it's not a strike."
Now, Dykstra had Wohlers locked in. With revisionist thinking, Nails was ready to go to the wood. Cabrera wanted a fastball, low and inside. Wohlers obliged. Dykstra's solo homer sent the Phillies home with a 4-3 victory and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Dykstra wasn't thinking of this, but the Braves hadn't lost two in a row since Aug. 19-20.
"The home run in 1986 was great, but this one was bigger," Dykstra said of his days with the Mets. "I was just a kid then, kind of in La-La land . . . trying to contribute. Here, now, I'm a guy they've counted on from Day One.
"Not only do they expect that from me, I expect it of myself. It's different now. I am now what Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter were then. My teammates, the manager, they lean on me for these type of things. And when I don't do it, is it a big deal."
Don't get the wrong impression. Dykstra wasn't just doing a monologue on his sixth postseason homer. It's his sixth sense - his baseball brain - that makes him a leader.
He was thrilled by the homer, but he was almost as enthused about a great, 12-pitch at-bat that became a routine groundout to shortstop in the fifth, or distressed about how he felt standing in centerfield, feeling helpless, when the Braves tied the game in the ninth.
"It was definitely slipping away, it was blowing away," said Dykstra. "It was one of those things where you want to call a timeout, like in basketball. But you can't do it. That's baseball."
This season, Dykstra became the first player in major-league history to lead his league in hits, walks and at-bats in the same season. Only one other player, Burt Shotton of the St. Louis Browns (1916) has led the league in the walks/at-bats combination.
Dykstra was the Carolina League MVP, batting champ and stolen-base king a decade ago for the Lynchburg Mets. The only part of his game that's messed up are his often dirt-stained uniform and his often tobacco drool-moistened chin.
"It's simple," Phils manager Jim Fregosi said of his 30-year-old center fielder. "Lenny is a red-light player. When the [TV camera's] red light goes on, he gets the job done."
But when the count is 3-2 and Dykstra's at the plate, he always gets the green light.
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB