The Season That Was...August

As long as guys like Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols are swinging a bat...the baseball world stands a good chance at seeing some milestones broken.

That said...welcome to August!

Right out of the gate, on August 4th, "A-Rod" joined Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. as the one of the only players to slug 600 or more home runs for their career...and he did it exactly three years to the day after he slugged number 500.

Rodriguez also became the youngest player to hit 600, at 35 years and eight days old...a year and 188 days younger than "The Bambino" was when he swatted 600. "A-Rod" was also the fourth quickest to the mark in terms of at-bats, hitting number 600 in his 8,689th at-bat. Ruth did it in 6,921.

Less than a week later, Rodriguez made history again when he stole his 300th base. Only Barry (762-514) and Bobby Bonds (332-461), Willie Mays (660-338), Andre Dawson (438-314), Reggie Sanders (305-304) and Steve Finley (304-320) have achieved 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases.

Talkin' Baseball with Mather Zickel

This weekend marks the end of some great managerial careers as future Hall of Famers Bobby Cox and Joe Torre and Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston will be patroling their respective dugouts for the last time.

All told, the three accounted for more than 5700 wins, a combined .542 winning percentage, 34 playoff appearances and seven World Seried rings.

On August 22, another pretty successful manager, Chicago Cubs skipper Lou Piniella abruptly called it quits. A few summers ago, "Sweet Lou" was portrayed by Mather Zickel in the ESPN original series "The Bronx is Burning".

I recently had the privilege to talk with Zickel about the making of the series and after what was possibly one of the most awkward segues every committed to writing...here's what he had to say.

HOVG: How familiar were you with Lou Piniella before you were cast to play the former Yankee outfielder in ESPN's "The Bronx is Burning"?

ZICKEL: I remember Piniella from when I was a kid. I grew up in the New York area and basically the first baseball team I ever really knew was the Yankee team depicted in "The Bronx is Burning". They seemed like heroes. And obviously they were a very talented and tough team. I was very young at the time and I remember being confused about why sometimes Piniella was in left field and other times it was Roy White.

HOVG: I’ve gotta know…was that your real hair or a wig?

ZICKEL: That was my natural hair. Plus a little extra to give it that shaggy proto-mullet look.

HOVG: How did the casting process go? Were they looking for actors that could play baseball...or were they just looking for actors who resembled the players they portrayed?

ZICKEL: Casting was definitely looking for physical resemblance in the actors. We all read scenes from the script; many scenes which actually never made it into the final draft. They did want us to have some baseball competence as well. We all had to bat, run, catch and throw for our auditions. I spent an afternoon at the batting cage, getting ready. After we were cast, they sent us to baseball camp for about two weeks before shooting. We got to work with professional players, most of whom appear in the series. Unfortunately, when we finally shot the baseball stuff, they barely used us. They didn't really use the pro guys either. They wound up using a great deal of archival television footage. It was cool to look at that old footage, but it was disappointing to not be able to play for real.

HOVG: Who had the best skills on the field?

ZICKEL: Some of the actors were pretty good athletes. I think the best actor/player was probably Evan Bryce Hart, who portrayed Bucky Dent. Evan had played in college and it showed. It was too bad that they never showed him bat in the series because Evan really got Bucky's stance down; he would get in a low crouch and choke way up on the bat. It was very distinctive. I think Alex Cranmer did Graig Nettles proud, as well. He could stop a mean grounder at third.

HOVG: And who was the worst?

ZICKEL: I don't want to go into the worst. It's better to maintain the illusion of greatness.

HOVG: What is your background with sports? Were/are you an athlete?

ZICKEL: I played some sports in high school, mainly football. These days, I mostly box for exercise. I never really had a true athlete's agility and timing, so I always tried to compensate with blunt physicality. I really enjoyed the baseball camp for the show because they taught me how to actually bat properly. I hadn't picked up a baseball bat since I was 13 years old and almost always struck out as a kid. Nobody had ever taught me the right way to do it. By the end of baseball camp, I could at least put a respectable blooper into shallow center field. Smacking a ball with the sweet part of the bat is a very fun and satisfying feeling.

HOVG: Switching gears to movies...do you have a favorite baseball movie?

ZICKEL: I will always have a sweet spot for "Bull Durham" and the original "The Bad News Bears".

HOVG: I saw that you've recently joined the Adult Swim show "Delocated". What's next?

ZICKEL: "Delocated" is my latest news. It's a very funny silly show and I had a great time making it. Although, I also appeared recently on "Children's Hospital". Somehow, I am becoming a regular presence on Adult Swim. I'm not sure what that says about me. Or Lou Piniella.

Mather Zickel is keeping pretty busy thanks to "Delocated". You can check out some awesome behind-the-scenes pictures of Zickel and others over at Jon Glaser's blog DE(B)LO(G)CATED.

Lou Piniella has been discussed here at The Hall of Very Good at length both HERE and HERE.

Win Your Own "Sweet Lou" Bobblehead

Alright...enough about Lou Piniella (for now) and on to how YOU can win your very own Lou Piniella bobblehead courtesy of The Hall of Very Good.

It's simple. You have three ways of becoming a winner and all it takes is spreading the good word of The Hall of Very Good!

On Facebook: Change your current status to "I won a Lou Piniella bobblehead courtesy of @The Hall of Very Good and you can too! http://ow.ly/2FDwb"

On Twitter: Tweet "I won a Lou Piniella bobblehead courtesy of @HOVG and you can too! http://ow.ly/2FDwb"

Or...re-tweet the messages that I sent out during the day on Friday.

After it is all said and done (we'll say late Friday night or Saturday morning), I'll randomly draw the winner, contact them and send them the bobblehead...all on my dime.

Sound like fun? Then get to your social media-ing...or whatever you call it. You can enter as many times as you wish.

Check out some other Piniella news from the last couple of days.

Talkin' Lou Piniella with George Castle: Author of Sweet Lou and the Cubs: A Year Inside the Dugout shares his thoughts on the former skipper.

Friday 5: Lou Piniella: Three former big leaguers who played for Piniella weigh in on his Hall of Fame chances.

Friday 5: Lou Piniella

Okay, okay...so this isn't your typical "Friday 5". And no...it isn't WITH Lou Piniella as much as it is ABOUT Lou Piniella.

Instead of asking one guy five questions...I asked five different guys the same question ("is recently retired manager Lou Piniella a Hall of Famer") and here is how they responded.

Joe Oliver (former big league catcher, played for Piniella from 1990 to 1992, 1998 and 2000): Lou Piniella has won a lot of games as a manager and I look at how many franchises he has affected in a positive way and turned them around. Lou saved baseball in Seattle and got Tampa Bay headed in the right direction. The Cubs were doing well, they just fell short with bad breaks and…they are the Cubs. (Laughs) He should be in the Hall someday as a great manager who just loved the game and loved winning.

Kip Gross (Victoria Seals manager, played for Piniella in 1990 and 1991): In my limited time with Lou I have no doubt that he got the best he could out of every player that would listen to him. What I liked most about Lou was he told you NOW if you messed up OR if you did good. He didn't wait until after the game because it might come up again. In my opinion...best manager I ever had. Hall of Famer? Absolutely.

Glenn Braggs (former big league outfielder, played for Piniella from 1990 to 1992): There's no doubt in my mind that he is a Hall of Famer. I recently did an interview with God's Game Plan where I talked about my relationship with Lou. You can read Part One HERE and Part Two HERE.

George Castle (author of Sweet Lou and the Cubs: A Year Inside the Dugout): I do think Lou, on the basis of his total baseball achievements, will one day be in the Hall of Fame.

Bobby Ewing (uber baseball fan...good friend and supporter of The Hall of Very Good): I think Piniella is a Hall of Famer based on his career as both a player and a manager. First off, in 1969, he was named the American League Rookie of the Year. He is one of only three managers (Fred Clarke and Joe Torre are the others) to have more than 1500 hits and 1500 wins. In 2001, he led the Seattle Mariners to an astounding 116 victories. And only Piniella, Torre and Tony LaRussa have managed in the ALCS and NLCS. Put him in!

So again, what do you think? Go ahead and vote and feel free to leave your comments below.

Talkin' Lou Piniella with George Castle

Shortly after the All-Star break, Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella announced that he would retire following the 2010 season.

On August 22…he decided to call it quits so he could tend to his ailing mother.

One man who got to know Piniella on a level that few did is sportswriter (and good friend of The Hall of Very Good) George Castle. I recently had a chance to catch up with the author of Sweet Lou and the Cubs: A Year Inside the Dugout.

HOVG: What was your relationship like with Piniella?

CASTLE: My relationship with Lou was interesting. A master needler in his Yankees days, he used that quality on me when I'd ask sometimes garden-variety questions. But, look out, if I asked a "cerebral" (he pronounced it "celebal") question, Lou was agitated. "Where do you come up with those profound questions?” he’d ask. Anything that asked him to conceptualize an issue, he did not care for. Meat-and-potatoes questions were preferred.

HOVG: From throwing bases in Cincinnati to his fiery antics with umpires, Piniella conjures up plenty of memories…what is your favorite?

CASTLE: My favorite Lou memory? Anytime he tried to answer something where he wasn't sure of the answer, and a malaprop resulted. He was second only to ol' Mayor Richard J. Daley as a Chicago public figure with malaprops. At least he was better than Harry Caray on names...he usually got the writers' names right.

HOVG: Any good stories you can share?

CASTLE: Yeah, I was the recipient of 2 of Lou's biggest post-game rants, in 2007 ("You saw the damn game!") and 2010 ("What kind of baseball do you play?"). But I never took offense as Lou's old-school, managers always yelled at reporters and the only difference was there were cameras present compared to times when it was just writers, as Lou with the Reds.

HOVG: Any regrets?

CASTLE: I wish I got to know Lou better, but one on one access to him was restricted. You just could not walk into his office and shoot the bull as I did with past Cubs managers. That's the regret of his tenure in Chicago. Some questions are best asked one on one, without the confrontational or stage-fright setting of a press conference. And you get to know each other better this way.

HOVG: And lastly...should Piniella be considering for enshrinement in Cooperstown?

CASTLE: I do think Lou, on the basis of his total baseball achievements, will one day be in the Hall of Fame.

George Castle is a lifelong Chicagoan and has been covering baseball for a variety of newspapers and magazines since 1980. In 1994, Castle began “Diamond Gems” and four years later, he penned his first book.

His latest effort, When the Game Changed: An Oral History of Baseball's True Golden Age: 1969-1979, hits the shelves October 5. In the book, Castle recreates the sport’s most revolutionary decade via the memories of those who played, managed, and covered baseball from 1969 to 1979.

You can pre-order your copy over at Amazon.

I’ve had the privilege to talk with Castle on a few different occasions. You can read them here:

Talkin' Baseball with George Castle

Talkin' Hall of Fame Baseball with George Castle

So what do you think…is Lou Piniella is Hall of Famer? Let’s hear your thoughts!