Cubs` Last Successful Lefty Has The Lowdown For Jackson

November 27, 1990|By Jerome Holtzman.

Danny Jackson, the newest member of the Cub wedding, will be unveiled here Tuesday, and because Wrigley Field has been mostly a graveyard for left- handed pitchers, I called a left-hander from the previous generation.

Kenny Holtzman, the one-time Cub star who now sells commercial real estate for the Rose-Tillmann Agency in Northbrook, answered the phone.

Did he have any advice for the incoming Mr. Jackson?

``Tell him to keep the ball down and his hopes up,`` Holtzman said.

I mentioned that Jackson is a low-ball pitcher; he keeps the ball down.

``Basically, everybody is a low-ball pitcher,`` Holtzman said.

``Everybody tries to keep the ball down. Even Nolan Ryan. Jim Palmer kept the ball up more than most, but when I played with him in Baltimore, he tried to keep the ball down like everyone else.``

Still, Jackson has an excellent ratio of ground-ball outs compared with fly-ball outs: almost two ground outs for every out in the air. Tom Browning, another lefty free agent whom the Cubs pursued but did not sign, is at the other end of the spectrum: three fly-ball outs for every two ground-ball outs. In Wrigley Field, Browning could have been a disaster.

``What`s really more important is to have good stuff, period,`` Holtzman said. ``Jackson won`t always be getting ground balls. It`s those times when he gives up a fly ball. Sometimes they fly into the bleachers.``

Holtzman was among the premier left-handers of his time: 174 major-league victories, including two no-hitters. With better luck he could have had four no-hitters; two others were lost with two outs in the ninth.

There was no question he was a winner. During his 15-year career, he was on five world championship clubs-three with Oakland and two with the Yankees. I asked if he ever wears any of his five World Series rings.

``No, I`ve got them stashed away in a bank vault.``

Holtzman laughed.

``That`s a lot of rings. Until I see Moose Skowron. He`s got about eight.``

Holtzman spent most of his career with the Cubs, during the Leo Durocher era, and was among the few left-handers who conquered Wrigley Field: a 17-game winner in both 1969 and `70. The only Cub left-handed starter who has since had what could be considered a successful season was Steve Trout, 13-7 with the `84 club that won the divisional title.

Wrigley Field is, of course, a hitter`s paradise.

Yet, Holtzman insists, ``I got adjusted the first day. You knew where you were and that it was different. You don`t appreciate how difficult it is until you pitch somewhere else.``

I mentioned that Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, home of the Braves, is equally difficult for pitchers.

``Historically, it`s been as tough,`` Holtzman conceded. ``But the wind isn`t much of a factor in Atlanta. And you`re playing night games there. When I was playing here, we didn`t have lights. It`s always easier for the hitter to see the ball in the daytime. They don`t have lights yet as good as the sun. ``I know how easy it was at Wrigley Field because I could hit them out. Back in those days, the pitchers showed up early in the morning, before anyone else, to take batting practice. It was not uncommon for the pitchers to hit the ball on the street. I did it all the time in batting practice. I even saw Bill Hands do it, and he was the worst hitter who ever lived.``

Holtzman did experience the joy of pitching in a pitcher`s park, Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. In four seasons with the A`s, he won 77 games, an average of 19 a year. Later, he was traded to the Orioles, then to the Yankees. He finished his career back with the Cubs.

I mentioned something that has never been published before. I asked if it was true that, after the `79 season, he gave up his guaranteed 1980 salary, that he, in effect, handed the Cubs a check for $80,000.

``Who told you that?`` he asked.

I learned about it several years ago during a dinner with Bob Kennedy, the Cub general manager in `79. Kennedy was still amazed by Holtzman`s gesture. He had never known of an instance, before or since, when a player forfeited an entire year`s salary.

I asked Holtzman what prompted such beneficence.

``I was half wanting to retire,`` Holtzman explained. ``I had a two-year contract, for `79 and `80-for a total of $160,000. That was my biggest salary. At that point, after the `79 season, I knew the Cubs wanted to go with younger guys. I didn`t want to be just a fill-in guy, and I didn`t want to be traded.

``I could have simply shown up, but I`m not one of those guys who can get paid for doing nothing. I`d been in the big leagues 15 years. It was time for me to go.

``I told Bob, `Look, this is unfair to me and to you.` I said, `Fine, you can give my spot to some younger player and you don`t have to pay me.` `` Eighty grand, then and now, is a lot of money.

Holtzman agreed.

``They were always straight with me. Bob Kennedy was straight with me. And so was Herman Franks. It was the fair thing for me to do.``