Darling's inside scoop: Pitchers have relinquished plate rights

Ron Darling, who was raised by a Protestant father and a Buddhist mother, went to a Catholic high school before he attended Yale. The former Mets pitcher and current TBS analyst has always seen the kaleidoscope of possibilities, but of this he is sure.

"The game of baseball has improved in many ways, but in one way it has lost its essence," he said. "No one is trained to pitch inside anymore."

Players in Bob Gibson's era had few reservations about pitching inside. (Getty Images)

No surprise. Darling knows the entire history of the brushback. He talked about Don Drysdale, the fierce competitor who learned to pitch inside from Sal Maglie, Drysdale's teammate on the Dodgers in the late 1950s. Maglie, of course, was known as "the Barber" for his close shaves. He taught Drysdale that the ball was his and so was half the plate.

"Every generation had its philosophy," said Darling. "Guys like Drysdale and Bob Gibson had carte blanche, they went out to the mound and there was no question as to who was in charge."

Back then, baseball was an afternoon of intimidation. Drysdale's theory was that it was us against them, so here it comes at 95 mph, and you had better get out of the way. Former Dodger shortstop Maury Wills, the great base-stealer, said the method of retaliation was to spike him every time he slid into a base.

"Guys didn't charge the mound back then," said Darling. "In my era, we learned how to retaliate. The Mets used to put a dummy in the batter's box and we'd practice the knockdown -- never intending to hurt someone."

Then Darling got specific.

"The idea is to aim right behind the elbow," he said, "knowing the batter will move a couple of inches. It's a very narrow window. You have to understand the sequence perfectly and anticipate how much he'll move back. It's really a standard deviation."

Oh.

Already, we've seen the knockdown used poorly in the playoffs. Game 3 of the NLCS turned ugly when Dodger right-hander Hiroki Kuroda sailed a fastball over Shane Victorino's head in retaliation for a couple of knockdown pitches from the Phillies in Game 2.

"Shane was right when he said Kuroda should have hit him in the hip, not aimed for his head," said Darling. "Kuroda showed some mettle by wanting to protect his teammates, but he went about the wrong way."

And why is that?

Playing for the Mets, Ron Darling was told by his skipper to be more aggressive. (Getty Images)

"Pitchers don't want to work on their weaknesses anymore," said Darling. "It's human nature, but it's not the best route to take."

I asked Darling why Joe Torre, who was known for not retaliating during his years with the Yankees (remember Pedro Martinez drilling people?) now seems to have an appetite for it.

"Joe didn't need to do it with the Yankees because he had all the best players," said Darling. "Why risk losing an All-Star for a five- or 10-game suspension?"

Darling admits that he had to work on a knockdown pitch. A member of one of the best rotations in history -- Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez, Bob Ojeda and later Rick Aguilera -- Darling had a variety of pitches, but it wasn't his instinct to throw inside. Mets manager Davey Johnson used to tell Darling he didn't have to be so fine with his pitches.

"I thought about it one winter," said Darling, "and I committed myself to being more aggressive. I came to understand the need for it."

In the end, the man who grew up to the sophisticated music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis had a fascinating explanation to why the inside pitch has become so passé.

"It relates to society," he said. "It's what Keith Hernandez calls the 'country-clubification' of baseball. The game today has so many free agents, so much money and so many players who are friends or who have the same agent, that nobody hates anybody anymore. The game has become too cozy."