The number for the bullpen phone is 867-5309. The horrible truth revealed.

Hey, if anyone ever signs Jennie Finch...

The number for the bullpen phone is 867-5309. The horrible truth revealed.

Awesome. Thanks for getting that song in my head. I'm mentally infecting you with webbed feet syndrome in return.

I love that song!

it always sounded like a ripoff of a police song (roxanne? maybe)

There are a bunch of Moe Drabowsky stories involving the bullpen phones. A few years ago I grabbed these from one of the news stories when he died.

My favorite prank of his was when Jim Nash of the Athletics was pitching a shutout in the fifth inning and Drabowsky who knew the extension for the Athletics bullpen called the bullpen and told who answered the phone to "Get Krausse up" so Krausse started warming up and Nash looked in disbelief when he saw Krausse warming up. Lew Krausse thought it was manager Al Dark that had called.

In Milwaukee's County Stadium bullpen outside numbers could be reached so he was on the bullpen phone talking to a stock broker friend when the Braves manager was wanting someone to get up in the bullpen but since he was on the phone all he heard was beep..beep..beep. So someone had to leave the dugout to get him off the phone so someone could warm up.

Another time he was in the bullpen in Anaheim and ordered take out food from a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong.

I'm kind of disappointed by the lack of "No ####, Sherlock" jokes.

In Milwaukee's County Stadium bullpen outside numbers could be reached so he was on the bullpen phone talking to a stock broker friend when the Braves manager was wanting someone to get up in the bullpen but since he was on the phone all he heard was beep..beep..beep. So someone had to leave the dugout to get him off the phone so someone could warm up.

It would be nice to find a picture of the visitor's bullpen at Co. Stadium, I know I have one somewhere, it was buried under that horrific scoreboard and miserably dingy with all the corrugated metal and rust. It was known for constant napping and shenanigans as it was out of site of the dugout.

There should be customizable bullpen ringtones, at least for the home pen. You'd know to warm up if you heard "your" ring.

There should be customizable bullpen ringtones, at least for the home pen. You'd know to warm up if you heard "your" ring.

Endless jokes on that.

Sparky Lyle's book (if there's a term for its type, I am unaware) that chronicles a year that didn't happen, The Year I Owned the Yankees, includes not one but two running phone gags, both involving Yogi Berra, the bench coach. The bullpen phone was like the one mentioned, a working number, so it would be rerouted to Japan, or players would have Ma Bell cut in on the call. They also had Mizuno fielding gloves with cellular technology (the book's from 1992 or so, so this was futuristic) so instead of waving guys around, he'd just call them. The right fielder figured out how to get an outside line by squeezing his pinky, and the left fielder would pretend to be an answering machine while looking Yogi in the eyes from his position.

Jeff, I read that book! I liked it a lot, but I was an adolescent at the time. I don't know if I would have liked it if I read it as an adult. I'm scared to go back and see, just like with Perfect Strangers.

Seriously? This is like the tenth time I've mentioned it over the years, as I think it's great and nobody ever mentions it. I'll flat out state that (and I own and have read each multiple times) TYIOtY is more enjoyable and a better baseball book than the Iowa Baseball Confederacy. I reread it once every two years or so (the diary format and great familiarity mean I can pick it up at any time, flip to almost any page and start reading) and it most certainly stands up.

Hell, it's better. I didn't get the Faustian side plot as a kid, I didn't appreciate the Keith Reich 'veteran utility guy whose 5-7 year career is about done' character. The 'Is Tommy John allowed to pitch'/cyborg thing is still great. The Japanese reliever (a few years before Nomo came over) who can read minds. The 30 year old career minor leaguer called up as an emergency spot starter, sleeping in his car to save money for the kids who need braces, throwing a perfect game. Topped by the resulting "Mr. Perfect" quandary, which I have spent an inordinate amount of time mulling over, and I still can't say which I'd choose. The Unsigned Free Agent auction on ESPN. The secret tapes recorded by Steinbrenner detailing conspiracies with Billy Martin, Winfield, Neon Deion. All better as an adult.

Not to mention the primary subplot, of course, Duke Schneider and her computer that uses stats. An obvious winner around here even before the flat-out ####### hilarity of bunting in every at-bat, or taking every single pitch while Dave Stewart tries to figure it out, gets some Damacleian paranoia followed by yips and then ejected after throwing at heads and screamiing for someone to swing.

Okay, I'll pick it up again some time. I read it several times when I was younger.

Wow, I've never heard of that book before. Actually written by Sparky Lyle?!?

Lyle and Peter Golenbock co-wrote, but I did read somewhere some time ago that this was truly collaborative, not some ghostwrite. Sparky's ideas and stories, and Golenbock basically doing the grammarian/editorial bit and throwing in a few ideas.