PHOENIX -- The tweet presented a fascinating situation: ¡°Imagine going to the ballpark to see a game between Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson, but get disappointed, they get scratched for a young Max Scherzer and a young Clayton Kershaw.¡±
It referred to a Diamondbacks-Dodgers matchup on Sept. 7, 2008, at Dodger Stadium and was forwarded to me for a look back story on the game. I clicked on it and listened to the clip, which was from the bottom of the first inning.
Legendary broadcaster Vin Scully said they were expecting a matchup of Johnson and Maddux and instead got Scherzer and Kershaw. Then he dropped one of his favorite quotes about ¡°the best-laid plans of mice and men¡± in reference to the pitching swap and ¡°what a difference a day makes.¡±
It blew me away. I mean, I know Scherzer and Kershaw, both rookies at the time, started that game, and I was there, but I didn¡¯t remember showing up to the ballpark expecting to see a Johnson-Maddux matchup.
So, I reached out to Ken Gurnick, a legend in the baseball writing business, who covered the Dodgers for MLB.com for 20 years and for other outlets in the two decades before that. No detail ever gets by Gurnick so I figured he would know.
Nope, he said, I don¡¯t remember that.
I thanked him and hung up the phone, but Gurnick wasn¡¯t done trying to figure it out. He contacted Ned Colletti, the Dodgers GM back in 2008, to see what he remembered about it.
Nope, Colletti told him. I don¡¯t remember that.
I went back to my story archive and found something from the day before the game where I wrote about Johnson being scratched because of a back issue.
So, while Johnson wasn¡¯t a last-minute scratch, at least now I had something concrete about him being scheduled to pitch.
What I didn¡¯t know was if Maddux had been scheduled to pitch and if so why and when he was scratched.
Luckily for me, Gurnick wasn¡¯t done with his investigation. He went out to his garage and looked through his old reporter¡¯s notebooks -- I told you, no detail goes unrecorded by him, and apparently nothing gets thrown away either -- and voila the day before Johnson was scratched, then Dodgers manager Joe Torre explained to the LA beat writers that Maddux was not going to start Sept. 8 and would instead start the following game against the Padres.
"Kersh just threw six scoreless against them,¡± Torre said, referring to an Aug. 1 matchup vs. Arizona. ¡°With [Adam] Dunn part of the mix and their other lefthanders, it'll be better. And we're able to keep [Derek] Lowe on the fifth day. It's matchups where we're better off, with left-handers Dunn and [Stephen] Drew over there. I don't think Kersh cares, that kid. Nobody in the clubhouse is worried about it."
OK, now we had something. Maddux wasn¡¯t scratched like Johnson.
It¡¯s also worth noting that the Diamondbacks had roughed up Maddux twice earlier in the season when he was pitching for the Padres, scoring 13 runs against him.
A clip from the top of the first inning gives a better idea of the timeline with Scully saying Kershaw had been scheduled to face Johnson but instead would be facing Scherzer.
So, no one showed up to the ballpark expecting to see Johnson and Maddux, but they did in fact get to see a matchup of future Hall of Famers.
Scherzer, then 24, had been drafted in the first round in 2006 and was making just his 15th big league appearance and fourth start. He struck out 11 in the game, which the Dodgers won, 5-3. This year, he's playing in his 18th season in the Majors.
Kershaw, then 20, was making his 18th start and had three wins to his name. Expected to re-join with the Dodgers at some point and pitch in his 18th Major League season in 2025, Kershaw lasted just four innings in that game and allowed three runs.
They would become pitching legends, but on Sept. 7, 2008, they were just a pair of young pitchers looking to make their mark.