{"id":187,"date":"2018-08-01T12:58:03","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T17:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/?page_id=187"},"modified":"2023-05-30T11:12:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T16:12:18","slug":"darrel-chaneys-grand-slam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/?p=187","title":{"rendered":"Darrel Chaney’s grand slam"},"content":{"rendered":"
July 7, 1974<\/em><\/h5>\n

The 1974 season was Darrel Chaney<\/span>\u2019s sixth in the big leagues with Cincinnati. He was \"Chaneythe club\u2019s primary backup infielder at shortstop, second base, and third base. And although he wanted more playing time, he adjusted to his new role.<\/p>\n

\u201cSparky Anderson told me, \u2018I want to use you in a position where you\u2019re coming off the bench, and you\u2019ll play against righties most of the time, because Davey [Concepcion, the shortstop] has the starting job\u2019 (we platooned in 1972 and Davey got the job in 1973),\u201d Chaney recalled.<\/p>\n

Sparky also asked Chaney to abandon switch-hitting and bat exclusively from the left side.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, at least for that year, Sparky said he wanted me to go all left-handed. Fortunately, he let me work on that in the big leagues and didn\u2019t send me back to the minors for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not necessarily a smooth transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier that year, we had an exhibition game against Indianapolis, and I tried it,\u201d Chaney said. \u201cDave Tomlin was pitching for Indy, and he hit me right above my ear with a fastball \u2013 I was looking for the breaking ball, and it didn\u2019t come. I had a knot the size of a baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to hang in there against the left-hander,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The results were different July 7 against St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Rich Folkers was on the mound in relief for the Cardinals with the bases loaded, and Chaney thought he might be pinch-hit for; he had seen it happen to other players, even though it was early in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of looking over my shoulder, thinking Sparky might bring in a right-handed hitter,\u201d Chaney said.<\/p>\n

But he didn\u2019t. And Chaney was ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe count went to 2-0, and Folkers threw a fastball. I crunched it; I hit it off the facing of the green seats [lower deck] in Riverfront Stadium. In fact, it was bouncing back toward second base while I was running the bases; I almost wanted to pick it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never felt the ball hit the bat like that before,\u201d he was quoted at the time.<\/p>\n

How so?<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was so smooth<\/em>,\u201d he told me. \u201cThe ball just jumped off the bat. I didn\u2019t think I swung hard, and I didn\u2019t feel like the ball was hit that hard. I knew I hit it solid, but the ball just took off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost missed first base,\u201d he said after the game.<\/p>\n

I asked Chaney about the trip around the bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, when you don\u2019t hit that many [he had 14 career home runs] you think, \u2018that ball might be off the wall; I better get going.\u2019 I was looking up to see if it was off the wall or not. I\u2019ll tell you, it got out of there quick<\/em>.\"Chaney<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I did<\/em> make contact with the bag,\u201d he laughed. He did touch all of the bases, and the Reds won the game.<\/p>\n

Chaney had a unique way to preserve the memory of his big swing of the bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Nuxhall gave me a videocassette of the at-bat,\u201d he said, \u201cand after I got traded to the Braves in 1976, I played it for everyone who came over to my house: \u2018here\u2019s a really cool moment in my career.\u2019 A neighbor who worked for AT&T suggested I hook it up to my doorbell, and he helped me do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when someone pushed the button, instead of ding-dong!<\/em> they heard Marty Brennaman say<\/p>\n

Swung on! Drive! Deep <\/span>right field! Darrel Chaney has just hit a grand slam home run off Rich Folkers! Look at Darrel Chaney! He\u2019s dancing around the bases!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAnd then<\/em> I would open the front door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI could also adjust the volume so the whole neighborhood could hear it,\u201d he said. \u201cI had that hooked up for as long as we owned that house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChaneyDarrel Chaney has coauthored a book, <\/em>Welcome to the Big Leagues: Every Man\u2019s Journey to Significance, about his baseball career and his spiritual journey. He\u2019s also in demand as a motivational speaker. To learn more, check out his Web site, darrelchaney.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 7, 1974 The 1974 season was Darrel Chaney\u2019s sixth in the big leagues with Cincinnati. He was the club\u2019s primary backup infielder at shortstop, second base, and third base. And although he wanted more […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-a-moment-in-time"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4210,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/4210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haughtcorner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}