The Pants Rotation

While Billy Martin was in charge, in one of his many stints as Yankee manager. A pitcher by the name of Ken Holtzman got on Billy's bad side. And Billy was an emotional guy, with a significantly large bad side. Billy sat Ken Holtzman.

Each major league team carries 25 players. Managers need pinch hitters. Starting pitchers pitch only every five days. Bullpen's hold the warhorses of the pitching staff, each team with a closer and one or two setup guys and some middle inning guys. In 1977 most teams had 10 pitchers and 15 position players.

You needed everyone.

But Billy sat Ken Holtzman out.

Now even in a big loss, sometimes especially in a big loss, a team needs extra pitchers. "He took one for the team" is a common expression for a pitcher who gets left in a badly losing game, just to eat up innings.

Billy wouldn't use Holtzman in even a mop up roll. He wouldn't use him in close games, or middle innings. He just sat. When the team was desperate for pitching, I remember one game where the Yanks were losing badly and I was sure he would use Holtzman just to save the pitchers Billy liked. But no. Holtzman sat.
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I think of my jeans like pitchers on a staff. I have my ace pair, usually new, most often washed. Then my #2 guy. The former ace. A pair I like but has been surpassed by a younger, healthier pair. Then the middle guys, old, small or torn. Many of my #5 jeans have had paint on them. They took it for the team!

Today, I broke out my Ken Holtzman jeans!