Geoff Blum faced 841 different pitchers over the course of 14 big league seasons, and while he doesn’t remember them all, many come to mind easily. That was proven when he recently became the sixth player-turned-broadcast-analyst to take part in our Challenging Career Quiz series. Did the erstwhile infielder maybe take a few liberties and look a few things up before we sat down for the exercise? He admitted as much, but as was the case with David Cone, Mark Grant, Mark Gubicza, Jeff Montgomery, and Dan Petry — links to those pieces can be found on their player pages — right and wrong answers are largely a secondary consideration. Entertaining anecdotes are the primary objective, and Blum followed suit by providing plenty of them.
I began by asking Blum — the first position player to be featured in this series — which pitcher he stood in the batter’s box against the most times.
“I was going to say Carlos Zambrano, but you gave me some time to look it up and I did cheat a little bit,” Blum replied with a laugh. “I knew it was going to be somebody in the NL Central, and we faced the Cubs a lot, so I figured it was going to be either Zambrano or Ryan Dempster. I also faced Dempster a bunch when he was with Florida and I was with Montreal, so I’m not surprised that he is the answer.”
Blum faced the right-handed Dempster 58 times — 18 more than Zambrano — going 15-for-53 with five walks. What does he remember about the current MLB Network analyst?
“He’d always challenge me with fastballs with two strikes, and I was grateful for it,” replied Blum. “Zambrano was a different story. It seems like he got me out every single time with that bowling-ball sinker he had. I couldn’t figure him out. I also couldn’t figure out why they kept playing me against him. That’s what I want to know. I probably should have asked my manager.”
Blum’s numbers against the longtime Cubs starter were indeed abysmal. He went just 5-for-36 with a double, four walks, and nine strikeouts against Zambrano. Only Randy Johnson punched him out as many times.
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Assuming he’d know this one — sneak peek or not — I next asked which pitcher he had the most hits against. The answer is Dempster and Jeff Suppan.
“I think I was something like 15-for-30 off of Suppan,” said Blum, nailing the exact numbers. “I had some homers, too. I saw the ball really well against him. He was fastball-changeup with a slow curveball, and for whatever reason my swing timed up beautifully with his delivery. He wasn’t a hard thrower, but he would try to challenge me with fastballs inside.
“I remember vividly a game in Milwaukee, when I was with Houston,” he added. “I hit a home run off of him my first time up, and in my third at-bat — this was maybe in the fifth or sixth inning — [Brewers manager] Ned Yost came out to the mound to talk to him. They had a guy loose in the bullpen, but somehow he talked himself into staying in the game. First pitch, I hit a bomb.”
Somewhat surprisingly, the 53-year-old Cal Berkeley product whiffed on whom he took deep the most times. He surmised that, “It would have to be Suppan,” but the pitcher he otherwise terrorized only surrendered a pair of home runs to him — the two he hit that day in Milwaukee. Against Braden Looper, he went yard three times.
“Really,” Blum replied upon hearing the correct answer. “I didn’t have a lot of tanks off of guys, but I do remember facing Looper. I stood on top of the plate, and he would throw that front-door sinker. It would leak over the plate every once in a while, and I guess I got a hold of a few of them. The guys I hit homers against challenged me a little bit with fastballs.”
I next challenged Blum with an individual matchup in which he fared even worse than he had against Zambrano. Against which pitcher did he go 0-for-13 with six strikeouts?
His first guess was correct in terms of plate appearances, but otherwise amiss. While he didn’t have much success against Jeff Fassero, 3-for-12 with a walk and two strikeouts wasn’t all that terrible. His second stab at the answer was also off the mark. His numbers against Kevin Brown included two hits in 20 at-bats with three strikeouts.
“No kidding,” he replied when I told him that it was Edinson Volquez. “He was with Cincinnati, right? That makes sense. I would have gotten some at-bats against him, being in the National League Central, but I didn’t realize he punched me out that much.”
Sticking with the negative, I asked him which pitcher he went 1-for-17 against, with a walk and three strikeouts. He responded with a laugh, saying that, “It could be a handful of guys.” I informed him that it was Tim Lincecum.
“That dude threw me a crap ton of changes,” Blum recalled. “He maybe threw me two fastballs in my entire career against him. Yeah, a lot of changeups, and that funky delivery always ruined my timing. He was extremely unique. I mean, that delivery was kind of wild, and if there was somebody back then who had what we call a hoppy fastball, it was probably him. I was always ready for the mid-90s fastball, but he never threw it to me.”
Switching to the positive, against whom did he go 4-for-4 with a pair of walks? His guesses were in the right ballpark, but nonetheless incorrect. He went 4-for-6 against Todd Ritchie, and 3-for-4 against J.C. Romero. I told him that the answer is Pete Harnisch.
“Oh yeah,” said Blum. “I faced him early in my career. He threw me cutters in on the hands, and I forced a couple of base hits. I think he would have been with Cincinnati at the time.”
My last question deviated from pitcher matchups, and was especially challenging. Blum hit the first of his 99 career home runs off of Colorado’s Mike DeJean in a 14-13 Expos win at Coors Field. Who were the winning and losing pitchers in that August 1999 contest?
“I’ll go with Anthony Telford and Dave Veres,” was his uncertain-sounding guess. Nope. He wasn’t too far off with the first of those names, though, because Telford earned the save that day. The win went to Ugueth Urbina, while Jerry Dipoto was tagged with the loss.
“Are you kidding me?” Blum said upon hearing the answer. “I faced Jerry Dipoto [going hitless in one at-bat], but I didn’t realize he was with the Rockies at that time. How crazy is that? It’s wild. I love Jerry, too, man.”