Von Hayes

Why wouldn't you name a rock band after Von Hayes?

Don't ask that of Peter Bothum, who plays guitar in a new group that honors the lanky and phlegmatic former Phillies outfielder. Bothum ticks off the reasons why:

The five-for-one trade that brought Hayes to Philadelphia in 1983 for a quintet of players - one of whom, Julio Franco, is still playing.

Or the two home runs he belted in the first inning of a 1985 game against the Mets.

Or The Quote, which is up there in the pantheon of all-time Philadelphia sports utterances (make room, Ricky Watters and Mike Schmidt). Speaking about Philadelphia fans, who had taken to booing him pretty lustily, the former minor-league phenom replied:

"They can do whatever they want. I'll still be eating steak every night."

And that's the endorsement from the member of the lo-fi band that loves Hayes. Andrew Zitelli, 26, of North Jersey, merely humors Bothum and his childhood hero.

"I think we both like him in a certain way," says Bothum, 31, who was 10 when Hayes won his heart with a lead-off home run against the hated Mets, and then later that first inning smacked a grand slam.

Last weekend, Bothum kicked his wife and two kids out of his Newark, Del. home so he could record some songs on a four-track with Zitelli, a construction worker from Bergenfield, N.J., a fellow indie-pop-playing singer/guitarist he met online.

They posted three of the songs on their MySpace page: "Casual Strikeouts," "Boo Hoo," and "Mask For the Season." While not necessarily about Hayes, they are about baseball and on the ragged side. They'd recorded a first batch in October.

Von Hayes, the band, is sort of a side project. Bothum, a nightlife columnist for the News-Journal in Wilmington, regularly plays in another band, Terminal Lunchbox, while Zitelli is in Terrible Friends. Jake Leach, 29, a fellow Lunchboxer, gave them enough for an outfield, playing some bass and singing as well.

Hayes may have stopped playing here in 1991, he lives on in the local lore.

Over at The 700 Level, Enrico Campitelli Jr. kicked off a standing weekly feature of former Phillies baseball cards with Hayes 1990 edition this fall. It prompted this exchange:

the first game i ever went to, i saw old von down there on the Vet turf and asked my dad, IS THAT THE REAL VON HAYES? i was amazed. that was the last time though. i later learned he was pretty mediocre...

Posted by: matt | Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 09:43 AM

Actually Matt, that was not the real Von Hayes.

Hayes, for you youngsters, is best known by his moniker 5-for-1, which refers to the winter of 1982-3 trade that brought him to Philadelphia, for Manny Trillo, Julio Franco, George Vukovich, Jay Baller and Jerry Willard. Pete Rose said that Spring Training that Hayes ought wear the number 541.

The Baseball Reference site writes:

Hayes could do a bit of everything on the ballfield; he had speed, power, could play at least five positions (all the outfield spots plus first and third base), walked, and hit for a high average. He was probably best suited to leading off, but the conventions of the game in the 1980s ran against guys who could hit 15-20 home runs as leadoff men. On 11 June 1985, the Phillies experimented with Hayes in the leadoff spot; he hit two home runs in the first inning and Philadelphia scored 26 runs against the Mets. He led off the game with a home run, and on his second turn in the inning he hit a grand slam.

"He sort of had a mediocre career," concedes Bothum, who is hoping for better things with his band. "My favorite thing about him, though, is The Quote. That was just his attitude. He was more than laid back about it - 'if they want to boo, that's fine, but I'll be eating London broil every night.' I wonder if he still is."

When I was in grade school, I remember my buddy B-Man called into some late night WIP host when they were trying to solve the woes of Rodney Pete or whatever shitty QB they had back then.  Fans were calling in to suggest the solution at QB to save the Birds.  My boy -Man with his 12 year old voice got passed the producer with some lie.  He got on the air and claimed to have the savior to the Eagles problems, the one man who could turn the Birds season around, the answer at QB.  We needed Von Hayes.

It was a glorious moment in a 12 year olds life.

If you want to pay homage to a true-blue Philly kind of player, check out the John Kruk shrine at www.bigfool.com

A buddy of mine was in a band called Sixto, named after the 70's Brewers stalwart Sixto Lezcano. Sixto trained as a hairdresser, btw. True story.

I hope I remember this right, but I recall a quote from when Hayes got traded from Philly to the Angels.  Lenny Dykstra reportedly said, "Great trade!  Who did we get?"

your memory serves:

http://paulkatcher.com/archives/2004_09.shtml

It is great to see the legacy of Von Hayes lives on!  He may not have been worth the five players traded for him, but he was a consistent player during a dreadful time for the Phillies.  If you want to know more about the man, myth, and legend, check this out:

www.vonhayes.blogspot.com


McD