Can a catcher be blamed for not knowing the pitcher he’s catching? Who is to blame when people aren’t honest as a life rule and you’re in charge of keeping them under control?

Ed was super successful at the plate. Well, that’s relatively speaking. Ed was super successful at teeing up a pitch and launching it into the stratosphere. He was really good at that.

But he couldn’t keep a staff in order and it usually boiled down to the top pitcher.

He did well with the others on the staff. It’s not a democracy; there is a pecking order and everyone knows it. So when the No. 3 and 4 starters are clearly doing better than the ace, the issue is front and center.

But winning covers everything and when you’re winning, no one thinks about anything else except to keep winning.

So something as simple as knowing tell-tale signs that a pitcher is about to slip get ignored and eventually can cause the inevitable downfall.

The example I’m prefacing is a simple one. The ace went through an entire summer throwing a curve that broke hard and could get away from a catcher that wasn’t paying attention.

It’s an amazing pitch that works well with his high fastball; the release from the same place that suddenly starts toppling out of the sky towards the ground.

And if it landed about the knees, it was perfect. But some of his best finished at 59 feet and only an attentive catcher kept balls in front. The ones who were slipping, like Ed, did not.

It hadn’t happened for a while, but once it began it felt like it would never stop. A passed ball is worse than a free pass since it puts a runner in scoring position.

It’s the kind of thing that can’t last on a good team.