As an example of when saying goodbye is the most gratifying hello…remember Josh Hamilton. And has there ever been a better example of a baseball team wasting money on ludicrous long-term, huge-money contracts?
ENGLEWOOD — So many times we see baseball players saying hello when it is time to say good-bye.
Alex Rodriguez was trying to say hello when the New York Yankees made him say good-bye last week. And for sure, the Yankees forced him into retirement, permitting him to save face by not outright releasing him.
Why did the Yankees do it now? Why didn’t they permit him to finish the season and reach 700 home runs? Crime and punishment. It was the Yankees’ retribution for all the anguish A-Rod put them through with his PEDs and his attempt through the courts to fight his one-year banishment.
Take that, A-Rod.
Will he be inducted into the Hall of Fame? He can stand right next to Pete Rose buying a ticket to get in to see the museum’s artifacts. He won’t be voted in. He is a two-time loser on the PED trail.
Through tears he told us at his go-away press conference that he has changed, that he is now a good citizen. He told us how much he loves the game, but how much love did he show it by dragging the game through the mud time-after-time-after time?
But fans probably haven’t seen the last of him. He still believes he can play and don’t be shocked if some team signs him for the rest of the season.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO Josh Hamilton? He is out spending all that free money the Texas Rangers gave him. Has there ever been a better example of a baseball team wasting money on ludicrous long-term, huge-money contracts?
TIM TEBOW COULDN’T THROW a football when he played football, so what makes him believe he can throw a baseball, even for a minor league team?
Tebow wants to try professional baseball, a sport he hasn’t played for 10 years, since he was in high school.
Any team who signs him is doing it strictly for marketing, a ploy to draw a few fans. It is another example of Tebow being a circus act. And he’d do better juggling bowling pins or swallowing swords than he would trying to play baseball.
Three words. Remember Michael Jordan. And Jordan was still in his athletic prime when he tried to play Class AA baseball for the Birmingham Barons. He was a complete bust. You can’t dunk a baseball.
MANY PUNDITS ARE pooh-poohing Brandon Crawford’s seven hits in one game, something that hadn’t been done since Rennie Stennett did it in 1975.
Crawford’s seven-for-eight in an extra-inning game against the Miami Marlins was a San Francisco/New York Giants franchise record.
They’re saying, “Big deal. One game. A freak event. So what?”
But Pete Rose never did it. Neither did Ichiro or Ty Cobb or Ted Williams or Mickey Mantle or Joe DiMaggio or Willie Mays.
Most players don’t get seven hits in a week, so seven in one game is a major accomplishment. Aim some credit Crawford’s way. It is an amazing feat.
Said Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon, “That’s good a week. I try to get one hit a game and if I do I’m happy.”
And speaking of Blackmon, he said of Great American Small Park, “That outfield is so small that you feel like you are going to run into your corner outfielders every time a ball is hit in the gap.”
WHY IS ROSS OHLENDORF still wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform? In two straight appearances he gave up a walk-off game-winning home run to Pittsburgh’s Sean Rodriguez and hit Yadier Molina with a pitch with the bases loaded for a walk-off St. Louis Cardinals victory.
In his first 47 1/3 innings working out of the Reds bullpen, Ohlendorf has lost seven games, given up 10 home runs, walked 20 and hit five. He is 34-year-old, so why is a journeyman bullpen on a team that professes to be rebuilding, constructing a team for the future.
WHEN SCOTT SCHEBLER took over in the outfield for traded Jay Bruce, he went 5 for 11 in his first three games, including a three-run walk-off home run to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in his first game.
A couple of fans e-mailed me and said, “Jay Bruce?” Well, after that, he went 0 for 15 with eight strikeouts. And rememeber, he was with the Reds the first five weeks of the season and hit .188 with one homer and seven RBI.
Meanwhile, Jay Bruce has hit a couple of home runs for the New York Mets. Scott who?
DID YOU SEE BUSTER Posey’s head-first slide into third base when he jammed he face into the bag, opening a wound? Why does any player slide head-first? Pete Rose could do it, but leaving that legacy hasn’t been good for baseball because it isn’t wise if you don’t know how to do it.
It is only a matter of time before Billy Hamilton, who keeps going into bases (and home plate) head first, gets hurt again doing it. It has happened to him before and it will happen again.
