Washington Nationals phenom starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg was scratched from a start on Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves because he didn’t feel right when warming up for the game. It was later revealed that he has some shoulder inflammation and is listed as day-to-day.
Okay, that happens and everything is fine, right?
Well, the Nationals reaction toward veteran pitcher and Tuesday night’s spot starter for the Nationals 39-year old Miguel Batista has gotten me more than a little perturbed.
The Nationals had sold the game out on Tuesday night because people wanted to see Strasburg pitch. When it was announced that Strasburg had been scratched and that Batista would be replacing him on the mound the Nationals’ so-called fans threw a fit and booed Batista.
What did Batista do?
Batista pulled his cap brim down low and went out and did his job like any veteran should … and he did it damn well. Batista pitched five shutout innings against the Braves and led the Nationals to victory. The fans still didn’t care; they wanted to see Strasburg after all.
The cold hard truth is that Batista might have done a better job against the Braves than Strasburg would have. The Braves had beaten the young ace earlier in the season.
It’s frankly ridiculous the way that the Nationals fans treated Batista, one of their own, on Tuesday night. Many fans even left the game before the first pitch had been thrown because they were so disappointed that Strasburg wouldn’t pitch. By the way, I don’t care if the entire ballclub comes down with food poisoning and is replaced at the last second with the entire AAA club, I’m still going to watch the game that I paid my hard earned money for and support my team.
Baseball seems to be the ultimate team sport out of the big three sports leagues in this country, in that the team is more important than the individual player. Maybe that’s changing?
Much like LeBron James of the NBA, it seems like baseball fans in Washington have quickly become Strasburg fans instead of Nationals fans … and, if you ask me that’s very wrong. I wonder if Albert Pujols were to leave St. Louis in a trade or via free agency would Cardinals fans just up a switch favorite teams as fast as many Cleveland Cavaliers switched to the Miami Heat when James signed with them a few weeks ago?
I seriously hope that the MLB doesn’t go down this road like the NBA apparently already has.
As for Batista, he should’ve felt bad being treated the way he was for such an excellent performance; however he understood saying, “Imagine if you go to see Miss Universe, then you end up having Miss Iowa, you might get those kind of boos.”
Showing posts with label Washington Nationals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington Nationals. Show all posts
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Sweetest Swing
*This is about a week too old and I apologize for that, but I just had to write something about Ken Griffey Jr.
I’ve seen many baseball players with sweet swings over my 15 years of watching the sport, including Chipper Jones and Garret Anderson (who for some reason surprises people when I say that), but I’ve never seen any player’s swing that even came close to Ken Griffey Jr.’s.
Griffey’s swing was magical. His swing was so fluid and quick that it’s probably the single most beautiful thing that I’ve ever seen in sports. It was that swing that put butts into the old Kingdome in Seattle back when the Mariners weren’t that great and people showed up just to watch the player they affectionately referred to as “The Kid.” It really was similar to what Nationals Park in Washington will see every fifth day for the rest of the season when young phenom Stephen Strasburg takes the mound.
The pitcher (you name one, Griffey probably took them deep) would go into his wind-up and throw that ball no matter how fast or with how much movement and Griffey would put that sweet swing on it and hit it what would seem like a mile. It was gone. He knew it immediately, the pitcher would know it immediately and you watching on TV (or if you were lucky in the ballpark) would know it immediately. Then he’d do something that you wouldn’t see from every ballplayer … he’d smile … smile that kid smile that he always seemed to have on his face from day one until his last day in baseball.
You could tell that Griffey truly loved playing the game of baseball and it was that meshed with his epic talents that made him the most lovable athlete that I think I’ve ever seen in any sport.
The great thing about Griffey is that in an era that we now know was tainted by steroid use, with great sluggers like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire using, we truly believe that Griffey was a clean player. It might come out one day that we are all wrong and that will be a horrible day in my life and any baseball purist’s life, but we’re pretty sure that Griffey was clean.
Griffey finished his career with 630 home runs, which is fifth all time. This brings us to the disappointing point of Griffey’s career.
How can 630 homers be disappointing?
Griffey, without a doubt in my mind, should be the all time home run leader in baseball history and not Bonds. The day Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s home run record my baseball loving heart broke a little because I knew he didn’t do it cleanly. Griffey would have had injuries not thoroughly destroyed the back half of his career.
In four seasons (not counting this one), including three consecutively (2002-2004) Griffey played in less than 100 games. In 10 of his 21 seasons (once again, not counting this one) he played in less than 140 games. If we assume that a healthy Griffey plays in 155 games for those 10 seasons, than he missed an estimated 569 games in his career. That’s three and a half seasons of missed playing time. In his prime, Griffey was averaging almost 48 home runs a year. So, Griffey really should have ended his career with around 800 home runs. No baseball player has ever hit 800 home runs in a career.
With Griffey’s retirement most of those legendary baseball players that I grew up watching have now gone (I think Chipper Jones and Ivan Rodriguez are the only two remaining). Unfortunately, I’ll never forget that injuries put somewhat of a damper on Griffey’s great and hall of fame career. But, one thing I’m glad that I never will forget is the sweetest swing that I’ve ever seen.
I’ve seen many baseball players with sweet swings over my 15 years of watching the sport, including Chipper Jones and Garret Anderson (who for some reason surprises people when I say that), but I’ve never seen any player’s swing that even came close to Ken Griffey Jr.’s.
Griffey’s swing was magical. His swing was so fluid and quick that it’s probably the single most beautiful thing that I’ve ever seen in sports. It was that swing that put butts into the old Kingdome in Seattle back when the Mariners weren’t that great and people showed up just to watch the player they affectionately referred to as “The Kid.” It really was similar to what Nationals Park in Washington will see every fifth day for the rest of the season when young phenom Stephen Strasburg takes the mound.
The pitcher (you name one, Griffey probably took them deep) would go into his wind-up and throw that ball no matter how fast or with how much movement and Griffey would put that sweet swing on it and hit it what would seem like a mile. It was gone. He knew it immediately, the pitcher would know it immediately and you watching on TV (or if you were lucky in the ballpark) would know it immediately. Then he’d do something that you wouldn’t see from every ballplayer … he’d smile … smile that kid smile that he always seemed to have on his face from day one until his last day in baseball.
You could tell that Griffey truly loved playing the game of baseball and it was that meshed with his epic talents that made him the most lovable athlete that I think I’ve ever seen in any sport.
The great thing about Griffey is that in an era that we now know was tainted by steroid use, with great sluggers like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire using, we truly believe that Griffey was a clean player. It might come out one day that we are all wrong and that will be a horrible day in my life and any baseball purist’s life, but we’re pretty sure that Griffey was clean.
Griffey finished his career with 630 home runs, which is fifth all time. This brings us to the disappointing point of Griffey’s career.
How can 630 homers be disappointing?
Griffey, without a doubt in my mind, should be the all time home run leader in baseball history and not Bonds. The day Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s home run record my baseball loving heart broke a little because I knew he didn’t do it cleanly. Griffey would have had injuries not thoroughly destroyed the back half of his career.
In four seasons (not counting this one), including three consecutively (2002-2004) Griffey played in less than 100 games. In 10 of his 21 seasons (once again, not counting this one) he played in less than 140 games. If we assume that a healthy Griffey plays in 155 games for those 10 seasons, than he missed an estimated 569 games in his career. That’s three and a half seasons of missed playing time. In his prime, Griffey was averaging almost 48 home runs a year. So, Griffey really should have ended his career with around 800 home runs. No baseball player has ever hit 800 home runs in a career.
With Griffey’s retirement most of those legendary baseball players that I grew up watching have now gone (I think Chipper Jones and Ivan Rodriguez are the only two remaining). Unfortunately, I’ll never forget that injuries put somewhat of a damper on Griffey’s great and hall of fame career. But, one thing I’m glad that I never will forget is the sweetest swing that I’ve ever seen.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
I've Seen Sidd Finch and His Name is Stephen Strasburg
I have seen Sidd Finch pitch and his real name is Stephen Strasburg.
If you haven’t heard the name Sidd Finch that’s because he’s the greatest pitcher that never ever did pitch. Finch never even breathed. In fact, Finch only lived in the vivid imagination of
great sports writer George Plimpton.
Plimpton made the story of Finch up for an April Fool’s joke in a 1985 issue of “Sports Illustrated.”
Finch was a specimen that nobody had ever seen before. He was a New York Mets prospect who pitched with only one shoe on, which happened to be a heavy hiker’s boot, and could top his pinpoint accurate fastball out at an incredible 168 MPH. Finch had trouble deciding whether he wanted to play baseball of the French horn.
Well, two weeks after the story ran it was announced that Finch was indeed a hoax, because some people out there actually believe the story. Plimpton passed away in 2003.
However, it would appear that 25 years later Finch has been resurrected in the form of 21-year old Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg.
As previously mentioned, Finch was unreal … but, I couldn’t believe my eyes last night when I saw Strasburg’s major league debut. The young Cy Young in making pitched seven innings, allowing four hits, two earned runs and struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates. His fast ball topped out in the triple digits, though 168 MPH is physically impossible, 100 MPH does just fine in the big leagues. And, as great as his fastball was, his curveball seemed even better. He struck out every Pirates batter at least one time and frankly made Lastings Milledge, Neil Walker and Ronny Cedeno look like little leaguers out there.
I know what you’re probably thinking now … “Well, they are the lowly Pirates.”
However, trust me when I say that Strasburg’s wicked curve would’ve made Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter and Joe Mauer look like a fool last night.
The Nationals won the game 5-2 to give Strasburg a win in his debut. His 14 strikeouts were one shy of the all time record of 15 in a major league debut set by Karl Spooner and J.R. Richards. Spooner and Richard both pitched further into the game than Strasburg did. He was moved after seven innings (one more than he was expected to go) because he had reached his pitch count. I guarantee Strasburg would’ve broken that record had he come out for just one more inning.
After all, he seemed to be just getting warmed up … he struck out the last seven batters that he faced before leaving the game.
Strasburg has already drawn comparisons to Walter Johnson, who many call the greatest pitcher to ever live. He might be Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens all wrapped into one, but he could just as easily be a bust like Kerry Woods, Mark Prior and many others.
For one night though … I can honestly say that I watched Sidd Finch … er … Stephen Strasburg thoroughly dominated his major league debut.
If you haven’t heard the name Sidd Finch that’s because he’s the greatest pitcher that never ever did pitch. Finch never even breathed. In fact, Finch only lived in the vivid imagination of
great sports writer George Plimpton.
Plimpton made the story of Finch up for an April Fool’s joke in a 1985 issue of “Sports Illustrated.”
Finch was a specimen that nobody had ever seen before. He was a New York Mets prospect who pitched with only one shoe on, which happened to be a heavy hiker’s boot, and could top his pinpoint accurate fastball out at an incredible 168 MPH. Finch had trouble deciding whether he wanted to play baseball of the French horn.
Well, two weeks after the story ran it was announced that Finch was indeed a hoax, because some people out there actually believe the story. Plimpton passed away in 2003.
However, it would appear that 25 years later Finch has been resurrected in the form of 21-year old Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg.
As previously mentioned, Finch was unreal … but, I couldn’t believe my eyes last night when I saw Strasburg’s major league debut. The young Cy Young in making pitched seven innings, allowing four hits, two earned runs and struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates. His fast ball topped out in the triple digits, though 168 MPH is physically impossible, 100 MPH does just fine in the big leagues. And, as great as his fastball was, his curveball seemed even better. He struck out every Pirates batter at least one time and frankly made Lastings Milledge, Neil Walker and Ronny Cedeno look like little leaguers out there.
I know what you’re probably thinking now … “Well, they are the lowly Pirates.”
However, trust me when I say that Strasburg’s wicked curve would’ve made Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter and Joe Mauer look like a fool last night.
The Nationals won the game 5-2 to give Strasburg a win in his debut. His 14 strikeouts were one shy of the all time record of 15 in a major league debut set by Karl Spooner and J.R. Richards. Spooner and Richard both pitched further into the game than Strasburg did. He was moved after seven innings (one more than he was expected to go) because he had reached his pitch count. I guarantee Strasburg would’ve broken that record had he come out for just one more inning.
After all, he seemed to be just getting warmed up … he struck out the last seven batters that he faced before leaving the game.
Strasburg has already drawn comparisons to Walter Johnson, who many call the greatest pitcher to ever live. He might be Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens all wrapped into one, but he could just as easily be a bust like Kerry Woods, Mark Prior and many others.
For one night though … I can honestly say that I watched Sidd Finch … er … Stephen Strasburg thoroughly dominated his major league debut.
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