Quote:
Originally Posted by D. Bergin
I was posting in another baseball related thread here and started to think about what I really missed about the game...and it's not pace of play related...it's actually the opposite of that.
I miss having a Rickey Henderson type around. I mean, I miss the Willie Wilson's, Omar Moreno's, Vince Coleman's and Tim Raines too, but Rickey was just another level of entertainment.
Rickey, when he wasn't going through his "I'm bored with the game, or my environment, or my teammates" stretches, was wondrous to watch.
A total disruptor. I remember the first few years of his stretch with the Yankees, and if he came up to bat at the beginning of an inning, he could command that entire inning from beginning to end.
Would he hit a homer? Would he work a 12 pitch walk and turn it into a triple (and he worked a lot of walks)? Would he completely take the pitcher out of their game, daring him to pick him off? Would he get picked off, and beat the throw to 2nd base anyways? Would the catcher be so flustered, he'd throw the ball into center field trying to get Rickey out?
A 6 minute Rickey Henderson at bat, with him playing psychological games with the pitcher, getting in and out of the box, and then daring the pitcher/catcher on the base paths, dragging out the at-bats of the guys hitting behind him in the line-up, was far more exciting then any 1-2-3 quick inning.
Edge of your seat stuff. If there's a talent around today, who could do that on a regular basis...we'd never know it.
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You need to check out the new Indians (sorry, I can't go with this Guardians crap) rookie OF Steven Kwan then. Through his first five games of his major league career he's batting .526. He went through 116 pitches to start the season before finally being credited with a swing and miss, which is actually BS. The pitch they called a swing and a miss on him was actually a foul tip the catcher was able to hang on to. Didn't know that officially counted as a swing and a miss, but to me, his streak should still be going as he did get a piece of the ball, period! And he had safely reached base 15 times in just his first four games, doing something that hasn't been done by any other MLB player since 1901. And despite going 0-4 in today's game against the Reds, he still managed a bases loaded walk and RBI to give them their initial lead of the game.
You've all heard of the story of a football player prone to fumbling who was then made to carrying a football around with him 24/7 to learn to not drop or lose it, right? Well, this Kwan kid is apparently so obsessed with getting on base that he carries an actual base around with him everywhere, even to the extent of apparently buckling it up in the seat next to him on planes. Sounds like this 24-year-old rookie is just the kind of new, exciting, unique, and interesting player MLB needs to keep the fans. I hope he can keep the performance going. Obviously hitting over .500 for a season will never happen, and I suspect MLB pitchers will eventually find his Achilles heel and pass it around the league. But can you imagine the excitement this kid would generate if he can keep going at anywhere near this level for any kind of prolonged period of time, and possibly be a legit contender for being a .400 average hitter, and as a rookie no less? Baseball would go insane.
Now of course the contrarians among you will want to jump in and immediately say how the shortened Spring training this year has pitchers at a disadvantage so far, to which I also call BS. These are grown men and MLB level pitchers; they should have been keeping themselves in pitching shape all along. And this goes both ways as well. Batters have also gone through a shortened Spring training in preparing to go up against MLB level pitching. And in this rookie's case, he's never consistently faced MLB level pitching before, so if anyone would be adversely affected by a shortened Spring training, you would expect it to be someone like this Kwan kid.
And by the way, this Kwan kid has done this all on the road. The Tribe's home opener isn't till this Friday. And if he follows the typical player mode of usually performing better at home........well, I'll just leave it at that.