Results tagged ‘ Trevor Hoffman ’
Sheff surprise
This isn’t the first time a Gary Sheffield transaction had some shock value. In fact, he’d made a pretty good career out of head-turning transactions before his somewhat shocking release by the Tigers on Tuesday.
There were two transactions in about 18 months that started off this seven-team (and counting?) journey through the Majors.
First, the trade from Milwaukee, where he’d worn out his welcome so young after debuting at 19, to San Diego, where he sewed up his own welcome mat by taking a Triple Crown run into September 1992. Then, by the middle of the next season during what some would call the San Diego Swap Meet, Sheffield was dealt to the Marlins for three players, including a guy who’d go on to become the all-time saves king — Trevor Hoffman.
Five more teams and (wow) almost 16 years later, and a potential Hall of Fame career is teetering on the edge of extinction, seems like. He probably can still swing it, but at this point, who’s buying? The Phillies? Perhaps, but he plays where, there? Marlins, eh, would be interesting but is it realistic? The Dee-troit Tigers think he’s a DH, how’s he going to contribute in the NL? So how about the hometown Rays? Now there’s a thought.
The larger question of the moment is: Does he need that one more homer to ensure his place in Cooperstown? Well, like most questions these days, it’s too complicated — and too early — to answer that. But the short answer is, yes, he probably does need to get over that 500 hump and then some to get enough votes eventually. The longer answer has something to do with the Mitchell Report and the general feeling that the era he played in has rubber numbers that, to many, lie to history.
But if you think of guys in their prime, man, there’s not too many like him. Not too many guys who carried a bat the way he did, would swing it with such violence and efficiency, and was just flat dangerous with a piece of lumber in his hand.
Yakyu Haiku
That’s the American tradition of baseball in Japanese, and here’s an Americanized version of a Japanese tradition:
Braun lost it in lights,
a swell end to Brewers’ spring –
X-rays OK, whew
Some moving stories
There’s something cool about a 6-foot-10 guy called Big Unit wearing a uni that says “Giants” on it. Kinda fits, no?
There’s something curious about a young superstar Matt Holliday having been traded, putting on the green and gold after wearing purple and black his whole career.
There’s something odd about seeing John Smoltz donning Red Sox and nothing that has little tomahawks on it.
And there’s nothing quite like that first week of Spring Training, is there?
Most of the players hitting the fields for the first time in 2009 are wearing the same uniforms they were wearing a year earlier, but plenty are donning new duds, and some changing colors for the first time. <p />
Randy Johnson has worn six uniforms in his career — seven if you count purple and red Diamondbacks/D-backs versions — but this one does seem to fit the XL in him. Others turn your head more abruptly, though. For example:
Seeing Holliday taking swings in the cage with Eric Chavez and A’s boomerang Jason Giambi, wow. And Smoltz going through drills alongside Josh Beckett and Dice-K? Weird.
But fun. Interesting. And perhaps more so if you’re not a fan of the Rockies or of the Braves, something to anticipate.
Like Trevor Hoffman’s first save opportunity for the Brewers, or Big Unit’s first home start at AT&T Park. Or whatever CC, AJ and Tex do in pinstripes. The list goes on.
An interesting crop of changelings, along with the boomerang boys like Griffey and Giambi, give us all ample opportunity to refresh our view of the stars this spring.
Yakyu haiku
That’s the American tradition of baseball in Japanese, and here’s an Americanized version of a Japanese tradition:
Glavine three left turns
to greener pastures again…
still in Atlanta
Bottom line
Wow, a day when stuff off the field didn’t trump the stuff on the field and in the uniforms. What in the name of Yuri Sucart is going on around here anyway?
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