Weird indeed to see Torre in a Dodger uniform, you got that right.
RE: Mirabelli/Jacoby - I met my husband playing coed softball. I am slow, he is quick. I batted last, he batted first. AND I never made it past first except on an error, and he could hit it out of the park.
He would hit it, hard, and be breathing down my neck as I rounded second. There were times as I crossed the plate he was practically carrying me.
So I feel Mirabelli. I really do.
Andraste's comment about her now-husband chasing her around the bases puts a new light on Jacoby chasing Mirabelli. Maybe they, too, will end up married.
I will be seeing the Los Angeles Dodgers in person in a few weeks, and will do my best to sort out the Lowe/Penny issue for you.
Huh. I would like to see Jacoby carry Mirabelli across the plate. That would be quite an interesting game.
Great post! I agree about wanting to believe that the players just love the game so much they would play for free. Just for us! Now I have to go find footage of that game, because I missed it.
re: the Papelbon salary shenanigans, not only was it one of those times when we as fans are forcibly reminded about how players feel about money, but we're also forced to remember how teams feel about players. Because, y'know, fans love home-grown players because they feel invested in them, because they're young, because they're exciting, because the Sox current crop of home-grown players all seem to be at least 25% batshit. But ownership? The #1 reason why they love home-grown players is that they're cost-controlled. Everything after that is probably a distant second.
Paps will easily make up that 125K difference with his Versace endorsements.
I wonder if its a good move... Papelbon is young, but he seems to be pretty damn good. I understand the cost controlyness of the deal, but at the same side he's going to be making bank next year, looking at the long term is sometimes better. Sometimes you have a player you want to roll the dice on.
For example one of the best deals ever pulled off was by Mr. Duquette, everyone forgets the limb he went out on in the 1997-1998 offseason. He signed his rookie shortstop to a 5 year $23.25 million deal with two option years. This brought the total to around 7 years $44.25 million.
It was a risk because there was only one year to go off of it was the second largest contract for a player with his little service time, but it paid off huge, without it, Nomar would have hit arbitration in 1999, and free agency in 2002. Had Nomar been in a negotiating position in 1999-2002 he would have had some mad bargaining power with his peers signing a $252 million/10 year deal, and a $189 mil/10 year deal. We might be waiting another 4 years to be getting out of Nomar's 18 million a year contract...
So was it wise to throw peanuts at Paps? He seems to be a rare talent so locking him up might have been a good idea. Of course with pitchers its a bit riskier, how much would you have thrown at Mark Prior, or Kerry Wood, or Francisco Liriano during their rookie seasons?
I firmly believe that Tim Wakefield would show up at the ballpark every day whether they paid him or not.
I wouldn't be too surprised if Kevin Millar already does.
We can't all forget, many of the reasons we all love Papelbon, are the very same reasons we love a guy like Manny. He's entertaining, humorous, colorful and performs highly at his job.
Oh and he's also a total moron. I like him all the same mind you, but come on, he's a complete knucklehead. He's like a redneck, hick version of Ramirez.
We need to remember that the next time he says this stuff, and we shouldn't get mad. We don't get mad at Manny. Really it's the same.
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