Cabin Twelve

I loved the first WBC in 2006 and the 2009 version blew it out of the water. Outside of games played by Team USA, the baseball was generally terrific, fun to watch and managed quite a bit of drama. The Netherlands story (and the games they won in the opening round) were legendary and I’m glad I got to see them. Korea, Japan, Cuba, Venezuela and Puerto Rico (and well the US too, but more on that later (and the DR would have been too, if they had decided to show up) ) were all excellent baseball teams that played generally high quality, entertaining baseball at a very high level.

The problem? There is/was/probably always be too much focus on how many of the teams/players aren’t read to play and are worried about getting injured. Stop it. Please. These players are highly paid, world class athletes – I will never buy the idea that they “can’t” get ready for this tournament once every 4 years because it’s played to early in March. I will, however, buy the idea that they won’t. And I’m aware that injury certainly is a risk, especially consider the “highly paid” statement above. Can I understand a guy or an organization saying “geez, this could cost millions if something goes wrong?” Sure. But if it doesn’t have value in spite of the risk, why even have the thing?

And the biggest problem with the injury/timing talk? Its almost completely leveled at team USA. And they are the team losing players at a higher rate, because they’re not willing to play through the minor injuries that aren’t even going to get reported when they happen on teams like Japan, Korea and Cuba. And that’s too bad, because I can see how that would just suck the interest out of a casual fan that wanted to root for the US team. It got almost painful to listen to broadcasters constantly talking about the players that were dropping out, who had what nagging injury, and constant discussions about how to make the timing of the event to lessen worry about injury and have players that were more prepared. My solution, stop talking about it.

Seriously, that’s it. Just talk about the games. That talk magically disappeared during the championship game last night. Why was that? Because it was Japan and Korea, two teams generally thought by most media outlets to consider the WBC a huge international event that was important both to the teams and the countries. Well, guess what. Broadcast all the games like that, and fans might think its important to Team USA and American baseball fans. Just a minor rant. That is all.

“Trying to sneak a pitch past Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak sunrise past a rooster.”  Joe Adcock

I heard Joe Magrane say this about someone else, I can’t recall who, on the MLB Network the other day. I was amused.

Jesus could walk on water, you’d think Carlos Gomez could do it on dry land once in awhile.

Minnesota Mauled St. Louis in Games 1 and 2 of the World Series

A story in Sports Illustrated about games 1 & 2 of the ‘87 World Series written by Peter Gammons from October 26th, 1987. Entertaining.

The highlight to me? Gammons at one point compares Bert Blyleven to Vincent Van Gogh. We all know that if Blyleven was a painter, he’d use his fingers.

I have been poking around retrosheet’s transaction information lately, looking at the moves the Twins have made since the Pohlad’s took over and came across one I had almost forgotten about:

J.C. Romero for Alexi Casilla

I think most Twins’ fans will recall that at the time it was another, “yup, that’s the Twins for you” trade – in that it wasn’t a secret that Romero had worn out his welcome with the Twins and they wanted to dump him. So they gave him to the Angels for a minor league middle infielder that nobody had ever heard of. And Twins’ fans were left wondering why the front office couldn’t bring something of more value back for an established left handed reliever.

Out of curiosity, I went back and did a search at the Star Tribune to see if I could find out what the sports writers wrote about the trade at the time. And guess what? I couldn’t find a reference to Casilla at all. And the references to the trade of Romero all said “traded for a minor leaguer.” To quote La Velle E. Neal III:

Talented but enigmatic lefthander J.C. Romero clashed with Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson the past couple of seasons. Romero’s relationship with Gardenhire became irreparable late last season, punctuated by a Sept. 28 incident when Romero walked off the mound before Gardenhire got there to remove him from a game. Romero then argued with bench coach Steve Liddle in the dugout.

Romero was traded last month to Anaheim for a minor league infielder.

So why am I even bringing this up? Just to briefly reflect on how interesting this trade turned out to be. Casilla, at the time, was a 21 year old infielder who had played exactly 20 games above A ball. While he had posted decent numbers in the minors, he was hardly a sure thing. The thing about the trade was, though, that the Twins were willing to look at a guy like Casilla and say, “you know, it might take a few years, but we think he can really help us on down the road.” Not many organizations would be willing to take a player in return for the (arguably) valuable major league property Romero was at the time. But they did it, and it worked out. If you look at it from the Angels perspective, they got one horrible year out of Romero and let him walk in Free Agency. Granted J.C. has put together a couple of solid seasons since then, but from the Twins and Angels perspective, the trade was a steal for the Twins. And such a typical Minnesota Twins deal.

A disgruntled jerk doesn’t want to buy into the Twins system (love it or hate it), The Twins don’t want to pay him what he’s going to make the following season. Well, let’s trade him for someone unknown, talented and cheap.

And the circle of Twins life is complete.

I had been kicking around the idea of posting random baseball quotes as I come across them, so I’d eventually have an interesting collection of baseball wit available at the click of a “quotes” tag. The idea is to focus on old-timey(ish) baseball cliche and slang that is both entertaining and (at least mildly) under-used these days. And to throw in some truely memorable quotes from players. Well, Julian Tavarez must have been reading my mind, because this one has me ready to introduce a “quotes” tag and never look back.

“Why did I sign with the Nationals?” Tavarez said told a group of reporters. “When you go to a club at 4 in the morning, and you’re just waiting, waiting, a 600-pounder looks like J. Lo. And to me this is Jennifer Lopez right here. It’s 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. So, Nationals: Jennifer Lopez to me.”

Of all the franchies in major league baseball to compare to an early morning, drunken hook-up, the Washington Nationals have to be the most appropriate.