Cabin Twelve

I was looking through some lists of front office personnel in baseball, when I came across a little nugget about Terry Ryan that I hadn’t noticed before. Ryan was promoted to general manager on the 13th of September, 1994 and resigned on the 13th of September, 2007 – a span of exactly 13 years.

My triskaidekaphobia is a little alarming it’s true, but that strikes me as odd timing.

And one more note, that just might be Jason Kubel’s personal curse: currently atop the “Similar Batters” list on Jason’s baseball-reference page is Benny Agbayani.

I am flipping through the 1987 Bill James Baseball Abstract and came across a nugget on the Minnesota Twins team page. Writing about the wholly disappointing ‘86 team, while looking at the prospects for the ‘87 team, James had the following to say:

When the Griffiths sold out, there was an excitement here that created an opportunity. The window has closed; the new owners seem to be not only just as bad but almost indistinguishable. They likes their ballplayers slow and white.

Who could lead the Twins out of their doldrums? Dave Righetti? Nah; if the Twins weren’t losing games in the bullpen, they’d lose them somewhere else. Billy Martin? I don’t know. The time has come for the Twins to forget about winning somewhere down the road, but Martin is at his best when working with guys from the wrong side of the tracks. The Twins’ problem is that they’re a collection of smooth-faced suburban kids with no instinct for the jugular. I’m afraid the mixture would explode, rather than percolate. Tim Raines? Raines would give the Twins a leadoff hitter and a left fielder, plus he might compile better stats than Rickey Henderson in this park, but that wouldn’t do anything about the pitching and nobody can win nothing allowing 839 runs.

I love two things about what James wrote about the Twins back then. First, it turns out the Twins didn’t need Tim Raines or any other near-hall-of-famer-to-be to turn things around in ‘87 – they needed Dan Gladden. But more amazingly, while the circumstances of the ‘87 season made James seem to be completely wrong in his assessment of the Twins at the time, does it not ring true, even today? I thought so too.

Alfonso Soriano had this to say:

Mercker’s Future?

I’m not sure what kind of legacy Kent Mercker is going to leave on the game of baseball, but he sure managed to carve out a long career. It might be over for him – and if it is – at least he left us with a great quote. From the Dayton Daily News:

Most likely he is headed for retirement and said, “I’m starting my new profession — turning vodka into urine.”

Godspeed, Kent Mercker, godspeed.

Long ago and far away I was a young boy in the netherlands of Western North Dakota. And my dad was a baseball fan. Because of this, I occasionally stumbled on a baseball book and rarely had anything better to do than read it.

Not very long ago and not very far away, I was not a young boy and I was staying at my dad’s while waiting for my new place to be ready – back in North Dakota. I came across his old copy of The Wrong Stuff, by Bill Lee and decided to pick it up. Entertaining enough, to be sure. The biggest kick I got out of it was realizing that the most memorable story from reading it when I was around 10-12 years was the tale of Carlton Fisk getting hit in the nuts with a baseball. So much mature now, my favorite antecdote from the second read:

The Spaceman tells the story of getting drafted by the Red Sox out of USC. He wasn’t a very high draft pick and knew he wasn’t all that highly regarded – because of that, he wasn’t even sure that he was going to sign. Eventually he decided to give it a shot, if nothing else, he didn’t want to regret not at least trying to find out if he’d make it as a professional ballyplayer. He took his small bonus and the airplane ticket the Sox gave him to Idaho Falls, or whatever little minor league town it was they sent him to, and showed up at the park. He put on his uniform and went in to meet the manager. As he tells it, he introduced himself and the manager paused, gave him a good once over, then just said “we’ll see” and turned and walked away. It was at that moment, Lee says, he decided that was a pretty good response, and the next time he faced a major life altering decision, that would be his too. We’ll see.

Seems to me that’s not a bad way to look at life.