Hello Fans,
We are just a few short days into the start of what is anticipated to be another long and exciting career at the glory-laden position of shortstop after the Orioles called up the number one position prospect in all of baseball, 20 year old Manny Machado, while another shortstop’s magnificent and celebrated career and life sadly came to an end on Monday with the passing of 92 year old Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky. Machado is writing a brilliant opening chapter to his story with a triple in his first game and three homers in his first four games. Congrats Manny, welcome! And legends are forever, especially in old towns like Boston. No one will ever forget Johnny as the stories of him and his teammates like the Splendid Splinter, Dom DiMaggio, and Bobby Doerr of a booming post-WWII baseball era are guaranteed to be told over and again. The sport holds the highest honors for its heroes of all eras with the likes of retired numbers, the Hall of Fame, and dubious accounts through great reporting and subsequent story telling. As a result, the right field foul pole, just 302 feet from Fenway’s dish, is named after and dedicated as the Pesky Pole. Thanks Johnny! (Ironically, it is said he may have hit as few as one homer around the pole as he hit just 6 HRs in his career in games at Fenway on his way to a .307 lifetime average.)
We all know that baseball is a unique sport that has by far many more statistical values on games and players’ careers than any other sport. This is a culmination of the concept of the game itself attracting and demanding any mathematician’s unlimited attention (see Bill James), the fortunate fore-thought of the founding fathers who kept track of such things as ERA and batting average well over 100 years ago while preserving those hand written log books, and the passion of the fans to thoroughly follow the 17,000-plus MLB ballplayers that have provided us with such great competitions. The point here is that the sport, like society, carries on despite any loss. However, that does not indicate coldness or callous because again, like our real world, it reflects, remembers, and respects all losses. That is the important thing. Through the well chronicled history of the game’s story lines and its characters, they all live on forever as the game is a permanent fixture in all places of our biggest of cities and tiniest of towns.
New York City’s three big league center fields were once simultaneously ruled by the likes of The Say Hey Kid, The Duke, and The Mick. Their stories were huge as they arrived in the Show. Now we have another set of three phenoms in the likes of Machado, Mike Trout, and Bryce Harper. And their impact and, perhaps stories too, could become just as big those HOFers. Harper’s still a teenager, Trout is a 20 year old MVP candidate, and Machado is held as an organizational savior. That’s the great thing about the Game, it will always hold on to the past while holding the door open for the future. All eras are welcome. The efforts and dedication to the game by men like Pesky, who was part of baseball in one form or another for a Connie Mack-like 73 years, preserve the opportunity for players like Machado to succeed and for fans to sit back and continue to watch the Show.
Later Fans.
Well counselor, we can certainly debate that. There’s no doubt they need another 15 years of dominance to really even start being compared to any of those legends. However, I didn’t say they were going to be as good as them, but merely that their arrivals had similarly huge impacts on the game. There’s no disputing that.
Some may have been talking about Montero, but I wasn’t one of them. Apparently, a lot of his fanfare stemmed from the sports tabloids. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been traded.
John Paveskovich changed his name to Pesky in 1947 because fans and teammates all called him that and it fit better into the boxscore. His perrogative.
Changed his name bc of that? If I’m his family, I’m ashamed!
As for Montero, I disagree with what I think you are implying. Are you saying he was overhyped by the tabloids and was traded bc of that? He was traded simply for two reasons: for NYY to pick up a young stud pitcher, and bc the team has great prospects at catcher with 3 top prospects all expected to be impact major leaguers.
I don’t want to say he was overhyped, rather they traded him at the perfect time to sell high. I don’t know anything about the other 3, but I’m sure one of them is a better defensive catcher. It was a great move. It looks like Pineda and Montero need a year to fully adjust, albeit for different reasons, but that’s fair to any younger player.
Yeah, if by year to adjust you mean: Pineda’s arm healing from surgery! But I’m still happy with the trade to get a top arm (next year and beyond) since they were dealing from a position of strength. Yeah, both other catchers are great defensive players. Ironically, not only did the player Montero was traded for get hurt, but so did the replacement prospect- the top NYY catcher Romine has missed much of the season to injury too. But he should be close, another next year or 2014 once his bat catches up to his D.
I object and look forward to debating this with you more. 3.5 months (for the longest) into their careers and you’re throwing out a comparison to the Mick, SHK, and the Duke? Slow down! While Trout, league MVP, is on track for the greatest ever rookie season, Harper has merely been adequate (though great for a kid his age), and this shortstop Machado has even debuted I the bigs yet. Though the 3B Machado has. Is he related? Especially since Machado had limited time even the highest level of the minors, let’s slow down a bit. After all, a year ago we were talking about Jesus Montero being the top hitting prospect, and look at his disappointing season.
In the meantime, I’ll go try to figure out why Pesky was so ashamed of his family that he had to hid/change his family name.