Hello Baseball Fans,
Well, here we are fans. If you look straight ahead, you’ll notice that we’re at the starting gate of the 2016 MLB pennant race as August is winding down to a close. Don’t worry if you aren’t pulling for favorites like the Dodgers, Nationals, Cubs, Blue Jays, Indians, or Rangers as they all lead their respective divisions. There are another ten teams within 3.5 games or less of those leaders (as of Sunday night). Plus, there are eight teams within 3.5 games of the second Wild Card team. Anything could happen down the back stretch so be sure to be a true gamer and see it through to the end! OK, on to some serious topics!
Alex Rodriguez. Perhaps you heard that he is no longer an MLB player. I mean, he’s a player as in he will certainly be involved in the game via coaching and broadcasting, but you won’t see him in a lineup ever again. However, some doubt that he’s played his last game, and think he will sign on somewhere next year. I don’t doubt that he is done swinging and certainly fielding as a professional. Why? Because he’s 41. Because he can’t move well enough laterally after 2,784 career games and significant injuries to both hips. Because he got a hit in his very last game to go one-for-four and raise his 2016 season average to precisely .200 (45 for 225). However, it’s pretty cool, I’ll say, that he manged that last base knock, and never had a sub .200 season.
Because I think he realizes he’s had enough of the grind and we’ve ground through enough of him. Our grind culminated at the inexcusable drama away from the field after he was suspended for all of 2014 and he vowed, and actually attempted, to sue baseball when he knew of his guilt of ‘messing’ with chemicals. I propose a new ‘golden rule’. It would be in addition to the forever-existing rule of lifetime banishment as a result of gambling on the game. If you are found to be guilty of PED involvement, not limited to failing a drug test, and then compound that conviction by threatening the game either verbally or via litigation, a lifetime banishment that includes no type of employment by a Major or Minor league baseball organization is the only remedy. The game simply must be protected.
You have to respect his talent, skills, and numbers even though they are tainted in an ugly way, perhaps the ugliest of all. He’s that good. He’s that talented. He admitted to multiple periods of using PED’s or S.T.E.R.O.I.D.S., which we here at VFTD now call ‘annoying’ as the mere concept, let alone real life production of a hot streak, season, or otherwise, make it easy and expectant of fans, media, and non-fans alike to smirk as if to say ‘So-Talented-Except, Really?-Object (to those stats) I–Do-Say. For a guy who is now more infamous for wanting acceptance than he is famous for 14 all-star games, his place in baseball’s numerical history is significant: 696 HRs (4th all-time). 2,086 RBI (3rd all-time). 2,021 Runs (8th all-time). 2,287 K (5th all-time). 5,813 Total Bases (6th all-time). That’s big time and the guy didn’t even need help on the field from substances. Perhaps if he were from yesteryear, a cigarette in the clubhouse or cans of beer after games would have been the remedy he sought. We’ll never know.
George Herman Ruth. In the end, Rodriguez closed out his playing days in a similar fashion as the legend of all legends, Ruth, of course. Ruth wanted to both manage and play at the end of his career. However, storied Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert was a big fan of manager Joe McCarthy, a legend in his own right, and severely doubted Ruth’s potential of running a club. So, Ruth was traded to the National League’s Boston Braves. Now, Rodriguez certainly wasn’t vying to manage at the end. No, he was just trying to appear at third base for a whole game or at least a few innings in his last week’s worth of games. No dice. He got one inning and exactly zero defensive chances. It seems like a fitting punishment for that litigation stunt from a couple of years ago. The Yanks’ brass held firm on his limited playing time while simultaneously enabling him to have more in common with one of the players he surely longed to accompany in baseball’s all-time type of conversations as both players left the game for good mid-season. And ironically, I was hoping he’d go out just like Ruth in hitting three HRs in his last MLB appearance. But that’s not because I wanted Rodriguez and Ruth to be brothers in that regard. I wanted a three homer game as his punishment for the litigation hassle. Yep, punishment. Because that would have left him at 699 career HRs. One lonely little homer away from the ultimate immortality that only the 700 HR Club could provide. And he could look in the mirror and know who to blame for not getting enough opportunities for that last dinger: see suspension 2014.
Gary Sanchez. Surely, that guy is enjoying his view from the dish. And especially his unprecedented view at the dish. The Yanks’ 23 year old rookie masked man is TEARING up big league pitching like nobody else who has ever arrived on the scene. He’s Ted Williams this year since he’s batting exactly .400 at a neat 32 hits for 80 at-bats. He’s the fastest man to 11 career HRs. EVER. It took him a paltry 23 games. He’s beyond Ruthian with a .900 SLG and 1.367 OPS since he has 7 doubles as well. He’s Lou Gehrig or Hack Wilson-like with 21 RBI in 21 games. He’s Rickey Henderson-like with 18 runs scored in those 21 games. He even threw in a stolen base just to mix it up a bit. AND, what we really get into here at VFTD, he’s chucked out 6 of 9 would-be base runners on defense. That’s a junior varsity-like Caught Stealing percentage of 67%. WOW!! We don’t know how long this fun ride can maintain this kind of steam, but we’ll be watching for sure!
GAME BALLS. Lou Gehrig. He’s the only player ever to have 5 seasons of 400 or more Total Bases. Think about that one. Some seriously BIG TIME career numbers, power, and some lineup protection is needed too. Wow…..Protection provided by Babe Ruth as he owns the single season Total Bases record with a whopping 457 in 1921…..Recently, my sister attended the L.A. Dodgers at Cincinnati Reds contest. The Dodgers won 4 to 0. Chase Utley went 2 for 4 with a HR, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI. Pitching prospect Julio Urias threw 6 innings, gave up just 6 hits, struck out 6, and got the win. A very typical Sunday afternoon MLB game one could say. It struck me though, that the players of the game for the winning Dodgers club both had a last name starting with ‘U’, which is the 21st letter of the alphabet and the game happened to be played on the 21st day of August…..And since we’re on the case of upper and lower case, from what we can dig up here at VFTD, the BoSox’ shortstop Xander Bogaerts is the only MLBer ever to have the initials X.B.
Later Baseball Fans.