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Greetings once again, my
fellow baseball brethren! It is indeed an honor again for me to share
some thoughts with you about baseball. Authoring two bullpens in the
same year is an extremely difficult task as frankly, I have no new
material, which will become abundantly clear to you in the next few
moments. I do promise that this Bullpen will keep the focus on baseball
although I was more than a little moved by some of the heartfelt comments
concerning my faith testimonial in my previous Bullpen. Dave, I am even
more impressed that you have been able to churn out these publications for
several years….
I had considered performing some preliminary analytical comparisons but
Ted’s last Bullpen pretty much nailed every conceivable comparison,
several of which I found somewhat fascinating. Maybe my wife is right, I
do need some real hobbies.
Watching Bob Uecker’s induction into the Hall of Fame was as entertaining
as expected. Some of his better one-liners:
About playing for manager Gene Mauch: “I’d be sitting there and he’d say,
grab a bat and stop this rally.”
About catching some knuckball pitcher: “The key is to wait until it
stopped rolling and then just pick it up.”
Uecker’s comical quips reminded me of the greatest baseball ambassador of
all time, Yogi Berra. Some of my favorite Yogi quotes: (I warned you
that I had no material of my own.)
“You got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because
you might not get there.”
“Slump? I ain’t in no slump. I just ain’t hitting.”
When someone asked him what time it was, “you mean right now.”
“Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”
“If I didn’t wake up, I’d still be sleeping.”
“It’s pretty far, but it doesn’t seem like it.”
“If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.”
About taking the train to Brooklyn for the World Series, “I knew I was
going to take the wrong train, so I left early.”
As a near lifetime long Cubs fan, I recently saw my favorite T-shirt in
Wrigleyville: Any team can have a bad century.
One of my favorite moments in baseball that epitomized what a class act
Cal Ripken was, taken from George Will’s book, Bunts, talking about the
September 20, 1998 night when Cal’s streak ended at 2,632 games: “By the
time the Yankees leadoff man, Derek Jeter grounded out, the 48,013 fans in
the stands were buzzing with the recognition that a rookie was playing
third base for the Orioles. And the Yankee dugout was seized by the sense
of the moment.
The Yankee players were among the very few people in the ballpark who
really understood how draining and damaging a 162-game season is, and how
astonishing Ripken’s 17-season, 2632 game streak was. So the Yankees
stepped in front of their dugout, tipped their caps and applauded until
Ripken stepped onto the field, acknowledged the Yankees and the fans, and
bade the game go on. By their unplanned gallantry-the only genuine
sort-the Yankees exemplified the comity that is common in baseball.”
Cal’s moment was extra special to me knowing that our own beloved Scott
attended the 2,131 record breaking game in 1995, along with an unknown
friend, and even managed to make national headlines by shaking Cal’s hand
on his glorious trip around the stadium.
Who will win the coveted 2003 HSL crown? Having already jinxed half of
the teams in my previous attempt to pick the winner, let me now attempt to
jinx the other half. It should be pretty clear to everyone that once
again Mitch has assembled the best team. Is this enough to win? Probably
not, although Mitch’s squad will definitely be in the thick of things down
the stretch, especially with RJ finally becoming healthy.
Let me be the first to publicly state the obvious: This year HSL crown is
Dave’s to lose. With Suppan, Redmond, Bengie Molina and Jose Guillen
having career years and with Helton and Pujols having absolutely monster
years, if his other overachievers can stay healthy and if Dave can refrain
from over-managing his team, he could find himself in the winner’s circle
on the last day of the season.
Please allow me to state another obvious fact: beware of Johnny’s team.
He has quietly assembled the greatest infield of all-time: Piazza,
Delgado, Soriano, A-Rod and Chavez. Approximately 15 years ago, Dave and
Big Guy slapped a restraining order on me which prohibited me from
discussing trades with Ted. I think we need to consider this same
treatment for Blongo’s dealing with Johnny. For the second year in a row,
Johnny has picked up a first round 750 point infielder for an obvious
first half pitcher. Last year it was Odalis Perez for Bagpipes and this
year, Moyer for Soriano.
Bob, keep those trade proposals coming. You are only one or two trades
with me from actually making a run at the title. So far, in only 3 days
of action, you have netted 30 points in the Rivera for Tejada deal.
Actually, if Vidro can stay healthy, if Green can find his stroke and if
Willis can keep mowing hitters down, I like your chances of finishing in
the money.
Note to the rest of the teams: a lot can happen in the final 9 weeks of
the season. Last year at the all star break, I was a mere 10 points
behind Johnny and 50 points ahead of Mitch. Both teams dusted my squad by
more than 600 points in the second half. Also, someone else recently
chronicled the exploits of Blongo’s championship squad, which came on in
the second half and became arguably, the greatest team of all time.
I anticipate another great HSL pennant race. I will see most of you very
soon in Cincinnati!
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