Washington’s Baseball Dork and Other League Goodies.
With snow in the forecast for my burg, it’s definitely time to gaze longingly southward to where the Great American pastime is being played in the warm Florida sun. It’s also time to wonder why the Washington Nationals’ GM is tooling around spring training on a Segway, looking like the world’s biggest baseball dork (and given all the fantasy managers out there who are also baseball dorks, he had to work hard for the title)?
The only answer I can come up with is this: If you were the GM of a professional baseball team, spending February and march in Florida instead of Washington, DC, and your team gave you a Segway with your team’s logo on the front and big jacked-up tires, the answer is apparent.
Baseball Dork all the way.
Nice job by Peter Lockley of the Washington Times to snap the photo, too. If you’re looking for a reason we near Washington love our Nats, the attitude that would get a big-shot GM on a Scooty Puff Jr with a grin that big on his face is one huge reason.
Hop below the jump for some other stories, cribbed from the wonderful Ballbug aggregator. It’s from the memeorandum folks and it’s just as valuable a tool to baseball fans as the latter is to political-bloggy types.
The Mets, who have lately defined the word “choke”, are talking serious smack already. They haven’t even played an intrasquad game and the owner’s saying his team is “championship calibre”. Who could blame him, what with “The Savior of Port St. Lucie” coming to town, complete with pitches thrown in the rain “healing water”? And his father’s name is Jesus? Perfect!
Of course, this is the team that tried to erase the horrid final month of 2004 by signing Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez in the offseason, so adjust your expectations accordingly.
Meanwhile, in the same division, the Nationals are getting better, scrap by scrap. They just signed veteran pitcher Odalis Perez to a one-year minor league contract. Perez will compete for the fourth spot in the order. This signing comes hot on the heels of the team’s surprise signing of Bret Boone to a similar minor league development deal. Boone is 39, has been out of baseball for two years, and stands to make a paltry 500K even if he makes the Nats roster this year. He’s also coming to a team that, at least on paper, is stacked at second base. On the other hand, this is the same deal the Nats offered to another player who left baseball because they stopped loving it. That player, Dmitri Young, found his love for the game again, along with a sweet swing, and batted over .320 for the season. So, who knows? Boone will join his father and brother in the organization.
Former Blue Jays outfielder Jesse Barfield tells today’s ballplayers, “Don’t snitch!” Also, he says that, what with every player being a potential Paladin, there’s not a lot in the way of team loyalty out there. It’s not original, but it’s kind of fresh coming from Barfield, who I don’t remember as being particularly chatty or teammate-friendly when he played. I could be wrong about that, though.
Lastly, I had a little bit of a fantasy-league panic attack when I saw that young bopper Hunter Pence had a little mishap with a glass sliding door. I may be mistaken, but I don’t think Pence is the first big-leaguer to hurt himself walking through a sliding glass door. I seem to recall a couple of other cases, including one pitcher who nearly severed his thumb. I’m working off of a foggy memory here (Update: Nope, it was Bob Ojeda, and he nearly cut off his middle finger with a pair of shears. Glass has played a part in a lot of other injuries, though, right David Wells?).
Pence will be okay after getting a few stiches. But seriously. Dude. Ease off the late-night hot-tubbing until the end of the season, okay?
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Category: The Great American Pastime
