Now This Is How You Tumbl

Sideburns sharper than the razor that sculpted them.

This is more a comment on the way that I enjoy baseball in the offseason than any kind of remark on the actual goings-on of the baseball winter meetings -- which were actually plenty eventful, what with Reyes and Buehrle to the Marlins, and Pujols and Wilson somehow to the Angels, among other things -- but the best thing I've seen in the last couple weeks is the Retro Jays Card tumblr (tip of the cap to Drunk Jays Fans, without which/whom I would be utterly lost, for the link). The tumblr's author describes the project thus:

I go to a bunch of Jays games. Each time, I empty my loose change to get random retro Blue Jay baseball cards from the vending machine. When I was a kid I remember these cards were some of my most prized possessions. Now they are 25 cents. 

This is, of course, exactly what needed to happen. I myself have bought old Blue Jays singles for a quarter from many a 500-level vending machine. Now, I buy old Topps team sets for no money on eBay, and can't believe my luck -- like seriously can't believe it -- when they even include cards from the Traded/Update series. 


So yeah, what I was saying is that Retro Jays Cards interests me right now much, much more than the fact that the Blue Jays just traded, Nestor Molina, a hot Double-A pitching prospect with an amazing name, for young, quite possibly legit, eminently affordable closer Sergio Santos, even though that is totally a move worth thinking about. But in the offseason, for whatever reason, I am not at all about the future; I am in fact all about the past. I could grope around trying to explain why that might be, or I could just quote Roger Angell and save us all a lot of trouble:

Baseball has one saving grace that distinguishes it -- for me, at any rate -- from every other sport.  Because of its pace, and thus the perfectly observed balance, both physical and psychological, between opposing forces, its clean lines can be restored in retrospect.  This inner game -- baseball in the mind -- has no season, but is best played in the winter, without the distraction of other baseball news.  At first, it is a game of recollections, recapturings, and visions. 

And that's just at first. For more like that, I totally typed up all of "The Interior Stadium" a while ago if you'd like to read it. I read it every winter and get overcome. It's kind of pathetic, but it totally happens every winter! Give it a try!


KS

Blue Jays 5, Angels 4 (F/10): Baseball is The Greatest and I Love It

Walk-off E5

Right in the middle of yesterday's really, really awesome game, Tom Henke was on the radio with Jerry Howarth and Alan Ashby, and he was pretty much just telling stories. The best was the one about his only at-bat in the major leagues, which came right at the end in St. Louis. Joe Torre was the manager at the time, and he must have got into some kind of strange predicament with either the bench or the bullpen, because he had to send Henke to the plate in the eighth to hit for himself, and then come out to pitch the ninth. It was cold, and Torre didn't want Henke's arm to get cold, so he told him to just go up there and take three pitches and get ready to pitch the ninth. "But I got a little stubborn up there," Henke said, and he fouled off eight pitches before flying out to right. His hands got so cold, though, that he didn't have any feel for the ball at all when he went back out to pitch, and ended up walking the bases loaded before getting out of it. "I understand what happened, Tom," Torre calmly said Henke after the game. "But when I tell you to take three pitches, you take three pitches."


Baseball stories.


Also there was a game, a rad one! The Blue Jays came into the ninth trailing by a run, but with Frank Francisco on the mound, which is the equivalent of losing by like a million. The man made no effort to keep Bobby Abreu anywhere near first, or, after he stole second, second, which was even more galling. But Brett Lawrie and J. P. Arencibia caught Abreu in a rundown between third and home, which then turned into a rundown between first and second -- don't try to do too much out there, Mark Trumbo -- and the Blue Jays headed to the home half of the inning still trailing by just that lone run. Colby Rasmus very nearly tied it up with a double high off the wall in centre, which brought Lawrie to the plate, fresh off his head's-uppery earlier in the inning. He took a pretty funny looking strike -- home plate umpire David Rackley had a miserable day out there, and it hurt the Angels probably more than it hurt the Blue Jays, so I am not saying that out of some kind of loathsome homerism --  to make the count 3-2 before ripping a double of his own to tie it. 


One way your team can greatly increase your enjoyment without actually being all that good is by performing well in extra-inning games, and the Blue Jays I believe came into yesterday's game 10-3 in games that go beyond nine. I am very pleased to report that this trend continued. Escobar and Bautista drew walks (also Bautista went 3-4 with a HR and a BB, and is back on top of the WAR leaderboards, haters, so just forget it) before Adam Lind, who is unbelievably bad right now, popped out, and E5, who has been incredible lately, knocked in Bautista to win it. 


Just tremendous stuff, man. 




Also I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to extend a most sincere "what it do" to Angels first base coach Alfredo Griffin, of whom we here at Baseball Feelings are the official sponsor, in the admittedly somewhat limited Baseball Reference player page sense. He was, is, and forever shall be awesome. He was probably all, "Hey Bobby Abreu, steal a couple of bases here," and then Bobby Abreu was probably like, "sure thing coach; I am inspired not just by your words but by the baserunning heroics of your playing days" and Alfredo Griffin was like "back." I only had the game on radio so I don't know if that's what happened but I'm pretty sure.


Finally, if you were wondering what Tom Henke looks like in 2011, know that Tom Henke in 2011 looks exactly how you would think Tom Henke would look in 2011. As seen here, in 2011:

I absolutely despise those hats, by the way, and I wish I could get excited about the rumours of a redesign coming next season, but whatever they come up with I'm going to end up wishing they'd just go back to the uniforms from the late 80s/early 90s, which were clean and simple and should have been left more or less alone forever. They could go to those tomorrow and look great. They're not retro; they're classic. Look how great Romero looked in a 1992 uniform when they wore those last year:

That just looks like baseball right there, you know what I'm saying? 


Anyway. The Blue Jays are out west this week so I will pretty much have to take it on faith that ballgames are being played because I'll be in bed. Perhaps I will listen to them the next day! Got to make the most out of that twenty dollars I have given MLB.


KS

BaseballFeelings.com: Official Sponsor of Alfredo Griffin's Baseball Reference Player Page

Ken Griffey slid in hard. Alfredo Griffin remained unshook.

Behold!  


Why Alfredo Griffin?  There are several reasons, really:


(i) Bill James, in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract: "One thing I have always wanted to do was to document Alfredo's baserunning exploits.  He really was phenomenal.  I personally saw him score from second on a ground ball to second, scoring the lead run in the top of the ninth.  I have heard about Alfredo doing things like first-to-third on infield outs, moving second-to-third on a pop up to short, scoring on a pop out to the catcher, and taking second after grounding into a forceout.  Alfredo figured that if you left the base unguarded, it was his.  Somebody ought to make a documented list of those basepath heroics, with dates and specific times, before it gets away from us."  Elsewhere in the same weighty, weighty tome, in an entry on George Scott, James writes, "I don't know that I've ever seen any other player score from second on a fly ball, except maybe Alfredo Griffin."   


(ii) John Feinstein, Washington Post, July 10, 1984: "Making the All-Star team the hard way: Major league baseball pays the expenses for each player here and for one guest. In most cases, players bring wives or girlfriends. Damaso Garcia, the Toronto Blue Jays' second baseman, brought his shortstop, Alfredo Griffin. When the Tigers' Alan Trammell hurt his arm and could not play tonight, Manager Joe Altobelli named Griffin to the team, partly because he's a fine player, but mostly because he was here."


(iii) From the New York Times, November 18, 1987: "Alfredo Griffin, the Oakland Athletics' shortstop who is being pursued by a number of teams, including the Yankees, has rescinded his demand for a trade. So now there is a greater chance than ever he will be traded. The explanation? Last week, Griffin exercised a clause in his contract demanding a trade, presumably in an attempt to gain a lengthy contract extension but also making difficult any attempts by the Athletics to trade him by saying he would veto deals with the Yankees, Los Angeles, Montreal, Philadelphia, Houston and Boston." 


(iv) Do you know what would have happened if Joe Carter hadn't taken Mitch Williams' 2-2 pitch over the left field fence in Game Six of the 1993 World Series?  What if he'd, I don't know, taken a called third strike, or lined one right at Mickey Morandini? Well, I'll tell you: Alfredo Griffin would have reached on a swinging third strike and in the ensuing confusion both Ricky Henderson and Paul Molitor would have come in to score, thus ending that amazing game in an even sicker fashion.  Because, strangely, Alfredo Griffin was on deck. He came into the game as a pinch runner for John Olerud an inning earlier.  Consider, if you even can, the difference in baserunning ability between John Olerud and Alfredo Griffin.  It's one of those things that, as it starts to come into focus for you, you begin to worry that you're losing your grasp on everything else -- like, in the universe -- and so you pull back almost instinctively.  Is that the sublime?  Also, for this whole scenario to have played out, Henderson and Molitor would have had to have moved up on a passed ball, wild pitch, a double steal, or, preferably, a delayed double steal.  As it stands, waiting in the on-deck circle watching Joe Carter's drive sail over the wall was the final moment in Alfredo Griffin's career as a player.  


(v) Despite winning Rookie of the Year for a solid 1979 (my own rookie season, incidentally), Alfredo Griffin actually managed to contribute negative Wins Above Replacement over the course of eighteen professional seasons for which he was paid a total of $6,582,742. That, in and of itself, is a monumental achievement.     


(vi) By having been rad for both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Oakland Athletics (in addition to, though less importantly, the Cleveland Indians and the Los Angeles Dodgers), Alfredo Griffin brings us together here at Baseball Feelings.  At least two of us, anyway. And possibly more.  But at least two of us are united in our admiration for this deeply odd, beautifully useless, entirely awesome player.  We may never see his like again.       

Uh oh, I don't think that one's got the legs!

GO HOME IT'S A DRIBBLER TO SECOND

KS