Work, book, and family demands are kicking into high gear, so I’m ducking out early this year. Happy, merry, whatever you celebrate. Be safe, be well, and enjoy. I will see you back here sometime the week of January 5.
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Happy Festivus GY!
Life in Oregon has been pretty wintery lately … if you’re a fan of Benny Hill, then you’ll enjoy this even more …
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-164378
Merry Christmas to you and Sandra … and looking forward to 2009 for many reasons, it’s just that, at this time, the Padres are not one of them …
We signed Chris Britton and Eliezer Alfonzo. Sounds like two good pickups. Britton put up good numbers with the Orioles bullpen before getting traded to the Yankees and trapped in AAA oblivion.
Alfonzo had a good 2006 with the Giants before also being trapped in AAA. I think he was hurt for a portion of the last two years also. Sounds like a good gamble – he’s not the best defensive catcher but it seems his stick could be useful.
I think all Padres fans should feel entitled, if not required, to join Mr. Jaffe in his disdain for The Garv.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/hitler-stalin-garvey/
I strongly believe he has fulfilled all three of the criteria listed by Mr. Jaffe for any true, loyal and faithful Padres fan to join in by:
1) Garvey has, through some sort of dastardly machinations, had his number retired by the Padres, which makes us a laughing stock to other teams who recognize his unworthiness of such an honor.
2) Well documented and requiring no further commentary or explanation.
3) Again, well documented and requiring no further commentary or explanation.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Why should Padres fans “join” Jaffe? Why should they be “required” to? That makes no sense.
Jaffe is a Cubs fan. Of course he hates Garvey. Fine. The Padres beat the Cubs in the 1984 NLCS. Padres fans should like Steve Garvey.
Steve Garvey is my favorite player.
He has been dumped on way too much by Padres fans. It’s like they didn’t enjoy 1984 or something.
Yes, his number is retired. Get over it. It’s not like Tim Flannery’s number is retired. Garvey was MVP of the NLCS. A player doesn’t have to spend most of their career with a team or be a Hall of Fame-level player to have his number retired. You just have to mean something special to that team.
Padres fans are the only fans who bring up this non-issue of the retired jersey. The Padres are not a laughing stock because no other fans care or even know about Garvey’s number being retired.
#4@Pat: Thanks for the link and the holiday wishes.
#5@Kevin: I’ll be writing about this more extensively in the future, but it’s pretty clear by most reasonable measures that Garvey’s #6 shouldn’t have been retired. Mistakes happen; what can you do?
Incidentally, Posnanski offered a solid take on the subject back in April that’s worth reading.
#5@Kevin: Just watched Stripes the other night; too bad your name isn’t Francis so I could tell you to lighten up.
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, I felt Jaffe’s article was intended to be lighthearted and recognized the silly things fans get caught up in; I know my post was intended to be taken in that manner (although there is no doubt the retirement of #6 by the Padres was either an unintentional act or a HUGE mistake, depending on which story you believe for why it was retired). I guess if Garvey is your favorite player, it’s hard to have a sense of humor about it though.
#6@Geoff Young: Thanks for that link, Geoff.
It’s interesting that Posnanski puts Randy Jones in the same undeserving category.
Here is another Posnanski story about Garvey in general. He’s in the first base section:
http://thesoulofbaseball.blogspot.com/2007/07/all-stars-then-and-now-nl-edition.html
4/5/6. But it just seemed so implausible in 1984, esp. after being down 2-0, that the Padres could ever be in a world series. It was an unreasonable measure. I like it. That’s what made Garvey’s achievement so huge; it’s fitting that it was reflected in an irrational retirement of his number after his fairly rapid decline in health and baseball skills as a Padre.
I’m not saying Garvey’s number should have been retired, but those who are against it have too much vitriol against a player who did help the team.
#7@Pat: It wasn’t necessarily your message and that article I was reacting to. It was the accumulation of that sort of stuff.
#7@Pat: Nobody touches me. Nobody touches my stuff.
#12@Kevin: LOL! The graduation day scene with them marching and Murray calling cadence is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
#13@Pat: Yeah, he is my favorite actor.
Really great blog post about Jimmy Wynn and contextualizing performance.
http://theblogofrevelation.blog.sponscore.com/2009/01/200-greatest-major-league-baseball.html
Particularly appropriate right now as we are hitting the HOF voting for this year.
Wow, just WOW!!
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/01/02/diamondbacks.moorad.resigns.ap/index.html
#14@Kevin: I guess I better not post that link to the article about how overrated Bill Murray is then.
Another good HJF related article by Joe Pos:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/01/02/hall.of.fame/index.html
I know Rice is a polarizing figure, and I’m not all that hot on him being elected, but I think Joe does a good job of showing how it wouldn’t be as bad as many make out. He certainly wouldn’t improve the quality of LF in the Hall, but he isn’t the sort of guy who would make a mockery out of the institution either.
What I like best though is how well and simply he shows the worth of Trammell and Blyleven, a couple of my favorite guys on the outside looking in. And of course the Jimmy Piersall story he tells at the very end makes it all worth it. If you don’t read any of the rest of the article, at least skip to the bottom and read the story in the last two paragraphs.
Can’t wait to see you back in 09. Let’s hope that the Chargers can do it tonight! LET’S GO CHARGERS!
#17@Pat: Yeah, let’s not. Although it’s hard to disagree with any of those underrated or overrated articles, because many of those are based on the perception of the writer.
Please don’t debunk Johnny Cash, “All in the Family” or Stephen Curry, either.
With this whole Moorad thing looking like a possibility, they are saying that Sandy, DePo and Fuson are on the ropes. I don’t like that idea at all, I think they’re very valuable pieces to the Padres organization. All we need is ownership that can give an $70-80 mil payroll and I think the rest works itself out. The management team is not the issue.