Warren

Q.  OK.  Enough comedy jokes.  If Dr. D were handing out the 2013 Cy Young ... how much of a travesty would we be in for?

A.  For one thing, I don't like the kiddie Roto debates about whether to draft Justin Verlander first or Felix Hernandez first.  I avoid them.

What purpose does it serve, to argue about whether LeBron James could have beaten Michael Jordan in 1-on-1?  Most of the time, that argument just serves to diminish one of the players.  "Jordan wasn't that great.  LeBron would embarrass him."  

OK, so forget that Jordan was better than any other player in human history.  Focus on your belief that there did exist one player who was better?  Yeah, that's the right orientation on Jordan.

When Grumpy's surgical career comes up, let's make it about the fact that Frederic Mohs was better than he is.  Forget the fact that you don't have a CPR card :- )

...........

Arguing about Scherzer vs Iwakuma serves usually has the result of diminishing one of the pitchers.

.

Q.  That said, do you give 'Kuma a Cy Young for that season?

A.  Hisashi Iwakuma, in 2013 had a Cy Young season.  So did other guys.

Many years, a pitcher steps forward and owns the Cy.  Pedro and Randy Johnson used to lap the field.  That was not the way this year.

It's an important distinction to make.  Some years, there is a thundering Cy performance.  Other years, there is a handful of co-Cy's.

Nobody gets a Pedro award this year.

.

Q.  James said "the fabric of baseball history is woven on great starting pitchers."  What was historic about Iwakuma?

A.  Had you noticed that WBC-san went 14-6 for a terrible team?  How do you make 33 starts for the Seattle Mariners, and only lose 6 of them?  I'd like to see you try it.

.

Q.  If Montero was using, how come we didn't see any 440-footers in 2012?

A.  I was kind of surprised to see that he actually did hit some home runs pretty hard.  I remembered his season, visually, as being like Kendry Morales' ... a big guy who really spent most of his time lining the ball around the park like Johnny Damon.

But Montero did average 104.7 MPH on his HR's and smack three or four pretty good ones.  As the GM of the Twins said one time about Scott Erickson in arbitration, "I guess some guys had a lot better seasons than I remember him having."

.

Q.  You don't think he used?

A.  I would assume that he didn't use, certainly, and that despite the allegations.  Am wide open to being proven wrong.

.

Q.  Why not?  Montero fan much?

 ..............

We've been asked to lead many funerals.  One of the most important questions you ponder, as you're getting your material together, is "Did this person lead the life that they wanted to lead?"  

The greatest example of this in my experience was my wife's father.  He was a roughneck in school, joined the Navy, saw the world, went to college, became an engineer for Boeing, took care of his money, parceled it out patriarchally, tolerated no disobedience or even disagreement, had the respect if not the extreme love of his family, owned nice cars and motorcycles, vacationed to inexpensive but friendly little fishing resorts, retired as a highly-appreciated consultant to Boeing, pursued his aviation hobbies, and died at 67 -- with absolutely zero regrets, except for the time of his departure.  

He took 15-20 vitamin pills per day, his entire life, running circuits around his tile basement every morning before work.  It didn't stave off the pancreatic cancer.  Perhaps his working in the Minuteman silos had trumped the vitamins.

The key to my wife's comfort, then and now, was this realization.  From cradle to grave, her dad had lived exactly the life that he wanted to live.

Gary Carter lived 57 years, and they were 57 years that 99% of American boys dreeeeeeeeeaam of living.  Is that preferable to 75 years of a life that isn't the life you'd prefer to live?  It's an interesting philosophical question, isn't it?  Which lifetime would you take?

One of the anonymous posts, discussing Capt Jack's agility, clanged off the LF scoreboard. (grrrrr... sign 'em in the text area you pokeys.  It's five letters.)