Junior and Chuck Armstrong
Geoff Baker's report on Junior's press conference, as usual, just rippled the mesh from three. The dude has a sweet stroke from the corner of the word processor elbow. Light me up, babe.
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Junior gave Chuck Armstrong a day in the sun, slapping fives with him in Junior-trash style. Leave it to make His Lawyerliness look like some kind of front-office cool breeze. :- ) But that's Griffey, and that's the point. Every once a decade, you get a man who owns any room he walks into...
"I plan on having him take me to dinner at least four or five times a week,'' Griffey said. "Being that I haven't been in the American League, I figure that there are some new restaurants he can take me to. As long as he does not dress the way he has. He may have to change his wardrobe. He can't wear skinny ties. Those went out with Duran Duran.
"But no, I'm looking forward to this,'' he added. "I saw him at the All-Star Game when I gave him his inside the park home run, so it will be all right.''
You know how relentless D-O-V is on Armstrong, which begs me to answer the question, what does Griffey see in him? ... as you also know, D-O-V refuses to see ANYBODY as a cartoon character, except maybe Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein...
Armstrong's joy in the sport of baseball radiates through Griffey and, IMHO, puts him in his best light. I'm sure that on a personal level, Chuck is easy to make friends with -- most baseball executives, if they are in one spot long, do have people skills. Armstrong is laser-focused on making the budget spreadsheet look pretty, which IMHO is a job for a consultant, not for a GM. And whether he's baseball-smart or not, his involvement has always created a "Committee" effect in Seattle that robs the ship of its coherency and agility. The Washburn decision is an example of his negative effect on both.
But OTOH, along with Armstrong's people skills, few people realize that he is also a closet sabermetrician, very conversant with the Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs-type metrics that we all wallow in. Armstrong knows baseball "science" and, having been standing down on the field next to pro baseball players for 30 years, is verrrrrrrry knowledgeable about baseball from field level also. Did YOU spend several years talking baseball personally with Pat Gillick?
That's not to say that I think some baseball decisionmakers aren't (A LOT) better than others. But don't kid yourself that Armstrong doesn't "belong" in baseball, sitting next to the Griffeys and Gillicks. He's there for a reason.
Personally am happy for Armstrong that he's caught in Junior's fresh breeze of credibility and optimism this spring.
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For three years, we've been hearing back-channel that the Mariners were after Junior. No question, Armstrong was the driving force behind those awkward lurches at the Reds, with Lincoln sourly reluctant because "he made his bed; now let him lie in it."
Armstrong lobbied for a long time, and with the cumulative force of those years' worth of efforts, you can see how hard it would be to answer with "No," now that Junior's practically free. I mean, if Lincoln was going to say No at this point, why was he allowing Armstrong to waste his time the last four years? If he were going to say No under these circumstances, why didn't he know enough to have cut off the discussion in 2005, know what I'm sayin'? :- )
Now, in Junior's FA offseason, there is no question that if Armstrong weren't here, neither would Junior be. Armstrong has deservedly associated himself with Junior's legacy in Seattle. More power to him.
Tip o' the kelly,
Dr D