Good thing Z and Lloyd reached down through all the confusing AAA hit data and said,"What the heck!" we don't care if he hasn't hit well in the minors, we're bringing him up early and not forcing him to stay in Tacoma too long,
Sigh.....
On Thursday I typed up this long post about my dad's 50 birthday party (he's now 87) and a goat named Blackberry. It got losdt in the bloggy ether. Hang with me, I'll eventually make a point: During the party, my dad's best friend, Art, drove 15 miles to get this goat. Blackberry was eventually dragged it into the house. Seeing a living room filled with 50 people with drinks in their hands, (well 49 of them, my mom didn't drink) Blackberry promptly piddled all over the foyer. Trust me.....goats can pack a lot of water, if you catch my drift.
But what do you know, my dad and Art remained best buddies until Art died a couple of years ago. My mom, despite the Blackberry Incident (as we called it) adored Art until she died.
That said, I wonder what Montero has done in Jack Z.'s foyer? It had to be worse than Blackberry's act....or Art's!
Despite a track record that said he could rip MLB lefties in his sleep, one handed, we kept Montero in Tacomatory....essentially treating him as a Mariner non-grata. Well, until he broke the Safeco door down with frozen-ropes all over the AAA world. And then we still waited for "continuing proof" that Logan Morrison wasn't anything more special that a-dime-a-dozen MLB 1B.
We signed Weeks because we didn't want Montero. We got Trumbo because we didn't like Montero, evidence be damned.
Given the opportunity, we likely would have given a bat to Buhner, rather than Montero.
Eventually, however, even Z/Lloyd couldn't stop the M-Train's arrival at Safeco.
Great thread, Doc.
The Blackberry Incident attempted post didn't get posted because the new site ate it, somehow. I'm not buying the operator error idea. Well, mostly not.
Anyway, that post included this interesting (to me) tid-bit. George Foster, the imposing slugger of the late 70's/early 80's had a lifetime vL line of .283-.349-.513. For you young guys, Doc will vouch for his imposingness. In '77, his MVP year, he slugged .631, hit 52 homers (way before guys juiced) and drove in 149 runs. Well, our guy, Montero, has a .318-.372-.464 vL career line.
SSI'ers, as far as hitting lefties goes, we had George Foster down in Tacoma and basically left him there for 2 years.
Sigh.....Good thing we taught the kid a lesson.
If Billy the Goat is the Cubs' curse....could Blackberry be ours?
Keith
Hey, btw....I discovered this weird fact, too.
Back in '77, during his MVP year, Foster's Reds won 88 games. They finished 10 games behind the Dodgers in the West. They did this despite the fact that they had FOUR HoF'ers performing at the tops of their games: Bench was at .275-.348-.541 w/31 homers. Morgan was .288-.417-.478 w/22 HR's and 117 BB's, Rose (allright, not really in the Hall) was at .311-.377-.432 w/38 2B's, Seaver was 14-3 w/2.34 ERA (he hit 3 HR's, too) in Cincy (7-3 with NY before the trade)!! AND they had Foster. And they had a 1B (Driessen) who hit.300-.375-.468. And they had GG's at SS (Concepcion) and CF (Geronimo) who OPS+'ed in the mid-80's (both won their 4th consecutive GG that year). Oh...AND they had the original Ken Griffey who swatted .318-.399-.467.
Holy snot!! Only 88 wins!!!! 10 games out!!! (Well, go look at the Dodgers' pitching #'s that year!!)
And more BTW: The Reds were only SECOND in the league in runs scored that year. The Schmidt/Luzinski/Hebner Phillies scored more!
Bringing it back home, Luzinski had a Montero-type body...nobody seemed to hold it against him. Heck, he played inthe OF....Philly just let him rip away.
I wonder what ever happened to Blackberry. Ah...he probably spent the last couple of years in Tacomatory with Montero. That'll teach him.......