Posted on 05/08/2002 11:00:43 PM PDT by 2Trievers
The guy was trying his heart out. Now he's crying his heart out. I'd do anything to see him pitch again. - New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, after veteran relief pitcher John Franco learned before game time that he would be out for the season with an elbow injury that could mean the end of Franco's distinguished career. Franco has the apparent option of undergoing Tommy John surgery to repair the injury to his medial collateral ligament and flexor tendon, or of ending a major league career which began with the Cincinnati Reds in 1984. The lefthander wept when he received the news before the Mets hosted the San Francisco Giants Wednesday; the Mets eventually lost, 8-2. He was traded to the Mets in 1990 and holds the club record for saves (274), not to mention sitting second by 56 saves behind Lee Smith on the all-time list. Franco is also a reasonable Hall of Fame candidate - he's listed at 115 on the Baseball-Reference.com Hall of Fame pitching monitor, with 100 the level of an average Hall of Fame pitcher.
We decided that the best course of action was to defuse the situation, try to let the air out of the balloon as best we could. Randy Adamack, spokesman for the Seattle Mariners, explaining that giant sucking sound at Safeco Field. The Mariners no longer enforce a controversial policy of banning "Yankees Suck!" T-shirts or banners at Safeco Field. In late April, the Mariners ordered three fans to either turn their "Yankees Suck!" T-shirts inside out or leave the park. The policy triggered a small firestorm, though an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman told the Orange County Register earlier this week that the Mariners were actually within their rights to enforce such a policy, since they were the lessees of the ballpark and thus had the right to determine what was an appropriate expression - unlike a facility operated as well as built in whole or in part by a government, in which case such a policy would likely have violated the First Amendment.
I can't explain the game anymore. It's passing me by. - Cincinnati Reds manager Bob Boone, admitting it's over his head when his relief pitcher Gabe White gets a $750 fine for throwing a pitch over Barry Bonds's head in a recent game - a pitch that provoked a retaliation pitch in the bottom of the inning, San Francisco Giants pitcher Felix Rodriguez plunking Cincinnati star Sean Casey leading off the frame. Both Boone and Casey insist the pitch to Bonds wouldn't have drawn attention if Rodriguez - who maintains he was protecting his teammate - hadn't thrown at Casey.
I'd do it 30 times if I had to. It's too bad they're trying to change baseball in that way. - Pedro Martinez, calling for a little chin music, maestro, if it means protecting your teammates from likewise. This after fellow Boston Red Sox pitcher Frank Castillo received a suspension for knocking down a Tampa Bay Devil Rays batter. So what would Martinez have paid if he'd done just that against the Rays? ``That would have cost me two years.''
Jail in some respects ain't so ugly. Malcolm X went to jail and for him jail was a transforming experience. - Darryl Rouson, attorney for former major league slugger Darryl Strawberry, on his chances of becoming a major civil rights leader once he finishes whatever he'll serve of an 18-month timeout in the clink. The former Met, Dodger, and Yankee star goes to minimum-to-medium security Gainesville Correctional Institution north of Tampa. His family will be allowed to visit, and he will also be evaluated for a privately-operated substance abuse program within the prison. Strawberry received the sentence after a sixth probation violation got him discharged from another substance abuse rehabilitation facility late last month.
Classic From The Archive:
I don't put foreign substances on the ball. Everything I use is made in the good old U.S. of A. - George Frazier, then with the Chicago Cubs, on whether or not he was throwing a spitter. Worked for us, George!
©2002 Jeff Kallman
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