Adieu
By Well, that was a tough day. But it was poignant to be at Shea for such a sad, momentous day: the retirement of Todd Zeile. Every time between innings, when they showed highlights of his long career accompanied by string quartet arrangements of Kiss songs*, it made me well up. Seriously, it was a very odd, ghostly atmosphere. Periodic “Let’s go, Expos” chants broke out around Shea, and were shouted down (which, although some may object, I actually respect. Hey, it’s your home turf.) A couple hundred fans crowded around the dugout at the end of the game, chanting, not wanting to leave although nothing else was going to happen.
Well, I’ll write more tomorrow, but for now just a moment of silence for Rusty Staub and Gene Mauch, Steve Rogers and Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines, Ross Grimsley and John Boccabella, Larry Walker and Marquis Grissom, Moises and Felipe Alou, Dick Williams and Buck Rodgers, Tim Wallach and Ivan Calderon, Ellis Valentine and Larry Parrish, Pedro and Dennis Martinez, Vlad Guerrero and Jose Vidro, Pedro Martinez and Javy Vazquez, and everyone else from Maury Wills to Endy Chavez, Mudcat Grant to Francis Beltran. There was a lot to dream on, even if it always ended in heartbreak.
And Edgar. I grew up watching minor league baseball in Calgary, so the Mariners’ idiocy was to my advantage. Two of my three favorite players ever are Martinezes, and one is Edgar. In re: his Hall of Fame case…well, rationally, he’s on the bubble. He is certainly better than a significant number of Hall of Famers. On the other hand, we shouldn’t even discuss Edgar until Frank Thomas–a similar but clearly better player–is in. There are also some other near contemporaries–most notably, Sandberg and Raines–who have cases that are at least as good, although it depends how you weight longevity and defense. Having said that, many of the specific arguments used against Edgar are stupid. His counting stats aren’t impressive because 1)his career was unnaturally short, and 2)his skills aren’t suited to piling up impressive counting stats. His most-similar players list is very unimpressive for a Hall of Famer, but that’s largely because most organizations aren’t dumb enough to let a guy hit .360 in AAA every year in order to play Jim Presley and Pete O’Brien; most of the similar players were dramatically worse. As for the DH thing, well, it’s a tough job in its own way, and value is value; it should hurt him only insofar as he doesn’t add to his case with defensive value, but nothing more. Edgar was one of the very best hitters in baseball for more than a decade. That’s someone who merits serious consideration for the Hall, although it can be plausibly argued that he falls a bit short.
Anybody who compares him unfavorably to Harold Baines because the latter piled up more hits is an idiot.
*Unfortunately, this isn’t a joke.