Return of Borders
From MLB.com transactions:
Acquired C Pat Borders from Milwaukee affiliate Triple-A Nashville in exchange for cash considerations and assigned him to Triple-A Tacoma.
This has been hashed out in a previous thread, but to sum up:
– Wow, it’s come down to the return of Borders
– He comes cheap
– He knows the team, the team knows him, and if they decide to push Wiki when he returns, Borders will head down to Tacoma without throwing a tantrum
– Once he’s up with the club, this will free Rene to return to catching regularly and hopefully developing as a prospect (whether that’ll work…)
Pat Borders has done everything in baseball — he’s won a World Series and been on teams that fell apart on the way there, he’s hung out in the minors, and he’s been catching professionally since 1982 (Medicine Hat, Pioneer League). Many of our fine readers here aren’t even that old. I have a lot of respect for Borders, and I hope that comes through. We can acknowledge that we wish the Mariners had other options (say, that they didn’t have Wiki on the roster and had been free to stash a Mike Rose-type guy in Tacoma) and still tip our caps. May Borders instill some of his work ethic and hard-worn experience into Olivo.
Comments
20 Responses to “Return of Borders”
He’s got an Olympic medal too.
…and was a World Series MVP (though some say, he was the least talented ever).
I actually don’t mind this move, it’s a “nothing” transaction, but Borders is a player’s player and that means a lot to me. Plus, he’s one of the few remaining major leaguers older than me…he must be made of a different material than me, though. I squat to pet the dog and I can’t stand up if I’m in the position for more than about ten seconds.
RE #2
Least talented WS MVP ever? I would not agree. The likes of Scott Brosius and Ray Knight come to mind…
Nah, Brosius and Knight had some talent.
B.F. Dent, though? Steve Yeager? I’d place Borders ahead of those two.
Anyone have any idea how much cash they gave the Brewers?
Hopefully while he’s here he can fulfill a reverse-Bull Durham type role for the Mariners, with M. Olivo as T. Robbins and P. Borders as S. Saran– I mean K. Costner. Maybe by the time Borders leaves Olivo will be able to hit the moose.
Who will he replace on the 40-man?
I think having Borders around could do wonders for both Olivo and Wiki. I also genuinely like the man.
This is also his 24th season as a professional catcher. If nothing else, he knows how to stay in shape.
Incidentally, who else here has ever been to Medicine Hat? *raises hand*
Hey DMZ, I hope the next time you discuss Willie B., you can be just as gracious !
Yeah, nobody’s said how we made room on the 40-man roster.
The Times article says he will take Rene Rivera’s place on the roster. Um, didn’t we have him on the 40-man despite being a AA player because we felt he was worth protecting. Now what can happen to him?
He’ll take Rivera’s place on the ACTIVE roster, not the 40 man. My guess is Mads to 60-Day to make room for Borders.
Wasn’t Buddy Biancalana a World Series hero, too? Francisco Cabrera?
When Pat Borders was born, JFK was still president. The Chiffons had the No. 1 hit on the U.S. charts with “He’s So Fine.” Stamps cost four cents. The ZIP code had yet to be employed. Party lines were still the norms for phones. J.D. Salinger released his last book, “Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters.” My hometown theater was playing “Cleopatra,” the multimillion epic bomb starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Vietnam had yet to become Vietnam. Doctors still made house calls, as did milkmen and Fuller Brush purveyors. My dad, a Merchant Marine purser, was still a year away from the chance meeting with my mom during a one-week layover in Hanover, West Germany that would result in a marriage of 35-plus years. There still WAS a West Germany.
When Pat Borders first started playing professional baseball, there still was a West and East Germany. Ronald Reagan was still recovering from gunshot wounds. Men At Work’s “Who Can It Be Now” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” topped the singles and album charts, respectively. I was a slop-throwing senior pitcher at Auburn Adventist Academy who had only gotten to second base with a girl at that point (and, to be honest, I was just naive not to entirely sure that second base was in fact “second base”). “Members Only” jackets and Sperry Topsider shoes were the height of fashion. Ben Kingsley won the Best Actor Oscar for playing the Triscuit-munching Mahatama Gandhi. And the Green River Killer was just getting started.
#14 … best non-baseball post I’ve seen. Bravo!
You got to second base? Cool. Do tell. Seriously, what also would be interesting is seeing how many ballparks he’s played in, which ones of those are still used and how many new ones have been built since Borders started playing. I think I saw that done for Pedro Borbon or somebody. I think it was a position player.
The awesome thing about this move is that the Mariners end up with Borders and BJ Garbe!
I am a HUGE B.J. Garbe supporter because his father sold me my car in Moses Lake which, more than seven years later, is still running. 🙂 I would have liked to see him advance more quickly though.
So, this made me curious, what is the record for oldest pitcher-catcher battery on the field? Moyer and Borders together would give us a combined 84.5 years.
I think the answer is Satchel Paige and Billy Bryan? It looks like on Paige’s final game on Sept 25 1965, he was supposedly 59 years and 2 months old (and possibly older), and Billy Bryan would have been 26 years 9 months, for a combined 86 years or so. But I am maybe missing some other combos… I’ve seen stuff about the oldest *starting* battery, but not the oldest on the field at a major league game at any time.
Wait a minute – at what point did we decide Olivo doesn’t have a good work ethic.
Yes, he is (was? – HR today) in a serious hitting slump. But he DOES have a good work ethic.
By the way, Jim Thomsen, that was awesome.