Caple Eulogizes Boone
Jeff · December 22, 2006 at 6:45 pm · Filed Under General baseball, Mariners
ESPN’s Page 2 is doing a series of career obituaries, and Jim Caple is handling a requiem for Bret Boone.
He’s forthright about the steroid speculation, if not drawing any firm conclusions.
There are other fake obits in that link of interest, from Brooks Kieschnick to Briant Grant (one of my favorite all-time basketball players, both for his charity work and that time he got in Karl Malone’s grill). But I’ve got a hunch the thread contains more Zinedine Zidane jokes than anything else. Prove me wrong, yo.
I’d almost think with the potential 8 Letter S-Word use this wouldn’t have any comments. You apparently have some faith in us after all.
I liked the writeup, I don’t like that he says Boone should have got the MVP over Ichiro in 2001.
Really? Boone hit .331/.370/.578 and stellar defense as a 2B, Ichiro hit .350/.379/.457 and stellar defense as a RF. Even more than the power, the positional advantage is huge: 2001 VORP has Boone at 77.1 and Ichiro at 50.
That’s like giving the MVP to Morneau over Jeter.
Yes, but Ichiro was Ichiro! and Boone was never Boone! He was just “The Boone,” as he often referred to himself.
Here was how I looked at it at the time:
You take A-Rod’s production and replace it with Boone and that seemed like a wash. You then add Ichiro to the team and BAM, your team kicks total ass. I know it’s not scientific, but Ichiro felt like the less replaceable part to me. I went to probably 25 games that year and watched nearly all of them and to me Ichiro was the MVP.
I know it’s the wrong place to make an argument that’s not readily supportable by numbers but watching the team they felt like they were being carried by Ichiro, not Boone.
Of course I wouldn’t have wanted to give Boone up that year either but it sure felt like it would have killed us to lose Ichiro.
A-Rod should have won the MVP that year anyway.
Caple’s absolutely right about Boone versus Ichiro in 01. I’m pretty surprised to see anyone mainstream mention it.
So, like I said, I liked Al Leiter as a pitcher.
and really, how many guys do you know named Alois?
Is it ok to be a little OT on this thread? [deleted, ot]
and really, how many guys do you know named Alois?
I didn’t know that was his first name until you mentioned it. How is that pronounced? I’m assuming it’s French, so is it al-ou-EE?
In reference to the Page 2 article, I like Zinedine Zudane’s obit. Although I can’t stand soccer, I think it is badass that his last action on a soccer field was a headbutt to an opponent’s sternum. By chance, I was watching that part of the World Cup Final when he did that. It’s the only time I’ve ever been excited while watching soccer.
Nah, Zizou choked the headbut.
Materazzi said something very dirty about Zenedine’s sister and the great man was plainly thinking about killing him with a headbut to the nose – but a glimmer of partial self-restraint caused him to choke and plant it on Materazzi’s chest. Just as well. Materazzi’s a scarey looking dude – all muscles and tatoos – and Zidane knocked him about five feet backwards with a but to the chest…
No love here for Joe Mauer as the 2006 AL MVP? Talk about positional advantage.
#10– Ahlloys, IIRC.
Alois Terry Leiter, brother of John, Karl, Eric, Kurt, Mark and twin Alexia. Today’s useless factoid.
Re: Alois, if it’s a strict French pronunciation it should probably be Ahl-wah. But if it’s bastardized “US French”, then msb is probably correct.
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/sea/fan_forum/sea_fan_forum_2003_campaign.jsp
Ahh, the classic Boone “bat flip” commercial.
#13– who knows– his dad’s family was Czech, his mom is from Liverpool….
Gaily they ring
while people sing
songs of good cheer,
Christmas is here,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
On on they send ,
on without end,
their joyful tone to every home
Zinedine Zudane Zinedine Zudane Zdong
The 2001 M’s re-sparked my passion for baseball. Boone had a lot more to do with that spark than Ichiro. For that I always felt that Boone deserved the MVP award that year.
Too bad the voters didn’t consult you, isn’t it?
If anything, Ichiro and Boone deserved co-MVPs. Neither could have done it without the other; Ichiro might have had that obscene batting average, but he wouldn’t have had nearly as many runs scored without Boone. Likewise, without Ichiro on the basepaths distracting pitchers, Boone might have faced less hittable pitches, making his (to me, obviously steroid-enhanced) numbers far less outlandish.
IMO, Ichiro’s MVP was like Alexander’s for the Hawks last season. The entire offensive units for both clubs ran incredibly smoothly nad efficiently–perhaps nearing perfection. Alexander, Ichiro, and Boone were merely the beneficiaries of each link in the chain pulling their own weight, each guy successfully playing their role. The teams really should have gotten the MVP, but that’s not possible, so voters chose the seemingly most deserving candidate for MVP. Some may say Boone should have gotten it over Ichiro, (like Griffey over A-Rod a few years before, etc.,) but I say it’s a toss-up; neither were a bad choice.
Did you guys forget about Giambi? Boone had 77 XBH, compared to Giambi’s 87. 40 walks to 129! 417 outs to 342 outs.
.331/.372/.578 against
.342/.477/.660
We are talking abouta a 40 run difference here. As well, Giambi had an incredible year with men on base (like Ichiro did that year), giving him an extra 10 runs of effectiveness.
There is not a 40 or 50 fielding/positional run difference between the two guys.
Bret Boone would have been the Justin Morneau of 2001.
ARod or Giambi.
Personally, I was just arguing the “Boone v Ichiro” choice.
I think if you at all value any of the “player has to be from a contender” (etc) arguments, you have to take someone off the M’s.
If you don’t, I’d vote for Alex Rodriguez over Giambi. VORP’s got them neck-and-neck on offensive contributions, and when you include defense it’s hardly a contest.
But then, I think Alex should have won in 1996, 1998, 2000, etc etc.
For an Ichiro v Boone, you can argue either way.
Same for ARod v Giambi. VORP is “value over replacement position”, which means a positional adjustment is already applied. (i.e., assume player is an average fielder for his position). According to UZR, 99-03, Jason Giambi was an average fielding 1B. (He is terrible these days, but I can accept he was average in 2001). ARod was +7 for that time period, relative to the average SS. However, Giambi, as I stated, was fabulous with men on base, to the tune of being +10 runs. (ARod was -3 runs).
So, I disagree “it’s hardly a contest”. It was pretty dead-even.