153 Responses to “Game 147, Devil Rays at Mariners”

1. Joe on September 16th, 2007 11:48 am

   Well, no player wants to be Wally Pipp. Of course, the Pipp-Gehrig “story” is apparently a myth; but the reality is even more appropriate:
   

   With Ruth either missing or too weak to play effectively, and some key players slumping (second baseman Aaron Ward and catcher Wally Schang were both in their last full seasons with the Yankees), New York tumbled to a dismal seventh-place finish (in an eight-team league) in 1925. With his team already near the bottom of the standings and eleven games under the .500 mark at the beginning of June, manager Miller Huggins decided to shake up his line-up and replace some of his slumping veterans with younger players. Contemporary news accounts leave no doubt that Wally Pipp did not sit out the game on 2 June 1925 with a headache; he was deliberately benched by a manager who had charge of a team that was playing poorly and who opted to sit down some of his older players to give others a try.

   Players learn to play through pain, and know better than to report every little ache. But “veteran leadership” also entails being honest with oneself and the team, and if these guys can’t do that it’s the job of the coaches to notice. Every player has slumps and they’re not always due to injuries; nevertheless, the coaching staff needs to pay attention and determine when they are. And in those cases, it’s in everybody’s best interest to put the player on the DL until he’s healthy again. Yeah, it sucks to bench likeable veterans but if the coaches can’t see performances for what they are and make the hard decisions then the team needs to get coaches who can. We can only wonder where the M’s would be if the powerless Ibanez we saw early in the season, and the punchless Sexson we’ve seen all year, had sat out a month or two in the spring when they were useless anyway and were now back in the lineup healthy and hitting well.

2. gwangung on September 16th, 2007 11:54 am

   Players learn to play through pain, and know better than to report every little ache. But “veteran leadership” also entails being honest with oneself and the team, and if these guys can’t do that it’s the job of the coaches to notice. Every player has slumps and they’re not always due to injuries; nevertheless, the coaching staff needs to pay attention and determine when they are. And in those cases, it’s in everybody’s best interest to put the player on the DL until he’s healthy again. Yeah, it sucks to bench likeable veterans but if the coaches can’t see performances for what they are and make the hard decisions then the team needs to get coaches who can. We can only wonder where the M’s would be if the powerless Ibanez we saw early in the season, and the punchless Sexson we’ve seen all year, had sat out a month or two in the spring when they were useless anyway and were now back in the lineup healthy and hitting well.

   Hear, hear.

   The job of the player is to play as hard as they can, up to the edge of pain and injury.

   The job of the coaches is to figure out where that edge is, and bring them back when that edge threatens the player or the team.

   The coaches have not done a good job of that this year.

3. jlc on September 16th, 2007 12:38 pm

   Here’s a link to Pentland talking about Raul’s shoulder injury:

   http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/sea/y2007/m08/d16/c2152177.jsp

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