Sunday, October 15, 2017
Thanks, Jose
By the time
that this newspaper gets into your hands, the Toronto Blue Jays are
expected to jettison Jose Bautista from their roster. It is all a
matter of dollars and cents, There is also a little bit of...”Well,
what have you done for us lately?” thrown into the equation.
Admittedly,
Bautista has not had a great season for the Jays. There are always
many factors that contribute to a lack of success for any athlete.
Jose is getting a little long in the tooth, now 37 years old. But he
is in remarkable physical condition, and he has worked extremely hard
the past several years to keep himself in the game. He is forever
bending and stretching, curling and twitching, in order to maintain
his physical status. Too often do we see older players pulling up
lame on routine ground balls.
He works
very hard. Most of the discussions from the pundits from Toronto
indicate that he does not shy away from game preparation. In that
regard, I am reminded of Jaromir Jagr. Jagr spent many hours before
games with incredible physical workouts. Old guys like he and Jose
know that there are plenty of young bucks on the sidelines ready to
take their place.
They know
that the younger players are often bigger, stronger, faster, and
likely more fit. It just drives the older guys to work that much
harder. But with all athletes, in all games, there comes a point of
diminishing returns. Quite often there are teams which need these
older athletes, for a variety of reasons.
One of the
reasons I hear is that “They are good in the clubhouse”. That is
now always the case. There are older players who have always been
jerks their entire careers, and they likely won't change. There are
others who have difficulty communicating, either because of their
nature, or because they do not have a strong command of one of
baseball's languages. That could be English, Spanish, Korean,
Japanese, or a few others.
Several
years ago, baseball opened up the doors for older athletes with
strong batting skills. The American League adopted the “Designated
Hitter”. Teams could hire these big boppers to stride to the plate,
whack the cover off the ball, and then return to the dugout. They do
not have to catch flies, field grounders, nor run into fences chasing
foul balls. They are paid to hit, especially with power. No such role
exists for hockey players. Consequently, no one has picked up Jagr,
at this point in time. He still remains as one of the top five
players of all time, truly phenomenal.
I was most
impressed with the way the Toronto fans expressed their feelings
toward Bautista during his final series against the Yankees. He
played hard the entire series, batting well, chasing balls in the
outfield. He still has the skills.
But the
powers that be have indicated that they do not wish to bring him back
next year. It would be an expensive venture for the team. I believe I
heard the approximate number of $17 000 000. If he gets picked up by
another team, he may be able to make between 2 and 5 million dollars,
That is just a wild guess.
I am sure
the team consulted with him before the season, and asked him about
doing something similar to Big Papi's sunset tour last year. I can
see Bautista indicating he would have no part of that. Even in his
last on=field interview in Toronto, he hinted that he would like to
be playing, possibly in Toronto.
He expressed
his feeling that he loved the city. All players do that when they are
being shuttled out the door. Jose sounded more genuine than many of
the others. He has always been a class act, a great player, and
should be remembered as one of the top Blue Jay players in the short
history of the team.
Mucha
suerte, Jose.
James Hurst
October 2,
2017
# posted by James Hurst @ 9:50 AM 
