Skip to main content

One Door Closing Another Opening


In previous decades, it was commonplace for a player in pretty any sport to remain with a team his entire career. It was extremely common in baseball especially when it came to star players like Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Chipper Jones, and others. In my opinion, one person that has flown under the radar is Yadier Molina who is a throwback to a bygone era as he has been with the St Louis Cardinals for the last 19 seasons. Last August, Yadi announced that the 2022 season will be his last, commenting "I was thinking about going to Cincinnati and hearing all the boos there, going to Chicago, hearing all the boos there. It’s going to be awesome,” Molina said. “It’s going to be a great time going there and getting the boos.”



Yadier has flown under the radar, because he isn't always at the top of the leaderboards or in the running for an MVP. Never been a superstar in terms of the grander scope of baseball, but if you ask the Cardinals players or fans I think the presence of Yadier will be missed in the clubhouse and in the stadium as a whole next season. Yadi and teammate Albert Pujols will be ending their careers on the team that drafted them this season and both might as well keep the uniforms warm as cooperstown should be calling for both men in a few years. There is no question Albert will be a first ballot Hall of Famer and in my book Yadi should be right behind him the following year. Catchers don't always get the same type of love as other players, but we've had the pleasure to witness one of the best in the last nearly twenty years. The only question left is how long does Wainwright have before he hangs up the uniform as well.

One other quote from Yadier Molina taken from an MLB.com article from last year: “Well, it's enough,” Molina laughed. “I mean, 19 years is a long career, and my position is a tough one. Right now, I would like to do my best, and I'm going to train my body hard, but it's hard to keep up with this game to a high level right now when you’re 39.”




The reason for the title is now the talk shifts to a young player who might be looking to continue the tradition of sticking with the club that drafted him. We will likely see something to that effect happen in Atlanta with the amount of players they have signed long term. For the player in question though we move North of the border to Canada. Star first baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been quoted saying he would love to spend his entire career in Toronto. Below is an excerpt taken from an MSN.com article on the subject: 

“Since I got to the big leagues, I’ve always felt that way,” the 23-year-old told Chisholm. “Especially now when you start feeling the love from the fans and the city. I’ve always said that I would love to play here my entire career. I’m open for any conversation. We’ll see what happens.”

In addition to the success on the field and a young, promising team around him, one of Guerrero Jr.'s favorite things about the city is the appreciation he feels from the Blue Jays' faithful.

“It’s the respect that the fans and people have for you,” he said. “I can walk down the street, they look at me, they know it’s me, they admire me. But sometimes for some reason you cannot take a picture or sign an autograph and they respect that. Some other cities, they kind of get upset. But here, I love that from the fans. I love the people here.”

I've always loved seeing players remain loyal to one team for the length of their careers as it was something that used to be commonplace, but sort of went away with free agency. I'm not saying that a player shouldn't look for a big check, but look to Freddie Freeman who wanted to stay in the ATL. Sometimes staying put is the right decision even if it's not the most financially beneficial. Congrats to Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols both on Hall of Fame worthy careers and being able to go out on their own terms. 


Sources: 
Source 1 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Retrospective: Underrated Brew Crew Star

  Looking at the birthday list I noticed Ben Sheets who is celebrating his forty-fourth birthday today. Though Ben never got his chance to win the Cy Young during his career and according to baseball reference he only received votes for the award once in 2004. In my opinion, looking at his stats Sheets seems like one of the most consistent pitchers during the era. The Brewers were lucky enough to develop him into the team's first real ace in the turn of the century. The Brewers weren't exactly ever known for pitching during the history of the team so having one of the best pitchers in baseball wasn't something that was common for the team. Take a look at Ben Sheets' tenure with the Brewers from his debut in 2001-2008.  Sheets would become a four time all-star as a member of the Brewers. In response, to what was a career year for Ben and as mentioned earlier the one year he received votes for the Cy Young at the end of the 2004 season was given a four year extension by t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Reverse Boycott

 Earlier this year the Oakland Athletics seemingly signed the deal to move to Las Vegas officially ending the teams history in the city of Oakland. However, the move will not happen right away as the new stadium will have to get built first. According to an article in USA Today the stadium took a positive forward take a look at the quote below  "Nevada's state assembly passed a bill Wednesday to provide $380 million in public funding for a $1.5 billion stadium on the Strip, paving the way for the A's to relocate from Oakland ― their home since 1968 ― to Las Vegas." The full article can be found here  The Oakland A's have been the league's most puzzling team for years at this point as it seems like the team doesn't even want to try anymore. The current payroll for the A's is last in all of baseball at $60 million seven million behind the next closest team who is the Orioles who have an excuse. The excuse for the Orioles is that they have the second best...
Post a Comment
Read more

On this in Sports History

  On this day in 1907, legendary pitcher Walter Johnson would begin his MLB career at 19 years old. His career would span twenty-one years and would lead to a future Hall of  Fame induction. Walter would finish his career with the second most wins in baseball history among starting pitchers behind only Denton "Cy" Young. Walter would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1936 alongside Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and others as members of the first Hall of Fame Class in Cooperstown.  Moving forward a little bit it was on this day in 1921 when eight White Sox players were acquitted after being accused of throwing the 1919 World Series on purpose. This scandal would do massive damage to reputation of baseball and would become known as the Black Sox scandal. The following day all of these players would be served a lifetime ban from baseball including legendary player "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.  Some other interesting notes from this day in sports history. In 1959, PGA ...
Post a Comment
Read more