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| In other Orioles news: Ryan McKenna is jazzed about the fall Rob Refsnyder Jersey , Mike Elias is focused on the winter meetings and Dylan Bundy knows he needs to be better."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Commentary & AnalysisOrioles ProspectsOrioles Game RecapsOrioles News and RumorsCamdencastBird DroppingsSaturday’s Bird Droppings: Where it’s Mike Mussina’s 50th birthdayNew,17commentsIn other Orioles news: Ryan McKenna is jazzed about the fall, Mike Elias is focused on the winter meetings and Dylan Bundy knows he needs to be better.expectation is that Mike Elias’s crew will select someone in the Rule 5 draft. Anything beyond that remains unclear.Bundy crunches some numbers - MASN SportsDylan Bundy may be the Orioles best candidate to have a bounce-back season in 2019. The 26-year-old struggled mightily against left-handed hitters and with home runs last year. It would be good for everyone if he could get things together and prove that he is still capable of being a steady major league starter. Perhaps the O’s would offer him an extension if that happens, or maybe they trade him for a boatload of prospects. Either way, a new coaching staff will be quite interested to see Bundy live up to his potential.How important is managerial experience in the selection of O’s skipper? - The AthleticBased on who the Orioles are rumored to have interviewed so far, it certainly does not seem to be a top concern for Elias. The new GM may prefer player development skills over on-field experience. That makes sense to me, and a coach can’t get managerial experience unless one team first gives them a chance. Orioles birthdays and historyIs it your birthday? Happy Birthday! Two former Orioles are celebrating with you. One is a big deal, the other, well, isn’t. First, the small fry.Jos茅 Le贸n was an infielder for the Orioles in 88 games across three seasons from 2002 through 2004. He is 42 years old today. Yay!Now, the main event. Current Orioles Hall of Famer and future Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Mussina hits the big 5-0 today. Mussina never won a Cy Young, but finished in the top five of voting six different times during his 18-season career spent with the O’s and New York Yankees. The right-hander received 63.5 percent of the vote for the hallowed Hall last year, and is trending in the proper direction to earn his deserved spot. He should get in soon, and when he does there will surely be an argument about which cap should adorn his dome on the Cooperstown plaque. It’s really no contest. He was at his best in Baltimore, spent more time there and is in the team’s Hall of Fame. Case closed.1996 - Left-handed pitcher Jimmy Key signs a two-year deal with the Orioles worth more than $7.5 million. He would turn in a 3.64 ERA and 122 ERA+ across 291.1 innings in those two years with the Birds. Put 425 people of any stripe in one room, ask them to agree that the Earth is round, and my money is on severe disagreement leading to at least one fistfight. Maybe two. It's too bad, but it's the way of the world today. Tell me you love MM's, and I'll tell you why they suck.Right?So put a National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot in front of 425 voters and...Whaaaaaat?!?!Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer in baseball history, on Tuesday became the first unanimous Hall of Fame electee in history. Count them: 425 ballots http://www.raysfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , and the legendary Yankees closer closed on every single one of them.How in the world did this happen? Why him? Why now?Hallelujah, break out the party balloons. Not a single voice of dissent.Politicians, entertainers, citizens of the planet, take note: It can happen."After my career, I was thinking I had a good shot to be a Hall of Famer," Rivera said on a conference call with members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America shortly after the election results were announced. "But this was just beyond my imagination."Just to be considered a Hall of Famer is quite an honor, but being unanimous...it's amazing."It was the first time it happened in the 83 years since the inaugural Hall of Fame vote in 1936. Crazy, right? But true. There were 11 voters in '36 who saw the name of Babe Ruth on their ballots and thought, "Nah." Same year, four voters shook their heads no on Ty Cobb.In 1966, 20 voters snubbed Ted Williams. In 1962, 36 declined to vote for Jackie Robinson. And three years ago, three among the 440 voters figured even Ken Griffey Jr. wasn't good enough for a first-ballot nod.I'll be honest: Because of this quirkiness over the past century, there was a part of me hoping that this nonsense continued and at least a couple of writers declined to check the box next to Mo's name. See what I mean: a contrarian around every corner. I figured no way would Mo be unanimous simply because there are people out there who can't wait to tell you how overrated the closer position is.That's why Rivera's receiving 100 percent was so stunning: It's a heck of a lot easier to diss a guy who, for most of his career, worked one inning a night than it is to look past a guy like Griffey or Mickey Mantle (yep, 43 people didn't vote for him in 1974) or Willie Mays (23 left his box blank in 1979) or Cal Ripken Jr. (eight votes from 100 percent in 2007). Even for non-everyday players, it's much easier to rationalize a no for Mo than it is to balk at Pedro Martinez (49 voters ignored him in 2015).Over the years, the reasons were plenty. Some voters distinguished between a "first-ballot Hall of Famer" and everybody else and, as such, routinely withheld votes from all but the top-drawer guys when a new name debuted on the ballot (ridiculou f a guy is a Hall of Famer http://www.raysfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , he's a Hall of Famer, period). Some harbored personal grudges (not many, and in a perfect world nobody would, but voters are human and imperfect). Some were simply out to lunch.David J. Phillip/Associated PressMeantime, there's this: Rivera's unanimity came at a moment when the traditional closer is being de-emphasized in baseball. Analytics has led us to the point where many now agree the best way for a team to proceed is to build a strong bullpen, mix and match and use the best a t the point in the game deemed the most important. Could be the ninth inning, could be the seventh inning.All this should point toward non-unanimity come Hall of Fame election time, except for one undeniable truth: Rivera's body of work over 19 summers and autumns made him, easily, the greatest ever to play his position.Greatness comes in different shapes and sizes, and maybe as the game shifted away from speed and toward power in the 1920s some preferred Ruth over Cobb, or vice versa. Maybe in recent years on the mound you liked Randy Johnson's sizzle while others appreciated Greg Maddux's craftiness. Different strokes, different folk rstandable.You can argue the greatest shortstop or center fielder of all time, and cases can be made for many. But talk closers, and the subject starts and closes with Rivera.He was phenomenal, producing an all-time record 652 saves while helping to pitch the Yankees to five World Series titles. He was the epitome of grace under pressure in October. And throughout, every hitter he faced knew how he would work to extinguish them: He would throw his cutter, and then he would throw it again, and then he would throw it again.The story of how he developed that cutter has the same mystical quality that has enveloped Rivera all these years. It was in 1997 in Detroit's old Tiger Stadium, and as Rivera threw with his catch partner, Ramiro Mendoza Christian Arroyo Jersey , his ball suddenly started to move. Mendoza became angry because he thought Rivera was messing with him. Turned out, he wasn't."A gift from God," Rivera called it.The rest of baseball had never seen anything like it. Manager Jim Leyland once told me there were three years during the Yankees' run of dominance in which Rivera was the "MVP of all of baseball." Joe Maddon added that when he was managing in Tampa, there were many times in ninth innings facing Rivera when the Rays would look at each other in the dugout and joke about how badly Rivera was tipping his pitches.Unspoken punch line: Everybody knew the cutter was coming, and they still couldn't hit it.Bill Kostroun/Associated PressDuring his retirement tour in the 2013 season, I spent a full week with Rivera and the Yankees for a profile, and one of the greatest things happened off the field: As he visited each city for the final time, he sent word that he wanted to meet with a group of behind-the-scenes folks from that club, just to talk to them and thank them for their part in the game. In Seattle, I watched him meet with a group of young people interested in careers in sports. |
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