“Day No. 450... A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”
But this is not about Pearl Harbor. It's about making a
baseball player famous forever. They did it with Cy Young. He won 511 games. No
one will ever come close to that feat. We named an award after him... the Pulitizer Prize the Cy
Young Award, given annually to the best pitcher in each league. Great
idea, wasn't it?
Then there was Mario Mendoza. You know him,
don't you?
Wikipedia defines what we all know and love as "The
Mendoza Line." It's a baseball expression that derives from shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose poor batting average has come to define the threshold of incompetent hitting. The cutoff point is often said to be .200, (though Mendoza's career batting average was .215.) When a hitter's average falls below that level, he is
said to be "below the Mendoza Line".
This is often the
offensive threshold below which a player's presence on an MLB team cannot be justified, regardless of his glovework. The term is
used in other contexts when one is so incompetent in one skill that other
skills cannot compensate. That was a great idea too!
It's time to bequeath a new baseball term for a new
player. I'll give you a number, but you may not know what it
represents...449.
Any guesses? I'll help you. It's associated with a Yankee to be inscribed in infamy.
Jacoby Ellsbury.
By my calculations, Ells has now been on the DL - oops, the IL - for
450 days. That goes back two years and part of this
season. As my first remembrance of baseball extends back to 1961, no
one has come close to being on the DL - damn, old habits you know - the IL.
Jacoby epitomizes the IL, and it seems he's been on that list longer that anyone in history. Longer than the Babe,
longer than Lou Gehrig - sorry, my bad, that's a really wrong analogy - so it's
about time we celebrate this record-breaking streak that no one will ever top.
They started with the Disabled List, the DL. Disabled
people complained, so MLB changed it the Injured List, the IL. Jacoby has now been on this list four-hundred-and-fifty days. (450). When I get
injured, I'm not out for 450 days. The most for me was 180. I'm
insulted that the term "injury" is in the same ballpark.
So now. it's time for a change...
From now on, the IL should be called... THE EL... the
Ellsbury List. It encapsulates the experience of being
injured. For short, we can call it the "Ells" List. Has a ring to it,
doesn't it?
Everyone will know what it means. We should start
by using it every day... with friends or family, such as those who frequent this site. Before you
know it, everyone will call it the Ells List, making him part of
history.
Today... the 450th day.
Posts
8 comments:
Great thought. How do we get Stanton in a position to break Jacoby's record?
Just looked it up, and you can believe everything you read on the internet -- just ask Dr. Olu!
Jacoby Ellsbury will end up getting $153,000,000 from the Yankees, assuming they don't pick up the $21MM option and have the $5MM buyout. (Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I just read that again.)
The glass one has played 520 games for the Yankees, with 2171 plate appearances.
Assuming he will never play another game for the Yankees (A.A. Ron's $70MM contract told me this is true), that works out to:
Just under $300,000 per GAME ($294,230 by my abacus).
Just OVER $70,000 per plate appearance ($70,474 by the abacus).
Where can I sign up for this? I'd be willing to get hit by a pitch every at bat (in the butt, not the head). Hell, I'd be willing to cause catcher's interference for that money.
One terrible thought. What if he actually heals? Would they actually cut him. I shudder to think of him playing another meaningful game for the Yankees.
Unless he comes back, hits 3 extra base hits in his first game, steals home, and makes the best fielding play ever seen in center field.
Then, THEN I'd like to see him come back.
Ranger lp, Great Piece.
You might want to look up how long Albert Belle was on the EL. (I don't know where such records are kept.)
Belle was the first of the major "let's let Lloyds of London pay for it" insurance cases. I remember being amazed when I was alerted to his status by a tiny blurb in Sports Illustrated a few years later. Baltimore had kept him on their 40-man roster so that Lloyds would pick up the tab for his payroll. It saved the O's something like $39MM.
A great idea, although I would prefer “The E-List” or, simply, “Jacoby Land” or even “Jackie’s Treehouse.” I won’t quibble, though.
I’ve been looking forward to the fact that after this year’s Old Timer’s Game, Jason Giambi will have been in more games at Yankees Stadium in the last two years than Ellsbury has...
Let's not forget "Bobby Bonilla Day" out in Flushing...
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