Jon Paul Morosi of Fox sports drops the puff piece of all times today, polling Major League players on who they believe to be the best player in baseball. Many sane ballplayers, Ricky Romero and Jose Bautista included, selected Albert Pujols as the best in the game.
Adam Lind and Corey Patterson don't play by your rules. They care not for Wins Above Replacement or other convenient boxes to cram your "five tool" studs off some South Florida assembly line. They see the big picture and focus on what is good and pure in the world. Namely, awesomeness.
Jays outfielder Corey Patterson named Ichiro Suzuki and Josh Hamilton. Adam Lind mentioned the same two players.Josh Hamilton? Surefinewhatever. But selecting Ichiro! presents Lind and Patterson as Renaissance Men; able to appreciate the finer things in life. Kudos to them. I doff a Labatt 50 in their direction, but mostly towards Lind. Marrying a local girl wins you bonus points.
Getty Images photo courtesy of Daylife.
Ichiro is indeed my dad.
ReplyDeleteHoly fuck, Johnny Damon. Teixeira and Cano? You play for the Rays now.
ReplyDeleteAnd Adam Lind immediately becomes Drew's new favourite Blue Jay.
ReplyDeleteIf Lind starts dressing in SUW running suits, watch out!
When I saw Adam Lind shotgunning chocolate ice cream outside the Dome last summer, I developed a real soft spot for the guy. This puts him over the top.
ReplyDeleteWas in Arizona recently and ventured to Peoria to see Ichiro and the M's. Ichiro: the very air about him hums. He is otherworldly. He is also the answer to the trivia question: Why was I on Japanese TV last September? Because, see, wearing my Ichiro jersey to the Jays game wherein he collected his 200th hit (x 10 consecutive seasons)... I got the attention of Japanese TV people. "Interview the gawky gaijin in the Ichiro jersey," they said, and so did.
ReplyDeleteWhich means: Lind is alright in my books. Not that he wasn't already, but this seals it.
-AGF
I'm with AGF: if you're asking me who I want to see over everyone else (which nobody is actually asking, but so what?), it's Ichiro.
ReplyDeleteYou could also make the "pound-for-pound" argument, in terms of working with what you've got.