Mediocrity

I had a harm time debating whether to write about how George Bush's farewell address reminded me of a girl and guy breaking off a relationship that neither of us wanted to be in. In fact we've both been cheating on each other since August, we just couldn't get ourselves to end it.

But this week I have to salute Major League Baseball for the best thing that they have done in years. MLB network shows a classic game every day in the afternoon. Today I'm watching the 1991 Cubs-Pirates classic which ended 13-12. With a little help from my friends at Baseball-Almanac.com I can tell you that Greg Maddox, Ryan Sandberg, Rick Sutcliffe, Shawon Dunston, Andre Dawson, Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Joe Girardi, Jay Bell, Mark Grace and Andy Van Slyke are all on the rosters with coaching staffs that include Don Zimmer, "The Rabbit" Ray Miller and Jim Leyland.

Every game seems to give you a few sure fire HOFers, a few coaches that you've heard of or are still around, and the subject of my tribute today The Mediocres. These are players that will never be very good. If they make an All-Star game it is a complete accident. If they win a World Series it won't be their fault.

These are the players that seem to stick around forever, play on a ton of teams and somehow leave a lasting impression in your mind. They might have been young once, with a lot of potential. They may have had the ability to hit .270-.300 and never demanded a lot of salary. They may have been an ex-superstar who ended up injury plagued. From this game I can give you examples of each of these.

Bobby Bonilla came up and was a young corner outfielder for the Pirates. He was supposed to team up with Barry and would have been the franchise. But Barry left and the Pirates figured out that Bobby wasn't all that good. He started in two All-Star games early in his career. He won a World Series in 1997 with the Marlins, both of which were accidents. He played on 8 teams (one twice) in 16 years. He led the league in extra base hits once, games played once and sacrifice flies twice. He led the league in salary three consecutive years. He pitched an inning in his last season and ended his career with an 18.00 era and a balk. Go figure.

Mark Grace had a sweet stroke and never made more than 5.3 million, hit fairly well, but never led the league. Hit no more that 16 home runs. Played in three All-Star games, but never started. Played and won a World Series.

Andy Van Slyke used to be really good, a rising star, and then he got hurt and was sequestered to mediocrity the rest of his career.

My favorite of the Mediocres are the ones that are instilled in your mind because of an event they had a part in. Brady Anderson striking out before Cal Ripken got a chance to win the game in his last at bat ever. Jay Bell jumping into Matt Williams arms to win the 2001 World Series. There are a million of these incidents.

The best thing about the MLB is that they don't really have good footage of any game before 1988, which means that most of their classics are from either the World Series or games that would have people in them that I know.

I understand that unless you are a baseball fan then you probably don't care. So I will get around to writing about our broken relationship with the Prez, don't worry.