The Best! That They can Be? 

Walk-Off H.R. 7/17/15 Unbelievable!

Not only does his face and body “talk-the-talk”, but already his ability and demeanor have proven, to even the most “cynical” of critics, that he is quite capable of ‘Walking-the- Walk”.   There isn’t any thing on the baseball field, or any “playing field”, that he isn’t capable of doing to the highest level of performance. The only aspect of his game that I (personally) wish that he would change is his penchant for sliding “head-first” into bases. I say this for the “selfish” reason of my being deprived of seeing him play when he is on the “disabled list” with jammed or broken fingers, hands, arms, neck, or some other upper body injury that is sure to occur at some time or other. I know he can slide feet first , so why not and lessen the injury potential.

I wrote the preceding excerpt almost two years ago. Now…

My favorite player growing up was Mickey Mantle. The closest player to providing me with the same vicarious sense of camaraderie, as well as a desire to emulate his skills and demeanor is (I hope not “was”) Mike Trout.

I always thought that the Yankees would eventually acquire Trout because of the similar “charismatic” qualities they both emoted, as well as the unique skill-set that each possessed. I wonder if the aspirations for such an acquisition has suddenly subsided since Mike’s fateful and depressing mishap.

Did Mike somehow think that he alone was invulnerable to the grave dangers attached to the precarious, and ignorant penchant for sliding “face-first” into any of the four bases to which he undoubtedly had every right to abscond. I wish that I would have had access to his phone number and/or email so I could have intelligently, but forcefully convinced him of the total and complete “imbecility” of such a stupidly impractical, career threatening device for asserting an aggressive means of functionally participating in America’s greatest game.

On April 4th, 2014, I posted an essay entitled, The Most Inexcusable Act of Irresponsibility for Perpetuating Nothing of Substance. Here is an excerpt from that Post:

Baseball’s Biggest Star, Mike Trout, laced a low-liner passed the Mets short-stop into left-center field. Trout’s hustling attitude gave every indication that he was going for two bases. Running full speed, after rounding first, he sprinted to second and, as his custom was, he slid furiously into the base, “Head-First.” He was safe, for the outfielder’s frantic throw was far off the mark, but when Mike stood up he began shaking his right hand and wrist. As the instant replay showed, he slid so hard that he jammed his right wrist and hand into the bag as the momentum of his powerful body was carrying him over it. Needless to say, the Angels can ill-afford to lose their Star player, and Baseball would surely regret his brief or permanent absent from the Game.

I don’t consider myself a prophet, but anyone could have predicted the inevitability of such a catastrophe in the making. Now we have to wait and see if he can regain his former status as Baseball’s “All-American” Baseball Idol.