I have
spent many years of my life wishing extreme ill upon a man named Alex
Cintron. I was only 15 years old when
the marginally talented Cintron ran recklessly towards third base and destroyed
the Cardinals season and Scott Rolen’s shoulder in 2002. Before that injury, the Cardinals seemed like
a team destined to accomplish great things as they were positioning themselves
to take down the former World Series Champions in the Arizona Diamondbacks, and
the player who was going to be one of the key cogs that brought them there was
the newly acquired Scott Rolen. It was
the first year of the MV3 with Scott Rolen, Albert Pujols, and Jim Edmonds in
the middle of the order, and Scott Rolen was as important to that team as
either of the other two guys.
Cintron
was a utility infielder who would end his career in the major leagues after 9
years with a .275 career batting average with 4 different teams. As memorable as this type of a career, I will
never forget his name for how he ruined the Cardinal’s season. On a 3-2 pitch, he was running on the play
and as Scott Rolen ventured into the base path with his left shoulder extended
downwards to field a ground ball, the speedy Cintron ran into him and forever
changed the course of the 2002 season for the Cardinals. Rolen suffered a sprained shoulder that
became the start of shoulder issues that would linger for the rest of his
career, drastically sapping his production and eventually being the reason the
future Hall of Fame third baseman clashed with manager Tony LaRussa to the
point of Rolen leaving St. Louis for good.
For this
season’s Cardinals, Yadier Molina is everything that Scott Rolen was for the
2002 Cardinals and more. Molina has been
the sole reason that the Cardinals are in the position that they currently find
themselves in, leading the National League for the second Wild Card spot. Unlike in 2002, however when the Cardinals
were already a playoff team, this season is far from over. This season’s Cintron goes by the name of Josh
Harrison, and he is also a utility infielder with a bat that has played to a
.255 batting average. I will not get
into the debate over whether or not he lifted an elbow in order to catch Molina
in the head on purpose. I know that
during a play that happens that fast, there is little the runner can really do
to prepare himself for the inevitable collision.
I do
know, though, that like with Rolen, I have a special place in my heart for
Yadier Molina. His amazing defense and
overall stellar play has been nothing short of spectacular, and his leadership
is something that Tony Cruz will never be able to replace. By extension of this respect for the player
that Molina has become, I will definitely have a place in my hatred for a
player who brings him to a similar fate and by extension of Molina, the
Cardinals. I found myself laughing at
the pitch that hit Harrison in the leg, the one bright spot in an otherwise
dark night for the Cardinals and especially for Jake Westbrook, and I already
feel the hatred beginning to build for a player that I would have never
otherwise cared about.
The
Cardinals have little hope of surviving until the playoffs without their All
Star catcher and middle of the order hitter with a knack for dramatic
hits. The preliminary reports for
Molina’s injuries are day to day with a neck, upper back, and like Rolen a
shoulder injury. I can only hope that it
is not as serious and that Molina does not have as much bad luck after this in
his career. I am hoping and praying that
Molina’s career becomes much more than Rolen’s became in St. Louis. I plan on laughing many more times with the
joy of watching Molina’s howitzer of a right arm gun down potential base
stealers and even those runners who are not sure if they were thinking about running. I can only hope that this injury is something
that takes days to get over and not weeks, but if Harrison took out Molina,
then he may have just let Cintron off the hook.
Or I guess at least he can share the hook. There will be plenty of hatred to go around.
No comments:
Post a Comment