Saturday, July 12, 2008

Good Ol' Rick Must Have Left A Little Zen Behind

I was watching the Marlins game after Damion Easley beat the Rockies with another late home run, and the announcers for FOX Florida were having a discussion about whether coaches belong in baseball's Hall of Fame. You have managers, GM's, announcers ... why not coaches? Well, I'm not ready to put Dan Warthen in the Hall yet. But if he did something with Aaron Heilman which enabled him to toe the rubber with steel testicles and get out of jams like he did last night, then Warthen deserves something much better than the Hall of Fame. I'll nominate the man for a Nobel Peace Prize. How many angry mobs has Warthen potentially avoided in one fell swoop.

By the way, doesn't the picture scream "Courtship of Eddie's Father"? You know, "People let me tell ya 'bout my best friend" Trust me. Play the video, and look at the picture. If it doesn't bring a tear to your eye, then you're just not human.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

toe the rubber with steel testicles ... man, there's an image.

if heilman's testicles were steel, not only could he toe the rubber with them, he could probably make a nice living on the side narrating gillette commercials, intros for wfan and videos for nfl films.

Anonymous said...

Certainly the firing of Peterson has been way more important than the firing of Willie.

It's been nice to win for a change.

Anonymous said...

The tears in my eyes were from my laughing as that was hysterical. No really, I wasn't crying. I'm a man.

Anonymous said...

impressive that the steel testicles are not a hinderance to performing houdini-like escapes...the audiece never heard them clang while escaping three concecutive bases loaded innings.


thought I heard the bench doing a karaoke of John Fogerty's Centerfield -- "put me in coach, I'm ready to play today..."

Anonymous said...

Heilman, Perez, Pelfrey, Tatis, 7 game win streak. . . Maybe it has something to do with the nerdy glasses worn by both Warthen and Manuel.

Not to be a killjoy, but I'd love to know how many times Feliciano has walked the first batter he has faced this year. I feel like this is a common occurence - the guy is brought in to face one lefthanded hitter, and he walks him.

Mike said...

It's all part of Pedro Dos' mo, baby.

Don't question his ways. At least not during a 7 game win streak.

katherine said...

Well, its certainly the first time this year that Oliver has had three good starts in a row. I was wondering if the change in pitching coaches helps Oliver, not so much because a new coach gives him better ideas, but because the minor tinkering with his delivery forces him to concentrate on each pitch. So therefore one would expect a gradual dissipation of the benefit from the coaching change over time, which is certainly what happened with Rick Peterson.

Even last night I was concerned about the totally unnecessary flourishes that Oliver added on to the end of some of his deliveries - almost like little dance steps. I don't want to seem like a party pooper, I'm all for Jose's dancing, but Oliver, please, not while the ball is in play.

Anonymous said...

Aaron received written permission from Dan to throw his slider again and Voila!

Unknown said...

What happened to the Heil-O-Meter?

BTW, what's with you people re: Sexon? Why not take a shot with a guy who's hit in the past, who costs you zip in talent & whose salary you can pay with one night's worth of Cracker Jack sales? (not beer, mind you, Cracker Jack).

Metstradamus said...

The Heil-o-Meter is in the shop right now. It unfortunately runs on gas, and has to be converted into a hybrid model. When the crack staff figures out a way to make it run on Mazola, it'll be back.

Anonymous said...

Totally Metstra - it needs to be run on Biodiesel. Load up on used french fry oil from Shea and you'll have energy independence!