Baseball Musings: The Legend of Broken Nose

May 16, 2006

The Legend of Broken Nose

Aaron Rowand earned himself revered status crashing into the wall in Philadelphia to catch a shot by Xavier Nady. He cemented that with his news conference.

''Going out and playing hard, you're not trying to be an example,'' he said. ''You're trying to play your game. If it's me and I see a guy bust down the line, and I know in the back of my mind I'm not giving everything I have, I'm going to step my game up. That rubs off. You'd be kidding yourself if you thought that it didn't.''
It has become popular to contrast his MO with that of Kenny Lofton, the Phils' semi-regular center fielder last year. Lofton didn't want to be on that wall, didn't need to be on that wall, and said so. Asked about that, Rowand steered clear. He played with Lofton in Chicago, and wasn't about to trash a former teammate.

Then the name of another ex-Philly athlete was invoked: Former Eagle Ricky Watters, of for-who, for-what fame.

''For who?'' Rowand asked. ''My teammates. For what? To win. That's what it's about.''

Geez. At this rate, this guy will never have to buy another meal in this town.

By the way, the Phillies finally installed padding on the fence.

Posted by David Pinto at 09:04 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)

Comments

The padding was in the stadium and crews were waiting for the next road trip to install it. Oops.

For the first time in my tenure in Philly, the city is in love with the Phillies. The Eagles had a mini camp this week and it barely made a blip on the radar.

Rowand. Utley. Howard. Hamels. Rollins. They've got the city buzzing. Should be some big crowds to see the Red Sox in town this weekend. Interleague is arriving just in time to blow the lid off Citizens Bank Park.

Posted by: joe in Philly at May 16, 2006 10:57 AM

Joe, I don't know what paper you read in Philadelphia, but the Phillies, with their 14 wins in 15 games got no where near the attention of the Eagles, where discussions went from JR Reed and Todd Pinkston returning, to no TO, to Donovan McNabb and the team is family, and finally to how will to rookies contribute. Considering it was rookie mini camp, that was a lot of news. Philadelphia papers have one or two articles on the Phillies (outside of asking about Cole Hammels last week). The Phillies still get no respect - and rightfully so - considering they are the Philadelphia team with the longest playoff drought - Eagles made the superbowl in 2004/2005 Season, Sixers made the NBA Finals in 2000, Flyers made the NHL Finals in 1997 and the Phillies made the World Series in 1993. Interesting enough, though, the Phillies generally have the second most headlines behind the Eagles. However, all-in-all, how do you talk excitedly about a city's sports teams that have not won any type of championship since 1983? There have been 23 years of hopeful talking. Until Aaron Rowand's glove can bring the Phillies to the playoffs or the World Series, the Phillies don't deserve the attention, even when they are within a game of first place.

Posted by: Bob at May 16, 2006 11:18 AM

I'm an Inquirer man. Phils above the fold every day for weeks.
The people are excited because of the drought and because the Sixers and Flyers have left a vacuum this spring.

As a transplant from Boston, I can't speak to the long suffering status of the Philadelphia fan. All I can do is react to what I am seeing and hearing on the radio.

I'm going to enjoy it whether the franchise deserves it or not.

Posted by: Joe in Philly at May 16, 2006 11:26 AM

So what's the over/under on when the Philadelphia fans start booing Rowand?

Posted by: rbj at May 16, 2006 02:40 PM

Why would they boo him? He's a solid, though not spectacular, offensive player and plays great defense. He's also a great teammate and a media darling. Further, he doesn't really stand out enough to boo. If Lieber sucks all year, he's expensive and visible enough to earn some scorn. Rowand seems to just sort of fly under the radar, except for the occasional spectacular defensive play or big hit. I mean Philly fans are ornery, but I don't think they're stupid.

Posted by: the other josh at May 16, 2006 03:40 PM

Philly fans booed Mike Schmidt. Eagle fans booed Santa.

They'd boo Jesus.

Posted by: rbj at May 16, 2006 05:48 PM

Glad he made the catch. But he's still out for a long time...I don't think that is a very fair trade. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Let the ball drop and live to play another day.

Posted by: Paul at May 16, 2006 07:40 PM

re: Rowand's catch

We actually picked the night of Rowand's catch to take the entire family out to the ballpark, so I was in the stands with my wife, our three kids and a devoted mets fan from my wife's office, and I was scoring the game, so I have a semi-soaked scorecard (it was raining off and on until they called it in the 5th) from the game.

The bases were loaded and the mets' hitted hit a rocket off the phillies pitcher to dead center field. It looked and sounded like a home run, grand slam off the bat. The only reason it might have stayed in the ball park was the wet heavy weather.

There was no way anyone but Garry Maddox or Devon White should have even touched that ball in their primes, or maybe Andrew Jones.

Roward made a dead over the shoulder catch and didn't stop running for the wall. The game stopped for several minutes while they carried him off. He got a standing ovation like I've never heard before in a Phillies stadium except for maybe Lenny Dykstra.

I believe that like the Dave Cash trade with the Pirates in 1974, the Pete Rose signing in 1979, the Lenny Dykstra trade with the Mets in 1990, the Aaron Rowand trade will go down in history as being one of those key trades that brought a clubhouse leader to a team that had talent, but lacked the leadership to know how to win.

Dave Cash, Pete Rose, Lenny Dykstra, all of them taught their Phillies teams how to win in the mid 70s, early 80s and early 90s, and they led their teams to pennants. I believe Rowand will do the same. He is a natural leader.

I also should comment on the excellent job Shane Victorino, the AAA MVP of 2005, has done filling in for Rowand in his 15 disabled list absence. Victorino, who was widely hailed in many pre-season books, especially Baseball Prospectus, has been as advertised. He can run like the blazes, stretching singles into doubles, he has considerable line drive power down the alleys and lines, he is a switch-hitter, and his OBA, average and OPS are the highest on the team right now. He had a 4 for 4 plus reached on an error with a double and triple the first game in for Rowand last week. He is really scorching hot.

Victorino may well be the Phillies second Rookie of the Year in a row.

The Farm is finally delivering some much needed rookies to the Phillies in the form of Ryan Howard & Shane Victorino, and guess what, these guys can hit a ton.

Also, Cole Hamels flirted with a no-no his first start out, another much-touted rookie.

At long last, the Phils farm system, much denigrated, is delivering.

With Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino, & young pitchers like Cole Hamels, the Phillies finally have a young and hungry look. This is how the Braves & Expos won for years, with guys from the farm.

Led of course by Rowand. Jim thome was a nice player, but we don't need some big chubby guy who can't play 1b blubbering on mother's day about his mom's death. We need a leader who can lead us to victory, a guy who runs through walls and lives to tell about it and is ready to run through five more.

Roward is a lot like Dykstra, who was a lot like Pete Reiser, and we all know that Pete Reiser was the greatest balllplayer ever when he was healthy.

The 1941 Dodgers are my evidence.

--arthur john kyriazis
--philly

Posted by: arthur john kyriazis at May 18, 2006 03:54 PM

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