Gonzalez's Two Dreams: Play For Padres, Red Sox
Adrian Gonzalez:
I've had five incredible years in San Diego and grew up wanted to be a Padre, and my dream as a kid was to play in the major leagues and be a Padre. And my second dream was to be a Red Sox.
It was a couple of connections. It was one those things where you grow up and you always root for a National League team and an American League team. And the Red Sox had always been the American League team I rooted for, with Ted Williams, him being from San Diego and being a lefthanded hitter and one of the greats of all time, there have always been a lot of connections there.
Adrian Gonzalez:
6 comments:
Deepest darkest eyebrows. Slightly nasal voice. If he shaves his goatee, he'll be Evil Bert.
Can't wait.
Fuckin A!!!!!
caseykelly23: "I want to thank the Boston organization and redsox nation for all the support sad to leave but excited for the opportunity that's has happen"
22 minutes ago via Twitter
SI, July 6, 2009:
Blocked at first base by Derrek Lee in Florida and Mark Teixeira in Texas, Gonzalez was shipped to San Diego in a six-player deal in 2006 ... Upon hearing news of the deal, Gonzalez thought, "I get to play on Channel 4!" ...
Before a spring training game this season, Gonzalez noted that lefthander Joe Saunders was pitching for the Angels. "Saunders is going to pitch me away," he told hitting coach Jim Lefebvre, "and I'm just going to shoot the ball to left." "You're a power guy," Lefebvre replied. "Why are you just trying to shoot the ball to left?" Gonzalez pointed to a grassy hill over the leftfield fence where families were setting up picnics. "When I say I'm going to shoot it to left," Gonzalez clarified, "I mean I'm going to hit it up there." In the first inning he hit a home run onto that hill, scattering picnickers. Of Gonzalez's 24 homers through Sunday, 10 have been to centerfield, seven to left and seven to right, an unusually democratic distribution. ...
Teammates describe Gonzalez as earnest and intense, but he embraces the unorthodox. When the Padres were mathematically eliminated early last September, Gonzalez decided to take a strike against every pitcher he faced to see who was willing to challenge him. The exercise had to hurt him statistically, since he fell behind in counts, but it helped him predict how specific pitchers would approach him this season. ...
Wanker of the Day:
Tony Massarotti
"The exercise had to hurt him statistically"
In those final 17 games:
avg: up 4 pts
obp: up 5 pts
slg: up 25 pts
dongs: hit 19.4% of his season total in a stretch that represented 10.5% of his season
Why didn't the guy just look it up?
He would have also seen that the story was bullshit. AG definitely took a strike a lot in those games, but usually he'd do it for the first few at bats, and then specifically swing at the first strike in his last at bat.
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