Empyreal Environs

Game 50: May 30, 2005
Orioles (31-19), 8
Red Sox (27-23), 1
W: Rodrigo Lopez (4-2)
L: Bronson Arroyo (4-2)

David Newhan isn’t your prototypical power hitter, slugging just .321. Yet he broke this game open for the Orioles in the 3rd inning with his grand slam. Annoyingly, he’s one of those players who toiled in the minor leagues for so long you just can’t begrudge him of any success he finds in the majors. This article from last year shows his scrappiness, a necessity in a profession that considers 5'10", 180 pounds too small. Moreover, his multiple shoulder operations cast further doubts on his ability to perform. He earns $365,000, fairly paltry in comparison to other platoon players. Ramon Vazquez gets paid a little less than twice as much, and he doesn’t play the outfield.

I’m not ready to press the panic button yet on Arroyo. Expectations were too high for him to continue to meet them. He wasn’t exactly the paragon of pitching perfection in the postseason last year, going 12.2 innings total with an ERA of 7.82, but since he was in the midst of the pivotal slap play in Game 6 last year, fame and attention accrued to him. He does have outside pursuits such as his music career, but I won’t attribute this as a distraction contributing to poor play. Rather, he’s showing that he is the typical third or fourth starter, and you can’t expect extraordinary performances every start.

The blinding shine of John Olerud’s helmet continues to astound me. There’s some sort of sticker on the top of it that he hasn’t yet removed since the Yankee series. Despite him being the reason for Dave McCarty’s ouster, I’m enjoying him on the team immensely. Recently I heard Terry Francona on WEEI talking about how great it was to have “a classy kid” like Olerud on the team. I’m not misquoting there. Did the Pawsox haze Olerud when he got there? It was his first time in the minors, ever. You can’t tell me Abe Alvarez and company weren’t tempted to put BenGay in his jockstrap or some such. What would they do if they got caught? “Uh, sorry, John. Er, I mean, sir.”