Archive for February 16th, 2010

MIKE JACOBS = I’M BACK JOSE

 After a long debate of 20 seconds, we decided to change the name of this column from Dork of the Week to Murph’s Corner Bar.
 
Every ballplayer will one day become and ex-ballplayer and one day Young Daniel Murphy will be Ol’ Dan Murphy and we project him as opening a bar.
 
You know the bar, the one down the street, on the corner. The Old Man’s bar. A little run down, a little too much neon in the window. The cold beer there is golden yellow, served in small glasses, and Kid behind the bar, he’ll buy you back more times then you remember.
 
The game is always on the TV, the music is soft, and the conversation is always in process.
 
Today we’re remembering Willie Montanez.
 
Willie was the property of the Cardinals before he was traded to the Phillies. Interesting historical baseball note, Willie was sent to the Phillies because Curt Flood refused to go to the Phillies from the Cardinals. Yes, that trade for that Curt Flood, the one that eventually created Free Agency.
 
Willie came up with the Phillies in 1971 and starting in Centerfield had a great rookie season with 30 homers and 99 rbi, most of which seemed to come against the Mets.
 
In 1973, Willie moved to first base, his preferred position. It was then and there that the debate started. You see, Willie was the ultimate hot dog.
 
That should be capital letters as in Hot Dog with mustard, onion, relish, and sauerkraut on it. What did he do to earn that distinction? I’ll see how much I remember.
 
While walking to the batters box, he liked to flip his bat as a ritual. If he hit a homerun, he would slow down and take short stutter steps before every base. But in the field is where the show really was. Whenever he caught a ball he would snap his glove. On Pop-ups, he would snap it, then pretend to holster it like a gun. On throws from the infield, he would snap the glove and then take it behind his back to remove the ball, everytime. On throws over from the pitcher, he would fake the throw back and spin around to retag the runner.
 
Phillie fans loved it. Met fans not so much. Bob Murphy hated it and complained about it regularly.
 
Of course, a few years go by and Willie ends up getting traded to the Giants, then the Braves, and then in 1978 the New York Mets.
 
Kind of a controversial trade, in a 4 way deal, the Mets shipped out John Milner and John Matlack. They got Montanez, Tom Grieve and Ken Hendersen back. The last two guys I barely remember.
 
Montanez had a good season for the Mets in ’78, leading the team in home runs and rbi. This was the Joe Torre managed vintage Mets, so yes this was a last place club.
 
The hot dog complaining by Bob Murphy settled down a little, but you could see that it still bothered him.
 
1979 was a different story for Montanez. Maybe it was the depression of last place, maybe it was the act getting stale, Montanez only hit .234. Murphy was letting him have it on the Hot Dog act, in effect saying it was the bad baseball Karma catching up with him, and Montanez was shipped off to the Texas Rangers for 2 players to be named later. He promptly turned his season around for them, hitting .319 the rest of the way.
 
Yet another example of a guy that killed the Mets when he was on another team, then ended up killing them when he was on the Mets.