Archive for February, 2010

So the other night I’m sleeping and this email comes in from Kid that I see the next morning:

how about an idea for an oh murph column.

each week… choose a baseball card.. like one that people will see and be like.. oh man i remember that one.. that guy looks like a dork….

then we chronicle their life, randomly…

remind me of this tomorrow when im not drunk please.

Yeah, that’s how job assignments are passed out here at OhMurph.

One person comes immediately to mind when you mention the word “dork” and he is the “Stork” George Basil Theodore. Now since I’m a man of a certain age, I would be the only one on the OhMurph staff who actually saw George play. Believe me, he was awful. Sorry George, if your reading this you might want to stop here and surf somewhere else.

The New York Mets in the ‘69 draft in the 31st round selected George. Just 4 years later in 1973, he was on the big league team. You think the minor leagues are a shambles now for the Mets. How this guy even got a uniform is amazing to me. 6 foot 4 inches tall and listed at 190 soaking wet, his nickname was well deserved, if you think a strange looking duck is a stork. The question of this guy making the team, as the 31st pick is: just how bad were the first 30 guys that he Mets picked that year?

George was famous for colliding with Don Hahn (a great fielding center fielder) during the 1973 season and George wound up with a broken hip (yes the DL was well used then also). George came back and actually got a couple of at bats in the World Series against the A’s, of course he was 0-2.

In 1974, following the Mets tradition of more or less standing pat after a World Series appearance, George was back, got into 60 games with 76 at bats and ended up with a .158 batting average. His career ended then, with a lifetime average of .219.

I didn’t think too much about George for a long time when all of a sudden he shows up to close Shea Stadium at the end of the 2008 season. How did that happen? How many people there said who the heck is this guy? Sorry, I’m not one of “those” fans who sits back and says “Oh yes, I remember that bumbling fellow, quite humorous”. Some People think getting Jason Bay was on the lame side. Before free agency, this is what you got kids, the truly lame results of your own farm system.

frighteningly, George hit .259 in his first season with the Mets. Yes, just 7 points lower than our own Young Daniel Murphy in his first season at .266.

Oh, and here’s that baseball card. If you have one of these, what’s it worth?