Timmy Chang was signed by the Lions today after being cut by the Cardinals earlier this month. Good move on their part; hopefully he'll get a little playing time this year. He's an interesting guy to follow; the first I'd heard of him was on Christmas Eve 2003, when we listened to the Hawaii-University of Houston game on our new scanner and Hawaii beat Houston in triple overtime. Good luck to him in Detroit; he's going to need it!
The Post had a great article about Rick Short this week. I highly recommend reading it- he seems like such a humble, unassuming guy. Oh yeah, and he's hitting close to .400 for the Zephyrs.
He was called up to the majors for the first time, in June:
He got a hit that night, a line drive single to left field. And there was this great roar at RFK Stadium, so long and loud that he had to wave his hat to the crowd as he stepped back into the dugout. In the clubhouse Nationals officials gave him a DVD of the single and he looked so happy that they couldn't bring themselves to tell him he'd been sent back down again until the next day.
What a Cinderella story, huh? I felt bad for the guy but he just shrugged it off. It's a fact of life when you're a minor leaguer, but still, it had to be a little disappointing.
On the day his big, fat dream came true they showed him a closet next to the clubhouse at RFK. Inside were piles of bats discarded by the Nationals. Short dug through them, amazed at the array of unused equipment. He found a box of bats that shortstop Cristian Guzman didn't want, pulled one out and immediately loved the way it felt. This is what he took with him to home plate when they called him to pinch hit a few innings later.
The excess had to be amazing. I wonder how quickly guys who get called up from the minors (and stay up) get used to having so much stuff around. It must be really tough in so many ways to go back down.
But this is one terrific guy. He's not looking out for himself, but for the team:
The Zephyrs are still talking about a game a few nights ago, when Short -- hitting .399 at the time -- kept trying to hit ground balls to the right side of the infield to move a runner from second to third, eventually grounding out to the first baseman.
"He could easily have swung away right there and tried to get his hits," says New Orleans teammate Marlon Byrd, who played 56 games for the Nationals this season. "Most guys, if you're going for .400, you're swinging to get your hits."
Anyway, things are looking good for Short to be called up soon. He not only deserves to be up here, but should have stayed when they brought him up in June. (He would have done better than some of the guys, that's for sure.) Go Rick!
1 comment:
I don't know if you read the Couch Slouch (Norman Chad) much, but he used to talk about Timmy Chang as if the kid was God.
I wrote something about Rick Short myself, a few months back. http://dcteams.blogspot.com/2005/06/real-life-crash-davis.html
I was inspired to write it because of a great article written by Barry Svrluga in the post. I was also lucky enough to have been at the game when Short got his hit. The roar was deafening. Showed those Mariners, and that waste of space Pinerio.
And Bull Durham rules.
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