Ozzie Guillen’s recent musings on Castro reminded me of Marge Schott talking about Hitler twenty some odd years ago. There is no truth to the rumor that Peter Angelos called Jeffrey Loria looking to trade Buck Showalter to Miami for the Ozzard of Whizz (as Don Malcolm used to call Guillen.)
I was also reminded that I once wanted have a regular feature on this blog called “What Is Pastime Is Prologue”, but it organically evolved in another direction. While I took a hiatus to work on my memoirs, New York and the rest of the country went gaga over Jeremy Lin. Remember that? Or has he already been forgotten like Darva Conger, the McDLT, or Herman Cain?
Some people were comparing Lin to Tim Tebow. I suppose that hypewise that may be true. Linsanity was similar to Tebowmania. But a more apt analogy for Tim Tebow might be Ichiro Suzuki circa 2001.They both suceeded at a lower level and there were questions about how they would do at a higher level. Tebow is a QB who doesn’t pass well, but runs. Suzuki is a corner outfielder who doesn’t slug but can play what the oldsters called scientific baseball. They’re both throwbacks to an earlier era, in a way. Now, Tebow has a long way to go to be Ichiro, but he’s more like Ichiro than he is like Lin (except for the Christianity part.)
Lin is more like Karl Spooner. Both are meteors who streaked over the New York sky. And both got hurt. If the Knicks hang around longe enough in the playoffs, he might return this year, but that Remains To Be Seen.