The only thing I think my mother loved more than Chi Sox baseball was the Heroes of Lambeau Field \u00e2\u20ac\u201c yes, my mother is a Green Bay Packers fan.\u00c2\u00a0 My mother is a wonderful mother and she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe in child abuse.\u00c2\u00a0 This is why she raised all seven of her children to be Packers fans rather than fans of the ever-losing home state team of the Lions.\u00c2\u00a0 To forever root for the Lions is to set one’s self up for years and years of constant anger, frustration and disappointment. \u00c2\u00a0Raising your child to be a Lions fan was the equivalent of mentally abusing your child.\u00c2\u00a0 My mom realized this and lead all of her children down a safer, more stable path. \u00c2\u00a0Did I mention my mother is a very smart mother too?<\/p>\n
So naturally, having known Packers football my whole life, I cried along with Brett Favre the first time he retired.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Packers football was without him. Brett Favre was my Sunday friend.\u00c2\u00a0 We won together, we cried together, but now he was leaving me.\u00c2\u00a0 A little part of my childhood died watching him cry at his retirement announcement press conference. Then when he came back to play for the Eagles I was in shock.\u00c2\u00a0 How could he be a traitor to his team!!!\u00c2\u00a0 I was content in knowing that he had a terrible season and was happy to hear of the re-retirement of Brett Favre this past spring.\u00c2\u00a0 To my shock and horror Brett Favre decided to make his re-re unretirement this past week.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, I find myself disgusted.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only did he decide to dance around the retirement bush again, he decided to come back and play for a team in his old division \u00e2\u20ac\u201c BLASPHEMY!\u00c2\u00a0 Extreme anger and frustration was all I could feel.\u00c2\u00a0 I went from him wanting to have a bad season to hoping that not only the Packers kick his aging butt all over the field, but I wish the Lions a happy beating of the Favre as well.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but parlay these feelings into baseball (my true love).\u00c2\u00a0 As I watch my Tigers play, day in and day out, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but think \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what do you do with an aging player slightly past peak?\u00c2\u00a0 How would I feel watching my favorite baseball player play the retire\/ un-retire dance?\u00c2\u00a0 What would I want to feel once it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over.\u00c2\u00a0 Basically, what has Brett Favre robbed from me as a fan?<\/p>\n
I make it no secret in my life that my favorite baseball player is Magglio Ordonez.\u00c2\u00a0 From the jerseys to the signed photos, I live in a little shrine to my boys of summer.\u00c2\u00a0 But Magglio is the emphasis of the collection.\u00c2\u00a0 I saw him play for the first time on Sunday September 3, 2000 for the Chi Sox vs. the Angels at the then New Comiskey Park in Chicago with my Aunt.\u00c2\u00a0 From that day on I was hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 When he went down in 2004 with his rare knee injury, I cried.\u00c2\u00a0 When he was signed to the Tigers in February of 2005 I did a happy dance and smiled for a week.\u00c2\u00a0 For me, Maggs was the man and now the man was out of enemy territory and into Tigerland.\u00c2\u00a0 Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get me started about the feelings that are conjured up inside me when I see the replay of the series ending 3 run homer off Houston Street that sent the Tigers to the World Series in 2006. To this day I get all choked up and it brings tears to my eyes. I was there at the CoPa on Tuesday April 22, 2008 when he hit his career 250 home run and 1,000 RBI all in the same pitch.\u00c2\u00a0 Not many people in the park knew what happened with that home run, but I did.\u00c2\u00a0 In a way, I felt like he did it for me.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a small thank you of my unwavering support of him thru the years.\u00c2\u00a0 Maggs is my Tiger \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for now and for always.<\/p>\n
However, Maggs is not having a stellar year this year.\u00c2\u00a0 A career .312 hitter and 2007 batting champion with a .363 BA\u00e2\u20ac\u201c he has let himself slip into a season long slump that has many in Detroit calling for his head.\u00c2\u00a0 Currently as I type this, he is hitting .275, home runs are down, slugging percentage is way down and let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with age a player looses agility in the field and Maggs has had better years in right field (aka Magglio country).\u00c2\u00a0 We are now more than 2\/3 of the way thru the season and he has slowly started to show signs of recovery.\u00c2\u00a0 But perhaps this is the beginning of the end for Magglio.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps this is the point in a player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career when they have to face the inevitable.\u00c2\u00a0 When is it time to hang it up?\u00c2\u00a0 When have you crossed the threshold of being a detriment to your team?\u00c2\u00a0 When have you gone from being a hero to an unproductive payroll hog?<\/p>\n
Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get me wrong, I think my boy Magglio still has a few decent years left in him.\u00c2\u00a0 He still gets hits but those hits are not homers and extra base hits, they are singles and walks.\u00c2\u00a0 Problem for Magglio is that the Tigers are paying him to swing a bat and drive in some runs.\u00c2\u00a0 The Tigers have their hands bound by a very achievable set of contract stipulations for Mr. Ordonez that guarantees him $18 million if he reaches certain milestones in his contract.\u00c2\u00a0 As of tonight, Maggs is only 68 plate appearances away from automatically kicking in that contract \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a very achievable goal.\u00c2\u00a0 However, \u00c2\u00a0Maggs (as much as I love him) is not the same player he was back in 2006 or 2007.\u00c2\u00a0 His production has waned and he is starting to slow down, his glory years are behind him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Magglio is not worth $18 million anymore.<\/p>\n
So what is a team to do with an aging player?\u00c2\u00a0 The Tigers have tried many things, from benching to platooning to straight \u00e2\u20ac\u0153don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come to the park today\u00e2\u20ac\u009d days off.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of it seems to have helped due to the fact that his average has picked up in August and for the first time all year he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seeing pitches and not hacking away at balls.\u00c2\u00a0 The time to release him is long gone.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hitting and taking his walks now and the Tigers need hitters.\u00c2\u00a0 To bench him at this point in the season is suspect to career sabotage.\u00c2\u00a0 Magglio is represented by the evil Scott Boras and this is a fight that Mr. Boras has already hinted that he is willing to take on if it comes to that.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost (and I stress almost) a given that he will achieve his contract extension and play another season, if not 2 more for the Tigers.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m cool with that.<\/p>\n
I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but think about how I would feel if Magglio \u00e2\u20ac\u201c post contract expiration \u00e2\u20ac\u201c went to play for another team in the American League Central.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure it would be a rehashing of the feelings and anger I went thru with Brett Favre over the last 2 seasons.\u00c2\u00a0 But unlike Mr. Favre, I feel as if I have a sort of personal connection with Magglio.\u00c2\u00a0 I have been there for all his ups and downs as a Tiger.\u00c2\u00a0 I cheered during the good times, I cried during the bad ones.\u00c2\u00a0 To me he is part of my baseball family. Magglio is my Tiger and he always will be.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope he can work out his current contract situation with the Tigers and in the future resign another (smaller) contract and retire a Tiger.\u00c2\u00a0 He has done fabulous things for the Tigers organization and the local community.\u00c2\u00a0 I think it will be tougher to see him retire than any other player I have ever witnessed retire (my week long Cal Ripken Jr. retirement depression story is another post \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some other time).\u00c2\u00a0 I can only hope that when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to hang up his cleats and put the bats away, Magglio stays gone.\u00c2\u00a0 Not because I would have to start questioning his motives and not liking him, but because the act of un-retirement to me is cheating fans out of their right to say goodbye.\u00c2\u00a0 Brett Favre robbed me and other fans of our right to say goodbye not only to him and his career, but to a chapter of our own lives.\u00c2\u00a0 Un-retirement turns a once prestigious player into a bad houseguest that has overstayed their welcome.\u00c2\u00a0 Play until you know for sure you are done, then let your fans say goodbye gracefully and with finality.\u00c2\u00a0 Closure is a good thing for all parties involved.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope that someday, whenever the day comes, Magglio will grant me that justice and give me something that Mr. Favre would not.<\/p>\n
~Shelly<\/p>\n
PS \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Ironically, as I sit here and write this at 1 am,\u00c2\u00a0 Magglio is again playing the Angels.\u00c2\u00a0 He went 1-2 with 2BB and a run\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 productive?\u00c2\u00a0 I think so\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The only thing I think my mother loved more than Chi Sox baseball was the Heroes of Lambeau Field \u00e2\u20ac\u201c yes, my mother is a Green Bay Packers fan.\u00c2\u00a0 My mother is a wonderful mother and she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe in child abuse.\u00c2\u00a0 This is why she raised all seven of her children to be Packers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}