LITTLE ROCK — Babe trade cautionary for Hunter
Pine Bluff’s Torii Hunter has had several conversations with Los Angeles Angels General Manager Tony Reagins in the past two weeks, and the Angels’ All-Star center fielder thinks he has a good feel for how stressful the work preceding today’s trade deadline has been.
“Do you hurt your future or do you try to get someone now?” Hunter, who aspires to one day be a general manager, told the Los Angeles Times.
“I don’t know. You have to weigh it, sit down, have a glass of Scotch, try to figure it out ... and hopefully it doesn’t turn out like Babe Ruth.”
After the Boston Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees for $100,000 in 1919, Ruth went on to hit 659 of his 714 career home runs in New York and helped the Yankees to four World Series titles.
As the Times pointed out, it only took the Red Sox, “oh, 85 years to recover. Their World Series win in 2004 was their first since 1918.”
Of course, the Chicago Cubs could be so lucky. Those muchloved losers, who haven’t won a World Series since 1908, got ataste of the bitterness of baseball trades in 1964. That’s when the Cubs received former 20-game winners Ernie Broglio and Bobby Shantz from St. Louis in exchange for future Hall of Famer Lou Brock of El Dorado.
The Cardinals were World Series champions two of the next four years, while the Cubs tied a franchise mark for futility with 103 losses two years later.
Don’t expect the Angels’ GM to worry too much about the past.
“You can’t operate out of fear,” Reagins told the Times. “If you do, you lose an edge. Sometimes you have to take risks. You have to prepare and be confident in your decision-making.” Fed up in Philly
Speaking of trades, Paul Hagan of the Philadelphia Daily News gives the Phillies a big thumbsdown for acquiring pitcher Roy Oswalt on Thursday.
The way Hagan sees it, the Phillies blundered by getting rid of pitcher Cliff Lee (Benton, Arkansas Razorbacks) in December and magnified their mistake by dealing for Oswalt.
“For the next three months, it’s all good. After that, we’ll see,” Hagan wrote. “No team cankeep adding highpriced veterans and subtracting promising young players and expect to sustain success indefinitely. Even the mighty [New York] Yankees, with a seemingly limitless budget, learned that lessonthe hard way in the 1980s.
“If the Phillies have decided that winning this year is the priority, getting Oswalt is a nifty maneuver.
“Keeping Lee would have been even better.”They said it
Comedy writer Alan Ray, on why Cincinnati Bengals coaches figure to use Terrell Owens in long-yardage situations: “If they send him deep, they don’t have to hear him complain.”
Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune, on why Southern California hired Pat Haden to clean up its athletic department: “Eliot Ness died in 1957.”
Headline at the satirical website Sportspickle.com: “Tim Tebow Blows Signing Bonus on Charity Donations.”Quote of the day “They say,‘Ah, he’s probably just a guy who’s
going to take my lunch money or something like that.’ But I’ve never been that kind of guy.” North Little Rock offensive tackle Antonio Cooksey, on reactions to his 6-8, 380-pound body
Sports, Pages 20 on 07/31/2010