Tuesday, August 13, 2013

What Should Manny Ramirez Do

It was announced earlier today that Manny Ramirez was released from his minor league contract with the Texas Rangers. So this leaves Ramirez at the age of 41 without a team to play with. What should he do? Do what other ballplayers that are deemed to be over the hill here in the United States. Follow the example of Bob Horner and go play in Japan.

No knock on the Nippon Professional Baseball league (NPB) but I feel that the Japanese fans would go nuts over Manny Ramirez similar to how the Taiwanese fans were when Manny was playing for the EDA Rhinos of the CPBL earlier this year. I'm sure that some team over in the NPB needs a power bat for the stretch run.

Maybe Manny just needs to forget playing in the majors. Play for the sake of playing and Japan is more than a suitable place to play Baseball. Plus winter ball is right around the corner. I'm sure Manny is playing ball in the Dominican League like he did last season with Las Aguilas del Cibao. But who can tell what Manny Ramirez will ever do. We'll just have to wait and see.

Sisco Kid

****AUTHOR'S NOTE: Was just told by Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker that the player aquisition deadline has expired in Japan for this season. There goes that idea. ;)

Just a little bit of the excitement Manny can bring with the long ball. He did this last season in the first pitch he saw in Winter Ball:

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Alfonso Soriano Has 2000 Worldwide Hits

Suzyn Waldman made it known during the Yankees post game show that the Japanese media was surrounding Alfonso Soriano. When she approached Ichiro Suzuki, she was told that Soriano with his 2-3 performance today places him at 1,999 hits in the MLB. In addition, Soriano had two hits during his brief stint in Japan which has him at 2,001 hits. Why is this important?

In order to be eligible for the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame a player must start his Professional career in Japan AND must have a total of 2,000 hits (including hits in MLB). So Alfonso Soriano is now eligible to be inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

In case you didn't know, Soriano started his career with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the NPB Central League. He played the 1996 season with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp's farm team and was promoted to the main team where he went 2-17 with 2 RBI, 2 runs scored, 4 Ks and 2 walks. In a move similar to Hideo Nomo's, Soriano hired agent Don Nomura to negotiate his free agency from Japan. He retired in Japan exploiting the "voluntary retirement" loophole as Nomo did a year earlier and signed a contract with the New York Yankees in 1998 against the protests of the NPB. This, Nomo's departure and the situation with Hideki Irabu would lead the NPB to enact the posting system that is in place between the MLB and the NPB.

Two interesting articles that go deeper into this are Robert Whiting's Irabu's impact on MLB-NPB relations profound (Oct 16, 2011) and Contract loophole opened door for Nomo's jump (Oct 10, 2010)

Congratulations to Alfonso Soriano on his international achievement. As with his return to the New York Yankees this season, he might be able to go home again this time to Japan if he is ever inducted into their Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sisco Kid


Monday, August 5, 2013

Que Vergüenza

I'm going to keep this short and not so sweet. These 12 players that I'm going to list below are an embarrassment to the Latino Baseball Community. They've just stepped on and spit all over the effort made by Latino players that took insults from racist fans because they were dark skinned and just trying to get a chance to play ball like everyone else. They've insulted the Latino ballplayer who lived in small towns playing ball isolated and alone trying their best to make it to the big leagues through blood, sweat and tears helping to bring the local fans into recognizing Latino effort and hard work. They've shred to pieces the work of every Latino forefather who broke through cultural and language barriers and lay the foundation so that today's player can be in the position they are in today. These guys down below should all be embarrassed.
Nelson Cruz Rangers outfielder
Jhonny Peralta Tigers shortstop
Everth Cabrera Padres shortstop
Francisco Cervelli Yankees catcher
Jesus Montero Mariners catcher
Cesar Puello Mets Minor League outfielder
Fernando Martinez Yankees Minor League outfielder
Fautino De Los Santos free agent reliever
Jordan Norberto free agent reliever
Antonio Bastardo Phillies reliever
Jordany Valdespin Mets infielder
Sergio Escalona Astros reliever
And after Alex Rodriguez gets his suspension handed down later today, it'll be unlucky number 13. Thanks a lot to you all for sullying the good name of hard working Latino ball players everywhere. Enjoy your 50 games off. You've earned it.

Sisco Kid