The television show, 'Before The Bigs, recently featured Russell Martin. On that show, Martin claimed to have a peculiar reaction when he found out his Double-A manager would be Steve Yeager. Who is Steve Yeager, you ask? The essence of that question is what makes Martin's reaction peculiar.
Steve Yeager is a former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher who retired in 1981 and has been an obscure name even in Dodgers fans circles ever since. Russell Martin was born in 1983 and was raised over 3,000 miles away in Canada.
Yet despite the distance and generational separation, Martin still claimed to have a significant reaction upon hearing that Yeager would be his Double-A manager at Las Vegas. To paraphrase, Martin said, 'Wow, I cannot believe that such a great defensive catcher will be my manager. This is a great opportunity to go really propell my major league careeer.'
We know that Martin likely never even hear of Yeager's name even in passing (so to speak). We especially doubt that even those in the know are holding up Steve Yeager, a career .228 hitter as the standard bearer for catchers.
Let us put it in a different perspective. People from Martin's generation are taking away only a little bit from great 70's catchers like Thurmon Munson, Johnny Bench or Carlton Fisk. They are taking away no pre-emptive value from the Steve Yeagers of the world.
Is it a big deal that Martin lied? Most will say not. Many more will admit that he is just selling the drama for a television show. But at Shots Heard we promote only the truth and we cannot look at disingeniousness with the least degree of allowance. So Russell Martin if you are reading, your B.S has been called.
Picture: Russell Martin, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher
No comments:
Post a Comment