Monday, March 17, 2008

“NO, THE OTHER JOSE.”

David Lennon has the quote about his latest injury upate:

“Just give a chance to a young kid, give him a chance to earn some money,” Valentin said. “My career has been good enough. I’ll go to Plan B—coach, be with my family. Live ‘La Vida Loca.’ Have fun.”

Is it not-baseball of me to be happy that instead of taking the Mets’ money and making another rehab attempt - which may or may not be successful - he’s going to say, “Thanks for the memories” and go on with his life? Is it unAmerican for him to say, “Gee, I got enough money, had a great run, see ya?” It just makes me like him more, even though I have struggled in the past with my ability to truly embrace Jose Valentin.

I will never forget that Milwaukee series in 2006 where Jose Valentin sparked into life and confounded everyone’s expectations.  Yeah, he started to let us down a little bit last year, but so did almost everyone. And I never hated him the way I hated Julio Franco or Moises Alou (who could still redeem himself, I hate to mention him in the same breath as Moses). He showed up. He played as hard as he could. I’d blame Willie or Omar before I’d lay blame at Valentin’s feet.

Vaya con dios.