What Can Brown Do for You?

So many times in my baseball life, I’ve been let down. I suppose it comes with the territory in being a die-hard of the only team that can give the Washington Generals a run for money in the loss column. But its times like these I persevered. The four-straight NL East titles makes watching the likes of Stan Javier and Tom Nieto bearable. The Back-toback NL championship flags makes the two dreadful tours of duty by Adam Eaton and Andy Ashby which were interrupted by productive, if not GOOD, stints in other cities nothing short of comical.

Time after time over hyped prospects came to town and if they managed to stick with the team, their legacy wasn’t broken records and all-star appearances but broken dreams and blooper reel highlights. Wes Chamberlain, Pat Combs and Carton Loewer just to name a few. I can look at my 2008 World Series ticket stub and forgive them, the coaches who let their talents go unmotivated and potential untapped, and the general managers and scouts who were responsible for drafting them. Well, all except one: Ron Jones. If you are unaware Ron Jones died in 2006. I assume he is buried somewhere in Texas where he was born and returned to after his baseball career was over. It’s a good thing because if it were any closer I’d make it part of my regular routine to piss on his grave. I know it’s not right to speak ill of the dead but Jones had no heart so was he ever really living?

This might seem like an odd rant but something during Saturday’s game made me cringe at the mere thought of Jones. Back in 1990, the Wriz was younger but no less handsome when he watched Jones hit a routine grounder to the shortstop. After the ball left the bat, it became anything but routine. The shortstop booted the ball. He managed to pick it up and make a hurried throw to first. In his haste, he threw the ball into the dirt cut out at first. The first baseman almost made a great dig but dropped the ball. He did, however, manage to pick the ball up and step on the bag to get Jones by a stride and a half. I don’t know for sure but I’d imagine the Wriz and each of the other 23,000 in attendance could have beaten it out.

Saturday, Domonic Brown’s grounder to the A’s Jamile Weeks had a similar outcome. With his speed, Brown should have beaten it out EASY once Weeks struggled with the grounder, but instead it went down 4-3 on DB29’s scorecard. I can understand that players might lose focus from time to time over the long baseball season. I’m not saying right or excusable, but you’d think they wouldn’t let it happen again, let alone the same game. That’s right, Brown lally gagged after a ball in the gap when he was in the field too.

The worst part is I have defended him time and time again. I felt the Phillies handled him terribly last season by keeping him on the roster. He went weeks without seeing the field instead of playing everyday in Lehigh Valley. Going into the Red Sox series, he is batting .208 this season. His lifetime stats averaged over 162 games are: .208 15 HRs 58 RBI’s and 10 SB. I’d say very Jones-like but Jones average was much higher at .272.

What can Brown do for me?

 Hustle, Domonic, just hustle.

See ya at the ballpark! (I’ll probably make it there before Dom.)

Jay Wrizight

jaywrizight@yahoo.com

***I felt it was only right to let Domonic preview this story before I published it. Coupled along with Kornhole's trashing of CBL I think its now the Phillie Bunts duty to trash every Phillie to increase performance. Brown went 2-3 with  2 runs, a homer and 2 RBIs. The funniest was when Sarge said something to the effect,  "when you hit it like that, then, you can time your time on the bases." In the post game interview Brown said "I had a rough couple of days." I hope that was his way of acknowledging he screwed up and learns from it.***