Enshrined On the Wall

The Giants honored Robb Nen yesterday with a plaque on the right field port walk commemorating his 300th save in 2002. At 32, Nen was the youngest pitcher to reach 300 saves. Unfortunately, he finished his career with only 314, having pitched until his arm literally came off.

We have a special place here at Sour Grapes for Robb Nen. The very first blog entry I ever wrote, entitled “We Wuz Robbed” was about Nen’s decision to retire. The Giants paid a lot of money to Nen in 2003 and 2004 on the 4 year contract they gave him in 2001, but it was money honestly earned. His shoulder was wrecked, but he went out there every day with nothing but guts and moxie, doing whatever he could to get the job done.

The last game he ever pitched was Game 6. I can’t even bear to think about Game 6, much like the Red Sox fans can’t bear to think about their Game 6. Nen probably shouldn’t have been out there, but he figured just one more inning and he’d have all of the winter months to get better. As it turned out, he’s got the rest of his life to get better. And I hope it’s a good one – he became one of my all-time favorites that day.