In Your Heart You Know He’s Right

For those millions of you reading this who are less than 50, that was the slogan of Barry Goldwater in his ill-fated 1964 presidential campaign. Lyndon Johnson, riding the Kennedy Love Train, kicked his ass, but it was the beginning of the end for the Democratic Party’s control of the world. The Dems have only won 3 presidential elections since Johnson (Carter once and Clinton twice).

Barry was quite the colorful character and campaigner. He was famous for lines no one would ever say on the campaign trail. “I’d like to saw off the eastern seaboard and let it float out to sea” became the basis for a hilarious Johnson commercial. My personal favorite was “I’d like to lob one into the men’s room at the Kremlin.” The funny thing is at the time he seemed like an extremist conservative nut, but today he’d be considered a moderate. I miss “Good Republicans” like Barry.

What does this have to do with baseball? Nothing, really, but I wanted to use that title to refer to the other Barry’s first right field home run of the season, hit last night in Arizona. As Kruk described it, he hit a one-iron down the right field line that barely cleared the fence. His other 8 homers this year have all been belt-high outside pitches crushed with an open stance (at point of impact) to center and left-center. Last night, Barry pulled the ball with power for the first time in 2006.

He says his knee is starting to feel better, although he wasn’t pretty Tuesday night stealing that homer from Eric Byrnes. I think his knee has been hurting when he tries to turn on the ball, which is why he lost his pulling power. Instead, he’s been hitting a tennis shot – the open forehand, wherein his power comes from his hips pulling through. It’s the modern homerun swing, where the hips open up first, followed by the back arm and shoulder as the hitter hits up on the ball. Watch Roger Federer hit his forehand. That’s the way Barry has been swinging. Last night, Barry stayed down on the ball, and his arms were not behind his hips, but swinging with them.

It could be a sign that Barry really is getting better. And not a moment too soon, because this team still has a chance. They are messed up in lots of ways, but the NL West, despite all 5 teams still being over .500, is still just the NL West. No team is very far over .500, and every team seems to have issues. And assuming the team can stay healthy (a big if), they are only one hitter away from having a real lineup. Of course, that hitter is, say, Soriano instead of Durham, but it’s still only one guy. The pitching might be just enough, save Fatmondo.

The concept of 300 HR’s and 300 SB’s sure got cheapened this week. I like Steve Finley. Nice player, nice guy (it seems). But before this week there were just 4 guys: Willie, Barry, Bobby and Andre Dawson, the #1 guy on my list of “How Can These Guys Not be in the Hall of Fame.” That was some pretty elite company. Now not only are we adding Steve Finley, a “nice” player, but also Reggie Sanders, who nobody wants for more than one year. Neither of these guys are going to last more than one year on the Hall voting list, like Will Clark, who was unceremoniously bumped off this year.

Finley, in his 18th season, has a career .273 average, and is bearing down on 2,500 hits. He’s the classic example of a decent player who has accumulated career numbers because he has kept himself in great shape, has avoided major injuries, and is still productive at 40. He’s never been among the best players in the league. Hell, he’s never been the best player on his own team. He was 9th once in homers, 10th in the MVP balloting once, and has a few Gold Gloves. He’s never led the league in anything but triples, but he’s always among the league leaders in games and at bats. Steve Finley is durable. Durable is not sexy.

Reggie Sanders hasn’t even been durable, having never played in more than 140 games. He got his 1,600th hit this season, a number no one pays attention to. He’s been an all-star only once, in his career year of 1995, when he had 28 homers, 99 RBI’s, 36 steals, hit .306 and slugged .579. The only thing he’s ever led the league in is strikeouts, though he reached 3 World Series in 4 years with 3 different teams, including the Giants in 2002. And he played for 7 different teams in 7 years, from 1998-2004. His BR comparable players are a list of guys who had their moments, but none of whom will be remembered very long (Mondesi, E. Davis, Lankford, Burnitz, Gant).

By the way, they were teammates on the champion 2001 Dbacks. If I remember correctly, didn’t Brenly bench Sanders at the end of that series for the unforgettable Danny Bautista?

I love these weird statistics that no one can imagine researching. The Chron this morning said that Finley joined Willie today as the only players with 300 HR’s, 300 SB’s 100 Triples and 425 Doubles. Get real.

Barry is the only one of the 6 who reached 350-350. Maybe Finley or Sanders will get there, though it seems unlikely. OK, if you read this far, let me give you one great piece of trivia you’ll enjoy. I guarantee it. Here it is: Reggie Sanders’ middle name is Laverne. I hope that was worth waiting for.