Moments that make you feel very old ... anyway, I know this is a day (week?) late and a dollar short, but something drew me to watch the "Midsummer Classic" a/k/a the All-Star Game last week. Watching Vlad Guerrero Jr. earn the game's MVP after a moonshot home run brought me WAY back to something I probably posted about on here back in the glory days circa 2002, when after a late season victory, I was loitering around the bowels of Stade Olympique in Montreal after the game on my way to the underground parking garage, readying for my long return drive home. I was heading down a set of stairs, when coming in the opposite direction from an unmarked one-way door was a semi-familiar athletic-looking guy heading up the same stairs. I had no idea who the guy was, until I heard voices from further up the stairway, calling out in Spanish to this person, "Wilton!" Then it all clicked, and I glanced up a couple of flights to the landing above where I'd entered the stairwell, and sure enough it was Wilton Guerrero's younger brother Vlad, their mom, and a young toddler all awaiting the arrival of Uncle Wilton, who was a utility infielder and midseason trade acquisition by the 'Spos in 2002. I just waved briefly at them all, continued on my way (not wanting to disrupt the notoriously private Vlad Sr. in the presence of his family), and filed the experience down as a fun brush with a major league hero in a place where light security let these things happen.
Now almost 20 years later, the toddler who was clutching onto his dad's and grandma's legs is all grown up, belting 500 foot homers like his dad, and making me feel VERY old. And listening to the broadcasters talking about how Junior's grandmom did all the cooking for him, brought me back to the tales of when she set up house with Vlad Senior in Montreal for pretty much the duration of his stay up there (1997-2003) to allow him to have a sense of home so far away from the Dominican.
It also reminded me that the game I'm recalling from the 2002 season was indeed the season finale, when Montreal beat the Reds (I think?) but the main draw of the game was to see if Vlad Sr. could make it to the exclusive 40 HR/40 SB "club". He'd reached 40 steals a game or two earlier, and on either his last AB or next-to-last AB on this season-finale occasion, Vlad hit a rocket to the right center field wall, which hit towards the bottom of the wall. It turned out that Vlad (who had hit 40 HR's at least twice before) never came close to 40 SB's ever again - the notorious turf in Montreal had taken its toll on his knees - and was pretty much at his peak then. In the 40/40 club at the time were Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, and with the devaluation of SB's in modern-day baseball,
future membership will probably be pretty limited as well.
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In other news, I read that the Flyers chose not to protect JvR from the upcoming expansion draft, instead opting to protect some fourth line forward instead. I'm sure they're gambling on Seattle not spunking the $7MM salary for two seasons, but there were other expensive guys Philly chose to protect ...
In a surprise, Flyers' protection list includes Nic Aube-Kubel instead of James van Riemsdyk | Professional | pressofatlanticcity.com
