The Third Deadly Sin Comes Highly Recommended

I am in a moral quandary.  My all-time favorite baseball player has come out in favor of one of the seven deadly sins.

 

Old Detroit:  W , 8 – 3.  .326, .415, .413.  0 ip, 0 er.    Carlos Santana has had a rough season — .223,  .357, .387 on the year  — but he had a nice day yesterday: 2 for 4 with a double and a homer — and a stolen base!  It would be nice to get consistent offense from Santana to help get the team through its periodic offensive droughts.  Yes, I know the W’s are already in first place, but they weren’t yesterday and they might not be tomorrow. I’d just like a little more consistency.  Is that too much to ask for?

Haviland:  “W”, 1 – 3.   .179, .200, .282;  13.7 ip, 5 er.   A Steve Pearce homer wasn’t enough to salvage a rather dismal day at the bat for the Dragons. Pearce hasn’t been able this year to continue his breakthrough season from last year.  Last year’s line:  .293,  .373,  .556.  This year:  .228,  .293,  .398.  I wonder if he could use some batting coaching from Edgar Martinez.

Peshastin: W, 7 – 1.  .409, .422, .568;  22 ip,  6 er.  Speaking of which: Happy Edgar Martinez Day, Peshastin!  The King Pear was at my house last night constantly quoting Martinez on the proper attitude for a batter — something like “Get your first hit, then get greedy for more.”  I guess that means Edgar, after watching the M’s for a couple of weeks under his tutelage as batting coach, decided the problem was that Mariners would get a hit then get complacent and not really care if they got another.  I don’t have any idea how Edgar could have been able to discern such a trend.  I rather thought the problem was with getting the first hit!  Or maybe he was thinking of this on a team-wide scale: as soon as one M got a hit the rest relaxed, not longer afraid of being no-hit has a team?

And I never realized that the key to professional hitting was greed.  All you have to do is want it bad enough?  I wonder how much they pay people to come up with this stuff…

But what do I know? The M’s won 5 – 0 last night, with 9 hits instead of the one they would have gotten without Edgar’s mentorship. The Pears had a great day at the plate, with 18 hits in 44 AB, and the biggest win in the EFL, in stark contrast to the puny efforts of… well, I won’t point them out, but THEY aren’t sitting at Edgar’s feet.  And even in his personal life, the King Pear benefits from Edgar’s mentorship: he won one Settlers game by stealing a total of 15 cards from me – probably a dozen more than he stole from anyone else. Then he was inspired by Edgar’s words to win another game a little more honorably — by just being greedy without also theiving.

Cottage: L, 0 – 6.   .200, .200, .286;   6.7 ip, 4 er.  Edgar would have been proud of Matt Duffy, who got a little greedy — 3 for 5 with a double and a triple. But five of the other eight Cheese batters racked up 0-fers.   They didn’t even meet the minimum requirement to be eligible to benefit from Edgar’s instruction.

Pittsburgh: W, 5 – 0.   .258, .343, .387;   12 ip, 1 er.   I suspect Edgar’s advice isn’t news to the Alleghenys.  “Get one, then get greedy for more” perfectly describes the Alleghenys’ attitude toward EFL championships.

Flint Hill: L, 0 – 6.  .081, .209, .081;   7.o ip, 5 er.  Not much went the Tornados’ way Saturday. The Liberatore quadruple chulked (0.7 ip, 3 er) to spoil a solid start by Eduardo Rodriguez (6.3 ip, 2 er).  At least the Tornados avoided the cardinal sin of greed.

Kaline: L, 3 – 3.  .222 .256, .444; 1.7 ip, 0 er.  Mitch Moreland switched back on yesterday:  2 for 3 with two homers and a walk. Eight other Drives practiced ascetic contentment, untouched by greed or (or hits or walks) totalling 0 for 21. I wonder whether the Wizard, so well known as an insightful spiritual director, is more proud of his eight self-disciplined disciples, or of  Moreland falling off the wagon.

Canberra: L, 4 – 8.   .267, .267,  .433;  6 ip , 5 er.   The Bible teaches us that greed distorts the greedy person’s soul, but that’s only half the problem.  It also almost inevitably involves leaving someone else suffering. Take Raisel Iglesias, for example, back from the minors to pitch for the Kangaroos.  Thanks to the greedy hitters he faced, he only got through 4.7 ip while surrendering 5 er.  Something tells me Edgar never let the sufferings of pitchers bother him too much.

Portland: W, 5 – 5.  .277, .306, .447;   6 ip, 3 er.  The Rosebuds seem to have found the golden mean between self-love and love for others yesterday.  They shared runs as fast as they consumed them, leaving no one in misery. Or at least, no more miserable than they were the day before.