Pat Borders, 1992 vintage
A generally nice, funny/sad piece on Slate: Relief catcher Pat Borders blew a routine play, allowing the Yankees to advance to the ALCS. Stephen Rodrick says Borders joins the ranks of other journeymen/mediocre athletes, enjoying the gravy train of pro salaries into the twilight of their careers, who finally get some playing time and screw up.
As Rodrick says, many of the players are not stars even when they are young. They somehow fill a niche. Rodrick's line about Borders: "Without a doubt the least talented player to win a World Series MVP and score an Olympic gold medal, Borders has been playing with the house's money for a decade."
Very funny, and possibly true, but about the World Series MVP--which happened before the last decade.
It was huge for Blue Jays fans when the Jays got into their first World Series in 1992--the first non-U.S. team in the World Series, although of course with mostly American players. I was living in Minnesota, watching the ALCS against Oakland, and almost had a heart attack. I swear I dreamed a big hit by Robbie Alomar off Dennis Eckersley before it happened. Then the World Series, and Borders as MVP.
I remember Borders demonstrating on TV that he was pretty much black and blue all over. Many Blue Jays pitchers in the playoffs threw a hard breaking pitch--usually a split-fingered fastball. These pitches would tend to drop into the dirt, and Borders had to block them. (Exactly what he failed to do a few evenings ago).
Starters included Jack Morris and David Cone. Relievers included Todd Stottlemyre, David Wells, Duane Ward, and Tom Henke.
Many of us still remembered Ernie Whitt and Buck Martinez splitting the catching duties, and in different ways going beyond their real abilities. (Buck: "Martinez never fully recovered from a fractured leg and dislocated ankle sustained while blocking home plate in July 1985. After tagging out the lead runner and suffering a broken leg, he threw to third from the ground. It was a bad throw, and that runner came home too; Martinez managed to take the throw and tag him out as well.") (Ernie).
Pat Borders won our hearts in 1992; he also hit just about as well in 1993, when the pitching for both Toronto and Philadelphia was terrible.
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