GaryMrMets
06-26-2004, 02:17 PM
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/sports/s062604d.htm
Time stands still when Thome is at-bat
Saturday, June 26, 2004
For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction, especially in sports
Action: Jim Thome is up.
Reaction: Pay attention.
The Phillies' first baseman is hitting around .320, and he's taken a few pitches to the opposite field, serving singles into the open space vacated by the shortstop.
But he's a slugger. And with every at-bat, you remember what it means to have a slugger - a legitimate slugger - on the hometown team.
It means you stop. You watch. You anticipate.
Thome leads the majors with 25 home runs. He's on the verge of breaking Mike Schmidt's team record for homers in a month with 12. He's everything the team hoped he would be when they signed him before last season, and more.
But for a moment, forget the statistics, the RBIs, the positive impact in the clubhouse.
Forget that Thome - positive, professional, productive - serves as a weighty counter-balance to some of the nervous negativism (Hello, Larry) that occasionally surrounds the baseball team.
Think instead of this: The way the air changes - in your living room, in Citizens Bank Park - when Thome strolls to the plate and points his bat at the pitcher.
That's a slugger.
He'll probably bat close to 600 times this season, barring injury. He'll probably hit 50 homers.
So that means that 11 times out of 12, Thome won't hit one of those big flies to right field, or tracer shots to left-center, or cannon blasts to straight-away center.
But it's the anticipation that makes all the difference.
That's a slugger.
That's what makes you remember what it means to have one on the local nine.
A: Much movement and breathless speculation around the early part of the NBA draft.
Who got better? Who got worse?
Who got the best of whom in the wheeling and dealing, the evaluating and over-rating?
R: Two words: Darko Milicic.
That's who the Detroit Pistons took with the No. 2 overall pick in 2003, instead of Carmelo Anthony.
That's what messed the Pistons up so badly that, one year later, they needed five games to eliminate the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
A: A six-man group, which included two Courier-Post staffers, played 19 of the best par 3s on 19 golf courses during a lengthy road trip through six counties on June 21, the longest day of the year.
R: Among other things, our intrepid crew learned that almost all directions in South Jersey include these words: Take a left at the Wawa.
Also, unofficially and unscientifically, that No. 16 at Twisted Dune is the best par 3 in South Jersey.
And that No. 11 at Rancocas Golf Club is the toughest - well, at least it was for those guys.
A: The Phillies shut down Vicente Padilla with triceps tendinitis and a bone bruise.
R: Uh-oh.
Recent Phillies history is filled with sad chapters related to pitchers who felt a little tightness, a little soreness, and the dreaded "inpingment."
Next thing you know, these guys are shut down for the season, if not longer.
Chances are Padilla will be OK, although he could be out until August. But when it's the Phillies and it's a pitcher and it's an injury, it's advisable to hope for the best and expect the worst.
Time stands still when Thome is at-bat
Saturday, June 26, 2004
For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction, especially in sports
Action: Jim Thome is up.
Reaction: Pay attention.
The Phillies' first baseman is hitting around .320, and he's taken a few pitches to the opposite field, serving singles into the open space vacated by the shortstop.
But he's a slugger. And with every at-bat, you remember what it means to have a slugger - a legitimate slugger - on the hometown team.
It means you stop. You watch. You anticipate.
Thome leads the majors with 25 home runs. He's on the verge of breaking Mike Schmidt's team record for homers in a month with 12. He's everything the team hoped he would be when they signed him before last season, and more.
But for a moment, forget the statistics, the RBIs, the positive impact in the clubhouse.
Forget that Thome - positive, professional, productive - serves as a weighty counter-balance to some of the nervous negativism (Hello, Larry) that occasionally surrounds the baseball team.
Think instead of this: The way the air changes - in your living room, in Citizens Bank Park - when Thome strolls to the plate and points his bat at the pitcher.
That's a slugger.
He'll probably bat close to 600 times this season, barring injury. He'll probably hit 50 homers.
So that means that 11 times out of 12, Thome won't hit one of those big flies to right field, or tracer shots to left-center, or cannon blasts to straight-away center.
But it's the anticipation that makes all the difference.
That's a slugger.
That's what makes you remember what it means to have one on the local nine.
A: Much movement and breathless speculation around the early part of the NBA draft.
Who got better? Who got worse?
Who got the best of whom in the wheeling and dealing, the evaluating and over-rating?
R: Two words: Darko Milicic.
That's who the Detroit Pistons took with the No. 2 overall pick in 2003, instead of Carmelo Anthony.
That's what messed the Pistons up so badly that, one year later, they needed five games to eliminate the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
A: A six-man group, which included two Courier-Post staffers, played 19 of the best par 3s on 19 golf courses during a lengthy road trip through six counties on June 21, the longest day of the year.
R: Among other things, our intrepid crew learned that almost all directions in South Jersey include these words: Take a left at the Wawa.
Also, unofficially and unscientifically, that No. 16 at Twisted Dune is the best par 3 in South Jersey.
And that No. 11 at Rancocas Golf Club is the toughest - well, at least it was for those guys.
A: The Phillies shut down Vicente Padilla with triceps tendinitis and a bone bruise.
R: Uh-oh.
Recent Phillies history is filled with sad chapters related to pitchers who felt a little tightness, a little soreness, and the dreaded "inpingment."
Next thing you know, these guys are shut down for the season, if not longer.
Chances are Padilla will be OK, although he could be out until August. But when it's the Phillies and it's a pitcher and it's an injury, it's advisable to hope for the best and expect the worst.