Bill Mueller Retires
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News
Reported here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/fantasy?statsId=5587
Bill Mueller announced his retirement on Friday, Nov 17th, and will serve as a special assistant on the Dodgers staff next season, the Associated Press reports.
Opinion
The Boston Red Sox are (most likely) getting their man from Japan. We're looking ahead to an exciting season in '07. We're looking to the future, to a higher payroll, and to a younger ream.
Billy's retirement seems to have got a bit overlooked.
I heard that he retired on Friday, and am surprised at the lack of publicity, formal or informal that this is getting. Aren't we, as Red Sox fans, crazy in love with our team? Wasn't this guy a piece of the team that finally brought the WS trophy back to Beantown?
A post to the Red Sox LJ community was deleted, b/c he didn't play for the Sox last year.
Well, no, no he didn't.
But here's all you need to know about Bill Mueller: 'Billy Ballgame'
Yeah, that's right, some people, b/c of his 'professionalism', b/c he played the game 'right', because he was a 'ballplayer', some decided to give him the nickname 'ballgame', which was also the nickname of another hitter that happened to play in Boston, who was also the greatest hitter they ever saw, (some say.)
Maybe I'm still a bit sentimental about the 2004 season. Maybe if we had won the series in '86 or '99 or '03 or any other year, I'd care much less about what happened in the past, and more about what's going to happen next.
There's more sexy stories going on right now, especially for the Boston Red Sox. It's time to look to the future! To the 'next' WS win.
To see how the boy wonder puts together our '07 team. We're this close to getting that pitcher from Japan that's going to go 30-0. We lost the best defensive SS we ever had, and we're now going to have another different Short-Stop, for what some think is the most important position in baseball.
A few things stand out in Mueller's career as a player from Beantown?
- It was his hit that drove Roberts in after "The Steal" (However, we remember Dave Roberts, not Bill Mueller, most for that play.)
- Batting Champ in '03 with .326 BA. (But everyone hates the BA stat now, so this isn't a huge deal)
- Walkoff homerun in the 'brawl' game in '04 against the Yankees.
- Homering from both sides of the plate against Texas in 2003.
We used to be so wrapped up in our past... That's what made us Sox fans. Everytime another Sox team got close, we remembered how close we had come before, and never to take anything for granted. We love to remember our past stars, at least we used to until we won one and started looking to win another.
I'm all for another Sox WS win. But I think we would be remiss if we didn't take a moment to thank Bill Mueller for all the years in a Red Sox uniform that he showed us what a person, who 'gets' to play baseball for a living should do, and how they should act.
Interesting information in Wikipedia, btw:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mueller
Apparently he hit most of his Home Runs in '97 and '98 when his buddy Shawn Estes was pitching...
So, let's add Bill Mueller to the annals of Sox-History, shall we? I mean, he doesn't belong in the Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, or the Jim Rice Wing(s), but I think we can find a spot for him in the 2004 WS "Yankee Killer" or the "Guys who've made the Sox Jersey Proud" wing(s).
Oh yeah, and this is my 2nd entry on ArmchairGM... feel free to edit the heck out of it.
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