Pop quiz — off the top of your head, can you name the guy who caught Nolan Ryan’s 300th career win?
How about Trevor Hoffman’s 600th career save? Randy Johnson’s 4,000th strikeout? Or how about Mike Stanton’s record-setting 266th hold?
Time’s up — how many did you get right?
Chances are unless you are the biggest statistics nerd in the history of statistics nerds (in which case, you sir need to get a life) you were able to name one, if that. Heck I couldn’t name the guy who caught Ryan’s 300th career win and I was at that game at County Stadium in Milwaukee. Granted, I was all of seven years old, but you get my point. (For the record, the answers are Gino Petralli, Jonathan Lucroy, Robby Hammock, and I couldn’t find the date of Stanton’s historic 266th hold.)
Which is what makes Filip Bondy’s blog entry on the New York Daily News’s website titled “Girardi’s Blind Spot” all the more ridiculous.
Bondy laments the fact that Yankees manager Joe Girardi didn’t put Jorge Posada into the game to catch Rivera’s record breaking save, instead leaving Russell Martin in to catch the game’s final three outs because he had used Posada to pinch hit in the 7th inning of a game the Yankees needed to win.
This is going to come as a surprise to some who view the game through rose colored glasses in which players’ feelings actually matter but at the end of the day, a manager’s job is to win ballgames, not coddle millionaires. Posada and Rivera have had a great and storied history together for sure. Posada has been behind the plate when Rivera closed out World Series clinchers, rushing the mound to help him celebrate reaching the top of the game’s mountain.
While it would have made some Yankees fans feel all warm and fuzzy inside to see Rivera-to-Posada for one last milestone, in the grand scheme of things this does not matter. People aren’t going to remember whether it was Martin or Posada or anyone else behind the plate when Mariano notched save no. 602. They’re going to remember that he did it, that he came through in the clutch much like he had come through 601 times prior.
Bondy’s issue appears to be more with what he perceives as Girardi disrespecting Posada. Again, this would be a fine argument if Posada was outplaying Martin but the fact of the matter is he’s not. Martin has outplayed Posada all season long and gives the team a better chance to win. Girardi knows this, Yankees fans know this, heck Martin and Posada both probably know this.
While the Yankees aren’t in any danger of playing their way out of the playoffs, every win counts, especially with the Red Sox and Rays still kicking around. If this were happening in the middle of May or June, fine, let Posada have his moment. But the fact that it was Martin and not Posada behind the plate when the final out of save no. 602 was recorded doesn’t make the achievement any less special for Rivera, Posada, or the Yankees franchise.
In the end, the supporting players are just that — the supporting players. Nobody remembers the guy who records the final out of a perfect game or who served up a record breaking home run. No, while they’re a vital part of the overall cast of characters playing out the games we enjoy, in history’s grand narrative they’re just background players supporting the legend as he rides in and writes his name into the game’s record books for eternity. Or at least until the next guy comes around.
