Fernando Tatis, comeback kid
Back in 1999, Fernando Tatis looked like the Next New Thing in baseball.
The power-hitting third baseman smacked 34 home runs, drove in 107 runs, hit .298, stole 21 bases and posted a .404 on-base percentage. At the age of 24, appeared ready to become a multi-dimensional offensive weapon for years to come.
And then . . . nothing. After a so-so 2000 season with the Cardinals, he moved to Montreal with Britt Reames in a fruitful deal for Dustin Hermanson and Steve Kline. He struggled as an Expo, then drifted out of baseball in 2004 and 2005.
He battled back to the majors in 2006 as an extra Orioles offense, but he never got past Class AAA New Orleans last season. This spring he is fighting for a utility role with the Mets.
What went wrong?
“The hardest thing in baseball for a player is to get hurt,” Tatis told the New York Post. “When you get hurt, that’s it. You’re just not going to be the same player. That’s what happened to me.”
Even in his best days, Tatis struggled with his conditioning. As an Expo, he made four trips to the disabled list and never relocated his stroke.
“It felt like it was one thing after another,” he said. “It was a very frustrating time.”
Tatis lost millions of dollars when his career collapsed. Now he would eagerly accept modest wages as an extra player in New York.
“I’ve been healthy for two years - no pain, no nothing,” he told the Post. “If they give me this chance, I’m going to make the most of it.”
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while wondering if Todd Wellemeyer and Brad Thompson can hold the fort this spring:
Is Anthony Reyes is feeling like a red-headed stepchild these days?
- Who could have guessed that Mark Prior would open the season on the 60-day disabled list? Or that Jim Edmonds would be hobbled by a muscle strain?
- So how is that whole “breaking up with my manager” thing working out for Cory Spinks?
- So why did Christian Backman wake up AFTER his trade to the New York Rangers?
QUIPS ‘R US
Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:
Jerry Greene, Orlando Sentinel: “Denver Broncos WR Brandon Marshall, a product of UCF, has a serious arm injury that he told NFL.com happened when he slipped on a McDonald’s wrapper and put his hand through the glass of a TV entertainment center. The NFL Network reported without citing sources that Marshall severed an artery, vein and nerve in his right forearm and also damaged some tendons. The Network cited reports that he told teammates it happened while wrestling with other members of his family. No comment from Ronald McDonald.”
Steve Rosenbloom, ChicagoSports,com, on MLB’s Japanese excursion: “Baseball would send two major-league teams to play at your kid’s bar mitzvah if you had enough people projected to buy ballcaps.”
Frank Fitzpatrick, Philadelphia Inquirer: “NASCAR is right. It has become big-league in the last decade, especially when it comes to corporate sponsorships. In 1998, the race at Martinsville was called the Goody’s Headache Powder 500. This weekend, when the circuit returns to that tiny Virginia town, it will run the Goody’s Cool Orange 500. Now that’s progress.”
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Recent NBA score: Raptors 96, Heat 54. How can that be? They give you 25 points for writing your players’ names correctly in the scorebook.”
Bill Simmons, ESPN.com: “Did we ever figure out what’s going on with the Phoenix medical staff? Shaq spent most of the season plodding around like a mummy, spent two weeks in Phoenix and became more invigorated than the entire cast of “Cocoon.” In four years, that Suns medical staff has saved Steve Nash’s back, Grant Hill’s ankle’s and Shaq’s entire body. What the hell? Did BALCO move its headquarters to Phoenix and nobody told us? Let’s hope this doesn’t led to Armen Keteyian and the ‘Real Sports’ crew infiltrating the Suns’ medical room with hidden cameras.”
Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Bobby Knight said in his new ESPN analyst role that the NCAA Tournament should increase from 65 teams to 128. Seriously. Like we needed another reason to hate Bobby Knight?”
MEGAPHONE
“Age is like a black cloud over me. I hate it. It’s cost me millions of dollars—not that I need it, but money is money. And it’s cost me opportunity.”
Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios, on his quest to play forever.
Curse you, Bob Huggins! I really thought you brought enough of a criminal element to the table to make it to the Elite 8. How am I supposed to win my office pool now?
Richard WIlliams is right! White people suck! I don’t like them Asians either for that matter, or Latinos. In fact, those Pacific Islanders creep me out too. And the hell with Indians (both kinds)!
Give Huggins a couple more years, he’s one of the best cheaters in the game. Right up there with Calipari, Pitino, etc. They are all cheaters, hell the players don’t go to class they don’t graduate they are put there to entertain us, that’s it! To say it’s not like the NBA is a joke. It’s entertainment, it’s about money. Most college coaches cheat you just have to make sure you don’t get caught. Floyd Irons was on his way to a brilliant collegiate career in coaching, he was so close!
I’ll never forget Fernando Tatis hitting consecutive grand slams at Dodger Stadium. However, I did forget about Dustin Hermanson (and Donovan Osborne).
Don’t forget about Dustin Hermanson and Donovan Osborne, the way things are going in Cardinal’s pitching staff, they might be in the Cardinals rotation soon.
“Chelios signed a one-year contract worth $850000 on June 12th, 2007.” Cry me a river.
I wonder how many of Tatis’ injuries were a result of his weight? I’ll never forget when he was a Cardinal and the stats listed his weight as 180…Ha! If he was 180 then I was 120 and I haven’t been 120 since maybe my freshmen year in high school (1979)!!!
You went to high school in 1979…wow!
Yes, I did begin high school in 1979…and it was a wonderous, magical time. Fashion dictacted velour shirts and hair parted right down the middle, “Hair of the Dog” by Nazareth blasted out of Chevy Nova 8-track players across the land and bong hits at Matt Barker’s house before school were the order of the day.
Curse you, cruel march of time!!!
There are more coaches who don’t cheat then there are coaches who do cheat. I would have agreed with you if said that some of the students don’t go to class. The players do have to maintain a certain GPA to play each semester.
By the way, Irons had offers in the 80’s to coach in college, but he was afraid to fail. He didn’t want to leave the kingdom he had built at Vashon and the power he had. Not to mention, the sportswriters in the area who never reported that he was cheating all those years. I guess everyone thought that all the good players in the city just happened to live in the Vashon area.
http://www.unfilteredsportsbiz.com
Where are they now? -> Felix Jose
Pitino commits grand larceny every time he cashes a paycheck. OK, I guess he can recruit, but did anyone see any evidence of actual coaching last night? I saw superb athletes running up and down the floor, without any discipline, throwing away the ball and missing shots all night long. Tennessee wasn’t much better. A nightmare for basketball fundamentals. And the officiating was on the same level.
Hey DJAxeom! Are you getting a little nervous thinking about the possibility of UNC and UCLA meeting in the NCAA final.
Nope cause it aint gonna happen G. Nice to see they arrested that white dude for killing them two black cousins in 2005. i bet he gets off cause hes white.
Similar to how O.J. got off in 95 because he’s black? Is that what you mean, something like that?
OJ got off because he was rich, not black, now go back to your no-washcloth showering ways whitey.
OJ was a jig just like you DJ ! You got that boy?
let’s get it all straight: OJ got off because he’s rich, not white, and he didn’t do it! Well, maybe he did do it, but he’s still free because he’s rich. The white dude, if he did it, will go to jail for the rest of his lift, but probably won’t get the DP, because he’s white. The stats would back that up.
Anyway, lets talk about something else, like how Jay Marriotti has taken his comment section off because of all the trash talking he gets about his trash talking. Give it up to Tipsheet for ignoring our hatin’ on him!
Hey DJ move back to Africa with all your fine chicken eating steel wool haired fat chicks
“OJ got off because he was rich, not black, now go back to your no-washcloth showering ways whitey.”
HAHAH…that’s a Dave Chappelle joke. It’s awesome to see #19-type reactions to a poster who in all probability isn’t black.
#18…this thread of comments has been lost to the little ones.
I am, you know…it’s the best I’ve got.
I think one of the worst happenings (for Tatis) was getting rewarded for his single year. It’s my opinion that he got complacent….
Love the Prior remark. I hope Dusty does better with the young Cincy arms this year.
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