Name That Legend

I almost didn’t write anything today because I was busy with something very important, which I’ll mention shortly.

I decided to get this in here because I need to practice making a deadline everyday, unless I’m on the road with a show or something similar for a while.

Think about your favorite team for a minute. Now think about the most famous players from that team’s history and name them off real fast.

For example, if I was to think of the Red Sox I would shout out the names of Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and probably Jimmie Foxx (although he played more years with the Philadelphia A’s.)

I might also shout out Wade Boggs, Jim Rice, and Carlton Fisk but the first three that came to my mind are the ones prior.

The more time that passes the larger those last three names get in my head. But the first three are the ones that have risen to the top for me.

I was thinking about Derek Jeter today because in something else that I wrote I mentioned that his quest to reach 3000 careers hits this year will be one of the story lines of the year.
Then I thought about Jeter’s feat a little bit more.
He is already the all-time Yankee’s career hits leader at 2926 and will pass Lou Gehrig for most games played in a Yankee uniform this year.
We know Jeter is basically a living legend and will solidify that even more when he reaches that magical milestone.
But when I think of the Yankees as suggested before I shout out Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra and Ford.
And that also take into consideration that a bunch of other Hall-of-Famers could come to mind also – Bill Dickey, Phil Rizzuto, Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson. And how about guys like Don Mattingly and Thurman Munson?

What I am suggesting here is that once Jeter gets that 3000^th hit he might very well leap right into that upper echelon of shouted out names. I am sure that many already shout out his name in such an exercise. Albert Pujols’ name is probably shouted out in a similar situation even though a guy by the name of Musial inhabited that firstbase position decades prior and Pujols isn’t close to through with his career yet.

Put in the context of how Jeter’s name will roll from the tongues of baseball fans 40 years from now what we will end up witnessing is historic and legendary and again why I think its worthy of note all year long.

So, where did I write that, you might ask? (Ok, so you didn’t ask, but that’s alright.)
I did end up submitting an application for the MLB Dream Job last week. A portion of the process was to write a couple of essays and submit them. One of those essays answered the question, “What do you think are the main story lines of the upcoming season?”
Today, I heard back that I can now move on to the next phase of the application process, which means that I am in the hunt for a job.

The next part of the process is to produce a home video where I am supposed to tell those folks why I am the most entertaining baseball fan in the country.
That’s a tall task. I am not arrogant enough to think that I am better than anyone else as far as that is concerned. I know that others have more expertise than I, and are funnier than I am, more energetic and photogenic. (Although, I can dance up a real storm and no one beats me there!)
So this took a bunch of thought but I did come up with an approach that I’ll tape and submit tomorrow. There won’t be any whacky baseball stunts that are supposed to make people laugh or some rattling off of each odd stat that I know. That’s far too cliché and I’ll bet they’ll see hundreds of those types of videos.
Nope, I do have an approach that is simple and straightforward and one that I think will be unique. Wish me luck.