The Underground Insight 9.3.07: Let the Good Times Roll, Part 2
Posted by JD Koziarski on 09.03.2007
Last week, the Insight looked at two of the season’s greatest stories: Josh Hamilton and Rick Ankiel. This week, we celebrate Labor Day by giving just due to two more of 2007’s inspirational baseball stories.
The Show
The Prototype
Ten years ago, New Jersey's Immaculata High School said goodbye to their All-American first baseman. With the 30th pick of the 1997 draft, the Arizona Diamondbacks said hello to the young slugger. Between then and now, Jack Cust has played for five teams.
But it wasn't until May of this year that Cust finally emerged as the powerful force. It wasn't until his second stint with the Oakland Athletics organization that he finally began to live up to his expectations as the patient power hitter who could anchor the heart of a lineup.
The announcers told a story on a broadcast of a game between the A's and Baltimore Orioles, one of Cust's former teams. When Cust was with the O's, the organization asked him to be less patient at the plate. Less patient.
Excuse me while I bang my head off the wall.
Orioles fans, this is your team. This is your organization. This is why you guys won't be winning anything any time soon.
The problem is that this is part of what has kept Cust down for so long. He wasn't just battling to make it in the majors; Cust was battling to overcome the idea that a guy who strikes out a lot is not a productive major league hitter. Cust needed the right organization. He needed an organization that realized his strikeouts were more than compensated for by his walks and home runs.
Just minutes before signing a deal to play in Japan, Billy Beane made a phone call to the Padres and acquired him for a song.
Jack Cust won't have enough plate appearances this season to qualify for any rate stat league leader rankings. But he's still among league leaders in a number of categories. His 23 home runs are tied for 10th in the AL and he is 9th in walks. He didn't play a Major League game until May 6th.
Cust isn't just an awesome story for me because I'm an A's fan, but he's one of the great baseball stories in 2007. Here's a guy who toiled for 10 years in the minors, riding the bus, and hitting 200 home runs that nobody cares about. He bounced from team to team and was ready to play across the ocean just for the opportunity to succeed on a big stage. Like Hamilton and Ankiel, Cust has reemerged into the spotlight this year. And, like those two, he will have every opportunity to keep it shining on him for many years to come.
The Fighter
The previous three stories are all great, but I have saved for last what I believe is the very best story of the year.
There are a lot of things that can derail a young, up-and-coming pitching prospect. Like Ankiel, a guy could just lose command of his pitches. Or, more tragically, a guy could succumb to personal demons like Josh Hamilton. But some predicaments are beyond the worst-case scenarios for a 22-year-old.
A year ago, Boston Red Sox rookie, Jon Lester, was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The good news was that Lester was afflicted with one of the more curable forms of the disease. The bad news was that it was still cancer and one can never be sure about these things.
Early reports were that Lester was responding very well to treatment, and before long, he was pronounced cancer free. The Washington native had completed step 1 of the process and all that was left was to make it back to the Majors.
That journey has been a twisting and winding path through the Red Sox organization. He began the season with Single-A Greenville. In three games there, he was every bit as stellar as he had been in the past, posting a 2.08 ERA in 13 innings.
Lester was quickly promoted to Triple-A Pawtucket where he continued his battle to rejoin the Red Sox. He made 14 starts and went 4-5 with a 3.89 ERA. He would pitch at Pawtucket until the last part of July, when he finally made it back to the Bigs.
On July 23, Lester returned at Jacobs Field in Cleveland. He held the Indians to just 2 runs over 6 innings. In his first game back in Major League action, Lester got the win. His next start didn't go so well, and following that he was sent back to Double-A.
As I type this, Lester is pitching against the lowly Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. When September 1 rolled around, Lester got a call-up and is back in the rotation. Lester went 6 innings and gave up 2 runs, just as he did in Cleveland almost 6 weeks ago. The Red Sox will have the lead going into the 9th, and usually that means a victory.
I suppose it doesn't much matter how many wins and losses Lester has this season or any other season. The cliched writer would say he's already won the most important battle he'll ever fight. Maybe that's true. And maybe it's also true that we should all be inspired by just how hard Lester has fought over this past year.
I'm a couple months younger than Lester, and though I've had my own share of health issues I can't even imagine fighting such a deadly disease. And he won. And it's only been a year and he's back on the mound in Fenway Park and he's about to win the game. People I know who don't like baseball just don't get it. But the people reading this column do get it. The people reading this column – even if you're the biggest Yankees fan alive – even then you know that what Lester has done is pretty darn cool.
Enter the Sandman
It is now September and I love September baseball. I love the pennant race, the roster expansion, the look at prospects, and the anticipation of the playoffs. I love everything about September except knowing that as soon as October rolls around I'll have to suffer through Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. I wish everybody a Happy Labor Day, and remember that the NFL season doesn't really start until the World Series is over.
