Renteria, Rent-A-Player...Game Gone Foul
Furman Bisher
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
December 11, 2005
It may have come to your attention that the Braves have a new
shortstop. His
name is Edgar Enrique Renteria, former hero athlete of the year in his
native
Colombia, who once hit as high as .330 and drove in 100 runs, who once
played on
a team that won the World Series, so maybe the bleeding hearts can
loosen their
tourniquets and rise from their mourning rugs now that a successor to
Rafael
Furcal has been located.
Notice the first four letters in his name? RENT-eria? That's what
major
league baseball has become. Teams don't own players. They "rent" them,
and when
the lease runs out, they turn up someplace else. That's what major
league
baseball has become, made up of a band of gypsies who are here today
and gone
tomorrow. Take Reggie Sanders, for instance. With the Cardinals, he is
now
playing for his seventh team in eight years. Some teams win the World
Series and
a few seasons later everything's different, from manager to the
broadcast team.
Remember when Arizona reached into the broadcast booth for a
manager, and Bob
Brenly won the Series from the Yankees, and in no time was back in the
booth
again? Fired. Arizona gutted the team to get Richie Sexson, who was
soon wounded
and out for the season.
Nobody has a record like the Marlins. This bunch has won two
World Series,
then dismantled both teams, and now is trying to find an escape route
out of
South Florida.
Edgar Renteria went from Florida to St. Louis to Boston, where he
was elected
"goat of the year." Yeah, Edgar made 30 errors for the Red Sox last
season. Ye
gods, with all the furor swirling around Johnny Damon, Manny Ramirez,
David
Ortiz and the other fat David, Wells, I'm surprised they even noticed
Edgar was
in town.
Well, it's not as if Furcal hasn't made an error or two in his
time, 27 in
'02, 31 in '03, 24 in '04. And yes, he tapered off to 15 last season,
and yes,
in September I did conclude that he was the Most Valuable Brave, Andruw
Jones
and the long ball notwithstanding.
John Schuerholz has to deal with a tight budget, compared to
some. You see,
that's what major league baseball has become, a game of bankroll
against
bankroll. "Team" is an obsolete term. It's "every man for theirself,"
as Dizzy
Dean once described it.
At the end of each season, rosters are thrown up in the air and
it becomes a
game of fruit basket turnover. Grab what you can.
I'm sickened when one of these overpaid stiffs moves from one
town to
another, awkwardly pulls on a new logo over his shirt and tie and says
how much
he has always wanted to play there. Then there's the guy from some town
in south
Georgia who signs with Baltimore because he wanted to be close to his
family.
Obviously he can't read a road map.
Schuerholz worked a pretty slick deal bringing in Renteria, but
maybe all the
pieces aren't in place yet.
For instance, have you noticed the absence of Wilson Betemit's
name in all of
this market jabber? Not a word for a guy who hit .305 in 115 games,
which I'd
suppose means he's the designated utilityman.
And what of Nomar Garcia-parra, the Cub, former American League
batting
champion, still just 32 years old and will work for food, board and $4
million?
Now it seems the Braves' next pressing need is for a closer, one
of those
one-inning wonders. The scout who recommended Dan Kolb last year should
be
looking for work.
Closers are a disgrace to the pitching profession. The Braves
have traded
away a handful who could fill the bill, and it's my suggestion, rather
than reel
in somebody else's tread-worn dude, train your own in the farm system.
Then don't trade them away, as in the cases of Jose Capellan and Roman Colon,
possible
candidates, I'd say.
That's about all I have to say about this game gone off the
tracks. Let's
see, we have one team without an owner, another without a general
manager,
another shopping around for a new nest to foul, steroids on the back
burner and
Congress now butting in on college football. Did I say welcome to the
21st
century?
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