The Baseball Desert

Monday, August 22, 2005

Team player

It's not easy to be in a position where fans of your team are openly calling for you to be benched (even when the most casual baseball fan can see that it's probably high time that someone else played in your position), which makes Kevin Millar's reaction to his benching all the more admirable. Millar has made it clear - sometimes quite vocally - that he would like to be playing all the time, but in a strange kind of way his reaction to the news shows exactly why he is valuable to this Red Sox team:
''This is not about me. This is not about ego. I think my teammates have been behind me through this whole thing. I think my manager has been behind me in this whole thing, and they still are.

''But right now, John Olerud is too good a player and swinging the bat too well. This is definitely what's best for us right now."

[...]

"Believe me, I've tried to battle through this. I'm not going to quit and I want to play every day, but right now until I produce, do you put John Olerud in there? Damn right."