Pat Gillick, formerly GM with the Phillies, Mariners, Orioles, and Blue Jays, has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Congratulations, Mr. Gillick! You are a baseball genius! We need not say that under Gillick, the Blue Jays twice won the World Series and the Phillies once. His teams appeared 11 times in the post-season. Next year will be Gillick's 54th year in baseball. He is now a senior advisor to the Phillies.
Why am I surprised by the money-trumps-all response to the Jayson Werth deal? This is after all America, where money trumps all. But the 'he had to do what he had to do' comments make me feel like inserting two fingers down my throat. Sorry, but Werth, like all free agents, had a choice. Like almost all professional athletes, he chose money. And he pretty much said that was what he meant to do, that he learned at 18 signing his first contract that baseball was a business and that was how he was going to treat free agency. None of the drivel about family.
I used to hate Werth when he played for the Dodgers--and I barely ever saw him. He was just that kind of highly-irritating player, the kind who makes you admire how good he is, even as he is again killing your team.
In Philadelphia, he became a great story, plucked off the scrap heap, by Pat Gillick, as he faced retirement owing to an injury, then working his way to being one of the top outfielders in baseball. Along the way, Werth became a tremendous fan favorite. I saw him steal home that night a couple of years ago on the Dodgers, an unforgettable moment. I also watched close-up in Game 2 of the NLDS how cool and funny he was with the fans in right field. At the time I had the feeling it was a relationship that was soon going to end and it now has.
It's a pity that Werth will be playing against the Phillies for years to come. All the goodwill engendered by the Beard (sorry, San Francisco, this guy set the tone for beards) will soon disappear. I don't buy the building for the future talk for Werth. He should have stayed with a contender or gone to one.
