Friday, November 06, 2009

(2) Comments

Is Matsui the new Ray Knight?

Anonymous

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In 1986 Ray Knight - the oldest position player on the Mets - won the World Series MVP on the strength of two good performances in the final 2 games.

In 2009 Hideki Matsui - the oldest position player on the Yankees - won the World Series MVP on the strength of two good performances in the final 2 games.

Knight had a good year in 1986 - playing in 137 games he batted .298 and knocked in 76 runs (4th on the team). More than that though, Knight was a leader on and off the field. He gave them an edge, an arrogance, that unified the team (who can forget the punch he laid on Eric Davis).

Frank Cashen though, in his infinite wisdom, did not see Knight as a leader, but rather as an aging player. Following the 86 Series, Cashen did not resign Knight, who declared free agency and signed with the Orioles.

The Mets have not won a World Series since.

Hideki Matsui had a good year in 2009, finishing 3rd on the team in RBIs (90). He is an acknowledged clubhouse leader - Joe Torre mentions Matsui's rallying "statement" before the team would take the field in important games. (I'm not going to repeat what he actually says).

Now Matsui is a free agent and it's unclear whether the Yankees will bring him back next year.

Is Matsui the new Knight?

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2 Responses to "Is Matsui the new Ray Knight?"
jmp said :
November 6, 2009 at 11:55 AM
To call Matsui a "position player" is to feed into the ridiculous notion that the American League still plays a sport called baseball.

Matsui did not play a position at all during the World Series. Designated hitter is not a position. It's a cop out. It's a socialist conspiracy to undermine the American pastime. It's a jobs program for aging players who can no longer effectively play the field. Meanwhile, it removes 90% of the strategy from the game played in the American League.

The big difference between Ray Knight in 1986 and Hideki Matsui in 2009 is that Ray Knight could still play the field (and throw a punch) by that point in his career. When it came time to play in Boston under little league rules, Davey Johnson didn't automatically take Knight off the field, but gave Gary Carter a chance to rest his knees, which was the better strategic decision. Without the DH, Ray Knight was still playing every day in 1986. Without the DH, Hideki Matsui would at best be a utility player and late game pinch hitter. After all, look at how he was used in Philly, where he couldn't even be counted on to take the field for an inning or two late in a game, knowing that he wouldn't have to take the field the next day.

It is an abomination that Major League Baseball has chosen to pay homage to such a socialist abomination as the Designated Hitter rule by awarding the World Series MVP to a player who not once donned a glove during the entire series.

To compare Matsui to Ray Knight would be to smear the memory of what Ray Knight did for the Mets in 1986...
Anonymous said :
November 6, 2009 at 1:43 PM
jmp you are absolutely correct in calling me out on Matsui's status as a "position player." I am in complete agreement with you on the DH and the softball rules and strategy employed in the junior circuit.

That said, my intention was not to compare Matsui directly to Knight, but rather to compare the situations.

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