Games Twenty-Six Through Twenty-Eight (The Resting Players Post)

The Rays are on the west coast for the foreseeable future. I am not. That makes viewing the games in their entirety rough and that makes writing about the games even more difficult. Instead of trying, I’ll just try to produce something like this for each series. Hopefully it works.

One of the chief criticisms around Joe Maddon has been his insistence on resting players early and often during a season. There’s a stigma concerning sitting out games throughout sports, particularly professional sports. Cal Ripken Jr. was a great ballplayer, but he’s best known for his bullheadedness in playing through whatever aches and pains are acquired throughout a six month season in favor of sitting out once for years at a time. This is probably unfair to Ripken’s talents – I mean, a lesser player would never have the power to avoid sitting out, for one – but I think he actually hurt a cause for players.

Erik Bedard is the poster child for ‘frail’ athletes. He doesn’t like to pitch beyond 100 pitches – a mark that he feels is his limit – and he doesn’t like to pitch when he’s hurt. And he’s hurt often. For some reason, players who say, “Hey, enough’s enough, I just can’t give it my all out there because of this injury …” are labeled as weak or inferior. I’m not entirely sure why. By sitting out when he’s not 100% or anywhere near it, Bedard is probably helping his team, not hurting it by A) pitching at a below comfortable level of health and B) not risking further injury.

I don’t know whether the players are open and honest with Maddon about not feeling well physically. I hope they are because that would speak volumes about the strong relationships Maddon has been able to forge with these players in a brief period of time. Players are so tuned in to going every day that it’s a badge of honor to be honest and not to be selfish in continuing to play at sub-optimal levels just because that’s the manly thing to do.

The problem extends off the field and outside of the clubhouse too. Some fans and media members may question the player’s toughness and desire. To those, I would offer the story of J.R. Richard. The Houston Astros made Richard the second overall pick in the 1969 MLB draft behind only Jeff Burroughs (the father of former Rays’ third baseman Sean Burroughs). Richard was an imposing figure on the mound. He stood six-foot-eight and whipped a heater so fast that it would break the triple digits barrier with supposed ease.

Beginning in 1975, Richard would rack up five consecutive seasons where he threw at least 200 innings. He would strike out 1,220 in 1,328 innings and possess a 1.93 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Richard actually threw more complete games during that stretch (69) than he allowed home runs (65). He was dominant in every sense of the word. Richard was paired with another flamethrower by the name of Nolan Ryan, causing the National League night terrors previously unforeseen until the release of Jaws.

Richard looked and behaved like a horse. He ate innings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and he enjoyed them with anything, everything, or nothing added. Then, sometime in 1980, he began to complain about a sore throwing arm. Despite his track record of durability, not everyone believed Richard’s complaints to be sincere. In a July start Richard would reportedly experience issues seeing the catcher’s signs and had issues throwing pitches. The Astros would remove him from the game, and he would be placed on the disabled list, but the Astros would fail to send him to the hospital or have him undergo medical tests of any sort.

Weeks later, Richard would suffer a stroke. Collapsing during outfield toss and leading to life saving surgery within hours. He would never pitch in a regular season game again.

Richard was ignored despite being honest and forthright. What Ripken accomplished is amazing, no doubt, but he taught a generation of players that playing through aches and pains is not only part of the game, but a part of the game that is treated with respect and reverence. I don’t know if players of today are any more afraid to speak up about injuries than they were 20-, 30-, or 100-years ago, but if they are, I wouldn’t be shocked if some of that is residual from the coverage of Ripken.

I would imagine the Rays have done research on resting patterns. That does not mean they hold the answers or know the secret formula to keep Carl Crawford running fresh through October. Though, it doesn’t mean they don’t either. There’s a lot of stake for these players in money and reputation. They’d play through broken bones, muscle pulls, and probably ligament tears if they could. Maddon can’t make his players tell him the truth about when they can’t go, so instead he goes about it like this. In the end, his job is to put the players in the best position to succeed and win games.

Even if every so often the best position for the superstars is on the bench.

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