Markakis being inducted into Os HOF

[Moose Milligan]

31 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea, Tiger SHOULD have. He dominated his sport unlike anyone ever has in basically any sport. He absolutely wins way more if he wasn’t a knucklehead, didn’t get hurt, etc….thats not even up for debate.

Women, eh? Such a shame. 

[RZNJ]

9 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

Yes, yes it will. It will be "umm, yeah."

Actually I’m guessing, “For anyone calling me an underachiever, a big F you!  Thank you for this honor. Umm, yeah”.

[luismatos4prez]

Can someone explain Terry Crowley to me? I was too young to watch him play. Is he being inducted as a coach or for longevity with the organization?

He had less plate appearances and was a worse overall hitter for the Orioles than Luke Scott. I'm not trying to be a hater, just trying to understand.

[Too Tall]

I watched The Crow. Heck of a pinch hitter in the Glory Years - delivered big hits fairly often. Probably gets added credit for tenure as hitting coach. That's all I got. 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

No one would use the word "underachieve" to describe someone who didn't meet expectations due to injuries or circumstances beyond their control. Like that's just not what that word means in normal usage. 

But technically, sure, Tiger Woods achieved less than was expected of him. Lol. 

Many of Tiger’s injuries were due to circumstances fully within his control.   Just sayin’.

[Frobby]

Back to Nick, he’s one of my 5-6 favorite Orioles of all time, even though you wouldn’t put him in the 5-6 best.  Just tremendously steady and reliable.  And, he came along during a really dark period for the Orioles as well as their minor league system.  I used to refer to him as “the Boy Who Lived” because he was the only decent player our farm system produced over a 7-8 year period.

I’ll never forget that shot of him on the field after the O’s clinched the AL East, taking in the scene with a tear in his eye.  That’s more memorable to me than any of the great things he did on the field.  

I will make every effort to be at his induction ceremony, even though I know his acceptance speech is likely to be forgettable.  Because I’ll never forget his importance to the franchise.  

 

[Remember The Alomar]

My fondest Markakis memory was back in 2008. I was an intern at the Baltimore Sun and shadowed Peter Shmuck to a game. Got to sit in the dugout before the game, chatted with Adam Jones, and even briefly met Mike Mussina. Great experience. 

During the game itself, I was in the press box. Nick threw out Bobby Abreu at home at one point. Obviously, being with the Sun, I knew I couldn't cheer, but I instinctively fist pumped underneath the table and jammed my index finger on the table's underside. Still vividly remember that.

I think Nick also went 4-4 or something like that with a couple doubles. It was a hard game to watch silently. 

[survivedc]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

Back to Nick, he’s one of my 5-6 favorite Orioles of all time, even though you wouldn’t put him in the 5-6 best.  Just tremendously steady and reliable.  And, he came along during a really dark period for the Orioles as well as their minor league system.  I used to refer to him as “the Boy Who Lived” because he was the only decent player our farm system produced over a 7-8 year period.

I’ll never forget that shot of him on the field after the O’s clinched the AL East, taking in the scene with a tear in his eye.  That’s more memorable to me than any of the great things he did on the field.  

I will make every effort to be at his induction ceremony, even though I know his acceptance speech is likely to be forgettable.  Because I’ll never forget his importance to the franchise.  

 

His Speech Above Expectation (SAE) value could be off the charts though. Who knows, maybe he’s been holding it all in for this.

Just hope he doesn’t pull a BJ Surhoff and show up in a t shirt.

[emmett16]

6 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

But you once paid $11 for a beer at OPACY, and Nick made a lot of cash, so he shoulda been doing some kind of Navy Seal training and hit 8 points higher for the fans.

And maybe his off-season routine is why he played in less than 150 games only 3x in his 14 year (not counting 2020) career.  He found a way to post & put up numbers.  He was worth every $ he was paid.  Can’t say that about many players.  

[Gurgi]

5 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

On the other hand, @Sports Guy's take isn't uncommon because Nick had a 7.4 win season at the age of 24. Following a really good season at 23, and a solid rookie season at 22 after he skipped AA. If you look hard enough in the archives here you can find a post I made in 2009 or 2010 saying Nick had about a 1-in-3 chance of being a Hall of Famer. 14 wins through three seasons and age 24 is a heck of a foundation to build on. Lots of Hall of Famers were behind that pace.

But unfortunately he never had another 3-win season, much less a seven. Age 27 peak is just an average, it's not destiny. But it's pretty rare to have Nick's first three years and then not have much more career value from age 25-36, total. Injuries or whatever reason, he was worth 14 wins from 22-24, and 20 from 25-36. And as much as I wanted him to stay, his years in Atlanta were just treading water, piling up base hits, but a cumulative value above replacement in six years about equal to his 2008 season. Nick was almost certainly not a difference-maker the large majority of his last 8-9 years in the league.

Oh I thought he was on the path to be a Hall of  Famer after his first three seasons.  He still got about 2600 hits.  He was 85% of a Hall of Famer.  

[Gurgi]

I remember a boat load of people complaining about Eddie Murray not working out enough in the off season.   Stan the Fan led the charge on this crap.  

Markakis never got pudgy he always looked fit.  And remember Hank Arron hit 750 home runs and was 5 foot 10 and 185 pounds.  Markakis probably was close to maxing out his frame. 

[Jurczak]

Was Cal an underachiever? I think if he had taken a few rest days along the way he could have actually put up some better numbers instead of the playing all those games through bumps and bruises where he was at less than 100%. 

And imagine how good Babe Ruth would have been if he had been more serious about baseball instead of constantly, eating, drinking, and carousing.

[Frobby]

The whole “Nick doesn’t work out in the offseason” myth was just made up nonsense based solely on the fact that when Nick would show up for Fsnfest with his Mountain Man beard and be asked what he’d done that offseason, he’d always say he’d done a lot of hunting.  News flash: it’s possible to work out and hunt, and hunting is more fun to talk about.  

[24fps]

7 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Women, eh? Such a shame. 

How about that Babe Ruth guy?  He smoked, drank, overate AND chased women he wasn't married to during the offseason.  What a waste.

[justD]

10 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Will Nick’s speech be more than “yeah”?

Yeah, definitely.