As a Yankee fan nothing was better for me than the summer of 1998. Actually that is not true, although the Yankees had a better record and stronger team in 1998 the greatest year to be a Yankee fan for me was 1996 when they played national league small ball, had a young team (Jeter was a rookie,) broke a long streak of unsuccessful years (unless you count the 1994 season that ended in the strike,) and still had John Wetteland.
I digress...In the summer of 1998 baseball had everything. Cal Ripken Jr. had became the Iron man, three players were all trying to beat the single season home run record and no one was talking about the steroids (Griffey was in it through August) and the Yankees had one of the best records of all time and then we entered September and got a glimpse of Shane Spencer or should I call him Roy Hobbs from the Natural.
Shane Spencer was an older outfielder who had came up from the minor leagues during September when baseball rosters change from 25 men to 40. He only had 67 official at bats in the month of September. In these 67 at bats he belted 10 home runs and three of those were grand slams. At that rate if he had the same number of at bats at Mark McGuire he would have hit 73 home runs. This guy was supposed to be the future of the Yankees. I remember everyone buying Spencer jerseys and talking about how he would be a power hitter that no one could even imagine after a few years in the majors. He went on to hit a home run in the 1998 post season but after that it was all down hill.
He played with the Yankees for a couple of years then moved around a lot until he finally retired after being hurt to often and striking out too much. It was a disappointment as a child because I thought that what was logical happened. It made sense that a right fielder who hits 10 home runs in September of his rookie year is the beginning of a dynasty. I realized that life did not make sense a long time before girls entered my life.
The question is how does this relate to the New York Jets? I guess I just hope that Mark Sanchez, Darelle Revis and the gang have a lot left in them for the next few years. They have a strong young team with a young coach and it is easy to say that they will be great. I just know now that may not be the case and can only hope they are not another case of Shane Spencer, because Shane Spencer's come along more often than Alex Rodriguez's do.
Inspired by Chuck Klosterman's What We Talk about When We Talk About Ralph Sampson from Eating the Dinosaur.
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First of all, the 96 team was MAAAD older than the 98 team. It still had Wade Boggs. They had Mo Vaughn, I think. Posada wasn't around yet. Neither was Homer Bush.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, I don't think anyone besides a bunch of 9 year-olds really thought Shane Spencer was going to be anything special. Of course the Yankee PR machine kept on talking him up, but he was never really the long-term answer for left field. I think he even split starts with Rickie Ledee, who couldn't hit for shit, because Torre knew he was a flash in the pan. Sanchez is different. I think the danger with Sanchez is he can turn into a Kordell Stewart type, who did well as a rookie because his team was good (Steelers), but was never really a good QB to begin with. But I think Sanchez will be better. He might not be Payton Manning, but he'll be damn good.
you wrote 2008 once instead of 98 technically spencers 98 season wasnt his rookie season because he didnt get enough at bats. shane spencer took steriods. no one in the yankee pr said he was long term the man was 33 at the time. ricky ledee was horrible but started the world series because of his defense. during the offseason the yankees signed chad curtis
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