We all have favorite players for one reason or another that wouldn't be a good reason for anyone else. A couple of weeks back, my friend Gregg (who comments now and then as "ganderson") suggested asking about players that we consider our favorites for unique and personal reasons. Pat Neshek because he collects baseball cards and blogs? Minor-leaguer Chris Cates because he's 5-foot-3 on a good day? Travis Hafner because he's from North Dakota?
This weekend's death of Jose Lima, at age 37, makes me want to ask that today.
Lima was a favorite in the Section 219 household, even though he never wore a Twins uniform and had already seen much better days by the time he became our guy.
Here's why:
Young219 was 12 years old and had pretty much discovered his baseball love the previous summer, in part (I think) because of a father-and-son trip to Cooperstown. After that, baseball became about more than how many of the food groups he could take in during the first five innings.
One night, through a friend of a friend, we bought tickets in the front row behind home plate at the Metrodome. The Twins were playing the Tigers, whom Lima had joined the previous season. He'd come into prominence with two excellent seasons at Houston in 1998 and 1999 -- and then lost whatever propelled those seasons. He was traded to Detroit in 2001 and, by 2002, had basically become the 13th pitcher on a 12-man staff for a Tigers team that finished 51 games under .500.
Yes, it was that bad.
Lima took up residence that night on a folding chair outside the Tigers dugout, where he sat with the ballboy and carried on running dialogue with anyone who wandered by. Cracked bats ended up in the stands as souvenirs and, at some point, Young219 threw the word "please" into his plea and ended up with a baseball.
