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Fire Joe Morgan presents an afternoon with Hawk & DJ

By The Cheat

As I'm sure you noticed, I didn't write any recaps this weekend. I didn't have the stomach for it. 1 run in 18 innings. Losing a 1-hitter. Mindless announcing.

Hawk: The term is becoming more popular with players, you didn't hear it too much in the past, but...he's just a baseball player. And that is a tremendous compliment. Because there are some guys who play in the big leagues who are really not baseball players. They're just either hitters, o -- or, you know, good defensive guys. But they're just not baseball players. They don't have real good instincts. [Konerko steps into the box.] So here's Paulie. And I think that probably the "instincts" is the key word in being named a "baseball player."

Other guy: I'd agree and also, I'll take it -- I'll add to that, in the fact that I look at a guy when I sit there and say "He's just a baseball player," it's just somebody that can do everything out there. Just everything. Bunt, get dirty, hustle at all times, kind of "heads and above" the others that are out there. Not that they're not baseball players, but when you see Erstad, or anybody else -- like, if David Eckstein, you know? Giving everything they have on the field, you just say, "Man, there's a baseball player!"

Believe it or not, that's a freaking transcript. Not a word of that dialog is fiction. And there's more at the link.

I was on the phone when the exchange took place, pausing in mid conversation to yell at the TV, 'Eckstein's got a .350 OBP. Grinderstad has done that once this century.'

The play that prompted the "Baseball Player" rant was nearly a failed bunt. Erstad popped a bunt up foul, but out of the reach of Kelly Soppach. Then got down on his knee, for which he received praise for getting his uniform dirty, to successfully move a runner over. Erstad is now 2 for 6 in productive out opportunities.

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