Funny baseball stories: Joaquin Andujar quotes
July 29th, 2006
Here are some hilarious quotes from former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joaquin Andujar — One Tough Dominican — taken from the book “Whitey’s Boys,” by Rob Rains and Alvin Reid:
- “There is one word in America that says it all, and that one word is, ‘You never know.’”
- “I throw the ball 92 miles an hour, but they hit it back just as hard.”
- “There are 300,000 sportswriters, and they’re all against me. Every one of them.”
- “You can’t worry if it’s cold; you can’t worry if it’s hot; you only worry if you get sick. Because then if you don’t get well, you die.’”
- “God is back in the National League. In fact, he’s staying at my house. I’m having a barbecue for him.”
Thinking back specifically to the 82 and 85 seasons, he had his off days like every other pitcher, but when he was good, he was GOOD.
Did he say anthing about kicking toilets?
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=andujjo01
Check out his stats from 82-85. Innings pitched! Plus, if you would have asked me if he won 20 games back to back I would have said no. I’d love to see some of his pitch counts. Because after those heavy seasons he faded away.
I hate pitch counts.
Why’s that Bob?
Pitchers pitch. Let them pitch. Ya ever think that there are more pitching injuries because of these artificial pitch counts designed to “protect the investment,” and what it really does is produce more injury prone players. Plus the specialization of the bullpen. Special pitchers for the 8th inning, then the closer in the 9th, even when, in my opinion, there shouldn’t be a save given; the save rule has been watered down in recent years. If a pitcher is throwing a great game after 7 innings, let him complete it. Yeesh.
True, baseball has gotten more conservative with their pitchers over the years. But, I don’t really think it’s a bad thing to have guys to close out games, etc. Believe it or not, it really is more difficult to get the last 3 outs of a ballgame than it is to get the previous 24.
Andujar is the perfect example of why pitch counts are important. He totally crashed after 4 heavy workload years. It’s also not a surprise that Dusty Baker usually leads the league in pounding on his pitchers and that they get hurt a lot.
I understand your frustration with the specialization of the game and there are some exceptions to the rule when it comes to high pitch counts, but overall they are very necessary.
Oh man seeing that “Diamond Kings” card brought back memories… Topps Studio, anyone?
I’ve got about 10,000 cards I’d love to sell quite cheaply from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Heck, I’ll pay you to take them off my hands.
I will gladly take your cards and your money.
Alright, deal. You just have to pay for shipping and handling.
Well, here’s the catch - it would cost a few grand to ship. But hey, I’ll pay you, oh, I don’t know, $100 to take them off my hands. What do you say?