It seems so long ago, but the Phillies used to have Bobby Abreu. In fact, it’s hard to imagine the current team going through its paces in Clearwater in preparation for the 2007 season filled with high expectations with a player like Abreu. Just imagine a lineup with Rollins, Utley, Howard, Burrell and Abreu.
Think those guys could post a few runs?
Isn’t that what they did when he was here? It’s so hard to remember.
It’s been seven months since Abreu was a Phillie, which in baseball time is almost a lifetime ago. Seven months ago no one talked about protecting Ryan Howard in the lineup, because Howard was protecting Abreu. The opposition preferred to pitch to guys like Howard and Chase Utley instead and gave him nearly a walk a game. Compare that to the total he got when he joined the Yankees (33 in 58 games) and it was clear that Abreu was The Man with the Phillies.
Abreu, as we all remember, wasn’t really appreciated by certain elements of the sporting press and fandom in Philadelphia. His crime, it seemed was that he wouldn’t injure himself. And then even when he was injured Abreu still kept playing. During the stretch run of the 2005 season Abreu was so injured that he should have been on the disabled list. But since the Phillies were chasing the wild card Abreu ignored suggestions to take some time off in order to play.
He just thought that the team was better when he played.
For more than 151 games in the last nine straight seasons, Abreu has been out there working counts and getting hits in order to post the stats and help his team win. It’s just that in all of those games he chose not to run into outfield fences because, well… he wanted to play. Abreu believed that he was more valuable to his team over the long season by playing rather than being injured.
In Philadelphia, it seemed, we want out players to be injured unless, of course, they are actually injured.
Now with the Yankees, it appears as if the durable Abreu is finally injured. Actually, Abreu is so injured that he is going to be shut down from activity for at least the next two weeks because there is nothing the Yankees’ trainers can do for him.
The problem: a pulled oblique muscle in his right side.
“It was painful,” Abreu told reporters on Tuesday. “You just have to hang with it, and don't try to worry about too much. It's sore. I felt a little pain there and thought it was nothing to worry about. I kept swinging and then, after one swing, I felt a big pain.”
But come opening day everyone – Abreu included – expects the right fielder to be out there.
Like it or not, that’s just what he does.
Elsewhere...
The Phillies announced that Flyers' play-by-play man Jim Jackson has joined the broadcast team as the host of the pre- and post-game radio shows.
Fear not Flyers' fans, Jackson is not giving up hockey. Instead, the 20-year hockey veteran will get his first taste of Major League Baseball action.