What’s the old saying about even a broken clock being right twice a day? Same deal applies to columnists, and columnists who moonlight as bloggers. On the day the Yankees made the deal for Nick Swisher, I happened to be putting together my Sunday Whacks (ah, the Dark Ages, when the Whacks were only weekly….) and this is what occurred to me, and what I put in the newspaper that day:
“The past few days, whenever I think of Nick Swisher, I can’t seem to get the name “Scott Brosius” out of my mind.”
OK. Maybe the comparison isn’t there in full yet, not until Swisher is a primary cog on a World Series winner (to say nothing of three of them, the way Brosius was) but the comparisons are worthwhile. Brosius was coming off a nowhere season in Oakland when he was dealt, Swisher a similarly wayward season in Chcicago. Both were still young enough to be considered in their prime. Both were joining hefty lineups that needed them only to be complementary parts.
And, to date, Swisher has thrived every bit as much as Brosius did. Now Brosius didn’t have the same clubhouse impact Swisher has — he was very much cut out of the same cloth of the Bernie–Tino–O’Neill core of those Yankees, not the Bluto–Otter–Boon cloth that Swisher comes wrapped in.
Swisher enjoyed every bit of his shaving-cream-topped walk-off blast last night, and he should. He has been a welcome breath of cool air around the Yankees all year. In a few weeks, he’ll have his chance to make the Brosius comparison complete. And if he does … well, someone’s going to feel like the smartestv kid in class for a day.
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And as I wrote in my column today, on the Trail of the Jeter Record: even Springsteen had his “Mary, Queen or Arkansas” moment. No need to get panicky.
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It is a shame for the NBA that Allen Iverson will whittle away his talents playing before the disinterested masses in Memhis, and even more of a shame that he will not be giving Knicks fan a one-year taste of who he is, even if it might’ve been more about what he was.
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Just askin’: What happens when the Mets get all of these walking wounded back and they’re still awful?
