Don’t get your hopes up on Murphy
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see any young player who has the potential that Daniel Murphy has, especially considering how hard he works, but the media and fans have portrayed him as a 10-year veteran and an established major leaguer who has experienced it all.
Wait… experienced what? For someone who has not even played 1/3 of a major league season, you never know what will happen to him next — regardless of how highly touted he is.
People need to take a deep breath and see how he performs throughout an entire season to see what kind of consistency he can build up.
I’m not saying that I’m not optimistic about this guy, I’m just saying everyone needs to understand that a guy that has had only 131 major league at-bats isn’t exactly a proven gem.
Heck, he spent the entire season in Double-A before he jumped to the majors due to Marlon Anderson’s injury in August.
So before you expect him to hit .300 this year, maybe you should see where he is at the All-Star break and go from there. It is simply too early to be jumping to conclusions with this guy.
Livan Hernandez has won the battle, but not the war
Although all signals point toward Livan Hernandez winning the fifth starter job in the Mets rotation, it certainly won’t last. Most teams have several fifth starters throughout the year, and this case should be no exception considering the amount of candidates that competed for the job this Spring in Port St Lucie.
I won’t be able to trust Hernandez’s shaky fastball, as it fails to have enough velocity to keep up with major league talent. I’m expecting the Mets to put Hernandez on a short leash, especially with several other potential options waiting at AAA Buffalo.
Super Bowl Champion Dellenbach’s dream come true
Every kid wants to be in the NFL – whether it is playing for their favorite team or not, just living the NFL dream is more than satisfying. Well, how about somebody who did all of that? Oh, and won the Super Bowl with them, too.
I recently had a chance to talk with Jeff Dellenbach, who did just that.
Although this all sounds like it was a piece of cake, Dellenbach didn’t just snap his fingers and become a Super Bowl Champion. It takes years of work, training, and even changing sides of the ball.
“I was highly touted coming out of high school as a defensive end,” explained Dellenbach. “I went through my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin as a defensive end, came to spring football where things were looking real good, and came back to find out that several offensive lineman were struggling with grades.”
Mistakes open doors, and I’m sure those players are quite embarrased to this day. The coaching staff exploited their situation and swapped Dellenbach over to the other side of the ball to the offensive line.
“I wasn’t real thrilled about it,” laughed Dellenbach. “At that point, I did what I had to do.”
If Dellenbach was able to make it to the NFL as an offensive lineman, imagine what kind of potential he would have reached if he was able to stay at defensive line where he would have preffered to be.
Not only were they throwing Dellenbach around the football field from one side of the ball to the other, they continued to move him around like a hot potato for the rest of his college career. Dellenbach played guard his sophomore year and tackle his junior and senior year. When you put it all together, Dellenbach played three positions in his college career on two sides of the ball.
Although Dellenbach turned into a nomad on the football field, he was able to adjust to the positions and ended up getting drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the fourth round of the 1985 NFL draft.
Dellenbach went onto play for nearly a decade with Miami under Don Shula before a two-year stint in New England under Bill Parcells.
“I was fortunate to have played for some very good coaches, being able to play for Don Shula for ten years, then Bill Parcells. Bill was a little different in some ways that he would push you kind of hard and he was a no-nonsense kind of coach,” explained Dellenbach.
Parcells, who is currently working in the front office of Dellenbach’s first team, the Dolphins, was a head coach for the Giants, Patriots, Jets, and Cowboys.
“Knowing Bill Parcells, you never had to worry about him talking behind your back,” laughed Dellenbach.
Following his quick pit stop in New England, Dellenbach couldn’t have wanted anything other than having the opportunity to return home and play for his childhood team, the Packers. Dellenbach returned to his home state of Wisconsin to play for Green Bay in 1996, where he no doubt reached the climax of his career.
“It was great to come back to Green Bay, especially growing up a Packer fan. My grandfather actually had season tickets to Packer games, which you don’t come by very easily,” said Dellenbach. “Going to some games with him when I was young, playing college football in Wisconsin, I hoped to be drafted by the Packers out of college. It didn’t turn out that way, and I figured that was never going to happen.”
13 years after his NFL career began, he was finally back home. By playing for Green Bay, Dellenbach was able to find the final piece of his puzzle of his NFL dream.
Dellenbach got to know Brett Favre, and the two would spend time hunting and fishing in Alabama during their free time.
“On the field, Brett’s a great competitor and he’s fun to be around. Off the field, he’s a clown. He likes to have a lot of fun and he turns into a simple, blue jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.”
One season after leaving the Patriots, Dellenbach was facing them in Super Bowl XXXI. Although the Packers trailed 14-10 after the first quarter, they scored 17 unanswered points before halftime and ended up winning, 35-21.
“It was a great three-year experience. The Super Bowl is great, considering you spend your whole life dreaming of reaching the top and being the best. In the end, there really are only 53 guys who are happy.”
As the dust began to settle on his Super Bowl win, Dellenbach was back to the Super Bowl the next year with Green Bay, except it didn’t exactly go his way.
“Compared to winning it the year before, losing the Super Bowl was just a miserable feeling.”
Finally, after experiencing two sides of a Super Bowl, Dellenbach’s career began to wind down. After one more season in Green Bay, Dellenbach played for the Eagles in the 1999 season before eventually retiring after a short stop in Seattle in 2000.
After his NFL playing career, Dellenbach tried coaching with the Dolphins, but he said that wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do. He had kids in high school, which took time away from them, but he still wanted to be involved as a coach.
It all worked out, as Dellenbach began coaching high school football, which he still does today. Currently residing in Florida, he opened a training institute in 2005, helping athletes of all ages, shapes, sizes, and sports. The institute has even attracted major league baseball players.
Is “World Champions” wrong?
One man who I often talk baseball with, Rick Postl, brought up a very interesting idea that prompted me to relay the debatable question onto here for any readers to make their decision in the comments section.
Rick argued that it is arrogant for MLB, NFL, and NBA teams to use the title “World Champions” when they really are American.
I couldn’t agree more, and the reason is quite obvious. For example, when a team wins their division, such as the NL East for the Mets in 2006, it means that they beat out each team in that division.
When you are “World Champions,” you are not beating out any other nations, you are simply beating out your own nation. This completely erases any meaning of “World” to the championship puzzle. That is why these sports need to change their championship titles to the same way college has it, “National Champions.”
What is your opinion? Should the title stay the same or should it be changed? If so, what should it be changed to? Comment away.
Mets release ‘06 hero Duaner Sanchez
The reliever who popped out of nowhere to pitch lights out in 2006 never recovered from his taxi accident he suffered halfway through the season. Sanchez, 29, was notified of his release by the Mets this morning when he arrived to work at Tradition Field.
This saves the Mets over $1 million this season. Here is what GM Omar Minaya had to say:
We looked at it, really, his overall performance based upon last year to where he is now. We really didn’t see the improvement we felt was needed to be effective in the major leagues.