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A big mouth. It seems as common a part of the closer repertoire as a high hard one and a heavy metal soundbite. In his conference call with New York writers, Frod let loose this little cliche:
<blockquote>“It’s a totally different environment (in New York). In Anaheim, they’re more calm. They’re really relaxed watching the game. The Met fans, in the past when I played there, they feed off the noise. I try to take the energy from the crowd. The energy is going to help me get more into it. It’s going to help me.” </blockquote>An innocuous enough bone thrown to New Yorkers to flatter their self-image, right. Well, Angel fans aren't taking it that way, and some are combining it with other comments and context and reading a little implication that he didn't feel the love and support from them he was entitled to.
Also throwing a potent cocktail of cultural challenge into the mix is this little article, which, while over the top (and with an incoherent lead), is more of a defense than Benitez ever got int he tabloids.
<blockquote>Angels less colorful now, which pleases some
Miller column: What role does race play in fans' opinion of Frankie?
<img src="http://www.ocregister.com/newsimages/columnist/jeff.miller.jpg" align="Left">Jeff Miller
Columnist
The Orange County Register
jmiller@ocregister.com Comments 99
This time of year is all about what's added, not what's lost.
That's just the way shopping works. You don't come home from the mall excited to look at everything you didn't buy.
So all the noise concerning the Angels this week is about maybe another pitcher, perhaps Tex and what about Adam Dunn anyway? All are there to be purchased.
Meanwhile, with an absurd degree of silence, the Angels lost Francisco Rodriguez.
Stranger still, about the only sounds generated by this development have been certain fans — on talk radio and the Internet mostly — cheering his departure.
After saving 208 Angels victories, Rodriguez will be remembered for providing this kind of relief?
Shame on you, vocal minority.
We do believe it is a minority. We are sure most Angels fans are wiser than this. It doesn't take a lot of smarts to appreciate a pitcher who has given a franchise three of its top four single-season save totals.
So what's wrong with these people?
Part of it, no doubt, is baseball. Rodriguez did blow seven saves last season and he walked 34.
But Houston's Jose Valverde, who was second in the big leagues in saves, also blew seven. Rodriguez had 62 saves; Valverde was a distant runnerup with 44.
And you know who had more walks in 2008 than Rodriguez did? Brad Lidge, the Phillies' celebrated Mr. Perfection, who was 41 for 41 in save chances.
So there's more to this story, more to the disdain some people have for Rodriguez.
Part of it, no doubt, isn't baseball at all. We know what it is. And so do you.
It's that Rodriguez doesn't look or talk like most people who sit in the stands at Angel Stadium. His skin is darker, his voice accented.
We aren't saying it's racism. It's human nature, being comfortable with what's most familiar.
And it's too bad our society just can't conquer this mountain. What a better place this would be if we could. All of us, together, as one.
Face it, Angels fans always will remember Tim Salmon's final season more dearly than they will all of Vladimir Guerrero's seasons here combined.
They embraced David Eckstein but only tolerated his replacement, the statistically equivalent Orlando Cabrera.
They applauded the grittiness that allowed Darin Erstad to appear in 157 games in 2000 but wondered if it was cruise control that permitted Garret Anderson to play 161 the next season.
Again, this isn't racism. That's too simple, too convenient and way too often used incorrectly as an explanation.
Rodriguez, Guerrero and Anderson each has been wildly cheered by the home fans, over and over. If Don Baylor walked to pitcher's mound for a pregame ceremony next season, the ballpark would roar. Same with Chili Davis and Rod Carew.
Now, there are Angel fans who are racist. They're the cowards who react to everything by e-mailing to belittle Arte Moreno's heritage.
But there also are Lakers fans, Duck fans and USC fans who are racist. That's not what this is about.
This is about a player who deserves more, deserves goodbye, not good riddance, a pitcher who just put together the most prolific season since the invention of his job. That's all Rodriguez gave us in 2008 — history.
Don't feel sorry for the guy. Please, the Angels offered him plenty, and he received even more from the Mets. We all should be so unfortunate during these times of economic Armageddon.
Just don't be so sure the Angels are as good without him. Between Rodriguez and Troy Percival, this franchise's ninth innings have been solved for the past 13 seasons.
At this moment, the Angels' next ninth inning is a mystery.
Understand that there are three things all baseball fans believe:
1) Each player traded away by their team becomes a star elsewhere.
2) Their manager constantly does things that make no sense.
3) Their team's closer is the least dependable in the majors. (Ed: Boldface mine.)
Honestly, has a player ever been as historically productive as Rodriguez was last season only to be immediately brushed away like hollow peanut shells? Good luck to the guy who blows the first save for this team in 2009.
The Angels are not better today. They also are less colorful, both literally and figuratively.
It is one of the most interesting arrangements in all of sports, and one rarely noted. Here, in Orange County of all places, sits the professional sports team owned by a Latino and general managed by a black.
And now the Venezuelan closer is gone. This, by itself, makes certain people happy. They see their beloved team looking a little more like they do today.
Instead, what they should see is one of their own departing, someone who signed here as a 16-year-old more than a decade ago, going off to help some stranger win.
Contact the writer: jmiller@ocregister.com</blockquote>No Mets games against Anaheim this year. Pity.
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