Who could have known? Who could have known that a player some considered a potential Hall of Fame catcher [...] would have his future stolen from him by an incurable disease that rarely afflicts people as young as 22?
How good was Petrick? Go back and look at his stats. In those 240 games for the Rockies and Tigers, he hit .257 with 27 home runs and 94 RBIs while trying to control the symptoms of Parkinson’s, which include tremors, rigidity and slow movements. He was not only tough enough to be a catcher, the most demanding position on the field, but also athletic enough to play centerfield when he wasn’t behind the plate.
“Looking back, I am amazed at what he accomplished,” says Rockies first baseman Todd Helton, who was Colorado’s first pick in the 1995 draft, the year Petrick was taken in the second round. “It’s hard enough performing at the highest level of this game, which he did. On top of that, he had to fight off a disease that robbed him of his physical ability. And on top of that, he had to play under the tremendous pressure of hiding the effects of that disease.”
Helton pauses. “You know what, though?” he says. “I’m more impressed by what he’s done with his life since.”
Der_K
Posted: January 07, 2012 at 11:03 PM |
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1. Robinson Cano Plate Like Home Posted: January 08, 2012 at 12:28 AM (#4031496)Ok, he was a very promising prospect but... WHAT THE WHAT!?!?
Hall of Famer? Chill out a lil there ESPN. They really couldn't have just said "future All-Star"? They had to throw silly HoF hyperbole out there?
Obviously you never saw Bill James projections for his rookie year back in the day. ;)
Seriously, he had him hitting like .300/30/100 his rookie season.
Yeah, I went big on Petrick in my APBA keeper league, but figured him for possible legit future All Star + beneficiary of unadjusted Coors Field stats. It's a long way from there to "potential Hall of Famer," unless you want to roll the dice and say that about any 22 year old in MLB. Michael Barrett came up about the same time, and the biggest difference between him and Petrick as prospects was Coors Field.
I wonder if this would have shown up if they were doing the current steroid testing program then, a la Ryan Braun?
I think that being hung up on All-Star versus HoF in this context is missing the entire point. This isn't a hardcore baseball story, it's a human story.
Well I'm guessing the pills he was popping to stay awake would have eventually led to a 25-game suspension.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. :-)
A brief web search turns up that Petrick once had 4 RBI in a game with no hits -- a god of small ball!
Well, duh. But it cheapens the story when the writer throws out silly statements like "Hall of Famer." The Petrick story, which I am familiar with, is a good story. It doesn't need to dumb lines like that in there.
Anyway, fwiw, I liked him quite a bit more than Barrett as a prospect (for reasons other than park factors) - more power, more speed, more defense (less ability to make contact, which I underrated at the time). Heck, they nearly had the same career OPS+ (very different number of PA, mind you) despite Petrick having Parkinson's.
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