Nelson Cruz Retires
craig44
Posts: 11,200 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
He called it a career, 36 Homeruns away from 500. Had he not gotten such a late start, he would have been well over. The Covid season hurt him as well
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
0
Comments
This is what I think of, when I think of him.
i know a lot of Rangers fans. a LOT of them. and i'm here to tell you, Nelson Cruz has been persona non grata in their eyes since 2011. in fact, i saw his name mentioned many times on my FB newsfeed after the Rangers won the World Series this week. things said that i cannot type here.
why so much vitriol directed toward him? this play. and trust me, i get it. i would have a hard time forgiving him as well if i was a Rangers fan. all i know is that if i had been in his shoes, i would have blown a hole through the right-field wall in an attempt to catch that baseball. i just watched it again prior to posting and it's still cringeworthy all these years later. really bro? this is the type of effort you give when you're an out away from winning a championship? you know the word that starts with a p and is synonymous with 'cat'? that's what he looks like to me on this play. a guy who is more concerned about getting hurt than a guy who is willing to sacrifice bones to win a chip.
in the eyes of many, this is what he'll be remembered for.
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
@galaxy27 just like with the avatars, we again think alike. 👻👻👻👻👻👻
creepy man lol
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
That play made David Freese a Cardinal legend here in the Lou.
And didn't Cruz get a 80 game ban for PEDs?
I somehow had forgotten how poor his effort was on that play. Wasn't that he misjudged it, he was clearly worried about the fence - which he wouldn't have even hit if he'd hustled back and just...made the play.
look at Neftalí Feliz at the tail end of that clip.............that was a "why on earth didn't you catch that" reaction if ever there was one
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
Fans blaming someone for not running into a wall at full speed is one of the least intelligent things fans do. Its not paper mache, its a wall that would likely and does often lead to concussions and/or broken bones. Theres no reason for any player to ever do that intentionally. When it does happen its almost always because they lost track of where they were on the field. He almost certainly would have dropped it anyways with such an impact of the wall.
Its easy for people to say I would have trucked through the wall, the fact is no they wouldnt have knowingly done so. Had they lost their awareness of where they were on the field then yes maybe, and they would have regretted it
Aside from the fact he wasnt a great fielder anyways and was playing for his bat they should have put a defensive replacement in for, one guy on one play didnt lose the series. He didnt put guys on base, he didnt throw the pitch that was hammered to the wall and barely missed being a HR, he didnt lose the games before etc.
Missouri 14 OSU 3
@Basebal21 you coming along and defending that putrid effort by Cruz with a championship on the line is the least shocking thing i've encountered all day
i've crossed paths with some people whose brains work in mysterious ways, but you take the cake
let me guess, if Nelson Cruz played offense for the 49ers he'd cure all of their woes and they'd win the Super Bowl
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
....
Living here in Rangers country, I've heard every iteration of this story. And even with all of the angry Rangers fans, there is other blame to go around, and some of them recognize that. The fact that Ron Washington admitted that he left Cruz in, instead of a defensive replacement, so that Cruz would be in the field to celebrate has added to things.
...but the reality is that Cruz was playing too shallow, and he also didn't play this ball correctly, and if he had caught it the Rangers win that WS.
I was watching all of those games. The aforementioned Neftali Feliz had a chance to get it done too.
Maybe he was playing to close, but its not like it was a surprise what they were getting with Cruz in the field. Its a trade off to sacrifice some defense for the bat. I'm not defending his defense by any means, there is a reason why he spent most of his career as a DH.
I wasnt really ever overly impressed with how Washington manged those teams. That ball was hit hard, and I just dont think its fair to blame one guy for one hit in a best of 7 series for why they lost especially when Cruz was a big reason why they even got to the WS in the first place. He was a monster in that ALCS against Detroit
Missouri 14 OSU 3
..
No, he's not blamed for why they lost. Not by the majority, I don't think. But if he makes that catch, they win. So it sticks with the fans.
Twins fan here.
Liked him a lot when he was here.
Never knew about the bad play he had, but if he was a bad fielder, he shouldn't have been out there in that situation.
All he did here was DH, he was a great hitter.
Hopefully youre right that most dont blame him. It would be a shame for Rangers fans to remember him more for that than his ALCS performance that year that was one of the all time great post season series performances.
The timing of his announcement does seem to indicate there is a bit of resentment from how he was treated. It doesnt really overshadow the Rangers winning it all, but does create another story that detracts a bit. He could have waited a week or two to announce it
Missouri 14 OSU 3
...
Maybe it was well-timed. Rangers fans are at peak euphoria, and I have heard a bunch say that this win now vanquishes those demons of 2011 in their minds.
That would have been a great catch in right field. He was not a tremendous fielder. I wouldn't have expected him to make the catch. A little closer maybe; but still no catch.
he should have been taken out for a defensive replacement. just like leaving Buckner in at first base.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
This might explain something that really bothered me;
When he was with the Twins and it looked like they were going to make the playoffs, they didn't (as far as I remember) play him in the field at all near the end of the year.
I thought they should get him in a few games at first base or in the outfield in case we ended up playing a NL team.
It really wouldnt have made much of a difference having him out in the field a few times. They can have him out there in practice. Ortiz never really played the field unless he had to either.
Missouri 14 OSU 3
I would have gotten him some game action if I were the manager.
Practice is one thing, games are another.
In the end it didn't matter, but once you clinch a playoff spot, I would've gotten him in the field.
Practice and games are different, but a couple games wouldnt change anything. DHing is actually a skill on its own being able to sit and basically do nothing for the entire game other than 3-4 at bats. Cruz spent the majority of his life playing the field. He would have still be slow by the time he got to the Twins even if he played every game in the OF
Who would you have benched Buxton, Kepler, Rosario? Sano got moved to first where he should be the 2nd year Cruz was there. Buxton does get hurt a lot, its kind of making a bad situation worse though putting Cruz in the OF while a corner OFer is playing CF
Missouri 14 OSU 3
Cruz was their best hitter, I would have played him in the field a couple of times.
The situation never came up, do it really doesn't matter, but had they advanced to the WS, and he had to play in the field, I would have made sure he had at least a couple of games played to "knock the rust off".
That's what I would have done.