Part 3 of 5
On January 26th, 34-year-old Red Sox firstbaseman and New Jersey native Sean Casey officially announced his retirement, after just over 10 full major league seasons.
The early retiree was signed with Boston last year to a 1-year, $800K contract.
Although logging over 5000 ABs and achieving career batting stats of .302 / .367 / .447, Casey was never paid more than $8.5M in a single season.
His award roll shows All Star selections in 1999, 2001, and 2004.
Parsing through the details of his benchmark .302 career batting average, Sean managed notably consistent splits: vs lefty/vs righty, day/night, home/away, April through September, pre/post All Star break - all of these are consisent with his career average.
His situational numbers tell an even better story. With runners on, a face-value measure of a hitter’s “clutch” qualities, Casey batted .318 / .393 / .472, including a .327 batting average with the bases loaded.
Turning it up in 12 postseason games, Casey posted .410 / .425 / .692 with 9 RBIs in 39 ABs, including homeruns in games 4 & 5 of the ’06 World Series, driving in 4 of the Tiger’s last 6 runs in that series. The heroics couldn’t save the Tigers, but Casey was valiant nonetheless.
Sean was a remarkable defender. He managed a career fielding pct. of .995, flubbing just 1 ball in every 200 attempts while spending each and every last one of his 11,030 career innings at first base. Some arithmetical hopscotch reveals that Casey averaged about 1 error per month of solid playing time, which one could justifiably attribute to chance, dirt in his eye, equipment malfunction, tough scoring, or a full moon.
Easily the most lauded of Sean’s many attributes were his affability and good citizenship in the clubhouse. He was popularly referred to as “The Mayor”. Runners reaching first base could expect a respectful greeting or even a compliment. Sean could hook the runners’ psyches with infectious conversation, and he eventually earned a reputation as a conversational way-station of the league’s goings-on.
From 1998 to 2008, a controversial era in baseball when power numbers swelled, muscles bulged, contracts ballooned, and the juice flowed freely, Sean Casey was a excellent-fielding, .300-hitting, fair-priced, healthy, respected, popular, and downright clutch contributor for 5 major league teams. If the Hall of Fame inducted members based on sheer professionalism, Sean Casey would be inducted on his first ballot.
And in 5 years’ time, Casey’s career may be looked upon as the kind of career a clean player should hope to have, may be transfigured as an aspirational model, and may be pegged as a most ambitious goal for the young athlete.
And if that doesn’t happen, I’m putting it down to paper right here, it should.
…..
That said, you may wonder, why does his retirement make my list of top 5 underreported stories this offseason?
I must, first, note that Joe Kay, a general interest sportswriter with AP, treated Sean Casey to a fittingly celebratory send-off. Joe Kay covers the Ohio region. Sean Casey retired in Boston.
Apparently, saying “yeah, what Joe Kay said” was sufficiently senitimental and fitting for the Boston Herald, NY Newsday, and the NY Post - these big-money publications simply purchased and republished Kay’s article, rather than spend the money on the local bigwigs.
Which was, at least, something, I guess. I googled “NY Times Sean Casey” and discovered a story about a rescued turtle; googling “NY Daily News Sean Casey“ navigated me to similar void. Doesn’t anyone care?
The Boston Globe, at least, had the moxie to assign a lesser reporter to pitch in some coverage. Well, sorta… of 6 paragraphs in that article, 3 paragraphs are dominated by text firmly extolling the virtues of playing for the Red Sox, or why Casey wasn’t up to snuff compared to Mark Kotsay, or why Jason Varitek and the Red Sock team and fans are a 3-way match made in heaven.
I dug deeper and found a link to an article in Cape Cod Today that recalls him primarily as a graduate of the local minor league affiliate, a sort of local traveller done good, and does him some honor. CCT is a local interest paper, and primarily an aggregator of bigger stories from bigger sites. It’s not main stream by any stretch.
It’s shameful that not one luminary in the long roster of NY and Boston main-stream media luminaries could firm up, at the very least, one single rendering of Sean Casey’s career. There was neither a revealing interview nor a poetic send-off.
Apparently, speculating on how much lower Varitek’s batting average can go, or, better yet, how much liniment one needs to apply to Roger Clemens’ testicles to get him grunting are far more worthy topics to advance upon the readership.
And for that reason, the non-coverage of the retirement of the great Sean Casey easily makes my list of the top 5 underreported stories this offseason.
Great story Libs. I didn’t realize that Casey had been in 12 post season games, I forgot the Det. era. I remember once a year WFAN would have him come in and do a charity where the winner got to spend the day in the dugout, dinner. meet the players in the club house. He was with Cinn. then, he was a great listen and a real nice guy. I was upset to see him play for Boston, because it made me have to root against him. I usually will root for the player over the laundry on occasion, but not that filthy laundry. It doesn’t surprise me that he was heralded in Ohio and not Boston, but I wasn’t sure until you brought it up. A very worthy underreported story written extremely well. I also didn’t know he was a Jersey kid. A tip of the Gatsby bro.
Ditto unkulsal on LB…great job…hey guys I dont have a login on ESPN.com but there is a rumour on there that I can’t read, that the Yankees are one of the finalists for Orlando Hudson….any idea what that is all about ?
Canada: Check this out…http://riveraveblues.com/
scroll down a bit and they have something on Hudson from yesterday.Thats a real good site and I think Sal and LB have it on the right side.
LB great piece.I will comment but it will take more than the minute I have right now.
Thanks jrz I will check it out….I think I read you are back to work which means the leg has healed…thats good news
Nope, still on the recliner.Went to the Dr. yesterday for the 1st time since the stitches came out.6 weeks since they cut me and he says 2 more weeks before I put any weight on it.Found out yesterday that he put 7 screws and a plate in me, instead of the 4 and a plate, he told me he was gonna.Guess my leg is just like fuckin w/ a old house, ya dont know what you got til ya crack into it, huh LB?The doc said its healin good though, so I got my fingers crossed.
Been in therapy for a month and I am moving about 60%.Looks I will be right in time to be able to stroll around Steinbrenner Field as the pitchers and catchers get to town.
LB, Casey had a real nice career.The kind of consistency at bat and in the field that ya look for over a 10 year career.Maybe ya look for a bit more longevity but you cant argue w/ the production.Its a shame it didnt play in a bigger market, and its a shame Cincy isnt a bigger market w/ Casey and Griffey just off the top of my head.
Me and Uncle Sal both didnt know he was a Jersey product.Only a couple years younger than me too.Not sure where willingboro is, guessin north west.
Liked the table yesterday.I dont so much have a problem w/ Selig makin some scratch.Its a pretty shitty job w/ the steroid shit for the last 4-5 years.What I loved was the 60%.Thats a big middle finger to everybody that loves to talk that talk.
nice to everyone all around, thanks for the read. I really appreciate it.
thx for the river ave blues ref. will see, that would be a big development, after all Cano has showed us, that the organization doesn’t have faith in him. Long was certainly glowing.
Hey JRZ, I’m quite sure your leg is more put together, right now, than my kitchen and bathroom. To her credit, Lady Liberty has capitalized on our misfortune is learning to cook with sawdust and powdered gypsum as flavoring and thickening agents. This weekend I removed a big hunk of lead toilet pipe with a sawzall, and then cracked down 2 stories of cast iron tack with a one of those wrap-around chain cutters.
pardon, “cast iron stack”…I have half a bottle of wine on me right now.
I am sure everything Lady Liberty cooks is delicious by definition.Take it from somebody that its outside more than inside and has eaten with some of the filthiest hands in the world, that shit is good for ya, great for the immune system.I aint had so much as a head cold for 15 years.Not too helpful w/ bone density though I guess.
Sounds like you got the crib pretty tore up.How you doing w/ the schedule you laid out for the missus? I am sure she is very anxious for you to be done.
I think the wine is supposed to go in ya…
YOU ARE CORRECT SIR I haven’t sick all winter…sucking in wall dust, mold, fungus, oak sawdust, gypsum, lead and iron particles, cutting pvc, inhaling solder fumes, inhaling pvc primer and cement [woooooeeey that'll knock you down], fiberglass from the insulation, 40-year-old ceiling tile pulp, methane coming up from the sewer…ahhh the little lady is taking it like a champ, I gotta say. I’m telling you, I could bread a year’s worth of chicken cutlets with the moldy shake coming down from the cavities. NOW THAT’S FIBER.
Only John Travolta can live in a bubble! Only Johnny T
Sounds like a hand full renovation LB. good luck http://www.facebook.com/pages/NoMaas/13589939707
I don’t know if you guys saw the nomaas, but another good one, this from their facebook. J it sounds like the leg got whacked pretty good, good luck with the rehab. thanks for the tip on Hudson fellas, I didn’t see it yet. Canadian how’s it goin, good to see you
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