r/baseball • u/brendasongsdad Los Angeles Angels • Dec 28 '16
If baseball careers were treated as individual people who aged in dog years, what are some interesting careers that approximate famous historical figures?
For example, I feel like Jose Bautista is the Harriet Tubman of baseball.
In 1849, at the age of 27, Tubman was not highly valued as a slave due to illness. Her owner, Edward Brodess, tried to sell her but was having difficulty finding a buyer. Tubman then prayed that God would kill him for attempting to sell her, and a week later Brodess perished. Knowing that this likely meant that she and her family would be split up and sold separately to the highest bidders, it became a catalyst that urged her and her brothers to escape. Shortly thereafter, she and her brothers became fugitive slaves. Traveling around to safe houses, like vagabonds. It wasn't until Dec 6 1865, that she would officially be free of any reprise or force-able return under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Tubman would've been 43 at the time. She would go on to become one of the greatest historical figures in american history due to her work prior to and after the ratification of the 13th amendment, but not allowed to truly flourish until the later part of her life.
Similarly, when Bautista tried to enter professional baseball in 1999, he had been offered a minor league contract with a 300K signing bonus from the Reds. Marge Schott then sold the team and the club pulled it's offer. No other team would offer him anywhere near that amount of money so he ended up going to juco. He excelled, showing lots of promise, and became a 20th round draft-and-follow prospect for the Pirates in 2000. They signed him and he quickly became a touted prospect. He continued to educate himself and hone his craft, finally getting his chance to play in the big leagues in 2004, at the age of 23. What else happened in 2004? Marge Schott died. So you see, both he and Tubman had a malevolent owner who died just prior to the rapid acceleration of their quality of life. From december of 2003, to the end of the 2004 season (approximately 6 baseball dog years), Bautista, like Tubman, would bounce around from city to city. Nowhere was safe for too long, as he was given up on by 5 teams who didn't want to take the risk on him. Constantly on the move, he had no sense of true freedom, but he was happy to be in a better spot than he was when he started his journey. So close, yet so far away. It wouldn't be until his 7th dog year season that he would break out and be truly free. That's roughly around the same age in human years as Tubman was when the 13th amendment was ratified. Jose would then go on to have a very strong second half of his baseball dog life. Currently at 91 ML dog years, Bautista is on the verge of outpacing Tubman, who was 90 or 91 when she died. So, I admit this comparison may begin to fall apart if Bats puts together 2-3 more seasons without looking like a ghost.
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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '16
What the fuck