Mirabelli Still Riding In The Wake

Making it to the "Big Show" (no, I'm not referring to Glen Ordway and the other not my WEEIdols) would be a dream come true for many aspiring Little Leaguers, including myself.  But like most of you, the readers, I'm just here.  I'll never strike out A-Rod and I'll never blast one of Rivera's 94mph cutters out of the park.   But that's okay, I've come to grips with the fact that making it to the big leagues (and Staying) is about as difficult as attending one of The Steve Miller Band's come back tour concerts.  It takes a lot of patience, can be very frustrating, and you know you can do a better job than them if you could just fight your way onto the stage.

Then there's the 37 year-old Doug Mirabelli, The Boston Red Sox back up catcher.  The Sanfrancisco Giants selected him out of Witchital State in 1992.  He was touted as a good catcher with some pop in his bat.  Up until the last 3 years or so, I'd say he sort of fit that description.  He did a good job behind the plate with or without Wakerfield, and he took one out of the yard every now and then.  I'll painfully admit that we do still need him to catch Wake, especially after seeing what happened a couple of years ago when Mirabelli went to the San Diego Padres.

After a tough spring training of bumps and bruises, and proving he wasn't as bad as any of the other catchers, Josh Bard got the job as Wakefield's personal catcher in 2006.  I thought, great! At least we found a guy who can hit a little, that will make up for Mirabelli's inefficiencies. Plus, how tough can it be to catch Wakefield's Fenway floater? He's had all spring, several side sessions, and probably watched it on film a million times.  He must have been ready, right?  Wrong!  That beautiful dancing butterfly of a knuckller that Mirabelli used to home into his glove so gracefully, suddenly looked like a 60 foot disease.  Bard didn't want to get near it, certainly didn't want to catch it,  and flat out looked frightened of it. I never quite understood it, after all, he did have a glove on..... But in Bard's defense, I'm not even sure if Wilt The No Guilt Chamberlain could have caught it either. 

Okay, back to good clean baseball.  As we all know, Mirabelli was later reunited with the sox on May 1st, 2006, after Josh Bards 10 passed balls in a less than a month sealed his fate. On that night a State Trooper escorted Mirabelli  over to Fenway from Logan...just in time to catch Wake for a game against the Yankees. What drama? Super Dougie! The Sox won! That's great.  But to me we were still getting back a guy who could have held the bat upside down and had more hits.  But he was Wakefield's personal catcher.

This is a story like no other.  There have been  stories about pitchers who have or had their own personal catchers. Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves preferred Eddie Perez over Javy Lopez.  Randy Johnson went with John Flaherty instead of Jorge Posada in 2005 with the Yankees.  And even the 7 time Lie Young award winner, Roger The Dodger of Truth Clemens, went with John Marzano over Rich Geman in 1988. 

Mirabelli's story is different in that none of the aforementioned catchers above were going to be kept around just to be personal catchers when the rest of their skills completely declined.  Don't get me wrong, Mirabelli never exactly tore it up.  But did manage to hit .270 with 9 hrs in 2001 and .281 with 9 hrs in 2004.  His average dipped and homers fell off by a couple in the in between years, but nothing like the last 3 years with the Sox.  Check out these million dollar numbers.

2005: 50 Games  6 HR  18 RBI  .228 Avg

2006: 59 Games  6 HR  25 RBI  .193 Avg

2007: 48 Games  5 HR  16 RBI  .202 Avg

I guess that if you project out the homers and maybe the RBI (I'm being very nice) then the numbers aren't the worst ever.  But his average rivals that of half of the National League Pitchers.  I think it's safe to say that Dougie could try using batting gloves this year.  It's not like the bare hand attack is setting the stat charts on fire.

The moral of the story is that without Tim Wakefield, Mirabelli would probably be like you guys, reading this article, sitting on the couch.  Last year Mirabelli's salary was down to  $750 grand (it's nice when you can say down and 750g in one sentence) and I figure it's somewhere in that ball park this year. It must be pretty cool being on the receiving end of close to a million dollars because of one, and only one, player in all of baseball, Tim Wakefield.  If I were Mirabelli, I'd be doing chores around Wakefield's house for the rest of my life.  

Let's just say Doug Mirabelli has been very fortunate.   Not many guys get lucky enough to make the big leagues for one, and then lucky enough to be the only guy who can catch that tricky pitch from 60'foot 6.  But Mirabelli has more than just luck on his side.  He has an interesting record that's very fitting of his career.... not very exciting, but unique.  He's the only player in Major League Baseball history to hit 6 or more home runs in 6 consecutive seasons of fewer than 200 at bats.

Pretty cool, huh? It's probably more cool that someone even came up with that stat, but I'll let Dougie bask in glory for a moment.  Unfortunately, he only hit 5 dingers last year, so the record is up for grabs.  Beckett would probably break it, if he had just a few more at bats.

From all of my time consuming and thorough Mirabelli research, I have been led to one conclusion.  Despite his declining numbers and age getting up there, I can honestly say this with a straight face.

If Wakefield had retired..... Mirabelli would have been fired.  And if Mirabelli quit.....the Sox would be in deep....