Ken Caminiti, A Tragic Hero

This weekend, Jeff Bagwell is finally inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining Craig Biggio as the big Killer B’s in the Hall.  I can’t help but think about my favorite Astro (not named Ryan) growing up, their teammate and friend Ken Caminiti.

Bagwell, Biggio, and Caminiti started at roughly the same time for the Astros, and formed the core of a great young team that never quite put it together.  It’s interesting that while Caminiti was perhaps the most heralded coming up, he obviously fell short of the other two in career accomplishments.  His is a tragic story, but it will never take away what he meant to me growing up.

I’m not really sure why I chose him as my favorite.  Caminiti was the best fielding third baseman I have ever seen.  He was not only a slick fielder, but also he had probably the strongest arm at third.  No one has ever made the diving stop into foul territory and cannon arm throw to get the guy at first like him.  It was poetry in motion.  Something that never got old.

He also was a huge guy.  Perhaps that why I was so impressed, because he was so intimidating.  I remember one particular brawl on the field where he flat out body slammed one of the enemy.  I would not have wanted to mess with him.  He was also one of the great bat-breakers in history.  It helps when you have legs the size of tree trunks.

He wasn’t a slouch offensively either, though he pales in comparison to his teammates.  Playing in the Astrodome for the first eight years of his career did not help.  It was always interesting to me that three years in a row, 1991-1993, he couldn’t break 13 home runs.  Finally he hit 18 in the strike-shortened 1994 season.  Of course after that season he was part of the huge trade sending him and Steve Finley among others to San Diego.  I liked him so much that the Padres immediately became my second favorite team.  That was when he finally started to show what he could do.  I would argue that his 1995 season was the most representative of what he could do (33 doubles, 26 home runs, 94 RBIs, .302/.380/.513).  Then in 1996, he exploded with a 40 home run season and a unanimous MVP.  He also led the Padres to the playoffs, and to the World Series in 1998.  He had two more good half seasons in Houston before injuries completely caught up with him and he had to retire in 2001.

Of course there are the unfortunate parts of his life.  He admitted to taking steroids during his MVP season.  He also had a lot of problems with drugs and alcohol.  Biggio and Bagwell, great teammates and friends, continued to try to help him, but the demons got to him.  Unfortunately he died in 2004 due to his drug habit.

But even so, I will never forget the great memories of watching him play.  There’s the famous Montezuma’s Revenge game in Mexico 1996 when he had to be hospitalized in the morning due to sickness, reportedly ate a Snickers bar, went to the ballpark, and hit two home runs.  

There’s the game when he returned to the Astros playing in then Enron Field.  The pitcher was 3-1 on him and I remember saying, “don’t groove a fastball or he’ll crush it.”  Of course, next pitch was a fastball down the heart of the plate and he crushed it down the right field line.  Called it!  (I believe it was April 8, 2000, which by the way was the only game Dwight Gooden ever started for the Astros.)  My brother will also talk about the game in the Astrodome when he came up with a man on third and two outs in a one-run game in the 9th for the Padres, and struck out.  I don’t care to remember that.  (May 23, 1998; the Astros had a two run home run in the bottom of the 8^th to take the lead.)

In the end, he was a troubled man, but I’ve only ever heard good things about him from his teammates.  They talk about his huge heart.  They talk about his greatness as a teammate.  They talk about his skill, especially defensively.  And that’s how I remember him.  A great ballplayer who made mistakes, but still brought a lot of happiness to his fans.  He is missed, but his memory lives on as his teammates and good friends are enshrined in Cooperstown.  They may have been better, but for at least one young 10 year old Houstonian, it was all about Cammy, #11.

My Vocation Story: Part 1 (Early Life-Grad School)

I was asked some time ago, by someone important, to write about something other than baseball and movies.  Someone else had told me, a couple of years ago, that I should write "the inside scoop" on seminary.  Well, I'm not going to go that far, especially since they say there are two things no one should know how they're made: sausages and priests, but I did figure that I could marry those two suggestions.  I figured I'd start what I hope to be a series of blogs about vocations and seminary, in case anyone wants to know more about that.  After all, one of the most frequent questions is: why would someone want to be a priest?

This first post is intended to be a glimpse at my process of getting to the seminary.  Some people may think all priests (or seminarians) have basically the same story.  In fact, as many seminarians and priests as there are, there are that many different stories.  I will say you can mostly group them into three camps: those who knew all their life and entered right out of high school, those who had an idea but still decided to try "real college" before seminary, and then there's the "late vocations," sometimes also called "second vocations."  These are the old, sometimes wise ones.  Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology, where I currently take classes in Milwaukee, specializes in these late vocations.

Ostensibly I fall into the third category, though not perfectly.  Despite what those at St. Francis might say, I'm on the lower end of the "late vocations," since most are in their 40s or 50s.  So for that group I'm young, though for many seminarians I'm old.  As usual, I don't fit in.

This is kind of getting besides the point.  How did I get to the seminary?  Why did I go to the seminary?  Good questions.

Let me begin by saying, I never, until very recently, thought about being a priest.  Growing up, I never thought beyond baseball.  I still rarely do.  I think the earliest I ever declare a future job was when I was about 5 years old I told my mom at Daily Mass that I wanted to be a doctor "so I could help people."  I don't know what that was about.  I remember saying it, but I don't remember thinking it.  I certainly moved away from the doctor thing quickly, since the sight, or even thought, of blood and other bodily fluids makes me queasy.  My sister got all of those genes. 

But, there's another detail in there that may be important: Daily Mass.  My mom took me every day until I started school.  So going to Church was normal for me.  It also led to a kind of funny side note, though seminarian me kind of cringes when I tell this story.  I had my first Communion at a very early age.  You see, I grew up in Houston, in the 80s.  They were (very unfortunately) very loose about things back then.  There was no tabernacle in the church (sigh) so after Mass the "extra" consecrated hosts were brought into the sacristy.  Did I mention my mom was a sacristan?  In any case, one day I found myself, hungry, in the sacristy.  I was tall enough to reach the counter, so I'm guessing I was around 5 (there's that age again).  I was hungry, I saw food, so I started eating.  After consuming a couple, my mom walked in, saw what was happening, and quickly made me stop.  The holy side of the story is: I could not wait to receive the Body of Christ.  The unfortunate side of the story is: I was able to do it in the first place.

I digress again.  As I said, I grew up very close to the Church, but in some ways it was so "normal" that I never really thought about it.  I never thought about being a priest, largely because I wanted to be like my dad and have my own family.  So that's how I went through the next twenty years or so: marriage was my only option. 

I eventually realized I would never be a baseball player, and being a manager was a long shot.  I had to think about something else.  I still don't really know how I decided on history, though the best explanation I can give is that I like my AP US History course (which was taught by my baseball coach).  In any case, when it came time to decide on college, I settled on history.  I also thought about theatre, and even auditioned for and received a theatre scholarship to the University of Dallas.  This was THE SCHOOL my mom wanted me to go to.  It's Catholic, and pretty solid at that, and nearly every student spent one semester studying in Rome (I could have met St. JPII).  The history program was pretty good, I had the theatre scholarship, and there was a chance I could walk-on the Division II baseball team.  It seems like the perfect fit!  But yet, on the last day I could choose, I went with Texas A&M.  I don't really have a good reason why, except that at the time I was working at Texas Roadhouse in College Station, with a bunch of Aggies, and I got swept up in the Spirit of Aggieland.  It can do that to you.

I am happy to say that, unlike the majority of "kids these days," I continued to go to Mass every Sunday.  It helped that St. Mary's is a pretty awesome place.  That being said, I do have to admit that many times it was out of obligation, or maybe guilt, more than "want to."  What I'm trying to say is that I was not exactly the best Catholic.  I started dating a girl in Houston, and it got pretty serious.  If you know me well, you know that it was serious enough that we got engaged.  For my 3.5 years at A&M, I essentially went home to Houston every other weekend, so I never really got into the St. Mary's scene.  Shortly before I graduated, we broke up, and I prepared to move on to grad school (and of course it was that easy to move on). 

This meant a move all the way to the University of North Texas in Denton.  During my two years there, I had a bit of a conversion experience.  By that I mean, something happened that made me take my faith more seriously, and Sunday Mass became less an obligation and more something I wanted to do.  During one of the summers, one of my best friends convinced me to go to Aggie Awakening.  So you see, while I was at A&M, I never even bothered to go, that's how out of the scene I was.  In any case, I went with an open mind.  I'm glad I did, because it remains one of the most important weekends of my life.  It was largely a "right place, right time" retreat for me.  I felt much closer to my faith, and realized I had to take it seriously.

I then moved on to Auburn University, and I actually went out of my way to become more involved in Church (difficult for my extreme introversion).  Even though I was already one of the "old ones," I got involved in the vibrant college student group.  (Another side note: by "vibrant" I mean, from a relatively small group, we have at least three religious sisters, one religious brother, and I believe four seminarians/priests from my time there.)  It was a very good group, with some people I wish I had got to know even better.  I also started to attend Daily Mass fairly frequently, eventually became the sacristan for our Thursday evening Mass, and was part of one of the two Sunday night Mass choirs for five years.  Despite all of this, I never once thought about being a priest.  It was still marriage or nothing.  I did, however, start to think about perhaps becoming a permanent deacon one day (the old "best of both worlds" falsity). 

During my time at Auburn, I was blessed with the chance to travel to Europe for my dissertation research.  I was studying the Mission Control Centers of the United States and European space programs, and needed to travel to each of them for research.  Houston was easy, California was a quick flight, and I also drove to D.C. for the National Archives (a great trip in itself).  The European leg consisted of three main stops.  First, I had to go to Paris to visit the European Space Agency Headquarters and archives.  I had never been that interested in going to Paris, except maybe to see Versailles and Normandy.  Instead, I loved my time there, and did not see either of those (meaning I need to return).  Next was the actual control center in Darmstadt, Germany.  It's a small city south of Frankfurt.  It is definitely not a tourist stop.  The final necessary stop was Florence, the home of the official archives for ESA.  I had not thought much about Florence before, except that I knew there was obviously a lot of history there.  If I fell in love with Paris, I don' t know what to say about Florence.  It is by far my favorite city I have ever visited.  The most meaningful stop for me was in the church of Santa Maria Novella, near the train station (and my apartment).  While I was looking around, completely blown away, I decided to sit down for a little while to take it all in.  At that moment, I felt completely at peace, as never before.  At the time, I took it as consolation of my faith, and an increased desire to serve the Church in some way (as a married man).  Looking back, it was probably my first real pull towards the seminary, but again, I did not see it as such at the time.

Oh by the way, while in Florence I met up with a couple of friends, and we took a side trip to Venice (disappointing, the city, not the company).  Also, while planning my trip, I decided: I'm so close to Rome, I can't NOT go there.  So I tacked on a few days at the end to visit Rome.  To be honest, after Florence I was not that impressed with Rome (but not the Vatican, that was amazing, especially the Sistine Chapel-Last Judgment!).  I need to go back to better appreciate it.

MLB Mid-Season Review

So we are slightly beyond the actual half-season, but we are at the All-Star Break, which is the traditional half-season, of course.  A little look back at what we have seen, what we can expect, and a check up on my predictions.

For the first time since 1969, there are two teams at the break with 60 wins.  The Astros had the best record in baseball for a long time, until the last week or so when the Dodgers got hot and just passed them by a game.  The Astros have the largest lead at 16.5 games (over both the Angels and Rangers), while the Nationals have the largest lead in the National League by 9.5 games.  The other two American League divisions are fairly close (2.5 and 3.5 games).  Meanwhile, the West has three of the four best teams in the National League.

I think we can all agree that the biggest surprise team is…the Brewers!  Who would have guessed they would be leading the Central (even if the division is overall bad) and have 50 wins at the break?  The most disappointing team has to be the World Champion Cubs, who are struggling at two games below .500.  A secondary surprise team would be the Twins, who are only 2.5 games behind the Indians and currently hold one of the Wild Card spots.  Another disappointment?  I would say either the Blue Jays (41-47) or the Tigers (39-48).  Brad Ausmus will be the first manager fired, unfortunately.  One final minor surprise team: the Braves, second in the East but three games below .500.

To mention a few players who are really standing out: of course the talk right now is all about Aaron Judge.  He’s leading baseball in OPS, home runs, and just four behind the leaders in RBI.  He also, of course, stole the show at the Home Run Derby.  As much as I hate to say something good about a Yankee, he has been impressive.  I also have to shout-out to George Springer.  Though he is my favorite player, I would not have predicted he would be second in baseball with 27 home runs.  Then of course there is the “other” Rookie of the Year, Cody Bellinger.  While his batting average may not be great, he has amazingly hit 25 home runs in less than 300 plate appearances.  It will be interesting to see if he can keep up his power numbers.

Now to review my predictions:

AL East: I had the Orioles first, but they’re in fourth in a stack division and can’t make up the ground.  I did, however, have the Red Sox in the Wild Card, and they look good to make the playoffs, probably hanging on to the division.

AL Central:  Flip the Tigers and Twins at second and fourth, and I had this one dead-on.  I did have the Tigers in the Wild Card, and I doubt that’s going to happen.

AL West:  Ding ding with the Astros on top (and my comment on them out-hitting anyone).  The rest of the division is a crapshoot right now, so I’m not worried about it.

NL East:  Oof, I was tired of picking the Nationals (though I did have them in the Wild Card), so I went with the Mets.  They’re terrible. 

NL Central:  Like most people I was high on the Cubs, and had the Brewers in fourth.  I also picked the Cardinals in the Wild Card.  I don’t feel good about that.

NL West:  Not too bad, I correctly picked the Dodgers and Diamondbacks 1-2, but was too high on the Giants, who are in last.  I did not see the Rockies being this good, and still think they will fall off.

Finally, my Astros predictions (so far):

1.      Yes, Gurriel has cemented his place at first.

2.      Yes, Altuve and Correa are both MVP candidates.

3.      Aoki has taken a backseat, mostly because he stinks (and Gattis doesn’t have enough PAs).

4.      Keuchel and McCullers were both fantastic in the first half (hopefully continuing after injuries).  Fiers has stood up when they were gone.  And it’s still expected they will trade for someone before the deadline.

5.      Giles has been much better this year.  I may have undersold Devenski.  The real problem is the bullpen between those two.  I wouldn’t mind another arm to take the place of Gregerson.

Astros June Review

Record: 16-11 (54-27) 13.5 games up

Average: Josh Reddick (.389)

Doubles: Jose Altuve (10)

Triples: Carlos Correa, Josh Reddick (1)

Home Runs: George Springer (11)

Runs Batted In: George Springer (21)

Stolen Bases: Jose Altuve, Josh Reddick (4)

Walks: Carlos Correa (15)

Strikeouts: Carlos Correa (24)

On Base Percentage: Jose Altuve (.431)

Slugging Percentage: George Springer (.733)

On Base Plus Slugging: George Springer (1.145)

Wins: Mike Fiers, Brad Peacock (3)

Losses: Joe Musgrove (3)

Earned Run Average: Mike Fiers (2.32)

Saves: Ken Giles (4)

Innings Pitched: Mike Fiers (31)

Hits: David Paulino (31)

Earned Runs: David Paulino (19)

Home Runs: David Paulino (7)

Walks: Brad Peacock (17)

Strikeouts: Brad Peacock (35)

Walks Plus Hits Per Inning Pitched: Mike Fiers (0.968)

How convenient (for me) that the last game of June was also game #81, i.e. the half way point.  All we have to do is double everything from the first half and we know exactly what we’re going to get!

June, for the Astros and for me, was an interesting and not always easy month.  Since I was out of the country for nearly the whole month, I haven’t been able to see many of the games, relying on recaps, box scores, highlights, and (too many) injury reports.  In many ways, that has been the story of June: injuries and chances.  At one point, four of the five main starters were on the DL.  Somehow, they have been able to cobble together some decent starts and plenty of offense to more or less keep rolling.  Also, I predicted 17-10, and so was only one game off.

The month started with a continuation of a great stretch.  A three-game sweep in Arlington was part of an eleven game winning streak.  Then came the roughest part of the season so far, as the Astros went 4-8 over a twelve game stretch, most of it at home.

There have been two big stories in June.  First, the resurgence of Mike Fiers.  Of course, I was the loudest voice behind the “get rid of Fiers” club, and they basically had until he was pressed into emergency service on May 30.  All he did after that was one dominant performance after another as he took over the defacto ace role for the ailing rotation.  How is this for turn-around: after giving up 18 home runs in the first two months, he gave up none in five starts in June!  Cheers to him for stepping up.  Brad Peacock also did an admirable job, going 3-1 in five starts with a 3.33 ERA.  The problem is the number of fill-in starters have not been able to pull their weight in innings, which has begun to take its toll on the overtaxed bullpen.  They’re going to need to do something to turn that around as the season moves into the second half.  A playoff team is only as good as its bullpen.

The second story has been the offensive outburst from guys like Springer and Correa.  Springer’s home run numbers in particular have been impressive (he’s on pace for nearly 50 home runs, and already set a franchise record for lead off home runs and became the first player in baseball history with nine lead off home runs before July).  Springer is also on pace to become the second player in baseball history to have 100 runs scored and 100 runs batted in from the leadoff position (the other?  Darin Erstad).  Josh Reddick has also stepped up and cemented himself in the #2 hole with a great month.  While this offense is great, the team will need to become more balanced in the second half of the season if they expect to go far in the playoffs (at this point we should assume they will make it).

May outlook:  Two final games against the difficult Yankees at home before the pre-All Star break road trip East to Atlanta and Toronto.  After the break, they start with winnable series at home against the Twins and Mariners, before another long road trip to Baltimore (tough), Philadelphia (should be a sweep) and Detroit (tough again).  A little optimistic, but I’m hoping for a 15-9 record.

Overall Grade: B+