“When one door closes, another opens.” –Alexander Graham Bell
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Al Bell aside, that quote/cliche is reserved for two kinds of people: 1) used door salesmen & 2) those trying to spin a negative into a positive. Today, yours truly is a little of both, as Cam James can’t make his bi-weekly start because he is/was driving across Kansas. How big is flocking Kansas?! Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Let’s make a taxing Friday into a… wait for it… Good Friday! Yeah! With that, let’s go through the doors of Players Named Jesus, Mets Opening Day and Jackie Robinson
Players Named Jesus
You can’t mention Good Friday and not mention Jesus, right? The challenge here is keeping it sports-related. So here are some off-the-top-of-my-head players named Jesus.
Jesus Alou
His brothers Matty and and Felipe, were better MLB players but, more importantly, must have been thanking their lucky stars it wasn’t them that their parents named after a Messiah. That’s pressure, after all. Pressure not unlike what Did Gregorious experienced trying to walk in Derek Jeter’s sandals. In Jesus’ debut with the Giants, all three Alou brothers batted in the same inning (they were retired in order). Later that week, all three played in the outfield at the same time. That must have been Heavenly. NOTE: Felipe’s son, Moises, played for the Mets and peed on his hands.
Ivan DeJesus, Sr
A lifetime B.A. of .254 over 15 Major League Baseball seasons isn’t exactly changing water into wine, but it’s better than anyone reading this hit in The Bigs. A solid shortstop, I just seem to remember him killing the #Mets. Ironic that someone named for a savior would be associated with murdering a group based in Flushing, no?
Ivan DeJesus, Jr
What’s better than one family member named Jesus? Two, of course! Heck, everyone in the DeJesus clan (trying to keep Celtic readers interested) is named for the J-Man when you think about it. Junoir’s Junior’s career was but 4 years – not near what his padre had – but again, that’s 4 more years of MLB service than you. Of note, he had two stints in The Show, separated by 3 seasons in the minors. The last time he played was with the Lexington Legends on the Battle of the Bourbon Trail. That alone makes the likes of Angry Ward smile, which is a goddamned miracle.
That’s all I have in the Jesus Department, as I refuse to include soccer stars and don’t remember any others.
Mets Opening Day and Jackie Robinson
It sucks that I’m in Indianapolis while the Mets open at home. I’d like to be there. But hey, it’s a paid play-by-play gig for Major League Rugby, calling the D.C. vs Utah match tonight at 8pm. Watch for free if you feel frisky. Yet I digress. Brace yourself for this very controversial take on the day honoring the late/great Jackie Robinson, a man whose courage I cannot begin to remotely fathom. Here goes… Jackie Robinson was a Dodger. The Brooklyn Dodgers ripped the heart out of NYC when the bolted for Los Angeles in the middle of the night. Five years after that despicable event, the New York Mets were borne. As a Mets fan, I curse Fred Wilpon for building a shrine to those Dodgers EVERY TIME I enter CitiField via the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. Jesus H. Alou, that rotunda/main entrance should be a Mets shrine. Let’s put a proper Jackie Robinson dedication somewhere prominent in the ballpark, for sure. Absolutely. Just not the the entrance. The entrance should be all about Casey, Seaver, Mookie, Doc, Keith, Grote, Koos, Rusty, Straw, Yogi, even… you get the idea.
That’s all I have for this… taxing but Good Friday. Feel free to leave for write-offs below.
