Retroactive LCS Gippers

This is a post that I should have made over a week ago, but I didn’t really think of it until Marco Scutaro emerged as the Gipper of the San Francisco Giants.

Scooter-Gipper

And Scutaro is certainly worthy of the Gipper role, just as much as he’s worthy of the NLCS MVP. He’s 36, has logged nearly 5000 regular season plate appearances for six different teams, and has never made it to the World Series. He’s been a part of just one other post-season as part of the 2006 Oakland Athletics team that was swept in the ALCS by the Detroit Tigers. This postseason, he’s batting .500, and has come up with several big hits. We don’t need to chronicle the illegal slide by Matt Holliday that Scutaro bore the brunt of in Game 2 of this past NLCS.

The thing is, the Cardinals had an equally (if not more) worthy Gipper in Carlos Beltran. Beltran is 35 years old, has logged 8349 regular season plate appearances with five different teams, and has never appeared in a World Series. (Fun fact: he’s been in the NLCS twice, in 2004 with the Astros and in 2006 with the Mets, both of whom were defeated by the Cardinals.)

The closest the Yankees come to having a Gipper was Russell Martin (3674 regular season PA, two teams, no World Series appearances). But really, who cares about the Yankees not making the World Series, except Bud Selig.

The Tigers, on the other hand, have a batch of players that have logged a lot of time and never been to the World Series. Delmon Young (3575 PA with three teams) and Jhonny Peralta (5232 PA with two teams) both would are excited to have made it I’m sure, and Peralta’s has been excellent this post-season, but, subjectively speaking, he doesn’t inspire the way that Beltran — a great player — or Scutaro — a scrappy glovesmith — do.

Jose Valverde, The Big Potato, gets closer. He’s 34 years old and is in his tenth season. If you pair him with Prince Fielder (4900 PA), and you have something to root for.

But Prince and the Tigers have a great core that should be together for at least a few more years; they’ll have a window. Who knows what will happen with Scutaro, who’s a free agent after the season.

I mean, I’ll still be pulling for the Tigers and the city of Detroit, but I can’t blame anyone for hoping the Giants win four more for their Gipper.