A Mike Sweeney Timeline
by Jeff Sullivan on Oct 14, 2010 12:29 PM PDT
in Miscellaneous
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PrintAugust 2009: batting in the mid-.200s, Sweeney figures he will retire at the end of the season
September 2009: Sweeney re-considers after a talk with his wife, and sets sights on returning in 2010 in southern California or Seattle
October 2009: Sweeney becomes a free agent
January 2010: Sweeney remains a free agent
February 2010: Sweeney comes to camp with the Mariners on a minor league deal but is considered a long shot to make the roster ahead of Ryan Garko; consensus opinion is that Sweeney was brought in to be a veteran presence in ST, and that the Mariners are letting him work out to try and catch the eye of another team
March 2010: Sweeney bats .512, while Garko blows
April 4, 2010: Sweeney officially makes the Mariners' roster
May 21, 2010: Sweeney goes 4-5 against San Diego with two home runs to lift OPS near .900
June 3, 2010: Sweeney placed on DL for first time with back soreness
June 25, 2010: Sweeney starts at first base
June 26, 2010: Sweeney placed on DL for second time with back soreness
July 2010: Sweeney hangs out, does nothing
Early August 2010: Sweeney placed on waivers
Early August 2010: Ryan Howard sprains his ankle
August 4, 2010: Sweeney traded to Phillies to fill in for Howard, then work off bench when he returns
September 26, 2010: Phillies clinch playoff berth
October 5, 2010: Sweeney officially named to Phillies playoff roster
October 8, 2010: Sweeney makes first-ever playoff appearance and singles against Aroldis Chapman
October 10, 2010:
"Here we are," Mike Sweeney says. "This is the most joyful I've ever been in my baseball career."
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Love Sweeney, hate him, or think he's okay, this is about as perfect as a story can get.
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Made even more perfect by the fact nobody in the locker room was wearing those goddamned champagne goggles
I am going to come into your house at night and rec up the place.
I'm happy for him!
and I consider this incontrovertible evidence that hugs work.
Does anybody really not like Sweeney?
I mean, you can not like his production and lack of flexibility he created when with the Mariners, but I’d blame those situations more on management. How can you actually hate the person Mike Sweeney?
If you hate Mike Sweeney, you're not American.
Or not a human being, one of those.
by Patrick Stites on Oct 14, 2010 12:49 PM PDT up reply actions
My dad always says Sweeney reminds him of Burt Lancaster's character in Elmer Gantry.
I mean this in a way to describe how someone could not like Sweeney – not that Sweeney is actually like Gantry.
Hate is not the word I would use, but I dislike tha man.
But my dislike predated his Mariner tenure by many years.
Let's pretend he was in a different line of work that he was still good at. Would you like him then?
by .Taylor on Oct 14, 2010 3:35 PM PDT up reply actions
I don't like Sweeney because he wanted to fight the rookies in the clubhouse.
Morgan Ensberg for Manager 2011!
AL Scout on Rendon: "I would peg him as a poor man's Jose Lopez."
Would you prefer he fight them in the parking lot
If I was a hungry man with a gun in my hand and some promises to keep...
Of course I missed the punctuation there.
If I was a hungry man with a gun in my hand and some promises to keep...
I don't like Sweeney.
Never have. Something about him just gets on my nerves. If he’s successful as a pinch-hitter with the Phillies, what the fuck, I’m not bugged — but I’m unmoved.
ignacio
I think Jeff Weaver doesn't like him :-)
Video (sorry, best video quality I could find)
Will Mike Sweeney become one of the players that people
“will get sick of” if the Phillies win the WS?
I don't think that's true
Sweeney would win and then go away.
by Jeff Sullivan on Oct 14, 2010 4:15 PM PDT up reply actions
Absolutely not.
Milton Bradley apologist
by sanford_and_son on Oct 14, 2010 2:25 PM PDT up reply actions
I hated Mike Sweeney on the Mariners because we sucked and he sucked and he served no useful purpose on the active roster
Mike Sweeney getting to play in the playoffs is awesome
by seattlebruin on Oct 14, 2010 1:11 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs
I'm happy for him.
A lot of Royals fans still have an opinion that he screwed the team by making multiple trips to the DL after signing a big contract with them. I understand the let down of Sweeney hitting the DL a ton after being giving a lot of money by the team, but it’s not like he was at his mansion in Johnson County lighting cigars with $100 bills while wearing a Cardinals hat. The guy got hurt and it sucked, but he also chose to stay in KC when every other decent player jumped ship when FA hit. I don’t really have a team I care about still in this but I won’t be upset if the Phillies win and give Sweeney and Halladay a championship.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Hooray for Sweendog!
But really, this post served to remind me the Mariners, at one point, had Ryan Garko. Back in the halcyon days.
How can anybody hate Mike Sweeney?
Especially considering that he isn’t on the Mariners any more?/.
Judging by all the comments above mine, my questions are probably not necessary.
Been talking about this exact chain of events ever since the M's traded him.
A great baseball story. Hell, a great human story.
Milton Bradley apologist
by sanford_and_son on Oct 14, 2010 2:24 PM PDT reply actions
Congrats Sweeny.
If I were him I would retire after this season. I couldn’t think of a better way to end a career
I just went back and looked at the articles from the end of last season.
He really should have ended it there. It would have been a good way to finish.
But his ceremony was so nice,
carried off the field by his team, sold out crowd at safeco cheering.
Good for him.
We so seldom see a story actually work out, it’s nice that it happened to one of the good ones.
Looing back, it's obvious now
We should have kept him for the remainder of the season. There’s no doubt in my mind we would have lost no more than 100 with him in the lineup.
Possnanski offers his tribute to Sweeney
Not much to add, in my mind. We, unfortunately caught Sweeney at the end of his career. But there is a reason why guys like Wakamatsu valued him highly.
We can think guys like Wakamatsu are stupid and we’re smarter than they are. Or we can think that maybe we’re not as smart as we think we are. I incline toward the latter.
"Most all good Americans hate the Yankees. It is a value we cherish and pass on to our children like decency and democracy and the importance of a good breakfast." - William B. Mead
Normally I would hate a guy that says shit like "Sweenys never give up"
But this guy seems to mean it, somehow I think he would be an interesting guy to meet. Obviously the Mariners didn’t need him, but he didn’t ruin 2010. That was Griffey.
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