Word is that Mark Kotsay may be making his 2009 debut with the team during the upcoming set in Detroit, and I’m perfectly fine with that. Because I’m something of a Kotsay buff. And here’s five of the reasons why:
1) The wide range of options he gives us as a key role player. The guy gives good glove, whether he’s subbing for the easily broken JD Drew or giving Teets the option to rest Lowell and flip Youkbacca to third, as witnessed when Mikey was down and out of the 2008 playoffs. And his gritty style of play is the sort of thing we appreciate ’round these parts. The guy ain’t afraid to dirty up a shirt, and a few of his highlight-reel snares during the ALDS and ALCS were testament to that.
2) His vague resemblance to a long-lost Baldwin brother. In fact, in some ways, Kotsay looks less like a ballplayer and more like a guy who’d be playing a hot-headed but somewhat vulnerable space cadet on an episode of the old Battlestar Galactica. The guy who’d try to make time with Starbuck’s woman, then take off on his own to intercept a Cylon attack. “That young fool was one of the bravest men I’ve ever met,” I can almost hear Lorne Greene sighing during the poignant, episode-closing funeral scene.
3) His potential to achieve Bellhorn-esque cult status. And he was already thisclose during the 2008 ALDS, when he came inches shy of belting in the winning run in Game Four, before Jed Lowrie finished the job in the next at-bat.
4) His hot wife. Come on, you knew this was coming. Yet, unlike Mrs. Damon, Mrs. Kotsay chooses to fly under the radar, despite the fact that a family this insanely good-looking deserves its own reality TV show.
5) The fact that his presence on the team gives me a chance to belt out my favorite war cry from the 2008 post-season: “When I say ‘Kotsay,’ you say ‘F@#k Yeah!'”
