Ryan Anderson wants to be like me
JMB · June 14, 2006 at 9:13 am · Filed Under Mariners
It’s apparently not enough for former M’s prospect Ryan Anderson that he had more of a professional baseball career than I ever will. No, The Little Unit has enrolled in school at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona. The Mariners are even paying roughly half of his tuition (I haven’t asked if they’ll cover mine, even though I’ve been to far more of their games than Anderson ever has).
To which I say, bring it on, Little Unit. You may be six-foot-ten, but I’ll outcook you every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
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Hi, I’m 10 days ago, nice to meet you.
We remember his cockiness – alright, arrogance – when he was first signed. As a result, some may take satisfaction in his downfall. But if you ever aspired to an exalted place in life and fell short of your hopes, you cannot help but identify with and sympathize with him.
I wish him very well.
LOL – I posted this a week or so ago in a gameday discussion thread and it got deleted for being off topic. Welcome to the party.
Hi 10 days ago, I regret to inform you that I don’t read every comment posted here (gasp), so missed the article the first time around.
DKJ — no satisfaction taken here.
I bet his stirring and pouring mechanics suck.
Cool. I’ll be watching for your showdown on Iron Chef America.
I bet his stirring and pouring mechanics suck.
In all seriousness, either his back is killing him or he’s making other arrangements. I go to school with a guy who’s probably 6-5, and he stacks up three thick wooden cutting boards so he’s not bending over so far for his knife work. Heck, I’m only 6-1 and most counters are too low for me.
I bet he ends up working at the Space Needle restaurant.
it would be so easy to make a joke about him grabbing his shoulder just as he was reaching for the whisk, but as Jason says, between wondering how his back will handle most kitchens, and the fact he is actually getting on with his life (and moving on from his dad) …. nah.
I thought it was interesting that (at least as of few years back) the M’s were the only organization that had a specific person in place to coordinate player education– that they didn’t just hand them the contractual scholarship money.
He should avoid working at Luigi’s Grotto in Pioneer Square. If you’ve ever been there, you know what I’m talking about. Good place for a before-game drink though.
I’m suprised they are only paying half. I thought all drafted players got it in their contracts that schooling would be paid for in full, guess I was mistaken.
I think it depends on the player, the agent, the family, and what they ask for…. from Larry Stone in the Times in 2003:
“Because education was a big consideration to the Mayberry family, the Mariners offered to pay for him to attend Stanford in the offseason. To which [Stanford coach] Marquess told me, “The fact of the matter is, there’s not a major-league team that can give an example of someone who signed out of high school and got his college degree. It doesn’t happen, and that’s easily shown by me.”
The Mariners strongly dispute Marquess’ point, and they have the data to back it up. It turns out that they have pumped considerable money — seven figures’ worth — into an innovative college scholarship program for their draftees, and numerous players have used it to get their degrees.
“Either Mark doesn’t know, or he’s giving out bad information,” said Benny Looper, Seattle’s vice president of player development. “We’ve got guys that have graduated from Stanford, UCLA all over the country.
“We know there’s life after baseball, and only a small percentage of them make it (in the major leagues). We’re willing to take a chance. We’ll give you a scholarship to pay for your schooling, and we’ve had a lot take advantage of it.”
Looper provided the names of eight of Seattle’s minor-league players who went back to school and got their degrees, including Matt Sachse at Stanford. The others are Cory Paul (Phoenix College), Paul Brannon (UNC Charlotte), Sal Urso (Central Florida), Robert Valentino (Michigan), Mike Burrows (Westminster College in Salt Lake City), Hubert Parker (UCLA) and Casey Craig (Central Michigan).
Al Coons, a professor of math engineering at Pima Junior College in Tucson, Ariz., has run the M’s scholarship program since 1991 and is passionate about its benefits. The program allows scouts to offer high-school draftees up to the same amount of value as the education cost of the school that accepted them. When the player is finished with baseball, he has two years to start the program.
“I can’t overemphasize the thought that we know there’s life after this game,” Coons said. “We want to give these kids a fair opportunity to make a proper decision with all the information on the table: This is what we can do for you, and this is what college can do for you. We felt we needed something to back these kids up with.”
Coons said the Mariners had 48 players enrolled full-time in college last year, plus nearly 20 taking correspondence and online courses, and others who went for a trimester after instructional ball.
Coons works closely with admissions offices and college administrators, even university presidents, to work around the baseball season for active players.
“You’d be shocked at what we’ve offered in the millions of dollars and how many players we’ve graduated,” Coons said. “We’re averaging 10 players a year getting their degrees while playing for us.”
Coons said the Mariners honor their education commitment to players even if they’re traded out of the organization.
“We still have money left over for Ken Griffey,” he said. “And we have a lot of money for Alex (Rodriguez) to go to school if he wants to.”
I didn’t know that the Mariners (and prsumably other teams) did that. Thanks for the info.
I hope Rett Johnson took advantage of the college money. That boy needs something to do besides moping at mom and dad’s place in Alabama.
This quote got to me, really. It’s so full of naive sweetness that you just want to give the guy a hug … or a friendly, career-ending punch in the shoulder:
[]
Er, I mean Doyle.
#16: So YOU’RE the reason Doyle’s hitting .234.
Can you imagine Doyle as a chef?
I bet he puts in a little time in a nice resturant as garde manger chef, and blows out his shoulder chopping Italian parsley.
Actually, it would be interesting to hear him pronounce ‘mis en place’. I concur about the workplace height though; I’m also 6′1″, and found a lot of kitchens being a little too low for me.
Jimmie
I just finished a marathon on Sunday (my 15th, I think, I’d have to check) about 50 minutes slower than I used to. I used to be a contenda! So I definitely can sympathize with Anderson once being the toast of the organization and now having to become just another face in the crowd, or above the crowd. Wanting to give it another shot in a couple years does bring a smile to your face, but it’s not all that different from Ali concluding at 40 years old that he still had it and climbing into the ring with Larry Holmes. (Holmes was to do the same thing about a decade later with Mike Tyson.) It’s hard to let go. I wish him luck in whatever he does.
#12 thank you so much for that info. I never knew.
I actually feel proud that I support an organization that would look after it’s former employees.
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I think Doyle is more suited for an extreme tour guide or world-class surfer.
But of course, he is BEST suited for being the Mariner DH right now. I’d like to see someone who actually would draw a walk in the lineup (we’re dead last in the AL, even behind KC).
Yeah, our guys are so hard to walk they had to PLUNK Lopez last night to give him a free pass.
Oops, I think baseball is OT in this thread.
but Carl is a veteran! he’s important in the clubhouse!!!! a veteran presence!!!!
I always find it surprising that kitchens are often just the right size for me. I’m average height and female. The majority of chefs are male and taller than me, It is often still thought of as a man’s career.
As for Anderson getting into Scottsdale, I’m green with envy. I used to dream of going to that school and eventually opening my own restaurant. Then I changed majors.
So congrats to you, Anderson I hope you do well.
I’m holding my breath until I see Culinary Prospectus evaluate his VORC (Value Over Replacement Chef) and 2007 POACHCOTA.
Jim, that’s freakin’ brilliant…..definitely on a roll.
More central to the topic, I think this is something for folks to remember; an area where the club is definitely doing something right.
I wonder what it will take for the Mariners to DFA Everett, or even to switch his role with Petagine. Everett is performing roughly as expected (perhaps a little bit below) when he was signed. Low average, some homers, some walks, can’t hit lefties. It took two months for Hargrove to decide to sit him against lefties. I.e., if sucking was sufficient to get him DFAed, the Mariners never would have signed him in the first place.
btw, Deanna has a theory on why Blanton owns the M’s….
JMB,
How long does culinary school take anyways? Does it depend on where and specifically what you study or is it just a general study type program.
JAC
Sorry Jason, but JMB already has the Mariner-blogger-turned-chef title. You’ll have to come up with something else, like crochet.
I hope Batista gets a job somewhere. He’s awful, sure, but that deranged batting stance is always fun to watch.
Yeah, but as Mariner-blogger-turned-chef-blogger, he’s way behind on his posts. And dammit, those make for some interesting reading…
I wonder what it will take for the Mariners to DFA Everett, or even to switch his role with Petagine.
Lord, why would you do that? I know we feel for Petagine not getting much of a shot in the bigs…but there’s really no reason for Doyle to be in Tacoma once we know he’s reasonably healthy enough to DH every day or close to it (or even better, playing some OF and pushing Raul to DH when that happens), and on a team that’s below .500 and not bloody likely to be in the playoffs, serve youth before handing jobs to 34 year old DHs.
I mean, really, if Morse is going to get called up while hitting like crap in Tacoma, what’s the difference if Doyle’s hitting .23whatever?
And Doyle’s more fun to watch.
I’m not sure Hargrove would know how to handle Doyle (and do anything more than let him sit on the bench for weeks at a time).
There’s no point in bringing up Doyle until a) he hits better; and b) Hargrove is fired.
And c) shows he can play the field at full-tilt effort.
I actually feel proud that I support an organization that would look after its fellow employees.
Lesson number one for business: Good business decisions help both parties. Lesson two: The best decisions help both parties lots. The Mariners offer a college scholarship program to their players because it’s an attractive way to pull kids from the college system into their minor league system. This gets them better players.
This is also a benefit for the kids. If their baseball career goes to hell then they have something to fall back on. It’s a good business decision for both sides.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad the M’s are doing it, too. It’s a great part of their compensation package. It’s just another way that the free market helps people out.
Every team in baseball does this. It’s not a Mariner thing.
There’s no point in bringing up Doyle until a) he hits better
Uh, why, as long as he’s heathy? If he was ready last year and in 2002, he didn’t suddenly lose the ability to hit, did he?
I look at his time in Tacoma as a rehab option, and really couldn’t care less what he hits there (barring a total collapse)… and with a total stiff right now at DH doing a WFB impression, it’s not like we lose anything, really. Really, you don’t think Doyle could outhit WFB for his next 150 PAs if we started DH’ing him now?
Doyle is unproven in the field this year. Willie Dynamite’s “value,” as it were, is in his ability to put on a glove and stand where asked. As good a hitter as I believe Doyle is, he’s hasn’t shown it yet this year … and even if he did, he’s not showing his full value until he’s ready to scale outfield walls and dive for gap fly balls.
Also- I don’t think Hargrove is going to be fired anytime soon unless the team tanks, and I’m not convinced we’re going to tank. Team’s well on pace for a 81-81ish season. 79-83 might be where we’re at (basically, .500 the rest of the year).
All that being said…if Doyle’s not ready, he’s not ready. I sure as hell don’t care about bumping C-Rex from the lineup at this point, though, or even if he gets DFA’ed with no return and ends up going to some other team if we can’t flip him for a A-ball relief pitcher and case of baseballs- Heaven forfend we should actually vest his option.
Not everybody comes back from injuries. Not everybody comes back from multiple injuries. He’s not driving the ball. I’m not convinced he’s ready.
JAC,
The CIA program is 21 months for an associate’s degree; I started in May 2005 and will be done in January 2007. I think that’s probably a pretty standard length. It’s another 18 months if you want a bachelor’s (which I signed up for at the time, but there’s almost no chance now that I’m going to stick around for it).
Knuckels,
I’m in the middle of six weeks in the classroom. Unfortunately, it’s rather boring. I was planning a post this weekend to wrap up the first half of this block.
Jason, are you hoping to bring your skillz back to Seattle?
I asked Mike Curto today about those “transferred to Everett” roster moves by the Rainiers.
His reply:
“They are just paper moves. We have too many guys here right now. In Quiroz’s
case, his wife had a baby. Dan Wright went to Everett today becuase he
pitched 4.1 innings yesterday. See?”
I voted for the Little Unit in the Iron Chef poll. When the mystery ingredient was unveiled, his armspan would let him reach across the table and grab all the best lobsters/kale/pumpkins/coconuts out from under Jason.
Unless he tore a rotator cuff cracking open the coconuts.
Then again, what do we know about Jason’s injury history?
… and even if he did, {Doyle’s] not showing his full value until he’s ready to scale outfield walls and dive for gap fly balls.
I wouldn’t go that far. Some outfielders–especially those with histories of injury–just don’t dive much. They get to what they get to and it keeps them in the lineup more often. Here’s to hoping Doyle doesn’t do much more diving in the future.
By the way, he’s in CF tonight.
His first time playing the field since May 16th. And they’ve got him running around center.
That’s a far cry from the protective goalie gloves Bavasi was talking about fitting him with back in April.
Haha, good one, Dave.
I don’t know the first thing about cooking in any manner, except the end-user part where the result is consumed…
I ask asking for general knowledge purposes… Culinary Arts just seems different…
So because I can’t copy JMB… how about I copy Ryan Anderson and become even MORE of a disappointment than I already am?
Just don’t copy Rett Johnson and move to the middle of nowhere.
Re: #20
I once STARTED a marathon… /wink
Rhett Johnson moved to McCall, ID?