Former Mets 1b Trying to Make it in the States
By Mike Silva ~ January 27th, 2009. Filed under: Mike Silva.
On January 4th, Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker joined Howard and me on NY Baseball Digest Radio. One of the questions asked Patrick that night was if there were any American players that could make a MLB comeback. Patrick said he would need some time to think about it.
True to his promise, he thought of some individuals that he believed might be able to help a MLB club in 2009. One of the names is former Mets 1b Craig Brazell. Patrick describes Brazell as “former Saitama Seibu Lions: cut loose after one year with the Lions, Brazell struck out too much in Japan and had a poor on-base performance, but did slug 27 home runs. I can see him playing AAA this year in an org that’s thin at 1b, and getting a shot if he performs well”.
To date, Brazell has proven to be the prototypical 4-A pro player. Despite all that, he does have one career homer that Dusty Baker and the Cubs remember. On September 25th, 2004 Brazell hit his first, and only, major league home run in the 11th inning to beat Chicago 4-3. That same day Victor Diaz tied the game with two outs in the ninth inning off of LaTroy Hawkins. The Cubbies would go on to lose six of their next seven games, effectively ruining any chance of winning the Wild Card. What made this hurt even more was that this tough loss came the year after the whole “Steve Bartman scenario”. Many point to the Diaz and Brazell homers as the turning point of the Cubs 2004 season.
If Brazell never plays another pro game, he can at least tell his grandchildren that he helped extend the Cubs string of futility. Who needs a billy goat when you have Craig Brazell? Good luck this spring with the O’s Craig.
