The Weathers trade

Amounts to very little in the grand scheme of things, but this blog post about it by John Fay at the Cincy Enquirer website has me thinking about stuff:

David Weathers was in the seat in front of me on the red eye from San Francisco to Cincinnati.

“Walt Jocketty isn’t the most popular guy with my son right now,” he said.

You tend to forget the human element when a trade happens. Sunday’s trade took Weathers completely by surprise. His family is home in Tennessee — two of his three kids have started school. He’s going to get his car and drive to Milwaukee this afternoon. The Brewers are off today.

I was having a drink at a bar in the same hotel the Reds were staying in Cleveland for an interleague series a few years ago when Weathers walked through the lobby after one of the games. He was met by his wife and a bunch of kids, one of whom I presume was the son who isn’t happy with Walt Jocketty. They mobbed him, and Weathers walked to the elevator with kids literally hanging off of him, a big happy smile on his face the whole way. I haven’t been able to read the guy’s name or watch him pitch since then without thinking of him as Super Dad, so I’m feeling for the guy today, even if it’s less than two months until he’s back home with the kids.

Second, I love road trips, and even if the Cincinnati-to-Milwaukee drive is about as far down on the road trip interestingness scale as you can get, I’m getting happy thoughts of Weathers cruising up I-65 towards Chicago — I’m guessing he has an SUV, but I’m going to pretend it’s a 1962 Ford Galaxie 500 — listening to some good music, slurping on a Coke and burping up Steak ‘n Shake. I’m going to pretend that he hit the one just off the State Road exit in Lebanon, Indiana, and has spent the last 30 miles wishing he had ordered the Bacon ‘n Cheese Double instead of the Deluxe Cheddar ‘n Bacon, because everyone knows that real American cheese is better than “cheddar sauce,” whatever the hell that is.

Sorry, I was drifting there for a second.


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Doug
14 years ago

my friends and I have always affectionately called Weathers “Moonface” because we think he looks like the man in the moon.  That said, I always thought he was underrated and people in Cincinnati never full appreciated him.

Nick C
14 years ago

As a Cardinals fan I am just glad he is staying in the NL Central so that El Hombre can continue to get at-bats against him…in 19 plate apperances #5 is hitting .526/.571/1.158/1.729 off Weathers.

Jason B
14 years ago

I work at a bank in Tennessee, near where David’s family lives. David is on our bank’s advisory board, and is really a class act. 

Craig, I think you’re right—we oftentimes think of trades as moving chess pieces strategically around the board, and often minimize or tend to forget the very real impact it can have on people—the players, and the people close to them. 

I think the statistically-minded among us are prone to such ways of thinking, particularly (and I include myself in that number) because we’re so used to thinking of a player as their slash numbers or their WAR or something that tends to reduce them to just a number or stat line.

RickyB
14 years ago

Interesting, since I just mentioned David Weathers today in casual conversation as someone you can’t imagine having had a 19-year (19!) career in the bigs. He didn’t even post an ERA+ of 100 until his 10th year (granted, a couple of those seasons he didn’t pitch all that much, but bear with me …).

Since 2000, he has had an ERA+ of at least 100 every year, and at least 130 over the last four years for Cincinnati. But now he is returning to the place where he first found himself as a pitcher—ERA+ of 148 in 2000, then 213 (!) before being traded mid-year in 2001. Good times, good times …

af
14 years ago

I’m remembering a story about a Mets pitcher, very like Weathers (if it wasn’t, in fact him), who was traded to Houston at this point in the season. The story involved a 4-year-old son crying inconsolably in the locker room, insisting that Daddy might go to Houston but he was going to remain a Met.