58 days ’til Opening Day

There are 58 days left until that best day of the year, MLB Opening Day.

58 is also the number of runs David Eckstein scored last season.

They were gritty, scrappy runs. Because that’s what he is. A gamer. A dirt bag.

I never understood baseball writers’ fascination with David Eckstein. He’s a good player, but closer to mediocre than he is to great. He gets on base at a decent rate but has no power. I’ll defer to the greatness of Fire Joe Morgan to find sources of sportswriters gushing over Eckstein. From the Toronto Star:

Partner new Blue Jay shortstop David Eckstein and the word “scrappy” and a Google search will advise you of some 5,300 possibilities. In just 0.38 seconds, too.

From ESPN.com’s Eric Neel:

In a country that loves gritty and gutty, he is the grittiest, guttiest cat of them all.

OK, this isn’t from a sportswriter, but from an ESPN.com poll:

Which player would you rather have?
69.6% Alex Rodriguez
30.4% David Eckstein

Wow. Baseball fans are crazy. So Eckstein is short. I’ll take a big guy with some power over Eckstein any day. And I like Eckstein. He helped my Angels win a World Series. But I would never, ever take him over A-Rod. Nor should anyone sane.