Jamie D’antona
I have been so preoccupied with my boring life that I lost track of the who/what/where/when/why of some of my favorite players.
So, I decided to check on my favorite Tucson Sidewinder, Jamie D’Antona.
Jamie D'Antona signs two-year contract
A little history:
I am being too lazy to check out all of D’antona’s stats, so we’re going to have to go with memory on this (sorry in advance). He was expected to be one of the Diamondback’s up and comers, then had a rut, then got better but there was no place for him in Arizona, along with some questionable defense, so he was then released to go play for a Japanese team. I remember in 2008, while playing third for the Tucson Sidewinders, there was a period of a couple months where he was batting right around .400, which made him a crowd favorite. He got to play in the Future All Star game, and when he was called up to Chase field I think he got a hit, a single. That’s all I can really remember, I apologize Jamie if you are reading this. **If any reader realizes I’m a wrong, please let me know.**
I was sad that he was going to Japan (how would I see him play?), but the Sidewinders moved to Reno so I wouldn’t have been able to see him live anyway. Boo hiss. Oh well.
So D’Antona is playing for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Or at least that’s what Google tells me. I realize you can’t believe everything Google tells you, but in this case I am. He plays first base, and seems to be doing well. All I can gather from articles, and other blog posts is that he had a couple of bumps along way but here are how his 2009 stats read:
RBI- 83
HR- 21
AVG- .276
He appears to be leading the ball club with 110 strike-outs. Oops.
It was rumored that he had a problem with the manager, or more that the manager had a problem with him, but rumors only get ya so far, seeing as he agreed to a two-year deal for 73 million yen(!). Don’t get too hot and bothered, according to Google (yes, there appears to be a dependency issue here) that translates to roughly the mid-800,000s. Still, a decent chunk of money, a team that needs him, he gets to do what he wants, and appears to be a slight crowd favorite, so all in all I think D’Antona is doing just fine.
Go Jamie, played ball with him back in the day for Team CT. He was a stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud!!! Hope he comes back to the states, keep rippin em jamie!
I hope he comes back too, I miss watching him play, but if he’s loving it over there, then he should definitely stay there. Thanks for reading my blog!
Have you ever read “The Last Best League”? It’s a book about a season in the Cape Cod league and the main player they really talk about in the book is Jamie. Check it out. It’s a reeeeally good read.
No, I haven’t read it yet, however, it has been on my reading list. Along with way too many books. I’ll be sure to move it to the top of my list!
I played baseball with Jamie in high school back in CT, and he was the man back then as you can probably imagine. He helped us to a state title in 1998 when I was co-captain with Craig Breslow (now a pitcher in the bigs with the A’s). I haven’t been able to see Jamie play in person since he’s made it to the big time but I hope he comes back to the states at some point so that I can go say hi. Thanks for the update and let me know if you hear of anything else.