superstition

Well, I’d have to be completely off my rocker to not follow up yesterday’s post about Dallas McPherson with an update after he absolutely feasted off the Round Rock Express (Houston Astros) pitching staff Monday evening- smashing three homers and raising his season batting average 13 points to .297. McPherson ended up driving in a third of the Albuquerque Isotopes dozen runs on the evening as they doubled up on the Express by a score of 12 to 6, and remained a single game behind the Pacific Coast League American South leading Oklahoma Redhawks.

Although witnessing that power display was exciting enough, Dallas sweetened the pot after the game by autographing an additional THREE cards from my collection.

Everyone knows that many baseball players and even more baseball fans are a superstitious lot, so it may not come as a surprise to learn that even baseball card bloggers are often afflicted by the same bug. With that in mind, I have decided to highlight another Isotopes player in the hope that he will respond with a career game.

In order to prevent the other managers from my fantasy baseball leagues from posting comments to the point that I’m not the greatest predictor of baseball player performances, I am selecting today’s player, second baseman Andrew Beattie, on the basis of his walk-up song… Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.”

I am of the opinion that this is one of the better walk-up songs in use by the players on the current Isotopes roster. The tune begins with a fantastic synthesizer riff that alerts even the most casual fan that something interesting may be afoot. Even though the song is never played in its entirety, one cannot dismiss the lyrics that they do not hear.

“When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way”

Not that Andrew Beattie’s performances on the field aren’t deserving of attention. The second baseman is maintaining a .306 batting average over 157 at bats, and his 26 runs scored are second only to McPherson’s 31. The fact that Beattie only has two dingers on the season shouldn’t lead you to believe that he only scratches out seeing-eye singles however, as he leads the Isotopes with 16 doubles. Andrew has struck out 31 times and has been charged with 4 fielding miscues. While caught stealing once, Beattie shares the team lead in stolen bases with five successful attempts.

The baseball card featured is from a 2007 Disabled American Veterans limited edition set that was distributed to fans as small (usually two to five cards) team sets at various minor and major league ballparks as a promotion to educate the public about the services provided by the DAV. I’m already looking forward to July 25th when the DAV will return to Isotopes Park. Be sure to check the 2008 DAV schedule to see when they will be appearing at a ballpark near you, and make your plans to attend.

– Kris

Tags: Albuquerque Isotopes, autographing, DAV, Kris, minor league baseball, PCL, Triple A baseball