[閒聊] '06: An unlikely champ, pink bats and 1st WBC

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-2006-year-in-review

'06: An unlikely champ, pink bats and 1st WBC
'06：黑馬、粉紅球棒、第一屆世界棒球經典賽

Year: 2006
NLDS: Cardinals over Padres in 4; Mets over Dodgers in 3
ALDS: A’s over Twins in 3; Tigers over Yankees in 4
LCS: Cardinals over Mets in 7; Tigers over A’s in 4
World Series: Cardinals over Tigers in 5
MVPs: AL: Justin Morneau, Twins; NL: Ryan Howard, Phillies
Cy Youngs: AL: Johan Santana, Twins; NL: Brandon Webb, D-backs
Rookies of the Year: AL: Justin Verlander, Tigers; NL: Hanley Ramirez, Marlins

All-MLB Team (chosen by me, in 2020):
1B: Albert Pujols, Cardinals
2B: Chase Utley, Phillies
SS: Derek Jeter, Yankees
3B: Miguel Cabrera, Marlins
OF: Jermaine Dye, White Sox
OF: Carlos Beltrán, Mets
OF: Manny Ramirez, Red Sox
C: Joe Mauer, Twins
DH: David Ortiz, Red Sox
SP: Johan Santana, Twins
SP: Brandon Webb, D-backs
SP: Aaron Harang, Reds
SP: Chris Carpenter, Cardinals
RP: Trevor Hoffman, Padres
RP: Francisco Rodríguez, Angels

（上面這些應該就不用翻了）

When did the illusion that a Major League Baseball regular season was enough
of a marathon to whittle out any non-contenders from the postseason party
begin? Was it in 1973, when the Mets went 82-79 and still reached the World
Series? Was it in '81, when the Royals were under .500 in the first "half" ofthe season, but got to play in the postseason because of their strong second
"half"? Was it in 2005, when the Padres barely sneaked over .500 at 82-80 andstill made the postseason? Or was it simply when Billy Beane said in “
Moneyball” that his “[stuff] doesn’t work in the playoffs?”

大家是何時產生了「棒球球季長度長到可以把任何沒競爭力的球隊從季後賽中淘汰」的
幻覺的？是大都會隊賽季82-79卻打進世界大賽的1973年嗎？還是皇家隊「上半季」勝率不到五成、「下半季」卻暴衝打進季後賽的1981年呢？還是教士隊以82-80的成績勉強溜進季後賽的2005年呢？還是從Billy Beane在「魔球」中說出「這套在季後賽不管用」這句名言的時候呢？

I might argue that 2006 was the year that did it. The postseason never felt
less like a crapshoot than it did in '06.

我會說是2006年。沒有哪年的季後賽比06年更像是在賭花旗骰的。

You could argue there were five legitimately excellent MLB teams in 2006. TheYankees (who won 97 games with a fun mix of young and old, including an
MVP-caliber season from Jeter), the A’s (93 wins from the peak “Moneyball”
era), the Twins (who had both the American League MVP Award and the AL Cy
Young Award winners), the Tigers (an all-time chemistry team, with an AL
Rookie of the Year Award winner in Verlander, and all sorts of appealing
veterans) and perhaps the best team of them all, the Mets (with a ridiculous
lineup that featured David Wright and José Reyes right as they were
exploding, the best year of Beltrán’s career and a still terrifying Carlos
Delgado). Any one of those teams would have felt like a worthy World Series
winner, and a title would have ended two decades of pain for the Tigers, Metsand the Twins, it would have vindicated everything Beane was doing in Oaklandand it could have been the Yankees grabbing the crown right back after the
Red Sox had so cruelly stolen it from them two years earlier.

你可以說2006的大聯盟裡有五隻貨真價實的強隊：該年贏得97勝、擁有打出最有價值球員等級的Jeter以及組成有老有少的洋基隊；贏得93勝、正值「魔球」巔峰期的運動家隊；同時擁有該年美聯賽揚獎及最有價值球員的雙城隊；當年擁有著史詩級團隊化學效應、美聯最佳新人Verlander以及一群各方看好的老將的老虎隊；當然還有擁有正在起飛的DavidWright和Jose Reyes、巔峰時期Beltrán以及戰力依舊的Carlos Delgado等驚人打線、實力也許是這五支球隊之冠的大都會隊。

上述五支球隊都有問鼎世界大賽冠軍的架勢；老虎、大都會、雙城隊都可藉此解除長達二十年的冠軍荒；Billy Beane可藉此向世人驗證他在奧克蘭所做的一切；而洋基則可藉此將兩年前被紅襪殘酷地奪走的王冠給搶回來。

But none of those teams won the World Series that year. None of the 12 teams
that won more than 83 games won it. Nope: The St. Louis Cardinals won it.

但上述這些球隊當年都鎩羽而歸。甚至當年那12支超過83勝的球隊通通槓龜。不好意思，最後是聖路易紅雀隊摘下桂冠。

The Cardinals had put together some terrific teams in the years before 2006.
The '05 squad had won 100 games. The '04 team won 105 -- and remains the bestCardinals team of the last 30 years. They’d reached the playoffs six out of
the past seven years. If you were only looking at the uniforms, you might
have thought this was the same team.

在2006年前的紅雀隊確實是一支超強勁旅：05年他們贏了100場、04年他們甚至贏下隊史近30年來最佳的105勝。他們在過去的七年打進了六次季後賽。如果你只看制服，你會以為這完全是同一支球隊。

It was not. Pujols was still Pujols, but everything else around him had
fallen away. Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds, previously his MV3 buddies, were
racked with injuries, and Rolen had been openly feuding with manager Tony La
Russa all season. The pitching staff had a terrific Chris Carpenter and a
bunch of castoffs, from Jason Marquis to Jeff Suppan to a falling-apart Mark
Mulder to Sidney freaking Ponson. The team’s second-best hitter was Chris
Duncan, the pitching coach’s unheralded son. Because the rest of the
division was so weak, they still had a seven-game lead with 12 games to go …
and then nearly blew that by losing nine of those last 12. They ended the
season with 83 wins and looked even more wobbly than that. The general
presumption was that the Cardinals would get wiped out in the National LeagueDivision Series by the Padres. But, thanks largely to Carpenter being
brilliant and the Padres hitting .225 for the series, they sneaked out a
four-game victory. But clearly they would get stomped on by the powerful
Mets, a team that seemed to be having the year their fans had been waiting
much of their lives for.

實則不然。雖然Pujols依然是Pujols，但他周圍的一切都開始分崩離析：在當年和他同為「最有價值三兄弟」的Scott Rolen和Jim Edmonds都因傷所苦；Rolen和Tony La Russa間的將帥不合也早就是公開的秘密；投手部分雖有王牌Chris Carpenter，但也有一群像是Jason Marquis、Jeff Suppan、解體中的Mark Mulder、以及Sidney他Ｘ的Ponson之類的龍套輪值；當年隊上第二好的打者甚至是投手教練那懷才不遇的兒子Chris Duncan。

由於當年國聯中區實在太弱，紅雀在球季剩12場的時候在分區裡還有七場領先—然後又差點因為最後那12場中輸了九場被翻船。球季最後他們贏了83勝，但他們整體看起來比那更狼狽不堪。當時大家普遍認為他們在分區系列賽會被教士隊橫掃出局。但是，多虧了表現亮眼的Chris Carpenter以及系列賽打擊率僅.225的教士打線，紅雀於鏖戰四場後意外勝出。但顯然他們下一輪不外乎會被當時聲勢如日中天、球迷等不及要揚眉吐氣的大都會隊給碾壓過去。

But the Cardinals kept finding weird ways to win. And then, in Game 7 of the
National League Championship Series, when Suppan was brilliant, light-hittingyoung catcher Yadier Molina hit a two-run homer in the 9th and then rookie
closer Adam Wainwright loaded the bases and then got the monster that was
Beltrán to freeze on a curveball from the gods. Somehow, that "bad"
Cardinals team had made it to the World Series.

但紅雀隊就是找得到那贏球的一千零一種方式。然後呢，當年國聯冠軍戰第七戰，Suppan技驚四座；頭角崢嶸的年輕捕手Yadier Molina在第九局敲出兩分砲；而當時的菜鳥終結者Adam Wainwright在把壘包塞滿後用一顆天降大曲把昔日怪物Beltrán給徹底凍結在打
擊區。就這樣，紅雀隊這隻「爛隊」殺進了世界大賽。

It would have to end there, though, right? “Tigers in 3,” went the
predictions, particularly with unproven (and much lambasted by the manager)
rookie starter Anthony Reyes starting in Game 1. Yet somehow, someway, the
83-79 Cardinals, a team their fans weren’t even all that fond of, had won
the World Series. It was surreal and absurd.

美夢到此總該結束，對吧？當紅雀首戰派出未經歷練、還被教頭嫌東嫌西的菜鳥先發投手Anthony Reyes扛下重任時，大家都預測老虎會橫掃戰局。然而不知為何，當年僅83-79、連自家球迷都不怎麼看好的紅雀隊，就這樣誤打誤撞贏了世界大賽。這一切都如此荒謬且不真實。

But weird business happens in the playoffs. The general consensus in baseballtoday is that while it’s nice to win 100-plus games, the real goal of any
season is just to get in the tournament. Get in the tournament and then see
what happens. After all, you never know? Sometimes a lousy team sneaks in andhas everything inexplicably fall their way at the exact right time. The 2006
St. Louis Cardinals absolutely did not deserve to win the World Series. And
yet the flag still flies above Busch Stadium, nevertheless.

但怪事總是在季後賽中發生。現今棒球界的主要共識是：單季百勝固然不錯，但球季的真正目標是先拿下季後賽門票；至於之後的事就之後再說。畢竟，誰知道會發生什麼事呢？有時候一支不怎樣的球隊溜進了季後賽後突然掌握天時地利人和，誰也擋不住。2006年的紅雀隊根本不配贏得當年世界大賽，但那面冠軍旗幟至今仍飄揚於Bush Stadium上空。

Here are 10 other fun facts from the 2006 baseball season.

以下是2006年球季的其他十件趣聞。

1) It remains insane that Jeter didn’t win the MVP this year. For all the
talk about media coddling Jeter throughout his career, they sure had a
tendency not to show up for him come awards time. Jeter was the best player
on a Yankees team that wasn’t among the best during his era, but still won
97 games, in large part because Jeter was having one of his absolute greatestseasons. And yet the award went to Morneau of the Twins, who had 130 RBIs.
Jeter never did end up getting an MVP. This is the year he should have, as werecently found.

一、Jeter當年沒贏得最有價值球員這件事，現在想起來還是很扯。大家總說Jeter生涯都是媒體寵兒，但當要記者媒體投票挺他的時候他們又不約而同搞失蹤。當時的洋基隊即使不是Jeter時代最好的樣貌，卻也主要因為Jeter的巔峰球技而贏下97勝。然而當年美聯的最有價值球員獎頒給了打下130打點的雙城隊一壘手Morneau。Jeter整個生涯從未獲選最有價值球員，而我們最近發現，2006年應該是要由他獲獎。

2) This was the year the Braves’ stranglehold on the NL East finally
loosened. They had won their division an insane 14 consecutive times (the
first three were in the NL West), but those Mets finally swiped the crown
from them in 2006. The Braves wouldn’t win another one until '13, though they’ve now won the NL East in two straight years.

二、在這年勇士隊的國聯東區霸主地位終於易主。他們過去蟬聯14年的分區冠軍（前三年在國聯西區），但在2006年終於被大都會隊篡位。勇士隊直到13年才終於重奪分區冠軍，而他們目前已連兩年蟬聯國東冠軍。

3) Barry Bonds passed Babe Ruth on May 28 with his 715th homer, this one off
Byung-hyun Kim, to reach second on the all-time homers list. You would have
thought this would be a feat widely celebrated. But it wasn’t. And that’s
largely because:

三、在這年的5月28日，Barry Bonds從金炳賢手中敲出超越Babe Ruth成為全壘打榜史上第二的生涯第715轟。你可能認為這會是一件普天同慶的大事，但實際上並沒有，因為：

4) On March 30, MLB commissioner Bud Selig appointed former US Senator GeorgeMitchell to produce a report on what he considered a steroid epidemic in
baseball. The report was not focused solely on Bonds, of course, but while itwas ongoing, and Bonds was going for that record, it sure felt that way.

四、該年3月30日，時任大聯盟主席的Bud Selig指派前參議員George Mitchell針對棒球界的類固醇濫用現象做一份調查報告。這當然不是針對Bonds，但調查進行的過程中Bonds好巧不巧也正在進行紀錄追逐戰，所以很難讓人不做聯想。

5) On April 6, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins went 0-for-4 against the
Cardinals, ending his (continued-from-2005) hit streak at 38 games. The
streak never made it far enough to get anyone terribly excited, which partly
had to do with its interrupted nature. But maybe we should have been more
excited. That’s the longest hitting streak this century. The closest is
teammate Utley, that year, at 35, and Luis Castillo, also 35, in '02. In the
last decade, only Dan Uggla (in 2011), has made it over 30.

五、在4月6日，費城人隊游擊手Jimmy Rollins於對上紅雀隊的比賽四打數零安打。這終結了他跨季連38場安打的紀錄。雖然部分因為是跨季紀錄的關係，這個不算特別長的連
續安打場次並沒有造成喧然大波，但也許我們應該要對此感到更興奮，因為這其實是這
個世紀目前為止最高連續安打場次；其次是隊友Utley於同一年、以及Luis Castillo於
02年所打下的連35場安打。在上個十年，只有Dan Uggla於2011年達成連30場安打。

6) Two new traditions began this year. The first, on Mother’s Day, players
and uniformed personnel wore pink wristbands, and some players used pink
bats, to show support and raise money for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure
charity. Brewers' Bill Hall set the tone for the new tradition with his
walk-off home run vs. the Mets using a pink bat. The tradition goes strong
still today.

六、有兩項傳統是在這年開始的：首先，為了為慈善機構募款，球員和著制服員工在母
親節這天佩戴粉紅色護腕，部分球員則於當天使用粉紅色球棒；釀酒人隊的Bill Hall以使用粉紅色的球棒於對上大都會隊時擊出再見全壘打打開此先例。這項傳統迄今不衰。

7) Also a first in 2006: The World Baseball Classic. The United States went
down in the second round, failing to advance as South Korea and Japan
advanced from their bracket. (Fun names from that '06 WBC roster: Michael
Barrett, Randy Winn, Brian Schneider, Chad Cordero, Gary Majewski and Dan
Wheeler. Oh, also, Jeter, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr.)
Japan ended up winning the first-ever WBC title, over Cuba, thanks to an MVP
performance from a pitcher few Americans had ever heard of named Daisuke
Matsuzaka.

七、世界棒球經典賽也是從2006年開始。美國隊於第二輪被淘汰；同分區的日本和南韓
則晉級到下一輪。（06年美國隊一些有趣名單：Michael Barrett、Randy Winn、Brian
Schneider、Chad Cordero、Gary Majewski和Dan Wheller。喔對了，還有Jeter、RogerClemens、Alex Rodriguez和Ken Griffey Jr.）多虧了一位當時沒多少美國人聽過的投
手—松坂大輔的超水準表現，日本擊敗古巴成為史上第一屆世界棒球經典賽冠軍。

8) The great Buck O’Neil died in Oct. 2006, but he had one last moment for
us before he went. At the age of 94, O’Neil appeared in the Northern League
All-Star Game, making a plate appearance for the Kansas City T-Bones. He was
intentionally walked, and then replaced in the field. He’s in the box score;
he was pinch-run for by current Cardinals first-base coach Stubby Clapp. He
would posthumously be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
George W. Bush that December.

八、一代傳奇Buck O'Neil於當年十月過世，但他離世前還是留了一刻給我們：高齡94歲的O'Neil出席北方聯盟的全明星賽，並留下一打席的紀錄。他被故意四壞球保送後即被
換下。他的名字在記錄表中留下了紀錄；他被代跑的現任紅雀一壘指Stubby Clapp取代。同年十二月，他於死後榮膺小布希總統頒發的總統自由勳章。

9) One of the odd, sad factoids of Maddux’s incredible career was that he
never threw a no-hitter. (He always said he wouldn’t because he was in the
strike zone too much.) But he sure did come close in 2006. The Dodgers tradedfor Maddux (from the Cubs) at the Trade Deadline, and in his first start, at
Cincinnati, Maddux was incredible, throwing six no-hit innings. But then it
began to rain, and the 46-minute delay led Maddux to stay in the dugout when
the delay was over. Manager Grady Little said, “He was saying during the
rain delay that he had a no-hitter in Little League and that was going to be
good enough for the rest of his life.” It would have to be.

九、Greg Maddux傳奇生涯中一個令人惋惜的奇妙事實就是他從沒投過無安打比賽。雖然他總是說他由於太常進攻好球帶導致不會有這樣的機會，但在2006年他可是曾經差那麼
一點。當時剛在交易大限從小熊被交易到道奇的Maddux在效力新東家的第一場先發對上
紅人隊時就不可思議地投了六局無安打。然而接著就開始下雨，而在因雨導致的46分鐘
延賽後，Maddux就繼續坐在休息區了。對此道奇教頭Grady Little表示「Maddux在延賽
的那段期間說反正他在少棒就投過無安打比賽，所以已經心滿意足了。」可不是嗎。

10) Speaking of the Dodgers, they did something that would prove helpful for
their long-term future in 2006: They’d draft a future Hall of Famer. Just a
few months before they traded for Maddux, they drafted Clayton Kershaw with
the seventh pick in the '06 MLB Draft. He was the sixth pitcher selected. Thefirst six: Luke Hochevar, Greg Reynolds, Brad Lincoln, Brandon Morrow and
Andrew Miller. It sure would be quite the draft for pitchers: Selected just afew picks after Kershaw were Tim Lincecum (10th, Giants) and Max Scherzer
(11th, D-backs).

十、說到道奇隊，他們在2006年時是做了一件會讓他們日後受益的事：他們在選秀會上
選了一位未來的名人堂球星。就在他們交易來Maddux的幾個月前，他們在06年選秀會的
第七順位中選中了Clayton Kershaw。Kershaw是當年選秀會中第六位被選走的投手；前
五位分別為：Luke Hochevar、Greg Reynolds、Brad Lincoln、Brandon Morrow、以及
Andrew Miller。當年選秀會上可謂投手雲集：比如在Kershaw後的幾支籤有被巨人隊於
第10順位選走的Tim Lincecum、以及被響尾蛇隊於第11順位選走的Max Scherzer。

--

05/03 12:43

可以自己加啊：「十一、洋基隊的台籍投手王建民當年（下略）」

多虧王建民效應，那年（連同前一年的05）可以說是不少台灣人大量關注大聯盟的起點

說的也是

我想那個RP名單大概就是取當年兩聯盟的救援王吧 美聯方面雖然那年MO和K-Rod的成績差不多 但那時剛好是K-Rod全盛期，而MO就一直是那個MO 然後別忘了當年還有個防禦率0.92、ERA+ 517的Papelbon 以及Joe Nathan、B.J. Ryan等投出生涯年的強力後援 國聯方面那年強力後援還有大都會隊的Billy Wagner、以及表現意外很亮眼的齋藤隆等 不過齋藤那年也不是全職終結者就是了

還有「愛國裁判」Bob Davidson

是沒有錯，但原文寫「first six」所以就跟著照翻。改一下（原文不改）看看如何

那又是另一個可歌可泣的故事了，而且不只有世界大賽G6可以講

經典對決：季後賽開無雙的Beltrán對上當年季後賽一分未失的Wainwright