I am glad others are worried about this young man.
Shit rolls downhill but the blame needs to go further uphill. Owner Jerry Colangelo leveraged the hell out of the team to try to get big wins early on. In addition to the big salaries the team is saddled with payments on a new statium that had severe cost overruns. The first season was okay profitwise even though the 'backs almost had a worse first season than the Mets but Jerry screwed up by raising ticket prices during fan appreciation week. The fans didn’t appreciate it and started staying away in droves. Maybe Buck Showalter deserved the axe but it was Colangelo’s choice to hire a rookie manager Brenly out of the broadcast booth. He’s done remarkably well but like Kim he’s in way over his head now. Brenly can walk away from this but I just hope the burden of the last two games doesn’t crush Kim.
Even if the D’backs win the series they’ll still face at least a decade of crushing debt. They’ll have no choice but to shed salaraies and repeat the rollercoaster of the Marlins after their win.
I just cannot imagine what this kid must be feeling. I know when I screw up a play in hockey, I feel like crap, and there is no one watching except the other players and maybe a dozen other people. To be 22, in a foriegn country on an international stage… man, I do not envy him. From what I’ve read, he doesn’t even want to be the closer. While I hope the Yankees hold on and win, I wouldn’t feel so bad if he is able to get a save in the 7th game to clinch it for his team. The poor guy deserves that much. Of course, if I were the manager, there is no way in hell he even gets to warm up the rest of the series.