How About A Little Love for Bellhorn
By Steve Marsi
I’d like to send belated birthday greetings to Red Sox infielder Mark Bellhorn, who turned 30 on Monday and recently returned from a stint on the disabled list. Despite enjoying a fine season, Bellhorn rarely gets the recognition he deserves. With the notable exception of my girlfriend Liz, who frequently cites him as her favorite Boston player in part because no one else does, he lacks a significant following. Everywhere you look, players’ replica jersey t-shirts are sported by fans young and old, male and female. Nearly every player is represented – backups, relief pitchers, even blasts from the past like Mike Greenwell – but #12 shirts are scarcer than sightings of Byung-Hyun Kim. That should change.
What’s not to like about Bellhorn? Born right here in Boston, Mass., he is a working-class hero on a team full of stars. The former Oakland Athletic and Chicago Cub is just a drifter trying to get by in this world like the rest of us, an average major league journeyman making a paltry $490,000 this season. Like myself, he has apparently forgotten to stop by Supercuts this calendar year. His hirsute, not-particularly-athletic-looking appearance (which resembles Rob Schneider’s character in the 1999 classic "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo") is in line with Fenway favorites past and present. Brought in primarily as a backup second baseman, injuries to others have given Bellhorn playing time all over the infield and he has put together consistently strong numbers, replete with statistical anomalies.
A friend of mine described his own performance on our softball team one night as Bellhorn-esque, having gone 1-for-4 with a walk. This assessment is more than a little accurate. Despite hitting a pedestrian .256 for the season, Bellhorn was among the league leaders in walks and runs scored before a fractured thumb forced him onto the DL. He has managed a solid on-base percentage of .374, while slugging out 13 home runs and 56 RBI. Yet his true distinction lies in his number of whiffs – 122 – good for fourth in the league, despite a 16-game absence. This is a player the common man can identify with. I haven’t seen a greater display of striking out since myself on the high school dating scene. My theory is that NESN has a pre-recorded sound byte of Don Orsillo saying "Bellhorn strikes out," and simply cues it up every ninth batter. It’s good to have him back. Hopefully by the end of the season, he will be able to look into the Fenway stands and see shirts bearing his name.
In Boston’s first two contests against Toronto this week, Bellhorn was a combined 1-for-5 with a triple, two walks and two strikeouts. His hit was one of only three registered by the Sox on Monday as Toronto prevailed 3-0 thanks to a complete-game, 13-strikeout performance by Ted Lilly. The Blue Jays jumped to a 3-0 lead again yesterday, but Boston rallied on a two-run single by Manny Ramirez in the fifth and a three-run home run by Doug "MassPike" Mirabelli in the sixth. Serving as the team’s regular catcher in place of the suspended Jason Varitek, Mirabelli freed the beast for the eighth time this year after a single from Orlando Cabrera and a walk by Bill Mueller. Mike Timlin rescued Boston from a bases-loaded jam in the bottom half of the sixth, and Keith Foulke registered the final four outs for his 23rd save, preserving a 5-4 win for Boston.
The teams meet again in the series finale tonight at SkyDome, with Curt Schilling (15-6) taking the mound against Josh Towers (9-4). The Red Sox (71-53) remain tied in the wild card race and 6 — behind New York in the A.L. East.
