Beats Working at Sears

Matt Stairs, the plucky Canadian, is looking to set a major league record of playing for his 12th team, the San Diego Padres, yahoo.com is reporting.

His journey took him from Montreal to Boston to Oakland to Chicago to Milwaukee to Pittsburgh to Kansas City to Texas to Detroit to Toronto to Philadelphia, with stopovers in 11 more minor league cities and a stint in Japan, and now to San Diego, where he wants to scratch out another season as a pinch hitter. Pitchers Mike Morgan and Ron Villone, owners of always-in-demand rubber arms, played for 12 teams apiece. A position player has never done that…

Stairs made a name for himself later in his career as a lefty slugger, at DH and in the OF for the A’s, and only began getting significant playing time at the age of 29.  By that time, the A’s were his third professional team.

Now he is mostly a professional pinch hitter, getting a chance to hit every few games when the times call for a veteran lefty.  He can still play the outfield and gets his chance every few games.

It would seem like playing for 12 teams would be a dubious distinction, but it would seem to be somewhat of a badge of honor.  He’s a veteran, he’s contributing and he still gets to “squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases – stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag…”

Well, maybe not stretch a double into a triple anymore, as Moonlight Graham in Field of Dreams said, but you get the drift.  He doesn’t have to get a real job.

Sears sucks, Crash. Boy, I worked there once. Sold Lady Kenmores. Nasty, whoa, nasty.

He gets to suit up every day, shag some flies, take some BP, be with the guys.  An awesome life, getting paid to play ball.

Why not extend it for as long as he can?