Carlos Beltrán's the one Hall of Fame lock on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot for 2023 — or, he would be, if not for Astrogate. The rest of the ballot newcomers had their moments, but they didn't turn them into or advance from there into Cooperstown cases. A lot of them looked like potential Hall of Famers at first, too.
Maybe the saddest of them all is Jacoby Ellsbury.
Was there any 2010s sight sadder than Ellsbury — whose 2007 cup of coffee turned into shining in that Red Sox-winning World Series — taken down piece by piece by injuries? There was, in fact. It was the sight and sound of Yankee fans battering him mercilessly and witlessly over yet another injury doing nothing worse than playing the game.
The injuries compromised him in Boston and made him an unfair pariah in the Bronx. He had Hall of Fame talent: some power, above-average center field defense, and a knack for turning base-running into guerrilla warfare. Especially the day he scored on a wild pitch — from second base. Especially escaping a rundown in Game Six of the 2013 World Series.
The first of Navajo descent (his mother) to play major league baseball, Ellsbury was treated unfairly by fans and perhaps a teammate or three on the grounds that his injuries, and his sensible enough need to recover fully before playing again, equaled a character flaw. They derided him unfairly as a fragile goldbrick. They tried to make him feel as though injuries incurred in honest competition equaled weakness.
It got bad enough that, when one of Ellsbury's four children was born on the Fourth of July 2019, and the proud father announced it on Instagram, he was attacked mercilessly by the worst of the Twitter twits and other social media mongrels. The guy who helped the Red Sox win a pair of World Series rings before leaving as a free agent could have been in traction and the worst Yankee fans would have accused him of staging it.
Once upon a time, Ellsbury broke the Red Sox's consecutive-game errorless streak record. He hit four doubles and stole a base in the '07 Series and looked on the way to becoming one of the all-time Red Sox greats.
Then, in April 2010, he crashed into a human earth mover named Adrián Beltré (himself a future Hall of Famer) at third base. He suffered four hairline rib fractures on the play, came back too soon, saw a thoracic specialist who recommended more rest and rehab, rejoined the Red Sox that August ... and re-injured the ribs on another play against the Rangers later the same month.
More injuries followed often enough. Then Ellsbury, fed up with whisperings that he took "too long" to recover from them, elected to walk as a free agent without so much as a quick glance back at the Red Sox. In Year One as a Yankee, he played the way Jacoby Ellsbury at his healthiest could play. (He led the American League with a 22.7 power-speed number.)
From an essay I wrote when the Yankees finally released him in 2019 (for using a rehab facility outside the organization — without their permission, as if a man injured so often didn't know himself what might be best for him) . . .
2015 — Right knee sprain on May 20; out two months, rest of the season nothing to brag about, unfortunately.
2016 — Uninjured but production falling further, including his lowest total stolen bases to that point during a healthy season.
2017 — Smashed his head against the center field wall while making a highlight-reel catch. Concussion. Missed 29 games and lost his center field job to Aaron Hicks, but somehow managed to break Pete Rose's career record for reaching base on catcher's interference, doing it for the thirtieth time on September 11, which also happened to be his 34th birthday.
2018 —Strained his right oblique at spring training's beginning. Turned up in April's beginning with a torn hip labrum. Missed the entire season (and underwent surgery in August) because of it.
2019 — Started the season on the injured list with a foot injury; also turned up with plantar fasciitis in the foot (the same injury plus knee issues that reduced Albert Pujols as an Angel to a barely replacement-level designated hitter) and another shoulder injury. Took until September for the Yankees to admit Ellsbury was lost for the year.
I repeat further what I wrote then: not one of those injuries was caused by anything other than playing the game or performing other baseball-related activity. Remember that before you continue condemning Ellsbury the man or the Yankees as a team over him.
"Some people give their bodies to science. I gave mine to baseball," said long-ago Met (and Giant, Expo, and Cardinal) Ron Hunt. Ellsbury did likewise. It cheated him out of a Hall of Fame case, and it made too many fans believe he was no better than a gunsmith running weapons to Russia against Ukraine.
Ellsbury didn't become a Yankee because he believed his previous injuries really began draining the talent that was once as electric as a generator. He didn't wear the pinstripes believing he'd become an orthopedic experiment. He isn't owed a plaque in Cooperstown, either. But he's certainly owed more than a handful of apologies.
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