Fact of the Day

From today's Clark Spencer piece on Wes Helms:

On the field, his contributions can be found in the numbers. His 44 pinch-hits with the Marlins are tied for the career team record with Alex Arias. Since 2005, Helms has 64 pinch-hits, the most in the majors.

Wow.

1. I didn't know Wes had that many pinch hits.
2. I would have never guessed Alex Arias held the team record.
3. Seriously, it's kind of lame that Alex Arias holds a team record. Thankfully Wes will break it sometime in April or May.

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Two Omens

Two things happened in the past 48 hours:

Exhibit A: Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla went all Jeff Kent/Barry Bonds on each other Tuesday, with Uggla questioning Ramirez's commitment to the team and implying that Hanley pulled out of Tuesday's game to preserve his league-leading batting average. The incident was later played down as "family business."

Exhibit B: Wes Helms hits a walkoff home run Wednesday night after Leo Nunez gives up a game-tying home run in the top of the ninth inning. Afterwards, Craig Minervini receives word via a text message from the man himself that Nick Johnson is rejoining the team and is "good to go."

I have a feeling that at the end of the month, I will look back to these two incidents and (myopically) consider one to be an omen of how the month of September played out. Which will it be?


Image via Page2.

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