Of Rats and Men: Mike Carp giving the Mariners that grown-up bat they've been ...
. Yes, I know, real original. Everybody from Guadalajara to Buenos Aires is rolling their eyes over that one.But there's a good story behind the rat. Carp received it from teammate Jose Coronado , a Venezuelan infielder, while with the Mets in Class AA Binghampton before the December 2008 deal that brought him to Seattle.
"Everybody on that team had some kind of nickname, or some kind of thing they were known for,'' Carp said. "So, for me, somebody just thought it was funny that I be given a rat.''
Coronado and his Spanish-speaking teammates gave the rat his name. Carp carried the rat with him in the minors and it got a new nickname last year -- "Rally Rat" -- as the AAA Tacoma Rainiers battled for the PCL title.
The rat was placed in the on-deck circle and hitters would tap it before stepping to the plate.
Carp doesn't have any rodents greeting him in the on-deck circle this year. El Raton , or whatever it's called, stays in his locker. But he hasn't needed any pre-at-bat luck in his second go-around with the Mariners. In 127 plate appearances with the M's so far this season, he's hitting .310 with an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .861.
And most of that has come since being called back up on July 19. In 85 plate appearances since then, he's hit .358 with four homers, 18 RBI and a .981 OPS.
Yes, he's been the "big bat" this team really needed back in mid-June. You know, right around the time Carp was first called up from Class AAA.
Unfortunately for the M's, they were already auditioning guys for 2012 back then even when fans were hoping they could stay in the 2011 hunt for first place. Instead of deploying Carp every day after he'd produced a 22-game hitting streak in the minors, the team insisted on running Carlos Peguero out night after night, as if oblivious to what was going on in the standings or on the scoreboard.
Now, Peguero is back in the minors working on some things so the next time he gets called up, he won't be striking out every second or third at-bat.
And Carp is finally getting the playing time he probably should have received back when the season still meant something other than serving as an open audition.
"That's what I was doing in AAA and I want to continue doing it up here, obviously,'' Carp said last night. "It's fun to actually get an opportunity and do what I was doing down there for once. I hadn't had some success up here yet. So, now I've had a little bit and it's fun. I want to keep it going as long as I can.
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After finishing a post-game scrum session with Mike Carp last night, I happened to look up in his locker and noticed another set of eyes staring back at me. It was a small figurine -- of a rat. Turns out, the rat's name is El Raton. Yes, I know, real
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Tion's Curious Thought » Blog Archive » Greetings from the Sea of ...
Shalom!
On Thursday, the Lady Rockets and myself will be entering into the 4th day of exploring the great country of Israel! I must say I have learned a lot and I have seen even more! Here is a quick recap of the past 3 days.
Day 1:
We arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel on Monday at around 5:30pm Israel time. Our hotel was on the coast of eastern most coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Myself and the ladies walked the beach and explored the coast!
Day 2:
We woke up at around 8:00am to start our day. We went to the small city Jaffa. This by far was an amazing experience we were educated on many biblical references and the events that occurred there. We then headed to the center of Tel Aviv where we then seen several tents. The tents signified college students just like ourselves protesting the government in having their schooling be lower because it is so expensive. But the best experience of the day was touring the Independence Hall. This museum is where Israel became an independent country! We stood in the same room where the ceremony took place in 1948. And then we were on our way to explore the shops around Nachalat Binyamin. One alarming thing is that here in the country there are many young men walking around with live weapons to make sure that the citizens are safe, initially I was taken back.
Day 3:
On this day we woke up early so that we could check out of hotel in Tel Aviv. We then proceeded north to Nahalal where we practiced for the game we had later on in the day. After practice we headed to Hoshaya to meet Naamas family. Her family is very nice and were really happy we stopped by after practice. We will definitely be visiting again later in the week. Another amazing feature we seen was the “Anti Terrorist Wall”, this wall blocks the West Bank from Israelis and Palestinians and is under tight security. We then headed towards Tiberias and seen the beautiful Sea of Galilee, Sweet Sea as the Israelis call it. We had a little time to rest then it was off to Game #1 in Israel. The Lady Rockets looked really good and we walked away with a WIN! Well now we have relaxed and are settling in for the night on the coast off the Sea of Galilee, next stop Haifa!
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