I always knew Reardon was a jerk.

Here's the deal, no word of a lie: I saw Jeff Reardon blow a save when I was about ten years old, after Roger had made a good start (at least, in my memory). Jeff Reardon had the misfortune to be the first guy to blow a save in my presence, and thus the first guy to have to prompt my dad to explain what a blown save was, and also to tell me, to my enraged disbelief, that what Reardon had just done had ruined all of Roger's good work.

Irrational as it was, I hated Jeff Reardon from that moment on. Absolutely hated the guy. It was totally unfair, of course: Reardon was a solid pitcher with a long career and an instrumental role in the Twins' 1987 World Series win. I'm sure Roger wasn't the golden god I thought he'd been that day--he probably left Reardon with a one-run advantage and men on base. But at the time, I didn't care. Roger was winning and Reardon fucked it up. Nuf ced.

So when YFSF linked to this story and I saw the name, I laughed out loud. It's sad what has apparently happened to him, but I still can't help chuckling, just remembering.

Comments

[Nick]

that's bad schadenfreude. Sounds as if he's blaming it on anti-depressants he started taking after his son died in 2004. It's not an excuse that, in my view, excuses his crime, but I feel badly about his son.

[Beth]

i didn't mean to say i was glad about what ended up happening...it was remembering reardon at all that made me chuckle. in retrospect the wording of the post wasn't good in that regard. but i just wanted to clarify that. i'm not a COMPLETE bitch. well, most of the time. :-)