You know you’re bad meaning good, when you take a Jacob deGrom 100 mile per hour heater and deposit it in the upper deck, and then eurostep across home plate like it’s just another day at the office.
We’re just 13 games into the “Jazz Age,” but the arrival of the Bahamian-born rising super bro has been music to the ears of Miami Marlins fans.
Chisholm is in the midst of a seven-game hitting streak, which he extended on Sunday in the Marlins’ 1-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants.
The 23-year old second baseman has already matched or topped all of his totals from the 2020 season, and he’s done it by utilizing the consistent power and speed that saw him enter the season as one of the top prospects in all of baseball.
During his streak Jazz is batting .435, with three home runs and five RBIs.
Here’s how good Chisholm has been over the past week.
R
H
HR
SB
9
7
9
6
His rise might surprise those who criticized the Marlins for trading pitcher Zac Gallen for him. Gallen has been very good for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and he’s just entering his prime.
Before his streak began, Chisholm had been too aggressive at the plate. Over the first 73 at-bats of his young career, he was at a severe disadvantage against big-league pitching. Jazz was out of tune with his swing and his timing; collecting only 12 hits (.164) while striking out 25 times.
That would shake the confidence of most young players. Even if they understand that baseball is a game of failure, nobody’s out there trying to fail.
But Jazz Chisholm isn’t your average young player. The kid drips with charismatic star power and resilience. If Tim Anderson is Nike’s MLB frontman, then Jazz isn’t far behind.
He’s the same young man that announced his arrival in South Florida with the bold proclamation that the Marlins will win a World Series within the next three years.
“Now that I’m here, I really can see it coming. Marlins are gonna win a championship in 2-3 years.”
Though he’s more than happy to be in Miami, he hasn’t forgotten his old team either. Jazz is already looking forward to facing Gallen, and taking him deep.
“I’m not going to lie to you though, the one thing that I really do want to do is take him deep. That’s it,” Chisholm said on the R2C2 podcast with former great CC Sabathia and Ryan Ruocco. “I know we’re going to Arizona soon, so I want him to be healthy and at 100%, because facing me is going to be a m—–f—– when I get there.”
Add to that his swaying chains, fashion sense, unmistakable blue hair, five-tool talent, and the fact that he’s just the 7th MLB player born in the Bahamas, baseball could have another young, Black superstar on the horizon.
It’s an interesting dynamic to see the fiery, flashy Chisholm under the guidance of Derek Jeter and Don Mattingly among others.
“He’s a really confident kid, plays with a joy that I love,” Mattingly said before the season. “He’s got a smile on his face, high energy, and high talent. This guy is capable of doing a lot. He’s one of those guys that, once he puts his whole package together, this is a superstar. This isn’t like a good player, he has a chance to be a great player and that’s what will help Jazz walk through it day in and day out.”
The Marlins shocked the world by making the playoffs last season and beating the Cubs to get to the NLDS. If Jazz keeps this rhythm, we might be watching the Marlins making some October music once again.
MLBbro.com’s Jones Whitner takes us from first to third, thoroughbred style, with a few words about Miami Marlins’ electrifying infielder Jazz Chisolm.
After rebranding himself in honor of his late mother, former batting champion Dee Strange-Gordon looks to take advantage of a fresh start with the Brewers. Gordon had one of the unforgettable and touching baseball moments of the decade during one of the game’s most somber moments.
The day after All-Star pitcher and Marlins Ace Jose Fernandez tragically passed, Strange-Gordon led off the game by stepping into the right side of the batter’s box as Fernandez did and took a pitch.
As if scripted for a movie directed by Malcolm D. Lee, Strange-Gordon then switched to his familiar left side and blasted a lead-off home run, sending his teammates and city into a frenzy. He crossed the plate and cried inconsolably as the Marlins would go on to win 7-3.
Fast forward to 2021, Strange-Gordon is back in the senior circuit after signing a minor league deal with Milwaukee.
In his 10th season, the 33-year-old saw success during his time in spring training with the Cincinnati Reds. He hit .281 with 4 RBIs and 4 steals but was released from the team on March 26.
Strange Gordon comes from a baseball family. His father Thomas “Flash” Gordon played for eight teams in his 21-year MLB career.
He played in the 2010 Futures Game and was rated as one of the top prospects in the Twins’ organization, but has dealt with a few injury bumps, including a bout with Covid-19 that left him hospitalized last year.
Despite being the son of a famous pitcher, Dee’s journey has not been without its trauma. His mom and dad didn’t stay together. He then lost his mother at the age of six when she was killed by her boyfriend. It was not the first time his mother had been a victim of domestic violence. Just days prior to her death, that same boyfriend was being abusive and Dee saved her by hitting him over the head with a dumbbell.
This season he decided to honor her by re-using his legal surname. He had gone by the name for most of his life but at one point decided to simplify his last name after it was once mispronounced by an announcer during a rookie ball game.
Strange-Gordon made the 2014 and 2015 All-Star games stealing 122 bases during that span. He won both a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove Award in 2015 as a second baseman for the Miami Marlins. His legs were a weapon for any team that secured his services.
Just when it seemed like everything was perfect, Dee was suspended for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2016 and missed 80 games. He hit .308 in 2017 and stole 60 bases for the second time in his career.
He became an outfielder after joining a Mariners team that already had Robinson Cano. In three seasons with Seattle, Strange Gordon hit .266 despite having a rough 2020 that saw him hit just .200 in 33 games.
— Reviewing the Brew (@ReviewngTheBrew) April 8, 2021
Instead of toiling in the minors, Dee has an opportunity to make himself valuable again. With Kolten Wong expected to land on the injury list and Luis Urias struggling at the plate, it’s possible Dee Strange Gordon will get to make an impact on a very good Brewers team looking to leapfrog into the conversation as baseball’s best team.
Daunte Wright was stopped by Minnesota Police for having air fresheners in his window after his mother gave him $50 to get a carwash on Sunday. That simple stop resulted in Wright’s death. In the wake of another egregious shooting of an unarmed Black man, the Minnesota Twins organization has postponed today’s game against the Boston Red Sox.
The #MNTwins issued the following statement regarding the decision to postpone today's scheduled game against the Red Sox. pic.twitter.com/7U1S2P928j
The decision was made by the Twins after meeting with MLB hierarchy and local and state officials who reportedly were concerned about riots that were brewing and the complications of functioning while a state-mandated curfew was in effect.
On top of that, I’m sure that Black players such as Twins star Byron Buxton would not be up to the task of playing under such circumstances.
Minnesota Twins officials Rocco Baldelli and Derek Falvey said in a press conference on Monday that, “the decision was made with respect for the Wright family but also rooted in safety.”
“We came to the ballpark anticipating that we would play,” said Falvey, Twins President of Baseball Operations. “Over the course of the morning into the early afternoon, we received additional information about what happened at Brooklyn Center…We were able to come together as an organization to make the decision we made… We’re rooted in trying to do the right things by the Twins and also our community in our the city.”
Wright, a 20-tear-old father, was blasted by Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran who now claims it was an “accidental discharge” from her gun. According to Police Chief Tim Gannon, the female officer apparently meant to fire a taser but couldn’t tell the difference between the two weapons.
“I’ll Tase you! I’ll Tase you! Taser! Taser! Taser!” The officer is heard shouting on her bodycam footage released at a news conference. She draws her weapon after the man breaks free from police outside his car and gets back behind the wheel.
After firing a single shot from her handgun, the car speeds away, and the officer is heard saying, “Holy (expletive)! I shot him.”
Seems far-fetched, but that is the information MPD is putting out to the public.
The reaction to the killing by the Black community has been understandably angry, as the incident occurs in the middle of the Derek Chauvin Trial, one of the most high-profile police killings of a Black man in American history.
LIVE: Riot cops are confronting a grieving community after police just shot and killed 20-year-old Duante Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota – close to Minneapolis https://t.co/0UbBbTOfP6
Chauvin is currently on trial for the murder of George Floyd, whose neck Chauvin remorselessly kept his knee on for more than 8 minutes as the life left Floyd’s body. During the torturous ordeal, Floyd called for his mother and screamed those infamous and bone-chilling words, “I Can’t Breathe.” Horrified bystanders pleaded for the cops to let Floyd live, but to no avail.
The trauma experienced by the residents of that state is at an all-time high, as they haven’t had any time to heal from the George Floyd tragedy.
“Nothing has fundamentally changed since the killing of George Floyd. Nothing,” Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told The Washington Post Monday. “Police officers can still do whatever they’ve been doing without any measure of accountability.”
Daunte Wright’s mother, Katie Wright, told the Star-Tribune that her son had called her after being pulled over and that she heard a commotion and then someone yelling “Daunte, don’t run” before the line disconnected. Moments later, she said, her son’s girlfriend, who was in the car, called back and said he’d been shot.
Aubrey Wright, who was at a grocery store, said his wife called him around 2 p.m. with the news. “She was screaming over the phone. She was saying, ‘Daunte was shot!’” he said.
When Aubrey Wright arrived at the scene less than 10 minutes later, he said, he saw his son’s 2011 Buick LaCrosse partially destroyed and his son’s body covered with a white sheet on the sidewalk, where it remained for 8 hours, according to Duante’s distraught mother.
Protesters stormed the city last night as angry people took to the streets, clashed with law enforcement, began jumping on police cars and ascending on the Brooklyn Center Police Department, where rocks and other objects were thrown at officers, authorities said. The National Guard was called in to “keep the peace.”
Crowd is growing. A man with a bull horn just showed up and is calling the cops cowards for killing a “kid” and others are asking why they didn’t use a taser. “Take them badges off,” he said. pic.twitter.com/npcexzjRoY
Stay tuned for more updates on how MLB and other sports leagues respond to this latest unfathomable police shooting of a young, unarmed Black man. Another young child who lost a parent for absolutely no reason.
