One of the good guys
The announcement that Los Angeles Angels catcher Kurt Suzuki plans to retire at the end of this year’s Major League Baseball season has us casting back to Game Two of the 2019 World Series.
The game was tied 2-2 in the seventh inning and locked in a pitchers’ duel when Wailukuborn Suzuki stepped to the plate for the Washington Nationals. Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander had been mowing down Nationals batters for five-straight scoreless innings, but Suzuki was about to put a dramatic end to his dominance. Verlander delivered a high pitch and Suzuki smacked it over the left field fence for a solo homer, jump-starting a Nationals’ scoring barrage that ended in a 12-3 rout and, eventually, a 4-3 series win.
Though the homer was fantastic, the most memorable part was yet to come. If you didn’t see the dugout celebration live, it was replayed a hundred times on ESPN’s SportsCenter and local television. You can still find it online. With young pitcher Juan Soto banging out a drum beat on a cooler, Suzuki walked the length of the dugout high-fiving jubilant teammates. At the line’s end, he busted into a Macarena dance worthy of MTV.
Have you ever smiled so hard your cheeks hurt? It was such fun to see a person we covered in high school so happy, to see how much aloha his teammates had for him. Sometimes the good guy does come out on top. And make no mistake, Kurt truly is one of the good guys.
After 16 seasons in the Major Leagues, he is set to finish his career where he started it. The Angels will end their season on the road with a three-game series, Oct. 3-5, against the Oakland Athletics. The A’s drafted Suzuki out of Cal State Fullerton in 2004 and he made his big league debut with the team in 2007. We wonder if the A’s PR staff plans to honor him in any way. A birthday cake at home plate on his 39th birthday, Oct. 4, is one suggestion. A new Bentley automobile is another.
Tributes will no doubt pour in from all over the country. Over his well-traveled career, Kurt was known as a good teammate and as a person who gave back to his community. That was certainly the case in Maui County where he has helped out in a variety of ways, most visibly his annual youth baseball clinic at Maehara Stadium.
The Baldwin High graduate retires as the Hawaii-born big league leader in hits, games, doubles, home runs and RBI. His .255 lifetime batting average and .314 on-base percentage are solid for a catcher who was known as a great game manager and handler of pitchers. His 1,537 games caught put him 32nd on the alltime list.
Thank you, Kurt, for the humble, positive and professional manner in which you represented