BrandoFan Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 How do you like that karma pill now, b****! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chisoxfn Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 In case anyone else doesn't know it, he was released by the cubs. I know thats what you were trying to say Brando...but the excitement got the best of you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandoFan Posted May 11, 2004 Author Share Posted May 11, 2004 In case anyone else doesn't know it, he was released by the cubs. I know thats what you were trying to say Brando...but the excitement got the best of you One of the few players I actually wished a serious injury on. I didn't have to wait long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 It couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy. And team, for that matter. :fthecubs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Actually the Trib went out and found Molina, instead of talking to that tool Christensen. I really was hoping this kid would get better, but the whole rest of his life has been ruined by that idiot. Anthony Molina woke up in a lousy mood Monday, but by midday his equilibrium had returned. Molina backed his car into a telephone pole over the weekend — one of those slow-motion fender-benders you tend to relive endlessly in your head. That kind of accident can happen to anyone, but Molina suspects the blind spots that limit the vision in his left eye may have contributed, because the pole was behind him and to the left. He got over it. He's had to deal with a lot worse. Molina learned a few days ago that pitcher Ben Christensen, the Cubs' former top draft pick and the man responsible for the injury that forever altered his life, had been cut by the team's Double-A West Tenn affiliate. It was the most recent act of the drawn-out morality play that began when Wichita State's Christensen deliberately beaned Evansville's Molina in the on-deck circle before the start of a game between the two schools in April 1999. The news about Christensen surprised Molina but gave him no pleasure. "Now he may know how I felt, to an extent," Molina said without rancor. "After I got hurt, I'd fail doing things I wasn't used to failing at, and it was hard. I'm one of the most competitive people you'll ever meet. Even at video games, I want to beat everyone 100 to nothing. "I know this is a business and he'll probably get picked up by someone else. I try not to let it affect me too much. I can sit there and dwell on it and be miserable, or I can be a bigger person." Molina, 26, delivers furniture for a store in the Evansville area. It is the latest of a series of jobs he has tried since he took a last swing at playing professional ball. A former second baseman and catcher, he had a tryout with the Schaumburg Flyers of the independent Northern League in 2001. He was an assistant coach at Wabash Valley Junior College in Mt. Carmel, Ill., last season and has played semipro ball with a local team. "I'd still love to be around the game," Molina said, but he is considering other career options and may go back to school for a master's degree in business. He is single but says he has someone special in his life. Wabash Valley head coach Rob Fournier said Molina has "a great mind for baseball" and predicted he would get back into the game in some capacity. "He was a very, very bright young coach," said Fournier, whose Warriors finished the season ranked 13th in the nation. "I gained a lot from him. The position we had didn't pay a lot, and he made a career choice to go in a different direction. "There's still a lot of pain there, but I think it made him a better coach and a better person." Molina hasn't followed Christensen's career closely since the two settled their civil lawsuit for an undisclosed sum in 2002. He put away some of the money he was awarded but has had to dip into it to pay the bills over the last couple of years. It's fair to say the pitcher never recovered from the incident either. The Cubs drafted Christensen in the first round (26th overall) and signed him for a $1 million bonus, sparking vociferous criticism. Christensen was questioned—and at times, heckled—about the beaning incident everywhere he went. He underwent rotator cuff surgery and reconstructive elbow surgery. The latter sidelined him for a year. As Molina noted, "It's easier to come back from that kind of injury than my injury." He has had glaucoma and cataract surgery and has an artificial lens implanted in his eye. Doctors have told him that the damage to his retina is permanent and the black holes in his vision are a fact of life. Christensen never played above the Double-A level in parts of six seasons and was used primarily as a reliever this season, going 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA in nine appearances. "Everything evens out in baseball, no matter how good you are," Molina said. "That's why you only have to hit .300, not .700, to get into the Hall of Fame. "I've had some down times. I'm still up and down, day-to-day." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Honda Civic Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Actually the Trib went out and found Molina, instead of talking to that tool Christensen. I really was hoping this kid would get better, but the whole rest of his life has been ruined by that idiot. is that from today's paper -- It looks like a cut and paste job from a story that appeared in the Herald a couple weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 is that from today's paper -- It looks like a cut and paste job from a story that appeared in the Herald a couple weeks ago. It is in today's Trib. Who knows, maybe they lifted it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Honda Civic Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 It is in today's Trib. Who knows, maybe they lifted it. ACtually I read it more closely -- There was only one quote that looked the same -- The Herald piece was more of a sob story than this one was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldmember Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 It's fair to say the pitcher never recovered from the incident either. darn... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Gleason Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Not to make the dreaded comparison, but do you think the White Sox could have ever signed this guy and gotten away with as little controversy as the Cubs did? When they first signed him, there was a fair amount of stink, but it didn't really damage the happy cute image over there. But what do you think the signing would have done to the Sox? Good to see this idiot fail, BTW. Hopefully no other team chooses to pick him up. The numbers that they show there aren't terrible, so I can see somebody in a pinch deciding to give him a whirl. Though the stink of the controversy will probably keep the PR headache away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witesoxfan Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Not to make the dreaded comparison, but do you think the White Sox could have ever signed this guy and gotten away with as little controversy as the Cubs did? No. We get reamed for having a fan attack a coach and having fans come on the field, yet no one realizes that fans on the North Side have done the exact same thing. Did they get reamed for throwing s*** on the field? Of course not. Had the Sox fans done it, the White Sox would be a s*** organization. There is a double-standard in this town, and that double-standard will not be lifted until the Sox win and have a good group on the team. Or until a newspaper buys the Sox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandoFan Posted May 11, 2004 Author Share Posted May 11, 2004 There is a double-standard in this town, and that double-standard will not be lifted until the Sox win and have a good group on the team No, it won't subside until Sox are as a big a money-maker as the Cubs and forces of racism/classism abate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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