FanPost

A Celebration of Chris Resop

Chris Resop is a decent relief pitcher. Not the best, but not bad at all. I think he'll provide some value to the A's in 2013, although he won't be a star. Nonetheless, he happens to be my favorite player in Major League Baseball (second to my hometown boy, Ryan Sweeney). Why is that? Because I took my kids to an Iowa Cubs game in 2006, against the Albuquerque Isotopes (love the Simpsons-inspired name). We sat in the front row, in right field, next to the visitors bullpen. It was great; we were chatting with the Isotopes pitchers the whole game. Nice guys. Anyway, around the fifth or sixth inning, an I-Cub hit a grounder, foul, right into the Isotopes bullpen. Resop fielded the ball and turned right around and handed it to my five-year-old daughter. Awesome! When the inning ended, he was gracious enough to sign the ball for us. I can see it right now, sitting on my bookshelf. Resop went on to throw an inning of lights-out relief in the next inning. His team ended up losing, and we told him that they probably should have left him in for more than one inning. "Nope," he said, "one was enough for me today." Fair enough. Bottom line: He's a good guy in my book. I'll be rooting for him. Go A's!