Young and Molitor.

Robin Yount and Paul Molitor made me want to be a baseball player. -- September 13, 2004 Newberg Report When I was growing up, the Rangers were so predictably terrible every year, and seemingly comfortable being so uncompetitive, that I cheated a bit by mid-summer and began scanning for a second box score every day before rummaging through the rest of the sports page. By the mid-'80s, it was the Reds . . . . But before that, it was the Yount-Molitor Brewers, with Coop and Simba and Gumby and Vuke and Rollie and Stormin' Gorman. I think there were even years that I had a fitted Milwaukee cap, with its genius logo, and didn't have a Ranger lid. Although Texas was always my team first and foremost, the Brewers were a big deal to me, and remained so, at least marginally, until the Reds pushed them aside. -- March 3, 2003 Newberg Report According to Scott Miller of SportsLine.com, during a roundtable discussion in Cooperstown in the course of the weekend's Hall of Fame festivities, several Hall of Famers were asked to identify the young player they'd trade their futures for. Johnny Bench chose Albert Pujols. Lou Brock picked Miguel Cabrera. And Paul Molitor selected Young. -- July 29, 2004 Newberg Report [Young is] going to change positions at some point. It may be this year, it may be next year, it may be after that. It's going to happen, and I suspect he knows it, and understands it. There's some merit to the Paul Molitor comp. -- November 7, 2008 Newberg Report I want to ask all five of you [Michael Young, Chuck Greenberg, Jake Krug, Chuck Morgan, and Jamey Newberg] who your favorite Rangers player is. We all get emails from Jamey every couple days that are kind of like love letters to Michael Young, so Jamey, you can tell us who your second favorite is. -- a fan at the February 2, 2010 Newberg Report Q&A event at Sherlock's The Young-Molitor comps have resurfaced this week, this time trained on the idea that it wouldn't be unprecedented for Young, like Molitor, to be even better after turning 33 than he was before. (Molitor hit .298/.361/.432 in his career until that age, and .316/.378/.466 thereafter in nearly as many games, sealing his Hall of Fame credentials.) Young's numbers through age 32 (.302/.349/.449) are actually a shade better than Molitor's were, but it's more about what Molitor did in the second half of his career that Young is focused on. "The guy is a huge motivator for me," Young told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. "He had a lot of success, including winning a World Series, from the mid-point in his career until the end. He was a guy who always seemed to raise the bar. He was an animal for the last eight years of his career. I know he's the exception to the rule, but it can be done. You have to trust your approach to the game and . . . keep yourself prepared, physically and mentally." Where I hope the comparison breaks down is that while Molitor was a Brewer for the first half of his career before splitting the second half split evenly between Milwaukee, Toronto, and Minnesota, I'm hopeful that Young accomplishes everything Molitor did, including winning a World Series (in 1993, when he was the MVP runner-up in his age 36-37 season), but would just assume it all happens here. Young on Molitor: "I love talking hitting with him and would talk it all day long with him, if I could. I think we are kind of the same way in the way we approach hitting. And I hope I can keep raising the bar for myself, too." The young player that Molitor singled out six years ago is now the veteran player who looks to Molitor as motivation for the back half of his career. Not so much the Cooperstown bullet point as the sustained productivity. The approach and the preparation and the adjustments. The World Series title. The player who made me want to be a baseball player, and the player who makes Max want to be a baseball player. So endeth this love letter. =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com Twitter @newbergreport If you want to be removed from this list, please e-mail me at newbergreport@sbcglobal.net Post your own review of the 2010 Bound Edition: Amazon link