A wise man once said to me, “I bet you could fill up your entire list with just third basemen.” Or something like that. I think I was drunk when I read it. But he had a point. There have been some not good players over at the hot corner since Ron Santo left, and Luis Salazar is one of them.
Salazar charges toward his destiny. His destiny is to suck.
In late 1989, the Cubs acquired Salazar to replace the eighty third basemen they already had on the roster who also all sucked. Salazar actually performed well and helped spark the Cubs as they went on to win the NL East. Sounds like Gary Gaetti, doesn’t it? Now, imagine that Gaetti kept coming back. Because that’s what Salazar did the next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. And he got worse, and worse, and worse.
By the end, Salazar had to be replaced with Steve Buechele. If you’re ever replaced with Steve Buechele at anything you are currently doing, you know it’s time to retire, and that’s what Salazar did.
Low Point: Pay attention. He was replaced by Steve Buechele. Other than that, let’s look toward the end of Salazar’s career. September 26, 1992. The Cubs are mired in a five-game losing streak, they’re 17 games back, and they’re disinterestedly playing out the stretch. Salazar was even less interested than that. While the Cubs collect only 4 hits and get shut out by the Expos, Salazar goes 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and commits a throwing error in the field which leads to a gift Expo run. Cubs lose 12-0.
Did You Know? Salazar is currently the hitting coach for the Jacksonville Suns, a AA Dodgers team. He taught them everything he knows, and then he took 364 days off.
Hot as a Kerry Wood fastball.
i think u forgot quotes in between his name buddy…
bu”d”dy
ha ha I loved Luis. Everytime I’d watch the Cubs on TV, Carey would invariably butcher the crap out of his name
(in the Carey voice) ” And here comes Loooeeee Halazlkj (coughs up a loogey) *ahem* Halazar, a career .286 hitter on Sundays. Boy you know, they play a lot of Sunday games, so thats pretty good”
I miss Harry
When will I come up on the list?
Oh, sweet Gabor. Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten you.
I’m going to have to do a “Who Did I Miss?” post at the end of all of this. So. Many. Awful. Cubs.
You’ve got a long ways to go.
Actually, Salazar had a 13-year career, had 1,070 hits with 455 RBIs and 117 stolen bases, played in a World Series with the Padres, and hit .368 for the Cubs in the 1989 NLCS, with a triple, a HR and a couple RBIs. He probably earned about $5M, too. You should have such a career.
Wow. Just wow.
Martin Brady—
Salazar sucked. Get over it. No one’s saying that he wasn’t better than any of us. He’s probably over 50 right now and I’d say that he’s STILL better than me. We’re saying he wasn’t better than 95% of the players he was playing with and against.
I bet he married a white woman, too.
He was awesome at tomahawking at balls over his head.