Two stories today that have me feeling some sympathy for the guys who sew the names on the back of baseball jerseys. The Atlanta Braves called up Jarrod Saltalamacchia to take the place of injured backup catcher Brayan Pena. He's got the longest last name of any player in major league history at 14 letters. It was a bit of a rush job, obviously, to get his jersey ready after the call-up, not that anyone appreciates the effort that it takes to sew on a name as long as Salty's. If they did appreciate it they wouldn't already have him ticketed for a return trip to the minors as soon as Pena's ready to come off the disabled list.
At least the Braves were gentlemanly enough to wait until Ryan Langerhans left the team in a trade to call up their tongue-twister of a catcher. Langerhans went to Oakland on Sunday and started the first two games of their series with Boston in a brand spankin new 10-lettered jersey. That jersey's no worth a cup of warm spit. The A's traded Langerhans to Washington after last night's game for Chris Snelling, forcing the thimbles out of storage once again in the Oakland clubhouse once again. Langerhans may have to go nameless on his new jersey. According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, the Nats are running an organization that hasn't met a penny it wouldn't pinch.
The Lerner group, current and former employees say, require a multi-layered approval process for most expenditures and detailed explanations for outlays as minor as a Class A affiliate's $8 purchase of sunflower seeds.
How do you think they're going to react when they learn that they'll need all these new letters to put Langerhans' name on the back of a jersey? The Nats have dragged their feet on buying supplies, paying vendors and reimbursing scouts, it's hard to imagine they are going to snap right to work on requisitions for needles and threads.
I'm just looking out for those invaluable employees that keep our favorite major leaguers looking their best on the field and feeling their best off of it. Please, general managers, think of the clubbies when you're making your next roster move.
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