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Time marches on: Ozzie replaces Seaver
- Updated: July 24, 2016
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — “Replacement player” or its more benign cousin “replacement” regularly has been a baseball pejorative. Mantle dealt with the label when he succeeded Joe D in center field. Doug DeCinces bore the burden when he took Brooks’ place at third. Didi Gregorius has filled an enormous void in the Bronx in taking over for Derek Jeter.
And let us not forget Bubba Wagnon, an uppercase Replacement Player who batted leadoff for the Replace-Mets in the strained and unsavory spring of ’95.
Replacements all. Understudy is the more polite term.
It happens routinely in sports; see Tino enter the same door Donnie Baseball used to exit the Yankees. And Yaz took the place of Theodore Ballgame in front of the Monster and later joined Thumper here in this village of baseball afterlife.
So it was Saturday that the Baseball Hall of Fame announced another replacement. Ozzie Smith, who made folks in all markets forget his Cardinals predecessors at shortstop — Marty Marion, Dal Maxvill and Garry Templeton — has been added to the Hall’s board of directors. His election to the 16-person body headed by chairman Jane Forbes Clark caused little stir, and the skimpy ripples it prompted will fade quickly. He’ll revert to being the Wizard of Oz.
But another shoe has fallen almost without sound. Ozzie has replaced Tom Seaver on the board. Again, the ripples are all but insignificant. But the one-position change is another subtle indication that time is passing. Not at Aroldis speed, perhaps, but Seaver is 72 and Ozzie won’t hit 62 until …
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