Friday, January 17, 2014

Forgotten Twins? Fred Manrique

Hey all, time for another installment of Forgotten Twins?  If you don't remember, I scour the most important websites in the universe to determine if a particular Twins player is forgotten by society.  I decided to sub out Bing for Fangraphs going forward.  I thought it would be funny to use multiple search engines, but they're all the same, so the joke is on me.  ENOUGH EXPLAINING!

My memories of Fred Manrique

This is going to sound awful, but I remember his dork glasses.  I can picture him now...


See?  He could.  Because of the glasses.  Now, making fun of someone who wears glasses is really uncool.  I know this now.  I was only aware of Fred Manrique as a seven-year-old with perfect vision.  It was hard to keep my anti-glasses feelings to myself.  Well, this joke is also on me, as this is what I look like today:


Fate is weird.  Let's move on.

Baseball Reference

Manrique played just one season with the Twins.  He hit .237/.254/.346, or as I like to call it "Rivas Style!"  Manrique accumulated 1459 plate appearances over his nine-year career.  He racked up 340 hits and 65 walks.  He barely played three years' worth of games in those nine seasons.  He played 376 of his games at second base, including all but one of his games with the Twins.  Manrique very nearly went 20-20...in his career, ending with 20 bombs and 18 base bombs (a term I am trying to coin for stolen bases).   

Oh, and he was traded for Sammy Sosa.  Don't look at the rest of the trade, just leave it alone.

Fangraphs

I'm adding Fangraphs to appeal to the saber crowd.  From what I can ascertain on Fangraphs, Manrique was gritty.  Wait.  He had a .105 isolated power, which is poor.  He had a 4.5% walk rate, which is poor.  He had a .294 BABIP, which is about average.  Manrique accumulated 2.0 fWAR in his career, almost entirely from some solid defense he played in the 1987 season with the White Sox.  It's cold, but you could probably call him Fred Man-reeky.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia tells me that Manrique is a fifty-year-old former second baseman.  That's a solid lead.  He was born three weeks before my Dad, which is conveniently left out of his entry.  He is from Bolivar State, Venezuela.  Another former, forgotten (?) Twins player is from Ciudad Bolivar and you'll never guess who.  Les Straker.  It's Les Straker.  According to his entry, he was a solid second baseman and an above-average shortstop.  Whoever wrote this entry must have known something that his managers didn't know.  In 1981, he was the youngest player in the Majors.  Trivia!

 Google

A cursory Google search brings back many glasses images of Manrique.  I did find this card and he isn't wearing glasses:


I gotta say, he's pretty handsome.  He looks good in his glasses too.  A few pages into the search, I found this article about Manrique's ejection from a random June game in 1990.  Apparently, he didn't like Jim Joyce's strike zone.  Or, he knew that Joyce would one day rob us (and Armando Galarraga to a lesser extent) of a perfect game and staged a protest 20 years in advance.  All I'm saying is that Manrique might be a Timecop. 


Oh, and apparently Manrique is a member of Twins Daily.  See.  Now, he hasn't blogged or posted, so I'm guessing he's feeling self-conscious.  Please Mr. Manrique, share your wisdom.  Don't be afraid. 

eBay

Most Manrique-related items on eBay are baseball cards.  However, I did find this curious 8 x 10 autographed photo.  It appears that Manrique wanted people think that he peed his own autograph.  Don't believe me, check it out.  I'm not sure what that accomplishes, but I imagine it makes for a good urban legend. 

If you don't like peeing autographs, here's a 50 baseball card lot of all Manrique!  There are only 21 different cards for some reason.  One of the cards appears to be a math cheat sheet or something and another has the word "glossy" on top.  You can check the lot out for yourself.  Was Manrique a Timecop nicknamed "Glossy?"


Facebook

Manrique does have a Facebook fan page, but it's just his Wikipedia entry.  He doesn't even get a picture.  Perhaps we could use this image:


See, he's a Timecop!  18 people like Manrique.  I'd "like" him too, but I wouldn't be able to deal with his constant updates.  I'd probably block him like I block all my friends and co-workers.  Just for the record, Manrique has three more likes than this blog.  You can fix that...by liking Manrique's page and righting the ratio. 

Twitter

I found a few cool Manrique-related tweets:


This one makes me laugh because it would be so easy to find a card with Manrique actually in a Twins uniform. 


I'm not sure what to say...


I really like that one.  It humanizes him.  Even if he does like to make signature urine.

 Youtube

Sadly, our beloved Fred Manrique is not represented on Youtube.  You can blame MLB and their totalitarian video policy for that.  Instead, here are a couple of youngsters also named Fred Manrique, each showcasing their skills.  First, a catcher:



Then, a pitcher:



Looks good to me.

 Random Person

I stopped someone in the hallway at work today and asked if they remembered Fred Manrique.  He said, "Was he a math teacher?"  Interesting that he would ask that without even knowing that Manrique wore glasses.  I told him no, Manrique was on the Twins for a season in 1988.  He replied, "Oh, I was two, so no, I don't remember that."  I set him on fire.

 Verdict:  Not sufficiently remembered!

Manrique is remembered solely for his glasses and that is a shame.  He was a useful back-up infielder who liked to suggestively autograph photos and very likely is a Timecop.  He probably saved Ferris Bueller's girlfriend from some past future murder and then went on with his mall shopping.  If nothing else, Manrique was a short-time Twins player with a big-time heart.  I made that last part up, but doesn't it make you feel better about him?

If you enjoyed this trip down Twins memory lane, why not check out the archives for more Forgotten Twins?  You can just click here, you don't have to move or anything.  If you'd like, make a request and I'll run him through my database. 

Brad Swanson is the inventor of Tae Bo.  He forgot how much he enjoyed writing by-lines.  He is a frequent contributor to that group of people who are in your way at the grocery store.
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