the game

Two lines of tiny type in Monday's Denver Post leapt out at me. Under the caption "Transactions" they said:
"LA Dodgers -- Announced the retirement of C Brad Ausmus."
"C" is for catcher. And Brad Ausmus is a 41-year-old native of New England who for the past 18 summers has had the demanding, risky, sometimes painful job of backstopping/coaching/encouraging pitchers of the Padres, Tigers, Astros and Dodgers.
Respect is due.
As my friends know, baseball is my game, and I have a special admiration for catchers. It goes back at least as far as Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey, and over the years it extended to Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, Carlton Fisk and many others.
To all-star catchers and to journeymen.
Not that Brad Ausmus is likely to join idols of the game in the great hall at Cooperstown. He doesn't have MVP statistics. He leaves baseball with a lifetime batting average right at .250.
That's one-for-four. Ho-hum.
Even so, he was a brainy, dependable, highly durable, valuable man for any ball club to have crouching down behind home plate, which can be a dirty and dangerous place to work.
He was there, day after day, for almost 2,000 games. And I was delighted to see that on Sunday in Dodger Stadium, on his last day, he went two-for-four.
Years ago, when he won some award, he was described this way: "A good teammate, a great friend, a fine father and a humble man."
I know all catchers don't measure up to that, but I like them anyway.