I figured it would be timely to feature Mark Sweeney as the latest player on the Brush With Greatness thread. Sweeney recently retired to become a coach with the Dodgers. And I also just received this card from Matt F. of Heartbreaking Cards.The addition of the Sweeney Topps Black card means I need just four Topps Black Dodgers from Series 1: Ramirez, Park, Pierre and Blake. That's pretty good for not seeing a single blaster of the stuff in my neighborhood. The bloggers take good care of me.
Anyway, I came away from my conversation with Sweeney as impressed by him as any other baseball player I have interviewed. I am not surprised at all that he became a coach. He seems like one of those players who absolutely loves everything about the game of baseball. I think he'll be involved in baseball until he takes his last breath.
Some people get Mark Sweeney mixed up with Mike Sweeney, who was the longtime Royals star and now plays for the Mariners. But Mark was a part-time player for the length of his 14-year career and had a knack for getting off the bench, stepping into the batter's box and getting a base hit. He is second all-time in career pinch-hits.
Sweeney played for seven Major League teams, ending his career with the Dodgers. I talked to him when he was with the Cardinals. I was doing a story on legendary Cardinals instructor and coach George Kissell. If you don't know anything about the late, great Kissell, you can read my post here.
I was in the Cardinals locker room, and I'm not sure how I ended up talking to Sweeney, but I'm glad I did. When I approached him and told him I wanted to talk to him and told him about the story, he asked me to sit down and then talked to me like we were at a family picnic. You could see how much he appreciated Kissell for his dedication to baseball and the bond that they shared -- as caretakers of the game.
Sweeney told a story about how he and then-teammate John Mabry wanted to work out about two weeks before spring training began. They called Kissell, who lived in St. Petersburg, Fla., and was 76 at the time. Kissell told them to come down.
Sweeney said: "We get there and we get in the cages and all of a sudden (Kissell) said, 'I'll throw to you.' I said, 'What? I don't understand.' And he said, 'Yeah, I'll throw batting practice to you.' And he threw batting practice to us, every single day. I know I couldn't do it. I couldn't throw batting practice every day at the age that I'm at."
Sweeney was 27 at the time.
Just to continue the story, Mabry said: "He wore us out. ... He was throwing two buckets of batting practice to us and hitting us five buckets of ground balls. He's got a lot of energy."
It was great to see two ball players, basically just regular guys, talking about what they did to get ready for the season and the pride in their craft and their love for baseball.
Sweeney moved on to the Padres and Reds and Brewers and Rockies. I'd try to follow his career after that interview, but he didn't play a lot and the various stops made it tough. I guess, the most publicity he received was a couple years ago when he was with the Giants. According to a New York Daily News story, Barry Bonds blamed a positive amphetamine test on a substance he obtained from Sweeney's locker. Bonds later cleared Sweeney of anything and apologized to him. Sweeney said he didn't believe the article, but it made Sweeney a bit of a celebrity for a few days in San Francisco.
Sweeney was working hard at the time to pull together a disconnected clubhouse, which was difficult with all the interest in Bonds. And Bonds wasn't exactly helping create cohesion either. But that's the type of player Sweeney was, always caring about his teammates and the game and playing the game right.
That's the impression I got from him in that interview, and he did nothing to change that during the rest of his career. I'm proud he'll be coaching with the Dodgers. I think he will serve the young players well, just as Kissell did.
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