Milwaukee Brewers 2011 - 25 in 25 - Corey Hart (7 of 25)

Corey Hart burst upon the music scene in 1984 at the age of 22 and took the world by storm with his hit single "Sunglasses at Night." The odd thing was that the song was more popular in the US and climbed higher in the charts there than it did in his native land of Canada. Normally Canadians take care of their own and have a great sense of National pride whenever one of their sons makes it to the big time. Canada has to be proud of something after all, because without Corey Hart, Celine Dion, Rick Moranis and John Candy, Canada is only known as America's hat. Canada is often the subject of folly from Americans who joke about their use of the word eh and their inability to say about (pronounced aboot if you are Canadian.) I for one spent one of the greatest weekends of my life in Windsor, Ontario in my first visit to our neighbors to the North, and I have nothing against Canada. Corey Hart on the other hand owes his post "Sunglasses at Night" career to his homeland because after that iconic hit 80's song he never found that level of success again except in Canada. If you asked me to name another one of his songs I couldn't do it, despite living 1/3 of my life in that decade and being a huge fan of the 1980's. Hell, my two favorite movies are Back to the Future (featuring Canadian Michael J. Fox) and Ghostbusters (featuring Canadian Dan Aykroyd). Let's just say that if I spent more time in the 20tens and now the 20teens worrying about real life things like advancing in my career, getting in shape, falling in love and having babies versus all the time I spend being nostalgic about the 80's, I'd really be living the dream right now. But I sure love me some 80's music. Say what you want, but that's the stuff that really gets me going. And Corey Hart has a part of that I think.

Wait... this isn't about 80's pop star Corey Hart? This is supposed to be about the baseball player Corey Hart who wears his sunglasses in the day time? Ah man. I don't want to talk about Milwaukee Brewers right fielder Corey Hart anymore. At the bottom of the article (and on the right) I have labels than you can click on. Go ahead and click Corey Hart and you will see how much of my life I have wasted writing articles about Corey Hart. For those of you who need The Count from Sesame Street to help you out, let me bring him in for a second to figure this out. 1 article, 2 articles, 3 articles, 4 articles, 5 articles, 6 articles, 7 articles, 8 articles. 8 Corey Hart articles! Ah ha ha ha ha ha! I love counting. So Scott, are we going to meet next Saturday for lunch at Noodles and Company? Sure Count, I'll be there at 1. 1! 1 is a good number! It is the easiest number to count to! So I will see you there at 1, I'm counting on it. Ah ha ha ha ha!

That Count sure is quite a character. But he also points out that I too am quite a character. Who writes 8 articles about a person that they supposedly hate? Maybe I'm just jealous that he has a lot of money and I don't. Maybe I'm pissed off because he proved me wrong last year by having a career season. And maybe I'm just secretly in love with him and I channel my feelings into anger and aggression just like you did in grade school when you were mean to the girl that you had a huge crush on. It's probably all of the above, so he were go with another Corey Hart article.

Prior to the 2010 season Hart won his arbitration case following a piss poor season and was given a $4.8 million dollar salary in 2010. And he earned every cent of that $4.8 million. And a lot of fans jumped right back on his bandwagon as he settled into the #2 spot in the lineup and made the NL All-Star team despite not being in the lineup on Opening Day. The reason why that is a big deal is because the All-Star ballots are based on Opening Day lineups and the listed Brewers outfielders for the fans to vote for were Ryan Braun, Carlos Gomez and Jim Edmonds. So Hart made the All-Star team not by the fans vote, but by the voting of his fellow players in Major League Baseball who recognized the fantastic year he was having prior to the All-Star Game. When Hart made the All-Star Team in 2008 as the 25th man as voted upon by the fans, he slipped considerably in the 2nd half of that season, which led to my disdain for Hart as he was completely unreliable as the Brewers made their most important playoff push in 26 years. So I was worried that 2010 would mirror 2008 and once again Corey Hart would let me down and be subject to name calling once again. But in 2010 Corey Hart was no bitch, and he finished the year just as strong as he started it.

I've really exhausted all that I can say about Corey Hart, which is too bad considering that he's going to be around here for a while. In August of this past season, he signed a contract extension that will pay him $8.83 million per year over the next 3 years. Is he worth $8 million a year? That's debatable, but that's the going rate for a corner outfielder who puts up those kind of numbers. Hell, the Washington Nationals gave free agent rightfielder Jayson Werth a 7 year $126 million contract ($18 million a year), and one could argue that Hart puts up very similar numbers. Werth has been more consistent over the past 3 years, but if they end up having the same years (as each other and as they each did in 2010) then Corey Hart's contract will look like a real bargain. I would love nothing more than to see the Corey Hart of 2010 versus the Corey Hart of 2009 playing right field for the Brewers in 2011, but how will that all play out? And what do other people think about Hart? To answer those questions I turned to my good friend and co-worker Mike Wilhelm. He sits in the cube next to me, and when we aren't getting yelled at for talking too much, we are discussing sports. And no player in Wisconsin sports had us debating more than Corey Hart did last year.



Yeah I kind of screwed that one up. Apparently I'm so polarized by Corey Hart even after I've exhausted everything to say that I just keep on talking. I didn't really give Mike a chance to offer much of an opinion, but if you want to have an opinion get your own damn blog my friend! This is my shit! I own this motherfucker! And I guess I'm also not ready to let my love/hate for Corey Hart go, and it really could go any way in 2011. If he has a fantastic season I'll write about how much I hate that I love him, and if he has a terrible season I will write about how much I love to hate him. But for the overall success of this team I do wish that he plays well. Unless I want a player to be cut (like Jeff Suppan) I never wish for one of my players to play poorly. I want nothing more than to see the team win, and it will be easier if Corey Hart puts up numbers like this:

.278 AVG, 26 HRs, 91 RBIs, 21 stolen bases and the subject of many over the cubicle walls debate between Mike and I.

I really hope that Carlos Gomez will produce this year so that he can bat in the #2 spot that Hart occupied most of last year so that Hart can drop down to #6. The top 5 spots in the Brewers lineup ranks in the top 5 in all of baseball but the bottom 4 can sometimes make or break the offensive game on that day. So if Hart can drop down into the lower half and provide some much needed power, speed and RBIs it will help everyone else down there. One player that would definitely benefit from batting with Hart on base would be Brewers catcher Jonathon Lucroy (who will probably bat in the #7 or #8 spot). He was "thrown into the wolves" last year when Zaun went down with a season ending injury. Having to learn the pitching staff and to call games at the major league level while also trying to work on his offense might have been a little daunting for Lucroy, and I for one think he did a hell of a job. He broke his pinky finger on his right hand in the first week of Spring Training and he may start the season on the Disabled List. Although he then wouldn't technically be on the 25 man roster on Opening Day, he's going to be a huge part of the team in 2011 so I'm going to do an article about him anyway. But that my friends, is a topic that will be covered tomorrow. Roll out the Barrel! We'll have a Barrel of Fun!

- pookon -

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