Griffey makes SportsCenter at Eischen's expense

The President of the United States knows Joey Eischen. Joey was giddy last year to be in Washington, and what ballplayer wouldn't be after playing for an ownerless club in Montreal for years. The President threw the ceremonial first pitch of the Nationals' 2005 season and visited with the team after the game. He recalled that when he was in the Texas Rangers' ownership they had traded Eischen away for Oil Can Boyd. "Bad trade," said the President. The President!


A couple of weeks later, Eischen fell fielding a ground ball and broke his arm. But the Nationals' only lefthanded pitcher came back to appear in 57 games, one of the reasons the Nationals surprised baseball by posting an 81-81 campaign, leading their division early before slowly but surely falling off the pace.

Now suddenly it's 2006 and the Nationals stink, and Joey Eischen is one of the reasons. He has an ERA over 10 in 16 appearances. Thursday night in Cincinnati, with the Nationals up 4-2 in the 11th inning, Joey Eischen gave up a 3-run homer to Ken Griffey, Jr. I hope Junior is happy. It's a nice little addition to his highlight reel. But it's a pretty lousy way for a 35-year-old standup guy to wind down a career.

SportsCenter likes Griffey's blast, but Eischen's story is also the stuff of drama. Eischen and Griffey were born less than six months apart. During all of Griffey's famous career, Eischen has been there laboring away at the same game. Griffey came up in 1988. Eischen came up in 1994, and he wasn't in the big leagues between 1998 and 2000. He has pitched in 318 games, 292 innings. His won-lost record is 11-9. He has 3 saves. Through hard work, Eischen has fashioned what one could call a career out of being lefthanded and able to throw a baseball. It's not pretty to see it blasted into the night air in Cincinnati.