Zero to Hero to Zero to Hero

Dan Uggla has had a roller-coaster ride of a baseball career. No progressing past Double-A in his minor league career, the second baseman was a rule-5 selection by the Marlins where he blew away his new team in spring training -- and after blasting 27 homers and hitting over .280, he finished third for the 2006 National League Rookie of the Year. He kept smacking homers for the fish... even though his batting average dropped the next three seasons and his strikeouts rose (and stayed) over 140 a year. Traded to the Braves, he signed a big money contract extension. He kept hitting homers at the Ted as his average dropped below .200, the strikeouts stayed alarmingly high and his fielding went sour.
Atlanta released him -- with 2 years left on his contract -- during the 2014 season, and Uggla flopped in a brief trial at 2nd base (opening the door for San Francisco's rookie standout Joe Panik). I saw him in Washington camp last March, hoping to hook on for a job. It was a good situations. The Nats lost several infielders to injury and Uggla came north as their surprising regular at 2nd base.
To be candid, Ugglas has not turned back into his old self so far this year. He's again batting below the Mendoza line and hadn't contributed a home run until April 28th.
But as the SB Nation blog noted, "The Braves paid Dan Uggla $78,000 to beat them last night" (that's the per-game salary from his Atlanta deal). At Turner Field, Dan capped a five-RBI game with a three-run top of the 9th inning home run as the Nationals, down at one point 9 - 1, stormed back for a wild 13 - 12 victory. How big a win was it? It which snapped Washington's 6-game losing streak.
Ahh... the beauty and wonder of baseball, the one game where anyone, absolutely anyone... can beat the odds, and become the hero of the game.

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