Thursday 4 April 2013

Vladimir Guerrero gets a job — with the Long Island Ducks

Here's hoping Vladimir Guerrero knows how to quack.

Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Guerrero, the former MVP and nine-time all-star, has signed with the Long Island Ducks, an independent minor-league team that plays in the Atlantic League. In fact, the Ducks are the defending champs of their league. You know those veterans, always wanting to sign with a winner.

Guerrero, 38, released an odd training video this spring that looked like it was rescued from the '90s. No major-league teams bit on Vlad — who last played in the big leagues 2011 with the Baltimore Orioles. In 2012, he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, and played for a while in the minor leagues before asking for, and getting, his release.

Joining the Long Island Ducks will surely be a change of pace for Guerrero, but he joins ex-big-leaguers such as Ian Snell and Josh Barfield on the Ducks roster. (Trivia: Roger Clemens pitched against the Ducks when he joined the Sugar Land Skeeters last year).

The move comes on the heels of Manny Ramirez playing (and hitting home runs and making fans go nuts) in Taiwan.

Perhaps Guerrero can muster a Gordon Bombay-like comeback with the Ducks — yes, we're mixing sports here (as well as real life and fiction, but eh, whatever). The hockey-playing Ducks, from "The Mighty Ducks," were the ultimate underdogs. Vlad's an underdog too. He's not exactly Adam Banks these days. But you have to figure dude can still hit. A strong showing in Long Island ? It could get him a better job somewhere.

Or perhaps, if nothing else, it opens the door for Vlad to star a baseball version of "The Mighty Ducks," where he learns to hit a The Knuckle Puck.

Opening Day is here. Don't miss anything.
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