The Crawfish Boxes · Sep 26, 2023
Will the real Jeremy Pena stand up?
Jeremy Pena congratulates Mauricio Dubon on his walk off single against he Orioles.“There is no heavier burden than great potential”—Charlie Brown
When I was 20-something years old, someone pinned that cartoon to the bulletin board above my desk. And it may be my favorite Charlie Brown quote. (See cartoon here.) Maybe it portrays fans’ depiction of shortstop Jeremy Pena.
Did Pena’s World Series MVP award set the bar too high for fans’ hopes? Maybe. After 2022, some articles treated Pena as a superstar. After the loss of Carlos Correa, did fans’ desire for a perennial all star replacement get in the way of realistic expectations? Again, that may be true for some fans.