Sports Writing

A Baltimore Sun article talks about the perils of fame for Theo Epstein: Epstein couldn’t even escape during a visit to Vieques, the remote Puerto Rican island the U.S. military was using for target practice. Epstein was in a restaurant when he was recognized one night by the staff. “Some of the dishwashers were wearing Red Sox hats,” Epstein told the News.

So Kevin Millar is having twins… and that could be part of the explanation for his lousy early-2004 performance. Hmm. Now I feel bad for ragging on him. Actually, over at SoSH, star stathead poster Eric Van once noted that sometimes a player’s performance slipping is pure statistical variation, but sometimes it could signal the effects of certain stressful non-game-related events - leading to this theory about the impact of Johnny Damon’s divorce and custody battle back in 2002.

And a big BOOO goes out to the Hall of Fame Veterans’ Committee, for continuing to deny entry to the best eligible player not in the Hall, Ron Santo. I attribute it to the Hall’s extreme bias against third basemen and against the Cubs - and so does this article:

How important are lefty starters? All I know is, it’s weird to see a lefty starter at Fenway.

The Globe has a nice piece on Robert Petagine today. The key question: how do his stats translate? In the same period of time, as the article notes, Hideki Matsui slugged 170 homers and 429 RBIs while Petagine had 160 and 414. So it looks favourable. If he can hit like 80% of Matsui, the Sox would have a great bargain.

The Fever Pitch trailer is out. And as an avowed Nick Hornby fan (I’ve got signed copies of High Fidelity and How To Be Good, from when I saw him in New York) and Sox fan I’ve got to say… it looks terrible. What Hornby does well is write about the dilemmas of a guy growing up in a world where it’s easy to be stuck in perpetual adolescence. Fever Pitch, the book, talks about lots of conflicting emotions: Hornby recognises both that it’s selfish and childish to want to watch games every Saturday, and that he still wants to do it. The trailer makes it look like it’s Drew’s character “curing” Fallon’s obsession with the Sox with her love.

I’ve always been a big fan of the writing of the fast-becoming-ubiquitous Malcolm Gladwell - here’s a recent ESPN interview with him talking about his new book Blink as it applies to sports. It repeats many of the central ideas of the book, but the “Warren Harding error” is the most interesting in a baseball context i.e. that we sometimes end up hiring people who look right, as opposed to those who really do perform. Which could be the central lesson of Moneyball.

What would Johnny do if he were traded to the Yankees? Damon is the Sox’s Jeter - part matinee idol, part baseball star, complete with a superhero’s name. He’s been feted by fans at Red Sox camp as much for his looks as for his World Series ring and has said that he’d prefer to re-sign with Boston and never think about another team.

Wade Miller thinks he can start the year? SWEET. “I don’t know the timetable but I’m very optimistic about starting the season with the team.” Those of you caught in the Nor’easter… stay safe.

Tim Wakefield couches it nicely, but you can sort of tell that one of the nicest guys in baseball doesn’t like that he’s been shuffled around between rotation and bullpen in the past:

Here’s a great piece from the Boston Phoenix on the ever-quotable Bill Lee, who’s out promoting his book Have Glove Will Travel. Here’s his take on the remodeling of Fenway Park:

Whatever I think about ESPN.com and its unfortunate slide towards making a lot of its content Insider-only, it still commissions some pretty good “history of the game” pieces. This one on Charley Pride, Prince Joe Henry, and the struggle to integrate the major leagues in the 1950s is very good in drawing the spotlight on a forgotten group, the Negro Leaguers who played just after integration had theoretically taken place (they’re now getting quasi-pension payments from MLB’s Baseball Assistance Team, but there are disputes over how to count years of service). As Negro League historian Larry Lester says in the article, “Segregation and the color barrier didn’t turn over at 12 o’clock midnight on April 15, 1947”. Indeed, and shamefully, the Sox were among 3 teams not to have had a black player by the time Jackie Robinson retired.

Someone tell these people there’s no such thing as a curse: The foul ball that unraveled the Cubs’ chance for a World Series appearance and left fans steaming is now simmering in a red spaghetti sauce.

So apparently Timlin made his own private video of the ALCS and World Series (he missed the ALDS) and all the players got to see it. Wouldn’t it be great to see? Nice of Timlin, one of the players on the team who already had a World Series ring, to preserve the memories of the year and send it to all his teammates. (Also, a good Shaughnessy story. Maybe now that Pedro’s out of his town and the so-called Curse has been lifted, he can actually put his writing talent to use.)

“Look, Doug, you can’t wear your belt up that high. It really is a fashion faux pas. The Queer Eye guys told me so.”

A funny post in Blue Cats and Red Sox summarises the general media situation surrounding the Sox and Yankees this spring. A sampling: A-Rod: I am teh bestest ballplayer evar! I work out sooo early and often, I make every1 else look like n00bs who just wanna lie in and play with their kiddies. Seriously, I am uber1337! Also, I am the sole reason the Yankees lost. Sorry guys! Trot Nixon *throws down camo Red Sox hat challengingly*: You mockin’ my parentin’ skills, bitch? You wanna go?! You wanna go?!! Curt Schilling: A-Rod, he’s just, you know, said some things, done some things, I don’t like what I’ve seen. Oh wait, you’ve got a camera? Would you like my opinion on several other matters as well? I’m not in a hurry.

Via SoSH, I discovered Emmingu at Fenway, another Sox blog, but one with an artistic bent - check out the drawings of Tek and Schilling. Of course, if you want an old-fashioned throwback to pre-blog days, here’s a regular fan site, The Ballplayer Next Door, dedicated to good ol’ Billy Mueller. Seems to have started from his Giants days (it’s hosted on orange-black.net), but hey, sometimes, you root for the players, not just the laundry. Or the players that once wore the laundry. Or something like that.

Yeah, I’ve posting somewhat slowly - it’s been a slow news week, besides the endless media sessions, plus, hey, it’s my birthday. But here’s a thought on this quote in Gammons:

By the way, how great is it that Ugie Urbina’s mother was found?

Hunter S. Thompson was a football and very much not a baseball fan, but it’s still sad to see his archive on ESPN, especially some of the column titles - Death in the afternoon and Where were you when the Fun Stopped? Here’s the last column he wrote, on creating the sport of shotgun golf with Bill Murray.