Daily Archives: July 9, 2003

THE EGGMAN OR THE WALRUS?

Earlier today, I was wondering just who Kevin Millar thinks he is. I expect whinning and carrying on from the likes of Clemens and Boss George and Prince Pedro, but Millar? I look at him as a good ballplayer who should be thanking his lucky stars he isn’t on the other side of the world right now. Fortunately, Ed Cossette gave me the skinny:

Millar, if you believe the reports coming from the beat writers, is the guy most responsible for changing the climate of the clubhouse. Since the stars, Ramirez, Nomar, Martinez, shun the leadership role, Millar has more or less stepped in as the default captain/leader of the team.

Some have even gone so far as to say that Manny’s good mood (and even the occasional comment to the media despite his vow of silence) is the result of Millar’s antics; evidently he really ribs the hell out of Manny and Manny, a kid at heart, loves it.

Score one for Theo/James who went after Millar with a vengeance even though none of the rest of us had any clue why.

ANGRY YOUNG MAN

Alan Schwarz has a long, compassionate article on Milton Bradley over at ESPN. I didn’t realize that Bradley was such a nut job, but then again I haven’t been paying too close attention. The article is worth reading, and Bradley is worth keeping tabs of, simply to see who he incites next.

KICKED OUT THE HOUSE

Allen Barra , who I recently interviewed for Baseball Prospectus, will not be returning to The New York Times. According to Sridhar Pappu in The New York Observer:

The New York Times has quietly cut bait on its experiment with sports columnist Allen Barra, who was brought in just this March to write a weekly column called “Against the Grain,” in the hope of giving the Sunday Sports section an anchor column similar to culture czar Frank Rich’s in Arts and Leisure.

It was a seemingly harmless hire-and yet, during former executive editor Howell Raines’ months in office, perhaps no appointment roused the ire of an entire department more than the hiring of the former Wall Street Journal and Observer sports columnist. A Birmingham, Ala., native who described Mr. Raines as “so cool” in a March interview with Off the Record, Mr. Barra, according to several sources, became a lightning rod for a group still smarting over the decision by the Raines regime to kill off two columns disagreeing with the paper’s editorial-board stance on the Augusta National Golf Club in December 2002.Further, sources said, Mr. Barra’s statistically driven pieces were not appreciated by a department still without writers on three major beats-New York Giants football, the Olympics and the N.B.A.-or the non-Strat-O-Matic-playing public.

The decision, sources said, was based on the editors’ satisfaction with Mr. Barra’s work. But some wondered: Had Mr. Raines not left The Times newsroom June 5, would Mr. Barra still be crunching O.B.P. and VORP on Sundays?”If Howell was still here, maybe Barra would be,” one Times source said. “Without him, there was one less roadblock.”

Mr. Barra and Times sports editor Tom Jolly did not return calls seeking comment, and a Times spokesperson declined to comment. In the meantime, Mr. Barra has resumed writing for The Journal in an occasional column called “In the Fray.”

And I thought The Times was finally getting its act together. Here is Barra’s latest piece for The Journal.

THE OUT OF TOWNER

Sox fan Ben Jacobs was in town over the weekend and caught Sunday and Monday’s games (ah, bum luck strikes again). He survived the obnoxious louts and even met some nice fans too. His account of the Mussina-Pedro game is terrific.

DANG YANKEES

There is a good profile on Bill James (“The Professor of Baseball”) by Ben McGrath in the latest issue of The New Yorker. It appears that James was the perfect man for the Boston job in more ways than one. Not only is he one of the brightest minds in his field, but he has an inherent dislike of the Yankees too. The man who reads Douglass Wallop’s 1954 novel, “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant,” (upon which the musical “Damn Yankees” was based) to his kids every year, tells McGrath, “Kansas City hates New York more than Boston does.”

According to James:

“All of the dreams I have in which we are successful are dreams in which we succeed in reducing the Yankees to a more appropriate stature in life.”

Now, that’s a good line. But that’s not all James is up to:

“What I’m trying to do is to create ways to think about the real problems of baseball front offices in an organized way. I’ve actually had some really interesting insights into the game and developed some very interesting methods for the Red Sox, and it’s very frustrating not to be able to discuss them with the public.”

McGrath writes that “One goal that James and company are working toward involves identifying worrisome physiological and stylistic traits among pitchers that lead predictably to injury.” This is something that Rob Neyer intimated might happen early this spring.

But of course, James is still a writer at heart:

“I think about writing as much as I think about baseball. The issues of why people believe what they believe and how you persuade them to see things your way are extremely interesting and extremely critical to me.”

I’m not a James fanatic by any stretch, but I do admit to having some James-envy now that he’s working for the Sox. I didn’t grow up reading his books. In fact, I only started reading his Abstracts a few years ago when my cousin was getting rid of all his copies. But I quickly discovered why he was so popular. It’s not so much his theories that I responded to—although I appreciate them as well, but his writing style. The insight, the quick wit, and the built-in bullshit detector. It’s good to see that even though he’s working for the big boys now, he’s still a writer first and foremost.

YOU TALKIN’ LOUD BUT YOU AIN’T SAYIN’ NUTHIN

In the aftermath of Monday’s Sox-Yanks finale, there is still plenty of moaning going on. The participants? Boss George, Rocket Clemens, Prince Pedro and Kevin Millar. Kevin Millar? Damn. Is he still yappin? Not much of a story here—until the Yanks and Sox meet up again in a couple of weeks—just the usual bruised-ego, tough-talk you’d expect from big-walking, tough-talking guys.

Oh, Gertrude. I guess the Times has it right today; crying has become more acceptable in professional sports. Hey George, got a kleenex?

TRIPPED UP

A funny thing happened to the Yankees on their way to the All Star break. They were one-hit by former Met prospect Billy Traber in Cleveland last night, and lost the game 4-0. Meanwhile the Blue Jays wasted another brilliant effort from Roy Halladay, as the Red Sox knocked them off in extra innings, 2-1. The Yankees lead over Boston is now down to three games.

After the Yanks were no-hit by the Astros earlier this year, Rob Neyer noted that the Bombers have just the kind of team that is prone to be getting shut down:

…It’s not really that surprising, what happened Wednesday night.
Why? Because if you’re trying to predict which team’s going to be no-hit, there’s really only one thing worth looking at: team batting average.

If you want to know if they’re going to be no-hit, you need to look at batting average … and the Yankees don’t have much of a batting average.

Heading into last night’s action, the Yankees were 10th in the American League with a .265 team batting average. So while it’s tempting to think that the Yankees just shouldn’t be the victims of a no-hitter, the fact is that we shouldn’t be all that surprised when a .265-hitting team gets no-hit, even if its ancestors have won 26 World Series.

Instead of Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter at the top of the line up, the Yanks fielded Enrique Wilson (.200) and Todd Zeile (.198) last night. Ouch.

But manager Joe Torre gave credit where credit was due:

“I’m glad the question was not asked: ‘Was it his pitching, or lack of hitting?’ Or, ‘Did you guys have a letdown after the Red Sox?’ ” Yankees Manager Joe Torre said at the end of his session with reporters. “None of that stuff happened. It was all him, no question. He was terrific tonight.”

Jeff Weaver got into a jam in the first inning, giving up two runs, but then pitched well after that. Weaver looked so pissed in the first that I thought he was going to implode. It looked as if he wasn’t even breathing, just seething, like a kettle ready to boil. It’s clear that he’s talented, but his head is in the toilet. He is a model of self-loathing.

Weaver needs to turn that frown upside down. Perhaps a little patience would help. Speaking of which, Bernie Williams will make his return to the Yankees tonight. And not a moment too soon.