January 26th, 2007 → 12:03 pm @ Seth Mnookin
Longtime readers will know that Murray ain’t my only obsession; I’ve also been fixated on the notion of process versus results, especially as it relates to baseball (and stock picking). Honestly: who else do you know that could incorporate Robert Rubin’s economic policy and why the Boston media doesn’t write about the positive things happening in Red Sox Nation? (On two seperate occasions, no less?)
There’s a strained way that this relates to Trot Nixon and one of the most discussed at-bats of the 2004 World Series. The scene: Game 4, 3rd inning, bases loaded, 2 out, Sox leading 1-0, Nixon at the plate with a 3-0 count. Jason Marquis serves up a meatball that Trot nails; the ball is mere inches away from being a grand-slam. (The fact that that ball didn’t leave the park speaks to Trot’s diminished power…but I digress.) The Sox were roundly praised for giving Trot the green light on 3-0, especially with Marquis struggling and a walk scoring a run. Except Trot wasn’t given a green light; he simply blew the sign. Taking a pitch was arguably the right move: Marquis was struggling, there was nowhere to put Trot, and Shaggy McShouldaBeenSeriesMVP was on deck. In the end, it didn’t matter, Terry’s a genius, and Trot’s folk-hero status is brought up one more notch. But it’s worth pointing out that the play didn’t go down as planned; it went down despite not being planned…
Post Categories: 2004 Playoffs & Process v. results & Trot Nixon
January 26th, 2007 → 11:39 am @ Seth Mnookin
I know, and I’m sorry for the extended absence. It’s just that I’ve been finishing up an assignment, engaging in the futile/frustrating search for New York real-estate, and planning a wedding. (I know you all care. You can admit it.)
But events have now made it impossible to continue my wormholding for any longer. So be warned: you ain’t never heard a mind as perverted as mine.*
* Note: this is not actually true.
Post Categories: Grateful Dead
January 23rd, 2007 → 8:56 am @ Seth Mnookin
I’m a little late on this, but I wanted to offer up one last tip of the cap to Christopher Trot Nixon. (There’s a much funnier tip of said cap here. What I want to know is, who is this Jose guy?) In 2003, I “won” the right to buy playoff tickets on the Green Monster and therefore was at Game 3 of the ALDS, a game which was, in my mind anyway, the highlight of Trot’s career in Boston. (This is an image I’ll never forget. And it was great right up to the point when Trot started thanking Jesus for guiding the ball over the wall. Which made me wonder: what did the A’s do to make Jesus hate them so much?)
That said, I was never felt the Trot love like some folks did. He was great in ’03 (really great, actually: he was second on the team in OPS and OPS+, trailing only Manny), but he’s pretty much been al albatross since then, and a powerless one at that. (I was arguing that he should be benched even when healthy back in August.) What he was, however, was always classy, and his departing words to Boston showed that once again: “When it didn’t happen [with the Red Sox], that was fine,” said Nixon. “There’s some other pretty good outfielders on the market. The Red Sox are a big market team, and I understand that. There’s no hard feelings, that’s the game of baseball. That’s what happens in professional sports. Obviously you know how much the [Red Sox] organization meant to me. I’ll always love that city. I’m going to bring that same attitude, that same intensity, to Cleveland.”
Indeed. I don’t know the next time we’ll see a guy who gets kicked out of a game when he’s on the DL. Good luck with the Indians.
Post Categories: Trot Nixon
January 23rd, 2007 → 8:46 am @ Seth Mnookin
One more bit of Murray funness before we get on with our day. Last Sunday, apropos of absolutely nothing, Murray wrote one of the odder (even for him) pieces I’ve ever seen. Since I’d never be able to do it justice, I’ll just reprint it here in full:
“Kicking About the Evil Empire”
A report here last week about Devern Hansack, a Nicaraguan pitcher for the Red Sox, prompted an e-mail message from Sergio Maltez of Managua in which he recalled the head-to-head competition the Red Sox and the Yankees waged for José Contreras four years ago. Contreras had defected from Cuba and had established residence in Nicaragua so he could be a free agent.
The Yankees won the bidding, prompting severe vocal reaction from Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox’ chief executive, and severe physical reaction from Theo Epstein, the Red Sox’ general manager. Lucchino called the Yankees the evil empire. Epstein chose a different response.
‘It was true,’ Maltez wrote, ‘that Theo Epstein broke the door of the hotel with a kick when the Yankees signed Contreras and not the Red Sox.'”
Besides the fact that a Google search of Sergio Maltez turns up pretty much nothing (in English, anyway), this piece is weird because a) nobody had been talking about 2003, and b) Murray himself knows it’s not true! On December 29, 2002, in an early article in what became an ongoing series in which Chass condescended to Theo Epstein, the Times baseball columnist wrote, “Theo Epstein is the youngest general manager in baseball history, even if he does age a year today, but in his month on the job with the Boston Red Sox, not one of his fellow general managers has accused him of throwing toys across the table at them. Nor, he said, has he broken doors or windows or chairs, not in Nashville, not in Nicaragua. ‘I’ve never broken a piece of furniture in my life,’ said Epstein, who turns 29 today. Why the stories then? ‘It started in Nashville,’ he related, referring to the winter meetings earlier this month. ‘There was a chair in our suite that was broken when we got there. We placed it outside the room. One of the writers asked about it. I said we came close to a deal and it didn’t happen. It was an attempt at humor. One writer didn’t get the humor.’ The image of Epstein as El Destructo emerged, too, from his failed pursuit of Jose Contreras in Nicaragua last week. This time, the tale went, he broke a door and a window. The Red Sox attributed it to Yankee propaganda, not as in ‘Yankee, go home,’ but as in the New York Yankees’ dirty tricks.”
Somehow, this managed to shock even me. In desperately casting about for his latest piece of irrelevance, Murray Chass actually printed something that he himself knew was a lie. Did someone mention the lax ethic of the sports section?
Post Categories: Murray Chass & New York Times
January 23rd, 2007 → 8:38 am @ Seth Mnookin
Apparently not satisfied with the correspondences with his readers that I’ve been printing, Murray Chass devotes todays column to making fun of “Red Sox fans” who failed to grasp the humor of an earlier piece, which suggested that the Red Sox sign Barry Bonds, put him in left, and move Manny Ramirez to right. (Chass didn’t actually print any of his responses, perhaps because a) they’re oddly churlish, and b) they’re full of spelling mistakes. In fact, here’s the latest response forwarded along to me: “Perhaos (sic) in your ignorance you are unaware that The New York Times Company is an owner of the Red Sox. If you didn’t know that, it doesn’t day (sic) much for you and your view of things. And you obvioudly (sic) are so blinded by what I write about the Red Sox that you don’t know a joke when you see one. Maybe you are the one who is pathetic.” But I digress…)
The mere fact that so many people didn’t get Murray’s joke (including me) seems to indicate not that said readers are pathetic, but that Chass is as poor a humorist as he is a speller, a writer, and a baseball analyst. What’s more, ironic humor tends to work better when there’s a track record of prescient intelligence, not one of blinding incomprehensiveness. (To wit: nobody thought Steve Phillips was joking when he brought up the notion of Barry playing in Boston, either.)
Today’s column is one in a long line in which Murray, who, honest, has absolutely no bone to pick with the Red Sox or their fans, goes after Crimson Hose supporters. Some other recent examples. August 22, 2006: “Red Sox fans are hurting.” “Red Sox fans…don’t take kindly to criticism of their heroes — unless they level it themselves.” October 4, 2005: “For Boston Fans, a Case of Pinstripe Blues.” (This whole column was about Sox fans. Seriously.) Sept 11, 2005: “Not because I am a Yankees fan, as Red Sox fans believe incorrectly in their mixed-up, Red Sox-motivated minds, but because they have been so smug all season in their belief that last year’s World Series champions would finish ahead of the Yankees this season.” August 2, 2005: “Red Sox fans shouldn’t assume that the wild card, if not first place, was theirs. … If the Red Sox fail to outlast the Yankees…they squandered their best chance to drive a stake into the dark heart of the Evil Empire.” At this point, he should be happy he’s still getting emails. It shows someone cares.
Post Categories: Murray Chass & New York Times
January 18th, 2007 → 8:45 am @ Seth Mnookin
“Bonds backs McGwire, Rose for Hall.”
Gee, I wonder why he’d argue that players trailed by the dark cloud of scandal should be voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame?
Post Categories: Barry Bonds
January 18th, 2007 → 8:42 am @ Seth Mnookin
I’ve always been a fan of Rob Bradford’s writing, and I think it’s a crying shame that, for some unknown reason, he’s suffering in the purgatory of the Eagle-Tribune. He has another good article today, this one explaining that the Matsuzaka signing won’t mean nearly as much increased revenue for the Red Sox as most people think.
This is a point I’ve made before, but for some reason, people just don’t seem to get it. (Here’s what I wrote back on November 11: “The notion that this is a worthwhile investment solely because of the prospect of increased revenues from the Far East is a load of crap: every dollar the Sox earn is only worth about 50 cents; the other 50 cents goes into the revenue sharing pot, which essentially means the Sox are paying teams like the Orioles and the Blue Jays to continue to run their clubs in a determinedly bone-headed way…the better to bleed the Sox and the Yankees. Revenue sharing — and baseball economics in general — is a weird and confusing thing. There’s a bunch about it sprinkled in between shocking behind the scenes revelations and hilarious anecdotes in the book. Which, by the way, makes a great gift, and signed copies are available here.)
Anyway, that’s all still true. And Rob Bradford’s still worth reading. As often as possible.
Post Categories: Daisuke Matsuzaka & Revenue sharing & Rob Bradford
