Talkin' Baseball on MLK Day
Well, this will be a wild week. The main thing: This week I finish the rewrite of WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL and send it to the publisher. There’s still a lot to do, but I promised myself I’d finish it this week, and I will. As I’ve said before, I’m so excited to get this book out into the world.
So I’ll be working, like, 18 hours a day on that one.
I’m PosCasting today with Mike Schur, more on that in a minute.
I’m finishing a big story on the rule changes in baseball this year. Will tell you more about that when I’m done with it. I now believe these might be the most substantive on-field changes in baseball since the game was young, and I’m really bullish about them.
And, I’ll do my best, as always, to give you some entertainment here.
Sleep? We can always sleep next week.
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Joe
I don’t know how many of you listened, but last week Mike and I did one of our favorite-ever PosCasts. All we did was open packs of 1993 and 1980 Topps baseball cards. We did this knowing full well that a podcast featuring guys opening packs of baseball cards and screaming “Kal Daniels!” or “Jose Lind!” might not be particularly entertaining for people. We didn’t really care. We just wanted to open packs of old baseball cards.
As it turns out — it has become one of the most listened-to PosCasts ever. Shocked the heck out of me. So we’re going to do it again today, at least in part. I have boxes of 1987 and 1988 Topps Cards. Mike has, well, lots of boxes because he’s become obsessive about buying unopened baseball card boxes.
If you listened to the PosCast, you know in addition to us just wanting to open baseball cards, we are actually using this whole thing to raise money for the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center at Columbia University. We do the PosCast for charity; in the past we have given $10,000 each to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the Veterans Community Project.
Now, inspired by our favorite baseball fan Sarah Langs, we are pledging $10,000 to the ALS Center. But we wanted to make this one extra special, so in addition to that, we are asking everyone to pledge. And if you pledge $25 or more, you are eligible for really special prizes! Derek Jeter stuff we want to get rid of! A personalized essay! Signed books!* All of this is explained over at the GoFundMe page and, of course, on the PosCast itself.
*We just found out that in addition to our books, the great Jonathan Eig is offering the winner a signed copy of his magnificent Lou Gehrig book, Luckiest Man.
I’m running out of time to get through the entire Hall of Fame ballot by Tuesday, Jan. 24, when the announcement will be made. Life hack: When you’re trying to finish a book, you shouldn’t try to do anything else. So let’s take a look at some more players on the ballot.
Jered Weaver, well, he was a darned good pitcher between 2009 and 2014. He went 96-50 with a 124 ERA+, led the league in wins twice, in strikeouts once, in fewest hits per nine once, made three All-Star teams and finished top five in the Cy Young balloting three times.
Interestingly enough, even though he finished fifth in the voting in 2009, second in 2010 and third in 2011, he never received a first-place Cy Young vote. I think that pretty much sums up my own feelings about Weaver. He was darned good, and yet I never thought about him. Ever. I probably thought more about his brother Jeff, even though Jered was a significantly better pitcher.
There was no reason for any of us to ignore him. Jered admirably made himself into an ace. He didn’t throw very hard, but his two-seamer had a lot of movement and as the years went on he added a dynamite changeup and terrific curveball to his arsenal. He declined rapidly and retired at 35; if he could have maintained his peak for three or four years longer, his Hall of Fame discussion would have been very interesting.
Weaver’s old teammate John Lackey was sort of the opposite story; he always seemed to be in the news no matter how he was pitching. He was a ferocious presence on the mound, and I use that word loosely. Hitters hated facing him. But also fielders were not always crazy about playing behind him, especially after they made an error.
He is one of only three pitchers — Jack Morris and Bullet Joe Bush being the other two — who started for three different World Series-winning teams. In Lackey’s rookie year, he was part of the Anaheim Angels team that won the World Series. In 2013, after coming back from Tommy John surgery, he was part of the Boston team that won the World Series.
And perhaps most significantly, in 2016 — at age 37 after signing a two-year deal with the Chicago Cubs — he was a key player in the Cubs breaking the 108-year drought and finally winning that World Series. Cubs president Theo Epstein often talked about the importance of Lackey’s force of will, not only on the mound but in the clubhouse as well.
My pal Jay Jaffe, while conceding that Lackey doesn’t really have a viable Hall of Fame case, does compare him favorably with Jack Morris, and I think that’s a very good comp. Morris pitched a thousand more innings, which is why he gets to sit on that stage in Cooperstown while Lackey won’t, but they were really kind of the same guy — bulldogs who challenged hitters, hated losing and wanted the ball in the biggest moments.
I don’t know what more I can say about Omar Vizquel except that I did not vote for him. He was a visually marvelous defensive player. By that, I mean that he just looked amazing out there. And don’t get me wrong: He WAS an amazing defensive shortstop, one of the better ones in recent baseball history, though from a production and range standpoint, he probably was not quite as good as he looked.
As a hitter, Vizquel lasted long enough to pound out 2,877 hits, putting him 44th all-time. That combination — almost 2,900 hits and beautiful defense — was going to get him into the Hall of Fame even without my vote, until his wife accused him of abusing her on several occasions and a batboy sued him for sexual harassment. Vizquel has denied the allegations, but his Hall of Fame support has tumbled.
And I probably am out of things to write about Jeff Kent in his last year on the ballot. If you’re interested, you can see what I wrote about him here and here and here and here and probably a bunch of other places too. I know he has the support of some prominent baseball voices, including Tom Verducci, and as always I’ll be happy for the ballplayer when and if he does get elected by a veterans committee.
I read all of the Jeff Kent posts, except the one in the Athletic (subscription). They make very good points and I agree with almost all of it. The one thing I disagree is that you wrote Jeff Kent has a perfectly acceptable baseball mustache. I disagree with that, I find Kent's mustache to be well below average.
I do not understand the ones who are on the Vizquel train, or were on it before his reputation fell. Every argument for Vizquel falls short when Andruw Jones is not in. Jones was at least as good defensively, and considerably better offensively. Vizquel frequently is compared to Ozzie Smith, and Jones was frequently compared to Willie Mays. The difference is lots of people said Jones was better than Mays, and nobody says Vizquel was better than Smith. The other difference is Jones was also good on offense, and Vizquel wasn't.