Sunday Notes: Pittsburgh Proud, David Bednar Steps on the Gas and Attacks
David Bednar was an unproven San Diego Padres pitcher when he was first featured here at FanGraphs in March 2020. The burly right-hander had made just 13 big-league appearances, all in the previous season when he’d allowed eight runs in 11 innings of undistinguished work. A 35th-round draft pick four years prior, he’d been lightly regarded as a prospect.
Fast forwarding to today, Bednar is one of the most dominant closers in the game. Now pitching for his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates, the hard-throwing hurler is coming off of an All-Star season where he logged 39 saves, a 2.00 ERA, and a 2.53 FIP. Since being acquired in a three-deal in January 2021, he boasts a 2.25 ERA and a 2.56 FIP, as well as a hefty 31.2% strikeout rate.
How has the 6-foot-1, 250-pound reliever evolved since we first spoke? I asked him that question when the Bucs visited Wrigley Field in late September.
“I’m able to command all three of my pitches in the zone better,” said Bednar. “I also have a better idea of where my misses are. Another big thing is having the confidence to trust my stuff in the zone. I know it sounds redundant, but I’m just competing in the zone. When I attack guys and keep all of my lanes the same, good things happen.”
Bednar feels that his raw stuff is much the same as what it was before his breakthrough. Along with the aforementioned strides, how he sequences has gone a long way toward his success. A former teammate played a big role.
“A guy I kind of modeled my game on is Kirby Yates, how he works and how he gets guys out,” explained Bednar. “He commands the top and bottom of the zone, and plays his split off that. I try to mix all three together — my heater, breaking ball, and split — and just go after guys. Basically, I step on the gas and attack.”
His success speaks for itself, and that’s just the way he likes it. Bragging isn’t Bednar’s thing. Asked if he deserves more national attention than he gets, the humble hurler replied that he’s “just happy to be out there.” He credited his Pirates teammates for “grinding out games” and giving him opportunities to close them out — which he’s been doing with aplomb. As for whether he thinks he’d receive more accolades if he pitched in a bigger market… let’s just say he’s happy where he’s at.
“Would I get more accolades? Beats me,” Bednar said. “I just know that I love Pittsburgh.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Pickles Dillhoefer went 5 for 6 against Sweetbread Bailey.
Bob Bailey went 0 for 20 against Dock Ellis.
Milt Cuyler went 0 for 15 against Tim Leary.
Kiki Cuyler went 20 for 56 against Heinie Meine.
Heinie Groh went 20 for 55 against Claude Hendrix.
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Hitter-pitcher matchups, while fun, obviously need to be taken with a grain of salt. That is especially true when the sample sizes are small, with the above mano a mano Pickles-Sweetbread serving as a good example. Given more opportunities, Abraham Lincoln Bailey might very well have fared better against William Martin Dillhoefer. Which brings us to Jorge Polanco, who earlier this week was traded from the Minnesota Twins to the Seattle Mariners.
Polanco is a combined 9 for 11 with two doubles, a triple, and four home runs versus Logan S. Allen and Nick Pivetta. Conversely, he is 0-for-19 with five strikeouts (and no walks) versus Cal Quantrill.
Do those numbers mean much? No, but they are interesting. To me, anyway.
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Richard Lovelady would embrace being on a winning team, and he’ll hopefully get that opportunity in the upcoming season. Earlier this week, the 28-year-old left-handed reliever reportedly inked a free-agent contract with the Chicago Cubs, a club which went 83-79 last year and promises to be better in 2024. They’ll certainly log more Ws than Lovelady’s previous employers, those being the Kansas City Royals (103 losses in his 2019 rookie season) and the Oakland Athletics, who are coming off a an even more abysmal campaign.
He nearly played on a powerhouse last year. Lovelady was purchased by the Atlanta Braves from the Royals at the end of March, only to be put on waivers and claimed by the A’s. Instead of seeing action with a team that won 104 games, he spent the season with one that won just 50 times and were on the losing end 112 times.
Midway through the season, I broached that subject with the erstwhile Kennesaw State University Owl. His response was measured and matter-of-fact.
“You’re still on a professional baseball team,” Lovelady said with a shrug. “We obviously don’t have as many wins as they do, but they’re not really doing anything different than we are. We’re going to the ballpark the same. We’re putting on a uniform the same. We’re doing the hitting and pitching we’re paid to do. It’s just that you have to execute, and they’re executing.”
The lefty’s response was similar when I brought up how the Royals teams he was with all finished with losing ledgers.
“I’ve been on a lot of teams like that in my professional career,” acknowledged Lovelady, who has made 73 big-league appearances and has a 5.26 ERA over 65 innings. “I’ve been on teams that haven’t performed to their expectations, but you can’t get caught up in that stuff. You have to do what you can to keep the culture of the clubhouse the same. You have to keep everybody motivated toward one goal, and that’s to win every single day.”
The Cubs certainly won’t do that in 2024, but again, they will almost assuredly win far more often than Lovelady’s previous clubs did. If all goes as planned, he’ll experience something he missed out on when the Braves bid him adieu — taking the mound for a winner.
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A quiz:
Which player has been charged with the most errors at the shortstop position in the divisional era (1969 onward)? A hint: he played his entire career in the National League.
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
Larry Rothschild has been hired as a pitching consultant by the independent Frontier League’sWindy City ThunderBolts, who are managed by former Chicago White Sox closer Bobby Jenks. The 69-year-old Rothschild pitched for the Detroit Tigers in 1981 and 1982 before going on to manage the Tampa Bay Devils and serve as a pitching coach for five big-league teams, most recently the San Diego Padres in 2020 and 2021.
The Miami Marlins are hiring Sam Mondry-Cohen to the role of Vice President, Player Personnel (per @CraigMish). Previously an assistant GM with the Washington Nationals and an analytics coordinator with the Chicago White Sox, Mondry-Cohen was featured here at FanGraphs in January 2020.
The Tampa Bay Rays will formally induct Dave Wills into the team’s Hall of Fame on April 14. A radio broadcaster with the Rays for 19 seasons, Wills died unexpectedly last March at age 58.
The 2024 SABR Analytics Conference will include a State of the Baseball Biomechanics Industry Panel comprising Arnel Aguinaldo (Point Loma Nazarene University), Adam Nebel (Auburn University), Mike Sonne (Chicago Cubs), and Ethan Stewart (Oakland Athletics). More information on the conference, which will be held in Phoenix from March 8-10, can be found here.
SABR’s Oral History Committee is hosting a Zoom interview with former New York Mets and Texas Rangers pitcher Jon Matlack this coming Tuesday (February 6) at 7pm ET. All are invited and you can preregister here.
Don Lassetter, an outfielder who appeared in four games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1957, died on January 22nd at age 90. The Newman, Georgia native logged two big-league hits, the first of them a triple off of Chicago Cubs rookie right-hander Dick Drott, who went 15-11 that year (and henceforth 12-35 over six more seasons).
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The answer to the quiz is Garry Templeton, who was charged with 384 errors as a shortstop from 1976-1991. (note: The mention of which player has the second-most errors is now deleted, as it was incorrect. Thanks to the reader who pointed out the database issue which prompted the error.)
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A few notes on Jimy Williams, who died earlier this week at age 80.
Prior to managing the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, and Houston Astros, the Santa Monica native played eight professional seasons, the second of which saw him get a cup of coffee with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1966. The first of his 12 big-league plate appearances was notable, as was his third. Williams fanned as a pinch-hitter against Sandy Koufax in his MLB debut, and not long thereafter he hit a run-scoring single off of Juan Marichal.
Williams played with the Montreal Expos’ Triple-A affiliate in 1970, a season that saw the club begin in Buffalo only to move to Manitoba a month and a half later. Burdened by abysmal attendance and antiquated facilities near the Niagara River, the Bisons migrated northwest and became the Winnipeg Whips. Williams’s teammates that year included Mike Marshall, who four years later would make a single-season record 106 pitching appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 1992, this between his first two managerial stints, Williams was the third base coach who waved Sid Bream home for the winning run as the Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in NLCS Game 7.
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Carlos Santana’s signing with Minnesota — the 37-year-old switch-hitting first baseman reportedly agreed to a one-year deal on Friday — doesn’t qualify as big news, but that doesn’t mean he won’t make a big impact on a Twins team looking to repeat as AL Central champions. Along with veteran leadership, Santana will bring with him a bat that has produced 301 home runs and a 116 wRC+, as well as solid defensive skills. Moreover, he’ll bring an unmatched level of reliability. Since debuting with Cleveland in 2010, Santana has played in 1930 games, the most of any player in baseball (the humble slugger addressed his durability here at Sunday Notes this past April). With a potential red-flag caveat that last year’s 10.5% walk rate was a career low, and his .318 OBP was 38 points below his career average, Santana appears to be a shrewd addition.
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Caribbean Series got underway on Thursday, and with three days’ worth of games completed, Venezuela is one of two undefeated teams. The Ozzie Guillen-led squad beat the Dominican Republic 3-1 on Thursday— Yasiel Puig homered — and yesterday they edged past Curaçao 4-2. Panama is the other team to start with a pair of wins. Iván Herrera had three hits, including a home run, in a 7-3 conquest of Curaçao on Friday. Yesterday’s win was more dramatic. Down by a pair to Mexico going into the bottom of the ninth, Panama plated three runs to win 4-3. Johnny Santos, who’d homered earlier, walked it off with a two-out triple.
The Australian Baseball League championship series began on Friday with the Perth Heat walking off the Adelaide Giants in 13 innings courtesy of a Carlos Sanchez two-bagger, the 19-year-old Cincinnati Reds prospect plating 21-year-old Tampa Bay Rays prospect Raudelis Martinez for a 4-3 Heat win. Adelaide then rallied to win Game 2 by a score of 6-3, a fifth-inning two-run homer by Quincy Latimore, who was celebrating his 35th birthday, giving them a lead they didn’t relinquish.That brought us to a deciding Game 3 in which…
…Adelaide captured its second straight ABL title, which is formally known as the Claxton Shield. Briley Knight — a 24-year-old Perth native who played collegiately stateside at the University of Portland — delivered the big blow, stroking a tie-breaking two-run double in the eighth inning to give the Heat a 3-1 win. Former Minnesota Twins prospect Todd Van Steensel earned the save and was named tourney MVP.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
Chuck Churn had a career record of 3-2 while appearing in 25 games for three teams from 1957-1959. Born Charles Nottingham Churn in Bridgetown, Virginia on February 1, 1930, the right-hander was credited with the second of his three wins on September 11, 1959 when the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied for a pair of runs in the ninth inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of 5-4. The losing pitcher was Elroy Face, who fell to 17-1.
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Mookie Betts has far outpaced J.D. Martinez in fWAR since debuting in 2014, accumulating 58.5 while his erstwhile teammate has logged just 28.7 over the 10-year span. That said, the following statistical comparison is eye-opening:
Betts: 1,265 games, 2,656 total bases, .294 BA, .381 wOBA, 140 wRC+.
Martinez: 1,270 games, 2,648 total bases, .293 BA .380 wOBA, 140 wRC+.
There is little question that Betts has been the superior player — speed and defense matter — but again, an eye-opening comp. While they differ as hitters, in some respects they have barely differed at all.
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
At The Japan Times, Jason Coskrey wrote about how NPB pitchers are embracing Driveline’s data-driven training programs.
Who are the all-time best Philadelphia Phillies? Scott Youngson shared his opinion on that subject at Pitcher List.
Should the Pittsburgh Pirates consider selling their souls for a potential pennant by signing Trevor Bauer and/or Julio Urias? John Perrotto pondered that question at Pittsburgh Baseball Now.
Andscape’s Justice B. Hill wrote about how the stolen (and later found destroyed) Jackie Robinson statue in Wichita, Kansas leaves the baseball community wondering why.
MLB.com’s Elizabeth Muratore wrote about five accomplished Black women in baseball comprising a panel at the Jackie Robinson Museum late last month.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
The Atlanta Braves scored 53.5% of their runs via the long ball last season, the highest percentage in the majors. The Cleveland Guardians scored 30.9% of their runs via the long ball, the lowest percentage in the majors.
Nick Sandlin had a .193 BABIP-against last year, the lowest among pitchers to throw at least 50 innings. Dylan Floro had a .401 BABIP-against, the highest among pitchers to throw at least 50 innings.
Tyler Wells had a .200 BABIP-against last year, the lowest among pitchers to throw at least 100 innings. David Peterson had a .370 BABIP-against, the highest among pitchers to throw at least 100 innings.
Bob Stanley was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of a New Hampshire high school in 1973, but didn’t sign. “Steamer” subsequently signed with the Red Sox after being selected in the January phase of the 1974 draft and went on to pitch in 637 games — the most in franchise history — over 13 Boston seasons.
Mickey Mantle had 33 plate appearances in the 1960 World Series and put just six balls into play for outs. The Commerce Comet had 10 hits (including three home runs), eight walks, and nine strikeouts.
The New York Yankees purchased the contracts of Hugh High and Wally Pipp from the Detroit Tigers on today’s date in 1915. Pipp, who had broken into pro ball as a catcher with the Southern Michigan League’s Kalamazoo Celery Pickers, proceeded to spend 10 seasons as the Yankees’ regular first baseman before being displaced by Lou Gehrig.
The Boston Red Sox claimed Bronson Arroyo off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates on today’s date in 2003. Arroyo not only went on to log 139 of his 148 big-league wins, he celebrated a World Series title with the Red Sox in 2004.
Players born on today’s date include Dennis Konuszewski, a right-handed pitcher whose big-league career comprised one appearance for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1995. The University of Michigan product allowed four of the five Houston Astros batters he faced to reach, those per a walk, a pop-fly single, and two ground-ball singles through the five-six hole. His career ERA is an unlucky 54.00.
Also born on today’s date was Jack Perrin, an outfielder whose career comprised four games and 13 plate appearances for the Boston Red Sox in 1921. A native of Escanaba, Michigan (the same city yours truly was born in), Perrin logged all three of his big-league hits in a July double-header at Detroit’s Navin Field. He went on to play in six games for the National Football League’s Hartford Blues in 1926, kicking a field goal and three extra-points.
The Union Association’s St. Louis Maroons went 94-19 in 1884. Buttercup Dickerson, Sleeper Sullivan, and Orator Shafer all played for the Maroons, as did Fred “Sure Shot” Dunlap, who slashed .412/.448/.621. Per his B-Ref bio page, Dunlap’s death in 1902, at age, 43 was attributed to “Tubercular Distended Rectum.”
David Laurila grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and now writes about baseball from his home in Cambridge, Mass. He authored the Prospectus Q&A series at Baseball Prospectus from December 2006-May 2011 before being claimed off waivers by FanGraphs. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidLaurilaQA.
Hastily crosses out the name
Yuniesky Betancourtfrom list of optionsI was nowhere close on the quiz. I guessed Shawon Dunston, who is 28th in total errors at shortstop. He didn’t play nearly enough innings, although on a per-inning basis he was up there. On a per-inning basis, there are others that are even worse. Frank Taveras, who had (236 errors in 9005 innings) and Rafael Ramirez (301 errors, 11567 innings) are pretty bad.
I do want to note–after looking up the correct answer–that it appears Concepcion is not #2, but #4. There’s something weird going on with the Qualified filter for minimum playing time. If you set it to a numerical minimum instead of the Qualified filter, you get Alfredo Grirfin and Bill Russell ahead of Concepcion.
Shawon Dunston! My lasting memory of Dunston is being ten years old, summer afternoon watching WGN at my grandparents house. Dunston swings at strike three on a ball in the dirt, and me hearing the disgust and frustration in my grandpa’s “oh come on!” It felt like that moment (watching it together) repeated a hundred times but was probably only a handful.
Fast forward to the last decade, same scene, but it’s my kids on the floor, me with the disgust, and Javy walking back to the dugout.
And I love both those players so much 🙂
My goal was to pick someone who inexplicably played 10+ full seasons of baseball at shortstop. I might have gone with Edgar Renteria or Rafael Furcal but didn’t because I thought they played in the AL for a couple of seasons (correctly in Renteria’s case, not correctly in Furcal’s case). Jeter and Yount were AL players, so it couldn’t have been them. The only guy who seemed to match my definition was Shawon Dunston, who was a bad defender but people didn’t recognize it at the time. But he didn’t play enough.
Guys like Templeton, Concepcion, Barry Larkin, and Ozzie Smith didn’t register for me because I remembered them as good (and in the latter case, great) defenders. But they played for so much longer than anyone else they racked up a lot of errors anyway. And Templeton was an average-to-plus defender for most of his career despite his errors.
Templeton was a really good fielder. One of those guys who made a ton of errors but made a ton of plays so his fielding % was about average.
IIRC, he had a better range factor than even Ozzie Smith a few years.
The other thing I remember about him was EVERYONE thought he was gonna be a star & early in his career he put up some big offensive years..but, he just never quite put it all together & when he went to SD & off the artificial turf, his offense really fell off. The blurb by Bill James in his New Historical Abstract was pretty telling.
See I knew Templeton committed a lot of errors (led the NL in SS errors in 1978, 1979, 1980, and 1990) but I ultimately dismissed him because I also knew his offense tanked after getting traded to San Diego. So I thought his career was a lot shorter than it was.
I guessed it was a trick question, and went with Ozzie Smith due to longevity. Who finished with 281 errors.
Same here!
Me too. I figured he played there so long he probably racked up a lot of errors. Also, scorers back then were less generous and more likely to call borderline plays errors.
Wow, when you see that Griffin really only played around 13 full seasons (24 career HRs — lol 1980s), that’s a helluva lot of errors.
In retrospect I have no idea why Alfredo Griffin got so much playing time. 24 career home runs, career .249 batting average, made a huge number of errors. It looks like he strung together enough years with a functional batting average (1979, 1985, 1986) that led people to think that he could do it again? But he put up a .199 batting average in 1988 and the Dodgers responded by giving him 547 PAs in 1989…
He was also named to the all-star team in 1984, a year where he would put up -1.9 fWAR. According to Wikipedia, the reason he made it is pretty unusual. The league pays (paid?) for each all-star to bring a +1. Damaso Garcia picked Griffin. So when Alan Trammell hurt himself and couldn’t play and the AL manager needed a shortstop to suit up, Griffin was already at the game.
I’m trying to remember any thought that I had about Alfredo Griffin back when he was playing. I think that I must have concluded that he was a good defender because why else was he playing so much when he couldn’t hit? I didn’t have internet access in the 1980s so I couldn’t look up how many errors he had in a season, and even if I did have access I’m not sure there was Usenet forum that would have posted it. I could have looked it up in a reference book, which I had, but I typically just looked up players I was interested in.
“But he put up a .199 batting average in 1988 and the Dodgers responded by giving him 547 PAs in 1989”
You left off the best part. That 1988 Dodgers team was the one that won the WS, shocking the powerhouse A’s (the one with the famous Gibson homerun off of Eckersley). And yes, Griffin was the Dodger’s starting shortstop throughout the playoffs.
Here’s where it gets even better. The year before – 1987 – Griffin was the starting SS for…the Oakland A’s. The A’s traded Griffin to the Dodgers in the offseason and proceeded to go from 81 wins to 104 wins. Meanwhile, the Dodgers improved from 73 wins to 90 wins. That’s how good Griffin was….he could drastically improve both the team that traded him away and the team that acquired him. 🙂
BTW, Griffin later won two more WS rings as a backup on the ’92 and ’93 Blue Jays.
Griffin leaving made the A’s better because Bob Welch came in as a result of the trade. Griffin made the Dodgers better by (1) being traded alongside Jay Howell who had a monster year and (2) breaking his hand, meaning he couldn’t hurt the team anymore.
Griffin played in the AL also, so he doesn’t qualify. But Russell played his entire career with the dodgers so he should have been ahead of Concepcion (339 to 311 as a shortstop)
That wasn’t the question, just the hint…
🤣 d’oh. my bad.
Templeton is the first player I thought of. But I changed to Concepcion. Should have stuck with my initial instinct!
“There’s something weird going on with the Qualified filter for minimum playing time. If you set it to a numerical minimum instead of the Qualified filter, you get Alfredo Grirfin and Bill Russell ahead of Concepcion.”
Yeah, that’s weird. At first, I thought maybe the qualified filter was just removing individual “unqualified” seasons from the total (and that maybe removing those season for Russel put him below Concepcion), but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Bill Russel just disappears when the qualified filter is enabled.
I did the exact same thing- Between Dunston & Rafael Ramirez, who I knew were both high error guys. I figured Dunston played longer, so I chose him not realizing he only played 1363 games at SS.
Totally biffed on Templeton who was an obvious choice in retrospect. Played almost exclusively at SS & was a high error guy.
Rafael Ramirez was my guess. Good enough to play shortstop for a long time but boy did he ever have high e-ratings in Strat-O-Matic.
I had zero clue on the quiz, but it did remind me that the Cardinals traded the error-prone Templeton to the Padres after the 1981 season for Ozzie Smith, perhaps the best fielding SS of all time.
Check out a post WWII, Yankees farmhand named Angie Pescatelli.
More info, please. I’m curious, and Google isn’t helping any.
I think Mark Belanger probably wins in this category but Ozzie is a fine #2.
I looked up the trade, I had totally forgotten that Templeton had made obscene gestures at Cardinals fans, and that Ozzie Smith’s relationship with the Padres had deteriorated to the point where his agent was taking out advertisements to embarrass the Padres ownership.
Indeed, if one goes by errors/games played or DEF/games played, Belanger gets the nod. Ozzie had the better publicist.
For Garry Templeton fans (or fans of baseball, and 80s baseball in particular), check out a book called The Wax Pack.
I was shocked at that Betts, JD statistical comparison, never would have thought that.
Martinez was kind of a late bloomer since he was a below average hitter over his first 3 years before the Astros gave up on him. Betts hit well from the start. Everything about their career shapes is very different.
It just makes me more impressed by Betts. He’s a good enough hitter to just be a DH, but he’s also elite on the bases and in the field.
I also like reading about pitcher hitter matchups. On the flip side DiMaggio in 58 games, he faced Feller more than any other pitcher in his career with 217 plate appearances and 193 at-bats. His .342 career average against Feller ranked third against pitchers he faced at least 100 times. Against Feller, DiMaggio collected the most hits (66), doubles (11, tied with Bobo Newsom), triples (7), home runs (11), RBI (46) and walks (23). But while DiMaggio wasn’t prone to striking out (369 over his career), no one got him more than Feller, who struck him out 12 times.
America is a very unforgiving place.
Bauer wasn’t even charged with a crime.
And, even when someone does something wrong, if they did the time or the public humiliation ritual, at what point can a person be forgiven and allowed to do what they do best?
Some will say he will be a distraction, but if him or Julio can keep winning, they most likely will not repeat any behavior that puts them in a similar position as before.
Legality isn’t the only yardstick to measure people by.
It is in fact the lowest, easiest bar to clear.
The order, lowest to highest, is LAW, MORALS, ETHICS.
Law requires irrefutable evidence, morality is situational, ethics is absolute and unforgiving (no shades of gray) but few acknowledge its judgement. Too demanding for fallible humans. Particularly politicians.
Bauer’s exile is morality driven (and a bit hypocritical) because his behavior falls in with a subculture generally seen as distasteful and best kept out of the public eye., especially as determined by MLBs mores, ca 2020’s.
Just because the law proved no violation of its standards says nothing about community morals or his personal ethics. Or any team’s willingness to sign him, which is nil.
If he wishes to pitch professionally, he will find himself limited to Asian leagues at most inasmuch as France has no professional league. 😎
Seeing as Julio Urias was arrested in 2019 for domestic violence, won the World Series the next year, and then was arrested again for domestic violence last year, I’m gonna have to say that your last point there is complete BS.
As is your whole message. America is an extremely forgiving place. Aroldis Chapman did a horrible thing and still has a job. Tyreek Hill did multiple horrible things and still has a job. As have so, so, so many other athletes, celebrities, and politicians. Americans forgive men who do horrible things to women all the time! The reason Bauer won’t ever pitch in the MLB ever again is because he makes it his mission to cause as much drama online and in the media as possible at all times, and no major league team wants to deal with that. Even if he was innocent (he probably isn’t, he was accused by multiple people and there is at least one lawsuit still ongoing), he brought this fate upon himself.
I used to say the only thing that America would absolutely never forgive you for was hurting a dog, but then Michael Vick was at least partially/mostly forgiven. So yeah, as long as you’re still bringing it America will forgive you for just about anything.
I think one of the key things is showing remorse. Vick, for as horrible as his crimes were, paid his penalty & has repeatedly shown regret for what he did.
Bauer has not & quite frankly, has come off as an a’hole throughout the whole ordeal. Add in that Bauer already had a toxic online presence (spouting off right win conspiracy stuff like Obama birther crap & anti-climate change..along with harassing people on Twitter that disagreed with him & trying to get others to do so) & has become so toxic no team wants to get near him.
It’s unclear whether Vick actually felt remorse but either way, he was very convincing that he messed up. I remember as part of his various community services (maybe court mandated, maybe just good PR) he went to a school. A student asked him what he regretted, and he said he was devastated that his kids weren’t allowed to have a dog because of him. It was an incredibly realistic answer–that the things that hurt you are the reminders in the present of things that happened in the past.
It all depends on whether you lean to the left or right. On one hand, you can absolutely never be forgiven for the slightest perceived transgression based on hearsay and on the other , you have zero culpability even with video evidence of your wrongdoing and in fact, the people that question you become the transgressors.
Ah yes, because billionaire MLB owners are notorious for their hardline left wing politics. That’s definitely why they don’t want to give Bauer a job
One of those trades: Garry Templeton for Ozzie Smith.
Templeton had 18.9 BWAR in 6 seasons for St. Louis, then a total of 10BWAR for 10 seasons in SD. Ozzie had 10.9 BWAR in 4 seasons for SD, then 65.9 for for St. Louis.
Just FYI it is the Claxton shield, not Clayton shield. “…Adelaide captured its second straight ABL title, which is formally known as the Cla
yxton Shield.” Glad to see it being mentioned though.Thanks for the heads up. Correction made. This was very much an auto(mis)correct that I failed to notice, as I have referenced the Claxton Shield several times over the years. My bad for not catching this one.
Fun column as usual. Thanks, Dave. You might want to nudge the higher-ups that Chuck Churn passed October 21, 2017.