THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Big Unit

Interview from 2002 of RJ:

7. Where did you get the nickname Big Unit?

Here, from Tim Raines. He was coming out of the batting cage, bumped into me and looked up and said: “You’re a big unit.” I don’t know that it stuck with me then, but he called me unit a few more times and it caught on.

8. Your wife, Lisa, must have a different nickname for you?

(Puzzled look) Well, I am her husband. So it’s “honey.” Or Randy.

...

15. All this talk about juiced baseballs and juiced hitters. Is today’s pitcher at a disadvantage?

Without a doubt, the balls are harder than they have been in prior years, the bats are a little harder, the fields are a little smaller, and the strike zone varies on any given day. With those intangibles, I think a lot of pitchers would agree - even if few hitters would - that hitters have an advantage. ... From what I’ve observed the past 14 years in the major leagues, things have changed considerably. The numbers indicate that. For whatever reason, there are more home runs being hit now. And that was even before the steroid controversy came up.