THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Conservative guys just can’t succeed up in those liberal states:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/2008_11_03_John_McCain_stumps_with_Curt_Schilling_in_N_H_:_9th-inning_pitch/srvc=home&position=7

He will find himself out of place with the extreme left wingers that play for and run the Yankees.  Could have been worse though, he won’t have to play for the notorious communist revolution leader, just his slightly less hard line sons.

Excerpt from Pearlman’s profile:

”It’s about a pudgy, unrecruited nobody from a Texas high school who, at age 25, has become one of the National League’s leading MVP candidates. In his first full major league season the Astros’ leftfielder is an indisputable, out-of-nowhere phenom, ranking at week’s end in the top 10 of almost every significant hitting category in the league...”

But he’s nice, so there’s absolutely, positively no way he’s a steroid user. Nuh uh, no way.

I don’t have an opinion on it either way, but come on.

It’s absurd to assume that anyone hasn’t (or has) use steroids without proof. And by proof I mean a lot more than “he hit many HR” “He looks big” “I don’t like him so I want him to have used steroids” “He’s nice there’s no way he used steroids” or even “He’s small, white and scrappy and doesn’t hit for power” etc.

Well in my opinion. If we don’t have proof we should not talk about steroids at all.

I get it.  I don’t think I could tolerate living anywhere outside of the Southeast, either.

Not that I don’t think Berkman will succeed in NY, I don’t think it’ll effect him all that much.  He’s only going to be there for three months, anyway.  But I understand the “not meant for big northern cities” thing 100%.  There are cultural differences, and some people fit better with certain cultures.  I would imagine many people from New York wouldn’t be able to tolerate south Georgia, either.

Peter, I don’t know about that. I’m from the Bay Area and went to college in Waco, TX. I didn’t love it, but I enjoyed parts of living there. Obviously, different people would react differently.

Point is, Pearlman shouldn’t do his pseudo-psychologist schtick and shouldn’t be basing what he says around assumptions about a person.

A guy who went to Rice probably isn’t the best successor to Crocodile Dundee.

This comment is meant for the thread below, which doesn’t appear to be accepting comments right now.

USS Mariner (David Cameron?):

A while ago, maybe years ago, I was visiting a sister of mine who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  As part of her cable package, she gets local broadcasts from Washington State.  Either Spokane or Seattle, I don’t recall.  One of the two, though.

I was flipping through the channels, and I came across a local show about baseball, just a few guys sitting around on cheap office chairs, and they were chatting.  Local TV production values in play.  One of the guests was a local reporter I think; a smallish, chubby guy who looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. Another guest was a sharp cat who pulled comp numbers out his memory like a side-show atraction.

Near the end of it, the dishevelled reporter character was losing confidence.  He had one eye on the increasingly angry ‘fact guy’ when he was spewing cliches.  It was terrific television, obviously I wouldn’t have remembered it otherwise.

Was that you?  If not, do you know who it was?

Aaron B.,
I’m with you mostly.  It depends on the person, city, et cetera.  Every situation is unique, and I doubt Pearlman is qualified to make an assessment regarding this one.

I just think the ‘some people aren’t cut out for the big city’ notion has more behind it than some would have you believe.

In this situation we’re talking about a wealthy baseball player that will be on the road half of the time. When they’re home he cab be left alone in a gated community, hotel suite, apartment, etc.

For a younger player, NYC would seem to have distactions out the wazoo, especially a young star.

But, really what is Berkam going to do in NY? Play baseball and go out to eat with other players. It is fun to picture him dressed in black leather at a trance club. Okay maybe it’s not that fun.

It’s not like he’s going to have the typical life of down home country boy goes to the big city.

Only problem I have with Pearlman’s post is the notion that someone who is authentic and decent could not possibly have used steroids a single time in his entire life. That is an absurd line of thinking.

The other stuff is vague enough to be meaningless. He doesn’t “belong” there or isn’t “meant” for NY—what does that mean? That could mean he won’t like it or they won’t like him, but neither of those things has much to do with whether he’ll play well for NY, and I don’t think Pearlman is trying to say that he won’t play well or will wilt under pressure.

a few weeks back Pearlman wrote that he knew Jason Bay would fail in New York because he “did not have a New York personality.”

When can this myth be put to rest?