Baseball Players Who Like Baseball
Posted: June 19th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball | 62 Comments »
J.P. Ricciardi may have a record of 12 games under .500 in his surprisingly lengthy tenure as general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, but you have to say this: He knows people. Before last season, for instance, when Gil Meche signed a big deal with the Kansas City Royals rather than sign a big deal with his Blue Jays, Ricciardi knew exactly why. It was because Meche, deep down, was a loser.
“When a guy talks about coming to our place where he has a chance to win and compete against the Yankees and the Red Sox, and then he goes to a place like Kansas City, that’s an eye-opener,“ he was quoted saying in USA Today. â€We may have dodged a bullet with that one.”
Yep, whew, they dodged that bullet. Almost got stuck with Gil Meche and his 128 ERA+ last year. Of course, Ricciardi knew what few others could have understood — Meche would not have HAD that 128 ERA+ in Toronto because he did not have the heart and guts and competitive fire necessary to take on the Red Sox and the Yankees and all that. Yes, J.P. knows more than stats and tools. He can see into the hearts of men.
This came up again on the J.P. Radio Show in the last day or so when a caller suggested that maybe the Blue Jays go get Cincinnati’s Adam Dunn. You could certainly understand the suggestion — Adam Dunn has a .381 lifetime on-base percentage, a .519 career slugging percentage, he’s hit 40-plus homers each of the last four years and is on pace to hit 40 again this year. Also, the Blue Jays suck. You could also understand why the Blue Jays might not want Dunn — he’s a certain kind of player whose value is mostly concentrated in his homers and walks. He strikes out a whole lot and has a low batting average … not sure how players like that age. He gets paid a whole lot of money.
It turns out, though, that J.P. Ricciardi knows something more about the man.
“Do you know the guy doesn’t really like baseball that much?†Ricciardi told the caller, according to the National Post. “Do you know the guy doesn’t have a passion to play the game that much? How much do you know about the player?â€
How much, indeed? Did he cry during the let’s-have-a-catch scene at the end of “Field of Dreams.†Does he know all the words or only most of them to the second verse of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame?†Does he appreciate cool trivia questions like: “How many times was Roger Maris intentionally walked the year he hit 61 homers?â€*Does he have a baseball card in the spokes of his bicycle? And, if so, then what card? Because it has to be someone like Sixto Lezcano or Paul Assenmacher or else it feels kind of phony. Does he occasionally put on the ol’ pajamas, go to the parents basement and blog about baseball just for fun? Can he not only name the entire lineup of the ‘75 Reds but also the starting pitchers? No, I suspect not. This Dunn is most definitely not a Blue Jays man. Not a Blue Jays man at all.
*Zero. Maris had Mantle hitting behind him. You knew that already because you, unlike Adam Dunn, like baseball.
I remember Jeff King. Now here was a guy who did not like baseball that much. Before a game once, while the National Anthem played, King turned to manager Tony Muser and said: “Man, I hate this song.â€
Muser, a Marine and patriotic man turned angrily and said: “What?â€
And King said: “Every time they play this song, I have a bad day.â€
It was a pretty funny line, but King really didn’t like baseball, and even though he was a productive player and he was getting a lot of money, he quit in the middle of the year, went to some ranch in some faraway state and was more or less never heard from again. See, that stuff can happen. You never know when someone will Jeffking their way right out of there … Adam Dunn might head back to Texas and raise cattle or drill oil wells or whatever. J.P. cannot be bringing in guys like that to his club. He needs players who are passionate about playing baseball. Players who never quit on their team. Players like A.J. Burnett.
Anyway, this got me to thinking about motivation in baseball again — it’s something I probably spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about. I had a fascinating conversation a few months ago with Royals manager Trey Hillman — this was actually in Japan. He was talking about how his job is to put players in position to succeed — you’ve heard that bit before. But then I asked him something like this: “So, do you care about what motivates a player? Some play for money, some for fame, some play to celebrate their faith, some to make their family proud, some to pick up women, some because they have loved baseball all their lives, some out of fear of failure. Do you care?â€
And he said this: “I care only so far as if I know a player’s motivation, it might help me make that player better. But beyond that, to be perfectly frank, no. I don’t care. As long as a player performs, I really don’t care why he’s performing. If he doesn’t perform, then we have a different situation, but if he’s performing then I really don’t care why.â€
That’s when I knew that I liked Trey. I don’t know how he will do as manager — nobody does — but I like this thought a lot. Yes, of course, as a writer, as a fan, I enjoy players who have the J.P. required passion for the game. And I also enjoy trying to work out their motivations because that often makes for interesting writing and it makes my experience at the ballgame more fun. I would like to know what it is that makes someone like Milton Bradley tick. I write these Banny Logs because I’m fascinated by Brian Bannister and how a smart pitcher with so-so stuff and a lot of enthusiasm survives in the bat-eat-ball world of Major League Baseball.
But that has nothing to do with winning baseball games — or, if not nothing, then certainly a whole lot less than a .381 on-base percentage and 40 homers per year. Tony Pena Jr. likes baseball — it’s clear in everything he does. He’s hitting .154/.174/.191. I don’t want to speak for Dayton Moore, but I’m guessing that for the right price, he’s available.
Like more or less everything else in this crazy world, it comes back to MannyBManny. Last October, you might recall, the Indians had a 3-1 Championship Series lead on the Red Sox, and MannyB made the briefly famous comments: “If it doesn’t happen, who cares? There’s always next year. It’s not like it’s the end of the world.â€
A few people tried to analyze those words, figure out what they meant, figure out the motivations of this odd man. But, of course, the words meant nothing. The Red Sox won three straight, and Manny hit .409 in that series, then they won four more straight in the World Series, and, hell, it just didn’t matter. You couldn’t figure out MannyB’s motivations with Sigmund Freud, Barbara Walters, Perry Mason, a bright flashlight and the suction machine from “Princess Bride.†He cares and doesn’t care, he tries and he loafs, he loves his teammates and he demands trades, he is one of a kind, but they’re all one of a kind, that’s the point.
And this: The good thing is that in baseball, everything gets written down. Everything. It’s unlikely that any business in America is so diligently quantified. So we know MannyB has hit .314/.409/.593 in his amazing career. We don’t have the stats on how much he likes baseball. J.P. is no doubt working those out now.The J.P., it seems, stands for “Judges People.â€
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J.P. Ricciardi gets weirder and weirder. I can’t tell if he’s just under a lot of pressure, or what. But he’s an enigma to me.
But here’s a guy who is supposed to be a sabermetrics guru, and he’s releasing his best hitter and accusing Adam Dunn of not having the passion to play the game.
Bizarre.
Is a career OPS+ not good enough to break into that lineup?
Wait, this is the same man who got rid of Frank Thomas.
I like the way you coined the phrase ‘Jeffking’ their way out of the…’. Nice. Is the present tense of that Jeffkinging? JP definitely does not have a HUGE ego. No definitely not.
I’m pretty sure that Erik Bedard (the M’s fiasco trade for this year) doesn’t like to play baseball. It’s not his hate of the media, it’s not his frequent injury history, it’s not his lack of performance. It’s just an impression I get from everything about the guy that he doesn’t like the game and he’d rather be doing something else but the money is too good.
There is absolutely a nose joke to be made here, given the enormity of Ricciardi’s probiscis and his habit of looking down it (or turning it up) regarding some players, but that would be an unfair personal attack. I wonder what his views are on that subject. My guess is that he’d look at it like this:
Judging a guy’s heart = Fair.
Judging a guy’s schnoz = Dirty Pool.
I hope Adam Dunn comments on this and tells J.P. to stick it in his ear.
JP “Sure I’ll give you a quote” Ricciardi is the most overrated GM since Steve Phillips.
Keith Foulke took some hits in Boston for saying he doesn’t like baseball very much.
Fun fact: A panel of experts judged this the stupidest controversy ever.
Comments about Dunn at 11:00.
http://www.fan590.com/media.jsp?content=20080619_000814_12348
Why is it that if an aging vet signs with a championship-caliber team because he just wants to win a World Series (or Super Bowl, etc.), he’s considered a “winner” or a guy with “character” and worthy of our admiration? Doesn’t it seem like kind of a wimpy thing to do — to simply go to whichever team is the best?
Dunn’s response. Not bad:
http://www.thelotd.com/ctrent/blog/2008/06/19/dunn_i_dont_know_the_clown
I read those comments from JP and I see influence of the NE Patriots personnel philosophy. In football, there are obviously less measurables with respect to player performance and Belichick (and Scott Pioli, the GM of the Pats) are on record as putting heavy emphasis on whether a player “loves football”. Granted, in football, you need to really love it because you’re sacrificing your health . . . but that kind of evaluation philosophy might be influencing JP here (a native New Englander who still makes his home in Mass). Now one might question the applicability of it as an evaluation criteria for baseball players . . .
Uh, yah, this entire post is Eric Wedge in a nutshell. He loves and plays guys with “passion” for baseball regardless if they suck at it.
I’d like to know just how good JP thinks JP is at evaluating talent. Maybe, he just doesn’t like doing it so he makes stuff up to get himself fired? After all, he hasn’t put together a team worthy of clearly beating the Yanks or Red Sox in the division, but Tampa has been able to accomplish it. Hmmm, maybe JP just doesn’t like baseball.
I’ve heard several times from Jeff Kent (he of the 123 lifetime OPS+, the 370 HRs, the 5 ASG appearances, the MVP and 3 other top-10 MVP finishes) that he’s not all that enamored with baseball either, but can’t pass up the money. And Chuck Berry more or less invented modern rock even though he would have given up music in a heartbeat if he could make more money selling Buicks. Geez, gimme some losers like that on MY team. What an asshat JP is.
As a Mariner’s fan that survived the Meche era, I’ll just say that waiting more than one year to place judgment on that contract is probably a good idea. Not saying that you’re wrong about JP…
Richie Sexson was pretty good the first year of his contract too.
JP sent down Orlando Hudson because he complimented him. I think he (OH) called him (JP) a smooth MFer or something like that.
I wanted to like JP since he at first seemed to be out of the Billy Beane school of GMs but he says and does too many things I don’t agree with.
If you listen to the audio, it’s pretty clear that J.P. is super-steamed at something. I think his cell phone cut out in the middle of his Dunn rant, and he eventually circles back to the topic in a (slightly) more calm, though still ignorant fashion.
“I’m not converting my dollars into looneys and twoneys just yet.” – Adam Dunn (possible misspelling the fault of the reporter).
Wow, Joe…scathing.
Can’t wait for Ken Tremendous to ghost write your blog again.
Bat-eat-Ball? I’m not familiar with that phrase.
where’s the banny log? he certainly deserves one after last night!
This is the same sort of “fire and passion” bulls*#t that I expect to hear come out of the mouths of talk-radio show hosts and callers…not the actual GM of an actual professional baseball team. One of the jokes here on our particular sports radio station here in Chicago is the canonization of Aaron-freaking-Rowand for being the “heart and soul” of the 2005 World Champion White Sox. Every day there’s another meatball calling in when the Sox lose or look sluggish saying “I wish we had never traded Aaron Rowand; this team has no fire,” blah blah blah.
As a normal guy making “der infinite”ly less money than he does, it makes me sick to watch Aramis Ramirez lollygag his ass down to first base on pop-ups, or turn the occasional double into a single with a premature “home run trot”. (I know he’s far from the only one in baseball, or any sport, I just need an example.) As a GM, though, I would love to have this guy, or JD Drew, or the Andruw Jones from a couple of years ago on my time, regardless of how disinterested he looks on any given day, just because I know that players can produce the way they can produce HELP MY TEAM WIN MORE GAMES than having more “scrappy” but less-talented players. As a Cub fan who has to watch him launch moon shots onto, and leave potholes in, Sheffield Avenue several times a year, I can tell you that Adam Dunn will help any team win a lot more baseball games than the “average” player. Period.
I hated my last job, but I was also very good at it. While I was there, my management kept giving me good reviews, compliments, raises, and bonuses. Do you think they really gave a damn or had any clue that I felt like I was having my soul slowly squeezed out of me each and every day that I walked into that office? No; they were too busy celebrating in the piles of money that I was helping to generate with my efficiency and stellar performance.
I don’t know what the hell J.P. Riccardi is smoking, but I’m sure glad I don’t work for him.
I LOVE this blog… and the JP posting is more “must” reading. I will buy two copies of the new book, Joe.
JP is one strange guy… Sometimes he actually seems like he has a plan, then he changes it 1 1/2 seasons later. Apparently he and Billy Beane were tight, though.
The Orlando Hudson thing came up during JP’s first season on the job. It was hilarious. Someone asked O-Dog what he thought of the New GM, and Hudson’s quote was something like “Smart guy, dresses like pimp.” Awesome.
It’s strange that JP thinks he knows what’s up with Adam Dunn. Maybe there’s something about those initials that encourages “Judging People.” To wit:
“I think there are times [Alex Gordon] acts aloof, like he’s already arrived…I get the sense a lot of people think Alex Gordon is a star. I don’t want to judge [irony alert!]but it’s possible that Alex even might think that himself…” hmmmm… from where was that?
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/06/14/streak-is-dead-long-live-the-sreak/
I’m guessing you don’t think JP gets a “60″ on the character-judging version of the Dayton game, which is so awesome that it almost led to a Billy Butler for Yuniesky Betancourt trade. Not that I’d want to judge, because Dayton is obviously a great judge of hitting talent: Ross Gload, Tony Pena, Jr. All the greats.
Keep up the great work. Seriously.
Re: Chris
Ken Tremendous? Almost. Try Junior:
http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2008/06/rough-year-for-jp-ricciardi-huh.html
Ah, my two favorite website worlds are colliding.
Ah, yes, Zak…saw that. My heart is all a’twitter.
I cried tears of joy when I saw that Joe and KT became Facebook friends. Now, if I can only get JP to join my Williamson Fremp fan club…
He looks like he’s getting the best out of DL Wells, DL Burnett, and running Halladay’s inning count into the stratosphere and on top of that, letting go a great power bat that they really needed in Frank Thomas.
Jays probably won’t stay out of the cellar this year. Every other team has prospects and stars, they have mediocre players everywhere.
I went to the same high school as Paul Assenmacher. I know it’s not much, but we don’t have a lot of MLB alumni. Assenmacher and Jeff Kaiser – that’s it.
Look, this smacks of the “you aren’t inside so you don’t know the game” bs that insiders use to denigrate people outside the game. It’s the same crap that idiots like Plaschke and TJ Simers use, the same thing that Buzz used to Will Leitch, etc. I can understand Riccardi’s frustrations, not only does he hear from the fans that they think they could do a better job, but deep down, he probably knows that they are right!
It’s sad to see the direction the Blue Jays organization is headed and Riccardi is not making things any better with comments like this (not to mention the questionable release of Frank Thomas earlier this year — see JC Bradbury’s post on http://www.sabernomics.com about this). Also don’t forget John Gibbons, a Riccardi hire, made Joe’s favorite move this year when he intentionally walked Tony Pena, Jr.
In some ways Toronto offers a parallel to the direction Montreal took. I remember some great tilts at the Big O between the Expos and Phillies in the 1980s but then things went south . . . and so did the Expos.
I took a quick look at Toronto’s attendance numbers and they are rather sad when you look beneath the surface. The metro Toronto population is around 5 million people. Attendance peaked in the early 90s (at 4 million per year) right after Skydome (now Rogers Center) opened but now it is just over half of this. Total attendance for the period 2000-2007 was just under 16 million. Compare this to Joe’s hometown Royals. Playing in an area with less than half the population they drew just over 12 million fans during the same time period and as Joe has told us these were some dreadful teams.
I wonder how much of this is a commentary on baseball in Canada or simply poor management/ownership. I suppose the question is how long will the ownership group tolerate the mediocrity which the Blue Jays have offered during Riccardi’s tenure or will we see a repeat of Montreal.
Josh Hamilton confessed in the profile that sports illustrated did for him that he thinks baseball is boring and that never checks box scores. I felt kind of shocked, but made me wonder, had him liked the sport would have made any difference on his drugs problems?
“Baseball is boring” is too broad of a stroke. Watching baseball can be boring to some, but they enjoy playing it. Traveling around the country and enduring a 162-game season may be boring to some, but they still enjoy parts of it (e.g., their PA).
Perhaps playing in MLB is like raising a kid. A large percentage of one’s time is boring, frustrating, annoying, tedious, etc. But there are those special moments — that great smile on the little one’s face, or hitting a HR — that make it all worth while.
So I might say that raising children is hard work, not all that fun, and very frustrating, but I wouldn’t trade places with any one.
Joe, this blog is a shining example of why I know you’ll win a Spinks award someday for your baseball coverage. I’ll make sure I’m there in Cooperstown for it
Pure poetry, Joe.
And I have at least 15 Sixto Lezcano’s, ungraded and gathering lovely dust.
Reminds me of the story Beane tells about Lenny Dykstra when they were young Mets:
>>”A high school phenomenon who chose pro ball over Stanford, Beane was drafted by the New York Mets in the same draft that brought Darryl Strawberry to the big leagues. Coming up in the Mets farm system, he roomed with Lenny Dykstra, who was destined for a permanent spot in the Mets outfield.
As Lewis tells us, they were two very different kinds of ball players and the contrast is instructive: “Lenny thought of himself and Billy as two buddies racing together down the same track, but Billy sensed differences between himself and Lenny. Physically, Lenny didn’t belong in the same league with him. He was half Billy’s size and had a fraction of Billy’s promise – which is why the Mets hadn’t drafted him until the 13th round. Mentally, Lenny was superior, which was odd, considering Lenny wasn’t what you’d call a student of the game. Billy remembers sitting with Lenny in a Mets dugout watching the opposing pitcher warm up. ‘Lenny says, “So who’s that big dumb ass out there on the hill?†And I say, “Lenny, you’re kidding me, right? That’s Steve Carlton. He’s maybe the greatest left-hander in the history of the game.†Lenny says, “Oh, yeah! I knew that!†He sits there for a minute and says, “So, what’s he got?†And I say, “Lenny, come on. Steve Carlton. He’s got heat and also maybe the nastiest slider ever.†And Lenny sits there for a while longer as if he’s taking that in. Finally he just says, “Shit, I’ll stick him.†I’m sitting there thinking, that’s a magazine cover out there on the hill and all Lenny can think is that he’ll stick him.’†<<
I’ve talked to many MLB baseball players over the years and I was always surprised at how little they knew about baseball compared to how the average fan knew baseball. They obviously know how to play the game and know the nuances, but they seem almost oblivious to the history of it.
Well, there’s one good thing about all this, I suppose.
We now know that Toronto won’t be interested in Young Donald Zachary either so long as JP’s there.
Wow, Mathis is really getting trounced in the latest poll. Chances are Joe will get around to discussing why we’re voting on that one …
Larry Walker was a guy who quite freely admitted that he hated baseball. In fact, his dislike went to enough of an extreme to bother me as a fan, chastising teammates for watching the other teams’ games in the clubhouse when they were in a playoff hunt (referring to them as “boring ,” or something like that, just before changing the channel, if I recall the articles correctly. It’s been a long time).
Still, how many team’s would not have wanted Larry Walker on their team when he was in his prime? I’d sure as hell have liked having the guy on my favourite club.
Bob Hamelin didn’t love baseball. In his last act, he jeffking’d when he grounded out while batting for the Red Sox in a spring training game. He was a non-roster invitee. As the ball dribbled to 2nd base, the former RoY walked off the field, down the steps of the dugout, into the hallway away from the sport that Jeff King, Keith Foulke and Adam Dunn don’t like very much.
Snowman, I’ve noticed the same thing. I know a few guys with the Omaha Royals who go home and watch their Kansas City brethren play, and who watch Baseball Tonight or whatever all the time, but I know others who probably never even mention or think about baseball at all outside of their own time at the stadium. I don’t really get how one can dedicate so much of his time/energy/social life to a sport he doesn’t even like, but there’s a lot of those guys out there.
I second the request for the latest Banny log, and have decided that I want nothing more in the world than to sit down for lunch with Banny and just…LEARN. That would be Christmas/my birthday/Opening Day all rolled into one, times ten.
I always loved Pete Rose’s comment during Game 6 of the ‘75 World Series. He’d just banjoed a single and was the quintessential kid, just thrilled to be involved in such a great game.
I was lucky enough to follow the Roylz on the road during George Brett’s last season and ended up in some hotel bars after the game, drinking beer with the players and listening to Brett’s observation that baseball is one of those games where, once you really get it mentally, your physical skills can’t catch up with what you’ve learned.
The really great players seem to break into the Bigs with physical skills, learn all sorts of stuff by playing the game every day, and end up using a veteran’s savvy and cunning to defeat youngsters’ skill and strength.
I think it’s in one of Joe Garagiola’s books how, during the ‘57 World Series (I think that’s the right year), Yogi Berra tried to get young Henry Aaron to think too much at the plate. “You’re holding the bat wrong,” said Yogi. “You should hit with the trademark up so you can read it.” Aaron hit the next pitch a couple of miles south of County Stadium and as Hammerin’ Hank crossed the plate, he said to Yogi, “I came up here to hit, not to read.”
It’s been reported that Willie Mays was the worst coach ever. His advice to youngsters was “Run after the ball and catch it,” and “Hit the ball hard.” Mays was blessed with understanding he never realized was exceptional. He didn’t just pick up on the spin of a slider, he could count the laces as a 90-mph pitch was approaching. He never understood that mere mortals can’t do that.
Part of what makes George Brett a true Hall of Famer is the legacy of all those Charlie Lau sessions. I remember Lau as a weak-hitting catcher for the Kansas City A’s during their agonizing early-60s futility. That he showed up as a batting coach for Brett, and had a student such as Brett, is one of those baseball stories that adds texture to this wonderful game.
I know that this can be easily verified, but I have to guess first:
Jack Billingham
Fred Norman
Don Gullett
Pat Darcy
Clay Carroll
Reasonably sure the first three are right; Darcy/Carroll might not have started. I know that Rawley Eastwick and Will McEhaney (sp?) were the co-closers, and Pedro Borbon I think was also on that pitching staff.
Going to go check baseball-reference.com for verification though….
Ugh… I missed a really big one. The second best starter on that staff, too, at least according to ERA+.
Check out Gullett’s numbers – damn shame he never could stay healthy.
Oh, and great post, as always.
I don’t know if anyone playing MLB starts out hating baseball. But, say, it isn’t your favorite sport – you like basketball better. Once you play hours and hours a day, endure travelling around the minor leagues, getting bashed in the papers for a lapse or key strikeout, once you’ve watched hours and hours of baseball during the season and spring training and, possibly, winter ball, once it’s become a job with politics and obligations and duties, I can imagine a simple enjoyment of the game could be killed.
I guess my theory would be that either your initial crush on the game would get beaten down to the point it was just a thing you had to do or you would absolutely fall into a deep, deep love of the game that those of us who don’t play it so much couldn’t understand.
It’s Crash Davis versus Nuke Laloosh. I’d rather root for Crash, but I’d prefer Nuke on my team.
Mark Grace always tells the story that when Dunn made it down to first base once, and Mark asked how he was, Adam replied “Just one more day closer to retirement”. Maybe that is what Riccardi is referring to.
If Dunn does not like baseball, he probably wouldn’t have passion for anything else, either. I don’t think it’s a question of finding something you love and doing it–some people are not all that passionate.
Sure, there can be many theories, but I don’t believe it’s anymore complicated than that. Put Dunn and Grace in any other profession, and Dunn’s response probably doesn’t change one bit.
As a GM of a baseball team, it is absolutely ludicrous to even consider this, unless you must decide if a 17 year-old will take a football scholarship or a NASA internship or something over your bonus offer. Dunn’s a baseball player, and he’s going to stay a baseball player until he retires or quits. Worst case: he goes all Ricky Williams on you, but I think the Reds would survive.
Also, isn’t it incredibly inappropriate to talk about players on someone else’s team? Isn’t that against MLB rules? I am expecting he’ll be fined.
It’s sometimes hard to remember that Toronto set attendance records back in the 90’s (first team in MLB history to 4million for a season, if I remember correctly). Of course that was during a time when the team won 4 pennants and 2 world series, and there is nothing that draws fans in Toronto like success.
The thing to remember about Toronto – it is, first, last and always, a hockey town. The leafs have *sucked* since forever and have missed the playoffs for two years running (which is really hard in the NHL), and it’s still impossible to get tickets to a Leafs game. If a sports team wants to get traction in Toronto, you have to be either new and flashy (the Raptors) or you have to be successful.
You know what’s funny about Ricciardi’s comments? All that “passion” and “love of the game” stuff is hockey talk.
Lots of things change their character when you do them full time as your job.
When you think about it, baseball is a high pressure, high stakes job that requires constant travel eight months out of the year. There’s a lot less success to be had than at the high school level, and a lot more criticism. Plus, you can’t ever change the channel when your team’s losing badly and far out of the race. I can see how someone could fall out of love with the game in those circumstances.
On the other hand, there should be some kind of motivation involved. Good players have to reinvent themselves as their capabilities change.
First of all, I LOVE your blog, Joe. I also recently friended you on Facebook. SCORE!
It’s an incredibly frustrating time to be a Jays fan. The more I try to psycho-analyze J.P., the more frustrating it gets. He knows fans are calling for his head. He’s KNOWN it. But if the team isn’t performing, his saving grace is to make himself SEEM smarter — especially by throwing out little tidbits on a radio show like, “Hey, I bet you guys weren’t even thinking about a player’s character, were you?” It’s a smart strategy, really.
Granted, it backfired and wait, did he really just go out and scapegoat John Gibbons. Really?? REALLY, J.P.??
“He needs players who are passionate about playing baseball. Players who never quit on their team. Players like A.J. Burnett.”
Teeheeheee!!!!
There are different levels of “tool” that someone can be. If you’re just sort of a tool every now and then, you are referred to as a “tool.”
If you’re a bit more of a tool some of the time, or just a tool all the time, you are a “toolbox.”
If you a complete total tool some of the time, or a really big tool all the time, you’re a “toolshed.”
And finally, if you’re just a complete total tool ALL THE TIME, you’re a “toolstore.”
J.P. Ricciardi : The Home Depot of General Managers.
“I don’t really get how one can dedicate so much of his time/energy/social life to a sport he doesn’t even like, but there’s a lot of those guys out there.”
I don’t really find this difficult to comprehend. Some guys just burn out on baseball after awhile, but don’t want to give up the lifestyle and the luxury it affords them.
As for all the dedication to baseball, meh. They’re on the field three hours before the game, usually, the game last an average of three hours. So that’s six hours a day, say another hour in ancilliary stuff, so that’s seven hours a day. For 6 months a year, and maybe a seventh month if their team is any good (and I think most guys do get pretty excited in the playoffs, although Manny ofcourse is a giant indicator that maybe they don’t.)
7 hours a day for 7 months a year sounds a lot better than my 8 hours a day for 50 weeks a year, I can tell you that.
So maybe that’s what those guys think. “It sure beats working in a cubicle, reading Joe Posnanski’s blog all day!”
Wait…
I was going to mention the travel / staying in hotels too in my previous post, which is apparently by far the biggest drain on these guys.
Although I’ve flown from Amsterdam to Washington to Amsterdam to LA to Amsterdam to Houston to Amsterdam to Madrid to Amsterdam to Rome to Amsterdam to Dublin to Amsterdam in a month’s time, in Cattle Class, and it didn’t bother me that much, so I’m not really sure why getting on a private plane and sitting in first class for a few hours every day is such a burden for a professional athlete. I had to work 10-12 hours a day during those trips too.
As long as a guy is good at baseball, I don’t really care if he likes it or not. For all the whining about how soulless JD Drew is, I think Boston fans are sure happy to have him this year (and last year too, if they’re honest.)
Forget hockey, forget the Patriots, forget everything else: Ricciardi has a future in politics. Ran his mouth and got in trouble, so he dumps Gibbons and three coaches. Even better, manages to pull the firing on a Friday, one of the least vigorous news days of the week, sure to be overshadowed by things like the White Sox-Cubs series and the probable end of Curt Schilling’s career. That was one smooth CYA job.
JP is losing his mind. He now sounds like a meathead fan instead of a GM with sabermetric tutelage. Adam Dunn 2008 OPS+ = 134 > anybody on the Jays. Sounds actually like a player you and your awful offense could really use JP.
Mark Grace once remarked, while utilizing a Wrigleyville mens room, that Jeff Blauser was a terrible drag to hang-out with, because he couldn’t hold a conversation about anything other than baseball.
I guess JP would never trade for Keith Foulke, because he is somebody — if there’s anybody — who definitely gives people the impression that he doesn’t like baseball.
Wait… wasn’t JP working in Oakland when they traded for him?
I stand corrected…he was already in Toronto… my bad!
mark grace is the most annoying announcer ever. i would give up just about anything to never hear him say “gasssss” about a pitch again.
I remember that I used to think J.P. was a smart guy because he was mentioned in Moneyball. However, this guy is completely done. I’ll take talent over passion any day of the week. Talent wins, enthusiasm does not. Unless we’re talking about Bull Durham.
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I was in Toronto when Gibbons and Lilly got into their fight. When it happened I thought no way the manager can stick after his second fight, actual fight, with a player on his team. Then I listened to J.P. say “if you can’t play for Gibbons you can’t play for anybody.” Thats the stupidest thing I’ve heard because Hillebrand and Lilly never had problems anywhere else. But J.P. stuck with his guy… sorta. When Gibbons got his extention for ONE year it was obvious J.P. was preparing his scapegoat. J.P. should have been fired after the ‘06 season but after his Dunn comments he should really be fired now. Nothing like pissing off hitters when your lineup has no professional hitters in it. I’ve felt sorry for Toronto fans for a while and Riccardi is the reason why. And to the Rowand basher, please enjoy the regular season because the only title the 2008 Cubs will celebrate is the anniversary of the 1908 Cubs. Go White Sox! Start the site http://www.firejpriccardi.com maybe the Rogers family will get the hint.
Re: the poster who claims that Toronto is a ‘hockey town.’ While that is true to some extent, it doesn’t mean Torontonians (and by extension, Canadians since he mentioned Montreal) don’t love baseball. It’s just that the Jays have done nothing to earn the fans’ love since 1993. They’re the masters of winning between 81-85 games so they can claim they’re competitive, but the Jays haven’t been in a pennant race in 15 years. The Expos, as well, had a great fanbase in Montreal that just got beaten down by years of underachieving, followed up by ownership dealing away their best players.
Believe me, there is nothing that Toronto fans want more than to whole-heartedly love their Blue Jays again. But it’s hard when everyone knows that the current bunch in management isn’t capable of delivering a contender.