B-Log. Vizzini told me go back to the beginning
Posted: August 28th, 2008 | Filed under: Banny Log | 44 Comments »
I would guess the No. 1 question people have asked since my body was returned from China* is “Was it fun?†It seems to me now that’s a question we ask often as sportswriters. We always seem to ask football coaches if their jobs are fun, you know, calling all those plays and designing all those defenses and stuff. We always seem ask Major League baseball players if they have fun playing the game they’ve always loved. We always seem to ask general managers if they are having fun making trades and drafting players and all that great stuff.
*The brain is expected to return on an American Airlines flight on Tuesday, Sept. 9.
Usually, the coaches and players and general managers and the rest will say something like, “Well, you know, it’s rewarding, but fun might not be the exact right word.†And I must admit … I had never fully appreciated that answer. Because, as fans, I think we want to believe that it is AMAZING fun to be in the game, that it’s a blast playing ball, coaching, running a club, a non-stop party playing professional golf on the most beautiful courses in the world and hammering tennis balls in Australia and Paris and Monte Carlo and, for that matter, being able to tour the country with the band or write a hilarious weekly comedy series or play in a movie or whatever else we might have dreamed as kids.
Trouble is, the “rewarding, yes, but not really fun†answer is probably the truest answer. Is covering the Olympics fun? Well, sure. Covering the Olympics is what I have wanted to do all my sportswriting life. And there are fun parts. Walking on the Great Wall. Playing table tennis in a Chinese ping-pong park. Seeing the optical illusion that is Michael Phelps. Dropping jaw while watching Usain Bolt. Being there to watch the U.S. men’s basketball team redeem itself. And, in the end, I’m sure, that’s what people want to hear, I suspect nobody really wants to hear about the drudgery that makes up mot of the job, the middle seat on the plane, the four nightly hours of fitful sleep, the 10-minute fast-food meals between busses, the writing at 4 a.m. China time when you are literally falling asleep at the keyboard and waking up only to correct the 28 mistakes you just typed in (and hoping that someone else will catch the 32 you missed), the need to sum up the wonder of Phelps in nine minutes. I know I wouldn’t want to hear about that stuff.
I bring this up because I can tell you, this has not been a fun year at all for Brian Bannister. That might seem obvious by his numbers — he’s now 7-14 with a 5.75 ERA after his tough loss on Wednesday night — but it goes way beyond that. The guy is doing what he’s wanted to do all his life. He’s playing in the big leagues, in that mystical place where, as Crash said, you never touch your luggage, the ballparks are cathedrals, the hotels have room service, the women have long legs and brains and all that. This, the children’s dream says, is the time of your life.
Only, I’ve spent this whole year watching Banny try to figure out things, try to figure out how he can use his moderate stuff and win at the highest level. And I’ve seen it take its toll. The thing I love about watching Banny pitch is how much enthusiasm he has for baseball, how much he loves and respects the game, how competitive he feels and yet how thoughtful he gets about it all. I don’t think he’s unique — I suspect most players in the big leagues have those same feelings and doubts and aspirations and brainstorms — but I think Brian’s fascinating because he’s so bright and well-spoken, and because he does have an uncommon ability to look at the game as both a fan and a player, and because he and his wife are expecting a baby daughter in a few months, and because the ending is uncertain. Everyone is rooting for him. But he knows that doesn’t have much to do with it. The game grades with a cruel finality, there are no oral exams, no written essays, only line drives and swings and misses and fastballs around the outside corner that are either called balls or strikes.
Banny has tried everything he can think to try. Readers here know how intensely he breaks down the statistics. He had a fine year in 2007, but his study of the numbers told him that, yes, he was lucky. So through this rough year, he has concluded at different times that he needs to: (1) Strike out more batters; (2) Get more ground balls; (3) Conceal the ball better pitching out of the stretch; (4) Develop his two-seam fastball; (5) Slow down his curve; (6) Lower his arm angle; (7) Be more unpredictable; (8) Change his change-up; (9) Throw higher in the zone; (10) Throw down in the zone more; (11) Take confidence from the good things; (12) Try not to think about the good things; (13) Change lots and lots of other stuff.
And this is the helpless feeling of getting hit hard in the big leagues, the dream level. where there really is no safety net, where only the hitters tell you that it ain’t working, where you start hearing the most frightening baseball word of all — “Omaha†— everywhere you go after your ERA blows up. *
*Though it should be noted here that Omaha is a lovely town with my brilliant friend Tom Shatel presiding.
After all that, Banny has decided his best chance, like Inigo Montoya, is to go back to the beginning. Banny came to this hard realization after he got lit up for 10 runs in an inning in his last ever outing at Yankee Stadium. That was an awful day. He gave up 10 hits and three homers, and just as painful he found that he was bruised and battered, couldn’t tell what he felt, unrecognizable to himself — yes, the Springsteen keeps coming at you. He found that his arm angle had lowered to the point where he was almost throwing sidearm, and he was throwing a two-seam fastball he could not control, and when it ended he felt like throwing up because he had pitched so badly at YANKEE STADIUM. Banny loves the history of baseball, as much as anyone I know in the game, and so he knew what that meant. Right then, he determined that he needed to stop the crazy merry go round and just go back to what had worked for him a year ago. Go back to the beginning.*
*One would hope he would not at this point drink himself into a coma so that the only way he can be revived is for Andre the Giant to come along and dump his head in water — seriously, how can ANYONE not love that movie.
In Banny’s next outing, he threw a brisk eight innings against the Tigers. He gave up four runs, including a couple of homers to Miggy Cabrera, and lost the game. But at least there was something familiar about it. He only threw 100 pitches. He pitched within himself. He gave his team a chance to win*. It was something.
*Well, if he had been pitching for a normal team he would have given them a chance to win — the Royals have scored more than four earned runs in a game exactly twice since August 4, which was the day I left for China. One of those was against the Yankees in the very game that Banny allowed 10 runs in one inning. The other was against the Tigers and the unpitchable Kenny Rogers on a getaway day.
Wednesday, I went out to the ballpark to see Banny pitch his second game since his Yankee Hell Foxtrot day. There wasn’t really much reason to go out otherwise. The Royals have been absolutely dreadful lately … in some ways, the team has never been more depressing. At least when the Royals stunk in the late 1990s, when they sucked in 2004-05-06, there was this overriding sense of comedy about the whole thing, this “well, hell, what did you expect†feeling. This was, after all, the team that brought up some guy named Eduardo Villacis to pitch one game at Yankee Stadium in 2004. Nobody on the team had ever even heard of him. They watched him get roughed up, then promptly sent him back down and, within a month, released him. It would be the only game he ever pitched in the big leagues. The next day manager Tony Pena guaranteed the Royals would win the American League Central. They finished a mere 34 games back.
But two years ago, Dayton Moore came in as general manager, and he had been a part of winners in Atlanta, and he said a lot of good things, and he brought in a bunch of really good baseball people, and they totally overhauled the system, and owner David Glass actually opened up the wallet, and the Royals signed some big-money guys and built a new academy in the Dominican and drafted+signed three first-round Scott Boras clients in a row and all that. Dayton traveled halfway around the world to Japan and hired a new manager, Trey Hillman, who the New York Yankees supposedly were interested in hiring. This really was supposed to be the dawn of a new age.
And maybe it still will be — Moore is insistent that there are so many good things happening below the surface. He believes that so many promising young players should emerge in the next few year. He says that so many good scouts and coaches working non-stop for the Royals that good things HAVE to happen. It all makes sense in to the ear.
But the eyes see a different story. This team is probably the most disappointing in years — not because anyone expected them to be good (nobody really did) but because few expected them to be embarrassing. And that’s what they have become. Embarrassing. Trey Hillman came to Kansas City with a reputation as a man who would not stand for sloppy and disinterested baseball, and now the Royals play sloppier and look more disinterested than I can remember even in the 100-loss seasons. They have allowed 18 unearned runs in 20 games, which has to be some kind of record. They have seven times this year allowed a pitcher to throw a complete game with 105-pitches or fewer, which tells me that some batters want to get home in time to the see The Daily Show live. They just got swept by Texas at home for the first time in TEAM HISTORY, and they allowed Rangers starters to throw three quality starts in a row for the first time since the beginning of April.
The young guys who, at the start, were considered the core players, guys like Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Mark Teahen, Tony Pena Jr., and others have gotten no better. Some have gone the other way. And these days Trey seems barely recognizable to me. I went to see him for a week in Japan last October, and I saw a guy who was at ease with himself, who was confident but didn’t need to let everyone know it, who was comfortable with players even though they didn’t speak the same language, a guy who was so respectful of the game of baseball that it poured out of him, and you could imagine that if you played for him you would not want to let him down. That’s why I thought he was going to be a huge success as Royals manager. He still may. But I have to say that I have not seen that guy much in Kansas City. Instead, I’ve seen Trey be defensive and cold, I’ve seen him constantly trying to make himself seem like the smartest guy in the room, I’ve seen him turn off players by preaching at them, I’ve seen him overcompensate for his lack of big league experience (well, he had none coming in), I’ve seen him alienate people who want to like him for reasons I cannot understand, and I’ve seen him take it all too hard. I’ve chalked it all up to two things: First-year discomfort and the neck-pain of dealing with Jose Guillen. But it’s getting late. And it’s getting worse.
Anyway, with all that going on, with the clubhouse in shambles at the moment, with nobody quite sure what the Royals should do next, Banny is trying to get his career back on track. So I went out to watch Wednesday, and he pitched really well. He struck out a career-high eight batters, but he did it by staying within himself. He struck out Joaquin Arias with a fastball up and in. He struck out Brandon Boggs with a slider up and in. He froze Jarrod Saltalmacchia with a fastball on the outside corner. He got Marlon Byrd looking on an fastball over the inside corner. He got Nelson Cruz to swing over a pretty good curveball. And so on. He was moving the ball around, not getting too fancy, not throwing too hard, getting a double play grounder on his rarely used slider, throwing fewer change-ups, it really was a return.
And it mostly worked. He gave up a solo homer to Boggs, but I think Banny realizes that’s something he will have to battle his whole career. He gave up back-to-back doubles in the seventh. But this was a good outing, it should have equaled seven innings and two runs against the best offense in the American League (albeit without Josh Hamilton who, of all things, had an abscessed tooth). It should have been a positive step. Then with two outs in the seventh, Arias hit a soft little pop-up, low enough that other infielders probably did not have time to call off the pitcher.* Banny dropped back to catch himself. It looked so easy from above, too easy, a good ending to a good outing, only he dropped the ball. He had an instant “DAMN†reaction, he seemed to lose himself for only an instant, and an unearned run scored before he could pick up the ball and throw home. He got taken out right then, which I’m sure made for a restful nights sleep. “A nightmare,†he called it afterward.
*I say probably … I’ve seen the replays and while I still think it was Bannister’s play, but I cannot say I’m overly impressed by the movement of the other infielders.
Well, it’s been that kind of year. What can you do? You take the good, work on the bad, and go on to the next day. It isn’t fun, no. That’s just not the quite the right word.
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Nice, if sad, column. It has been that kind of year. And hearing these things about Hillman isn’t good. Just a couple of problems I should note:
TPJ is not part of the young core. He never was. He was, even in his “amazing” career year of 2007. If Moore really thought that and that’s where you got it, the Royals are screwed.
You’re right about Butler and Teahen.
But again with Gordon. While his defense has regressed, I have to conclude that you simply don’t like him. I don’t know if it’s because you’ve found him to be a jerk (I don’t know either way, aybe he is), or Dayton letting you know how much he doesn’t like him. It’s true that his defense has been awful this year.
But Gordon has clearly improved as a hitter. A 101 OPS+ isn’t great, but it’s about average for an AL 3B this year, and is certainly an improvement over last year’s 87 OPS+.
Over the whole year, he’s hit righties well — .869 OPS, clearly better than anyone else on the team. He’s been worse against lefties this year than 2007, but even if he’d replicated last years performance against lefties he’d be around .800 OPS and people would feel better about him.
His overall line in the second half is .261/.402/.467. Maybe getting hurt isn’t quit the heart rending story of yet another Bannister shelling followed by losing a quality start, but at least Gordon has shown something besides another nice guy trying to stay in the league. Maybe from the low BA, high K rate, walks, and increasing power, you’ve inferred that Gordon is growing to hate baseball just like that other legendary three true outcomes malcontent, Adam Dunn.
Gordon’s 24, and had 1 full season in the minors. I’m not saying he’s definitely going to be a star, or that he can stay at 3B (although I think they should leave him there at least through next year to see if he can pull it together). But given that he’s quite obviously improved and you put him in a category with Teahen and Tony Pena, Jr., I’m starting to wonder if you have a personal issue with Gordon, of if someone in the organization is telling you that they’ve lost confidence in him. I can’t imagine that’s the case, but I can’t come up with a better explanation for one of the best sportswriters in America (and my favorite) to just ignore the numbers in this case.
Despite all that, keep up the good work.
I know a guy in Chicago that, for reasons I will not explain here, is a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays. Early in the season, when the Royals were beating up the Tigers and leading the division, I would send him e-mails about how Dayton and Trey were fixing the team and that even if we fell out of first, the bad days were behind us. During the 12-game losing streak, though, I sent him an e-mail about how awful it was, and how we expected this year’s team to be respectable, and to contend for the division in 2009. When he wrote back he said something, “People expect the Royals to contend?” As a long-time fan of KC baseball, going back to the A’s, it was hard for me to take that people in other cities, and fans of other teams, see the Royals as perpetual losers with no chance of winning. Reasonable or not, hope springs eternal for me each season, and I simply must believe that Dayton will get the organization turned around so that winning baseball will return to KC. Let’s hope that Banny going back to the beginning and pitching well is a sign of better things to come.
I think the season was lost on May 28 against the Twins when we let them score 5 runs in the 9th to send us to our 10th straight (a streak which started when we got no-hit). Losses like that weren’t supposed to happen to THIS Royals team. I had thought we’d put those dark days behind us. August 9th, 2005 was NOT supposed to rear it’s ugly head again, but it did…and it has again. This team will take YEARS to get back on line…
Ugh…hopefully I won’t have pulled all of my hair out by then…
Oh, and it sounds like your daughters have discovered The Princess Bride.
I think I could hear Trey Hillman’s thoughts last night:
“You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never pop the ball to Banny when the game is on the line! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!! HAHAHAHAH –”
[falls over and dies]
“…[Banny]’s so bright and well-spoken…”
I thought as per sports journalism rules only black players were allowed to be described as “well-spoken”.
The Princess Bride is my favorite movie. I went out with a girl this spring who had not seen it, so we watched it one night. She hated it; didn’t laugh once. She also watched the Wizard of Oz for the first time that week and hated it also. That relationship did not last long.
Also, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person in the world who isn’t particularly fond of the Princess Bride.
“Well, you know, it’s rewarding, but fun might not be the exact right word.â€
Please ask the players/managers who say this if they’d rather have a 9 to 5 job where you sit in a cubicle, staring at a computer screen and listen to your )*%&#)%*)#% colleague’s stinking cellphone go off the entire day.
Compared to that, playing the game of baseball is like drinking unicorn giggles.
To anyone who isn’t fond of The Princess Bride movie, read the book. It’s one of those rare cases where reading the book makes you like the movie more, and seeing the movie makes you like the book more. I’m sure it helped that Bill Goldman wrote both the book and the screenplay.
By the way, Goldman’s Law refers to the tendency for any good internet comments thread to eventually have a Princess Bride quote show up. You, sir, have taken it to the next level.
Also, for his three years of being lucky-not so lucky, Brian Bannister has made probably close to a million dollars. So it might be really sad if he never pitches again, but he’ll still be set up for most of his life.
You’ll forgive us working folk if we don’t exactly feel very sad for the poor ballplayer? I had an interview for an excellent position that I really wanted, and the interview was put on me in ten minutes notice, and rather than an interview it was two guys asking me non-stop technical questions for 25 minutes about the widest range of technical areas you’ve ever heard of.
I didn’t do so well, and sorry, but you’re not getting the job. How is that any different?
I just really don’t feel the “oh the poor ballplayer, he doesn’t know if he’ll play again next year” sympathy vibe. I don’t know if I’ll have a job next year either.
The reality is that Banny probably isn’t good enough to compete in the Major Leagues. He’ll hang around for a few more years, because even pretty bad pitchers get to hang around for a few more years (See also : Ponson, Sydney or Hernandez, Livan), he’ll have made more money in those years than the rest of us will in our lifetimes and that’ll be it. Open a car dealership and tell stories of your amazing 3-5 years in the big leagues.
fin.
If only Bannister did not play for the ROUSs (Royals of Unusual Suckitude).
I was told in college that I just had to see this movie. It’s the best ever!! Needless to say I fell asleep after 45 minutes of its awfulness and have been subjected to the wretched thing every now and then by my wife. I just don’t get it. Sure there are some great lines, but overall I just find the whole thing annoying. The acting is bad, and the “as you wish” bit is lame. You can like it if you want, but I really don’t see how you can think everybody should like it.
RE: Hoagy Says Relax:
Alex Gordon really hasn’t gotten much better, and until we see the breakout I agree with Joe. It’s not really an indictment against him as this is year 2 with 1 year in the minors. So do what your name says, and RELAX.
When the Royals got Bannister from the Mets, I thought it was a mini-coup. Last season, I felt it was a medium-coup. This year, I have to wonder if the Mets hired David Copperfield to help the deal happen. I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with Bannister. I really really really want to see him succeed… but I have to be honest and wonder why he’s stayed the whole year in the AL when Billy Butler got sent down for a while to refocus and improve back to the level he was at last year. I mean com’on…you can make a very solid argument that since April 18, Bannister has been the 3rd worse pitcher in the majors (4-14, 6.51 ERA). He’s thrown a few good games in that period, but too few to be considered worth waiting for another one.
The Royals have been giving Bannister enough innings to prove he’s being consistently bad and not just in a slump. Not many pitchers this bad get so many innings. They don’t stay in the rotation… something is done to help them readjust or fix whatever problem they’re having. Sure, if it’s CC Sabathia that might not happen, but we’re talking about a very young pitcher who still needs help getting his stuff consistent being treated like he’s already won a Cy Young or two.
Banny’s biggest problem, which I have yet to see addressed anywhere, is that he becomes a horrible pitcher after he gets 2 outs. Look at the batting line he allows hitters to get according to outs:
0 outs…….. .299/.343/.460 and OPS of .803 (109 OPS+)
after 1 out… .246/.300/.398 and OPS of .698 (86 OPS+)
after 2 out… .313/.389/.562 and OPS of .952 (160 OPS+)
A major league pitcher, gets the 3rd out… Banny has big trouble doing it. A major league pitching coach, should notice this and move to get the pitcher to fix this pronto.
Batters are slapping HR’s more after 2 outs, which seems to imply he’s throwing differently at that point in the inning….and I’d be surprised if the other AL teams don’t already know this. Check out the HR rate off Bannister here…
0 outs…….. 7 HR’s in 247 PA
after 1 out… 6 HR’s in 210 PA
after 2 out… 12 HR’s in 227 PA
After 2 outs, Banny pitches differently…. and not in a good way. He’s just not the same pitcher as earlier in the inning.
The Princess Bride is the most annoying movie ever made.
Aaron M.
Nice point about following my name. I also appreciate that you seem to be patient with Gordon considering his age and experience.
However, I guess I think when there is obvoius, measurable evidence of “improvement,” that is improvement. Maybe it isn’t enough for you, but it certainly doesn’t merit, as Joe does, putting Gordon’s progression level in the same league as TPJ (really just revealing his true skill level after a “career year” in 2007, Teahen (serious regression reveals him to be utility man), and Butler (regression of a very young guy). All those guys have numbers that have gone down.
Except for hitting against lefties, All Gordon’s significant stats have gone up a great deal, except for ISO and SLG, which have gone up just a bit. How can you say the improvement isn’t real? Last year he was barely better as a hitter than Jose Guillen has been this year. This year it cannot be attributed to BABIP luck, either, as that’s exactly the same. The marks of a guy who knows the strike zone (contrary to Joe’s earlier unfortunate assertions) are all there, and fangraphs gives a good visual picture of it: improving BA to near league average, improving OBP above league average, BB%improving above league average, K rate decreasing, BB/K ratio improving to above league average, RC/27 above league average…
Can you really dismiss the gains in the second half for a young player like Gordon?
I’ll relax, and I appreciate your honesty about the Princess Bride. But all the evidence shows that Gordon has made real, measurable strides as a hitter this year. Putting him in the same boat with with Teahen and TPJ is, if possible, stupider than trading for Joey Gathright.
Nice whining, Creston. I don’t necessarily feel bad for ballplayers who make six figures and up, but I think in any job it’s impossible for people to think it’s fun and an absolute dream all the time. We need to just declare a ban on people who complain about the money athletes make; if people were willing to come and watch you sit in your cubicle 160 times a year, you could make millions too. But guess what? Not how it works. If you have a problem with it, stop following sports.
@Creston:
Drinking unicorn giggles…that had me rolling. And while I agree that it’s hard to work up too much pity for millionaires playing a game, there are few things sadder than seeing a good person fail at something in which they desperately want to succeed. I think Joe captured that aspect here as well as it can be done. But overall, I’m with you.
@Windier:
Whoa, cowboy. I love sports as much as the next guy (probably more), but that doesn’t mean I have to quit playing the “makes too much money to feel sorry for him” card. The bottom line is that these athletes have to take the bad with the good, and the bad IS the fact that they make too much to complain about much at all. Doesn’t mean they live completely charmed lives, but it does mean that I don’t want to hear about it when they don’t.
I like The Princess Bride (I’m reading the book now, and you should, Joe, the movie left out some good stuff) but I liked Time Bandits more.
I read the Banny Log and am reminded of a comment Casey Stengle made when he testified before Congress. Something like:
“I was a major league player but did not succeed as it is a game of skill…”
I’d love for Brian to develop into the second-coming of Maddox, but that’s not the way to bet. I fantasize he puts it all together and has a Cy Young year and gets a $70 million guaranteed contract. But I suspect he’s gonna spend the rest of his life loving and analyzing and studying and learning from this game and maybe end up being a great manager.
What’s that old SNL character? The faux-Mets player whose only words in English were, “Besebol be bery bery goood to me”? I suspect that’s what every player who makes it to The Show thinks deep down in his soul. And once ya get there, ya wanna stay there.
Brian’s got 21 decisions in the Big Leagues so far. How many kids playing legion ball would be thrilled to be good enough to even get into 21 major league games? How many of them never will?
I suspect Hillman and Moore are still doing the math; trying to figure out how to get the parts in place and in alignment. And I haven’t lost all faith that they might be able to pull it off. In an era where the Diamondbacks and Marlins can effectively rent-a-pennant for a year, I respect what I perceive Moore’s approach: to build an organization that will be competitive for a while and restore what Kansas City fans came to expect in the 70s and 80s.
We’ll see…
The Princess Bride is one of the top 5 movies of all time. Seriously. Love that movie.
I love the Princess Bride. My wife, when I showed it to her, surprisingly did not. I was fairly shocked since whe repeatedly re-watches ratehr inane romantic comedies all the time. It is one of her few flaws as a human being. A few good lines, however, is one of the great understatements — there’s a great line every few minutes in that movie. Plus the great Mark Knopfler sountrack…
I am thinking that perhaps what Royals need is a trip to Miracle Max’s. I am starting to beleive that the only way for the Royals to compete for the pennant late in the season: It will take a miracle.
Good luck storming the castle, boys.
Keith K- outstandingly funny.
ONE OF THE BEST MOVIE’S EVER – GUILLEN IS “MOSTLY DEAD”
I just can’t do it anymore.
If the Royals don’t show definite signs of progress next year, I just can’t follow baseball anymore. And you know, screw advanced metrics. I get it and all – there is better pitching, and you see that, not in the rotations’ W-L, but more advanced stats that take away the abysmal defense and offense (damn…there’s not much else to baseball, is there?), but this season started out full of optimism, and now here we are again.
But seriously, screw it. If they can’t start winning a bit more, just a little more, then I can’t keep watching. I’d have been happy with 75 wins this year. Thrilled, really. Now I think 65 is a bit optimistic.
Just, it’s too much. I can’t possibly follow another team, so they are either going to bring me personal joy one day, or they will crush my fandom altogether.
Welcome back Joe.
I would admit I am never a Bannister fan from the start. Baseball is entertainment. And I want to watch the top talents guys compete. I don’t find an average joe exciting. I know people love the underdog story and hope for his success. And yes the guy is smart and the guy can talk. But in the end of days, talents would dictate his career. And I am sorry to say Bannister does not own above average skill to miss bats. It is not that his brain does not adjust fast enough how to deal with opponents, it is just simply that he does not have that talent level to make those physical adjustments. If we all can will adjustments, Phelps would not amaze us.
Banny is a replacement level player. He can make a career in MLB by being an inning eater in the back of rotation. I think if he realizes that, perhaps then there won’t be these 10 runs game anymore.
“The Princess Bride” is still my favorite movie of all time. I was quoted in a newspaper article in the mid-90s saying that, and there have been films that have threatened to knock it off the top of my list (the closest battle came from “Return of the King”), but there you have it.
As for sports, I can’t really say I watch sports. I occasionally tune into a game on the radio, but I haven’t watched more than snippets of games on TV and haven’t been to a live game — in any sport — in years. In a sense, going to a live game is boring — if you’re a cheapskate like me, you get cruddy seats where you can’t see half of what’s going on anyway, and even if you get good seats you have to try to time out when you’re going to try to hit the restroom or track down the errant hot dog vendor who swung through your section in the second inning before you were really settled and never came back. Going to a live game is almost an exercise in distraction, what with the ads between innings, the sausage races, the mysterious time-outs in the middle of at-bats when the batter seems to have lost his contact lens.
I prefer these days to follow sports — to take who won and who lost and look at things from a big-picture perspective. Which pitcher firmed up his reputation as a gamer? Which hitter choked in the clutch? When you look at the game this way, specific events don’t really matter that much. Sure, it’d be cool to be at a game where someone hit three homers, but if you look at the broad sweep of baseball you come to the realization that somebody at some time is going to hit three homers in a game, so whether you were there or not, and which player did it, are largely just questions of chance.
Following sports rather than immersing oneself in the daily grind of sports is all about following stories — is the greatest closer of his era finally losing it? Will the young kid figure out how to take the next step, or will he get sent to AAA first? Will the club in the pennant chase figure out how to shore up their bullpen or will it be the Achilles’ heel that dooms them to sit out the post-season? And though I’m a fan of the Twins (and seriously, how easy is it to be a Twins fan in the 21st century?), I have to say I follow the Royals as much as any team in pro sports, because they have so many good stories.
Will Bannister figure out pitching? Is Greinke really mentally prepared for the game now? Is Gobble ever going to cash in on his amazing potential? Will Teahen ever show people how good a hitter he can be in game situations, or is he doomed to failure in KC because people can’t look at him without thinking of Carlos Beltran? Is Tony Pena, Jr. really any worse a player than, say, Nick Punto, and could the right manager figure out how to maximize his value? Was Gordon rushed too quickly by a team that needed some buzz for its fans, and is the front office paying for that mistake now?
Following the Royals through the lens of their writers (Joe, Rob Neyer, even Bill James occasionally) is like watching a carnival parade from a block away — you don’t know whether the tiger in the cage has any teeth or not, but you still wonder what would happen if it got out. And it’s still fun to watch.
Keith – they have to be the Royals of Usual Suckitude by now, don’t they?
Also, it’s not just the best offense in the league but missing Josh Hamilton. It’s the best offense in the league but missing Hamilton and Ian Kinsler, who’s been just as good this year.
Crust!
People who don’t root for Banny = People who don’t like The Princess Bride = People with no soul
This keeps up and Banny will be staring into the face of the Cliffs of Insanity! Maybe Trey too. Or would that be Three also? Drei auch?
See, uh, it’s gotta be the crust, uh, because you know if you don’t have the crust, you don’t have a place for the sauce, you don’t have a place for the toppings, you don’t have a place for the cheese, and all that stuff and everything, so you can have the crust but not the other stuff but you can’t have the other stuff without the crust.
The Princess Bride is one of the all-time great movies; I hate to think how my life would be if I was unable to appreciate it.
Return Of The King is another matter. The whole Lord Of The Rings thing is regarded in New Zealand, outside official circles, as a national embarrassment.
At least the new leadership is trying, which is more than could be said for the last group of schmoes.
Honestly, Joe, the worst part of it for me is that my little brother has been a Royals fan since he can remember. And he’s never known the Royals as a winning team. He’s 11 years old now, and I would bet that there is not a more knowledgeable 11-year-old Royals fan out there. He tries to watch or listen to every game during the season, and tapes Baseball Tonight just so he can fast forward to the highlights of the Royals game and check if the Royals got any web gems. After Bannister’s error in last night’s game, he said to me, “Well, whatever. He was pitching too good. It was about time for something like that to happen. Now we’re gonna lose again.”
Watching the Royals just phone it in makes me wonder if they know just how much they matter to their true fans.
At some point, we’re just going to have to face the facts that Bannister is probably never going to be a special pitcher. Oh well; I liked Pat Neshek and Brad Ziegler better, anyway.
A cause for optimism in KC?
For the last few years, we all used to laugh when people in the Tampa Bay organisation said things like: “This is a really good, successful organisation in every way except for the win-loss record at the major league level.”
Then again, this may prove to be a completely false analogy.
All this Princess Bride talk, and no mention yet of the incomprehensible, impossible to understand Andre the Giant “Four White Horses” speech?? By far the highlight of the movie:
“Hello, Lady!!”
All of these comments have made me realize that ALL of my favorite movies from the 80’s have included Fred Savage. Princess Bride, Little Monsters, and (the comic genius of Judge Reinhold notwithstanding) perhaps the greatest of all, Vice Versa. The only non-Savage movie on my short list would be Teen Wolf….but, c’mon, any movie with a character named Boof gets my vote everytime.
I voted for sauce, and here’s why. It must be assumed that, all other things being equal, which part of the pizza can most make or break the pie? In this case, “all other things being equal” should be understood to mean that the crust, cheese and toppings all exist and are neither horrible nor — to steal a fantastic phrase used above — as tasty as unicorn giggles.
For me, it came down to crust and sauce, but in the end, if the the crust is awesome, but the sauce sucks… what’s the point?
I suppose that logic could make an argument for crust, but I can eat a pizza with a s**tty crust if the sauce and toppings are good. I won’t enjoy it, but it’s better than eating a good crust with glue on it.
all the princess bride love is bringing a tear to my eye. here’s a question for any parents: what is the appropriate age to introduce the princess bride to your children? inigo montoya does call the six-finger man a son of a bitch, but other than that there isn’t much to object to. but at what age will a child start appreciating the princess bride? any thoughts are welcome – i’ve got a baby daughter who hopefully will love the princess bride as much as her parents.
anybody want a peanut?
While I realize Joe is from Cleveland, I cannot seriously debate pizza with anyone who lives in the Midwest. You people put PINEAPPLE and CANADIAN BACON on your pizza. there is a list of acceptable toppings, created by a guy named Sal who works on the corner of Ocean Avenue and 12th St., and that is the canonical list of toppings. End.
It’s like people who want a blueberry bagel. If you want fruit and bread, get a muffin.
I rooted for the Royals a week ago, and I root for Brian Bannister (and would have bought a t-shirt had there been one). But I never understood The Princess Bride. However, I do know multiple Monty Python sketches by heart.
The Princess Bride was one of my favorite movies, until I read the book, just after college. I still like the movie, but having seen how much character development was missed, how some of the subplots weren’t fully developed (the prince’s four white horses, Fezzik’s clumsiness) and how whole sections of it were omitted from the movie version, I like the movie a lot less.
For example, in the book, between the discovery of the “door” in the tree and the finding of Westley in his “mostly dead” state, there’s a chapter-long odyssey in which Fezzik and Inigo have to work and fight and think their way through a series of traps and pitfalls, culminating in a large, apparently empty room with a door on the other end and no evident traps or devices at all. Which, naturally, scares Inigo out of his mind.
What they don’t know is that there’s a “green speckled recluse” spider living behind the doorknob on the other end of the hallway, which will kill anyone who tries to open the door by the knob, and of course there’s no way for them to find this out until one of them reaches out and grabs it. After several pages of incredibly tense prose, Fezzik can’t take the tension and just plows through the door, unknowingly saving at least one if not both of them from a painful death and a failed quest. It’s a wonderful bit of writing in the midst of a wonderful book, but the movie studio evidently decided that it couldn’t be made into an effective movie scene, or that they wanted the focus more on Westley or whatever.
I still like it a lot, but it did not do justice to the book, in my opinion, which is one of the best I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot of books.
“Beisbol been bery bery good to me” — Chico Escuela, played by Garrett Morris in the original cast of Saturday Night Live.
Brian Bannister has a career batting average of .316, OPS+ of 112. He should consider becoming the next Rick Ankiel. He is also 27 years old in only his third season in the majors. His career ERA is okay. I don’t think he’ll grow into Greg Maddux; Maddux was a lot better a lot younger. Heck, I’m not sure he’ll last six years. But he has thrown a lot of innings for a lousy team, and especially a lousy defensive team, and given that Bannister is not a strikeout artist he’s more dependent on his fielders. Which is painful for him. These are also his two highest inning totals ever, so part of it may be developing the stamina for the longer season, I dunno.
I’d like to see Bannister succeed. Amongst other things, he seems quite willing to explain to the rest of us just how a major league pitcher not gifted with great stuff uses what he has to pitch. I’d say the two out comment is relevant. For example, my bridge partner and I have a long history of having terrible first rounds at tournaments (equivalent – first innings). We started saying “Ready for round two” at the beginning of each tournament, pretending that round one was already behind us. It seemed to help. Bannister is giving up more walks, more homers, and getting more strikeouts this year than last, but it’s in particular his walk rate that’s higher. It seems he’s not challenging hitters as much (more walks) so that when he must challenge them they are teeing off (more homers). I suspect that maybe he’s become dissuaded from doing what he did well (pitch to contact) because few pitchers survive doing that, and it has screwed him up. I mean, Maddux is still in the majors, still pitching okay, but with fewer Ks, BBs, and dingers in about the same number of innings. Okay, Maddux has also been pitching mostly in Petco this year. But still, it seems as if Bannister decided that he needed to change the type of pitcher he was (instead of making the hitters prove to him he needed to change) and he’s not yet found himself, and may never. But Bannister also had a much higher strikeout rate in the minors, much much higher. Maybe there is something he needs to change after all. So maybe whatever he was doing in the minors led to better pitch location, which could account for all those figures, and now he’s sacrificed location for more speed or movement, when it was location that made him successful all along.
And yeah, it probably wouldn’t hurt Bannister to spend a lot of time taking infield practice. It might even pay off when he replaces TPJ at shortstop.
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