Monthly Archives: April 2013

Sunday books: A most memorable Bird: Mark Fidrych

Posted on by

Mark Fidrych was relevant for only a year. But his brief flight was so memorable, it made him one of baseball’s most beloved characters.

A new book by Doug Wilson, The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych, examines 1976, when the Detroit pitcher flew higher than everyone else. And then what happened when injuries quickly grounded his career.

In a review in the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth writes:

This is such an easy sell. Go to a publishing house, pitching them a story on how you’ll reconstruct  the life of one of the most beloved big-leaguers in the last half century, a guy who always had a grin on his face and a mop of curly blond hair, talked to baseballs on the mound, shook hands with teammates after they made great plays, got on his knees to smooth over the dirt to his liking, and was linked to a beloved Sesame Street character.

How do you not buy into that?

However, there was more to Fidrych:

It was also not fair to label him a “flake,” as one writer pointed out then, because that was too easy an adjective.”Fidgety Fidrych” was what this writer called him. Go back to his childhood, and may would have described him as “a little wild, a little eccentric, definitely extroverted, and a fun-loving guy.” These days, someone like him might be labeled with ADD.

His Tigers teammates immediately took to him as he entered the rotation. Although, there’s still the quote attributed to teammate Bill Freehan: “This kid is from Boston? Shouldn’t he be more sophisticated?”

And finally:

Wilson spends only four paragraphs at the end of Chapter 9 to explain Fidrych’s accidental death in 2009 (the fourth year anniversary was April 13).

Maybe it’s fitting. It’s not something we even want to think about.

As Tigers manager Jim Leyland said about Fidrych in 2009: “You can talk about Ty Cobb or anyone else, but for one year, he was the biggest impact star in the history of the Tigers. For that one year, he was bigger than anybody in the history of the game.”

********

A reminder: If you love baseball books, check out Hoffarth’s 30 books in 30 days series on his site.

Saturday Flashback II: ESPN analysts rap Dolphins selecting Dan Marino

Posted on by

A young Chris Berman speculates that Miami might want to take a quarterback with its pick late in the first round, but he says, “The guys they wanted might already be gone.”

Then at the 3-minute mark, Paul Zimmerman goes crazy when the Dolphins pick Dan Marino.

“I don’t understand it,” Dr. Z says.

Bud Wilkinson says, “I hope Dan would calm down considerably.”

He did, and everyone understands the pick now.

Saturday flashback: ESPN coverage of 1983 NFL draft; Who is going to get Elway?

Posted on by

Covering off this year’s 30 for 30 documentary, it seems fitting to show how ESPN covered the 1983 draft.

Interesting to note at the top, Paul Zimmerman and Howard Balzer speculated about who would complete the trade for the Baltimore Colts’ No. 1 pick and thus get John Elway. Denver only gets mentioned as “a late entry.”

Then watch the stormy reaction when Pete Rozelle announces the Colts took Elway. The analysts include Bud Wilkinson.

Sorry about the quality of this clip, but still worth watching.

Video: CBS, Jim Nantz’s moving tribute to Pat Summerall

Posted on by

I was talking to Jim Nantz the other day. He asked if I saw CBS’ tribute to Pat Summerall during Saturday’s telecast of the RBC Heritage.

I told him I was out Saturday and missed it.

“I really want you to see it,” Nantz said.

Nantz explained that he considered going to Summerall’s funeral in Dallas Saturday, but decided to be part of the tribute. Summerall would have wanted it that way, he said.

“The feedback has been tremendous,” Nantz said. “It was a collaborative effort. We all put a lot into this. We’re very proud of it.”

In case you also missed it, here is Nantz’s closing essay:

Posted in CBS

NFL needs to lift restrictions: Twitter is essential part of following draft

Posted on by

Just minutes before the beginning of the NFL draft, Adam Schefter sent out the following tweet:

As one GM texted Tuesday, “Going dark.” As requested, we’ll resume tweeting after 1st round is complete. Enjoy draft on ESPN or @ESPNNFL.

That was it. The NFL reporter with the largest Twitter following at 2.24 million people shut it down during perhaps the biggest Twitter night of the year.

I can almost guarantee that won’t happen in 2014. If you’re ESPN, you can’t allow the NFL to place restrictions on your reporters and muffle your No. 1 Twitter guy.

Last night reaffirmed for me that being on Twitter is an essential part of following the NFL draft. If you’re not on Twitter when those picks start flying, you’re missing out. The tweets don’t detract from the coverage; they enhance it.

I followed CBS’ Jason La Canfora, Yahoo!’s Michael Silver, SI’s Peter King and many others. Their tweets definitely enhanced my draft experience.

As promised in an interview with me, La Canfora vowed to tweet out the upcoming pick (if he got it) before the official announcement on TV. Sure enough, beginning with Detroit’s pick of Ziggy Ansah at No. 5, La Canfora started tipping picks throughout the rest of the first round.

Did it ruin the drama for me? Hardly. In fact, there is something empowering knowing the upcoming pick before the analysts chirping on ESPN and NFL Network.

There was a point in ESPN’s telecast where they debated a Twitter question from a viewer asking if the New York Giants should take Manti Te’o at 19?

“I like this linebacker Manti Te’o for the Giants,” said Jon Gruden as only he can.

Meanwhile, those of us on Twitter learned several minutes earlier that the Giants already had taken Syracuse offensive tackle Justin Pugh. For once, the viewer knew more than Gruden.

Besides, what’s so special about hearing Roger Goodell announce the picks? He’s not that exciting. So you know a few minutes ahead of time? Big deal.

Where Twitter really shines with the NFL draft is in capturing the rapid-fire intensity of the event. There’s a real-time tick-tock of activity that has an even quicker pulse than what you see on TV. The ESPN and the NFL Network telecasts can’t keep up with all the possible trade scenarios that happen in an instant. Twitter is much better at giving you the behind-the-scenes.

For instance, if you were on Twitter, you learned Minnesota GM Rick Spielman was hastily called out of a press conference, presumably to complete a trade with New England.

Also, if you weren’t on Twitter, you missed out on the Onion Sports Network spoofing the draft. For example:

Manti Te’o Only Draft Attendee Sitting In Metropolitan Opera House

And perhaps Onion’s best of the night:

Bills Fans Actually Excited About Former Backup For Christian Ponder

While all this was happening, I almost could feel Schefter’s twitchy Twitter finger. It had to be killing him to be relegated to the Twitter sidelines last night as evidenced by this tweet shortly after the first round:

And as i was saying before I was so rudely interrupted at 8 pm….Bet Geno Smith, Manti Te’o and no RBs wind up going in round one.

Don’t worry, Adam, it won’t happen again. I’m betting you’ll be in full Twitter mode for next year’s NFL draft.

 

 

 

 

Video: The showdown between Ken Harrelson and Brian Kenny on MLB Now

Posted on by

Here is the sabermetrics debate between Ken Harrelson and Brian Kenny yesterday on MLB Now on MLB Network.

I took some flak in my analysis for saying that Harrelson got the best of Kenny. To clarify, I was basing my opinion more on how Harrelson, with some help from old-schooler Harold Reynolds, controlled the debate. To his credit, Kenny let Harrelson make his points.

Mike Oz, aka “Big League Stew” at Yahoo!, said it best:

They squared off — monitor-o y monitor-o — for a segment, that felt like a vegetarian trying to convince a meat-eater to give up the carnivorous life.

As I said, it was fun. I hope there’s a round 2.

 

Posted in MLB

Hawk Harrelson vs. Brian Kenny on sabermetrics: And the winner is…

Posted on by

I have to give the nod to Ken Harrelson mainly because Brian Kenny was out-manned in the Thursday edition of MLB Now. Not only did Kenny have to contend with his co-host Harold Reynolds, another old-school guy, but a fired-up Hawk was like the voice of three men.

This wasn’t about content; both men made good points. This was about Harrelson controlling the debate.

After the opening pleasantries, Harrelson opened by saying:

“Let me ask you a question. Did any of you guys see the movie Moneyball? Was there anything in there that struck you as funny or odd?”

Old-school Reynolds replied, “They didn’t talk about the pitching in that movie.”

Harrelson: “That’s exactly right, Harold. When you got Mulder, Zito and Hudson, you can write any kind of book you want to write, and it’s going to be successful. This game is a game of defense with pitching being the first line of defense.”

Obviously, Harrelson is right, but it does help to have some hitting. The team he watches, the White Sox, are hitting .160 with runners in scoring position, the worst in baseball. Yes, it has been painful to be a Sox fan thus far.

Harrelson then mentioned the one trait that can’t be measured in a player: “TWTW, the will to win.” Whenever Kenny tried to box him in a corner, Harrelson repeatedly fell back on “TWTW.”

“Harold is a good example,” said Harrelson, no dummy on how to get people on his side. “40-50 years from now, people will look at his stats and say Harold was a pretty good player. No, he was an outstanding player because you don’t measure the game with numbers only. Harold was the kind of the guy who would stand there and turn the double play when he knew he was going to take a hit from guys like myself or Kirk Gibson or whoever was going to knock him into leftfield….Those are things that aren’t put in numbers.”

Kenny tried to get some shots in when Harrelson brought up bunting late in a game.

Kenny said, “What gives us the best chance to score a run? If you knew that the odds were better not bunting, wouldn’t you not bunt, or visa-versa? Wouldn’t you want to know those percentages?…

“One thing I don’t get is, ‘Wouldn’t you want as much information as possible as a manager?”

Harrelson replied: “The more numbers you bring to the game, the more instincts you take out of the game. We’re inundated with too much numbers and sometimes you get bogged down. This is a kids game. It always has and always will be.”

Then as I wrote yesterday, Kenny brought up Harrelson’s career year with Boston in 1968 when he hit .275 with 35 homers and an AL best 109 RBIs in the year of the pitcher. Kenny used sabermetrics to adjust the numbers to show what they would be if he was playing for the Colorado Rockies in 2000: 49 homers and 187 RBIs.

“You were playing in a dead ball era,” Kenny said. “Sabermetrics puts things in their proper context.”

The debate then veered into the value of wins for pitchers and whether sabermetrics can be used to evaluate defense.

“It’s not ready yet,” Harrelson said. “Until it gets ready, it’s TWTW.”

Kenny tried to get in a last word: “Offensive metrics are extremely accurate. It’s been here for awhile, Hawk. I think you’d enjoy it.”

Not a bad closing shot. However, when the segment was over, Kenny, who boxed as an amateur, had a dazed look. You see, Harrelson also was a boxer. He controlled this bout simply by throwing punches and never letting up.

Hopefully, Kenny and Harrelson aren’t done. It was an enjoyable debate. Definitely would like to see a rematch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in MLB

How far has NFL draft come? Video of ESPN’s primitive coverage in 1981

Posted on by

It really is amazing to see the current evolution of the NFL draft coverage on ESPN and NFL Network. These are mega productions with countless moving parts.

For a little perspective, it’s always good to see how ESPN covered the NFL draft in 1981. Thanks to Bob Ley for noting it was ESPN’s second draft.

It was all so primitive. Check out the guy who had to turn on Pete Rozelle’s microphone.

A favorite part is a young Chris Berman getting reaction from a restaurant in New York, complete with the checkered table cloth.

All in all, the whole thing seemed like a pointless exercise. Who would want to watch coverage of something as boring as the NFL draft? Right?

Twitter fallout: Harsh reaction to La Canfora’s plan to tweet picks; others say not a big deal

Posted on by

I have been doing this site for little over a year, and I never had more traffic and feedback for a subject than the Twitter issue and the NFL draft.

You’re really passionate about this.

Monday, I did a Q/A with ESPN’s Adam Schefter and how he has been told to cut back on tweeting out picks during the draft.

Wednesday, I did a post in which CBS’ Jason La Canfora said he doesn’t have any restrictions and will be tweeting everything during the draft, including picks if he gets them before they are announced on TV.

I asked readers to weigh with in their views. And brother, did they ever.

I would say it was 70-30 against reporters tweeting picks, and thus spoiling some of the suspense and anticipation from the draft.

The anti-tweeting folks were very vocal and had some not-so-nice things to say about Mr. La Canfora.

La Canfora also heard from them, prompting this tweet: “To all the Tweets about people unfollowing me, I have a job to do and if you don’t want the info, that’s cool. I get it. No one has to follow.”

Here’s a sample of reader reaction:

DON’T TWEET

Aaron: F-you Jason La Canfora.

Nick: I hope he has 7 followers by draft day.

Jon: Boooooo this man!!! Trying to do something different to add excitement to the draft and you are trying to mess that up. You are a CBS tool.

Tony: Because we want it to be a surprise you idiot!!!!!

Sonny: WHYYY???? I am a hardcore football fan! But still I like the excitement of the commissioner saying the names. Not some wanna be who thinks he has all the facts. Just leave it alone for three nights. OH MY GOSH SO ANNOYING.

Michael: I understand they have to do their job but it takes all the excitement out of the event.

Will: No reason people can’t wait 20-30 seconds. Adds more drama, better for production.

Disappointed NFL fan: This year I was excited because no one was going to tip the picks and it was going to keep the suspense. but this A hole puts his try hard pants on to find a loop hole and exploit it. come on man….. Really??? please don’t do this… let the draft go back to being exciting rather than lame. I hope he is the only guy going to tip the picks and everyone else respects the agreement making him look foolish and like a selfish A hole he is.

Taigdh: Total bs, for the sake of waiting a extra few minutes on draft day there might be some tension and atmosphere about the event..the above statement by La Canfora is stupid.

Dan: Not a fan. I turn to Twitter to debate picks. Turn to TV to watch picks be announced. Don’t like when writers ruin surprise.

*******

BY ALL MEANS, TWEET

Ken: Good. I think all of the networks signed away a bit of integrity with that agreement. La Canfora still has his.

Jeff: Is it a necessity to have Twitter open while you watch it on TV? What about people who aren’t able to watch it live. They aren’t allowed to receive the info ASAP? I say to ESPN, NFL Network, La Canfora, go ahead and Tweet away till your heart’s content. If I don’t want it I’ll take care of it on my end. Ridiculous.

Gail: I don’t mind at all. It’s the world we live in now.

AJ: I love Adam’s draft updates I can’t understand how someone can complain about getting an update or reading a tweet that ruined a surprise. If you want to be surprised turn off your phone. If you want to be really surprised turn off your TV and wait to read about it in the paper.

******

Want to weigh in with your opinion? Drop me a line.