Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 28, 2003
Morning Mail

I received two interesting links to stories in this morning's mail. Aaron sent me a link to a Juan Williams interview of Walter Iooss Jr. Iooss has a new book out that is a collection of his baseball photographs over the years. The interview is nearly 30 minutes, so be prepared to spend some time with this piece.

Jan from Wellesley sends me this link to a NY Post article reviewing Moneyball, the Art of Winning an Unfair Game.


As depicted in "Moneyball," the A's would not have been all that different if managed by a cardboard cutout of Howe. Unlike other GMs, Beane dictated (among other things) lineups, bullpen usage and strategy - specifically no steals or sacrifices. Howe would confirm with players who stole on their own that it was indeed their decision, so Beane would be furious with them and not him. Most unflattering of all was that Beane even ordered where and how Howe stood in the dugout - on the top step with his chin raised to project leadership to his players below, though Howe preferred to sit on the bench.

When asked about that and other matters in "Moneyball" Howe said, "I'm not going to comment on anything said in the book."

And if that's not bad enough:


In "Moneyball," besides the Howe issue, Phillips is depicted as a stooge for Beane during the June draft and July trading deadline. It should be noted most other baseball officials, including all the scouts in the A's organization, come off poorly, too.

"Books like this never seem to be good ideas," Phillips said. "Winning is a complete and total team effort and most people recognize that."

That was a dig at Beane's ego. Still, Beane wins. Phillips and Howe preside over a complete and total team effort in losing, an 11-14 mess that the Shea fans rightly despise. With a $120 million payroll, Phillips has produced a roster on which - for now - Tony Clark is remarkably the best player. Howe - for now - has fixed none of the offensive, defensive and attitude issues that supposedly got Bobby Valentine fired.

Things are so bad at Shea that you can throw the book at them.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:26 AM | Other | TrackBack (0)