Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 07, 2008
Scorecards

Peter Gammons posts an excellent column comparing players more concerned with their inner scorecards than their outer scorecards:

Someday another Shakespeare will come along and pierce through the insecurities that caused Barry Bonds to need to be more than Barry Bonds, Clemens to need to be more than Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez to need to be more than one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived. Someone will paint their human conflicts between their inner and outer scorecards.

Which leads to an interesting thought; will the tragic players live in history, while the good guys like Sizemore and Mauer survive mostly in the memories of baseball researchers?


Posted by David Pinto at 12:27 PM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I think the historical impression will be broader than individual players. Yes, people will remember Bonds, Clemens. Sosa and McGwire as varying degrees of tainted to villain, because we see more and know more specific detail about them. Forty or fifty years ago, we didn't know as much about players, and so still have this idea of many talented people being humble, reluctant stars. We'll never know which of them took greenies or slept around and drank heavily (except Mantle, who everyone loves anyway).

The difference between then and now is that people 40 years from now will have a general impression of today's players as having played for the money, being selfish, willing to do anything to advance their bodies. The players with bad reputations will overshadow the Mauers and Youkilises, and the general impression of people about the era will be negative. Because the negative stories were emphasized the most. It's not that anything really was different - just different degrees of vanity, insecurity and selfishness. The press coverage changed and so will the historical impression of this era.

Posted by: John at December 7, 2008 12:59 PM

There are plenty of players today that are admired - Maddux pops into my mind first and foremost. Jeter is loved by all Yankee fans and admired (to a certain extent) by many others. Sure, there are plenty of players with a me-first attitude, but there will be a number of guys who will always be remembered because they loved the game and not their stats.

Posted by: sabernar at December 7, 2008 04:03 PM

Of course reporters would never leave their job and take anotrher one that offers better rewards and visibility. That would be disloyal!

Posted by: Bob Tufts at December 7, 2008 05:38 PM
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