Some This and Some That: 2016 is going to be Something



Some baseball related things happened.


Is this real? I don't know, but it could be interesting.  Reading Molly Knight's book (which is well worth your time) made me think that I find the team interesting but maybe not a place I would like to work. Anthopoulos might've found a situation where he won't (allegedly) be criticised for spending money because there is a lot of that. Maybe he'll get to watch players and then organise his findings in neat charts and then talk about his findings on the phone with interested parties, three things I suspect are some of Alex Anthopoulos' favourite things.



What is Marcus Stroman doing?
A video posted by Mike Stud (@mike_stud) on

He's featuring in rap videos.



And not for the first time:

 

 "Below average height, but didn't give a fuck." Yeah, that sounds about right. (Scott Storch is a major producer. He's gotten into some trouble, but was a big, big deal.)



Dan Haren is a pitcher I have never enjoyed watching. He's basically the anti-Mark Buehrle. He's slow to the plate and he's deliberate. "THROW THE DAMN BALL!" is what runs through my mind. But it turns out, he's pretty awesome on Twitter. Haren spent time the other day just tweeting random thoughts.


And:



That's pretty funny, Dan. I don't want to watch you pitch, but we can be friends.





As Ian at The Blue Jay Hunter pointed out, that's the Ted Lilly/John Gibbons fight night.



Look how young Gibbers looks. And how ugly the grey uniforms are. And George Poulis running down the stairs to break up something that was totally not physical. I remembered that it was versus the A's but I had forgotten it was Dan Haren on the mound.

Unrelated video, Gibbs needed a beer.





Power Forward's Jessica W. Luther compiled a list of great sports journalism written by women in 2015. 

I like the variety in the list, both topics (domestic violence, social media, women in sports) and also the diversity of sports covered - pro sports as well as college. There is hockey, football, soccer, baseball, tennis and track.

Some highlights:

Sarah Spain on ESPNW with a piece about Baseball for All, an all girl baseball tournament founded by Justine Spiegal. Spiegal was hired by the A's in 2015, because the first female coach in the MLB. 

Claudia Rankine in the New York Times about Serena Williams.  I love Serena Williams and everything she represents.

Stacey May Fowles let's us know it's ok to have the hots for baseball players. (Phew.)

Julie DiCaro on the threats she received on social media when she was covering the Patrick Kane case.  She and I are Twitter buddies. It got really stupid.

Leesa Cross-Smith on emotions and sports. I can count four times baseball made me cry in the 2015 season. One was Russell Martin's homer against the Yankees. Two was when they made the playoffs. Three was when Bautista bat flipped (that whole insane inning I was pretty fraught). And four when they were eliminated. I was just not ready.

Kate Morrison on Daniel Murphy's baseball failure in the playoffs. 

Meg Rowley on diversity (well, the lack of it) in baseball front offices.



This isn’t to suggest that there aren’t women and people of color who are statheads, anymore than it would be reasonable to suggest that all former players are white. But after a decade of painful progress to advance women and minorities to positions of authority, a generation of Ivy Leaguers are falling into the exact same traps: showing a predilection for “Clubability,” as Michael Lewis called it, over something new, something innovative, or even something marginally uncomfortable. They hire people like them.

HOF elected Ken Grifey Jr.







Jose Bautista did an in-depth interview with The Globe and Mail a few days ago. Ever since I first heard him talk about hitting in 2010, I knew Bautista was a very intelligent guy with a very interesting point of view. 

This interview doesn't disappoint. Bautista basically gives his views on his career, on baseball and on where he is at. 


I don’t like following guidelines, or footsteps, or the crowd. I don’t do what everybody else does. I find ways that work for me to get it done. I definitely don’t follow the normal route most people take when I want to accomplish something. If we’re all chasing the same goal, and we all use the same guidelines, then that means a lot of us end up at the same level. And I’m not trying to be one of the bunch, I’m trying to stand out from the bunch. And for that reason you have to think different and be different.

One thing I learned from my parents was to not attempt to box anybody into any role, no matter what you want. Everyone needs the freedom of choice. What you can do is set the right example and create the proper environment surrounding them.
I think instinctively we are animals, and we have more direct contact with that than we might want to admit. Whenever you box an animal in, he’s going to try to find a way out. So the last thing I’m going to try to do with my kids is tell them exactly what they need to be and how to do it.


You adjust, and you learn and you adapt. And if you don’t you get left behind.






Roy Halladay had some thoughts about Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens in the HOF. He tweeted those thoughts. 






And Roger Clemens responded by saying a "strength coach" told him that Doc had used amphetamines. Was that Brian McNamee, Roger, the strength coach that injected your ass so many times you allegedly developed an abscess? 

And because everything is tawdry and gross, Roy Halladay has been featured on TMZ. (Well, TMZ Sports.) 



“I grew up a huge Clemens fan. Getting to play with him, he became a role model. When I heard that he had cheated, it was like finding out Santa Claus wasn’t real all over again to me.”

As for Clemens attacking him, Halladay says, "I let my reputation and the truth speak for itself. It’s the greatest feeling to say you did it the right way.”


That Santa thing is pretty awful.