Comments on: Smoking! Dave Stewart Visits Fire Brand

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:47:25 +0000

Actually, I’m pretty sure it happens all the time. The vast majority of big league ballplayers hit almost exactly as well in close & late or RISP situations as they do in normal, early, or bases-empty situations. If they’re good players, that’s a good thing. If not, then… well, it’s not. Clutch ability may or may not really exist, but regardless, I agree with Neal – I’d much rather have a good hitter than a guy who is generally not great but (in a smappler sample) good in specific situations.
Put it this way: David Ortiz can do what he does because he’s an exceptional hitter. A ton of what we see as his late-inning heroics are the byproduct of his being an exceptional hitter. If Alex Gonzalez did that, it’d be a different deal, but of course he doesn’t (and can’t). Good hitters will produce in ‘clutch’ situations as a general rule, and bad ones won’t. Nothing surprising here.

By: Trotsky

Trotsky — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:46:58 +0000

That’s crazy talk Neal!
I agree with your premise that it’s nice to have someone who can hit “all the time”…. if I had a choice of someone who hits .250 with the bases empty and .350 with RiSP it doesn’t even seem like a contest.
Obviously the choice would be .350 all the time, but that in fact rarely seems to happen

By: The Real Neal

The Real Neal — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:57:53 +0000

Nice interview.
About your 2nd point there, though I agree that players can excel or crumble in highly pressurized situations, when you have a player like Ortiz or Moises Alou who always hits better with RISP or Late and Close, what that really means to me is they have a concentration problem.
I would rather have someone who hits .350 all the time than one like Ortiz who only does it with men on base, and hits .250 (or whatever) with the bases empty.

By: Trotsky

Trotsky — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:27:49 +0000

Andrew!
Thanks…. and thanks for going further.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:04:38 +0000

But, back to the topic of the interview: nice job, Evan. Though I have to correct Stewart on one point: there are actually now 3 minority GM’s in the game, with the hiring of Dayton Moore in KC. It’s easy to forget that KC exists, but it counts nonetheless.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:53:39 +0000

Trotsky – you’ll have to forgive me here, but I studied identity politics for a very long time (and have a degree in such) so this is the kind of thing I tend to soapbox about.
The problem with getting into technical discussions about race is this: in a technical, scientific sense, there is no such thing as race. It doesn’t exist as a categorical system that can be rationally understood. In fact, the simple meaning of the word as we know it today – that is, based almost wholly on skin color – only really came into existence in the mid-20th century when US racial tension began to force people to realign their ethnic viewpoints along color lines. Before that point, ‘race’ was terminologically indistinguishable from things we now consider ‘nationality’ or ‘ethnicity’ – people spoke of, for example, an Irish race, or a Slavic race, or a Chinese race, or any number of things that would now be racially categorized under umbrella terms based mostly on skin color (and geographical concentration, to some extent).
So, that having been said, your quick ethnic etymology of the Hispanic population is essentially correct, but it leaves out an important point: there are very very few – if any – populations on earth that have not had one degree or another of what would be called ‘racial intermingling’. There have been very legitimate genetic studies done that show that about 99% of what we’d call the African American Community, and about 95% of what we’d call the white community, share ancestry with one another, due mostly to the close quarters bth shared during the slave period (and I use the term ’shared’ very loosely). Similarly, What is a European, exactly? Essentially every single European ethnic group emerged in one way or another as a migrant population out of Asia, and the Indo-European language group stretches that entire distance. The lines, when you start to really look at them, blur beyond all reason. A man of Bantu ancestry in, say, Ghana is much more closely related – genetically – to a Swede from Stockholm than he is to a Khoi-San tribesman (known colloquially as pygmies). Yet he and the Khoi-San would both be racially categorized as black.
So, I understand what you’re getting at here, but hte term ‘race’ muddles the discussion. There is a Hispanic community, no matter the racial phenotype. It’s reflected socially, culturally, and economically. It should be recognized, and promoted, in baseball and elsewhere. Regardless of the skin color of its members.

By: Trotsky

Trotsky — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:26:15 +0000

Great interview. I hated the A’s back then, but loved Stewart
One thing I think you and the media need to get away from is thinking that hispanics are a freaking race though. Please… knock it off.
David Ortiz is obviously mostly from sub-saharan african descent. He is from the Dominican Republic. Domincan Republic is part of “the americas”. Is he therefore an african-american?!?! Hispanic is not a race. It is a term that conglomerates a mix of white european descent (lots of dutch, italian german and english and spanish) mixed with native peoples (domincan republic though has no native blood since Columbus slaughtered every single one of them… but surely in mexico, throughout central america and south america there are plenty of native peoples mixed in) and a large amount of sub-saharran african blood (brought by the spanish as slaves).
That is exactly what “america” is… so when a player is hispanic but has “african” (but not northern african) features we don’t refer to him as “african-hispanic”. Why? They are every bit as “black” as most “African-americans”.
Lots of United States citizens who are of Sub Saharran African Descent are becoming less interested in baseball. Is it a concern? Somewhat.
As bad a history as the Red Sox have during the integration era, the Celtics remember were the first team to integrate. That of course doesn’t even begin to tell the story of what Bill Russell went through as a player who delivered the greatest stretch of success to any sports franchise over a certain time period.
Most players are believers in clutch. Stat-heads aren’t… okay, some are. A lot of it is reputation… but that reputation is built up somehow….