I don’t think that I would ever dare challenge Peter Gammons and his views on things. We’re talking about a guy who has elevated his profession to a point that I can’t even fathom me doing in mine (which, by the way, is far less interesting than baseball journalism and will never get me into Cooperstown).

But now, more and more often, I feel like the man is indirectly criticizing me for liking non-conventional  statistics. And I guess I didn’t expect any of this from a guy like him, especially because it wasn’t too long ago that he was considered one of the old school writers who was open to utilizing sabermetrics.

But since late October, here are some things that Gammons has written (seemingly unprovoked, mind you):

Want to know about winners? (Dustin) Pedroia gave up his scholarship at Arizona State to free up money to sign a much-needed pitcher, so when the Sun Devils reached the College World Series, coaches and players had “DP” on their caps in honor of their leader who never got to Omaha. The sabermetrics guys in their garages never understand these things.- October 29, 2007

Raines, Rickey Henderson and Wade Boggs were the best of the ’80s and early ’90s, and while some of our sabermetric fellows do not believe players are humans, Raines made every team he was on better - December 29, 2007

I voted for (Jim Rice), but it’s been interesting that there have been people like Rob Neyer who are so obsessed with degrading Rice’s career. - January 3, 2008

What gives, Peter? All three of these comments were written regarding topics that didn’t necessarily have to include sabermetrics. Gammons was the one who brought up the topic.

Look, I get it. I’m not sure if I’m good enough at analyzing numbers to even qualify as a sabermetrics guy, but as a group, we can be incredibly snarky and too stubborn to take intangibles into account - not because we “do not believe players are humans”, but because none of the hard data proves that these things help in any way shape or form. If we can’t prove that Jason Varitek’s leadership helped David Ortiz hit 5 more homeruns than he would have otherwise, then we can’t take it into account when crunching numbers. It’s all it is.

And I don’t want to speak for Rob Neyer (who has probably penned a few too many words against Rice’s candidacy) because he can take care of himself. But I don’t think that he ever even thought to “degrade Rice’s career” to any extent. I think it’s far more accurate to say that Neyer and others (including myself) disagree with the manner in which Rice is perceived. Simply put, it doesn’t appear to me that Jim Rice would have been even close to the Hall if he didn’t play so many games in Fenway Park. And if he really was feared to the extent that’s been written and spoken about him, he’d have been walked far more often than he actually was. Does this stance qualify as “degrading”? Not to me, it doesn’t. If it does, then it stands to reason that I degrade Miguel Olivo’s career by claiming that he can’t hit a lick.

I really doubt that I would have been bothered by any of these comments had they been written by Skip Bayless or Bill Conlin. But Gammons is obviously a guy I have tremendous respect for. And it makes me a little sad to be honest. See, Peter? We have feelings too.

Today, on ESPN radio, Peter Gammons elaborated on his comments last night about A-Rod and the timing of his announcement. The winner of this one-sided smackdown? Why, Gammons of course, just as surely as the Red Sox just thrashed the Rockies. Below, a transcript of sorts* compiled by yours truly:

“Why did it have to be done before…the end of the World Series? It is a pitiful act [coming from] a desire to always get attention. It’s narcissistic. And you know what? I don’t care. Sports Center may be like Entertainment Tonight and they may care about that far more than I do. But the best story in baseball this year is not Alex Rodriguez, it’s Jon Lester.

“Jon Lester’s velocity is not back [yet], but nine months after coming off chemotherapy he went out and pitched the clinching game of the World Series. That to me is a lot more important than whether Alex [laughing dismissively] Rodriguez—who has never done what Jon Lester or Dustin Pedroia have done, that is, play in a World Series game—makes, you know, 38 million or 56 million or whatever he makes a year, and it disgusts me [voice cracking] and if I were the owner of a baseball team I would say, what are the priorities here? Is it winning? Or is it just simply getting my name out there and being on the front page of the New York Post?

“There’s a great story about Pedroia, who’s one of my favorite players because he’s just a little five-foot-five guy who can really play. After his freshman year at Arizona State the Sun Devils did not have very much pitching, so Pedroia gave up his scholarship [shouting now] so that they could take the money and go sign a couple of pitchers so that Arizona State could win. And when they went to the college world series in 2004 when he was already a professional player, the coaches and the players all had “DP” on their hats, playing in Omaha, in honor of Dustin Pedroia and his leadership and what it meant to him to win and get to Omaha. Alex doesn’t have that in his resume. So I thought yesterday was a very sad state [of affairs] and I think it’s even sadder that people are making such a big deal of it.

“[The Red Sox] are not going to pursue A-Rod. What’s amazing to me is, the way the Red Sox travel. There were a good 15,000 people at least, Red Sox fans, in Coors Field last night. I have no idea how much money they all paid to get the scalped tickets, but as the players came back on the field after the game, over an hour and a half after the game, Theo epstein came out and a chant took over the whole ballpark, which was, “Don’t sign A-Rod.” The fans were chanting that. It was kind of an interesting contrast to when Lowell was out on the field earlier, and they were all chanting “MVP” and “Sign Mike Lowell” and all of that. If you go back to 1985, and I haven’t gone back any further than that, there hasn’t been one team that’s won the World Series with one player who’s made more than 16% of the team’s payroll. This isn’t basketball. This is baseball, where the money gets spread out and it’s about 25 guys and a team concept. And that notion that one star [can get you there]—it’s a great idea if you want to lead Entertainment Tonight or Sports Center, but it doesn’t always do a lot of good when it comes to win world championships.

“I really like Alex, I think he’s a really good guy, but I think that sometimes the attention thing gets in the way…This whole thing just reeks with everything that’s wrong with sports and frankly, what’s wrong with the culture. It’s not about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, it’s about who is really accomplished. And this thing really was a bad move. Now I don’t think Tom Hicks in Texas is smart enough to understand it and maybe they can buffalo Artie Moreno in Anaheim into saying, “Boy, this is what we really need.” But in the end, when you go back and look at the great Yankee teams of ‘96 through 2000, there weren’t any guys hitting 40 home runs. There weren’t any guys who were cover boys. As much as people love Jeter, he’s a very private person and the ultimate team player. That’s just not what dominated the last forty years of the sport.”

*I cut out all the stuff that wasn’t about A-Rod, because honestly, I’m feeling a little bit sensationalist right now, even though that sort of goes against the point Gammons was making. Unsurprisingly, I have an US Weekly addiction, too.

Among certain of my friends, the phenomenon of “Sarah’s Angry Emails” is not unknown. Something sets me off (usually involving politics, sports, ex-boyfriends, feminism, a particular downstairs neighbor, or some combination thereof) and before I can stop myself, I’ve seized my keyboard and pounded out a single-spaced screed. This happened recently in regard to a post I wrote that got picked up by Deadspin (always interesting, the folks that wander over here from Deadspin). Only instead of Sarah’s Angry Email, it was Sarah’s Angry Blog Comment, and instead of going only to an ex-boyfriend/my e-mail drafts folder/the spam filter of one of these columnists, it ended up on the Interwebs for all to see.

Though the ranting began because of a particularly limp Bob Ryan column, the weakness rampant throughout sports journalism had actually been a topic of discussion between Nick and myself for some time. (And of course, it’s been a frequent topic on UmpBump is well, thanks to the likes of Murray Chass, Jay Mariotti and other MSM folks and their questionable writings or uninspiring broadcasts.) So after a recent spate of emailing between us, Nick and I decided what the heck, let’s post this private conversation and open it up for public comment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Gammons tonight offered some insight into why the Braves abruptly cut ties with closer Bob Wickman.

According to Gammons, who was interviewed during the Mets v. Dodgers game on ESPN, The Wick stamped his ticket out of Atlanta when he refused to pitch in a recent game.

So there you have it. Wickman was such a horse’s ass that Bobby Cox decided he’d rather not have him around. That’s pretty impressive, when you consider just how forgiving Cox can be. Atlanta is where jerks flourish. J.D. Drew. Gary Sheffield. Raul Mondesi. John Rocker. Deion Sanders. The list goes on and on.

So tonight we learned that Bob Wickman must be a special kind of moron — something we previously suspected, but info we treasure nonetheless.

The Gammons report came on the heels of an earlier story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which said Wickman had made a habit of voicing his displeasure over being brought in to pitch in non-save situations.

Bob, Bob, Bob. What are we going to do with you?

Now that Wickman is no longer a Brave, the question is: where will he land? The Cleveland Indians seem like a good fit, but they’ve taken themselves out of the running. Who’s left? The Phillies could certainly use bullpen help, but Wickman would have to agree to serve as a spot reliever, and he doesn’t seem to anxious to play that role. The Mets bullpen has been shaky of late, and the Dodgers just signed Wick’s doppleganger, so they might as well bite the bullet and add a fat bald guy to their relief staff.

I think the smart money is on the Yankees. Strong clubhouse leaders like Jeter and Clemens could keep Wickman in line and the Yanks could use some insurance for the aging Mariano Rivera. Plus, it’s not like they don’t have the dough.