Jon Weisman has a piece in Sports Illustrated about the increasing use of statistics to evaluate the defensive perfomance of baseball players. Good article. But Derek Jeter enthusiasts be warned, it paints a pretty honest picture of the Yankee shortstop’s defensive shortcomings. Speaking of which, I still think A-Rod should be the starting shortstop for the Yanks.
The USA Women’s hockey team is world’s best in its category. No matter how skilled they are, how diligently they work, or how cohesive a team they might be, they can’t compete on the same level as men. The other day, a high school boys’ hockey team from Warroad, Minnesota beat the U.S. Olympic Women’s team. I don’t know if this is particularly surprising to anyone. Still, I flashed back to a course I took on “Women in Sport” in college. In that class, a female student said that my view seemed Nazi-like (students who were ignorant enough to invoke such a loathsome comparison were mercifully few and far between) because I insisted that it was unrealistic to expect elite women to compete with elite men in sports that were largely dependent on strength, power, and speed. Specifically, I disagreed with her contention that there should be a multi-gender 100M dash in the Olympics. I’m a supporter of women’s sports as well as equal opportunity. But to insist that men and women are the same is not only ridiculous, but undermines the special qualities that each gender possesses.
Tom Verducci writes, “The Red Sox plan to interview Jim Beattie and Jim Bowden this week for their GM opening. Bowden is also a strong contender for the Los Angeles job, which seems to be the better fit for him.”
Yes, that is the same Jim Bowden who signed Cristian Guzman and Vinnie Castilla in the same offseason. The same Jim Bowden who repeatedly overpaid for underwhelming players in Cincinnati. LA is probably a better fir because the Boston fans would likely chase him out of down. Dodger GMs disappear quietly into the night.
Unlike Bowden, Jason Stark gets it; he (rightly) thinks that Johan Santana was the best pitcher in the AL this year.
The White Sox have won, so is this it for Ozzie Guillen? (During Chicago’s late season swoon, he said that he might call it a career if his team took the World Series.) His players must not want him to stick around — they swept. Guillen hasn’t backed off in recent days: “It’s still in my mind. I would like to win first and think about it. It’s not because I want to quit; it’s because I would do something I always wanted to do, winning with this ball club. The main thing to me is winning here. Then I will make up my mind.”
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