Or is "efficient" the word I'm looking for? You'll see what I mean. We haven't bitched about Ed Hardiman and his Foxsports.com blog The Fowl Line (Why did he use the animal spelling? Why does he get paid for being a shitty writer? The world is full of mysteries.) for a while so I decided to stop in and see what kind of crap he was writing about. Turned out his most recent column was one evaluating this year's newly eligible baseball Hall of Fame candidates. It was pretty inoffensive. There were a couple bad jokes, like
Tom Lampkin, banjo-hitting catcher, Fowl Line says: Lampkin? Lampkan’t.
and
Lee Stevens, a 1st sacker with a .254 career average and 144 potatoes way better than my numbers, rock-solid mediocre. Fowl Line says: Give us a call when the Kintetsu Buffaloes induct you in their HOF, cause Cooperstown isn’t quite ready for you yet.
As well as a pretty flagrant grammatical error, for what it's worth.
Hipólito Pichardo, rhymes with Ricky Ricardo. There is a baseball hell it’s called the KC Royals, seven-years of a ten-year career spent there will not get you HOF numbers. Fowl Line says: When pig’s fly he still won’t get in.
Yes. When pig is fly. Or is that pig, possessing fly? I am basically a 6th grade English teacher.
But let's get to the main point of this post. The one place Ed really actually crossed the line was with his evaluation of one Timothy Raines.
Tim Raines, Rock! Rock! Four guys have stolen 800 bases, Raines, Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock and Ty Cobb. Two are in and the other two will be. Not even a close call. Fowl Line says: Hell yes.
This is where the laziness and/or efficiency of FireJay comes into play. Is Tim Raines really a no-brainer 1st ballot guy for the Hall? Well, let me just refer you to my colleague Dan-Bob, who wrote this amazing piece probably well before any of you nine faithful readers even know we existed. So it's basically new! I think he handles the subject very gracefully.
And just like that, my work here is finished. I really need to half-ass my way through more posts and just link you guys to old stuff we did months ago that no one has seen. That would make my life down here in the basement much easier. There's only so much time in the day to blog in between eating Pop-Tarts, shooting spiders with old Nerf guns, and playing Sega Genesis.
Speaking of old stuff....my best slam on Mariotti never appeared here, as it was pre-Fire Jay. Maybe I should dig that up.
ReplyDeleteZOMG!!! Sega Genesis!!! Can I come over? No wait....I'm grounded.....
Raines is a borderline HOFer, but he's also significantly underrated by most people, who don't realize that stolen bases were just the tip of the iceberg. The guy was--for about six or seven years, from 83-89 with a down year in 88--probably the greatest leadoff hitter of his generation. Scope the EQA over .320 four years in a row, and the WARP3 of 9 or greater five straight years, peaking out at 11.8 in '85, which is astounding for a player that hit as few home runs as Raines did. He also racked up not just a huge amount of steals, but more importantly, a rather tiny number of CS to go along with them. Raines knew not only how to run but _when_ to run.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I agree that Raines has a borderline case, but you must give the man some due. The way you guys talk about him around here it sounds like you're typing "Tim Raines" when you mean to say "Vince Coleman."
More like Purdon't!
ReplyDeleteJones- I agree 100%. It's not that Raines doesn't belong; it's that for some reason many sportswriters (if you can call Ed Hardiman that) seem to think he's this slam dunk of a first ballot guy. That's all we're complaining about.
ReplyDeletePNoles- Start saving your allowance right now. If we both save up for like 3 years, we can each get an XBox and play each other online! Then we'll never have to leave our basements!
Raines definitely should be in the Hall, and I don't draw a distinction between "first ballot" and anyone else. Either you deserve to get in or you don't. I never understood why some guys had to wait around 5-10 years.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing about Raines though, he's gone from being underrated by (almost) everybody to being somewhat overrated by every columnist who felt like writing a "You know who's underrated- Tim Raines, that's who!" column. While it is true that Raines might be the second-greatest leadoff hitter behind Rickey, the drop-off from one to two is pretty substantial. Raines was pretty great for a while there though, let's not forget. This isn't Maury Wills we're talking about.
Great scribble, I almost sank to SABR bashing for old times sake...
ReplyDeleteI can live with an apostrophec(sic) error or is that catpostrophe(sic)?
I'm baffled as to why you think Raines isn't the cream of a very lackluster crop? Who is better on that list, or should I say stands any better chance?
The hardest part about being a paid shitty writer is finding people who can make and appreciate the distinction.
Best Wishes,
Ed