BP Podcast

Also, here is a link to the audio of a general managers panel discussion at the recent SABR convention in Long Beach. Evans is one of the participants, as well as Fred Claire and Jed Hoyer. It was enlightening.

http://sabr.org/latest/sabr-41-general-managers-role-takes-total-dedication

There is a problem with Kevin's general "We" rule--I call it the "Eduardo Villacis paradox." Briefly, Eduardo Villacis was brought up by Allard Baird of the Royals for a spot start at Yankees Stadium. Not in and of itself a novel situation, except Villegas 1) was not a prospect in any way, shape or form; 2) was brought up directly from AA; 3) had to be added to the 40-man roster for the spot start; 4) did not even have a uniform with his name on it; 5) was essentially unknown to every other Royals player on the team; 6) was immediately banished back to the minors and never appeared again.

Under the Goldstein rule, Villacis is in the Venn Diagram of "We."

Now, let's consider a child. This child's first memory is the green Astroturf of Kauffman stadium. Every night he fell asleep listening to Denny Matthews with his ear glued to his Mickey Mouse radio. He sobbed with Patek when Chambliss hit his home run. In other words, his youth is inextricably intertwined with his hometown, which is intertwined with the baseball team that plays there.

Under the Goldstein rule, that child is outside the Venn Diagram of "We."

I don't think this is a defensible position--the paradox is hos is it possible that Villacis as a matter of identity has a stronger claim than the kid?

My position as this--people shouldn't be given a hard time if they make a claim of shared identity for a sports team that played 1) in their hometown and 2) for which their connection extends to their early childhood.

This isn't a case of some frat guy moving to Boston from Indiana for college and two years later talking about "we" between him and the Red Sox. The "we" between a person and a childhood hometown team is as legitimate as any other identity claim related to one's hometown.