Gold Glovers, Then and Now
Had a fantastic time in Rockville, Md., on Sunday — really great time. Would love to see you tonight, 7 p.m., in Cherry Hill, N.J. I’m told it’s going to be a big crowd, lots of fun talk, tickets are available here.
— On Wednesday, I’m in Atlanta, tickets here.
— This Sunday, Nov. 12, I’m in Toledo … just had a delightful interview with a Toledo reporter and was reminded that our older daughter has an unshakeable believe that the Toledo Mudhens have the best nachos on planet earth. I can talk about that. Tickets here, and they include dinner.
— Two days later, Tuesday, Nov. 14, I’m in Houston (tickets here), and we can talk Dusty’s unhappiness with “a whole bunch of criticism from 30-year-olds and bloggers and tweeters that I’m not doing this and I don’t know that, and I told my wife, ‘You know, I’m kind of tired of this and tired of the scrutiny and if I could go manage and show up at say 6:30 for a 7 o’clock game and leave 30 minutes after the game … I could manage for another four or five years.’ You know what I mean? After a while, you just get tired of answering questions.”
That’s what Dusty said on “The Steam Room” podcast, and you know what? Part of me gets it. Dusty is closing in on 75, and the teams he has managed have won more than 2,200 games, including playoffs, and I totally get why he has grown tired of questions about managing. That said, answering those questions and absorbing that criticism is, like, 90% of the job — and this is particularly true of THAT job in Houston, where Dusty was only hired because of a cheating scandal that rocked the Astros organization and forced an enormously successful team to make a bunch of personnel changes they didn’t want to make.
I realize Dusty was probably just riffing on the show … but it must be said that if the job really was showing up just before game time and then leaving right after the game, Dusty would probably be quite terrible at it. It seems to me that it’s all the stuff that doesn’t happen between the first and last pitch — answering all those questions, taking the blame, being both a calming presence and a competitive spark — that will get him into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
So the Gold Glove winners are out, and I thought it would be fun to look at this year’s winners compared to those from 40 years ago. I don’t know if it actually WILL be fun … but I’ve already started, so away we go!
Programming note: Wanted to jump on the Gold Gloves today (and that wasn’t much of a game to write about yesterday), so Browns Diary will be coming tomorrow.
First base
2023: AL — Nathaniel Lowe, Texas; NL — Christian Walker, Arizona.
1983: AL — Eddie Murray, Baltimore; NL — Keith Hernandez, St. Louis and Mets
OK, so first let’s talk about this year’s choices —