Idiots Write About Sports

A show of hands from anyone from Bristol, Connecticut in the house this evening?

On August 22, I wrote mean things about Larry Bowa. A little more than a week later, Jayson Stark writes not-as-mean things about Larry Bowa (as noted in this space yesterday. I followed up that up by pooh-poohing Hideki Matsui’s Rookie-of-the-Year credentials. Today, Jayson Stark has a new column at ESPN.com. The subject? Hideki Matsui’s Rookie-of-the-Year credentials.

Hey, Jayson. My best to the folks on the “Baseball Tonight” set.

(Of course, not even my ego is big enough nor my delusions of grandeur so expansive that I seriously entertain thoughts that anyone from ESPN or its parent companies and subsidiaries even knows of my existence, let alone uses this penny-ante Web site as a crib sheet. Stark’s connections to Philadelphia pre-date his ESPN employment; hence, a column on Bowa is not at all out of line with his particular expertise — though the clever reader will note that both our columns share a headline, not that “Bowa Constrictor” is particularly inventive or unique. As for the Rookie-of-the-Year articles, well, it’s a hot topic these days. All of this is mere coincidence. But just to eliminate any question that a half-assed Web log is the source of ESPN.com content, let me go on record as saying that I don’t believe managers should be allowed to wear pants. Now if you read that on Page 2 next week, we’ll be on to something here…)

Stark’s Matsui column, incidentally, doesn’t argue that the Yankee left fielder shouldn’t get the award because of his slumping performance; in fact, Stark practically concedes that Matsui will win Rookie of the Year. Rather, the column questions whether we can really consider accomplished veterans of the Japanese League to be “rookies,” in the same sense we consider players who work their way through the minor leagues. Stark thinks the rules should be changed. I don’t agree.

Setting aside that a precedent has long been set that Japanese League players making their MLB debut are considred rookies, I’ll merely paraphrase an argument made by Bobby Valentine on SportsCenter last night (See? Shameless copying is a two-way street, Bristol…): the guy they named the Rookie-of-the-Year award after made his major-league debut at 28 after playing a few seasons in a major league. And I don’t hear anyone complaining that Jackie Robinson being named Rookie of the Year in 1947 jobbed Spec Shea out of his rightful award.

As a matter of fact, all the National League Rookie-of-the-Year winners from 1949 through 1953 all played in the Negro Leagues prior to their MLB debut — Don Newcombe, Sam Jethroe, Willie Mays, Joe Black, and Jim Gilliam. The circumstances surrounding African-American players the late ’40s and early ’50s and Japanese players in the early years of the 21st Century aren’t exactly comparable, but a precedent is a precedent.