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A.J. Pierzynski, like his former manager in previous years, is easier to find than other White Sox in October. He's part of Fox's pregame and postgame shows this postseason, so it's only natural that somebody would ask him about the firing of Ozzie Guillen.
It's also natural that Pierzynski would defend Guillen, since they're cut from the same cloth in many respects. Pierzynski said Guillen is "still employable," but since it's not going to happen with the Sox, that's not why I'm bringing it up. The quote at the end is worth clipping and saving:
"If you're a young guy and you're not secure with where you're at and you're not 100 percent sold, he can beat you down a little bit," Pierzynski said. "He's very ... opinionated as everyone knows, and he'll say things and if you're not able to handle that ... he's not always going to pat you on the back which is fine. ... It does take a certain type of guy, but for someone like me and some other guys that played for him we knew that going in, we knew what we were getting, and we learned what to listen to and what to kind of just let go in one ear and out the other."
And then there's Carlton Fisk, whose arrest on Monday night is a great lesson for everybody, and especially so for public figures.
Listening to The Score 670 during the transition between Matt Spiegel, Dan McNeil, Terry Boers and Dan Bernstein ... it's going to take a while for Fisk to live it down, if he cares to. Give people a memorable arrest story and a memorable mug shot, and if it doesn't surprise them, they'll start saying why.
Terrerobytes
Between Barry Zito singling off Justin Verlander in Game 1 and the links below, the baseball season is winding down with an overload of engrossing material. I spent much of tonight reading.
- Pablo Sandoval hits 3 homers, Giants take Game 1 - Baseball Nation
- The curious case of the mystery Marlins fan at the World Series - Baseball Nation
Pablo Sandoval homered in each of his first three at-bats, including a pair off Verlander. In his fourth time up, he drilled an RBI single off Detroit's JV-ier JV, Jose Valverde.
San Francisco's early cushion made it possible to explore other pressing issues, like finding out what's with the Miami Marlins superfan who was seated behind the plate for both Game 7 of the NLCS and Game 1 of the World Series.
- Kovacevic: Hoka Hey! Why change a thing? - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
- Dejan Kovacevic, Pirates bloggers to discuss Navy SEALS story here at 9:00 p.m. - Bucs Dugout
This story is fascinating on two levels, the first being the subject itself. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist Dejan Kovacevic, who was one of my favorite beat writers when he covered the Pirates for the city's other paper, wrote a piece about the Pirates' bizarre stunt of putting their prospects through surprise Navy SEALS training at instructional league camp earlier this month. The whole thing is worth a read (imagine what Larry would do with it), especially the part about Gregory Polanco reinjuring his ankle:
Polanco’s ankle was sprained in mid-August, and it cost him most of his final month of play. But the Pirates still saw fit to have him participate in that first day with the SEALS last month, and as you might guess, the ankle was reinjured.
Worse than before.
It happened during a drill in which Polanco sprinted across the outfield, through an above-ground pool of ice water, then leaped into a sand pit.
Better yet, over at Bucs Dugout, Charlie Wilmoth put the story in a greater context with previous coverage, and hosted a discussion with Kovacevic in the comments (it starts here). The BDers turned his comments green for easy scanning, and there's some direct back-and-forth over both the story's contents, and the way it was reported.
If you asked me to name the GM of the Cleveland Indians, I would answer with Mark Shapiro. But it would probably sound like "...Mark Shapiro? Mark Shapiro." (Joke's on me: it's Chris Antonetti). His star faded at the same time Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore hit hard times, and his team has yet to recover. Nevertheless, this is the transcript of a lengthy, detailed conversation that covers a lot of topics -- attendance, Forbes valuations, scouts vs. stats, etc. -- even though many of them underscore the franchise's uninspiring state.
I haven't been able to fully dive into Sports on Earth yet, because "fully diving into" it requires a lot of time and attention. There's a lot there. For instance, Joe Posnanski is writing a series about the intricacies of broadcasting sports, and he starts with Bob Costas finding his way back to the booth after a long layoff.
If you're already thinking about next season, here's a reminder that spring training is going to be incredibly long because of the World Baseball Classic. This past spring, the Dodgers and White Sox opened spring training play on March 5. Next year? Feb. 23.