August 2, 2006
BASEBALL: Big Papi Walks on Water
You have a better explanation for this? Good research by Allan Wood.
No question. I do wonder just how much it has to do with Manny on deck. At this point, I would walk him and see what Manny would do.
Crank-
Your old H.C. writing bud has a great piece comparing Papi to Larry Bird on ESPN2.
Funny, as usual.
For those of you scoring at home that is a line of:
.786/2,286/.842
Yes, Manny hitting behind him does have an influence in that generally you have to pitch to him however that does not have as much impact on that insane statistical line as does pure talent and moxie do. Let's say someone like, oh, last year's AL MVP was hitting 3rd...
The Simmons article is great especially if you know Bird's history and legacy in Boston.
I think the numbers ESPN used were in '05 and '06 he had been up 13 times in a walk-off situation and not only got on base, but delivered the walk-off 12 times.